The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Roy Wood Jr. & James Altucher

Episode Date: October 26, 2018

Roy Wood Jr. is a standup comedian and correspondent for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. James Altucher is a financier, former hedge fund manager, and author of 21 books. He is partial owner of the New York City comedy Club StandUp New York and is a standup comedian in his own right.

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 at The Comedy Cellar. My name is Noam Dorman. I'm here, of course, with my partner, Mr. Dan Natterman. Hello, Daniel. Hello. And right now, I guess at the table, you want to sit down, Stephen? Stephen can have a seat. Right now, I guess at the table, Mr. James Altucher is a financier,

former hedge fund manager, and author of 21 books. That's remarkable. He is partial owner. Do I have to say this? Yeah. He is partial owner of the New York City Comedy Club, Stand Up New York, and is a stand-up comedian in his own right. And I keep wanting to come see him perform, and I haven't done it yet.

And then we're going to be joined by Roy Wood. You're welcome anytime. We're going to be joined by Roy Wood in a few minutes. By the way, James also is a podcaster, as we are. And he's been getting – what's the name of your cast? It's called very originally The James Altucher Show. And he's been getting... What's the name of your cast? It's called, very originally, The James Altucher Show. And he's been getting some kick-ass guests. He should be an inspiration for us.

Who have... Noam Dorman is a kick-ass guest. You also had William Shatner recently. William Shatner, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So how do you get those guests? You know, if you ask a thousand people, ten say yes. Well, that's what Steven does.

He asks, like, one a week and then if they say no, he complains he couldn't get it. In 1,000 weeks, I'll eventually get somebody good. I have a great podcast producer who I think you met when you were there, and he literally sends about 100 emails a day. Oh. Like, we just booked Wyclef, and after a year of asking Wyclef to come on the podcast. So it's just persistence. Well, I discovered today that a person that I've been asking

for over a year is finally ready to come on the show. I don't want to give any name. I emailed you her information. Oh, Padma Lakshmi. Yes. Why can't I say that?

I don't know. In case she cancels, I don't want to get the hopes up of our audience. I went to a wedding with her in Iceland once. That's when I had to say it. With her?

Well, not with her. Was she on your arm? She was sitting a few seats down from me. It wasn't a crowded wedding. It was in Iceland. Is she as striking in person as one would believe?

She's definitely striking, yes. James, by the way, just broke up with his... You authorized me to bring this up. Yes. I saw a picture of James with his hot blonde,

and I said to myself, you know, it's definitely better to be a man in this world because, you know, Al Tucher, with all due respect... Just, my name is Al Tucher, so that gives me a leg up right there. Oh, like Chris Gethard.

I mean, you know, physically, Al Tucher is, you know, he's not a fashion model, nor am I, by the way. But this chick... Did you just... I thought I liked it. Did you just insult my looks? Did you just make it because

I look Jewish? Is that it? Is that what you're saying? Well, I guess so. But the point is he had a smoking hot chick that he broke up with. So this is the power of being a wealthy man. Well, I think also it's the power of when two people are together for a while and they're not necessarily elevating each other in the way you would want.

It's not like I'm 20 years old. I'm 50. I'm looking at the rest of my life. So you make decisions based on that. But the point is when you're a man, you don't have to be good looking. When you're a woman, unfortunately... What are you saying? I'm saying you're fine,

but you're not at the level that this young lady was. That's fair. I will say that. Dan, can I ask, what percentage of a man's attractiveness would you say comes down to how much money he has? Well, you know, I don't know. That's an interesting question. I don't know if it's that money itself is sexy. Because you seem to place a great deal of emphasis on James being rich

as opposed to him being a nice guy, personable, able to carry a conversation. We're friends. All those things matter. But obviously, well, that's an interesting question. I don't know if it's the money or it's the brains and initiative that it took to get that money that's sexy. So sometimes it's hard to parse that out. Anyway, Noam looks like he's... No, I'm listening to this.

It's hard work to work hard. You know, and so it builds character. You have a girlfriend now? We just broke up yesterday. Okay, so when you meet a girl, do you lead with your resume, hoping that'll interest her? Or do you try to play it down so you can see how you do when she's less knowledgeable about who you are? Follow the question, right? Here's the question.

Like you, for instance, when you meet somebody, they probably know right away, oh, it's Noam Dorman, he owns the Comedy Cellar. He's married, yeah, it's a hassle. It's the same thing. Like, you know, I had once, you know that book, The Rules, that was so popular in the 90s about dating? So I had the women who wrote The Rules on my podcast, and they said to me, try to date someone who doesn't know who you are. Like, don't date someone in media.

Don't date a fan or a reader. And I should follow that advice. I haven't yet followed that advice. I used to do that. I would meet a girl that I didn't know who I was or whatever it is. I think I was a customer or something like that. Yeah, so usually the people I speak to usually already know who I am. So that's kind of my problem with dating.

I should kind of seek out a different world. I'm not going to lie to you. It's going to be a little more challenging. No, no, you know what? I don't think he's right, by the way. I actually don't think he's right. And I think that you would not have any doubt in that way. I think women are, I mean, obviously there's shallow people

in all sexes, but I think for the most part, they meet a nice guy and you're personal and they like you and you make them laugh or whatever it is. They're not immediately thinking, well, how much money does he have?

Yeah, and also you could see usually by their past, who do they go out with? Why did they leave that person? There's a lot of evidence that people leave behind now. It's not like people come out with a clean slate. Like, oh, someone might have used to go out with Elon Musk and then broke

up with him for whatever reason, and then I can see, okay, she's not purely going for a billionaire or whatever. You know, there's tons of ways you can see evidence that they're not just going for one thing. People go for many things. Like you were saying, they want a nice person. They don't want someone who's going to be mean to them. They want someone who's going to elevate them in personality and in their careers and so on. And you want the same thing in a relationship. I was never good at elevating the other person. How do you do that? I think you compromise with them. You help them with their careers.

You give them advice where you have experience and they don't. Talk down to them, you mean. Mansplain is what you're telling me. You have to do it in a gentle way so they don't get defensive. If someone's too defensive, they might not be the right person to elevate you. Yeah. I don't know. Go ahead.

Do you want to say something, Steven? Well, Dan, do you lead with the fact that you're a stand-up comedian? No, I don't lead with that. But unless I meet somebody at the comedy cellar, in which case, you know, they know it already. But no, I don't lead with that. But, you know, some people do. You have a law degree. Well, I don't lead with that either. You know, I usually just lead with...

Do you take credit cards? Sorry. All right, I usually just lead with... Do you take credit cards? Sorry. All right, that's a good one. No, if I meet people, it's often here at the Comedy Cellar,

so they know already. That's the thing is, we're all in our subcultures. If I meet them on Tinder, I say, it says, I think it says on my profile, I'm a comic.

I'm not sure if I actually put that on there or not. I've never used any dating app. Do those things work? Well, they do work, sure. We're 50. Well, I'm not quite 50. I'm 49. I'm getting up there.

It's just like your formula about getting guests on your podcast. You swipe for a thousand people, they work. Well, the thing is, though, no. I read and a friend of mine was telling me about how if you swipe right on just everyone on Tinder, then it gives you a certain score, as it were, which drops you to the bottom. A swiper?

Yeah. So if you just get on and swipe right on everybody, then it rates. Is that the Explorer or something about swiper? I didn't hear that, but that could be. And it makes sense if you're the type of guy who swipes on everybody. I have the Tinder where you can only swipe a certain number per day because you've got to pay extra

for the super Tinder where you can swipe unlimited. Right, Tinder Plus or something. The best thing is virtue signaling. So you have a pretty girl who likes you who introduces you

to her friend. Then you don't have to swipe right a thousand times. It's all kind of... That's not virtue signaling. Yeah, it is. She's signaling to her friend that this is a virtue. Yeah, but that's not how we use the word virtue signaling.

That's how he uses it. That's how I use it. I'm defining it. By the way, Noam, being part owner of a comedy club, we know how you feel about Louis. You've made your position clear on numerous podcasts. Oh, Louis all day. Go ahead.

Well, I think it's fascinating. No, no, of course. Go ahead. I'd like to hear James' opinion as a club owner. Has Louis been to the stand of New York or tried to get on there? No. I know, obviously, he's been here a lot. That's because his booker said publicly that she didn't want him there.

The booker did write publicly that she didn't want him there. And I love our booker. I totally respect anything she says. But if I were there and Louis C.K. showed up he's going straight on the stage. He's a funny guy. Now, is he judged by the world

of the comedy courts that he shouldn't be on a comedy stage and do his job? No. There's such a thing as due process. If you don't want to see him you can walk out. There's so many ways to punish a person

and nobody has officially said oh no louis c is not allowed to do this by law because of what he did which is all you know i'm not saying he did speculation what he did because he admitted to what he did i think the speculation as to he had a very very very hard to get and other parts he did not comment on. And I think there's speculation about what it means.

Does it mean he's a weird guy? Does it mean, you know, he's a sexual deviant? That, I don't know. People do weird things. And so, clearly, he's a great comedian, one of the greatest of all time. And you could, the markets will decide if people want to see him. As long as he hasn't broken a law, the markets

will decide if people want to see him or not on a stage. He's a great comedian. Does that sort of answer it? Complete devil's advocate argument here. And I had this conversation with my parents right before I came here, so I'm primed. All you're doing by allowing Louis C.K. on the stage

is perpetuating a cycle whereby white, straight, entitled males are allowed to do whatever they want. They can commit heinous acts against women. So if Louis were black, then we should let him on? There would be more of an appetite. I'm saying, could anybody say, listen, it's okay, if he was black, it's okay, but a white guy, you're going to should let him on? There would be more of an appetite. Could anybody say, listen, it's okay if he was black, it's okay, but a white guy

you're going to let him back on? If he was black, then at least you're dealing with someone who has a history of repression in our society. I don't want to be double's advocate here, but this is going to be absurd. What I'm saying is that... Well, these are real arguments. Football players are regularly

being called out for beating the shit out of people. And then they go on Sunday and play football. Like no one's stopping them from doing their job because they did something we don't morally approve of. Well, I made the point. Mike Tyson came out of prison for rape and he was embraced immediately with Hollywood and Broadway and theaters. And clearly what he did was wrong. But also we have a philosophy of redemption and going. He went to jail. His freedom was taken from him,

and he paid what a judge and jury thought was the right amount to have some redemption for his crime, which again was heinous. But Louis C.K. is not even going to jail. The only jail he's in right now is that some people feel he shouldn't go on a comedy stage. And people are entitled to have their opinion on that. But I would love to see him. Call me next time he's at the comedy show. And people are entitled to have their opinion on that. Yes. But I think he, I would love to see him. Call me next time he's at the comedy show.

I'll come right down. Okay. So I will. So I, I did a daily podcast at New York Times daily podcast this week and,

or last week. And, you know, they edited me in a way that, that I didn't think was proper at all. And they ambushed me

and all kinds of stuff. But anyway, the podcast seemed to come out very good. I got a lot of positive feedback. So if anybody's interested to know, you know, what my principled reasons are, you can go to that New York Times podcast. I've dwelled on it so many times already. But I do want to say one thing new about it, which is last night,

I had not yet seen Louis on stage since he's been back. First few times I wasn't here. And then when I was here, I felt like I might make him nervous or in some way become part of the dynamic in the room. If people saw me there watching him. So I decided to stay upstairs. But yesterday I went downstairs to watch him. And now maybe this is wrong, but it just occurred to me how small, like, how do I put this? Like, the world, it's a huge, like, literally a worldwide happening.

But then when you go downstairs, it's like 95 people in this tiny little room, and this dude is telling jokes, and everybody's laughing. And you're saying, this is, the whole world is locking arms against what's happening down here as if this is a monumental and all this talk that I hear about online about how we are about rape culture and I'm someone that Norman Dorman is so powerful and we are the patriarchy and it's all

a big myth we sell falafel and hummus or whatever it is and we have a tiny little room and Louis goes on and people like it, they like it, they don't like it and we have no power. I mean, you're a comedian. No power in the industry and we can't break anybody and we can't blacklist anybody. We can't do nothing.

And they just overlay this whole, I don't know, mythology and fantasy on it, but when you go downstairs and you watch it like, oh, this is it. Just a guy on stage telling jokes. It's a tiny room. He's like, oh. The whole world is upset about this?

Telling dick jokes, basically. That's what comedians do. So, yeah, right. So 100 million people say read the New York Times, and all these people have their judgments and their opinions, which they're entitled to. But at the end of the day, you're running a business, and if everybody's laughing at a comedian on stage and he hasn't been tried in a court of law, I don't understand how many more opinions there need to be had on this subject. In the end, the audience speaks. We're joined by Roy Wood, who's a stand-up comedian

and correspondent for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. How are you? I think Roy is going to be one Ray Ramone, Roy is going to be one of the household names of comedy with the next, next couple, I think is unstoppable.

Well, thank you. I think you are a juggernaut and that is basically a feeling that's widely held by a lot of people. I don't know if you're aware of that.

No. Somebody just today was telling me that on the phone. Like, oh my God, this guy is just, there's nobody like him right now.

Man, I write my jokes I try not to be an asshole to anybody. That's pretty much my professional approach. So, and Roy is going to be hopefully prominently featured on our new Comedy Central series that airs this Friday. But what I want to talk to everybody about now that we have Roy, this Megan

Kelly thing. Blackface. So, Megan Kelly said, to be fair to her, that, you know, when I was a kid, we could, you know, white kids could dress up as a black character and black characters could dress up as white guys. She used white face and black face. And, you know, if somebody wanted to be Diana Ross, it was okay. And she got attacked basically as a racist.

Is that a fair way to describe what they called her? And so I had some thoughts about it and I want to... Wasn't she just here the other day, by the way? Yeah, she was just here the night before last. I have some thoughts. I want to run it by Roy because I... Was she in blackface? No. Because I see this as part of something

really bad in the world where everybody immediately wants to take the worst possible interpretation about a person and make that what it is. And obviously, it was a tremendously stupid thing for her to say because of the history of blackface. And by the way, in my lifetime, not just blackface, although blackface I think was clearly the worst example,

but like on F Troop there was Chief Wild Eagle, was this Italian guy, and Jews with hooked noses playing Fagin and Oliver Twist, and Jerry Lewis doing the bucktooth Asian guy. These were all mockeries of ethnicities, and I think they'd have the black minstrel with the banjo on the lips. It was just a horrible part of American history.

I think the other thing Megyn Kelly said, though. Let me spit out the whole point and then I'm going to let you talk on it all. But I think that, A, there's a flip side of that where she's saying, well, you know, if a little kid today admires Barack Obama, because I want to be Barack Obama. And he said, no, no, you can't do that. And essentially saying that we can't distinguish between the mockery of another race and somebody wanting to dress up as somebody else because they love her. Earnestly believe that, yeah.

Well, like my son, who's 3% African American, so I guess now technically, if he wants to be Black Panther, you know, like, I mean, he doesn't know, and so she's tremendously ignorant of what she does, but can it be racist in someone's heart to say, you know, I'd like to be able to dress up as these people I admire? Is it fair interpretation? Well, you must hate that person. You must hate that race. Like, no, I don't think you heard me. Oh, you know what?

I'm so stupid, I didn't even realize all the other baggage that that kind of thing has. I'm a jackass. I stepped on the third rail, but don't, but understand it wasn't racism. I, I did it cause I, I, I want to be that. And the final thing I was going to say is that maybe we need to somehow find a way to let go all our associations with the past, lest they continue forever. Meaning maybe in some way, we do need to find a way to let a little white kid dress up as Barack Obama.

Maybe we can trust ourselves to tell the difference between mockery and hate and admiration and stuff like that. But was she saying blackface is the same as dressing up as Barack Obama? I didn't care. She didn't get into it. I'm just saying I began to really think about this issue. I said, well, how will we ever break out of this?

I said, well, one way to break out of it would be as a society to say, you know, all right, let's not teach these kids to have the same associations of history that we have. You know, just like,'s just like these scientific studies where how do you cure depression? Well, if you smile, all of a sudden you get happier. Maybe if we could approach the post-racial world with a little kind of, take a little risk about it, maybe we'd get there in a certain way. Because if I have to tell my little kids,

no, you can't be Barack Obama. You can't be Black Fate. You can't be Black Panther. I'm teaching them something that I don't really want them to learn about race. So I'm just spilling it out. So I want to give Roy a full open canvas to say anything about this issue. I think it's very interesting.

Is that racist because he's the only black person on the talent here? Well, I wouldn't dare talk about this unless it was a black person here, but that's the world we live in, you know? Go ahead. I feel like there were... With the Megyn Kelly thing, she did talk about, oh, back in my day, da-da-da-da-da. Okay, cool,

fine. There was a lot of shit that was flying. There was a lot of stuff that was flying back in the day, which was fine. But she also said she felt like even if it was something that was offensive, Halloween should be a day where you let it slide, basically. I didn't hear that.

I didn't see that quote. Yeah, there was a continuation of it. We can pull up the transcript. Yeah, can you pull it up, Stephen? I think that for what Megyn Kelly said, it's dismissive to the people who see offense in it. Yes. So the problem, and I'll start with the end point, which is teaching people a different type of reality as it relates to race.

I agree with that completely. The problem is there's still people putting on blackface for the sake of mockery. Everyone doesn't do it in peace. Everyone doesn't do it out of a sense of respect to Obama or Diana Ross or Black Panther. But we can tell the difference when we see it, can't we? We can, but then— I meant that as a real question. No, I know, I know, but I'm saying to a person that's triggered by

that, to the 60-year-old black person that sees that, and they don't have that filter. Everyone doesn't come up in the same American. I think that's a problem we live in because we live in an existence where we have to... Oh, it's like a peanut allergy

where, oh, one person on the plane has an allergy. There's no peanuts. Yeah, I think that's a good analogy. We can't have peanuts up front and no peanuts in the back. We don't have time to figure out which row. No peanuts, period. And that's probably an extreme place to exist, but as opposed to the contrary,

which was even more extreme and more oppressive, I just think it's where we are right now. How do we get out of it? Is it forever? I think that there's been plenty of white people that have done black characters without black face. These people have done J.M. Beyonce. I could pull up the pictures. There was a whole thread on black women.

Actually, there was that movie Soul Man. Remember that movie Soul Man? Yeah. Gene Wilder also. Yeah, you put that out now. James Toback, I think, was the director. Yeah, but at the time, people weren't triggered by it. What about Fred Armisen as Barack Obama?

Just look up the thing. I want to get the transcript. Armisen never did. He never did. He never put on blackface. There was no blackface. There was a movie, Tropic Thunder, where Robert Downey Jr. And Gene Wilder with Richard Pryor.

Gene Wilder put on blackface. We bad, we bad we bad the worst one though where there was actual consequences was Ted Danson and Whoopi Goldberg I forgot what event

it was it was like a luncheon or something yeah Ted Danson went into blackface and that almost like they ate his ass up well look

but he was purposely doing the black he was saying the n-word he was really trying to be for lack of a better word

edgy but even then I don't think anybody thought he was racist they just thought he was saying the N-word. He was really trying to be, for lack of a better word, edgy. But even then, I don't think anybody thought he was racist. They just thought he was extremely disrespectful. I'll give anybody where blackface and racism is concerned, because I've stepped on the third rail a couple of times with LGBTQ. Not about Jews. No, no, no. I was on Colbert, and I said something about the LGBTQ community.

I spoke positively of them. And someone ate my ass up for not saying LGBTQIA. So I legitimately did not know. And now that I know that intersexual and asexual, but there's other stuff. Don't you do that to me. I'm not stepping on that rail again. Go educate yourself. It's not your job. It's not my job to teach you about them.

No, but that's real stuff. And so I will give anybody the benefit of the doubt. If you say you didn't know, all right, fine, you didn't know. But where Megyn Kelly is concerned, we got to look at the offender. We got to look at someone who's also said Santa Claus is white deal with it, Jesus is white deal with it. We have to believe women, but then turn around and dump on the Kavanaugh accusers. So there's a lot of inconsistencies with her. Let me read the transcript because you're right.

Okay. So Melissa Rivers says, if you think it's offensive, it probably is whatever happened to just manners and polite society. And Megyn Kelly says, but on Halloween, on Halloween, you've got guys running around with fake axes coming out of their head. You're going to, it's going to be jarring. So, yeah, I don't think that's a, I don't think that's a great answer. Yeah, she continues on. It's a little more. Noam, you made, it's a similar situation with your argument about being able to use the N-word. And that some people use the N-word, the full word, white people, without meaning any harm.

They might be quoting somebody, for example. And you said they shouldn't be castigated for it, and they shouldn't be, but they should be told and reminded that some people will be offended by it. No, I said something more than that. I said that we've actually gone backwards on it in some way, in the sense that Howard Stern used it in interviews. George Carlin used to use the word on stage. Stan Hope uses it. That people use it, A, when they were quoting what someone else said on stage,

that the word was always off limits to be used as an epithet, but it was never off limits just to utter it as like somebody calls somebody at the end and they'd say the word. And I said that I didn't understand. I think that, now, the final stop on the station is that if somebody quotes the word in a conversation where they're talking about the fact that it was bad that

somebody called somebody it, then they lose their job simply for uttering the word, even though the intention was to report information. And actually to complain about racism. And I said, at that point, it's become ridiculous to me. But if people are offended... Let James in.

Well, I was in the middle of a set. No, you... Yeah, but you... Oh, damn. You've been talking about the point. I rest my case to Dan Natterman. He doesn't understand what it means to be the host. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Oh, so what I was going to say is, Noam, how would you feel if on Halloween, since we're talking about Halloween, if a German kid was dressed as Hitler? So similar... I was... Or he was a similar kind of thing. It's a triggering costume that could be considered offensive.

Well, Dan, you want to take that? Funny the sounds. Yes, it would be offensive. What would you do, though? Would you say that person was being anti-Semitic, or would you say it was offensive? I would give the person the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean anything by it. Didn't one of the princes do that in England, dress up as a Nazi? Harry, I would give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean anything by it, but just as the case is in blackface, I might kindly tell him that, you know,

a lot of people aren't going to like this. You might want to consider other people's feelings. So you bring up an interesting point, though, which you mentioned briefly. I don't agree with that. Hitler itself is an evil, anti-Semitic character, so to dress up as Hitler, it can't be because you admire him.

Dress up as the grim re-intern. But if I see somebody, and I've seen it in a Hasidic Jewish outfit on Halloween with the payas and everything, I don't care. I don't take that

as an insult at all. It's a character. Even though there's still people who praise Hitler as a be-all, end-all philosopher on world issues. Yes. No, what I'm saying is that if you dress up as Hitler, you're immediately suspect of trying to make the point that you love Hitler. Okay, but what if you're not? What if you're dressing up as Hitler because he is like the Grim Reaper? I'm not triggered by that.

You saw in the movies. That's your choice that you wouldn't be triggered, but some people would. But here's the other thing, too. And this is the thing with Megyn Kelly, and you briefly mentioned it, and this is the sort of person, this also describes the sort of person who would dress up as Hitler on Halloween. We have to, we're in this society right now. Everybody's polarized one way or the other,

but everybody is also assumed to be rational and polarized. The reality is some people are just stupid. Like, Megyn Kelly is probably just less intelligent than most people. How many black friends do you think she has? She probably doesn't have no clue. Lifetime total black friends. How many friends do you think she has? I don't even know.

I know her a little bit. And I actually know better, quite well, friends of hers who are not even white. Well, I guess they're white. I don't know. They're Hispanic. So, I guess they're, I don't know, they're Hispanic. So, and they adore her. I have to say that.

But I think Roy may also be right that if you live a certain life where you just don't have that experience, that's how you end up saying something

that sounds really ignorant like you did about LGBTQ. I'm slow to say racist because if you don't know, it could just be ignorant to the point. It might not be something you do, but you don't see a problem with it. I don't know if that makes you a racist per se, but it's, hey,

here's an opportunity for a teaching moment. But the reason why they come down on her so hard is that she's on her 14th strike at this point. So that's part of the issue. Not 14th racial strike. No, but just in general. 14th intelligence strike.

Well, see, she thought NBC would be some sort of control-alt-delete on her whole history of ignorant, sane, crazy, outlandish stuff. And it hasn't been. People don't forget. And that's also part of the issue is that anything you've done lives with you forever now because we're in a digital age. I would so much prefer, yeah, I would so much prefer that if the cultural, natural reaction would say, wait a second, Megan, what you said is wrong. And the head of NBC said, tomorrow we're going to have some people on and we're going to discuss this.

Now let's start calling her a racist and use it as a teachable moment. And it's like, because this is what we all feel this it's because of this and I've been through it everybody's afraid to say the wrong thing you're afraid to in good faith say something that shows that you don't and and it's a horrible time to live in yeah it's horrible right you're people are afraid on every side like you're afraid to say Bill Clinton is guilty of me-tooing women as well. You're afraid to say, oh, Susan Collins is not necessarily an enemy of all women just because

she made a speech supporting Brett Kavanaugh. Well, the left is not afraid to say anything they want. Well, I mean, they're not going to dress like Hitler, probably. No, but Sarah Young can tweet, you know, all white people can die, whatever. I mean, there's no Joy Reid can say whatever she wants.

You know, basically, they give you a pass on the left, like Ted Danson, essentially. I mean, Ted Danson, it was controversy, but if that had been a right-wing guy

showing up to a party like that, he would have never gotten up off the mat. You know, they gave him the full benefit of the doubt because he's a left-wing Ted Danson. And was he dating Whoopi at the time?

Yeah. And then they broke up. And to your point, though, NBC maybe should have done that, had a kind of a teachable moment, and that would have been good entertainment. But that's not NBC's job anymore. NBC's job is to be this polarizing alt-left, just like Fox is polarizing alt-right. Well, that's what they did this morning with Megan. They had Roland S. Martin on, a former CNN

commentator, and they had the whole proper blackface argument with black people, which if they had also been like a black producer, just somebody backstage on Monday to go, hey, maybe you should bring a black person on to have this blackface discussion, then

maybe you don't step in that. Or that teachable moment happens in real time. Because a lot of the problem with, a lot of what triggers outrage culture is that there's nobody on that dais in the moment to attack, to clap back. Like, if you watch half the stuff that's said on CNN, half the shit that they say on CNN, when they're Don Lemon and there's three boxes and box one and three are attacking box two, go check box two's mentions online. There's no outrage.

Can you believe he said that? Because someone on air checked him in that moment. So the moment doesn't become some Twitter moment. It doesn't light a fire on the internet at all. Megyn Kelly trended until the end of Monday Night Football. Are people more intolerant now? We see it because of social media and Twitter. But back in the early 70s,

the nation was polarized about Vietnam. The nation's been polarized about civil rights. Are people more polarized and more intolerant of opposite point of views? Or are they just louder because we have Twitter and Instagram and Facebook? I think there's more views. In the 70s, there was Vietnam.

Now there's like 70 different things that are Vietnams. You know what's lost in the quick turnover, the 12-hour news cycle, as I call it now, is that the nuance to issues is lost. Like with Vietnam, if you want to speak out about Vietnam, you had to go to the protest, you had to read an op-ed, someone had to write a thoughtful piece that you read. There wasn't a quick link to some bullshit Russia clickbait

nonsense, or we weren't a culture that only read the headline and the first paragraph and kept it moving. You had a legitimate discussion, and you had a real conversation about the draft, or about how veterans should be treated when they come home from Vietnam. It was never just all yay or all nay. I agree.

And journalism could be a little dull and dry because you bought the paper for a quarter and you didn't have to sell the paper by some fancy headline or some titillating story. So it was a little higher brow. And there's a little bit of confirmation bias. Everyone's buying just what's going to agree with them. Absolutely. A lot of confirmation bias. Yeah, the alt-left is not watching Fox and the alt-right is not watching MSNBC.

Except, like you said, if it's not chopped off that moment, they get a chance to be the Twitter mob against Megyn Kelly. Now, I'm not saying Megyn Kelly was right. I'm just saying she's probably not that intelligent, is my guess, based on what she said. I don't know her like you know her. I don't know her very well. It doesn't seem like an intelligent thing to say. It's stunning that you can rise to that high level of polite society, kind of,

and not understand that even if you want to say such a thing, you need to really lay it out very carefully like I kind of just did. I understand exactly why this is so upset, but I was thinking, well, but she didn't. But why would you think that if you've never been checked? If you're on your 14th strike, you ain't never been thrown out the game.

And also that assumes that people rise up at a journalism company through merit, which is not necessarily true. I used to watch her on Fox. She was quite good and very smart. I think she's editor of a law review. She's not a dopey woman. She's not. But to say Santa Claus

is white and Jesus is white, that's not... Jesus is white. Santa Claus is a fictional character that has been typically portrayed as white, and I think he comes from Swedish folklore. No, Turkish, Turkish. But the funny thing is,

we'll be all the white people in Turkey. Well, they're Caucasoid. No, everybody Turkish I know is white. Yeah. I mean, white, white. People I've known who are Turkish, they don't look Middle Eastern. I mean, I'm sure there are some who do,

but like Jennifer Golby, I used to be married to this guy Zeki. He was Turkish. He looked just like you. You're talking about me. Yeah, I mean, like your skin tone. So I don't, I think Turkey is more European

than I don't even know. Nor did Megyn Kelly know that Santa Claus was Turkish. She just thought Santa Claus was a European thing. I just don't buy her genuineness in the mornings. I never watch it. I'm not going to get into critiquing news shows that I watch every morning, but I just think that she's a person with a long track record

and probably didn't deserve it for this one, but you earned it off all the other stuff you didn't get dragged. Like OJ. Yeah, even money. Yeah, you didn't get dragged. Like OJ. Yeah, even money. Yeah, you didn't deserve 30 years for stealing your own trophy. But, you had this one coming.

Strikes, OJ. It's funny that this kind of proves that so often if Roy and I had this conversation on Twitter, it probably could get pretty awful. Well, you know what would happen? 40 more people would jump in with no knowledge of the context of the previous tweets

and immediately start arguing and fighting and yelling, and then it gets twisted. And there's no—that's what sucks about Twitter. Twitter is having a logical conversation with the person on the train and then three more people overhearing the conversation, but they only heard parts of the conversation, and they immediately pick a side and they go on attack. And that's what the Internet is set up for, but that's what clickbait does, and that's what drives clicks.

That's what drives profits is giving people something to argue. There's a different agenda, too. We're sitting here because we're talking about issues and some of us know each other and others know each other. Twitter really is a mob. People go on Twitter to

fight and to cause problems. It's a different agenda. That whole company is built on people arguing. They make ad dollars the more stupid people are on there. And let me amplify. And by the way, I think that in the end, Roy and I basically don't even disagree on this past issue.

But let's say we all, with our friends, with our best friends, if you get into like a little friction through email, you get very nasty very quickly. Because it's not face-to-face. Because most of communication is in person. So I won't argue an email almost ever anymore. But imagine now you're with strangers, and it's now 280 characters or whatever it is.

This is like perfectly designed to bring out the worst in everybody in the world. And you have people who have your back. It's like being in a bar argument, and then just 10 strangers come up, yeah, bro, get them. I'm with you, bro. I got your back, bro.

Tweet back. Let them know. I've engaged in a few little Twitter conversations with people commenting on this daily podcast I did, and I was so nice, and they're just so mean. It's awful. They'll threaten to kill you. They said, why didn't

you talk about the Louis' victims? I said, well, actually, we did three long podcasts with all the female comedians and all the female employees, and another one where you really, I said, well, actually, we did three long podcasts with all the female comedians and all the female employees. And another one, I said, but the host never asked me these questions. I would have been happy to talk about it. And she came out, no, you should have brought it up. It just shows you're patriarchal.

And I said, look, you're criticizing me for something that was out of my control. I already hate you before I talk to you, so there's nothing you can present. I said, won't you give me any credit for the fact that I actually spent hours, you know, trying to be transparent, talking to every woman in my world? No. And you could read it online. Just so nasty. I'm like, I'm realizing, what am I doing? You can't engage.

You can't. That's the sin is engaging. You could spend time with your kid instead of engaging on Twitter. I'm sorry, Roy. What's this guy, Simon, the author we tried to get? What's his name? There's a writer. You might know him. He writes about comedies. Seth Simon, Stephen Simon.

Something Simon. Simple Simon. Yeah, I'm looking right now. And he writes about comedy. And he writes very viciously about the comedy seller. And very viciously, like he said that Jay Oakerson's some joke that was reflective that... Seth Simons. Seth Simons.

That Jay is sympathetic to rape culture. That's what he said about Jay Oakerson. So I'm like, well, why don't we get this guy in here to talk about it with him? And he wrote back like a really sad... He writes back, no thanks. Good luck mitigating this PR crisis by prolonging it. So I sent him another email actually, hopefully that he would come. He has no interest in it.

He wants the ability to snipe. He doesn't want to take the risk, in my opinion, but I don't know. Maybe this is not being fair to him. He doesn't think he wants to take the risk of a conversation. Because is he more likely to get a six-figure book deal by arguing with you anonymously like that or coming in here? But the point is that I hope that he does reconsider, and I hope that anybody who disagrees with us would contact us and want to be on the show.

I think it's very healthy to talk about things. Why do you think they don't want to talk to you? Do you think that they feel that you're set in your opinion and they can't change your mind? What's the purpose of conversation other than dialogue and gaining new information about the other side? And if they feel like they know what you're about and who you are, do you think that's why they don't sit down?

I think there are various reasons. First of all, to credit some people, what was the name of the woman from The Atlantic? The woman who was on our show? I forget. I know who you're talking about she wrote a really negative piece about us and I invited her on and she couldn't have been

more wonderful and we just had a great conversation I conceded some point to her I think she got me on that one it was really nice so some people really are open about it other people I think suspect that they'll get a beating I do believe that dialogue

promotes progress on all issues. Absolutely. I think we should discuss something very significant happening here at the Comedy Cellar. This Friday is the premiere of This Week at the Comedy Cellar, which is

where headlines 11 p.m. Comedy Central. Where headlines become punchlines. It's a weekly stand-up kind of overview of the week's events, and comics go on stage and talk about the week's events in a stand-up format. Cooked fresh. They've been taping it around the corner. I had a question for you about that. Yes, sir. Now, taping it around the corner. I had a question for you about that. Yes, sir.

Now, the audience comes to the show. They make reservations. They come to the show. They pay the normal cover, the normal drink minimum, etc. And what they're seeing is not a normal show. They're seeing comedians do new stuff that may or may not

work. Also, comedians are talking about the same topics because since it's a topical show, every comedian's talk, I go up and I say, hey, did you hear Meghan Markle was pregnant? The next comedian goes up and says, hey, did you hear Meghan Markle was pregnant?

Which could be fascinating to certain people, but do the audience, when they make reservations, know that this is what it is and have you had any feedback, negative or positive? Well, it says on the website that that's what it is, and have you had any feedback, negative or positive? Well, it says on the website that that's what it is. It says on the website.

The first week, people may not have been, they might have made reservations prior to the time we put that on the website. I'm also, I mean, I'm not totally happy with the way it's been going, and I think that's more of a problem with the way that we've communicated the format to the comedians than definitely it's not the comedian's fault. But I think that as we get the hang of it, it's going to feel more and more just like a regular show. I think some of the comedians have felt too much pressure to just spend the whole set running the topics.

Well, but some people have been. They gave us a little more. I did the late show last night. I think it would have been like midnight and by then, or at least I got the note, do your set, put in where you can the stuff that you want to talk about. And it went better, I bet. Yeah, of course, but

the thing is, is a guy like me, Comedy Central's not on my side. I'm not one of their favorites. I'm kidding. Go ahead. If I want to get on the show, because what they're doing is they're filming everybody. This is for the audience that's listening at home that doesn't know how this works. They're filming everybody doing their set, and they're going to use what they want to

use. Oh, here's a good joke about so-and-so, or we've decided we don't want to discuss theoretically topic A, so we're going to use topic B. Unless I cover every topic, I probably won't get on because I need to maximize my chances and in order to maximize my chances I need to have as many jokes on as many topics as possible because I don't know what topics they're ultimately going to go with and I don't know

which jokes are going to work and if I'm not one of their faves and they do have faves at Comedy Central I'm probably not going to get on unless I make a set every single joke is topical. And I have to be honest, this is not enjoyable for me.

It's a lot of pressure. But I feel like I have to do that if I want even the slightest chance of getting on that show. But Dan, let me ask you a question. What about the writers of every late night show in existence ever?

They all have to write just the monologue for the host that night. They have to write all topical jokes. Right. So they're not going to be like stand-up quality jokes that have matured for years maybe. Right, but the problem is we have an audience that's paying to see the show that wants a killer show.

At the same time, we're trying to make a show that's topical. But what we need from the comedians is to find some middle ground there. You may, if in your mind you're not going to maximize your chances, I actually don't see it that way. I think if you lead with your two or three best jokes, the ones that aren't so

good anyway, they're never going to get on. But I don't necessarily know what's going to be good or bad until the audience... Well, you might. Well, maybe not. But the two or three, the topics get chosen in the end. First of all, I'm trying to move the format already. I'm trying to move the format away from being a straitjacket on the comedians. Just talk about anything that you find funny that went on this week, and we'll find a way to fit it into the show.

That's more loose and less pressure on the comics. That was the initial concept into the show. That's more loose and less pressure on the comics. That was the initial concept of the show, but as it got taken from me and it got shaped in ways without me, they're very much putting a block. I think everybody's beginning to realize now that that's going to be a little too harsh. There's that.

Then, you know, the blocks are going to be formed by who had the most funny jokes on a particular subject. Again, I don't know which of my jokes are going to be funny until I do them. So I have to do ten of them to get two of them. Yeah, but you still have to go over. Otherwise, you can't get both. I know.

What I'm saying is you're saying I shouldn't devote my whole set to topical jokes. But I don't know which topical jokes are going to work. So if I don't do ten topical jokes, I'm not going to get two great topical jokes. I'm telling you that I'm going to start telling Esty that we can't book the comedians who are not being effective at serving both purposes in this show that night. They need to be effective at serving the purpose of entertaining the audience.

Whatever that takes, even if it means cutting your losses, you still get paid, and also fitting your topical jokes. You still got to go over. Okay, well, if that's the... It's going to be the marching orders. over. Okay. Well, if that's the... It's going to be the marching orders. Go ahead. The marching orders,

and that's what the marching orders are. So my approach to it, Dan, has been I don't have jokes about everything. Like, of the topics for this week, I think I talked about... So there was Migrant Caravan, the Halloween, Mega Millions, World Series, Saudi Arabia.

There was like celebs boycotting the Super Bowl. Out of all of that, I had three topics where I go, that interests me. And I know I can go on and on about that. So I'll carpet bomb one topic. Like Godfrey, oh my God, Godfrey did eight minutes about the lottery. Just the lottery. So guaranteed, if no one else gets a lottery joke on, Godfrey, he's getting a lottery joke on. Because he had killer joke after joke after joke about the lottery.

Or my approach is to find three things that I actually like and give a damn about. Or find the one topic that I have the alternate view that I know no one else will take. And then you have to put me on because I'm being a contrarian. So you can put on all the other comedians that go, I will not be on the Super Bowl. And then you end with me going, I would happily do a Super Bowl commercial. It has nothing to do with the game. I would happily do a Super Bowl commercial. It has nothing to do with the game. I would happily be on at half. Like that, like taking that.

For me, that's how I choose to keep from being stressed about, oh, my God, I need a joke about a dead journalist in Saudi Arabia. I got nothing. And I'm not going to even try. Really, not even a funny topic like that? I didn't want that topic. I didn't want that topic at all. Nothing.

Well, what about the Canada marijuana legalization? I have my joke that, you know, that killer joke. Why didn't you do it?

I did do it. I did it last night, but now I'm being told that maybe they don't want that topic on. I don't know. I want them to choose the topics that are provocative,

the topics that would make us argue. I don't like the bland topics like a Halloween and stuff like that, but some people do have some good Halloween material. I feel like if I'm just speaking freely as a seller regular,

I think to honor the essence of this building is to have issues with which there are no easy solutions. That's right. And that there is debate. There's room for debate. Otherwise, why are you going to the table? I don't want to watch four comics talk about Meghan Markle's pregnancy at the roundtable, which is also going to be an element of the show, not just stand-up.

It's people. Well, Roy, not ironically, but maybe surprisingly, I think you have more pull right now on the direction of this show than I do. And if you, honestly, so if you would make that opinion, because it's almost verbatim what I said in some of these calls. If you got that word out, I think they would listen. Well, because my concern with doing the show,

years ago BET used to have, they would do best of comic view. They would have comic view. BET showed like 30 comedians a week. And at the end of the month, they would just pull the best jokes on the same topics. And what I remember from that back in the day was it was all entertaining, but everybody was forgettable because everybody just had a hodgepodge joke about an issue. And it wasn't an issue where there was serious right side or wrong side to it.

Some sparks. Yeah. And I think that's what you have to have. It has to be stand-up that really opens up the sinuses. I like that. So, Roy, what's an example like this week? What would be three topics this week that you could see sparks? The Super Bowl boycott, for one, for sure.

But not everybody's an open-up-the-sinuses kind of comic. I mean, Dave Attell doesn't open up sinuses. He's just plain brilliant. But we need that for ratings. We need to be open to that. You need that as well. I'm not saying everything, you don't have to, it's not left wing, right wing humor or whatever, but it has to be, my concern is just doing general jokes and being clipped together with

other comics all doing general jokes and there's no point of view, there's no opinion, there's no real direction. It's just. Bland. You, it can't all be bland. You mix in the Attells. You mix in the Todd Berries. And then somewhere in there, you're dropping Andrew Schultz on their ass, who you know is going to be coming all the way.

You drop in a Bobby Kelly on their ass, who you know is going to throw a curveball. I'd like to use Nick DiPaolo. Yeah. Trump considering—Trump administration considering officially defining gender based on genitalia at birth. That's a tough topic to cook in six days. When did they stop defining it? They never told us when they stopped doing that. See, joke.

Right there. Joke. I always thought they defined, like I had a baby not long ago. They defined him based on his dick. They say it's a boy or it's a girl. Yeah, they didn't ask me. The question, though, is that that's a very, that's a touchy subject. Yeah.

If you're the producer and you go back in the edit and no one has a great joke on it, do you just put up jokes that present both sides for the sake of honoring the tradition of what the seller is? Or do you put the funny... But is that what the tradition of what the seller is? That could well be and should be the way you explain it. I think you're right about the show this week at the Comedy Cellar. I'm not sure that the spirit of the Comedy Cellar is what you're saying. The spirit of the Comedy Cellar is putting on funny people.

No, no, no. But there is very much what he's saying. It may not be all that. Well, that was tough crowd. I'm talking about what goes on downstairs here. No, no. But they're showing the table, too. You're showing the comics at the table, which is what tough crowd, that was the genesis

of that. Yeah, absolutely. It's part of it. I agree with you, Dan. It still has to be about the jokes. We are making television jokes, make people laugh. Because then we start drifting into, is opinion more important than punchline? Which I don't buy into.

If we start talking about the philosophical arguments about comedy and whether or not it's okay for it to be deep. No, there should still be some damn jokes. But if it's just all just easy jokes. Well, let me make the following argument. The regular topics like Halloween, there's so much comedy at your fingertips now. Netflix, what is it? Why are you going to watch Comedy Central 11 o'clock on Friday night? It's like watching live sports.

It's got to be something a little, a sinus opening about shit that's going on right now. It's got to be a little as a sign is opening about shit that's going on right now. It's got to be a little controversial. You're not going to tune in to hear jokes about Halloween. You're just not. It's just not, I've got to get home and hear those general bland jokes about anything. I'll watch it on demand. Why bother? The debate should have been about

blackface, and that's where you build the jokes around. I wanted that. What debate? About Megyn Kelly and blackface in And that's where you build the jokes around. It's blackface. What debate? About Megyn Kelly and blackface in general or whatever. So we'll end kind of this. I told you flat about this. I got an email today. I'm going to read it to you

guys and tell them what you think. And this actually happened. This is because somebody told a joke that somebody was offended on during this show. Oh wait, sorry. That was my answer. Please know I'm neither conservative nor liberal. I'm a registered independent. Who registers independent? Anyway, who votes based solely on the American...

Oliver Anderson in 1980. American TV. Having said that, I'm compelled to say whoever's stand-up, whoever the stand-up is in your TV commercial, I guess they mean show, that mocked the Holocaust with a despicable line about Trump making Jewish Americans want to go back to Germany is absolutely reprehensible. I'm a full-blooded German whose grandparents immigrated here from Germany and carry great shame about the horrible suffering inflicted on the Jews by the Nazis.

Anybody who makes light of the slaughter of innocents by trying to exploit, they are amongst the scum at the bottom of the ocean and don't deserve any time. I suggest that you glean the material your guest comedians plan to use beforehand. This woman should be blacklisted in comedy entertainment arena for her cold lack of sensitivity to an issue that should be eulogized, not laughed at. Shame on her.

Shame on her and shame on you. Seven exclamation points. This was for the commercial for the Comedy Central show that they're talking about? Either that or they came and heard the show. Actually, you're probably right. It probably was the commercial. They ran that joke as the commercial.

Now, what would you answer an email like that? But tons of comedians make Holocaust jokes, abortion jokes. I mean, there's lots of topics that people get offended by. What are you supposed to do? It's a comedy club. You say nothing. What would you answer? No, I always answer our negative emails.

I would say it's a comedy club. This is the safest place in the world. An actual racist is not going to go on the stage of a comedy club and say their thing. They're going to go off and shoot people or whatever. I want to know what the joke was before I answered. He just said the joke. What was the joke? It says Trump is so bad he makes Jews want to know what the joke was before I answered. He just said the joke. What was the joke? He says Trump is so bad he makes Jews want to move back to Germany.

Okay. What do you say to that? How are you going to explain this comment? It's a comedy club, and people don't have to go if they don't like the jokes. As a business owner, I understand it. But as a lover of comedy and trying to explain it to someone, that email is way, the length of that email tells me you're never going to get what that type of comedy is

for people in the world. But they're both the same thing. Like, a comedy club owner is concerned about the market, so if everybody was like that, he wouldn't allow comedians to say that because then no one would show up at the comedy cellar. But the reality is, if the jokes are funny, and I don't know if that was funny or not,

but if the jokes are funny, then the market decides if the joke's good enough. But what do you do as an owner? Do you now reprimand the comedian and say, hey, send me a transcript before you go on stage? And what would the comic say to them? The markets decide if the comedian's good. So you want to know what I wrote just for the hell of it? I wrote, I understand your feelings, but let me say a few things. One, in my opinion, you should not feel any personal shame about the Holocaust. You were born innocent

and although I'm Jewish and have a close connection to the issue, I'd be ashamed if I were to act as if any German alive today is somehow tainted by it. You're no more responsible for it than I am. Two, comedians say what they want and sometimes it doesn't work or it comes out too harsh and it needed to be modified. We don't blacklist

people in the industry and if there's anything you should feel shame about, it's to suggest that we ought to. What a horribly authoritarian over-the-top suggestion for a single offensive joke to end someone's career. Three, I'm not ashamed of myself, nor should I, nor should, and I mentioned

the Kenyan's name, be, and I say that even though, and I say that even though I didn't like the joke either, and I completely understand why it made you feel uncomfortable, I'm happy to speak with you about this on the phone if you'd like. That was my answer. Don't speak to this person on the phone. Come on.

They usually won't, but I will. I will. Come on. Roy's point is... You're fighting the ocean. Yeah, you're fighting the ocean. That it's reasonable to respond, and your response was great. I wouldn't change a word of it.

Right, your response was great, but Roy's point is this person is not going to change. They're just an angry person, but this is where you guys are not. Well, I say wrong. I, after having a lot of conversations, people have come at me 30, 40% people will actually just how we talk about the, the worst they are is in the email. You got them on the phone, they hear your voice, and you can actually like, the guy who came at me first about Louis C.K. and went to the Times and complained about it and all that,

we became friends. That's a different situation, by the way. That was somebody who was in the club, right? Yeah. This is a person who... I met him through a nasty email. And I said, why don't you call me? And we spoke, and we became friends, and he apologized. But he was actually one of the 95 people sitting in the club. Yes, yes.

Whereas this person is one of a million people seeing a commercial. Flipping the channels. You changed one person's mind out of a million who saw the commercial. Maybe, or maybe not. 50-50. But not all of those million people felt the exact same way this guy did. Wait, but who cares about it if this guy has a bad opinion? I try not to get cynical. I'm saying, somebody

writes me, I'm going to write him back. Wait, so you sent that email already? Yeah. I treat them with the respect that if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. To me, that's why live this week, this is why the show is important. This Comedy Cellar show is going to be very important to the national

dialogue about stand-up because it will also be the only show every week that has the potential to do something offensive and show people all of the ranges of what comedy is so that when they go out to a comedy club, they'll do their homework. And I honestly feel like this is an opportunity for people to get reacclimated about.

You can be mad about whatever the hell you want in all these other quadrants, but at the comedy club on the stage, this is safe. Is the Comedy Central in accord with that point of view of the show? Do they want all different points of view, or do they want to keep it

politically correct? That remains to be seen, because they're still a Viacom property, and they're all about making money, and if people start boycotting advertisers, then you've got a whole different problem. Right, well, that's just it. It's that media and clubs and comedy is a business, so at the end of the day, it has to be funny and it has to be an experience and it has to be entertaining.

Commerce and free speech ain't never mixed well. All right. Well, if we can somehow thread that needle, we'll be in good shape, you know. Although maybe free speech and capitalism do fit because the markets reward free speech ultimately. You know, comedy clubs exist because not everybody is

you know, put in a straight jacket. That's true. Alright, we gotta end up. I want to say, you know, I did these two podcasts. I want to give a nice shout out to Mike Peska on Slate Magazine. The Gist, you know, this podcast. He did a, he was extremely above the belt we

were very good conversation he did not ambush me and i i wasn't totally happy with the way they edited but i know they edited it for uh time and you know people always be fussy about that but but that was a very good experience thank you mike pesca and the daily i'm um i'm not happy with those guys what can i do about it? It was still a good interview. You got your point across. You don't know what's on the cutting room floor. You don't know. Be that as it may,

it seems like a lot of the emails you received were favorable. I think you made your point admirably, even given the cuts that were made. Watch the Comedy Cellar show live from the Comedy Cellar Comedy Central, Friday Comedy Central Friday nights Friday nights 11pm and Dan I hope I watch it and I see you on it

I hope to be he will be I don't know about this week but he's definitely going to be on it email us podcast at comedycellar.com Roy Wood Altucher thank you very much everybody good night