Club Random with Bill Maher - Tony Hawk | Club Random with Bill Maher

Episode Date: June 23, 2024

Bill Maher and Tony Hawk on Steve O and sobriety, Tony’s death-defying stunts, how being a pro skateboarder in the '80s was like being an astronaut, how Tony’s kids think the '90s were ancient his...tory, bridging the gap between grunge and TikTok, Tony’s journey to finding the perfect wife, Bill compares childbirth to skateboarding injuries, Tony’s sage advice to young skaters, the lack of PED’s in skateboarding, and their mutual love of Jackass. Sponsor Club Random: https://public.liveread.io/media-kit/clubrandom Check out Bill's tour dates here: https://www.billmaher.com/schedule/ We have Merch! Get it here: https://clubrandom.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 If you say that you're a pro skateboarder now, that has much more merit than when I said I was a pro skateboarder in 1984. I ended up with a broken pelvis, fractured skull, and a lot of pain. Did you ever think you were going to die doing that? That's fair. Hey, hey. Welcome. Hiding behind the post? How are you?
Starting point is 00:00:25 Wow, you look different in person. Oh yeah? Is that good or bad? You look younger. Oh, that's good then, thank you. So do you. How old are you now? 55. Come on, really? I am, yes.
Starting point is 00:00:38 You know it's depressing that, like, I can take, I was born in the 50s, kid in the 60s, I can take the 60s, 70s being like ancient history, but the 90s, kids. Oh, to kids, especially. Who are born after or in. Younger kids, they're like, that was, you mean in the 1900s? Yeah. How old are your kids?
Starting point is 00:00:59 They range from 31 to 15, and then a bunch of 20-somethings in between. How many in this whole litter of you? Six, yeah. Five boys. You have six kids. Five boys, yeah, between my wife and I, yeah. From one woman?
Starting point is 00:01:13 No. That would be a lot to ask of one woman. Yes. You know, birth's gotta be a bitch, right? Uh, it looks very traumatizing. Yes. They say a man, you know that old cliché, a man could never undergo the pain of a woman giving birth.
Starting point is 00:01:36 That's all I have to say to women. It looks like they have an out of body experience. Giving birth? Yeah, I think so. Well at least giving, see, like if you're being tortured. I mean like, what? Like you know, men get, women do too, but I mean like, probably more men, because they're serving more in the military,
Starting point is 00:01:56 not that women don't, but certainly in the time when they were getting captured. So, if you're giving birth, it's painful, but it's a positive experience, you're giving life. Sure. I don't see a lot of people comparing those two specifically, though. Childbirth and torture, so.
Starting point is 00:02:15 Well, it begs it because if you're gonna defend the idea that there's nothing more painful than childbirth, then I'm gonna throw in torture. I see, okay, we're just going all the way to the extreme. I understand. Well, I mean, if you're saying it's the most, then I gotta go to, how else do I argue that? Am I wrong? Well, I don't know if you're wrong,
Starting point is 00:02:40 but I just think that's an extreme scenario. But I'm not apples to oranges. I mean, pain is pain. Pain is pain, and I'm sure you've had a lot of it. I've had enough. I actually was telling someone just now. I've had just enough to keep me in check but not make me quit what I do.
Starting point is 00:03:01 Well, but you're not still doing what you did when you were 25. Not on that level, but I'm still doing it to a certain degree, yes. To a degree that could... Yeah, most people would consider it reckless, yeah. So you're like the Mike Tyson of... Oh, maybe. Your sport. How old is he now? 60 and he's fighting again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, at least I got a few more good years.
Starting point is 00:03:17 Yeah, I mean, I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. But oh, maybe. Your sport. How old is he now? 60 and he's fighting again.
Starting point is 00:03:26 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, at least I got a few more good years. But are you in competition at 50? No, I mean, sometimes they have, they have a legends category of competition. Right. And I get into those once in a while, but honestly, there's so many outlets now
Starting point is 00:03:44 in terms of if you are a pro skater, you are a pro skater, you have social media, you have all these other ways to be out there that you don't have to compete anymore. In my day, you had to compete to get recognized or get any sort of success. Also, competition is your drug. I would say it was.
Starting point is 00:04:10 Or the lead athlete. It was my incentive for sure, but my big directive all through the years was just learning new tricks. And so the competition was incidental to that. In fact, sometimes that got in the way of progression to me because I had to skate in this sort of conservative way to compete.
Starting point is 00:04:31 Couldn't take many chances. Interesting. And then when the competition was over, I was on the ramp the next day trying to learn tricks. So when did that change when they recognized instead of squelched what you were good at? That's a good question. they recognized instead of squelched what you were good at? That's a good question. I mean, I got a lot of flack through the years
Starting point is 00:04:52 just because my style was weird. I was mostly focused on tricks and so I didn't look like I was flowing. I didn't have a lot of height because I was small. I think it was probably, honestly, not until maybe my second decade of skating that I got more respect for my skills, yeah. But I mean, as someone who's not a great follower of it,
Starting point is 00:05:15 like, you're the name I know. You're the, from my view from, as not one of those on the inside, it was like, it wouldn't take me two seconds if it was a word association. Okay. And they said your name or skateboarding. Oh, thank you.
Starting point is 00:05:34 Well, I don't think that's the majority of the country. I think that stems also from our video game success. A lot of that, especially in terms of non-skaters. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it was more that you were this innovator of a way of doing it that leveled it up, that took it to a different level. I'm honored if that's the narrative. Am I wrong?
Starting point is 00:05:54 I definitely created a different way of doing it, mostly out of desperation, because I was so small that I couldn't figure out how to do the aerial maneuvers that I saw these bigger kids doing, like these men doing. And I created a technique of doing it that required less strength, if that makes sense. Yeah. And then that allowed me to finally get airborne
Starting point is 00:06:23 like I wanted to, and that became the sort of standardized way to do it going forward. I'm just saying that sometimes somebody, it's rare, but somebody in a sport will do something, and it makes the sport a different, it takes you to a different kind of place. I mean, Babe Ruth is the great example, because I mean, before that,
Starting point is 00:06:44 nobody hit a lot of home runs. It was a rare thing, is that how you scored? I think one year Ty Cobb led the league with nine. It was more like a triple. And then he bombed 59 and 60. That was, and just changed. You figured out a way to do it without running the bases. Yeah, when I see the footage of him,
Starting point is 00:07:10 he's not as fat as they make it in, but... No, no, I wasn't saying, I'm just saying like... No, but he was fat. But in his eyes, it was like, well, this is the way I get a score. But it just shows you, it's not always about the body. Right. And that was a bad body. I was like a dad bod plus.
Starting point is 00:07:27 Yeah, a dad bod. And he was drunk. I mean, this guy could eat a home run drunk eating a pork chop. He probably did several times. Sometimes with one hand. I mean, he was a badass. He was fascinating.
Starting point is 00:07:43 I thought that movie was good too. Which movie? John Goodman. John Goodman, that's right I remember that. He was perfect to play him. He was. Yeah. Well cheers, thanks for having me. Pleasure. Although there are people, and I may be one of them, who think Blade Runner was well would be at least half black. If you look at him, his features, it's just not out of the question that the greatest player in the sport that worked desperately hard to keep the black people out of the sport was himself.
Starting point is 00:08:18 It could be, I don't know, but his background is a little murky. Yeah, for sure. Orphanage. Right. But that would make him even more of a towering figure. Like it would be like if they knew that Jack Johnson, who was also like an amazing badass, Jackie Robinson.
Starting point is 00:08:39 Of course. I mean, your sport is not like diversity crazy, is it? It is, yeah, it is. Really, yeah. So who are the best people now? Who are the? Oh, so many, wow. Some of the best skaters from Japan.
Starting point is 00:08:56 You keep up with the kids? You have the kids, you talk to them, you mentor them, you're like, they must see you as they. If they want my help, I don't actively seek it. I don't wanna impose anything on them, but if they ask me any advice, I'm happy to give it. My style of skating is more the half-pipe, the ramp kind of skating, whereas the more popular discipline of skating is street, which is just out in the wild, skating the
Starting point is 00:09:22 rails and the ledges. And I did a little bit of that but at some point I realized I'm not moving the needle doing this and my ankles hurt from doing it so much. And I like flying so I just went back to skating the ramps. So do you have injuries now that you still are dealing with from?
Starting point is 00:09:40 Yeah, I would say the biggest one, the most chronic one is my neck because I just had so many whiplashes through my life. But actually, I got stem cells a couple months ago for my neck, and I am just now feeling the positive effects of it. Oh, good. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:55 But even after the first time that happened, you didn't make, deter you from. No, I mean, the first time I got hurt, I was 11. I got concussion, knocked on my front teeth, and I literally woke up in the ambulance. And my first thought was not, oh my God, what have I done? My first thought was, why did I fall on that trick and how can I do it better? And I think that was probably a defining moment in my career.
Starting point is 00:10:27 What do you attribute this inordinate amount of drive and ambition and- Stubbornness. Really? More obsessive, yeah. I mean, it definitely, my mom used to always say I was determined. That was her way of speaking nicely
Starting point is 00:10:45 when her friends were like, your son's a terror. When your kids take after you? In various ways, yeah. They had the same kind of drive? Yeah. Really? Yeah, in different ways for sure. I would say a couple of them, maybe more than me
Starting point is 00:11:04 and against their own health, a couple of them maybe more than me and against their own health, you know, against their own well-being. And then others are very talented but not as eager to push the limits. And then some kind of, you know, my oldest son is a pro skater. Oh. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:22 Well, there you go. Most people who talk to me about their kids are always complaining that they're too woke and they drive them crazy with their, is that, you find that problem with your kids, you find them to be always correcting you? No, I mean, I've definitely seen the shift of, of attitudes and the generation, you know, because we do
Starting point is 00:11:48 have varying ages and I see how even my oldest is more steeped in this attitude or whatever from his early days in the, like in the 90s and the 2000s, and then the younger ones are definitely more aware of everything else and pronouns and things like that. So I feel like we see the full spectrum of it. And I, my wife and I are pretty loose. We're, you know, we just roll with it. We're not trying to impose any sort of values in that way on them.
Starting point is 00:12:27 No, it's them trying to impose it on you. They don't for us, no. They don't try to shame you like, dad. No, but like I said, we're very, I would say we're more understanding in that way. We're not, because my wife and I both had, we had parents, my dad was in World War II.
Starting point is 00:12:47 Mine too. Yeah, and so he was much older when I was born, but he and my mom, children of depression, they were just, this is how it is. That's right. Yeah. So I tried to be a little more reminded than that. There's gotta be a middle ground. I believe so, yes.
Starting point is 00:13:06 I mean, what they call, today they call it gentle parenting? Yeah, we're not that. I will tell you we're not that. We're children of the 70s. We're not gentle parenting, yeah. Right. At some point, you gotta hear hard nos. Right.
Starting point is 00:13:21 But no corporal punishment. No, no. Never hit a kid? No, no. Never hit a kid? No, no. Were you hit as a kid? I was not. Never was spanked?
Starting point is 00:13:30 No. Really? I think my dad had a pretty abusive background and he was very adamant to not keep that going, that cycle. Maybe that's why you want so much pain now. You missed it in childhood. Well I got- I had plenty in my childhood.
Starting point is 00:13:49 I mean I started skating at age 10. I got spanked. Yeah. Not often. Right. But it was like the nuclear option. Right. That to me is the correct policy for corporal punishment.
Starting point is 00:14:02 Of course you put it in the hands of sadists and stupid people and drunks and drug addicts, but that's true of anything, everything with a child. If a child is living with a psycho of some kind, it's gonna be horrible, and that's probably, it's probably gonna manifest in some sort of physical violence as well, and that's horrible. But that doesn't mean you need to prescribe this
Starting point is 00:14:22 for the majority of people who, you know, kids are little fucking monsters. They're feral. You have to educate them to be decent humans. It's not innate. No, you definitely, yeah, but you can teach them to make good choices, I think, without physically abusing them.
Starting point is 00:14:42 I think that what you're saying, but I understand what you're saying. Spanking is not an abuse of it. Abuse it. But I think your experience or whatever is more of an exception to the rule when you think about people who are regularly spanking or hitting their kids.
Starting point is 00:14:59 Not in my generation. No. In my generation, everybody got spanked. In fact, I mean, it's hysterical. I did actually, I got hit in school once. Oh, and then there were the nuns. They would... Yeah, well, I wasn't going to Catholic school, but...
Starting point is 00:15:12 Yeah, no, I got hit with a ruler by nuns. Like, I wouldn't go to... I got hit with the equivalent of a phone book. Catechism. And they had a ruler. I guess it was just why you would carry a ruler, I guess it was just why you would carry a ruler, I think only for that purpose. We weren't measuring things.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Right. We weren't measuring. Oh yeah, it was definitely the whipping stick. The whipping stick. Yeah. And it was on the knuckles. Yep. And it smarted, and I don't think that's the worst thing
Starting point is 00:15:42 to do to a kid. And look, I mean. It smarted, that was don't think that's the worst thing to do to a kid. And look, I mean. It's smarted, that was the perfect generational term for that. It absolutely did. Oh, that's smart. And that's why the kids today have no smarts. Good night, everyone.
Starting point is 00:15:57 But it is, I do think it's connected. I think you have, I mean, kids need boundaries. They need discipline, they're not getting it, that's why they've gone insane. But having a lot of kids and you have none, I think it's easier for you to generalize that. Well, I mean, we can look at it two ways. You're too close to it and I'm too far away. You see your kids and when people look at their own kids,
Starting point is 00:16:25 it's very hard for them to see flaws. Their kids are all. Oh, I'm not saying they're not flawed. I have no way that I'd say that. And I never would, nor would they. Right, of course. But I mean, parents, it's hard to be objective about your own kids.
Starting point is 00:16:39 Maybe you're, I'm sure you're right, you're not in this category, but lots of parents. And this is one of the big problems with parenting and all the problems it causes down the road for all of us in society is that parents don't give their kids boundaries. They don't. They don't say no.
Starting point is 00:16:55 They don't say no. They don't say no. Exactly. Yeah, I agree with you there. They take the path of least resistance. And also just the idea that you have to compliment everything. Right.
Starting point is 00:17:06 For jobs that are expected. Oh. That is the, that's the rub for me. And then, you know what the result of that is, is like, you grow up like that, and I see it in society, like every people now, the younger two generations, expect to be complemented for just ordinary things. I got this exercise machine, I wouldn't say the company,
Starting point is 00:17:32 but you know, and it comes with an app on your phone and you connect that to the TV and then you basically, there's a trainer on there, many, many programs, and I couldn't, I did this for a few months, I just couldn't take it anymore, because the trainers, it's not what they're telling me to do, it's that every five seconds they have to tell me. I'm the great.
Starting point is 00:17:55 You're doing great. Killing it. You're a warrior. Yeah, yeah. And just shut the fuck up and tell me what to pick up next. I mean, I wanna say, that was part of, my dad was very rare with compliments. And so when I was doing skating and stuff,
Starting point is 00:18:13 it wasn't that I was doing it to impress him, but definitely there was a part of me that was like. Absolutely. I remember my father once looking at my report card and it was like all A's except like one B. And he, which was in like science or something, and he just went, hmm, had some tough tests in science this term.
Starting point is 00:18:34 Yeah, yeah. Just like a little dig. And it's like just enough to make me want to get his approval even more next time, which I don't think is the worst thing in the world, because I probably did do better next time. I mean, we could have used a little encouragement. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:18:51 I mean, that generation, which apparently is both our parents' generation, the World War II generation, the Depression and the war, I mean, these motherfuckers were hard, hard. These kids, they think they don't even know the meaning of it. Hard. They were hardened by poverty. Trying to raise four kids. She's working. Oh.
Starting point is 00:19:13 You know, my dad is in the Navy. It was definitely not easy. I've recently found something she wrote. She passed away, but where she was talking about her life, she's like, my life is generally good. We could have used a little more money in the coffer. Ha ha ha ha. You know what's one thing that nobody in the first half
Starting point is 00:19:34 of the 1940s ever said to each other? What are you doing these days? Yeah, working. The war. Yeah. We're all doing the war, okay? We're all involved with the war. We're fighting.
Starting point is 00:19:46 We're fighting. Either on the home front or just all in this. Or fighting the enemy. We're all in this. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Support for today's episode comes from OneSkin. And if you have sensitive skin, wait until you hear about their scientifically proven
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Starting point is 00:22:56 Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash random and use the code random at checkout for a 15% off. Thank you, ZBiotbiotics for sponsoring this episode. Are you gonna go into politics? I am not, not at all. Because you are very political. It seems like it. You slip and slide on every question.
Starting point is 00:23:16 I wouldn't say slip and slide. I do find. Look at that, I wouldn't say slip and slide. What I would say is. I'm definitely hardened in my vagueness. That's a great phrase. That's a book title. definitely hardened in my vagueness. No. That's a great phrase. That's a book title. Hardened in my vagueness. I'm gonna steal that.
Starting point is 00:23:30 That's genius. I think I just experienced so many walks of life and I've experienced so... What do you mean, walks of life? Just in terms of skateboarding, like so many people that chose to skateboard were outcasts and misfits and had really difficult backgrounds
Starting point is 00:23:44 and so I just grew up around all that. So I came to be much more understanding. I remember doing this joke about, oh, it's probably in my book which. Oh wow, did someone drop that there? Yeah, somebody just dropped this here. Oh, what this gradient said will shock you. Anyway, pre-order it now.
Starting point is 00:24:03 But there's one in there about, we're talking about cultural appropriation and they were doing it with sports. And they got mad last Olympics with surfing because it was cultural appropriation from Hawaii. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Is your sport in the Olympics? Yes. See?
Starting point is 00:24:26 As of last in Tokyo. Right, congratulations. Yeah, it is a big deal. Well, you probably. In Paris this year. You did that probably more than anyone. Oh, I appreciate it. Yeah, anyway, so, we were talking about how, it's so ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:24:42 First of all, surfing, like, how do we know where it started? The idea of standing on a board in the water. I mean, it's pretty well documented that it was Hawaii, but I do feel like they honor Hawaii in that. Oh, come on, there was billions of islands around there. Like, that never thought, nobody else thought of that, even if they did, so the fuck what? Why is it wrong?
Starting point is 00:25:02 Oh no, I didn't say it was wrong. This is what they were saying, it's cultural appropriate. I don't agree with that. There's a hardened opinion, I don't agree with that. How's that? That it's not appropriation. Okay, so we do agree though, right? Yeah, I mean it's.
Starting point is 00:25:14 Right, I mean, it's standing on the board in the water. I mean, it's just fun in the ocean. Okay, so, but then like badminton came from France, I think. Or maybe tennis. Sure. You don't know that? I don't know. I think tennis came from France.
Starting point is 00:25:32 And maybe bad skiing came from Norway. Judo came from Korea. Or taekwondo came from Korea, or Taekwondo came from Korea, Judo came from the Far East, and skateboarding came from the Far Out. That was the joke. Which I always thought was pretty cute. But to your point, it always seemed like a place
Starting point is 00:26:03 for misfits. Yes, absolutely. It was where we belonged, yep. Yeah, I mean like as opposed to like picking up a guitar. You did that. Yeah, but I think there was a sense of community in skateboarding where, here's how I felt. I played basketball and baseball, and I was okay.
Starting point is 00:26:26 I never felt like I was making measured progress in any of those. And then every time I skated, I got better at it. So at some point I thought, this is what I love doing, because I love the freedom of it, and I love that I always improve when I'm doing. And then I found this community of people that were supportive, but also were understanding
Starting point is 00:26:46 and it was an individual pursuit and it was more like, this is more like an art form as much as a sport. Almost like ballet. Sure, but with, but with, Or not, you don't have to humor me on that. I mean, the closest thing, yeah. Because ballet is athletic. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:04 As well as an art form. It's a little like, you know. But the idea that skateboarding was highly I mean, the closest thing, yeah. Because ballet is athletic. Yeah. As well as an art form. It's a little like, you know. But the idea that skateboarding was highly competitive. I mean, I guess ballet is highly competitive in terms of your trying out for roles and stuff. And I'm talking about like, well, there were these competitions
Starting point is 00:27:17 where you were getting judged and you wanted to do well so you could get recognized to move forward. But what I found was just this group of people that were so creative and supportive, yet motivated. And they listened to weird music, they dressed weird, they had crazy haircuts, and I loved it. And I felt like these are my people.
Starting point is 00:27:44 And so when I had any modicum of success, the first thing I wanted to do was provide those facilities for kids who are disenfranchised and kids who choose skateboarding but don't have anywhere to go to do it. So you were rebelling against your stern father. Ha, he was actually very supportive of skateboarding. He was. He was, yeah supportive of skateboarding. He was.
Starting point is 00:28:05 He was, yeah. From the beginning? From the beginning, yeah, because he saw what it provided me, and also, I mean, let's put it this way. The year I chose to go all in on skateboarding was the same year they appointed him Little League president in our area, and he was okay with me quitting Little League
Starting point is 00:28:23 in that year, which was an awkward conversation. What, because he was so invested in you being a baseball player? Well, the only reason he's in the little part of Little League is I'm on a team. Right. And I quit. So he had to finish out the year without any of his kids
Starting point is 00:28:41 in Little League. Right, yeah, that is embarrassing. And I would be at the skate park. So. Right, I mean. But he was, like I said, he was totally supportive and he actually helped to form one of the only sanctioning bodies at the time for competition
Starting point is 00:28:58 because he saw that there was just no, there was no organization in skating. It was just such a wild west. So, you were famous by what age? I guess that depends on how you define fame. Right, it's always shifting, that's true. I was known in the skateboard community for sure by the time I was 15 or 16.
Starting point is 00:29:18 And in the wider community, like when would I? So in the 80s, skating was kind of big. I feel like I knew you were in the 80s. Yeah, and I was doing really well in competitions. So if anyone was looking at skateboarding, they might have seen my name, because I was winning a lot of events. But so, you know, like...
Starting point is 00:29:35 Did it make you popular? Mid to late 80s. Like with girls? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was a weird time, because there weren't a lot of girls... Yeah, there must be skateboarding groupies. More so now.
Starting point is 00:29:48 More so now? Yeah, cause skating is really considered cool now. You feel cheated by that? What's that? Do you feel cheated by that? No. Are you bitter? No.
Starting point is 00:29:56 Come on. I'm okay, I'm okay. I mean I've lived many lifetimes. How is a skateboarding groupie like different than say the motley crew groupie? I don't, I haven't met both, so I don't really know. I don't really know. Well, I'll get Tommy Lee over here.
Starting point is 00:30:14 Well now, skateboarding is much more diverse. I mean, there are equal events, and there's parity and prize money, men and women, so crewby is a tough term, but I would say that if you say that you're a pro skateboarder now, that has much more merit than when I said I was a pro skateboarder in 1984. Really?
Starting point is 00:30:36 Because if you said you're a pro skateboarder in 1984, they're like, you still skateboard at your age, and I was 16. Right, it was a kid's thing. It was a kid's thing. Right. So it was more like, it wasn't the best in to meet girls. Wow.
Starting point is 00:30:54 Huh. And then when there was sort of a little bit of more hype in like 1988-ish, then it was more like, oh, hey, that's cool, you're a professional. Wow, you travel the world. Well, you got married young, right? I did, yeah. How old?
Starting point is 00:31:11 I was 24. Okay. So, when you get married at 24, what are you thinking? Because... Well, I was starting a family. I mean, it was all kinda happening, it didn't last that way, but it was more just, I was kind of a disaster.
Starting point is 00:31:28 So, you know, I thought I was getting grounded in my chaotic lifestyle of skating because skating was taking me all over the world and it was kind of frantic. You know, it was like, it was a strange, it was a strange space to be in because no one had really done it yet, made a career like that. You know, it was like, it was a strange, it was a strange space to be in because no one had really done it yet,
Starting point is 00:31:48 made a career like that, and we were sort of forging the way, so we didn't really even know what we were doing. But it was exciting, isn't it? It was exciting, yeah. It's so, I mean, to me. It was crazy, I mean, I never expected to leave San Diego and all of a sudden I was in Japan for two weeks.
Starting point is 00:32:05 I was in Australia for a month, I was in Europe for two months. It was like, I didn't, it wasn't like, when people pick up the guitar and be like, I'm gonna travel the world and I'm gonna play, it was like, I picked up a skateboard because I loved doing it, I had no idea that it was gonna take me around the world
Starting point is 00:32:19 or make any money ever. It was kinda wild. And what about drugs? Is it like Lance Armstrong and the doping scandal? That there's a, they're not doping to? I've never seen anyone that was doing that that was, I don't know, I feel like that just doesn't
Starting point is 00:32:43 give you an advantage. You never were. Really? No, yeah, I mean, know, I feel like that just doesn't give you an advantage. You never were. Really? No, yeah, I mean, at some point you gotta be. Hand-eye coordination and quickness. You gotta be flexible too though. Why would that make you inflexible? I don't know, it just feels like if you're on steroids
Starting point is 00:32:57 it's more for the actual power in the muscles. Okay, but like, when baseball was going through its steroid period, you remember that? Sure. Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, they were all hitting 70s. Right, but that's what I mean, like skateboarding isn't about the... Why did they hit, why did, what was the connection
Starting point is 00:33:19 between why those balls were flying out and the steroids? I think it's hand-eye coordination. Not the strength or the power behind it? Yes, that too. But I think what really makes the ball fly out of the yard is how fast you hit it. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I mean, there might be an example of someone
Starting point is 00:33:41 that was juicing and skateboarding and that was doing well, but I don't know anything about that. Like, I've never seen anyone do it. I've never thought they should have even been prosecuted because everything changes in sports over time. I mean, Babe Ruth didn't have to face black players. Really, you know, in his era, he didn't have to play night games.
Starting point is 00:34:07 He had a high batting average because they wore little mitts, you know. So the fact that they were juicing at a certain point, I mean, but so were the pitchers. Roger Clemens was doing it too. Yeah, well, I mean, that's the whole thing with Lance Armstrong, it wasn't that he was doing it, it was that he, everyone was doing it,
Starting point is 00:34:25 so he figured out how to do it the most stealthy or the better way, I don't know, like, yeah, that's wild. But I- He sat here and he told me how he did it. He said, every drug test I took, it was a real drug test, it wasn't somebody else's pee, it's just that I knew how to get stuff that left your body in four hours.
Starting point is 00:34:45 Yeah, I mean that was it. It was like don't hate the player, hate the game. That's why I think the Lance Armstrong story is a great story. Yeah, it's fascinating. Because it's a great American story because America wanted him to be the champion. And he did what we wanted, he got to be the champion by doing something that everybody else was doing. And then he was the history's greatest monster when he lied about it.
Starting point is 00:35:14 And he was, by his own admission, kind of an asshole about it. And was like very driven. You seem like the nice version. Not that he's a bad guy. But also when you talk about skating, I just don't think anything is gonna be an advantage. I know plenty of skaters that smoked a lot of weed.
Starting point is 00:35:33 Really, weed? That's ridiculous. Yeah, and they skated well. What's that? Doesn't do anything for you. But yeah, that I associate with skating. Like almost to the point where you could do a joke, and I think I probably have,
Starting point is 00:35:48 and I think I may have just done one, intimating the connection between weed and spirit. Oh yeah, well, I agree with you that there's definitely the stereotype, and to some extent, especially in the 80s, that was on point, but I feel like now skating is so much more diverse, and there's so many people, and now it especially in the 80s, that was on point, but I feel like now, skating is so much more diverse, and there's so many people, and now it's in the Olympics,
Starting point is 00:36:08 so people are very serious, but they're working out, like they're sponsored by Nike, they have those resources. You never were baked when you skated? No, no, I smoked weed a little bit when I was younger, and it really affected my skating negatively, and I was so hyperfixated on skating, that it was like, I can't do that
Starting point is 00:36:25 because this is what I have, this is what I do. No, I can see that. I mean, I can see how it would be bad. I've played basketball stoned. And I can be pretty good stoned. Sometimes I think even better, but not drunk. I tried that a couple, that really threw my game off. I learned my lesson the hardest way, drinking and skating.
Starting point is 00:36:46 I was skating at a party. Basically, I didn't realize it was like before raves were raves, and it was just this random warehouse party way outside of a city in New Zealand. You were hired to do this or you were just having fun? No, we were there on tour and they said, hey, there's this big warehouse party, you guys should go.
Starting point is 00:37:02 And they have a meeting around, I'm like, yeah, sweet, let's go. And so we went and somewhere around one or two a.m. They said, last call, last call, let's go drink. And so we went and pounded a few beers, went back to the mini ramp. I dropped in and hit the other wall. Like, as if it was just a wall, not a ramp or a slope. And that was uncharacteristic.
Starting point is 00:37:23 Very much so, that was my lesson. I was like, oh, I don't, I can't drink and skate. And that was uncharacteristic. Very much so. That was my lesson. I was like, oh, I don't, I can't drink and skate. Is that on film? No, thankfully. Are you sure? We're talking about like 1990, 91. What about doing a reenactment? Ah, I do that enough on accidents.
Starting point is 00:37:40 Did you ever think you were gonna die doing that? No. No? You ever thought, oh, I just fuckin', like while you were mid-air? I had some bad concussions, bad accidents, and for sure, in hindsight, oh, that was extremely dangerous and life-threatening.
Starting point is 00:37:59 What's that? You've had concussions? Yeah, several, yeah. What's that like? It sucks, cause you wake up and you wake up elsewhere and you at first don't remember what happened. You were completely knocked out. Oh yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:12 So when you come to. Yeah, well there's sort of a gray period where you have come to, but you keep repeating the questions, you keep asking what happened, and you don't have, you're not cognizant really. Because I've seen other people go through it, so I know what it's like.
Starting point is 00:38:29 Scary. What's scary is when you've had enough concussions that you recognize your concussed. And so you're like, oh, I know this feeling. Right. I must have hit my head. But also it calms you down, because you think, oh, it's gonna come back to me.
Starting point is 00:38:43 Right. I'm gonna get there. But I've had residual effects, I mean, a couple times where there was one where there were a couple weeks where I couldn't really concentrate. I was trying to edit videos. I just couldn't make sense of it. So I'm very cognizant of that.
Starting point is 00:39:02 I'm very, you know, I'm aware of the risks and I've definitely been proactive in studying it. Are there lingering effects? I mean, like, no? So like a day later you're not like? Not now. Hanging in the hamper and throwing your clothes in the toilet.
Starting point is 00:39:18 No, no, no, not now, no. I mean, I definitely had, like I told you that one, I had another one where I had recurring migraines for a couple weeks. So. But that's what they worry about in football, CTE. Of course, yeah. And like I said, I've been proactive in sort of getting tested and making sure that I have
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Starting point is 00:42:16 while your subscription is active. Hey, I'll be at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis on July 13th and the Rivers Theater in Minneapolis on July 13th, and the Riverside in Milwaukee on July 14th, and on the July 26th, I'll be at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts, and July 27th, the Toyota Oakdale Theater in Wallington, Fort Worth, Connecticut. Come out and laugh your ass off. So what do you do for fun when you're not risking your life? I just stay home. I just try to stay for fun when you're not risking your life?
Starting point is 00:42:45 I just stay home. I just try to stay home. What's at home? Your wife? My wife, we have one still at home. My daughter's 15. So this is wife number three? Yeah, four.
Starting point is 00:42:54 Four? Oh, come on, man. But I mean, we're on 10 years. I finally figured it out. What is different about the four that you didn't know? Well, one is that we are absolutely perfect for each other, no question.
Starting point is 00:43:10 That helps. Two is that I finally did a lot of work on myself and sort of figured out how to be happy, centered, content. And honestly, to like what I was doing, to like myself, because I just, I was skating, but I just didn't really, at some point I was so. You grew up and matured. I mean, aging sucks, we all know that,
Starting point is 00:43:38 but it's also fucking great, because you're just different in your 50s and 60s, you're comfortable in your skin. You know exactly who you are. This is the best version I've been, for sure. Me too. I mean, so it's a cruel joke that the God I don't believe in.
Starting point is 00:43:56 No, but I do. I feel like, especially with my wife, like, you know, we are older. We're both, you know, she's only a year younger than me, but I feel like we are in our best years. Like it's amazing. I always think of that when somebody grade croaks, like wow, like so much that you put into a life
Starting point is 00:44:15 to gather all this wisdom and knowledge and sensitivity and all these good things, and then that's the time you would wanna preserve it. Right, and that's when your body's starting to fail you. Right, and that's when it goes. Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely hanging on, hanging on to that, to what youth I have, especially with skating, but I feel you, yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:39 Yeah, I mean, it's only about tomorrow, person. Like memories, sad memories, memories of things that were bad and sad, they don't make me sad. They make me happy because they're over. They're oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But good memories make me sad. Because good memories are things that are also over. And fleeting.
Starting point is 00:45:03 And fleeting. Yep. And in many ways, irrecuperable. Oh, absolutely, yeah. But the future is still the future. No matter how old you are, tomorrow is still. Oh no, and I feel like we're creating incredible memories now. Because we have that much appreciation,
Starting point is 00:45:23 and we have all of that experience to understand why we should appreciate it that much more. No, I mean, I love life now. It's way more fun than it's ever been. So the fourth wife is the lucky one. Oh, I think we're... She's the one that got the good version. Well, but also she was the catalyst for that.
Starting point is 00:45:43 Ah. Yeah. Well, but also she was the catalyst for that. Do you ever feel bad about past wives, past relationships? Wait, let me finish the question. Feel bad because you learned something on a later person that you didn't know when you were with the earlier person, and you're like, yeah, I would have gone better
Starting point is 00:46:11 for her and me and you if I had known that then, but I didn't learn it until Suzy, but I feel bad because I should have known it when I was with Sally, but I didn't, and so she suffered. I don't think I get that introspective on it. No, I feel that all the time. I feel like, oh yeah, if I hadn't been such a dipshit. I mean, I feel like I could say that
Starting point is 00:46:37 through so many points in my life, not just with relationships, but. So you think it's as ridiculous as I do when people say, I have no regrets? Oh yeah. Well, that just seems like you're not accountable for anything. It seems to me like you're not sentient.
Starting point is 00:46:57 I mean, how can you not have regrets? Every day I have a regret, even if it's just the most minor ones. Sure. It's like, I never had a perfect day. I dropped a perfect call. My day was perfect. I was in court. I didn't say a word.
Starting point is 00:47:11 I always wondered what a perfect call sounded like. I wonder if you hang out and you go, that was a perfect call. It's such a testament to his insanity to even come up with that concept. I mean, it's just not a phrase that you've ever heard anyone else say. A perfect call. Perfect. a phone call, perfect.
Starting point is 00:47:27 Like, no one else in the universe ever put those two things together, a perfect and a phone call. It just doesn't happen except in the mind of an insane person. That's what people miss about him. He's stupid, of course, but also insane. That is insane. That is a level of insanity of our next,
Starting point is 00:47:47 of our past and future president. But I don't wanna drag you into politics and... I did, you know, I did politically incorrect. Oh, I remember. You remember the sign? Sure, yeah, yeah, I saw it. Isn't that awesome that I fucking saved that all these years? It's pretty cool.
Starting point is 00:48:05 Doesn't it look like a cool thing in front of a stripper pole? That's where it belongs. Yeah, that's perfect. I mean, come on, man. Yeah, I remember, again, 90s. But that's why I'm saying, we obviously, I was obviously aware of you then, and you obviously had risen to the level where you were on talk shows. Yeah. And you obviously had risen to the level where you were on talk shows. Yeah, I don't know if I was quite prepared
Starting point is 00:48:27 or qualified to be on Politically Incorrect, but I was stoked. There were no qualifications. That was the point of the show. The point was to put together four people who, you know, were... But I always thought that was a great name because of the Chyiron, of course, that were Senator, actress, skateboarders.
Starting point is 00:48:50 Perfect, this is what I'm trying to do, create this train wreck of mismatched people. And do you remember who you were on with? No, I don't. I remember I tried to get a few words edgewise and I just, it didn't land. Somebody was drowning you out? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:09 Could have been Paulie Shore. It was not Paulie Shore. I would have remembered that for sure. I feel like I would have been, like I had a little chum with him. So I mean, when you do see stuff, you know, from the 90s, occasionally, they'll rerun something somewhere or something.
Starting point is 00:49:24 I mean, it does look like the land that time forgot. Oh yeah. The hair, there's a certain kind of, I think it was Armani influenced suit that men were wearing. The thin leather jackets. That too. I mean, it wasn't as horrific as the 80s
Starting point is 00:49:41 with the hot pink and the hot ice blue. But there is a kind of a look and the ties, or if you see a movie from the 90s, and it's like, wow, that should be recent. And it's, I mean, that show went on 31 years ago. I mean, 31 years is, you know. on 31 years ago. Right. I mean, 31 years is, you know.
Starting point is 00:50:08 That's a lot of taped conversations. That's a chunk of time. I know. I don't know where it goes or of course you can't get it back, but what would you tell your like, if you have one thing to tell your young self from your old self, what would you tell them? What would save you the most pain that you could say to a person?
Starting point is 00:50:33 If you find yourself shooting a TV show for MTV, two of the Jackass cast, and you're dressed in a monkey suit, don't try to do a full loop. That's what I would tell my younger self. Much more specific than I thought. Yeah, it's very specific, yeah, because I ended up with a broken pelvis,
Starting point is 00:50:52 fractured skull, broken thumb, and a lot of pain. So what show was this for? Wild Boys. Wild Boys. Yeah. That was on MTV? Yeah, that was one of the offshoots of Jackass. So it was when Steve-O and Cresponius did their own thing
Starting point is 00:51:15 with mostly like animals, wild animals. Okay, you know, I mean, the Steve-O guy was taking shots at me in the press recently. Oh yeah, that was unfortunate. It was not unfortunate. Unfortunate is Darfur. This was just, I mean, look, I don't want to start a feud and I'm sorry that he felt slighted or something, but it is ridiculous that somebody thinks that I should give up
Starting point is 00:51:42 pot smoking because they have a problem, then I'm sorry you can't be here. And, you know... Well, it's your show. It's my show, my house, my rules. And it's sort of almost the point of the show, is that this... I already have another show. It's called Real Time. It's on HBO. And it's very much not on pot.
Starting point is 00:52:03 It's on point. This is different. This is just shooting the shit, and this is how I shoot the shit. This is an attempt to get conversation as real as it ever is, just like if we were doing this, and I don't see anything that we've said that I wouldn't have just said to you
Starting point is 00:52:18 if there were no cameras here, and you don't even know where the cameras are. Okay, so let's remember that. But, you know, that's what it is. And, oh, I mean, I have no feud with any of these jackass. I've watched all the movies, they are funny. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I do like that kind of, even though I know it's coming,
Starting point is 00:52:41 like a physical gag like that, it's funny. So much of it is, I was actually talking about this, I just did, we have a podcast, Hawk vs. Wolf, and we just interviewed Jeff Tremaine today, the director of Jackass, and we were talking about how a lot of the skits that became Jackass iconic moments were just things that were filler for skate videos. I mean, all that stuff was like,
Starting point is 00:53:10 there would be skate videos, you'd have just sort of weird segues in between the skating segments, which were just kind of jackass type stunts. And that's how they started. It really is how they started was, they had Big Brother Magazine was a sort of irreverent skate magazine,
Starting point is 00:53:26 that was uncensored, that was just raw and funny. That's where Knoxville did his review of self-defense devices. And where he shot himself, I don't know if you ever saw that, but that was for a skate magazine. And so they made a video of it, and then they were talking about how this just was skating sensibilities
Starting point is 00:53:47 turned into a whole show. But what you were doing, you were not trying to hurt yourself. Not at all, but- I mean, there's a very big difference. But we knew the humor in it. I see the Venn diagram overlap between what you do and Jackass.
Starting point is 00:54:02 I think there's a huge difference. I just said skate sensibilities. I'm just talking about the idea that you're willing to risk yourself for it. between what you do and Jackass. I think there's a huge difference. I just said skate sensibilities. I'm just talking about the idea that you're willing to risk yourself for. Yes, but you're doing it again to perform this ballet. They're not doing it for that reason. Just take the compliment.
Starting point is 00:54:17 Because it is in your favor. Oh, I'm a fan. I love it. Look, I can say I love laughing. And that's a great just to laugh-a-thon. Most of it, some of it, if it's gross or something, I mean, I can also hate it, but it's, look, they gave me laughs.
Starting point is 00:54:35 I like anyone who gives me laughs. But it also does remind me that, you know, show business, you gotta love it. And one thing about it is, if you really insist on being in show business, you can be. You can find a way, it won't be dignified. You know, it's the old joke about the guy
Starting point is 00:54:58 who shovels the shit behind the elephant at the circus. Yeah, leave your dignity at the door. You know, what, and leave show business? Yeah. And some people just insist on being in show business. And God bless them. Yeah. That's, you know, you made it work for you.
Starting point is 00:55:16 At a price I don't think is worth it, but if that's the only way you were gonna get into the business, I mean, you work with what you got. You work with the hand you dealt. But I do think that they had a, they were creative in this Buster Keaton sort of way. And yeah, they were willing to destroy themselves for the sake of comedy.
Starting point is 00:55:38 That's the little. But there was, it was so funny. I mean, we were just talking about, I don't know if you see the bungee thing with Preston and Wee Man where Preston is the bigger guy, Wee Man is the little guy, and Preston stood on a bridge and he was bungee'd to Wee Man who jumped off the bridge.
Starting point is 00:55:55 And just that in itself was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. No, it is funny. It is, I mean, it damn well better be when you give up your kidney. True. You know, you better get- Or your urethra, as Johnny Knoxville knows.
Starting point is 00:56:10 I mean, I've given up dignity for sure on stage. I mean, when you're standing there opening for, you know, a rock band, which I've done, and they're literally throwing shit at you to get off the stage, and you're dodging stuff while you're telling jokes, you do not have a shred of dignity. I'll admit that, I mean I've been there. And paying your dues.
Starting point is 00:56:32 Yes, and just, or by my own stupid fault, like turning off a crowd, I mean this is 40 years ago, but still, and so like, no matter what I said, just they were like, looked like when your girlfriend's pissed at you, you know, just a look on their face, like, you think I'm gonna laugh at you now? After what you just said? So, I mean, but that's a lot different than your body.
Starting point is 00:56:58 True. You know, you only get one, and as we know, it's a reclamation project to keep it in top shape. Oh, don't I know it. As time goes by. But you generally feel healthy? I do, I'm actually, I kinda turned a corner recently. I broke my leg two and a half years ago.
Starting point is 00:57:18 Like broke my femur in half. Doing what you love. Doing what I love, yeah. And being careless with it. And I paid the price, I fucked around and found out. And that recovery was really rough because I got back on my skateboard too soon, my bone shifted out of alignment,
Starting point is 00:57:37 so I had to have a second surgery to put it back in place. And now I've taken upon myself where I'm, you know, I'm not taking those unnecessary risks anymore. I embrace how old I am and that I get to do this at all on any level, so I've actually kind of reached a more baseline of scaling. You know, you've always got to throttle back. Sure, but I wasn't.
Starting point is 00:58:00 I mean, I wasn't until I was 53. Yeah, it's not gonna be exactly the same, and that's okay. That's the... Yeah, I think, well, I mean, I think I wasn't until I was 53. Yeah, it's not gonna be exactly the same, and that's okay. That's the... Yeah, I think, well I mean I think that's the hard lesson I learned. You make up for it with other, you know,
Starting point is 00:58:12 it's always a balancing act and a trade off of, yeah, but I'm also getting better at this. True. You know, I mean I'm lucky because what I do is, up here. So I can be getting better at 68. Whereas an athlete, you guys, you know, that candle burns when you're young.
Starting point is 00:58:34 Yeah, yeah. And that's something I'll never, one of the great advantages, I'll never understand the beauty, the joy. Kind of the same with music, usually flowers only when you're young, of certain highs that I think athletes and musicians reach. But I'm also like doing better at my age
Starting point is 00:58:56 than most of them, certainly athletes. Yeah, but when you say it's funny, because skateboarding, like I said, is such an art form as much as a sport, that there are techniques that I now have learned and that I am working on that are better than what I used to do. They're just not as high impact or as risky,
Starting point is 00:59:14 and it's like I never wanted to zero in on those because they didn't seem as interesting. And now they are the interesting thing because it's more like, oh, I can explore this because I still have the skill set and these things aren't gonna kill me. That itself is interesting. It's really fun.
Starting point is 00:59:32 So I mean, like, this year I learned a new trick that no one had done before. But in 10 years? No, not in 10, I mean, I don't know. If you asked me 10 years ago, will you be doing this in 10 years? I would've probably said, I don't know. So.
Starting point is 00:59:47 Mick Jagger is going on tour at 80. I mean. Yeah, I think 80's gonna be a, that'll, that's it. No more McTwist at 80. But then what will you replace it with? That's all. No, I mean, I think that I'll replace it with enjoying my children and my children's children
Starting point is 01:00:06 and more just sort of reveling in that. But you've already been doing that for decades. Sure, well, I'm saying grandkids. Grandkids would be great because then you can rile them up and give them back. Yeah, I never had the chip to like kids or want to have kids or, you know. Oh yeah, you've been very transparent about that.
Starting point is 01:00:28 That sounds like you're rolling down a glove there. No, no, no, I'm just saying, I know that about you. I watched, I'm a fan. Oh thank you, I appreciate that. Of course. Yeah, I mean. So I'm just saying, I've heard you say it many times. You're not interested in having kids,
Starting point is 01:00:44 you don't like kids. No, I'm not. Well, I've heard you say it many times, you're not used to having kids, you don't like kids. No, I'm not. Well, I feel like I have to speak that because nobody else will, and I speak for so many people in the country, you'll feel that way. Oh, for sure. And I just, all I'm ever saying about that is that there should be no moral dimension to it.
Starting point is 01:01:00 When I started in television, probably when you were first on that show, it was considered kind of like, you're a weirdo if you don't aspire to have children. Oh, I agree completely, and I know plenty of people that are not interested, and that's their choice. I respect it, like, of course, you don't have to. It's not a requirement of being a human. Exactly, and it doesn't make you a better or worse person.
Starting point is 01:01:26 What makes you a better or worse person, I think, is how you are as a parent. If you're a bad parent, you're a worse person than me. Because I didn't fuck anybody up. I didn't have anybody. Yeah, you're creating more problems. But I didn't fuck anybody up either. I didn't have somebody and then shirk my responsibility.
Starting point is 01:01:42 No, I agree with you completely. I didn't have somebody and then shirk my responsibility. No, I agree with you completely. Um, I, you know, I know, if I had had a kid, I don't think I would have, you know, been there to the degree that a kid needs. I mean, to a certain degree, you absolutely do have to train your life for your children's.
Starting point is 01:02:03 I mean, that is the priority life now. You go through your life before you have children, and there's no doubt., that is the priority life now. You go through your life before you have children and there's no doubt, whose life is a priority? Mine. Now, you fall in love, maybe you'd save your lover before you, certainly Jack did it in Titanic, although as many people have pointed out, although I was one of the first. Didn't have to.
Starting point is 01:02:22 Right, you gotta get on the thing. That's good good job. She was a little selfish there with the, yeah, you know what, I've had a rough day. I really need to stretch out. But, you know, I just never wanted kids. I didn't want them when I was young. And they were cruel, kids are cruel. I didn't want them when I was young, and they were cruel, kids are cruel.
Starting point is 01:02:46 I didn't need that. And they ostracize you, they bully you. Like I said, they have to be taught to be decent human beings. It is not something that comes naturally. Yeah, and on the flip side of that, like I said, my wife and I, we have many children between us, and the most rewarding thing is when you, we have many children between us,
Starting point is 01:03:05 and the most rewarding thing is when you... When you say many between us, but you mean... She has two, I have four. Oh, I see, that's the six? Yeah. So it's a blended family. So you had four biological ones, and then, oh, I see. So this is like yours, mine, and ours.
Starting point is 01:03:22 Absolutely, yeah. I see. Yeah, and it's just the most rewarding thing as a parent, and I'm not, in no way am I trying to pitch it to you. I'm just saying the most rewarding thing as a parent is when you see your kids and they end up becoming young adults or full-blown adults, when you see them make good choices
Starting point is 01:03:40 and you know that you had some influence on that. Yeah, I'm sure that's great. And at some point, you know that you had some influence on that. Yeah, I'm sure that's right. And at some point, you know, we've come a long way with our relationship and there's been plenty of ups and downs through all of our years, but when we see them all together and we see them talking, conversing, joking, you know, that's what it's about. And we look at each other and we go, we did it, look at this. They're functioning adults, yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:08 I obviously can't relate in a direct way, but I get that, I really do. And I get it for you where it's like, I'm not interested, that's not my... There's no danger of you tempting me, talking me into this. Oh no, no. There'd be more...
Starting point is 01:04:21 In no way would I... It'd be more likely that I go out there and do a half pipe or I could do a full pipe or I can do a full pipe, I can do a hash pipe before this would happen. But no, it is just personal taste and it's probably again, everything goes back to our first few years of life. And what environment plus innateness
Starting point is 01:04:42 and what we inherited, our genetics, our DNA, made us this person we are. And it is amazing to me how that has been so steady throughout my life, the kid thing. Didn't like him when I was one, didn't change in my... When I was one. When I was one. Feel that, yeah. Didn't change in my childbearing age and didn't change in my post childbearing age.
Starting point is 01:05:06 Did you ever date anyone with a kid? Oh, single mothers? Yeah. Yes, of course. There was a, it's funny you say that. I did have a single mother period where I just, I don't know what it was, the universe, although I don't believe in that,
Starting point is 01:05:22 but I just was with a lot of single mothers. I mean, they were like 22. Okay. You know, I was probably 40. But young kids then? Very young kids who I never met. Oh, okay, I get it. And never wanted to meet, and they were fine with that.
Starting point is 01:05:40 They were like young mothers who were like, I mean, they of course loved their kid, but they were young, they wanted to have fun. When I came around, it was not about the kid and we both loved it that way. I once had an idea and I pitched it and could have sold it except there was a technical problem, a business problem, I was on a network
Starting point is 01:06:04 and I couldn't do a show for another network, but they wanted to do it, the single mother's beauty pageant. I wanted to do a beauty pageant. I pitched this really with, and they put the little four-year-old boy in a tuxedo, walking his mother down. There would not have been a dry eye in the house.
Starting point is 01:06:25 I would still do it if anybody's hearing this who wants to do my single mother's beauty pageant. That sounds like the reboot of Politically Incorrect. This would be even better. You have to get HBO's permission and that's gonna be tough again. But I think I could knock this out of the park. I think it's very funny and I think it tugs
Starting point is 01:06:46 at the hearts of Americans because there was a time when single mothers was not a thing. I mean, you ever watch Mad Men? Sure. Great show about, you're a little younger than me, but my youth in the 60s, there were no single mothers. That was not a thing. We didn't hear about it at school. It wasn't in the 60s, there were no single mothers. That was not a thing. We didn't hear about it at school.
Starting point is 01:07:06 It wasn't in the neighborhood, you know? Then it became a big thing. And so there was some judgment, much less now, but there's so many single mothers. Now it's almost... Oh, I mean, I grew up in the 70s, so most of my friends, they live with their mom. That was it.
Starting point is 01:07:23 Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing the way the family did really break down from when I was a kid. I mean, honestly, there was, growing up in 60s New Jersey, there was quite a few suicides. Wow. But no divorce, which tells you something about marriage.
Starting point is 01:07:42 No, really. I walked into that one. No, it's true. There was. You walked into that one. No it's true. There was like guys in the swimming pool. Wow. But not a divorce. Yeah that was like much more common I feel. I remember three of those and no divorce.
Starting point is 01:07:56 And on Mad Men there was one character who was the divorce lady. And she was like shunned. Like we were the Amish or something and she was using a radio. I mean, she was like lived at the end of the block and her kid was all fucked up. And the T-word. The T-word.
Starting point is 01:08:16 It's amazing how far this country has come. But anyway, I'm gonna go back to my day job. But this was- I'll watch you there. So thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. My wife, she has sleepless nights sometimes and if I hear your voice, I know that she's not sleeping. Your wife watches me?
Starting point is 01:08:39 Oh yeah. Well, I mean, we both watch it, but a lot of times she'll catch up while I'm asleep because she's awake. I love that. Yeah. Oh. Yeah, so thank you. Hello, I appreciate, we both watch it, but a lot of times, she'll catch up while I'm asleep, because she's awake. I love that. Oh. Yeah, so thank you. Hello, I appreciate that.
Starting point is 01:08:48 Absolutely. Thanks for... Great to meet you. Thanks for lulling me back to sleep every once in a while. I'll take it. ["Render"] Oh, and I signed this for you. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 01:09:02 Thank you. I signed it with great respect to an ultimate champion. Oh, I appreciate it, bro. Thank you very much. Yeah. I'm honored. You're the babe. You're the babe. You're the babe.

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