Fitzdog Radio - Reggie Watts - Episode 1033

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Episode 1033. Zen madman and influential absurdist Reggie Watts has created a style of comedy that came out of years of improvisation and musical experimentation. His book "Great Falls, MT" is a great read! Follow Reggie Watts on Instagram @ReggieWatts

Welcome to FitzDog Radio. I think I look a little pale. I look a touch pale with this lighting here. I'm in my bonus room of my house. I just took a nap, so I'm a little groggy. Naps? Overrated. No matter how tired I am, I feel like I'm better off muscling through. I laid down for what I thought would be 10 minutes and I woke up like an hour and 15 minutes later and like I just got out of a coma. Like I so, like, I felt like Bill Cosby should have been standing over me pulling up his fly. Like, I was checking, I was checking my privates to see if they felt violated. And now I just got kicked off the algorithm on YouTube. Gotta worry about that. Reggie Watts is my guest today. Holy shit. I've been looking forward to this.

I read his book this week. It's amazing. We talk all about it. We'll get into that in a minute. But in the meantime, we got the Best Buddies benefit tomorrow night, my annual benefit that I throw for the Best Buddies. And I went on Corolla this week to promote it. I went on KROQ, the local LA FM station. It's sold out now. Sorry, it can't come, but come next year. Amazing lineup. We got Nikki Glaser. We got Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, Ron Funches, Sarah Silverman, Annie Letterman,

and a special guest, Chris Tenney, who you have not heard of, but Best Buddies is a group that helps people with intellectual disabilities. And Chris is on the spectrum, and he's done it every year. I don't know if he does any other shows. This might be the only show he does per year but he gets very psyched up for it he his father helps him write material and he crushes he does really good he's got smart jokes and his delivery is fantastic and the place goes crazy and and he's a good hang in the green room he likes to hang out in the green room and He likes to hang out in the green room, and everybody talks to him. Norm MacDonald, God rest in peace. I guess about three or four years ago,

he came down and did it, and Rogan was there, and Rogan smoked a blunt with Norm, and Norm was not a big pot smoker. He smoked a little bit, so he smokes a fat joint and then another one. And then he says to Joe, do you have any more? And Joe's like, yeah, I got some in my car.

You want me to get it? Norm's like, yeah. So he gets more pot. And then he starts talking to Chris Tenney. And I'm like, oh, this could go, this could get weird. But not weird at all. It was like Norm looked into Chris's soul and just connected with him. And it was like the most kind of beautiful exchange. It was like, it was like Norm was the spectrum whisperer. He just,

he just, I don't know. It's hard to describe it was kind of magic and then norm went up on stage high out of his mind made no fucking sense he didn't care the thing about norm is he did not care if he bombed he just kind of he would just smile and just keep on going and just like ruminate on some weird ideas and see what happens. Anyway, so that's tomorrow night. I had the big Christmas party weekend. A lot of Christmas parties. I don't know about you.

I feel a little bit mixed about them. Some are good. My neighbor had a nice one. My next-door neighbor had a great party. Hung out with all my neighbors. They had oysters, which was a nice touch. And you get to snoop around their houses. When you have a neighbor, you're constantly wondering what's going on in their house.

So I looked around. Didn't take any jewelry, but I looked around a little bit. Beautiful house. And their lovely hosts. And it was really nice. And then I left and I went to a billionaire's mushroom party, which I can't say that phrase very often. But Tom O'Neill, author of Chaos, and Mike Gibbons, co-host of Sunday Papers, we headed off into Bel Air and we went to a guy who's worth $10 billion. I'm not going to say who it is because that's kind of one of those things is when you

go to a billionaire's party, you don't talk about them. I can say him. It's a he. And you know who he is, but I'm not going to say who it is. So we go in and it's this insane party. You go in and they have two different bars just with shrooms, with a shroom tender that sets you up with the right strain for what you want to experience. We went to both bars. We took some from each bar. And then there was a pot bar, two pot bars. There were flamethrowers. There was a tent where you could get a tattoo all these people were lining up to get tattoos real tattoos not henna there was uh a dj which is always sad because nobody was dancing it was a bunch of the the crowd was this guy made his money in tech and it was a lot of cocky tech geeks there's nothing worse than a cocky geek.

Because even they know they don't fit in. But they've got the cool shirt. And they've got the cool haircut. And they've got the Asian girlfriend. It was a lot of that. It was two-thirds guys. And they all had Asian girlfriends. There was a Polynesian drum circle. You could get your aura photographed and read to you. There was a comedian who I'd never heard of, so I didn't go inside.

There was a magician. There was a cigar shop. It was the most insane sushi bar. It was like the size of my house. And there were like 12 people making the most succulent, juicy, insane sushi you've ever had. Wine cellar. It went on and on. It just was crazy candy store. And so it got to, it got a little overwhelming. And then me and Gibbs snuck away and there was a chess table in the middle of the main bar. And me and Gibbs played chess on shrooms, which was very enjoyable. And I made some bad moves, but I accepted it with grace. And what else would you say? Oh, and then I went to a latke party, latkepalooza. My friend lives up the street, and she had, it was very hot.

We lit Hanukkah candles and saw some good friends. That was good. I skipped out on the Venice boat parade. They go through the canals every year, and they light them up and there's music and I don't know why. I was burnt. So I didn't go to that. I skipped the comedy store party,

which I heard was insane. There was a fight. Somebody got banned for three months. There's not a lot of sex at the comedy store. When you think of Christmas parties and people hooking up, nobody hooks up from the comedy store. It's more like people get fucked up,

but there's no screwing around. As far as I know, what do I know? I'm the married guy. I'm the last guy to find out stuff like that. And instead we just went to see Napoleonoleon i took my wife and daughter and her friends to see napoleon and it was good long but that's not a critique i don't i don't consider a long movie a bad thing i if it's a good movie let it be as long as it wants to be joaquin phoenix is amazing And the woman from The Crown,

she plays Elizabeth's sister in The Crown. I should remember her name, but she's amazing. Worth seeing. All right, I don't want to waste a lot of time because I want to get to Reggie. We had a couple of overheards. This came from Brett Kerr. By the way, if you want to send me overheards, it is

at, it's just the website is fitsdog.com. Go there and there's a link you can send them to me or email me fitsdogradio at gmail.com. I reply to all emails. It might take a minute, but I get to them all. And Brett Kerr said at a scrappy used tire place way outside of Boston, the mechanic said to his friend while I was waiting for a tire, quote, last time I saw my fucking brother was when I should do a Boston accent. Last time I saw my fucking brother was when I had my foot on his neck outside the courthouse when my dad died. Wow. That doesn't sound like it's that far from Boston. That sounds like it's in South Boston. And maybe they were already scrapping about who got the car or who got the triple decker in Dorchester. Triple decker is the type of house in Dorchester. You live on the ground.

No, you live in the second floor. You put your parents on the ground floor so they don't have to walk up any stairs. And then you got like an uncle and an aunt up on the third floor. It's a triple decker. And everybody pays the rent together and everybody drives each other crazy. And the cops come. This one was from, where's your name? I lost it.

Two women talking about decorating a Christmas tree. This is from Thomas Burr. Two women talking about decorating a Christmas tree. I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of ladders. I get that. Ladders are fucking tricky. And, you know, unless you got somebody holding the ladder, you shouldn't be on the ladder. Um, my mom, I flew her out to San Francisco when I first made some money. When I very first made some money, I was about 29 and I was hosting a game show on MTV. So I flew my mom out to play Pebble Beach because she's a big golfer and that's the

best course in the country. So we flew out and we're sitting there in business class and this guy is sitting across from my mom on the aisle and he goes uh he starts asking us who we are and what i do and i never tell anybody what i do because i don't want to talk about being a comedian on a plane because then it's a very one-sided conversation i get just get asked a lot of questions and it's awkward so the guy says what do you do and i said and before i can answer my mom goes he's a comedian and So the guy says, what do you do? And I said, and before I can answer my mom, my mom goes, he's a comedian. And then the guy says, of course, he's like, so do you make a living?

And my mom looks at him without missing a beat. And she goes, he's about halfway up the ladder. And I'm like, what? Half? Are we in fucking coach, lady? Halfway up the ladder. First of of all i'm not on a ladder i didn't i didn't a ladder is for a paper salesman a ladder is for a guy in the insurance world for comedians there's no fucking ladder don't put me on the ladder anyway i'll be speaking of comedy i'm coming to you people, Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend,

December 15 and 16 at Hyena's Milwaukee Improv, December 29th through the 31st, New Year's Eve, Den Theater in Chicago, January 13th, one of my favorite places to perform, also coming in January, favorite places to perform. Also coming in January, Atlanta, Portland, La Jolla, and Tampa. Go to FitzDawg.com for tickets. Also, this show is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp, look, it is an amazing thing when you have a family and you want to get together. There's gift giving during the holidays. What do you exchange? How do you focus on this time together? My family, we don't really give gifts. The kids get gifts.

I get my mom a gift, not my sister. We keep it really simple because we don't want to drive each other crazy. But then you get into politics with, but then the in-laws give presents, and my cousin Lori gives presents and it's a nightmare. So it's all about give and take. It's about sharing and receiving. And sometimes I can bring stuff up. So go to therapy, talk about it.

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It's easy. Right now, I'm looking at tickets on my phone for Rolling Stones. Right now, $80. They were $200 a couple weeks ago. So you track it, you pounce, and you get yourself something that you're going to enjoy. Don't buy things, buy experiences. And GameTime is the way to do it. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code FITSDOG for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code FITZ-G for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's get to it.

My guest today has a new book called Great Falls, Montana, and he is a self-proclaimed weirdo. The book talks about growing up biracial and kind of an oddball in Montana, girls, drugs, kind of coming up with his own identity. The New York Times called him a giddy rush of escapist nonsense. He was, you probably know him, he was on the Late Late Show with James Corden for the entire run as the band leader and announcer. He was on that show Comedy Bang Bang with Scott Aukerman. He's done it all.

And like huge online. He was at the forefront of kind of viral clips. And you should watch some of his TED Talks. Those are great. So we had an amazing time today. Hung out at the Comedy Store. And this is it. Enjoy my chat with the legendary reggie watts

all right here we are in the bowels of the comedy store and the studio. I don't know if they have a name for it yet. The comedy outlet store. Comedy outlet store. Yeah. This, you mean this room? Yeah. The podcast room?

No, the comedy dungeon. The comedy dungeon. You know, comedy dungeon. Reg dungeon you know reggie watts has officially named the podcast studio because they just built it they needed it yeah dungeon man dungeon man oh it's in the dungeon no not in the upper room oh yeah i'll be there so dumb so uh how are you weirdo i don't fucking know um i'm good i just woke up well kind of i just woke up i woke up like an hour and a half ago but i still feel like i'm waking up um i'm good i'm good yeah has it been your life are you like a sleep till noon guy yeah on average well you

know it's funny last night uh i went to uh i went out to dinner with a friend and she was like let's stop by at a friend's house and so it's a bunch of people from the clowning community you know from the elysian theater oh okay chad damiani yeah yeah um um oh who was there too a total surprise was uh john c reilly john c reilly was there because he's like kind of clown based so people don't realize that. One of the great storytellers I've ever met. Yeah. Right.

Right. I mean, geez. I mean, he's like kind of like a Mark Twain-ish kind of a guy. Yes. Yes. You know what I mean? Like in our current time. Yep.

So he was there and he told me all kinds of stories. But I happen to have Quaaludes because Quaaludes haven't existed since 1983. Were they left over from the 80s? I was going to say, I haven't seen one since I was in high school. Someone figured it out. I guess the precursor is really rare in order to create the chemical. Right. And somehow this dude figured it out and I'd never tried it before.

And so me and a friend, the woman that I went to dinner with, she was super stoked on it. She's like, I've been dreaming of trying Quaaludes. And I was like, yeah, me too, for like 30 years. Yeah. And so we tried them. And I have to say, they're definitely not like anything I've experienced before. People say it's the greatest drug they've ever taken.

Yeah. And I missed it. I was afraid of it in the 80s. Yeah. I mean, I understand. Yeah. The messaging about drugs in the 80s was pretty clear. I did a lot of drugs, but I just didn't do Quaaludes.

Quaaludes. Yeah, yeah. Right. How about Black Beauties? Yes. Well, that's just speed. Yeah. Yeah.

I did a lot of mescaline. I sold mescaline for a minute. Wow, you did mescaline, but you didn't do Quaaludes. That's insane. I would be more afraid to do mescaline than Quaaludes. Yeah. I don't know why. I think mescaline to me felt like acid light.

It wasn't like taking LSD. Yeah, right. Yeah. LSD is a huge commitment. Yeah. And microdosing wasn't a thing back then. No, it was a full dose. Yeah.

People were just like, no, you do the drugs. Yeah. Have you done LSD? I have many times. Yeah. Yeah. I had kind of like an amazing major trip when I was probably like 20, 23 or something like that. And it was this really pure stuff called Shakti Shiva that was made by the chemist who did most of the grateful dead acid. And, uh, it was mind blowing. I mean, it was

life altering realizations. I got into math after it i became a vegetarian it was insane i'm not vegetarian anymore but i was vegetarian back then it like changed i all the shit changed it was crazy what'd you say i just i don't know what it was it was almost like it's like the entire like the seams of reality were just undone and and i was just seeing like the limitlessness of the cosmos or whatever. And then, and, and it kind of ignited these interests in a way that I'd never had them ignited before. Like it wasn't like in school, like math was like, I'm afraid of math. I'm terrible at math. I'm not into it. Yeah. Especially as far as geometry. And then I started falling off. Yeah. And, uh, for some reason on this trip, I just, it opened my mind in a way that after I came off it,

I was like, I know what to do. Like that type of thing. Like I'm going to only eat these types of things and I'm going to study sacred geometry and I'm going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sacred geometry? Yeah, sacred geometry. Like the old school,

it's like, I guess the Greeks and the Romans practiced it. It's geometry, but they ascribe meaning to the different shapes and organizations of shapes. So like you've heard of maybe the tree of life or the flower of life pattern. It looks kind of like a hexagon, but it's made out of interlocking circles. So it's like a bunch of circles interlocking, but the general the general outline of the shape is kind of like the Da Vinci code shape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's tons of stuff like that. And a lot of like, uh, adventure movies about ancient cultures that they, they do use sacred geometry. Cause I was just a part of their

cultures back then building buildings, like how the pyramids were building things. They used sacred geometry. Right. Right. So it's like a spiritual form of geometry, but it's still geometry. I fucking loved geometry when I was in high school. It was the only math I really loved. You really? Yeah, I don't know why. I had a great teacher, Mr. Amsalem. And I don't know.

It was maybe Jill Garfunkel was in my class and she used to wear Angora sweaters, low cut, kind of tight. And it's weird because I think about her still yes and then i think wait i'm not supposed to think about her because she was only 15 and i'm 57 i shouldn't be conjuring a 15 year old yeah but you were that age like this so that's legal right i'm grandfathered in yeah yeah i think that's completely legal you shouldn't be hard on yourself on that. It's like, you can let that go, man. Just be those eyes. Be the young eyes. Those eyes. Ooh, those eyes. Yeah. I mean, a hundred percent. Of course. I still, I don't know if I have, I don't know if I remember like, like any girls back then specifically enough to have that kind of a vision.

Joanne. Well, yeah, Joanne for sure. Well, Joanne, yeah, I do have pictures of her, so I can go, Oh, that's what she looked like. Yeah. That's true. That's true. But like none of like the crush, you know, like in classroom crush from afar, like, Oh, she's so hot. She'll never go out with me. Like that kind of vibes. Yeah. Didn't, I don't remember those people. I remember the names, but I don't remember what they look like.

Cause when you look at the pictures in the book, you're like, why was I attracted to that person? I know. Why was her hair so big? She looks like a weirdo. The hair was so crazy. And we were like, that's the shit. Yeah. That was cool.

Sometimes I meet those girls now when they're older. And, you know, they're still beautiful, but it kind of ruins it. I don't want to see them now. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, they're still beautiful, but it kind of ruins it. I don't want to see them now. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. I don't know if I've seen, I actually haven't seen that many of them. I mean, when I go back to Great Falls, I will run into people, but not those main girls.

Like I haven't run into Autumn Clark or any of the few other, Kristen Gunderson. I haven't seen her in a long time. I had a crush on her for a great journey. It was such an honest, like, it had a great narrative. I mean, because you have a very interesting story. And, you know, I think the theme of, the main theme of it is that you live your life in improv, not just in the microcosm, but also in the choices you make about where you're going to live, what you're going to do. And the choices you make about where you're going to live, what you're going to do, like it all just sort of, I don't know if you, I don't know if you believe in attraction as much as, I mean, what is, what is your sort of like theory on how everything unfolds that, that takes you to the next place? Yeah. I mean, I, I just say like, I have this, I have this dumb rule. Well, it's not dumb, but but i have this rule i just call it like follow the fun yeah um and so for me it was about finding the good times like the spaces that felt good the people that felt good to hang out with and um and if i followed that that generally would lead me to really cool interesting situations yeah and then that would kind of let me know,

maybe I should, oh, maybe this is, now it's time to do this. And luckily I could listen to that and could respond to it. So I think that's kind of was it. It's really kind of simple. Like I'm always looking for what's the fun, groovy situation and I want more of it.

Where's it going? Oh, it's like, oh, people are, where's the set? Oh, this is in New York. Okay. Well, I guess I put out some feelers and see if New York's available. And if it is, then I'll go over. And if it's not, you know. Right.

It's crazy. But I never like push too hard. I just kind of put it out there. Yeah. And oftentimes someone would be like, hey, do you want to move into our house? We've got space. Yeah. Like, oh, OK, cool.

Right. You know. Well, that I mean, my son's 23 and he's a little lost right now. He's in Central America for five months hitchhiking around Guatemala and Mexico. But career wise has no idea what he wants to do. And I just keep saying to him, you're in your 20s, man. And I just keep saying to them, you're in your 20s, man. The 20s is about just like, you can't come up with a plan and then execute it because it's not based on anything yet.

You don't know what you love. So just open yourself up. But whatever it is, do it. Yeah, yeah. Just commit to it. Yeah. And then it'll all add up. That's what I love about the book is that who you are today is an amalgam of all these

different periods that you went through and it all synthesized into something that nobody else had really done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a trip because, you know, for me, like I said, I just want to be like a part of the adventure, part of, you know, You know, for me, like I said, I just want to be like a part of the adventure, part of, you know, the story of what makes life exciting for myself. But also I want to provide cool experiences for my friends and other people. Yeah. I've always been like that. And so, you know, luckily I've gotten to run into some extraordinary people and they're like, oh, I know someone who, you know, because they're excited. You know, people are excited to hook people up with other people.

They're excited about. And luckily I found the right veins and, um, just kind of listened to it. And not every decision was great, but you know, all decisions are lead to who you are, you know, so even the bad ones, you know, so I appreciate all of the decisions I made, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's just crazy. So, and also it's just like the time I couldn't imagine growing up. Like I grew up exactly at the right time period. You know, I talk about this a lot,

but some of my other Gen X friends will be like, yeah, I wouldn't trade. They're all in agreement. They're like, I wouldn't trade growing up in the nineties versus growing up in the eighties for anything. Right.

And because, you know, I went to school and kids had knives and guns in their car hunting after school. And no one ever thought that someone would like bring a gun into the school and start shooting it up. It just wasn't in the consciousness. It wasn't a thing.

And so, in Montana at least, that was the norm. And we didn't think anything about it. It was like, after school, I'm gonna go rabbit hunting or something. I'm going to kill some gophers and, you know, um, I've got my pocket knife and that was it. It was very, very, so I don't know. But then I, you know, extrapolate, I mean, going beyond that, moving to the nineties and then moving to Seattle in the nineties. Seattle in the nineties. I mean, you kind of nailed it. I mean, that was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah day. Yeah. Yeah. To the day. Yeah.

I know. Insane. Insane. You know, and then moving to New York, you know, in 2003, exactly when Rafifi was taking off. So every time period or every city I moved to was pretty much exactly the right time to move there and to explore what it was and to kind of exhaust the potential of it until the next, you know.

Right. But also it seems like you showed up at places where it was like, um, there was a need for creativity, you know, and, and that you were, there was no gatekeeper. You, there was sort of just like, Hey, we need people. We got this grunge kind of thing blowing up. We need some people to staff it. And then you go to New York in the nineties and all of a sudden it's like, wow, we got the, we got all these cool grunge kind of thing blowing up we need some people to staff it and then you go to new york in the 90s and all of a sudden it's like wow we got the we got all these cool rooms we need people that are weird yep yeah and you just were there yes yeah i know like everything just kind of happened it blossomed at all the similar times like like like me getting into weird comedy

was what the guys in the state were already doing or what Mr. Show was, was onto already. And, uh, in me seeing those things just reinforced my desire to want to be involved in making comedy like that. And yeah. Comedy Central was pretty amazing back then. They had Exit 57. Oh yeah. Remember that? Yeah, I do. With Amy Sedaris. Yeah, that's right. Wow. They had all these cool little shows, and they gave them room to play, and they kind of said, here's the keys.

Lock up when you're done. We'll let you know if you get another season. Yeah. And people do whatever they wanted. Totally. So you were sort of part of that. You had some play on Comedy Central central little after that, right? I mean, when I'm, when I first moved to New York in oh three, I took a few years, but

yeah, like there, there were brushes with comedy central, but I think if anything, it was a super deluxe. That was the first kind of place that allowed me to do whatever I wanted to do. Yeah. And have it live online. Right. Because they were trying to, you know, capture the viral video phenomenon. Uh-huh.

So they were giving- They were a little ahead of their time. They were ahead of their time. And they were giving money away, though. I mean, they had like really nice budgets. Right. And so, you know, and I made some pretty dumb stuff. And I don't know what happened to it.

It's not online anymore. No, they buried it all. I hosted the Porn Awards one year in Las Vegas. Oh, my God. 7,000 porn stars, and I'm up there hosting it. And they're like, all right, here's the deal. You're going to have about 30 seconds to get their attention. Because picture 7,000 porn stars with cameras on the crowd all flashing.

You got 30 seconds to get them. And if you don't, we'll probably have to pull you off stage because they'll just start talking and it'll be over. And so I had a really good opening joke and I got them. And then Super Deluxe gave me all this money to shoot videos. So I shot all these sketches where like Ron Jeremy is the TV repair guy who comes over. And we had like, we shot like 10 videos gave me, like, a ton of money. But then Super Deluxe got bought by the Cartoon Network.

Oh, that's right. And that's why everything got buried, because anything that was edgy, they didn't want associated with the Cartoon Network, so they just flushed it. Whoa. Yeah. I mean, I hope that they vaulted it or something, because— That would be nice. I mean, I made this dumb thing called zip code and I don't know what happened. Like it was, it was, it wasn't great.

What was the idea? The idea was, it was a series that was based on, I would do like kind of a travel log, like a history and travel log of each zip code in New York. That's great. Like New York City or whatever, in different boroughs and stuff like that. And so I did like, Williamsburg was the first one,

whatever, whatever that zip code was. And it was all just fake shit. You know, like I shot a thing outside of Arlene's grocery and it was, I'm trying to remember, he was a friend of the state and he was on Wet Hot American Summer. I forget,

I forget his name, but it was Zach something. Not Galifianak. No, not Galifianak because he was kind of a bigger dude, kind of long, kind of bobbed, straight brown hair. Not Michael Portnoy. No. Okay.

No. I'll remember his name at some point. But he was like this dope actor and he's like acted in a bunch of things since then, but he's like, it's just a straight actor. Yeah. But he, I had him outside with his arm around this girl who was like chewing gum all the time. And he was talking about the history of Arlene's grocery, which was just a bunch of bullshit. Yeah.

And he's chewing his gum. And every time the camera turns back, it's a different girl chewing gum, but wearing the same outfit. Every time we just like cut back, it'd be a different girl. Always chewing gum but wearing the same outfit and just every time we just like cut back it'd be a different girl always and then it comes back to the the first girl at the end of the last shot or whatever and uh really casual no big deal and uh and then we had jenny slate did was a latina which i'm sure wouldn't fly today but like like when she had like big hoop earrings and she was talking about some bar where she had all these experiences.

And then I talked to her and we did this retro thing about this guy named something MacArthur Murphy. And it was like all done in sepia tone. And it's him working hard at night, working on these designs. He's drawing robots. Yeah. And but like, I can't remember what it was. Yeah. And, um, but like, I can't remember what it was. Anyways, it was just like, it was a hodgepodge of just the craziest, dumbest stoner ideas that me and my friend at the time, Tommy Smith, uh, he was this brilliant writer. We just put it together and we shot it like with really low budge cameras and stuff like that. But we got a budget and we got to, you know, make rent and pay for food. That's amazing. Wow.

You know, um, that was dope. make rent and pay for food. That's amazing. Wow. You know, that was dope. Yeah. That's, I love the zip codes in New York. I was once in 10001. Whoa.

Which is Little Italy. Oh. Must've been like the first, one of the first like places they gave out zip codes, I guess. Yeah. 10001. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I love the symmetry.

It's really great. Yeah, I know. I've never lived in a symmetrical zip code. I also lived at an address that was 2000, and I was there in the year 2000. Oh, that's great. It was my street address in Venice. Yes. Venice?

Yeah. Okay. So you lived in LA in the thousands? Yeah, I was in New York doing comedy in the 90s, all through the 90s. And then I moved out here in like 2000, but I was going back and forth to New York like every few months because I was on the Howard Stern show. So I would go in there like every two months and do a spot, like two months. Sick. And then I'd run around and do all those crazy rooms.

Of course. So like Bobby Tisdale is a good buddy of mine. We play an awful lot together. Yeah. He's, he's the best. Yeah. You mentioned him in the book. He's so awesome. Yeah.

It was, it was good. Cause crazy. Yeah. A crazy man. Yep. Brilliant. Big hearted. Uh huh.

Crazy man. And, and totally like identifies with roosters and in the most unique way. Oh, I didn't know that. He had like, he's, he had like this thing with roosters in the most unique way. Oh, I didn't know that. He had like this thing with roosters and it kind of made sense. Like he did some, there was some show he did or this web show he was working on and it had a featured a rooster in it. And anyways, I don't know. Him and Jenny Slade at one point when they were married and they named their dog after

me. Oh, really? Yeah. Reggie Watts was the name named their dog after me. Oh, really? Yeah. Reggie Watts was the name of their dog. That's hilarious. And I would go over to their place and I don't know. It was just like, what a strange time. But yeah.

But yeah. But New York, like, yeah. Bobby Tisdale, man. And Bobby grew up in the same town as Zach Galifianakis. Oh, he did? Yes. What? I didn't know that.

Yeah. Wow. Okay. Isn't that crazy? I love it. I love it. I mean, I didn't know. It's the little ass town in North Carolina. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Isn't that crazy? I love it. I love it. I mean, I didn't know- With a little ass town in North Carolina.

Yeah. Yeah. That is pretty crazy. Yeah. Because Bobby, like, I see him. Well, he does voices on Bob's Burgers, right? It's pretty cool. Yeah.

It was such a wild time back then. I just felt so lucky to be there at that time. It was- Well, you talk about it in the book, and what's kind of crazy is you didn't go to New York to go on Rafifi. You just kind of went because Eugene Merman was hosting a show there, right? Yeah. That was Invite Them Up. Yeah.

Yeah. So you showed up to New York because you had you had sort of like a one month contract with a band to record with them or whatever. And then you just kind of showed up and you just kind of went on and you just kind of destroyed. And then it wasn't, that was it. You were in. Just like that. I mean, people spend years trying to just get seen and you just kind of, the universe just opened up and you walked in. I mean, yeah, I got really lucky.

I think it was just because we were all like-minded, you know, like we, we, I think like, it's like water droplets getting too close together. It's like, it's just, it's just like, that's what it felt like when I walked in there, I was, I was like nervous, but it also reminded me of high school when I was performing in competitive drama, humorous solo, when I was competing. And I was, you know, in front of these people that were like, just staring at you going like, okay, you have to do something now. And I'm like, humorous solo, whatever was competing. And I was, you know, in front of these people that were like, just staring at you going like, okay, you have to do something now. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to do this stuff. I don't know if you're going to like it, but I'm going to do a bunch of stuff. But then people were like, oh, I like that. You know? And it had that

similar feeling where I went up because what I was doing, no one else was doing. And, and so I always had a little bit of worry that I'm not doing stand-up but that whole room was about weirdo exactly comedy anyways right so you had like you know dimitri martin with easels and you know and powerpoint and uh multimedia you know um multimedia comedy art uh karma comedy stuff and then there were performance artists that would perform in there fortnight crazy portn Portnoy. What was the thing he did? It was all sound effects. It was Zar or

Zav or Zar or something like that. And he wrote all the music on synthesizers and it was just like synthesizer sound. So it was just like and he would pretend like he was manning a spaceship and it was all miming and he had like this skin tight suit and this crazy, like evil guy looking beard, like Ming the Merciless kind of vibe or whatever. And he was like, just for like four minutes.

And we were like, just staring at it. And I was like, this is the most brilliant thing I've ever seen. Yeah. He went on Luna Lounge one night and he pulled his dick out and he stuffed it into a bottle of Prozac. And then he threw the Prozac at the audience. Oh, shit. Oh, my God.

That's great. And then remember he did the famous thing on Bob Dylan was playing at the Grammys. Yeah, Soy Bomb. And he came out on stage. He somehow got hired as a backup dancer. Like he was legitimately had the laminate, was in the show.

Yeah. And then unbeknownst to them, he rips his shirt off halfway through the song and it says Soy Bomb. And then he snuggles up to Bob Dylan. Yeah, that's right. And Bob doesn't react at all. Not at all. He barely reacts. Yeah. It was incredible. Yeah. It was the coolest. I've

never, I mean, Bob's probably like, I've seen it all. Yeah. I've been through, I lived through the 60s. And psychedelics. Right, I've seen it all. I've been through, I lived through the sixties and psychedelics and people jumping on stage. It was like, this is nothing. I got food at the Royal Albert hall. Yeah. I can handle it. Yeah. I mean, that was like, that was like, like very experienced showmanship. But yeah, no, it was, it was insane. And then he gets tackled by the, by the security. And nobody knew if it wasn't a bit, the audience just thought, oh, this is a weird concept that Bob Dylan came up with. That was, that was insane. Michael,

Michael was insane. And I went on to work with him. Like he invited me to several art things. Like he did, we did a thing in, um, Balzano, Italy, where he, they opened up an art wing, um, or like, yeah, like an art wing to the university that's up there. And so they invited him to curate a bunch of artists to, to occupy the rooms and do different pieces inside of it. So I did that. You flew out to Italy for that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got, yeah, we got flown out to Italy for that. He invited me to another thing. I can't remember where that was.

It was another country, went to another country. He had like some workshops. So I worked with him and his wife, then wife Yeva for, for a while. But, but that was the interesting thing about New York and that, that time period of invite them up, you had invite them up and then you had like this crew of performance artists called the art stars. And they were performing at the Bowery poetry club, I think. And they would have these, again, it was like very similar. You had invite them up with a bunch of weirdo comedians. Then you had whatever the name of that art star night was at the Bowery poetry club. And it was similar. It was a lineup, but it was performance artists. Yeah. And so you'd have crossover Cirque artists. You'd have, um, I don't know, just straight up

performance artists or conceptual people. And they would do these things and they were insane. I mean, like some of the stuff was insane, like a woman with like a, what a rotary saw, like, like putting it on her, on her crotch with like all this blood flying everywhere. It was all fake, but like, like this blood flying everywhere and everyone's just like, oh my God, you know, it was just, it was chaos. It was total chaos, but you had like this. So sometimes I would perform there and then I would also perform on invite them up. Yeah. And so it was such a weird existence at that time in New York. Cause you had like very New York-y things going on, like weirdo, semi dangerous feeling performance.

Well, the Lower East Side was sort of finding itself at that point because it had always been artistic. There'd always been a lot of like grungy, you know, artistic people. But in the 90s, it sort of became a place that was attracting audiences that like you talk in your book about wanting to break the rules, but also wanting to appeal to the mainstream. And the Lower East Side was sort of finding that footing a little bit at that time. to break the rules but also wanting to appeal to the mainstream yeah and the lower east side was sort of finding that footing a little bit at that time totally yeah well i mean things kind of opened up a little bit like invite them up and the state and what happened luna lounge yeah all of those people doing what they were doing um found a way in because the internet also it was like the

perfect storm right it was like a bunch of weirdos that were doing strange, but you know, ridiculous, absurd shit. And then the, the internet, which is absurd in its very nature. And so everyone's experimenting back then there wasn't a YouTube yet, but there were places to put videos and it was all a bunch of, it was just a bunch of weirdos kind of dominating the, and taking advantage of the internet. And so that kind of became a little bit more mainstream and then it just slowly started building. So now, you know, you had Zach Galifianakis getting a major special and you had UCB getting a show. Yeah. And then David Cross kind of being an early pioneer, you know, being on sub pop records. He was like, he was like, Oh, what? He's on a music label. He's a comedy guy,

but he's also performing in rock clubs. He's opening for Afghan, what? He's on a music label. He's a comedy guy, but he's also performing in rock clubs. He's opening for Afghan wigs or whatever, you know, like there was that crossover of like really hip underground music mixed with comedians. It was all happening at the same time. It was insane. And then, yeah. And to, and you know, and that's something in the book, like I, I didn't, I don't go into it in great detail because most of it, obviously it centers around great falls, hence the name, but, uh, I definitely saving it for the next book. I do. I do. I do want to like, yeah, my, my idea is like, I want to write about Seattle. Um, and then I want to write it about New York and maybe LA, but, um, yeah, cause I really want to get in there because I don't think people realize you know i say this a lot but i like to promote it but you know what happened in the 90s in seattle and then what happened

in new york in the early 2000s or the or the aughts the aughts the aughts where neo-hipsterism kind of like rose from the chaos of kind of performance art, outsider comedy. We're very, very important movements in American entertainment. And especially the New York part, it hasn't been, there's no documentary on it. There's no one is talking about it. It's like very, very important because everybody that you see in movies

and TV shows today are related to Invite Them Up. Like someone- Michael Showalter is one of the biggest directors in Hollywood right now. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. And then Michael Ian Black doing all this crazy stuff that he's still doing. Yeah. And David Wayne directing. Oh, no, I'm thinking of David Wayne. Yeah, Michael Showalter has directed a little bit, but Michael Showalter,

I don't know what Michael Showalter is doing as much, but David Wayne's destroying it. Um, and then you've got the state, they just got back together and they've had such an impact and influence, but then you get all the TV shows and movies you see, like whatever, Jenny Slade or Aziz Ansari or, uh, uh, Kumail Nanjiani or, uh, Chelsea Peretti, you know, uh, or Key and Peele, which are mildly related. Right. You know, they're just, they're all dominant characters in the land, in the modern landscape. Yeah. So I want to get into the book. There's so much I want to talk about. You know, let's start at the beginning.

Yeah. Well, the other theme I think that comes through the book is that you have this kind of Zen. I think that comes through the book is that you have this kind of Zen. You talk about observing yourself almost as an outsider, which is a lot of the way meditation is taught is like be a fly on the wall. Just observe, you know, your feelings, observe your thoughts and don't, you don't necessarily participate in them emotionally as much. Right.

So, I mean, would that, would you say that was a good thing or a bad thing? Cause there was times where I felt like you thought it was keeping you from engaging emotionally with people. And there were other times where it felt like it was a positive thing in your life. Yeah. Probably the space where it was less helpful was in romantic relationships because that being kind of observational and that kept it more in a fantasy zone in a way. Like I was kind of projecting the fantasy of what I thought a relationship should be. So I was observing the fantasy of it as opposed to becoming more open and vulnerable to another human being. You were staging it. I was staging it.

Yeah, like I was living the fantasy of the idea of a relationship. So I think that it wasn't as helpful there. I think it's incredibly helpful in art, for sure, in what I was doing because I'm observing what I'm doing in real time, especially as an improviser. That is all you're doing. You're listening and observing and responding. And so in that case, yeah, it worked really, really well. But in total in life, I was always looking.

That's why when I was talking about early about finding the fun, I was always looking for the good time, the good vibes. And that's part of the observation. I'm like, oh, that's great. Oh, I bet this would be cool. Oh, yeah, this is happening. Oh, I bet you this would be cool. Oh yeah, this is happening. Yeah, let's just do it. And I'm kind of, I'm active in it, but I'm also observing it because I'm,

because I like the feeling of, feeling like I'm living in a movie in a way. And that's good, but also not great when it comes to people going like, I'm right here and I have emotions and I want to talk about stuff. Yeah. Do you find being in that state creates energy for you or saps energy from you?

Being that available. Yeah. No, I, I think it creates energy. It definitely, it definitely gives me, um, what do you call it? What would you call it? It gives me, yeah, it's a form of it. It's a form of energy. What was it like flow? Yeah. It's it's yeah. Because like I'm, I'm listening, but I'm getting rewarded by, I'm kind of like slightly projecting expectations and, and,

and oftentimes I'm getting rewarded, like, like it's accurate. So, so it's this engine of like, I'm projecting with the expectation or like, I'm projecting with the expectation or yeah, projecting an expectation and I'm getting back something that's pretty close to what I was expecting. And, and it's almost like a beam of like a man, a real-time manifestation beam or something like that, you know? And, and, and I mean, similar to it's, if that sounds like an alien concept, it's a similar thing to having a natural conversation with somebody. Right. You're both like, I'm projecting this thing that I think that you'll like that, you know, we'll do this. And then someone's responding like, yeah. And they're, you know, so this is constant back and forth.

But it just starts levitating because you create this nice flow. Right. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. Right, right. So, yeah, yeah. It's funny, my daughter, she babysits these two little kids, and they're five and three. And so she came home last night, and I go, how was it? Did you guys have some fun? And she goes, she said for two hours, the five-year-old sat at a fake cash register at the table and kept asking the little boy what he wanted from the store. And then she would punch it up and tell him what it was. And she goes, it was like a two hour improvisational exercise.

She said they were completely connected to each other. And you think that about kids, like life is just an improv. Yes. If you really watch them, everything is they accept and they go with it. Yes. Yes. I mean, that's true. And also that with it. Yes. Yes. I mean, that's true. And also that never stops.

Like, I think we think when we get older and we're like, I'm an adult now and now I know how things are. So, you know, I don't do that anymore or whatever. But everyone's constantly improvising. Yeah. Right. Like, that's all we're ever doing. I remember having that thought. I think maybe it was on Mushroom or something like that.

I was like looking at streetlights and sidewalks and mailboxes. And I was like, all of this stuff was improvised. So I was like, I'm going to design. It's like, what do you think? It's like, I think that works. Why don't we add this? Okay, that looks good. Okay, well, let's just put it up.

You know, like, do you want to standardize it? Sure, we'll standardize it. But everything's made up. Like all this stuff, this table, the glass, everything around us that's man, man-made. Money. It's money. Yeah. Money's a crazy one to think about the improv that went into creating paper currency. I mean, yeah. I mean, people just wanting to, you know, figure out a civilized way to control

resources. To not have to bring a donkey to the market to get some oranges. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Someone else can do that. I'll just, I'll pay for the service. Totally. Yeah. But it's important to remember that though, because I think people feel locked into life and they think like, oh, this is it. This is how it works. I guess this will be it until I die. You know, basically. Yeah. And I'll have some fun time, you know, but like every, every day you can do incredible things, you know? And so I try to live my life in that way, but that's an improvisational mindset. I like it. So, uh, you, um, your grandpa, I want to ask about your grandfather's death. You kind of,

you explain it in two sentences and it could, it could easily have been a chapter. So this was your mother's father, your father's father, father's father. And this is in Cleveland. And he was a, a polygamist or a philanderer. Yeah. I wouldn't say a polygamist. I don't think it was official. Um, uh, it was unofficially official. I, yeah, he was, uh, yeah, he was a gangster, I guess he ran the numbers. No kidding. Yeah. So he was involved in that, uh, and, and, uh, yeah, he was having an affair with a couple of women, you know, uh, aside from my grandma.

And, uh, apparently he was with a woman at a spot, you know, hotel or motel or something or someone's house. And they were together. And then the other person that another woman that he was seeing, they was cheating with, knew he was there, found him there. And both of them got so angry that they stabbed him to death. Together. I think so. Yeah. That's the story I heard. Wow. Yeah. So he, he died from women.

And yet, but your father, I don't think was a philanderer. Was he, he was kind of a philanderer, not flagrant. No, not, not bad. He just like was dating a lot of women. And when he met my mom, she knew that he was doing that. And, you know, after a while it was like, you got to knock this off. Yeah. And then he did. Yeah. Yeah.

But he had some of it, you know. I definitely have some of that too in me, but I'm not, I don't do it underhandedly. It's like each generation gets slightly better. It's like his father was like, I'm not telling anybody. I'm just doing hardcore cheating. Then my dad was like, I'm just going to date a lot of women. We'll see, I'll go as long as I can until I can't anymore. And then now, and now I'm like, well, I'm dating a few people, but they all know that I'm dating other people. So I feel a little bit more responsible and everyone, everything's above board. Well, you said you're a serial monogamist.

I was. I guess with a little flair. I was a serial monogamist for sure in my 20s. Right. But after 27, after my last breakup, kind of monogamous breakup in my 20s, I hadn't dated anybody else really. Like I just would meet these, this one person and then we would be together and then the steam would run out and then I would, you know, be by myself for a little while and then I would find another person. And then at 27, I just thought to myself, you know what, screw this. I'm just going to date a lot of people. And I would just be dating like seven people at once, but they never knew about each. I wasn't forthcoming about it. I wasn't, I didn't

lie. I just was vague. Yeah. Well, look, if you're in a band that's doing as well as yours was at that age, I think it's pretty acknowledged. That's true. Yeah, it's true. It's too bad. It's a stereotype, but it's a little bit of a stereotype. Yeah, for sure. But you know, it also like, it was exciting. It was super exciting. It was exciting to like, ah, when I go to New York, there's this, there's this lady there. She's really awesome. And when I go to whatever LA, there's this really awesome, you know, and, and that was a wonderful feeling. But you know, it would have been different if I would have had the mindset now, you know. And was it at this point you kind of decided you didn't want to have kids?

Yeah. I think I, I think even when I was a teenager, I didn't want to have kids. I kind of, yeah, I was never really interested in it. I think, I think it's basically because I, I don't know. I just always envisioned myself as kind of an explorer and I didn't want to have connections to things that would stop me from like, Oh, I better not do that because I have to do this. And so, um, and even like with pets, I don't have never owned a pet in my adult life. Damn, you're taking this to an extreme. Yeah. No plants. No, I do have plants. So I have someone who takes care of them. Yeah. I'm terrible. Like,

cause I also, I care about people and things too much. So if I had a pet, I would just be like, Oh my God, that's my pet, that's my pet, you know, and it would never be a dog. So I don't, you know, even a fish would make, I'd feel guilty.

Like I'm leaving a fish, like, oh, the fish, it's, it's, you know, it needs some,

you know, so I just rather not and just go over to people's houses and go like, oh, there's that cool cat. Oh, there's that weird dog,

you know, or my mom, you know, when my mom was alive, like she had her crazy dog and I would play around with that dog. Yeah. It was awesome. I loved it, but I would play around with that dog. Yeah. It was awesome.

I loved it, but I liked being able to walk away. Yeah. Well, my condolences about your mom. She died this year? It was a year ago or something? A year ago, November 1st. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, I just always, I've always followed you on Instagram and you always had beautiful pictures of you guys together. And I always felt like that was a very special relationship. Actually, I marked a passage I wanted to read of you describing your mom. This woman wasn't simply my mother or even my best friend. She was my protector, my guardian. She had defended me all my life against racists and bullies. She had protected me from the anger of my father, made the ultimate sacrifice by telling the man she loved he needed to move away until I'd left home myself. She'd nurtured my creativity. She tolerated my rebelliousness with a good-natured wink. Whenever I'd gone back to Great Falls, she had always been there,

waiting for me, welcoming me, loving me. More than any single person or place, my mother was my home. She was my base, my roots, my power. That's pretty powerful. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, it's true. I mean, you know, I got real lucky with that one. Yeah.

Got real lucky. And she was, it sounds like she had kind of a tough childhood in France. She was working. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't, she hated her mother. Her mother was a pretty terrible person. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't, she hated her mother. Her mother was pretty terrible person and cheated on her father when he was away at war and had like kids and stuff. And when he came back a lot on her own was her father's like, she was definitely a daddy's

girl or whatever, but he was away at war. And then when he came back, he was working as a taxi driver and, uh, you know, but they had a farm that they, in the early days she was on the farm with her father, then the war happened and then he had to go away. So it was like, then she was loved to their mother and her mother was like terrible to her brother. Her brother never allowed her brother Andre to go to school and learn how to read and write and things like that. She kind of kept him stupid on purpose. Really? He would do more labor. No kidding.

Yeah. Not a very good lady at all. And so my mom always hated her and, but had like good relationship with her her aunt uh nanette who was also in the in the war but when she came back she was like a war hero and what did she do in the war she um she was in prison she was in a uh german prison i don't know if it was this i think oh i think it was a concentration camp she was in a concentration camp. I never understood if she was Jewish or not, but I have, I did 23 and me and I have 10% Ashkenazi. Oh, well there you go. And so I'm sure there was something there, but my mom never made it clear.

It was really weird. Um, and, uh, but yeah, so she was there and she survived. She was like a human skeleton and everything. And she like made it out and, uh, helped lead a small resistance like at the towards the very end of the war where things were like fading but she kind of like helped with that and got france's purple heart version of a purple heart and um yeah and was highly decorated that's incredible yeah so so she was really good friends with her and, and, and her aunt was like a protector for her and she loved her father. It was just like, yeah, the war

being on her own, having to try to protect her brother as much as she could. You know, she's just always a fighter, just fighting all the time for, um, classic redhead and French. Yeah. Yeah. Redhead and French. French redhead. Watch out. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. It was amazing. Yeah, she's sick.

And then you talk about it in that passage is that your father was kicked out because he was abusive to you and your mom wouldn't have it. to you and your mom wouldn't have it. But then he comes back right before you leave. He comes back as a result of you knowing that you're going to leave. He's allowed back in the house. Yes. And you describe it as being you were happy for them, which is kind of a big emotional accomplishment for you. Well, yeah. I mean, I didn't really think of it that way just because I was glad that my mom had my dad back, you know, because she loved him and I knew that she did. And I didn't think of him as a bad guy necessarily. And even, I mean, yeah, we, you know, before he left, what led up to him leaving definitely got intense. It wasn't like, it wasn't like being punched or anything like that. It was just the potential of it getting

worse. Well, you got the belt though, right? The belt was a thing, but then like, sometimes I dealt with it in a kind of a comedic way, you know? So it never really, it wasn't like, oh man, you know, like, oh my father, I'm going to, you know, it was never quite there. Cause I always, again, I had that observational way of being in life. And so for me, I kind of tried to twist it into something funny. I tried to make a bit out of it during the moment, you know, it wasn't always like that, but like, for the most part, I tried in some ways. So, so it doesn't feel as traumatic in my mind. I'm not like, Oh, my dad. And you know, it was more like my dad tried it, but he, it didn't quite work. And he was getting more frustrated. And I started getting a little bit more in his face about stuff.

And so I think my mom was like, I think this could get worse. This could turn into something worse. And so I'm going to preempt this. And, and thankfully she did. But then when I would go visit him in Cleveland, when he was living, living in Cleveland with his mother and kind of taking care of his mother and, and the grandfather was there. Um, I mean, you know, it was weird, but it was, you know, he, we went out to movies and, you know, took me out to stuff and we'd go fishing and stuff like that. So, you know, I got to do some dad stuff, but I was glad that he was out there. And then when, yeah. And then when it came time for me to move to Seattle, uh, I was stoked because yeah, I knew that she loved him and that, you know, and that he wanted to come back and now, now they were together again.

And I was like, that's sick. That's good. Right. I'm glad. So, uh, all right. So let's talk about Seattle a little bit. Cause that's a amazing time. You were, you were in this band Micron seven. Uh huh. And I just, I was kind of like curious about that time when you guys would have these late night jam sessions at different places. I guess the 700 Club was one of them. And that people at Erykah Badu would come by. And I forget who else you said.

Chuck Treece. Uh-huh. Drummer. Yeah. From Philadelphia. Did like a bunch of stuff with like the roots and, or, you know, that scene where the roots were from. D'Angelo. D'Angelo.

Yeah. D'Angelo. Yeah. We did. D'Angelo never sat in, but like we'd have musicians that played with him that would sit in like a horn player. Yeah. Yeah. All kinds of people would come through and they would just like come in for that, that jam session. Yeah.

It was awesome. Those times are insane. Right. Right. And so that band, you felt like when it first formed, it sounded like there was some pretty comp, pretty complex music you guys were making. I mean, yeah, we were, we were all Cornish students taking music. So learning jazz.

So there was a lot of pretty educated musicians on board. And the drummer, Zeke Keeble, was a crazy monstrous drummer. He was insane. And I've never played with any drummer that plays like that guy. He had his own thing. It was insane. Yeah, and everybody, you know, Kevin Hudson, amazing bass player, just really solid bass player.

He was great. Everyone knew Jazz Chop, so the stuff that we were doing kind of was a mixture of jazz and our love of modern electronic and rock music that was going on at the time. Right, right. Yeah, and you were in a lot of bands. of modern electronic and rock music that was going on at the time. Right. Right. Yeah. And you were in a lot of bands.

You were in a disco band. That must have been a riot. It was like an eight piece band. I think it was like eight or nine. Yeah. Yeah. It was huge. Yeah.

Four lead singers. And just blowing out the place. People dancing, high energy. Man, it was insane. It was crazy. Because it started, George, the guy who started the whole thing, it was his idea. He basically took people from the band Molasses. So it was almost all of Molasses. It was the drummer, or sorry, the bass player for Molasses, Harry Wirth, who is a sick bass player.

uh the drummer or sorry the bass player from molasses harry worth who's sick bass player um yeah harry worth and uh the keyboard player keith and um i think maybe some of the the horn players uh and then there was george on drums and then i and then myself on vocals and um one of the singers from molasses the lead singer from Elastis was on there. And then this woman who went to Cornish with me was also there. And then this woman, I forget her name. We had a kind of a fourth rotating singer for different reasons. But it was this huge band

and we started playing disco covers, learning them. Casey and the Sunshine Band. All of it. Like every disco hit, I've played every everything. Yeah. Almost everything. Isley Brothers, Earth, Wind and Fire, you know, all of it. Donna Summers. And we learned it. Different singers would take different different ones. I wanted to do Sarah's Smile. And so I did. I got to do Sarah's Smile. I love that song. Hall and Oates. And so.

Oh, Sarah's Smile. Sarah Smile. I love that song. Hall and Oates. And so, and it was just, what an incredible thing to experience this, you know, insanely beautiful music that makes people dance. And we started playing at this, the Phoenix Underground and it's old location. And the guy, Rick, who owned it, it was like a total goth dude. And and his like really hot girlfriend who's with jet black long elvira hair tight leather and he would have a white boa uh a snake around his around his neck and he would dance with her like really slow like to like goth music sisters of mercy and so like that but then like we came into his club and we did disco stuff and it just it ignited it was huge like we were making so much money every night it It'd be like, here's 300 bucks in cash. Whoa. And they were playing

tomorrow night too. So, oh wow. So I just made 600 bucks. Yeah. You know, that was the most money I'd ever made in my life. Right. Um, and it just blew up and it got bigger and bigger. We started playing, you know, graduations and colleges and universities. It was awesome. It was cool. I think I got to wear the outfits and, you know. Well, it's an interesting interlude and it kind of feeds into like you just accepting what, you know, what, what life is offering up because here you are going to this, you know, artistic music school where you're, you're learning, you know, like you're learning

to break the rules and then disco comes along, which is seen at the time as this, you know, death to disco and this is lame music, but at its heart, it's just funk, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's, it's funk. I mean, you know, we, you know, hit explosion was obviously, it was a mixture of music. So it wasn't just necessarily disco, but it was funk. It was like funk and disco for sure. Yeah. And at the time, I mean, remember like the seventies were having like a Dazed and Confused was, was popular. There was this resurgence of the seventies in the nineties. Right. And then even I remember Trip Hop, you know, like when Trip Hop came up, came on the scene and he had like the brand new heavies. Like that stuff was straight, like late seventies groove funk stuff.

And you had like D-Lite. Yeah, I was just going to say D-Lite. Yeah. Which is another like throwback. And then you had Bootsy Collins in the band, Bootsy Collins, Rubber Band band and Bootsy Collins and all these like weirdo, like crossover jazz fusion dudes, you know? So the seventies were making a resurgence in the nineties. So when we hit with that, it was exactly the right timing.

That's amazing. It was insane. Yeah. Yeah. And then I also played in an Afro pop group called Sme Notte. And I played Sukus music. I was the keyboard player. And, you know, so it was just like,

it was, were they African? Oh yeah. Yeah. The two dudes, um, I forget that the name, but they played, they were djembe players. And the, one of the dudes was like a master djembe player. He was insane. What's a djembe? Djem djembe is a large uh skin drum that has like a kind of a hourglass shape to it they're pretty big and they hang off of straps and they and they just play them sometimes they'll be on stands as well but usually worn and then they have these guys would add these like little pieces of sheet metal that would kind of like look like flower petals coming off the sides of it and they had all these like little pierced sheet metal that would kind of like look like flower petals coming off the sides of it. And they had all these like little pierced rings. So they would, they would play it and then they would just kind of make their hands hit

it while they're, while they're playing. So you get this. Right. And, and they're doing these like. It's insane. These guys were crazy. So it was cool to play in that band. And, uh, and that was that sound, just you doing it now sounds like it affected what you do today.

Oh, for sure. I mean, I was lucky. I got to, you know, I got to play in like, you know, in the nineties in Seattle, I played in like probably 20, 20 bands. I played in like a black heavy metal band, punk punk band. I played in a straight up kind of uh like heady heavy metal kind of joe satriani whatever kind of stuff i played in an avant-garde jazz band wayne horvitz four plus one ensemble which was very compositional abstract uh music i played did a ton of performance art weirdo music stuff uh for contemporary dancers and choreographers and And I did the Hit Explosion. I did Micron 7. I did, yeah, I was in classical pieces. I did, I had night,

I made a night where I made an improvised drum and bass band. I had another night that was improvised classical music where I sang operatically. And I had like these string players just like, cause I was like classical music is kind of like the blues a little bit. It has similar chord cycles. And so I just had like these sick players like Brent Arnold on cello and Avon Kang on viola. And they were already improvisers, but they came from the classical world.

So they would just, we would improvise classical music and I would sing classically over it at the Hammer Museum. Was it, was it words or you were just? No, it was just like me making like fake Italian, you know, it was. Do you have tapes of that? No, I don't. Well, I don't, maybe, I don't, I don't, I don't know. I gotta say, if you get the book, one of the cool things is you've got these, what do you call these?

QR codes. He's got QR codes that lead to YouTube videos. And, you know, we talked about that first night you did Rafifi. It's on here. And it really is pretty magic that you captured that moment. That was a turning point moment in your life. And you have a pretty good quality audio. Yeah.

I got lucky on that. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was terrible at preserving anything in the 90s. People were like, hey, do you have stuff from the 90s? I'm like, I don't know. I don't think I do. Super deluxe has it all. Super deluxe. Yeah. And so, um, and the other cool things on there is you have like an early garage band that you play. There's a cut from that and you play. What's fun is you, you can hear you guys talking before you start playing. Yes. And it really feels garagey. Like, Oh yeah, these guys are just figuring out how do you plug an amp in? It's really fun. Four track man. Yeah. Four track shit. Uh, yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah. My friend, uh, Mike, uh, gave, uh, I think he, he had the recording, so he thankfully gave it to us to use for the book. But yeah, I mean, anything, because I was like hearing myself, what was my voice like?

So I actually have a recording of my voice as a 17 year old, you know, which is very rare. I mean, these days it's a dime a dozen, right? Like every kid growing up now has like, we'll have thousands of hours of them recorded in some way. And meanwhile, like me, I have like one or two recordings when I was like 16, maybe, maybe I might, if I look up in the attic, maybe I might find an old cassette tape where I was messing around with recording my voice someday, but that's it. Right. Right. Do you have a studio now in your house? Um, not really. I have a, I have a loop station set up. So if I have song ideas, I can quickly make loops and then, um, save them. So it's, that's, that's about

as close as it gets, but I, I did try to have a studio for a while and I just never used it. Cause again, I'm an improviser. So it's hard for me to go like, I'm going to write music today. Like I don't really write like that anymore. I have to write under pressure. That's the key because then you're not wasting your whole life. Totally. Yeah. It cuts out all the homework. Totally. I always tell people that they're like, you know, like sometimes before like a big show or something, like, albeit like someplace where, I don't know, like I did a guest spot with like

Mark Rebier and Flying Lotus, you know, Brooklyn Steel or something like that. And I'm just like talking to my friends, you know, like on the side of the stage and going like, yeah, you know, it's like, yeah, life, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Yeah. And then someone's like, dude, you're on stage now. I'm like, oh, OK, well, all right. I'll talk to you about it.

Hold on a second. And then I go on stage and I just rock, rock to five, 6,000 people and then just get off stage and go, so anyway, so what I was talking about, it's like, I love that feeling. It's not like I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it in a way that I'm like, whatever. It's more like, I like the feeling of instantaneously being in another incredible reality and then shifting instantaneously into another reality from that. There's, I get on that right that's amazing yeah yeah uh so as far as cordon goes you were there for what seven or eight years eight and a half eight and a half years and are

you do you did you archive all of that stuff yeah i mean all of it's yeah all of it's there um the recordings i mean obviously every show is recorded every show and it's all it's syndicated now so those all exist um but do you have it sort of like uh uh amassed on one hard drive or anywhere or you just sort of know you can find it no i just know i could find i mean if i really want to get in there i could probably contact contact CBS and see if we could get like some of the tapes. Although my, uh, my first officer, Tim Young, um, he, we would do these things called podcasts and we would just record because we'd have all the audio going through the, into the, the iPad. We would record us basically BSing throughout the entire show. But we would especially record when bands would play

on stage, like a guest would be on. And because I would say like, I've said this before, but like about 90% of the bands were just like, okay. They're like, okay. And or what could be called like corporate music. Yeah. And you know, not to say that the artists didn't believe in what they were doing all that stuff but it just wasn't it wasn't that great

and so we would be commenting like live it would be like live over commenting while they were playing and it was you know it never felt bad about it because we were just like oh we're just allowing ourselves to do this it's like we're just going to do this and we don't really mean

any harm you know we're just kind of to do this. It's like, we're just going to do this and we don't really mean any harm. You know, we're just kind of, oh, can you use that chord progression? Okay. So using that chord progression. Okay. There's that soft injured vocal style again. Okay. Oh, I see. That's popular.

Oh shit. Oh, drums aren't really there. Oh, someone's pressing play on a laptop behind the stage. Oh, I see. They're not really playing that. Okay. Whatever. And everyone's just chiming in and it's great.

We have hours and hours and hours of this. And you're backstage doing this. No, we're, we're on the bandstand. You're on the band. Yeah. This is during the show. Yeah. So we're just like quiet. We calmly, like we're up on the microphone, just kind of commenting like this. And you know, they're on stage. It's like, Oh, he's wearing that jacket. I don't know if that jacket's going to get in the way. It's like, oh, a nice try. Almost a little pitchy. It was crazy. But also to be fair, when there were incredible bands like Paramore or, uh, I don't know, people could seriously perform and sing and had something. There was no podcast. Like we, you know, we just listened because it was amazing did you support

any of them support like would you play uh keyboards or anything with the band no that was one of my rules when i joined when i when i agreed to the late night i said we wouldn't be a cover band for okay we wouldn't sub because i just thought it always looked bad whenever i saw david letterman like you know um paul paul shaffer like saying like, you know, Paul Schaefer, like say, yeah, man, you know, like they're like in their suits or whatever. And it's like some hip young artist and they're behind playing. They're amazing musicians, Nick, a hundred percent. They're incredible musicians, but it just looks weird.

It's like these older dudes with like this young singer on there, like jamming, but they kind of look cheesy because they're in suits. And, and I was like, I was like, I don't want that. It's like, if they want to bring a band, like don't be lazy. Right, right. Like spend some money, bring a band. So if the band,

if you had to rank the late night bands, I'm going to read you the ones that I wrote down. You tell me the order they go in. Okay. Fred Armisen and the AG band on Seth Meyers. I didn't hear them enough to know, but I would say they're probably solid up there. The Roots? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they're solid. Again, like top three or four for sure. John Batiste on the Colbert show? uh an amazing band an amazing band yeah top five for sure uh letterman's band paul shaffer anton fig uh an amazing band like an amazing band but it was also kind of they were like a mid like you know in the talk show history they were like kind of middle i guess uh they were amazing musicians, they were like kind of middle, I guess. Uh, they were amazing musicians, but they were kind of like studio musicians and they, you know, played covers and things. And, uh, they had a good time. It was good. It was like a

studio musician jam-a-thon and it was dope. But as for like my tastes of what I would consider, like, Ooh, that's interesting. You know, like I would be like, they're solid as fuck, but I don't know. I think they did a good job. And you did, I don't know if you remember, my best friend was the head writer over there, Mike Gibbons. Do you remember Mike Gibbons? Oh, I do. Yes. Totally.

Yeah. So he, he told me that once in a while they would have the balls to give him a note to bring to you. Like, can you ask Reggie if he'll do something like this? And then they'd come back and they'd be like, did you tell Reggie? And he'd be like, yeah. Is he going to do it? No. It's true.

It's true. I mean, I wasn't trying to be difficult. It's just, you know, but also it was to be expected. I told them, you know, they knew, yeah, yeah, we'll come up with something. And then we would like kind of riff on something and we play it to him like really quietly, like the instruments that you couldn't hear from the audience that were going direct. They would play and be like, what do you think about that? And he'd be like, oh yeah, that's perfect. I'd be like, okay, great.

So that's what we'll do. So I was very collaborative in the moment, but there are many times when they would ask me, I'd be like, no, that's not going to happen. And what was the thing you used to do? Reggie's question. Oh, Reggie's question. Yeah. And where did that come from?

That came from Comedy Bang Bang. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. They never said it officially, but it totally came from Comedy Bang Bang because Scott Aukerman would always ask me to ask Reg, do you have a question for me? And they're like, they just took that. Was Scott upset about that? You know, I never asked Scott about that.

I should ask Scott about that. That'd be kind of interesting. Yeah. I'm sure Scott was like, whatever. I mean, it wasn't my idea. So, I mean, maybe, maybe Scott's like, maybe he's like micro harboring this thing, thinking that I, I took it, but I'm to clear that up with it. But, uh, yeah, it was just the same thing.

So I would ask a question, just a random improvised question to the guests. Uh, and yeah, they just let me say whatever it was. What's the best question you ever asked? Oh man, I don't know i mean they i think vulture once like ranked the the questions for like a year every year they would release a ranking like the best or whatever i don't remember because they're always improvised but i i mean i remember asking obama about aliens no existence of aliens. Really? That was cool. Yeah.

That's amazing. Yeah. What did he say? It was the first time apparently in history that he, and I guess technically an American president or former president actually made comments. I think I remember him kind of going like, there's something there, but he didn't get into it. Yeah. Yeah.

He was just like, there's phenomena and there are things that are unexplainable how they move and like why something is able to move like that and those types of things but we don't know but you know so he was just kind of he was reaffirming what we already knew you know from the footage and stuff like that but that was pretty cool what what's your take on alien life because it seems like it's bubbling up to the surface in the last couple years doesn't doesn't it? Yeah. There's, I mean, it's an interesting time. Some people think it's part of a disinformation operation, um, uh, some kind of thing before something might happen. You know, it's very conspiracy theory. I, I, I kind of, I don't like conspiracy theories so much. I, I hold them lightly in my hand, but I don't know. It's hard to say if

there are, I did this on Rogan. It was so funny when I talked about this on Rogan the whole time, I was like, I don't know. I don't know. And I watched it. I was like, what are you doing? Just fucking talk. But, uh, so here's my chance, but yeah, I mean, I think that it is possible that there are, there is alien life that has visited the planet or has already been here a very long time. And maybe there are remnants of it in some way that are left over. I hold that completely possible. But I also like harder explanations. It's very weird why we don't have, there's no evidence. And I don't try,

I don't think you, I don't think we're that great at suppressing information that this many decades gone by, let's say like a hundred years of human, whatever, uh, existence can't keep alien technology secret. I think that's almost impossible. Yeah. And also weird why there just hasn't been a direct communication. So that's weird. There's a lot of questions. Definitely like some of the, like there's that incident that happened, I think it was in South Africa where there's like an alien craft was, it was at a school and a bunch of kids found this craft and there was this being standing outside of the craft and it was communicating to them telepathically. And they interviewed the kids later and they all had the exact same story. Really?

And they had the same description and they're kids, you know, so like, why would they get together and lie? And it was, they're just very, they thought what they saw was real. And when I hear things like that, I'm like, wow, that's pretty incredible. But then I zoom away and then I go into simulation theory. And so if this is a simulation, if this world is this reality that we're experiencing is some form of a collective simulation, then that's an interesting thing to think about. What are our aliens? Are they versions of ourselves? Like observe different observational forms of ourself within the

simulation. Um, are they, uh, just put in there as anomalies to make life interesting in the simulation? I don't know. It's, it's kind of strange. I definitely think there's something because there's, I've seen, you know, I've seen UFOs in Montana. I think I talk about it in the book. Um, and I couldn't explain what they were. There was no explanation. I'm not going to say that they were aliens, but I definitely saw something that back in 1986, I don't think we had that technology. So I don't know what it is. Uh, or maybe we did have that technology. Maybe we're like what we seeing today when we see a stealth fighter and a stealth bomber, that's 20 years, 30 years, 40 years behind what we actually have.

Yeah. Who knows? Right, right. But I think it's great. I think that people are talking about it. I just don't want people to get into a conspiracy hole where. I think you got to keep a question mark on everything. I think that this culture today is very emphatic about having opinions as opposed to saying, hey, here's something we should ponder and question a little bit.

You know, we don't know the answer, but. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's healthy to be open minded. Yeah. You don't have to believe every stupid thing that someone, especially when it's a fear based thing. Right. Because conspiracy theories generally, they function off of, it's curiosity, but it's also the desire for something fearful to be real.

Right, right. And I think that's what hooks people because they get that dopamine rush of like, oh man, it's like, it's all coming in. So it's crashing in on us. There's something out there and it wants to get us. Yeah. Conspiracy. Yeah.

And I just don't believe that humans are smart enough to hold conspiracies to that level. I think conspiracies exist. Yeah. Like the Kennedy assassination. It's like, you know, how many people would have been complicit in that? And none of them really came forward. Yeah, totally. Or the moon landing, you know, people are like the moon landing was staged. It's like, yeah, that is true. But it's also not true. They did stage. They had a stage that simulated the moon because they were practicing and they were getting shots and things like that. But we actually did go to the moon.

Yes. And so and people it's so funny. It's just people bending themselves into pretzels about that. And I'm like, do you know how hard it would be to keep scientists? They're not really they're not spies. No. They're scientists. Yeah.

They're engineers. And you're going to, you're going to hold like a thousand scientists and engineers to, you're going to make them not talk about something. It doesn't make any sense. You got a janitor. You got a lot of auxiliary people that are walking around. Yeah. Yeah. People like, like, you know, putting paper back in the shelves, whatever, restocking things.

Like, of course, I just don't, I don't buy it. Yeah. I don't buy it. There's fun to think about. All right. Well, listen, I'm going to let you go. But before we go, I like to close out with, it's called Fastballs with Fitz. I'm going to ask you a question.

You're going to answer it. Sure. There's two types of people in the world. Go. People who, yeah, people who wish to know themselves and people who, yeah, people who wish to know themselves and people who are too lazy to figure that out. Yeah. Fearful or lazy? I think it's lazy.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I like it lazy? I think it's lazy. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I like it. All right. Listen, Reggie Watts book. I cannot recommend it enough. Great Falls, Montana, Fast Times, Post Punk Weirdos and a Tale of Coming Home Again.

It's funny. It's rock and roll. It's, it's, it's just, I like it because it's, it's rock and roll it's it's it's just I like it because it's it's you you really captured I think yourself in a in a

in a tome and I look forward to the next one oh man thank you very much thanks for having me you got it it was great alright you