The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Jena Friedman and Eric Neumann

Episode Date: November 28, 2020

Jena Friedman is a comedian, writer and filmmaker. Her recent credits including acting in the movie, Palm Springs, and writing on Borat. She has a stand up special called American Cunt. Eric Neumann has appeard on The Iliza Shlesinger Show, is the host of IFC’s Deep Dive, and his special, “Just A Phase” is coming out in December 2020.

You're listening to The Comedy Cellar, live from the Table, the official podcast of New York's world-famous comedy cellar, coming at you on Sirius XM 99, and on the Riotcast Podcast Network, and we have a full host tonight. I'm here, Dan Natterman, Perry L. Ashenbrand is here, Noam Dorman is here,

all the regulars, and our guests. First of all, she is a comedian, writer, and filmmaker, recent credits including the movie Palm Springs, and a co-writer for Borat's subsequent movie film. She has been a guest on Coburn and Conan and also worked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Jenna Friedman is with us. Jenna, how do you do? It's been a while.

Hope you're well in these troubled times. We also have with us from the Eliza Schlesinger Show on Netflix, host of IFC's Deep Dive, which is fitting considering that my virtual background today is underwater. That was just a coincidence. Next album, Just a Phase is coming out next week. And he is currently living with COVID-19. Please welcome Eric Newman to our show. Eric, how do you do today?

Hey, guys. Hey, Jenna. Hi. And I also got Outside Steve here with me. And although he wasn't booked, we also have Steve Fabricant, manager of the Comedy Cellar and good friend of Don Dorman's.

Hi, Steve. Steve Fabricant is here if he wants to chime in. Hi, guys. Eric, first of all, how are you doing today? Day four, I believe, after diagnosis? Yeah, I think this is day four. I'm doing okay. No taste, no smell.

Fever's down, though, and I'm a little weak still, but I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. What is it like to have no taste and no smell? Dude, it's fucking weird, Noam. I mean, it's frustrating because it's not actually no, I misspoke a little bit. It's not quite no taste. It's very muted. So, um, it's, you know, it's just, it's frustrating because I'm trying to figure out which foods I can taste at all, which I, you know, so far applesauce has been the winner. Um, I think I've, I've like like i can taste that the most it's still probably five

or ten percent but uh but yeah i was spending all this money on food for the first two days and now i'm just like all right i'll just eat anything you better you better check the sell by dates on shit in your refrigerator you don't even know what you're eating right well that's a good point also if you have no sense of smell i mean you know it could potentially dangerous if you have a gas leak or um i mean chances are that's a good point. Also, if you have no sense of smell, I mean, you know, it could potentially dangerous if you have a gas leak or, I mean, chances are that's not going to happen. Dan, make me worried about one more thing, Dan. Okay. Well, you also live, but we'll get to you and your current malady in a little bit. First, we want to talk to Jenna Friedman. She's been quite busy since last we have seen her. Jenna, you're in Los Angeles now, I gather. I know.

I miss all of you. I miss New York so much. Well, yeah. I'm in LA. There's nothing here for you in New York. We're under lockdown or nearly entire lockdown. The comedy clubs are closed. Yeah.

Well, some of them are not, I'm hearing. I'm hearing that some of them are party party without masks. That's what I heard. Actually, wait, no, I don't mean to interrupt. Wait, go. Well, if you have something pertinent to say, I suggest you say it. Well, I was going to say that I didn't want to cut off Jenna's, you know, stuff. But I just wanted to say that.

Jenna does not like you deferring to her because she's a woman. All right. I know Jenna. So just you treat her like anybody, like to her Because she's a woman, alright? I know Jenna So just You treat her like anybody Treat her like any old person That's what she wants Go ahead

I was at I was at your club Like the night I found out And And So I went on stage Not on stage I did the dinner

Yeah And It's okay to talk about that here, I assume? Eh, it's okay. Okay. So I did dinner and then I hung out for about two hours and I left. And on my way uptown in the Uber, I was feeling like chills and I knew I had a fever. So I went to ER and got tested and I was positive.

And the last comic I hung out with was actually a Louis. So I was, I'm not allowed to say that no you can say that i just i just you didn't get i'm a little worried about you but you didn't get louis sick did you no but i didn't thank god i reached out and he's fine but i i was thinking i was thinking how much of a me too hero i would have been if i would have killed louis wait a second but he doesn't know if he's fine i mean he could still he's got like a solid eight days where he can still test positive it actually changed it to 14 days of quarantine again they kind of back they're going back and forth so here eric you said you had the chills after you left the cellar you saying to me that

you were feeling perfectly fine whilst you were at the cellar and then uh on your way home you all of a sudden fell ill you didn't feel any symptoms whilst you were there no i maybe a little tingle in my throat or something but on the uber right but you know you know when you're like socially involved you kind of like ignore whatever you know like I wasn't aware of any of it, but then when I left and I was alone in the Uber, I was like, oh shit, I don't feel well. So let me just clarify for the people at home. The commie cellar is not open. The olive tree, which is a restaurant above the commie cellar is open with 25% capacity. A lot of comedians hang out there and they, they sometimes bullshit with, with the,

a mic that we have there because when we at first we thought we were going to be able to reopen. So we spent a lot of money. We created this whole thing with a mic and a plexiglass shield and whatever it is. But I mean, I haven't been there, but what is it? Like 20 people in the room or something like that? Yeah. It's like, I mean, it ranges, I guess, night to night, but I guess at the most maybe 20 and you know, but's been and and it's not it's informal you know the committee is really you're mostly performing for each other i guess but um what i've heard is that

there's underground shit going on all around the city where where people have been getting sick from what i hear oh i haven't heard about that I just heard of shows on rooftops, a lot of shows on rooftops. I'm not familiar with any underground shows. But in any case, Jenna, we were to understand that you were a co-writer on Borat's new movie film. Whoa. I, yes, but I can't stop thinking. So you're, you're mostly contagious contagious like right before you show symptoms so everybody who is inside the olive tree should just get a heads up that that you have covid and that if they were there even at reduced capacity they should either quarantine or get tested in my spare time just for fun i don't know she's absolutely she's absolutely right um does liz know that you could yeah i just

i i figured i should have said that it was probably the most important piece of information that i left out right after i found out i text liz and i text all the comics that i've been with the last couple days and and they'd all gotten tested and they all everybody's negative so far yeah but they everybody's not negative is the thing because It doesn't show up. But Perrielle tends to be something of a, what's the word? A Cassandra? Karen. Karen?

Yeah, a Jap. A Jap is what we call him. No, no. Cassandra's somebody who just sees doom everywhere, right? She was the one. Well, Cassandra's somebody who predicts it ahead of time. Like, you know, more than just sees doom. It's like you see the future in a way. know, more than just he's doom, it's like you,

it's like you see the future in a way. Okay. So if Cassandra's actually sees doom and she's correct, Perry L sees doom and she's usually not correct. But I think that term is used more informally as somebody who's just a pessimist. I may not be. I would like to go on record that I am not a pessimist and it is a material and scientific fact that you can test negative for COVID. Yes, but you said that you seem to imply that there's going to be some cases that pop up as a result of Eric's presence there. Would you like to place a wager that I am correct?

No, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm saying you're more confident than I think you should be. Because Eric was outside, I would imagine. Eric, were you only outside? No, I was not only outside. I was at the table and I was eating. So at that point, I had my mask off for a little while. But, you know, I still think it's very possible

that I didn't spread it at all because we do give each other a good amount of space at the table. And most of... It's logic like that that is the reason that 60% of people have herpes. But go ahead.

Only 60? I really think it's... I'm pretty sure I didn't spread it. I was not there the night that Eric was there, but Eric was there a couple nights prior to me being there when he was not feeling any symptoms, but he still might have been contagious and given it to somebody who subsequently gave it to me.

In any case, I have a test on Friday because I'm going to Aruba and they require a test of all people that go. Eric, how do you think you caught it? You know, I thought, I really don't know anymore because every hunch I had seems to be proven wrong at this point. I thought I got it from someone, someone who I was with on Tuesday night thought they had it and now they're negative and they've gotten like four tests and they're all, and now they're negative, and they've gotten, like, four tests, and they're all negative, so they're negative.

And by with you mean in a romantic sense? No, no, no, not in a romantic sense. No. Oh. Sexual. You struck out? Sexual sense, but not romantic at all. Oh, poor person.

So here's how you get it. And it's like, honestly, I took a contact tracing course. You could all take it for free on Coursera through Johns Hopkins. And they actually go through how you get it. And they said, if you're most likely indoors, you're 20 times more likely to get it indoors.

If you have conversations for, I would say more than 10, but more than 10 to 15 minutes with people like, you know, indoors, you could be six feet apart. But if it's like indoors and you don't have masks on, it's not really the best idea. But if you're outside, you're pretty much okay and you're social distant. So you should tell people, I guess we are right now, but anyone inside with you eating at that table should kind of quarantine. Everybody knows. Everybody knows who was there. Maybe you got it from Lily. Yeah.

I mean, that's the – by the way, I put it immediately. I thought about this. I put it on Instagram. I put it on Facebook and everything. I wanted everybody to know. And after I did it, I was like, I'm sure most people don't do this. I'm sure a lot of people don't tell anyone. No, I saw that.

You were very responsible about it. That was the right thing. Now, I have another question. Eric, don't take this the wrong way, but have you got your affairs in order? I mean, this is just us little grownups here. I mean, you know, you're a man of means. I mean, you need We're grown ups here I mean you know You're a man of means I mean you

You need to take care of this shit You don't know what The next few weeks Is gonna Go ahead You know what's funny Like I know I know you're joking

But well Oh yeah joking yeah Yeah But the thing is The amount of outreach I've gotten from people Is the only thing That makes me concerned

That I'm not gonna make it No you'll be fine You'll be fine. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like once everybody in your life comes back, you're like, Oh,

this must be it. How old are you? 33. Yeah. The odds are, are extremely remote. The odds are probably somewhere in the 0.001% category. And,

and then, and of course you don't have any pre-existings as far as as far as we know so around one percent around one percent of the no no not for 30 not for 30 oh six percent but get a pulse oximeter to just kind of measure your blood alcohol or like you're sorry your oxygen point point oh six percent of% of across the population who've had COVID, but not for a 33-year-old. Just to plan the show so I know, because I know where we're

going. Jenna, I was hoping to talk about Borat, but we don't have to. If you're not interested in speaking about that. I'm kind of an ironclad NDA, so all I want to do is talk about it because it was the most fun project, but I can't. Well, we can talk about Sasha Baron Cohen, right? You can talk about the NDA.

So, for example, if I were to ask you if that scene at the cotillion or that coming out party, you know when they introduce the young ladies into society, was that a real coming out party or you're not allowed to discuss that? We can talk about COVID. I feel bad about the Ray Allen job. I was just trying to pick an MC because you're- Oh, for God's sake, you always do this. This is why we have a special segment

called Walking It Back with Noam Dorman. You think I should have cut that out? No, it was a joke. I think the whole podcast could just be- I think you should have cut that out? No, it was a joke. I think the whole podcast could just be all about being like, do you think I should cut this out?

So, wait, you can't talk about the details of the movie, but you can talk about what a genius Sacha Baron Cohen is, correct? Sure, yeah.

Sacha and his whole team, they're awesome. And I had so much fun. And I think I was like so heart sick for New York but I got to work on that and then I was an actor in Palm Springs and that whole group of people was so cool and those were like two projects that happened pre-COVID that made me like kind of get acclimated I was like LA can be cool because they're really anything about Palm Springs is an excellent movie.

I mean, really, congratulations. That's a fucking great film. Yeah, I was just acting in it. But Andy Siara is a screenwriter, and Max Barbacow directed it. It was like the highest selling movie at Sundance, which I think was the first COVID cluster in the US. And Andy Samberg starred in it and produced it. And Christine, Kristen Milati, Milati, who's so, I can't

pronounce her name right now, but she's so talented. And it's like, it was a movie that's kind of like Groundhog's Day, but set at a wedding. And it came out at this time where I think it was like the beginning of COVID and we were all just like

in our homes, quarantined, losing our minds. And then this like movie that was like fun and light, but also really dark about two people reliving the same day came out and it really. It's kind of like Groundhog's Day, right? It's sort of that Groundhog's Day type of a. Yeah. I've known Andy for a long time for a few years for maybe four years yeah so funny I did a scene with him where they kind of let me improvise a little bit and I couldn't stop laughing it was I don't know if you saw but the scene in the car where I'm jerking him off oh yeah that was that's awesome that was a great scene thanks yeah you know when I met you weren't you like in grad school or you were having issues like your family

was worried that you wouldn't be able to make a living in show business? Always. I mean, always. But yeah, no, we met. I told Demetri Martin the same thing, by the way, years ago when he was telling me that his family was upset because he was quitting law school. I said, this business is doable. If you, if you stick to the, if you, if you, if you like, you know, want to be a writer, especially, and you're, and you're halfway decent at it and you stick to it, it can be done. For sure. Yeah, no, I, I was my, they wanted me to go to business school, which wasn't my thing. I was considering a master's in public health, which I think I would have really enjoyed at this moment. But yeah. And then I just, I ended up getting that writing job at Letterman. Like, right. I was like about to go to grad school and then I got that job.

So I stayed in New York. I want to hear, I want to hear that story. Like, so I was about to go to grad, grad, grad, grad school, but I got that job. So uh so I didn't take the job and I went to grad school like you never hear that you never hear that uh yeah some I actually the grad school I got into was UCLA film school and a comedian mentor of mine was like don't write for a letterman go to film school. And I didn't let him. Well, who was that comedian mentor? I wanted a paying job, but anyway. Who was that comedian mentor?

Odenkirk. Who? Bob Odenkirk. How do you get a comedian mentor like Bob Odenkirk as a young person that's really in the business? My web series, Ted and Gracie, it was these web videos that I made that went viral. New York Mag picked it up and it went viral

like right at the beginning of Twitter. So, you know, I think that was a really weird dark project that I wrote and directed myself and all these comedians saw it. And then that's how, you know, Bob's super cool. He does that to a lot of comics he's like he's just great he was never a stand up

I want to talk about before we he does stand up I mean he does a different kind of stand up but he always he's like definitely done stand up yeah I want to make sure we get the Chappelle thing in because I think that's a big a big news story in the comedy world. Noam, I sent you,

I sent you an article. I don't, I'm assuming you didn't read it. I read it. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. I stand corrected. But just to, just by way of background, Dave Chappelle, apparently just for our listeners who may not know, of course you all know years ago, ago, he was in a show, starred in a show called The Chappelle Show on Comedy Central. And Netflix was streaming it on their thing. And Chappelle told them that he didn't want them to, that legally they could, but he did not want them to because Chappelle wasn't making any money off of these streaming services.

Because the contract he signed with comedy central. He says he was young and somewhat desperate, I suppose, and didn't sign a contract that was advantageous. This is him. This is his version of events. And in any case, he's not making any money when they stream it.

And they, he feels that they stole his, his creative. And so, so Netflix, even though they weren't obligated to, they took it off their site and Chappelle expressed gratitude

and feels that Netflix always does the right thing by him. So what do we think of that? Where the hell did Nong go? Oh, there he is. So everybody, what do we think of this episode? If you can do that and people are cool with it,

that's good for him. I mean, I think that's great. I just wonder if you know, Dave Chappelle were a struggling young comic who actually needed that money,

would Netflix have been so generous of spirit? That seems to be... I ask the same question. The answer is highly unlikely. Netflix is doing what Chappelle says because as a business decision, they feel that he's worth more to them as an ally

than as an enemy. And they want to be nice to him because he does his specials with them. I don't think it has anything to do with netflix being a generous company certainly netflix does not offer generous deals to newer comics that aren't famous they offer i assume as little as they can get away with um right so power for worse you know as the As a business owner, Noam, this notion that he signed a bad contract with Comedy Central,

does that, as a business owner, what do you make of this notion of, is there such a thing as a bad contract if you have two sides, both with legal representation, both with their eyes open? And, you know, I mean, he was young, but he wasn't, I don't think desperate is the right word, but he was already fairly well established by the early two thousands had done several movies and was a well-known person in the business. So do you think that his argument that he,

that Comedy Central took advantage of him or that acted improperly holds any water? I don't know. I mean, that there's there's such things as deals which um are bad either because the other side uh played uh loose with the truth or because your own representation was negligent in some way um i suppose comedy central would make the case that yeah chapelle's thing went huge but they probably had lost millions on a bunch of other deals that were similar chapelle's that uh you know ran for three episodes and got canceled um uh you know it he's hearkening in

some way to like the classic kind of like little Richard gets taken advantage by the, the white music executives and finds all of a sudden that he has a co-writer on his publishing and stuff like that. But I don't think it's as bad as that, but I think that there is a huge, there's a huge difference in bargaining power in some of those deals. And he might've signed a deal that he wished he hadn't, but that's neither here nor there with Comedy Central. Then Netflix makes a deal with Comedy Central and then Netflix has an ongoing arrangement with Chappelle. So now

Chappelle essentially, and he's absolutely right to do this, puts onto their bargaining table. He says, listen, I want X amount of dollars for my X special, and I want X percent of the profits from the Chappelle show. And now that's our new deal, right? I mean, I suppose that's what's going to happen. I don't think Chappelle's show is going to disappear. They'll have to make a deal with Dave. And why can't he exercise that bargaining power?

I don't see anything wrong with that. I think he's, you know. He can exercise his bargaining power as You know, I don't see anything wrong with that. I think he's, you know. He exercises bargaining power as a business person. Yeah. But this notion that he's a victim. I don't know. Listen,

I made a deal with Vegas. Yeah. And I got out from under it, but I felt I was, I got a, I don't want to go into a lot, but I've been in deals where I,

where when the dust settled, I felt that I got the shaft in some way. That's not to say that there was settled, I felt that I got the shaft in some way. That's not to say that I had legal recourse, and I blame myself in a way. I'm surprised to hear you say that, Noam, because you often speak of comedians who have every right not to work your club if they don't like the terms of which you're offering.

Generally speaking, when we talk about these sorts of things you seem to be very much of the mind unless i'm misinterpreting you very much of a mind that people can negotiate you know they're free to negotiate they're free to say no they are they are i'm not i'm just saying that the idea that somebody can feel that a deal that they signed was a bad deal, that's legit. You know, that can happen. And I don't know that Comedy Central did anything wrong, is what I'm saying, but, you know, he might feel fucked.

I mean, listen, he also, as we know, walked away from whatever season it was where he was going gonna be making tremendous money right so it's it's a complex situation i don't know anything about it and i'm and i'm reluctant to to judge but i do think that it's perfectly fine for dave like the beatles got fucked out of their publishing right we know this the beatles gave away their publishing for a pittance. Now, yeah, I mean, they went into it eyes open, right? We know that. So it's kind of the same thing.

On the other hand, something went wrong there where Paul McCartney doesn't own Yesterday, right? So that's kind of the situation Dave is in. He signed it, but looking back on it, the idea that people are making millions off the chapelle show and dave not making any money from it was there something went wrong there and now if there's a way to correct that now uh i think it's well but maybe it does make millions i mean arguably and and one could argue this point that i'm about to make it was was this Chappelle show that made David who David is.

And were it not for the Chappelle show, pardon, Jana? Dan, what's the subtext about there are so many things going on in the world. Why this? Why this thing? Because this is a big comedy story and we're the comedy seller podcast and and and we do spend a lot of time talking about uh asians not getting into harvard among other things and um jenna don't let don't let dan mansplain you i know you hate that i thought that a very i thought that a very big big big story involving a comedian would be something that we could we just did something because he could in a way that doesn't really hurt anybody you know and and and people in power have done

things far worse with their power and it's like i mean unless but but this is a this is a big comedy story we're a comedy um no it's a. Noam is a business owner that has a unique perspective because normally you talk to artists, you don't have a business owner talking with you. So I think that's an interesting dichotomy. Eric, you say what? Well, I'll say one other thing. Also, my father made records at one time, music records.

And his first record, which turned out to be very, very successful, he never got paid for it. You know, people do get fucked, maybe in show business, even more than in other things. And I don't, like I said, I don't know at all the details

of Chappelle's deal with Comedy Central. I know that Comedy Central was very fair, beyond fair with me when I dealt with them. But this is not between Dave and Comedy Central. This is between Dave and Netflix. And I'm sure that Netflix will be able to- I don't think Dave likes Comedy Central for other reasons. I think he was upset because when he left, he left on not the best of terms. So I think there's a bit of that playing into this. Two things I want to say. First of all, almost nobody's first contract is fair, ever. The second thing i want to say is people talk about networks

you know they say netflix comedy central you know it's it's the name i mean it's a brand netflix is a name of a company comedy central's name of a company between 2003 or whatever year that was that Chappelle so so started and now I guarantee you 99.9% of the executives are and assistants everybody else working there are completely new people I hate when people go Comedy Central fucked me Netflix fucked me whatever executives were in charge of those networks at the time they fucked you so it's like and by the way network executives if you read Deadline network executives come and go. They switch from network. There are probably network executives who have worked at every major network in the last 10 years. So I don't like this notion of this company screwed me.

Sure, it's a name. I mean, what are you, to change a name every time an executive who made a big decision? Well, let me add something to that because this is true. And I don't know. This is swimming out from Dave's deal. I know nothing about Dave's deal, but quite often there is a, an issue in, in negotiations. I've been through this where the issue becomes, listen, do you want more money up front or do you want to take more on the backend?

And quite often performers say, no, no, fuck that. I want it up front. And then what happens in that situation is when it happens to be one of those rare things that becomes, you know, a juggernaut and makes billions, that becomes a very, very bad decision. So I had like a band. I remember very clearly that I hired one time in the old Cafe Wa. And I offered them, I don't know, like 30% of the door or whatever. And they said, no, no, we want our $1,500 for this thing.

And $1,500 was a lot. I said, okay, I'll give you the $1,500. And then the night just blew up. And they probably would have made three times the money if they had taken the deal I offered them. And then they were mad at me. I remember they were furious with me. And I'm like, listen, I told you, you know, like what you can't,

you can't just say I want this deal or that deal. And I want the right a year afterwards to take the better of the two. That's not the way it works, you can't just say, I want this deal or that deal, and I want the right a year afterwards to take the better of the two. That's not the way it works. People are not rational about these things. I think that it's good that Dave did that, though, because when you exercise your power in a way that protects- I think it's great. Yeah, me too.

But what's the harm of having Netflix air his show? I mean, I guess you could say because he gets to renegotiate with Comedy Central. Yeah, let him get paid. Why shouldn't Dave Chappelle still be making money off the Chappelle show? He was a knowing actor engaged in a contract.

I assume with representation, probably legal representation. I mean, contracts have to have some meaning. Now, obviously, in the law, there is a concept of a contract of adhesion, I think it's called, where the two sides have such vastly different bargaining

power that the court will throw the contract away. There's no contract being thrown out here. such vastly different bargaining power that the court will throw the contract away. And I don't know. There's no contract being thrown out here. This is Dave has, Dave has bargaining power with Netflix for future specials. And obviously I don't know to what extent has been said explicitly or implicitly in their dealings, but everybody gets the, the point here is that, listen, we have a, we, we have an ongoing relationship here. I'm not going to be happy if you're making millions of dollars on the

Chappelle show. Why make zero? And then I have to report to work to do specials for you also. So it's. Hold on. Hold on. Paul McCartney was very bitter at Michael Jackson. Remember?

Cause Michael Jackson took over the Beatles publishing. Now all the music. Didn't he own all the music? Yeah. Yeah. And Paul wanted to buy something back and Michael's like, go fuck yourself or whatever it is. Go fuck publishing. Yeah, he owned all the music. Didn't he own all the music? Yeah, yeah. And Paul wanted to buy something back and Michael's like, go fuck yourself or whatever it is.

Go fuck yourself. So the point being that there's a lot of emotion that gets mixed up. And rightfully so when you're, and I think it's especially with artistic creations rather than like a house that you build. And when your baby essentially got sold for a song and now this other dude who you're working for,

working with and Netflix is putting is just re raking in the dough from your shit. He's like, you know, it's, it takes a huge person. Well, you know,

a deal is a deal. So Dave finds himself in a position. If I were in Dave's position and making the kind of money he's making, I think I would say a deal's a deal. So Dave finds himself in a position. If I were in Dave's position and making the kind of money he's making, I think I would say a deal's a deal, but maybe not. Yeah, but you don't know the backstory and the resentments that he has about it. I suspect that he has some personal

grudges against Comedy Central, which may be quite valid. I know that when he left, I think he was upset because he felt there was some racial shit going on. Jen is really not interested in this topic. I do think it's a fight. I think there's a deeper, I was trying to understand like why this topic is important. And I think listening to you, Dan,

there's something about the idea that like, you know, does anything have meaning and does a contract have meaning? And we are, you know, nearing the holidays and we're in this weird time and i think we're trying to make sense and meaning out of things so when there's a contract and then that somebody dissolves the contract i think especially you went to law school right i'm not trying to psychoanalyze i'm just doing it that you know there's something of like the the the floor falling out from under you, you know, when contracts are dissolved.

Well, no. First of all, he's not dissolving the contract, but he is complaining about the contract. He is saying it was an unfair contract and that he was taken advantage of. And I'm skeptical that that's the case. Of course, I don't know what the contract was. I mean, maybe he was paid $5 a week and all the whiskey that you can drink. No, no, no.

Those initial deal contracts are very meager. I have no inside information, but I remember Amy Schumer in some interview talking about how she had almost made very little money from her show, and that was already when Comedy Central had much more money

than they did when they first dealt with Dave. I think even Jon Stewart made very little money when he first took over the show. Right, but once it got popular, he could renegotiate and was going to, but then things fell apart because he decided not to. But it wasn't like he was locked in for life at that rate. I think what I said before is the best explanation,

that this is a very emotional thing to artists. And I think that's what is part of that. I think he hates Comedy Central and is... It has nothing to do with Comedy Central. Comedy Central takes the money they're making either way, right? Like, Comedy Central has a deal with netflix netflix takes what they wanted a comedy central's catalog or was it just that show that comedy i think it was just that show also noam is right comedy central lost took took a bath on many shows

they didn't know that i mean they knew chapelle was a major talent but they didn't know for any certainty that the show would blow up like it did. And they did produce a lot of shows that went nowhere. So I mean, I think that's, you know, Noam's right when he pointed that out. There is, you know, there is something, this is not legal, but, you know, the concept of being a mensch is not a stupid one. If you make a deal with somebody and you find that you've made 20 times more money than anybody contemplated as the best case scenario of this deal, you know what? Give the dude some points on the deal.

Say, you know what, Dave? When we made this deal, we had no fucking idea. Nobody ever conceived it could be this kind of thing. So you know what? Here's $10 million and thank you very much. It's the best thing that ever happened to any of us. Like that's not a crazy thing to do, you know? It's not crazy, but I don't think it makes you immoral

if you don't do it. No, not immoral. Not immoral. Because Dave benefited in a major way from that show. Not immoral, no. No, no, no. Dan, not immoral, but I do agree with Noam. I think that at the end of the day, you have to evaluate,

am I being a good person in this scenario? Corporations, by the way, you and I operate that way. But corporations don't. Dan, that's the problem with corporations. People run corporations. Human beings run corporations. I hate people say that. I hate when people go like, oh, it's corporations. Human beings run corporations. I hate people say that. I hate when people go like, oh, it's corporations.

There's human beings the way there's human beings anywhere running a company. So if you're a good human being, you'll take care of the people who took care of you. That's it. I mean, I don't think there's any way around it. So should JetBlue, JetBlue had a great year and the price of oil went way down. And should they call me up and say, Dan, I think, you know, we had a great year. You paid $10,000 for your tickets. We're going to give you $5,000 back because we had such a great year.

That's too indirect, Dan. That's way, that's an extreme example. That's way too indirect. Jenna, Jenna wanted to jump in. Jenna? I was just saying, it's better business for Netflix to want to appease one of their you know star talents if for example if if chappelle had like appealed the contract and then went to court then it would be like a really interesting thing for us to talk about because it would be like

setting precedence for other comedians to do that. But this is just kind of an informal, Netflix might be making even more money by just placating Chappelle and now Chappelle. Yes, I absolutely agree with you 100%. I don't think Netflix is any more, I think Netflix is as amoral as any other company. They've made a decision. I don't know this for sure, but they dropped Dave Chappelle tomorrow

if a scandal came out and they got enough tweets saying dump Chappelle, they would, they would say, we, we regret that we work with this scoundrel, you know, just like they did with Louie. They dumped him at the drop of a hat. They have no loyalty and, and I don't believe they have. I got to say about Chappelle. How is Louie?

He has COVID. No, he doesn't have COVID. Don't say things like that COVID Don't say things like that Don't say things like that Louis is fine, he's flourishing artistically He just wrote in a whole other hour Or maybe a half hour since his last Since his last one It was great, I saw him

He did like 15-20 minutes at the dinner And it was really I mean a lot of it was really good We're going to take you seriously I just want to say about Chappelle that he's never been, I never heard a bad word about that guy in 25 years. I've never seen him being harsh or an asshole or cheap or anything, but extremely generous with anybody.

So I think that's coloring my entire look at this. If it was somebody else, I'd say, well, that guy's a prick. But Dave is not. He's just not. So I would say that I would keep a very open mind. I wouldn't make any assumptions about

any of that stuff. Obviously, Dave is presenting a party line. He's decided what he's going to say in public about this, and that's to be as neat and clean as possible. But whatever's under the hood there, I would tend to guess that he probably had some really legitimate reasons for his resentments. That's what I would say. That dog is adorable. Isn't it a good precedent, though? I mean, for all comics?

Like, didn't he really do something? There's no precedent here. Oh. I don't know if that, what is that? A Boston Terrier? No. A Chihuahua. Oh, norier? No. Chihuahua. Oh, no, that's a Chihuahua. So cute. Yo quiero Taco Bell.

Very cute. And speaking of Mexico, I did, this is a good segue. I did really want to talk about, even though it's unrelated, to say the least, to Chappelle, whose ancestors have been in America for many generations. In fact, I think Dave's grandfather was part of a delegation that talked to William Howard Taft. Dave Chappelle? Yeah, something like that. If you go to Chappelle's Wikipedia page, I can't remember the details.

There's like five people of note in his background. I think on both sides of his family, like there's a professor and then an ambassador and then like a statistician. And I mean, there's all kinds of interesting things. This is a very, he calls him a very interesting- This is not uncommon, you know, and this is not uncommon because smart people come from, as a general matter, other smart people.

Now this is politically incorrect to say, but talent and intelligence have at least some genetic component to them. Whoa, whoa, careful there, Dan. And I don't think it's unusual to see people of great talent and ability and intelligence whose parents, relatives, extended family are similarly. From what I heard from Perrielle sex is not even genetic anymore so I don't know how you can say such a thing

even your gender is apparently not genetic so I don't know why not sex it's gender you really want to get into something don't you but anyway as I was saying with Mexico and that whole thing, and the Yo Quiero Taco Bell.

So Trump apparently, and this is a favorite, Jenna, Norm loves to talk about immigration. So this is up his alley. I hope you enjoy it as a discussion. Apparently Trump wants to- Immigration like in the comedy? Because I thought this podcast was just about-

Well, we do both. We do both. It's a, what we call a hybrid. It's a hybrid. It's a hybrid. We do want to include comedy because we are a comedy seller, but we also do other stuff. Now, apparently Donald,

and no one's obsessed with immigration. Now, Donald Trump apparently wants, by executive order, is considering revoking birthright citizenship. I don't know if you've heard this, Noma, I assume you have. Revoking birthright citizenship. I don't know if you've heard this. No, I assume you have. Revoking birthright citizenship? Yes.

Yeah. Trump said this recently. Well, I can Google it for you. But yeah, I mean, that's well, I don't know if he said it or I just, I just. He had talked about that years ago. You know, there are some not crackpot legal minds who think that there's a legitimate argument there, but most people feel that that ship has sailed. I'm all right with that. Trump considers targeting birthright citizenship with executive order in his last weeks in office

report says. I don't know what this report is. I mean, executive order can be always just undone by Biden. Just to review from my research that I just did today, the 14th Amendment says that it says that citizenship is extended to anyone that was born in the United States

and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Well, that was a slave amendment, a slavery amendment. So obviously the intention was to legalize the slaves. And at that time, the rest of the immigration was just not an issue anybody really cared about. But just the notion that somebody is in the country illegally,

has a baby, and then that baby now has rights, is counterintuitive. If my wife and I go to China, and she's pregnant, and she happens to give birth prematurely in China, I don't think I'm going to be like, how dare they not allow my child to be a Chinese citizen? I would say, oh, you know, they don't consider tourists, tourist births as a citizenship, right? So, you know, I'd be okay with not allowing birthright citizenship.

And it's a bad incentive. It gives an incentive to people come over here as tourists when they know they might give birth and then to make an end run around immigration laws

by having birth in the United States. Having said that, most legal scholars think that it's a non-starter. I would like to hear a Latino perspective. So if Jenna's dog could give us his. I would say Potato was born in Ohio, but I would say that Trump is leaving in a couple months and we don't need to talk about him or his like divisive pseudo policies. Hopefully he'll go to prison. He might not,

but I think he should. Oh, Jenna. I'm totally with you. Be held accountable for their actions. Listen, this is what this, you know, this is you. When, when they were, when they were chanting for Hillary, lock her up, lock her up. lock her up, I said, this is just wrong.

People understand what it means to put somebody in jail. And there, we had evidence that she committed a crime. I mean, most people, I think, understand that Comey basically just let her off. She had classified material on her own computer. But who wants to see somebody in jail? Would Trump?

I mean, what crime? We're talking about people being, as a country, we say we're incarcerating too many people for real, you know, serious crimes. We shouldn't be incarcerating somebody. And I don't want to put Trump in jail for what? Yeah, you got cut off. Okay, treason of justice tax evasion um

you know admit it he's an admitted sexual predator uh but you know you're gonna have to study proven court but yeah if he evaded taxes um and they can prove it, then very unlikely, very few people go to jail for tax evasion. You get fined. It would have to be... Yeah, well, he didn't pay any taxes for millions of dollars and he refused. By the way, as I understand it, he refused even when they asked him to.

He had the chance to pay. I'm sure they could find a very good reason to send him to jail. I mean, I'm sure he's done... I'm sure... could find a very good reason to send him to jail. I mean, I'm sure he's I'm sure what you don't think so. Why would I think so? This guy has had the best legal and professional representation for in a 30 year career as accountants and lawyers and everybody. What do you think he's taking cash under the table? I presume that the people he pays. Hold on, Jenna. I presume the people he pays top dollar to have found all the legal loopholes

without putting him in risk of going to jail. What's that, Jenna? Sorry. Michael Cohen actually was somebody who spoke out against Trump in terms of legal issues. And then also Giuliani, you can't say Giuliani is the best legal representation money. Well, Michael, but there, I think you made a very good point from my side, because Michael Cohen was desperately trying to come up with something on Trump so that he wouldn't go to jail himself. And he was Trump's fag man. He knew all the Trump secrets. If there was one there that was bad enough to put Trump in jail, wouldn't Michael Cohen have told them to keep himself out of jail? He didn't. He couldn't come up with anything. As a matter

of fact, even paying off Stormy Daniels, all he said was, Trump said, we'll take care of it. He didn't, you know. Well, that's like mafia tactics, you know. He cannot put anything in writing and, you know. No, he said take care of it because it was a legal way to do it. He was allowed to pay Stormy Daniels.

Did he use campaign funds to pay her? No, it's the opposite. He used personal funds, and now people were trying to say that he should have used campaign funds, which is crazy to me. Anyway, I don't think Trump's going to jail. But he is leaving office,

and Jenna must be very pleased about that. I think your first husband, Jenna, will be in jail before Trump. Josh? Who will? Are you married, Jenna? No. No. We're not. Engaged?

Did you sign an NDA about this too? No, we're like, we're kind of, you know, I mean, kind of, kind of. I just, I don't want to talk about it. Congratulations. Well, you don't want to talk about your personal life.

Are you dating somebody famous? Yeah. I don't know, because you have in the past, I think. I don't know if I thought. All right. No more personal life talk. What are your thoughts? what can you talk about Jenna Jenna so far has said we shouldn't

we can't talk about Sasha Brown and Kelman we can't talk about her love life and the things that we want to talk about we shouldn't be talking about so what does that leave us Jenna Jenna what would you like to talk about what a killjoy wait what was your question Jenna name a topic that you want to hit and we'll hit it.

As long as we know something about it. I'm so curious as to like, I guess like the cellars close right now, but how are you guys doing? How's New York doing? You know, like what are you, how do you are, I guess, I don't know. A lot of people are doing rooftop shows. I know Chappelle has his thing in Ohio. All that stuff is really interesting to me because I haven't been doing stand-up, and I know I feel so disconnected.

I'm leaving the country. I'm going to Aruba on Sunday, assuming they let me in because you have to test negative. I assume I will. But, you know, Newman's been spreading spreading uh germs all over all over the comedy world so it's been a while though dan i feel like yeah but you've seen people that i've seen you understand right that's right well i don't know man the seller

the seller really just like hanging out there for dinner and stuff like the last two months man is like mentally just been like the best for me like i I was, I just needed it so badly. It's just really been like nice seeing everybody. And yeah. As opposed to, as opposed to everyone else in the industry and Perry, I've been avoiding getting my, dipping my toes in anything comedy related, trying to do outdoor shows, trying to do this. I don't want anybody getting sick. I don't want to bust my head open. I don't want, what I hear about going on in other places

disturbs me. I get mad when my employees aren't wearing N95 masks. The only reason I opened the olive tree is for what Eric just said. I realized it was very important for the comedians to have a place to go and hang out. And frankly, I was worried about that happening somewhere else and that could have consequences long-term for the place. So I felt a pressure both to do the right thing and business pressure to open when they allowed us open 25% capacity. But I don't want to do a single thing in comedy until there's a vaccine. I just don't want to take any chances. Well, also you have to understand like certain places like The Stand,

for example, they've done shows, outdoor shows, but those guys, they live, sleep, and breathe comedy. The owners of The Stand, it was always their dream to own a comedy club. It was Noam's dream to, I'm not sure what Noam's dream was. No, no, but I read, for instance, there was an SNL after party, right? I didn't want it. I didn't want it. I had some...

I had some opportunity to get involved in that and I just didn't want it. Like I said, if you can get me a lawyer who can go through the whole thing and tell me exactly how it can be done legally and blah blah blah then I would do it otherwise I just I and and it's hard to turn down anything was when Chappelle was in town it's very hard to turn that stuff down yeah but no what do you mean an SNL

after party you mean like at the club I don't I don't misbehave. I was never offered the SNL after party, but I don't want to go into it. The point is that there have been things that have happened elsewhere, which could have happened at the Olive Tree, but I just passed them off. Putting safety first in that kind of a way. I think it's a balance, because with know, a lot of, with everything,

with schools opening with all of it, it's like safety versus like people's mental health and ability to make money. And it's like always kind of balancing. And I think, you know, if you can figure out a way to not put people at risk, that's always better, but also, you know, yeah, every, everyone's going through their own, uh, trying to figure out what makes sense. My point needs to be stressed is that Noam's love for the world of standup

comedy is not overly, is not about that. It's not about what it is. But I know, but if you were a huge comedy fan, like the guys at the stand love it, you'd probably want to do shows. No. And, um, I, I, I had that. What's that? Like, I just don't think you can say that. I think some people just like have a need to put them. I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but I don't know.

Like, I think, you know, if you get COVID compliance offices, and you can do it in a really, really safe way, like Chappelle, I think there's a really good model for doing it. But if you're in a city like New York, and it's like tricky, you know, it's cool to kind of put people's safety ahead of like, your either need to like, perform or have stuff open. I, you know, everyone has their own levels of comfort and ultimately it's personal responsibility. But I don't think it's like, because you don't love comedy,

you're not opening your club. I don't think that's fair. I agree. It's not an insult. There's no shame in not loving comedy. I don't love comedy. But Dan, I think Jenna's right though. I think like, for example,

I knew I needed to perform and I tried to do it in a safe way so starting in June whenever I got opportunities basically from June until three days ago I performed most nights of the week right I mean I needed I made that choice I was trying to be safe I wore a mask I you know but I ran around and there are a lot of comics who probably love comic comedy as much as I do who just didn't feel safe. Like, I know comics who love comedy who haven't performed in eight months. They're just like, whatever their health took. I was like, I knew I could,

there's a good chance I was going to get COVID. My only point was that love of comedy is a factor that goes in the scales. Yeah, of course, of course. If you love comedy a whole lot, but are also very safety conscious, you know, you wind up over here, but if you really love comedy, it might

push it this way. But if you don't love comedy that much, so it's just, it's something that goes in the... I agree, yeah. I don't think that's what it is. But anyway, I I will fault Jenna's I will fault Jenna's Nancy Pelosi

for, well, it really does seem to me that she was they were they should have passed a second round of of covid relief. They really should have. And they from what I've read, it really was that the Democrats didn't want to give Trump that that edge before the election. Like the bill was on McConnell's desk and he just hasn't. No, that's not. No, if you read it, because there's a famous interview

where Wolf Blitzer was asking Pelosi about it and she got indignant and refused to answer and started talking all over him when he started asking her the right questions. Like, you know, what they did is they kept, I saw AOC tweeted about it too. Like, the reason we're not signing it is because we want to make sure that um the issue she said was that because corporations want to have um uh be protected from liability for covid whatever they always find some reason

but the thing is that they they passed one round and the republicans said let's just pass another round the same as the first one and that And that was what they should have done. And in the meantime, a lot of places have gone broke. And I would rather they just pass another round of relief and just let all the restaurants close, especially now when there's a vaccine, when we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel, where they can literally say, okay, it's probably another three months times X amount of dollars.

We know a finite is going to cost this amount of money. It's not open-ended anymore. Write the fucking checks. Let everybody stay home for the next couple months. And enough with this. And why they're not doing that. I mean, I'm sorry I put it on the Democrats. All of them.

Fuck all of them. The point is that a government is really letting us down now. Yeah, really letting us down. I was going to say, I agree with you. I think that there's, you know, we can finger point. From my perspective, it looks like the Republicans are kind of like this obstructionist, fascist wall of like theocrats and kleptocrats you and that people need money and they need to survive and congress is not enabling that and so there's like it's going to only hurt us and i think one way to try to get back to a level of you know health in our country insanity is for like people to put aside any

citizenship so jenna let me let me you got cut off it's really hard to like reach across the aisle and deal with those guys so jenna let me tell you let me i'm a little wonky getting cut off i might i might yeah yeah let me tell you why common sense tells me that I think you're wrong in a specific case, so you might not be wrong in general. The Republicans aren't usually the party that would be skinflint about this stuff. However, in the two months before an election, everything changes. In the two months before an election, that they very much badly wanted to win and keep control of the Senate.

These self-interested politicians would have been very happy to write these checks. The incentives were such that it was in the Republicans' interest to write the checks going into the election. And the Democrats were happy, benefited from finding some, you know, quote unquote, good reason to say that they couldn't sign it, but having people suffer for a few more weeks, so they would hopefully blame Trump and the Republicans when they went to the

polls. And that is the nature of politicians. So, I mean, you know, look, just as a related thing, I just saw it on the internet today, where Michael Moore, four years ago, was advocating that the electors, the Electoral College, should all be faithless electors and vote for Hillary, even though Trump won. You know, this is at the time. Now we're here about no respect for democracy, trying to rob people of their votes. But four years ago, many, many people were trying to advocate that the Electoral College would defy the vote. So they're all full of shit, really. Anyway, but in the end, Dangerfield's closed and Creek in the Cave closed. And it's just tragic.

It shouldn't have happened. It didn't have to happen. Well, did these clubs die with COVID or of COVID? I mean, there were certainly some pre-existing conditions, I imagine. Yeah. I don't like, like the thing that really bothered me, it's like, look, I never, I have no real personal connection to Dangerfield at all. I have a little bit of a connection to the Creek.

But like the Creek, I'm not talking about really here, but Dangerfield specifically, like it went down and it seemed like there was just like a mass exodus of comics, just like shitting on it, talking about how it just hasn't been relevant in 25 years, 30 years. And by the way,

like a lot of these are good points, but I don't think that's the point. I think it's like, I, it just feels like so dishonorable or something to like celebrate by the way and like danger fields doesn't mean that much to me i started comedy in 2008 it was never relevant it was never the clubs i wanted to get into the cellar was you know you know you know you know every other club the comic strip like nobody was talking about danger field no

young comic was like i want to get into into Dangerfield. But it didn't. Sorry? I was just going to say, it's the only club I've actually never performed at in the city. But yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you're not missing anything. But the thing is, it was important at a different time. And I don't think it's fair to depreciate something's value. It meant a lot to the comic before us

i mean it was an institution and like so just because it didn't mean something to me or i didn't have like a personal connection with it doesn't mean i think it's okay for somebody my generation to just shit on it or like whatever you know it's just i don't know i just don't like how people do that i just i find it wrong and i don't know i didn't i mean i'm sure uh you're right i just didn't see what you're describing i saw most people were respectful when danger fields went out of business and i didn't see a lot of shitting on it but i'm sure that it happened um you know i don't understand that these are these are people's lives that go and when And when a small business goes out, it's not like losing your job.

You don't close your small business until you are fucking tapped out of every dime you can borrow. You know, it's like people don't walk away from, gamblers don't walk away from the table until they've lost everything, you know? And that's like, so when you see somebody close,

you gotta assume, and they're a million dollars in debt, and they're never gonna recover, and their employees are fucked, and it's just, and you know, and it's true, like, and the politicians are out there getting their hair done, and Gavin Newsom is in California going to dinners, and they, you know, they're just, and I know he's a Democrat, but it could be the Republicans are the same. They're horrible.

They're fucking horrible. All of them. The fucking politicians are horrible. They could have, all they had to do was write another round of checks for all these small businesses who they closed down. It's like, how do you do one half and not the other half? Listen, we're going to close you all down and we'll see about getting you some money to live on in the meantime. Close them down and give them money to live on.

That's all. What's like, how, what does it mean to have a government if they can't do that? Yeah. Fuck them. Fuck them. How are small businesses in New York going to survive one more lockdown?

I'm really curious. They need President Biden or whatever to write another round of checks. They have to do this. And it's not just for people, it's the employees. Yeah. It's crazy what they're doing. Dad, what's going on?

And while we're at it, like healthcare shouldn't be tied to employment, you know? Of course it shouldn't. Of course it shouldn't. Whatever. Okay. Are we done? I think we're, well, I think we've, we've, we've hit all the topics. We didn't get into a Borat, but we couldn't, that was unexpected, but did you guys watch it? Did you like it? And watch, I watched the movie film. Yeah. I, I mean, I,

the other one was so long ago and horrifyingly long ago in terms of how fast it flew by. But as my recollection is, this one was funnier. I know everybody seems to be saying that the original people often say the original is better and it often is. I happen to, as best I can remember because I haven't seen the original in a while. I preferred this one, but, but, but I know that that's not a universal opinion necessarily.

I thought, I honestly heard there was a huge drop. Like people, like I've heard what you've heard. Like people saying like far and away the first one's better. I thought it was much closer than people thought. Like I thought it was a worthy sequel. I thought it was like a really worthy sequel. Well, it was also very relevant because it was about COVID. I mean, it had a big, you know, COVID

theme in it. But there were maskless scenes there. By the way. I mean, I guess I can say this. Don't say, don't say. You're going to get yourself in trouble. Don't say. Thank you for looking out for me, Noam. You always do. You know, people often on movies

get tested, Noam, so that to answer your question about masslessness, it might have all been tested. The thing about testing is, it's better than not testing, but you can obviously have it, you could have caught it on the day you got the test. It cuts the risk down substantially.

So listen, Eric, I'm sure you're going to be fine. I'm sure you're going to be fine. Thanks, Noam. But if you want to say anything... so listen Eric I'm sure you're going to be fine I'm sure you're going to be fine thanks Noel but if you want to say anything that might go viral you know like anything I envy

I envy anybody that gets it I mean it's got to be very anxiety provoking because you don't know what each day is going to bring but if you have it and it's not too too bad you got the antibodies you're good to go. I just have to say this. I just went through a breakup from a six year relationship two months ago.

And so I moved out of my apartment with my girlfriend and I'm now living with my brother, okay? So this is the first time in six years that I've been sick that my girlfriend's not taking care of me and my brother is, and holy shit, is it a drop-off. Okay, this is, this has been the funniest thing of COVID, literally, for me. And this is, like, the 10th time this has happened,

where a comedian has said to me, yeah, you know, I'm with my girlfriend, I'm like, motherfucker, I never knew you had a girlfriend. Like, there's been no sign of a girlfriend all these years. You're married, like, this is happening over and over again. You have a girlfriend. Like there's been no sign of a girlfriend all these years. You're married. Like this happened over and over again. You have a girlfriend for six years. I had a girlfriend for six years.

Did anybody, did you know that Dan? Yeah, I knew it. Yeah. Monroe Mark was the same. I'm like, Monroe,

you have a girlfriend. Your, your, your conversation with comics tend to be limited to, um, you know, political matter matters No, no, no Everybody knows I'm married When somebody sits down at the table

Noam says, let's talk about the Steele dossier He doesn't say, so what's going on with the little woman? We have not seen hide nor hair of these females This is like two universes. Does your brother have it too? I don't see Juanita at the Olive Tree all that

often so people don't necessarily bring their women around the comedy cellar. Periel to answer. By the way Periel we know you know I don't know if you actually met my brother right? Have you met my brother? No. I haven't met your brother, but this is, yeah.

But your uncle is like one of my brother's like mentor, like they love each other. I know, it's really funny. So my uncle was a high school or middle school science teacher for like 20 years. And apparently Eric's brother is his favorite all-time student. My brother's 29 years old. He drops by the middle school all the time, and they catch up, and yeah, it's nice. You have an uncle who's a science teacher?

Why is that bizarre to you now? Didn't he ever put you on his knee and teach you a little bit about logic and empirical evidence? First of all, I've told you know him. Didn't he ever put you on his knee and teach you a little bit about logic and empirical evidence? First of all, I've told you this before, most of the people in my family have sort of brilliant to genius level IQs. I know you believe it. I'm the only one in my family.

Wait, so where's your brother? I mean- He's on the other side of this bedroom door um and he's like got symptoms now over the last like last day or so so oh no yeah but now i finally get to get welcome into the living room he was keeping me trapped in the bedroom and i can only leave with a man go to the bathroom and come back and now that he's positive he's going to be positive i mean he's waiting for results. But when he is, I can actually use the rest of the apartment now. Wait a second.

So he let you move in with him, and then you gave him COVID. Yeah. But I also gave my ex. I think I might have given my ex-girlfriend. I went to go pick up stuff the other day from the apartment, and I might have given it to her, too. Virus is going to virus. Good to quote Alex Berenson, a former guest on the show,

a virus going to virus. You know, you can't be feel too guilt ridden, you know, for, for it. Somebody gave it to you, you know?

So whoever that was, I blame that person. You can't be. It was Louie. What's that? Louie. He said, Louie really should get another test though yeah i know i told joe

list to you know i texted list and i told him you know just let louis know and he said louis was like you know appreciative and he said he didn't seem too concerned so he's probably getting tested and all that so nobody's that concerned that's why we're still on lockdown eight months later. Oh, it's no... Careful what you're about to say, Mr. I haven't left the house in eight months. No, I'm saying that there was no way to control

it, except for the Asian countries. It's everywhere. Jenna would like to say something. Jenna, you raise your hand. I saw outbreak in sixth grade and have always been a germaphobe. Again, you raising your hand? I saw Outbreak in sixth grade and have always been a germaphobe. Again, I probably should have like gone into like public health instead of comedy.

But we knew once Wuhan was in lockdown, January 22nd, New York should have been like so prepared. I had to fly back from the West Coast to do a show upstate on February 6th. And I was terrified and, you know, wore a mask on the plane and then left New York right after that. But it was crazy how even the first, second,

third week of February, people were just so laissez faire about it. And that even though, you know, it's hard to like hindsight is 2020. I still feel like the city should have been a little bit more prepared and close schools like at least a week earlier. Like it was crazy. How late you are. Right. And we said it on this show, by the way, in real time that we should be. But that was already March by the time I think we were advocating that, you know, Noam stopped coming in remember and everybody was,

that was like late march and i i was february i february i was buying masks i bought an extra refrigerator i was writing my school board that they should be closing they accused me of being a fear monger i i had a i had absolutely as soon as we saw what was going on it was a lombardi in italy that was really like that's like come on now. What do you guys, like, what the fuck? And then again,

our leaders let us down, Democrats and Republicans. Go out, go out. Don't be a bigot. Go have a good time. Spend money. It's like, what the fuck? de Blasio was going to the gym.

Yeah, I remember that. He sucked. De Blasio, Cuomo, Trump, all of them. You know who was good? We talked about it. It was London Breed. She's the mayor of San Francisco.

Yeah, she's great. Well, they saw it coming. I mean, yeah. She was very smart. And then I think Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio. There were people on the left and right who exercised not a partisan thing, who just had some common sense. Yeah. But even Fauci, it was chicken shit.

Was even Fauci as late as late February saying, we don't anticipate this is going to be a horrible thing. Yes, but it changed very quickly. And there was a time when Fauci changed his tune. Ohio shut down. I think they had six cases, two full weeks before New York did, when New York already had that whole New Rochelle hotspot. So there you see drastic different reactions to an objective situation. Ohio, cautious and planned for the worst. And New York was blindly optimistic in some way.

And we know how the kids are going to eat their lunch and what's going to happen at the school. And people are going to say it's racist. They had all kinds of good reasons to, you know, bring about the deaths of tens of thousands of people, is what they did. Anyway. So when do you

think we get out how much what mike when do you think this is all past us give me a month well it won't be at passes in one day but i think um i mean if if they start the inoculations in middle of December, it feels like by March, we should really be, you know, at least at 50, 75% capacity, like on our way out. I don't know.

Just a guess, but we do have a vaccine, three of them, right? And there's going to be more. This is going to be over pretty soon. Nobody's concerned about the side effects with this vaccine. They won't be.

I think it was like the Johnson & Johnson one is maybe like 95% effective or something. And with vaccines, I don't know. I don't think that they have, that they would have like a long-term effect. I'm not a doctor. I just pretend to be one. Yeah, vaccines typically have long-term side effects.

The short-term ones are being studied, and I don't think that they're proving to be too severe, but I'm no more of a doctor than Janet. In the meantime, outdoor hangs. I know it's cold. Outdoors are over six feet apart. Just don't hang with people who aren't in your bubble, who aren't in your microbiome, like your family.

A lot of good that did Newman's brother. Yeah, I hope you guys... And the truth is that is how, you know, the bubble is where you get it, I think. But how long do you... I mean, obviously, you think we're going to lock down December 1st? I keep hearing December 1st. Is there any...

For New York City? I'll be hoping for Aruba. But, you know, I keep hearing December 1st. Is that, is there any. For New York city? I'll be hoping. I hope so. But you know, I mean, so, you know, in a way I'll be happier if you do go into lockdown because I won't be here and I'll feel like I got out for, I got, like I got one over on everybody for a selfish attitude. I'll be in this. Yeah. Until you're stuck in Aruba for a year.

What do you mean lockdown as opposed to what, what, like, I feel like I've been on lockdown since... No, no, no. Restaurants. Restaurants and everything closing down again. Listen, the restaurants

are losing a fortune. 25%... It's cheaper to be closed than have 25%... almost 25% capacity. It's crazy what they're doing to the restaurants. And don't open doors

to the restaurant. I'm sorry. Is that... Just don't go inside and eat at a restaurant. Is that a weird take? No, it's not a weird take. No, it's not a weird take at all.

But no, are you saying that? So restaurants are going to close again, December 1st, but this is what Noman is saying. I haven't heard of this. I heard that. I'm saying that's what people have been telling me.

I'm wondering if there's any truth to it. And my question is, is the government not decided that they're going to give another round of money or they're not, they're definitively not? No, they will. They will. It's going to come later than it needed to.

That's all. I think so. Listen, Perrielle, earlier in the show, I referred to a particular comedian. Could you have Lou Witsky bleep it out? Yes, and we don't need to talk about that on the show either.

It's meta. Before we leave, is there anything else you'd like to walk back before we say goodbye? Can I walk back when you asked about bora and then i was like i guess i could tell you this and then no i'm so cool cooley was like don't even say anything maybe just take out me even thinking about saying no no no

you know that's okay you didn't say anything you didn't say if you want us to, let Perrielle know, but I don't think that's necessary. Anyway, podcast at ComedyCellar.com for comments, questions, suggestions, compliments, constructive criticism. And yes, you have something to say, Jana? I think that there should be an after show of just like podcasts when it's all Jews where the after show is all of us just being anxious and worrying and neurotic about like what we think we said that we should it should be catered at least yeah that would be fun

that's like so Jewish that's so funny Jenna I'm going to run out and eat I have not said this this podcast is 100% Jewish right now isn't it I'm going to run out and eat. I have not said this. This podcast is 100% Jewish right now, isn't it? Well, yes. I was actually quite impressed that it hadn't come up until now.

Because this podcast is, I frequently will tell Periel, Periel, can you please book somebody that's not Jewish? And I say, absolutely not. I only book Jews. Or almost a million. I do prefer to have diversity. Diversity is sort of the watchword of the era. And especially when we talk about topics that I think involve people of different backgrounds, it's good to have those people on the show. Now, all we had was a chihuahua to represent diversity. Potato Epstein. Potato Latke Epstein is Jewish. And within the Jewish community, I'm quite tall,

so that could be a diverse element. Anyway, if you think there's too many Jews on this show, podcast.comedysally.com is the place to go to let us know. If you think there should be more, you let us know that too. And if Chappelle wants your phone number, he might want to have some words with you. Is it okay for me to give it to him, Dan? You want to give it to me? Yeah. I guess so. I'd be flattered to give it if he called me just to yell at me.

It's just any brush with fame I can get at this point. If anybody- Does no one want to say Happy Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving tomorrow. That's right. What are we celebrating? America? We're celebrating genocide. Oh, God.

How do you bring Janet Friedman into this? Genocide. Yeah. I mean, every Thanksgiving like there are I know I you're gonna make fun of me but there are like Native American there's this Native American women's non-profit that I always just give money to just to be like yeah sorry even though it wasn't us I came over my people came over in the 1890s from like pogroms but well it wasn't you but the land you're living on you know that. That's very nice, Jenna.

It might have belonged to somebody else at some point. Can we, can we, you know. Wait, can I just say one thing, Dan? That was a really clever joke and a good title for Jenna's, a special, Jenna-cide. I'm quite sure that she's been there her whole lifetime. People have been saying that her whole life. Really? I think, I have a better name for Jenna's special.

Genocidal foam. Genocidal what. Foam. Like spermicidal foam? Genocidal foam. That kind of puts it all together. A little bit of Jew in it, a little bit of feminism in it. Anyway, I thought it was better. Listen,

on this whole cancel thing, it really is worth saying as we wind off that Muhammad had slaves. And I know that's almost trite to say. I don't care that Muhammad has slaves, but we cannot pick and choose. Like, let's start, like, why is Thomas Jefferson worse than Muhammad?

This is the part I'm cutting out. Like, what is this? worse than Muhammad? This is the part I'm cutting out. Like, what is this? The idea of judging the past by today's standards is insanity. And the only way you can manage it is if you want to pick and choose who you want to be the bad guys. If you want to do it fairly, you make a bad guy out of every race, every creed, every religion. So the point is that the only people who do it, it's not about they really want to judge people in the past. It's because they're looking for a way to cast a finger at a particular group that they have resentments towards. So right now it's, you know, the founding fathers, white people.

So we're going to judge the founding fathers by old rules, but we're not going to turn to Africa or Muhammad or ancient Israel or anything like anything. Like we're not, we just like, it's, it's, it's ridiculous. Thank God we live in the modern era. Well, we know better and we're going to have to let the past go because the past is a past. And I'm not talking about 20 years ago i'm talking about 200 years ago it's it's it's done people are repeating those same i mean well i don't want to open up a whole nother i just said was there someplace on planet earth where people were living

by 2020 2020 standards in the 1700s and they had gay marriage and they had no slaves and they weren't killing each other and like what where on planet earth were they living this way that we want to judge plymouth rock like what are we talking about here it's ridiculous and with that which isn't you know necessarily true but it's like the you hope that the arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice and that we that's very clever did you write that that of course is uh dr king i know i know uh yes we hope it is it actually it is it absolutely is i know we can't get into this but i'm so curious about the hottest topic in comedy which is cancel culture and so it is very funny to me that the people at the height of the industry do

rail against it. There's so much I want to talk about, but we don't have time. We'll have Jenna on again. We'll have Jenna on again because it's an hour and a half and if Jenna has things to say, we want to hear those things. Jenna's a good egg because

she's a pretty far left fire-breathing person, but she doesn't get personal about it, so it's nice to talk to her about it. How come you never say that about me? You can follow us on Instagram at Perrielle at live from the table. Jenna's not a counselor as far as I understand her. You're not a canceler, are you, Jenna? No, I'm a Capricorn. You didn't try to cancel me.

I remember that. You didn't try to cancel me. I mean, look, like, God, there's so much. I think, you know, people who are committing crimes should be held accountable. But I think that there needs to be more room for nuance if we're all going to evolve and coexist peacefully. Okay. And on that note,

That is a nice note to end things on. Thank you, Eric, for coming out of your sick bed. And hopefully your symptoms get no worse than they currently are now. Good luck. I noticed you do seem a little fatigued. You have a tendency to talk somewhat irrationally, making points that weren't cogent. So I hope that...

I'm only kidding. But you'll feel better. Jenny, you look great. I like the short hair. I cut it myself. Wonderful. And congratulations on a career that seems to be flourishing.

She can't talk about that. She can't talk about that. She can't talk about it. Looking good. And feeling good. And, you know, whatever. All right. Anybody else? Noam's gone.

And just like that. All right, everybody. We'll see you next time. Jenna, we'll have you back on to discuss those things that we didn't get to this time. Bye, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. We'll see you next time. Jenna, we'll have you back on to discuss those things that we didn't get to this time. Bye, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for having me. Feel better. Bye, Jenna.

Bye.