Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Jeff Ross Encore

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

GGACP continues its celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month with this ENCORE of an interview with “Roastmaster General” Jeffrey Ross (Lifschultz) from way back in 2014. In this episode, Je...ff talks about some of his favorite roasts -- and roast jokes -- and recalls his friendships with showbiz icons Buddy Hackett, Bea Arthur and Sid Caesar. PLUS: "The Aristocats"! Jeff sees Uncle Miltie's "son"! And Gilbert chimes in on his infamous performance at the Hugh Hefner roast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:46 Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. You know, a lot of people know me from celebrity roasts. And whenever I show up at a celebrity roast and I look at the dais and I see Jeff Ross is there. I know I can't slack off, but Jeff Ross is a master roaster. He's been called the Roastmaster General. He's a comedian, comedy writer, and he knows about old-school comedians. He was at the Friars Club and just would talk and socialize with all the old-timers. He was friends with Milton Berle and yes we do touch upon the famous legend of Milton Berle. So stay tuned. Ladies and gentlemen, Jeff Ross.
Starting point is 00:02:05 This is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast, and I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. Hi, Gilbert. And usually, we have a... Don't interrupt, sorry. Usually we like to have comedians on the show, but this time luckily we have a singer. Let's hear it for the Dulcet Tones of Jeff Ross.
Starting point is 00:02:39 Hello Frank, hello Gilbert, Jeffrey. You are sort of beautiful. To me. I keep my guitar around the house, it keeps me company. Yes. Thanks for coming down, fellas. What an honor to be on the, what is it, third episode of your shitty podcast?
Starting point is 00:03:01 Yeah. That's it. What a treat. It's been my dream for days now to be on this podcast. It's actually like the 11th episode. Don't get carried away with yourself. Yeah, this is a real treat. Thanks for coming over my house with a sound guy and three sets of headphones. It's great.
Starting point is 00:03:19 These hostage videos have a bigger budget than this. It's great. Gilbert Gottfried has a podcast because looking at him is tough. So if we listen to him... It's great. Yeah, turn up the volume, folks. This is one you really... You want to hear Gilbert at full volume today.
Starting point is 00:03:41 Gilbert, you could do a podcast just by talking out the window. Yeah. Everybody would hear you anyway. This is pointless to try to tape it and record it. Just stand on the roof of your building and the whole country can hear you. It's great. You got Frank here to add no personality. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:04:07 Why don't you tell us about Jerry Lewis? What's that? Why don't you tell us about your night out last night? Last night I had a, there was an Abbott's dinner at the Friars Club for Jerry Lewis. It's the anniversary of the Nutty Professor, so he had a little party, which was really fun. I mean, that's the thing about the Friars Club, and Gilbert knows this, is you get to meet your legends, you know, people you grew up admiring, like Shecky Green, for instance. Oh, yes! Well, I got to see his ass as he was running out on my act.
Starting point is 00:04:42 Unbelievable. I have my own thoughts about that, but we can talk about that later. Oh, that's good. Jerry Lewis. I'd like a guest who's ready to talk off the air. No, I'm saying you want to talk about Jerry Lewis first, then we can talk about Jackie Green. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:04:57 Okay, let's talk about Jerry first, because I think he's a little bigger than Jackie Green. Probably. Yeah. It was super fun. Jerry looks great. He was super fun. Jerry looks great. He was so funny. He made a great speech.
Starting point is 00:05:07 And I said, Jerry Lewis is the recipient of such an honor knowing you, Jerry. A lot of people don't know he's the recipient of the French Legion of Honor Medal, which is the equivalent here in America of, say, winning a Latin Grammy. I said, Jerry Lewis is big in France, then again the French don't even know when they stink. It was super fun. Larry King was there, the former hunchback of CNN. It was a great time.
Starting point is 00:05:44 I said Larry King is the comedy what Martin Luther King was the comedy. It was fun. Brought up some classics. Now you knew Milton Burrell. That's right. Yes. There's a picture of him in this house right over there of my very first roast. Yeah it's great. Milton's last roast as Roastmaster was the first one that I was ever invited to be a part of. Did you know that? No.
Starting point is 00:06:11 Yeah. Was that the Steven Seagal roast? It was in 1995, I think it actually was, a roast of Steven Seagal. It was right after a year where they couldn't get anybody. They roasted Whoopi Goldberg the year before and there was all this controversy with Ted Danson. Oh, in blackface. Which, you know, the roast anything goes. So the next year, you know, maybe it wasn't
Starting point is 00:06:34 as hip to do the roast and I got the call as an unknown comedian from Gwinnage Village. They'd seen me at a golf tournament making fun of Freddie, Freddie Roman. Oh yeah. Yeah. So they said, oh, he's kind of roasty. He could probably do it. And I didn't, back then you couldn't YouTube, but the roasts were only these private events. So I had to go to the Museum of Broadcasting and I looked up the roasts, Dean Martin and
Starting point is 00:07:00 all that stuff, and I kind of got a feel for how you make fun of not just the honoree, but the other people. I didn't care about Steven Seagal so then I saw, oh I can make fun of Milton Berle and Henny Youngman and Buddy Hackett and I go, oh alright, well it's more about camaraderie, I get that. And you know the best joke wins kind of a thing, you have to have smart jokes, it's a good audience. So I worked weeks on it and I had my one nice suit that I bought for the Letterman show and I went up to the New York Hilton, probably 1500 people and it was like my arena. I loved it right away just to see all those people packed into a ballroom at noon, which
Starting point is 00:07:42 for a comedian is the middle of the night. I only slept a few hours, but my eyes were wide open. I couldn't, and you had socialites and politicians and movie directors. And suddenly I wasn't just doing comedy downtown for a bunch of drunks and stoners. It was like, oh, this is like sober comedy. This is smart, witty, you know, roasting. It was totally different. And Milton Berle was hosting and it was just crazy to just see him live in person saying dirty words. Because you never saw that in clips or anything. Wasn't he poking you in the ribs through the whole...
Starting point is 00:08:21 He finally brought me on and towards the end, it wasn't a particularly great roast. Steven Seagal was not necessarily a good sport. He was wearing his ridiculous karate suit. You'd think Steven Seagal would be the funniest guy there. Yeah. His movie, oh, what was it called? Oh, yeah, one of his crazy.
Starting point is 00:08:46 Hard to kill? No, not even that good. Under Siege. Under Siege 2. I'm sorry I know that. Oh, 2 had just come out. Not as good as 1. I think it was actually better than 1 was what people say.
Starting point is 00:08:57 None of them are as good as 3 and 4 though. Movies always get better the more you make. They get better at it. You know, get better the more you make. They get better at it. You know, under siege. He would just get fatter every one. But I never really saw his movies. You know, it wasn't really, he wasn't the draw for me. The draw for me was being able to write special material, practice my joke writing, and then have these great comics around. Just, it would have been a cool story, you know? So I did it for the adventure. And I went up there and Milton Berle gave me a terrible introduction.
Starting point is 00:09:30 I didn't know him. He didn't know me, obviously. He said, our next comedian is just back from Las Vegas where he emceed a convention for lesbians with dildo rash. Jeff Ross. He just Jeff Ross Plug me into one of his joke file jokes and It was Just off and running I looked out and I said a lot of you don't know me I looked out at this huge crowd a lot of you don't know me, but I feel I looked at Steven Seagal It was right to my left. I feel uniquely but I feel uniquely qualified to be here today because I'm also a shitty actor So it was self-deprecating but also a great joke on Steven Seagal and
Starting point is 00:10:14 I Had a few good ones and every time I got a big laugh Milton had these giant fingers with pointy fingernails Yeah, and every time I got a big laugh. he was sitting right next to me on the other side. He would poke me right in the ribs and I would jump, I would flinch. Every time I got an applause breaker, a big laugh, he'd, boom, he poked me really hard. And the only person who'd ever done that in my life was when I was at my bar mitzvah, my canter did it to relax me. While I was doing my haftorah, I remember him poking me a little bit and I
Starting point is 00:10:53 never understood it and because that had happened one other time in my life, I kind of let it go for a while. So I just figured it's something Milton's doing to make me not nervous. I don't think I even, I didn't have the time to think about why he was doing it. I had 1500 people watching me do my first roast. I was... So, was it that Milton couldn't stand the idea of someone else getting a life? I only figured that out later. Yeah. But in the moment, I was just sort of exasperated. And after a few pokes, I looked at him and I was like, what are you doing? I stopped.
Starting point is 00:11:30 I stopped. And he used that as an opportunity to leap up and start heckling me. So in other words, he was just not going to let me go on a roll without him being involved. So I said, oh, a lot of, you never know what you're gonna see walking around New York. I was just riffing. I said, I was walking around downtown yesterday. I saw Milton in an antique shop, 1200 bucks. Which is really just an old Angela Lansbury joke I did on Letterman a couple of weeks
Starting point is 00:12:00 earlier. And it worked. He came back at me and then, you know, I was holding my own for a couple of rounds with Milton and finally way down at the far end of the dais, Buddy Hackett, who didn't even have a microphone, but he had that booming voice that everyone knew. He just said, Milton, let the kid work. Remember when you used to? That's great. And Milton took off down the end of the dais and just planted one on Buddy Hackett's lips. Wow.
Starting point is 00:12:32 And I said, Buddy Hackett and Milton, bro, between the two of them, they have over a hundred years of homosexual experience. Which made no sense, but it was just off Milton's kiss. And that was it. Milton gave me a nice round of applause and I sat back down and we all went back to the club and I was having a drink with Buddy Hackett. And it was just like, here I was with these, the Mount Rosemore of comedy, here they were.
Starting point is 00:12:58 I said to Buddy, why do you think Milton would have done that to me? What was going on there? He said, oh, he just can't take it when comedians are getting big laughs, so he wants to be disruptive. Wow. A trial by fire.
Starting point is 00:13:13 And then I went to Milton, and Milton didn't drink, but he was at a different part of the Friars Club after party, the after party, and I said, you know, Mr. Burl, that was so exciting. That was my first roast. Is there any advice you could give me? You know, not addressing what he did directly, just to see, I don't know why. And he said, you know, what I remember from him saying was basically, they only remember the home runs. In other words, you don't need to be on for 10 minutes. You can be on with just the big, big, you know, swings. So maybe I was going on too long,
Starting point is 00:13:47 or maybe I'd have a huge joke and then a little joke and he... I didn't know what was going to work. It wasn't like I could go to the comedy cellar and try out roast jokes. It might as well be talking Latin. They didn't know what a roast was. It was a lost art, like jousting or journalism or something. So I took a lot from that. And I do still think about that. In other words, I only remember the home runs. I try to keep my sets tight and big swings only. Fun, fun day. I have pictures of it in my house and Milton was uh he was around after that and we became friends but um he didn't host another roast after that. Now of course if you discuss Milton Burl you have to get to one subject. Of course. His penis.
Starting point is 00:14:37 Yes. What do you want to know? So have you seen it? I have it in a box in my living room. It's next to a Henny Youngman's violin. I did get a glimpse of it once. I don't know if I've ever told this story. Milton Berle's penis, ladies and gentlemen. We were at the Friars Club in Beverly Hills and he was very frail at the time. He might even have been in his wheelchair. And why is that funny? I'm just, I'm thinking wheelchair and penis.
Starting point is 00:15:13 There's something very... That reminds me of another joke. Okay. I was at a birthday party for Sid Caesar. Okay. Did you see his penis? Not yet. No.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Okay. May his penis rest in peace. But Milton was there and I was doing Sid Caesar's birthday party. I was the young comedian that they had on the show and otherwise it was all Sid's pals. But Sid liked me and he asked me to do this thing, which I believe is even out there somewhere. You could buy it in one of the Sid Caesar's DVD collector sets of my birthday show for Sid Caesar. I was at that show.
Starting point is 00:15:56 Oh, you were? I was there. Well, there you go. Yep, it was a great night. Thank you. Stan Lee was there and you were on. And Milton Berle, I introduced, I said, oh, it's such a treat to be here for a student.
Starting point is 00:16:07 I see, you know, the great Milton Berle is here and he brought a wheelchair for his cock. And Milton leaped right out of his wheelchair and started coming back at me as he off of wood. He was a great guy, Milton. He called me once, I forgot exactly why, it was some Friar's Roast business, but he called me once in a hotel. And I was in Montreal for a gig,
Starting point is 00:16:36 and the phone in the hotel rings back, you know, a long time ago now, and you know, it's Milton Berle. And of course I'm like, hello, Alon. I thought it was Elon Gold doing impression's Milton Berle. And of course I'm like, hello, Alon. I thought it was Elon Gold doing impression of Milton Berle. There's no way Milton Berle had tracked me down at a hotel in Montreal, but he did. And we became lunch buddies. We would often sit at the fires club in Beverly Hills and he got me smoking cigars. He put one in my nostril, no in his nostril, he had the big, big nostrils. And he said, you don't smoke? No, I don't smoke. And he
Starting point is 00:17:13 stuck one in his nostril deep and he inhaled, he said, if it smells like horse shit, it's a real Cubano. And then he took that out of his nostril and popped it right in my mouth. He said that Fidel Castro sent him a box of Cuban cigars every Christmas, which I have no reason to believe is not true, since he played Havana in the old days. Wow. Now, but you did see his penis. And on one of those lunch days. Because you got sidetracked. I did.
Starting point is 00:17:54 I was eating lunch with him and he asked for help getting up out of his chair and over to the men's room. He's very, very old and very frail at this point in his life. And he went into the men's room and he was urinating at the urinal, with one shoulder kind of leaning up against the partition because he was weak. And then I just said, you know what? Fuck it. I'm going to go pee next door. Maybe Gilbert Godfrey will have a podcast someday. I'll be too. I'll be too.
Starting point is 00:18:28 I'll be too. Very precious. I'll be too. I'll be too. I'll be too. Very precious of you. So I did, I, you know, I tried to look straight ahead and have my eyes go to the side and you know what?
Starting point is 00:18:39 It was gigantic. It was fucking gigantic. Milton Berle had a huge cock. It's nice to meet your heroes, isn't it? You have to not be disappointed. Well, there was two heroes at once. Milton and his cock. So it was like long and wide? You know, he was peeing. This is more detailed than I anticipated. Tell me about the veins and everything.
Starting point is 00:19:03 But I saw a lot of girth. You know, I saw, and that's what I remember. I never saw the whole thing because his hand was covering a big portion of it. I should say a small portion of it. He knew I saw it. There's no question that he wasn't giving me the opening. I mean, at some point, I think that he, you know, passing the torch, if you will,
Starting point is 00:19:31 he wanted one more witness from the younger generation to know that these weren't just jokes made up out of thin air, that the legendary jokes about Milton Berle's penis were indeed based in reality. I said that I was roasting one of the Yankees once, Joe Torrey in New York and Milton was there and for some reason, you know, Milton, I wanted to work him into my baseball jokes. They said, Milton Berle's cock is so big it has a warning track. Somewhere there's a tape you can hear Milton and Billy Crystal laughing. The old days. This is fun.
Starting point is 00:20:12 So you've confirmed that Milton Berle has a giant cock. Had a giant cock. Right. May it rest in peace. May it roast in peace. Now who... okay, and you knew Buddy Hackett. Of course. Well, of course, Alan King. Alan King here in New York and Buddy Hackett out in LA. And Buddy became sort of a mentor, didn't he? Buddy was a good buddy.
Starting point is 00:20:36 Very, very good pal of mine. Yep. I met him at the Friars Club as well. I was in the elevator going to uh, this is before this roast even. Yeah. Before I ever saw him, you know, perform, you know, I saw him perform when I was a beginner comedian, but um, the first time I actually met him was in the elevator at the Friars Club. I was going up to play poker with Greg Fitzsimmons and Elon Gold, and um, that was a big deal to get invited to the Friars to play poker because we'd to play poker with Greg Fitzsimmons and Elon Gold. And that was a big deal to
Starting point is 00:21:05 get invited to the Friars to play poker because we'd always played poker in our crappy studio apartments, you know. And suddenly we were able to go eat with a waiter taking care of us and fancy clay chips. And you're at the Friars Club, you never know who you're going to see. So I'm taking the elevator up to the card room, the George Burns card room, poker room, whatever it's called, and we stop on the second floor and Buddy sort of waddles on with that walk of his and oh man, I'm like wow, there's Buddy, you know, so I got to say something. Mr. Hackett, I just want to say you were my parents' favorite comedian and I, you know,
Starting point is 00:21:41 I'm a comedian also and it's just such an honor to meet you." And he shook my hand and he looked me right in the eyes and said, "'You know who hates farts the most? Midgets. They live at ass height." And the elevator opened up and he walked off and he didn't say anything else. I didn't see him again until let Stephen Seagal run. Now, you also knew, as I also hung out with him like a handful of times, Henny Youngman.
Starting point is 00:22:16 You know, I didn't know Henny as well. Did you know him well? I remember, I ran into him a handful of times and had lunch with him once. When I was a little kid, my Aunt Bess took me to the Carnegie deli before a matinee. She would take me to Broadway shows. She was, she had basically a widow and she had a little more money
Starting point is 00:22:41 than everyone else in the family. So if I wanted to see something or, you know, so she would take me to matinees, whatever. And I was probably 12, 11. We walk into the Carnegie deli and Henny Youngman's at a front table there. And I kind of knew who he was. You know, you knew the name, you looked familiar, I kind of got it. But I remembered my aunt said, oh, Henny. He kind of recognized her the way we do. Right away she said, how's, whatever Henny's sister's name was, it was an old like, how's Bitty or something like that.
Starting point is 00:23:23 And Henny, oh yeah, yeah, oh she's fine. And they talked about old friends for a second. And Henny gave me a card, which I still have, that has a music note on it. And I remember seeing, and I went to that deli a couple of times last week after my shows at Caroline's. And I thought about that moment, because now here I am, the comedian sitting there. And it's just so fascinating, because Henny worked and worked and worked. He always seemed to either need or want a gig.
Starting point is 00:23:53 And I remember right up until he was in a wheelchair, him showing up at stuff that I would be doing around town. We would do a sketch on the USA Network, or a tribute to somebody at the Friars Club and Henny would be there still working, still loving it, still in the gig. They would have to feed him the lines one by one. He was very old. I think he probably lived to his 90s, right?
Starting point is 00:24:20 I just was inspired by the fact that there was still a place that you could walk into, the Friars Club, where Henny Youngman got treated like royalty, even when most of the rest of the world had forgotten about him. He still could walk in and sit at a table at the Friars with the Leroy Nieman portrait of him right on his side and make him feel good. To me, one of the great things about the Friars Club is that it's like, you know, everyone still knows your name. LARSON I remember hearing a story about Henny Youngman that he was working somewhere in a hotel and he was going down the elevator after his,
Starting point is 00:25:01 or between, he was doing two shows that night, and in between, he was gonna go back to his room, and this guy comes in, he goes, I'm getting married, can you tell some jokes at my wedding? And he said, all right, like $100, and they passed around that. Really? He got off the elevator, in between floors, got off the elevator, went to the wedding, performed, and then went back for the second show.
Starting point is 00:25:27 Wow. For $100? Yeah. You think he just loved the... He didn't need the $100, did he? I don't know, but he made $100 just for five minutes. Where did you eat lunch with him? Oh, I remember we had the same agent at the time William Morris. Yeah, he'd always do jokes about that, right? Oh, yes and He comes up to me he's he's walking down the street with his violin case and I put my hand out to shake hands
Starting point is 00:26:01 And he hands me the violin case and I put my hand out to shake hands and he hands me the violin case. And we go into the restaurant and he says to the maitre d says, give us a table near a waiter. And then when we're walking to the table, a pretty girl walks by and he goes, you look tired. Why don't you go up to my room and lay down? And then he reorder and then he says, waiter, call the police. And he goes, why?
Starting point is 00:26:32 He goes, because our food's being held up in the kitchen. And then he said, are you married? And I said, no. And he said, what do you do for aggravation? One time I was walking on 55th Street I had just become a member of the Friars Club and he was still sort of you know it was very probably the mid 90s so he was still walking in and I was probably 10 feet behind him. He didn't really know me at that point, but I see Henny Youngman's walking in ahead of me,
Starting point is 00:27:12 so I'm watching him. And as we're crossing the street, a pigeon lands right by his feet and he goes, anybody call? Any messages? He said, any messages? He did it for himself. That was what was so great about it. He didn't know I was behind him. Nobody was with him. He did it for himself, which, you know, at a certain point, it's a reflex, right? Any messages?
Starting point is 00:27:42 Jeff just looked at him and said, no. And I was up at his apartment where he had a collection. It was a tiny apartment, but he had one room that was a collection of just gag items. What do you mean? Well, like he had a card that had like two dish washing liquids and it says, here's a picture of my pride and joy. So that's what he would give people who asked for. Yes. And he had another card that was made out of that kind of
Starting point is 00:28:16 paper, like the federal express type envelope paper that you can't rip. And it was a card that would say that you'd hand to a girl and a bar and it would say if you want to have sex with me oh he goes if you don't want to have sex with me rip this card up. Unreal. Let me ask you about the time. I love sorry I mean sure I love that It was you know, unapologetic Shtick yes, I'm the comedian. I'm not trying to be cool. I am doing the most
Starting point is 00:28:53 Over-the-top right to the stomach joke, you know, I missed that kind of comedy just where Just don't they still have his his his fiddle still hanging in the Friars Club, isn't it? Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, up in that George Burns room. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast, but first a word from our sponsor. Getting your kids to school safely is important to you. It's important to us too.
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Starting point is 00:30:12 We also have top table games like our incredible Super Spin Roulette, Blackjack, and a huge selection of slots. So there you have it. How can you match that? Check out Prize Matcher and see why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older Ontariorio only please play responsibly if you were someone you know as concerns about gambling visit connex ontario dot c a t's and z supply how did you in gilbert first meet I think why do you think why do you think Frank why do you think Henny had such a small what why didn't he have a nice place and help and why did he live like that into his old age? It's interesting.
Starting point is 00:30:45 Boy, he's married, wasn't he? I don't know. That's what I mean. I don't know enough about him. And I think because he lived directly across the street from William Morris, he once hung out a sign outside his window that said, hire thy neighbor. And working at a wedding for $100, living in a small apartment. You got to admire the work ethic.
Starting point is 00:31:08 You wonder what happened to his, or I guess he never had a big break, but if we're still talking about him all these years later, he must have made some money. You got to wonder. Well, he never had that series. He never had that sort of that mega break, but I mean, he was always working. Right. And you don't retire, he didn't retire. No.
Starting point is 00:31:27 How did you guys meet? I think our listeners would be curious to know. What listeners? Exactly. Exactly. And we can move on to the next question. The wife and girlfriend, that's the listeners. Don't tell me I'm not setting you up.
Starting point is 00:31:37 You guys meet at Catch, years ago? I don't know, I don't remember meeting Gilbert. Gilbert was just somebody who I suddenly knew. Yes, I remember. You remember? I don't know. I don't remember meeting Gilbert. Gilbert was just somebody who I suddenly knew. Yes. Do you remember? I don't know. Did we know each other before CSI? Did we ever talk?
Starting point is 00:31:54 We must have, but that's a good point. I bet that was our real bonding. Yeah. Yeah, because I don't remember any specific times where I got to talk to you until then. You were both on a CSI episode? Yeah. Me, Jeff, and Bobcat Goldsweight. And it was CSI, like the Vegas original one.
Starting point is 00:32:19 And I was playing a comedian, a TV star comedian, who was going back to his home club in Vegas. You were kind of like a Seinfeld. I don't think so. I think it was more of a rock star comedian. A leather jacket and chains and something like that. And a little bit of dice in there, very macho, tough guy to act.
Starting point is 00:32:43 And I wasn't doing it, and I had a catchphrase, I forgot what it was, it was very annoying. And Oh my God, because I remember we discussed this, like these writers who don't understand how a joke is constructed or how a catchphrase. And it was something like, it's a terrible life, don't you just love it? Oh yeah, you're right, it was something like that. It was awful, it didn't flow at all. Right, so I didn't really have any funny shtick,
Starting point is 00:33:17 and I mentioned Dane and Dyson, only in that it was supposed to be like a very sort of charismatic, over the top personality. But as far as the comedy of it, it's so funny when drama writers try to write for someone to play a comedy. It would have been better to just get one of those guys probably to do something funny. But anyway, one of the characters put, the whole thing was that I die on stage. Yes. Everyone hates me. I have this annoying catchphrase. I'm really mean to the audience. And then
Starting point is 00:33:55 every time I take a sip of my drink, I'm killing myself. So by the third or fourth sip, I die right there on stage in front of the audience. And at first they think I'm kidding. And then of course I do one last little shake and I'm dead. And then the whole episode is, in other words, I die in the opening credits. Then they have to figure out if it was Gilbert or Bobcat. Wow. I can't believe I haven't seen this. Required viewing.
Starting point is 00:34:28 Yeah. That's real circoon and doil material right there. Yeah. Yeah. It was a joy split too. You had to decide... Because both of us hated you for stealing our jokes, I think. And then I spent the rest of the week as a dead body on a sled.
Starting point is 00:34:49 And they would see all the other things that I did, like I got a blowjob from one of the waitresses. They put coke on my dick and she had to pretend to be blowing me in the back alley. They flashed back the entire lead up to my murder when they finally determined that Bobcat's character, my opening act, poisoned me. That first they thought it was the waitress, then they thought it was the bartender, or I think Gilbert. What were you playing? I was another comedian. Right. But another one, like basically a red herring there, you know, it's like I said, oh, he's doing my bit at one point, so it's a show.
Starting point is 00:35:23 They got a red herring who actually eats herring. Yeah Now and I think when the waitress is blowing you It's you stop her before you actually come that that's part of your You really remember this episode? Wow. Yes Because that's part of your character. Yeah, I wanted to go out and all revved up. Yes. Right, right, right. So he's...
Starting point is 00:35:48 Wow. It's like Robert Plant. I really remember this. I don't think I ever actually saw the whole episode. It was fine writing. Yeah. And... It was a popular episode because people bring it up all the time.
Starting point is 00:36:02 Somewhere there's a Polaroid I have of me and you know what it was so real dying and then seeing myself as a dead body and all that and and laying there that I did have nightmares for a week or two after that about dying and stuff like that on stage I was very method acting and and this of course leads us to the obvious jokes. Which is... Well, you've died on stage many times. It was cool, but I do remember getting to talk to Gilbert out by the trailers. We had long days. What year is this approximately? This is probably... Early 2000s? No, I can tell you when it was because the Jimmy Kimmel live show had just
Starting point is 00:36:43 launched on ABC. Pete Okay. John Because I was doing both at the same time that week. I was guest co-hosting with Jimmy and doing CSI from seven in the morning to like six. Then Jimmy's show was live back then, so I was able to get there for the night live thing. And I remember they got a kick out of the fact that I wouldn't come to rehearsal, so they would just mess with me and do stuff that night that I wasn't prepared for.
Starting point is 00:37:13 And I only had a half hour to eat and take a shower and get my makeup on, and they'd always have a steak or whatever I ordered. And just as I was about to take a bite, Jimmy's cousin Sal would walk in and knock it on the floor. So I'd have to go on live hungry and pissed off and they thought that was so funny. And didn't you, didn't they film you falling to the ground dead like 50 times in a row? Yeah, they have on CSI. I do remember that it was a there was a beast story in the episode that had children, so there were kids out on location. We were way out in the valley somewhere. It was very, very hot
Starting point is 00:37:53 and you know it was too hot to stay in your trailer, so Gilbert and I would stand outside in the shade and chit chat and do you remember this? Yes. Like two trailers away would be these little kids and their parents or their you know whoever their teacher was on set, their child actors and Gilbert would say really terrible sexual, racist shit just loud enough for them to hear him but not quite know what he said. Not Gilbert. Yeah. Yeah, I was... So you just see the parents kind of look over and then go back and, you know, they would just see us either laughing or trying to cover it up.
Starting point is 00:38:36 Yeah, it's surprising to think of me saying something disgusting. But yeah, I was constantly saying some really disgusting and perverted and big... Oh my God, but it was completely random and had nothing to do with anything. Yeah, I would go out of my way when I see a little kid go by. I don't even think I'm gonna...
Starting point is 00:38:59 I remember the things you said, but I'm not even gonna expose you because it's so out of context. There'd be some little two-year-old girl walking past and forget it. I'd give her a say, boy, I bet she likes, let's just say, NC. I bet she would love some NC. You guys can spend an hour now trying to figure out what that stands for. And if any of you can call with the correct answer.
Starting point is 00:39:28 If you're among our first caller to tell us what NC stands for. That's how we killed time and that's when I realized that Gilbert really had nothing to lose in life. He was completely fine with getting fired from the CSI. I was like, there's a guy who, he knows who he is and where he's going. Where is he going? I admired Gilbert in that he, not only,
Starting point is 00:39:56 what do you call it, pushed the envelope, but he rubbed his dick all over. Yeah. Yeah, I know, I've lost so many jobs since then. That's why. But every time you get in a fight or an argument or you lose a job, it winds up being a part of your street cred. Yeah. You have so much street cred, you'll be living on the streets.
Starting point is 00:40:21 Great. Now, you, you were over... If we could stop talking about NC. Do you have commercials on this? No, no. What happens? And none forthcoming after that story. No. You, you were at, you told me you were at Sid Caesar's birthday party, and who else showed up, that last one,
Starting point is 00:40:48 who you told me? I remember. Oh, this last one. Yes, at his house. Oh, just recently, I mean last year. Oh. Well, he would have his pals back over from your show of shows. You have Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner and Rudy DeLuca
Starting point is 00:41:07 and Dick Van Dyke would be a regular and Sid would have these little dinner parties where he got to, he didn't get out much in the end. He was very frail. Sid Caesar, the great legendary sketch comedian. He was a great guy. Sid had the best laugh. Somewhere I have a picture of him just laughing that I would look at. He was such a great guy. Sid had the best laugh. Somewhere I have a picture of him just laughing
Starting point is 00:41:25 that I would look at. He was such a funny guy. And those writers for your show of shows, they all still cared about him and loved him. He discovered them. He nurtured them. Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, they all say was the smartest, funniest one at all of them. So, I have fond memories of hanging out with Sid and those guys. And just for the Jewish holidays, we all got together at Sid's house just to reminisce one more time, even without Sid, which was really beautiful. Mel Brooks helped organize that. He really, really admired Sid. And, you know, Sid was in a wheelchair. He was sort of, his mind was not as sharp, you know, and he couldn't hear so well. But when Mel Brooks walked in with Carl, they
Starting point is 00:42:16 would always drive in together, Mel would walk right out in front of the wheelchair and get right in Sid's face and he'd say, Sid, it's Millbrooks and Carl Reiner. Like they were on a stage, you know? And Sid would light up and laugh and, you know, you know. Sid would look at him and go, when are we going on? And he'd just joke right back and we got him singing and stuff. And, you know, it's so... One of the fun things is the you know the shows they
Starting point is 00:42:45 come and go you have a gig here and there but the friends you make along the way the relationships yet get to have that's what really sustains us in one of the reasons that i love being a comedian and talk a little bit about the b arthur incident that jeff hardcore comedy fans will know that
Starting point is 00:43:05 you and Bea developed a relationship and it came off of an incident at one of the Comedy Central roasts. Bea Arthur was one of those people who I grew up saying she really is one of the funniest people. I would see her do stuff and see, family crack up at the Golden Girls and when she was on All in the Family I was a little, little boy. Sure. But I didn't ever think I'd be in the same room with her in a million years, you know? This is like, couldn't possibly happen.
Starting point is 00:43:42 So there we are. Suddenly now I find myself producing these Comedy Central roasts for the Friars Club. I'm like a guy who would help put together the deists, the comedians. I'd help people write their material, and Jerry Stiller agreed to be roasted. It was a big honor to him to have a Friars roast his whole life. He said that's roast his whole life. He said that's something he really wanted. And his son, Ben Stiller, came and Janine Garofalo and Jason Alexander, who was at the height of his fame on Seinfeld with Jerry Stiller at the time, and Kevin James and let's see, a bunch of other funny, funny people did that one.
Starting point is 00:44:27 Well, Seinfeld wasn't there and you had a memorable line about why he wasn't there. I said Jerry Seinfeld wanted to be here today, but he's fucking a model on a pile of cash. Right by. But I didn't, you know, sort of a surprise to me, there's Bea Arthur. I probably knew she was going to be there, but it didn't really register of like, wow, I'm up here with her. And I felt a little guilty not mentioning her. I loved her.
Starting point is 00:45:00 I mean, she was somebody who, you know, according to the people who wrote for the Golden Girls and so on and that she was and more that she could you could wrote a B joke in the script she could turn it into an A joke of a home run if you will just by a look or adding a little you know eyebrow to it and suddenly you had a great big blow a great act break or whatever she would just save the day all the time for the writers. Not to say that they didn't have good writers on those shows, but she really could make the writers look good. And I was like, wow, I just can't imagine not calling her out or mentioning her. And I didn't really think to say anything sincere that wasn't my style back then.
Starting point is 00:45:46 I just was swinging for home runs as Milton advised. And here I was just a few years after my first roast and now we're on TV. So now there's cameras that you could have a closeup. You can make fun of somebody and get right in their face. I write down in the margin, I have my script of all the jokes I've been working on, and I write down in the margin, be Arthur's dick.
Starting point is 00:46:17 I don't know what I'm going to say yet or where or when, but I'm late in the show and I'm just watching this all go down and I'm just thinking somewhere in here, I got to mention Bea Arthur's dick. She's the new Milton Berle. And Sandra Bernhard, who I actually love seeing at these roasts because she always tries something different and this time she tried singing to Jerry Stiller. She was doing a cabaret show at the time and she had a little band put together and she always tries something different and I love that about her. And she went out and sang,
Starting point is 00:47:10 I forgot, but she put Jerry's name into a song. It was like Magic Man or something. I can't remember. Somebody- Oh, it was a heart song. It was. Yeah. I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. And didn't necessarily go over as big as she had hoped. And Jerry Stiller, she kind of did a, she like writhed on him. She gave him a little lap dance while she sang it, which if you know Jerry, he doesn't like cursing, let alone he would wince. He'd get very embarrassed,
Starting point is 00:47:38 especially with his wife and his son, Ben Stiller and Ann Meara, sitting not far away, and I think it was a little awkward when suddenly I get introduced. So I don't even get one joke out. I just go, Sandra Bernhardt, holy shit, I wouldn't fuck you with Bea Arthur's dick. And boom. I might as well have just gotten off on that joke. The joke's okay, but they cut to her looking at me as if it was a scene in a sitcom. And she didn't have a response, she just stared at me and let the laugh go and go and go and go and then she did the finger.
Starting point is 00:48:30 She looked at me like, I'm going to get you. Oh yeah. And she just made my B joke into an A moment. And it made me realize how important it is to connect, not just read a bunch of jokes off a piece of paper, but find moments that are real moments and look at the other person and try to make it personal. Don't say joke about someone, say it to them. And that's one of the tricks.
Starting point is 00:49:00 I didn't really see her afterwards. I didn't think too much about it because I did the rest of my roast and I had other responsibilities that day. And then as the weeks and days and weeks went on, I was hearing about this joke everywhere I went. People would stop me on the street and yell, B. Arthur's dick. People would send me pictures of B. Arthur and constantly quote that joke. And I realized that the joke was more famous than I was,
Starting point is 00:49:27 because they wouldn't even know my name, but they knew that I told that joke. And I go, gosh, wow, if I'm hearing about it, I wonder what she's hearing, you know? She must be, someone must be saying something about it to her. And I remember it got written up in Time Out New York as one of the great TV moments of the year and suddenly I thought, this is how like I'm making a career off this ridiculous improv. And quite a bit of time went by and I it became so out of control that I thought I needed to talk to her about it.
Starting point is 00:50:09 I wanted it to be a good memory for her and not weird. And I hadn't done it. I wasn't the roast master, general, whatever, back then. I was just a comedian doing the roast. And I wanted Arthur to be my friend if I ever saw her again. I don't know. I don't know why I did it. I guess I just felt like I needed some sort of closure.
Starting point is 00:50:29 And I saw that she was doing a one woman show in LA at some theater. It was a benefit for, I believe, an animal charity of some kind. So I bought one ticket. I went, I bought flowers. I went to see this show. And it was great. And she sang and told funny stories
Starting point is 00:50:47 And she did the whole thing barefoot at a you know a theater Very beautiful theater in LA and there was a long line of well-wishers afterwards. I somehow got my way backstage and I waited to the end I got on the very end of the line because I wanted to be able to talk to her, and not just rush through for a picture or a handshake. And I handed her the flowers, and she said, thank you. I said, B, maybe I even said, Miss Arthur, I don't know if you remember me, but we met
Starting point is 00:51:22 at Jerry Stiller's, and she goes, you nailed me, I think. And it's a fond memory. She was still one of my all-time favorite funny people. I remember meeting Bea Arthur just once and it was like, it wasn't even like, you know, trying to be funny. It was at some event and I was backstage and I run into Bea Arthur and she goes, you know, hi Gilbert, how are you? And I said, don't find Bea and she goes, so you're still living in the same place? And I go, yeah, and you? And she goes, yeah. And then we're talking, making small talk uncomfortably. And then there's a pause and B Arthur goes, do I really know you or do we just know each other from TV?
Starting point is 00:52:33 And I said, I think we know each other from TV, and she turns around and walks away. Oh wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Starting point is 00:52:43 Wow. Wow. You think she was trying to be funny? I don't know. I figure it was one of those, it really was one of those moments we both saw each other on TV and we assumed we knew each other but we really didn't. So she knew there was nothing to talk about. And we will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling saying I do.
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Starting point is 00:54:12 Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. Now let's talk about, this was one of my finest moments. And you were the producer and the MC and everything. That was at the Hughcee and everything. That was at the Hugh Hefner roast. Mm-hmm. Oh, in 2001. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:32 I was not the emcee, but I was one of the comedians. And I did produce that show. It was just, what, two weeks or two and a half weeks after 9-11 there was still like black smoke in the air all over New York they elected a new pope We were going to do the Hugh Hefner roast in New York and there hadn't been a... He had been the biggest roastery we had done. This was Hugh Hefner at the height of his ridiculousness with seven blonde girlfriends and it was going to be a great roast.
Starting point is 00:55:31 We had so many funny people lined up and suddenly plans change. It was 9-11 and everything obviously shut down in New York. You didn't know what, it was scary and we all know what that's about. And were you in New York at the time? Oh yeah. I was in LA actually. And you know, there's a couple days there where you don't know what's going on and you know, as a comedian you're like, all right, well, I could have some time off. This is not going to be, you know, there's no late night shows, there's no
Starting point is 00:56:09 Sunday Alive, there's no comedy clubs, the world has changed even. Yeah, I remember all of New York was walking around like zombies. Right. And I remember I was riding down in an elevator in my building, there was a guy standing there, and neither one of us said anything, we just kind of like looked at each other and sort of slightly shrugged our shoulders. There was like nothing to be said.
Starting point is 00:56:35 Such a, everybody was speechless and you know, all the news was that it was all bad and there was, you know, missing people so it was an emergency lockdown. There was, that's something for people not in New York, there was all over the city on fences photos of people like they were still looking for them hoping they would show up, hoping they had amnesia from the event and would pop up somewhere. You know, and I remember Dave Chappelle was in my, I had Dave Chappelle and Adam Farrar, the two comedians, were living further downtown and they came to my apartment at 300 Mercer
Starting point is 00:57:18 Street and we spent the night just sort of up on the roof and we walked around and it was kind of like you want to give blood but there were no survivors so the hospital sent us away and you just sort of, you know, you twiddle your thumbs and you go, I'm in the middle of a war zone and I can't do anything to help myself or help anybody else. And I remember with the photos on the fences, all I could think is like, oh oh my god don't these people know these people aren't gonna just pop up right so what do you do you know you you know you're in my apartment and I know even my manager at the time Bernie Brilstein was scared. Old people are scared.
Starting point is 00:58:06 You go, this is some serious shit. What the hell is happening here? And you start to figure out, alright, it was a terrorist attack and it seems to be over. Now New York smells. It's smoldering. Everybody's walking around, including me, with your mouth and nose covered by your shirt because you're essentially inhaling the World Trade Center and everything that was inside. You're inhaling ashes of dead people. Right.
Starting point is 00:58:36 So you start to get stir crazy and by that weekend I went down the street from my apartment to the Comedy Cellar and the only people there were the stragglers tourists essentially from other countries who couldn't get out of the couldn't get out of New York right cuz all the airports were shut down and they were either crashing on couches or in hotels and they wandered in the comedy cellar for some air conditioning and maybe an hour of thinking about something else. I remember doing a couple of jokes. I can't remember what they were.
Starting point is 00:59:16 But I said, no, that kind of felt good actually. Not for the general public, just for the few people that want to hear them. Here they come down to the Comedy Cellar, and then I go home that night, and I'm like, fuck man, it's a cliche now, but back then you say, well, you know, the show must go on or the terrorists win. The terrorists win, that's all you ever heard of. You don't go out with, you know,
Starting point is 00:59:37 and at this point they were winning. We were fucked, this was like, this was 3,000 dead people in the Pentagon and this was like, you know, all is lost. And I go, well, you know, now it's a few days later and I go, what are we gonna do with this roast? We have all these trucks and camera trucks and crew unrented, you know, we have the Hilton rented.
Starting point is 01:00:02 It's all paid for and we have to decide basically by Monday afterwards what we're gonna, if we're gonna, if we're gonna cancel it or we have to commit to these expenses, you know, and with Comedy Central there's always this lavish party afterwards and it's a black tie affair and you know, it's um it's uh would be a Inappropriate But I thought well, what if we cancel the party but do the show? what if we give all the
Starting point is 01:00:41 Proceeds to the party to the Twin Tower fun and Make this almost a benefit. In fact, the first benefit post 9-11 would Hugh Hefner. And I sent it to all of them on that weekend and the response started coming in. And the hardest part would be how to get Hugh Hefner and his blonde pussyposse out to New York because none of the comedians were necessarily going to come unless they felt safe. It was Jimmy Kimmel was going to MC and there was Adam Carolla and Cedric the Entertainer and Sarah Silverman and all these other people that were coming just to be there, there's you and Ice T and Stephen Colbert was there, Stephen Carell was there, and I think Triumph and those,
Starting point is 01:01:54 Smygle was there, and it was taking hold that if Heff would come, then everybody would. And my point in the letter was that half is the very reason to terrors aid us he's a part of you know a pornographer and he's uh... uh... a very outspoken person about free speech he was the first uh... club uh...
Starting point is 01:02:18 club owner of casino owner to uh... book uh... black comedians to do a regular stand-up act and yeah i remember greg Gregory was gonna come out. He was at the roast. And if you cancel this, it really is the terrorists one more little notch on their victory belt. They go, this is the very guy the terrorists hate.
Starting point is 01:02:37 Fuck it, let's just do a show and whatever it is, it'll be a document of that time. And maybe it'll be a feel good to the people that are there and maybe it won't. But canceling it, it just didn't sit well with me. And Heff, to his credit, came out and Sarah and Jimmy and all those funny comedians came out. We did still put on our tuxedos out of respect for Heff. And it wound up being not just a good show, but like a great show. I remember the mayor of New York sent a proclamation
Starting point is 01:03:15 giving us his blessing. And I remember it being extremely well attended, packed to the roof at the New York Hilton, and Jimmy Kimmel did an amazing job as the host. He really set the tone, and he got the first laughs and kind of got the thing rolling. And I felt a sense of sort of relief, like a little tension came out of everybody's shoulders. People were laughing. Rob Schneider, who is a funny guy, went on and he had a couple
Starting point is 01:03:48 good jokes and a couple jokes didn't work. And there hadn't been a reference to 9-11 really in the show yet. And I ran over and I put my arm around him and fun everybody and I said, Rob, let's keep going. Let's get on with it. Hasn't there been enough bombing in this city? Which is an easy joke, but the right joke in the moment. And it wound up being one of the best. And then Gilbert went on at the end and ruined everything. Gilbert went on that night and told a joke about wanting a connection. Well, maybe you should tell it.
Starting point is 01:04:30 Yeah, I said, I have to leave early tonight. I have to fly out to LA. I couldn't get a direct flight. We have to make a stop at the Empire State Building. You know, and somebody yelled too soon. And I thought it meant I didn't take a long enough pause between the setup and the punchline when he said that. I thought I should have said two, three, four, ah, Empire State Building.
Starting point is 01:04:54 And then, and that's what, that moment to me also symbolizes how, how people take offense and what they're okay with. And it, cause it was like after the booing and hissing and getting up from the tables and then I go into the aristocrats where I'm talking about the mothers fucking the son and the dogs blowing the father and and they're like cheering and I I thought so. Terrorist attacks are bad taste, but incest and bestiality are fine. You were just warming up and they were going to go on that journey, or at least some of them were and some of them weren't.
Starting point is 01:05:35 But when somebody yelled too soon and you heard that, did you start to panic? I remember being, well I certainly had that feeling after the joke when they yelled too soon that I don't know if I was there for like three seconds or 200 years. Because it's like I'd lost the audience as much as anybody has ever lost an audience. But you adjusted and went, did you stick with your plan or did you plan to do the aristocrats? No, no, no, I just figured at this point I had just nothing further to lose.
Starting point is 01:06:18 I might as well talk about a boy eating his mother's twat, you know, so I go into that, and it's like they're cheering. You know, it was like. I remember it being cathartic. I remember looking to my left and seeing Jimmy Kimmel essentially crying with laughter. And I remember seeing Rob Schneider at a certain point fall off his chair and was like crawling on the floor
Starting point is 01:06:46 Yes, he was rolling around on the floor and that was like the greatest moment for me was like Aside from the audience cheering and laughing was getting to look at the other comics on the dais laughing how many times have you had previously told that joke? I don't think I've ever told it on stage before. Really? Yeah, in person I mean I've told it but I don't think I've ever I think that's the first time I've ever said it on stage. Were you doing jokes in your act at that point? Yeah, well I started off with, I said tonight I'll be going by my Muslim name,
Starting point is 01:07:30 hasn't been laid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember I was following Ice-T,
Starting point is 01:07:40 and Ice-T was up there going, I'm gonna kill you white motherfuckers, and I'm gonna rape you white bitches. So I went on and said, Ice-T stole my whole life. And I said, but I'm doing it anyway, I'm gonna kill you white motherfuckers, and I'm gonna rape some of you white bitches. Is my recollection correct?
Starting point is 01:08:00 Were you wearing a waiter's jacket? Yes! Yes! Yes! So there's an added element of complete silliness. Oh my God. It was... Why were you wearing a waiter's jacket? Was it a white tuxedo jacket?
Starting point is 01:08:12 Yes, a long white tuxedo jacket like that a dorky teenager would have as a graduation. I got that jacket when 14th Street still had shitty places around where you could go into a store and buy anything and you didn't know, and it was so cheap you just bought it.
Starting point is 01:08:33 And there was like a... It was like a prom tux. Yeah, yeah. And there was a tuxedo place going out of business. Darris laughing. going out of business. I'm 14th Street and there was this white tuxedo jacket, long white like the length that Groucho Marx would wear. And one of those bits were practically to my ankles, a white, bright white tuxedo. And I think I got it for like $5.
Starting point is 01:09:03 Wow. tuxedo and I think I got it for like five dollars So I wore that and I had a teeth I Had a bowtie that I bought in another store for about 25 cents for the roast I Had already had this in my closet and I thought oh, I'm doing a roast. This, this'll be, I've got the perfect outfit. So the twin towers collapsed and you went right down to the neighborhood for some going out of business sales. I wanted on the death of 3000 people with a $5 tuxedo. Oh jeez. With a five dollar tuxedo.
Starting point is 01:09:44 Unreal. Unreal. It was all, I had had that shit lying around my apartment thinking I'll never use this and then when the plane. You wore a red tie? I, I think it was a black tie, I'm not sure. It's a black one. I'll have to look.
Starting point is 01:10:02 I'm sorry, I know this, but it was a black tie and a white tuxedo jacket. And then when the plane crashed into the World Trade Center, I thought, oh, I can put on that jacket now. Gilbert, I have to ask, was this, the 9-11 material, was it something that you came up with that night? Was it something that you thought about for weeks? No, no. It was like shortly before, I was just sort of thinking of it. And you thought, I'm the guy that's going to go for this.
Starting point is 01:10:34 Yeah. I want to be the first one to make the most obscenely tasteless September 11th joke. And then an ad lib leads to a movie. Yeah. You know what? They didn't even know about that. Yeah. They interviewed me for The Aristocrats, Paul and Paul Prevens and Penn, and they didn't know about it, believe it or not. And I said, is this the joke?
Starting point is 01:10:58 Are you guys talking about the joke that Gilbert did at the 9-11 role? And it didn't occur to me that it was that we didn't use that part of your act on the broadcast on Comedy Central. So unless you were there, they didn't know you did the aristocrats joke. And I didn't really know the joke. And I didn't even realize when they first asked me to be a part of that documentary that that's the same joke you did. And I said, oh, you got to track down Paul Provenza, his movie. You got to see when Gilbert did that joke. They didn't even know. And I couldn't believe that they didn't know. I was like, you're making this not knowing that that happened?
Starting point is 01:11:38 I always thought the incident inspired Paul and Penn to do the film. No, I told them. And then I helped them track down the rough footage, because I had worked on that show. So I was very proud that they did indeed track you down and broke that into the documentary, is essentially became the soul of that movie, which showed all the comedians. And I thought it was a very cool doc and showed
Starting point is 01:12:07 what we do as an art form, not necessarily as, it was just great. It showed comedy as jazz and it showed how different personalities, you know, make a difference and then you and Bob were the, you and Bob Sagert were the heart of that movie I thought. And I remember, well I remember when they showed it on TV, you don't see the aristocrats obviously, or they just have to play a siren. Right, right. A belief. And it's like, I think about 80% of what I did was cut out. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:42 Yeah. Well that's alright, it's a movie. But people got that. And I love that we, our little 9-11 Hugh Hefner roast is still something comedy fans are talking about. Anyway. You want to talk about, tell us about performing for the troops. Because I was reading about it in your book. He worked for the Third Reich. Yeah, that was the interesting part. It was when the
Starting point is 01:13:09 Jews would be let off. Jeff Ross thought, hey, I can make a dollar performing for Hitler's troops. And I thought, in all fairness, he wasn't working a lot at the time, so he needed the money. You know, Hitler, for all his faults, he paid talent, he took care of talent. Got an illusion, right? Yeah. You know, for all his faults, he had a very generous laugh. I remember years ago, I was a Catcher Rising Star as the backup comedian, and I used to
Starting point is 01:13:56 sit by the bar and hear comedians just talk in shop, and I was absorbing it all. One comedian was complaining that a guitar act was up there taking the big weekend spots. In other words, an act that a lot of people would say should be on a cruise ship. Somebody who did song parodies or something. And the other comedian said, well, what are you talking about? He's popular. People love him. And the first comedian and hitler drew
Starting point is 01:14:26 yeah doesn't mean it's a good act is because he was popular uh... i'll always do shows for the troops hopefully we won't always have uh... troops in harm's way but there's no better audience no more appreciative by the way no more sophisticated
Starting point is 01:14:45 audience than an army or military audience. Pete Slauson Interesting. David Larkin They're diverse. They come from 18 to 55. And they get it, you know? They don't have to be drunk. They don't have to – it's not date night. They're there because they need a laugh. So I love it. I'll always appreciate them and selfishly you never get a more responsive crowd. How many times have you gone overseas to do it? I'm not even sure. I've been to Iraq twice, I've been to Afghanistan, been to Germany, Djibouti Africa, Korea, Oman, a couple other
Starting point is 01:15:33 places I'm not even sure where I was. Yeah, if you're an entertainer, any chance to go do that, you should do that. I love it. I might go in the fall again to Afghanistan. Anything you want to talk about that's coming up? No one's still listening. If you asked me in the beginning I would have happily plugged my tour dates. We can edit and put it up toward the front. I will be in Atlanta this summer. I'll be in Nashville this summer, I'll be in San Francisco this summer and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you go to roastmastergeneral.com, my tour dates are up there. You can follow me at realjeffreyross, tweet me some bullshit and congratulations Congratulations to you and you on your new podcast. I hope this is bigger than...
Starting point is 01:16:27 All my other failures. Yes. I'm not going to say anything that gets you condemned from show business. It's a little late. Well, no. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, at this point, I have no jobs to lose anymore, so it's okay. Why are you dressed like a Cuban dentist?
Starting point is 01:17:03 Gilbert comes over, drinks my wine. What are you going to eat after this? When you order out. Those almonds and mangoes are going to disappear too. For sure. We got some snacks from Virginia here. So, anyway. This was one of the best times I had today. Thanks for having us over Jeff.
Starting point is 01:17:33 My pleasure. I hope this is a... Thank you. Who else have you interviewed besides me? No one. We couldn't get anyone. That's stupid. Drew Friedman, Bill Persky, Billy West, Paul Schaeffer coming up. Dick Cabot. Professor Erwin Corey. Boris Karloff's daughter.
Starting point is 01:17:58 Really? Yeah. What was that like? She was fun. Yeah. But this has been the amazing Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my pal Jeff Ross. Can we stay on till it's no longer a good show? We had a good show. Let's just stay on till it's not good.
Starting point is 01:18:20 Let's have an open ended amount of time that we could be on. We were doing so good for 50 minutes. Let's stretch out 20 more just so people can go, oh, it was good. First half was good. When you first said that, all I could think is that the audience is gone. And which part was the good part? Here's how long the show is every week, folks, till the food gets here. That should be the name of the show, till the food gets here with Frank and Gilbert.
Starting point is 01:18:51 They did research for their interviews, like where's the nearest Chinese restaurant? That's the research they do. It's not that extensive. Great. Lord knows the world is wondering. The podcast world wants to hear from Dick Cavett. And his cutting edge of technology. He doesn't even know you recorded him. All right, good luck fellas.
Starting point is 01:19:22 Oh thank you. Thank you for having me. I had a great time in my own living room. Thanks for coming over. Thank you, Jeff Ross. Yes.

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