Robert Kelly's You Know What Dude! - YKWD #637 | Barry Katz

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Barry Katz joins the pod to catch up with Bobby from the days back at The Boston Comedy Club Get the EXTRA YKWD, Watch LIVE and UNEDITED AT https://www.patreon.com/robertkelly Barry Katz joins the pod to catch up with Bobby from the days back at The Boston Comedy Club Get the EXTRA YKWD, Watch LIVE and UNEDITED AT https://www.patreon.com/robertkelly LIVE FROM THE SHED AND MORE ON PATREON DUDE!!! https://twitter.com/robertkelly https://twitter.com/YKWDpodcast http://instagram.com/ykwdudepodcast https://www.facebook.com/YkwdPodcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yeah, baby. We're starting the podcast right now. We're back. You know what dude live. Welcome everybody to the show. YKWD. I started a social media podcast. The fact.

The YKWD podcast. YKWD is back again. Old school, back in the day. Where it all started before fun and crazy. This isn't NPR. That's the podcast. The original. What's up everybody?

It's Robert Kelly. We're back with YKWD at the Comedy Cellar Studios. Above the World Famous Comedy Seller. This podcast is, look, I usually have a bunch of comics on and we talk about crazy stuff. We make fun of each other and we bust balls and it gets crazy. This is going to be a little different. This is going to be a little different.

We have, we usually have one side of show business on here. Today we have the other side. We have the industry side. Danny, tell them who we got. We have from the Industry Standard podcast, Barry Katz. I mean, you could have done a lot better. I mean, what the fuck, man? Sounder of the Boston Comedy Club.

Don't get carried away. I mean, Barry, let me tell you something. I want to tell everybody something that I have to go through this. Listen, Barry Katz, if you guys probably don't know who he is. A lot of the young bucks don't. But back in the 90s and early aughts, he was a manager. of comedians, but not just the manager of comedians. He managed, I'm going to read the list of people that he had at one time.

Tracy Morgan. Brad, no, I'm going to take that. Tracy Morgan, Jim Brewer, Darrell Hammond, Jane War, Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, Patrice O'Neill, Burke Kreischer, Kevin Brennan, Nick DePaolo, Louis C.K., Dane Cook, Bill Burr. what happened I love you so much, buddy. You at one time, look it,

man, at one time, you had the biggest management company with the next guys, the middle guys, and the guys that were doing it that were famous. It was almost like a conveyor belt

of just all of them. Not one or two. You had all of them. At New York Entertainment, up on 57th Street, I believe it was, on Broadway, between 56 and 57th. I remember going to that building, coming to New York. I'll tell you this. I wouldn't tell you story.

We would meet Patrice Burr, Dane, I think Bob Mali, Al Del Benny. We would come down together. We'd all pile in a car. I remember Dane rented this car one night. He rented like, I think maybe his girlfriend's car. He was his girlfriend's car. We all jumped in. We all came down.

and we all went to the Boston Comedy Club and I mean just a shithole just like we're coming from Nick's and Frank's Comedy Avenue yeah it was it was it's it's it's over there now I think it's a restaurant and apartment buildings

but we came down we parked the car we were panicking we didn't know where we were and we parked the car we go over to this club and you were there and it was like oh my God oh my God this was crazy and I remember we started to come down.

But you saw, it's weird because you saw something in Dane. Like out of all, think of all those guys. That is a, that lineup, that, that school, that class, that graduating class of comics in there, everybody's a killer. All killers. All killers.

You used to, for your audience that you know this because you're not going to say it, but. I say it every week. You used to go into the Boston Comedy Club. It didn't matter. there were four people. Yeah. 40 or if it was sold out at 150, you always killed.

Well, I mean, it was Dane. I mean, think about that lineup. Dan Cook, Patrice O'Neill, Bill Burr, me, and like Bob Marley and Gary Galman. And throw in some people like Jay Moore, Red Johnny and the round guy. Well, it was funny.

Al Del Benny came down too. This is the, I want to see if you remember this. Al Descharm. So Dan get the Al Deshaun. I mean, he's crazy. So Dane, you grab Dane for some reason. I mean, we all get it. Dane had that, he just had the youngness, the cuteness, the edging.

He had it all in this one package, like TV. I don't want you to lose your place, but I want to share this because I don't think you know this. So I used to have this office in Boston and an apartment like Glenville Avenue just in this basement apartment. And I live there and it was like $150 a month. and I across the street, as you know, was play it again Sam, which was the club that I ran in the hangout for like eight or ten years. Right. And then I'd also book stitches on a few places, but still.

And Nina Brower, who was working with me, that's a really nice woman, so incredible. She shared with me how Dane was, she was booking, is called Alan the Monkeys. Alan the Monkeys, which was a little comedy improv group. Comedy Improv, with Al Del Benny. Yeah. you, I believe, and Dane Cook, correct?

Yeah. And there was another guy who went out. Jay Hall. Yeah. So, and then you guys broke up, and then she said she booked a few people as openers. And I had gone to New York, and I think she told me, or Dane told me, I'm going to do a set of Carolines on an open mic. Right. And I walked down, because I had my office at 57 Broadway.

And I, in all fairness, they put them on, they switched him, I think, and they put them on first. So I missed his, I missed his said. Right. And I didn't see anything, but I met him. And there's always been this weird thing, and I don't know what it is, and you're going to shit on me. No. But it's like the dead zone.

I, like, I, sometimes in those days or whatever, I can shake somebody's hand, and I can see something is going to happen. That doesn't mean nothing's going to happen with anybody else. It means that my chemistry and their chemistry will work. A hundred, dude, I'm going to get to all this. We're getting to all this. We're going step by step. Okay.

Because it should be noted. He had a speech impediment. Dane did? Yes. And he was very, and he was, and he was, and he was,

he'll probably kill me for saying this. Very awkward. Yeah, he was like, didn't, didn't really go out with a lot of girls. A lot of girls didn't want to go. Meanwhile,

you could, you could meet anybody you want. I got a lot of tail. Yeah. Yeah. But as you know, he was just very shy and awkward. And you didn't know he had this,

his speech was different. No, I didn't, I didn't, I knew he was like a theater nerd when I met him. He changed it, though. He changed it. Oh, I know when he changed it. He came out here with you. You got him an apartment with, I believe, an older gay gentleman. The older gay gentleman was subleasing his apartment.

I got it for very inexpensive. You got it. So he moved down by himself. But Dane's not, like, I remember we came down to visit him. We all came down. Dane got us, me and Al Del Benny got us an audition in front of you. Because back then, if Barry Katz touched you on the shoulder, we're all going to be moved through.

You know what I mean? It was from our perspective, right? You were like Dane. And all of a sudden, Dane's living in New York. He's got an apartment. He's doing, you know, he's getting all these little commercial things. And then Dane was like, dude, Barry wants to see you and Al Dau Benny. So me and Al, we're fucking nervous.

We drive down. We're going to the Boston. And I remember you rolled in. and you sat down and you watched the show, and then we went out to dinner at the Chinese restaurant. You'd always take people. Susie's Chinese restaurant. You'd always, let's go down there and have some for everybody.

And we go down there, the Galaxy Diner was uptown. And then Susie, so we went in there. And I remember Al Del Benny did a British accent for his whole set. Yes. And I was like, oh, this ain't going to fly. And then at the very end, he came out of it. the last line he came out of an eye, I'd have Nal Del Benny or whatever.

Right. And I think I said something that night at the diner, didn't you? You were like, do you think he could write an act around the British? And I was like, what? He just did that tonight for shits and giggles. Now he's got, in my brain, I'm like, he's going to get a fucking sitcom. He's going to, and I remember I was like

trying to talk and think about on the way home. Maybe I could, uh, you know, from Birmingham or some horse shit. I was so furious that he went up and did a British accent and you were like, I like the accent, buddy. But that's how much power you had back then with some, this poor Aldel Benny was going to be a British person. He was going to go. I just thought the, you know, and again, for your audience, if they're comics or whatever, whatever you do, the fact that the guy came in and he had the balls to take a risk, you know, I think that's, I think that's, has.

a lot to be said to that. That's great. If it works, it works. If it doesn't and doesn't, at least you fucking have the balls to take a risk. So I should have done a Puerto Rican accent? I mean, tell me what I said to you. Nothing. You say shit. I didn't say anything. You were like, you were like, yeah, that's good. And you were all on hell about the British accent thing. You almost sent this guy down a career path that would have fucking ruined him, by the way. He'd still have to be British. But I, to give you credit at that time, I think, LA, they were looking for those, that thing to start a sitcom. So anything you had that was different, that you could get a sitcom development deal,

if the networks, the networks were the big thing back then. But I remember, let's- They wanted an original point of view. They wanted, yeah, the original point of view. I think, and that's when they did showcases in front of all the networks and those things. And I'd done so many showcases where people got hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in sitcom deals. It was crazy. It was a crazy time for comedy that's gone now

because I think I did one of these showcases. I'm interrupting, but it's cyclical, Bobby. And look at what, look at what is now. Look at what's now. Look at this. Look at what you have. I mean, it's just incredible. And it's all you.

You don't have to rely on some fucking person behind a day. There he is. There he is. There he is. Did you see it? Yeah. Barry Katz will fucking make you go in with no weapons walk into fucking Gaza and kill everybody.

His pep talks, there it is. Buddy, you said to me one time, one of your pep talks, I had to do one of those showcases, and you came up to me and you saw me, I'm nervous. You walked up, you go, buddy, just pretend. If one of your jokes was drowning, which one would you save? Open with that.

And you walked away and I went, I'll drown. What the fuck does that mean? I don't even know what the fuck that means. I don't even know. So it wasn't a good pep talk. It was, well, I was like, I fucking, I don't know which joke. What do you mean? And he just walked away.

You shook your head. You know, I know this is a dialogue. And I just want to say, you just showed me something that I sometimes am at fault for because not everyone responds the same. So I was in town. Last night, my son goes to Juilliard and Fordham. And he had, like, a concert where he composed, like, a three-month composition that's played by this ensemble. Long story longer. he's about to go on, I write on his program,

put it in a time capsule. And then I could see his head go like, like there was like a pressure or something, a heaviness. Yeah. Now, it went away in like a few minutes before he went on. But I could see what I created. Yeah. And sometimes, and it's not always good to give a pep talk to somebody.

Yeah, the pep talk that would have worked for me would have been like, dude, you're awesome. You're the fucking best. You're going to kill. That would have worked for me. To pretend your jokes are drowning, which one would you save? I had to go through all my jokes and go, I'll drown. I won't save any of these fucking stupid jokes.

I was doing marshmallows in Hopchopalopoulos. Well, the one thing you forgot that I told. What? Quit the business. You're not going to make it. You're not Dane. You're not even Billy. I told you you had a qual.

that none of these people have at this stage of their careers. Well, do you remember what that was? What was that? That you were an extraordinary actor. Right. You did tell me that. And I studied your acting.

I studied that reel. Right. And I was like, this guy. And I just want to go one step further. And I realized the reason why you were such a great actor at that early age. Because you had no fear, you know, you had no, because you'd been through all these, whatever. I don't know what you call them halfway houses or when you're a teenager,

or whatever those are the places are called. So you'd already had the shit kicked out of you early on. So walking into a room for an audition and creating a character going in and taking no problem. Yeah, that's the, I mean, you got to, I do admit that is really good advice to give a stand-up comic. You should try another career in acting. Is that another career? Acting? No.

People say to Kevin Hart, listen, you have another career. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Well, I remember when I first, after that, I came to New York and I met with everybody in the company, because your company was the company. We were just doing a lot of different things. And that's one of my, and I being totally honest about myself, shining a mirror back on myself, my biggest fault and my biggest strength is the same thing. And it's always been the same thing. I love doing everything. I thought you're going to say you nose. I swear to God. Well, that's number four. But I love doing everything. So when you came to the office, you notice, oh, what the fuck, they're booking colleges. They're doing clubs over here. They're managing.

They're getting people TV auditions. They're doing the break. It's like I love, they're producing this movie. They're doing this TV. I just love doing everything. And if you have a, those people listening, if you have a manager, let's say, Bobby, do you want your manager to be working on a whole bunch of different things, or do you want them to be Colonel Tom Parker? You know, a lot of times you want to be Colonel Tom Parker. And I don't want to be fucking Tom, Tom, Papa. Nobody wants to be Tom Papa. Oh, by the way, he had Tom Papa, too.

Sorry, I did. I love the nicest guy. Yeah. And so, yeah, so I don't want to be that. I want to work on everything. So if I'm working with you and you're producing, you're doing a television show, I want to produce it. If you're working on a tour, I want to be involved. If you're writing a book, I want to help you with the buttons for each chapter. No, I got to say, man, look, we never really work together.

I mean, even our first meeting together, you're like, look, I'm not going to be able to work with you directly, but we will bring you into the company and you'll work with everybody else. And I'll be there if need be. And hopefully I did help you make some money. Well, I mean, you still owe me $200. I do. But, yeah. And I did something, and I did something to you that was really bad.

And I was walking over here. It came to me. And I was really disappointed in myself. What'd you do? For your audience. And no one never saw it because I realized what I did. And Dane realized what I did. And I was just, it was awful.

Right. We were doing tourgasm together, Bobby, Gary Gullman, and Jay Davis. and Dane. And there was this thing that we orchestrated on some airfield or something where they were coming through in these top gun outfits. And they stopped. You got to let me tell it. Because you're going to tell it like seriously.

Let me tell you why. You can tell me at the end. Listen to me. First of all, Torgasm was, it was supposed to be a documentary. at the beginning, because Dane hadn't blown up yet. I think Dane left in the middle of it and did the upfronts at Madison's regard where the guy from HBO was like, and that's when he had the meeting. I allowed to at least set up what it was supposed to be.

Well, we did, you can set up, but I want to tell it from our perspective. Okay. After, so you can, you can set it up. Go ahead. Go ahead. So Dane had told me that he wanted to do this thing, this tour where he wanted to film it, and he wanted to make it into like a short form documentary series. Yeah.

And he said, I've got $300,000 saved from all these college gigs, and I just want to do this. Right. I said, we haven't sold it yet. We haven't done anything. Like, how can you take that kind of a risk? Yeah. And he said, well, I'm going to do the college shows along the way, and that'll hopefully gain about $300,000. Maybe I break even.

And then he said this, I'll never forget. Or else, maybe I'll... maybe I'll just have the greatest home movie ever for my grandchildren. Right. And so, and then afterwards I'll tell you how it became to orgasm and how it got so. Well, the thing, well, that's the one thing about Dane, man. You can't, you know, people think he just went on social media.

This kid was constantly thinking of ideas and paying for it, using his money, going out and working the college circuit, taking that money, making a short film, writing something up, making another film. And this Torgasm thing has never been done. I mean, he put the things that he's good at, comedy, colleges, and producing interesting content that his fans are going to devour.

And I mean, Torgasm, when he presented it to me, he was like, look, this is all four of us. We're all equal. This is our tour. We're all going to be on the bus. Our name's going to be on the bus. This is, you know, because Gary was a hard sell. because he just got off of the last car.

He didn't want to do this whole thing again in front of cameras. I was like, all right, let's do it. But there was a thing with like, like Gary was getting paid more than me, but I had the middle and Gary was going on before me. And I was like, fuck that. We'll flip-flop. We had to deal with all this bullshit. We got it all done.

And then it's happening. And then we get the buses pull up in the parking lot and we get on this bus thing. I don't think any of us knew what we were getting into. because there was a whole production thing behind it because stories had to be told. Like, we thought we were just going to do what we do as comics, sleep, fart, you know, eat, do shows, show some stuff after the show.

But we had to do things every day. And that's what the producing is, what I love doing. You set up certain things every day and you create stories. And you helped create the greatest thing that you can have in any show. And it's the key to every successful show

than any one of your viewers or listeners see. Conflict and resolution. Thank God for my mental illness. Thank God for having a short fuse, only having first and six gear. I mean, you almost, I almost fought a turtle. I almost fought the mascot, Maryland Tarpin. You guys set it up to where you guys all set this up.

He comes in, he goes, Dan comes in, pissed off. I'm like, what? Because, you know, I was very protective. I'm very loyal and like a dog. He comes in all mad. The fuck, the mascot's going to be on stage. He's going to introduce this.

He's not letting Jay Davis a host. And I'm like, what the fuck? And I'm sticking up a Jay. I don't even like Jay. I'm like, that's Jay's job. Jay's the host. And he's like, yeah, he's going to be on stage. While you're on stage, Bobby, he was going to be behind you.

And I go, nobody's fucking behind me during my set. That's my fucking time. Then you sent the fucking turtle on the bus. So all of a sudden I see this little head pop up. It's a guy in a fucking day. And I get in his face. And he comes to, hey, guys. I just want to, I go, I'm looking through the mesh to see where his nose is.

So when I fucking hit him, I hit him because I don't want to hit just fucking head. And I'm in his nose. I'm, you're not going on stage. It was a fucking joke to make me snap to get it on film. So behind the scenes was genius. But it was, dude, there was a point. Gary broke. Jay Davis fucking broke.

fucking broke. I think Day, I mean, from the get-go, Dane broke his ribs, I think, the first day. I'm a scooter. I snapped my knee. I cracked my knee. I tore my ACL and MCL playing flag football. But you still win.

You still kept going. I mean, no, you're not, I needed that money, dude. You're not getting me on stage. I literally told my wife that she was, you should come home. I go, no, I'm getting paid. They'll fucking...

You're going to get that fucking money. But... That's the one thing. Am I allowed to say, don't lose your place? Yeah. Because one thing I do. say these days a lot to young comedians and it reminds me of you so much and it's it's it's a metaphor so i

always say the comedians are always worried about getting so much time i got to get my 20 minutes i got to get my get my got my 45 got a headline and i always say fuck that you know write your hit song first right and then i'm like what are you fuck are you talking about i said you're going to renovate your house you're going to renovate the whole house no you're going to renovate the bathroom right and make it perfect then people are going to come in, they're going to see the bathroom. Wow, have you seen this fucking guy's bathroom? And I remember you in that bathroom

that was this amazing, extraordinary bathroom in your apartment that you did, and it always comes back to me when I say it. Am I wrong? I still have. I haven't been a better one now. I have a fucking fantastic bathroom. But, dude, the Torgasm thing,

so then we go on this whole trip, and it's 20 shows, 30 days, and we film this whole thing, and I remember how grueling it was, How crazy. And then we get a call. I got a call from Dane. He goes, listen, HBO just bought my special.

And you want me to explain how that happened? Yeah, please. Okay. So we make a little sizzle reel three minutes long, along with, I believe, some of Dane stand-up. And I reach out to Chris Albrecht. And for those of you historians and those of young people don't know, Chris Albrecht started as a doorman at the improv at 44th and 9th

when it was there with Silver. Friedman. And then he became a manager at all the improvs, and he moved up to be the head of HBO, which was at that time, if you look at Netflix what they are now, that's what HBO was. He was the best. And it was always simply the best.

That was the logo. They had Tina Turner saying. Anyway, so something happened with Chris Albrecht 10 years earlier with Dave Chappelle, where I asked him about doing a deal with Dave. I said, we're tired of these

seven deals we have at Disney. Nothing's happening. He's getting a lot of money. Do you want to meet about comic relief specials in his own show? He sent me to back then. They were hard tickets. He sent me two first class tickets and the hotels for us. And we brought us in.

And he says, I want to do everything. And we were so excited. And then I get back to my office. And the president of Disney calls me and says, hey listen can we get another deal with Dave I said we're not we're not doing it we're going to do something else and he says you can't do that just take one meeting with us we you always that one meeting you've done seven deals one meeting we sit down they say listen we have a home improvement spin off and and we want to do this badly Tim is going to do it we're going to give you the

guaranteed 930 time slot on ABC after home improvement the number one show on television. Wow. And and then it was all like, so the agents got involved because they get the almighty package, which for those you don't know, that's 10% of license fee back then. And HBO wasn't a big money network. Right. So Dave did that. Jim Brewer, who I represent did, came on as his co-star.

It's called buddies. Buddies. Yeah. And that's another amazing story that you guys wouldn't believe, but long story, sure. So I didn't do the deal with HBO. It wasn't my choice. I was overruled by a group of, you know, everybody. There were a lot of agents, a lot of people on Dave's team.

Yeah. But I didn't think it was the best thing to do. I thought respect out less cash at that stage of the game. So Chris didn't talk to me for 10 years, wouldn't do a deal with me for 10 years, held a grudge Chris Albrecht for 10 years. And I finally reached out and with Dan, I said, listen, I know you're holding a grudge with that. I'll put it in blood that if you want what I have to offer here, it's yours. I'll sign documents beforehand.

He said, you don't have to. Just come in, spend 10 years or whatever. And we came and showed the sizzle reel. I said, we want to do this as a eight or nine episode series. And at the end, we want our own hour special from Boston Garden. Yeah. He said, Boston Garden. Have you ever worked any gigs like that before?

No. and what's your biggest gig you do, these college theaters or whatever. He said, how are you going to do it? Social media. Yeah. What are you talking about? He said, this guy can press a button

and we'll be able to sell out anywhere, but we haven't utilized it yet. He bought the ID. He bought Tourgazum for, I think it was $2.3 million. Right. From a $300,000 investment. Right. And then he did the special.

I think it was $1.8 million for the special. However, in Dane's unbelievable way that he would do business, they said it would be a nice offer because you're making all the money on the gig, if you could give $500,000 back to the network because you're going to be making so much money in the gig. And he did. Well, that's great to him. I just want to let you know that out of that 2.5 and whatever you're made on that gig,

2.2 million, on all of the, Torgasm, you guys didn't pay me for Torgasm. They didn't pay you? You didn't pay me even scale, you son of a bitch. And I paid for two knee surgeries. You fucking suck. They didn't pay. I was on HBO.

Now, keep in mind. But not, man, let me finish. This is a guy. I'm so glad. I forgot about this one. Listen, I don't know. It all falls on me. Listen, I didn't get paid a nickel for Torgasm.

We didn't even get, scale. I didn't even get SAG insurance. How was that possible? I was on, the lead in was the Sopranos, then Torgasm, and I would just sit home and watch it and fucking with my knee up, having to

save money to get my surgery. You, son of a bitch. And I always thought he didn't get paid for Torgasm. I always thought the money went for the special, but it's actually reversed, which makes it worse. And then he gave $5,000 back to HBO. 500,000. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we didn't get paid.

know that we didn't get a dime you didn't pay we we were and this this is the business we got points or something we got something no we would get paid on the back end for DVD sales which i've learned through doing a DVD a CD with a Comedy Central that money never exists uh that you points and back end deals so HBO never paid any we never got paid of i never me personally never got a dime for Torgasm. Did you, in fairness, not that it's fair, did you make money as a comedian because you were a star of a television show on HBO? Listen, listen, that, I don't know. No, no, no, no, you know. You fucking don't, don't do that shit. I'm 55 now. I'm not 21, Bob Kelly, getting jealous that you're excited about an English accent. I, well, we did a tour after

with Live Nation, and they came with the tour. then you guys came with a tour. But I didn't want to do your tour. I wanted to do the Live Nation tour because it was a better business opportunity. It just was better. They gave all their theaters were their theaters.

It was a big huge guarantee. Yeah. So it was you and who... Me, Gary, and Jay. So that was the plan at the end of this that we would be, you're going to be big off of this. So it was almost like, listen,

I want to be on TV. I'm going to be on HBO, lead in Sopranos with Dane Cook, I'll take the hit after this. And it did. I got to say, after Torgasim, put me on the map.

And then we did this big tour, the guys, our tour. I honestly don't remember the, Oh, I remember it. And then we wanted Dane to promote it. Like,

well, Dane wanted to do your, you and Dane's tour, but I was like, I don't want to be under the Sufi. I did the Sufi. We're supposed to do our own thing now and kind of break off

and be my own guy. So Live Nation was like, here do this and their deal was better. There was two offers. This one was better. We went with this one. I went alone. Gary and Jay went with your deal and Dane's deal.

But then when I went alone, Live Nation was like, we'll just book you on the tour. So I was like, all right, it was going to be small theaters and whatever, less a guarantee. But then Gary came back over to me and Jay came back over to me. With the provision, Dane would promote it if he got some. of the money from the ticket sales. So every ticket sold, we had a,

Dane got some money from that for the Torgasm Tour. Which we were like, all right, whatever, you know, that's, you know, you have one of the biggest comics promoting the tour. That's, that's good business, right? So then we went and did the tour.

What size, I don't, I'm sorry, I don't remember the tour. So what were the size of the venues that they put you out? It was like, like, 500, 500,000. Like the Wilbur Theater kind of stuff. The egg, the will, The theater. So everybody really respected theaters. Yeah, no, it was all Live Nation theater tours.

I mean, that tour made me be able to buy my own apartment. So it was, so it was a good decision. On my part, yes. Yeah, on that part. So that tour was a success? That tour, well, let's not get carried away. It was all right. I don't know.

It wasn't a dang cook door, but it was good. We didn't, it wasn't as successful as we wanted it to be. I think, I don't think, we didn't, we didn't get the promotion. we thought we were going to get, you know, after that. But we did have some great shows. And how did the line at? What was the order of the lineup? It was me and Gary Gilman flipped.

So we just did what we did. Every show you did. Whatever he felt like, whatever I felt like. Because I can follow Gary, Gary can follow me type thing. And of course, Jay went first. And then, but no, Torgasm, I'll be ever grateful for it. The show itself was innovative, the fact that we went. to these colleges and, you know, I mean, the meet and greets were longer than the shows,

all those people we met to be exposed to that many people in a month's time and then on HBO, if that show didn't happen, you know, I wouldn't have a house. I wouldn't have got an apartment and that apartment got me my house and that house got me in my other house. And that's the thing that, you know, for any comics listening, as bad as it is when a network screws you, even when you, in the old days, everybody wanted to do Letterman, right? Yeah. Yeah. God. You do Letterman, you get on Letterman, or the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Louis Anderson used to tell me, you know, $535 and 75 cents to do the Tonight Show. Right. And six months later, he's doing 5,000 Cedars.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Sometimes as a comedian, I'm not saying that you should have gotten taken by HBO or whatever, however it was. But sometimes, again, you do the thing as the commercial for your work later. Oh, 100%. But, I mean, we still... And I just want you know, the money that came in, and I know you're not going to believe me, but you have to take hundreds of hours of footage. You have to hire showrunners.

You have to hire people to put... So if Dane didn't make all that money, there's no way, probably... No, maybe like what, like 500,000? Yeah, maybe 300 to 400,000. Yeah, I would have took 5,000. Yeah. I would have took only 5,000 out of that. That would have been nice.

It was 5,000. But I think he... Or fixed my knee. You could have just pay for my knee surgery? But I just want to say to them. second knee surgery because the first guy did. I mean, one of the knee surgery. I would have took one of those.

I believe that Dane and myself thought that HBO took care of you guys. It was an HBO deal after. Nobody fucking. I'm just saying, I didn't do the contract with you in HBO. You know what I mean? I didn't do the contract with Gary Coleman HBO. I did Dane's deal with HBO. Well, the weird thing is, yeah, well, you are Gary's manager in Jay's, you weren't my manager.

I was not, Jim. You weren't my manager. You were my manager. at the time. Yeah. So I think I was, I don't know who I was with at that time. Maybe Gersh or something like that.

But I just want to get back to the story. So we do this, we do this. I could talk to you for hour. Listen, we have so much to talk about. We do this whole tour. But here's the,

Dane comes up to me. I go up and do one of these showcases. I forget who I was doing it for. I think I was doing it for Gersh at the time or one of those agencies. They do one of these big, at the improv in Hollywood. So I fly in.

Torgasms in the can. HBO just bought it. And I'm going up to do this thing with my agency at the improv. And it's everybody, NBC. So Mike DeStefano, right? Mike DeStefano goes up. Pete Correlli. And then me, pretty much three of the same dudes are going up right in a row.

We're all under the same agency. Mike goes up and just fucking murders. Correelli, still to me, one of the funniest human beings. on the planet. You managed him at the time too. Let's add him to the mix. Right. Corielli goes up and murders. I go up Barry and fucking eat my dick. Right? I'm eating my dick. And I literally, at the end of my set, I paused and I looked. And in my head, I counted 230 in front of the industry. I pretty much, I think I stared everybody in the eye. I made sure I looked every single person without a word.

And I went, that was uncomfortable, huh? I go, now you know how I feel. Fuck off. And I walked out. Wow. I was so mad. It just bugged me that I had to do this shit and how, you know, it was just like, fuck this. And then I went out and I called Dane.

I just want to say to the audience, I'm being honest with you. I've seen you hundreds of times. Yeah. I've never seen you bomb No it was weird I've never seen you bomb It's it's L.A. for me dude There was something about these industry shows

For me I don't know if it I really think there's a switch When I'm anywhere else in the world Any show after anybody I don't care when it's a real comedy show When it's like real Like this is this is real a real show

But those industry shows Were not real It was it was this other thing vibe in the room. And I think that there's something happened to me. Something in me clicked off on those shows. I could never, I've only done one good. I think it was the one where you gave me

that stupid pep talk, by the way. I think it might have worked. I think that's the one. I think I did good on that one because I, but no, it was Jay Moore that really helped me. Just realize you have a scarf on your mic like Stephen Tyler. This is the bomb band, in it when somebody says something that bombs,

they have to hold it. But Jay Moore saved you because Jay Moore came up to me, he looked at me, he goes, you're a fucking comic, asshole. You're funny. Just go be funny. Stop fucking thinking about it. You're fucking funny. And I was like, yeah. And I went up, it like switched it back for me.

But we, uh, I just did this hour special in Santa Monica. I'm so happy for Jay. Let me tell you something. It's unbelievable. Five years over. I can't tell you how happy I am for Jay Moore because Jay Moore. because Jay Moore, I was friendly with him. I know Jay. I've known him over the years.

But to me, you know, he had issues. He had problems, whatever. He was famous and blah, blah, blah, with all the other stuff. But no one's ever made me laugh like Jay Moore in a car ride to a gig. But no one's ever made me like, what the fuck, dude, too. Like, do you do things? You're like, dude, come on. Like I always said, I always wanted to be friends with that guy because he is so funny.

There's no better guy on a radio. show there's no better guy on a pot the stories he could tell the way he tells him he's one of the fucking funniest guys in the world and and when he got sober because you know i'm sober 40 years yes when he got sober i was so fucking happy and now i watch his clips like man thank you god thank you for saving this guy because now he's this he seems so genuine and he's he kept the funny and i'm so happy that he's he's doing it and and living life healthy and still being the funniest guy on the microphone so it's incredible so and not to give sobriety a shout because i've never really been a part of that group yeah but i've been to meetings for with people but i'm um i represent

him for 25 years he fired me on a text in the height of his adderall addiction or whatever it was whatever it was like, oh my God, you know, it's, you know, and then, because he was my longest running club, 25 years. Yeah. And then, uh, after he got sober, we talked and he said, can I make amends. Yeah. He says, is there anything I can bring? I said, yeah, your checkbook. Because you know how many gigs you miss? He missed millions of dollars of gigs because of whatever. But anyway, I met with him and his now wife, Jeannie, Jeannie Bus. And it was amazing. And we started working together again. Oh, you work on them again? Yeah. Oh, that's great.

And so the podcast came back and it was doing great. And now we did the hour special for rehab is what it's called. I can't wait. I can't, I watch his clips and I just, it makes me smile seeing him be happy and like who he is. He really is. The one line I love, but it's just that you'll love this. He says, he said, people don't realize this about an intervention. And he says, I want to explain an intervention to you.

It's the worst surprise party ever. I thought that was, I thought you enjoyed it. He's, um, he, so let's get back to this. We, I got, because I got stuff to get to you. By the way, I have all the time in the world. So we, I'll just do a seven, to a nine part tourgasm. Wait, we, I'll fucking sell it, make money and not pay you. Please don't pay me.

Make all the, we, you're not getting nothing with this. Um, so, so anyways, we do this, this tour. I go off front after I bomb. I call Dane immediately because I'm staying with him. And he goes, uh, I go, dude, he goes, dude, fuck that you're going to be on HBO dude you're going to be on HBO this year the shit's going down man it's happening and he's like uh I go when is it happening he goes not for a year but listen for a year I had to go it was a year from when it ended to when it was on HBO so you're like

giving me memories I don't remember buddy I remember because I'm you understand so I'm living in this limbo. Nobody knows I did this thing. Nobody knows. You know what I mean? It's like I filmed this thing and you're waiting for the movie to come out. So I'm still doing shit gigs. I'm going to here. I'm getting shit. And in my head, I'm like, I'm going to be on HBO after the Sopranos. And, you know, I'm going to be. So it took, it was like this year of fucking hell limbo waiting for Torgasm, but before it came out, we get a call from you and Dane. that we have to film the ninth episode. We need nine episode.

We had eight. We had a film, like, you know, talking head stuff. I don't know why they wanted to do a ninth episode, but I guess it was going so well they wanted. We had to do the talking heads, and you guys came up with this thing where we got to go fly planes, and then we have this, we fly in a helicopter,

and there's thousands of this 3,000 fans waiting, and we walk through the fans, and then we're presented with the speeches, and people say things, things and then we're present we're telling you to be presented with an award so in our head right we're filming this ninth episode they put us in Mustang planes at 5,000 6,000 feet right and uh we're doing barrel rolls I mean we weren't happy with doing mini golf and frisbee golf on the show for some reason you think that we're going to be happy

fucking barrel dog fighting. And you know, Dane is so... I don't know how I got the insurance for that in the brave few. Dude, and Dane's so fucking competitive. We're up there, and he's trying to kill me in his plane. He's behind me trying to fucking murder me in a real plane. At 6,000 feet, the guy went, okay, you're flying. And I went, what?

And I did this, and the plane went, man. I threw up, they called me Bobby Two bags, because I filled up both. I filled up both puk bags, because before we left they go have some ginger snaps but I'm a fat addict I ate the whole bag

of ginger snaps I ate 38 ginger snaps before I went up in this plane so the puke's coming up burning my throat because it's ginger and I'm just in the plan I got dehydrated almost died you guys you didn't even fucking send an ambulance

I'm lying on a bench fuck seriously sick dehydrated from puking all this stuff sweating in this stupid thing. Dan comes over, puts his balls on my forehead. And you guys film it. That's in the show. And then I have to go back to the hotel. And I'm just, I should have went to the hospital. But then you throw me back in my jumpsuit and we go, there's an award. So I'm thinking, dude, now I'm thinking fucking, you know, a car, some type of motor. We each get a motorcycle. We each, you know, with a souser and I have to have painted off after the show. Right.

we get into a helicopter, we land at a dog race, dog track, there's thousands of fans. And we're walking through, like, we're famous. We're walking through this fan. And they're high five, and we get up, and there's a podium, and we sit down on the front row. And Dane goes up, and we're, like, feeling, like,

this is magic. This is amazing. And we're like, we're going to awards. They're going to give us a gift, like some type of HBO, Dan Cook, Torgasim, oh my God, some type of Rolex. In my head, I'm thinking,

Rolex, car, I'm thinking like a real gift. This is HBO, Sopranos, Dan Cook, arenas. This is going to be the best gift ever. And I remember you got on stage. And that's what I wanted to apologize for. You got on stage,

and this motherfucker, he roasted us. he did a fucking full-fledged roast on me j davis gary galman but not dain you're like dain's fantastic you roasted me and then you which i would have been fine with after the end if he handed me a rolex with a sufi on it a tiffany sufi rolex he you gave us die cast metal torgasm medallions on a ribbon that just said torsum with a sufi on it it. That was our gift. Look at your face, man.

Get the camera to zoom in on that. That was our gift. You gave us, you didn't give us, you gave us from China. You probably had made that wheel. China. China. You gave us die-cast necklaces that we couldn't even wear. And then you roasted us.

And it was, first of all, it was a pretty mean roast. That's why I wanted to apologize. It was funny. I was walking over here. I said that. I don't think I ever apologized, but I was horrible. We took it out of the show.

That got out of the show. You should have left it in. No way. Listen, you said... Dane was also adamant about his... Well, you know who was really mad about it? Gary Gellman, he was furious.

During your roast, he goes, what the fuck is he doing? Why the fuck would he do that? What the fuck did we do? I didn't come here to be fucking trashed in front. There was 3,000. people laughing at us.

We only roast the ones we love. But you went to Dane and you didn't have what? You went, Dane's amazing. What can I say? And you didn't have one roast joke for fucking Dane. You were like, you're amazing, buddy. Come on up here. And you get nothing. And you really,

literally, I almost died that day. I fuck it. I lost the dog fight to Dane. He put his balls on my head. And then I got a die cast Torgasm medal. And then you told me what a fuck a fat piece of shit I was. That was it.

So how many years you've been holding a grudge against me? 15. Listen, no. But here's... You ever feel like... I don't have... Permission to speak for you? Yes, please. Those are you watching and listen... Ever you ever feel like there's somebody in your life

where you just, you see them and you just... You feel good when you see them, and then after you see them, you realize, man, I think that person fucking hates my guts. I don't hate, no, no, no. I never hated you. I always felt that way. Can I tell you what it is? Our first meeting you said to me,

I'm not going to work with you. And I remember what I said to you? I said, I don't want to work with you. Oh, so it all worked out. Well, it was because the thing, yeah. I said, I don't want to work with you either. I do want to work with the company. Because me and you, there's certain people, like you said,

when you shake their hand, there's a thing, right there's a thing I've had that with people in the business where there's a thing you know like I met Jim Serpico we had a thing great man we had a thing like when we know

you know great as soon as I met him I'm like me and you you know what I mean he's he we got for a few years me and him got each other you know and he went off to do other things we ended the relationship

and but as soon as you know I mean me and you never really had that thing where I could come go over and what's up baron we'd hang out and talk all the time i don't know if you had a lot of people on your your thing too you're you're always with somebody else or i was under that dame thing you had you know dame was your guy and so i never but i never hate i never hated you and i never uh i i i've learned in this business that there's the business part which can suck and be ruthless and you know early on when i couldn't the strip wouldn't use me caroline

hated me. Gotham hated me. The only club was Boston Comedy Club and the seller. And I never took a personal. I just didn't jive with that guy. Luth, Lucian or whatever he's never. Didn't like me. Esty did. That's good for me. What's good for you is good. You know what I mean? So I never held it against you, but it was definitely there was moments in the, you know, where the business end of it didn't work out for me. I do want to talk to you about something. I want to get some inside baseball from you. Please, but before you do, I just want to let you know something that I realized

this is when I was walking over here too, and you might disagree. That time I roasted you. Yeah. That was like the rarest of the rare. You were one of the few guys that I never really fucked with. Right.

Like I would go toe to toe with a lot of people. But you, I was just like, this guy, this guy could, I was a temperamental asshole. Yeah. So I just, if you noticed that, I always left you alone.

Can I be honest with the roast? I didn't, it's, it was weird and it was fucking uncomfortable because it was like drinking milk, but it was orange juice. Because my expectations of that moment was that we were going to be treated like stars.

What I'm really bummed about that I didn't get a Rolex. I swear to God, Barry. I'm not even doing this for the joke. I swear to the, to the Jesus Christ that's my God that he was Jewish

he was and they got his shit together I swear to God I thought you I think you had an I thought we're gonna these boxes I thought you'd be like and we want to give you each a Rolex and I thought we were getting Rolexes

and when you took out that stupid metal that said I had so much Torgasm I was that I was done We're fucking tor. I didn't want a Sufi thing. I thought you were going to give us these great gifts. And I was more disappointed that you didn't give us a good gift. And before we do the inside baseball,

yeah. So, because you are a headliner, you do a lot of great places. You have open acts throughout your whole life and career. Yeah. And you've done many, many different things with many artists. Yeah. And so what I always think about is like, you know, the story.

about people and we i'm not going to mention any names but the story is about old-time comedians who would you'd work from and be like you're working with the best guy ever and they give you a hundred dollars to open up for them and then you hear about stories about other people you're on tour you walk by a jewelry store and the guy says which watch do you like yeah that one's great yeah and then you end up getting it at the end of the thing yeah and every comic is is different and how they treat their people and and then when they're involved in a network where the network has the contracts every network is different so there's a network probably netflix would give you the Rolex watch right and HBO doesn't but then you might say to yourself well isn't it up to

bury and these people to do it or whatever right so when you're doing stuff you know that whatever you do for the people you work with yeah you know there's a chance that it's it's not the worst right you know there's a chance that you're not the most generous yeah yeah and and so where are you in the scheme and what's yeah you were at the bottom i was at the bottom um guys i'm gonna let you know if i haven't made 2.5 million dollars for anything you're all getting Rolexes he didn't make 2.5 if i make 500 000 dollars three to 500 thousand dollars you're all getting tutors you're gonna get tutors how much for a time X what's that but here's the thing with all this stuff you know i look at it now uh you know you could go back in time

And you'd be like, that and this. I never, I never was like, I never, I was never that guy to be like, fuck that guy. A fuck them. I mean, joking around, busting balls, fucking, yes. But in reality, to, uh, to be mad at somebody about the things that happened, those are my scars. Those are my things.

That's my life. Could be, but also you can look at the other side. like I look at Danny here. Don't. And Danny, I'm sorry. Danny gets to open up with you on tour and whether he makes one dollar or God knows how many much money, that has added cred to his career. And you've given him the greatest gift in the world.

And 20 years from now, he might say, can you believe Bobby only gave me that when I opened up for him? But the fact is you gave him the greatest gift that he's had so far in his career, or the opportunity to produce the podcast, the opportunity to open for you. And so I think as an artist, sometimes you might disagree with me. But I think if there was the true serum in your veins, you'd say, I think I've been really good to Danny.

Yeah. But, right? Yeah. And so I think as an artist, you know, whatever it is working with Dane, I know that his inside. Oh, no, no, no. Dane.

Hear me? Yeah. Inside, his thing was like, I want Bobby and Gary. and Jay on this tour. Nobody else, Barry. Don't send me any more names. These are the guys that I want. And I'm going to make sure that they're, you know, they go on and they're going to get the respect they deserve.

But, but I mean, it doesn't always add up to the watch. This goes into, no, I'm busting balls about the watch. I'm just telling you my, my, I hear you. I don't, I don't care about it. Of course. I mean, you're not going to give me a fucking roll. You're not getting me a Rolex. I understand that.

It's insane for me to think. think that you're going to have Rolex is for us. It's insane. I'm talking my crazy expectation. Well, it's not crazy because like I said, you look like a Colombian dictator. I mean, I got the fucking Rolex. I got it by it myself. No thanks to you.

I got four of them now, you motherfucker. Got me an addiction. I got none of them. You had to get rid of them. You got rid of all your clients. Jay Moore's back. You might get another one. No, this goes into my store, my inside baseball. This is perfect. No, because Dane

listen that kid he definitely he he he he he he he uh absolutely and this is this is definitely a story that i want to get into because i've always wanted the back end of it i was on this side of it and i never you never get the true the real truth of what goes on you get to be in the room with the head of sony the casting all the people that say yes. I get to go in in front of them and wait for you or someone like you to call me and go yes or no or tell me what they like, what you have to do. But I never get the real deal.

So Dane, I've told this story a bunch of times when people bitch about not booking gigs. I didn't get it. I bring this story up. This is a story, a learning lesson for people or, hey, it could be worse. Dane had his own pilot, I believe with Sony. Yeah, it cooked or something. Cooked. He had his own pilot. He's killing it. He's going to have his own sitcom.

And I get an audition for his best friend, Bobby from Boston. Yeah, he wrote the role for you. He wanted you in it. I go into the room. He wrote the role for you, told me. For me. Just for the sake of your audience and you. Yeah. I have many meetings with Danes about Dan about this.

Yeah. He wrote a role for you. Yes. He loved you. He loved you. He fought for you. He wanted you. He whatever.

And when we did the deal, part of the deal was we can't give somebody. Don't bury the lead. I go into the deal. I go into the room. It's a big audition. It's down to me and two other guys. Yes. And I got to go read for Bobby, Dane's best friend from Boston.

the other guys are reading they're reading who's oh this guy I wonder what this guy Bobby Dane's best friend Bomb Boston what does he like let me think of some backstory for him let me think of how he sounds let me think of how he'd talk how would he say this line

I didn't have to do that because I'm actually Bobby from Boston Dane Cook's best friend you know something some of the stuff written I've said right I don't really need to do much backstory from my acting

so I'm going to going in for this and I did not book Bobby from Boston Dan Cook's best friend. I did not book it. I want to know that you know you're in the back

and Dame was mad. I know that Dane really why he really, you know. You know what he said when he walked down? What? He said Bobby stinks. When he found out that they were doing that? Yeah. I hope I know he'll corroborate this. I'm

walking to the elevator and he said because it was jay cogan who was the i believe the showrunner who who was a great great showrunner and he was a great guy and but he had disagreements on that he said i thought this show was cooked not cogged jay cogan oh right yeah when they then they told them about you what was the reason now this is the reason day told me. He said, I went up to the guy, and I was like, hey, man, what, he goes, what the, he killed it. This is him. What's the deal? And they're like, well, I don't know. And Dan went, it's because he's bald. And the guy from Sony went, we do like hair here at Sony. That's what

Dan told me. That was the, that was one of the guys who said that. But it was real. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hear me out. People try to grasp on to anything they can there. I don't have to tell you this. Yeah. And any actor or anybody watching. Yeah. When Phil Rosenthal wrote,

everybody loves Raymond, Raymond's and Ray was involved in the writing as well in the creation of it. His brother was written as a Paul Giamatti type. Okay? Paul Giamatti type. Right. Shlabi.

whatever overweight and Brad Garrett six foot nine shows up tall shows up hair gets the role why he gets the role if you'll allow me to do this without interruption

yep and I always say it then people shit on me all the time if you're undeniable you can't be denied so the truth is is that if you went in let's say you were as good as all to both of those actors. That's not good enough.

Let's say you're twice as good as those people. That might not be good enough. Right. But if you are undeniably an extraordinary actor, they're going to put a wig on you. They're going to put hair if they think it's because you're bald, which it wasn't, I don't believe that guy, but whatever. They're going to put hair on you.

You're a fucking actor. Right. If they say, hey, calls for a thing. They're going to put you on a diet regimen. Right. If you fucking blow them away in the room and fuck them up. Yeah. Like you know that you're capable of doing instead of being equal or as good as the other

two guys, then the guys who have 100 episodes of television under their belt are going to get the gig before you because they're betting $1.8 million an episode. Right. Here, I'll put it to this way. Just bear with me. I'm bearing with you. I know you like to talk. I'm going to.

I know you like to tell stories. Danny, what's the equal, what's the percentage of talking on this podcast so far? I'm 100% Bobby and me. I would say, I would say that you're 40%, Bobby's 60%. Thank you. He's Jewish.

All right. So when you're doing these things and you're auditioning, it's really important to understand these things. that let's take the plane example how many how many acting jobs had you done on network television before that audition how many times have you been on network television i don't know if i was any thank you so you and i okay i'm taking you out for your birthday we go to a huge field there's a plane there okay just go with me yeah there's two guys by the plane you're like what we're doing we're going skydiving barry oh great what's that guy on the right that's my guy

That's Joe. He's done a thousand jumps, packed the parachute a thousand times, thousand successful jumps. Okay. Right. Who's that guy licking the window? That's Danny. That's Danny, whatever his name is.

I've watched his story. He's never jumped before. He's never packed a parachute. He's going to be a guy. Are you going to go? I get it. I get it. I understand. You may, you do, you laugh so on. You, uh, you, uh, no, I get it. I mean, it was not the hair. Well, it's 100%. I mean, I did not, the, again, the, the, uh, whatever it was.

I didn't, it was, I didn't get it, but I thought, you know, when you don't book, when you don't book you, it's, it's tough. It was a tough one. Here's a tough. There's another thing for, because you talk. through a lot of comics. Okay. So this is something that nobody ever talks about. Like you go in the showcase, like let's say, let's say with Pete Corrielli and Mike DeStefano. Yeah. Just bear with me. Before the show, you go in the green room, hey, buddy, hey Mike, how you doing? Hey Pete, good to see. Hey, Bobby. Have a great set. Have a great set. Now, if I took you guys before that show in separate soundproof booths and I said there's three of you. Which one do you want to be tonight?

Do you want to be the absolute best? Do you want to be the second best? Or do you want to be the third best? Yeah. What's everybody going to say? I want to be the best. Right. Do you want to be just a little bit better?

Or do you want to crush those guys like a fucking bug? Right. I love them, but I want to crush him like a bug. Right. It's that thing where, you know, you just have to go. I really believe this about Mike Tyson and the Buster Douglas fight. I believe that there were no rules. Like, you don't have to get.

get up after 10 seconds. He just would have kept getting, it doesn't matter because he used to say, you know, everybody has courage until they get hit in the face. But he didn't matter to him. He got hit in the face and he just kept going because he had one goal, I'm going to fucking crush this person. And I think if there was a sense of urgency instead of comfortability with most artists, they do better.

And I believe on that audition, if I may speak freely, I believe you had a comfortability. Hey, he wrote the role for me. There's lines in there that I say. I'm like, I mean, all I got to do is, this is a formality. I just got to go and do it. And you can't treat things like that. You have to go in like it's like your life, you're going to die or you're going to get the gig.

And I think that those other two guys had a sense of like urgency. I got to, that's the guy. That's Bobby. I got to fucking ramp it up. And I think that's where a lot of artists go astray, in my opinion. Are we at 50-50 yet? I, uh, no, Seinfeld said it the best when he was auditioning for Seinfeld. You could tell who the comics were and who the actors were because he'd look out in the hallway

and the actors would be reading their lines and going over it. Like, this could change my life. And the comics were just sitting there like, this is fucking up my whole. whole afternoon. You know what I mean? There's a different and that that audition, you know, it sucked because that and the show, I think it went a couple episodes or something like that. I don't think it went on the air. I don't think it went on the air, but it would have, we did a pilot. I think it was, yeah, we did a pilot and, you know, but it just, I feel. And you you were in the pilot, I thought. Weren't you? We put you in as a like at an airport or something.

Oh, that was a movie. Oh, sorry. That was. That was the movie. Sorry. No, that was good luck Chuck. Which that was funny that scene. No, that was a great scene. That was fun. But like, okay, I want to talk about this too because you had every, and this is pretty epic.

You had every comic, I think, worth having in the world at one time. I've been hired, fired, hired, fired, hired, fired. But, like, seriously, like, you're still in the management business. Yeah, I love it. I love everything. I'm doing a movie with a Greg Giroldo story. I'm producing Adam Ray just committed to do the lead. I'm producing another movie with Kirk Fox.

I'm doing just a J special. I love doing everything. Because there is, you had these ups, and then you have these downs, and then you have these, I mean, the business. That's what the business is. You've got to love the business. You can't fall in love with the business.

I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, and I love what I do. And just because, you know, if you told any manager in the world, hey, you get the chance to work with Dave Chappelle for nine years. You get the chance to work with Bill Burr for seven years. You get the chance to work with Dane Cook for 17 years. Jay Moore 25. Louis C.K. 8. Frank Calliando 10.

Brad Williams 14. You know, are you going to say no? I mean, none of those comedians, you could put them all in here. And I don't know. Hand to God. None of them are going to get on this mic and say, boy, that Barry, he didn't care about me. He didn't fight for me. He didn't do a great job.

He didn't make me millions of dollars. No one's going to say that. I don't, and real quick, is it 28 years with Brad Williams? Do you double the age? I'm just, I'm just, but I do think that because of the relationship of the manager, it's going to end someday. Sometimes it doesn't, but most of the time, it's going to end. everything comes to an end. And I don't think there's any way out of that relationship

than almost like breaking up with a girl. I'll tell you what the difference is for your audience. Yeah. So a manager is a 10%er. Yeah. A manager makes 10% of the money. The artist makes 90% of the money. The artist, think of a business partnership, okay?

Would anyone go into a business partnership at 90-10. You know, hey, let's start a business together. Let's do it. You make 90, I make 10. So from the very start, the foundation is technically broken because you're never in the power seat. You're always renting the chair.

And so the artist is in control all the time. And that's the way it is. And so when they do move on or if they do move on, I don't. To me, it's not unexpected. I'm just trying to ride the bull as long as I can and be as great as I can and audition every day for the next day. And someday, I don't get the call the next day.

And it's... Does that bother you that, like, that you were with these people who are in the business and stuff like that, that the relationships, like when me and Serpico ended, we probably should end it beforehand. You can always feel, on my end, having managers, there's that thing where it's like,

he's kind of over here now and I'm over here. Maybe we should have that on it. But you're, because you're such, you do so many epic things together. You do, I mean, you create dreams together. That's one of my greatest things is being a dream maker.

That's the thing I love the most. That's why I love working with young com. That's why I love doing, what managers do podcasts like this? I love doing it because I love having people come up and say, hey, that thing you said, I use that, this thing you told me here.

It's just an amazing feeling. I know it's kind of corny, but it's just love it. I do too. There's things that me and Sherpico did. I would say he was my best manager of all because, and he was a manager who was creative.

He was a writer. He could direct. He could, you know, I mean, one day he came to see me in Florida. He was just down my gigs. And he goes, dude, you know what we should do? We should do a talk show. I want to rent a U-Haul truck.

and we'll rent the U-Haul. We'll just pull up somewhere. I'm going to go get some shit and put it in the back, get a couple chairs, and you pull up and just do an interview show, like podcast. And I'm going to film it. Because he was trying to learn how to film

and use camera and direct stuff. And then we filmed this, you know, Robert Kelly's U-Haul show. We pulled up to a Starbucks and interviewed a doctor who was having a latte. And then I had Dan Soda do 10 minutes. I pulled up in front of a store

and he came and did 10 minutes in front of nine people just in the parking lot. And then I went to a band's house and they performed in the back of the... It was like this great idea for a show. Before anybody was doing it. And we filmed it and we pitched it.

But we didn't know and picked it up, but the process of it was like, oh, this guy is awesome. Like, we're on the same thing. And that's why I said Jim's a great man because I've always loved doing that. And one thing you know about me, I love it because you'll go toe to toe and shit on me all day long

and I love it. but one thing you know is that I've always, that's what I love doing, doing these original ideas, original things that people have never done before and then try to make them happen and make an artist dream come true. And that's,

now this show itself, this is what's great about the new world. Well, it's not so new, but I'll call it the new world. It's that you made this. You created this world. no one created it but you and then you you made it happen and it went from zero nobody nobody listening to millions and millions of people let's going to carry it away okay let's not let's listen

let's bring down your fucking barry cats if this show we're drowning in the ocean i'm going to throw the bomb band down it listen you could have said thousands asshole uh i could have been i uh i uh i uh No, I understand what you're saying, but there's something that happens with managers and talent where the manager, it's almost like they fall out of love with you or something, they do something. Look, I don't think, or the talent falls in love with another manager or somebody else comes in, but it never, there's never, I don't ever, there's never a, hey man, I love you, man, it's not working, right? Have you ever had that where someone just, hey man, I love you, but it's not working? I this is what I've always hoped for and that's never happened and this is why and if it has happened I don't remember it and this is something you mentioned is like a marriage and I always said it was like a marriage but it's not because a marriage is a 50 50 partnership yeah this isn't but I wish that an artist would just come in you know let's say when they're first feeling something listen can I meet with you yeah listen this thing the showcase you did where you had 10 people on and you put me on on first and other people went on that you weren't managing when I'm better. That kind of made me feel shitty and I would appreciate it if you never do that again or something of that nature.

But you never get that. You just get either the FedEx letter or they come to meet you. And it's like, you mentioned Brad Williams made a joke about Brad Williams. When I met Brad Williams, I mean, he was doing a lap dance thing, you know, bring somebody out of the crowd to do a lap dance. He was like living in an apartment in the 818 area code and you're you stop working with you making four million dollars a year doing all these concerts and you you know it's not a coincidence it's his talent and right and i think my talent and other people's talent but the fact is is that something happens and so it's happened so many times of me as you know it's happened like over probably over 25 times where i met somebody and they're like yeah but what is that what is

I don't know what it is. And that's the thing that's so weird, and we're talking. And, you know, you know what your superpowers are and everybody else know. Bill Byr knows who it. I have no fuck. I'm not what I'm bad at. I'm bad at a shitload of things. But I do know that you could put me with somebody and I will make it happen.

I know I can make it happen. I know when I do an interview. I'm just saying this isn't caught. I'm not going to lay an egg on an interview with you or anybody. You know, I'm just going to, but there's a lot of things that I'm not great at, which we shall not get into, or you can get into if you want to, but the things that I'm good at is making dreams come true, helping young artists. I have this industry blueprint I do, there's a thousand, there's a thousand comedian. I have meetings every Monday on virtually. I help people.

I do consult. I do whatever I can do, because I love, I love that. I love, those are my greatest times when you were a young comic coming. to the Boston. I love that stuff. Yeah. I mean, I hear you. I think it's difficult. Look, this business is not, it's not a, if you can't handle that part of it, you shouldn't, you can't be in it. You can't take things personal.

And I don't. And you mentioned something, do I get upset or do I get disappointed? Or do I not want to, if I see like Dave Chappelle somewhere, what happens? And I'll tell you, the last time I saw Dave Chappelle, it was this amazing thing. It wasn't the last time. but this is a memory I'll remember. Am I allowed to tell this quick story? Yeah, go ahead. I'll tell it in a different way.

I'm at a restaurant, L.A. Live. Somebody taps me on the shoulder. It's Chris Smith, this historic legendary agent, and he says, here's an envelope. Cat Williams is playing across the street, and I told him I saw you in the restaurant, and he wanted to give you these backstage passes. I go, see the show, it's great.

He takes me in the green room, every black celebrity in the world is there it's incredible and me i look like a line of cocaine on a black album cover you look like a manager whatever i'm i'm there i don't belong there whatever and they say listen uh you know you're going to wait to see him i'm i'm steven a msmith i'm not going to see anyone this beautiful black girl with a mini dress you know no underwear just walks up to me and she's like are you berry cats i say and yeah, you know, I was Barry Katz, and she looked at me, she said, look around. There's no Barry Katz.

Cat wants to see you. I said, there's no fucking way I'm going in there first to see him. There's all these people out here that he wants to hear from you. He wants to know what you thought of the show. He wants you to come in. So I go in, he's in a bathroom with a scotch and a cigar. I come in, and this is how the Dave Chappelle thing goes. And I'm talking to me.

He's asking about his act. I said, you really want me to tell you? I said, yeah, I said, it was fucking amazing. I was a little unsure why you did that really hard, dirty chunk at the end. And he said, well, you know, I'm going towards something. I had to put that at the end and whatever. And then I said, I got to go because there's a lot of people out there, but I want to tell you a story. I saw Dave Chappelle and we were at some award show with all black artists.

Yeah. and and I asked Dave how many, he came up to me, hugged me, which in so I don't have anything bad with Dave. It's all wonderful. I love him. He's a genius. One of the greatest gifts of my life and talent gifts to the world's life. And I said to him, how many geniuses are here?

And he smokes a cigarette. He goes, Barry, man, there's two. I said, two. I mean, look at there's so many. many people he said two and i'm talking to cat williams and and i imitate dave and i said i've always said who are the two he said me and cat williams and cat williams jumps off that bathroom sink like a jack in a box yeah like again hugs me and says thank you for telling me that bear you don't know how much it means to me to hear that another comic believes that i'm funny and

another comic like Dave. So that's the last time I said, so I'd seen Dave and then I'd seen cat right after. So there's no animosity between me and maybe there's a couple of them that I haven't managed that don't really, maybe aren't as nice in what they say about me as others. Yeah, but I, listen, I think everybody has shit with everybody, but time heals all wounds. And in this business, it is what it is. That shit happens. It's an intense relationship to chase a dream. It's intense. And you get there and sometimes you don't. But that, that, the Torgasm for me, I'll never look back on that as like, fuck that. Yeah, there was things that happened, but the great things that happened outweigh everything. That took me, I always say that. I see

Torgasm got me an apartment in New York was a dream. Not only being on HBO, not only being the tour after, not all those fans I got. I got an apartment, which, is a dream. That's like a thing to, you know, you're living in such squalor for so long, to have my own place, to redo all the bathroom, like you said, that apartment when I had my son got me in my house. You know, now that house got me to a better school for my, so it all is connected in some weird way. But, no, I, and you were, and the other thing that you forget, maybe you don't forget, maybe the audience doesn't know this, you were heavily and hugely your image on the poster. Yeah. Well, I was in the,

the back of Gary Gellman, Jay Davis, and Dan Cook was in the front, and on one ass cheek. It was just my head, actually. You should look at the poacher again. I had a poster that was eight feet long by three feet high right outside my office. That's how proud I was of you and Gary and Jay and Dane in that show. It's just my head. It's not even my body. When you promote the podcast or anything, a club, do they show your whole body or your face? Are people remembering your fucking torso. They show. They pay tickets for your face.

Barry, fuck you and your story. Listen to me. Dave Cook was in front. I was ready for a man. Standing up. Jay Davis is like this. You hid my body. Granted, I was a little chubby when you took the photo.

And that might have been a thing. It was just my head in the background. Motherfucker. Listen, we got to go to Patreon right now. This is where we're going to go. Fans ask you questions. We got really good questions from the fans, too. This fans for me.

This fans, dude, you are well known. You are talked about, you, dude, everybody has a Barry Cat's story. That must make you feel good. That you, that you, everybody has a Barry Cat story. Some of them good, some of them bad, but they're all made people laugh. Everybody imitates me. That's what's weird. That itself, that everybody does a Barry Cats means you're successful.

Look, it doesn't matter. All that shit, people say, like Jay. Jay's a different guy now. I'm a different guy now. I have third gear. You know what I mean? I'm a different... If I did Torgasm now, I'd be like, hey, guys,

maybe you let the Turtle do his thing. You know what I mean? The Turtle's a guy, too. He wants to get some stage-stem. I wouldn't be that guy anymore. You know what I mean? That would be bad television. That'd be terrible television.

I'd turn it on for you. I'd drink for you. That'd be funny. If Barry becomes my manager now, it makes me a star finally at 55. Listen, before you do the Patreon, I just want to say something about you and your career, which you don't want me to say. I don't. But I'm going to say it.

I do not. You are a fucking great actor. You never stop being a great actor. I don't care. You can stop being a great comedian and get a late. But nobody stops being a great actor if they really want to. And that's one of the things that I, if I had my way for you or I had my dream for you or whatever, it would be like, hey, I, I, I'm going to carve out whatever amount of money I make.

I'm going to talk to my significant other, whatever. And let's, maybe there's this much that I can put towards the tools to make some kind of a reel on my own with great filmmakers that show every state of emotion and show the world when there's, take this motherfucker. I'm a great actor. Because I think, I really believe that that's your, that's one of your superpower. I appreciate that. I just want to let you know that's three times during this podcast you tried to get. me to quit comedy. Oh my God.

Woo. I'm not getting you to quit comedy. We're going to Patreon right now. If you want to be on Patreon, I see, hear all the questions in there. Go to patreon.com slash Robert Kelly. The great, one of the greatest, if not the greatest managers of comedians of all time.

Love them or hate him. You know him. Barry Katz was here. Barry, he has a podcast. It's called The Industry Standard. Which I've asked you to be on about 17 times and you haven't said yes or you haven't said no. You know why?

But you never said no, but you never said yes. It's just, I didn't know what we had to talk about at the time. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't know where I've been so busy for the last 10, 12 years with being a dad and figuring that out and figuring out the next stage of it. It's like we have so much history that I couldn't just go on your show because I wouldn't want to be disingenuous. I wouldn't want to be able to fucking tell you something if I, you did. said something stupid or I when Danny said oh he's coming on I I literally had to think about it and be like and then I was like no no no I'm good I'm I know where we're at I know what's going on I know

where Barry I know who Barry is I know who I am I know where we're at right now I this it's time to do that so I would do it I was shocked I would do it you would do it you heard it you heard of Patreon well it doesn't have a lot of followers so it's not really going to do no when Danny asked me I really I actually I actually thought that he was somebody who wasn't, you know, those fake podcast people would say that. Because I couldn't believe that you would. Well, it's, it's,

and I was, I was, I was, I was going to have Keith on today. I was trying to have Norton on and have a bunch of guys on so we could talk, but Keith had a, you know, he couldn't make it and,

uh, Voss was going to come. I was going to have like a whole thing, the old Boston comedy club, but it didn't happen. But maybe we could do that on your podcast or something. That would be good. But,

um, check out his podcast, industry standard. If you need to make a, manager. He's available. But go to my website, punchup. Live slash Robert Kelly for all my dates.

I'm doing the mothership this summer. I got a ton of dates up there. My special's up there. All kinds of shits up there, uncensored. Punch-ups the best. So go to punchup. com slash Robert Kelly. And all your other comedians are up there, too.

Everybody who's anybody is on punchup. com live and you can watch all this stuff for free. Danny, what are you got? Follow me on Instagram at Danny Braff and come see me a headline in Saratoga, New York on June 13th at Artisanal Brew Works. Cody, I got a show at New York Comedy Club in Stanford next month, May 14th called That's Fair Comedy and follow me at Cody the comic. All right. Make sure you check those guys out and follow them. Support that. Not the greatest salespeople. I mean, they're terrible every week. It's nuts. It's nuts. Could you guys fucking have some energy when you're promoting yourself? It's fucking awesome. Take it from the master here.

All right. Did I miss anything? No, we're going to go over there right now and ask the question. You guys are the best fans of the world. Make sure you subscribe and like and leave a comment if you're watching for free on YouTube. And we'll see over there. You guys are the best. You know what, dude?