The Joe Rogan Experience - #1418 - Don Gavin

Episode Date: January 23, 2020

Don Gavin is a stand-up comedian and actor. His album "Don Gavin: Live with a Manhattan" will be available for the first time to stream on January 24.

Three, two... Hello, Don Gavin. Hello, Joe Rogan. Good to see you, sir. It's good to see you. It's been a long time. Yeah, it's a pleasure to get you on here, man. I'm thrilled to be here. We've talked about you, I don't know how many times. Many times.

I've heard that from my son. He says you mentioned my name glowingly. Yeah, well, hey, man, you were a giant inspiration to me when I was coming up. That's good to hear. you were a giant inspiration to me when I was coming up. That's good to hear. Well, you know, I've talked about this so many times, but that era of Boston comedy, when I started in 88, and you guys had already been through the ding-ho,

and all that had been gone, and it was the heyday of comedy. It was an amazing time. And, you know, I was very fortunate to be able to see guys like you and Sweeney and, you know, and all those guys. Mike Donovan and Kevin Knox. I mean, you go down the list over and over and over again. Lenny Clark. Just an amazing time for stand-up back then. Yeah, that was certainly the heyday.

I came in, I started it around 79. And it had been going on for one or two years. But going on meaning not much going on. And then it built and built and built, and then to the point that that explosion, as you said, wow. And I always like to think people talk about a Boston style. There wasn't a Boston style, other than being very aggressive maybe. Yeah.

But everybody had different ways of doing it because we didn't know. It wasn't like an L.A. style or New York style. There was just all different approaches coming out to the same end. Yeah, you started in 79, so that was really like the beginning of comedy clubs, right? Yeah, well, they weren't even comedy clubs. You mentioned the Ding Ho. Ding Ho used to be like a saloon. And the guys that were sitting at the bar when we first went in there, they refused to leave.

So they stayed at the bar. And all they would do is, when we put somebody up on the stand, they'd turn around and say, shut the fuck up, we're trying to drink here. We couldn't get rid of them. So finally we were able to help because they got so tired of hearing the microphone.

But that was just a drink, that's all you can say. And it became a Chinese restaurant. So it wasn't a Chinese restaurant at first? It was just a saloon, I think. And then Shun Li, this guy, came in. It was supposed to put comedy in there. And Barry Kerman was one of the guys originally.

Lenny, myself, Sweeney, as you mentioned. DJ Hazard, people like that. Jimmy Tingle. There was a bunch of us that came in at that time. And once again, no particular one style other than the fact

that we kind of created that the headliner would be the host. Yeah, that was a weird Boston style. Like when you have the Don Gavin show, you would go out there

and host and you do a few minutes in between each comic. Right. Yeah. Well, we didn't know it was weird because I wanted

to be in charge and if Joe Rogan went on and he's supposed to do 15 and you do great, great. Now, Bill Johnson

comes on and he blows. I'm going to go up and take the mic after about six minutes. Yeah, that was Bill Johnson. Yeah. And then go on to the next cut.

Yeah. And then at the end that headliner would close the show. Yeah. So you had that much control. headliner would close the show. Yeah. So you had that much control over it. But when you started doing more and more shows, like I started Nick's in Boston. Initially, it was a joke.

It was supposed to be a tax write-off. They tried to sabotage it. That used to be a steak joint. Really? Yeah. Nick's steak joint. And so when we did it, one week the stage was collapsed. Next week there'd be no sound.

Next week no lighting. The doors would be locked. But then eventually more and more people coming in. Then they got upset because we were getting in the way of the people going to the steak part. And then they said, well, maybe we can make money on this. We'll go upstairs. There was an upstairs there. And that was used only on one night of the week for Greek belly dancers, where

they were paid $200, the next was, $200. In fact, these Greek belly dancers, their production food, they brought in their own liquor. So they only made $200 for the whole weekend. So once we were in a theater, one show, then a show. And eventually, and around the time when you came in, we were doing five shows on my night, on Saturday night, five shows in the same place, upstairs and downstairs. Yeah, I remember that. That was before I was getting paid. So I was really an amateur. But I remember watching there was a show in the upstairs room.

Right. And then there was a smaller downstairs room. And then there was another time where they did it in the disco. Right. They had, which is it is a disco now. Well, if it is a disco now well if it is a very sad disco well it was sad then too yes but it was strange that everyone was cycling from room to room right and you go from upstairs to downstairs and again the first week we tried that

with the fire show you were trying to host it was impossible to go both but yeah i mean the guy on the side of the stage was going you you're supposed to be going downstairs. I go, well, I just started up here. And it was so confusing that you get on stage and you say, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Have I already said that? And you weren't sure. It got to the point. And also with the few drinks involved by the fifth show.

Yeah. It was some repetition sometimes well that was the thing that was also about uh that was interesting about boston comedy was that the partying like they you guys were a bunch of fucking savages i mean that's what i remember uh yeah it was pretty widespread at that point but again we didn't know right and almost all of us got in trouble with the IRS because you get paid in cash. Right. And then you just kind of forgot. That's what I said to him when I got called in.

I hadn't paid taxes in seven years, and I got called in. And I said to the guy, I thought it was humorous. I said, oh, I forgot. And he didn't think that was that humorous at all. So that went on and on and on and on and on to finally get that cleared up. How did they catch you on something like that? Because I was on the cover of a calendar magazine in the Boston Globe. There was a group shot of about 80, 10 of us.

And there was my picture. And this guy had the picture. And when he confronted me, he goes, how come we don't know anything about this? Do they pay for this? What do you do for a living? Used to be a teacher. Where's that money? So yeah. So, you know, did they pay for this? What do you do for a living? You know, used to be a teacher. Where's that money? You know, so yeah.

So that was how I got caught. So the little bit of infamy, of fame, I guess, that I had, just went, knocked me down. Yeah, everybody got done in with the IRS.

I know Donovan, he got done in. Oh, the whole crew. The whole crew. Everybody. How do you clear that up? Like, how do they decide how much you owe?

Oh, that's certainly, that's a give and take type of situation. They have an appeasement thing. I had guys knocking on my door at 7 o'clock in the morning and then you'd have to meet with this guy and then that guy would get fired

and would start all over again. Lawyers. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. But it finally got cleared up. They took X amount of money. They weren't going to get the whole thing, so they took some of them. How many years did it take to clear it up? For me, it was quite a while. Four or five years, I think. Wow. Jesus Christ. How much did they hit you for overall? At one point, I was a little behind. I think it was $128,000.

That was the figure that they came up with. But 80% of that was in interest on the fact that they didn't pay them the $400. That $400 finally would go up to $1,500. So that's how the deal was. But somebody thought it was a goldmine to attack the entertainers, and that was us. Once they got one, they got another and another, and the dominoes kept falling. Did anybody skate? Did anybody wind up actually paying their taxes?

Oh, almost all of us. But did anybody not get in trouble? Oh, yeah. There was a few intelligent people. Like who? Well, the ones that had families. Oh, okay. Yeah.

The normal ones, I guess. That actually paid. Yeah, the ones that were not at those parties. There was a thing about you guys, though. For us young guys coming up, you guys were like Peter Pan's. You were living this life. Boston's a very blue-collar place, right? Very hard-working place place all of new england and we stumbled in as amateurs as open micers to this environment that you know where you guys were the kings and you guys were fucking

wild men like there's we heard those stories nicks would pay in coke and it's just everybody was drinking all the time and it was like everyone was laughing and yelling and i was like how is this possible how do these men get to live this life? And what I was doing when I first started, I was a high school teacher. Yeah. So I was teaching and doing this, getting out of the clubs at 3 or 4 in the morning and then attempting to be a teacher about 3 or 4 hours later. When did you quit?

I got out of teaching in 84, I think. So I maybe crossed over the two together. And that was a rough patch there because I knew something I had to give. Yeah. And I tell the story that I was coming home from teaching, not from the clubs at night, but teaching. And I fell asleep at the wheel, and this was on the highway, and I was hitting the stanchions on the side of the highway, bang, bang, bang, bang. And eventually as I'm going down this gully, you know,

are they passing in front of you? No, what passed in front of me was, how am I going to make it to the show tonight? And my head went through the windshield, the whole deal. I came up, climbed up out of the gully. I'm trying to thumb to get up.

I've got blood running down my face. I had no idea how bad it was. Then I had to go to the hospital. So I go, my friend, we go back. I was going to get the his face. I had no idea how bad it was. Then I had to go to the hospital. So I go, my friend, we go back. I was going to get the car out of the gully. The car was total. I mean, beyond total. There's hair and blood on the windshield. I said, oh, I better

pick one, drive the other. So the comedy won out. Did they have open mic nights in 79? Oh, no. In 79, no. When you first started, what was it like? Well, the first time there was only one place in existence, and that was the Comedy Connection. The little one? The one on Warrington Street.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. 150 seats. Yeah. And two guys ran that.

I think there was Sean Morey was the guy that had been on the Tonight Show. So that's, in our days, that was like, oh, my God. So he ran a comedy class, and two guys took the class, Billy Downs and Paul Barkley. And they decided that, you know, maybe we'll do this comedy thing. But again, people didn't know what a comedy club was. You mentioned that, like when Jay Leno was way before us, there were no comedy clubs. He worked maybe strip joints or like at an auto place or this or that. There was no place to go.

And even people would say, what's a comedian? Other than watching TV, you didn't know really what stand-up comedy was even. So the beginning of it started off slow. And I remember my first paycheck, once I got paid, $8. That was your first? $8, yeah. Wow. And I still my first paycheck, once I got paid, $8. That was your first? $8, yeah. Wow. And I still have that.

I have a copy of the check. Do you really? No, a copy of it. I actually cashed it. I needed the $8. Of course. Yeah. So that was what Billy Downs and Barclay did there.

And in those days, you auditioned instead of an open mic. So it was just the two of them. And I had to go in front of them. And I looked at the two of them. I said, I don't really like this. Because I said, no, at least one of you two are not going to understand what I'm doing. Because you really don't look like a brain trust yet. And I got hired.

And I immediately was really good. And the next show I did was really good. I'm doing the same 10 minutes because I was a bartender and had some patter. Right. And the third one, they called me like a night before and said, you know, somebody fell out, can you come in?

And what I had done, I had written 15 minutes of comedy that day. Sure I have, you know, but in my mind, that's what I thought. And it was the worst death of the world. That 15, I got about two minutes in and people always say, you know, what happens when you bomb? Well, you don't really bomb after you've been doing this for a while. But that two or three

minutes seems like an eternity. It seemed like hours. And then I just went back into some of the old stuff and I got out and I actually got into a fist fight with Lonnie Clark about it because he kept saying to me, do you work in New York? I said, I've never been on a stage before in my life. We weren't friends at all at the beginning. We got into a little go at it.

You guys had a fist fight? He said, that was a great set. He was shitting on me. His friend was witness to the fight and broke it up and he says to Lenny, he said, what's up about this? He said, you just said he had a good show. He sucked.

He knows it. And you're being an asshole to call him out. And then we became fast friends after that. That's hilarious. Yeah. Lenny was the second guy I ever got paid to open for. Really? Yeah.

The first guy was, god damn it, Warren. McDonald? McDonald. Really? Yeah. The first guy was God damn it. Warren McDonald? McDonald, yes. Wow. Bill McDonald's brother. It was George McDonald's brother, yeah. Wasn't it Bill McDonald? No. George McDonald was the host of the open mic night. He could have been. Yeah. Wasn't there a

Bill McDonald too? Didn't he have another brother named Bill? Not that, no. No, I'm fucking it up. No. Kevin. Kevin was a fighter. Kevin McDonald. That's right.

Kevin wound up going away for a little bit. Yeah, he visited a couple places. A couple places. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Okay, I fucked it up.

Right. But I opened up for Warren. Right. I opened up for Warren in a Norm LeFoe gig in Western Massachusetts. Very good memory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Warren was one of the original way for Warren. Right. I opened up for Warren in a Norm LeFoe gig in Western Massachusetts. Very good memory. Yeah. I remember that one. Yeah.

Well, yeah, Warren was one of the original way back guys. Yeah. And then another Norm LeFoe gig was when I opened up for Lenny. Wow. That was Jay's in Pittsfield. Did you ever do that one? I don't remember that one. No?

That was a good one. Really? Yeah, it was a good one. Three and a half hours away. And well worth it. Yes. Well, it was for me because I got to know Lenny and Mike. And just to get on stage time.

Yeah. To get on stage. Yeah. Yeah. Because there were so few places that were, in effect, doing comedy. But during the time when I was an open miker, things exploded. I was very fortunate. That was when there was three clubs on Warrington Street alone.

Right. Right? There was Nick's. There was The Connection. And then there was a comedy club at the Charles above The Connection. Yeah, the Duck Soup. That was across Street alone. Right. Right? There was Nick's, there was The Connection, and then there was a comedy club at the Charles above The Connection. Yeah, Duck Soup. That was across the street.

Right. But do you remember when Mike had the comedy club at the Charles above the comedy connection for a brief period of time? Yeah, yeah. So there was three, and then there was Duck Soup that was on the other side. So it was four. All within like 100 yards. It's crazy.

And they were all packed. Yeah. And their lines would be out on the street. The middle of winter, I remember going out at my show on a Saturday. There's people, there were two inches of snow on their head. And I'm going, you're actually waiting to see me? There's something wrong with you people. Well, it was something magical about those times because comedy clubs just overall were

only a couple decades old in the whole country. I mean, you had the earliest ones were like Comedy Magic Club, Comedy Connection, Catch a Rising Star in New York. You had a couple of clubs that were open before the Boston explosion, but this is all real recently. So imagine an art form that takes over the entire country, and it really only started in the year 2000. Yeah, from the inception to the explosion.

Yeah. It was not a mature art form. No. Maybe 10 years, 12 years. Right. You got Lenny Bruce in the 50s, George Carlin in the 60s, Pryor, you know, and then all of a sudden, you're in the 1980s. It's a couple of decades. And these clubs were fucking packed.

I mean, I really wish somebody had done a documentary on it back then because it was such a strange time. If you could get real footage. I know Fran Solomita had that one documentary when stand-up stood out. But I would like to have just shown like how crazy it was people were scalping tickets yeah i said oh my god this is but it wasn't anywhere else like that chicago never had an explosion like that boston had the weirdest explosion yeah and there was a multitude of people that were talented yes it wasn't just you know a few there was a lot Because I used to go down to New York, and New York had a scene, and L.A. had a scene,

but nothing as expansive as that. And Oz started after those two had already been done. Yeah, the Boston scene was a different animal, because you could work everywhere. The thing is, you could work in town, and you can get paid in town. You could do all the different places, play it against Sam do, you know, all the different places. Played against Sam's, right? Stitches. All those different clubs.

But then there was all these satellite rooms, all the Dick Doherty rooms, and all the Connection had rooms, and Boston Comedy had rooms. They were everywhere. There was hundreds of rooms. And they were good rooms. And then I think that the demise, at least from the real apex, I think, came when the comedians were no longer running the clubs. You know, as owners came in and the greed factor and every corner store, you know, a tire company would go out of business. Oh, that's a comedy club now. Or a gas station.

A bowling alley. How many bowling alleys did we work in in those days? So one after another, and I think what happened was it gets so diluted that people would go to a show and say, I don't know what all this is all about, this fervor, because they didn't get to see

the good community. Right. Well, there was about 12 of you. You know, there was like 12 murderers who would just run around. And to this day, I swear,

I tell everybody, I think they're the best comics I've ever seen in my life to this day. There was, I tell everybody, I think they're the best comics I've ever seen in my life. To this day. There was moments at Nick's Comedy Stop and at Stitches where I'm like, that is about as good as stand-up comedy ever gets. And some of those moments, like the comedy stop, Nick's Comedy Stop used to do a dirty trick. When a famous comedian would come into town.

Yeah, an outsider they would have some poor bastard like uh you know like um you know fill in the blank you don't even need to name it just someone who doesn't didn't do comedy that often richard lewis let's say him yeah and he would be the headliner right but before him would be you and sweeney ken Kenny Rodgerson and Donovan, and it would just be a murderer's row of fucking savages. Yeah, Mike McDonald, this guy, this guy, this guy. And these poor bastards. I came to Nick's Comedy Stop right after Billy Crystal had bombed.

I came up the stairs, and they were talking about it. You guys had set him up. People were saying, you've never seen nothing like it in your life. This poor guy's a movie star and he went on stage and just ate plates of shit. Yeah.

After five people had just been destroyed. Destroyed for an hour, right? So you've got each guy doing 15 minutes and you've got all these guys going up there just killing people.

And it wasn't unintentional. It was, why is this guy in our town yes yeah yeah that's it well that was the thing about boston like when a guy came into town like if you do stand up in any like you do stand up in philadelphia like if you showed up in philip people go oh let's go see don gavin they would want to go see you right you do stand up in boston you from out of boston everybody's, fuck this guy. They just set him up. And the club would set him up.

That was what was so crazy. Well, the reason they would bring these other outsiders in, they would get plugs possibly on the Tonight Show or something like that. None of us were on the scene or on the radar. So they would bring in like George Miller was a guy I remember. You know, a nice sweetheart of a guy. But, you know, he was just, what you said, running the gauntlet before he got on. What did those guys think when they watched that? They must have been fucking terrified. Well, Richard Lewis went on TV almost in tears, complaining about,

and they put all these guys in there. I don't know where they got all these guys. And they did it the first night, and then they did it the second night. And I don't understand what they have against me. And I think she said, well, maybe they're funnier. It was one of those comments. Yeah, well, it was a dog-eat-dog world there. You had to be able to survive in Boston.

And the tension span, like the way the stand-up was, it's like they didn't let you guys, like I should say they, you didn't let anybody breathe. There's a Boston style of comedy. It's like, here's a fucking punchline. I should say they, you didn't let anybody breathe. There's a Boston style of comedy. It's like, here's a fucking punchline. Here's another punchline. Here's another punchline. Take a breath.

Boom, there's another one. And these other guys that would come in from out of town were not accustomed to that style of performing. More laconic and more like this. And I was told that I talked 70 words a minute, guts to 100. And I have, you know, one of those VHS tips

where, and I play some of those one time recently and I'm going, I have no idea. Oh, I know there's people laughing, but I have no idea

what I was saying. I'm going, oh my God. Yeah. Well, you had sneaky punchlines. You would sneak punchlines in. It would look like

you were done and the sides would come in and boom. Or a tag here and a tag, and the sides would come in, and boom. Or a tag here and a tag there and move over there. Did you just develop that style on your own? Yeah. I didn't. Again, what don't I know about style?

That's just the way it was. I was always a fast talker. You know, you come from big Irish families, and if you don't talk fast, you're not going to get the bread or you're not going to get the food. So I had three brothers, and downstairs my cousins lived, and there were six there. So it was always bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Everybody was an Irish Catholic, basically, on the comedy scene. It was certainly not homogenized by any means.

Well, that's also interesting, too, because in a lot of places it was more of a Jewish thing. Sure, sure. But Boston, it wasn't. Boston, it was like a lot of big guys, too of a jewish thing sure sure but boston it wasn't boston it was like a lot of and big guys too that was the other thing everybody was like six foot three everybody's a big ass fucking gorilla yeah and they're all doing coke and drinking it was like whoa this is a crazy place it was almost like well you better be funny and also if a fight breaks out you'll be

better better be good at that yeah i just just be sort of good at it but certainly you're not backing down but that was the thing about it it's like comedy in a lot of people's eyes is thought to be something that like nebbishy

you know sort of insecure people get involved in you guys were all fucking savages so it was weird for me because like people would say

oh I always felt like comedians hated themselves they're all real insecure I'm like I didn't really see that like not where I started Like people would say, oh, I always felt like comedians hated themselves. They're all real insecure. I'm like, I didn't really see that. Like not where I started. I can remember a battle at the Ding Hall. I mean, it was a pretty good brouhaha at the end. I think it started outside the club as they were coming in.

And it emanated that it was inside and outside at the same time. And at the end, we ran and finished doing the show. And at the end, all people were talking, but nothing about the show. It was just about, hey, man, that Tingle really held his own, didn't he? You know what I mean? We're talking, we're talking.

I said, did you ever see someone with two headlocks? And they're going, what about the show? Oh, yeah, that was good. But then nothing new. There was a lot of brawls. I remember brawls. I remember a lot of brawls breaking out of clubs. But it was just, to me, I didn't realize how lucky I was to start there in 1988. I really didn't.

Well, when you came in, I always thought when you came in, I'd say, wow, this guy has got something. But I thought it was a little too dirty. I thought that wasn't going to work for you. But you knew kind of, you had it in your head what you had to do. You knew that you had to measure up Or you could be pushed to the side Yeah When you came in Don't you agree with that?

Well, there was not much room You know, you had to be good If you wanted to go from being an open mic Or to hosting Or to getting a gig on the road You had to be good Boston didn't leave you any room for scrubs. There was too many.

Right. Too many good comics. Yeah. That was definitely dirty. But that's all I was interested in. I mean, when I was 21, I was a fucking savage. All I cared about was sex. Yeah.

Sex came from fighting. Yeah. So that's all. I didn't know anything. It would fit in, though. Yeah. What I thought was funny was just, it was kind of fun. And I was talked into doing comedy by guys that I trained with.

Right. So I didn't think that I was funny. I didn't think I was going to be funny. I made them laugh, but I thought, well, you guys are fucking psychos. Of course I'm making you laugh. My sense of humor is wrong. It's all fucked up. They're going to think I'm an asshole.

So I was talked into doing it. And the first comedy show that i ever saw i went to stitches open mic night sure and uh i went and watched and i remember seeing going sitting there watching all these guys go up on stage and seeing people doing it for the first time and i realized oh a lot of people suck like you could do this like yeah i'm better than that guy i'll probably be better than some of these people at least yeah when I first came in, that audition thing I talked about, I went in, a number of those people

we're talking about were on stage and I was prepared to do this audition. I was with this girl at the time and she goes, what about the audition? I go, no,

no, I don't think so. So I just left. I didn't even explain it. And I went back the next week and again, real good guys, but there was one guy, I won't mention his name, you wouldn't know good guys, but there was one guy. I won't mention his name.

You wouldn't know the name. But I'm going, oh, finally, someone I know that I'm better than this guy. And that's when I auditioned that night. But he got me in the show business. I will mention his name. Gene Franz was his name. He may still be alive. I don't know.

But he has no idea that he got me in the comedy. Well, Richard Jenney said that once, that that's the purpose that really bad comedians serve they inspire people to try it it would work it's there's something real to that but i remember uh my first open mic night um when when i went up you know i it wasn't very funny but uh i got to see teddy bergeron teddy bergeron performed that night and he fucking lit that place on. Jonathan Katz was the host. Wow. Yeah, Jonathan Katz was the host. Now, there's a guy you talked about that was kind of, you know, a different direction.

Different style. Smooth. Yeah. And slow, easy going. Yes. And yet he was a fan favorite. Yes. Hilarious.

Great comic. Yeah. And then went on to do that cartoon, Dr. Katz. Yeah, which I did that. Yeah. That was fun, yeah. But watching Teddy go on stage, Teddy was in his prime.

It made me want to quit. I was like, oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah, he had already been on the Tonight Show and the Gold Diggers with Dean Martin and stuff. So when he was sober and on his game, wow. Oh, my God. To this day, he's one of the best i've ever seen he was so smooth yes yeah i'm appalled where a lot of the other guys were

rough-edged yes it was different and he had more pauses and he was like he's slow well yeah he almost stood out just because of that but they're kind of classy you know he looked like he could do no wrong so when he would have a problem with drugs and alcohol I was so confused I was like wow that guy

I was like that guy's the smoothest ever cause you know when I saw him he was like in his 30s he was young and just fucking on top of it

I got a chance to work with him a bunch of times weird gigs like the Mattapoisett Inn and I don't even remember all these names I don't know it's my curse a bunch of times yeah weird gigs like the mattapoisett inn and there's a bunch i don't remember all these names i don't know it's my curse there's a bunch of strange names for places well we had all the places down the cape and the one night is yes yes yeah those were

great though i mean boy you talk about seasoning you would get a lifetime's worth of seasoning on the road just traveling all these different places and seeing all these different weird bar crowds and standing on a fucking milk crate doing stand-up into a shitty microphone. All those gigs. And once I got into it full time, that encompassed, that was your whole life. And you were working six nights, maybe seven nights a week, and probably five or six different venues is where you were.

And sometimes three or four venues in the same evening. Yeah. You get in the car and go over here and go over there, go over there. I mean, I don't know how many years it was before I realized you could date someone that was not a waitress. I wasn't even aware of that. Yeah, that was a weird ecosystem, right? It was like comics and waitresses, hand in hand. Yeah.

Wow. You know, we were just so fortunate that we were from, that we started our comedy in Boston because it was a magic time. And when I would talk to people that are from, like, Arizona, like, how'd you start out? Like, well, I had to drive two hours to Tucson. Sure. Like, fuck. Yeah. Like, there was nothing.

I was told that when I moved out here for a brief period of time, I lived in Studio City. I was told that I would be driving sometimes two hours to make $100. I go, yeah, right, right. And four months later, I'm driving two and a half hours to make $75. I'm going, wow, somebody knew what was going on here. When I thought I was coming out and signed with an agency, Spotlight was the name of the agency. Oh, I remember that. Everybody was supposed to be a spotlight.

They're the people that ripped everybody off, right? Yes, they promised everything and never delivered on the word. And so I was one of the few that owed them money because I heard something was going south. So when they finally called me in and looked to get lawyers involved, and I sent them a note back saying, dear so-and-so, I know that I owe you $35,000. Just take it off what you owe Lenny Clark and we'll be all set. They owed him like 80 grand or 100 grand. They owed him a lot more than that, didn't they?

Maybe more than that, yeah. But I said, just take it off from that. Never heard from him again. I think they beat Milano for over a million dollars. Yes, they beat Seinfeld. They beat everybody. Seinfeld, too. That's right.

They beat everybody. Yeah, there was one agent that was a dirty agent That was pocketing all the money Yeah There was a bunch of those situations Like that though right Bob Williams Was the name

Yeah Who's still in the business No Out of Branson Yeah Real Oh Branson that's right Lenny told me about this

That's right Yeah Fucking Jesus Christ I don't know if he changed his name Or whatever He should He changed the industry But he's in Branson

Apparently he's doing quite well. He never paid everybody back? No, no, no. Wow. How does that? It's clean. Oh, my God. If somebody owed me a million dollars, ooh.

Yeah, but they used to have this thing. You know, do you like money? You want to sign with this? We'll give you, you make this and this. And it was contractually written. How old were you back then? Oh, I didn't start comedy until I was 33. Wow. I had been a teacher and a coach. I had two kids.

I got into this much later than most people. What brought you into it? I think probably because I was usually reasonably funny in life. As a bartender, I was a wise guy bartender. For instance, people bartender, I was a wise guy bartender. Like, for instance, people would sit. I only had 22 seats. Four guys would sit and say, what's your cheapest beer? I said, root beer.

Get the fuck up. Screw. I said, those seats. I said, if you tip me $20 before you order, then you can sit there. And people would do it. So that kind of mushroomed that way there. But, yeah, it was, again, the same aggressive bullshit thing. So it was easy to carry that on into the stage.

But I had never been on a stage. I thought it was kind of like you were, Fiebisch type people, doing stage stuff. Yeah, I like how you danced around the words there. Fiebisch, I think I made a word up even. Yes, it was effeminate. Yes, it was not for manly men. Yes, not at all. I was playing basketball in college

and I was waiting either to get picked up to go to the gym or whatever. And there was a play going on in rehearsals at this college and I'm watching them going. And it really pissed me off that two of the actors didn't really, didn't seem to be put in there, fit into it. And I don't know why, but I'm going, I could do better than that.

So that was one of the things in the back of my head about being in the state. But I had never been, I never had a mic in my hand. And I used to wear loose pants because they could see my legs shaking. And that's why, you know, my act, I sit on the stool most of the time. So that way they wouldn't see me, you know, in effect being, you know, for the first year or so being. You shook that much? I think so, yeah. Though not in the drug.

But the, and taking the mic out of the mic stand, I thought the rattling. There's nothing worse than seeing a comedian up there doing, enough to do this thing, bang, bang, bang. Were the drugs there from the beginning? Let me think. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, pretty much. It's like in the old days, you know, the story about your mother says, don't, you know, if somebody offers you drugs, don't take them.

I said, well, they don't offer you. You have to buy them. But initially, you didn't have to buy them. That was the thing. Everybody was doing it. It's like smoking. When I was growing up as a kid, 95% of people smoked. And why? Because everybody smoked. I stopped smoking in the year 2000, my clock and I had a bet. None of us, we haven't had a cigarette since. So apparently I wasn't addicted, but everybody smoked. So the same thing in those days.

Everybody was either a drinker or doing the blow or smoking the bones. You had at least two or three vices. A lot of deck chairs to throw off. Did you have any of those vices before you got into stand-up? No, I think it grew. It pretty much blossomed once I got in there. Now that I think of it. Yeah, I think it grew. It pretty much blossomed once I got in there. Now that I think of it. Yeah, I used to smoke.

That's about it. But nothing else. Drinking? Not heavily at all. Not heavily. And I covered up for it. I made up a lot of ground. I mean, now all the guys are, hey, I'm like the only one left drinking.

And I notice there's much more liquor everywhere I go. There's always liquor. Yeah, everybody cleaned up. Yeah. Yeah, they're looking at you like you're the last Mohican. Yeah, it's like Bobby Nickman, a comedian and a writer, and he said that he first got into AA because he needed the stage time, you know, to take it up and talk in front of a crowd.

But he was one of the first guys that kind of cleaned up. And then this guy and then this guy. And there's very few of them now. Well, a lot of guys came from AA, and that's how they got their start. Do you remember Dave Fitzgerald? Oh, sure. Funny guy. Yeah.

He got into comedy from Alcoholics Anonymous because he would go up on stage and tell these crazy old drinking stories. And people would laugh. And then he polished those stories up, made them tighter, and then started doing stand-up. Yeah. and people would laugh, and then he polished those stories up, made them tighter, and then started doing stand-up. Yeah. But when you, we'll say in the mid-'80s, the early-'80s, if you weren't a drinker, you were the exception to the rule again. Wow.

So you weren't a drinker before. Not really. You just started hanging out with these guys. I'm not blaming any of them. No, hey, look, I'm not even. But was it right away? Like, just you walked into this lion's den of people doing who was the fucking who's patient zero like who because it was wasn't that many of you right well i think that i think that it it came to a culmination at the ding hole because we basically ran and owned the place. And we'd stay there until – I can remember walking out there many times going,

oh, beautiful. It's not even light out yet. It'd be 6.30 in the morning. Right. But we were serving drinks. And half the people, there'd be 10, 12 comedians sitting around and four or five other guys. And the other guys are cops. They're in there drinking with us too. So we weren't going to get busted or anything.

I mean, Kenny Rodden first got there. He walked in the door there. He got there, I don't know how, but he got there around 2 in the morning. And there's six or seven of us. They're either smoking joints, doing some drinking, and we're up on the stage playing cards, you know, for money. And he goes, where is this place? Paradise. He had no idea. He goes, someone goes, where is this place? Paradise.

He had no idea. He goes, someone said, where do you want for a drink? He goes, who are the tequila drinkers? And everybody goes, nobody you ask.

So then he's getting into other stuff. And he made up for lost time too. That was what we'd always, we'd always heard about the Ding Ho like it was like

some legendary place. You know, when we were starting out, it closed in like 84 or something? I don't know about the year. Maybe, yeah, right around that. I started in 88, and we had heard about the Ding Ho. It was like, it was spoken in hushed tones.

It was like, you know, that's where it started. Well, it closed in a heartbeat because the owner lost the club and playing Chinese dominoes. No, he lost $240,000 in one night. And it was my night. Then I had my show there on Fridays. I come in, and I never saw chains or padlocks bigger than that on the front and back door.

Never to be reopened as a comedy club. It became an Indian restaurant or something. But it just went, poof, gone. Playing Chinese dominoes. I don't even know what Chinese dominoes are. That's good, probably. God, I mean, it's crazy how something like that can happen, where there is just this one place and one core group of people,

and then the comedy club scene branches out from that. Like, Houston used to have this place called the Laugh Stop. Did you ever work there? Sure, I did, yeah. Yeah, that was the same thing for Houston. Houston had a great scene. Houston was a little crazy with people, too. It was wild.

Yeah. Yeah, and when I first went there, it was when it was at its wildest. It was after Kinison had gone and Bill Hicks had left and all those guys were gone. Yeah, Colobo was another guy. Yeah, yeah. Jimmy Pineapple. Jimmy worked with me the first time I ever did a weekend there. And the first time I was ever there, I was like, wow, this place is a lot like Boston.

These are a bunch of wild fucks. They had a show going on in the main room, and then in the bar area, they had another stage, and the open mic night started at 8, went until 2 o'clock in the morning. So you'd get done with your show, the show would be over at 10, and you'd go out to the bar, and you'd be fucking hanging out there for another four hours because the show's still going on. It was crazy. It was crazy.

I remember a good story there. You used to walk from the hotel to the venue, and it was all the cowboys basically down there. And so I'm walking. I get hit in the back with the water balloon. But you would have thought I was shot by a rhino gun. You know, bang, the thing. I was soaking wet. When I get there, I had to put on one of their t-shirts, and I'm going, I can't believe

how this guy hit me that could. But when I get to the club, I see the car. It was recognizable. I go, oh, they're coming to see me. So I went inside, got a hammer, and went out. During the show, in the opening, I broke every window in their car, including the directionals, the side thing. And I climbed it. I understand you both.

I got hit by this water balloon. I said, whoever did it? Nobody took the climb. I said, what a great aim you had. But I didn't mention about their car. That's hilarious. Did you go out and watch? Oh, yeah.

Checked what they do? No, they were not. I mean, I broke those little tiny, you know, directions on the side of the car. I mean, every window. Because anybody can flatten a tire. Yes. If you break every single window, that's an accomplishment.

That is an accomplishment, and that's a lot of work to get that fixed. Yeah, it was. Especially with no lookouts. You could change a tire pretty quick. Yeah, you had no lookouts, right? But that scene, the Houston scene was similar in that there was a lot of drugs involved and a lot of really funny comics but and aggressive too yeah very aggressive yeah well texas you know wild fuckers down there but when that club closed that scene

died out for a long time it's apparently it's got a resurgence now. The scene's coming back. There's some real good comics coming out of there right now. But that scene was dead for a long time. It wasn't much going on down there. I was like, that's interesting how a scene, like a place as good as Houston,

could close down with one club. One club goes under and the whole thing just throws water on the fire. I believe that happened in Chicago. Chicago used to be a terrific city. It was my favorite city to travel to. It's a folk comedy. They had an improv.

They had a catch. They had the Laugh Factory. They had, you know, not just Second City, because that's different, and that was the same thing. St. Elyse, I think, is the only one that's still in existence there. And that went off the cliff right away, too. I think is the only one that's still in existence yeah

and that went off the cliff right away too and again I blame owners you know greed and not paying people

and things of that type well they start treating it like any other business yes comedy clubs it became that a business it's an asylum

that needs to be run by the inmates yeah that's exactly and when we ran it when I booked all these shows yeah

there didn't seem to be any problem we weren't making much money but we didn't seem to care. Whatever you made, you spent. So if you had $800 in your pocket, wow, I got $800. Not thinking about, I guess I might want to eat next week, too. Next week is next week. Yeah, that's way in the future.

The way the comedy store works is essentially that way. I mean, Mitzi obviously ran it, but she let the comedians run it for the most part. Right. You know, she let everybody work out their own issues and solve their own problems, and she would just book you. Right. She'd just tell you when to go up, and it was just a madhouse. Yeah.

And to this day, still very similar. Is it still the same? Oh, it's packed every fucking night now. Wow. Now it's crazy, because the internet, now Now people hear about it And they know about it And they got people flying in From Australia And England

And Ireland Just to come down And see comedy All the time All the time Always meeting people there They basically have comedy tourism From Europe

They fly in To the comedy store Like any night of the week Because the comedy store On Monday They'll post the schedule For the week Sure

And so people read the schedule and they go alright let's fly in on Tuesday so they'll fly from fucking England 11 hour flight and come and see see comedy Wow because there's no comedy club like there they have a comedy store over there in London but it's not affiliated they just stole the name and they skirted into that international law by you know it's like they made their own 7-eleven we're 7-eleven too like it's not the same thing i don't know what the comedy is like over there in terms of the comedy store but you know they when they want to come here they they fly and so on any given night you run into people

that are from all over the world wow yeah it's crazy you should come yeah it's not you should come just to see it you know years ago way way back but i haven't been around it's different now it's fucking madness Yeah Lines around the block I mean it's like In a lot of ways It's like Nick's in the heyday

Three rooms There's the original room The belly room And the main room All three of them Are going at the same time Multiple shows a night Fucking madness

Wow Yeah it's nuts But without the coke There's no coke No fights Really Yeah it's pretty tame Because that used to be

A pretty scary Denizen out in the back there Yes, it used to be Yeah, it's much more calm There's a lot of marijuana, that's about it A lot of weed, sometimes mushrooms, but that's about it So nothing too crazy But it's funny, while we were doing it Even though we were doing it for a living

It seemed like it wasn't a business. Yeah. Like, that's why I'm promoting this album that I have. And I had this album done before, and it was great, but I never had anybody produce it. You know, I just made some copies of it. And it's called Don Gavin Live with the Manhattan.

Live with the Manhattan. And I was almost like a bootlegger, selling them, you know, maybe a few after a show at the back of my trunk. But finally we're releasing it. That's one of the reasons about it now. When did you record it? I recorded it in 2011. Whoa.

So I'm 10 years old. But my material hopefully doesn't get stale because I don't do a lot of current events and I don't do politics. So it's still – I mean I have some jokes that are old to some of the people that come to see me. Now, did you – like when you put that out, is that the first thing that you've ever put out? Yeah, that's the only thing. And I owned it but I didn't do anything with it. When I get to Virtual Comedy Network with Jimmy Serpico, we did another album, a compilation of guys in Boston.

And he saw, somebody says about my album. He goes, I know you have an album. And he got a copy of it. He says, oh, my God, this is something like discovering something. So he kind of came into my life to help see if we can produce this thing. And now it's on SiriusXM now and Pandora. And then it's going on all the streaming devices starting next week. But right now it's a, I think they have the, what do you call it, the rights just for those two stations.

So if somebody wants to get it, how do they get it? Right now they can get it on SiriusXM or Pandora. And as of, I think, next Thursday, it's streaming live. Okay. Because if it's on Sirius, you have to wait for it to air, right? You can't just – Sirius doesn't stream, right? I've got to be honest. I'm not good about any of this stuff.

I don't think so. Do they stream, Jamie? You can probably search it. Yeah. Do they have downloadable stuff and whatnot? Oh, okay. So on the app as opposed to on the actual thing in your car? Okay.

Yeah, I am so – anything mechanical. Well, I'm proud that I think you sent me your first text ever. Which took me almost an hour and a half to do. Because I'm going, okay, here's the T. Here's an H over here. I mean, that's how slow I was in doing that. But you used to teach. You don't know how to type?

No. Now I had girlfriends. And I went through a bunch of them because I had to write a lot of papers. And so, you know. No, I never typed one letter. So that's legitimately the first text message you ever sent? I got it. And you thought it was a joke.

No, Mike Clark was telling me. Yeah, it was my first. And then I sent the next one. I realized you could use the microphone thing. And it came out in some foreign language. Lots of being in something that I sent to you. Well, it's because of your fucking accent. No, but this was, yeah.

I know, but the iPhone's probably like, what the fuck is he saying? That's probably it, yeah. And they said, well, eventually they'll get used to your voice. Apparently not. No, it's never going to figure out your voice. No. That's for regular voices. Oh, shit.

Okay. The accent's just too crazy. I still have an accent. Oh, yeah. I didn't know. A little for regular voices. Oh, shit. Okay. The accent's just too crazy. I still have an accent. Oh, yeah. I didn't know. A little bit. Yeah. But the thing about all those guys from that day is very few guys put things out.

Barry put out a couple specials, and Louis C.K. produced one of Barry's specials. Lenny, of course, had a few things. He was on the Dangerfield special. He did some stuff. But a lot of course, had a few things. He was on the Dangerfield special. He did some stuff. But a lot of, like, Donovan. Like, how do you go find Donovan's best stuff? Like, you gotta go see him. Yes. Yes. That's the craziest

thing about Boston. It's like, these guys are world-class stand-ups. Some of the best that have ever done it. And there's no recordings. There's no specials. I think I was not unique in the fact that I was not a businessman. Yeah. We did it not just for the love.

We enjoyed the money and spending money. Yeah. But it really never entered my mind. Like Jimmy was asking about, you know, how did I release these things? I don't know what you mean released it. I just made a thousand copies and I sell a few after a show and never did anything with it. You never thought once. No, I'm an idiot.

But you must have seen all these HBO specials and all these different things. Oh, yeah. Yeah, eventually. But you're never like, yeah, I should do one of those. Yeah, maybe I'll get discovered at the age of 106.

So now that you've done this and now that you're releasing this, do you think you'll put out more? Oh, I plan on just hoping this is going to make a difference. Because for years I was called the best kept secret in Boston and in comedy. And I'm going, you know what? I'm kind of tired of that term.

I'd rather not have a secret anymore. I'd like to maybe get out there. Well, you can still get out there. I plan on it. 100%. I plan on it. The%. I plan on it. The whole thing about the internet is just content. Just keep putting content out.

You're a hilarious comic, so I'm sure your album's awesome. People get a hold of it, and then they'll go, hey, where's the next one? Put out another one. Next thing you know, you could tour nationally. Yeah. I really firmly believe that. I hope you're right. I guarantee I'm right.

It's just a crazy thing about that scene is that no one did that. Everybody stayed involved because the money was so good. There was so much work. And you didn't have to. Yeah, you basically didn't have to go to it because you had work there. Yeah. So in a way, it spoiled you, but in a way, it spoiled you rotten. Right.

You never really attempted to make it into it. Some guys did get their gumption to go up to New York, and some came out to L.A., but as a rule, a lot of us just stayed in Boston. How long did you stay out here when you came out here? Oh, just about nine months. People said, what did you like about it? I said, the weather.

And that was about, oh, that was my only answer. What was it like going back? Did it feel like home? I felt like I really hadn't left. I was it like going back? Did it feel like home? Like, ah. It felt like I really hadn't left, you know. I just moved to Florida a couple weeks ago.

Did you? That's the first time I've ever moved. What are you doing in Florida? Getting warm. It's a good time to move to Florida, middle of January.

Yeah, well, it's going to be, hopefully once I get things unpacked, I'll enjoy it there. But the, you know,

there's a lot of clubs down there and there's a lot of corporate stuff. And I do a lot of the golf things and that kind of stuff. And I do a lot of cruise ships, and then most of them go out of there. So it's about time I moved. And the weather primarily. That's the primary. The weather.

Yeah, it's a big difference. But I would think that after all these years, you're going to miss headlining the Boston clubs. I will. I will, yeah. But I've been working less and less in the Boston area because I do a whole lot of these cruise ship things. And the cruise ships, that industry has become bigger and bigger and bigger. I mean, I just got off a ship,

the Royal Caribbean, 6,100 passengers on it. Whoa. Yeah. That's a big boat. I live in a town in the heart, and I remember that, near Marblehead. Yeah. 3,000 people live in the whole town.

There's double that on this ship. That's insane. Yeah. Do you like doing those cruise ships? I enjoy it. A lot of downtime you can read and write. Like you said, maybe a second of them. Yeah, I've got material, hopefully, so we'll see if we can get that first one up and running.

How do you write? Do you just sit down? With a pen, mostly. Yeah. Yeah. Gee. We'll see if we can get that first one up and running. How do you write? Do you just sit down? With a pen mostly. Do you just sit down with an idea, or do you have an idea ahead of time? You jot them down like in little notes and then try to flesh it out? Yeah, like this, just this thing. Oh, like you got right there.

Yeah, whatever, that type of thing. Like I'm simple. This is not a whole joke, but just the other day I'm thinking about stoners, This is not a whole joke, but just the other day I'm thinking about stoners. Why can't we just all get a bong? So I thought that was funny. Not that good. I didn't say it was good.

You write stuff, you throw it away. I get it. Throw it away. So these ideas pop in your head and you write them down, and then do you flesh them out on stage or do you flesh them out on paper? On stage. But you know that. If it's some new thing, you have to figure where am I going to incorporate it? You're not going to put it first.

You're not going to close with it. You've got to weave it in somehow. Sometimes I'll open with the thing. Really? Yeah. That's kind of ballsy. Because I want to dig a hole. Really?

Yeah, because sometimes I feel like I know I've got some good jokes that I can do after this. Let me just see. But you've got the notoriety and fame, so do you feel that that is a strike against you, that they're going to be acceptable to everything? It's a strike against you if you eat shit. Yeah. But if you open with something that you're not sure of, yeah.

Well, I've got to know there's something there before I do that, but I like to know there's something there before I do that. But I like to do that sometimes because maybe four out of ten times, a punchline will fucking pop into my head out of nowhere, and it'll be good. One of my best bets from my last special about Harvey Weinstein came the day he got arrested, the day all this shit went down. I went on stage that day and i had i had a couple drinks in me i was feeling good and i just went on this rant about it and this is not something

you had already written out no no i had a couple sort of ideas about where i was going to take it and the basically the gist of it was that if like all all of you, if Harvey Weinstein did this to my daughter, I'd want to fuck him up, like all of you. I go, but if Harvey Weinstein was a woman, if Harvina Weinstein came to my son with a solid contract, I'd be like, dude, you're going to be Batman. And this is the gist of the bit. And I'm telling you that, dude, you're going to be Batman came out. Just came out on stage. And the day telling you that, dude, you're going to be Batman, came out. Wow. Just came out on stage. And the day he was arrested, everybody's going fucking crazy.

And then I was saying, like, nobody gives a fuck. It was an ugly old lady that was fucking handsome young men. Nobody would be mad. Right. Nobody would be mad. Right. And it just became this giant chunk of it. I'm like, I'm mad at that guy. He's disgusting.

Fuck him. Lock him up forever. Right. But if Harveen and Weinstein, and then I, so this. Did the audience believe that you just.

They didn't know. Or did they know that you just came up at that point? Well, they knew that it couldn't be old because the thing had just happened.

Yeah. But sometimes, like four out of ten times, that'll work. Right. And then the other six out of ten times, you go,

well, so much for that. Yeah, move on. But it's like the only way new jokes get made is chances get taken and the biggest chance

is to go up first with it. Wow. Just open with it. I'm going to have to attempt that then. I don't do it all the time. But I feel like the first couple of lines

anywhere are more like just saying hi and getting to know everybody and every now and then you throw one out there and it sticks and you go, ooh,

I got something there. I record all my sets, I'll listen to it. I was going to say, you have trouble remembering a if you did a particular thing yeah because especially if you have a couple drinks in you and you're just riffing you don't remember exactly what you said because you're in the moment you can't go oh i gotta remember that because then you'll break the spell my son chris does that to me all the time saying dad is that that's something new i go no i just said it he goes well you gotta write this shit down well donovan is the guy who convinced me to record all my sets.

Donovan told me, get a tape recorder. He had all this fucking brick that he would bring on stage with him. He goes, you never know. He goes, you'll have a line, just one line, and that line will make your bit ten times better. And if you fucking forget it, it's gone forever. It's like when you're in bed and you think of something. If you don't get up and write it down or if you don't somehow forget it, it's gone forever. It's like when you're in bed and you think of something. If you don't get up and write it down or if you don't record it that next morning, you try to remember that.

Good luck to you. When I'm with my family, if I get an idea in my head, I just say to my wife, got an idea. And I just run away. I run away. I'll run like a block away and just start talking into my phone. Because if I don't, it'll go away. Because I've had so many times like, ooh, that's a good idea. And then my dog was like,

stop touching me. They'll fight with each other. My wife was like, what are we doing? And I'm like, hold on. I got an idea. Stop, stop, stop. So now when I get this idea, I just go, I got an idea. I just go. And then I come back. I got a good idea. This is a good idea. This is solid. Okay, I'm back. And then I'll put my phone got a good idea. This is a good idea. This is solid. Okay, I'm back. I like that.

And then I'll put my phone in my pocket. But having a phone is the best because you got a notebook. You got a fucking recording device. It's all that. I used to keep a real notebook. But it takes too long to write shit down. You lose it sometimes. Right.

But if you say it into the voice notes, you actually say the idea, then you can keep it. You can capture it. But that means you have to carry a phone with you. Yes. You don't carry a phone? I'm an idiot. with you. Yes. You don't carry a phone? I'm an idiot. Again, I do. You don't carry a phone at all?

I do now, but now that I'm trying to be aware of what's going on. I mean, up until like two years ago, I had a real deluxe flip phone, you know? There's something to be said for those, too, though. Yeah. The flip phones are nice. Yeah. You can certainly avoid people. Yes.

That's one. Yeah. Avoid text messages. Ari Shafir, he has a flip phone. He doesn't, well,, he doesn't now. He actually went back to an iPhone, but he put a timer on it so he could only use his phone for an hour. Wow. Yeah, because otherwise he starts playing with his phone and going on the Internet and going to social media apps.

You don't have any social media, do you? We will soon. Oh. We're in the process now. That's the deal. 2020. Yeah. Make moves in the process now. That's it. That's the deal. 2020. Yeah, yeah. Making moves.

I'm kind of a slow mover. Like a turd that races by me. Are you going to do it all yourself? Are you going to post tweets and all that shit yourself? Oh, shit. I don't know about that. I just found out about Instagram today. I thought there was a pill that you took.

I'm on Instagram now as of like yesterday. Oh, what is it? Just Don Gavin? Comedian Don Gavin. How many pictures you got up there? took but uh so the i'm on instagram now as of like yesterday oh what is it just don gavin uh comedian don gavin how many pictures you got up there oh at least four now is there a regular don gavin other than comedian don gavin you mean to reach me no a different person that has the regular don gavin uh jamie says yes a different guy well somebody yeah somebody in the old days people buy your names and the guy wants and i contacted the guy. He wanted $7,500 for my name. Really?

And I'm going, my name's not worth that. So I never paid him. Oh. Yeah. So is that how that works? Yeah. Yeah, I had to pay for mine. I bought mine.

Somebody had mine. I bet you make money. Yeah. The whole thing about the Instagram is, like everything else on the internet, it's just continual content. Keep putting out content. Keep putting out content. Keep putting things out. That's the whole thing. You've got to just be consistent and it'll build.

I hope. Listen, coming off this podcast, I guarantee it'll help. I know you were on Fitzsimmons' show earlier today, right? Right. And I did a couple of... who was it? Oh, okay. And Billy Burr. Oh, nice. Beautiful. You did the trifecta. Tr Maron's another one. Oh, okay. And Billy, Billy Burr. Oh, nice. Beautiful. You did the trifecta.

And trifecta plus one. There it is. Look at you. Don Gavin comedy. That's what it is, folks. Godfather of Boston comedy. Don't tell that to Dick Daugherty. He'll get mad at you.

He did try to keep that title back, and I said, I actually help people. You tell me one time that you actually, a godfather, when title back, and I said, I actually help people. You tell me one time that you actually, a godfather, when someone came to you and said, can you give me advice? Can you help me write? Can you help me work out this material? I spent time doing that. I said, you never did in your life.

Don't ever call yourself the godfather again, and he hasn't. Whoa. He stopped calling himself that? Yeah. To you? I don't think he calls himself that anywhere. Really? Yeah.

Not anymore. But that was always his thing. Well, I don't think he goes anywhere. Really? Yeah. Not anymore. But that was always his thing. Well, this thing is gone. He gave me a lot of gigs. I have nothing but love for that guy. Really? When I was starting out. Yeah.

He gave me a lot of gigs. He paid my rent many times. Well, he had a lot of little clubs. Yeah. Like your satellite clubs. Yeah. The huts. Comedy huts.

Yeah. The Aku Aku's. He had one was when he was a musician way back. It was already the majority. Yeah. And he was like the highest paid entertainer on Cape Cod. The Crystal Palace he had. I mean, he was big. Yeah.

And then things went south. And now he's big, but physically. He's still alive? Everything's good? Yeah. Big fat? Yeah. Yeah, kind of white.

Oh, yeah. You push your arms out like that i have a 36 inch sleeve but i can't get it out there i did all of his gigs i did all those comedy huts he had the dick darty comedy huts dick darty comedy vault remember the vault yes yes that was another one the vault was right down the street from warrenton street not far at all right across the street there yeah yeah yeah he had a ton of rooms. Yes, he did. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, it's true. I mean, he did work a lot more comedians than other places that didn't have that many avenues.

Yeah. Well, he would headline you early, too. Like, we're really proud we shouldn't have been headlining. Really didn't really have a solid 45. It was pretty patched up. But Fitzsimmons and I started out together. We were like a week apart. We started a week apart from each other at open mic nights.

Yeah, he mentioned that. Yeah, we did. That's funny. And you didn't know each other previous? No, no, no. We met each other like at open mic night. That's funny. Yeah, both the same age.

It was fun times. But we both have the same feeling like we were talking about you guys you know like you and all all the guys that are from that era it's just like it was a we were very very fortunate to be able to because there was no hacks like hacks were not tolerated in boston no yeah it was and even the audience i always thought the answer was great but they weren't patient either no you had to you had to produce and produce quickly they had high standards too yeah because you guys were so good like the standards of comedy the level of comedy was very high in the town yeah i remember i had a friend of mine who came to visit me from new york uh and uh he was shocked he was like there's so many good comics here that nobody

knows and i was like dude they know i'm in town they know i'm in boss these guys are selling out every fucking night and he's like this is crazy and i was like, dude, they know him in town. They know him in Boston. These guys are selling out every fucking night. And he's like, this is crazy. And I was like, yeah, these are like the best comics in the world, and people don't know who they are. It's funny. Colin Quinn was one of the guys that came into Boston. And the people, but when they introduced him, he's from New York.

I mean, he was getting booed before he said a word. And then he's gone. He's like, oh, my God. But the crowds did eventually like him. Yeah. But when he first worked there, there was a sound booth on the side of Nick's. And he hid. He got off stage and hid in the sound booth until the show was over because he didn't want to have to walk through the crowd.

He was in there for over two hours. I'm not making this up. That's hilarious. Well, the first time I saw Dom Herrera was at Nick's Comedy Stop. And he went through the gauntlet and survived oh he had the people loved him he loved they loved him well he's lovable yeah well he's a great guy but he was the only like national headliner that i ever saw that went through there and made it through yeah yeah and and and with flying colors yeah so he killed yeah and even at the end of it

he was you know like he said uh he goes ladies and gentlemen uh thank you for coming tonight i was amazing you guys are pretty good and like he just the sarcastic silly way of doing comedy he was the best he fits in anywhere oh yeah yeah but he fit in boston like a glove i mean that's where first oh he's a philly guy yeah and that same kind of thing he was a pretty good jockey one day he's a pretty good basketballball player Yeah So he had Kind of the same Type of mentality As some of the people He's still fucking great He's still fucking great

He still kills The comedy store All the time Yeah And he's always On the road too He's fantastic He's a real comic

You know Sure There's a few of those guys It doesn't matter Where you put them You could put a show On the moon And he would go up there

And kill Yeah like Rocky LePoor Sure Yeah That just Hey how you doing And he gets a laugh Yeah Are you kidding me Do you get a laugh for that put a show on the moon and he was like i think i got like rock in the pool sure yeah that just just hey how you doing and he gets a laugh yeah you're kidding me you get a laugh for that and it's a good laugh yeah yeah it's um i mean when you think back on your life could you imagine yourself have ever i mean i know you were a teacher at one point in time but can you imagine never having

found comedy uh i'm very grateful that he did find it. I think if I was teaching in a different venue where I was teaching more advanced kids, I was in a vocational school where they didn't want to do, you know, one week they'd be in shop, the next week they'd be with me. And they didn't want to be with me, you know.

Coaching was different. I coached basketball on track and that was terrific. And I spent most of my energy in that. But, so I think if i was in the right surroundings as a teacher i would have stayed in teaching you know and probably uh have done a lot less of the evil things to my body and but maybe i wouldn't have found comedy but you've held up well you intellectually you're still there i mean i haven't seen you do stand-up in a long time but

i know everybody says you're still fucking killing. Well, it's still working, yeah. And you're the one guy that's still drinking. That I'm aware of, yeah. But I don't really look around that much. Did you ever think about quitting? No, not really. No? Oh, when I was in the hospital, I had a hernia operation, but then Roger smuggled some booze into the hospital.

He brought in a thing of vodka and a claw and a magnet. So he was going to pull out the staples that I have. You know, those steel staples you put in when you get stitched up? He thought that was funny. He went and stole a big magnet. That was funny. But he did bring booze into the hospital. How long were you in the hospital for? Oh, just, you know, whatever, four or five days. So you almost quit for four or five days? Oh, yeah, almost. funny but he did bring booze into the hospital so how long were you in the hospital for oh just

you know whatever four or five days so you almost quit for four or five days oh yeah almost almost yeah do you never like when you see all these guys going into aa and cleaning up you never went huh maybe uh maybe that's for me no no never never did i mean we stopped the blow and all that stuff right but i never was much of a smoke up smoke up the grass but stopped the blow and all that stuff. I remember it was much of a smoke of the grass, but the drinking, that's pretty consistent with that. You find something you like, stick with it. When did you stop the blow? Oh, a long, long time ago.

But I don't even remember exactly when. 80s, 90s? But you don't see any people doing that. I don't even know. Is there still a scene where people do that? Not comedy, no. No, not a comedy scene see any people Doing that I don't know I don't even know Is there still a scene Where people do Not comedy, no No, not a comedy scene

With Blow Not that I know of You remember like We talked You said the comedy stuff You know You could No, no, don't sit there

You know Because it'd be Somebody had lines Under this thing No, no, no Over there Wherever you went You know

Well they would offer To pay you in Blow Yeah, and get the giggles In Tampa, Florida They honestly said Do you want all your money In blow or do you want some cash? I go, I want it all in cash. And then if I wanted to get blow, I could do that.

I mean, you can't go into a grocery store and say, you know, I got these three items. Is this line big enough? That doesn't work. Is that place still around? That giggles? I don't know. I know, Mike, that's where you got the name from. You know, my place still around? That Giggles? I don't know. I know Mike, that's where he got the name from. You know, Mike Louch, by Giggles and Sagas.

But I don't know. But that was another one of those real successful clubs. At one time, as you know, there were great clubs in a lot of places. And sadly, most of them have gone down. Yeah. I mentioned the Comedy Works in Denver. It's a still one. It's still great.

Oh, it's still great. That was such a successful one. It's a still one. It's still great. Oh, it's still great. That was such a successful, and still is. Yeah. I always thought that was one of the best-run clubs in the whole United States. Well, Wendy, the lady who owns it and runs it, she's fucking awesome. She's been around from way back. I go to see her every time I'm in town. And sometimes I still even work that club.

Yeah. I work that club, too. I'll alternate between the big theaters, and I'll go back and do her club. I love her. That place was electric. Yes. And she's got another one. She's got a...

Yeah. I rebuilt another one. Yeah. She's got a second one. But yeah, there's Zany's in Nashville still really good. Right.

There's a bunch of real good clubs still on the road. Well, maybe I'll rediscover these. I'll stop going out on the ships. Come on, Don Gavin.

I've been out floating too much. Maybe I'll come back. Yeah, you'd enjoy it. Now, if you did do that, would you take out on the ships. Come on, don't get it. I've been out floating too much. Maybe I'll come back. Yeah, you'd enjoy it. Now, if you did do that, would you take someone on the road with you? Like, how do you do it? When you do the ships, is it just you, or do you bring somebody with you? Yeah, just me. How much time do you do?

Varies, you know. Usually you do, like, a headliner spot. You do, like, a 50, 55, you know, and do two of those. But you can do the same stroll, you know, that type of thing. So you only need like an hour and a half stuff total. Right. I guess is what it was. But it is kind of a lazy man job.

You can do the same sets, you know. Right. I just found it interesting talking to you about incorporating something new at the beginning. That's going to be challenging. I'm going to try that. It's not. I've never tried it. Best idea.

Never tried it. The best idea, I think, is probably to sandwich it in between established jokes. Like you have a joke that you know is going to work, you get their confidence, and then you slip in a new one. Yeah, yeah. But every now and then I like to open with a new one just to see what the fuck is up. I like it. Just to fucking test it. Take that little colt and see how it can run on those legs.

Giddy up. Yeah. No fear. No fear, Joe. I like it. I've got some fear, believe me. But sometimes that fear is what makes. Giddy up. Yeah. No fear. No fear, Joe. I like it. I've got some fear, believe me. But sometimes that fear is what makes the punchline comes out.

Yeah. You know, the punchlines that come out of nowhere, you know how it is. Like sometimes you ad-lib and it'll just come out of nowhere. You're like, where is that? Where is that coming from?

When you have an idea and it just pops into your head and makes its way on to, and then it gets a big laugh and then you know it's the right thing to say right there. Right. You know it.

And just out of nowhere. Now, and you know the other thing, you travel everywhere. Is there one particular area that doesn't seem to click as much? Connecticut. Connecticut can eat plates and plates of shit. All of Connecticut can go fuck off. Really? Yeah.

My friend Chappelle Lacey, I told him how bad Connecticut sucks, and he was just there this weekend, and he sent me a text message. He goes, you weren't fucking kidding. Connecticut. This place is terrible. I wasn't expecting that. One place from New England. There's something about it. Rhode Island, great.

Rhode Island's fantastic. New Jersey, awesome. Love it. New York, love it. Connecticut, eat shit. Wow. Wow. When I was doing the travel, the only place I had one That they positively hated me

Memphis Oh Memphis they hated you Really I talk way too fast To them And I also speak English And

They boy They hated me Yankee Yankee No I said no The Red Sox You know they had their own Theme

And They booed me again Like Colin Quinn Before I even got on stage. They had one of those clocks like the ones they have that was in Back to the Future, that pink clock. You could see it.

You had to do 45 minutes. I'm going, I got to be close to done. I look up. I had done 11 minutes. I'm like, my God. I got off stage and went table to table and heckled people. Then I went back on stage and realized I still had 15 minutes more to go. Oh, my God.

They hated me. What year was this? It seemed like it was a whole year when I was there just doing the one week. That was quite a while ago. I was there for the week. That's the point. It wasn't like anybody was saying, hey, you got to see this guy. People were saying, you shouldn't see this guy.

It was horrible. Does it suck every night? Yeah., hey, you got to see this guy. People were saying, you shouldn't see this guy. And it was horrible. Does it suck every night? Yeah. Yes, it did. Yes, it did. Yeah. It was so bad. And we had a whole world.

It was like a thunderstorm. And you know the ones that there's only 20 people going to be there. We said, if it's not 20 people, we don't do a show. Right. So we had 16 people. And I'm going, oh, beautiful. We're going to get paid. Don't have to do a show.

And two cars come up. I went out and knocked on the windows. They said they said oh yeah we got terrible plumbing problems see you guys later come back come on see you later and I forced them to leave so I wouldn't have to do oh my god that's hilarious Boston Comics one of the things about guys that would they would go on the road they had so much regional material Boston Comics had so much Boston comedy right yeah I don't. Yeah, you don't. I was going to say that.

Like, Sweeney has a lot. Yes, yes. Like, Sweeney in Boston is a goddamn murderer. Sure, sure. But some of that stuff he can't do in other places. He has to kind of rearrange his acts. Yes, yeah. Yeah, mine is more, it's always been more universal.

Yeah. More observational than, yeah. And I don't really have many boston per se boston jokes yeah other than something about the accent but that's a that's about it but uh now i just asked you one end of the where's the other end where's where's like a favorite um i love texas texas is probably one of my favorite places to go yeah i love all austin i love dallas i love houston i love going there right yeah they're wild Fucking people I mean they're the Remnants of the wild west

Right That's what it's like I mean they're the Wagon trains That made it all the way To California And a bunch of people Made it to Texas

And they went We're good Right We're just going to Stop right here And they're just wild It's just a different Kind of people

They're real friendly Real nice folks It's one of my Favorite places to go Cool I love it Now what about Fallen country England When to go Cool I love it Now what about Foreign countries

Like England When you mentioned England I love England I've been to England a bunch of times Doing stand up That's great They're fun They like to drink

Woo Yeah I did a tour I did a tour Yeah they did like me Especially the drinking part Oh they're rowdy people I met a bar One time we were doing

The show And I said And I wanted some ice And the guy said Oh And everybody's drinking Just shots and beer And I'm drinking liquor And I said I wanted some ice. And the guy said, oh, and everybody's drinking just shots and beer, and I'm drinking liquor.

And I said, I wanted some ice. And the guy goes, oh, the ice machine is broken. I said, well, and I was a bartender. I went back. I said, well, bartender, if you hit it, some ice will fall out of you. He goes, well, it broke over a year ago. I said, oh, okay, never mind. Forget it.

They're just not interested in ice. Yeah, if you buy a soda over there sometimes, like you get a glass of soda, it comes with no ice. Nothing. Like, what is this? Where's the... And then when I did Australia, Australia was, that's kind of a rowdy place too.

Oh, I love it over there. Australia's amazing. And they get into just, they're willing to just show stuff out to you. Yeah. Not necessarily heckling, but just show them

things and stuff. What do you mean by that? You know, I don't know what to, I can't explain this shit. They like to drink there too. Yeah. I did a whole set over there about Halloween.

And it went absolutely nowhere. And I kind of rewrote the next night. Nowhere. And I'm saying, why is this thing not working? And a guy says to me, what is this Halloween? They in those days didn't celebrate Halloween there. What? He said, you send your kids to strangers' houses to beg for candy?

Why not for food? When they go get food or money, I go, it's Halloween. He didn't know what it was. Now they have Halloween. But as of like 20 years ago, they didn't have Halloween. Halloween is only 20 years old in Australia? Yes. That's hilarious.

You would think that would be a universal thing, but it was not. They have a lot of comedy over there now. Yeah. I mean, they have really funny comics now have a lot of comedy over there now. Yeah. I mean, they have really funny comics now, especially in Melbourne. Yeah, I love Melbourne. That was a good place. Melbourne's great. They have the Comics Lounge.

I performed with Tony Hinchcliffe there when I was there back. A lot of comics from L.A. fly over there and do that place. Yeah, you mentioned Richie Jenny. I worked with him over there at the Hilton, which is right across from the tennis center where they play the big Australian. In Australia? Yeah. Richie Jenny was one of my favorites. God damn, he was good. Terrific. I worked with him over there at the Hilton, which is right across from the tennis center where they play the big Australian. In Australia? Yeah. Richard Jenner was one of my favorites.

God damn, he was good. Terrific. He was so good. He's like probably, in my opinion, one of the most underrated guys ever. Yeah. Yeah. You know, where to this day, like people forget how goddamn good he was. And he's prolific too.

Oh, so prolific. Yeah. You know, you remember Eastside Comedy Club in Long Island? Yes. Yes. He worked at Eastside Comedy Club in Long Island? He worked at Eastside Comedy Club in Long Island. I remember it was me and a couple of the other guys that were there were stunned because the host said, I go, hey, how was Jenny this weekend? He goes, not only did he murder. Was it?

Not only did Jenny murder every show, but he did four different hours. Wow. He did a different hour Two shows Two different hours Friday Two different hours on Saturday Wow He goes he did four different hours

He goes he didn't repeat a joke And he goes And he was on top Of his fucking game On fire And we're And like That was like

I guess it was 91 92 Yeah He was If he wasn't the best in the world He was right Right up there But he was so honest about that

I said You know something about your life. He said, there's two things in my life, comedy and porn. And he spent a lot of time on both of them. That was a quote. Well, that's why he was so good. He was obsessed. Yeah. I mean, he was an interesting cat.

It was a real bummer when he killed himself. Yeah. He was for sure one of my favorites. I got to see him live a bunch of times. And what i loved about that guy is he would take a subject like save the subject with cigarettes yeah he would beat that subject into the ground he would find every fucking angle he would cover every piece of every possible way you could talk about that bit kind of like when george colin would take a bit that I would have an idea, a premise, we'll say. Right.

I could get three and a half minutes in. He'd get 15 minutes. Yeah. Of gold. Yeah. Yeah. But Jenny would be like, punchline, punchline, punchline. God damn, he was good.

We've seen a lot of great comics in our day. Yes, we have. Hopefully a few more. Hopefully there'll be more people seeing me now that I'm back out. For sure. So you said it's available now on Pandora and on Sirius. That's correct. And next week it's going to be available on Spotify.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And it's Don Gavin, Comedy Don Gavin. What is it? Don Gavin Comedy. Don Gavin Comedy on Instagram. The name of the album is Don Gavin Live with the Manhattan. Comedy Don Gavin Comedy On Instagram And the name of the album Is Don Gavin Live With the Manhattan

There it is Look at you Ta-da Ba-ding Handsome bastard Alright listen It's been an honor Having you in here

It's been an honor being here I really appreciate you And thanks for all the inspiration Over the years And from the bottom of my heart Seeing you And seeing those guys From Boston

When I was starting out meant everything for me. Hey, your compliments mean a lot to me. Thank you, my friend. Don Gavin, everybody.

Bye. Thank you, sir. That was great. Thank you very much. Thank you.