Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini #133: "The History of the Improv" with author Tripp Whetsell

Episode Date: October 12, 2017

This week: Bette Midler breaks out! Richard Pryor drops trou! Robin Williams does Gilbert a solid! Rodney Dangerfield vs. Joe E. Ross! And the true story behind Budd Friedman's monocle! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions with my co-host Frank Santopadre. We're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer Frank Furtarosa. Yes, we are. And we're doing an interview here with a New York-based author and journalist. And he's written for everything. The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, TV Guide, The Hollywood Reporter,

New York Magazine, The L.A. Times, on and on and on. And he has also written a book with the legendary Bud Friedman. Yes. And that book is called the improv an oral history of the comedy club that revolutionized stand-up someone who i believe uh this bud friedman some uh someone i've met uh maybe once or twice well let's introduce trip

trip wetzel trip wetzel trip thanks for doing this thanks for having me on this is a pleasure there's a rumor that you bought gilbert lunch yes i did i know he didn't pay enjoyable lunch well it was fun it was a lovely time jerry lewis was there yeah and it was funny i remember like they were honoring jerry lewis the night before think, or a couple of days before, and I couldn't make it because I was working out of town. And then I was being interviewed by you, and Jerry Lewis walked in. What do you know? Yeah. And I sat and talked to him for a little bit.

Who sprung for lunch? Was it Jerry? Was it Trip? Trip, how did you get involved with with the legendary bud well i am a you know i'm an entertainment journalist as you read the marvelous intro and i was covering the comedy business for uh a lot of different newspapers in new york and i was doing a story for the daily news when Jimmy Fallon moved back from – moved the Tonight Show to New York about what that was going to do to the New York comedy scene versus the L.A. comedy scene. And to get an opinion about what it was going to do to the L.A. comedy scene, I wanted to talk to Bud to get his opinion, number one, because he's a very – obviously a legendary figure out here in the business. To get his opinion, number one, because he's a very, you know, obviously a legendary figure out here in the business.

And but I also had in the back of my mind, I always wanted to do a book with him because I knew the legend, the history of the club so well. And so we discussed it and he and Alex, his wife, were coming to New York for Jimmy's premiere. And we had lunch with my agent at the Pryor's Club and put a proposal together and got a deal about a year and a half later, about a year later, sort of after we had started talking about this, kind of how it came about. Interesting. One of the things I remember about the improv, because it was, you know, just I was going there every night, and I would walk from the subway from 42nd and 6th to 46th and 9th.

I think it's 46th. 44th and 9th. 44th and 9th. Between 9th and 10th. The old Vietnamese restaurant. And back in those days, what Times Square was, that was scary. That was how I was never shot and killed in any of those walks. Especially the walk back from the club, which would sometimes be 3 in the morning to walk to the subway.

Yeah. Well, for our listeners that don't know there aren't New Yorkers, that's what they call Hell's Kitchen back then. And now Hell's Kitchen is Disneyland. It's been cleaned up considerably. Yes. You remember the first time you went in there? I remember, yeah, I mean, I remember going in there once,

and then they liked me, but I still had to keep going back to audition. And after a while, like the comics was setting up that you'd wait out in a line in the street for like a few hours and then sign in. And then finally they said, said okay you're a regular and then you'd become a regular and it was no assurance you'd ever get on stage you'd hang out every single night right because because i read somewhere that bud knew you since you were a teenager oh yeah well when i when i started doing comedy, I was 15, so I might have been 16 or 17 when I started going to the improv.

Take us back, Tripp. Tell us about, for people that don't know, take us back to, you know, Bud's decision to do this. He came to New York from Boston to be a theatrical producer. Yeah. He didn't really plan on opening a comedy club. Not at all. It was totally the first thing from his mind.

He wasn't, you know, he'd always had, you know, thoughts in the back of his mind about doing something in show business. But he was a kid of the Depression. His father died when he was a very young boy, nine years old. And he, you know, you wanted to do something practical. He, you know, you wanted to do something practical. So he was working in advertising up in Boston at a boutique firm working with shoe accounts mainly. It was called Marvin and Leonard Advertising. I don't think you want to hear this much.

But when he turned 30, it was a do or die time for him. And he went to – he was dating at the time a woman named Silver Saunders who was in the course of Fiorello and how to succeed in business without really trying. At the time, he made the decision to move back to New York and become a Broadway producer in about a year. He did this because he thought that sounded like an interesting thing to do and he didn't want to be an actor. And they were trying to – while he was trying to do this, he was trying – he was searching for things to do to make a living, and he decided to open up this Broadway coffeehouse, after-hours coffeehouse for people – for singers mainly. They could get something to eat and do comedy – get up there and sing and then do some comedy. But the comedy really didn't come until later. Right. Well, he said in the book that he really had no intention of it being a comedy club, that Silver was a singer and he was looking for a place that people could get up and just work out a song.

Yeah. And there was no place like that. Yeah, I think it was originally going to be like actors and singers would have a hangout afterwards. Yeah. Go up and do like, maybe they practice a little dramatic pieces and singers would sing. And yeah, it wasn't a comedy club. Not at all. Until about the first year into it or so when a guy named Dave Astor wandered in.

He had been to the place called the Blue Angel, which is a very popular place on the Upper East Side in the 50s. And asked Bud if he could do some comedy and try out some bets. And Butt thought, why not? Dave was a very good friend of Richard Pryor's who at that time was working the coffee house scene down in the village. So Richard Pryor got up before he became Richard Pryor. And it was just sort of the Pied Piper effect. There were other guys like David Fry. Rodney Dangerfield eventually got in there it

was just it was sort of a perfect collusion you know if you will yeah because actors were hanging out there rudy valley robert morse oh yeah jason robards would come and christopher plumber that's some of the fun stuff in the book then then i heard a story that one timeor was on stage and Nipsey Russell was watching him. And Nipsey Russell was getting pissed off. And someone said, what's wrong? And Nipsey Russell said, he's just doing Bill Cosby. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, back in those, I mean, you know, essentially before Pryor he had the evolution in the late 60s where he went through this metamorphosis, I mean, he was largely, his act was largely Cosby. You know, if you look at those old Solomon clips he had on the, you know, the suit and tie and everything. Yeah, he was scrubbed up like Carlin before Carlin did the hippie thing. Oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And let's name some of the people, besides myself, of course, who used to play at the

improv in its comedy times. Well, of course, there was Stiller and Mira, Robert Klein. You had so many, you know, David Renner, even though Bud didn't get along with him. Jay Leno, Alan Zweibel. Dick Cavett came in and bombed early. Dick Cavett at first, yes. Oh, yeah. Dick Cavett.

Even Jackie Vernon. Yes, Jackie Vernon, sure. And then later on, Richard Lewis, Larry David, Bill Maher. Seinfeld. Yeah, yeah. Seinfeld. Seinfeld and Paul Reiser. Yeah.

Elaine Boosler. Oh, yeah. Yeah.eld. Seinfeld and Paul Reiser. Yeah. Elaine Boosler. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Gilbert Gottfried. Yeah. And Buddy Mantia. Oh, that's right. Who's in the book?

I was so happy to see Buddy getting mentioned in the book. We know Buddy. Oh, I was happy about that. Very nice guy. Oh, he's the best guy. We love him. And there's a point in the book where you talk about Bette Midler singing on stage with, who was Buddy's partner? Bobby Alto?

Oh, yes. Bobby and Buddy Mantia and Danny Aiello sing. And Marvin Braverman, too. The Untouchables. Oh, the Untouchables. Yeah, so then Marvin Braverman. Marvin Braverman. Yeah.

Yeah. And they had a couple of famous waitresses, at least one famous waitress by the name of Bette Midler. Well, actually, she was not a waitress. People think that, but she was not a waitress. She never was a waitress. And I address that in the book. She went in there the way she came to Bud's attention. There was a woman by the name of Helen Verbet, who was in Fiddler on the Roof with Bette, which Bette was in at the time. And she was trying to sort of find her way and recommended Bette to Bud. And Bud, of course, thought of the world of Helen Verbit. Helen

Verbit, she's a big character actress. She showed up in a lot of sitcoms in the 70s and 80s and late 60s. Brought her in. But the first time that she came on, Bud was not impressed with her at all. She was singing dirges, and they fell flat. And then a couple of nights later, he went to hear another singer whose name I forget. He was managing at the time, performing at a club called the African Room, which was right around the corner from the Improv, and had ordered a glass of wine, and Bette got out there and sang that night

and just blew him away. And before his other woman he was there and actually supposed to see was there, and so Bud just immediately took a liking to him and then from there bud got you know they signed a one-year agreement from the manager so yeah yeah and that's how that happened yeah it was always accepted as fact that bett middler was a waitress and uh she became successful and i think so many uh girls lives were destroyed by thinking if they become a waitress, I could become a big star like Bette Midler. And now we're here to point out the truth that it never was the case. Wow.

Although Pat Benatar was a waitress at Catch because Rick Newman managed her. This is true. Oh, yeah. Very true. Yeah. I didn't know she was a waitress there Catch because Rick Newman managed her. This is true. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very true. Yeah. Well, Elaine Bush. I didn't know she was a waitress there, though.

Yeah, Elaine was a waitress at the improv, yeah. Right. And Deborah Winger out here in Los Angeles was a waitress. So, you know,

there were people who made it, but that was never a waitress, so. Oh, Deborah Winger. Right. Well, Liz Torres was a waitress

at the improv. Liz Torres, yes. Yeah. And I think Elaine. Is that wrong, too? She might have been. I think she was a waitress, yeah. Or hat check girl for a while.

I'm not sure. Or hostess. One of the three. And he hired Manilow to play piano there, too, as well. Correct. Yeah, before he hit it big, yeah. Do you have any memory of this do you you're hanging out in the club do you remember seeing bet and barry manilow i don't

remember bet and barry manilow well yeah do you remember danny aiello getting up and singing with robert klein because apparently that happened like the improv you know if it were in New York, it was in competition with Catch, Catch the Rising Star. And then in L.A., it was practically a war between the improv and the comedy store. And in fact, there was one. I was out in L.A. when it happened. Oh, Mitzi versus Bud. Yeah. It was a long war.

It's in the book. Yeah. And I was out in L out in la when it happened when there was a fire at the improv a big fire and it was very popular the rumor that you know someone from the comedy store came over and set fire to the improv we will return to gilbert gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. DQ presents the sound of a genius idea

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tell us why he kept a framed photo of Joey Ross. Because he hated his guts. He hated his guts. The guy from Core 54, where are you? Yeah, because they'd worked together in strip clubs. Rodney Dangerfield hated Joey Ross. Right.

Yeah. And so why did he keep the picture? Because to remind himself that he was a better comic than Joey, from what I understand. Yeah. Well, the thing in the book was to remind himself that he was a better comic than Joey, from what I understand, yeah. Well, the thing in the book was to remind himself that he wasn't the ugliest son of a bitch on the planet. Right, that too, that too, that too.

Now, were there any, God knows not from me, but were there any real sex experiences in the improv? Well, Pryor did go on stage naked. That's not quite a sex story. Yeah. Tell that. That is quite a sex story. Well, he was trying to upstage a singer one night and went up.

He went into the bathroom and came parading out in his birthday suit with just his socks on and in front of the stage. And this woman, Betty Rhodes, was up there singing at the time and didn't blink. And Silver turned to Bud and said, there goes another myth. Because she could see him down there. So Richard Pryor was not endowed, at least according to Silver. Tell us where Andy Kaufman came from and how he first auditioned. Well, he was from Great Neck, Long Island, originally. And he was a comic out there.

And he'd just been fired from one of the coffee houses out there. And Bud got a call from the owner of this coffee house, whose name escapes me at the moment, on the same day, and said, you know, this is good. This is a kid. I really want you to see his name. He's Andy Kaufman. And Bud said, well, send him in.

Go ahead and send him in. And so Bud did, and he decided to adopt a wait-and-see attitude, and he came into the club that night doing the foreign man accent from taxi, which became lots on taxi. And everyone was just being, you know, what the hell is going on here with this guy? I mean, it was just – nobody could really understand it. You know, there were just titters and jitters and everything, and nobody understood it. And finally, Kaufman, as the tension was getting so bad that Bud was wondering what was going to go on, and he was doing the foreign man accent, telling him that he was from the island of the Kashmir Sea and everything like that,

that famous thing. As soon as it was just as bad as it could possibly get he turned around and did launched into elvis the treat me right impersonation which is you know he's which you'll see in man on the moon uh which was one of the pivotal scene in man on the moon when bud was in that scene but he was there were some factual things there but anyway um, he launched into it, and, you know, Butt fell in love with him instantly there. You know, he became a real regular after that. But it was one of the strangest auditions ever, he says.

Do you remember seeing him, Gil, early on? I remember, yeah, I remember he would come in, and he was always weird. He wasn't one of those people who was just weird on stage. And what I remember best is he went up on stage and he started going, a hundred bottles of beer in the world, a hundred bottles of beer. And at first it was funny. And then you realize he's doing the entire song

it was an endurance test the audience is yeah the audience is getting really angry and are screaming at him and walking out and i thought it was hysterical because he he did the entire till it got to one bottle of beer on the wall. You have a little bit of that in your in your in your acts. Kind of seeing how far you used to do that very, very protracted intro. You're a lovely crowd. Oh, yeah. And I let it would take you like 15 minutes to start.

Yeah. See if you could keep pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. You remember doing this? And I it's it's kind of well, a lot lot of people talk about it how i would go up on stage and sometimes just chase the audiences out i would go up and do whatever popped into my head and i'd lose in fact sometimes they said that club owners would put me up when it was time to end the night the check spot you get the check spot there's a nice story in the book too trip about the about gilbert and robin williams the night

robin williams came in yeah that was well robin was at his peak with, it was when, well, Mork and Mindy was at its peak. And Robin was a major star. And so whenever Robin Williams walked into a comedy club, forget it. I mean, whoever was on, they'd throw off stage and get Robin on right away. And what I remember was I was about to go on stage and I'm standing there you know in the hallway there waiting to go on and they're about to introduce me and then the door opens up and Robin appears which I figure oh well I better go sit down again and and they said okay robin you're on next and and robin said to them um he goes no i've got some people here to see me and i'd really like them to see gilbert

first and he had me go on first which i always remembered that's so sweet he was a classy guy like that many people said that about him yeah he was a was a classy guy like that. Many people said that about him. Yeah, he was a very, very thoughtful guy like that. And then I remember when I got off stage, Robin was like still laughing and rubbing his eyes. And he said, oh, that really baked my cookies. You remember this? You remember what he said to you? What I wouldn't give to have been in the club that night. We have to talk about one of the fun things in the book is, of course, the history of Larry David in the club. Specifically in the improv.

Yeah. And we've talked with some people. We've talked with Zweibel about it and somebody else I can't remember. He hated going on there. He hated the audiences. Tell us what would happen, Tripp. Well, if he didn't like the audience, it was just good night. He would just leave.

He would just throw the mic down and leave off. And that was kind of his thing. And Zweibel tells a good story in the book about when Allen was going to go on, when he was following Larry David, and he had a spot at, say, 1030 or so. And he knew to get there at 930 because there was a damn good chance that he was going to storm offstage if he heard something he didn't like or he didn't see something in the audience he didn't like. He just left. Yeah. And the interesting thing, too, is when he came into the club, and he's been a very good sport about this, I will say,

because we, you know, we, that's one of the, in all the press coverage we've been getting, and this is one of the big, big, big things that a lot of reporters have been noting about how confrontational he was. And he was at our party last night, which I'm sorry you guys couldn't be at on Melrose. But anyway, when Larry came in in 74, he wanted to try a stand-up comedy. He had never done it in his life. And he lived around the corner where you went over, Gilbert, to watch a porno flick one time, as I recall, which we'll get into.

Didn't he live in the Manhattan Towers? Oh, yeah. He had an apartment in Manhattan Towers. And I went with Larry up to his apartment because he had cable. And there was an actress that we both liked that was going gonna appear naked in some movie that she appeared naked in was gonna be showing so we got together and watched the movie incredible did you have a meal too dinner uh you know when you had dinner with larry you had to share utensils oh yeah that was a story john de bellis told told me, you know, that when you,

who wrote that, also wrote that great book, Stand Up Guys, that when he would, when DeBellis and Larry David would have dinner, I mean, he only had one, he only had one fork, one knife, and so they had to eat in shifts. Yeah, true story. Yeah, you also say in the book gill that uh when you you didn't know what was going to become of larry at some point you thought this guy could actually end up homeless yeah i said that uncompromising yeah i i said he could either become a major star or be living in the subway like he was one of those people if one day i saw him sleeping on a subway grading i i i wouldn't go oh my god i'm shocked and i remember my favorite is i remember a one time larry was on stage and he would always get into a fight with someone in the audience.

There would always be. And this guy from the audience screamed out to Larry. He goes, hey, oh, yeah? Well, your mother fucks my dog. And Larry said, well, I bet your dog doesn't enjoy it and Albrecht Chris Albrecht would jump in when there was a when there was an altercation on occasion yeah someone would have to jump in yeah because there'd be some guys would stand up and they'd keep standing up you know until they were like 10 feet tall you know one of my favorite stories in the book trip is marvin

braverman's story about about being in the hospital with johnny carson with carson yeah what a wild story can you can you i can't even believe it happened but can you tell it well i you know i can't either and and god knows if it actually did. Because Marvin is a very good – Is Marvin still with us? He's still with us, but he's a very interesting character. We met at the – he was one of the guys who was very hard to track down. And the guy from the Untouchables that we just mentioned –

Buddy. Buddy Mancia. Buddy, yeah, was the guy that actually put me in touch with him. And he, you know – and it was very hard to reach him. I tried many, many, many times. And we finally did meet at a Starbucks in Lincoln Center. And he had just cracked a rib. So he was in a bad mood that day, a very pissy mood that day.

But we sat down and he told that story about Carson. And it's a very amusing story. So, you know, nobody's come back at me yet saying it's not true. So hopefully it is. But I think it is a true story. Yeah. And you're talking about the chapter with Brenner, David Brenner. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, go ahead. Tell it because it's wild. Well, the story basically is that, you know, a lot of people didn't, you know, he got very annoyed with David Bren Brenner who was always writing his material down and things like that. And when Carson was dying apparently – and Marvin had a big chip on his shoulder. When Carson was dying at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in 2003, apparently Marvin was there with having a knee replacement or something done and rolled himself into Carson's room and said to him one night,

why did you put Brenner on instead of me? And it's because he said to him, because Brenner wasn't funny. In other words, he was better than Brenner. That's what he was saying. Wow. So Marvin wheels himself into Johnny Carson's hospital room. That is surreal.

Johnny Carson is on his. That is surreal. Johnny Carson is on his last legs, the poor man. Allegedly, yes. Why did you put David Brenner on in front of me? And Johnny says, because Brenner wasn't funny. Assumedly, so he wasn't in any way threatened by Brenner. So Johnny is on his last breath. And he's got to put up with that shit. Unbelievable story.

Oh, my God. And I remember I worked with Marvin Braverman twice. Oh, it's Braverman. I apologize. Yeah, I always get that name confused. I always get that name confused. The first pilot I did was a horrible pilot called The Further Adventures of Wally Brown. And I did that. And then later on, I got him onto a pilot I was doing called Norman's Corner that was written by Larry David.

Larry David, you bet. But what I remember about when the fire happened at the improv, one night I went over there and Michael, you know, the showroom was destroyed. But, like, the front room was kind of passable. So Michael Richards was standing on some table or something, and they were still putting on a show. That's in the book. Yeah.

In his underwear or something. He dressed up like a fireman or something. Yeah. And I remember. He tried to people. Yeah. I remember one night I was there, and he was, and I just would join him. I just joined him for the night, and we, like, co-hosted this show.

Oh, what I wouldn't give to be at that. Yeah. Oh, my God, all this great comedy I missed. What was that like? That had to be incredible. Yeah, it's very strange. I wish there were recording us of that. You know, you talk in the book, Tripp, that Bud had an eye for talent,

that he kind of had an ability to discern when he saw a comic who had what it takes and who didn't, the benign dictator that he refers to himself as. Yeah, the benign dictator. Exactly. Yeah. And he was almost never wrong. No, he wasn't.

I think, you know i i would say his track record was was very good in fact it would be i don't think there were many examples where where he was wrong um you know or people he you know went unexpected and you know and of course alex's wife told him a lot about you know people he should listen to like adam sandler, for example, and he first started Catch a Rising Star, and Adam brought him out here. He was in L.A. two weeks later. His wife, Alex, said, you know, Bud, you should really look at this kid. He's very good.

And Bud didn't think he had much of an act at first. And Alex told him to take a second look, and he brought him out to L.A. But the people that he was wrong about, I really don't know that many people he was. But I'm sure there were examples, but none that I know of none that we really discussed. So I don't know. Well, let's plug the book again. It's a, it's a great read trip and it's so full. I mean, for our fans who want to read interviews, I mean, Kevin Nealon, Lewis Black, Jerry Seinfeld, David Spade,

everybody in the world is interviewed at Jimmy Walker, Paul Reiser, Danny Aiello, who, of course, was the doorman, which we discussed with Danny. Keenan Ivory Waynes was also a doorman.

That's so right. I think Apatow was a doorman in the West Coast Club? Judd was there last night. Yeah. Yes. There's so many

great stories in the book. I mean, from comics, of course, you know Tom Drees and Robert Klein, our friend Dick Cavett, and sad stories, too, about Freddie Prinze. Yeah. That was one of comedy's biggest tragedies. And, of course, it was, you know, it was one of the first.

So it was, you know, that was one of the biggest things, you know, because he was such a brilliant comic and had so much potential and so much, you know, it was just a case of too fast, too soon. Yeah. Did you know him, Gil, Freddie Prinze? No, he was already becoming big when I was still struggling again. I remember seeing him. I saw him on stage a couple of times and I, you know, I catch in the improv, but I didn't know him. Yeah. It's a great book, Tripp.

There's so much information here, and I also learned a ton about Bud. I didn't know that Bud was a hero in the Korean War. I didn't know he served at Porkchop Hill. I didn't know he had a purple heart. I didn't know he hung out with Lottie Lenya. Did you know his real name was Gerson? I bet you didn't know his real name was Gerson either. I didn't know his name was Gerson. Did you know his real name is Gerson? I bet you didn't know his real name was Gerson either. I didn't know his name was Gerson.

Did you know his real name is Gerson? No. Gerson Friedman? No. And Bud came from his parents calling him Buddy. And it's funny, like right after he was wounded in the war, like about a week or two later the war ended. Yeah. About a week or two later, the war ended.

Yeah. Bud is a fascinating character and such a major figure in the history of comedy in the 20th century. And he would always walk around with a monocle. Yeah, where'd the monocle come from, Tripp? Well, the monocle, the way he tells that story was he, back in the early days of the restaurant, he could, which I can very easily understand right now because I'm going very badly foresighted. I'm nearsighted already. But anyway, in the early days of the restaurant, he was trying to read the menus in the dark and the waitresses would bring him a check to look at, look at me, check to look at. And it was so dark and he couldn't see it. And he didn't need eyeglasses at the time, which he doesn't now because he's since had cataract surgery. And he didn't wear a sport coat and he didn't say he doesn't now because he's since had cataract surgery. And he didn't wear a sport coat.

And so he didn't have a pocket to put his glasses in. So he bought this monocle to start looking over the menus and things like that. And that's how it all started. And it's kind of stuck after that. Yeah. There are also a lot of our podcast guests are interviewed in this book. Robert Wool, David Steinberg. It goes on and on.

Alan Zweibel, obviously. In fact, I remember Larry David getting pissed. book robert wool david steinberg uh it goes on and on alan's white bell obviously in fact i remember larry david getting pissed off as he was about everything in the world but one time him saying what uh what kind of a man not only uh walks around with a monocle but has a sign with a picture of a monocle on it hilarious the book is the improv an oral history of the comedy club that revolutionized stand-up yep and our guest was trip wetzel thank you lots of great stories in the book comedy club that revolutionized stand-up. Yep. And our guest was Trip Wetzel. Thank you.

Lots of great stories in the book, stories about people I knew, Richard Jenney, and certainly even Mr. Gottfried. Yes. Our erstwhile host is interviewed. And I got a free lunch out of it. Yes. And we're doing something at the Friars Club on the 17th of October.

Hope you guys can make it. Oh, good. We'll get this up before the 17th of October. Hope you guys can make it. Oh, good. We'll get this up before the 17th of October. Will you guys be in town then, or are you going to be out here? I never know with me, unless I have my date book in front of me. Is there another free luncheon at Forum Trip? There could be. That would certainly lead me in that direction.

He usually eats in the kitchen. So plug the event. It's October 17th at the New York Friars. Actually, that's a private event. Oh, damn it. We are doing something on the 19th at Shakespeare Books on Lexington and 68th Street. Right in my neighborhood. I love that bookstore.

Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a great signing. So, yeah. We will be there. Great. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for writing the book. And say hi to Bud, please, for us. you i'm gilbert godfrey and i'm here with

my co-host frank santo padre and this has been another edition of gilbert and frank's amazing colossal obsession let me hear a little more of that larry david what uh what's wrong with someone like this? But they walk around wearing a monocle. Nobody wears a monocle nowadays. And he puts his sign. His sign is a monocle. Thank you, Tripp.

Thank you, guys. This has been a full trip. Same for us. Lots of obsessions. Thank you, guys. This has been a full treat. Same for us. Colossal obsessions.

Hi, I'm Mick Garris, and I'm with Gilbert Gottfried on the amazing Colossal Podcast.