Senses Working Overtime with David Cross - Margaret Cho

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Catch all new episodes every Thursday. Watch video episodes here.Guest: Margaret ChoSubscribe and Rate Senses Working Overtime on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review to read on a future episode!Follow David on Instagram and Twitter.Follow the show:Instagram: @sensesworkingovertimepodTikTok: @swopodEditor: Kati SkeltonEngineers: Casey Donahue and Anya KanevskayaExecutive Producer: Emma FoleyAdvertise on Senses Working Overtime via Gumball.fm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. I give you the option to sit wherever you like. I'm exhausted here. You can get a couch or a chair. Where are you going? Here? Is this okay? Yeah, it's fine. And I'll put this over here.

I'm going to get a water. How about that? Do you want anything? I'm good. Thank you. I think I need one for her. Okay. Okay. What's the name of your dog? Lucia Catarina. Um, what's her middle name?

Catarina. Lucia. Her name is Lucia, but then her full name is Lucia Catarina. Yeah, but what's her middle name? Catarina. What's her full name is Lucia Caterina. Yeah, but what's her middle name? Caterina. What's her last name? Uh, Cho. Did you all get married? Yes.

Oh. She's my daughter. She's my dog-daughter. What kind of dog is that? She's a Chihuahua. She's a Chihuahua like that. Oh, I should know that. I should know that.

She's like a Chihuahua mix. She's a Chihuahua. She's a Chihuahua like that. Oh, I should know that. I should know that. She's like a Chihuahua mix. She's a Chihuahua Dalmatian. Which I don't really see. Chihuahua Dalmatian. I don't see the Dalmatian part. At all. Boy, not at all.

Oh, now they see her, but yeah, okay. I can see it now. She's got a Dalmatian asshole. Oh, it's like, she is longer than most, she's like this much longer, like 33% longer. Show me this thing. I wanna look at the alphabet. So that's made for...

It's made for dogs and cats. So I have cats too, so they jump in here. Well kangaroo-ish. It's very kangaroo-ish and it's really handy. Yeah, I'll say. She loves it. She loves it, so I'm like... We just got aaroo-ish and it's really handy. Yeah, I'll say. She loves it. Yeah. She loves it, so I'm happy.

We just got a dog, our family just got a dog a week and a half ago at this point. Wow. Yeah. You never had one? No, no, God I had one. Yeah, I had, I mean I grew up with a dog and then that dog, they had to put it down when I was nine. And then I had a dog for 15, over 15 years that I had to put down about a year and a half ago.

Oh my God. And I should have done it sooner. It was just, it was ridiculous. It's hard not to. I know, but I knew that. And it bummed me out that I was susceptible to that. I mean, she was in a diaper and I had a carrier down up and down stairs. It was just, you know, I should have done it sooner. But yeah, I love that dog.

That was Ollie Red Sox. And then, and my daughter really liked Ollie and took her loss much harder than my wife and I anticipated. And then we've been talking about getting a dog. And so we had to get a hypoallergenic dog because Amber is allergic to a lot of stuff, but also dogs. And so we had to go to this place. Otherwise, it would have gone, gotten a rescue, you know? I don't like the idea of breeding dogs for, anyway, but we had no choice. It was either that or no dog.

So. Did you get like a Portuguese water, water, like the- A water torture? The water torture. We had a- I got a, before we went to get the dog, I got water torture? The water torture. We had a portrait. I got a... Before we went to get the dog, I got water tortured by a Portuguese man.

That's what he said. I don't speak the language. But those are like hypoallergenic or like, those in golden doodles? Yeah. Yeah. What we got was a Bernadoodle, which is a mountain, a Bernie's Mountain Dog and a poodle, but it's way more Bernie's Mountain than poodle. Is it a puppy?

Yeah. Oh, cute. You know, we got it, it was seven weeks old. Wow. Yeah, it was brand new. That's great. Yeah. And she's pretty smart.

She's really taken the... When we got her, she had never seen a city before. She was out in the country in rural, outside of Buffalo, and we drove up to... Because it was a surprise for my daughter's birthday, and to pick one out. So we went to this woman's house who does that stuff. Super Christian. It was weird. It was a Christian town, which I never would have guessed. It's a little tiny little place in North West New York State. And West New York State. And there's a Christian college, a small Christian college. And then

the hotel we stayed at was very like, kind of very grandma-ish, you know, you go in and there's nobody there. It was just like, here are your keys and an envelope. And there were only like 12 rooms, I think. And when you walked in, they still had all the Christmas stuff up. And it took a second for it all to sink in. And there's like, you know, John 316 stuff and posters, and you know, inspirational biblical posters. And then they have like games, like a little thing by a TV.

And nobody's there. There's nobody there. And, you know, biblical trivia and, you know, really fun shit that kids love. And then I've noticed, oh, they're playing Christian music station. It was all Christian, the whole, the vibe. And then this woman's house, she had also the affirmations about things that Jesus' strength and love and all that stuff. It's so weird when it's really like when they mix it into the patina of the place so that you don't notice. Like there was a town like that that I lived in when I was working in Georgia.

It was Peachtree City. Yeah. Everything was like really like coded very Christian, but it was so far down into the mix of everything. Like there was like a barbecue place and it was all of the people that was like a family's place, but they were all in this one group photo and they were all wearing white robes, and it was so creepy.

You mean like KKK robes? Not with the hood, but like choir robes, but they were white. Right, of course. Okay, so they weren't, okay. But it was like a weird. But it brought that to mind. It was very, because you were in Georgia. But a casual KKK without the hood. you know like a very modern today's modern KKK

It's in your daddy's KKK But it's like that Feeling of like a weird it's where you they're all wearing these white robes and you think, oh, is this a baptism? And they assign next to it that said this all began with the love of a man and a woman. And it was like 50 people. It was just weird. Yeah, it's the Dugars. Very Dugars.

Yeah. A very good barbecue, but because it was mustard based. Really? That's South Carolina. Yeah. So I was like, it was like a springy... Oh, you rarely find that in Georgia. ...themed to that.

So it was Southern Carolina style barbecue. Well, you don't find that in Georgia very often at all. No, it's good. Interesting. Delicious. I'm not a fan of the mustard. You don't like it? No, I mean, it's okay.

I don't, I prefer it to like the ridiculously sweet sauce. I don't like those, I don't like that kind of barbecue. I'm like North Carolina. I'm a big, you know, vinegar hot sauce kind of mop. That's wonderful. That's my favorite. That's really delicious. It is.

That's my personal favorite for barbecue. Yes, I agree. And you shouldn't have to put sauce for barbecue. Yes, I agree. You shouldn't have to put sauce on it. You really shouldn't. You shouldn't. You should not. It should just be the smoke and then the slow cooking.

No, the char. You know, the, what do you call it, the, what do you call it, the outside? The crust has a name. Bark. Bark, thank you. It's so good. Yep. It's so, I like all the other stuff too.

Like I like whatever they have, whether that's like the cornbread or the beans and all of that. I think it's like the cumulative effective, the barbecues, not just- Not so much beans. But at Georgia you get the one kind of barbecue-ish, adjacent food that is specific to Georgia's Brunswick stew, which I really like, which

is chicken. It's like a chicken tomato-y with corn and lime of beans and it's really good. It's called Brunswick stew. It sounds like suck-a-tash or something. It's more of a stew, you know. I mean, it maybe has a little suck-a-tash qualities to it. Well, I need it with lima beans. Lima beans, you don't come across.

Nope, nope. And you don't really notice them, because I hate lima beans. I really don't. Why do you hate lima beans? They raped my father. Because they don't taste good to me. I'm not a huge fan of the texture. I'm not a big lima bean fan.

They're kind of mealy. Yeah. And I don't like the, it's got a kind of a slight sulfur quality to it that I don't care for. Hi. How old? Five. No. Okay. I think that I'm trying to think what's...

She's into you. She's into you. Well, it's either soap or was I eating some everything, everything but the bagel spice, you know, seasoned nuts. So she might be... Oh yeah, might be a little salt. Seasoned to you. And then where, so boy, Peachtree City, that's, and that's, that's where you were staying. I lived in Peachtree City for like three years, and then I got an apartment actually on in midtown like on Peach Tree Boulevard or

whatever. But I was working there on a series so Peach Tree Street. But you know, everything's Peach Tree in Atlanta. There are a bunch of Peach Trees. Yeah. I like living in the city of Atlanta. I think Atlanta is a great city. But Peach Tree City is very boring. Yeah. I was surprised when as a great city, but Petrie City is very boring. Yeah, I was surprised when you told me you were living there, and I understand being somewhere because it's the proximity to set and Atlanta traffic is just awful, horrendous. It's so hard, but then I just sucked it up because I would rather just drive an hour to and from than live there all the time. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, it's, yeah, Atlanta traffic's awful. It's so awful, but it was like, you know,

I kind of just sort of like, I prefer being able to just live in the city and then I could just go to the Beeford Highway and eat whatever, like good, good. Oh man, have you been to the farmers market on Beeford Highway? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy shit. Incredible. It's one of the most amazing things. The first time I went there, I was just like,

it was, I was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed with emotion. And I also remember, one of the sections, it's a massive store, food, you know, produce everything with all, with every food from all over the world and their own huge seafood department that's the size of a regular Kroger's. Each department is massive and butchers and the prices are ridiculously cheap. Like they have their own chicharrones thing where they make...

I mean, it's incredible. I stopped counting. I remember being like kind of when you walk in towards the right, there's all the fruits and vegetables and they had... I got up to 11, I just stopped counting, different types of eggplants, varieties of eggplants. I didn't even know existed. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's like a football field big.

Incredible. And it's, yeah, the prices are crazy good. And they have everything. They have everything and it's all really fresh and it's just a fun experience to go to the market itself. Yeah, I love it. I mean, I've been there now several times. Even if I don't have to go there, I just like go in.

When I travel, when I go abroad, if not the first thing I do, I always go to a grocery store and not with the intention of buying a bunch of stuff, but just to check it out. I just like to look at it. I like to look at it and see and you know, it's just very interesting to see what the dairy is like, like what kind of milks and things that they have or yogurts.

Or boxes of milk. Yeah. Which makes sense. Cheese. I love cheese. A box of cheese. I love all of it. It makes sense. Cheese. I love cheese. A box of cheese. I love all of it.

It's just boxes. It's so good. I go to the box store and say, hey, do any of these boxes have food in them? And then I have a translator on my phone and then, politely kicked me out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to tell you something that I don't know if you'll remember this, but it's stuck with me, obviously.

And I've told it several times and Amber will, my wife will, bring it up occasionally. You and I were driving to San Francisco, which we used to go all the time, big groups of us. And, you know, and sometimes, you know, just individual cars or whatever. And we were both working and so we drove up to San Francisco from LA. And you made an observation that is very astute

and you said you can always tell, especially like if you're traveling on the five, right? Not the one or the one-on-one necessarily, but the five going from LA to San Francisco and once you get over the grapevine, you can always tell if there's a large Mexican population because all the cinnamon jolly ranchers are gone. And it's true.

It was a really good observation. That's the way you can tell. Yeah, that's how you know. I mean, it's like a, I don't know, maybe nowadays it would be more, now there's more diversity in those gas station snacks. So you would have things that may be more kind of like catering. Right, to the flaming taquitos or tackies or whatever. Or they would have like tamarind flavored kind, or it of things that are like covered in talkies.

Like talkie, like gummies covered in talkie or like. The tamarind chili lemon. Yeah, like the chili lemon. Tejine. Tejine covered gummies which is now like sort of taking. Yeah, that's true. That was, you know, I've been driving great distances cross-country numerous times since I was, you know, 18, pretty much. And especially

as a, you know, working comic on the road, you do a lot of traveling and the difference in the availability of, and the amenities that are on the road now, or I mean, it's night and day. There used to be, you had no choice. There was no Starbucks, so you had no choice, but to drink that shitty acid-based gas station coffee sometimes just to be able to drive through the night. It was terrible.

And you, you know, there were no fruit juices like, what's a juice company, you know, that the green machine or whatever. Like none of those things available. Yeah. Yeah. The closest you get was like high C or something. Or like there was just no energy drinks. I mean, I don't like those really either, but there was nothing like that.

I mean, maybe you would have Joe Cola. There was no does. Yeah, oh, Joe Cola, that's right. Joe Cola, which had double the caffeine and double the sugar. And that was what you would use as a sort of proxy energy drink. Yeah, that poor man's meth, you know.

And no does. And no does, yeah, Viverin. Oh, many things. Do you remember many things? that was like trucker trucker speed many things were like Kind of up by the counter would check we check out they were these little they were like no dose But they were I think it was like a fedrin. Yeah, so they were small doses of like a high Like like a high caffeine pill, something like that. Yeah, I don't remember many things.

Many things were, yeah, me and, we would always take those, like me and Karen would always get those and come back and- Karen Kogarev. Karen Kogarev. One of the trips that you and I took, it was from San Francisco, we actually left after a show at the improv. So it was super late, we probably left San Francisco. We actually left after a show at the Improv. So it was

super late. We probably left San Francisco around midnight. To get back to LA? To get back to LA. And I remember that was the week that I decided I was gay. So then I wouldn't stop coming out to you. And I felt so bad because you were so tired. You really have to. I came out to maybe four or five times during that trip because I think we weren't even, we didn't have a tape to listen to. I think we didn't have any radio. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I remember coming out to you and then I couldn't stop

coming out. Yeah, I guess. And then do you remember that he was really, it was too hot. Dude, I didn't remember the coming out thing, but I do remember you were sleeping, right? And I was driving, I think, and you were sleeping and the heat, and I'm not like a big heat guy, but you would wake up to turn it either off or down or up.

I can't remember, but whatever it was, it made me physically very uncomfortable. I think it was you wanted the heat on. And I was like, this is way too fuck. It's 90 degrees in here. And then you go back to sleep and then I turn the heat down and then seven, eight minutes later you go and wake up, turn the heat up, go back to sleep. We did that for about 300 miles. Yeah.

I think I was so exhausted from coming out so much that I had to turn the heat up. Is that really an exhausting thing? No, I don't know what it was. I had, I was, you know, the relationship I was in was with a woman and I realized now how inappropriate. Wait, a woman? No.

What? She was my age now, I'm 55. She was in her like mid-50s. Wow. Did I know her? Did I meet her? No, I don't think you met her. But she was so much older than me and now I'm like-

You're not thinking of Chris Isaac, are you? Because he's a man. No, no. He was younger. Yeah, okay? Because he's a man. No, no, he was younger. Yeah, okay. And he is a man. That was a little bit later. I teed that up for you

and you did not knock it out of the park. I didn't, I just laid, just foul. It just sort of tapped it and it dribbled down and I had to put it back on the T-stand. But yeah, that seems kind of old. I don't think I would feel comfortable dating an 18. I was probably 18. I don't think I would.

Were you 18 really? No. I thought that time I was 18. 18, 19, maybe? I think so. Oh, mate. I think we were pretty young. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Because I didn't move to LA until I was... Unless I was just staying with Janine or something. You were just staying with Janine. You hadn't moved to LA yet. Shit, okay. This was like early on. This was like when you came with Craig. Craig. Craig, that horrible friend of yours. He was so mean. Who? He was blonde and he had glasses. Who are you talking about?

Your friend Craig. I don't know who you're talking about. You don't know. Blonde with glasses. And he, so I had a bag that said, like it was like some sort of like a weird designer bag, but then it said it's a New York, London, Paris, whatever, and he goes, he came and he said,

where did you get it? New York, London, or Paris? And I was like so, I was so mad. Don't you remember Craig? Well, first of all, that doesn't sound like a mean thing. It's not, it's just stupid. No, I think you overreacted. I overreacted and I was, I also, I don't know why.

But you harbored this thing for 40 years. My friend Craig, who I don't know who you're talking about. Was he in cross comedy? Maybe? No. Craig. Dude, is there a Craig? No, there was no, there was a, I'm trying to, was he a comic? I don't believe he was a comic. Janine hated him too.

Janine's like, oh, fucking Craig hated him. From Boston? From Boston. Ah, boy, I don't... Wait, you said blonde hair and glasses? Yeah. Was it Chris? Maybe it's Chris.

Maybe it's Chriss. He's the only one that kind of would fit that description. Huh, okay. He's the only one that kind of would fit that description. Huh. Okay. Anyway, that's what I remember. I'm going to break up with him. Yeah, you just don't talk to me anymore. Yeah. Do you ever feel like money is just flying out of your account and you have no idea where it's going?

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on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash senses. That's rocketmoney.com slash senses. Rocketmoney.com slash senses. I also remember the photo that you took at Sears. Yeah, yes. Which is in the kids section. Where they had like the carpeted stairs for the baby and then you had like perched your body up on them like you were a newborn.

Like they had like the ABC blocks and toys and stuff. The reason I did it is because I got some potential gig and they're like, can you send headshots and I didn't have any headshots. So the cheapest thing to do was to go to the Sears Portrait Studio in Santa Monica. And it was, you know, they had a coupon, you know, cause they wanted to sell you multiple copies of like the eight by tens and the wallet size. And I just got the cheapest package.

And, you know, as opposed to going to some guy and having the whole fucking thing for $150 or however much they charge and all that stuff, I just got, I went to the baby photography student. They were like, sure, get in there. And it was like 40 bucks. And I got the package, which was, you know, I didn't, the wallet size, we're not gonna do anything for me,

but I got like four, you know, eight by 10s that I was able to send to the club. And I got an electric set and I just printed, put it, you know, stuck them on the thing. And then that was my headshot. It was so funny. Do you still have that shot? Gilmore, do you have a boat?

I don't have it, but it's been reprinted in the Mr. Show What Happened book. There's a copy of it. You can see it. I have to see it because it's such a funny photo because your eyes are unfocused. You took it like a baby, which made you an in-character. Looking off to the side with this kind of wry smile. It is so funny. And you had quite long hair. Oh, I still had the were in character. Looking off to the side with this kind of wry smile. It is so funny and you had quite long hair. Oh, I still had the Jewfro.

Yeah, that was early. That was pretty early. So that was, yeah, Jewfro. I hadn't really started balding yet and glasses. Yeah. So funny. So, it's so funny. Also, the other thing I remember is when you did a

set at the improv and you actually did a Not know what is it like a somersault in the air you flipped all the way around like a no you did you do I can't do that. I would broke in my neck It was in before you do that song with the In-XS song. Holy shit, that's going way back. Yeah. Wow.

And you flipped all the way around. Like, cause I was so shocked that you did. And I think you just used the physical momentum of spitting the microphone. Yeah. So the microphone. Man, that's an old little bit. I mean, that's a crazy, that's like,

wow, man, boy, you and I go way, way back. Yeah. But you flipped all the way around. I really do think you did flip all the way around. You don't remember flipping all the way around? No, no, I mean, I've done, I used to do that bit. It was the guy who was hyperventilating and it turns into the guy who was like, you ever,

you know, I can't remember the context of the premise, but it's about when you're a kid in school and you're, you know, I said something or was doing this other bit. It's like when you're in school and you're caught doing something bad, when you're a little kid and then they end up hyperventilating when they're explaining like, no, because all right, I was... And then it starts hyperventilating and it gets pretty manic and then the in excess song kicks in and then I start dancing and it's just dumb weird. It's so good. It's really exciting.

That I would never do. That's very much a, you know, 20 year old me stand up thing. Which is like, I think, I mean, still like, you know, I think back in the period, there are things that really stick with me that I never forgot. Like, there was one sketch that you did. I don't know if it was that... It wasn't Mr. Show, but it was a predecessor to Mr. Show where you do doing something with Laura Kytlinger and you were in front of a kitchen sink and you were wearing 1930s like Boudoir silk jump jumpsuit. What? And you...is it Kodoroi? And you slapped...Laura she slapped you. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. It was something like a weird...I don't know what it was but it was like a domestic, but you were like French. Oh, oh, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, it was a film. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was Louis Louis CK So it was and Laura and I were in it. He wrote it. It was it was

the premise well, yeah, it was like black and white and it was one of the first things he did it was It was like black and white and it was one of the first things he did it was It was like elementary school French but delivered with very you know like a you know art house, you know don's my posh You know and then all the things were and then it was subtitled like, the book is on the chair. And it was all that stuff. And then, yeah, that was, no, that was a Louis, we do that across comedy. Yeah.

Yeah. And yeah, that was Louis. It was cross, yeah, it was cross comedy. Yeah. Yeah, that was fun. That was a funny thing. It was so funny. But do you remember, it was like a 1930s silk, short, lingerie outfit.

I don't remember that so much, but makes sense. It was very good. Okay. That would have been in Boston, yeah. It was so... The Boston... The only thing comparable to the Boston scene, comedy-wise, stand-up comedy, was San Francisco.

Because you're too big, magnets were New York and LA. But as far as like, the indie creative, the indie creative like the scene of almost like an, you know, an artistic community, you know, out in Joshua Tree or something like that or Marfa, Texas or something like that. But it was, was, but they were hyper creative and fertile ground for what eventually became called the alternative scene, which there isn't no alternative anymore. But yeah, Boston and San Francisco were quite comparable. There's no other place like it. Not in Houston, not Chicago. I'm trying to think of other, where there were little scenes like Seattle, but nothing like Boston and San Francisco.

Where did you stay in like, like, because in San Francisco people would stay at Ron Lynch's. Where did people stay when they went to Boston? I mean, sometimes people would crash at our, you know, I was in a bunch of different places, but there were, I mean, I had several roommates, you know, over the years in different places and people would crash there, depends on who it was. You know, sometimes maybe John Ennis, you know, stay at Ennis is, I try to think, Kuzlowski sometimes, Stephen Pawkloss, Kuzlowski. I mean, just various, you know, whoever had a place.

I never went, I only played Boston a couple of times. I mean, I go there now, but back then, like I would go and I would do shows at like a comedy connection. And I would always do so poorly that everybody would come out from the green room to watch me because I would be bombing so bad. Like the silence would be so deafening that people would have to come out and watch and see why.

I've never seen you bomb, but were you a good bomber or no? No, because I just get mad. And then I don't know how to exit gracefully. And then I will stay on for far longer than I should. That a lot of, that's kind of like a, you know, common rookie move that I think we all have been guilty of that thing where you're like,

I'm gonna go out on a laugh, God damn it. You know, and you just end up, and people, everyone is sensing yourself as well. Like get the fuck off, nobody gives a shit. It's okay to not get off on a laugh. Just go, please go. I just won't get off, and then I get so somehow indignant about it.

Yeah, no, everybody goes through that. Everybody. It's really immature, and I don't know what to do. Like, I get really befuddled. Well, you still don't have that happen, do you? Not in the same way. Like, and if it is going poorly, then I just leave. You know, because I'm like, I don't...

Well, that's the right thing to do. I don't have to do anything. It's fine. You know, it's totally fine. And you get a little fire accelerator light, something on fire, walk out. Just get an accelerant. Any kind of accelerant will do. That's what I meant.

Yeah. Accelerant, yes. But it's really like, it's so disheartening when you are just trying. I think nowadays when it happens, it's more like, oh, I did this to myself because I did it like a terrible, like I've been took a terrible corporate gig

or something where I just have, no, they don't want comedy at all. They don't, they don't want this. That's the worst. I, it turned out okay. I'll preface it with it was actually okay, but I took this a couple years ago, took this gig that I would never ever in a million years, but they paid me a lot of money to go to a suburb in Chicago and it was like a company but small business party, right?

And they're big fans and it was like, I think it was a combo birthday party and their company or Christmas party, whatever it was. And I never would have done it except they offered me a substantial amount of money. And I was like, okay, I'll go and it turned out it's like, I want to say maybe 40 people, 35 people in a restaurant that they had just sort of shut down this room and the restaurant, this area, and there's no place to put me and I'm just sort of hanging out until it's time and there's no stage.

It's literally, and like, you know, one of those like Radio Shack mics and it was just ridiculous. And all they wanted, you know, they were just kind of drunk by the time I got on there and like Tobias, you know, rest development stuff. And again, it was fine. They were lovely, but not interested in stand-up really. And it was just weird because I'm just standing there at their table, just doing, trying to do 35 minutes. It was

just a very uncomfortable awkward. That's so much time to do. Yeah, I know. That's hard. It was, but you know, again, they were just goofy. It was goofy and weird and you know, and I'm the kind of person who's, you know, constantly commenting on it and how awkward it is. But they were nice. It was just not... I should have said, okay, what if you give me half the money and I'll just come and take pictures with their buddy? We don't have to do this, the pretense of doing my act.

Yeah. Yeah. The last one I did was kind of like... It was for Canadian labor union leaders. It was a huge like labor convention thing and it was in Canada and it was like just to look for different ways to talk about unionizing and talk about and it was also trying to address gay issues and trying to talk about gender in a new way and stuff. And so it was just very, but it was just a weird thing because it was like weird to try to introduce comedy into something that is really like, it was in the middle of the day.

And so it was not set up for that. Daytime comedy is not good. The worst. And especially if it's like all in the midst of people making speeches about labor issues. So it was very discombobulating. Is it mirrors that hot in here? Well I'll run cold, so I'm always cold.

Oh, all right. Do you mean to come out? I'll come out to you again and maybe... Yeah, yeah, no, that sounds great. Is that how you warm up? You get your blood going is... Are you hot? Are you hot? But I'm also got this, hey, what am I doing?

I'm, no, no, no, I'm the one. I'm sitting here with a hoodie on. I'll take the hoodie off. Oh, Ania, I just noticed the grapes. Very nice. We've had this thing going. They used to hide the grapes over there. I'm not going to get into it because I've spent too much time on other podcasts discussing the grapes.

No, please, go ahead. Anyway, they used to be in there like hidden away. Like as a sort of art inside of the plastic. Who the fuck knows? I don't know what these people, I don't know what these people. It's nice. The only person who gets me thanks, Mark. I think it's pretty. So it's art now.

It's always been art. That's why they're plastic. Don't you think it would look pretty right in that little... Yeah, because it's sort of like... Oh, for fuck's sake. My Jesus Christ. I'm trying to do one goddamn thing around here. There.

How's that for you? An empty table. Better. Good. Good. Here's a funny anecdote. I don't know if Amber ever told you this. Early on in our dating, I think maybe a year, you know, we've been going out and I don't know what

station was on, we were listening to radio or mix or something. And next thing you know, we're having sex. And in the middle, and I mean in the middle, of having sex, whatever song was on stopped and your stand up came on. And then it was a discussion of like, do we keep fucking? And while Margaret's, I don't remember the bit. I knew you were

yelling. Yeah. And then, or did we just stop and turn it off? Well, what do we do here? So, but that's a fond memory. She said that she put her hand on your mouth and kept listening to it. She was like, she said that she put her hand over your mouth and so that you wouldn't stop, would shut up and you would have to listen to it. Oh, that's kind of funny. That sounds like her. Yeah. I don't remember that, but that sounds like her. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty, pretty funny.

It's good. The last thing you wanna hear is your friend stand up. You know what the worst? The worst. I mean. I'm gonna come, no I'm not. No, no I'm not. No, no.

Nope. The worst. That's the worst thing to, I mean, I don't know. I don't really listen to stand up comedy like that. The worst thing would be the worst thing to, I mean, I don't know. I don't really listen to stand-up comedy like that. Well, the worst thing would be the emerging broadcasts thing. Oh, you're emerging. This is it. Yeah. Or an Amber Alert. That would be pretty bad. Or it's just like, or even my own comedy. I don't want to, like...

Oh, that would be the worst. That would be the worst. To listen to your own comedy. Yes. Yes. Wow, you're masturbating. Let's make it a full... So you're drinking on your head and then it's like, well now... Suddenly, you hear your own comedy.

That's... yeah. That's the worst. Oh man. What else you got? Do you have anything to promote, Pluck? What am I doing? I'm doing stand-up. I am in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis later this month in February. And I'm just touring. I'm doing just doing a bunch of different shows. Like it's really, I like doing shows like in that kind

of relaxed pace where you're just going out for a weekend at a time. Yeah. It feels really, I like doing shows in that kind of relaxed pace where you're just going out for a weekend at a time. Yeah. It feels really good to do that. I prefer touring. I like getting the material and then going out and just doing it. Don't you get a bus?

You get a bus. I've had a bus before, but I didn't the last time because my daughter's in school now, and I didn't want to be gone for... She was on the bus. We had a pack and play put on the bus, and Amber scheduled... She had a book coming out, so she scheduled book signings and stuff, and readings around. Oh. Yeah, it was great. And she was on the bus and Marlowe and Nanny and it was great.

It was really cool. And that was, you know, months, months, months. But the last tour, the worst-dating, the world tour was I would go out for like, you know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then come home so that I wasn't gone all the time, which kind of was tough because it's a lot of traveling and a lot of connecting flights and small planes and getting up at seven after you've done an hour and a half show and went out drinking and did a meet and greet and all that stuff. So it was tough and I won't do it again and Amber was saying like, God, don't do that

again. It's fine. Just go out for a month or two at a time and we'll come out and visit you and I'll say, yeah, it's just better and easier. Not that I'll have the bus because that's really expensive. It's really expensive, but it's so great. It's great. But I was able to kind of justify it on some other tours, but I don't, I'm not

going to, because I'll still be, I'm not going to go out for, you know, three months and when you can like amortize like that, it gets cheaper, but I won't, I'll be coming back for a week. I'll go out for a month, come back for a week. You know what I mean? And so I'm not gonna get a bus for, unless there was like a specific region where I, but yeah, it's so convenient, it's so great.

But yeah, you know, and I did for the first time on this last tour, airport hotels. Oh, okay. Which some are not great. There are a couple really good ones, but the convenience is insane.

The convenience is the best because you can just get up and like basically walk to your game. You do. You walk to the, everyone, you don't have to take a shuttle. You basically get up and you know, you save an hour of sleep, if not more. It's, and that's so precious. Like, you know what's a good one? I like the TWA one one. Is it at LaGuardia or JFK? Well, I live there, so unless I have a stacation, which is an absurd notion, I don't understand why people do that.

I can't believe people are so fucking gullible to marketing, like, it's genius. I'm gonna, I know I live here, but I'm gonna go actually spend, you know, 700 bucks in a hotel in a Section of the town I can get to on the subway. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. It's a staycation. What a dumb fucking idea. Anyway So I haven't been yeah, I haven't needed to but I've done the Denver Airport Hotel Chef's kiss. It's awesome. It's great.

Is it like right in the terminal? It's not in the terminal, but it's Jason and you just walk like maybe 25 yards from the hotel into like the corridor. But it's a nice hotel. And the bar stays open and we were all, it was fairly new when I was there and I went to the bar, which was like a big,

white kind of space age, modern horseshoe bar. And everybody, we were all from all different walks of life, and everybody was like, this is great. We're all singing its praises. And the bartender's like, yeah, I'll stay open. We're supposed to close it midnight, but we'll stay open for you guys. And you guys want snacks, potato chips?

Like, yeah, great. Getting bowls of potato chips. It was great. That's awesome. Yeah, and so convenient. And then you get to sleep till 7.45 or 8. It's meaningful. It's meaningful when you're traveling so much. It's just like such a... Yeah, that's so hard is just like the sleep thing. I get so much anxiety when I can't

go to sleep and it's hard to sleep after a show. Drink so much and I keep saying each time, okay,, like, okay, I'm gonna take it easy tonight. No drinking after the show. And then, you know, because you're kind of hungover and out of it. And then by the time, you know, 12 hours later, you walk on stage, you're sobered up and your adrenaline's going, you have a great show, it's really fun. And then, all right, let's get some drinks. Yeah. And that at least night after night. It's really hard. It's really hard. So you're struggling at the Spokane Airport, you know.

Where is the gate? I can't remember. Ma'am, do airports have Kleenex? Is there a place to get a Kleenex, like tissue? You know they call it Kleenex, but it's, that's the brand name. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you worked here. All right, where are you going?

That's not a real place. All right, anyway. I can have that conversation for a while. Yeah, that's a good conversation to have. What else you got? My dog is in my stomach. She's here. I'm working on an album, so I'm making some music.

And that's always like a great thing to do, yeah, to like travel on a bus to do. Then we have a band. What is the music? I didn't even know you played anything. I play guitar, and so I decided, this would be my third album. So this is the album that I want to make. No shit. I have no idea, Margaret. Yeah, it's cool. Oh, wow. I want to make an album that would have, like I'm in the Bengals. I've always wanted to be part of the Paisley

Underground. So I'm making my album that would have been made, would have been released in like 1995. Quite a while ago, yeah. So it's like a 30-year-old like record but it's inspired by Jellyfish and the Bengals and... The three o'clock. The three o'clock. Sure, paisley. Maybe a little jiggle-o-once even. Oh, do you know jiggle-o-once? I love their music. I know that you know them. Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah.

Yeah. They're, God, there was a great awesome era, that Boston era of Jigolowants and cave dogs. A miracle legion. And miracle legion was not Boston. They were Seattle, I think, or I don't know. Yeah. I think you're right. Yeah. Morphine was Boston, cave dog, jigglypants, the bags. How about Blake babies too, right? But Blake babies?

Galaxy 500. Oh yes, yes. Leppenheads. Who else? The figs. Oh, I love the figs. Yeah, I think they're New York. But you ever see Sloan, Canadian band? Yes. Oh, awesome. Yeah, I love Sloan. Wow, so I had no idea. Yeah, I apologize for that. It's just another sort of thing of like... So you have two albums? Yeah, that have already come out and then so this record will be the third one. That's right. Let me hang on. One, two, three. Three is right.

Yeah. It's so exciting. Casey, Google, two ellipses. And then what comes next with a shrugging emoji? Okay, got it. Thank you. What are the first two called? The first one is called Chodependent, and the second one is...

Love a good pun. You have to have a pun. The second one's called American Myth. So that's like myth with a lisp. Myth. This is all stories like about Anna Nicole Smith. Oh, okay. So there's lots of songs about tragedy and blondes.

But also in that same vein of the Power Pop psychedelic stuff. Kind of. It's all sort of Power Pop but everything, like I really am a power. I really think that I would belong up there with like a Marshall Crenshaw. What about posies? I'm, well, I do sing a bit with Ken Stringfellow. Really? We did some house songs. We did house kind of parties.

Wow. It's easier to do with musicians. Like it's easier to do that with a go to a house and they host you and they have a party and then you do a concert. I've been to plenty of those. I even did a show in Edmonton. I did a house party with Ted Leo. Wow. Yeah, me and Ted Leo went to this guy's house in Edmonton.

That's cool. Yeah, that's cool. It was a Kickstarter thing. Yeah. What do you call it? Like a reward thing. Yeah. Oh, that's a whole side of you. I had no idea. That's wild. So what labels are they on? I put them all out on my own label. So it's just not really... Do you have a physical copy of them or is it just on the internet? It's on the internet. It's on all of the Spotify or whatever.

All right, cool. Everything is online. I mean, you can hear it. Show dependent. Show dependent and American. I'm so glad you got to that pun. What are some other puns you've incorporated? Show enough, y'all.

Never done that one. Never done show enough. A one woman show.. One woman show. One woman show, okay. And hey, it's called show business, not free, but not show fun or whatever. Show me the money. Show me the money is a good way. I've never used that one.

Yeah. Well, you bank some of these and have them for later. A show truck, and it's like a tow truck. It really went stretched. You might as well. And you could do a homage, you could do a show fly and it could be like blow fly. You remember we did those party albums with like very X rated disco. Was that Rory Ray Moore? No.

Who's blow fly? Oh, blow fly. Blow fly was a singer. Yeah, his own thing. He was a great singer. He was like the X rated disco guy. Yeah, his music was really, really a great singer. He was like the X-rated disco guy. Yeah, his music was really, really naughty, very dirty. Very naughty.

Very naughty. Saucy. It's really great though. Ribled. Really beautifully. Lots of horns. Yeah. Lots of hornies.

Hornies, horns. There's horns on this record, which is, that's quite extravagant and a little bit of strings. So, I do veer into a burvagant and a little bit of strings. So I do veer into a burp back or a kind of a get into that. Okay, but you psychedelic pop it up. Yeah. Remember, we used to go, I think you were part of this, we would always go to the, what was the festival they had here in LA?

The... International Pop Overthrow. Yeah, International Pop Overthrow. And really fun shows. And Robbie Rist was always in nine different bands. He's always a very big power pop guy.

But yeah, that's like I just love that kind of genre. And I just did a show with Petra Hayden, who's also that kind of genre era. So good. Yeah, that was a fun period to go from that amazing Boston music scene and then LA, which was, you know, I remember, were you with us when we went to see Weezer? That I think it was Doug Benson or Brian Pussein was like, hey, there's this new band,

you know, check out, they were at the, it was an upstairs place on, I wanna say off of Las Palmas in Hollywood. There's like a place, you go upstairs, it's kind of, how do you describe it? It's, I don't even know, but it was, there was like a really small room and it was one of Weezer's early shows. I don't remember that, but I do remember when,

what's the story, More and Glory came out and then you and Janine and some other people came over and we just listened to that record. It was just Oasis. How about that, there's so many things, I'm gonna sound like an old man now, but I am. And there's so many things I feel bad that people don't get to have this experience.

But like, you used to really anticipate a new album. Like, and going back to before I, before I was, like when you would, if a Beatles album came out, which I was, you know, like when you would, if a Beatles album came out, you know, which I didn't really experience, I was too young for that. But the idea that Radiohead, there's a new Radiohead album gonna come. And then we all, you'd go to Virgin or Amoeba, well Amoeba was around them, but you know, you'd go and you'd get it. And you'd have a listening party.

And we would all listen to the album. And it just they don't they don't do that anymore They don't well also people don't even listen to albums anymore, right? You know like that's such a rarity too is if you if you get a if you get an album you listen listen beginning to end It's very rare. Yeah, or anybody to do that. Yeah So albums often aren't produced. So this record that I'm making, I'm actually making it so that it's something to be listened from beginning to end,

whether, however they come to it, they will, but there's different sonic things that I'm trying to put in better. What's the name of it? Did you come up with a name? It's called Lucky Gift. Say it again? Lucky Gift.

Lucky Gift. Yeah. It's one of the songs. How about a cho lucky gift? It's cho lucky gift. All right. Margaret, I always end the show with a question from my daughter. Okay. And...

so, did I pick one out? I did not. I guess I didn't. All right, Phony, you shut up now. Okay, this is a question for Margaret Cho. Where do I look? One? Yeah. Okay. This is from Marl Margaret Cho. Where do I look? One? Yeah. Okay. This is from Marlowe, who is going to be seven very shortly.

Margaret, where do you stand on Israel v Palestine? Well, a ceasefire. Ceasefire? There should be a ceasefire. Okay. There you go. It's a ceasefire. I mean, there has to be a ceasefire. Ceasefire? There should be a ceasefire. Okay, there you go. It's a ceasefire. I mean, there has to be a ceasefire. Yes. Isn't that what you think?

I do. Doesn't she think that? Does she believe that too? She knows way more about this shit than I do. Yeah. Yeah, she's versed in it. All right, well, let me give you this follow-up question. Okay.

This is for real. This is a real question from Marlowe. I love this question too. How much money would Donald Trump get from the tooth fairy? That's a real question. Well, does he have any teeth to give? You can't just ask. The tooth fairy, it's a transaction.

It's not like the tooth care gives you anything. The tooth fairy gives you money in exchange for teeth. So I don't think he has teeth to give. I think the assumption is were a tooth to come out. Were Donald Trump to have a tooth, whether it's extracted by somebody else, a professional, it professional gets knocked out it's comes out on its own. Were he to have that situation and he put the tooth under the pillow how much money. Would Donald Trump get from the tooth fairy will the going right i think it's always been a dollar per tooth.

But you know who you should ask the lesbian periodonist Do you remember that the lesbian periodonist? Do you remember that? International Conspiracy of lesbian periodonist early bit about lesbian periodontist. Yes, there's an early bit about... What was it? It was like the cartel, the lesbian dental cartel or something. The lesbian periodontist. I get to do my redneck voice because people didn't know who I was so they didn't know if it was real or not. Like, I've had just about enough. I would always, it would come after, that's what it was, it would come after

somebody, I'd go up after somebody and whatever they said, it didn't matter, I would just have an issue. I just want to talk about, you know, these people up here, you know, getting up here, trying to get a laugh, talking about their genitalia and whatnot and da-da-da. Yeah, I would fear off into the lesbian dental cartel. Yeah, I think that's what it was. The lesbian periodontist. Yeah, that's an old, but no, I'm not gonna ask them because that's a question for you. Yeah.

So you're saying the going rate is- I believe it's still gonna be, no matter who the tooth is from, it's still a dollar or a tooth. Okay. I believe that- Well, there's the answer. That he would get a dollar per tooth. Okay.

Unless one time I got a five dollar bill for a tooth, that I don't know why. I think they just didn't have change. The tooth fairy didn't have change? Yeah. Yeah, that's tough. We are, you know, she's got two teeth gone now, and we are giving her Bitcoin. The first tooth was Bitcoin, and the second tooth

was an NFT of Funky Monkey. Oh. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. And then, you know, 401K. All right. Margaret Shill, thank you so much for coming down here.

Thank you. Where are you living now? I live up the street. I live a really close bike. No kidding. Yeah. Oh, great. You live in New York?

I live in New York. Or you live in Hudson Valley? No. I have a place in Sullivan County. I've been there since before I met my wife. I've been going on 17 years this year. Wow. Yeah.

And you have a telescope. Do you know that story? Yeah. Yes, I do. I think Amber and I talked about this when we did our episode, I think. But I was, this is before I I think, but I was, uh, this is before I met her, but I was sitting there. I was, uh, upstate me and my dog, Ollie, and, um, and I had just

done something that paid me a bunch of money and, uh, I was like, oh, I was drunk too. And it was drunk, drunk and or high and,. And sitting on my deck, beautiful night in the woods, rural, very rural, just a tiny little town. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna get a telescope. And I stupidly Googled and I looked at some telescopes. I was like, this one clicked by, put my credit card in I was like, this one clicked by, put my credit card in,

and about, and I had it sent because I don't have mail because it's really in the woods, so I have a PO box. And for some reason I couldn't go to a PO box. So I had it sent to the guy who made the house, constructed the house, built the house, who was a couple miles away. And then about, I totally forgot about it. And then about three, four weeks later, I get a call from the guy going, hey, did you get a telescope? I was like, yeah, yeah, great, awesome. I'll come down and pick it up. What kind of car do you have? The GMC Acadia? Yeah, that's not going to fit. They're like, what? No, I'll put the seats down. No. And I go over there, he had to get his,

this massive truck because it was ridiculously big and I never even stopped to think about it. I didn't look at it and it's fucking, it's like I want to say standing up it's, I'm five nine so it's probably six five close to seven feet and then and the you know the carton it's in is you know because it's all fragile glass and mirrors. It's free and I couldn't figure it out, couldn't figure out how to put it together, got on the phone twice with this guy who's trying to walk me through it.

And I'm like, eventually I just got it donated to a Montessori school. Wow. It was ridiculous. It was the dumbest, I was just drunk. And I had a bunch of money. It was like, oh, I got this telescope, it'll be great. And I could not make it work.

And it's not meant for me. It's meant for people. Like a planetarium. Yes, it was one of the dumbest things, drunk purchasing things I've ever done. Anyway, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Since is Working Over Time is a head gum podcast created and hosted by me, David Cross. The show is edited by Katie Skelton and engineered by Nicole Lyons with supervising producer Emma Foley. Thanks to D. Me Druchin for our show art and Mark Rivers for our theme song. For more podcasts by Head Gum, visit headgum.com or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and maybe we'll read it on a future episode. I'm not going to do that. Thanks for listening. That was a Head Gum podcast.