The Jordan Harbinger Show - 372: Bob Saget | How Comedy Continually Changes His Life

Episode Date: July 2, 2020

Bob Saget (@bobsaget) is a comedian, actor, director, host of the Bob Saget's Here For You podcast, and author of Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian. What we discuss with Bob Saget: The shared age at which Bob Saget and Richard Pryor knew they were funny. How Bob's sense of humor developed as a mechanism to avoid pain. Why Bob has reinvented himself repeatedly over the course of his career -- from the wholesome family man he portrayed on Full House to the dirty lecher he played on Entourage (and all points between). The big breaks that can come from life's worst disappointments. Bob's proven remedy for dealing with the haters (and we all have haters). And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/372 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

No matter how rich and success we are, we're all gone to the same place. But I just think be kind to as many people as you can while you're here and when you're gone. If you think when you're gone, you go on. Wow, that kind of is a lyric I'll never use. You won't be using that as a sound bite for this episode. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's sharpest minds and most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you.

We want to help you see the matrix when it comes to how these amazing people think and behave, and our mission is to help you become a better-informed, more critical thinker, so you can get a much deeper understanding of how the world works and makes sense of what's really happening. If you're new to the show, we've got episodes with spies and CEOs, athletes and authors, thinkers, and performers, as well as toolboxes for skills like negotiation, body language, persuasion, and more. So if you're smart and you like to learn and improve, you're going to be right at home here with us. For a selection of featured episodes to get you started with some of our favorite guests and popular topics, go to Jordan Harbinger.com and we'll hook you up. Today on the show, one of the most famous faces in America, he was on Full House, Danny Tanner, America's Funniest Home Videos.

He's in your living room. This guy's been in your living room for decades growing up if you're 30, 40, 50 years old. For Bob Sagitt, joking around was about avoiding pain. He lost someone important every two years as a kid, moved around a lot, and many of his uncles died around age 40 from heart attacks, which freaks me out because I'm 40, and I really hope I have a lot more time left. When he started stand-up at age 17, he was careful about his language because it helped him get TV shows, which is kind of funny if you've ever seen Bob Sagitt stand-up comedy.

He's not so careful now. He was opening for musicians like Kenny Loggins. It was kind of funny for him to go full Danny Tanner and then become known as one of the dirtiest comics in the scene at least for a while. And if you saw him on entourage, he was a caricature of himself. And it was something extra. Bob doesn't consider his reinvention's comebacks, but opportunities to redefine yourself. And that's part of what we'll talk about here today on the show. That and him doing whippets and a prop closet on the set of full house with John Stamos and Dave Cooleyer. And if you want to know how I get guests like Bob Sagitt and

try to get them to open up like a real person, it's about rapport and networking. And I've got a networking course for you, which is free and always will be. It's called six-minute networking. It's over at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course, and most of the guests on the show, they subscribe to the course in the newsletter. So come join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. Now, here's Bob Sagitt. So congrats on being the first comedian to launch a podcast here with your new show, by the way. That's a breakthrough. It's huge. And every kid across the street has a podcast as well. So it's literally, there's contractors across the street doing construction. They have podcasts, how to nail boards, how to do rebar.

This is everything. But it's doing very well. The goal was to make people feel good. Probably what you're trying to do is inform and get people through stuff. A lot of people were surprised that your podcast has any element of seriousness to it. They were like, oh, he can be serious. Like, people weren't expecting that from you, I guess. Well, I guess they never saw me do any acting outside of full house, but I've done a bunch,

not entourage. That's a bad example. Well, yeah. I've been on Broadway a bunch of times and always ended up with a serious role, you know, and been in a bunch of movie things and always ended up with a serious role. So, you know, you started stand up at age 17 according to the book, which will link in the show notes, Dirty Daddy. According to the book, you started at 17, when did you know that you were funny?

Like, were you a class clown the whole time or was it last year? Last year. Yeah. No, the truth of it is, and I've thought about it a lot. I did a movie with Richard Pryor, and I'd been friends with acquaintances from the comedy store. And then when I did the movie called Critical Condition, I got closer with him. And I asked him that one day. And we both at the same time said four. We knew we were funny at four years old. Really? From the reactions from adults, you mean? No, not adults. Sometimes from adults, but I was

pretty obnoxious. I was just like, you know, I would dance like real fast and hyper and I should have been on Ritalin or they would have put me on it. But like just all the kids in kindergarten, I'd make them laugh. And I remember little girls. girls kissing me and stuff. And I don't remember them. Jody Clavins, Beth Cohen, Marcy Wasserman. I knew all of them,

and I had crushes on all of them, Denise Ness, and every one of them, at four. And I would watch James Baum movies at six and want to be him. I was a horny little bastard. So at four, I knew it was funny. I was really funny. I was making movies since I was nine,

eight millimeter stuff. And then I wasn't funny for years. And that was all the hard high school times and stuff. it's got to be hard to get famous wild, because you met your first wife at age 17, right? Wow, you know too much. I'm going to have to kill you. I know I read your book.

When I get near you, I have to kill you. Yeah, we can hang out when we can get this plague, when the plague lifts. Oh, I can't wait. So you met her when you were 17, you're like this random, I don't know, nerdy Jewish guy trying comedy, hoping that it worked.

And you went through this phase or segment of your life where it was like one of the most, you, Dave Cooleer, John Stamos, et cetera, were probably like the most famous, some of the most famous people in the entire world at that point. I mean, they had full house in East Germany for crying out loud. They did. And when I was on the video show, it was the number one show in China. Wow. It was that and CNN were the two biggest imports from the U.S. Wow. And I think they turned off CNN. But seeing people get hit in the crots, they were fine with that. Yeah, they love that like going down the slide and your

pants come off. Like that just doesn't get old, no matter what language you speak. Just get hooked on a nail. But what's weird is a lot of countries had their own host. Like England had Jeremy Beatle. He was a famous TV host. And I suppose a nice man. And I think Australia had Australia's finance home videos and they would do an exchange program. And so that was interesting. We just got inducted Vindabona, Tom Bergeron, Alfonso and myself just got inducted into the TV Hall of Fame. Congratulations. Thanks. We did a Zoom thing. And we did a, we did a Zoom. We did a Zoom accept. It's Zoom conference and it'll be available for the people in the TV Academy or nap tea or whatever. I don't know what it is, but it's a lovely thing. It's real. You mentioned in the book that you have to

take shots at yourself before taking shots at anyone else. So it's like comedy as a defense mechanism. Some people don't. I just met you like as a comedian. It's like comedy as a defense mechanism. Yeah. But I get that, man. Like when someone's about to criticize your work, there's definitely some relief by beating yourself to the punch or like ragging on yourself first. And I think I can relate to that even as a podcast host, and I think anybody who creates anything can really relate to that. Like, you put stuff out there, and it's like, I don't care what anyone thinks, but you really don't mean that most of the time. You're just like, I hope people like it. And every day I get new reviews of this show, and I'm like, you know, I just, and they're almost universally good,

but I do get worried when I see bad ones, and I will ruminate on that stuff, and I'll ask one. We're not supposed to. You know, you're not supposed to be the good ones or the bad ones. I know you're not supposed to. Someone sends me some devilish something. I'm block them on everything. I'm not doing that. And I won't do negative. I'm actually, that's my new closing song. Sounds like a joke, but it is. But it is actually my new stand-up when I do it again. I just, I can't do it. I can't let people in that are bad for me. And I can get constructive criticism. Like, I did a show in London and I had a song I was doing and it offended some people. So I took it out because I got a review. They said he was great except for this one thing. And it didn't

have enough empathy to it. I wasn't thinking about the people that I was making fun of, but meant in a good way. But some comedians that I've always loved, like Don Rickles was a big influence, he would make fun of himself, but not really. His thing was he's full of love, and he's going to make fun of everybody. And then Richard Pryor would tell you all of his faults. And then he really didn't make fun of people. You know, he wouldn't attack anybody when he would attack the way people are. He would attack racism. He would attack what his truth. was and it was a huge influence for me. And Rodney Dangerfield is who told me, make fun of yourself first and then you beat them to the punch. And Jackson Brown, one of my favorite comedians,

Jackson Brown, the singer, if you guys don't know it, any of your younger people, is you got to go back and listen to it all because he's brilliant and beautiful and inducted into the rock and roll Hall of Fame. That's the only way to get through to some people, tell people their accolades. But he is just an amazing artist and writer. He had a lyric in a song. It's like the lyric was, I believe, don't confront me with my failures. I have not forgotten them. It's like, no one needs to tell me what I'm doing wrong or what's annoying or what my mistakes are or how they perceive me in a negative way. I know it.

I'm the first, worst judge of myself. And I'm trying to correct it. So people should just let people work on themselves. I couldn't agree more. I mean, it is tough. It's weird how a lot of the people who are the most. sensitive to criticism, and I don't mean that in a negative way either, but just the most maybe vulnerable are also putting themselves out there and taking this massive risk and going and doing

stand-up routines and getting heckled or like putting a show out there and having people be like, uh, stick to stand-up, sag it, you know, or whatever kind of crap, you know, you might see. I would imagine it takes almost the majority of your career before you can be like, I'm just blocking that out because I've never gotten any value from it. That's been my whole career, and I agreed with a lot of it, and that's why I've changed so many times. That's why I've morphed into different things. That's why even my new, where I was headed and where I will be with my work is a little more storytelling, I guess. I can't really analyze it. It's just more of this. And that's why the podcast is so valuable to me, because I love this medium.

I've been doing it forever. I mean, I started before full house. I was on CBS as a broadcaster, doing the CBS Morning News against the Today Show on Good Morning America as the sidekick on the CBS Morning program and I got fired after five months. So we know I'm good at broadcasting. Five months. That's a short run. But then you got picked up and did full house for. Yeah, I didn't think. I thought I thought I was done working. Have you ever thought like you'd want something works? Like you're doing something now that work. Yeah. This show works. If you ever thought it's never going to happen again for me. I'm just done. Oh, I mean, yeah, of course. Yeah. I used to be a lawyer. I technically still am. I got laid off because the economy went down and I was like, Jesus, I barely got that job. What am I going to do? I don't even want to do it.

And then I started the show, and then I had a falling out with my business partners and had to start the show over again by myself slash with the support of all the people in my network and my family and things, of course, but I had to start over again and build it again. So yeah, I know what that's like. I know that feeling that says you're never going to get there, you're never going to get back on top. Right. So maybe you shouldn't try and then you try anyway, and if you're lucky, you get some success. Yeah, I know exactly what that's like. Well, you have to try because you're young and there's no time limit on it. I mean, I keep telling people, Rodney Dangerfield, and they know, because a lot of people saw Caddy Shack or back to school or easy money,

he was 58 when he got Caddyshack. That's crazy. So this is a career of doing stand-up forever, doing the Tonight Show, starting on Ed Sullivan, working his ass off, and, you know, being put down for so many years. So this is, it's a big deal. People put a lot of energy an emphasis into it has to happen when you're young, especially now, because I think people are going, well, the world's not going to be around long anyway, and people aren't going to be around long anyway. And that, you can't have that attitude. You see, like, YouTube folks and influencers and stuff like that being, and they look young, and you go, well, crap, I'm 30. I can't do that. These kids are 15. Look at what they're doing. Right. But that comparison game is not going to work. I mean, you

sort of discuss that a little bit in the book as well. I mean, you talk about, like, working with child actors on full house, which were those people were super talented. Right. And, you know, you were an adult, there must have been a party that's like, man, I'm the old guy, quote unquote, on the set. Like, look at these folks. I'm the 30-year-old and nine-year-olds are telling me my lines. Right.

Yeah, like, hey, get it together. I do believe I have talent. I just don't have a photographic memory. Like, when I'm acting at something, especially if you do something like a really good play and you're on Broadway and it's like a big deal and may it come back, oh my God, I know. We feel so off from that time when we all get to come back to this stuff. But that is the true exploration of a character and understanding it.

And a good movie role where you can really sink your teeth into and not be yourself. A lot of people just want to be famous and rich. And yes, money makes life easier for people. But fame is bullshit. I mean, it helps you if it sells you doing more of what you want. But to let it go to your head, the moment you're cocky is the moment you've lost me as an audience. And a lot of people are attracted to it. If I had known that secret as a teenager, I would have had a lot of girlfriends or just been quite the stud.

Because the key was not to care and not to be scared. And it just doesn't matter. And anything that's happened good for me just happened by itself. I didn't even push for it. Like the podcast just happened. I had five offers from five big companies. I wanted to go with all of them. A couple of my friends own a couple of them.

I went with Studio 71, and I'm really thrilled. I'm making three a week right now. I'm going Monday, Wednesday, Friday. How often do you do yours? I do Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, yeah. So you're doing the same deal? You're living it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a lot of work, obviously, you know, like I've got to read 10, 12 hours of stuff to prep for a show and get a good interview out of it. But I like it. I like it. I like it. But don't you just do what I do. You Google and then print out the old IMDB and Wikipedia and just hold that. Look at it.

No, no. I read the whole book. I watched a ton of your comedy. I rewatched old montages. I was, before this, I was watching a video, which I'll link in the show notes, of you. And, like, is it Jimmy Kennedy or James Kennedy? Jamie Kennedy. And it was like rolling with Saggett.

I was watching that stuff. I mean, I got some deep cuts. That was a half a million dollar video. Just the video cost half a million dollars. You can't even get that for an independent film sometimes these days. That's crazy. You can't do any of it right now, obviously. But that was for the MTV show called Blown Up with Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone.

And the whole basis of the show was they were going to make a music video with me. Talk about something stupid. Talk about lofty goals. But I love them, and that song played well. You know, it did fine. It was taken from another very famous rap song. Your first material was really dark. It came from a dark place, I guess, because you moved a lot as a kid.

You were moving around. Yeah. And you mentioned that you used like your first 10. 10 minutes of comedy on TV talk shows for years afterwards. And you said, comedians first 10 minutes usually stay with them for years or longer. Why is that? What's going on with like the 10 minutes? I don't understand.

Well, from my experience, it's kind of like all of the life you lived up till then culminated into a certain resin of who you are. It usually, when you're new, it usually deals with you make fun of your name, you talk about where you're from, or you would come out. and talk about the world and how you see it. Those comedians have always been the most impressed by. I'm more of a personal comedian, but personality comedian. Not unlike Ray Romano would talk about Jim Gaffigan.

You could sit and listen to his kids and his wife stuff forever. And then you've got Dave Chappelle, the great Dave Chappelle, who comes out. And in the beginning of the whole damn thing, says, in Sticks and Stone, says, it's your fault. This is all your fault. And that is not talking about, it does talk about his family, does talk about his kids, but it's dealing on a much more philosophical level, not in a completely different way, but at the same design as George Carlin, who would say, here's where we're at, and here's what's really screwed up right now. So I get moments of that in there, but I also want to entertain people, not that they're not, I mean, because they are. You know, George is Bryant,

Dave's amazing. You've reinvented yourself, and I don't know if this is quite the right term, but like from, would you say club comic to television comic and then back to live stand-up again? Is that accurate? Yeah, I've never stopped doing stand-up since I was 17.

And I did comedy songs in the beginning. Another idol was Martin Muld, because he was this great comedian that I saw and he did musical comedy, and I wasn't copying it. I just happened to be writing songs. And I wrote 60-60 serious songs that were so bad.

And I registered them with the Library of Congress, copy wrote them. And they're the worst songs ever. I mean, I was like, I wrote one called When I Was a Boy and I was 15. So what? Martin is, I'm actually working on a documentary about him, which is on hold right now because we can't film anybody. Film anything. Yeah, no kidding. Working with a bunch of child actors on Full House, looking at some of your comedy and things like that, like, did you have to compartmentalize?

How did you not flip, let loose or the flurry of profanity around all these child actors? I did let loose. and sometimes I would do it, and the moms would come downstairs and go, Bob, the girls are watching the monitors in the classroom, and I would go, like, turn them off, I'm working. You know, I was trying to be, like,

I never got caught. It was really like a nine-year-old boy or a 10-year-old boy, except it did deal with making Dave and John laugh, which went into very adult male-oriented type. Of course, like, you're standing there with John Stamos, Dave Culeer, and you think no one can see you,

and you're doing what's called blocking, which is like when you're moving around a stage set, And I heard that there was a life-sized child-sized doll. Yeah, let's forget this one. This one's painful. This was, yeah, I just, I didn't know the cameras. I was trying to make the crew lap. If you give me a rubber doll that's two and a half feet tall,

what am I not going to do to that thing? Yeah. Nobody's there. It's just grown-ups. I didn't know the television sets were rolling upstairs. I didn't know that. So they're like sitting in another room and they can see like stage monitors or something, like what's going on each part of the set?

doing stuff and, you know, it happens. Yeah, I mean, it's not easy to be on camera all the time, eight hours or ten hours a day or however long, with all your buddies. Well, it wasn't even that long. It was all about rehearsal. So that was just rehearsal. And it felt like a joke to be talking to a test dummy and having to do my lines so they could set the shots to a three foot tall, literally a test dummy.

They were made a rubber. I guess they would use them for CPR or for me to work with. Yeah. I don't think you give me that. I don't think that's something I should have. What skill sets do you think translated back and forth from TV and stand-up? Like, obviously humor, but are there things that you worked on with stand-up that translated a full-house and things you took from Full House that translate even now to you doing

live comedy? Well, I also am so known for Full House. It's like you can walk around saying, I don't want to talk about it. And then I spent a couple of specials where there was always some five-to-seven-minute full-house bit. whether it be the 8 by 10 that John Stamos didn't know about the hole cut in the mouth or the donkey that was on the set that did his business. So that was in different specials and in a different hour that I've been out rolling. But one of the things that I heard from people that were well known when I was starting,

one of the big advice things, I got it from several well-known people, was that once people know who you are, it's the luckiest thing in the world because you already have the audience. now your obligation is to tell them something worth while, whether it be, you know, have a great meaning to it or bringing people together or getting them upset about something because you want to wake them up or just, frankly, making them laugh. And that's kind of where I'm at. Comics and writers have this unique skill or seemingly have this unique skill of both having an experience and then commenting on that experience at the same time. Right. Was your mind doing stand-up before?

you took it to the stage, like, are you in line at some pizza plays and you're thinking about, like, making comments to yourself or out loud about how this is happening in real stuff? Like, George Carlin kind of did that, right? Yeah. In a way, did you find yourself doing that same thing? Well, his was so eloquent because his was all thought out and all rehearsed and all done, you know, word perfect. He was a word smith, and he was beyond brilliant.

Mine was different. Mine was more narcissistic, more neurotic. mine required therapy and I got it and I think maybe in my now that I'm over 60 I'm more into talking like a person when I'm not as and now we're halfway through the interview and I'm finally starting to become a person so it's like I'm pretty hybrid first you know that's just my nature plenty of people were doing all the right things and still failed you actually noted this in the book dirty daddy you said plenty of people around me were all doing the right things and they still failed. So that sort of brings out the question, like, what percentage of your success

do you think was hard work? Because your dad, you said he was like a super hard worker, so you got to work. It's all hard work. Yeah? It's all hard work. Yeah, sometimes I work really hard to sell something, really hard. And I over prepare. But if I'm in the zone, for some reason, if I'm in the zone and everything's right and everything aligns properly, then it's the most wonderful thing. I did a movie a couple years ago, very low budget, and all the actors were great and did a lot of favors. And it was a good script. And I only had 15 days to shoot it. And it was good.

It wasn't great. You know, it wasn't something I wanted to give myself an A plus for. Everybody was wonderful in it and worked so hard because I hired great people and barely hired them. People were working for college credit. But it's very hard to get in the zone and then have it work. But if it works on some level, and this did, I mean, it made its money, which is a big deal. But the other point is, there's other things I've done that just went over the fence, and I didn't even do anything.

I just showed up and swung, you know. Some things just happen. And some things, you work, you work, you work, you work 10 years to try to sell something, and it doesn't sell. You're listening to the Jordan Harbinger Show. We will be right. Have you ever had a moment where you think, man, someone should really do something about this? then you realize maybe that someone is you.

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And GoFundMe makes it easy. So do you have a dream, a person, or a cause in your life that could use some support? Don't wait for someone else to bring change. You can be the one who makes a difference. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform, trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com. That's gofundme.com. Gofundme.com. Right back. And now back to the Jordan Harbinger show. It is funny to see how now, of course, opportunity feels like it's probably automatic. You're turning things down because you just don't like that area where they're doing it.

Or you're like, I don't like working with these types of things. Or that doesn't really speak to me. But like in the beginning, there had to be a percentage. I turned down things that are just too dirty. That are too dirty. Well, because they're not like done by the A team. So they're not to put down people because they're just trying to get something made. They find funny.

Yeah. But sometimes people do things just for the same. of Phil, and that's how they view me sometimes, because they've objectified me from, oh, well, you did that special and you were dirty, and you said the F word a lot, and so you'll do that. I was like, no, that was where I was at at the moment. Yeah, yeah.

And people liked it, and it was good. And when in the zone, any performer is in the zone. You know, if you're an athlete, you're in the zone, it's the same thing as a performer, except athletes are better and so are musicians. What percentage of your success, you probably can't even calculate this, but what I'm wondering,

if you, what percentage you feel like might be luck. Like getting fired from CBS and getting picked up as Danny Tanner. Like there's an element of, holy crap, I got fired from a radio job and ended up being on the number one show. No, that was a television job. That was a TV, I was on camera. Okay. But it doesn't matter because I was the third wheel and they wanted me out.

But I was the original choice for Danny Tanner and I wasn't available because I was doing the show in New York. And then when I got fired, my manager called the producers of the executive. is a full house and said Bob's available. So they went, okay. So I did a quick screen test and then I was with Dave and John. And I'd known Dave for a few years already. Dave Cooleyer, yeah.

When you're younger, when you're trying to make it, or even if you're older and you're trying to make it, when your friends are getting big breaks around you and you're still doing stand-up every night or you feel like you're stuck in a routine, but like your friend gets a show, your other friend gets a show, your other friend. That was my life and still is sometimes.

You know, I go like, wow. You know, there's been a couple movies been up for. Yeah. I went for like the biggest director and then a friend of mine got it. And I was like, now I'm wise enough to know, oh, good, he's better for it. Right. Yeah.

Because I've directed stuff and I understand it all. It's like, oh, he's much better for it. And I didn't want to do that nude scene. Good for him. Yeah, you did. But how do you stop from getting discouraged? How do you stop from getting discouraged is a good question. Yeah, we're letting it get to your head, you know, mean or letting it mean something like,

oh, I'm never going to make it because I didn't get the part in this, you know, Chris Rock movie. Yeah. You know, like it could mean something instead of just being, oh, you know, he's better for the part. It could be like, I knew it. No one thinks I'm funny. I'm washed up.

Yeah, but you can't think like that. That's called work on yourself. And it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you. It just doesn't. Do you just learn that through experience, though? Or does it like, yeah? Yeah. I had a joke about it.

One of my first jokes is my mom said when you grow up, not everybody's going to like you. And I said, I need names. I want names. Yeah. And I have them. I know who doesn't like me. They either tell me online or well-known people go, no, I don't like him. And then your agent calls you back and said, they don't like you.

Wow. Who doesn't like you? I got books. I have giant books of them. I have phone books. Do you have like a nemesis in Hollywood that's like, oh, him and Bob Sagg it don't get along at all? All my nemesis are dead. That's a good record to have, I think.

It just happened. It just was an accident. Yeah, as it were. As it were. Well, you find out, no matter how rich and successful you are, we're all gone to the same place. But I just think be kind to as many people as you can while you're here and when you're gone. If you think when you're gone, you go on. Wow, that kind of is a lyric I'll never use.

Yeah, I don't know if that's going to bubble up to the top of your Twitter feed as one of your guests. You won't be using that as a sound bite for this episode. No, that will not. Actually, now that you said it, maybe we have to, I don't know, and then fade into the episode. That'd be great. It's not bad. It's not bad as it stands. how do we get happy for our friends' successes and not start resenting it?

Because you said, now I'm old enough to say, that's okay, they were better for it. But there had to be a point earlier where you went, oh, man, you know, this means something about me. And now I'm kind of pissed off at them. I wonder if they sabotaged me. Like, all these things are going through your head. That's insanity. That's immaturity and insanity. And they should watch Amadeus and watch Solieri resent F. Mary Abrams' character, represent Tom Holtz, playing Mozart.

That's called stupidity and not knowing what's important. everybody and there are geniuses out there that are going to surpass you unless you're the top five and you know who you are. Top five know who they are because the world knows who they are. You know, Elon Musk has something to say. You're going to listen. Even if you don't like him, you're going to listen. For me, I'm at the point now.

There's one guy that's an actor and he was really rude to me last time I saw him. And I've known him for a long time. So it was like, well, I'm not so thrilled to watch his work now. And then I watched something that he's done. And it's one of the best things I've ever seen. So I went, good for him. It had nothing to do with me. Who knows why the hell someone ignores you?

Maybe they're legitimately concerned. Maybe they had an emergency in the family. Maybe they're a total asshole and just want to go talk to somebody to further what they're working on. Maybe they're doing something. Maybe they don't like you. Maybe learn not to interrupt, you know? maybe just shut up and just take care of your business because I'm so happy to see great work.

And I'm so happy, why do I have to be friends with somebody? If they're not my friend, they're not my friend. People always go, so have you met so-and-so? Are they nice? I went, yeah. Or sometimes, well, actually, no, that person's not nice. I know a couple people that have been betrayed by that person or a couple of ladies that have been treated bad by that person. or everybody knows that about them,

but they take it with a grain of salt because they're so talented because if they're famous, people are talking about them. But the basic thing is, who gives a shit? Who cares? It just doesn't matter.

You don't think it matters to be, do you think it's important to be a role model or an example because you're so visible? I think it's important if it means something to you, but I don't think certain people feel like they have any obligation to certain people.

That's why you hear about athletes that are acting. like jerks to fans. Yeah. The fans are, I can't believe he treated me like that. And sometimes that same person is the very first person in line to go see and make a wish kid in a wheelchair. You can't really just pin it like that.

But some people are just not nice and think my job. You hear it a lot with actors. They think my job is to act. It is not to be your little fan boy or a fan girl. How do you get feedback on your creative work or, whatever your acting roles, your comedy, while also not letting people discourage you or getting too much influence on what you're doing. Like, you've got to be able to take feedback. Well, I don't have that problem. I don't have any of that problem anymore. No? Why is that? Too old for it. I've been

around too long. I know too much. I mean, I'm not smart, but I genuinely love humanity and I want to see it rise to its highest. So for me to walk around, scared or thinking about people that are trying to hold me back. Nobody's holding me back. If anybody's holding you back, it's you. Not you, Jordan. If anyone's holding me back, it's you, Jordan. This podcast is really holding me back. This podcast is going to, you're going to see a massive onslaught of listeners for your show. It's going to double in size four to eight. Talking Bob Sagins here for you is going to get eight more people. At least eight more people are going to start listening as a result of the show, provided we don't blow it in the last quarter here or the last, you know, 10 minutes here or whatever.

No, that's impossible. Well, we got more than that. We're in an hour and 12, and two of those minutes have to be cut. That's true. Yeah, there is that. You know, a lot of people go, oh, you're going to interview Absagit. That's going to be so interesting. It's exciting. What is he doing now? And I said, well, he's working on this and this and this. And some people go, oh, why does he still work? Because he definitely doesn't need to, right? And that's an interesting question because I think for a creator, it would be weird not to do any work. I have to work till I'm dead. Yeah.

I don't understand what it's like not to work. I'm not a lazy nothing. Yeah. I mean, if it was like sitting back and watching my kids, kids all day, they don't have kids, I was born to do this. And I'm just getting to do what I want to do now. I'm just getting to be able to pick up the phone and say to somebody, I'd like to do this. And they go, okay, let's see if we can make this happen.

Did you ever actually want fame, though? Like, was that part of the thing? Or was it you just wanted to be able to do comedy, but you didn't. care about the fame part. I wanted to work. I'd get fired from the show in New York. In the beginning, I wanted to be a movie maker. That's all I wanted.

And being a movie maker doesn't mean fame. It means you get to make movies. So I went to USC grad school for three days, and I quit because the comedy store, the owner Mitsy Shore, said, you should work here. I said, but I'm going to go to USC grad school. She said, no, you should come here and be a stand-up because you've got it. And I ended up emceeing there for eight years. So, and everybody that's anybody was there at the time in 1978.

And I'd won the student Oscar, and I thought that I was going to be a giant filmmaker. And then I started taking acting classes. Jerry Seinfeld recommended me into an acting teacher, Daryl Hickman. And then I did the Groundlings Workshop for a year, and that was quite an experience. So I had a background and improv already in Philadelphia, and I had a background and stand-up because I've been doing that. So I was always doing like five things. I just didn't know how to act. So I really learned what it meant to be as real as possible

and learn how to develop character and learn why that I found out I loved acting. I really only took acting classes to learn how to direct to understand how actors work. But I love acting. I love everything I do. And I put a thousand percent of everything I have into it. I'm loving this podcast right now.

It's just wonderful to reach out to people and to get to hear from them. That's the other thing. Yeah, it's more of an interactive thing. Like with Full House, I would imagine you get people kind of yelling at you or with, actually, on that note, you're known for being Danny Tanner and Full House, but you're also, I don't want to say equally known, but the guy in half baked that says nobody sucks for marijuana, that's like a 15 second cameo. And I feel like 50% of people know you as Danny Tanner, at least as well as they know you as the guy standing up in that meeting. Well, they know me as a comedian. Yeah. I think that was another thing that was for people of your generation, a turning point where people went, what? Was that Bob Sagat? You know? Yeah.

And the line was, I used to suck Dick for Coke. And then another comedian, Dave Edwards, I believe his name is. He goes, I've seen him. And that's the funny part. But it was Dave Chappelle's movie. And that's when we first became friendly. I don't know. I do a bunch of things.

I don't just do one thing. I'll never just do one thing. After Full House and the video show ended a year later, I said, I don't want to be on camera anymore. So I directed TV movies. Why is that? I'd had it. I'd had it with the whole getting recognized. all the time. I'd had it with being thought of as those guys, you know, or you're the host of a TV

show, you must sell dog food, or people hated me on Full House. I never got a good review ever. Really? People hated me on the video show. I woke up one morning on a Sunday morning and a guy named Tom Shales who loved a lot of people. And he was a big Chicago Tribune, I believe, and it was syndicated to the LA Times. I woke up on a Sunday morning. I had made a VHS tape for America's Funniest Home Videos. Home Videos. It was. called. And it was one about babies and one's kids and one about animals. And I was in a house with a cat. And I told him, I can't be here, guys. We can't film here. It's too late. It's locked down. Eight hours, I couldn't breathe. Oh, you're allergic to cats. Literally couldn't

breathe. Neck closed up. Eyes churned. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. I'm on Benadryl. There was nothing funny. It was horrific. And there were two VHS tapes that came out. VHS, never even DVDs. And this guy, Tom Shales, hated me. me so much. And he was a highly respected television critic and probably a really nice guy. But he hated my guts and or hated what I did. And he went and took out a, I was on the front page of the calendar section in the LA Times, which is like the front page of the arts in New York Times. And it just said, Bob Sagitt ruins America's Funniest Home Videos video. And you went out of his way to find, it's like finding micro-fiche, you know, it's like finding,

He made fun of my work on a VHS cassette. I wanted to go, Dear Tom, I was allergic. I had terrible problems. But when you wake up on a Sunday and your color picture is on the front, some people say, any press is good press? I don't think so. But I agree. It was horrible.

I was terrible. But I begged to get out of there, but they didn't let me get out of there. They insisted they should have shut down, called it a sick day, and we should have done it a day where I could breathe. But that doesn't matter. I mean, they say don't read it, but if it's a Sunday morning and you're having your coffee and you open the paper and it's the whole damn paper. But everybody has woken up and seen, I mean, I got a phone call for a producer. It was like a Saturday morning.

The movie we thought was crushing in a theater. And I went to go see it. I'll say what it was. It was dirty work with Norm McDonald and I went to seven movie theaters in 1988 in L.A. We had to seven theaters and the movie was killing. Huge laughs. And it's a cult favorite now. And it was just unbelievable how we said, we got a hit.

And the next morning the producer called me and said, sorry, buddy, didn't do well. Take care. Man. And that was the last time I talked to him until I was late for lunch. And then he stormed away from me then. So you do remember these negative things. Yeah.

But the point is, if you give them energy, I'm telling you about them because it happens to everybody. There isn't anybody this doesn't happen to. And then if you stay positive and you just do great, you got to do great work. You just have to do great work and do everything you can to do great work. And then be proud of yourself that you did as good as you could possibly do. That's all. I think it's interesting that you wanted to work and now it almost sounds like you needed and say this

exactly, but you got more than what you wanted, right? You became almost too famous. Like you walk into a place. I got famous for being one thing. And people love to pigeonhole you. Yeah, yeah. And I even said in stand up once, pigeonholing is a terrible thing to do because it's horrible for the pigeon.

But it's, you know, there's a lot I want to do. I got plenty of time, as far as I'm concerned. Some people go, you know, a 15-year-old will go, you're so old. And I'll go like, well, why don't you try yourself at my age? I'll bet you'll look like a scagg. No, I don't say that to a 15-year-old. I would never say that. Give up now. No, I mean, I have friends. I always name drop Norman Lear, who's 97, and he's amazing. He's producing one day at a time for Pop Network. And it's his old show that was on CBS, and it's all a Tina cast now and it's an amazing thing that he made it happen. He had to sign a three-year deal. So when he's 100, the deal will have to be redone. Jesus. Good for him. He is. I think he's

close to Jesus. He is one of the coolest people and most wonderful friends and most brilliant people that could answer all of your questions. Because what he taught me, what he teaches me, is all we, and you hear it a lot by anybody smart. Eckhart Tolley, anybody you read of any intelligence. All we have this moment and now it's this moment. And if you go and project what's going to happen if this or how did that person get that, you're just wasting your brain. You're not even using any, you're using nothing good about your brain. You can try to figure it out with the neurotic mind. You can try to figure out why things didn't work and try to go, how can I correct that so I don't do it again? And here I am, you know, 63, about to be 64. And I'm going, okay, so don't interrupt

people, Bob. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's me going, admitting my stuff and going, that's, I got to stop doing dumb shit, you know. This is the Jordan Harbinger show. We'll be right, right back. Stay tuned after the show. We've got a trailer of our interview with Jack Barski, former KGB spy, who posed as an American in a truer-than-life version of a Hollywood movie. This is one of our most popular episodes of the show. Jack not only dodged the FBI for decades, but also defected from the Soviet Union, secretly becoming a real American. We'll learn how spies were recruited and trained during the Cold War

and what skills Jack used to assimilate seamlessly into American culture. That trailer is after the cut, coming right up. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. Your support of our advertisers is what keeps us going. To learn more and to get links to all of those great discounts you just heard, so that you can check out those amazing sponsors for yourself, visit Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals. don't forget, there is a worksheet for today's episode so that you can make sure to

solidify your understanding of the key takeaways. The link is in the show notes at Jordan Harbinger.com slash podcast. If you'd like some tips on how to subscribe to the show, go to Jordan Harbinger.com slash subscribe. Subscribing to the show is absolutely free. It just means that you get all of the latest episodes downloaded automatically to your podcast player so that you don't miss a single thing. And now for the conclusion of today's episode. It's got to be kind of tough to look back at a career that's so public, right? Because any mistake you made is magnified in a way that doesn't happen for normal people. And anything you do in public, like you're talking about before, you walk in, all the eyes are on you from everyone.

I mean, do you just try to ignore that or what? No, I usually try to be pleasant about it. Stamos always made fun of me, like, oh, Bob thinks he's more famous than he is. And I would walk into a restaurant and a few flash bulbs would go off. And then George Clooney would walk in and a billion flashbulbs. balls would go off and then Stamos goes, now will you calm down a little bit? Nobody really cares about you. And I was like, oh, you're right. You're right. But I'm totally different now. I'm calming my skin now. I just changed. I had therapy, but worked on myself a lot. I don't know if

it's evident during this thing. If I'm so calm, why the hell was I clicking this chapstick? I'm demonstrating. Yeah, man. This is what you were hearing. But you were hearing it in a much slower clicking. It's like a hypnotic pattern for the listener. That's how I put your listeners to bed. That's right. Well, I don't need to make that. Go ahead. You can get that way. I bet you're not that dirty a talker or I bet you don't go into Groucho Marx kind of lascivious comments. Probably not as much on the show because, you know, I'm like, first of all, it depends. Half the time there's a scientist on here and if I say

something that's ridiculous, they'll just be like, wow, how the hell did I get booked on this show with this idiot, you know? What do you learn from scientists? What scientists have you had on lately? And what have we learned? Oh, man. I mean, I've had quite a few. There's one coming on pretty soon named Kelly McGonigal. She, I mean, I've had Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, the science guy, of course. But like, Kelly McGonagall, she's talking about why stress is actually good for you, if you actually harness it and use it right. But then I've got a doctor coming on who's talking about how in China they're actually executing people who do this Falun Gong, which is like a religion. they execute them and they sell their organs.

And it's not like a conspiracy theory. It's like a real thing. You're talking about their body parts, not their musical instruments. Right, not the musical instruments, their body parts. Yeah, it's just crazy. So I try to get kind of off topic or offbeat people to discuss things. There's another guy coming on who's talking about he's going to break down how fake psychics look like they actually are psychic.

He's going to break down the tricks they use and sort of expose that for the audience. So I try to get a lot of variety of personalities on here. here, but science-based information. Have you had a lot of stuff involving the whole pandemic? Yeah, I had the former head of the CDC on the show. I had the guy who works for the World Health Organization chasing influenza around the world and trying to prevent pandemics, you know, and he's like, I'm not, it was like a month before Corona and he goes, you know, I'm really worried we're going to get an animal-based

virus that we don't have immunity to. And like, weeks later, we had coronavirus. It was crazy. I don't like, maybe I'm alone here, but I don't like coronavirus. And the upside is it's really easy to book people who would normally have better things to do. Like, there's in an alternate universe where there's no coronavirus, Bob, you are on full house season number 38 and you don't have time to do the Jordan Harbinger show. No, I don't have time because I'm doing a show that I did 30 years ago.

That's right. And the last episode of the new season, which comes out June 2nd, I'm on it a lot. And that's why it's the best one. Ah, yeah, well, they saved up their budget for that. You play kind of a parody of yourself in entourage. Is that a fair statement? Yeah, yeah. Doug Allen wrote that with all my friends that worked on that show.

Originally, it was supposed to be a guy who was more down on his luck. And all my wife got all my house. She took my house and the other house. And then I said, I can't do that. That's not even accurate. I'm not playing. What's the Moose show? What's the one where he's always, people somebody told.

Oh, BoJack Horseman. It's not a moose. I'm not that guy. I've got to be like, I've got more money than anybody. You know, I'm happy about everything. She can have it all. That was how we, Doug Allen said, I'm going to make you the bullsies. I can't curse that much, but he did.

Yeah, you can. I can't curse. Yeah, you can do whatever you want. It's a little late to tell me. I mean, it's over. Yeah, yeah, that's true. What are you going to do tonight? Are you cooking or is your wife cooking?

Yeah, my wife's either going to cook or we'll order some sushi, you know? How do you order sushi, you know? How do you order sushi? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, you're delivered. What are you talking about? How do I order sushi? You have it delivered.

Right, but it's sushi. So you trust raw fish during this? Well, yeah. I mean, you don't get coronavirus from raw fish. I do see your point now. I mean, it's not a fish. No. But we don't have wet markets in downtown L.A., right? No, we don't. At least not with like bats and penguins and other stuff that you haven't heard of. No.

What the hell happened? I don't know if we'll ever know. I don't know what happened. Do you? I think it was probably the wet market. There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there, you know, like, oh, it's engineered in a lab. I don't believe any of that. I think this is pure human negligence and stupidity. And things we shouldn't be eating. Things we shouldn't be eating and a weird cover up by the Chinese Communist Party because they don't want to admit that they're wrong because it makes them feel bad about themselves

or like makes the country look bad. You know, they lose face, as they call it in Chinese. And they don't want to do that. And so we end up with this pandemic, which is ruining people's lives, unless you're a yutz like you or me who's got a job they can do digitally or money from a previous career in the bank, you know, like we're lucky in that respect. I try to remember that. You know, I heard John Stamos tell you that same thing. Like, he feels really bad. And when he's realizing how fortunate he really was to be in the position that he's in, I feel the same way. I do too. I'm just

most concerned about my kids who are in New York City, Brooklyn and in downtown New York. That's what I'm scared of. Yeah. I never knew. And they started saying wet market. I just thought it's like where old people go and they can't hold it. When you leave your house, like I'm trying to sort of rent my manner. Like when you leave your house, do you think...

You mean in April? In previous... Yeah. In 2019, when you were able to leave the house, is there a part of you that's like, I hope I don't get fucking recognized right now? Like, I just want to go and buy a gallon of milk. No, I don't even think about it. I introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Bob. I don't even... I've never lost that. That's good. People don't understand what fame. is for people that walk around. That's their life. I've been famous more of my life than not.

Yeah. So what's the difference? You know, it just doesn't mean anything. It's other people going, wow, you're famous. What's that like? It's like the Chris Farley show. You're Paul McCartney. You were with the Beatles. And he goes, yeah, yeah. And he goes, damn it, why did I say that? You know?

Yeah. Stupid. Yeah. Oh, God. He was so great. But, yeah, I just want to do good work. I just want people to see something I've done and go, I love that movie. That was so funny. Or I loved that special of yours. That was so great.

Or my wife and I just saw your show, and that made me feel so good. You know, she made me come. I didn't want to come. I thought you were going to be this guy. And I'd be getting a lot of great feedback on the podcast. That makes me so damn happy. It's the best. It's got to be nice to be recognized for that.

For me, I put myself in your shoes as best I can, and I go, I would be almost paralyzed to leave the house and worried that someone's going to be like, that show sucks. But you have to get over that, right? No, no, I don't know where you're coming from. Nobody says anything mean to me in public. That's great. That's really good.

That restores some faith in humanity. No, I mean, why would they do that? I don't know. Why would they? No, they're happy to see me. I'm fairly well known in the U.S. Yeah. And in Canada.

And in Japan. And in Mexico. And in some places, not really in England or in France, but in Spain, I'm told I am. I haven't been there. In Australia, I get treated really nicely. I toured there. I want to go to New York. New Zealand. I mean, I was in Scotland that I wasn't recognized. It depends on where your stuff is.

Haters don't usually say, it's usually nice stuff. I mean, it's usually just like, for three days, I had no internet. And these young girls were driving by the house, so I was on the street trying to send a business email. I had one bar of service, no internet. And young girls drove by in a Volkswagen, and we're giggling. Hi, Bob. And I went, hi. And I went, hi. And I'm sitting there like a homeless guy on the street. I had a V-Nay-T shirt all ripped up. I looked literally, literally homeless. I had on sandals and torn shorts.

I mean, it just looked like I didn't live there. You know, it was really weird. But people treat me like they know me already. I'm really lucky. People have asked, you know, I can't compare myself, but people used to ask Jack Nicholson, what's it like being so well-known? And he would say, it's like being the mayor.

But that's the mayor in old-school terms. Right now, if you're a mayor, you might get people yelling at you, depending on what city of living. But it's like if I was this popular in high school, I would have been a happier guy. And it comes from them having laughed at me or I brought them happiness during some moment in their life. I guess I just assumed that being famous for a famous person is like Twitter for a normal person, where you look at it and you go, oh, like these people are terrible. Why did I come on here? I don't want to deal with this.

I guess I just figured there were times in your life where it's like, there was a time. And I bring up this example for a reason. There was a, like, I can imagine you just wanted to go to a charity event and play, like, charity softball or charity ice hockey or whatever it is. And people are yelling like, Bob Sag it, the whole time. And I know that that's happened to you because I did that with my friends in the early 2000s when I was young and stupid as opposed to right now. To me? Yeah. And eventually you turned around and you were like, hi.

And this totally exasperated fit, just like this. God damn. Where was it? This was in Michigan. Oh, was this for the Red Wings? Was this for when they lost those two wonderful players in that limo accident? And then Dave Coyer and I did a celebrity hockey thing. I think that might have been in it.

And I went with my friends and they got my friends were drinking heavily and they just kept screaming your name as loud as possible. But they weren't saying it with hatred, right? No, they just wanted attention from you. Well, I'm happy to give it. Yeah, it just seems exhausting. No, it's actually, it's not even, I don't even skip a beat. It doesn't mean anything. If it's like you suck, I just never.

I never hear that. Yeah. I haven't heard that for 20 years. There were a couple shows I've done where I was in one theater where I wasn't, I didn't take my half hour. I was working too hard. I was doing gig after gig, and I was doing this one theater. And I remember where it was.

I want to say what theater was, the Wellmont, I believe. And I wasn't prepared. I was talking to people a half hour before at Showtime. You're not supposed to do that. Why not? You can't get your head together. You can't work on your stuff. My job is to work on my stuff, to get my new stuff up and running, and then present it to the audience in the best way possible.

And if you're out talking to people, what do you do it? It's not water cooler time, it's work time. It's like, you know, what do you want to see your pilot before the flight doing? You know, just screwing around. What do you do before you go on stage? I'm so curious now, because I guess I just thought. Well, I spend two hours of prep. I get to the theater.

I do a sound check. The doors are locked to the theater. I then go and go in the dressing room. I go through all the new material that I'm working on. I'll maybe try to write a song. I'll go through some of my comedy songs. Maybe I'll talk to one of my kids. And by that time, it's showtime.

And then my buddy off and Mike Young will go up in different cities. It's sometimes someone else. In Canada, it was going to be Todd Allen. It will be again. But I mean, I have an opener friend. Mike Young's a really good comedian that I tour with. And then we kind of talk about Joe.

I go, is this funny? Is that funny? And then that's showtime. So this one gig, it must have been 15 years ago, but the Walmart. I was doing one gig after another, every night of different city. And I just, I wasn't good. And I wanted to impress these guys because I'd been on a show called Strange Days on A&E.

It was just weird. I wanted to impress these guys. I talked to them before the show, and I should have worked on my show. So somebody in the audience said, that's the same stuff you did last time. And it was like five minutes of the same stuff, but they weren't wrong. I mean, they should have gotten what they are.

My job is to entertain those people. That's my job is to make them have one of the best nights they could have and bring the room together in a unity of laughter and maybe some heartfelt emotion, you know. It must be a really awesome gift to not only have people treat you like they know you, but generally have positive feelings towards you because you were like their cool sitcom dad and also like remember that positive time in their life and that you made them laugh and you get to kind of I mean there's just so much that's a blessing from that I guess I just figured there was another side that was a lot of

pressure to be someone that maybe you don't feel like you are but it sounds like you've you've like become one with that no I have to love my life I have to love my life people treat me wonderful I mean I can't think of going somewhere where people treat me terrible and I wouldn't go there anyway yeah fans are fans you know they're nice I always find it weird, but someone gets all out of breath and excited, like, they're meeting, like, when I met Muhammad Ali or something, you know, like, they're getting like that. And I'm sorry, I'm just some guy on a sitcom, and I tell jokes, you know. And then there's certain people that are the biggest stars in the world that you meet and you feel like you know them your whole life. And they just talk to you because they're genuinely great people.

And they exist. Well, Bob, this is great. I could talk your ear off. I know. I mean, imagine this show's popular. So I have no doubt your show will be popular, too. show is your show is incredibly popular because I wouldn't have gone on it because I'm a star figure and that's how I function. I only talk to people that can help my career in a big way.

I don't know. I keep doing it. I know why you're doing it three days a week. It feels great. Yeah. I know you say you're lucky because it's a job. I don't look at it as a job because I'm naive to it. I'm a newbie. You know, that's why it says it's the first podcast done by a comedian ever in Laurels like it's the Con Film Festival on the poster. Yeah. Yeah. But it seems to be doing well. I'm getting a lot of nice feedback. I got great guests coming up and John Mayer and Jim Gaff again. I mean, so many people that I just love. Seth Green's really quite brilliant.

A lot of my friends. It's really my friends and then talking to the public. That's what I love doing. And I've got a show coming over just a monologue where I just talk for an hour. So we know I can do that. I mean, I didn't let you talk enough. That's okay. I'm here every week three times.

Okay. I'll call in. There you go. Do you take calls? I could. We could definitely do that. We have an advice segment every Friday where we get advice for people that write in with specific stuff. It would be really funny to have you call in and give advice for certain things. I would love it. I would love it very much. I want to be the new Dr. Ruth. I want them all to be sex questions. We can get you sex questions. For sure, we can do that. There are tons of those. And the answer is either face up or face down. That's the answer. That's how it always was. I grew up on Love Line with Dr. Drew and Adam Carolla. I was on that show quite a bit, and I was so embarrassed with the questions they would get. Here I was being some R-rated comedian of whatever people thought, and they would ask terrible things.

I think I've got a fissure. It's like, oh, my God, I can't be here. And that's before you had Google image search. Imagine if you had Google image search. Imagine if you had anything. Oh, my God. What a world are we in? Well, we got through this without them digging up my Internet cable, so I'm excited.

I'm excited about that. I wish I could meet you and shake your hand. but who are we kidding? I read your book. I probably would have caught something. No, I'm clean. I'm clean. I haven't done anything to a bat. Well, I do look forward to meeting you at some point. Hopefully, we can do something else again. I look forward to it. What I'm doing stand-up also, you talk to Michael. Yeah, I will. You know Michael. Yeah. And Michael's my publicist. It's not some guy that lives under a bridge.

Just talk to Michael about a thing, and he'll give you a quarter pound. Hope you like lunch meat. But come to a show. Bring your wife. Get a sitter. Do all that stuff. Thanks to Bob for coming on the show. He's got his own podcast now. It's called Bob Sagitts Here for You. We'll link to that in the show notes. Rodney Dangerfield gave him the advice to just go like a tank. And go he did, making one of the most iconic careers in comedy,

so much so that people from Russia and Japan say things like, I learned English from full house. Which, by the way, if you think about it, that means that grown men from the far east are walking around saying things like, you got it, dude. probably in that little Michelle voice. This guy has decades more media experience, and I couldn't see him, but he could see me.

This for me was like some sort of military training exercise for interviewing, where I'm given a handicap. It's like, okay, but you can't use your right arm. So he's coming at me with everything, and I can't even see him. So he's making fun of me. There's a lot of asides that we actually had to edit out because they were a little extra.

Some of them we left in, but he's just going after me. And if you couldn't guess, by the way, by the story he wanted to avoid. So there was a doll in the room on the set of Full House, and it was a kid-sized doll, and they used it for blocking. So, like, walking around, talking with somebody, you use it to rehearse, so you're not just talking to thin air.

And he was clearly pretending to do some dirty stuff, pretending to bang this kid-sized doll. He's making the crew laugh. He's making the other folks on the set laugh. But on a sitcom, if you've never been to a taping, there are monitors everywhere. And the audience can see everything going on. on the set, and there are just monitors everywhere in the back room where the kids' parents are,

because child actors, the parents are usually on set, you know, housing, snacks, and talking to each other, the entire audience and the parents of other child actors could see what was going on. So this was not the highlight of his career. He really did not want to tell that story, but I told him that I was going to tell you in the close, because you can't leave us hanging like that. Worksheets for this episode in the show notes, transcripts in the show notes. There's a video of this interview on our YouTube channel, and yes, you will see both him and me, we fixed it in post, as they say. And you can find that video on our YouTube

channel at Jordan Harbinger.com slash YouTube. I'm trying to teach you how to connect if you would just listen to me. Go to our course, Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. It's free. It's about digging the well before you're thirsty. Build that network before you need it, even if it means starting from scratch. Don't procrastinate or you'll stagnate, and you know it's true because it rhymes. These drills take just a few minutes a day. I wish I knew this stuff 20 years ago. Find it all for free at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. And most of the guests you see on the show and that you hear on the show,

they're in the course, they're doing it. It's good advice, just take it. In fact, speaking to building relationships, you can reach out and or follow me on social. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram. Add me on LinkedIn. Might just become your connection if I can get the damn thing to work.

I think I invited too many people. You can add me now, but I can't add you back. I can confirm it, that's all. So you have to add me if you want to connect. I'm not sure why. This show is created in association with Podcast 1. This episode was produced by Jen Harbinger. Jay Sanderson is our engineer. The ads are fun because of Peter Old Ring, show notes and worksheets by Robert Fogarty,

music by Evan Viola, and I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger. Our advice and opinions and those of our guests are their own. And I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a therapist. I'm obviously not a comedian. So do your own research before implementing anything you hear on the show. And remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for this show is that you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know somebody who, I don't know, is trying to come up in the comedy scene or just is a huge full house fan, I don't know. Share this with people who like good entertainment.

Hopefully you find something great in every episode. So please do share the show with those you love. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you listen. And we'll see you next time. I was untouchable. I was above the law. I was always bypassing customs and passport control.

So a young person that really feels good because I never liked rules. How did you flip to eventually becoming full American? I know they tried to call you home. Can you take us through that? They called me back as an emergency departure. They've done this in the past. They've called back an agent. And as soon as they step on Soviet soil, they are jailed or even executed.

I was stalling the Soviets. And then one day they sent one of their resident agents. And he said to me, you've got to come home or else you're dead. It was a threat. I decided I would defy them and tell them that I'm not returning. I will not betray any secrets and please give the money on my account to my German family. Wow. Tell us how you got caught because the story is just not complete until you, like you said, had to face your past. I was stopped on the other side of a toll gate. It was a state trooper.

Just like to check your license and registration. And could you step out of the car? I step out of the car. I still not having a clue what was going. on out of the corner of my eye, somebody approaching me from the back. The fellow introduced himself. He says, Joe Riley, FBI, and he showed me this badge. We would like to talk with you. The first question I asked, am I under arrest? And the answer was no. Then I said, what took you so long? For more from Jack Barski, including how Jack was finally caught by the FBI and what happened

after that, check out episode 285 of the Jordan Harbinger Show. This episode is sponsored in part by Something You Should Know podcast. Finding a new great podcast shouldn't be this hard, so let me save you some time. If you like the Jordan Harbinger show, you'll probably like something you should know with Mike Carruthers. It's one of those shows that makes you smarter in a practical, useful way. Same curiosity vibe we go for here, just in a fast-focused format. Mike brings on top experts and asks the exact questions that you'd want to ask, and the topics are all over the place in the best way.

Recently, they've covered things like why we care so much what other people think, the benefits of laughter, why sports fans get so invested, and what makes people like you or not, the through line is always the same. Smart ideas you can actually use in real life. Something you should know has been featured in Apple's shows we love, and it's got thousands of five-star reviews because it's consistently interesting.

So if you want another show that scratches that, I want to understand how people in the world really work itch, search for something you should know wherever you get your podcasts. Look for the bright yellow light bulb and start listening. You can thank me later.