Duncan Trussell Family Hour - 691: Pauly Shore

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Pauly Shore, movie star, tv star, comedian, and fascinating character who has lead one of the strangest lives we've ever heard, joins the DTFH! Austin family! Come see Duncan at the one and only Comedy Mothership, June 6-8 in Austin, TX! Click here to get your tickets now. This episode is brought to you by: Start your free online visit today at Hims.com/DUNCAN for your personalized hair loss treatment options! Right now, DTFH listeners can save 30% on their first order! Just head to CornbreadHemp.com/DUNCAN and use code DUNCAN at checkout. Check Out Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, Squarespace.com/DUNCAN to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Welcome, my loves. What a stellar episode of the DTFH we have for you. One of my dear friends, I've known him forever, is on the show, you already know him. Polly Shore, fascinating character. Interesting person with one of the strangest lives I know of. Movie star, TV star, comedian.

One of the members of the Shor family grew up at one of the wildest comedy clubs on planet Earth and full of all kinds of wisdom and love. So stay tuned for that. But I must remind you, if you want commercial free episodes of this show, won't you become a subscriber? What are we at now?

What's our subscriber count at now, John? Woo, baby, we've crossed the line, 150. I only need 50,000 of you to get to 200K. Once we get to 200K, I just need somewhere in the range of 50 million of you to subscribe Sign up and at that point I Will be able to finally destroy the pyramids recently soiled by mr Beast if I'm more about that in earlier episodes, it's called operation beast blast My goal is to get as many

subscribers as Mr. Beast and destroy the pyramids. Trust me it's the right fucking move. Also I have some shows coming up. I'm gonna be here in Austin on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of June at the Comedy Mothership. these shows are almost sold out. And I've heard some comics lie about that, to try to get people to do pre-sales. I never lie about that. If I'm not saying shows are sold out, they're definitely not sold out.

But this one is. So if you're thinking of coming, don't sleep. Don't do what I do. Don't be the stoner and think you're gonna of coming, don't sleep. Don't do what I do. Don't be the stoner and think you're going to get tickets the day of. Then after that, I'm going to be in Dallas at Hyenas. That's the 20th of June, the 21st of June. I'll be at the Hyenas in Fort Worth.

And then after that, Tempe, Arizona, from the 26th to the 28th of June. And then Eugene, Oregon, after a long family vacation. I'm gonna be at the Olsen Run Comedy Club. So please, come see me. I hope you will. And now everybody, welcome Polly Shore to the DTFH. These type of shirts. I mean, I guess you wear them when you're younger, but I think that it's really.

You kinda, it's in the 40s, you're gonna get a spark. You get a spark. You like put one of these on, you're like, well, I'm wearing one of these shirts. And then before. It's very Jimmy Buffet. Yes, and then it just becomes your wardrobe. But are we rolling, Josh?

We're rolling. Isn't that good though man? Isn't it better to not give a fuck about your shirts in the way you used to? Doesn't that torture the young man? Wow, this is getting very intense. Shit, I forgot what, should I take some ketamine for this podcast?

I don't do, I don't have any! God, my God! Nice to see you. Good to see you, Pauly. Wild, huh? Thank you for doing this, man. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me. Dude, when you walked in here, it made me think of my first day on the phones at the

Comedy Store. And when you walked in, I don't know if it was my first day, second day, and it was legitimately, it freaked me out. Because when I was in high school, we religiously watched your show. I'd seen your mom, I'd seen you. It'd been high as a kite, laughing my ass off. We loved it.

And then I remember you walk in the door and it was the like, crazy as shit, dude. I was, you know, from North Carolina. The fuck is this? Whereas your experience of life has been, since you were a baby, people like that are always walking in your door. You know what I mean? Like, you...

Do you ever get that sense when it comes to celebrity of like, whoa, holy shit shit I'm around this person. Yeah. You do. Of course. Who was the last one? Woody Harrelson. Oh yeah that would get me too. Yeah I mean I'm a fan of you know and I grew up just like you I didn't watch TV, go to movies, same people that you do you know what I mean? I mean Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, I mean anyone that I, you know, I love acting, I've been acting since I was little, and I love really, really good actors,

and Woody Harrelson is to me one of the best actors out there, so when he was at the mothership the other night with Tony, you know, I was a little nervous. Yeah. How's the sound, is it fucked up? No, it's good. Yeah, it's all, you know, I was a little nervous. Yeah, it has the sound is it fucked up or we know that's good Yeah, you know, it's direct just right in there No, but it starts to get drop a little or you yeah if you pull back it's gonna drop You kind of have to stay up in it a little bit. You know, you had to be up in it a little. Yeah, so

Yeah, I worship the same people. I mean, I remember years ago. I met Madonna. You know and I was just like you know what I mean so a Dr.. Dre friends with him. I see him. I'm still like you know very Nervous yeah, very you know How's it sound? Well you got to face it more like be about a fist away like this yeah perfect there Yeah, perfect, so I get um you know I get I don't need these two right if you don't yeah, I don't need these two, right? If you don't want them. Yeah, I don't want them. Yeah, I mean, I'll, whatever. I get nervous around people that I worship.

You know what I mean? That I look up to, you know, that I grew up with. Like, I've never met Robert De Niro. I always see him, like, in interviews, and I'm just like, fuck. But then, you know, he would do this to me, I'm I'm sure you know because of my style of comedy and my style of acting is probably not his thing who knows I mean, this is I guess I'm trying to get at is the difference Between oh, obviously there's lots of differences, but you're born into Like a but you're born into like a comedy dynasty.

Like you're born into, you know, it's a micro cult basically. Like you're born into something that already is sort of like, it's not obscure, but you know, compared to like acting, standup comedy is its own smaller cottagey kind of thing. You're born into this just strange incarnation. It's fucking strange.

Your mom's Mitzi Shore, you're, you know, hanging out at this famous haunted comedy club as a kid. You become like super, you got like the spike. Like what Tony's getting. Um, like super, you got like the spike, like what Tony's getting, you got this like boom thing. So suddenly you're blasted into an even weirder reality and you know, do you feel like that is good for a person. Do you feel like, you know, sometimes,

just having a mid-level podcast, sometimes I get a sense of like, my experience of life is pretty different to some degree than other people, and I wonder, is this fucking me up to some degree? And I wonder is this fucking me up to some degree I? Think in life, and I've gained this as the older I've gotten You know you have to really look at what you have and not what you don't have and I think that it sounds kind of stupid But you know I don't I try not to think of all the negative shit You know or that happened at the store or yeah, you know with the suicides and the drug overdose.

And I can go, there's a long list, the guy jumped off the building and played my mom. And you can go into that space, Argus Hamilton and how he treated my mom. And you can go into that and we can all go into that. Yeah. I mean, every single person watching has had a fucked up childhood. Yeah. You can either live in it or you could move on from it. And so for me, through therapy and through meditation

and through health and through time, I've really looked at the beauty in everything as opposed to living in some space of just debauchery. You know what I mean? And the stuff I've seen and the stuff I've experienced as opposed to living in some space of just debauchery. You know what I mean? And the stuff I've seen and the stuff I've experienced was crazy. But then again, if you interview someone from Iowa, you could say like, yo, they could say like,

oh, on the farm, my cousin's aunt and my uncle, and we had this crazy, so everyone's got something but it's really just about learning from it moving on from it and keep going forward because You know, we all sit in a place of you know, I don't again saying the word victim It sounds like stupid but my sister lived in that space. Yeah, you know, my sister Sandy bless her bless her soul in her heart She's not with us anymore, but she lived in a place of my mom fucked me over, my dad wasn't there, and da da da.

And she just lived in that space as opposed to, fuck, I got hatched on this sick ass thing. I'm gonna take advantage of this situation and learn. Like so for me, comedy whether I'm Mitzi Shor's son or Sammy Shor's son, it's in my blood. I mean, I don't have to be working here. I don't have to be touring. I don't have to be doing any of that shit.

I love it. You know, whether, you know, I love it just as much now as I did 20, 30 years ago. I still love it, because it's in me. You know, like, I just love doing standup and I love writing and I love trying to figure it out. The jokes are so hard, you know, just to try to figure out what works. And so it's in me, you know, whether I was Mitzi's

kid or not and I just got the bug. My brothers, my brother Peter, my brother Scott, they never got the bug. Why? I don't know, you know, it's like, it's like, you know, when there's photos of me just watching like, you know, teaching Chong and, you know, in watching, you know, George Carlin and just all these different things, because I just was like, you know what I mean? Yeah, I just love it. And then when Richard Pryor was there in the 70s and 80s, I was just obsessed. It was just like this thing. And then when Kenison came on the scene, I was like, oh, my God. You know, it's just like this. Yeah, it's in me. Yeah.

And I don't know what if I'm answering the question. You are. Yeah, you are. I don't know if I'm answering a question probably. But I don't know. You know, we can all sit in a place of, you know, woe is me. You know, we can all sit in that place of, you know, woe is me, you know, we can all sit in that place or we can kind of keep moving forward.

You got it. And so for me, you know, being 57 and been through so much, you know, I just try to live today and right now and let go of, you know, anything that has happened to me in my past. I joke a lot about my movie career and shit like that, and like, oh, my movie career went to shit,

and dah, dah, dah, I don't think that. I'm just kinda like, I do it as a joke, because everyone misses me in films. Everywhere I go, people are like, I wanna see in movies, and that's why the Richard Simmons thing is spiked up, and I think different things like that, because people generally miss me, you know what I mean?

Like they generally want to see me in more movies. And I want to do more movies, not for the money, not for the fame because I just like comedy. I fucking love acting. I love acting because it's so hard and I love figuring it out. Now that's different though, because a lot of comics don't like acting.

I love it. Your mom. I's different though, because a lot of comics don't like acting. I love it. Your mom- I almost love acting more than stand-up. That's interesting to me, because of all the comics that I've watched, you, you're like the top three most authentic you up there. And you know, that's sort of a Comedy Store style, I guess you could say. Like all the comics you just mentioned,

maybe Kinnison was like, I don't know what he was like off stage, but like, Pryor, Carlin, you know what I mean? Like there's this, if anything, when you're seeing them up there, you're seeing a more magnified version of them or something, but what I love about watching your standup is that the you up there

is the you off stage. And that's crazy. That's not an easy place to get to, man. That seems paradoxical, but so what like initially when you started performing, did you go through the period of trying to not be you? Like, or was it from watching all these comics you already knew, I'm just gonna be myself up there? I just felt, you know, I don't know, I just felt at home there. You know, I feel more comfortable on stage than I do like at a party.

Yeah. So like, you know, when I was going through stuff, when my mom was dying, and she was like slowly dying, which was fucking hard, you know, when your parent is slowly dying as opposed to just, I know, I was stressed, you know what I mean? And I was going through a lot of stuff. And in, and I was on the road. Anytime I hit the stage, I was like, ah. I could breathe, I can relax, and I felt like this love.

This, this, this, this, this general, what's it called, just natural kind of love in that I wasn't getting from home. I wasn't getting from my brothers, I wasn't getting from my sister or my dad, or I get some from friends, but I wasn't getting from my sister or my dad or, you know, I get some from friends, but I wasn't getting it. So part of the reason why I do stand-up is the second I get on stage,

and I think it's because of my films. What do you mean? Well, my films really connected with America. I mean, every one of them. I mean, even like, Howard Stern just talks about me all the time. He's like, where's Polly Shore? Like, I miss him. You know my favorite movie was jury duty Yeah, you know they're like jury duty to me. I don't want to say was the worst movie

But at the time you know it was one it was a movie that people panned and and it didn't do well And it's a piece of shit and all this stuff, and then you it off and here we are several years later it's actually really funny. Right. And so my point is when I'm on stage, you know, people are affected by my films. You know those five or six films. Even a goofy movie now is so fucking big and I don't even remember doing it. I didn't know, what movie? The goofy movie. You were in the goofy movie? Yeah, Meaning, Tower of Cheese, a Josh and Ellen. Yeah, I remember it. even remember doing it. I didn't, what movie? The Goofy movie. You were in the Goofy movie? Yeah, Leaning Tower of Cheez-A, Josh, tell them.

Yeah, I remember it. My kids watch it. Are you kidding me? Yeah, Leaning Tower of Cheez-A, Bobby, that's me. I didn't even know there was a Goofy movie. Yeah, well, again, I'm like you, I don't, you know what I mean, that's not my thing, but for Disney fans, you know,

I worked for Disney for a long time during that time and I did a lot of voiceovers for you know different things. I was also a Pinocchio This last couple years. I was a voice of Pinocchio really in a film. Yeah, so anyways, but my point is is that For whatever reason, the movies that I did connected with people's emotionally. Right. So even when I go, I sign autographs at Comic-Cons.

Yeah. You know what Comic-Cons are. Yeah, yeah. And you get all these people coming up, I'm like, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's really cool. Yeah, it is. It's really cool, yeah.

So, but. What? It's really cool, yeah. So, but... This episode of the DTFH is brought to you by Hemms. Friends, just out of pure laziness, I haven't shaved my head. As you can see, there's a sad growth of hair sort of sprouting up there. And over the last few days, people have been saying, you look good, man. And I want to believe that that is related

to like some healthy thing that I'm not doing, but the truth is it's just because I've grown a little bit of hair back and it sucks. Because when you grow your hair back a little bit, but you want to be a bald and they're like, you look good. You know what they think about you when you're a bald. I'm not trying to freak you out or make you feel bad. I'm just saying there's got to be reasons. reasons, HIMS chose a dude with a receding hairline in a bald spot to represent their product.

And I feel like they're brilliant because I'm sort of a, this is what can happen. Like you know the anti-drug commercials where you see late stage, you know, people who are like they haven't just hit bottom, They've cratered through the bottom. That wasn't even the bottom you know, they're they look like Just their eyeballs are falling out their teeth are gone. They're They're their cheeks are sunken in they've got weird tattoos. They can't remember where they got them from And they're like this is why They can't remember where they got them from. And they're like, this is why you shouldn't do this.

And I feel like Kim's is like, yeah, just get this dude with like fucked up hair to show what can happen. But imagine if you were able to address this situation before I did, what are we gonna do? You know what I mean with this thing? You know, look at that. It's a little bit like,

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Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information You're always working on something man, like that's something that's really cool about you. You're very ambitious, but also you get shit done. So are you, what do you got going on? What do you got cooking? Yeah, I love it. I just quit my podcast in LA.

I had a podcast called the PMS Podcast Show, which was great. The guys from Jam in the Van were awesome, and I had a really good time, but it was just a lot of work, and it was just like very expensive, because it was just a lot of work and it was just like very expensive because it was like a big show and it was very ambitious. I had like, Mervis was on it and Joel was on it

and I had different bands and it was like a big thing. And I do wanna do it again, but I wanna give it a break. So I wanna go back, going back to my original podcast, which was called Random Rants, which was in my apartment in Silver Lake. I like that one. Yeah, so I'm going back to that, and it's awesome. I started filming some,

because I bugged up my camera, I put up all my cameras in LA, and it's fucking fun. That, to me, with podcasting, it's just having any extra moving parts with podcasting. It can like, it seems to almost run counter to the opportunity podcast yeah because you just end up with too many plates spinning man it shouldn't be miserable or it shouldn't be something where you have to plan all week for it though some of them i do like

the organized ones and stuff i feel like that one in silver lake was cool yeah but i thought you had me on that one at some point. I remember podcasting with you or something. No, that wasn't Jam in the Van, that was over here with Lieutenant Olson. No, not that one. That was years ago. I don't remember, it's a foggy memory. But I think that's more suited to you.

Yeah, so it's back to basics. I'm not gonna have any guests on. It's just gonna be me and my dog in the camera. And that's pretty much it. I got about eight cameras. You should have guests. I'm serious gonna have any guests on. It's just gonna be me and my dog in the camera. And that's pretty much it. I got about eight cameras. You should have guests. I'm serious, no really. Eventually maybe, eventually.

But I wanna just connect with the people. Maybe. Because the people's my guests. Totally Polly, remember Totally Polly? Of course. That was all about, yo bro, what's up? It's just us, you know what I mean? So it's gonna be like that.

So I'm gonna try it for a bit. Yeah. It's kinda where my head. I have to also, I also have to do what's in my heart at this moment Mm-hmm, you know in three to six months. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna get Bobby Lee on right You know what I mean? So I don't know but right now as of today It's just gonna be me the camera and my dog the totally poly aesthetic is interesting in that It leaked later into like Adult Swim. Like that gonzo kind of whatever that was, it became, when you did it, pre-internet.

You're basically doing like what influencers are doing now, this kind of wild gonzo-y, not like it was under produced, but you know, when you saw it, what we loved about it was, it felt so real, and it felt just like this is not staged, this is just some lunatic, and then, but then that aesthetic, it informed a lot of like modern, like hip shows, like it became a style almost. I don't know if people would connect it all the way back.

Because it was so long ago, it was over 30 years ago. Yeah, but 30 years ago, that was like so hardcore. No one was doing that on TV. TV was so square, it was so straight, you know? And when you decided to do that show did you get pushback? Did people say you can't do a show like that it's too fucked up? No one knew what it was and I didn't even know what it was we just kind of like we rolled the dice it was one of those things that let's see what happens and I'll

never forget because when I got on MTV it it wasn't like, oh, they saw me and all of a sudden they put me on MTV. It took a while. Really? Yeah, yeah, I got sent home. It was just like, you know, it was like auditioning for my mom. Wow.

Like when you audition for Missy, you don't just get it the first time. Right. You know, you suck, you this, you get, you know what I mean? And it takes a while. So anyways, without getting into the specifics of how my MTV thing happened,

it was my first episode of Totally Poly was on Sunset, microphone, me walking down Sunset Boulevard, showing America my backyard. And that was kind of like what it was. Yo dudes, check out this tattoo shop, it's cool. Let's walk in, let's see what happens. And we would just go in there and there'd be some guys, you know, with the fuckin' tattoo.

It's fuckin' wild, dude, who's gonna get tattooed? You know what I mean? And then at some point, the producer would go like this behind the camera, I'm like, all right, anyways, check out this video, slaughter up all night, check it out, dudes, and we would just go to a video. And then we took that tape from the first week and we went back to my mom's and we put it into the

Machine to watch it back, and it was fucking funny That was it that was done. Yeah, it was just like oh my god This is fucking hilarious because it was so like you said it was so real And we didn't know it was just like it was just one of those things that just Worked and then it just kind of like worked, and then all of a sudden the kids, they found out about it, and then it just kind of took off. Because it's lo-fi, like you're looking at something

compared to what we were all used to back then. And also you caught the zeitgeist, like you definitely like, you caught the skater culture, you caught the underground war on drugs, drug culture, you caught like the outsider culture. And also that was when MTV was this edgy, insane shit that you never seen before. Yeah, you had like 120 minutes and Headbangerz Ball,

and you had Yo MTV Raps, and you had all that. And it was very, wherever the kids are right now, that's where they were then. Yeah, and that was, if you think about that, It was very, wherever the kids are right now, that's where they were then. Yeah, and that was, if you think about that, that was the last phase of that kind of TV. There's a period in between of this kind of like, I don't know, stagnant whateverness,

and now everyone is doing what you were doing back then. How many Instagram videos is some dude walking around with a camera maybe being funny, maybe not, but that style was pre-internet internet. That's fascinating. You're all you are almost like a foreshock of this explosion. You're basically one of the first quote influencers. Yeah. That's what they said, yeah. That is wild, man.

That is so interesting. Now. And I had my own language and I was talking to the people and I was saying things like, I would do things like, yo bro, check out the Woody Critter cause it's sweet moisture, buddy. And the executives would be like, what the fuck did he just say?." And the executives would be like, "'What the fuck did he just say?'

And then the audience would know like, "'Oh, he just said that.'" Like they would get it. Where did that come from? Just naturally happened on camera. The pausing stuff, you know where I say, the first word that I ever paused was major. So I'd be like,

"'Check out this video, bro. "'It's gonna be major.'" And you just invented that. Yeah, yeah, I video, bro. It's gonna be made, you're. And you just invented that. Yeah, yeah, I just invented that. And you invented that. And I said, we still body. And I did that and it just kind of like took off. That is, okay, that I had no idea for some reason.

And I think most of us thought this. They just thought you were like that before the show that you were just some kind of like stoner, skater, surfer dude. I assumed all the skaters or surfers out in those days were going... No, I talked... No, no, no, no. That's what we thought.

No, I talked like that, but the stuff really developed on camera. Whoa. Yeah, it really developed during the show. That is nuts, dude. And I got more comfortable. And the more stupid I sounded, and the more I went up to people that didn't know the fuck I was, the funnier it was.

Right. Because it was never about what I was doing, it was always about people reacting to what I was doing. Right. And that's why Son-In-Law, the movie, Son-In-Law was such a big hit for me. Because it was me going ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, but it was always about the family reacting to me going ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. Right. You know, like the dad going, what the fuck's up with this fucking idiot? going ba ba ba ba ba, but it was always about the family reacting to me going ba ba ba ba ba. You're like the dad going, what the fuck's up with this fucking idiot?

So you were a trolling basically, like you were a troll. Kind of, yeah. You were trolling, you were going into, you're culture jamming, you're going into like the world with cameras, already fucking weird. Now it's not as weird, but back then, weird. There's cameras, why is this weirdo on camera. What the fuck is this so you're catching people in like Moments of having to just make sense of what why is this dude talking like that? What is happening and that was fun? That's always gonna be fun And it was also there was a time also where you know cuz I directed the show

So there was a time like that I would kind of direct it once in a while like so for instance I'd be on a beach the camera would be off and I'd see some like like kind of like Buff guys by the volleyball court. Yeah, and I go up to him. I say you guys I'm gonna come up to you with this camera and I'm gonna fucking start touching you and Just fucking look at me like you want to kick the fuck out of me and don't laugh no matter what don't laugh So I go yo, bro. What's up? We're here on Santa Monica Beach We're gonna troll around. We'll see what's happening. Just look at that buff guy. Yo, bro. What's up? Get the fuck away from you

I'll kick you. Whoa Right, I mean so set up once in a while. I do that for you know what I mean for reaction, but what happened was What happened was is that? My show became so popular and then everyone kinda knew who I was and then the jig was kinda up. So then I went overseas and it was good again. Like I would go to Japan, Australia, or England or whatever and I'd do it over there.

It's like Borat, like it's gotta be almost impossible for him to do that anymore. Everyone knows who Borat is, like how do you do that? Yeah, that, yeah. So anyway, so, and then the movies, it was so popular that Disney saw this and then put me in all the movies after that, yeah. Crazy.

Yeah, that was cool, yeah. Crazy, your mom must have been so thrilled with this entire trajectory. And relieved, I think. Oh, God. Jesus Christ, I thought he was gonna be terrible. Fuck, that would have been the worst! No, yeah, so.

So, okay, so, you get kind of crystallized in that form, though, man. I mean, it's like, you know, like, people are used to you as this character that you innovated during a series. So, and then, you're also, like, doing standup. as this character that you innovated during a series. And then you're also doing stand-up. How'd you integrate going out and doing shows as you versus the Polly on camera? It was interesting.

It was a balancing act. I bet. Because you're on stage. when I first started doing shows I didn't do shows with seated There was no one seated at my shows It was always festival seating because the way it would work is when I go when I was on MTV And then I hit the road the way it would work All right, I'm bringing all this stuff back. I love it. I don't fucking remember I mean, I remember it obviously, but I don't really talk about it anymore

You know what I mean? But when I was when I got you know hot off of MTV and and you know and I was doing my stand-up But my my cadence and my style was so yo, bro You know it's like that type of thing and there wasn't a lot of material I would always have a band open for me And there wasn't a lot of material. I would always have a band open for me So a band would open for me And then I would go on for 45 minutes, and then I'd bring the band on at the end And we do like three or four songs okay, and that's when I did the Lisa Lisa song

You know I had the one song member Lisa Lisa. Yeah, I remember I do and I you know cuz you know I always wanted to you know sing and do all that shit So that's kind kinda how it was. That was pretty much all of the 90s. And then I think by the end of the 90s, early 2000s, then I started playing in front of seated people. Right. But I would stage dive in my show a lot.

Jesus. Like I would do jokes and then just stage dive and they'd throw me back and all that stuff. But this, I mean, this was early phase development for you as a comic, like you're trying to like, you gotta appeal to the audience. People are coming to see you because of your show. Yeah, because of MTV show, yeah.

Yeah, they're coming. And to this day, I think people still, I wouldn't say they don't know I'm a comedian, but they still think I'm the guy from the movies. Right. So then they're like, oh shit, he's got stand up too. But to me, I think versus like, there's definitely comedians who become actors,

but whenever you see an actor try to become a comedian, I'm sure there's cases of that working, I can't think of one offhand, but it's harder. And so then, who is this person? Like, I don't know who this person is. Your standup is so good that I think people are probably pleasantly surprised by what you're doing up there.

And it makes you look cool that that was a character, something you invented versus what you're doing up there, and it makes you look cool that that was a character, something you invented versus what you're doing up there, which is very vulnerable, man. It's this very vulnerable, heartfelt form of stand-up, very relatable, but in kind of like a, it's dark too. There's a darkness too. I got that from Richard and I got that from Sam.

I really studied them. See, a lot of people never got to study Sam Kandeson and Richard Pryor live, you know, especially in a small club for years. Right. So the one thing that I loved about Sam and Richard, what they did every fucking time they went on stage, is they played the moment.

Whatever that moment was, they played it. And they are always really sweet in the moment. Whatever that moment was, they played it, and they were always really sweet in the moment. So they'd go on stage, and it was always about, it was always not about the joke, it was always not about being vulgar, because both those comics, Richard Pryor and Sam Kenison, were very, I don't wanna say the word vulgar, but very dark and dirty and kind of raunchy

and stuff like that, but they had this huge, lovable quality about them. And you saw it the first 10 seconds on stage, so I would study that, and I wanna say I stole that from them, but I was always like, I thought that was really cool, you'd be really sweet when you go on stage. Playing the moment, that's such a good word for it, man.

That's a great way to describe it. But know to be vulnerable in the moment. To go up there and be sweet in the moment. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that was something that I got from them. Yeah. Because Richard was always so sweet

the second he went on stage. Did you ever see him when you worked at the store? No, I never saw. You never got to see. No. What year did you get there? I got there late 90s. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would have loved it. I just thought I got to see Carlin, but I never got to see him. Oh, wow. Carlin was meticulous. But, um, yeah, he was brilliant. He's like a scientist. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, but yeah,

so that was kind of that. Yeah. But that you can't fake that. That's that's the thing is like you can't pretend to be vulnerable. People are going to sniff that out in a that. Yeah, but that, you can't fake that. That's the thing, it's like, you can't pretend to be vulnerable. People are gonna sniff that out in a second. Then you start seeing like performative, like, and I've seen this style emerge as people try to literally steal that by imitating some bullshit vulnerability up there. But there's a huge difference when you see that live.

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This is The good life. A stand-up show shifts into, it's still stand-up, but it really takes people off guard when everyone is brought into the moment. Into a sweet moment, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy when it happens. Watch Richard, watch Richard's specials. You know, he's got a lot of that, where he just kind of goes up there and is very nice. That's interesting. That is not my first thought on Prior.

It's not as sophisticated my thinking on him. I love him. He's one of my favorite comics, but I always, but yeah, now it's obvious. And he was, and he was an actor. Great actor. Great actor. Yeah, really good actor. Yeah, a lot of great movies.

Yeah, really good actor. Bill Murray, Bill Murray wasn't a standup though, was he? Just an actor. Now, acting is, I love great acting, but, and I do voice acting, but the thing itself, I don't know, man, it never like pulled at me like it does. And that's the same thing with Joe. I've talked to Joe about it because Joe, it was on news radio for so long, right? That was his

show at the sitcom. He's like, eh. I'm like, you don't miss acting? I'm like, dude, you're an actor, bro. He's like, eh. Yeah, not everyone. I just like it because I started acting before my... I'm trying to think. I started, yeah, I think I started, I think I started acting right before I started doing stand-up because my friend Donovan Leach, he hooked me up with his manager, this woman named Barbara Binstien. My first audition was for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Me and Donovan made it all the way to the end because you would mix and match the kids. I got mixed and matched with Alex Winters. So I got really close and once I got really close on that, then what happened was she signed me

and then I started landing all these roles. As in like 21 Jump Street, Mary with Children, and all these different kind of acting roles. Yeah, what is it that you like about it so much? It's hard. It's hard and it's also like, I like to play a different role than myself. Right.

You know, like, I don't know, I like to, I dissect a script the way I dissect a script, you know what I mean? Dude, that's it. Everyone dissects script, because you're staring at a script of 100 pages and you're in 80% of the scenes, you gotta like, there's a certain way you have to dissect that.

And so there's layers of it. It's almost like a, it's almost like a tiramisu. Tiramisu is like all these layers. Like you gotta, I have a certain, I mean, we'd be here forever if I told you my, how I break down, and I've been doing it ever since. That's not like I just thought of this,

and no one taught me this. No, this- I taught it myself. The thing you're describing, that is the commonality I've noticed between every one of my friends who are actors, is they love breaking down scripts, struggling over the script, studying the script. is they love breaking down scripts, struggling over the script, studying the script.

Their weird language that they put into the script. It's a real intellectual, hardcore analysis that for a lot of people would feel tedious. And actors fucking love it. I love it. Dude, it's the craziest shit. Like I do cue cards on the wall, I do day one, day two, day three,

I do a whole thing. Also, you have to understand something. There's two big rules that I tell people that I wanna act. Number one, acting is listening, acting is reacting. That's more than anything. It's not about how you say the line, it's how you react to the person that say the line. Playing the moment.

Playing the moment. And because every time, every scene, every take is different. So you have to react differently to every take because you don't know where the other actor's gonna go. That's the first thing is acting is reacting. That's the biggest thing. And it's not about, oh, I gotta say my line perfect.

It's about how you react to the person that's saying the line. That's the first thing. The second thing is it's not about oh I got to say my line perfect it's about how you react right to the person that's saying the line that's the first thing the second thing is what's the reason why your character is doing something you have to have a reason right it's not just like you're going around like this right you know what I mean dude so it's like there's those are the two things you know once I break it down and once I learn the lines you know yeah what's the reason why is this character going in, what's the reason? Why is this character going in there? What's the reason? It's just juggling. It's so many balls the actors are juggling effortlessly that because to me like when you start realizing how Acting is so fucking technical. It's not just you have to you have to memorize the lines

It's that there are angles that you can't look at. So it's not a natural situation at all. So you're in this complete. This situation right here, this is a scene in like a lawyer's office. Right. You're my lawyer, I'm your fucking defendant or whatever you're telling me.

You got a camera there, you got two cameras here. This is a great setup Yeah for a scene. Let's do the scene right now. Okay, and action listen You're gonna have to plead guilty Well, but I'm innocent to till proven guilty though, don't you think there's video of you All right, and I'm cut cut cut. Okay, but yeah, like that. That type of shit. So that's pretty much it.

You know what I mean? That's good, right? You did good. Oh, thank you, but! Thank you so much, thank you. But... Yeah, good night. The Oscar goes to Duncan Trussell.

This is not costing me $50,000 every 10 minutes. And so I'm saying, in this tiramisu you're describing, it's not just that, don't wanna look at that camera and I'm gonna play the moment with you and that is fun. It's, don't say the fucking line wrong. This is your job, man. And this is burning money right now. And you gotta be.

I don't think of that. Dude, you have such control of your mind gotta be. I don't think of that. Dude, you have such control of your mind. Yeah, I don't think of that. And I lock into this character. I don't see all this other shit. Freedom is the same thing you talk about when you go on stage. And this is my friends who are actors,

they describe the identical experience of diving into the freedom of being somebody else for a little while. Taking that weight off, man. The Richard Simmons thing was a big deal for me. Dude. Because I got to play him in the short film and it did really well and everyone sees it

and is like, oh my God, you're perfect. And so it's like I'm teed up for this and we have the script, we got the producer. I so hope that happens, man. Yeah, it'll happen. But I'm just saying. What is there, you gotta get. I don't wanna get into it. Okay, but I'm what is there like you got to get I don't want to get in

Okay, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, but my point is is that it's a role that I don't want to say It's made for me, but it's made for me. Yeah, I mean because I'm flamboyant, and I'm physical just like him yeah, and I'm sad like him. Yeah, I'm lonely like him. Yeah, I've been famous like him I'm isolated like him. I'm by myself like him. Yeah, you know I've had people take care of lonely like him. I've been famous like him. I'm isolated like him. I'm by myself like him. I've had people take care of me like him. There's all these parallels. I was really famous like him.

I'm dealing with chubby white people like him. You know what I mean? There's all these things that are exactly the same. So it's pretty much I'm playing myself with the fucking wig. You know what I mean? And like, you know much I'm playing myself with the fucking wig. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, and like, you know You know what I'm saying? Cuz he was so famous and he was so lonely. Oh my god, so lonely Well, I mean like that's a crazy thing to become famous for like an exercise instructor

Yeah, that is fucked up man and spandex like that whole situation How do you keep that going like acting acting, you can always do stand up. Acting, but what do you do as an erode? Talk about getting trapped in a character. That's a terrible time. Hey, positives and negatives. You can look at the positive of it, you can look at the negative.

At the positive, he helped millions of people. You know what I mean? He made millions of dollars. That's right. And he had a million big houses, and he ate good food, at the positive, he helped millions of people. You know what I mean? He made millions of dollars. And he had a million big houses, and he ate good food, and da da da. And then the negative is all the other stuff. So where are you gonna focus? You know what I mean?

So it's like not every one's life is positive, positive, positive. No, I know. And I habituate towards the negative, which is lazy, but still, that's what I love about these guys of tragic figures is that as long as there is that positive and the other thing that you know Inarguably Richard Simmons had is the same thing you were talking about that prior was doing it's this underlying Sweetness that there's no fucking way any of that would work

Authentically that guy yes Yes. Yes, for sure. He really cared about people. And he really, because guess what? He was chubby too. And he was made fun of a lot too. Right. And he was an outcast too. So when he sees people that are overweight,

that are struggling, or that are fucked up, he wants to help them, because he's really helping himself. Innovator, ahead of his time, body positivity way before body. Fun too, funny. Yeah. Funny, funny, funny, way before body. Fun too, funny. Yeah, funny, funny, funny. Self-aware.

Yeah, very funny. Yeah, yeah, very funny. I mean, you know, and sweet, yeah. Yeah, but also the other reality is that you really, it's like trying to have a dry fish. If you're gonna be that in the world, tragedy must ensue. If you're going to walk around the world with an open heart, it's not going to be. Yeah. And so then the

other thing that informs people like that, and certainly Pryor, and certainly you, is a kind of tragic, and I mean that in the best way possible, wisdom starts emerging. You don't give up on the open heart relationship with the world. A lot of people do. Fuck that. I'm not gonna feel anymore. So people like, you run into these people

who have a kind of stubborn open heartedness where even though they know what this means for life, it means you get to actually feel, meaning the good things you're gonna feel. It also means if you let yourself be vulnerable like that, you will experience tragedies that might not befall other people in the same way. It's called, oh, is it called nice people who come in last?

Sure, there's a lot of them. You know, it's kind of like Trump, you know, he's very like fucking like this. Yeah. You know what I mean? And he says there's two types of people. There's the victims and there's the pythons. You know what I mean? What do you want to be?

You want to strangle people to death? Yeah, yeah. Or you want to be strangled to death? Only options. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. You want to strangle people to death? They're being strangled to death. Only options. Right. You know what I mean? It's fucking hilarious.

But it's kind of true in a way. I don't know, but I play the guy that gets strangled. You know what I mean? And I get taken advantage of. What's it called? No good deed goes unturned. You hook up your friend, you know, you give your friend a little money,

guess what? That's an opening for him to fucking come at you more. Dude, it's- It's fucking disgusting. Let me tell you, this is the human condition. It starts with kids, you're trying to be a good parent. You're like, you know what I'm gonna do? Special day trampoline park, you're gonna love it.

You take him to the trampoline park. You know, it's not just trampoline park, you're gonna love it. You take him to the trampoline park. You know, it's not just trampolines, it's fucking that. It's fun, yeah. It's fun, but it's also casino for, it's Vegas for toddlers. It's like flashing lights, they wanna do the VR, the claw machine. Now, by the end of that thing that you were trying to like,

I'm gonna be a great parent, they're fucking screaming, I wanna do the claw machine again, I didn't win anything. And you realize that thing you're describing, it gets more sophisticated. But it starts at the get go. No good deed goes unpunished. Just because most people they don't know how to regulate their emotions and they're hungry too.

People are hungry, you know? That's something I loved about your mom. She understood the psychology of comics more than anyone maybe ever has. Absolutely, yeah. And she knew no good deed goes unpunished and it is no doubt experienced more times than anyone could ever know,

but she never let that quality of humans make her hate that person. Because how good, like, because everyone coming to her was hungry to some degree. Everyone had their hands out to some degree. They wanted stage time, they wanted acceptance, they wanted acceptance. They wanted to be one of the chosen ones. And so I really love that about her. She was so compassionate to that. She was very open-hearted in that way. And I'm doing something similar to that right now at the store. I talked to Peter and Bob Wheeler,

who is kind of like the main person running the place with Peter. And I'm like, look at it. I talked to Peter and Bob Wheeler, who is kind of like the main person running the place with Peter. And I'm like, look at, I'm at the store, I'm doing shows and stuff. I live in LA and I'm there physically and I'm watching and I'm doing my spots. And then once in a while you see guys like Steve Kravitz, Jay London, LaMare, Karen Haber, Yorcy,

all these kind of like, you know, and I can go on, you know, all these kind of communist alumni's. And you know, I think I put my mom's hat on. You know, I don't put my, cause whenever I'm there, I'm my mom. You know what I mean? Not on stage, obviously, but just how she,

you know what I mean? Cause I know how she was when she was there, she saw everything. And so I'm sympathetic to those people. Yes. You know, just like my mom would be. So we came up with this idea called, it's called the Alumni's of the Comedy Store Show,

hosted by me. Cool. So basically, June 5th is our first one in the Belly Room. That's so cool, man. And it's gonna be just Comedy Store Alumni's. People that have their name on the wall, but yet aren't getting spots, right? Dude that okay, so I mean and and we're gonna bring them on stage and then we're gonna

We're gonna do a Q&A with them after what happened. Oh, that's cool. You know what happened. What was your experience with? Good show yeah, what's what's what's going on with Mitzi? What were you here with Mitzi? She made you a paid regular? Like what was that like? You know what I mean? So it's gonna be in the belly room, we're gonna start it off there, and then we'll see where it goes. But the way I look at it is,

I look at it a lot of different ways. Like there's Vietnam vets, and there's Comedy Store vets. Yeah, right. You know what I mean? I mean, she's been there over 50 years. So you got all these comedians. Jackson Perdue sent me a list,

I could show it to you, of all the alumni's. And I'm like, Jesus Christ. And I'd say about 20% of them are dead, but there's also all the other ones. You know what I mean? So, okay, that thing was really controversial was really controversial, because Mitzi was not doing shows to make money.

She was doing shows because she loves stand-up. Meaning, people would come knocking at the door. We already had a name, famous comics, wanted to go up. She wouldn't let them. They would sell tickets, no doubt. And this would happen during times where it wouldn't hurt to sell some tickets at the store. The store has its own cycles and stuff. And she would refuse to do that

because it went against what she felt in her heart was what she wanted to do. Making her what a lot of people think of as like eccentric, like what's going on? Why? Because it doesn't make sense. Makes no sense from, if, if. Financially it doesn't make sense but, but with her artistic, you know, direction it made sense. And you were there because you, you did the lineups with her. What years did you do the lineups? I don't know the exact years, it was late 90s, early 2000s.

That was a good time too though. Dude, it was really cool to witness that. And also the other thing that was cool is I didn't know what I'd hitch my wagon to because I didn't come there wanting to be a comic. So basically I just needed a job on the phones and then I got swept out in this like riptide luck, just pure good fortune. But you know oh I quickly began to realize like whoa

Like I've never been around a person like this like this is like being around Ansel Adams or something This is like a chance to be she was very you know and this was before the whole Internet thing so she's very blunt. Oh You know I mean yeah, not a night now you can't be a comedy club owner and pretty much speak your mind because then, you know, social media will come after you. Oh, absolutely. No, absolutely. But she would have spoken her mind still. She wouldn't have cared at all. Nothing, it was like one of my first encounters. But then being at the store, I encountered other people like that,

because that was kind of the culture there. But that was one of my first encounters with, she would use the term iconoclast, is what she would say, but you know, a hyper unique person that wasn't, making money wasn't the first priority. Art was. And whoa, the vibe that created was insane. You're like that.

Like, you know, like that, you know, if you lead with that, you're gonna be miserable. It doesn't really, it doesn't make anything that good. But it definitely won't make you money sometimes. You know? Yeah, so with these alumni, you know, my whole thing is like, you know yeah, so so with these alumni's you know my whole thing is like You know guys like Argus Hamilton Tom Dreeson and these guys are working out at the store like Argus fucking kills

Oh, dude, he fucking destroys so funny, and he's got great material And it's current and he's funny and and so like you know you say like hey He got all these other comedians, maybe they could kill, because to me, funny has no age. You know what I mean? What if these older comedians, these alumni are actually good? Then you can put them downstairs and interweave them.

Dude, I don't know if I just didn't see enough of Argus shows or something, but do you remember, forgive me if I'm wrong about this, but at some point, Dark Argus appeared. Like he was doing more square stuff or something, and then I remember going to see him, and his material seemed like it had gotten edgier.

That he's before. Well, he's been sober for what, 30 years? I know, but it's shit. I don't, what I'm saying is something shifted. You know, that's what I love about stand up is that. ["Square Space"] This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Come on!

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If you're interested in creating a home online. integrated into this service. It's everything you need in your go-to spot if you're interested in creating a home online. So try this incredible service out for free. Before you do, go to dunkittrustle.com. That's a Squarespace website. It has been for years. Beautiful, powerful, simple, elegant, mind-bending, and easy to update.

So you could try it out for free. Go to squarespace.com forward slash Duncan, and when you're ready to launch, use offer code Duncan to get 10% off your first order of a website or a domain. Again, it's squarespace.com forward slash Duncan, offer code Duncan to get 10% off your first order of a website or a domain. Thank you Squarespace It I've never met a comic who's been like I'm figured it out, I'm done, I've stopped evolving. That thing that you see happen,

and it's the coolest thing to see, you see someone who's, you know, whatever, okay on stage, and then you haven't seen them in a while, and they're just, they figured it out. They're fully themselves up there, something happened. But it doesn't, that doesn't just happen once, it's like a cycle, you know?'s it sounds like what you're doing is like Not developing them. They're developed, but giving them a chance to sort of well. It's to me. It's the opposite of kill Tony

How so? Well kill Tony is is kind of what my mom did well I wouldn't say it's kind of it is what my mom did right my mom. You know Tony does one minute Well, I wouldn't say it's kind of, it is what my mom did. Right. You know, my mom, you know, Tony does one minute. Okay. She does three minutes. Right.

And Brian Redbent does the Angry Cat. My mom's giving the light. You know what I mean? It's a wrap. So with Kill Tony, his show is helping young hopefuls. So the alumni is rediscovering old guys and see if they're still there. Because my dad didn't stop, he didn't stop till he was 90. You know what I mean?

And comedy isn't one of those things that you get worse, you could get worse, but you can also get better. That's right. But I don't know, I mean, time will tell. You know who, Jay London, Jay London hangs out at the store a lot and he opens for Louis CK. So every time Louis CK comes in town,

he's like, I want Jay London. But yet the comedy store doesn't book him. You know what I mean? So let's see maybe, you know what I mean? Yeah, we can bring some of these back. I don't know, time will tell. This is like where economics and developing Comics crash together in this awful way, which is like things are more expensive these days

You're running a comedy club. You need to sell tickets You don't have you you got to pay the fucking rent on the place You got to get the people asses and seats to sell some drinks and it's like that I get that but That that that thing that was happening at the store was very special and that that was not the priority and that allowed a lot of great comics to evolve in that space of like you just experiment be funny but we know you're not gonna get if we can interweaves, again, I don't know, but I wouldn't say if we can, but I mean, what's happening, and it happens here at Rogan's Club and in the store because it's the same kind of structure,

is you interweave kind of good unknown comedians with the famous ones because the famous ones puts the butts in the seats, and the good unknown ones are just good, and they'll someday be known. because the famous ones puts the butts in the seats, and the good unknown ones are just good, and they'll someday be known. But you, somewhere in there, you also need sorta good unknown.

Maybe not so good unknown. You know what I mean? So that they, cause no one starts off good. That's usually the open mic period, but the Mitzi, like the club produced a weird liminal place where you could kind of Not suck and God help you if you sucked in front of her but still a place where you could like

you know Get your chops up a little bit in which is anomalous especially for LA Yeah, a safe space out there, you know, to do stand-up. All right, change of pace. And this might be me leaning too much into the negative, and I totally respect you not wanting to do that. But I don't think people understand how many cults there are in Los Angeles. All right, I'm going to get out of here now.

Come back. Wait, man. Wait. Cults there are in Los Angeles. All right, I'm gonna get out of here now I Thought you said contractually when I sent my document that we weren't talking about Manifestation and Colts and fucking Martians I'm not accusing you of being a cult leader and I'm not gonna say that you're running a Micro cult in Los Angeles that changed my life or anything like that. I'm very sorry that I brought it up a micro cult in Los Angeles that changed my life or anything like that, I'm very sorry that I brought it up. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It's not.

So what's your question about cults? There's good cults and bad cults. That's what everyone in a cult says. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with a cult. But, the Comedy Store was some kind of cult. Like you would, okay great.

And it's the classic cult form, cult leader, Mitzi. A system that was like would pull you in. Mitzi never told anyone to not. The Comedy Store still pulls people in and she'sies never told anyone to not. The communist still pulls people in and she's not even there. I know. You basically grew up. I should have one of those circle chains

that cult leaders have, right? Kind of. You know what I mean? Like one of those necklaces right here with the circle. I'm sorry. I'm not, again, in anything, we'll delete anything. I'm not gonna leak anything about what you're doing out there I don't think it's bad what you're doing and I learned a lot from your retreats, but the

We can cut that no But I think I need to put on my cult glasses right now not trusting what's going on here You grew up in a cult you grew up in it you grew up and that was like what and I agree They don't think all cults are bad but I remember when I realized there was it was something of a cult is watching comedians bow to your mom and not sarcastically. That was a wild thing to watch and maybe not completely out of place. That here was a person who like opened up a space where many of them, if not for that space, would have been selling cars. Who the fuck knows what?

And so there was a mystical aura at that place that you were steeped in, that you grew up in. It's very hard to describe even now in a way that is tangible, if people can understand what I'm talking about. I just wondered your thoughts on that. Well, people were very vulnerable, you know, when they came out to Hollywood in the 70s. Yeah. You know, the 80s, you know, and lost.

You know, most of them were not, you know, David Letterman or Kenison or, you know, or Argus from Oklahoma. You know what I mean? So, you know, everyone wanted to come to California. It was very much kind of like how people want to come into Austin right now. You know, you got Shane Gillis here and Tom Segura and all these guys kind of moved out here, you know Here's Joe's kind of a cult leader, too You know what? Yes. Yeah, I wouldn't even say kind of I mean like, you know, well, I mean, he's kind of like you got an outsider

who's got a lot of charisma and then something forms around them, but as Opposed to like the mothership or any other place I've been, it's a comedy club. The comedy store had a vibe in it. I'm sure it still does. It's why people call it the building haunted. It's why people had all these stories about it. Because there is a specific vibe in that place that the only other place I've experienced that is when I went to India, there's a place called Varanasi where they creamate bodies and

it reminded me, not in a bad way, by the way this isn't a bad thing, it's like it's this oldest city on earth. It smells like barbecue from the grilled corpses. But it's real. It feels real. And the Comedy Store is like that. And I don't know if you haven't been there, if you can even understand what I'm talking about, or maybe I'm nuts, but do you know that energy

I'm talking about in that place? Yeah, it started with Ciro's. Right. You know, which was the club before, you know, and that's where Sinatra was. Yeah. Sammy Davis, so that building has that feeling. And then supposedly there's ghosts,

I've never seen any ghosts there. And supposedly the gangsters beat people up and killed people underneath the thing. I never saw that. But the feeling is it's kind of like, I call it the Emerald City for comedians. You know, kind of like where everyone kind of comes and feels like it's their home.

You know, we're all a bunch of, I don't want to use the word degenerate, we're not degenerates, but we're all kind of like misfits. Yes. And it's a place where misfits can kind of feel comfortable. And she kind of created that place. Because all comedians, I mean, we're all kind of a mess. You know what I mean?

We're all kind of like looking like deer in a headlight. And with that place, my mom was very motherly, and she pushed her kids, me included, off to the side, and the comics became her kids and her kind of disciples. You know what I mean? And all the different people that came in off the Greyhound, and she would take them in. That's why she was so hurt by David Letterman

when he crossed the picket line, you know, when they were striking because my mom kind of took him in off the streets and gave him stage time and blah, blah, blah. And they're like, oh, you know, as opposed to just negotiating a deal and like, hey, comics need to get paid, of course, but why are you striking? Because that's hurtful.

Oh yeah. It's hurtful when, you know, the person that you just gave a stage to and you gave, you know, even Jimmy Schubert, you know, my mom took care of his leg, you know, because he broke his leg on a motorcycle. My mom, you know even Jimmy Schubert you know my mom took care of his leg you know I broke his leg on a motorcycle my mom you know what I mean yeah my mom put this guy into rehab and you know she did that because she cared you know she's her heart was open because I think that she just knew that comedians need to make the world a better place and she felt responsible for that because she knew if she could develop these

comedians you know because that's what she was good at is developing the comedians the comedians because in return bring happiness to the world i mean look what she did with jim carrey right howie mendel or arsenio or or roseanne or any so many i mean millions yeah so many so many. So, you know, she was in she was hard because because you know, it's like it's like joining the army you can't all of a sudden go through basic training and go like all of a sudden you're shooting a gun. You got to be beat the fuck up. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. You know, you got to be pounded, you know pounded and basically told you're not ready or or you got more work to do and there's no one else, there's no one at the store like that anymore. You know what I mean?

Well, I mean, this was, the worst thing you, the worst thing you can do to a comic is tell them that their fat joke is funny when it's not. Lie to them them blow smoke Because then they're gonna maybe keep doing a shitty joke thinking you said that your mom understood that that it you know Comedy is you don't you develop via failure jokes bomb this joke doesn't work. I got to cut Five minutes off of that bit. It's too fucking long. It doesn't work from lot from lies. The audience doesn't lie the audience is Very honest and your mom was prepping people for that. I think

You know, I don't know I encountered her after the strike after the many weird things that happened there And I think by then she had sort of like maybe become even more tough Recognizing dude, you don't want to let like if you help somebody become famous and they're not ready for it, you're not helping them at all. I always felt like that's part of what she was doing. But it was definitely, you go back to the cult, cult kind of place and the,

yeah, it was very much like that, but it's like shit or get off the pot you know this is her club she owns it she's the person in charge like it or not she's the one that gets to tell you to go on stage or not yeah this is her vision you either want to roll with me or you don't and she's like yo I want to roll with you I want to answer phones yeah I want to park cars I want to do all this shit, because I just want to get in. You know what I mean?

And sometimes people hit me up all the, I don't want to say all the time, but I get hit up all the time. How do I get into the store? How do I get in? Like just go hang out there. Figure it out. You know what I mean?

There's no shortcuts. You know? No. And dude, that's something about you that your work ethic's insane, man. Like, you know, that's always been something I've been very impressed with. It's a little like, it's good to be around people like you

because it like makes you work harder. But you know, you're, you grind, man. Like you really do like finish shit, which I think separates a lot of people from other people. Tell me about that, man. Tell me about the grind. Where did you get that? Was it from watching your mom?

At what point did you realize you can't really fuck off if you wanna make good stuff? Like you said earlier, everyone's got different levels of their career and every seven years things change and every, you know, stuff happen. So for me, you know, the totally poly thing was the thing that just kind of like, I look at it as that old kind of Reese's peanut butter commercial with the chocolate and the peanut butter or

just some reason it just worked yeah so it just worked so that was I want to say luck but that was part luck part timing part talent part being the right guy at the right time the right network network you know what I mean yeah it just all kind of lined up and then from from there, the harder you rise, the harder you fall. So then after my movies didn't perform and I fired everyone, I was pretty much, I purposely kind of put myself out on the street again.

I'd never been on the street before. So at 30 years old, I found myself having to figure it out. Start over again. And that's when I did Poly Shores Dead, you know what I mean? And that's when I first started figuring it out. So part of it is through therapy, you know, I went to group therapy

to help to give me the tools to kind of like just deal with shit, letting go of stuff, moving forward, making a vision for myself on projects. So for instance, Poly Sh is Dead was the first, to me it was the beginning part of the second part of my career. Because I wrote it, I paid for it, I directed it, I produced it, I did that, all that shit.

I remember. You worked your fucking ass off, dude. It was crazy. It was fucking hard. It was hard, hard, hard fucking film. Yeah, man. And it took me five years to do it. I'm sorry.

And that was like the beginning part of... I gotta ask this though, man. Like only cause you said group therapy. I'm just thinking, we're friends, but I'm thinking how wild that would be. You go to your first group therapy, Pauly's there. And also for you, do you feel nervous in that situation about being like saying everything,

which I assume you have to do in group therapy? That's gotta be weird for you, man. I would expect you to do one-on-one therapy, not group therapy. I've tried that, but the group is better because it puts you in with real people. Yeah. It's emotional intelligence as opposed to, as opposed to like, you know, one-on-one.

Right. Like you do these, these, these dyads, they're called dyads, you do them with different people and it breaks everything down. It's fucking hard. Oh, you're doing family systems there? No, no, it's, it was, it was called LifeSpring years ago. I remember when. You remember I did that.

That seemed to coincide with Pauly Shore's death. Yeah, exactly. It seemed like those things, okay, I got you. So that kind of, that helped you. It gave me the support and the direction, yeah. Wow, cool. Basically taking, basically having a sense of humor about myself.

Yeah. You know, because I was so I took you know when When when I put myself out there and then I and then I went away I Had you have two ways, you know when your career goes into a into a spin, you know I mean, yeah, you have that run you have two ways to be in one way is like you you say Oh, that was awesome. Like I had a sick run, like let's chill. I'm gonna go surf. You know what I mean?

I'm gonna go chill. Or the other way is you take it personal. And I took it personal. Yeah, I took it personal. And then I went to group therapy and I was able to let go and then I was able to make fun of it. Wow. But I don't know, because I've produced and directed so many different projects, and this is before the internet.

I mean, we're talking a lot of projects. I mean, Natural Born Comics and Polytics and Adopted and Vegas is my oyster. Like a lot of projects. Because I'm able to visualize my stuff, my projects, I'm able to finish them. Right. You know what I mean? You mean, you see from the beginning, I said you finish stuff. As opposed to some people don't, they get halfway and they stop. Yeah, because I know the beginning, middle, and end. You mean before you work on it, you already pictured, wow, that's cool.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see the whole thing. Like I have this new movie. I met this girl in Las Vegas, and I never planned this. This just literally happened about two months ago. I met this girl in Las Vegas, and I never planned this, this just literally happened about two months ago. I met this girl in Las Vegas, she's a nurse, and she's also a stripper. Let me say that again, she's a nurse at night,

she cleans people's assholes and all that stuff, work in the late night shift where people come in where they're dying, and like a real nurse, she's got her whole license and the whole thing, and then she's also a stripper at the Spearman Rhino, which is like the number one strip club in Vegas. So she's two people. So I thought it was such a cool character.

I'm like, fuck, I gotta write a movie about this. So I wrote a whole fucking thing about it, and I got a writer who's writing the script, and I'm gonna produce it in Vegas, and it's gonna be this kind of like anora, kind of like that vibe where it's like, shot, I'm gonna produce it in Vegas and it's gonna be this like, kind of like a Nora, kind of like that vibe where it's like, shot, I'm gonna shoot it with no actors. I have this whole vision for it in my head.

Why is she, like it seems like the money you would get from dancing would exceed your nurse salary, why is she nursing, like why? Well because she likes it, I don't know. She likes helping people. So when does she nursing? Like why? Well because she likes it. I don't know. You know, she likes helping people. So when does she sleep? Well she sleeps during the day and then she works on, what is it?

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, she does the nurse thing at night and then she takes Wednesday, Thursday off and then she works at the strip club on Friday, Saturday. Yeah, it's a cool, it's fucking wild, right? Has she ever run into a former patient? Well, that's part of what the movie is. You know what I mean? Where it's like, you know what I mean?

Something like that. But anyways, but I just thought it was an interesting, you know, it's interesting to me. So I all of a sudden started going like this, and I envisioned the movie, and I got my team together That's cool, and I just want to do that and I'm not in and I just want to direct it Polly We're out of time. We could have gone on for hours. Oh, I know man

And you know, what's cool is I live right across the street from here. We gotta do it again That's what I'm saying every time I come out here. Anytime. Really? Yeah, of course. Josh, we're okay. We're good. We're good. Josh is my friend. But I'm more of a friend and you are a father figure to many of us and thank you for leading the way and I'm so excited to hear what the Silver Angel has revealed to you at the next retreat.