The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Michael J. Fox

Episode Date: March 29, 2019

Michael J. Fox

You're listening to The Comedy Cellar, live from the table, on the Riotcast Network, riotcast.com. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Comedy Cellar Show here on Sirius XM Channel 99. We're here upstairs from the Comedy Cellar, not downstairs where we usually are. Because, and I'm here, of course, with our producer, Perry L. Aschenbrun, and my co-host, Mr. Dan Natterman. And we have one of our best guests ever. Dan, I'll let you do the introduction. You want me to do the introduction?

Please do. Please do. Our guest today is Mr. Michael J. Fox. And he needs no introduction, but I'll do one anyway. The recipient of countless awards, five Emmys, four Golden Globes, two SAG Awards. At age 29, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Now he shared public Which he shared publicly in 1998 In 2000 he established the Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson's research

In 2011 he received the Order of Canada Which I guess is like our Um Mueller Report I don't know And him and his wife actress Tracy Paul Have four children they live in Manhattan Michael thanks for coming

You did that trippingly I did that what? Trippingly him and his wife, actress Tracy Paul, and have four children. They live in Manhattan. Michael, thanks for coming. You did that trippingly. I did that what? Trippingly. Beautiful. Michael, I performed at your Parkinson's benefit two years ago. It's a great approbation. Oh, thank you. I was told that you were a fan of mine, but

I'm not sure if that's true. Maybe I was just going to... Absolutely. They gave me a list of comics that were willing to do the show, and I saw your name on the list, and I said, I've seen him. He's funny. Oh, okay. And you proved me right. You were tremendous.

And you made the mistake of giving me your phone number. Ay yi yi. Which is the reason you're here today, because... I like the voice you used last week by the way That heavy voice you used You know when you call you do the high flighty voice But you did the low heavy serious The creepy voice

I really liked it a lot And that's what drew you in That's it you had me So thank you for coming And how are you doing today Mike? I'm doing great I I'm doing well. I'm stumbling a little bit. I climbed like eight flights of stairs to get up here.

I don't think the cane might have been a tip-off that might be tough for me. Now I feel guilty because I said, why are we doing it upstairs? Are the stairs a problem? And she told me the stairs were not. No, it's fine. I'm sorry. Mission accomplished. I did it. I'm's fine. I'm sorry. Mission accomplished. I did it.

I'm up here. I'm up here for life. I'm going to be up in this room forever. I'm looking around trying to see where I'm going to sleep and make a nest. Michael, you wrote a book in, I think it was in the early 2000s called Lucky Man. 2002. 2002 called Lucky Man. 2002 called Lucky Man. And you said that the years since your diagnosis of Parkinson's

have been some of the most fulfilling years of your life. And that's just proven more so ever since then. It's been really interesting because... You get... Can I use profanity? Yeah, go ahead. Please do. You get a shit sandwich and you realize it's something to eat.

I mean, you're not starving. And you find the good stuff at the edges of the bad stuff. And I've been put in situations and met people and given opportunities to do things. With the foundation, we've raised over $800 million for research. It's incredible. To get an opportunity to do that, you can't whine about that. That's just great. And it's given me an appreciation for my family and for my kids

and for my work when I'm able to do it. And I have to adjust my work because I don't have the same tools that I used to have to do the things I used to do. And now I find'm able to do it and I have to adjust my work because I don't have the same tools that I used to have to do the things I used to do and now I find new ways to do it and it's just opened up in a way. Things close down but things open up. So would you say that this is

among the happiest times of your life? You look back on your life and you say, well, what was the happiest time? Was it when you were the biggest star on planet Earth? Every day I wake up is I up, it sounds sucky and maudlin and trite and treacly, but it's true. Every day I wake up, I have four kids I love. I have a wife that's fantastic, and she keeps me around. I love the work I'm able to do with the foundation.

I love writing. I'm writing another book. I love acting when I'm able to do with the foundation. I love writing. I'm writing another book. I love acting when I get a chance to do it. And so it's all good. You have a better attitude than I do. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, go ahead. What advice, you know, we all get so upset about things that are, you know,

we react to little things in our you know, we react to little things in our lives the way we react to big things. What advice do you give somebody to how to keep things in perspective about what's going on in their lives? I have a lot of these things that like are really available to me that I

think are true, which one is that if you imagine the worst case scenario and it actually happens, you've lived it twice. Don't go through shit and experience all this stuff and think about it, pray about it. Because if it happens,

you've already gone through all that shit and you're getting through it again. Well, you know what Shakespeare said from Julius Caesar? Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death just once. It seems to be most strange that men should fear,

seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. He must have had lessons. Out of a brief candle, life is but a walking shadow. Well, that's Macbeth. The play that's stressed

and frisky is out on the stage and there's no more. It's a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Did you just call him an idiot? We're having a Shakespeare off.

Michael J. Fox. My 11th grade education, that's as far as I go. So, I mean, so, yeah. The point is,

is don't, don't, don't stress it until it happens. Yeah, I mean, there's enough, there's enough,

there's stuff that you can't do anything about. And, and, and if you're focusing on that, you're not dealing with the stuff you can do something about. Like I put it like with Parkinson's and the other stuff

I dealt with more recently. I had some spinal issues and went through a massive rehabilitation. And it's just that I find that if I accept something, if I say, this is it, this is what I have,

and I look at it and I weigh it and I measure it and I look at it, I'm not afraid to look at any part of it. I'm not afraid to go into any aspect of it, any possibility that it might bring about. But just really look at it, then I got it. I got it nailed. And it's only going to take up the space it takes up. It's not going to be this amorphous blob that eats all my life

with dread and worry and fills every cranny because I know what it is. And now that leaves room for me to do other stuff. I can identify areas I can go in and flourish because I know what that big boogeyman is. Do you have a spiritual life or you believe in some higher power that might be have planned this out so that no i don't i don't i don't get it there's a reason for there's a purpose behind this so you're not one of those guys no so and i and i have just one other thing that i that i always think about and this i've thought about this many times preceding meeting you. There are certain people in all walks of life

that I notice who deal with challenges that I can't imagine. And I wonder what you all have in common. For instance, off the top of my head, Charles Krauthammer was a paraplegic and a quadriplegic. And Rush Limbaugh is deaf. And there's this other deaf comedian

who's performing. I love the people you're putting me in with. Actually, I was afraid to say it. Is that going to be an insult? But I'm saying people who overcome the psychological

stress that would crush me. My wife knows me. I'd be afraid to get... I just would not be able to get out of bed. I would be so sorry for myself. So I mean, what do you guys all have in common? You're like, fuck this. This is not going to stop me. I'm moving on with my life. I don't know. I think it's

just a gratitude for, you know, again, it's this idea of a higher power or whatever. The other thing I do close to that is meditation. And I meditate. And what I like about meditating is that you'll be meditating and a thought will come into your head.

And the idea is to see that thought, to recognize it, to respect it, and let it go. And it just has no – I have nothing to do with it today. I have no room for it on my plate to deal with that thing. And so it's just thought, okay, see it, let it go. And that applies to everything. It's like, something comes into your thing and you haven't got an answer for it, we'll let it go and it'll come back again another time and you'll maybe have an answer for it. So I don't, I don't, I don't, I just don't freak out about stuff.

It's like if you... I had this spinal surgery about a year ago, and they told me it takes two years to recover from it, and I had to learn how to walk again, and I had to do all that stuff. And when I say learn how to walk again, I mean I really had to learn how to transfer the energy from my right butt cheek into my left leg and take that weight and then transfer it again

and think about all those steps and really literally take things one step at a time. And when you break it down like that, you don't have room for all the goofy shit. You're just trying to get across the room without falling down. I learned how to walk again. And finally, August, I had the surgery in April, and by August, I was walking by myself.

I didn't have a cane anymore. I didn't have the walker. I went through all that stuff in a wheelchair, and it was really tough. And then I was walking again, so my family was at the beach, and I came into the city to do a shoot on a movie they asked me to do a cameo on it and I thought this is great I'm going to do a cameo

on this movie I'm walking I'm feeling great and I walked into my kitchen and I was alone in the house and I slipped on the tile and went down and fractured my arm spiral fractured my humerus and just trashed my arm I had 20 pins in that

plate and it was just a great fuck you and just trashed my arm. I had 20 pins in that plate. And it was just a great, fuck you, it was just a great, like, you can't ever take that next step for granted. And so when you do that, when you watch every step

or appreciate every step, it's, you just love life. You just do the stuff that works and you really appreciate it you gotta remember Noam he's from western Canada and there are heartier people there

I think than the northeastern variety I just can't I can't express how much I admire that and I hope I could you know

learn from that Michael talk about I mean Dan talk about some of the movies and stuff well first of all when you were in when you were at the height of everything, and Perrielle, our producer, had posters of you all over her wall, by the way,

but that shouldn't come as a surprise. I didn't even know you were like a teen heartthrob. I didn't realize that. Oh, my God, are you kidding? I didn't realize. It's like in every teen magazine. I can't explain this to my daughters. They don't believe it.

How old are your daughters? They're now 24 and 17 Well you're never going to be cool in the eyes of your children Even if, I mean Noam's not cool anyway They call me dude My kids call me dude And I said Dude like the big Lebowski dude?

And they said no dude like Doody When you were in those days, back in the Back of the Future and Family Ties era. Teen Beat. Did you ever think, I mean, obviously, and I don't know if you ever thought this far forward in life. Did you have any thoughts about what your life might be 20 years out? What your career might be 20 years out? what your career might be 20 years out? Or did you not even think that far? I didn't have the time.

So I met my wife, and then I started to think long-term and realized that I had to figure something out. I mean, I was kind of enlightened and zen like I am now. I was a maniac. I was 24 years old. I had a Ferrari and a Range Rover and a Mercedes 560SL and a Nissan 300ZX. And I was just going to the Improv every night and all these clubs and just getting smashed and partying and living like there's no tomorrow.

And that was going to run out. If I had kept it on that track, it would have been in trouble. So you knew that even then, as a young person, and young people usually feel they're invincible, but you knew that this had to change? Well, when I met Tracy, she kind of said, you're on a track that's not good. And I realized that it didn't mean I stopped drinking right away. It took me a while.

But it was crazy. It was a crazy time. I thought it was a rock star. Well, you were. You're still a rock star. Is this the same time that you did that movie about the guy with the drug problem?

Was that at the similar time that you were going through these thoughts? Yeah, I wasn't doing much coke but I was drinking a lot of whiskey and I was pretty out there. What thoughts in terms of your career did you have any thoughts

about where your career might go after all of this? Did you have any particular did you want to direct or write? I wanted to do writer films and I wanted to do comedies

and dramatic films and other kinds of work. But I think that I didn't have once I was diagnosed then it became about just doing as much work as I could because they told, I mean, once I was diagnosed, then it became about just doing as much work as I could because they told me I had 10 years left to work.

And so I decided I got to cram as much work into this as I can. And then that didn't work out. That was, it wasn't fruitful. So it's all that stuff, all the career stuff, it's hard to, like I look at it now, and it's interesting, but it's not the big stuff to me. Cass, your question, because this is what worries me. Is there a bubble over your head saying, at some point, why do they keep asking me about

all this Parkinson's stuff? Why don't they, you know, like, I'd love to talk about what it was like to be on the set of Back to the Future and stuff like that. Is that, like, because there's a whole,. Because there's a whole Michael J. Fox universe of stuff that we all grew up with that we're fascinated by that I don't want to pass over in this half an hour. I don't know how you feel about that stuff. I'm game for anything. I'll talk about it.

What in your career are you most proud of? Of all the things you've done in your showbiz career, prior to your philanthropic... What was the most fun? The double whammy of doing Back to the Future and Family Ties was just, I mean, the fact that that happened, it was incredible to do both those things and to work with Bob Zemeckis and to work with Gary Goldberg, who's passed away since then. The next thing you know, it's the 60s, you turn around, there's a women's movement.

I was born too late, Dad. I should have been born in the 50s. Even then, you'd be a little on the conservative side. The 1750s. Do your kids watch? Did they watch? No, they didn't. Nothing? No, I mean, I don't know.

I don't know. My son must have been like 18 before he started Back to the Future. But my son, like, I mean, imagine. I was talking about this before to somebody, to you, about my kids. I can't imagine what it was like. I grew up in Canada. My dad was in the military. My mom was a payroll clerk.

I made strange enough money to get her to let me play hockey. And I went to a school for at-risk kids. I just had a normal life. Then my kids grew up in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, went to private schools, went to great universities, and had famous parents. Their experience is different. So different.

But they seem to like me. How were you discovered? I did a movie in Canada with Art Carney and Warren Staple. I worked a lot in Canada doing kid stuff. And I did this American movie. And they went down to the States. And I started to get calls from agents in the States based on what the producers and others had said about me, about this kid in Canada, who, by the way, and this was no small part of it, was 18, or almost 18, but looked 13.

And so it became easy to get me visas because I was valuable and that I could help them avoid child labor laws. Wow, that's amazing. Oh, that is interesting. And he gave me a leg up. Did your parents think you were insane coming from that background? Of course I was insane anyway. I was crazy.

I was as tall as this bottle. Let the record show he's pointing to a pole. You're running around spouting out all those conservative Reagan views. I've always been a lefty, so it's just... This has been an interesting part of my journey, too, being a poster boy for an ideology I didn't really subscribe to. Is it true that they wanted... People always say I look like him.

Matthew Broderick? Matthew Broderick for the role of Alex P. Keaton. Yeah, he wanted Matthew and he, Gary, he didn't want to, I came in and read for him. I was the first guy that read for the part. And it was good material and I had a take on it. But this guy was kind of a smart ass. And Gary hated me, just hated me. And so for the next month, Judith Wiener And Gary hated me, just hated me.

And so for the next month, Judith Wiener, the casting director, really wanted me to go back. I wanted Gary to see me again. And Gary said, like, Judith, I'm a grown man. I know what I like. I know what I don't like. And I don't like this kid. I don't think he's good.

I don't want to see him. I want Matthew. And we can't get Matthew. We get somebody else. And so finally she prevailed on him. Well, I couldn't find anybody to just give me one shot. So I came in, and for some reason just that day, I mean, you know what it's like,

just that day the shit was happening, and I just was in the pocket. And he became my champion right away. And he, this is kind of a funny story. He went to the network and went to bat for me to get me on the show. I did the pilot, and it went really well, and it was really Alex-centric. And so right away you could kind of see where this character could go. But the network, Warren Littlefield, Brandon Tartikoff, didn't like me.

And now Gary was in there, she was in there the foot, Gary was saying, this guy's great, this kid's great. And he said, I give him two jokes, he gives me three laughs. And that was his argument. And Brandon said,

I can't see his face on a lunchbox. And Gary said, so that's the criteria. He has to look good on a lunchbox. So to Brandon's credit, when Back to the Future hit, and Family Ties was the number two show in the country, and Back to the Future was the number one movie, and Teen Wolf was the number two movie, he caught it.

He said, you know how stupid I am. I said, Michael Fox never looked good in a lunchbox. So I had a lunchbox made with my picture on it, and I signed it to Brandon, this is for you to put your crow in. But Brandon also thought that Seinfeld was too Jewish, I think, and was also poo-pooed Seinfeld. You thought maybe he would have learned.

But he was a great guy. To his credit, he put that down on his desk and kept it. That's awesome it did you have a Michael J. Fox lunchbox peri-o no I just had posters all over my room

posters yeah he had a fantastic four lunchbox other than the ceilings of a lot of there's a comic here by the way that made out

with your poster oh really yeah our very own Rachel Feinstein who was on the Tonight Show why didn't we get her on the show

we tried to but she's in Aruba with Aruba Ray so back to the future I was flipping through the channels the otherinstein who was on The Tonight Show why didn't we get her on the show we tried to but she's in Aruba with Aruba Ray so back to the future I was flipping through the channels the other day and it was on by the way

it holds up I think it's kind of like The Wizard of Oz I think they're going to watch it 100 years from now I was related to that The Wizard of Oz I remember like

The Wizard of Oz before there was viewing platforms and cable TV and direct TV and all the stuff we have now like they played it every year Thanksgiving or Christmas or something yeah something like that viewing platforms and cable TV and direct TV and all the stuff we have now.

They played it every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas or something? Yeah, something like that, yeah. And that's the only time you saw it, so you waited to see it. And then it went all the way through my teenage years when then I started to match it up with The Dark Side of the Moon and do that. But yeah, that's the thing. Kids really love it. And it's strange because we're now,

well, you know, we passed the time when we went to the future. That was like a big event a few years ago. And people are still crazy about it. I mean, when I go to the airport, there's like 30 people with hoverboards and I don't know how they figure out what flight I'm on. I mean, I'll book a flight at 4 o'clock for 5 o'clock, and I'll get there quarter to 5, and there'll be 20 people there

with out-of-time license plates. It's just people. It's magical. It's one of those things. I try to make a joke about how in all movies about time travel, the guy who invents a time machine, it's always far and away his best invention. Yeah.

You know, like he's got something to keep coffee hot. You know, maybe like, you know what I'm saying? Like everything else is, he's bent time and space, but every other invention kind of sucks. Yeah. It never got laughs either at the club. Give him a laugh, Mike. But what did Dr. Brown...

I didn't get to ask my question. So you actually play the guitar? Yeah. That's what I... Because it looked like in the Johnny B. Goode scene that you're actually playing the guitar. When I came on to the movie, there was another actor who did the role

for about five weeks before they brought me in. And so a lot of stuff was shot and a lot of stuff was recorded. That was all recorded. and that track existed. But I said to them, I said, you know, just when you're shooting this, just so you know, I can play this, so you can shoot my hands. And so that kind of went both ways because it said, like, I'll do this, and I'll play the notes, but be on my hands at the right time, like when the right notes are playing.

All right. But Dean Cundy was a brilliant photographer. And they got it. And I worked with this choreographer who was Madonna's choreographer at the time. I don't know how many. She probably went through a lot of choreographers. But he was great, this guy. I wish I could remember his name.

And we went through it. He said, what do you want to do here? And I said, I'd like to maybe just go through all my guitar heroes. Just go through Townsend and Page and Chuck Berry, of course. And I was sensitive to the fact that I, I mean, I had some feelings about a white kid showing, inventing rock and roll. I mean, it was a little touch and go for me.

He didn't invent it. You got it from Chuck Barry and then you went back in time and gave it back to him. Johnny Leland. Chuck, Chuck, it's Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Barry. You know that new sound you're looking for? Well, listen to this.

Yeah, but, but, it's just, I mean, yeah. I hear what you're saying. It's totally, there was no bad intent behind it it was just one of those things today it might actually have been controversial

that's just what you're saying it might have been I mean and it wasn't intended to be controversial and so that's why I put into the

thing that it was all these guitar heroes Jimi Hendrix and who did we do we did Townsend we did

Van Halen, we did, I went through a list of them and we worked it all in and it was just so much fun and to this day I play, it's a medley of my hit. I played it at our benefit every year. I play it with whoever guests we have.

I play it with Chris Martin and Brad Paisley and Dave Matthews. That was the year I was there was Dave Matthews. Dave Matthews. We did it all on the watchtower. Awesome. That's cool. Go ahead. Noam's a very accomplished guitarist.

Whatever, whatever. Well, there's a lot of guitarists here. Yeah, a lot of guitarists. Yeah, because Noam, he likes to play every... Is that an extra... That's my father's 1950s Gibson Birdland that he played. That's gorgeous. They do have music here every Friday night Noam plays.

And I'm sure Noam would comp your kebab. Half price. Half price. I don't drink, so you have to diet Cokes for $3 a year. You want a Pepsi free? No, seriously. More recently, I'm remiss not to tell you how fantastic I thought you were on the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. Oh, thank you.

That was really one of the great episodes of Curb, of which there were many. You know what was great about that show was not so much me. I mean, I love the kid. The kid with the sewing machine. He laid a Nazi uniform. Can you get me one? A swastika? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think Jews would like that. Get a wife, Jews!

Okay. It was so fun. You were so funny. That was really fun. It was great because you could were so funny. That was really fun. It was great because you literally do anything. And then that improv vibe, I didn't know how real it was. I didn't know whether they called it improv and Larry just gave you lines, which he did, but he just gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. That part where he drew a Hitler mustache.

On my father-in-law. Was that a real magazine cover of your father-in-law? Yeah, my father-in-law. This is fishing, but you were at the same time walking kind of the same earth. Did you know Michael Jackson? Do you have experiences with him during that height of his? I met Michael Jackson a Were you, do you have experiences with him during that height of his? I met Michael Jackson a few times.

I didn't, I met him one time and I went to his house to meet him and he, he, I got very quickly, he was lovely

and he was really nice and welcoming but he, he just bought the Beatles catalog, Northern Songs catalog. And I wanted to talk to him about that. I mean, how do you buy the Beatles catalog?

Out from under Paul McCartney, yeah. Out from under Paul McCartney. I mean, it was just such a ballsy movement. It was so canny. And we didn't talk about that. We talked about his giraffe. His giraffe? Why does he into animals? He was sweet.

I mean, I know all this stuff about him that has been revealed and talked about, and I can't speak to that. But then later on I referred to, in an interview I did the other day, one time I was walking through we were at a Pepsi convention in Hawaii and I walked by him and he was

standing in bubbles and I just kind of said hey Mike hey bubbles and I walked by him and

said that was weird what else Dan what else well you mentioned one of your kids wants to be in show

business wants to be a producer. Yeah. And how do you feel about a kid following in your footsteps in show business? Well, I mean, a lot of my kids want to be entertainers. I have one daughter who is a pretty accomplished ballerina, and she went to college on the strength of that and other things. I mean, she was a good student. And my youngest is, she's like the future president of the United States.

I don't know, she can do anything she wants to do. And all my kids are like that. And my son, he did that kind of millennial thing where he had like nine careers in five years and then decided he wanted to get involved in independent film, so he went to work at an agency and is going up through the ranks there. And so we'll see what he does. Is a Fox name helping him at all or not really? Don't hurt.

I don't think he puts that in his arsenal. I don't think he leads with that. He was a good student and went to a good school and is a good guy and smart and funny. Like I say, he's taller than me,

better looking than me, and smarter than me. So I did my job in the Darwinian chain. I gave him just enough and my wife gave him all the good stuff and he's doing great.

Noam, would you say that about your children that your wife gave them all the good stuff? That's my wife, by the way. That's your wife over there. I always say anything good is my wife's fault. That's the right thing to say.

I don't know. I do know the following, that a lot of times the children of very, very talented people are actually also very, very talented people and sometimes people want to think that they're not very, very talented people are actually also very, very talented people. And sometimes people want to think that they're not just because you're dead. But no, they're actually talented because it's passed down quite often, I believe. It goes back to when you asked me about it when my kids watched the shows and stuff.

They didn't really, and they didn't express much interest in it. And I always took that as a compliment because they didn't want to know that part of me that wasn't important to them. It didn't relate. Who I was to other people was secondary to them to who I was to them. That's so interesting. Like, you're just their dad. Yeah, I mean, some of them are like,

your dad was a great man. It's like, look at him like right right right well my kids I mean obviously I'm not famous or anything but you know my kids don't care at all about

anything that goes on at the comedy cellar until one thing happened Ant-Man showed up when Ant-Man came to the comedy cellar with Jeff Ross right

now daddy's important Ant-Man was at the club but other than that Paul Rudd showed up. Other than that, they couldn't care less. Paul Rudd is cool. That was,

their dad did something. Yep, sweetheart. If you want to talk, you can get a mic. She's not that technically inclined. This is hot wife, right? Yeah. Do you still like that,

do you still, you know that song when you and Tracy on Family Ties that Do you still You know that song When you and Tracy On Family Ties That you know The Billy Bear and the Beaters That song drives us crazy Do you like

Or you can't stand Listening to it There was a time There was a time We couldn't walk into A bar or a restaurant We didn't stop Whatever they were doing

And play that song And it just It just grew to haunt us And it's a lovely song, but it's the 137th listening. It doesn't hold up. Billy Verne and the Beatles are a great band.

Well, that, I mean, they were made, I guess, by that, by their association with you and Tracy and with that scene. I knew them before they did that song and before we were associated with it.

I knew them from just the bars in L.A. They were just a great band you'd go and listen to. And they were in that movie Blind Date with Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. I remember they did a scene there. Yeah, they were good. But it drove me crazy. I'd hear it in my sleep I do have it on my phone but I will refrain

from playing it although I still like it but I haven't heard it as many times people don't play it when I walk into a room that's your ringtone? no but what's ahead in terms of your foundation if we can get back to that topic?

We're doing – we're forcing ahead. We've just got a couple of drugs through the FDA, which is a big thing for us. We've worked with drug companies for years in trying to get them to de-risk. We de-risk things for them. We say, this compound we want you to look at. They say, we don't have any interest in Parkinson's per se, or they may not have a program for it. We'll say, we'll fund it.

We'll fund it early on. And if you get follow-on funding and you find something, great. And just promise us you'll share what you get through that follow-on funding. And that happened several times, and we've had big breakthroughs with that. We're also looking we put a lot of money into finding a biomarker which is a way to identify the disease before symptoms are evident. Because

by the time my pinky twitched in 1991 in McEnope, Florida when I was doing Doc Hollywood by the time that happened 70% of the dopamine producing cells in my brain were already dead. So we don't have a way to identify the disease before us, but we're getting close to that,

and therefore finding a way to treat it prophylactically so that we know you may be fine, you're a 20-year-old man, you're in good shape, but we know you're going to get Parkinson's because we've got the biomarkers, and now we can treat you with it. We can target drugs to treat that and it may not be a cure, but it'll never progress and you'll never have symptoms. Well, in your case, was it just bad luck or was there any genetic predisposition? If we're going to look at young people and try to see if they might be susceptible to this,

do we target specifically people with family history? Some of the things we've done as a foundation is we've helped identify genes for the first time. There was a hunch that genetics loaded the gun and the environment pulled the trigger. In other words, you were predisposed and certain factors became evident and became acted on your pre-existing condition. But that was just

a theory. We've now found genes, several genes that are directed. There's one particularly that I called LART2. I can't think of what the acronym is for off the top of my head, but it's identified with Ashkenazi Jews.

And so we now can go into the Ashkenazi population and solicit them for testing. And we have a huge data bank that didn't exist before we came into existence. We have a huge through this biomarker

initiative that we have and through registry of patients, and a thing we have called Fox Insight where people share their experience in a way, in a narrative that explains what each individual situation is. Because Parkinson's is very different with different patients. Everyone has their own experience. So we collect all this data and make it available to anybody who wants to access it, any scientists, and we get a tremendous understanding of different patient populations. We've now realized that there are certain things,

like if you have a lack of sense of smell, your sense of smell is diminished. That's an indicator. Now, what you're giving me is hypochondriacal fodder. Unfortunately. Well, because sometimes, like, I feel maybe I'll smell something that's not there, and I'll run to the computer and say,

smell not there, and it'll say you're dying. But you know how that goes. I'm a hypochondriac. But you're from Western Canada, so you don't know anything about that. As I say, I don't have a doctorate in the family, but I have the next best thing in my wife is a hypochondriac. you're from western Canada so you don't know anything about that as I say I don't have a doctorate of family but I have the next best thing in my wife is a hypochondriac

well she's an Ashkenazi Jew from the east coast yes exactly and she can diagnose she can diagnose a disease I mean like weird stuff

like you have all those muscle spasms or something she'll do like she can just look at what you have

and say you're gonna die what you're going to die. What can we do to help? I don't know why. I've done my part. I performed at his fundraiser. Can we do a night at the Comedy Cellar we donate to your foundation or something like that?

That'd be great. I would love to do that. If you have somebody contact us, we'd be happy to do that. We'll take a show. For us, what's really great is just to have people aware of what we're doing. And the broader message we have is that beyond just Parkinson's, we're really in the forefront of private disease foundations, of pushing the envelope of how this is done.

I mean, when we started, we had Kitty Hawk, and we're trying to build a space shuttle. And so it's been a long journey, but it has interest to anybody who cares about MS, ALS, Huntington's, any of these neurological diseases. Because if we crack one, it's going to be like dominoes. So where can people go to learn more? Just go to MichaelJFox.org.

Perfect. Thank you so much. We're done? Okay. Unless anybody has any closing remarks? No, I'm just, you know, this can sound corny, and you'll probably hear this, but I can't help it. I'm feeling just very very inspired by you

and the way you control your psychology really to move on I take inspiration from that my own stupid problems and I really appreciate you coming I'm aware of your problems and they're not stupid they're interesting

you've met one of them but I got 99 problems but she's not one she's not one Noam's problem is he's got Noam's biggest problem is he's got so many

reservations and he can't figure out how to cram more people into less space at the comedy cellar alright he's been very blessed Noam Dorman

is what I'm trying to say but we honestly would be very happy to take a show with a comic seller we did something together with

at the gallery right with Muhammad with Muhammad Ali which you said is one of your favorite pictures yeah Mark Schauser's picture

of me with Muhammad Ali is just amazing this is by the way your life is like dark Hollywood you came in all brash and young and

and and then you know you, you were, right? In dark Hollywood, you kind of were all, missed a big shot. You wanted to be a plastic surgeon. Then you realized what was really important. Yeah. I don't know if that. Sleeping with a girl in the country.

Pardon? Sleeping with a country girl from North Carolina. That's what he did. He met a girl. So it was just, he just, he was converted by it. He was converted into country living. Okay, Mrs. Owens, if you could please get up on the table and put your feet in the stirrups. We're just here about our mail.

It's from my sister. We don't read. Did you ever see that movie, Noah? I haven't seen that movie. It's Winchester from MASH is in it. But he doesn't have that weird accent. It's very disconcerting. It is a southern accent. Yeah, but I don't know how he talks in real life. He's one of Stutter. It's Winchester from MASH is in it. But he doesn't have that weird accent. It's very disconcerting. It is a southern accent.

Yeah, but I don't know how he talks in real life. He's the one who stuttered. He's passed away. He was the one in MASH that was like, thank you, no. Yeah, he played a role in an old Mary Tyler Moore show, too, where he stuttered. He played the network executive. It's jarring to see him as that, too. It's just weird to see him without that accent.

Anyway, Michael, thank you. I can't believe you showed up. I'll be honest with you. I sent him a text, and I said he'll never get back to me. Since you did our show, I've been wanting to get together. Well, you know, obviously you can come here. I mean, Noam's a club owner, but I can speak on his behalf in this case. At any time, you and your son and any member of the Fox family wants to come down here for a show obviously they're

welcome. I had to make sure my passport was up to date before I came this far down. And hummus half off. All right. All right.

Thank you sir. Good night everybody. Good night.