LadyGang - LG Quickie: BRAVO BUZZ with Jeff Lewis

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

In this episode of LadyGang, it’s Keltie and the one and only Jeff Lewis, the sharp-tongued, no-filter Bravolebrity known for his hit show Flippin' Out and his candid commentary on everything Bravo. Jeff takes the mic to share his fascinating origin story, how he went from an early real estate career to becoming one of the most recognized names in the world of home design and reality TV. He also opens up about his early days on Flippin' Out, the highs, the lows, and what it was really like working in such a high-stakes world. Of course, no Jeff Lewis interview would be complete without dishing on his famous friendship with Andy Cohen—hear all the juicy details on their close bond, their shared experiences, and what goes on behind the scenes of Bravo’s biggest stars. From friendships, feuds, and the ever-evolving world of reality TV, this is an episode you don’t want to miss! Get ready for a no-holds-barred conversation with Jeff Lewis that leaves you wanting more!We have deals for YOU!!Cover Girl: Superboost your lashes with NEW Lash Blast Supercloud Mascara! Only from Easy, Breezy, Beautiful COVERGIRL. http://bit.ly/3Ez5HC9Old Navy: Shop Old Navy’s StudioSmooth collection in store or online at OldNavy.comDon't miss FX’s Dying for Sex! All episodes streaming April 4th on Hulu!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. It's time for a quickie. Podcast One presents The Lady Gang, the Hollywood girl posse with Lady Gang Quickie. Here's Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Let's make this quick.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Lady Gang. Now, you may notice that this is Kelty Knight talking to you right now instead of Becca, and that's because we are with the busiest man in all of Hollywood, Jeff Lewis. This is a Jeff Lewis quickie. And for years I've been dragging Jeff Lewis because we could not get him on the podcast. And then finally he said he would do a podcast, which is very rare. And then we tried to schedule it. And between the child care, between his two-hour hit serious live show, between us only filming once every six weeks, we could not get Jeff Lewis where we needed him to be.

We couldn't get the other two members of the Lady Gang where they needed to be. And I said, you know what? This is a solo show now. Okay. so now we'll just say what really happened. I'm not the busiest person in the world for, you know, for a while I was not doing podcasts, but then I started doing podcasts for my friends. I do consider you a friend. So even though I don't treat you as a friend, I do consider you as a friend. Um, no, we have a banter. You and I, I like, I like playing with you. I like, I like,

you know, making fun. You make fun of me. Um, that's our love language. Okay. So what I want to start with is now that it's finally my time to drop, like run the show. I want to know the origin story. I know you as from Bravo Liberty on, but like, what were you doing before? How did you get discovered on Bravo? Um, it's, it's a crazy story that I still, to this day, tell over and over and over to people. Uh, I was, you know, I was a young guy. I had gone into real estate at 18 years old. You were in LA? First, I was in Orange County. So I started getting into real estate when I was 18. That's when I bought my first condo. I worked for a real estate appraiser. I worked for real estate agents. I worked for a loan broker. I worked for a finance company.

That was my career. And so right around 29 years old, I was supplementing my income with real estate. I was investing, but I didn't have, I wasn't making enough money to go on my own, to leave my job. So at 29, I finally left my, uh, my job at the time and I started flipping full time and I had a very successful run. Um, I, I had at the time I had, I moved to LA. Yeah. So I had sold the properties I had in Orange County. I bought a home in LA and then the flipping, I started flipping in Los Angeles. So I had several people working for me and here in Los Angeles, you know, you find a lot of kind of out of work actors and that, that seemed to be a lot of people that were working for me, people that were waiting for their next gig or like

working for you. How like flipping the actual flip? No, they were assistant work, project management, that kind of thing. And so I had this cute couple that a married couple that were working for me, uh, Jenny and Chris, Jenny Poulos. Right. And they had worked me for years, but they had, they were, you know, they were desperately trying to make it in Hollywood and they were doing everything. They were, you know, they, anything they could do, children's birthday parties, game shows, whatever. So they found this production company that was interested in doing just a teaser, a show about their life. And she, you know, Jenny had said to me, we'd become friends at that point. And she said, I really want you to be involved in this. I said,

I want nothing to do with it. You really wanted nothing, nothing to do with it. I had a successful flipping business. I didn't want anything to do with it. And, uh, she kept coming back to me and said, please do this, please do this. And I'm like, what do I get out of this? Really? Like, what do I get? So let's just say this show goes and you know, I guess I thought, you know, I'm, she goes, we really need you in the show because you're my boss, you're our boss and we're with you 50 hours a week. You know, it's a big chunk of our lives. So I thought, well, what happens if this thing goes? I, you know, maybe my houses will sell faster. You know, maybe it gives a little spotlight on my properties. And you never had the, like, you weren't in the school plays.

You never had the like need for that kind of outward attention. I did a little bit of modeling when I was like in college, but no, I really, I never, you didn't have the itch. No. And to be honest with you, it was never like, I never even considered it an option for me. I was in real estate. So it just, I never ever would predict that transition. So then what happened is they came in and they, they filmed, uh, for maybe one or two days. And about 48 hours later, the producer called me, me personally, even though they're dealing with Jenny and Chris and said, we want to make a show about your life. And so they came, so they had, they were working, actively working on the, on the teaser, which is like a six or seven minute teaser reel for Jenny

and chris's show called the wannabes that was the it was like a poor man's nick and jessica and they're really they were really charming and cute and you know so they just i basically got discovered because what happened is they they came in my and i didn't i didn't really think it through i just which i'm glad because i would have talked myself out of it i kind of jumped into it i let them film they put together the uh six seven minute teaser reel and they sent it out and we had three networks that bid on it. It happened so fast. That never happens. Never happens that I really didn't have time to second guess or question it. And to be like, no. And like, what's this going to do to my life? Because I would have, I think if I had more time,

I would have talked to my family and I would have talked to my friends and I would have, I would have been talked to cause this was in 2007. Right. So it was like a height of reality TV though. But it was also the very beginning, beginning, beginning of reality. Like when you called your friends and family to be like, I'm doing a reality TV show. I did not have a positive response. Right. They were like, why are you a loser? They're going to embarrass you. You're going to look terrible. Right. But I just thought of it like, okay, well here's an additional, you know, stream of income. Right. And I think it's going to, you know, hopefully create a platform where my house has become sought after, which it did. There you go. So, but I really was

not very self-aware i didn't realize that i would be portrayed as eccentric or crazy or a villain or i i really did was not that clued into who i was and i now get it why they saw the interest but i didn't at the time now when did your friendship with andy start almost immediately um was he really really involved in the shows he was so hands-on at that time so you know he didn't have Watch What Happens Live. He was a full-time Bravo executive. He had shows that he oversaw. Mine was one of them. So that's how we developed a rapport, which turned into a friendship. And then have you always remained friends or have there ever been a time with you and Andy where you've strongly disagreed on something? We've always... A few times with radio,

we've had disagreements, but I think the 11 years at Bravo and the three different shows, we always had a great relationship we were even closer i think earlier on um i never i made it a practice never to complain about the show never talk about the show so when i went to new york i would go often to promote the show or whatever um we would always hang out and i think he preferred to hang out with me over other bravo leberties because i wasn't i i didn't talk about the show We just went out and had a good time where, you know, if, if he goes, he might go out with a housewife and they just want to talk about housewife stuff probably. And you know, why am I not on and what you can't believe what Ramona did and, and you

know, he deals with that all day long, all day. So we would go out and we'd have a great time. We'd blow off steam. Like we, we had many nights and we had a lot of fun. What do you think the one thing that people get wrong about you is like, what is the thing that you wish people understood about the Jeff Lewis? I think people are starting to understand now where, well, I don't know.

It took me, it wasn't until recently in the last few years that I kind of figured out why I behaved the way I behaved, you know, in flipping out. And what sucks about it is that I collect people and I try to help people. And so I would hire people that were simply not qualified for the job. and they would disappoint and they would also drive me crazy because they really

again i wanted to give people work i wanted people to be able to make money and survive and pursue their goals and dreams of being actors or whatever but really i i harmed myself in the process well sometimes you you you can't i i find a big struggle of like championing championing when you get i had a very similar thing happened on my show superfan i was like oh my god i got this show made i'm the ep i get to hire everyone and then i tried to hire all my friends and get all my friends jobs and like some of those people were not the right people for the jobs and it harmed the show yes and so it was like very hard we all want to be shonda rhimes and be like okay like we're gonna have our people but i made some bad decisions in that so i understand

that. Yeah. I feel like, I feel like, um, the, the people that I hired were very fun personalities, which made for a great TV show. But in regards to my business, I feel like it was all on my shoulders. I didn't really have the proper, Jenny was good, but I didn't have the proper support and it, it harmed my business, my flipping business. Um, what's going on with Chump Con? JumpCon is, you know, it's a lot harder. I mean, you can tell. I mean, you're doing Lady World, which I wanted to ask you some questions about that. But you're doing Lady World.

It's our first, you know, event. It's a lot that goes into it, a lot of moving parts. We made some mistakes, but I feel like we ironed it out. And now, you know, we're moving forward. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be really fun. And is it sold out? Where can people get tickets?

At JL Jeff Lewis. And it's just in a few weeks, right? It's in, I think, four weeks. April 11th. Oh, my God. It's going to be so fun. Okay. The last thing before the break, I wanted to ask you about this return to TV.

So it's been – there's stories and you've kind of said – like we're not – I don't know. What can you say and also what's the show going to be like? Because I think people actually don't want your old show back, but they want you back, but they want just more of your life. So is this going to be like a real interior show or is this going to be like a Jeff Lewis show? I think if it did happen – so I am in development with Bravo. Everybody knows that. But it would be more of – it would be a flipping out kind of 2.0 but it would be where I am in my life today. So I'm still involved in real estate. I still have clients, but I also, the radio is a big part of my life. So it would be where I am today.

And also, you know, I would hope, I still lose my temper here and there, but I would hope I handle things a little more rationally and reasonably and hopefully in a healthy manner. But, you know, nobody's perfect. Shane's sitting here. Shane, what percentage do you think that it will be a healthy manner? Oh, 80. Really? 80 healthy, 75 healthy. 75 healthy?

Wow. They still got that 25%. So what they're going to do is they'll build episodes around that 25% of me acting out. 100%. My friend in reality show casting told me that when you cast real people on a show, you want them to just barely pass the psych evaluation. Yes. And that's what makes good TV.

And I was like, check, check. It's funny you say that about psych eval because I've had so many problems with my ex. And I said, I really want to enforce some sort of psych eval. And my attorney said, well, here's the problem. If you ask him for a psych eval, he's going to ask you for a psych eval. And I don't know how that's going to turn out. I said, OK, never mind. Moving on.

Bye. OK, when we come back, all the Bravo buzz with Jeff Lewis. Sonnet Insurance wants to know, what would you do with an extra hour in your day and more money in your pocket? With Sonnet, you can quote and buy home and auto insurance online or over the phone. your choice on your time whatever works best for you and canadian university and college alumni could save over two thousand dollars a year that's real money back where it belongs save time save money save yourself from the way insurance used to be get your quote at sonnet.ca switch save simple sonnet the lady gang all right i have so many things to talk about did you watch traders

i i'm only on episode one right now of season three okay so you haven't watched no i haven't So that's a no, I guess. Okay. What do you think of Sheena meeting Lady Gaga at SNL? I don't think much about it. I don't really think. Do you know anything about it? No.

Okay. So Lady Gaga did this lie detector test with Vanity Fair, and they asked her if she was going to be sad to see a new cast of Vanderpump Rules. And Lady Gaga said, yeah, what about Sheena? And Sheena has always wanted to be the number one girl in the group, but they're always talking about everybody else. Yes. So Sheena got her moment and then Lady Gaga was on SNL and then Sheena got to go to SNL and meet Lady Gaga. Great.

Okay, cool. Great. I'm not invested in that. Okay. Tamara leaving Real Housewives of OC. I don't even know if that's, you know, if that's true. I don't even know if that's really going to happen. I think we're having a thing in Housewives, which is problematic, which is why is everyone getting up and storming out? The storming out is at an all time high, in my opinion. Like whether it's on the show, whether it's on the reunion or in the press, people are like, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore.

And then they leave it. This is a job. I can't just like every day be like, I'm not doing this anymore and walk out. And then they always come back. Well, some of it has become very, very, very toxic and negative. And people are they feel like they can just say whatever they want on TV and they defame them. They they come for their businesses. They come for their marriages.

I mean, frankly, for somebody that, you know, has something to protect, I'm not so sure I wouldn't walk out. But then you would come back. I don't know if I'd come back. My point is, if you're going to walk out, walk out forever. Okay. Don't fake the walkout. Yeah, so I don't, you know, I do believe that Tamara has something to protect. She's got the Vena business, which is very successful.

Yeah. And, you know, she doesn't, I don't think she needs the money. It's nice to have the platform to promote your product, but not if that platform is damaging your business, which is probably the only reason she's there in the first place. She's not a career housewife at this point. She's got her own money, her own business. I feel like she has transitioned to a point where Bravo needs her more than she needs them. What did you think of Jax's admission that he's been addicted to Coke this whole time? Again, I'm not that invested.

You're not a Vanderpump Valleys person? I mean, I watch Vanderpump, yes, but I'm just not that invested. I don't know. I mean, look, Tamara's my friend, so I'm more invested. Invested in that. I'm more invested. There's so many Bravo Leberties. You can't watch all the shows, but I know a lot of them, so I'm more concerned about

the ones that are my friends. Okay. Jen Shah working out in prison. She's doing the Teresa Giudice. All these prison pictures came out of her doing squats with barbells from 1970. I mean, she's somebody I would love to see back on Salt Lake. Right? Yeah.

I happen to really like Salt Lake City. I really like Salt Lake City. Who's your favorite Salt Lake City housewife? Do you have a favorite? Bronwyn? Lisa? I love Lisa Barlow. Yeah.

I love Meredith. I haven't met Heather. I do like Meredith. I've hung out with Meredith. I've hung out with Lisa. Why do you think Salt Lake is so good? Big personalities. Yeah.

Big personalities and they're also – they're not self-edited and if you compare it to New York where they – The new New York? The new New York. It's not working. Did you tell Andy? Yeah, he knows. I've told him everything. I told him get rid of a few, bring in some new ones or maybe a couple OGs, mix them in.

But I like New York. I think New York has potential but they have to – these people have to – but again, they have a lot to protect. See, if you look at the old school shows. They were real, just doing nothing. Yeah. Now it's like the Bethany of it all is you come on and you're like, I need to launch my Spanx supplements, whatever it is. And then you don't want like. Like Rebecca Minkoff, that was just not a fit for so many reasons.

Why would you ever risk, you know, your huge brand that you have built? It actually made, I'm sorry to say this, Rebecca, it made the brand less desirable. I agree. because I didn't actually know much about Rebecca Minkoff, but I knew that I would see the posts and influencers and they did a good job marketing. And I'd be like, Oh, that bag is cute or Oh, whatever. But now I'm like, Oh, you're like, Rebecca Minkoff is boring. And so then I'm like, Oh, maybe your bags are boring. Well, you know, I don't, I'm not, there are people that are very turned off by science Scientology. I think that could have hurt her. I don't give a

shit, but I feel like for other people, it's, it's, it made an impact to the point where the, Maybe they don't care to buy her products. I think it was a bad move. I'm also going to tell you this. I have learned I'm not so attached to the – when you talk about the TV shows. Yeah. I'm not so attached to the outcome. I feel like I'm going to – I will have another show.

Yeah. I don't know where that will be, but it may not be with Bravo. And I'm – again, I'm not like – I haven't marked my calendar. Right. like oh this is going to happen on this day you know there may be other other opportunities so maybe there is another opportunity well what's interesting about television in general not to like and the lady gang knows this but i talk about this all the time like it it used to be everyone went to tv but now you just go wherever the thing you love is so if you love lady gang you go see

the podcast or you follow us on instagram if you love jeff lewis you get your serious subscription and you felt like people will follow you to wherever you bring them if you wanted to start a sub stack and like write a nice newsletter every morning. We would follow you to sub stack. Like it's, it's kind of less, I mean, I think obviously there's really good things about having like a Netflix or a Bravo behind you to push it out into the world, but wherever you go, your fans will go. Yes. But there are certain platforms that, you know, I feel like are more valuable than others. Yeah. So, um, you know, some things we do for, there are some things that we do for exposure

and there's some things that we do for money I know what ain't I know what ain't what do you think the best boat show on Bravo is I don't do boat shows

so I'm just asking I don't even know what a boat show is I don't even know what that is like below deck above deck oh I don't do boat shows

you don't do boat shows yeah you know I wish I mean people talk about below deck and I know are addicted to below deck and southern hospitality

and all those shows there's just there's so many shows I can watch right only so many so I have to I drew the line

in the sand with boats I had to cut it off. So no boat shows. I stay on land. Land only. Okay. Last thing. All-time best housewife.

All-time worst housewife. Ooh. I mean, I think Nene was a fantastic housewife. I mean, you know, Lisa Vanderpump. I think the Countess is great. The worst. There's been so many like duds, right? It's just crazy to me that they get through.

Like, I'm assuming that the casting is, like, kind of intense and they would look you up and they would really, like, know you at this point. And for, like, Jenny – remember Jenny on Salt Lake City? And you're like, how did you make it past the cut? Like, they were – did you just bomb once the cameras started rolling? Like, where was – I'm assuming this person had a personality before they got onto the show. She was – we didn't even know she was – she was like, poof, she was gone. Yeah, people disappear and you never even notice they're gone. You were like, they announced him as a housewife and then you're like, I've never, I never

heard from this person on the entire season, which is why I like they're doing like the friends. Like, I think it's working for Beverly Hills where they have like the friends come in and you can kind of fall in love with that friend for a minute and then decide, do I want you to be a full housewife or not? I, you know, I've never been one that, you know, blames the edit, but there is something to be said. I think that we don't see all sides of everyone and you know, you guys being podcasters and

us having a radio show, you know, you meet these people and you have them on the show and I'm like, wow, they're great. They're dynamic. They're fun. Like, why is this not? I think in Crystal Minkoff is a perfect example. She's incredible on the radio. She has a, she has a very successful podcast, but you know, on the show, she was kind of a dud. And I think she was, again, I think she was not so much protecting herself, but she was protecting her husband and her husband's very successful brand and business. And so I think she was very, uh, reluctant to get dirty and muddy because she didn't want to embarrass her husband. So that, that, you know, that has something to it, but I believe, but I wonder now if she were to go to back, even as a friend on Real Housewives

of Beverly Hills, how she'd be. Well, I feel bad sometimes for people who have no prior Hollywood experience to get thrown into that because there is like a sea legs to get you know you need to get your sea legs thing it's not just the show i danced in on the cruise ship when i was 18 sea legs circus at sea um it's a circus at sea um no like it's hard it's hard to find yourself on tv and it takes you either have to be completely wackadoodle noodle or you know i i think what works for me and including radio. So I, I wasn't aware. I mean, I really wasn't prepared for all the negative, the criticism when I first started TV. And then I just stopped reading everything. I stopped reading everything. And now even with radio, I'll read the DMS that I'll read my own

DMS, but I do not, I know there's a lot of fan groups and there's all this like Reddit and Facebook and all of it. I read none of it because I think it would really affect me and how I run the show and I don't want that. You know, it's working. Whatever I'm doing is working. I don't want that influence. And so the other day I did, I think it was yesterday. I said, look, I don't want your complaints anymore. I want solutions. I love a solution based. And they're, by the way, they're coming around. They're like, I know you don't want us to complain. So this is what I'm going to tell you who I'd like to see. And I that's, I'm trying to train my audience. Like if you want me to really listen to you, don't come up, don't be nasty to the chumps. Just say

who you like and who you want me to book and who would you like? What pairings do you want? Right. And that's actually working. It's working. Well, I, I love coming on. I'm sure once people give you solutions, the solution will be cut Kelty night and that's fine. Uh, I had a wonderful year here at Jeff Lewis live. Thank you for coming on my show. I love you. And I think that you and I have a great rapport and I'll continue. I don't care what they say. I'll continue to have you on again and again and again. Thank you. I love coming here. Well, what I like about you too, is that you're a content driver. Those are rare. So you have reactors, right? And then you have the content drivers. Because I do stuff. And you do both. You're a reactor and you're

a content driver. So you, for me, are a great guest. Thank you so much. I'm great in everything I do. And that is Lady Gang. Probably not, but you're good at this. Lady Gang, if we can ever figure out how to get all four of us in a room, I think we would have a real rockin' good time. But I appreciate this time. A deep dive into Jeff Lewis's origin story is something I always wanted to do. So I appreciate this so much. I was willing to do it. But you guys said that you do this between 9 and 11, which is the exact time I'm on the air.

I know. It's crazy. And you guys are so inflexible. You can't even do five minutes at 11.05. I know. I'm glad we did this. Childcare time zones. This is probably the last time, but I'm glad I did it.

No, I'm glad we did it. You never have to do it again. And I do think your haircut's cute. The beef. Even though I called you and said you look like a boy, I do think your haircut is really cute. I don't know. No, I really like it. I would tell you.

You know when you use so much skin care and then your hair is always greasy because of the oils on your face? Anyway, this is not for this. Okay. Lady Gang, we weren't here for a long time. We're here for a good time. Bye. Lady Gang is produced by Podcast One with podcasting production assistance from Steve Delameter, Derek Haley. editing by Jared Monaco and social support from Kali Carrera and mastermind evil genius from Kelty Knight.