Gutfeld! Monologues - A Gutfeld Classic…A Trip Down “Red Eye” Memory Lane with Alison Rosen

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

Greg revisits an interview with Red Eye fan favorite, Alison Rosen. She's a writer, TV personality, and podcaster. Together they take a look at some of their favorite memories from Red Eye. Follow Greg on Twitter: @GregGutfeld Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tucker Carlson said Ray Dalio is one of the world's smartest investors, but more important, he's likely the wisest. Make yourself read this book. That book is how countries go broke, the big cycle. In it, Dalio explains the mechanics behind big debt cycles, and what they mean for countries with big and increasing debts like the U.S. and what you should do to protect yourself. You can find it wherever books are sold,

or read a five-minute summary of the book at economic principles.org. Hey, everybody. It's Greg Gutfeld. This is the one. We're going to get right to it because I'm extremely excited. And if you are a fan of red eye, especially red eye back in the day, you're going to be exceptionally overjoyed about my next guest, who is Alison Rosen, writer, TV personality, podcaster. She's best known now for her podcast. Allison Rosen is your new best friend, which has. 30 million downloads, which is like pretty freaking impressive. She used to work on the Adam Carolla show. Remember that? She's got a great new book, which I've read almost all of it. Tropical attire encouraged. That's the name of the book and other phrases that scare me.

And it just came out. There's a great chapter in there. She's the only person in history to get in a car accident at a car dealership, which is an amazing story. How are you, Allison? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. How have you been?

I've been good. Yeah, I have tons of questions to ask you, and I understand you have tons of questions asked me, so we need to catch up. Yes. I've been good. I moved to L.A. in 2010, because I was trying to figure out when the last time I saw you was. I guess I did Red Eye, like, once or twice after that, just when I was in town with the Adam Carolla show. But I moved out here. I got married.

I have two kids. You have two kids? I do, yeah. Boy, I haven't seen you in a while. Like, what did that happen? One happened five months ago. Oh, no, a little over four months ago, almost five months ago. Wow.

And then I have, so that's Owen, that's my baby. And then I have Elliott, who is about two and a half. Wow, congratulations. Boy, I haven't seen you in a while. That's amazing. I don't see somebody for a while. while and they go off and they get married and have two kids. That's what happens when people stop the Greg Gutfeld influence in their life.

They actually have, they actually create a family, a happy family. Do you like Los Angeles? I do. It's, you know, it's weird. I really miss New York. I really miss living in Brooklyn. And I actually would probably jump with a chance to go back. My husband has never lived there and doesn't really have an interest in living there.

So I don't know that we'll ever. I don't know that I'll ever actually go back. But when I found that in New York, I was, and part of it is just the time of my life that I was in then. But I was so focused on my career that kind of my whole life was just thinking about my career and pacing in my apartment and worrying about paying rent and comparing myself to other people. Yes. Yeah. And then I moved out. But it was so much fun too.

But then I moved out here. And I found it a lot easier to have like a balanced life. And like I said, I don't know if that's just me or if that's this place. Yeah. But I think it's growing. I think it's, you know, a little wisdom, probably, a little wisdom. And also, I think, you know, what you've done with your career, which is something that I tell, I tell people from my experience is to treat your career like a stock portfolio.

So you don't own, so you don't just own one thing. You spread your, you invest in a bunch of stocks. and stocks being individual talent. So you write articles, you do stand-up, you play in a band, maybe you write a script, you get a job on a podcast, so you do all of these things because, like, a stock, if one doesn't really go great, another one might. So I can think that's what you did. And I didn't give you that advice.

You just did that on your own. Yeah, I did it from watching you. That's how I learned it. Yes. It's a cut old commercial. Yeah, you know, I kind of feel like that's what people have to do. nowadays. And I definitely, I don't think I did it deliberately. It just kind of happened because I, you know, I worked at, when I first met you, I worked at magazine. Right. You were at time

out. Be doing. Yeah. I, I intended, that's actually why I went to New York because I was going to go straight to the top of the magazine publishing world. Yes. And then I sort of got, you know, I started doing television stuff and web stuff and I got really interested in that. And I feel like I was really lucky that I did that because I don't know how much, well, you would. you would actually know the answer, too, because that's the world you're from, too. Absolutely. Is there even a...

It's weird. It's like, it's almost like I left a... It was like a science fiction movie where I left a planet and I looked back and the planet exploded. Like, I can't, like, I think about, like, I think about, I used to be able to think about working at men's health while men's health was there when I was working at stuff for Maxim. But, like, almost all the magazines that I've worked at, they don't need, like, stuff doesn't exist. Max and UK doesn't exist Men's health is still around I don't know what it does

Prevention is now online So in a lot of places that I freelanced for Whether it was FHM or what They're gone It's so it's like And I keep thinking And you must think this too Where did

I did this sounds kind of gross But where did all the people go Like I don't know where my friends went Right And I'm sure they're fine I'm sure like I know that Dan Bova's run in a magazine I think

And I'm trying to think of people that I worked with like where did like what happens when whole industries just kind of like fade away and that's why the the stock invent the stock portfolio thing is so smart now especially because of these things like TV I mean you know when is TV going to it's you know with all the digital shit everybody's doing this and that what TV is not is not immune to to progress either you know if I ever pitch a show that doesn't go or audition for something on television that I don't get, then I just think, well, it's a dying medium anyway. Exactly. I mean, no offense. No offense, TV star.

Yes, yes, yes. But how many times I want to talk to you about red eye because the reason why your name popped into my head was, so I was moving offices. And I'd been in this office for 10 years, I think almost 10 years. And so we were moving from the 18th floor to the 21st floor. I opened up a drawer. and I'm not joking, I find a stack of emails that I printed out that I'm talking like of a mid-city phone book thickness, like 300 pages. And on each page is like a buttload of red-eye introductions that we used to do on red eye, which is like, you know, she's so sharp she could cut a tomato with her thoughts or something like that.

But ours were much sicker, ours were much sicker and more depressed. And so I find this. stack and they're all yours and I'm like sitting there and so I start reading and I'm laughing out loud and I can't even go through them here because like you can't do this anymore. So I walk out into my staff and I go, okay, this is how you do it because like my staff only has to write four of them a week and it's like hard for them. Not, I'm not insulting my staff by the way. They're very, very smart.

But they're not, they don't have, they haven't built that muscle because that, you know, you build that muscle and you get really. And they also have to like doing. it. So you wrote more, I think you wrote more introductions than anybody, probably including me. And they were, why did you, why did that appeal to you so much? You weren't even getting paid for it, but you loved doing it. I know. I love doing it. Yeah, I, that's like my great love and my great passion writing intros for Red Eye. I know, isn't that funny? But they were great. I would actually, you know, I should have brought them here and just started reading them over this

podcast, but I forgot. That would have been really funny. But they were great. Like, they were all based on, like, okay, you have a, you are like me in the sense we both enjoy. We're a fan of language. We like language. And we like saying something that sounds awful, but can be explained as innocent.

And I think that's what made the intros, right? Yes. I, yeah. I mean, I grew up reading Truly Tasteful. jokes. Not that these were like that, but I just, there was something about the, though, the construction of them. It just appealed to my brain and I just loved coming up with them and sending them to you. I remember one, there was one, it was like if he were soap, I'd pump him in the bathroom, like a lot of stuff like that. If he were Vienna sausages, I'd eat him over the

sink. These were always directed at Mike Baker. Yes. No, but it's true. It's like, And it's like, but if somebody goes, that's disgusting, the answer is, no, your mind is disgusting. Right. Your mind is disgusting. Yes, it's just word. We'd go, it's just wordplay. And it would be like, I remember sometimes I'll look at, I'll go and look at them. I don't know if they're around anymore, but on YouTube, but I go, holy crap.

But they were, they were, it was a way to do something that seemed dangerous, but was just easily explained. Right. Speaking of Red Eye memories, you know what I remember was the time that a guitarist was your guest. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Fire in the studio. You were so worried after that. Oh, my God. I didn't sleep that night. And I didn't sleep. So what happened. His name was Adam Baum. And so he was in the, that reminds me also of the small, remind me of the small Allison story. But he was playing guitar. So the whole joke was I would go to him and he'd be in the newsroom. and I would pose a question to him He would answer it And then he would play his guitar A little solo after each answer And it was actually he did a

It was kind of fun He had these crazy eyes He had wild black hair He looked the part But then at the end He does this thing And if he explained it to me Beforehand

It would have been great But he poured lighter fluid On his guitar beforehand And then he took a lighter And he lit his guitar on fire And it's like a trick It doesn't hurt his guitar It doesn't

But he's in the freaking newsroom with fire alarms that would, they turn off the water, the water sprinkler system all over the newsroom. I would have lost my job. I would have been, every red I would have been canceled. I would be, I don't know, I'd be working in magazines right now. But, and so I remember I called, his wife is no longer with us, a woman named Claire, who is adorable. She passed away. But I talk, I'm yelling at her. I'm going, what the hell are you doing?

And she was mortified. I went over to Langen's. I remember I was over there with Langen's with like the usual crew. Yeah. I was there. Yeah. We're not having a show tomorrow. And I remember I think it was Shelley was the producer.

Shelly students. And it was like, I think she was like, I think her words were like, you know what? I think maybe a tech person might have said something. But it almost no one cared. It was weird. I thought, like, she told me something like, well, the tech manager, which is a person that, I don't know, they managed tech, said something along the lines of, oh, yeah, that was, yeah, it was a bad idea. Because the fact is, nothing happened. But so, but if something had happened, it would have been a different story.

But I was, I remember I must have pounded like five drinks in, um, in Langen's and just like, and I wouldn't talk to you. I was so mad. I probably didn't talk to Claire for like months. I was just so angry. And then, and he didn't, Adam Baum had no idea that what he had done and how upset. But it's really, it's interesting. I mean, now that I look back at it, maybe I overreacted, but I don't think I did. That was inside a newsroom.

He set fire to a guitar in a newsroom. And a newsroom is where everybody works. It's not like, it's not like it's where everybody puts together the shows that's producers. It's not like just an office. It's actually where the work is done, you know? Well, I think that was part of, I think, the, the, you, Red Eye was, I mean, I'm sure you could wax more poetic than me about what Red I was. But it was like this crazy thing to be on Fox News in the middle of the night. And it had all these, you know, musicians and comedians.

And so I could imagine that for him, he didn't get that this is, that's a completely inappropriate thing to do in the middle of a newsroom. Yeah. Because he just thought he was like on this crazy show. Yeah, yeah. But it reminds me of the, it was one of the best red eye moments, the tiny Allison moment. Yes. Remember? And I don't know. It was during halftime, Andy Levy was doing half time. And it did. Yeah. And it would tore down, it tore down kind of like the illusion of television that like people are in different places. And, and like, and explain what happened. It was weird. Well, so, yeah, so Red Eye, you know, you guys sat in a studio and then a couple of guests would be on remote and it looked like we might be in, you know, another state or whatever. Yes.

Really just on another floor of the same building in the newsroom. And then Andy did his halftime also in the newsroom, but like pretty like, what would you say, like 40 feet away? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he looks like he's in a fishbowl, right? A fishbowl studio. So it looks totally different than you think he's just. somewhere else. Right.

So you'll go to him, and the camera's on him, and then, and I'm just, like, sitting in the back, like drinking water, checking my phone, waiting until you guys go back to me. Yeah. And all of a sudden, in my earpiece, I hear, is that Allison back there? Yeah. And I said, and I go, yes, and then I wave. And there's this, like, tiny little me way behind Andy. And I think I even sounded far, my memory is that I even sounded far away.

I don't even think. Yes, yes. I don't even know if we caught the voice, but what was so bizarre about it is you know people were at home and they're watching, they're watching. So Andy's doing the halftime report and there's this tiny, and I'm talking like the size of an aunt way in the back sitting on like a stool and it's in the corner. And like I'm listening to Andy talk and I'm like, I'm looking over and I go, what is that? What is that Allison? And then I go, Allison, wait, I think it's, I said Allison wave and you saw this little person waving in the back. I think Andy was very irritated because it disrupted his script, but it was so worth it.

And then I remember, you're like, can you squish his head? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Can you see when I was trying to squish his head? Oh, that was so funny. That was such a weird, funny moment. Yeah, the show had a lot of bizarre. Like, you know what, it's because you could do whatever you wanted, you know?

Right. And it was like it was literally like the parents went to bed and didn't bother to even like they just left the door unlocked and we just went in. And there was so many also that great, we had an interesting array of guests that like, well, I mean, you would add as an example, you know, this is, you know, you got onto that show and had and it worked for you. Whereas maybe other shows wouldn't have understood, you know, quirkiness or your sense of humor, blah, blah, blah. And that's showing that it being populated by people that were, or even people that were like straight arrows like Mike Baker on other shows. But you found out who he really was on Red Eye, which was like kind of like a scatterbrained, a scatterbrained crank, you know, with great hair. Right. But it's surprisingly attractive.

former CIA, well, I guess actually when you hear former CIA operative you imagine attractive, but he really was. Yeah. Too attractive anyway. Oh, yeah. Wait, what did you say? He's too attractive. I'm seeing him, he's doing, I think he's doing

the G.G. show in a couple days, so I'll have to tell him that I talk to you. All right, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Did you know that at Chevron, you can fuel up on unbeatable mileage and savings? With Chevron Rewards, You'll get 25 cents off per gallon on your next five visits.

All you have to do is download the Chevron app and join to start saving on fuel. Then you can keep fueling up on other things, like adventure, memories, vacations, daycations, quality time, and so many other possibilities. Head to your nearest Chevron station to fuel up and get rewarded today. Terms apply. See Chevron Texcores.com for more details. Jugees to Divina the price of Burlington. The regress to scolar signific to return to earn. to your kids

from a moment only 11. 99 Erlington passes the examin. And what

the lot of the lot of because we're going to do you have done to do and the

tennis for the men's for the first and a last mode from

once 99 you can't Arlington Marks Rebaugh wow

those styles and selection varian for Pienda I forgot

you know you were in a punk band right I was yeah

called the Angoras it was something that I did after college. I had always played music. And I, um, just like for fun, though. I never wanted to do music professionally.

And then I also, uh, wrote about music. I was a music journalist. So, uh, a little bit before I graduated from college, I met this girl at a party. And she found out that I played drums and she said, you want to form a band. And I, and, you know, would I be interested in just jamming some time? And I said, sure. Um, and then when I realized like, oh, they want to be a real band, I, I had this weird, feeling of like, but I don't, but I write about music. And now I am going to become the cliche of like

people who write about music are just frustrated musicians. And I'm not. I don't want anyone to think I am. Yeah. Yeah. I ended up playing in the band. I played drums at the very beginning. And then I said, this has been fun, but I'm moving to San Francisco. And then I came, I was in San Francisco very briefly. And then I came back and I said, it turns out I'm not moving to San Francisco. And they said, well, we found another drummer, but what they didn't say was we found another drummer who's a thousand times better than you ever were. But the first time we ever practiced with him, it was a parent. He was really good, and I was like just not, I enjoyed it, but I didn't have the stamina to, I didn't have his stamina. But I also played guitar. So then I became the guitar player in the

band. And we were, we played, let's see, how long? I guess I actually moved to New York in 2002. We formed in 1997. So we were together for five years and we toured a little bit and recorded and it was really fun. Yeah, you know what I, one of the reasons why I brought it up, you know, I don't think you told me this, but Billy Zoom told me this. So I, you know, I did Billy Zoom on Red Eye a couple times. And I, I, I, when I would go to L.A. and do a speech or something, I, I, he would, he would, he actually would come in, uh, and come to my speeches sometimes and we'd, we'd hang out for a bit. He taught you guitar, right? no he didn't teach me guitar but he recorded our second recording gotcha and so he like produced it

but i played uh gretch silverjet which is what he played and so he did like show me a few things and that was very cool and very exciting that's amazing that's billy too i think billy zoom is uh in probably one of the greatest guitarists living right now he does i mean he actually it doesn't matter. He's, I've never met anybody, like, more taciturn and just, like, doesn't, you know, just, he's the coolest person I've ever met, I think, Billy Zoom. I remember the, so he came to watch us rehearse when we, when I guess he was considering working with us, and we were, it was like, I don't know, like an informational, uh, interview. Yeah. We were considering having him He came into the studio, and he did not, speaking of tacit, I'm like, he did not say one thing.

He doesn't. It was so unnerving, but we still decided to work with him. Yeah. He, um, he doesn't believe in holding up his side of the conversation, you know? Right. Yeah, he's like, he doesn't feel compelled to like, it's like playing tennis where the guy's just, you know, I'm not going to hit the ball. I'm not going to hit that ball back.

And he just watches the ball. And then I realized, okay, don't take it personally. He's, that's just how. he is. He just doesn't talk. And he's, and, uh, he's, he's, he's just an old fashioned dude. I want to talk, I haven't talked to you about, oh, do you run into red eye fans at all? Did people come up to you and bother you still? Because I, I always think that's pretty funny. They bring you up to me, you know. In, not in person a lot, but I still get a lot of comments online of like, I've, you know, been following your career since the red eye days.

Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. It's, it's amazing how many more red eye. fans that are now than there were when the show was on. Right. Yeah. Do you feel like, thanks. Where were you then? Yes, yes. But, you know, it was a cult.

Being on at 3.3 a.m. kind of weeds out the people who are casual. You got to really love something to hang out and they would get, stay up. They wanted to watch it, you know, quote, live. But I want to talk about your fun book, Tropical Attire and Courage. My favorite chapter is. It's worth, I can tell it, because it's worth reading. But you actually got a car accident at a car dealership, which is, which is, I could see that happening to you. I do.

Thank you. Yes. How did it happen? So, what's been a little bit of time now since it happened, but let me see if I can't recall all the details. We were at a dealership and I was test driving a car. And he, the dealer, and my husband was there too. He was in the backseat. And when we got back on the lot, the dealer's like, oh, why don't you try parking in that spot over there?

You can just back in and then you can try out the amazing rearview camera. Right. And I, before that, I drove an ancient Honda. Right. Did not have a rear view camera. And I'm not great at driving anyway. I'm certainly not great at backing into a spot. So I think I hesitated like, oh, I don't know.

Because the way that those cars are parked on the lot, they're like right next to each other. It's tighter than a parking lot. Yeah. So I was like, I don't know. He's like, no, no, no, try it. He was just very confident that I should definitely do this. So I start backing up. And then all of a sudden, I just hear the crunch of metal on metal.

Like two grown men with eyes and ears and not an impaired sense of spatial relationships in the car did not say anything. Yeah, that's amazing. They just let me run into another car. It was so infuriating. And I think I forget what my husband said. I think he was like, I just figured you knew what you were doing or like maybe you wanted to be that close to another car. And I remember as soon as it happened, I said, did I just hit another car? They said, yes.

So then the card dealer guy was like pretty, oh, this is no big deal about it. But he had to, you know, he's like, do you just come in, come into the dealership. Come into the dealership with us. So we're following him in and I'm like, I'm like an animal in a trap. Like we've got to go, leave my arm behind. There's nothing good that's going to come from us staying here. I don't know what information he's going to try to collect from us. We got to go. We got to get out of here now. Like, there might be cameras. There might be caught. I don't know. Apparently, if I committed a crime, I will flee. Because I was just like, I don't, whatever music I need to face, I don't want to. So we go in and we're sitting there. And I don't know if he had already asked for my license. But he said, he's like, oh, hang on. I got to go deal with another customer real fast. So then I said to my husband, I convinced him, we have to go now. So we left. And we might. We might.

to send him to him like, we're going to come back. Catch you later. Yeah. And then I actually got a call from the dealership, I don't know, sometimes, like a week later, and I like practically ruined my pants. But I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be family-friendly. But the call was just, they wanted to see if I was interested in the car. Amazing.

So that was it. Yeah. That's incredible. By the way, that is a, it's a great, the message there is a, how? how people just, like, assume that because you've got that stupid camera, that you have to, like, relinquish, I don't know, relinquish the way you, the way you move in among real objects. And I tell it to my wife all the time. It's like, you know, I, she looked, because I, you know, I just got my license again after 10 years. And I still put my hand on the back of the, when I'm going in reverse, I put my hand behind the seat.

And I look backwards. And she goes, why do you do that? Use this. And I look at that. And all I say are the squiggly lines. And I'm going, no, no, no, no, no. That, I don't like that at all. I need to do it the old-fashioned way.

I got to know. One more question I want to ask you. You have 30 million downloads. I do. That's over 30 million. You have over. That's pretty amazing. So this is, you're doing, this is doing really well for you.

Um, it's, it's, I feel very grateful and, uh, and lucky that, that I, this has turned into a, like my, my living, basically. So, yeah, I do Alison Rosenz, you're your best friend, and that comes out twice a week. And Monday is a one-on-one interview, and then Thursday is a panel show where we talk about our lives and all sorts of stuff. And we do fun segments. And then I also have another podcast, which is newer, and that's called Childish, and that is an irreverent parenting podcast that I do with. Do you know Greg Fitzs Simmons? Yeah, he did.

He, I think he did Red Eye in the early days once or twice. He did it a few times. And I see him, I see him on TV, does Rogan, you know. I know he is, but I met him maybe a couple of times 10 years ago. Yeah, good guy. Okay, yeah, so he's great. He's really fun, and we have, like, a fun chemistry together. So we do that podcast, and it's parenting, but we have a lot of listeners who don't have

kids who tell us that they love it, and I love when I hear that. And for some reason, then I think, like, am I valuing them more than our listeners with kids? I shouldn't do that. I shouldn't do his favorites. You should look down on them for not reproducing. right how are you helping yes exactly so he has an 18 year old and a 16 year old and then I have a 2 year old and a 0 year old so it's we're able to come at parenting from you know very

different vantage points so one of I have a million questions for you yep don't know if they're if you have time for them I got like I take out like five minutes because I got to run down to get my makeup for the five but shoot them shoot away are you going to have kids uh we go back and forth. We think about, you know what it is? It's like, I don't like children. That's a problem. That might get in the way. Yeah. And I, and you know what people tell me, oh, you'll love yours. And I go, you know what? Don't hold me to it. Don't hold me to it. I don't believe, I don't believe in cognitive bias. You know, I mean, I don't want to be fall prey to. Oh, my kid's great because it's mine. I'll be even meaner to my kid if he's a jerk. Like if it turns out my kid's a jerk,

come out of the house at 10. You know, if I, if you let you, if he's an, if he's an a hole, I don't want to have a kid who's an a hole. Like, I don't want to, like, remember the two sons that Bill Murray had in Rushmore? I don't, if I have kids like that, oh, I'll just leave town. Anyway, so that's right. There you go. That's your first question. Go ahead. Thanks. Um, I follow you on Instagram and you're constantly posting photos of some majestic cabin what's going on you know um there is a there's a story behind that i my wife and i got a place up by a lake uh a couple of hours um from new york and it looks like it looks like a a location

from a japanese horror film it is it's it's just this create it's crazy and so i just go there i get drunk and i take pictures it's i'm like you know how dana perino takes pictures of her I kind of do that with the cabin. The cabin's my dog. But, and this is a secret that only you and anybody who listens to my podcast, sometimes I take pictures of the cabin so people think that I'm there when I'm trying to get out of something. So, like, if somebody says, hey, you know, we're having this event, we'd love you to come and stop. I go, oh, you know, I'm going to be away upstate working on. And then what I do is I just have those pictures.

And then I just, I just, isn't that just, but it's so dishonest. But I'm telling you, it covers your ass. You should always have backup pictures of things that you're doing in case somebody calls you on it. And it's like, hey, I thought you said you were going to go away. Well, yeah, look at my Instagram. Oh, sorry. That's genius.

Because I'm always worried about the opposite happening where I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry, I can't do this thing. And then I'll tweet something about how much time I just wait. did something like that's totally unimportant um it's uh if you forget your lies you can expose like you can like oh crap i can't like like if you if you're tweeting about if you're tweeting about a colombo episode episode you're watching after you said that you couldn't do a special charity event right yes so what else i need to go get some stock photos yes happens or something. Thank you. Thank you very much. What else? Do you miss red eye? I don't really know what I don't really all I know is that it was it was red eye and then it was Tom Shaloo red eye and then there was no more red eye. Yeah. I don't miss it because we did like 1,500 shows or maybe 2000. I don't know how many. We did so many shows. I had such a great time and I do the GG show once a week. Which you should add, if you ever come into New York, you got to do.

do the Gigi show. It's like red eye, but it's obviously a little bit more polished. It's once a week. So it's a little bit more careful. When you do something, when you're making a cheeseburger every night, you can be sloppy. You can overcook it, undercook it, throw a cheese. You know, that's red eye, but this is a once a week meal. So it's like you're cooking a steak. You got to be real careful because you only got one shot that week. And I only have two I only have two guest slots that week. So it's like you have to make sure you don't have somebody who's going to bomb and that makes me more of a of a jerk to our bookers. But I do, I do like with Red Eye, we'd go, oh, let's try that person.

Let's try that person. Let's try that person. And we used to actually have people come back who were terrible. Like, I don't even know what. It's like, why do we have this person back? This person was so mean. And I'd have him back on. And it's like, oh, why not? Maybe he'll be like, maybe he'll be better this time.

And then we remember we used to have like, we used to have entertainment reporters who would be like, oh, we can't talk about Paul. we can't talk about politics or stuff like that. And it's like, well, okay, sure. And then I just wouldn't ask them questions. But I would never do that now. But I do, I think, I don't miss it because I'm doing, like, and also I'm getting a piece of red eye from the Gigi show and a piece of red eye from the five. I'm still a class clown. I get to sit there and be an idiot.

Say, and the five, nobody tells me to shut up or, nope, I'm not edited. So I'm kind of like more like a, uh, uh, red, the, the, Five has really helped me in a lot of ways. And Red Eye, I was, somebody might look at me and go, you're just a weirdo. But the five, it's like, you're our weirdo. So, like, you know what I mean? It, like, changed, it changed. Like it legitimized you?

Yes, it legitimized my weird. It's like a guy, a middle-aged man who obsesses over unicorns makes not-so-veiled drug references, homo erotic references. How could he be successful on a show at 5 o'clock? It turns out it happens. So it's like I'm still a weirdo, but I'm their weirdo. And I think that's – so I still get my fix, I guess, is what I'm saying. That must feel really good.

Yeah. To have your weirdness be so accepted. Yeah, and also it was good because, you know, my mom, she passed away, but she was able to watch the – she watched Red Eye. When the Red Eye and Five was on, she got to get two doses of her son. and she would, like, fall asleep in between the shows. But it was, like, good for her to see me do something that got wider acclaim. You know, she wasn't very pleased when I was editor of stuff or maxim.

And that brings me to my very last question. This one's a little bit deeper. But before I knew you when you were magazine, before I knew you knowing all about your magazine history and stuff, my sense of you was always that you were this, like, very, like, out of control, wild and crazy, potentially self-destructive guy who, like, just kept getting fired up, basically. Yeah. And then you got to, you started doing Red Eye, and like the story that we told about how nervous you were after the, after the guy set the fire, it seems like you, you, like, took it

very seriously and were cautious and really wanted to do right. Was there a change in you, or was it just that, like, my sense of who you were was, I think, inaccurate. I think, like, in those early days with Red Eye, there was a sense that I didn't know what I was doing. Like, with magazines, I thought, I mean, I was a fairly arrogant magazine editor. I think that, like, I felt that Stuff Magazine was the greatest magazine on the planet until I did Maxim in the UK, then that was the greatest magazine in the planet.

And I could tell anybody, I would tell advertisers to go to hell. I made lives difficult for for the publishing side not for the editorial side but I was like I you know I was a pretty Yeah I was and also I did you know I was I partied a lot So that was like I had it

There was a self-destructive When I got I you and the other I guess my point is you caught me After I got married So I got married I settled down And I wanted this job I wanted this job I wasn't going to go back to magazines

Actually maybe I thought I was at some point because I didn't think this was going to work out. And but I didn't know what I was doing and I was, I was married and I was, I stopped being a jackass, a regular jackass. Now I was just a jackass in the middle of the night. So I think that's where kind of, maybe I started to develop, I used to, maybe I just took it. I don't know if I, because I took magazine seriously. I think, I think your point is I became less self-destructive. It might be the key.

Yeah. And I think it's because I did clean up my action. and I got married. That was probably, if I'm glad, I mean, you know, it sounds corny, but getting married is a great way to save your life. I mean, I don't know what I would be like if I hadn't gotten married 14 years ago because I don't really think I liked myself that much when I was single. I think that I was, you know, I don't think I was, I was just a typical guy drinking

partying, doesn't give a crap kind of guy. And then, you know, I just realized I was sick of that. I was sick of that person. Yeah. You know, wow, that was a really deep question and a deep answer. It really was. Thank you. Yeah.

So when you come out, when you come out here in New York next, you got to come do the Gigi show. We'll fly out to. I would love to. Yeah. So maybe we'll just, maybe we'll just, maybe we'll work a vacation around it and we'll fly out. How about that? That would be amazing.

Yeah. Get away from the kids. Get away from the kids. Yeah, they're really wearing it on my nerves. It's going to be time soon. Well, excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'll be posting this on Twitter.

And I'm sure the fans, everybody will love hearing this. So I had a great time. Me too. Thank you again. I'm Janisteen. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now. at foxnewspodcast.com.