Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 11 - Paul Morrissey

Episode Date: July 21, 2020

We found Paul Morrissey! Our hilarious comedy friend and co-host of Come to Papa is back and he's cooking so much in his quarantine apartment that dare we say he's become a chef?!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey! sourdough. Hey, it's time for Breaking Bread with Papa. Hey, don't you know, it's also a show. Hey. Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. I'm Tom Papa. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of our journey here together. I hope that you've got some good snacks on hand, maybe cracked open some wine, maybe a nice martini. It's time to sit down and break bread with another very funny, talented person. Today, we've got the great Paul Morrissey, great comedian.

He's been a good friend of mine for a long time. All of the listeners from the old format of the podcast know Paul very well. It was Paul and I for a long time, just going back and forth and doing our thing. And we would also go on the road all the time. Paul has been a trusted companion on the road for a long, long time. We've been to many, many places and met many of you along the way. Very funny guy, great guy. And, you know, when we changed the format of the podcast, during this crazy time where we're all kind of isolated, people were very worried.

What happened to Paul? Did you kill Paul? Is he in a ditch somewhere? Where is Paul? What has happened to Paul? So today we're dedicating the entire episode to the great Paul Morrissey. It'll be great catching up with him. and getting all things back.

And as we go forward and we move into our new studio, which is provided by our good friends at all things comedy, which is a beautiful, beautiful set. And we all get back to that. You'll see a lot more of Paul for sure. Very funny comedian. Enjoy it. He, breaking bread with Paul, as you know,

if you know Paul from before, you know that he is very strange eating habits. But quarantine is actually kind of expanded his palate a little bit. So enjoy. This is Breaking Bread with Paul Morrissey. Oh man, oh man, Paul, where have you been? What have you been doing?

Everybody's been so upset and worrying out and making sure that you were still alive and that you were fed and that everything was going. Okay. I know. I keep getting these really sad emails from everybody. Where are you? They thought I got COVID or something.

They don't know what happened. I know. It's so funny. When you drop off and don't talk about people for a while, they get very concerned. They're like, wait, wait, wait, why? What? I was actually looking at the tracking of what's going on in L.A. And where it is and stuff.

And Studio City is okay, North Hollywood, not so great. No, yeah, there's a big line, right? Yeah, yeah, it's weird. I don't understand where the line is. I don't know. I think there's a big space. I mean, are you staying in your neighborhood, or do you venture out to the suburbs? I don't really venture out all that much.

I, hold on, just make sure I do this thing. I don't venture too much. I'll get a little bit, but not so much. How about you? Well, I mean, that's kind of been the thing. is I've kept track of the hot spots, I guess. So I usually end up, I'll go to like the suburbs to like grocery shop. I don't know if that's being like over.

Is that weird if I want to just drive like 20 miles outside of L.A. to grocery shop so there's not a million people there? Who knows? I mean, there's no way to really tell. There's no way to tell. I don't know. Like, I don't think anybody has a clue. Nobody has a clue.

There are everybody just trying to figure it. it out and try and muddle through and you just kind of make your best guess and then kind of fly with it. I don't know. What do you, what have you been cooking? I know this has been a huge, this has been a big thing. We did a hilarious, uh, uh, comedy show the other night, which, uh, we're going to be doing more of and streaming them out to the people, but we had a, in a, uh, secret location with very few people, we're just testing out the stage and stuff. And you had a very funny joke about that you've actually worn out a spatula during the COVID. And you do a cooking show and you haven't worn out a spatula or have you?

No, I've never worn out a spatula. I have melted a spatula before. Right. I've burnt them up. I've melted them down. But I've never actually worked it through. What are you cooking? What is going on in the Paul Morrissey kitchen?

Oh, man. it's mostly some kind of, you know, meat, try tips, something. Nothing too experimental. Some tacos. Nice. Yeah, nothing too, like, crazy. But I have been pretty healthy, though. I will say...

You look like you lost weight. Yeah, I've been working out a lot and eating better. It's a weird thing. It's like, I'm not equating this, but I feel like it's like when Jenny came back to forest, remember? And they said she had, she slept like she hadn't slept in 10 years. That's what I felt like. I feel like I either sleep or I'm working out and there's no in between. There's no middle energy. Yeah. You're like, you're back to your athlete days. You're either on the couch or you're like sprinting somewhere, right? I know, exactly. Isn't it amazing? Now, you and I have toured together for a number of

years now and we've gone so many places and done so can when you during this time haven't you isn't it given you a chance to look back at the pace we were going and realize how hard we were going i mean up at like four in the morning after doing a show till midnight going to the next city i mean it was incredible pace for years yeah you're insane like you already knew that Like you already knew that like you were, you had to like meditate or do these extra things just to like be able to do that because, you know, I would go to three places with you and then, you know, sleep until noon on the last place that you were going by yourself just to catch up. And you would never have that because you would fly back the first flight in the morning to be with your family on Sunday. And so I feel like you never got a chance to catch up. So this makes you analyze, you only want to do two shows a month now?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so. I think I'll end up going back to the pace when we... Well, it'll be even crazier now, right? Because we've had this time. So now... People are going to go hard.

Yeah. People are going to go really hard. I'm going to Portland tomorrow. And surprising. Are you really going to Portland? Are you going to, like, Joshua Tree or something? No, I'm really going. Yeah, I was kind of touching go.

I wasn't sure. And then they said it was all systems go and they seemed like it's okay. So this will be the only one. I did Salt Lake City, you know, a little while ago. Yeah. And this will be the only one since then. And it definitely conjures up a weird feeling. You're like, I've been home forever.

But I also feel like I should just keep staying home. I'm like, oh, why am I leaving? And then there's another part of me that's like, the biggest thing is pulling the backpack out of the closet. Yeah. That you haven't seen, you know, in so long because you haven't been traveling. And it's like been your travel buddy for years. You pull that out. And it's like, oh, yeah, we had fun together.

Let's go. Yeah, I still have like, I was going to sell like my laptop because I'm like not going anywhere. you know what I mean? Like you just keep your desktop and your luggage you can sell, you know? When's the next time you're going to use a check-in bag? Never. Oh, my God. What's the next thing on the calendar for you?

That's the thing. I was just talking to somebody today. It's like, you know, with stand-up, you have like your beginner goals. You want to do a special, do Letterman, those kind of things. And then after that, unless you have something specific, it's like you just kind of need like a couple things to, like, you just kind of need like a couple things to, look forward to. You know, so like we would have, you know, we did those shows in Philly and Nashville. It's like, oh, it's cool to have like a couple of those shows a month. But now when you don't have that, it really is like, what am I doing? Like, should I be going to law school

right now? I know. I know. And not having the stuff in town is weird. But I think that's what, that's the solve that I'm coming up with. I think being able to create that place. in the woodshed, we're calling it the woodshed, and be able to give comedians a place to go work out, even if it's not in front of huge audiences. I think that'll be just a, part of it is for the comedians to make a little money and make sure that they feel okay. But the bigger part is just for them mentally to be able to go out and actually work out these jokes that have been in your head forever.

And even if we don't, like, stream the whole thing, you know, even if it's a, show like that somebody's not on they can still come by and just do a set if they want to yeah yeah thank you so much for putting that together you could tell like i mean that meant a lot to me and i could tell like parents like you and kira you know it was like in a way a reason to leave the house you know is it the larry david thing everybody needs a place to go and you don't have a place to go right now so it's like freaking everybody out i know i know it's been intense man I, you're going to have to start sneaking over because, uh,

my bread game has really been, has really been on point. Uh-oh. Ooh, man, oh man. I'm, I'm so excited.

I know it's, how can you be excited after talking about bread for six years? But I had this new type of bread that I just cranked out that you're going to like, because it's a lot of all-purpose flour. It's a lot of white flour. Uh-huh. It's just a hint of wheat. And the process,

it's, It's to make like a French sourdough loaf, a Ponday campaign. And it's so, oh, my God, off the charts. So you're going to have to, when I get back from Portland, you're going to have to do a drive-by and get one. Yeah. Did you, so are you outbranching from sourdough, or is this a... No, it's still in that family.

It's still that process. It's a little couple tweaks. There's some fresh yeast also involved. It's branching out. I haven't gotten too crazy. I've just been cranking out what I know for the most part. Yeah, for quarantine. And if I get extra, it goes to the neighbors.

The neighbors are definitely freaking out. Like, why is this strange man who we only see passing in the street dropping bread off at our house a couple times a week? Like, doesn't he know it's a pandemic for crying out loud? Well, that's good. That's like, because I feel like our neighborhood, Everybody thinks that everyone's either smoking cigarettes or they're jogging. Like there's no middle ground. Everyone's going down the plane or they're trying to like, you know, rediscover their

20s or something. I don't know. So where are you playing basketball? So I drove, like, what I started doing, like when this very started was I was trying to find like lighted basketball courts just to like kind of shoot around. stuff. And I know you didn't play, but it's like just shooting is like very meditative because it's something you don't really think about. Like, you can actually think of other things. Like I know that M. Knight-Sharmelon actually shoots baskets when he's coming up with screenplays

and stuff. It's actually like a pretty good like non, I guess you don't really have to think about it while you're doing it and you kind of opens you up. Now, to be clear, I know exactly what you're talking about. Because while my career didn't go that long, there was a good run between sixth and seventh grade. This is true because I met your coach. That's right. You're taller than I think you, you were probably taller than him when you were in eighth grade, right? I'm the same size now that I was when I was in eighth grade. Yeah, and coach D, he took us and we played, we had a good year. I don't know if there was a championship that year, but, uh we did very well and uh so yeah but i the best part for me with playing basketball and when i got

to high school it wasn't my first love and i wasn't that great i just would make up for i do my skills weren't as good as my drive so i would i would just kind of uh well you just do the seasons like you end up you play basketball because that's the season right exactly um but you were you were you were you were the real deal but i do know from uh from all those little young years of practicing my outdoor setup when I was a kid was in the driveway we didn't have a pole we had a tree and mounted the basket onto the tree which was worked out fine like that was a good height and it was that that worked but the the ground like the driveway ended before it got to where the basket was so like anything that came off then dropped down or when when it went

in would come down, hit a root, a rock, and then fire off into the woods and you'd have to go chase it. Right. Yeah, you got to play all the angles. It's like having a pool table with a room that's not big enough. You've got to figure out the best way. Yeah, exactly. And but man, that those nights like you're talking about when the light was on and you're

the only one out there shooting. Yeah. It is a, that is a very unique special place to be. Yeah. And so growing up, that's what I did. You know, I had a park, a full court right next to me, like, next to my house. Yeah, I saw that park. I could have, like, a flashlight underneath the, just hitting the rim, so I could

just stay out there. And, you know, and my dad was a gym teacher, so I just, like, was babysat at the gym. So it's kind of just what I did. Yeah. And I haven't had time to do it in 15 or 20 years. So there was. Yeah, one night I just decided, like, you know what, I'll just see if there. there's a court out there and I just started shooting and,

and I've been doing it pretty much like the last three or four months. And there's no one out there? Well, here's the thing. There are actually like pro and college players, uh, that work out and they found this court too because it's pretty good court. Because the other thing you got to remember is we're in California, doesn't rain. So like you remember growing the East Coast, everything's all muddy, the chain nets,

and everything's rusted, you know? Like out here, it's glass backboards. Like, there's nothing. These courts are beautiful. So, what's the surface? It's like a tennis court kind of surface, like, really nice. And so just in the last month, Ron Artex, who's like an NBA player,

he used to play for the Lakers. Oh, yeah. And so he's been working out there. And so he was one of the guys that was working out there. and he was over like 300 pounds. Like he had, he's retired and he gained all this weight. And then just in the last like month, he's been like, he's been doing yoga classes after playing basketball.

He's been doing like running full court, which I'm not like obviously that's not too safe right now. But I think he was at the point where he felt so unhealthy that his kind of life was in. So I think he lost like 30 pounds. Whoa. But yeah, it seems it seems like people are. or finding that as like a good exercise to do. Do you shoot around with them?

No, well, that's the thing. So it's a full court. So I'll just be shooting at one end. There's usually like another guy. There's a guy that plays pro in Spain. That's usually there the same time I'm at. And we'll just talk a little bit once in a while, you know, talk about basketball, which you never get to do anymore.

Like just have like a social interaction. And so it's been this kind of cool thing. Like, you know, I've been there like, two in the morning. I've been there at like 11. It's just like this really safe kind of cool park. And it's been like probably the best part of this whole thing is just kind of finding that again. That's amazing. I'm surprised there's not more people showing up there. There is now. It's become like a thing. But I think it's early on. There's even like an app that says like when Ron's going to be at this park or when some other pro player is going to be there.

So, when you see a guy like that, is he still, does he still have it? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's a freak of nature.

Like, he's actually, when he's in shape, I think he's the same size as LeBron, like the exact, like, he's like 6-8-260, and he's like all muscle. So,

yeah, that's crazy. And so the guy that he brought one night, I don't know if I sent you the picture, is this guy, Mamadu, he's sent. seven foot six.

Oh my God. So he's, he's ducking on these rims on his tippy toes. He's not even jumping. That's how tall this guy is. Can he move? He's decent, yeah.

I think he plays overseas, but that was the thing that kind of blew up the spot was like when Ron's there, you see like a bigger guy. But then when there's a seven foot six guy, kids just tell their parents to like stop the car and let him run out. And so it became like this.

crazy thing. All these kids ran up and got their pictures with these guys. And you're still kind of like, you know, I mean, obviously you want people to stay away, but are these guys supposed to say, don't come near me, which they probably should. But it's just a, it's such a weird time. But it was fun to see the kids excited to see something too. Yeah, that's super cool. Man, have you played any games?

No, no, I'm still not feeling that yet. like yeah i think that's part of what caused everything to to go off in in uh la was once they said it was okay people were just playing games pickup games softball the parks were packed with people's rollerblading and having picnics and it's like we didn't we didn't take baby steps like we were locked down and then we just went full bore into complete chaos yeah and i mean it was uh you know you drive through hollywood and everything every place will be shut down and there'd be one bar open and there'd be 200 people spilled out into the street and it's just like well yeah it's not going to work when we do it that way you know

no i know they had it so dialed in they had it so yeah they had really like they did everything right and then you just wait this one little mistake at the end we could have been such a success story yeah what a bummer but it's hard it's hard to find uh do you because you have a neighborhood that you feel comfortable like you go are you going right running and stuff or you what do you do no no I'm doing the bike I'm doing the Pelotom bike yeah that's right I mean and and I it is important I mean look I love drinking wine I love I love eating it's right there next to you yep I've got a lot of people keep sending it to me I've got a lot of treats in the office which never happens I've got a huge big ass box of cheese it's right next to me so you know

there's like that weird thing of you want all the good food you want to celebrate you want all the comfort of you know when times are weird you want to enjoy yourself and feel good but you also if you're going to do all that you got to you got to do something so you got to take care of yourself you don't want to be one of those people that ends up getting the bug and having it be a bad deal so I've been going hard I've been lifting and I've been on the peloton and I haven't let up like when you look at my when you look at the month also because I'm not traveling when you look at like the month diet diagram on the on the peloton thing it's the whole thing's filled up it's like yeah it's great yeah it's uh it's good

and it allows you to eat more bread really that's what i think about when i'm on there i'm like oh i can definitely i can eat i can have more bread tonight yeah do you keep track of that stuff because that was one of the things i did uh you know i got the apple watch which i was kind of keeping track of, you know, you can keep track of your workouts. So while you're playing or while you're jogging. And then there's another app that keeps track of all your calories. And so it really does. Like you look at it like, oh, should I have a cupcake? And you're just like, that's 400 calories, man. That's like you're, that's like another dinner right there. I know. I know. I was using the Apple Watch for a while. I actually took it off when I had to do the audio book for my book.

And I had, it was during like the first week of the quarantine. So I had to get in the car and sneak off to a secret location to do the audio book. Right. And, you know, it was safe. There was only one guy in a mask and all that, but they really didn't want us moving around. They didn't, you know. And I drove there. And as soon as I got in the studio, my Apple Watch pinged and was like, you know, you're supposed to be home right now.

I was like, oh, man. If they want to keep track of you, they can easily do it. I think that's probably where we're headed to help trace all this stuff. But that's kind of scary when they're like that into everything about you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what a, you know, I had a friend that went to Hong Kong and flew in there and you have to get tested like right in this main thing. And you've got to wait eight hours to get your test results.

Whoa. And then they give you a tracker that you have to wear. so if somebody on your flight ends up having it, they call you and, you know, I think we have to do that because, I mean, that's the one thing that in L.A., it's just like, how about all of us get tested right now? Just like we're going into the NBA bubble.

You know, the NBA, they found, you know, 30 guys out of the 3 or 400 had it. And, of course, they didn't know they were asymptomatic. But it'd be nice if we knew, like before you went to Portland if you had it. I know. Have you gotten any tests? No, because, you know, it's just the thought of, you know, just going to a place where everyone has it to figure out. Well, you should do the drive-in one in your car.

Oh, right? You did that, right? I did that twice. And I'll do it again when I come back from my trip. Yeah, it's been pretty good. They're running into like some problems now because there's so many people that are getting tested. but you just yeah you sit in your car it's it's definitely weird it's definitely yeah this is like you've seen this in a movie so much of life now is like oh yeah this is that movie where you pull

up and there's just people like in hazmat suits and coming up and there's like a you drive around this parking lot and they hand you things with like those those clamps that you take stuff off of a shelf yeah those are the those are the people that took et away right right exactly Yeah, the ET people are now back, and I'm dealing with them. It's bizarre. But, you know, pretty painless. You swab inside your mouth and put it in the thing, and they call you the next day. Or just shoot it off on your phone and tell you, you know, in my case, both were negative.

Okay. But, yeah, you should do it at a certain point just so you know. And I wouldn't go now because it's so, I don't even know if they'll let you now, because they really want to get everybody who's got symptoms. But once it gets cleared up, up just so you have a reference point of when you were when you definitively know you you didn't have it when i was clean yeah and then you can be like oh no this definitely was given to me by ron artess yeah it's one of those things like you you know every every time you know in los angeles it's like

you don't want to be taking a test that like somebody who really needs it i guess i don't know That's why I think about like I don't want to be in the way. Right, right. It'd be nice to have had like a mail-in one that I could just do, do what I wanted to. Yeah, low pressure. Yeah, like a 23 and me, you spit in the cup and send it. How are your parents doing in Florida? They're right in the epicenter.

They're doing good just because they're in a gated community. And, you know, my dad can play golf every day. My mom still likes running. You know, obviously they're, you know, my mom was a health care. She's a retired nurse. So she kind of goes crazy when people weren't being safe or that her whole place is unsafe pretty much. But yeah. What about your parents?

They, same thing. They're just kind of isolated and staying away from everybody. You know, they're pretty paranoid about the whole thing, which, you know, is smart at this point. They'll see my sisters and stuff for, like, birthdays and that kind of thing. And they'll sit separately. So yeah, I don't know what they're eating really. I think my mother made a couple good meals that she shared with the family. But yeah, for the most part, it's just the two of them.

My sister's brother-in-law, my sister's husband, he started hunting. So he got a couple deer. So they've just been living off of venison. for a lot of this quarantine. And then I watch the show. Have you seen on Netflix that show alone? No. It's good.

You'd like it. Yeah. I went right to the newest season, which is the sixth season. I had no idea. I think it was a Canadian show or something. Because it's been out for a while. But they take like 10 people and they just drop them in the woods. And they're not near each other.

They're all like different islands or whatever. This one was in the Arctic. And they just drop these people up. And they have seven items with them. And the camera equipment, because they film themselves. And they just have to survive. And it's good. It's like naked and afraid with people who know what they're doing.

Right. You know what I mean? It's like Bear Grillis who's like actually not staying in hotels. And they really, it's cool. But I only bring it up because this one guy had killed a moose. He had a bow and arrow and he killed a giant mousse. moose, which is intense. And he's like, oh, he's definitely going to win because he's got all this moose meat.

It turns out you could starve to death eating a moose. Oh, really? Yeah, because it's all protein from the muscle. There's no fat. Oh, okay. I mean, there is fat, but you've got to store. This is a whole other thing. He did get some fat, and a Wolverine took it, which that's another thing.

Marines are real. Yeah. But if you just ate like the muscle from a deer or a moose or something like that, it actually doesn't take care of everything that you need and you can end up starving to death. Wow. I think it just became a vegetarian. I know. There was a lot of berry eating.

Just thinking about that. Oh, it's pretty gruesome. Man, watching these people, they've just, the whole thing is food. They just got to get food. So they're just like setting trash. wraps and fishing. And this guy was just good with the bow. He actually killed a moose.

And then a wolverine came into his game. Have you ever seen what a wolverine looks like? No, I didn't know it was a real thing. I thought it was some kind of made-up thing. Yeah, from that movie with what's his name, with the big, with the big Friday the 13th things. Oh, I just remember the Saturday Live thing about feeding your fingers to the Wolverines.

I don't remember that. They were teaching John Belushi English. I will feed your fingers to the Wolverines. It looks like a bear had sex with a hyena. Yeah. And then cheated on it with a wolf. But they're in the mountains or where are they? This was in the Arctic and had claws, like these ravenous claws.

and then they're like curled and it has this little face like a little like a little whiny kid face with these big fangs nasty head like its skull is just like the hyena thing oh horrible and that thing came in and stole all this poor guy's fat but he he actually killed a wolverine too he went over and clubbed it to death with a with a hatchet So when we're sitting here in quarantine and like, I can't go to restaurants. Yeah. You just got to think, you know. And moose are like real, they're like strong.

Like everything we talk about is like goofy. Like a moose is like, you know, moose tracks and moose munch and make it like a fun play thing. But those things. Yeah. Bullwinkle. Yeah. But those things are giant, right? They're giant and they're mean.

Yeah. Apparently, they'll just come into your camp if they see you just to stomp you. A moose might just have eyes on you and just be like, no, I'm going to take this guy out because I don't like them and just use his thousand pound feet to stomp you to do. That did, did you ever see the, there's a Lost in Everest show, a National Geographic. And that was, that was another one that was kind of along those lines of like just all, all you. all the stuff you have to do. Like, it takes, like, 30 days to climb Mount Everest. Yeah.

And you have to get all these, like, Sherpa guys to, like, bring you up. And you've got to, like, you know, stay in tents, a certain amount of the time for all the elevation stuff. Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's insane. Yeah, I like camping.

I like being out in nature. I like heating up a little dinty more stew on my Coleman stove. But, uh, yeah, I don't need to feel like my life. is in danger. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I don't have to go to that extent. And I did some hardcore backcountry trips and stuff where you had to like keep the stuff away from the bears and we had some run-ins with stuff like that. But I wouldn't want to be like, oh, I've got to kill that bear or I don't eat. Yeah. I don't need that level. Well, it's just the top of the mountain. Like the other cool thing was they had it.

It was the first time they brought a drone up there, which they could see all the the whole view with a drone, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. Wow, that's got to be a game changer. But, you know, those people, like, people die up there all the time doing climbing Everest. And they leave the bodies. Yeah, so that was the thing.

It was like, they were trying to find this guy that made it to the top in, like, 1920, and they found him. He was still up there. Oh, my God. He's like frozen. Oh, my God. It's like, why would you want to do this for, is this for fun? Is this?

Oh, my God. That is ridiculous. Someone told me that a good show to watch is on the Netflix's is Formula One. It's like a series about Formula One racing. Okay. Yeah. And it really dials you into like all of the drivers and introduces you to the world. These were two people that friends of mine who have no interest in that kind of thing.

There was no part of them that thought car racing was cool. there was no part of them they'd had any desire to watch a French guy walk around and go to the Riviera and race and they were like they were talking about it like it was E.T. They were like this is the best thing they've ever seen.

Yeah, I mean I guess especially this time it kind of makes you like since you can't do whatever it is you usually do like what would be your dream thing like would I want to be a climber or race a car or do what

would you do if like you could do if you could travel and do whatever you wanted no who right now man if i could travel not not not not an activity not like a big like i'm going to go race cars or do that kind of thing or or or sail a boat i would right now though i've been fantasizing and i'm at late at night on my iPad for some reason i'm very drawn to Copenhagen the netherlands dip over into Norway. I've just that part of the world. I think because everybody else seems so diseased and confused. And that part of the world always seems really dialed in

and they act correctly and it seems so clean. And of course, they have amazing bakeries. Every time I look, I'm like, oh, if I go to Copenhagen, I can just every day get up and just have coffee. treats all along these cobblestone streets. Oh, it just seems like heaven. Oh, wait, did you see the guy that I said you, the Pasadena Italian guy that makes sandwiches? Oh, yeah, tell me about that.

Well, apparently this guy has been working at this place since he's 11. Now, hold on. Let me set this up, because we have been, coming from New York, we have always been in a quest for, great, great, East Coast, Italian, not necessarily has to be Italian, but most of the time it is. Yeah. Great sandwiches. And we found this amazing place in Encino called Delmingoes. Domingos.

Domingos. Domingos. Domingos. And that place makes their own bread, their own shabbata, and just the spicy Dom. I even wrote about it in my book. I was like, this is one of the sandwiches of my life that I found that was so good. Yeah, you're spicy down. I'm chicken parmesan.

That sandwich is amazing if you're into that. Off the charts. Just so good. Yeah. So that's been our big one up until this point. Now, what happened? You found this online or you went over to this place? No, I haven't been there yet.

I want to go, but it just went to, you know, it was that thing we talked about in the beginning when you were doing, you know, know, starting to make your bread. And it was kind of that fascination with getting really good at one skill and like just kind of perfecting that. And so this guy makes between, he said between three and 600 sandwiches a day. A day? He's never.

And the only reason he stops is when he runs out of bread. Wow. That's amazing. That's kind of like Ildoro in New York. on Thompson or Sullivan. I always get confused. Same thing. They just have a certain amount of bread

and they make these amazing Italian sandwiches until the bread runs out and then they close out. So this guy's 81. He's been working, I guess his family owned it, so he's been working there since he was 11. Hasn't missed a day. Goes every day. Doesn't miss.

And they ask him, why don't you take the weekend off? He's like, I like what I do. Wow. Since 11? Yeah. Is that crazy? Yeah, he's 81. Oh, my God.

And he just loves it. Yeah, he just wouldn't miss a day, especially now when people need it. And just, yeah. So that's the thing about, like, I'm sure he's still trying to make the perfect sandwich, too. You know what I mean? You can't make 400 of those a day. Imagine if you got to make 400 loaves of bread a day or. Oh, yeah.

No, anytime I go to, like, Bubbing grandmas or any of these places and you see them, like, It takes so much time for me to make two loaves of bread. And if something goes wrong, it's like, oh, I got to wait another three days to go do this again. To be able to crank out in these places, you see them just making, you know, dozens a day. It's like, yeah, I would get really good at this really fast. Yeah, and it's like any skill, it's like, you know, if you wrote, if you wrote one joke a day and started to write 400 a day, Imagine how much better you would get And you'd probably get more picky

The more you made So you'd be better at it too Yeah, man, oh man Oh God Did he say, did they describe what he makes? I got to check to see what the specialties were But yeah, I kind of wanted to go It just made me want to like drive up there

Yeah, where was it? Pasadena In Pasadena, dude, that's so close We can get there We gotta go Yeah, so I got to check it out Go That's just got to be amazing

But that was like the first two lines were like, hasn't missed a day. I mean, you know, works there's seven days a week. Yeah. And so hopefully has never been sick, you know. Yeah. No kidding. But imagine, you know, just never, never getting sick, just doing this every day and still enjoying it. Like that's heaven, right?

Like most people think that guy's crazy, I'm sure. No, that's it. That's it. I mean, that guy, to never have to sit and think, where am I going to go on vacation so I can try and be happy for a week? Yeah. That's a great life. Or how does my hair look? He doesn't care.

How many calories did I burn on the Apple Watch? He never, doesn't care about any of that stuff. He looked like he was in shape, too, that guy. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, I'm sure his arms are buffed, too, just cutting and doing 400,000. sandwiches a day? It's crazy. That's like Vito. We had Vito's pizza here on the podcast.

And Vito does the same thing. His happiest moments, he gets up at four in the morning and rolls in, and goes into the shop, which doesn't open until, you know, he's got to make all the dough and get everything prepped and ready. But it really is, so he can sit in there. He just wants to be back

in his shop. He loves his shop. He loves the smell in the morning and the espresso and just taking some time and making himself a little breakfast. And I'm I you'll you hear him talk about it's just like yeah everybody should have that kind of a a place in their life where you can just know that this simple thing which a lot of the world would think is work or would think is is isn't that special right and you know that it's the best place on earth yeah and you came up with it yourself like I don't know like were you

on a search for this like I'm always interested in how how people find it because it's either, you know, because sometimes like isolation, like I have one buddy who's like a very like normal dude. He started making like two apple pies a day for like no reason. And he's the same as you. He's like, hey, do you like apple pie? Because I, I can drop some off. I was like, when did you start eating apple pie? He's like, no, I make them. I just, you know, I really got into it. I was like, how did you get into it? And you know, he was like just by himself and just maybe always had this thought and it's like, well, I can do it now while my friends don't call me names for it or something, you know?

Yeah, I don't know how you come to it. I think a big part of it was stand up for sure was the realization that you can, and years of doing it, is that you can just get really good at doing this one thing and that if you just, and you enjoy it and all the rewards that come from it and knowing that it's kind of really is it's the mindset of realizing that it's not the big idea it's not the huge thing it's not like oh i can become a stand-up and have a special and and have people come to my shows and all that bigness of it like that you think about of course but it's the realization that that's not what you should be thinking about that what you should be thinking about is all the way down to sitting there with your pen and your pad yeah

and noodling around and getting one joke, writing down a very funny idea, like that it's the smallness that gives you the reward of the bigness. Like that little lesson, which took, I don't know, 20 years to figure out, to really have confidence because you actually approved itself to be true. Like there's the kind of realization of it and then going through years of doing it and realizing that, oh, no, that is what makes something valuable and meaningful. I think that was the thing that kind of kicked it off. So by the time I came around to, oh, I'm going to bake bread and figure this out, I knew just from a practice aspect of it, oh, this is just like that.

Like if I just tend to the little things of this, who knows what this is going to turn into, who knows what reward this will be? And it's turned into this, you know, this podcast is built around it. I had a TV show from it. I'm meeting all these people about it. You know, you and I are able to discover these different bakeries and stuff when we're on the road. And it's like all of that came from what? From learning how to mix flour and water and salt and yeast together. You know what I mean?

That's the, that's the noodling on the pad. So it's a pretty cool lesson. And it's like, you know, it's like shooting baskets. It's like, that's the thing. And you get into the rhythm and you get better. and it fires off all of these different branches that you don't see coming. And all of a sudden, your life is, it's a big part of the structure of your life. Yeah, and everyone tries to figure, you know, like, you know, when you first do something like that,

you're like, well, what's this going to turn into it? It's like you don't have to worry about that. Like you, you know, like the bread might lead into like some kind of bagel chips or something that you'll do two years down the road. but you don't know until this gets you to the next thing, you know? Yeah, no, nothing would be worse than somebody saying, I think I can make a killing at bagel chips. Getting into it for that reason.

That is, that's not going to work. It's just, what do you really, really love? What do you really love to do? And it doesn't have to even turn into anything, really. If you like doing model airplanes, you really love it, just do it. And that's going to become something valuable in your life. It's those small little moments. Yeah.

And it is fascinating to find somebody like that that has some, you know, weird little hobby. You know what I mean? Like I don't think I have anything too crazy. But there's like, oh, well, I mean, I got into soccer a little bit during this thing, you know, because like they're the only ones playing. So there's this guy, Lionel Messi. plays for Barcelona. So I just got into that.

And now everyone's like, oh, so you're like a soccer fan now? I was like, oh, no, I've just never been able to watch this guy play. It's like watching Pele play. And now he plays twice a week and there's nothing else on TV. So this is like cool. He plays twice a week in those weeks? Yeah. Well, they, you know, because they're so far behind.

So they've been playing like Thursdays, Thursdays and Sundays every week. And so got to watch this guy play like three. or four times in a, you know, this month even. That's amazing. Yeah, it's kind of cool. Was he always Barcelona? Wasn't he like, wasn't he Greece or? Yeah, he was somewhere else, but he's from Argentina.

That's what he plays for in the World Cup. That's who he plays for. But he's like this little tiny guy. I think he even had some kind of weird growth or something. And he just, he can just go wherever he wants with the ball. Yeah. And just anytime he touches it, it's just magic. the medicine man.

Oh, man. I know. I watched him during the World Cup. That's where I got turned on to him. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Amazing. He was like one of those people that, it was kind of like Tiger Woods.

It was like, oh, you shouldn't be able to do that with a ball. Yeah. Like, he just does a whole different thing. But can't bake bread. No. You never know, though. If he's in Spain, maybe he's making something else, you know. Oh, man.

Yeah, they must be eating pretty well over there. Damn it. I keep seeing all these pictures of people. I don't know how, but some of like my kids, friends, parents are like posting pictures of them in Italy at a cafe. And it's like they must have like a dual passport or something. Like no one wants to see a passport from the United States of America. They don't want us at their cafes.

But somehow they're sneaking through the border and getting some. pasta. Oh, yeah, that was one of the reasons I was going to ask you about what trip you're going to take because one of the things I always wanted to do since I went to Vietnam a couple years ago and you can, one of the things that all people do is they ride, like you can buy a dirt bike for like 200 bucks and you ride the Ho Chi Minh Trail and it takes like a week. And you see the whole countryside. And if you see these pictures, it's like amazing. But it's like, seven or eight days you can do it in. And I was like, oh, that'd be really great, but just, you know, you never have time for that.

And there was a friend of mine that was from Montreal was going there for vacation, and she's stuck there now. Oh. And everything's fine there. She just can't go back because Montreal has been pretty bad. Right. Oh, man. So she did this track that I want to do. And I was like, man, I go, I'm definitely going to do it now.

Like, would you do that? because you haven't ridden in a while, but this is like dirt bike riding through. Oh, it would be amazing. Yeah. It would be amazing. Oh, my God.

That would be so great. How insane, though, that the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was, you know, during the wars and just horrible stories in and around it, that that is now like, let's get a dirt bike and go on vacation. Yeah, yeah. Isn't it weird? Like, time can just pave over everything. It's so weird.

It is pretty crazy. but it's it just kind of shows I mean that's what it is it shows the history of it and that they don't really you know hate anybody except for the French the French is who they hate just like everybody else

yeah man but yeah Montreal I was actually looking at that today that all of L.A. has more cases than all of Canada and the only reason it's even close is because of the Montreal region yeah it's like one hotspot right

Yeah, that that's the one place, the Quebec, that they weren't really following the rules as much. Yeah. They were a little bit too much like us. They can't smoke with a mask on. All the French Canadians. Oh, my God. Did you see that video of the guy smoking a cigarette at a slot machine in Vegas with his mask on? Uh-uh.

Oh, God, it's hilarious. There's a guy playing the slots. He's got like a sleeveless shirt on flip-flops sitting there playing the slots. He takes out a cigarette. he puts it in the side of his mask, lights it on the side, inhales, lifts his mask, and exhales. Oh, my gosh. He's trying.

At least he's trying. At least he's giving it an effort. I'm going to find a way. Yeah, I don't have any desire to, like, tempt fate right now. I don't, I know some people are like, I just, I'm not going to not go to Vegas now. And it's like, what do you mean? It's closed. Like, nobody.

I can't believe the things that people think are a good time. Like, I can't believe, like, that's the thing that you'll put your life at risk for, like a pool party. Like, that's, like, being tied with six other boats on a lake, drinking and jumping off the side. Like, that's the thing that really turns you on that much. You know what I mean? It's like, I got to get to the bar.

And I was, and this isn't an age thing. When I was in my 20s, I wouldn't be like, I've got to get out and go to that club filled with 2,000 people. That was never appealing to me, ever. Yeah. When I was in my 20s, if I was in my 20s right now, I'd be like, are we going to Hulahans? Are we going to O'Malley's? You mean that place with the one 80-year-old guy at the bar?

Yeah. Can we get in there now? No one's in there. No one's getting the COVID in there. Those were my places. Yeah, six dudes and a wooden table. That's what it is. Yeah, and maybe a Pac-Ban machine and a good jukebox.

That's all I wanted. I don't understand this craving that it makes you realize how bored people are that they'll risk their life just to go with thousand other people at a trampoline park. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Hey, by the way, the park, did you see the thing about that action? Park. I forgot it. If I asked, did you ever go to that place? No, I'd never been. I might have gone once, but I don't think so. But I remember it because all the commercials for Action Park were all over

our New York, New Jersey area as kids. It was basically in a amusement park that was the most dangerous place on Earth. Yeah, they had all this crazy stuff that you're like, wow, you can drive cars with no helmets or there's no safety measures. And it's like, oh, because it was completely unsafe. So I guess all these people are like losing teeth on the, the, uh, the little water slides and stuff, you know, they had like a 360 thing and it had teeth in it. They had a water slide that was a 360 loop-de-loop, like a track, like it would zip you down and then do a 360 and spit you out. No physics taken into consideration that if you take a kid who's only kind of wet and try and get him enough speed to go through the loop and spit out the other

side. People, kids would get stuck in there and they'd lose their teeth and they would run into each other. What about the alpine slide? That was a all concrete, like water slide, dry, of course, and you got in a little cart with wheels and you flew down that thing. And there was always stories of kids flying off into the woods. Well, that's why I was like, there's no guardrails.

How do you keep it on the track? And the answer was they don't. It just goes wherever. Yeah, they called it traction park. Or class action park too. Yeah. Because everyone sued them. But I guess they had like no, they had one of those like insurance companies from the Cayman Islands or something that never covered anything.

New York and New Jersey. Rye Playland wasn't the most safe place either. Those had roller coasters that wouldn't completely off, off kilter. And how about the horrible one was the haunted house? and Long Branch. Oh, that one? Oh, man. Yeah, there was no regulations

with any of this stuff. So as kids, everyone was dying because you'd listen to local radio, which was the most powerful thing you could get back then. It was just, it was an amazing, amazing way to unite the whole community.

Like, PLJ coming out of New York City was like, everybody was listening to that or N-E-W. And it was such a great age for radio because all these bands were coming to town. that's how you knew where they were coming. They would talk all about your place and your area, and they would run ads for whatever the big attractions were,

in Great Adventure, Action Park, and the haunted house and Long Branch. And that place, we were all dying to get there, and one day it caught on fire. Oh, no way. Yeah. I think like seven people died or something. It was brutal.

Oh, my gosh. It was just like, you know, that place you've been listening to and begging your parents to take you to, was on fire. But that was, you know, that was back then when there was no regulations and nobody really cared and no one got sued and they probably just swept it up and opened it up next week. Yeah, it's even more scary now than all the people. Yeah. And then you go, you'd go do that and then go see a Springsteen concert. Man, oh man, there was no safety measures. Asbury Park. Atlantic City, all those things, just metal roller coasters, people getting tetanus, people throwing up sitting in it.

They didn't care. Well, you didn't even need a seatbelt in the car until the mid-80s, right? Dude, I have a I have a Volkswagen, a 1967 Volkswagen. There's two seatbelts in the front, a lap belt for the driver, a lap belt for the passenger, and nothing in the back. They just didn't even think to put them in. Yeah. The whole thing is metal and glass and gasoline. They had no airbags, no seatbelts, no nothing.

They're like, yeah, what are you going to do? I take that thing out. I feel like I'm riding a motorcycle again. Yeah, if you get hit, it's going to be bad anyway. Right, exactly. This thing's going to go up in flames anyway. You're going to be fine. Oh, man.

What are you going to have for doing? dinner tonight. Man, I don't know. I think the safe bet in California, a lot of these taco places do the drive-through. You know, the couple are our favorite place. They're Tony's. I've gone to a couple times. Nice.

And, yeah, they think you're too big for them now, that you're a food star. Oh, really? They're worried about my high exposure? They know that, well, I guess they don't see anymore or something, but this place is, they used to have Tom on the wall in this place. I know, I know. And then they painted the wall and they took it down. I didn't take it down.

They took it down. Sons of bees. I would go in once in a while with my buddy Pete. That's where we would go for lunch. But since the COVID, we haven't been in there since March. But I still order from them at least once a week. And with my daughters going through high school and everything, we did the math. We've been ordering from them once a week for seven.

17 years. That's crazy. Yeah. That's, that's, so tell them, I actually feel like I should be able to call and they should know when I call. Yeah, yeah. I want special treatment. I'll be like, hey, it's Tom.

Hey, you want the regular? Yes. And hang up. That I have to still call and act like I'm an anonymous nincom poop and go through the whole order. Yeah, you know what they did last night was the, uh, I forget which lady it is, but she was like, uh, you know, I order and I'm like, I'm like, I'm, the only one that doesn't like guacamole.

And so she's like, you don't want no guacamole? And I was like, yeah, it's Paul. And she goes, oh, yeah, you're the one. They never ate an egg or something, right? Oh, that's good. We've got to dial in this relationship already. Come on. This is Tony's Mexican Grill, by the way, which is in,

is that Sherman Oaks or Studio City? Yeah, technically Sherman Oaks, I think. Yeah. Like it's on your side. Cold water. in magnolia, my favorite Mexican place. Yeah, amazing. Yeah, that place is just, oh, now you got me thinking. I actually, because I had so many treats this week, my friends at Netflix, because they sent us cakes and everything,

we had our one year anniversary for the radio show. So they sent us cheese, it's and cakes and cookies and just all of this stuff. And then the last thing they sent was a cleanse, a juice cleanse. Oh, so I've been eating, I've been drinking it all day. I haven't eaten a thing all day. It's already, it's, you know, it's 5.30 at night. And I haven't eaten a thing. I feel pretty good. So you're doing this thing?

Yeah, I just figured let me fire them down. Let me just see. It's only one day. And I think I have two left and it's 530. I could probably go the distance, but I just want to eat. Wait, there's a one day cleanse? Yeah, I guess so. I don't know, man.

It's not cleansing anything. I think it's just one day of juice is what it should be called. Yeah. Yeah. One day of juice until you eat dinner. Yeah. You can drink your dinner right there. You got your wine or whatever's in there.

I know. And it's always, it's kind of a tradition of mine. Like when I, if I'm traveling to go on the road, I'll be gone for three days because I'm going to be going to do in these shows in Portland. I always, you know,

have a nice cocktail the night before I leave. You know, at the house, it's like a nice little tradition, a send-off kind of a thing. When I just sit there with a juice on my lap, that's not going to work. That's bad luck.

Well, you can still mix it, right? Can you put vodka in there or something? Yeah, my celery and beet juice thing? Yeah, why the hell not? Oh, man. Well, this was good catching up, Paul. Yeah, you too. So you're leaving tomorrow?

You're taking off? Yeah, I'm going to go... Good luck. Thanks, man. By the time this comes out, I will have returned. But, yeah, but tomorrow I'm leaving. And, yeah, just wear your mask. Do the right things.

wipe off the stuff and, you know, it'll be fine. Yeah, well, have fun. Yeah, thanks. If not, you can just drive back, that'll give you an extra couple days on your own. Yeah, right, exactly. If it gets too wiggie, just get a car and drive. That's got to be, what, 13 hours probably? Drive the coast, that would be a good two-day trip.

Man, that would be good. That would be really good. I don't think anybody that's expecting me would be happy with it, but, man, that would be good. There's a lot of good baked goods and Ken Forkish, the guy who who I learned a lot from from flour, water, salt, and yeast

is one of the main books is up in Portland. So I'm thinking of going and tracking him down for the podcast. That would be pretty great. If I can find him, I only have a couple days, so I've got to make it happen.

But that would be pretty great. I'm definitely going to go by his place and because they're starting to serve again. Oh, cool, yeah. Have it come to the show or something. Yeah, well, let's not get carried away. I got tickets to sell. All right, buddy, take care of yourself.

I'll see you soon. All right, you too.