The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – From David Letterman to Country Hits: Steve Young’s Comedy Journey

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

From David Letterman to Country Hits: Steve Young's Comedy Journey Steveyoungmusic.hearnow.com Steveyoungworld.com About the Guest(s): Steve Young is a New York-based comedy writer, performer, songwriter, musician, and filmmaker with a versatile and impressive career. Notably, Steve has written for legendary figures in comedy such as David Letterman and Lorne Michaels. He is known for his work on the acclaimed documentary "Bathtubs Over Broadway," which unveils the hidden world of corporate musicals, alongside his illustrious collaborations with recognized names in the industry. More recently, Steve has ventured into music, releasing his debut album "Broken Heart Insurance." Episode Summary: In this engaging episode of The Chris Voss Show, host Chris Voss sits down with the multifaceted Steve Young, a heavyweight in the world of comedy writing and music. Having crafted material for iconic figures like David Letterman and Lorne Michaels, Steve takes listeners on a vibrant journey from his early days as a comedy writer to his latest venture in the music industry with the album "Broken Heart Insurance." Throughout the conversation, Chris and Steve delve into the intriguing concepts of comedy, creativity, and resilience in artistic expression. Touching upon Steve's unique experiences in discovering the world of corporate musicals, the episode highlights Steve's penchant for uncovering surreal, humorous facets within the often-hidden aspects of American showbiz. As Steve discusses his creative process for songwriting, he explores how his extensive background in humor has shaped his music, ingeniously blending humor with heartfelt narratives. Delve into Steve's creative world, which ebbs between his past illustrious career in television writing and his evolving passion for songwriting. Key Takeaways: Embracing Diverse Careers: Steve Young illustrates the seamless transition from tv writing to music, emphasizing the versatility needed in creative careers. Hidden Worlds Revealed: "Bathtubs Over Broadway" offers a fascinating insight into the niche world of corporate musicals, showcasing humor in unexpected places. Humor as a Lifeline: Steve shares how comedy can be a source of comfort and healing, even in the darkest moments. Creative Process: From ideas to final product, Steve's approach to songwriting is rooted in spontaneity, humor, and collaboration with gifted musicians. Legacy and Influence: Steve's work, grounded in iconic TV shows, continues to impact current and future projects, demonstrating the enduring value of creativity. Notable Quotes: "You can be of an age to have a… non-brown beard and say, 'maybe it's time to get serious.'" — Steve Young "The show began, not with the opening music and montage, but just Dave [Letterman]." — Steve Young "I think you've tapped into something with that hospital food topic. You should pursue that." — Steve Young "There's deeply hilarious stuff one moment, and the next moment is like… somebody's funeral." — Steve Young "Nobody is gonna come knocking on my door most likely and offering me a new career." — Steve Young Resources: Steve Young's Website: Steve Young World Steve Young on YouTube: Steve Young World Channel Steve Young on TikTok: @steveyoungworld Instagram: @pantssteve Music Album: "Broken Heart Insurance" available on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, and Pandora. Listeners are encouraged to tune into this lively and insightful episode to explore more about Steve Young's remarkable journey and to stay updated for more compelling interviews and content on The Chris Voss Show.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Ladies and gentlemen, there are ladies and gentlemen, that makes it official. Welcome to the world around. And to, in the meantime, refer the show to your family, friends, and relatives. Go to Goodreads.com, 4chesschrisfast, LinkedIn.com, 4chesschrisfast,

chrisfast1, the TikTokity, and all those crazy places on the internet. Today we have Steve Young on the show with us today. He's an amazing young man who is a New York-based comedy writer, performer, songwriter, musician, and filmmaker whose career has been as diverse as it is impressive. He's written for comedy legends like David Letterman, one of my favorites, of course, Matt Groening, and am I pronouncing that right, Matt Groening? I think he once said it rhymes with complaining. Complaining?

Yeah. Groening? All right, we'll just go with that. He's also written for Michael's course of SNL. He snagged multiple Emmy and Writers Guild nominations along the way, and he's a guy who uncovered the bizarre and delightful world of corporate musicals documented in his critically acclaimed film, Bathtubs Over Broadway. There's a joke there somewhere, but I have no idea where it is. He probably does. Anyway, welcome to the show. How are you, Steve? I'm great, Chris. Thanks

so much for having me thanks for plowing through that that resume there i appreciate it had to do the third person flip there on it so give us your dot com so people can find you on the interwebs oh yeah steve young world dot com i i was late to the party could not get steve young dot com i don't know who has that but i'm steve young world dot com probably some 49ers player or something. Yeah. People are sometimes sad when they meet me. It turns out I'm all things Twitter.

Well, you know, at least you're funny. So I got that going for you. So let's get a couple of things out of the way here. We mentioned Bathtubs Over Broadway. Tell us what that is and how you came up with that title. What does that title mean is, I guess, what I'm bathtub's over broadway as a documentary i'm the main subject of it i'm not the filmmaker it was made by director dave a whizzenant but it's about how i accidentally stumbled into this secret world of show business which is musical theater created for company

conventions and sales meetings shows that were like broadway shows but they're all about the triumphs and tragedies of being a bf goodrich tire dealer or ford tractor salesman and i discovered these by accident when i was working at the letterman show and we had to go find strange record albums to make fun of for a comedy bit and i would find these souvenir records in stores and just think, this is madness. This can't be real. But they were real.

And the records were only given out to people in the company. So they're very rare. But the movie follows my discovery of this world. And then to the people who I tracked down, who wrote this material and acted in it and often were geniuses. And some of them became household names, but many of them didn't. But they toiled in this creative world where you knew you were never going to be known for your work because the public couldn't see these shows. So it's weirdly funny because these corporate musicals are hilarious.

But it's also big questions about how do you judge the value of what you've done with your career? If no one knows about it and no one understands or would respect it, or can it be art if it was commissioned by a toilet manufacturer? And the title bathtubs over Broadway is a nod to one of my favorite industrial musicals, which was called the bathrooms are coming. It was 1969 American standard plumbing fixtures,

the whole musical for plumbing fixture distributors about the new tubs and shower stalls and all that. And it just seems like something comedy writers must have made up, but not only is it real, the better stuff in this secret genre was so good and so wildly catchy and clever i just i loved it i couldn't wait to tell the world about it what does the cover art look like i'm thinking of you flying over the tub and or flying over broadway in an et moment you know you know the bicycle only you're sitting there you you know, naked. You're not fully naked,

but we can see you're sitting naked in the tub and it is flying over the moon and over Broadway at the same time. That would be a great image, I think. Chris, you have a vivid imagination when it comes to my... No, there's no naked Steve Young in a bath. He'd be naked, you know, the part up from chest up, you know, we can see.

Oh, yeah. Oh, this is a family production. Yeah. No, it's not, we can see. Oh, yeah. Oh, this is a family production. Yeah. No, it's not, actually. Yeah. No one with kids listens to this show. I mean, we have people that have kids, but just not present, I should say. We love those people. And we don't want to alienate the crew. We love those kids.

Yeah. So, I mean, you've done these great journeys. What we want to profile today is the newest work that you have out which is your new album broken heart insurance which is probably what i need from all the dating i do uh tell us about your new project my my songwriting kind of was a late blossoming and that's one thing i want to talk about is that you can be of an age to have a non-brown beard and say, you know what? All my life I've liked fooling around with a guitar or a paintbrush or whatever.

Maybe it's time to get serious. And I had some incredibly lucky breaks coming out of the Letterman show. I'd started tinkering with songwriting, and I had a few little jingles and songs on the show. But it wasn't until Bathtubs Over Broadway was out and going around on the film festival circuit that I started to meet people who had become part of my musical adventures. And I had written or co-written some songs that are in the documentary I was proud of. And I'd kind of gotten a taste for songwriting. But I was in Nashville with the director of the movie, David Wisenant, and we met a guy who's now a friend of mine, a guy named John Shane, who has a day job as a

financial advisor, but by night he's this sort of quirky country music personality, and we were talking about music and songs. I said, yeah, I'm starting to write some songs. Oh, I'd be interested in hearing. So he got excited about my stuff and said, oh, we've got to get some of this recorded. So I've just been the beneficiary of wonderful, generous friends who thought they saw something in my early jottings that could be cultivated. And I ended up working with A-list people in this studio in Nashville. Most of the songs were produced by a Grammy winner named Allison Brown, who plays a little banjo on a couple of my tracks. But it was just magical to look back, like, there's no way my songs should sound this good. Maybe they're okay, but boy, were they done right by these people in Nashville. And now I'm trying to spread it out through the world. And my friends all went, wow, that's great. But I'm not quite up to Taylor Swift level yet.

Slow climb there. But I have one music video out from the Nashville sessions that I'm happy with. And I'm going to have more coming. Oh, I was tracking the joke. I had a joke there, but it's gone. Oh, I want to hear the joke. It's gone. Well, it usually circles back.

I've got COVID brain a little bit. I had COVID three weeks ago and I'm still trying to take it out you're uh i'm glad you're at least 80 over that 80 yeah i'm still trying to voice fully back but oh the thing i was going to ask you is what genre is this the music in is it comedy or is it comedy with other sort of rock or country or yeah i guess we'd say alt country and i've come to understand that if it's not super mainstream country music radio that's going to be saturating the main radio stations and then it's alt country and that encompasses a lot but for me it's mostly humorous or at least trying to be humorous, with flashes of heartfelt observations about your broken heart and such. But yeah, I would say most of the songs have probably unavoidably,

for me at this point in my life, some humorous element to them. So are they full-on comedies, or are they tongue-in-cheek sort of things? Yeah. Because I'm trying to discern if these are serious songs that you've written about serious content. You know, my truck broke down and my girlfriend left me and all that sort of country music stuff. I think you're on the same page.

Or if it's just maybe comedy music, kind of in the thread of an SNL guy who makes all those comedy, funny things, songs and stuff. Anyway, Adam. Oh, Sandler. I think Adam Sandler, yeah. He those comedy funny things songs and stuff anyway adam i don't know oh sandler i mean that's adam sandler yeah yeah he makes those funny things some of them are more straight ahead country ideas like i'm i've had my heart broken and i want to get my insurance payout because i bought broken heart insurance but when i called the company to put in my claim, it turns out everybody in the world has already filed a claim and the company's moved.

So it's like a kind of legitimate country song in its topic and hopefully clever along the way. But then there's another one that people have really kind of latched on to and sort of universal problem. It's called fitted sheet. And it's about the agony of taking the fitted sheet out of the dryer and how do you fold it and it's you can't work and you can't fold it and it's always and then you try to put it on the bed and you got the wrong corner at the start and you have to start over it so that's like a humorous thing but it takes this twist into realizing maybe we just have to be okay with the imperfections of life. So it kind of swerves from the overtly humorous into a little more

philosophical. Again, that's probably not going to go on your, your top 40 country radio stations. Cause it's just a little odd, but boy, does it sound great. Alison Brown and her crew of people in Nashville put this stuff together,

right? There's a guy, a guy named Trey Hensley, who's a hotshot guitarist who plays guitar on the Fitted Sheet track. I should not be allowed to pick up a guitar within the city limits of Nashville. I mean, these people are from a different galaxy. But boy, was I the beneficiary of some great players down there.

Oh, yeah. I mean, some of the best players are are what do they call them contract players bit players studio players studio players i mean you look at some of the great people who played on the steely dan record because they're so records because they're so into that where they bring in different session players session players that's the word yeah yeah like the wrecking crew in the back in the old days just yeah and then we just there's so many gods of those session players that are you know not mainstream not all the people know about them but they were you know some of them were what made asia so great the piano on asia

and stuff it's really nice now this isn't your first album. Is that correct? It is my first album. Okay, it is your first album. Yeah, so this is the year I've navigated learning about how to put stuff out through like CD Baby and then get it onto Spotify and Apple and all the places, YouTube and the different platforms that people consume media through now. So I'm learning my way through that. The barrier to entry is quite low. that people consume media through now. So I'm learning my way through that. The barrier to entry is quite low.

I would say you could probably just make a 45-minute recording of yourself throwing rocks at your guitar and making weird noises, and you could put it on some platform. But, of course, I've aimed a little higher than that. I think that was part of Dark Side of the Moon, wasn't it? Oh, was there some random things on there? Throwing rocks at guitars or something? Oh, now, kids, don't try that at home. We don't want any musical instruments.

Don't do that to your expensive $3,000 guitar. So you did years of writing for Letterman. How did that prepare you to write songs? I didn't see it coming, but honestly, it was a huge preparation in the same way, you know, in the Karate Kid where he's waxing on, waxing off on the car and he doesn't realize he's training all these muscles and reflexes. The Letterman show every day coming in with ideas for short bits. They're going to be like 20,

30 second fake commercials or a live interrupt or something. And Mr. Letterman had excellent discerning taste, but also his understanding of timing and what was the amount of time a piece or an idea could be before it overstayed its welcome. So I think I've learned, have a good idea, ideally a really good idea, develop it, and then get the hell out before people are tired of it. So that was something I was trained in for a long time. So I do a lot of songs that are in the two to three minute range, and maybe someday i'll luxuriate in some sort of 19 minute opus but right now i don't feel like that's my zone writing is writing when it comes down to it doesn't it i mean if you're if you're good at writing you know jokes you know you can write books you can write

music or at least you know the lyrics of the music i mean it's once once you get good at writing you can you know you never shut up. At least I don't. That's what people are going to tell me. Do you ever shut up? Yeah, I remember the joke now. So when you mentioned earlier about how you found a secret, what do you call it, a secret society or something, or a secret area to comedy writing or something like that?

Oh, was it like the secret world of the corporate music? The secret world of the corporate musical. When you said that, I was going to interject, oh, you found Letterman's secret room? Anyway, moving on from that joke. Yeah, let's move on from that joke. But thank you for bringing it back. I love David. I love David.

Every time I see him, I miss him. I miss him, and I miss who's the great improv writer for SNL for all the years. And then Michael McDonald, Norm McDonald. Oh, Norm. Yeah.

Oh, I like Norm. And Norm opened his CBS run, I think it was, and then closed it. And I think, I think his closing, his closing Santa bit on Letterman that Norm did was just beautiful.

Yeah. That was very affecting. I miss Norm. But so when I was putting this album out a few months ago, I approached Dave through, you know, his people and said, oh, I'm just putting out this music and it would mean a lot to me if Dave would check it out. And if he was so inclined, give me a little blurb or something.

And he very sweetly obliged. And now I have this wonderful this line i can put on all my promotional material which is steve young is a showbiz triple threat or maybe quadruple threat who knows who cares but nobody is safe that's perfect wow thank you letterman man what a god what a what a genius i mean I mean, he should have gotten Carson's gig. That was a travesty. I thought you were going to say Nobel Peace Prize, but yeah. We can give them that, too, if you want.

Yeah, it's a consolation prize. Yeah, he should have gotten the Carson gig. That was so much bullshit. I still don't like that. Carson was such a God, too. He was so good. And it was cool when they got along. I'll never forget when Carson showed up, I think, once think once or twice on letterman yeah even after he retired and he we were doing a week of shows

out in la around 94 95 and johnny did a surprise walk on on the show and he just he'd had laryngitis or something and he couldn't talk so it was this this grand elder statesman comes out and the place goes crazy and he nods and smiles and he doesn't quite say anything and then he sits at dave's desk and oh this is nice and then he just gets up and he leaves without having said anything which was kind of enigmatic but to kind of fit with the what can he possibly say yeah i love when when he was on i guess it would have been NBC. If my memory serves me right, was he on NBC at the end or CBS? Letterman, it was Late Night with David Letterman on NBC until 93,

and then we jumped over to CBS. CBS, yeah. 93, 2015. So it would have been NBC, Carson shows up, and he's got this pull-out desk. Remember that? so what if an nbc carson shows up and he's got this pullout desk remember that he's got he's he's basically got a version of his desk only it folds out it's like some he literally carries out this little thing and it folds out and it looks like his desk on the on the tonight show and so they're sitting there with both of their desks and it was just it was just a hilarious moment

that does ring a bell now yeah i mean they really were the two class acts of of comedy and stuff i was very lucky to have an amazingly long run 25 years at a tv show it's not going to happen very often anymore the business has changed so much i know a lot of people colleagues of mine, have found it difficult in the post-Letterman era to keep working as a writer in this field. And I'm glad I'm not 24, because I think it would be very hard to get into this field now. I'm a Writers Guild captain, and I've been talking to a lot of the membership about what their experiences have been. And the entertainment business is, to put it kindly, challenging for people to have careers in these days. One reason that I'm doing all this other stuff now, whether it's short films or music, is nobody is going to come knocking on my door, most likely, and offering me a new career or whatever. So I need to say,

I can't wait for gatekeepers to tell me it's okay to do something now. I have to make my own stuff. Yeah. If you wait long enough, though, you can get jury duty invites. Oh, yeah. You can get $40 a day. $40 a day. Yeah, for maybe a week.

If you think that's a sustainable career, I'm not sure about that. I usually have to work down on the tracks to get that kind of money. Hey, $40 is $40. What sort of situations inspire you to write a song? What's usually the motivator for you? It can be

turning over something in my mind about personal problems and matters of the heart and it can be like oh if my heart is broken is there some way i could mentally and psychologically buy myself some broken heart insurance and sort of pre protect myself from problems that hey maybe that could be a song broken heart insurance and. And like the fitted sheets song. Yes, I was doing laundry and sing the first fragment into the phone and save it and go back later. And most of the fragments aren't worth pursuing,

but once in a while some are. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. And, of course, you can use it for other pieces and parts, you know, all that good stuff. So when you write, do you try and put some sort of comedy, kitschiness to it or some snarky, you know, smart-ass some sort of comedy kitschiness to it or some snarky smart assery sort of maybe

take on the idea when you write a song? How can I make this have a little bit of snap to it for comedy? Yeah, the good thing about having been a comedy writer for all these years is those muscles are so

ingrained. Like it's as natural to me as breathing to have the sort of smart ass take on something. And it can be a problem occasionally in life. If, if you can't turn it off even for a minute and it's not appropriate somewhere in some situation to be funny, you gotta,

you gotta learn to to edit yourself but yeah the machinery is always running i think it was woody allen who once said if you have this ability then it's just the easiest thing in the world because it's just as natural to you as breathing or talking or whatever not not that i'm saying that I am a renowned comedy genius, but I have this reflex built into me. There was some tiny bit of it when I was a kid, hardwired, and it just got cultivated and practiced over decades and to the point where, yes, I can write non-funny things,

but it would feel odd to me to have something with zero humor in it. Yeah. The interesting part of it is it's a muscle, right? I mean, I've learned to kind of start building that muscle over the years and you got to keep on it, but it's really like a whole muscle really in keeping that comedy sort of snap, your timing, all that stuff down, right? Yeah. I, for years, would have to get to the letterman show at nine in the morning with some ideas ready to pitch in the morning meeting yeah and i wouldn't agonize about it overnight i didn't get in a tizzy in the morning i just got in the subway and on the subway ride from my neighborhood down to midtown i would would just say, all right, what do we got? What's in the

news? And just in a calm way, okay, maybe this, maybe that, because I knew I could do it. I might not be an A plus every day, but I could do it. So you just flip that switch. And that happens with songwriting. Also, I don't usually have assignments to write songs. They're just like whatever I feel like doing, but I'm in a songwriting group, and sometimes people say, hey, let's collaborate on something. We want to write a song together, and suddenly you're in a little bit more of a writer's room, even if it's just one more, one other person, and they say, how about this for a topic for the song or the title, and then you're often running with a muscle that is part of something

bigger than you it can be a collective effort yeah it can make it can make all the difference so as you go through your songwriting and do all the things you do do you come with the lyrics first the music first or you come with both together it varies there have been times when i've written entire lyrics with no music in mind there have been other times where i get some riff or a tune on guitar that i like and say oh i ought to do something with that someday and then once in a while you say oh i wonder if this one from over here would work if i combined it with this lyric over oh yeah no or maybe but sometimes it is just spontaneously see something out in the world and just start singing.

And you don't know what you're talking about or where it's coming from, but you improvise the first line or two. And you say, well, throw that away. Don't put all your money down on the table on that little fragment, but don't throw it away. Maybe it'll be something. So what's in the pipeline? Tell us how many books you have, and I don't know if away. Maybe it'll be something. So what's in the pipeline.

You've got, how many, tell us how many books you have. And I don't know if you want to get a plug in for your books. Oh yeah. Projects. Back in the Letterman days, I was on the staff when we did the top 10 list books. And those were a lot of fun.

That's, that's in the past now. I don't know if those are even in print and a book I co-wrote about industrial musicals called everything's coming up profits world of industrial musicals. That by the way, that title is stolen directly from an awful little real industrial musical for a floor tile company. And they just borrowed everything's coming up roses and rewrote it to be everything's coming up profits. and they just borrowed Everything's Coming Up Roses and rewrote it to be Everything's Coming Up Profits.

It's kind of the perfect title for this stuff because you've got the Broadway angle and the motivational corporate, let's go make money. So it kind of sums up the whole thing. But my friend Sport Murphy and I wrote that book. That was 10 years ago now. And the success of the documentary caused us to sell out two printings of the books and we

have not printed a new printing yet so i'm not sure if that will happen again that's great though yeah it was a beautiful book and it opened a lot of people's eyes to wow this enormous part of american culture that was deliberately hidden from us and almost wasn't found except for me and a few other collectors kind of pulled it back from the brink comedy is important without comedy i don't know why is comedy important you know we see these colleges campuses now that you can't even have comedians go to which i think is really just offensive yeah what do you think about the state of comedy you know there's some people are afraid to really do comedy even say things you know there's certain comedians that can

kind of get away and they artfully can you know they can kind of touch on subjects that might get them canceled but they can do it without getting too much flame on them. Some people can't. It's kind of an interesting world right now with comedy. Yeah, there will always be a hunger for the forbidden. And if it turns out now that the forbidden is certain kinds of comedy, it will just go underground. And people who get canceled will still be out there with a fan base somewhere. And it'll just be more more of a fragmented landscape i i'm not quite at the point yet of having to worry about will my vast fan base turn on me if i take a wrong step i don't quite have that yet so i'll cross that bridge when i come to

it you put on a country album so if you switch to rock they might oh that's right you know that's dylan going electric and making people although i guess beyonce's you know flip back and forth and i think hasn't taylor swift done both sides comedy and rock yeah taylor swift came out of country and then went more to pop and beyonce's now said i can be country so all these barriers are falling and i'm i'm all for that you know I'm going to be this weird hybrid who doesn't quite fit any normal lane I suspect but your point about comedy people are so desperate for just being happy and I I will go to film festivals with either like the documentary when we were around with bathtubs over Broadway or the short films I've been involved with.

And you see a lot of really tough, dark dramas and documentaries about very important but grim, real situations. And then people want to remember why it's okay to be alive. And they want to laugh and go, go see there is a reason to power through all this because there is joy out there somewhere yeah didn't i i know i might be thinking howard stern but didn't david letterman also go on the air after 9-11 because he wanted to keep that alive that comedy yeah that was one of his very memorable highlights i remember watching that long yes and it was uncharted territory and we were all talking about can we be funny right now how do we even start doing a show in this new world and that night i think it was like the 17th of september we'd been off the entire previous week for a regular week of reruns

anyway but the the show began not with the opening music and montage but just dave it pushed in like a picture of the marquee from broadway and then he's at his desk and he just said something akin to if we're going to do this somehow continue with this i'm just going to need to talk for a few minutes and try to try to make sense of how to proceed and it was it was brilliant in the way that a thoughtful caring bewildered grief-stricken person can be when they know how to be a broadcaster and and let her really shown that night A lot of people over the years have talked about how much that meant to them. Oh, I remember it, and the leadership of it, you know, coming out and saying, hey, we're not quitting, we're not letting the terrorists win,

and basically, you know, it kind of matched why comedy is important and why looking at us as human beings, even in the worst tragedy. I mean, there are times in my life where when I come across something that's tragic I'll resort to comedy I mean one time I one time I called my father as he was rounding down and he was you know he's always in the hospital for a heart attack or stroke I mean it was just one thing after another at the end and he he'd always kind of kept his resilience my father was a bit of a narcissist when he was young and couldn't do anything wrong. And it was really hard to get.

He would be really hard to show weakness in any way, shape, or form. But when I called him in the hospital, you could hear the fear in his voice. He was really scared. And he hated hospitals and hated doctors. And that was half the reason he was ending up in the hospital all the time. He wouldn't take his meds. Coumadin is, is rat poison. And you're like, we have a doctor says you got to take it.

So shut up. But I remember hearing the sound of his voice in desperation and fear. And so I started telling him jokes because that's how I kind of, I kind of, I think I have some of that comedy bit where that's how I, that's how I process or that's how I survive. So I started telling jokes to him and just making up stupid shit like, hey, have you felt up the nurse there? He's Mormon and married, so that's not. But I pushed it.

And so I had some fun. We joked about, I just did stupid shit like hospital food and whatever. And pretty soon you could hear him change. and you could hear the fear leave his voice. You could hear him laughing at my stupid ass jokes. And, and then pretty soon he was, he was smiling and he was happy and the fear was gone. It was all comedy. You know, they weren't, they weren't, they weren't jokes you'd take on a standup, but you know, just making someone laugh can kind of bring the human experience to us and

remind us that we're mortal and it's okay to be mortal, you know, events like, yeah, it's a risk in a dark situation to try a joke and you have to believe that your audience is the right audience for it, but it's a risk. But if it pays off, you've made such a, an enormous connection. This movie that I'm in bathtubs over Broadway,

a rare case in which there's deeply hilarious stuff. One moment. And the next moment is like somebody's funeral and you, somebody you've met during the film and you're clutching at your chest. Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm in the roller coaster of hilariousness to sadness and grief to hilariousness again. I think that's a rare and wonderful thing. And you see it sometimes at funerals where everyone's crying, but someone tells a funny story about the deceased and everyone's laughing that is a rare nuance of human experience which is hard to write hard to craft but you know it when you see it yep it's a huge risk i mean that explains why i've been banned from all

funeral homes because i try to stand up comedy and too many at the funerals and yeah i don't want to see you around town doing that. Evidently, if you're not invited, it's not important, but snacks are good and free drinks. Next time I'm at a funeral, I will try to get you an invitation. So, Steve, as we go out, I've got to put you on the spot. Top ten reasons people should buy your new album. No, I'm just kidding.

Oh, okay. We're not going to say that. got to put you on the spot top 10 reasons people should buy your new album no i'm just kidding pick up your book and your dot coms all right i'll just mention i've got some fun music videos on youtube my channel is steve young world i'm also on tiktok at steve young world i've recently dabbled in tiktok i don't feel like I'm the right demographic for it, but this is part of my philosophy. You've got nothing to lose at this point. Just make stuff, put it out, see if you find an audience, have fun making stuff, and don't wait for somebody upstairs to tell you you're allowed to. So, yeah, I've got all that.

Instagram, I'm Pants Steve. That goes back to the Letterman days. Early on in the internet era everybody got a worldwide pants email address those pants this pants that pants steve i've kept that around so yeah the music's out there if you go to steve young music dot here now dot com that's kind of a jumping off point for the spotify and youtube and pandora and itunes and all the different things it's it's kind of great i mean i take credit for only a little bit because it was produced and handled so beautifully and i've had wonderful helpful friends yeah it's

been a wonderful ride you've done we're excited to see where you go from there i still think you should have a top 10 list of why people should buy your thing. I think that would be funny as shit. You know, that is a very durable form, and I don't think it will ever go away. So I think you've tapped into something there. Oh, yeah, yeah. You might have to get copyright. Number ten, so Daddy can buy Daddy's special apple juice whiskey.

Number 9. I'm going to call for getting released of that. Thank you very much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it, Steve. It's been fun to reminisce. Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity. I've got to say, when I was looking at all the other folks you have on the show, the thought leaders and luminaries in all these different worlds,

I was thinking oh man i've got imposter syndrome and then i thought you know what i don't deserve to have imposter syndrome you don't yeah i mean you you've earned it baby i haven't seen there's i gotta go watch the episode is there more than one episode where you appeared in the chair um yes yeah i'm like i was on three times as a guest when the book came out it was a lot of fun with the yeah at the letterman show but i've got i've got a lot of irons in the fire with short films but music's going to be a big part of it i can't stop writing songs now so look out world it should be it should be fun thank you for coming on the show steve oh my pleasure i'm glad to talk to you about it.

You're clearly a guy who's got all the Letterman experience stored up. I used to live Letterman all the time since I was a kid watching it. Remember the old, who's the taxi driver who used to do that fake fight with the big wrestler? I forget his name. Oh, yeah, Andy Kaufman. Andy Kaufman. Yeah, Jerry Lawler. with the big wrestler i forget his name oh oh yeah andy kaufman andy kaufman and they had that fucking jerry lawler yeah they had that bit on the show that they would do where they get into fighting yeah that legendary that was before my time and i know about it so many great moments

uh of the of the david letterman show i mean just and he was just always so funny you know let me ask you this because this is something funny i heard one time if you watch letterman he's funny but if you listen to letterman he's not as funny is that true huh that sounds like the urban legend about the 1960 presidential debate where the line was if you watched it on tv yeah kennedy won but if you listened to it on the radio and didn't see the visuals of nixon looking sweaty and nervous, then Nixon came off better. I never heard that about Letterman. Try it.

Try it sometime. Just close your eyes. It's actually, in my opinion, it's actually true. Because a lot of Letterman's stick is his physical comedy. Throwing pens to the thing, his facial movements you know when he yeah when he drops a clothes but if you if you you do it you know somebody told it to me like 20 years ago and i was like and i was like and i started just okay i'm gonna close my list i'm like holy it sounds funny because dave does a lot of the physical comedy and he's

perfectly capable of being very thoughtful and serious oh yeah once said comedy writers are the most serious people i think there's something to that where comedy writers are grappling with the worst aspects of the human experience and trying to make it palatable somehow by pointing out the absurdities or whatever yeah comedy writers look at dark stuff and try to bring back some some version of it that's a little less dark they give us this mirror back on ourselves that we you know we take ourselves too seriously we look at that comedy mirror and we go yeah we're kind of more stupid and funny than we are serious as human beings. And I think that's the real importance of comedy is bringing levity to us taking ourselves way too seriously as human beings. Because, I mean, have you seen this lately?

But, you know, Stephen Colbert goes right after the politics. And I've always respected how his writers can i mean they can take on the dark shit of how toxic our politics are and somehow spit it into funny and i i just i think that deserves in and of itself yeah that's the modern flavor of a lot of late night that was it was changing in the later years when i was at letterman but it was clear that this was going to be the new shape of a lot of late night stuff. And I come from a much more surreal and absurd non-political instinct. I had a great run with the Letterman show

when you could just be silly. Yeah. Yeah, maybe we should go back to those days. I don't know. Maybe we will. We'll go back to them a little I don't know. Maybe we go back to them a little bit at a time in, in our different projects, whether it's putting out music or short films or whatever. But I spent so long in the back room at Letterman show at the writer's room. I

never thought I was the kind of person who was going to be the public face of some sort of creative project, but I surprised myself you know I do stuff I always used to wonder about you guys that would do the do the bits on shows and come out in the comedy right the corner is out here you know it's seen on Carson you see it on Conan and stuff and like oh that's the writer this is that's the guy who writes all the jokes that I'm laughing in time and there was one guy who was always on Letterman who came out all the jokes that I'm laughing at all the time. And there was one guy who was always on Letterman who came out all the time.

And I forget, but he did a lot of voices, but he was always one of the writers. And I always be like, wow. When you guys were in those writers' desks or writers' meetings, you know, you're planning stuff, were they largely funny and happy or were people at loggerheads? Sometimes SNL was loggerheads.

We were lucky the letterman show was overwhelmingly a fun supportive group of people almost all the time where you could be confident enough that you were with your friends and work family you could be confident enough to say i have the beginning of, but I don't know where it goes. I'm going to throw it out to the room. Maybe somebody else smarter and funnier than me today will have the right way to end it. Or you'd say, I can't tell if I'm remembering some old idea of someone else's or whether I made this up, but here's this thing. Is that anything? You could be honest and vulnerable like that because you understood that if if the show is a good show today we all win we don't have to fight to be the one hero today yeah it's very different than the

snl way they had it set up with it seemed like lauren michaels let everyone fight amongst themselves and maybe the best comedy or drive rise to the top but that may also explain why every third bit on every second and third bid on SNL sucks. Uh-oh. I'm not going to comment on that. That's my opinion. All right. It's the opinions of the Chris Vaughn Show.

I have been a fan of SNL since season two or three. I wasn't. Very hardcore. And so I'm still hardcore, but, you know, they can't all be winners, I guess, when it really comes down to it. I mean, I've done enough shitty jokes on my show. I think you're on to something with that hospital food topic. You should pursue that.

Yeah. Maybe I should do hospitals. I should just go to stand-up. Oh, yeah. Tour of all the great teaching hospitals and intensive care units across the country. Cancer jokes always kill. So to speak. I can't believe I did that joke.

Alright, I'm getting banned. Since I'm getting banned, thanks to Steve Young for being on the show. Be sure to check out all of his works. This is the last show evidently. Now I'm going to get cancelled for that cancer joke. Broken Heart. The very last Chris Voss show ever.

You're getting on a lot of shows lately that cancer joke. Broken Heart. The very last Chris Voss show ever. It's, you're getting on a lot of shows lately that get canceled. Anyway, check out Steve Young's new album, Broken Heart Insurance

you can find on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, and of course, Deezer.

Deezer. Deezer just sounds like a place you should be stoned all the fucking time. That was really your last show. You're done. Yeah, I've lost the marijuana vote.

Thanks, Steve, for coming on. Thanks for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com for just Christmas. LinkedIn.com for just Christmas. Christmas won the TikTokity. It's a crazy place on the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time. And we didn't throw any pencils.