The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - MythBusters with Adam Savage

Episode Date: May 10, 2019

Adam Savage and Rick Crom

You're listening to The Comedy Cellar, live from the table, on the Riotcast Network, riotcast.com. I don't know. I don't know. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Comedy Cellar Show here on Sirius XM Channel 99, the comedy channel. We're here actually from the Sirius studios as opposed to our regular digs at the back table of the Comedy Cellar. We're here with Mr. Dan Natterman. Made the trip here to Midtown. Go ahead. You continue. You continue the intro, Dan. Well, we are at Sirius because we've decided to do some shows now and again at Sirius

because that gives us access to guests that we might not get at the Olive Tree. We have coming up today Adam Savage, the host of Mythbusters. Yes, and he has a show coming out called Savage Builds on the Science Channel

and he'll be coming in later we have with us, once again he was here recently with us and he's back, Mr. Rick Crone Hello everybody, out in Radioland how do I sound? Well, very radio-like Do I sound very radio-like?

With a head cold and a sinus infection, I'm here. And Perry L. Ashton Brand, our producer, and I don't know if she's an official co-host, but she seems to be playing that role. Horning my way in. Anyway, Rick... Weaseling your way onto the show, is it? Yes, sir. Rick, you... Weaseling your way onto the show, is it? Yes, sir.

Rick, you, as our regular listeners know, you are the musical comedy guy at the Comedy Cell. We only have one. We only have one anymore. I think. Is there anybody else that sings? John Joseph. That's true.

John Joseph, yes. John Joseph sings. If you want to call it that musical. But go ahead. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Kyle Dunnigan also, I think, sings when he's in town, but he's not usually in town.

Kyle's excellent, actually. Every once in a while. But Rick is our only... I did, I was in Las Vegas, I think, with Kyle,

and we, and he sang. At the... He did a little something. At the Comedy Cellar Vegas Club. I believe so. Now, Rick,

I did too. As a musical comedy guy, I wanted to ask you what you thought of Adam Sandler's SNL tribute to Chris Farley. I assume you saw it. Loved it.

Thought it was very sweet. And I thought it was a good thing to have him on the show with the clips and everything like that. And I don't know. I thought it was. Did you hear it now? Yeah, I heard it. I've heard a couple of years ago, actually. I saw him.

That song's old. Yeah, I heard him do it at Carnegie Hall when Judd Apatow presents a show at Carnegie Hall. It had to be on two years ago. Oh, I thought it was written. He wrote it for SNL, but in either case, I guess it doesn't matter. Yeah, I thought it was branded, too. I think I had heard it before, too,

but I never saw it with all those clips and stuff behind it. It's amazing. Chris Folley's been dead for like 20 years. It's just a staggering amount of time for the people for a lot of the listeners of SNL that he might as well have been talking about JFK in terms of I mean people are remembering where you were when they died well no in terms of the fact that it's so long ago it's a it's a probably little relevance to a lot of grassy a lot of people a lot a lot of college students that watch snl to them chris farley is is a name

is the top of this the microphone or is it the side like a uh straight into it straight into it like this is like a cheaper uh straight into it like this yeah no you're trying to sing if you were singing you want to go to the side because you're a musician yeah i'm used to singing go ahead go ahead but uh anyway uh anyway, I had a question. Something I think about sometimes. You know, Rick, you do musical comedy. I mean, songs that are funny. I do songs, yeah.

Adam Sandler does songs that are funny. Yes. Has anybody ever done a song that's legitimately funny that ever became a hit on the radio, that ever became a legitimate pop song hit? Sure. Ray Stevens had, remember he had The Streak. The Streak.

And he had that, oh, he had a couple of them too. And then, what's his name? Jim Stafford had My Girl Bill and Short People got Randy Newman.

Randy Newman. Yeah, Short People. But you didn't laugh at Short People. You smiled, but you weren't laughing. No, it wasn't a joke.

Maybe a little bit. What's the matter you? God or no respect? Shut up with your face. Remember that one? Yeah. And also, But you weren't laughing. No, it wasn't a joke. Maybe a little bit. What's the matter you? God, I don't know. Respect. Shut up with your face. Remember that one? Yeah. And also, there was a thing called Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette from the 60s.

Ringo Starr had No, No, No, No, I Don't Smoke It No More. Oh, I don't know that one. There's a lot of them, Dan. And there's always in the 60s as well. Weird Al Yankovic. Alan Sherman. Hello, Mata. Hello, Fata. That was a big pop hit. of them did and there's always in the weirdo yankovic in the uh alan sherman hello mata hello father that was a big pop hit uh also also that was quirky but not funny it didn't you didn't you

weren't sure it was laughing alvin and the chipmunks the audience well that's a novelty song not a comedy song yeah right but uh alan sherman had it and there was also another one called i'm coming to take me away aha oh haha to the funny farm where life is gay i can't remember the name of the guy is that uh the guy who did it right go ahead but no but i mean in terms of a joke song those come closest and also um uh oh i just i had another one in my head but it's it's gone now i think it would have been great if not only... Adam Sandler's song was very poignant and very sweet, but I thought, wouldn't it have been great

if melodically it was just killer? Like at the level of, like, Candle in the Wind, you know? You know, I don't know if he writes to that complicated level, although I think some of the short songs he did in his last Netflix special were really kind of complicated, but they're very short. Did you see his last special? Yeah. Well, he was doing Springsteen.

It was a Springsteen-esque song. Even the way he was singing was very Springsteen. Yeah, well, he's a big fan. Very affecting, right? I mean, it's moving, and he's good. Adam Sandler, it was legitimate on every level, including musical. It was a very sweet, moving song, I thought. I mean, that seemed to be the general consensus.

No, I think it's talking about something else. You're talking about the Farley song it the Farley Is no we're talking I thought he was talking about something on his special that I'm just talking about the Complicated how complicated he gets in his writing, but but the Farley song was a kind of a simple Springsteen s kind of song So I did love opera man, though That was another musical highlight on the show. Well, I hope Lou can cut some of that in here to spice this up.

Well, let's go. I play in the golf and they take it to fall. A trumper duffer, trumper duffer, they are playing to impeach. I get to make the wall. Putin makes me his beach. Noam has a troubling habit of minimizing our talk about the comedy world, which a lot of people find quite interesting. And I think it's- You're probably right. And our feedback has been, in general,

that they enjoy the combination both of comedy talk and of Noam's political obsession of the week, which we'll hopefully have time to get to before Adam's done. I don't have one. Go ahead. You usually do. By the way, Jimmy Kimmel's new room opened up in Vegas. Oh, that'll cheer me up.

Go ahead. Well, I was wondering if anybody's had any intelligence on what's going on over there, how it might be affecting the Comedy Cellar Vegas room. I think the fact that our business has been gutted is actually a coincidence. I don't know. I think it's too soon to tell. Isn't it supposed to be good like if another restaurant opens up on the same block? It can be or it might not be.

You just don't know. You just don't know. I mean, if you have a pizzeria and a pizzeria opens next door to you, it's probably not good. Especially if you have a line out the door, in which case people would say, fuck it, I don't want to wait in line. let me just go to the pizzeria next door um it's true that sometimes uh you open a store and then another store opens like in another store and then it becomes like a center like 48th street where we are now the ruins of 48th street used to be where all the music stores were so if you want it so that probably benefited all those stores at the time. Oh, sure.

But there's no guarantees. Is it on the same block? Is it on? No, Kimmel's is on the strip, and the seller is sort of off. Why don't you give them directions, Dan? No, Kimmel's conveniently located. There's a concept of everything Supply and demand And I'm not sure Where we are on that curve

Well also I think there are In my experience The one time I was out in Vegas For the week Is that There's so many locals

Who will come to the Rio That Where the cellar is At the Rio Yeah at the Rio Which is off the strip That don't want to Deal with the hassle

Of going to the strip So I think we're getting A hassle of going to the strip. So I think we're getting a lot of business from the locals. Well, also, it comes to my attention that the Jimmy Kimmel Club is not doing the format that the Comedy Cellar is doing. I thought that they were going to. But the Comedy Cellar does a showcase format where everybody does 15 minutes. And as I understand it, the Kimmel Club, true or false, is doing a head a headliner type show where you got one guy for 45 minutes to win out whatever it is and then a couple of openers well they seem to be doing headlining shows now I think I think they're still in their soft opening and frankly the whole

subject makes me so so sick to my stomach it's good no but I think is good listening for the but that's not because let's talk about it. I'm sick to your stomach is good listening. But that's not because of... Let's talk about it. That you're sick to your stomach. I can't talk about it because I have a... I'm not allowed to talk about it. He's not going to talk about it. Okay. It's not the...

I have no problem with Kimmel opening. That's not what... Well, I think I know what the problem is, and unfortunately we can't go there. Well, I don't know anything. Can I guess and you can I'll blink twice for no Am I free to express a hypothesis on the radio?

No Yeah I'm not free to express a hypothesis No Listen Just from There's a lot of business angst that it's causing And a lot of kind of hard feelings that it's causing But it's alright And a lot of uh kind of hard feelings that it's causing but it's all right

and not just with me okay well uh but the good news is is things seem to be booming at the comedy cellar room in vegas as of now well i wasn't kidding we had a slow saturday uh the week that they opened but i actually i don't think that was the reason because i went online and i could you can tell you know from their seating the ticket master thing how many the week that they opened, but I actually, I don't think that was the reason because I went online and I could, you can tell, you know, from their seating,

the Ticketmaster thing, how many seats are available and they weren't, they were very light as well. So. the good news is, is I'll be there in June. Well,

then we'll have at least that good week when you're there. Which, by the way, I'll be there late June. I think I'm there with Dove Davidoff.

I don't know if you want to do a, if you want to come out and do a an episode of Live from the table out there Idea you don't have a remote setup you can Yeah, we were taught we've been talking about going to LA for a while what week are you in June I will check okay, we don't have to do this is a hard months for me because I have to to my kids birthdays are hard months for me because two of my kids' birthdays

are within a couple weeks and my daughter has her piano recital. You really take this parenting stuff serious. Yeah. Well, I know. Is it more exhausting parenthood than you thought it would be? No, no, not at all.

It actually gives me energy. Well, Noam loves it. He's the only one by the way i speak to parents and they all say look it's hard i love the kid it's hard noam's the only unequivocal this is great that i know and i think it's because uh noam has a certain financial freedom uh to to right to the money aren't you course. Can't be that he's a very involved parent. Daniel Han Omar Natterman. I think that a lot of parents,

you know, when they try to balance... Because he is an older parent. He's not old by any means. Keep it up, then. Are you talking primarily to mothers or fathers in this scenario? Well, I'm not addressing fathers because Noam's a father.

He's not a mother. But I think mothers... He's been called a mother? Uh-huh. Where's my rim shot? Come on. But, you know, Noam's more settled in his career.

He's not trying to, you know, he's not trying to conquer the world. He's conquered the world. I think it's different if you talk to mothers or fathers, though.

Well, we're talking about fathers now. Well, I mean, but you can't make a statement like that. Oh, I certainly can. And I have. But I'm saying Noam doesn't have the pressure of trying to, you know, deal with, he doesn't have to go to work every day and get hollered at and then come home and there's kids there. Okay, well, I've read some of this stuff online, and actually one maybe even more common result of parents who have means is that they farm out the child rearing altogether to nannies and whatever it is and they can become even less involved in their parenting. But you're super involved.

Right. My point is that I don't know what Dan's saying is correct because a lot of parents who don't have financial issues which does not exactly make me you know that unique we're not you know we're not Rockefellers we just you know we're we're not worried day to day about going out to eat and stuff like that kids go to public schools but a lot of parents of means use those means to avoid spending the drudgery time or the mundane time with their kids. But I also think that, and this is not unequivocal, but mothers generally bear the brunt of doing a lot of the work that Dan is talking about. And fathers get to enjoy a lot of the other stuff with kids because you guys don't have to carry the actual babies.

Just say men are bad and we'll move on. No, I don't think they're bad. No, I'm kidding. They're terrible. I'm kidding you. Yes, it's true. Mothers traditionally are more involved in the rearing. We said last time

You I actually took my first Comedy class with you And I was pregnant Remember that You were pregnant At the time I was pregnant

Get your money back And And it was For the kid or for the class I was a mess Oh emotionally And bankrupt over here Didn't

Didn't live up to his Anyway go ahead The miracle worker Yes yes I'm just saying Well you were about to Say something now Oh, emotionally. And bankrupt over here. Didn't live up to his... Anyway, go ahead. The miracle worker. Yes, yes. I'm just saying. Well, you were about to say something, though, in response to Perrielle saying that the fathers usually do the fun stuff and the mothers...

No, so I'm just... I happen to like raising kids. Like, every single night, my kids wake me up in the middle of the night. Every single night, I'm traveling from bed to bed, sleeping with this one, sleeping with that one. And I know a lot of parents would find that intolerable. But I don't mind it.

Well, like I said, Noam is quite affectionate with the kids. And quite, I dare say, maternal in certain respects. Maternal? I don't want to question his masculinity. I don't think being maternal questions your masculinity. I remember, but it's a different time. I remember my father, the most affection that he got was five years old and there was a handshake. That is so not Jewish.

No, that's very German. Very German Irish. Yeah, that's not Jewish. No, it was just a very unaffectionate. Men couldn't touch each other. To see two politicians hug these days is nothing. But boy, if that would have happened in 1964, people would have lost their minds. Who shakes their five-year-old's hand?

It's definitely not a Jewish hand. That's not like something out of the Great Santini. I'm literally sorry for everything I've ever said about you. No. He's much more affectionate now. He's still alive. But that had to evolve. He probably wanted to be affectionate.

He didn't know how to be. He did. And all the men at that time weren't really allowed to. Right. You know, there was a big brouhaha when John Kennedy was killed and Walter Cronkite shed a tear.

It was like, oh, my God. Men can't cry? Muskie got driven out of the 72 election because he cried about something. That's terrible. John Boehner would blubbering every day. That was a different time. Yes, but it's true. Men are allowed more to be now to be more okay but

but so you know somewhere between shedding a tear which i also think is a nothing but that that yeah i get men were not supposed to cry but the idea that men were shaking hands with their children oh yes that's not typical there you go slugger well it's better than a salute. Like in The Sound of Music. Right. How suit you, papa. Yes. Were they like that with their daughters also, or was it just because... I don't know if Rick has any sisters. I have one sister.

Well, I knew that Rick did have a sister. No, I actually didn't know that. No, but I had friends with sisters. Did your father shake her hand as well? No, no. No, you could dote on the girls. You could dote on the girls. Yeah, sure. had friends with sisters. Did your father shake her hand as well? No, no. No, you could dote on the girls. You could dote on the girls. Yeah, sure.

That's fucked up. Daddy's little girl. She's the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold. She's daddy's little girl to have and hold. Sugar and spice and everything nice. Is daddy's little girl. You know that song? I do know that song.

Did your mother kiss you? Yes. All right. Not full on in the mouth. Not with tongue? No. No. That was in the South, but we were in Chicago.

Surely, Noam, you must have, at the risk of changing the subject too abruptly, but I don't want to deprive you of your political obsession of the week. Surely you must have one. Every week you have something that is really sticking in your craw. This has not been a hot week for me in politics. I'm kind of over all the theatrics going back and forth. I'm waiting to see. The next thing that's going to really interest me is when Mueller testifies.

Yeah, Noam has a deep, deep interest in the Mueller report. Yeah, I'm very unique in the nation, though. Well, but you're unique in the degree to which you analyze and deep. I think most Americans, their opinion of the Mueller report is either no collusion or impeach now. That's sort of their level of understanding of it. You actually look, trying to analyze it and really look at it, which I think is

unusual. Most people, they know which side they're on and that's it. You're digging in and getting your hands all dirty and saying, well, hmm, how do I make sense of it? I'm trying to do my civic duty. Well, you're the only one. We have to vote on this. Nobody cares about the royal baby? No.

Not particularly, but if you like to discuss it. Did they decide what to name the royal baby? Yeah, his name is Archie. The only thing that I give a shit about is the fact that Meghan Markle is wearing a white dress the day after she gave birth, which is astonishing. I didn't know that was a faux pas. Why is that? When you said the royal baby, I really thought you meant Amy Schumer's baby. Well, that'll be coming soon, I believe.

No, she was born. Amy Schumer's baby was born? Yes. When? No one tells me these things. Well, it's on social media. You can't wear a white dress after you have a baby. But I want to talk about Amy Schumer's baby.

Okay, we're going to talk about it. I'm actually going to say. Because you're leaking? Yeah, because you're bleeding out like a stuck pig. Oh. You're wearing like an adult diaper basically for a week. Hmm. And she looks just.

The good news is that this baby, the royal baby, not the Schumer baby, but the royal baby, gives me a great segue for a joke I have about English names. I have a joke about certain names in England we don't have here in America, like Nigel and Clive. And Archie would be, we do have it here, but it's not as common. Archie Bunker. Archibald. Archibald.

So I have a joke about that, which now, I've always had trouble getting into it segue-wise. I usually had to ask, I usually waited until somebody in the audience was from England. I'll pretend I'm from England. You don't need to. I'm saying now I have a segue that is ready-made. And if we do the Comedy Cellar show, now it's somewhat topical. I don't know if you're supposed to announce to the audience that you're about to do a segue.

But what's the joke? Well, who cares about the joke i mean i don't know the joke is how like the most english name would be it's i don't know if it's a good the joke is like how like you know the most english name i've ever heard was tuppence middleton which is she's an actress and she was in an episode of black mirror and i said the only name more english than that would be that's a good joke. And people seem to laugh, more so than here. But I said it's a good joke. Yeah, that would be the most English joke, imagine, would be.

And here's my wife. Sounds like kind of rich. Sounds like a horse. Sounds like what? So according to Google, Amy Schumer's baby's name is Gene Attell Fisher. Is it really Attell Fisher? No. According to Google? No. You've got to be kidding me. That has to be a joke. It's not.

Did you know that? Yeah, I saw it on Instagram. Why Attell? And so somebody in the comments wrote, did she name him after Dave Attell, the comedian? And I'm thinking, no, she named the baby after a nuclear physicist named Attell. Obviously she named her she named the baby after like a nuclear physicist named Mattel

like obviously she named him did you learn that in Rick's class no sorry sorry she's peeling the onion of possibility

she's looking at other possibilities that was very funny that was a low blow I'm sorry I'm sorry well that is by the way

that is a particular category of joke that I find a little bit, I dare say, hack when a comedian will say my. Not for here. Not for here. But on stage. Just for real life. On stage when a comedian says, for example, you know, I was talking to my friend and he said so and so.

And I said, no. You know, like, I don't want to name an example. But you know how comedians will say, I was talking to somebody. And I said, so I'm going to Disneyland. I'm going to Disneyland. Oh, on vacation? No. And then they'll say, no.

And then they'll say what they're going for. So they're implying that the guy asked a stupid question. They're implying the guy asked a stupid question. But you can put that into any context. I disagree with you. I think that that's a funny premise for a joke. And in fact, there was a great Curb Your Enthusiasm episode about that entire thing about the survivor.

It's just been overdone, overcooked, and can apply to almost anything. You'd be talking to your friend and they say something stupid, and then you say, no, actually, it's blah, blah, blah. It's a perfectly fine comedy form. Is it overdone? Yes. It's overdone.

Isn't it called sarcasm? Sarcasm is, yeah. I mean, why not? Are you dismissing sarcasm in its entirety as a comedy form? I'm dismissing that particular construction as overdone and, I think, not worthy of high-level stand-up. Did you ever hear of...

No, I don't have anything to say. Vinnie Favorito. Did you ever hear of Vinnie? I don't know Mr. Vinnie Favorito. Favorito? His whole act was having that discussion. Somebody says something stupid, and he tells them off. And he becomes our voice.

He becomes everything you've ever wanted to say to a person who's done something stupid. And the audience rolls with laughter. Well, no, you have an opinion on that. No, no. On Peril's joke? On that construction. That wasn't a joke. I was just being sarcastic.

Sarcasm is funny. I think it can be hackneyed, but I don't like to describe things that way too much because truth is, if it's really, really funny, then it doesn't matter. My point was supposed to be that I give Amy Schumer a lot of credit, honestly, because she has, in stark contrast to the royal baby,

the picture that she posted feels much more realistic, and I think that it's important that we see that representation. I didn't see the picture. Let me say something about Amy. Wait, of women post-birth. Yes, I get it. They don't wear white dresses.

So you think it's more for show? I just think it's not really a healthy representation of, you've seen three babies come out, right? Yes, I've seen it. It's flashing through my head right now. It's really not that bad to see as long as you don't ever want to have sex with your wife again well I've heard that yes I've heard tell

but no listen this is what I think she's touching on and this is really a genius of Amy Amy managed to touch a nerve with like you know 40 of the population just by showing the female experience without uh uh makeup on it like showing childbirth what it's really like pregnancy was really like and this is an instance where men, where you really do have to be a woman to fully, like I can understand that.

But it's women have really felt that this was important to them. And I don't know that there's an analogy, an analogous experience that a man could have. Is there some man who could come along and really make us feel so good by just showing what it's really like to be a man? I don't think so. No, because we show what it's really like to be a man. We're not women by nature. You know, they're always supposed to be so pretty and they're made up and aren't they lovely? But men, we can be dirty and disgusting.

Well, if you believe the feminist line on being a man, men are supposed to be walking around like really trying to pretend that they're really masculine, trying to pretend that they're not vulnerable and trying not to cry and blah, blah, blah. But deep down,

we're all supposed to really feel those things and feel pressured by those things. So the question would be if a man came along and started to really show all those things,

would we feel, we'd tell him, shut up, right? We wouldn't feel liberated. And then he'd shake your five-year-old's hand. Hey, what are you trying to do to us?

Well, because we're really not, women really are like what Amy is presenting. Men are not. We don't show our, maybe we ideally should show our feelings, but we typically do not.

Just because you've been taught that you're not supposed to. Well, whatever the reason is. See, that's the thing. I said the feminist line because, well, actually, Amy, there's a famous documentary out now about how we're pressuring boys to be masculine. I can't think of the name of it offhand. Amy actually is the one who told me this scene, and it's really good.

But I didn't identify with it at all. I didn't have any of that upbringing. It's too late for you. No, I'm saying... But look at your boys. I wasn't pressured not to cry or not to have feelings and nor were any of my friends that i can recall i mean i i i guess some people are raised that way but i don't think that you look at your boys yeah and you don't see the same sensitivity and the same feelings that you see in your daughter what are you talking about i think that boys are

raised less so now that they're supposed to be a certain way i mean case in point no but but you know you're you're i'm rid of your mind you don't have you don't have to be Kreskin to figure that one out. Yeah, right. No, but you were raised not to be... Sorry, that's the Tonight Show theme. By the way, this is my ringtone. Don't change the subject.

The subject was... No, I think boys are raised with more sensitivity these days. Yes. But there is a certain thing called innate masculinity that comes from testosterone. And boys, you know, aren't raised, they don't come up as equally non-aggressive as women. Look, I drive home. I don't mean to interrupt you. I want to amplify what you're saying.

Yeah. I drive home. There are differences. We do have Adam coming in my way in just a second. I drive home every night. And at least once or twice a night, sometimes more than that, it's on a weekend. Somebody drives by me on the FDR or the New York Thruway at like 110 miles an hour. Like a fucking madman.

It is never a woman. Never, not once. Now, that is a perfectly valid, I think, that just drives an arrow through the heart of what they're trying to feed us about how men and women are the same. Just as any perusal of Backpage.com or Craigslist, the sexual pages, will show you. Have you spent a lot of time on the Backpage? I said perusal of backpage.com or or craigslist the sexual pages will show you have you spent a lot

of time on the back i said perusal isn't perusal by definition a quick glance whenever i'm on it he looks over my shoulder that's what it is the point is where where are the where are the ads after ads after ads after ads designed for women who want to get off in the next 20 minutes i mean it's just not well craigslist took them all off, but you're right. Which is not the same. Those are really filthy. I used to spend a lot of time reading those, the Craigslist essays.

Those are like really dirty. I think it's a disgrace that they took off the first place. Oh, I think Adam Savage just walked in. Adam! Hello! Hey! Yeah, I've known. Would you like to give in a proper introduction?

Adam Savage, MythBusters' Adam Savage is a Discovery Channel star and one of the most beloved figures in science and tech. The show received eight Emmy nominations. His new book, Every Tool's a Hammer, is available now wherever great books are sold. Well, thanks for bringing up that I've lost eight Emmys. You know what, Adam, I want to tell you something.

You're absolutely fucking right. And I didn't read this intro. She does the intros. I got that off your formal bio that was sent to me. He's the Susan Lucci of reality TV. I can take it. I mean, I know the guy has other things that you could have written. They sent that to me.

No, no. That's in my bio. That comes from my folks. I'm just giving you crap. Oh, okay. It was an honor just to be nominated. It was. Okay, but how many did you win?

None. Oh, zero. I'm kidding. The best part is getting over the burn at the party afterwards while you watch other famous people get drunk. Well, it's an honor to be nominated. That's cliched,

but that seems to be on theme for today. I, it's an honor to be nominated. That's cliched, but... That seems to be on theme for today. I think that's a myth, Dan. Good one. Have you seen Mythbusters, Nolan? I've seen it a few times. It's like the Snopes of... Well, it's like Snopes.

It's like the Snopes of television. If it's not on Fox News, I don't usually see it. But we do have one myth. I have only one myth I want to... Dan brought it up to me, and I want to ask you about it before. What about the myth of psychotherapy? He considers it a myth. Have you busted that one yet? I have.

My wife is a marriage and family therapist. My mother is a psychotherapist. I have been in therapy for a good portion of my life. I'm a huge believer in the talking cure. I think it does untold benefits to examine oneself. Okay, so this is my feeling about it. Maybe, should we go with this or not? So this is my feeling about it.

Tell him your feeling and he can... I've done a lot of therapy. Has it worked? Yeah, it helped when I was doing it. Now I'm a mess again, but when I was doing it... So to be subtle about it, I don't believe it's a myth that you feel better when you talk. Well, sure.

That's all there is to it. I believe it's a myth that there's much more to it than that. And that, as I've said, like if I came to your house and told you I was a plumber, within five minutes, you'd know I know nothing about a toilet.

And you could say the same thing about being a surgeon or many minutes. But I believe that most people, if I set up an office and I put on the right suit and tie, they could come to me for 10 years and they will never know I'm not actually a therapist. And they will feel better because I have some common sense and some empathy. And talking about yourself is therapeutic. So I can't barely even approach the premise that you've set up because it makes

so many assumptions about how to test the efficacy of therapy. I agree that it's a soft science, but I also know, I feel, I know in my bones and I know as an intellectual thinking human, that there is a landscape inside of us and it's a really variegated and bizarre landscape and that there's a lot to uncover by by exploring that variegated means it's like there's a lot like a variance to it is explaining to catch her up yeah i agree of course i i agree but but he's saying you don't need any he's saying the only expertise you need is empathy and logic to be a good therapist. It doesn't sound very empathetic to cut off a whole bunch of people's avenues towards self-discovery.

I think that's one for the guest. That was sophistry at its best. The point being that you could go to 10 different therapists from 10 different schools of therapy. I don't know. I'm sure it's been studied in some way. But 10 different people, 10 different therapies, 10 different schools. And each one will say that they were helped by this. Could be the same of the physical medical profession as well.

Sure. Well, there's a lot of, you know, like someone of those great Greek philosophers said that the physician's job is to humor the patient while nature cures him? There is something to that, you know, but then there are things which where it's not. But I've been saying on the air for a while that I think that medicine, I said this before all the AI stuff, that medicine can be replaced by computers quite well and computers can do most medical things much better. In theory, I don't necessarily disagree. disagree in practice i vehemently disagree well then explain to me why you hear so many stories of somebody who had to go to five or six or seven different doctors before he finally went to or she went to the one who actually actually knew what was wrong with them. Whereas if you could have just plugged those same symptoms into a database, a computer would be able to spit out every single statistical probability that fit,

and you could then check them off one at a time. But the fact is that doctors, there's probably like 20,000 illnesses and they can probably remember 3,000 of them. So you got to find someone who remembers one of your 3,000 illnesses. I certainly don't disagree with the construct you've just built, but again, it's almost purely anecdotal. No, I don't think it's anecdotal. Well, I mean... By the way, have you had any other interview like this?

This is your best one, right? This is the guy who blows up the car. No, no, no. I listened to another one of your... On the way in, I was trying to listen to a podcast that you're on and i and i you know it got into it very very slowly you know very and it was interesting but i said no no we we're not going to get into it slowly with this guy i have two things hey first of all your what you just said about the doctors and the thousand diseases was disturbingly accurate i mean that's actually really like a reasonable point well it's not anecdotal but of

course it is because i we have something with our with our doctors use computers no but it's true you could go to i mean in fact i just heard a story about somebody who had uterine cancer and it took her three years to get properly diagnosed however i don't think that you could be a therapist because i don't think you have enough empathy there's also a difference between diagnosis and treatment right obviously right so what you're talking about is is diagnosis in which absolutely large databases have large properly built databases that are carefully vetted by professionals to make sure we don't end up screwing things up are absolutely can do better than a than a human who has to remember all the latest medical research but that does not get

close to what what treatment can achieve when a doctor is working with a patient towards the best practices to heal it. Let's all be honest, though. When was the last time you went to the doctor and you hadn't already diagnosed yourself accurately through Google? I mean, it's coming to that. And the only thing that worries me about it is... Again, your question is so anecdotal,

I'm not sure that it proves a single point. This is your job. You're supposed to bust these myths. I mean, life is anecdotes until somebody takes it empirically. Well, the plural of anecdote is not evidence. The plural- Aha!

That's two, I guess. Can I ask you, I didn't see all the episodes of Mythbusters, but- That's reasonable. I haven't either. There's 280 of them. Were you host, did you host all of them were you host did you host

all of them yeah did you ever get what about the fact that human flesh tastes like chicken did you ever get um we never tested that one although we did jamie and i jamie and i were given honorary doctorates by an engineering university in the netherlands called the university of twent and they are one of the places that was growing meat cells in petri dishes and they could apparently grow meat cells from your own DNA if you wanted and Jamie said oh we should have them grow meat cells from your butt and then I would eat a hamburger made of cells from your butt and I said that's there's no way in hell we're going to do that that's the worst thing I could imagine.

No. Have you had the Impossible Burger? I have. I've had Impossible 1.0 and I just had some Impossible 2.0. It's fantastic.

I had the Impossible Burger. It's quite good, but there's something not right about it. You need bacon. So some people don't like the nose at the end of the bite.

There's a little bit of a scent. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the devil is in those burgers. How do you have something that tastes like meat that's not meat without help from dark forces? Well, it uses chemistry. It replicates the complex system of amino acids and chemicals that give meat its unique tastes and the ways in which it cooks and burns. There's something disturbing about it is what I'm getting.

Good. I think that's awesome. It does taste pretty, I wouldn't say 100% like meat, but very close. Can they take meat and make it taste like vegetables? No, but I don't think anybody might be able to. That wouldn't be the Impossible Burger. That would be just the Futility Burger.

Very good. So here's a question. Are you going to order some for your... Noam's a restaurateur. If there's a market for it. I think there is. So here's a question.

What percentage of myths would you say are explained by the fact that correlation is not causation? Is that the most profound creative did it because I mean yes correlation is not causation and correlation are not the same thing however correlation is a great place to start looking for causation right I mean it's the first place you would look so sure well it's it's bad it's bad science to conflate

them they also are inextricably linked. So then how do myths arise? Myths arise, I think, because we love a good story. We love a good, simple, easy to understand story. We like stories that are thrilling, which is often stories that confound our standard expectations. So if there's a weird explanation for something like, oh, it's ghosts or

uh you know uh it's got to be because uh i'm actually drunk a blank on some others but santa brought it yes we love a good story when there's creating good stories and the the the importance of science is to build good stories that are true that are also really fun to tell what about global warming? Where do you stand on global warming? When I hear the Silicon Valley execs talk about life extension, I'm not sure that's the limiting factor.

I think it's the biggest emergency approaching us right now. And I'm very, very scared every single day. Now, the wider people, now, according to you, all the science, and I guess, yeah, it's true, all the science seems to point in that direction. mean i guess the experts could be wrong but but what's more likely is that the non-experts are wrong yeah but why do people so steadfastly combat the notion of global

warming because they don't want to change the status quo because changes look resisting change is one of the most fundamental human traits there is. We hate change. We despise it. It's always unfamiliar. It's always upsetting. And humans want to keep things on an even keel. And this is not necessarily our best trait, but it is a deeply human trait, I think. But with global warming, there seems to be more to it than that. Well, there's money involved, too.

No, there's a lot of things. Yeah, there's cynicism and money way at the top of this whole debate. So here's the following things that go through my head when I hear global warming. I don't dispute the science. A is that I notice that there's wildly different predictions of the time horizon when this gets something that can't be compensated for with technology. Yes, inconvenience, when it gets to, and like, I guess it's probably not a fair depiction of her views, but she's characterized as saying 12 years AOC. I don't think she really said it was 12 years. And then other people say it's 100 years.

Number one, number two, many people, and I've actually looked into this and I haven't been able to find anything to refute it. Essentially, that if the United States fell off the earth, the carbon emissions from China and India alone would be enough to keep this, to make no difference, the fact that we fell off the earth, that the momentum is there anyway. And as a matter of fact, even though we're the ones that pulled out of that Paris Accord, we actually are decreasing our carbon every year while China is actually violating the Paris Accord. And so you say, well, what's going on here? What are we going to accomplish by upending our way of life? And then the final one is that there are some scientists who believe that there will be a technological way to take carbon out of the atmosphere. Yeah.

So you're skeptical of that. I think it's a poor plan. That's like my plan for retirement is to eventually get rich. That's a good plan. It's a terrible plan. Don't get me wrong. It was my plan, but it's not a plan that works. It's a terrible plan.

No, I've actually said something similar about the whole global warming thing that the typical conservative motto would be plan for the worst, hope for the best. Yes. Right. That is absolutely right. So I agree with that. Like, yeah, unless you're sure, well, you ought to be taking some steps.

But then the fact is, the other thing I mentioned comes up, which is, well, what can we actually do as the United States when these third world countries or second world countries are going full steam ahead? And there's also a falsity to it. And I've been saying this for a while. And then Steven Pinker wrote something about it. He said, well, it seems to me that if we really believe this, we'd be building and would have been building for the last, since Al Gore's movie came out,

as many nuclear power plants as we can per year, because that technology is with us. I don't disagree with that. Yeah. But as a layman, I say, well, are they really serious about this? Because if they were serious about this, why are they opposing nuclear energy? Like, you don't really believe it, do you? Because that's available now. Yeah, I mean, that's a cultural artifact of the no nukes movement, which I think was a bit wrongheaded back in the 70s,

because nuclear power has a much better record than we culturally naturally believe that it does. But to go back to your original thing. No, no, no, don't duck the nuclear one because I'm thinking if the technology exists now, it wouldn't mean changing our whole way of life. It would buy us all the time we need for these other renewable technologies to come online.

It would save civilization, which is in the balance. Yet they would prefer to what? Jump into unrealistic, probably unattainable goals, unattainable changes of life, go on to all that resistance. So yeah, cultural artifact, but this is the party of science, right? Build nuclear power plants

and leave me alone to drive to work every day like I want to. Yeah, I'm not sure that's possible. Why? I think we're going to burn this place up before too much longer. I'm saying anybody who's serious about global warming, really serious about it, as I analyze it, there's only one thing they should be doing when they get up in the morning, and that's advocating nuclear power. Because that is the only thing we have right

now which we know will work now we also have wind and solar which have been achieving fantastic fantastic uh they've been exceeding their marks in all the countries that are using them and yet we're diminishing our investment in the u.s that's ridiculous yeah but that no that that will help but that won't solve the problem we We don't have the battery technology. Not every place on Earth is able to, is fertile for that kind of technology. Some places don't have sun, some places don't have wind, some places don't have the land available for the farms. I'm not sure what you're advocating for. It sounds like what you're saying is if we're not doing nuclear power, then I'd just like to ignore this whole problem.

No, I'm saying if you're not advocating. Are you in accord with noam that nuclear power is so we should be really going oh i think we should totally i think we should be going for every last bit of power that we can get out of the earth that's not that that is not gasoline and fossil fuels i'm looking at as a businessman and there's a trend there and i say unless i can fix this trend i'm going to be broke in five years and one thing that i know will keep me open in five years is nuclear power. He's agreeing with you. And I'm saying, no, no, no, forget about that. There's other things which might help a little

bit. I'm not against the things that might help, but why am I going to put my attention there when this will work? Right, but this is a country where we're not even getting to the point of talking about what will work. Well, I agree with you on that. We're not even having that conversation. Yeah enough so it's so you basically we actually agree sure yeah um i have kids i want the planet to survive well i don't have kids but so i'm um

i wouldn't go as far as to say i'm indifferent, but... This is why we need a hot dog gun. Yeah, tell us about the hot dog gun. So I just finished work on a new show called Savage Builds for the Science Channel. It starts airing on June 12th. And one of the episodes, I brought in one of my old MythBuster co-hosts, Tori Bileci, and we enjoyed a food fight with a distance of 100 feet. And what's really fun when you shoot someone with a hot dog from 100 feet away. And I needed to use ketchup as the lubricant for the hot dog machine gun. What else would you use?

Is that the end of the hot dog covered in ketchup makes this perfect, hilarious little sphincter mark on Tori's chef whites. That's my hot dog story. I love it. With Savage Bills, we can expect all sorts of... While the world's burning up, That's my hot dog story. I love it. With Savage Bills, we can expect all sorts of... While the world's burning up, we have a hot dog. It's all absurd engineering with great scientists, engineers, and people that I love. So I went to the desert and enjoyed a Mad Max demolition derby with Simone Yatch, the queen of shitty robots, and my friend Laura Kampf.

In the very first episode of Savage Builds, with permission from Marvel, we made a suit of Iron Man armor out of 3D printed titanium. Wow. It is bulletproof. Does it fly? It does. It flies? It does. Wow. Are you an engineer by training anyone? I'm an engineer by...

Yes, but I've been trained while also being a TV host, so it is what it is. What's your major? I have a high school diploma, and I spent six months at NYU pretending to study acting. So you're just a brainy guy. I have the benefit of being totally untrained. Are you a Jewish man? Negative, but I'm from New York.

So am I an honorary Jew? Honorary, yes, like me. What part of New York? Well, West Village and then Sleepy Hollow. Is Savage your real last name? Savage is. That is such a good Irish name. What a blessing to be born with a last name like Savage.

Well, my kids were psyched about it too, because by the time they were 13, Savage had come back into the cultural lexicon as like Savage! So they were really psyched about that. It's way better than Dwarman or Natterman. Literally, you could bet on somebody's future based on those last names.

Well, we've got the great Randy Macho Man Savage. I don't know if that was his real name. Does a radio talk show host a Savage? Michael Savage. Like a nut job from the West Coast. Can we talk? We have a few more minutes about Every Tool. I'm getting the wrap-up sign.

Every Tool's a Hammer. That's your book that just came out? Yes, it came out yesterday. I was in Boston at the Wilbur Theater, and today I'm giving a reading at Barnes & Noble on Union Square. It is my first book, and it is a love letter to making and a permission slip to people to follow their secret thrill and explore the things that they're obsessed about. What's the significance of the title, Every Tool's a Hammer?

This is something an old colleague of mine, Mark Buck, used to say. And it's a joke. It's a joke among model makers that there's always a way you can horrifyingly misuse a tool. But I think it also reveals this love of the versatility of the tools that we'd use. I have thousands of tools in my workshop, and many of them get used for their original purpose, but most do not. And that is part of an evolution of a maker, and it's one of my favorite jokes about making. Why do you say permission slip? Permission slip because a lot of people, they watch the stuff that I do online.

They see the stuff I did on Mythbusters and they come and they say to me, I really wish that I've always wanted to mod my car. I've always wanted to make costumes. I've always wanted to do paper sculpture, but I never felt like the time was right. My hobbies, my personal hobbies of making costumes from movies that I like and props from films and television shows is a weird hobby i'm not making the world a better place by exploring that but diving into that is the engine of everything i've achieved in my life and i want everyone to enjoy that process of exploring the thing that they're obsessed with because i think it's going to make everyone better at what they do well there are these stories i can't think of them all. I guess Steve Jobs is one of those stories. These people who took a lot of-

We got a hard wrap-up signal, yeah. They dipped their toes in a lot of different things which kind of interested them. And then they ended up doing some synthesis of these things which changed the world.

And yeah, I find that fascinating. Like Steve Jobs talked about calligraphy and how he loved calligraphy. And then it turned out that was the reason for proportional fonts. Someone says to Steve Martin at the beginning of his career that he would eventually use everything he'd ever learned in the pursuit of stand-up comedy.

And he did. And for me, in the pursuit of making, I have used every skill I've ever learned, from acting to unicycling to whatever, knife sharpening. I want to go back and watch some Mythbusters. Which ones, what would be like a top three I should watch? Oh, man. You should watch the Alcatraz Escape from the first season.

It's pretty stunning. We did the most definitive breakdown of the fact that Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers probably made it. Like Papillon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They made a boat, and we proved that it was super possible to make it across the bay. I also, in the later seasons,

I think the second to last season, I got to fly to the edge of space in a U-2 spy plane. Wow! What? It was a pretty unbelievable experience to see the curvature of the Earth. I was looking at half of California

in one glance. He's a dreary dude, and this gets his pleasure now to tell us we have to stop. Okay, Luke. Well, Adam, I don't know if you're a fan of stand-up comedy, but... I am. I assume Noam will, you know, allow you to be a guest at the comedy show.

Oh, please, that would be terrific, terrific. I'll tell you what I really think. We're on West 3rd and McDougal Street. No, yes we are. McDougal, between West 3rd and Bleak. Yeah, please come down. I would love to. Please, please do. Absolutely. All right, that's it, Lou. Good night, everybody. Okay. McDougal between Western and Bleak. Please come down. I would love to. Please, please do.

All right, that's it, Lou. Good night, everybody. Okay, thank you guys.