The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Tricks of the Trade with Lenny Marcus

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Lenny Marcus is a stand up comedian. He has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman multiple times and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon as well as comedy festivals both domestic and international. He has appeared on Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer, and FX's Louie. Most recently, he has been traveling the world with comedian Leslie Jones writing and performing and he has collaborated with her on multiple projects.

🎵 Live from the table, the official podcast of the world-famous comedy cellar coming at you on SiriusXM 99, Raw Comedy. And also available as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We also are up on YouTube, so you can see us as well as hear us. A multimedia feast for the ears and the eyes. Noam's not here today uh he uh had to leave but uh i'm here in the captain's chair if you will along with dan aderman by the way is my name i'm here with perrielle ashenbrand she's our producer she does booking she she does uh you

know she's a little bit of everything and we have lenny marcus joining us thanks for having me yes thank you for coming in i assume you're on the schedule tonight i am on the schedule that's how a little bit of everything. And we have Lenny Marcus joining us. Thanks for having me. Yes. Thank you for coming in. I assume you're on the schedule tonight. I am on the schedule tonight. That's how I tend to book it. You know, when I do shows wherein we book a committee and I look at the schedule, I see who will be least inconvenienced

because they're here anyway. Yeah, I mean, that's a good one. And that seems to make sense. I always got to clear it with my wife to come early. That's a fun one. Well, when's your spot tonight? 8.50. So we'll be done... Oh, so that works out nice. In other words,

if you were on at 11, there would be a huge gaping hole between the podcast and your spot. Nobody likes a gaping hole. Nobody likes a gaping hole. A lot of people like a gaping hole. In fact, somebody that wasn't even

working tonight would probably be more likely to want to come down to do the podcast than somebody that's working late such that there is a gaping hole. The gaping hole is the worst possible option. You're going to have a gaping hole tomorrow. Tomorrow I have a gaping hole because we're doing a special podcast at 3. And my spot is at like 9. Well, you've got to go home.

I think at that point. It doesn't make any sense to go home. What do you mean? Because he's going to go back from here to the Upper East Side. I'll be done. He'll be done at 4. He's at 5. 4.30 at the latest.

Then he'll be at 5.30, then turn around. Three hours later, get up dinner, get a shower. Yeah, I think I'm going to have to go home. That's just too big a gaping hole. That's not a slit. That's not a... That's a chasm. It's annoying.

It is to have to go. It's annoying. And I really am hoping that they cancel the show. They're not going to cancel it. I'm still... I hope spring's eternal. It's not going to get canceled. Well, we don't know that.

We don't know that. You know, Lenny and I are working together on my album. Had the second taping come out. Second taping went well. So just to review, I'm taping an album. It's not really an album. It's a bunch of shit I'm taping. Don't do that.

Yeah, don't say that on the tape, by the way. I listened to the first one. Well, we're not going to put that in there. No, we're not. But I mean, it doesn't help the audience. I think you're not into it. Okay. All right.

Fair point. So I taped two sets. Yeah. And we'll call it an album. Call it whatever you want to call it. Call it an album. And so hopefully they'll play it on Sirius. And I'm going through Lenny's production company.

Because Lenny has a production company. It's a record company. This is a record company. Now, you're doing this. This is sort of has a production company. It's a record company. This is a record company. Now, you're doing this. This is sort of a goodwill gesture. It's not a big money-making gesture. But if I get 1,000 clients, it'll make a couple of bucks. Yeah, I'm not retiring off of this little venture.

But it was to help comedians get stuff played on really serious radio. Because now you need a label. There was a whole thing. You used to be able to hand it to a guy yourself all your tracks and now so now you have a label i have a label to help skinny boy production yeah and i take very little very skinny boy records skinny boy productions is my personal production company okay for my loan out you know if you need me as a comedian but the uh yeah skinny boy records is uh it's been great you know like helping people find you know get their stuff on there and then also oddly to correct a wrong over the years you know this dan and you can speak to this pretty well comics have been

you know when we get something they said we just signed paperwork we just signed you want to do a show you just sign paperwork well you know you give away a lot of rights to stuff at that so you know everything somebody's done like say you do letterman he can do whatever he wants with it you don't really care or or the tonight show that you don't care it gets played on you know anywhere they want to play it you're good because it's the tonight show it's like fallon introducing you or leno introducing whatever whatever it is. But, you know, there are other shows that we all have done, the Montreal Comedy Festival, you know, the Live at Gotham, whatever. There's all those shows.

They now have taken – you signed a clause that's saying in perpetuity, all worldwide, for end of time, you've given away audio rights to that. And they can play it wherever they want. So they've chopped it up and play it they've they've put it on serious so when i go looking for people's money they you know uh you know hey you have a bunch of tracks just you know are playing on serious radio you don't even know you didn't even know so you need to go claim the money as the artist for that because you're not going to get any money as the owner for that. And so I claim that money for them

and it turns out to be a couple shekels for every person. Oh, you're doing God's work. Yeah, there you go. You're doing God's work, Lenny. Yes, so there's a bunch of stuff like that. Thank God for Lenny Marcus. And so I taped the two tapings.

Yeah. The first, they both went well, but in both tapings, some jokes didn't work. Now, how important do you think it is to have laughter on the clip? I think it's pretty important because the people listening to it, there's a party of like three or four people who listen to it. And yeah, they want to hear that.

I think they don't need to do it. You don't have to be crazy. It doesn't have to be 7,000 people in an audience. But it's got to be clear. The audio's got to be amazing. And you want laughs on that. You know, you want laughs. So I don't.

Now, can you re-record? If it's a zero, yeah, go re-record it. Can he re-record? Well, I can always just, if there's a joke that I really want in there, I can just do it on one of the regular shows. Yes. That's what I'm asking. And ask for the audience. Yes.

So the next step, Lenny, is. Cutting it. Cutting it. You're going to have to come to the studio. I have come to you. Yes, sir. And we'll do it together. That's right.

I kind of know in my head, the second show actually is pretty good in and of itself, except there's a couple of jokes that didn't work, but they did work on the first show. Fantastic. It's even better because when I just listened, I listened to pieces of the first show. I thought it was good. I went back to Liz. You did it in the same room, right? Yes.

Yeah, I went back to Liz, and I said, can you just tweak the audio on him a little bit? I wanted to do a couple of audio tweaking for you, and they did, so I think it's going to sound even better. Can you add laughter? You can, but I mean, you know, you can. It doesn't sound good? No, it'll sound okay. Yeah, we'll take it from there.

Because there's jokes that always work, and then all of a sudden, for some reason, they didn't work. Now, do you run it as an album then, right? That's how it plays? Well, for Dan, you can cut it up a couple of ways, like wherever he's going to do it. For serious radio, you can make the album, but as far as the intro track, when somebody goes,

ladies and gentlemen, Dan Natterman, sometimes there's music behind it and stuff, I like picking up track. That's track one. I just say intro to whatever you want to call your album. And then track two picks it up with. So I was walking down the street, you know, because in the car, these will be randomly played. They usually don't play in a row when they play at the first.

They might for you play your whole album. Soup to nuts. You know, that's cool. You'll have that intro track. But in most cases, they're not going to put the intro track in rotation. at the first they might for you play your whole album soup to nuts you know that's cool you'll have that intro track but in most cases they're not going to put the intro track in rotation so you just go ladies gentlemen dan adam and move on to next that won't get in rotation when they play the album full they'll play it all the tracks in a row but in rotation it could be random so track seven could play track so you don't want to start off my jokes tend to be

self you know independent little yeah contained which is good i don't you to start off... My jokes tend to be self-independent little... Yeah, which is good. I don't... It's good for serious radio. You don't need to know that my cousin Sheila came over for sex to hear about my sex ed teacher that showed us his cock. So I have a couple of questions. Those are independent. Good choice.

They operate independently. Now, a couple of questions. Number one, it's dirty, and it's fine that it's dirty and it's fine that it's dirty. Well, some of it's dirty. There's multiple channels on Sirius Radio could go on. There's a Raw channel. Raw comedy. That's where we're on.

That's where we're on Raw comedy. Oh, great. You could be on the Raw channel. You used to be Raw Dog. Yes, you could play on the Pure channel, which is like, it's got to be done with an eight-year-old in the car. That's the real general rule. So there's no, you know, cursing. There's no content. The joke you just did, not making it.

An eight-year-old doesn't know what Spooge is. Yeah, but the people, you know. Driving the car, dude. That's right. The parents will call up and say, what are you doing? I paid for this to be played in the car. Anyway, and then there's, you know, Kevin Hart Channel. I don't know if you're getting on that one.

I don't think I will. You never know. So will they, like, cut it up so they'll put, like, a clean joke on the Pure Channel? And what are you calling the album? I don't know yet. You could also double dip. You know, sometimes it'll play on Pure and Raw. Live at the Cellar?

No. So far? So far, I like that. 30 years deep? 30 deep, because I don't want to age myself. 30 deep in a gaping hole? A gaping hole. That's going to be mine.

Are these totally different jokes than A Little Bit Bananas? No, not at all. So why wouldn't you call it A Little Bit Bananas? Just out of curiosity. I'm not suggesting. Well, a little bit bananas. That's the special I recorded in New Jersey. I don't know.

Jokes have to be different. And they're going to. You can't double dip the same joke on the. Yeah, but I don't know that they're going to. Oh, video. Oh, that's different. You know. OK, so not a little bit messed.

So you need a new title for the album. Yeah, so I don't know what that's going to be. Okay. Whatever, you know. But there's, you know, I mean. Anything creative is fine. It's not a huge deal. It's going to play in the car, you know,

when you're driving in the car and you'll see it. Yeah, no, it's important. Listen, I'm a big believer that a title is... There's a lot of lie from the comedy seller, by the way. Right, you don't want that. That's not what you want. But does it matter what the title is? No.

Okay. You heard it from the man himself. I mean, it matters just insofar as this is the title of the album, right? Yeah, it's whatever. Like, you want a good title. Whatever you want to make of it. All right, well, so we'll figure that out. We'll figure that out.

I like 30 years deep. 30 years. Or just 30 deep. 30 deep. 30 deep is not bad. You know, and it's a little ambiguous, so I don't age myself necessarily. Something happened at the show that I did on Monday. Okay.

Actually, I wish Noam was here because I wanted to ask him about potentially. So this guy, he's in the front row and he's got no socks on. Okay. And I went from one joke to another with no segue. Right. And he goes, oh, nice transition. And I said to him, oh, nice transition.

You got some balls talking about nice transition. You're in your front row with no socks. There's no transition between your shoes and your leg. And it got a big laugh. But it seems to me that that's, it's crowd work. Yeah. And it was funny and a lot of people laughed. Yeah.

So I, if no one were here, I might ask if he would post that on the comedy seller feed. Oh. But he's not here. But I could. That's one of those things you clip for your Instagram. Yeah, I could do it myself. I got to get the clip from Liz. He doesn't actually have to be here for you to ask him that.

No, he doesn't. But it's fun to have that discussion on the mic because it gives people insight into the back alley dealings. The comedy scholar. I got to say, Gnome is the best when it comes to these albums here because you can ask for these tapes and video and audio are excellent. And, you know, it does give him advertising

because the comedy seller marquee is in the back of you at all times. But it's really helpful as far as like audio and getting this done for free. A lot of places are charging. A lot of places are charging. A lot of places are taking. There are other comedy clubs in this town that are taking the owner's rights in perpetuity forever because you recorded in their place. So it's like Noam is doing a.

And no. And, you know, because of the comedy seller name, you'll get an audience. I had this discussion last week. I said to Perrielle, most of the people in the audience don't know who I am. They were overflow. And Perrielle said to me, that's not true. Well, no, that's not what he said.

He said he was like, that he was really nervous because he's like, nobody was actually coming to see me. Like, they don't care about me. They don't know who I am. And I was like, that's ridiculous. Of course people were coming to see you. Like, they don't care about me. They don't know who I am. And I was like, that's ridiculous. Of course people were coming to see you. There was definitely a handful of people. A handful.

Yeah. Because I was standing outside on Monday night before the show, and there was a line of people waiting in my show, and nobody said, damn, we can't wait to see it. So that's a pretty good indication that I was correct. And it's not like, oh, you're always negative. Because I'm not negative. Because I killed.

So if I were negative, I wouldn't say I killed. Well, I'm glad to hear you say that. You weren't saying I killed last week. Now you're saying it. And good. Because I don't like the term I killed. Well, you can say something else. But I'm trying to prove that I'm not negative.

I think I did say it went very well. You are negative. Now you're not being negative. No, I said last time it went very well. Yeah, that's good. This went even better. I like to hear you say that. But realistically, they weren't there for me.

I don't like when you say anything like, oh, it's the album. And that's why I was anxious. It's throwing a bunch of shit together. I think that you need to give it the respect that it deserves. Well, anyway. Yeah. But it was all overflow, except for Dave Stone and his friends. You know Dave Stone?

No. He comes here all the time. He's like a super comedy type of guy. Oh, okay. Well, that's good. Yeah. So he was here with his people that he liked. And did he like it?

Yeah, of course. Oh, of course. But the rest was overflow. Okay. But at least we get overflow. Yeah, I mean, I always- Because other clubs, if I did a show at another club, you might not get an audience.

Very true. No question. I mean, here, there's a lot of days that are just going to fill up whether you're the headliner or not the headliner. Right. Right. And that's what makes this place magic. You're going to get a pretty good tape.

And the fact that you can deliver really helps. And again, the price is right. You walk out of there with the tape for no money, which where else can you get that? And you actually make money, right? Because no one gives you the cover. He will, depending on... There's certain situations on that. Oh, there is?

Yeah. So I'm not getting paid? No, you might get paid. I love that you're doing this. This feels like what photographers started doing when, I don't know, 20 years ago that like you used to take a photograph and then the person who was photographed had no rights and no claim to that picture. It feels they don't have anything like this. They should. I mean, a lot of in Congress right now, they're trying to change these laws like Spotify. Did you see Weird Al Yankovic's thing at the end of the year last year? He goes, thank you.

He comes out on Instagram. Thank you, Spotify. I really want to thank you. Most spins I've ever had in my life on all my tracks, like 16 million spins. I made $64. ever had in my life on all my tracks like 16 million spins i made 64 they pay out like a quarter of a penny and even less than that now they fought to pay less than that and they're they're you know unless you're one of the top one percent they'll pay you a little more but it's just most people are not making any money from spotify all these things and now people are like what do you why why does serious radio pay this and spotify doesn't because one's off a satellite making any money from Spotify, all these things. And now people are like, why?

Why does Sirius Radio pay this and Spotify doesn't because one's off a satellite and one's streaming? It's nonsense. So they're trying to change this actually in Congress. So should I feel guilty? Last week we had on, who did we have on that was complaining about technology? Why am I blank?

John Haidt? No, no, no. I guess was complaining about technology. Oh, Nathan McIntosh. Yeah. And I don't know if we got into Spotify, but... We got into Spotify a little bit, but that's not his right. But a very little bit.

But he didn't talk much about it. But should I feel guilty? I mean, here I have this resource to listen to any song that has ever been created, produced, laid down. It's such a wonderful thing for the listener. And it's $10 a month. And who are you paying that $10 to? Spotify.

Right. And the artist that you're listening to gets squadoosh. So, yeah, I think you should feel a little guilty. I think, you know, that's the way of the world, you know? Don't the artist have to agree? I mean, I suppose once. Well, yeah, I put it up. I realize after I, you know, but it's exposure.

Now I've heard this. That word is the death of my that's like slowly. I turn because it's like, wait, sorry, because over the years, all we've heard of this. Dan and I have heard this for going on 30 years, you know, like 30. Yeah, exactly. 30 deep. It's exposure. They'll see you like it's such a bunch of shit.

Yeah. But the guy's running Spotify is on his yacht. Right. Thanks for your exposure. Appreciate it. But the YouTube specials have done well for people. They're free specials that people have put up and they've gotten a million views and then people go on the road. Monetize that.

Yeah, yeah. It's supposed to lead to sale. Now, YouTube is a little better. For some reason, visual media does a little better with this. I was watching the Netflix miniseries on Spotify, and I didn't see the whole thing. But the way that he pitched it was to the artists or to the labels is, hey, it's either us or these like LimeWire,

those sites that used to give music away. People used to steal. Steal it. So in some sense, it was like they, in a sense. Well, they could all start paying the artist. That sounds like a horrible explanation. That's like a rapist breaks into your house and he's like, you're either going to have sex with me or I'm going to rape you.

All right. It's a great. Hey, she's a winner right there on that one. Well, no, but the artists are getting paid. Now, I mean. You are getting raped. What do you want? I mean, you're getting paid like a cent, it sounds like.

I don't know the exact structure. It's bad. So it's just, yeah. Should you feel guilty? Probably. Well, maybe I should. I should then every now and again buy something on iTunes for a dollar. Absolutely.

If you have an artist that you really like, I'd say download from iTunes pays out a little more. But if they have a website, their own website, I would go to that band or whatever's website and buy their album. You probably can download it directly. I ended up buying Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack because I wanted one song. And I figured I'm getting such a good deal

on all the music in the world that I'll spring for this album to get the one song. That one song, because you have to buy the album. They don't let you buy individual songs for the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack. So there's a song by Don Henley called Love Rules.

Right. So I paid 10 bucks for that. I didn't realize you were so ethical about that. I wasn't. I said, should I feel guilty? I didn't say I do feel guilty or I will feel guilty or I'll do anything about it. Right. I said, should I feel guilty? I didn't say I do feel guilty or I will feel guilty or I'll do anything about it. Right.

I said, should I feel guilty? So this is like why it's so smart that like Louis has all of his stuff on his website. Yeah, he doesn't need Hollywood. I mean, if I knew if I but the thing is, you got to lay out that money. So if I could, you have to also have that following. So if you're as big as Louis, I don't. All those people are doing that stuff now, too, like Bill Burr and Nate Bargatze. If you if you have that much money, you should have your own website with your own download portal.

Every just get them all to go to your site. YouTube is a little different because, you know, a lot of people can't afford that. So it's sort of like this joint venture. They do pay out something because of the ad. So it's not YouTube that does not pay it out. The advertisers pay it out in some ways. So, you know, and advertisers, that's what they do. They pay money.

But you still have to lay it out. You just might get it back. Yeah, I mean, special-wise, a lot of people pay for their own specials. Yeah, sure. I mean, and that's a lot of money to make your own special. You know, what's funny is they, Gnomes is this, if he, that camera that plays at the underground, when you get those clips back,

I don't know the difference between technically the guy can run a camera there. Man, I don't know. Smoke machine, when they do a special down there, a smoke machine, they turn the lights on. It's almost uncomfortably weird. You know, this is like, just turn that camera on. I'm not sure that you're getting any more bang for your buck

than Gnome's camera. Well, I see clips, by the way. I just saw Ray Allen just posted a clip where he's talking to an audience member and it cuts to the audience. Yeah, they have.

He's got three, four cameras in there. Okay, so do I need, for that joke, do you think i would need to see the guy with no shoes and socks uh no but you have to for the if you for some reason that was a two minute clip or one and something that you need like two minute clips roughly for uh serious if no no this is just i know i'm just saying i'll go for each one for serious we you have to hear what they're saying speak so the audience person in a car has

to hear the context also with this i'd say two things it helps if you have the guy say it and you've i've seen clips where they cut back yeah that would be great but if it's not there as long as you hear you're looking at the guy and he says it you hear that clearly you're good but also what they do now with clips is like they'll just put in a picture of a guy with no socks on Instagram. And that's like standard operating procedure also. OK. Yeah. It's not for clips. I think it's the wild west, especially when you're doing like crowd work like that. I don't typically do crowd or where the guy the guy he was doing crowd work. He was heckling. So, you know, he brought me into the crowd it was not something i do mostly because i don't have the like to do crowd work effectively it's not generally enough to ask

one question where are you from i'm from minneapolis what do you do in minneapolis you have to ask generally speaking you're not going to get a joke from just where you're from well you have to ask what they do and if that doesn't work you have to say and is that where you met your girl and you have to keep asking questions without kind of necessarily know in order to do it most effectively, because eventually you're going to hit something that works, hopefully. Well, you shouldn't. But that requires writer. So that's the perfect crowd work. When you're talking along the way, you segue. He says something right there. It's minute.

So I call it minute crowd work. So if somebody says something about my joke, I'm locked and loaded because I have the next joke ready. You know what I mean? So I can always go back if whatever I say to him isn't stellar. But I'm in the moment of the joke. If you are going out of your way to say, where are you from? You don't have an act. You told me.

That may well be, but a lot of people are getting a lot of hits from the where are you from. Well, yeah. I mean, that's garbage. You could do 30 minutes of just crowd work and not do any of your written material. There are people doing crowd work specials now. I mean, they're good. Whatever. They're good at it.

They're quick off the cuff. Whatever. They're good at it. They're quick off the cuff. Whatever. They're making a special. It's just content. But in the perfect world, I mean, a lot of people, I don't know what 20-year-olds are going to see. But you can't watch a guy at Madison Square Garden do crowd work, can you? No. But you can maybe get a following with crowd work.

And then when you're at the garden, you do your jokes. I guess, ideally. Most people are one or the other. Or you don't want to burn your material on Instagram. Yeah, that's why people are doing that. But they're getting a bad sense of what goes on. You know, Sam Morrell's got some great pieces of crowd, but he does it at the end in a live show and they call out stuff and he gets one pot of gold after 10 questions. I mean, he's better than that, but it's like, OK, he's got his piece and some people do it here.

They'll light up the camera. They'll do 14 minutes if they have 15 minutes in the spot, 14 minutes in the last piece, anybody have any questions, and you'll get your one piece of gold. And that's the one you post because you don't want to post and burn your material. But when they go to the show, if you think you're going to see an hour of this guy do that stand-up, that little crowd work thing, you should be sorely mistaken.

I wonder if anybody plants people in the audience so that they look like geniuses. That's a better idea. You know what? That's a great idea, Dan. Yeah, well, it seems obvious enough. I'll be your guy. I'll wear a weird mustache. Look at this guy with the mustache. I'm not wearing any socks. What do you think? I'll just have another guy with no socks sit in the front row

and say, nice transition. Yeah. And then I'll be even quicker with it. That's great. You told me many years ago. Why would anybody not do that? If in the new paradigm of putting crowd work on Instagram. Yeah, no, you're right. You're absolutely right. You just invented this as far as I'm concerned. Well, it seems obvious enough.

Listen, you told me many years ago that I should never or you should never talk to the audience. You shouldn't. You have no business. You said to me, you have no business talking to the audience unless it's something that's going to get you to your next joke more quickly. There you go. Yeah, I think so. I mean, what are we doing here? You know, did you get into the business to go? So where are you from? God, I don't care where anybody's from. I mean, I really don't. I mean, I, I don't,

I do not care where that audience is from. Like, you know, unless they're heckling like crazy, like, okay, what planet did you just land from that? You think this is acceptable,

but in here, especially the comedies, they will come over and tell you, please do not talk to the, you know, don't feed the animals. Don't talk, don't talk to the comic,

you know, like unless they're a crowd work guy and they know what they're doing, this little, you know, don't feed the animals. Don't talk to the comic. You know, like, unless they're a crowd work guy and they know what they're doing, this little, you know, trying to make a clip. But yeah, there's no reason,

you came here to write jokes. You're, especially starting out, there's no reason a starting, you need to get as many jokes out as possible. Nobody's going to pay you on the road or anywhere as a comedian to, for doing crowd work it's just that

a seasoned comic that wants to not burn material but has jokes if he does get booked somewhere i guess it could be i don't know if the crowd where thing is played out by now like people were getting a lot of hits with it might by now it might be you know it might be too late it definitely it puts eyeballs on hey look at this. He's doing a piece of this. Let's watch his other clips. And then if you have a clip, I don't know. Is it just since the invention of social media that you guys

started? Yeah, of course. I'm still not doing crowd work, but the crowd work was imposed on me, and I thought, well, maybe I'll post. No, but I'm just wondering, like, you guys were starting out. A lot of it is because nobody wants to burn material, well, maybe I'll post. No, but I'm just wondering, like, yeah, you guys were starting out. A lot of it is because just nobody wants to burn material. So they're doing crowd.

Yeah, I didn't know anybody back then and decided like, oh, I can't wait to do some crap. You know, I mean, the host did the crowd work. That was it. In fact, they would tell you, I think back in the day at certain clubs like my host has got the host here does the crowd where you don't have to talk to them. You don't have to talk to them at all. And to me, it's a sign of a crutch.

I know a new comic when I see it, if he's rolling along with his jokes, and then especially if they're not going so well, it's like, okay, he gets frustrated. So where are you from? It's just he just got frustrated. My only crowd work is not crowd work at all. It's like I have a joke about Canada, and I said, yeah, I was just in Canada.

Anybody from Canada? There you go, because you have the next the next because i have the joke ready to go so if they say i'm from canada yeah i said yeah you know i no offense but i didn't you know i got a bad vibe up there and i do my joke right there's nobody from canada i'll say you know don't bother because i was just there whatever they say unless they say nice transition and then i have to do something about the guy's socks i don't even know what you're looking for like anybody from canada if i just because it makes it seem like more of a conversation. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, what are they going to say?

I'm from Canada. Really? Where are you from in Canada? Unless you have like the Montreal thing and you break it to some French. But I just think it just, my thought is that it's just, it includes them. It makes it interactive. It doesn't take up much time. It's just, yeah, I'm just in Canada.

Usually, by the way, the Canadians will cheer. I don't have to ask who's from Canada because they'll whoop and holler. Anybody who whips and hollers when you say, where are you from? And then you just, sometimes you'll go Canada and they'll go, San Francisco, Cleveland. They start yelling

out places they're from. Like, what are you doing? You just opened it up. Don't break that wall if you don't have to. That's my, that's my general thought of life. Okay, well, we disagree slightly on that. I mean, I don't, you're a seasoned professional, Dan. I see what you're doing. It's great.

But I don't know what you're trying to get out of it other than. I just, again, what I'm trying to get out of it when I do it normally is just to make it seem like, hey, we're having a conversation. This is not quite the same thing as a play. There's some interaction. The Canadians get a kick out of it. Do they? I think so.

They like to be included. They're not included in anything else. They were included. The Yalta Conference, we locked them out, you know, going back a few years. You know, the NHL. Oh, they're included there, but not the NBA. Okay.

The NBA, we don't include them. One team. One team, okay. I think if you broke it to France, said something, they were like there, but not the NBA. Okay. The NBA, we don't include them? Toronto. One team, okay. I think if you broke it to France, said something, they were like, what? We don't speak French. There's your opening to whatever it is, or you have some kind of ploy with you if you're from Canada.

Okay. But obviously you have the joke and you could always go back. The point being is that the only crowd work I typically do is A, when it's imposed on me by a heckler, B, when I have the joke locked and loaded. Anyway, let's,

let's move the conversation if we could to let Lenny more of a Lenny focused discussion. Damn it. Well, no, you started this, this production company. What else is new in the world of Lenny?

What's new? Well, in the world of, in the comedic world of Lenny, unless there's something going on with your marriage or your, you know, which would be good, Dan, everything's good on with your marriage or your... Everything's good, Dan. Everything's good on the home front.

Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I do a lot of different things during the day, as you know. I'm on the road with Leslie Jones, so we do that. We're on hiatus now. The tour ended about a month and a half ago. So you're her opener?

I'm her opener. I'm her writer. I'm her consigliere. I'm her... I just opened for Howie Mandel. Yeah you're her opener? I'm her opener. I'm her writer. I'm her consigliere. I'm her... I just opened for Howie Mandel. Yeah, how was that? It was fun. So we flew in a private jet

to the gigs. Yeah. Which is, you know, a treat, I guess. Yeah. So the pilots came to the show. Mm-hmm. Because Howie always invites

the pilots to the show. He's also from Canada, isn't he? He is. Yeah, you go, Howie, where you from? Yes, I turn around and he's backstage. Anybody here from Canada? Howie, where you from? Yes, I turn around and he's backstage. Anybody here from Canada?

Howie, where you from? So the pilots come to the show. Yeah. So I do a joke about... Pilots. No, I do a joke about airlines, how you got to pay extra for everything. You got to pay to check your bag. Right.

You got to pay to... I'm surprised I don't have a slot for your credit card where the oxygen mask comes down. This is not a joke I do in the city because for whatever reason I feel like airline jokes, you know. Theoretically, you could have an amazing airline joke, but the subject is so well-worn at this point that I feel it best to avoid it entirely, at least in the city.

Can I disagree with you a little? You can, you can. I can because, you know, like, I'll tell you what's well-worn. Sex jokes are well-worn, but everybody's got them. For some reason, airline jokes get like this, have this reputation. Exactly.

It's undeserved. You know what's funny about that? Somebody made rules. Somebody said that, and then everybody just assumes these rules. You know what I mean? The one great thing about stand-up comedy, no rules, right?

There's no rules. You want to talk to the crowd and work? If it's funny, great. You want to do jokes about people's socks great you want to do airline job i don't care as long as it's not the same ones you've heard a million times or personal experience to you like you know i i don't really know the the this you know they say is the worst thing i think ever as i get older i don't like they always, they always say, they always say, who the fuck is that? Right.

Like what people say. And what do they always say? And what do they always say? Who's they? Who made these rules? I mean, but I guess there are things that a lot of people do say, but sometimes the comic just makes it up. And what do they always say? And then says something that nobody ever said.

Yeah. That's at least funny. You know. Anyway, go ahead. So I did the joke about that. And then the next day we get on the jet and the pilot says, okay, just so you know, the oxygen mask, we do charge. Funny.

It was funny. So anyway, so that happened. That's a perfect guy when you do that joke. Get him as the plant. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm a pilot. I'm going to charge you for the oxygen. Yeah.

But then he gets the laugh. Yeah. It's your show. And not me. And then at the end of the flight. Take out your money right there. I'll pay it right now. At the end, how he does a ta-da.

And at the end of the flight, the guy did a ta-da. He did. Yeah. The other pilot. That's a big fan of yours. They're real jokesters. These guys need to stick to flying. I'm sorry.

I don't want to hear. Especially on a private jet. You want a pilot to be dead serious. Yeah. I don't want to hear, especially on a private jet. You want a pilot to be dead serious. Yeah, I do not need you to tell jokes. I mean, he wants you to start going up there

to the cockpit and start futzing around. He can. He can, actually. Wait a second. I like how you said what's new in the world of Lenny.

And then you launched into that. I'm good at spinning it right back. Boy, that's so Dan Natterman. I love it it I love it I love it because I thought

it was a good anecdote it is a good anecdote I'm terrible at talking so you're opening but how did the Leslie thing come about she just saw you here here like yeah

she was the story goes back in like she got SNL Saturday Night Live in 2014 oh my god it's been 10 years

yeah holy shit oh my god she did about she went to 2018 14 Saturday Night Live in 2014. Oh, my God. It's been 10 years. Yeah. Holy shit. Oh, my God. She went to 2018, about five years on SNL. It's shocking how much time goes by. Fast. Very fast. And in between, she bought a place in Manhattan,

and then she wanted in the off-season, which is like now for them in May. From May to they go back in October. So idle hands. So she decided to light her act back up. Every year, you know, she would do that, but she would go down and do spots and disappear. I don't know what she was doing,

but then the last couple of years, she would come in and try and do spots to just stay fresh. And then, you know, we were sitting at the table one day and we were watching the Yankees. As you know, Estee and I love the Yankees. And Leslie's like, I can get tickets to the Yankees. I'm like, I know those seats. It's Lorne Michaels' seats.

He was there last night, as a matter of fact. He was right behind home plate. That's his seats. And I'm like, oh, I'll go to that. I've been watching people go to that for 30 years. The Yankees are like, please let me have those seats. So I'm like, sure, I'll go to the Yankees. And she's like, all right, I'll call you.

You're Ryan Hamilton, right? Yeah. I'm like, no. Really? Yeah, he had been there and then went down to do his spot. And she's like, no, I'm Lenny. Oh, yeah, right. And so she goes, put me your number in my phone.

And so I put her number. Do you think I ever think she's calling me for that? No. And then she texts me one day, you want to ever think she's calling me for that? No. And then she texted me one day, you want to go to a game? It's an afternoon game. I was like, yeah. I took my friend Neil Potter, the great Neil Potter. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I haven't seen him in years. And yeah, and we went to the game. We had a blast with her and her assistant, me. And then we had laughed the whole time we were there. I had a great time. And then when she came down here, to run spots i figured i'd take a look i've never seen her act so i uh i went down there to look at her act and uh i was like man it's good but she's got a lot of hole you know there's a lot of holes so i like i wrote a theme

of this episode yeah gaping holes gaping holes there was some gaping holes and there you go if this episode isn't called gaping holes i don't think it should gaping holes and there you go if this episode isn't called gaping holes i don't know what we should be yeah come on so then uh i she comes off and i go i got some notes if you want i'm ready for the punch in the face because no i don't like notes you probably don't like no nobody gives anybody notes really and she's like yeah i'm like really so we go up i give her notes she goes come on i'll do it around the corner i'm like do it around the corner you mean you're not gonna think about them no she just memorized it and went around the corner to the other room i think we started at the on the ground then she went to the mcdougal and i'm sitting in the back

going oh my god how's this gonna go and she put like i think i gave her like 10 that she could remember and i want to say 9 out of 10 blew the roof off and i can't even do that for myself you know what are the odds on that happening? None. So this was like some kind of weird... My ratio is far less than 9 out of 10. Yeah, me too. I'm like 1 for 10. Yeah, about that. That night, I don't know if she had some...

I just had a lot of caulk for that gaping hole. That's C-A-U-L-K. That's right, caulk. So I... She killed and she off, and she's like, all right, who are you? You know what I mean? That kind of thing. And then it sort of capped, and she would take me to another game.

I'd come watch, give her a couple more notes. She'd text me, I'm going down. I'd give her a couple more notes. And then we did this, and then I don't know what was going on behind the scenes in her world, but she turned to me, won Yankees game, and said, you want to come on the road uh open for me on the road i'm like i don't know she goes it pays this i was like i'll be there and so um yeah like early 2018 we started we went to all those games and like that's this started like july august of 2017 and by 2018 she was like hey yeah come with me and then the next when I went with her,

she tells it a little different than I tell it. She said, I watched her do an hour. And she's like, or an hour and 20, or maybe an hour and 25. She's like, after I did 20. She's like, what did you think? And I was like, yeah, that was interesting. And she's like, no, no, seriously, I want you to give it to me. And I was like, and I did.

And I was like, well, that's the last I'll ever see of Loni Jones jones at least i got to sit in those seats she was like she loved it she loved the candidness and then i helped her you know like one of the things was like where can i see your set list so i can go and she's like what's the set list and i'm like i'm sorry the fucking rolling stones have a set list i mean what are you talking about so that was we started with like how to put the jokes in the right order. You know, a lot, you know, she had sex joke, one sex joke, 20 minutes in sex joke. I'm like, put them all in one chunk at the end. You know, like anyway, it seems like comedy one-on-one to a lot of people, but it's like, uh, for her, it was really helpful to like discipline her. She's a bucking Bronco. You got to kind of discipline her and, uh, with letting her you got to kind of discipline her and uh

with letting her stay like this artist you know that she is like crazy so it's like uh it's kind of we give we give and take on it and i just help her mold this hour she's like i want you to help me write the hour and then the next one's like you want to go with me to the olympics next thing i know i'm on a plane what sport does she do what what sport does she do yeah What? What sport does she do? Yeah. She's a javelin catcher. She, yeah, she took me to the Winter Olympics. That was ridiculous. And we're tweeting. I'm helping her write tweets for the Winter Olympics.

And then everything she did, we'd go do commercials. She's like, I want you to help me write on this commercial. And then I would have to go rewrite the lines if she didn't want to say them. And I'd have to go see some writer there that they probably paid a lot of money for. I'm like, can she say this instead? Sweating. And now I'm like, yeah, she's going to say this instead. But that takes years. So yeah, she just takes me everywhere

and dumps me in the pool. Next thing you know, she doesn't like the producers of Supermarket Sweep. You're the producer of Supermarket Sweep. You know what I mean? And when I get there, they realize I can do all these jobs. I could write it. I wrote most of that show, Supermarket Sweep.

I helped her hire the people. I helped her produce the show. I helped the producers and the networks not get killed when she's in a mood. She cares more than they do. That's the greatest thing about her. We all care. We want a good show. You ever go to a show and like people are scattered all

over like can't you move them down a little bit like i've done that before and it's like it's that in in grand scale it's like no can't we do it like this i mean that would help her you know can't you move the prompter five feet to the left so she could say, yes, we can. Oh, well, nobody even asked. So it's like it's a it's a lot of stuff to be an intermediary and and a conciliary and a conciliary. And like, what do you think of these people? I mean, you're everything. Yeah, you could probably be a business manager, too. Yeah. I mean, I've been told you should do all that stuff.

But, you know, she has people for that, which I like being the head of the creative department. Let's put all that stuff. But, you know, she has people for that, which I like being the head of the creative department. Let's put it that way. And then, you know, with a little bleed, but, you know, the bleed can be really, I don't want to step up. I said put her in Dogecoin. Dogecoin. I made 200 bucks this week in Dogecoin.

But I'll probably lose it next week. I mean. No, I don't have any faith in, in, in, in crypto, uh, in terms of it's, I believe it's all bullshit.

That's what I believe. Other people disagree. Why are you playing? Because I also believe you can make money from it. All right. And I don't want to be the one guy that's like all these, everybody's, everybody's driving around in there.

You know, they're the rolls is from Bitcoin, you know, and, and I'm the only one that didn't do it. I mean, I guess everybody can't get rich because it doesn't work that way. But like, it's worth it to me. I put a thousand in Doge.

That's nothing. It's worth it to me to lose the entire thousand to avoid the possibility that I could have made a hundred thousand, but didn't do it. Hey, you have the money. I mean, it's a thousand. You know, that's didn't do it. Hey, you have the money. I mean, it's $1,000. That's worth it to me. Even though I have no confidence that any of this is real,

I think it's all ridiculous. That's the lottery. You've got to be in it to win it. Yes. And I've elected to be in it. Okay. It's fine. I just can't. I don't want, you know.

In it to win it. FOMO. FOMO. That's what it is. FOMO. Is a good title for your album, too. In it to win it. Okay.

FOMO is what it is. You know, one time there was this big lottery pool come out. It was like this big, you know, whatever. It was one of those billion-dollar draws. And everybody was running to buy tickets. You know when it gets crazy, you got to buy a ticket. My wife always is like, go buy a ticket. I'm like, all right, I'll play this game with you.

But it's ridiculous. Mathematically, as a math person, that's kind of ridiculous. You know, I played the lotto when it gets to like a billion. you but it's ridiculous the mathematically as a math person well because when you you know i played the lotto when it gets to like a billion and then i look at my i anxiously because i'm all set to win big i i look at my ticket and not not a single number that's why i said this is stupid i have a joke like that you know like the people who you know stuff hits me in the head all the time you know a guy jumping off a building and landing on me in my neighborhood is way better odds than me hitting one ball on the lottery. But crypto,

I think there's a lot better odds that you'll make money on crypto than in the lottery. I think you have a better chance of going to every old lady bingo game and making money. But who knows? Maybe you'll get one. Stars are aligned for you. I remember one time everybody was buying at the

strip. Everybody was running across the street before the thing and buying thing the comic strip the comic strip clear for the audience the comic strip or something and then I remember I everybody was

buying like 10 numbers 20 numbers they're like okay you want in and they're busting my balls I'm like all right I want one set of numbers I want one set why I go because that's

astronomical as it is if I'm gonna get crazy big you know and so Van Horn bought like Tom Van Horn bought like 20 numbers or something. Cost him like, yeah, whatever it is. $40. One for $2. Whatever it is.

And he goes, if you fucking win. He was legitimately mad. If you fucking win buying one ticket, I'm like, what is the matter with you? Like, you got another level of mental problems. If you're mad at me for winning with one ticket when you had to buy 20 to also not win a one in a billion lottery.

It seems pretty unlikely. It's very unlikely. You have a better chance of dying, not in a plane crash, but of a plane falling on you. Is that literally true? You have a better chance of dying in a plane crash and you weren't on the plane. Every now and again a plane hits somebody. Do you do that?

It's a funny premise. I think it's not even a premise. I read that somewhere. You know, and I mean, sometimes shit that's just real is funny. It doesn't even have to be a joke. That's like when my joke about, you know, when I my joke about, you know, everybody said that they're going to go to Canada if Trump is elected. And then Trump gets elected. Everybody's like,

I ain't fucking going to go. Yeah. And that joke gets a big laugh. And it's not even a joke. Yeah. Because it's true. You know how many people say that? Everybody's like,

I'm moving to Canada. I just put a little, a little panache in the punch. A little, you know, a little bit. But that's all it takes. And it gets a bigger laugh than,

than many of my jokes that are actual jokes with punchlines. You're a hole filler it was a hole filler but you know and then i say fucking because it just it's a little used because i've tried to just i ain't moving to canada and that works but you got like i try to be clean if i can but sometimes that curse naderman yeah sometimes experience of 30 years kids if you're listening's amazing. Sometimes you just need that fucking in there. Otherwise. In the gaping hole. Listen, I just want to go on record here with the two of you and say, I don't think that my in it to win it suggestion got nearly enough recognition.

That's actually a good idea for a title for you. In it to win it? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I don't think a title matters anyway. Call it whatever. You don't think so. I think so. Does he have a reference in his act to the lottery?

No, I don't know. No. I was thinking more like in it to win it was similar to 30 years deep. 30 deep. In it to win it. I don't know that it much matters, the title. I think we talked about that earlier, but call it whatever you want.

You could call it the citric acid cycle. I like that too. Nobody's named their album that. Something I remember from high school biology. He's on the cover with a bunch of beakers and stuff. I like it. Why not? Why not?

Do you remember long ago? Let me ask you something. Do you remember when we were all just sitting here at like 1.30 in the morning? At the cellar. Yeah. Me, you, Ray, Judah. Who else was there? Russ Meneve.

Can you grasp how long ago that is now? Does it drive you nuts? Well, if Russ Meneve was in comedy, I had him. Well, I mean, it was like, this is so long ago. It's so long is now. Does it drive you nothing? Well, if Russ Meneve was in comedy ahead of him. Well, I mean, it was like this is so long ago. It's so long ago now. There's nobody. We're the last two of us are like the last of the Mohicans here.

Well, what I've said about the comedy cellar is that when I started here in the 90s, there were no 40 year olds working here. Zero. Zero. And now about half the lineup is over 40. Right. Zero. Zero. And now about half the lineup is over 40. Everybody was younger.

Everybody's younger. I think it's not half the lineup anymore. I think it's going back to that. Those people either left, got out. There's very few people over. Like,

past the early show, I'll give you like Colin's still here, Norton's still here, you're still here, I'm still here. After those four, you'd be hard-pressed

to find five more guys. How old is Sam Morales? No. He's not 40 yet? Late 30s, I think. Late 30s, okay. Even late 30 here. After those four, you'd be hard-pressed to find five more guys. How old is Sam Morales? He's not 40 yet? Late 30s, I think. Late 30s, okay. Even late 30s, by the way, was pushing it when we started. Wow. Yeah, well, people would get stuff then. I mean, it was like you could go to L.A. Laster is over 40, I think. Hamilton,

Ryan Hamilton's over 40. Collins over 40. Yamanika's over 40. I'm just looking at the schedule. Amin Ahmadi's not 40. Dove is over 40. Emmy Blotnick is not over 40. Mike Yard is over 40. I'm just looking at the schedule. Amin Ahmadi is not 40. Dove is over 40. Emmy Blodnick is not over 40. Mike Yard is over 40. Marina, I'm not saying because she doesn't want me to say. She's under 40.

She's over 40. She'll be okay with being over 40. Okay. Christy Stefano, he's probably 40. They're probably all right. The next wave is so funny. That next wave who was so young is now all hitting 40. It's crazy.

But they did well. When I hit 40, I thought it was old. When do we get out? You know what I mean? If you're lucky, you don't. Yeah, you get out. I mean, how long before? Estee.

Yeah, it's going to happen. When I'm 70? I can't call in here and again when I'm 70. Because it's going to happen. When I'm 70, I can't call in here and again when I'm 70. Because it's going that way. Yeah. Because there's people now hurtling towards 70. Yeah. Without mentioning any names.

Right. They're not far away. Right. Boss is 70. He's not quite 70. He's getting there. But he's still, you know what I mean? And he's still.

He's still. And he's still doing it. He's still doing it. So what's the alternative? I mean, if you have enough money, you can retire. But why would you want to. But why would you? But why would you? I don't know.

It just seems. Unless you just feel it's. Unless for some reason. You're talking to 20-year-olds in the crowd. You know, most of the crowds after like 10 o'clock, 20 years old. You might as well come here and do a couple spots to supplement your Social Security income. Can I get it off the books? You know, that's going to be the next thing.

No one's going to have to pay everybody off the books to come down. Why? Because if you can't get Social Security? I don't know. What do I know? Let me get there first. I have no idea. But it just seems ridiculous that we're all going to be in our 70s.

I got a 915. I got to go to sleep by 10 at the end. The whole business is getting older. The same thing happened, though, with rock and roll. Rock and roll started in the 50s. Yeah. So when we were kids, nobody in rock and roll was more than 40. I mean, maybe like Fats Domino, those guys were in their 40s when we were kids.

When we were kids, I was going to the Catskills to see Jackie Gale when I was up there. And he was in his probably 50s. I'm older than what that guy is. Older than that. The guy who I thought was ancient. Ancient. See these guys, they're all in suits. Their hair is gray.

I mean, people age differently now. I'm not sure why. I don't know. Obviously, they didn't lift any weight, do any running, or whatever, smoke cigars. Alan King was 100 when I was 10. Right. You know what I mean? He was probably 50.

Yeah. But now in rock, being 70, you could make the same point. Like, oh, these guys are still doing concerts at 70? Yeah, they are. Mick Jagger is 80. 80. He's still doing it. Yeah, I'm not sure.

Sometimes I'm like... And Billy Joel's selling out the garden like every day. I mean, and he's 70 plus. Well, we also came into this weird entertainment sector that kind of grew old together, like the height of entertainment. Now entertainment's so niche. You know what I mean? It's so niche.

There's no Rolling Stones. What? Taylor Swift is the only person. Are we all going? Is my kid going to see Taylor when she's 60? I don't know. Maybe. Oh, I love Taylor Swift is the only person. Are we all going? Is my kid going to see Taylor when she's 60? I don't know. Maybe. Oh, I love Taylor Swift.

Maybe. Maybe. I can't wait to see Taylor at the garden. She's doing a residency. I don't know that your daughter is going to talk like that. Probably not. I mean, she's half Italian. I'm going to fucking see Taylor Swift.

Yeah, yeah. And just for one second, I'm going to fuck a C. Fuck, I'm sure going to Taylor Swift. Combine the two heritages. Yeah. I don't know. The world's just going to keep changing, oddly, I think, now. Entertainment-wise, not the same.

We grew up on television. I know everything. I was playing trivia the other night with some people, and I have this crazy vast array of stupid knowledge. What kind of trivia? Comics play trivia. There's a trivia game that happens every blue moon. Tony Dale put this together.

Wow. Like Trivial Pursuit? It's trivia. I can't explain it. It's an online. He started in the pandemic. He got everybody. It was really cool.

He started everybody. It's online. He also got so good at this, putting people into break rooms and this whole thing. He does it with companies. If you want a company outing, they had all these people. It's amazing. He made a fortune. Wow.

He puts these trivia games together, and they're amazing. He's got music trivia on a block. And, I mean, it's all over. General knowledge. There was a sports thing, and, you know, people are complaining. I get out now this sport. Other people complain. I don't know geography, you know, know whatever we you know and they put teams

together and uh we play but i mean the what my wife my wife who's you know younger if she doesn't have like 90s hip-hop she's fucking worthless i mean we learned so much stuff from just watching tv you know back in the day and now they don't let the kids watch that much TV, you know, or it's, you know, unless, you know, my daughter can answer all the Bluey questions if we had her in there. Are they what questions? Bluey. What's Bluey? It's a kid's cartoon.

Okay, okay. But yeah, but you know, you grow, whatever you, you have a certain range of pop culture that people know. But I think when you get into, when you're're like 50 you have a huge range now of uh especially if you're still hip and you know who like taylor swift is my parents when they hit 50 didn't know shit about the odd cut you know they didn't watch anything anymore they didn't know anything and i grew up with their music which was like you know uh william b williams and the make-believe ballroom so i know like i, I got to... Like, you know, immediately what all those songs are.

Can't stand all that shit. Yeah, a lot of people now, you'll be like, what is that? That's Victrolida, these kids. You know, they don't have anything. But I like a lot of the same music that my nieces and nephews like. Because I think the change in music hasn't been as dramatic as the change was from our parents' era to our era. The change was much more drastic. The Who, The Stones, Billy Joel. That kind of music is gone.

I mean, it's all hip-hop. You got to rap on the track. There's still dance music or whatever, Dua Lipa and people like that. But there's so much less of that. There's more rap and hip-hop. It's varied, but I mean... But I will still like the occasional Olivia Rodrigo.

Is that her name? Yeah. Her music. Also, there's a lot of country going on now that I like. You know, country music is still alive and kicking. Oh, yeah.

That's not going anywhere. And pop. Rock like the Stones. And that's really, that's dead and buried pretty much. Yeah, it's niche. It's like, yeah, I forget the,

you go watch Saturday Night Live, everybody knew the bands on Saturday Night Live. You know, now, and then there was the punk scene was happening. I forget the, you go watch Saturday Night Live, everybody knew the bands on Saturday Night Live. You know, now, and then there was the punk scene was happening. Like, I remember seeing the B-52s.

I'm like, what is this? You know, that was crazy. And it was like, you know, they had, but now,

they'll always be the same thing. They'll have weird bands that you'll never hear of again. This has been, I think, a very good episode. What do you think, Max?

Yeah, it's been fun. I think it's been, because I was a little worried because Noam's not here. Well, Noam, I would have been knee deep in the Middle East at this point. God help me. Yeah, well. It was great. We just did an episode with Noam before this.

And it started off, I was really into it. And then it got very like Middle East, Ukraine. And then I just, I was really into it. And then it got very like Middle East, Ukraine. Oh, man. And then I just, I couldn't, my stamina just. I think that what we started doing is a very good solution. We started doing one political one. Well, it's also better for Sirius because Sirius plays us on rock comedy. Yeah.

And, you know, I don't think people that listen to rock comedy want to hear an hour about Ukraine, but maybe they do. I mean, some do, but some don't. I can't imagine somebody tuning in to the comedy channel that usually plays clips. They're in their car. They just want a couple laughs after a hard day, and they hear no pontificating. And they see, oh, the Comedy Cell show. Honey, this is going to be great. This is going to be great.

I was at the Comedy Cell just last week. I saw the best show. I saw this guy. He was, oh, let's see what they have to say. And then they turn around. Hamas. I saw the best show. I saw this guy. He was, let's see what they have to say. And then they turn it. Hamas? Like, oh God. Now the,

you know, they will. They would be happy to kill you. Noam is, the Henry Kissinger. But Noam is excellent at that. Of course. That being said,

Noam is excellent at what he does. It's just misbranded. I would like. It's on the wrong channel. It's on the wrong channel. Is there a political channel there a political channel yeah but i think that they run the ones that they feel like are oh you know am i relevant yeah um i would just like to remind you any if i may dan take the wheel here for just a moment that um no no it's you and I were speaking of knee deep in pitching a television show. But you and Lani were saying?

Yes. That was literally about to get picked up like a thousand percent. And our meeting, if I'm not mistaken, at Comedy Central was on March 24th of 2020. Yep. Oh, okay. So the pandemic. Pandemic. And then by the time

the smoke cleared, nobody worked there anymore that you knew, right? That's right. It's unbelievable. It was a great show. You know, but everybody has a story like that.

They really do. They have a story like that. I remember... Everybody has a story like that. I don't know. Robert Roth. Do you remember Robert Roth? Oh, I haven't seen him. Robert... Yeah, I think he couldn't take it anymore after he was on

Star Search. And he gets to the finals of Star Search. And if he had a million comics, I wouldn't have picked Robert. Like, he's funny, but somehow he knocked off everybody he had to knock off, gets to the finals of Star Search. He goes, right? He he goes he gets four stars the other guy goes

he's halfway through his set, it's a four minute set it's like I'm watching this going, Robert Rothstein is going to win Star Search and we interrupt this program for the Gulf War and I'm not kidding and Star Search didn't come back for like three.

Which Gulf War? I want to say the second one. It would have to be because Robert's not that old. So it's like, you know, whatever, 2000. So, no, sorry, early, late 90s. What difference does it make? It doesn't matter. So Robert Ross, so three months later or whatever,

they decide, you know, we can't come back yet. Everybody's still watching bombs go off every night on TV. And finally Star Search is going to air. And the deal they made him was like Robert could go again or he could keep that set. And then the other guy could just do his set. So I think Robert elected to go again. And no matter what, they told him he was going to get four stars. No matter what happened, he wouldn't get any lower, but he could go higher.

So he went again for their show and then the other guy went back to la and got everybody to work on his act with him and he came out and beat robert the judge was that guy i don't remember the guy i'm sure you could look it up um you could look it up and beat that guy and i was like oh my god that was heartbreaking to me and i remember that i know a bunch of people had that story. It was just so crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy. It was like literally.

We were supposed to do Supermarket Sweep. We didn't. We were. I was already. They were here. They were actually here. The producers came here to talk to Leslie. And then we were going to go there to do test shows.

It was like three trips had been planned. So they were in the office. And the rumor of this was going around. Oh, they're talking about it. So they were happy to go back to L.A. They were a little nervous at that point. And they did. They made it back to L.A. in one piece. And a week later, that was the end of Supermarket Suite for a whole year.

I had to sit. And we did it on Zoom. Everything was on Zoom. So all that big Hollywood stuff with me getting on the plane, going out there, rehearsals, the whole stuff, coming back. It was all done on Zoom. So all that big Hollywood stuff with me getting on the plane, going out there, rehearsals, the whole stuff, coming back. It was all done on Zoom. We did like 32 weeks on Zoom of rehearsal.

And somehow they had to figure out how to make it rehearsal on Zoom, make her a host. Insane. Yeah. Okay, that's it. That's about wraps it up for it. Thank you, Lenny,

for stopping by. That's how we wrap it up with a pandemic. We filled the hole, I think, nicely for you. And thank you, Perriel. Thank you, Max Marcus. Podcast at ComedyCellar.com

for comments, questions, and suggestions. Bye-bye.