The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: John Oliver

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

English comedian, producer and late-night host John Oliver talks about the craft of being funny, the rigors of timely political commentary, what he's thinking about when he brushes his teeth and that time he pissed off a Chechen warlord See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed human. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits,

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So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar.

This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated

the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Corslove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Yo, yo, what up, y'all? This is Fonte giving you this week's classic. episode of QLS. On this one, comedian producer and late night host John Oliver talks about the craft of being funny, the challenges of political commentary and being timely about it,

what he's thinking about when he brushes his teeth, that was way too much information, and that time he pissed off a real life war. I remember this after shit is wild. This is episode 71 from February 14th, 2018. This was fun times, man. Y'all check it out. KLS Classic. John Oliver Fondiglo. Tiglo. Yes, sir. Suprema, sub, sub, sub, subprima roll call. In handouts, request begs or gimmies.

Yeah. But I ask you, John Oliver. Yeah. Recuse herself of me and me! Supremea, sub, subprima, role call. Suprema, sub, suprema roll call. My name is Fonte. Yeah.

And I thought I was pimping. Yeah. Till I went to the church. Yeah. A perpetual exemption. Roll call. Suprima. Sub-Supriva Ro-Kahn

My name is Sugar Yeah And yeah, I'm Yiddish Yeah Could be worse Yeah I could be British Wow

Oh Supreme Court Supreme Court Supreme Roca I'm unpaid bill Yeah QLS we add it Yeah

I'm Sister Act 2 Back in the habit Roca Con Supriva Subima Rocahn, Suprema, Suprema, Suprema, Roll Call. Boss Bill is here.

Yeah. And we're just clowning. Yeah. We don't give a what? Yeah. Like Jan is from accounting. Roll call. Supremma, SUT, Supremma,

Rocahn. Trump quite yet. Yeah. It's John Oliver Rim. Who? His name is John. Yeah. To your good day.

Yeah. You made this room smell like Chick-fil-A. Roll call, yeah. I'm sorry. Supriam Roca. Suprema, Suprema roll call. Oh, I'm going to take a bite of my sandwich for now.

Suprema Role. Suprema. Suprema Rocaulte. Shout out to Chick-fil-A. Yeah, Boss Bill, since he mentioned food, can we eat while we talk? Homophobia never tasted so delicious. That's your best line ever. That should be their new tag.

line. Chick-fil-A. Homophobia never tastes it so delicious. Come hates each with us. You still have not giving up

Chick-fil-A? Hell no. He lives in a sour. I haven't eaten it in a long time. I actually, you know,

for health reasons, but I mean, not for it. Oh, no, no, for morality. No. I stood in solidarity. Wait,

I stood in solidarity for like a year and a half. Yeah. And then Black Twitter told me that, no, we still eating Chick-filet.

Yeah, we still. And until the summertime when the frozen lemonade come out. Yeah, the frozen lemonade. I don't know about the... The frozen lemonade and the, uh, and they lemonade. Like just they, um, and their peach, their peach shakes.

Oh, yes, and the peach shake with their peach chunks in it. Yeah. It's a season though. It only comes out in the summertime. Yeah, you gotta get on the, you got to get on the melon list for that. Like, you get... Wait, there's a chick-fil-A mailing list. Well, I mean, you get, they let you know, like the new snacks is about to drop.

You're saying, what's the hotness for you. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Yo, I'll let you know what I get it, but... You get the email blast. You get to be when that to be when you get it. That'd be great. Just so I know.

Because there's no chick flage and there's one here. Because New York City, and yes, I know I haven't introduced our guests yet, ladies of gentlemen. We got more important issues at hand. New York City. New York City only has, what,

three chick filets, right? Yes. The NYU campus and the one that's down the street. Shame on them. So are there still lines around the block? Because when I used to go to the Tonight Show, they used to, it was like waiting for it. I love that you're looking at Fonte.

Because he's like the chick filet in bad. Well, no, that's his boss Bill. No, the lines aren't there. Crazy Red. You are. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today. Mids Chu.

I'm the one working the rules today. Yeah, our guest today is a hell of a comedian. Time Magazine has called him the comic agent of change. He's been in the game for 20 plus years. He came to, of course, national attention as the British correspondent on the Daily Show with John Stewart in 2006. and he hosted his own called classic The Buegel Podcast with Andy Zalt in 2007. He was also the professor

of one of my all-time favorite comedies community. Yeah, with Boss Bill's favorite. Bossville's favorite artists. Donald Glover. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, he's now best known as the figure we turn to for absolute sanity

in this upside-down world that we live in. his last week tonight six Emmys count them one two three four five six Emmy winning last week tonight goes Sesame Street on those Emmys

yeah on HBO seven I get the point I'm never going to see an enemy in this night time I get it is last week tonight on HBO continues to fight the powers at B with the most scathing

commentary this side of 60 minutes. Yeah, man. He fights of power. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the one and only John Oliver. Faults. A part of power. Yes, sir. Part of the power. Like a pasty Chuck D. So, you know, well, I want to, I got to ask, how exhausting is it? Wow, it is not a great sign when you of anyone are asking me. Your brain hurts more than here. It's pretty bad. I'm not going to like you. It's pretty mentally, emotionally, and even physically exhausting, right?

Because you're tense all the time. You know, chess players say they burn a lot of calories, and you think that can't possibly be true, but apparently it's the nerves and the concentration. So it's that. I feel like I'm in either really good shape or I'm about to die. No, no.

Well, I just mean. just in general it's like well I know I mean obviously comedy has to be a love of yours or first love but it's almost like now that you're stuck with here with us in America you're almost you're our

go to like is there pressure for you to in a clear and concise way to filter the fears and the and the concerns that we don't have because we don't have the platform that you have that you...

I guess, well, that's... Yeah, I mean, it's always... It's pressure on pressure, right? With any job, you kind of want to put yourself under the maximum amount of pressure because you want to... You feel like you want to earn the position that you're in. Now, particularly with HBO on a Sunday

when I'm about to put you to sleep like an unlicensed anesthetist. That comes with a lot of privilege, right? Because I get to say, whatever I want, about whatever I want. I don't have to, I don't have commercial pressures. We don't have advertisers. I can talk for a long time. There's no one's telling me what to do.

So that is, that is a, I don't take that lightly. I get that I'm lucky to have the platform that I have. So I try and use that. So we take big swings and, you know, one of these days, we'll take a swing too big and it'll all be over. But I'd rather go out swinging than bored. Absolutely. Can I...

Oh, go ahead. Is there anybody saying that there's any limitations on what you see? Like, I just meant the worst possible thing you could say, like, you know, just without backing it up. I don't know. I don't know. We have lawyers and HBO has lawyers, so we have to back up everything that we say. Otherwise, we're in serious shit. So, no, that's why we work so hard to make sure that everything has a factual basis to it.

Otherwise, it's over. So there is no list, though. there is no, you know, carlin list or... No, there shouldn't be, though, because it's HBO. So they shouldn't have that list. Or if they have that list, they shouldn't tell me about it. I'm sure they have, maybe they do have people saying, we don't want him to talk about that,

but that should never be communicated to me. John, this might be a crazy question, but have you ever faced resistance since, you know, you're speaking on U.S. and world issues, but, you know, from being British? I mean, I've lived here for 11 years, so this is my home, right? I've got an American, wife and I have an American son. I have an American. It's a very imperial way to say I have a son.

I have an American. I have made an American. I will make more. So, I don't, I mean, I kind of, I slightly resent whenever people say you're not from here. That's a dangerous road to go down because I've been here for 11 years. It's my home. I have some skin. I have some skin, the game. So I kind of call bullshit on that idea. I'm here because I love it. Like after this show I'll stay here. I've chosen this country as my home. So, and I've chosen it as my home

now. So this is falling in love with someone not at their best. I'm taking you at your worst. That's true love. Right. Yeah. So you were born in the UK, correct? Yeah. What part? I was born in Birmingham. My family are from Liverpool and I was raised in Bedford just about an hour north of London.

All right. So for those that aren't, because a lot of us just think UK, oh, London. Yeah. Like, is there, what's the main difference? Like,

you know, for us, you know that New York is different from Tennessee or, you know, Montana. I can give you some parallels, right?

Yes. Liverpool probably, you know, once a strong industrial town, uh, the industry died of the shipping industry. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh,

maybe Detroit. Detroit, big music history, you got Detroit, Birmingham. Birmingham would be your Pittsburgh. Ah, okay, okay. What was the industry in Birmingham? In Birmingham, it was, God, that was a, it was, it was, I think it was like a lot of factory. I can't actually remember what it was.

I was only there for six years. That was there for the first six years of my life. Okay. Yeah, I don't know what that. I can't think of what the exact one was. Okay. So you, you. And Bedford is now and not.

of London, so that would be Jersey. Okay. You're in some version of a large town in Jersey there. Yeah, I lived there for like maybe three years, so I only know. You were in London, London. Yeah, I lived in, uh, Kenishtown. Okay, I was south. I lived in, uh, like around the Brixton, Tulsa Hill, Crystal, Crystal Palace in.

Whoa. Yeah. You lived in the hood. Wait, why? What a, what, why? Not why. I never, no, no, I just never heard white. That could be the most racist thing you've ever said.

What? They're absolute animals down there. No, I'm just saying that no, I know of no white person that's like, yo, I represent South London. Like, that would be like you tell me that you grew up 1530 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, like the home of hip-hop. I don't know. I think it's, that's just where my friends were. So, also it was affordable. You know, as a struggling comedian, you're probably going to go to some of the cheaper areas of London.

So, I loved it down there, so I stayed. What was your interest in comedy? Because usually with, is there a worship, like the worship that we have for, I guess the go-to stuff? I mean, Benny Hill and Faulty Towers and. Wow. You've just, you just put no kids on British comedy there. Oh, boy, yeah, you know, vanilla ice, ice cube. Those two guys that do the same thing.

No, but it's almost like the sign of higher intelligence in America is saying that you watch British comedy on PBS. Like, oh, I watch Faulty Towers. I watch Monty Python. And, I mean, all of us just have, there's a worship in America for Benny Hill that's like, probably to you that was like, yeah, like loving hip-hop. Yeah, I mean, he was bigger here than he was in Britain.

He was more like an embarrassing export than he was. I think people in Britain might say the same about me. Benny Hill? Yeah, Benny Hill was not that popular in England. He was popular here because they showed titties on it. They would. And that was the apex of comedy in Mr. Hill's mind. He died very rich in a small house, I think.

He was kind of surrounded by money that he hid everywhere. He was a strange man. his chasing of topless women around in nun's outfits was not the weirdest side of his head. The fact that he hoarded his money. Yeah, he was a weird guy. Yeah, but he showed tities on his shoes. He did. No, that's what I remember.

He did, but you're not bolstering his comedic credentials. I'm not saying he was funny, I'm saying he did show dem tartas. So for you, what was high level of British comedy that American, might not have been up one. When I was growing up, the most influential figure was Chris Morrison and Armando Inucci. Armando Inucci,

who produced Alan Partridge the day-to-day on the hour, which is a radio show. Veep is his show over here. That would be what America's know him. From all, he did Friday night and Saturday Night and Saturday Night Armistice. He was kind of the north star of comedy

for my generation, Armando Inucci. He was an amazing writer and producer. So when did you, decided that you wanted to get into comedy. Like, was it, were you class clown and then acting? Yeah, I was, yeah, I could, I could talk shit. And then if you get, if you, if you, if you think that it might be possible to talk shit professionally, you take that chance.

But I did it. At college, I met a guy called Richard Iowardi, and we wrote a lot of, uh, comedy together at college. And it was after doing a couple of, like, two-man shows with him on our own. But I thought I'm probably, it was just such a rush. I thought I'm probably going to want to do this forever. Whether I'm good at it or whether that leads to a dignified life is very much, you know, we'll see. But I knew I wanted to do it forever.

How did you feed yourself in the... Badly? Just not with any kind of nutritional balance. Yeah, the first years of doing comedy, you're kind of rough but exhilarating because you're kind of learning to do something. something that you can't do yet. But there's nothing like a learning curve, right? There's nothing more exciting than a really steep learning curve. Was your family supportive of this decision? They were actually yeah. They want you to go to school and... No, I think they were, they were, they were, I was very lucky. They were pretty supportive of it. My uncle was a composer, so I think they had, uh, they had a sense of

that someone could do something you couldn't even fathom for a career and make a decent life at him. So I think he ended up giving me a bit of a cover fire. So was it a matter of you wanting to match, like, growing up, who was your, like, for us in America, especially in the 80s, like Eddie Murphy was the apex of, you know, I mean, he was Michael Jackson of comedy because he reached white and black audiences, you know, at the same time. I mean, I guess Richard Pryor for more or less in the 70s. Older, yeah. Yeah, but like I just don't, I don't know what if American comedy was looked down upon.

I don't know how much Eddie Murphy's presence was over in the UK or in Europe for that much. Not as much. I guess his movies work. In terms of in comedy, Richard Pryor was, you know, still seen as this is the greatest stand-up who's probably ever done it. So, yeah, there's no one's ever been as good as Richard Pryor. So there were box sets that you could kind of make your way through. And I was pretty obsessed with him. In England, in terms of voices you might not know, Peter Cook,

this guy, he was Dudley Moore's performing partner for a while. And Peter Cook was about as funny as you can possibly get. He had funny, funny, funny bones. And so he was a kind of national icon. Do you still see comedy? Now today, of course, with YouTube, and the internet just sort of nationalizing everything where a person can now go to

furthest parts of the world and make a living. I never saw, like, to me it was a big deal when, at least in the early aughts, when Chris Vox's like, yeah, I'm going to go toward England. I'm like, ooh, is that even possible? Or even when Richard, what's his name, Billy Crystal, didn't he do, he did like a month in Russia, I believe? Oh, that was,

Billy Crystal. I remember. remember who you, oh man, who was that? I thought it was Billy Crystal. I feel like it might have been Robin Williams. Or Robin. It might have been comic relief. No, it wasn't comic relief.

It was an HBO special. But just the point that it was regional. Yeah. Like, we're, how easy was it for at least a, I can see people from all parts of the world coming to America because it's a melting pot, or at least the idea of the melting pot. but were American comedians ever like in...

Yeah, because the economics of comedy in England is slightly easier. There's a lot of clubs it's relatively easy to make a living as a stand-up. When I was there there was like 90 clubs in London alone. Now sometimes that is just like an

evening in the roof of a pub, but you could still make money from that. The idea was that you would pay comedians. So I think American comedies were pretty attractive as that. You could work every night all the time. Also, nothing's that far in England. So one of the furthest gigs away and you can possibly drive to is probably going to be like six or seven hours.

It was crazy to me when I first got here that you could fly for five hours in a plane and land in the same country. That scale is bananas to me. So in England, you could drive back from most gigs if you were willing to drive back for a while. So the margins were just economically, the margins were easier and you could work all the time. So you would find Rich Hall,

like he moved to England. He spent most of his time in London because he realized he could make a career from live comedy much, much easier in England than he could in America. Well, he just put me on the game because I thought it was the opposite. I thought like, oh, I have to leave, you had to leave the UK to make it. Not really.

It's easy. The kind of, the grassroots of comedy, it's much easier to survive. It was in coming here that I realized how difficult it was as I started like talking to opening acts. When I first started touring the country just doing comedy clubs, do you think, holy shit, it is hard to make a career here. Really difficult. Did you cut your teeth in the American circuit? Or did you come here at, like, as John Oliver and finally make it? Like, did you have to do the, there's something that Neil Brennan always jokes about.

with like comedy condominiums where he's like that's the worst bed I skip that I skipped that I got lucky right because I didn't have to do any of that so I got to go straight to headlining clubs bad clubs not with without a full contingent of people in them and not necessarily people that were enjoying

what was coming out of my face but those were the only doos that I played the comedy condos I didn't have to uh do you know about the legend of comedy condos I mean it's the chitlin circuit for comics where uh maybe if you own a comedy club instead of wasting money on hotels and stuff

you own a condominium or maybe there's if you own a comedy club maybe like the second or the third floor the building that you're in you'll just transform it into a condominium but the whole point is that you know night after night after night four new strangers are in that apartment. It was always like a hostile kind of. Kind of, yeah.

Think about how well comedians take care of themselves. Then think about how will they take care of an apartment they don't own. Crashing kind of like revealed all this truth. So all the Jack games on the board, all the sheets nasty and stuff. Yeah, it's grim. Those walls have seen things. So it wasn't long. So how long in between you're doing that and then the Ricky, like,

Ricky Jervais is like the reason that you're... Well, no, I'd already. So Ricky Jervais had recommended me to the Daily Show and so I moved. I'd not been to America before I got the Daily Show job. So, so hence I got to skip key steps, key do's playing steps. You got to skip the big one. And headline clubs.

Again, not well and not full, but at least I was, it was clear that I was making a living. It was only at that point that I realized, wow, to make this jump is hard. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit. by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest, The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters

when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12. and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Did you notice that certain of your peers would feel a certain way that you didn't have to stand that line? Like a guy like, okay, now I'm going to start mentioning. A guy like Louis.

Okay. At the comedy seller, he's so revered and so loved because it's like, hey, one of us. Like, one of us that lived in this hellhole called the comedy seller finally got out and, you know, made it and took us. along with, you know, but then I'll see a figure in comedy that, you know, might have went from the fourth grade to high school and they'll feel a certain way about, you know,

they're, were you treated different or? No, no, because I think, you know, I just paid my dues elsewhere. So, yeah. You're an exchange student. Yeah, exactly. I went through my version of shit. It's just a version of shit that it wasn't in America. So the griminess was me like getting night buses back from Birmingham,

having died on my ass in the back of a pub. So I definitely feel like I jump the line here for sure, but I had my fair share of failure in England. Well, okay, because we mostly have music guests on the show and once in a while we'll have a comedian and whatnot. But I've always been curious. Because I feel that comedy is one of the hardest forms of entertainment because you can't...

It's not like... With me, I could do the same set. I mean, yeah, the audience might get bored, but I can do the same song. They expect the same song. Yeah. Whereas you can't do... You have to constantly...

No, although there was that great Richard Pryor a bit where he talks about people mouthing along to bits that he was doing and then getting mad if he changed it at all. You just see him say, motherfucker, you didn't say that on the album. Right, right, right. But that is rare because his standard was so great. It was like music, right? You literally, I would listen to those albums like I would listen to a music album and look forward to something that was coming.

So your brain would be saying, I can't wait until he says this bit the way, the perfect way that he said the way his voice sounds when he says it. That is not the case with comedy generally, where it's like chewing gum. So what's the general rhythm? take us back to your early comic like what's your general rhythm of preparation of seeing of a testing a joke to see if it works how long do you let it stand in your repertoire

before? It's like when you're first starting off the key steps you're going through I don't know if this is the same as the music right first you're just learning how not to humiliate yourself because the reaction to comedy is pretty binary unlike with music like they're either laughing or they're not so there's no you can't really You can't pretend things are going better than they are. So you get a pretty good sense from an audience about whether you've done the job that you were supposed to be doing or not by the sounds coming out of their mouths.

So the first phase is can I basically do this? Do I have the mechanics in me to make somebody laugh? Once you've got that, then you've got to decide, well, what do I actually want to do with this? Like, if I can practically make people laugh, then what do I want to make them laugh about? What's your voice? What's your comedic voice really going to be? That's the thing that takes a while,

but that's the thing that's really satisfying. So was your voice always the same voice, or did it evolve? It changed, right? Because first, it's like survival mode. You'll just say anything you can to make the audience laugh because what you're frightened of is the sound of your own footsteps as you leave the stage. What was your first like, yeah, I got them?

Like, do you remember me like your... Well, it was like, like in the first gig, like, yeah, that I ever did, just literally making people laugh for the first time from something that came in your head. That's a moment of going, oh, shit, I got them. I just made that noise myself. But the much more satisfying thing is when you first do it with a degree of difficulty, when you first realize that you're talking about something that you want to talk about that they might not want to hear about, but you're making them laugh anyway.

That is when it gets more. exciting. Taboo elements? Yeah, or just like it feels like, again, if you're in the back room of a pub and people are exhausted because they've been working all week and you want to talk about something that they might not want to hear about, then there is a degree of difficulty on that diet. It's like the Olympic dive, right?

You're not just doing the straight, oh, I'll make fun of things that I know you're going to find funny and I'll enter the water and you'll throw out numbers. This is like, I'm deliberately making this hard for myself because I want to make you laugh at something that you wouldn't ordinarily do. Yeah. So do you ever, do you ever find yourself with a challenge of, uh, serving your audience versus serving your eight comedic peers that might be at the back of the bar watching you?

Sure. Like what prevents you from doing your version of the aristocrats just to make those eight guys laugh that you know the joke's going to go over the audience. Yeah. I mean, like, ideally, like if you get the, if you get the, if you get the, How can me of it right? You're going to find a way to play to your version of the back of the room, but being more inclusive in it. Because what comedians will generally laugh at is something that might be more difficult or that an audience might miss. Or they'll just laugh at you. Like there was a gig, there was a gig in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Festival, which is amazing every August.

Basically, everyone in comedy goes up to Edinburgh. And it was called Late in Live. It started at one in the morning and it was a bear pit. a rough, rough room. So they would when that audience turned on you, they would tear comedians apart. So there was a bar downstairs with a feed of what was going on. And you knew you were in trouble

if you started seeing comedians like walk in at the back because they were there to watch you die. So it is, how do you deal with hecklers and, and, because you don't seem like the, I'm not trying to,

to judge you, but you don't seem like the dude would be like, motherfucker, I'll come down and beat you. Like, you ever see the clip of the guy that like has the guitar in his hand and he just bashes. Oh, and bashes over the guy's head. I love that clip so much. That is, that is exactly how I behave. Motherfucker, I'm going to smash your face. Hold on. Let me go get my guitar.

You stay here. No, I mean, I don't, you know, I generally, when I do gigs now, it's generally theater of people who've come to see me. So heckling is within a certain range, right? So people will shout stuff out, but it's... I love you. That's, there's not...

Play Freebird! There's not much you can do. It would be great. Play Freebird is a heckle that is transcends industries. No, it goes to everything, yeah. Someone did that to us at a Root Show. And you all right. And Kirk actually did it in a mind, they go on his mind as both.

Yeah, careful what you wish for. They knew that shit. Yeah. But, well, I mean, do you like prepare, like, a head of time like, okay, I got this one for this guy. No, because again, there's probably two ways to do that. At the start, you know, there's a bunch of lines that, like hack lines that you can use to shut people down. And when you're starting off doing comedy, you might just want to contain that situation, right?

Because it's just about trying to avoid bullets. Whereas now, it's, sometimes it's more fun, like to be, if you're a bit more present in a room to try and engage with what someone is trying to say. Again, the things that get shouted me are generally a little more constructive, but also I'm slightly fascinated with the idea of someone who would heckle. I would never heckle. I don't have the balls to heckle. And I know that sounds perverse from someone who is standing on stage.

No, you just don't go against somebody with a microphone. Like, that's true. That's my thing. I'm like, dude. Also, I just wouldn't want that kind of, there's a lot of responsibility to shout out. So you're saying that even in your world that you're in now, a call out from the audience or a disruption of your narrative is a yes. I know in, what do you call it?

In improv comedy, everything is a yes. And you just go with whatever. I'm easily distracted when I'm doing stand-up. So if someone shouts out, normally I'm going to, well, what's this guy's deal? Wow, what's he shouting at? And if he's angry, this can't just be about me. Clearly, there are some other things happening in his life

that I'm becoming a lightning rod for his frustration. And hopefully by then, the security will 86 him. Yeah, although, yeah, I don't get that. I don't know. Maybe I don't attract rough enough crowds. Yeah, I'm going to say at this point, you know, the Trump stragglers, they're not like coming to your show. No, although I did do, have you ever done that?

What was the, the Oddball Festival? That I did, Jones Beach. It's pretty bad. It's just a bunch of comedians doing outdoor gigs, and I've never done that before. It's an awful place to do comedy. And outdoor, because it's too many people. A comedy generally doesn't work to that many people, especially outdoor.

So you can risk playing to the lowest common denominator to kind of unite people that aren't there to see you. So I did Jones Beach and there was definitely some Trump supporters there and I walked about half that audience. That's 8,000 people. I walked 4,000 people. Shit. Yeah.

Really? Yeah. So what did that feel like on state? Like how did that come across? It's kind of an amazing feeling because it's a very stupid situation, right? You realize they're all going. And you could see, because it's outdoor, you could see the car park. see cars leaving. I could see the taillights leaving in the distance. So it's a pretty clear

sense of this gig is not going very well. But it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Damn now I want to know who they came to see. Someone before me, I think. Is where you are now in your life, is it more important to search for the truth or the funny? Like, are you still about like, where's the funny? Or is it just like, I have to tell the truth and the truth is just funny? The truth is just funny. It's both. Like, you should, you should, because, you know, the truth on its own, you're literally not a comedian then. I don't know what you are. Are you a poet?

I don't know. That's not comedy. You have to. Well, do you still consider yourself a comedian? Yeah, that's the only thing I consider myself. Still, what are you? It's odd. I got news for you.

Right. You transcended comedy. I consider you, like, a real reporter. No, no, no. Or at least a social commentator. It's odd, because sometimes that question gets phrased by, some journalist as a compliment, I think, or as what they perceived to be a compliment

saying, do you see yourself as just a comedian? And there's a slight offense I take to that with, not just a comedian. That's my, I hold that to a very high level. That's my favorite thing in the world to be. It's all I ever wanted to be. It's not being just a comedian. But I think comedy is, you know, before,

really before 2007, okay, well, I actually start with Bush. So let's say the Clinton era. Let's say 1999. I mean, comedy, I figured it was more of a thing that we went to escape and just laugh and laugh and laugh and then get back to life. Whereas now, you know, I can't wait to see S&L's Weekend Update and I can't wait to see what Seth has to say.

And I can't see your show and Daily Show and Trevor. I think it depends what you want it for, though. Like, it's still, there's comedy's escapism is still there. There's still great absurdist comedy. They're still just fun. stand up around. Jim Gaffigan is still he's as funny as he's always been. You don't go to

him necessarily to have him explain the world to you, just go for like the release of like guttural laughs. Right. So that still exists. I think it's like comedy stays the same, right? It's just the world changes sometimes so that people are wanting different

things from it. But the sense of escapism will always be there. Even I think there was a sense of escapism even in the kind of things that my show does. where, you know, even though you're trying to frame complicated subjects sometimes for people in a way that they will learn something and laugh with it, you're also trying to get to a sense of catharsis. So, like, if you're unpacking the world, you're trying to have it be a cathartic experience. If they're feeling terrible about something they've just watched, laughing at it

can be cathartic in a way. So there is a sense of escapism even without actually escaping. But do you let people's perception of the show influence to stand up? Because I wonder, like, feel the pressure when you do your stand-up to be keep it political keep it really because that's the beauty of stand-up is you can talk about whatever you want you're completely accountable to yourself so it doesn't you have total control i don't know if you found like like with a DJ set you can do whatever you want right you're making your own decisions and you live or die by it's it's harder by as the years go by my resistance to hold them hostage and see me as the curator and the leader and the law leader versus I really need their love and adoration and approval so I'm going to play this

mego song it's it's by the year it it becomes more um of a slow compromise where and that's my fear like I don't want to be the old guy that yeah that just needs adoration and approval so I'm gonna you know what's going to do but yeah every every day I'm on like, you know, blocks that I shouldn't be on looking for. That sounds really healthy. It's always going to be a balance, right? Isn't it, between what you think, what the audience has come for and what you want them to have come for, right?

You're going to, there's going to have to be a blend there. Well, yeah, but it's so hard now because I think the way that life is now, everything is about, it's more a great matter. as opposed to black versus white. Like I used to think, you know, stuff that was effective versus things that I personally like. And I just happen to personally like things that aren't, you know, necessarily that popular. But I'm also wise enough as a businessman to know that I have to serve my audience. So it's always, again, like, am I playing to the back of the room to the comedians that are watching me?

or am I playing to the audience that I, you know, I don't know what, like, I don't know if you, I'm not saying if you value the intelligence of the audience that you're seeing. I would think that you think that if they're seeing you that. That's what's a little easier, right? Because I guess when you start stand up, what you're doing is basically inflicting yourself upon an audience that didn't ask for you, right? So if there's like five different comedians on, there's absolutely no reason to expect that they're going to be on the same page as you,

especially if you're taking like low percentage shots. Like you're thinking this is something I really want to talk about, you're probably not going to want to hear about this. So there's going to be an element of friction there. Now, when you start to find your audience, the benefit to do in that, the upside of it is that if you can just start growing your own audience and squeezing out to the people that are just not going to like it,

anyway, then the low percentage shots become high percentage. This is brilliant. Where do you work out of? Because I'm in the club circuit a lot, and I never, I rarely see you. I used to bounce up all the time, but now I've got a TV show and a family. That's what I'm saying. And it's harder, right? It is like, are you watching the, is it a Viking funeral slowly watching the boat of comedy?

sail away into your new life ads. Burn the ships. That's the thing because it's like it's addictive. It's the thing I love most in the world, right? And there is a slightly, there can be a debilitating side to it as a lifestyle, especially live comedy. So it's like, you know, it's like if you liked heroin and you thought, well, this is really great.

I'm going to devote my life to this and be a really tremendous committed heroin addict. But I want to have a family. am I going to watch heroin disappear at the distance? This may not be the perfect analogy. But I get miserable if I haven't done stand-up for that long. So I try and do it as often as I can. Even John Stewart, while he was running the daily show, was trying to get up.

He was trying to get up. Every few months he would do a gig somewhere, not because he needed to, but because he had to. He had to do it. But don't you need to? Well, you mean, do you need to just to stay in shape? Yeah, you got out of the gym, right? Yes, you do.

Because after, you know, the first gig back after a while is not good. Like, I did some gigs over, over New Year. And the first one I did up in Connecticut, I remember walking off stage going, oh, shit. And was it the crowd? They weren't responsive, but it was just you. No, they were really, but that's the problem, right? Because when you get to a, this is. Were they honest, would you?

No, this is a lucky. luxury problem, but it's a real problem, right? Because if you, you can get bad at stand-up real quick when you get successful. You can fail upwards. Yeah, because you just, you, there is so much goodwill. You're on fumes from that audience and you can kind of cycle downhill. And so, yeah, they were a really nice audience. I think they had a really nice time. I wasn't good. I don't think they noticed that. But it's very, very important that I notice it. Yeah. How can you tell you weren't good. Like, it doesn't feel right.

You're not thinking fast enough. Like, you're just a little bit off. It's like when the athletes come back and they go, and you, like, if you didn't know anything about it, he got, oh, he played pretty well. And they say, uh, there was half a step. Yeah, or like in football, like in English football, when they're, uh, when they'll just say he's just a half a step behind. This isn't quite right.

And it feels the same way. The problem is if you, if you let, if you let an audience enjoying you be that, you your sole barometer, you can get bad. That's where you see comedians get successful and then get not very funny quick. So how do you know when you're good? Because if they're laughing regardless... I guess it's like an internal... You've got to have that internal sense of what your own...

Your own sense of quality control so that you can walk out of a gig that's gone really well and think I was bullshit there. Or walk out of a gig that's gone badly for them and thinking, eh, they might be a little bit wrong. Do you have a Neil Brennan or Chris Rock in your life? Neil Brennan and Chris Rock are like, the comedians go to disapproving dads. Yeah.

Like I've never seen, and I'm talking about top shelf, established comedians, will always want those two to come to the show and like borderline abuse them. Yeah. For anything. I mean, this is Chappelle, Schumer.

Like, they need their two cents just to. Yeah, you just want to have someone roll your eyes. those people in your crew that... Definitely. Like for the show that I write, for HBO,

that's all of us work together and then Tim Carvella and I who run the show, he's very good at being a kind of a comedic conscience. That might be a little cheap. You know, I don't know if you need to say that.

For stand-up, it really helps to have to have friends that you respect who you can tell might roll their eyes at a joke that just did really well in the audience going oh man that's some low hanging fruit you just feasted on

in my mind is there like a group a supportive group text between you because you Bill Marr when I really I say Bill but he's a single man so it's a little different in that way but Bill Marr John Stewart Steve Colbert

just being comedians the TV show family men like do you you guys to help each other through these journeys. It's a kind of it's a particular like the TV show thing. It's a very particular, uh, job and that like demands a certain amount of thing. Yeah.

So you kind of end up having more in common with people that you might not have a lot in common with otherwise. Like they're like John Stewart was a hugely, uh, important person obviously in my life. And you know, Colbert I look up to very much. They're not entirely peers. So I mean, I text with Seth Myers a lot because we did our shows around the same.

He was working for SNO when I was working at The Daily Show. And then we got our own shows at the similar kind of times. We weirdly got married at similar times, had kids, similar times. So, yeah, I think we feel like we probably have a fair sense of what each other's going through, even if we don't know what each other's doing that day. Is there a difference between stand-up funny and TV show funny? Very different, yeah. Okay, what's the difference?

I guess it's... Like, are there jokes that you have, and it's like, okay, this was killing the club, but on the show. Yeah, that's, yeah, kind of. I mean, it's, I guess it's the way that you would write. For me, in particular, like, our show is pretty tight. So, uh, there's not room to make jokes breathe necessarily. And also, especially for those big stories that we do, the jokes are always in service to a very focused story. Um, whereas stand up can be more erratic because you've got like an hour and a half to talk about whatever you want and whatever pace you want.

what do you think it is about foreign i'd use that term loosely hoot foreign comedians um like particularly you and another one of my favorite comedians um jim jeffreys like you guys have the most biting commentary about you know the united states and the shit makes so much sense is it just i guess maybe kind of being an outsider and looking at like what the fuck is going on for it like for comedians generally work better as outsiders anyway they don't most comedians that you love don't function particularly well in society. These aren't people

these aren't people like you'll find it easy just being alive in regular situations. They weren't voted most well adjusted in high school. So like having a sense of being an outsider in life generally is a boon as a,

as an aspiring comedian. Like if you're literally not from here, if you're literally from outside the country, you already have a different eye on things. Now, for me, It's like it's a blend again because I came here as a full on outsider. So when I was first here, it was definitely a sense of what the fuck are you doing? This is all crazy.

Now it has shifted a little bit. Right. Now it's what are we doing? It's not you anymore. It's we because this is my home. So there is still a sense of being an outsider. But it's honestly less than it was. I've got an immigrants crush on this country.

I love it here. So, yeah, it's not the same thing as saying this place is ridiculous. And laughing at it from a distance, this is laughing at it from inside. What was the most ridiculous thing? Like, come in when you came here 11 years ago, what was the most thing that you saw when you first got here and was like, what the fuck? Like, what was the biggest culture shot? I went to a Walmart for the first time. I couldn't believe how big at Walmart.

Oh, Walmart. He said a Walmart. Wow. I couldn't believe that. I thought they were famous here. I thought you said Walmart. I was like, my day don't speak English, though. He's in Carolina.

No, I thought he said Walmart. I was like, is this a new white supremacist store? Not necessarily. Not everything is a new white supremacist's store. More than it used to be. To be honest, what that's the Walmart, there are still certain words in the English accent that slide by American ears. It's an odd thing. Like even with like automated phone lines, sometimes I have to adopt an American accent to make myself understood.

So yeah, maybe Walmart is one of them, Walmart. I went to a Walmart. You got it. There you go. That's it right now. It was just so big. It was just so big. And I remember the socks were.

so cheap. I'd never seen socks that cheap. And I was amazed and then immediately felt, there's a problem here. It can't be that cheap without people getting hurt. You don't know the joy of life until you've been into a 24-hour Walmart. Super Walmart. To like a three of the morning. Yeah, super one. That was my dream. Because it was after a show that I'd done somewhere. So it's out of town. I thought, I can I can buy any of this? Yes. It was a, It was mind-blowing. Yeah. All that choice.

For groups. But all the bargains built on such human suffering. It's the American dream. It is. And you can buy a gun depending on what stage is. Yeah. At three in the morning. No questions asked.

A win is a win. A win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clever Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports.

media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

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Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck.

I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits, teams look for. to the biggest mistakes franchises make

to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. So can you explain, besides your actual name being in the title?

What were the general differences between working on the Daily Show with John Stewart and doing your own show? Well, I guess it's a, like, cosmetically it might look similar. Like, again, the mechanics of it, it's very, very different. So I knew how to work within that machine, especially because, like, when John left for that summer, I kind of stepped into his shoes for a few months. That's right. You didn't. Yeah, I forgot. I did a version of his job, uh, less well for three months.

So I kind of ran ish that show. I ran it a little bit for that, for that few months. Why were you chosen? What was I chosen? And was it awkward for you to accept it? No. Uh, it was terrified. He called me and said, I, I got a, that movie I've been working on, I'm going to direct it.

So I was kind of, oh, that's nice. This, this feels like something that I didn't see what was coming. Right. So that's an odd thing to decide to call me. How many people are you calling today? And then he said, so I'm going to be gone for a few months. Will you host this show? So I just said, yeah, I'll do whatever you want.

And then hung up the phone. It wasn't like, oh, shit. So I just said yes because I would just say yes to anything he ever asked me. But then I did not think about what I just said yes to until I put the phone down. So then I went to his office the next morning and said, hey, do you really want to do this? Are you sure about this? He went, yeah, you'll be fine. No, no, I might go with Samantha or, you know.

I mean, but was it, is it awkward being chosen? No, because we were doing slightly different jobs again than it might have looked. Like, I was writing on the show as well. So I was more embedded in every single part of that show than the other correspondents were. So I was there every minute of every day. So it was a much easier transition for me than it would have been for a correspondence, one of the other correspondents to do it. They would have all been able to do it.

It was just it was easier for me. I'm glad you said that because having visited the Daily Show a couple of times, that's one of the most exhausting things I've ever witnessed. Yeah. What is, I mean, what's the process like for research? Like, because someone has to sit and watch everything. Fox News for four hours a day just to get that one sound bite. How many someone?

So I can't speak to that show anymore because the show that I worked for literally doesn't exist anymore. I worked for John. So I don't know what Trevor's done to change that process. I know a process that doesn't exist. When you were there. When you were there. When I was there, there was there, there was,

did interns have to sit and watch that? Not so much interns. By that point, there was a whole footage department that were looking at clips and that were presenting clips to the writer's room early in the morning. And so you were kind of, they had curated clips that were interesting already.

And so you were watching those together and everyone was coming up with ideas and then assignments would go out and then you would have like one hour, maybe an hour, 15 minutes to write your first draft. There wasn't much margin for error in that day, right? You miss a deadline at 10.15 in the morning, at 11 o'clock or at 11.30,

you're in serious shit at 6 o'clock. It was tight that process. I don't know if that is, if they make it exactly the same way now but the way it was under John was that was a tight process so the way that I mean things were just as crazy

with the Obama administration with the I'm about to say Bush the Trump administration so what if something were to happen at 2.05 p.m. and you still got that four hour window before the show starts and you know it's going to be newsworthy is it just like you can do a little bit but you've got

four hours before the show starts but there's a lot of production that needs to happen to make graphics, cut the soots, so that four hours gets dissipated down real quick. So the rules just... So you can make changes to a certain extent. Again, this is how it used to be. I don't know. If you're going to be on time for, or more or less on time for when you start taping the show,

you know that there is a certain amount of changes that you have budgeted in your time and in everyone else's time that you can make because it's all cogs and machine, right? You can screw someone asking for something that they can't do in four cogs. time. So something, say if the Daily Show were now and say that Trump fires Mueller at 4 p.m. And you already had your show set. Are you guys just like, okay, we'll deal with that on tomorrow's show. Again, I don't know now, but then the practice then was that we would say something for two, three minutes at the start and then John would say we'll talk about it tomorrow. Now, I think it's changed a little bit now because the pace has increased so much that people want stuff quicker.

So we were making that show before Twitter. So there was a window which you haven't seen all the jokes on it. It was interesting watching the State of the Union last night. They're going live. So that finishes, I guess he finished pontificating at like 10.30. So they're like daily shows on it. Trevor's on at 11. Steve's on at 1135.

You have not got much time to digest that. And also you're still. late in a way because there's a bunch of jokes that have gone around while he was still talking. So it's difficult. The pace of things have changed to the point that I think the process that I was involved in under John Stewart is slightly more arcane than you would imagine. Do you think your job would be easier if Hillary had won or if we had someone else in office? It's the same. It's the same. The pace of things, it's difficult in a different way. Okay. So fast forward to last week to tonight, now you have a plethora of information, the pace is moving faster, and you have to

decide what you can put in this show in the week. So for us now, those decisions are different because those big stories that we do, so basically from like after the first 10 minutes, what can sometimes be like 22, 25, sometimes over 30 minute stories, those things don't shift because those have been, we've been working on those for weeks. And though, and there is, they've been, you know, they've been legally checked. Often they're irrelevant to the week as well. Like this, it's just, when I start talking about it, it's not like, oh yeah, I knew you

were going to talk about, you know, diabetes medication. No, it's dope. You're usually just making us aware of something that we haven't thought about or something. Yeah. So the, but the start of the show changes, right? So the, the, the, the, the, the, the decision process that we go through in our heads are, like, if, if something crazy is happening on a Monday or a. Tuesday.

We're not going to, those bones are going to be picked pretty clean of meat by all the different shows and the concept of jokes on Twitter. There's nothing really much that we can add to that. If something happens

at four or a clock, five o'clock on a Thursday, that starts to change because then you know at that point Stephen, Seth, Samantha's are off. They can't, there's no,

that all falls to us. So from that point on, like, Thursday 5 o'clock, any shit that goes down is shit that we need to eat and process. So for you, you hope that Thursday morning is just a sweet spot for you to get the goods early. Is it even important to get the goods early? Yeah, because you're the king of the mountain. And is Bill Maher?

Six in a factor in that way. Count them. Count them. Oh, that's right. The Bill Maher don't have six. He does. Damn. So the next question I was going to ask doesn't mean anything because I was going to say,

Does Bill Maher even a factor? Because he's live on Friday. No, it doesn't really make it. We do different things. It really doesn't make any difference at all. So, okay. Another good reason why I'm glad you're here is because of the time that we live in now, especially with the onslaught of the Me Too movement,

is for some shows, one of them I won't name. You know, there's like a checklist. Like, oh, this guest can't come on the show. This guest can't come on the show. This guest, you know, it's just like it's going to be awkward. And even for this particular show, there's about three or four guests that we were set to have on the show that now it's going to be kind of awkward because I don't know if I'm, you know, at least, I mean, this show is under two years old. So I'm not at the fully confrontational point of like, okay, pointing out white elephants that easily.

How hard was it? What was going through your mind the morning that you had to interview Dustin Hoffman? So, well, yeah, like my show, I don't, those, I haven't really thought about that, I guess this, because we don't have guests. So that's actually not something that I've ever had to go through. And the only reason I bring that up is it was a, that's what made that a different experience. Right. So, um, they'd like, did you try to get out of it? Like, uh, well, in, in a sense, I did.

And I offered them a chance for me not to do it because they, they'd, uh, they'd asked me to do it months before. I don't do many of those things. I don't think I'm going to be doing many of them. But so they said, oh, here's, you want to do this, uh, like the dog's reading. I said, fine. then they said oh Dustin Hoffman might be there

so I said to them oh okay if that's true you might need to get someone else because I would need to ask him about something so that's up to you and they went oh I don't know I don't know

or maybe you know maybe you won't be there then I find out week off we think he's going to be there so then again there's the sense of okay then it's you might need to get someone else

unless if you have a problem with what I feel I would have to bring up. And they said, no, it'll be fine. And I think I said... Who's the they? Like the publicist? No, no, the public...

Like, it was the Tribeca Institute. That was the charity event that was for it. It was the charitable branch of the Tribeca Film Festival. So then we're kind of locked in. I could not turn up. I could just ghost the whole event. But that feels like a pretty monumental act of cowardice. Right.

So I knew, so I just, I did research. I thought about the best way to have a conversation. He'd already made a, it was one of those kind of bullshit pseudo-apologies written by a publicist. Yeah. Kind of de facto admission without quite crossing the last. I categorically deny. No, not, not that.

I'm sorry you feel that way. It was the word, it was the, sometimes the, categorically deny, I kind of got no problem with. That's a point of view. Right. But when I hear that, I know a publicist wrote it.

Oh, sure, but at least then there is a firm ground of, I am going to, I'm going to die on this hill. It did not happen. Right. They took it another way. His statement through the Publis

who was more, I apologize to her if she felt upset. That's the stuff that's, that this does not reflect who I am. That drives me nuts. Right. So I wanted to unpick that statement. And then, uh, it's escalated from there.

Is it, is it like, all right, you know, uh, uh, like that whole, like, I'll see you after class sort of thing and you, you're just sitting in the corner and you're like, you know, is it, was it that, was your heart racing or was it? I'll see you after class. That's not a level of bravado. I, as a high schooler, I capitulated in conversation. It was, if it was ever, I'll see you after class. You won't. I'll stay in the classroom. I'll wait you out. I'm not coming outside. I'll hide behind the teacher. But it could have gone either way though. Was there at least a hand switch? How do you? Oh, yeah. It's horrible. How many? An hour? Was it an hour? Was it a 90 minute thing?

Like, wouldn't you time it like, okay, like 45 minute mark? I'm going to, you know what? That is a great question. So because it's a like it's a, there's an audience have come to see Wack the Dock. Also, this, this introduction is happening before the movie stuff. Oh, wow. So, this is, right, this is the needle that I'm having to thread. So I thought 20 minutes, let's talk about, what, the dog, whatever. Then I'll raise this. They didn't show it first and then they have a Q&A afterwards.

I think they wanted to leave. I think, like, the people on the stage wanted to go and have dinner or whatever. I don't know. I wasn't invited. Anyway, they, uh, so I thought, I talked about the movie for 20 minutes. half an hour because that's what people have come to see raise this issue we'll see how long that takes 10 minutes

How'd you seg into it? God, I can't remember Oh, I think actually it was a forced segue because I would be remiss if I didn't mention No, it was actually He said something that was a little glib About also you got to remember Wack the Dog is a movie

About Spitting sexual harassment Right and or assault Within that we don't know in that story that was then buried and not addressed and the way that you could powerfully bury it. So there is a gigantic elephant in the room

the very fact that this is the movie that he's sitting there talking about. The fact that he or that anyone thought I wasn't going to bring it up is crazy to me. It kind of makes me think, how little do you think of me? Did he know? I'm not going to bring this up.

Does he know? I mean, you know, they could have told me the beginning like he might want to talk about the issue and he was not, okay. Did they tell him? Maybe. I have no idea. But here's the question. See, and even when you ask that question, like, what did he expect? I think a lot of interviews, especially lately, everybody's trying to navigate what's the right way to go about this.

So you kind of broke the mold with that. And I don't know if anybody else has followed it up in that way. I mean, it wasn't a thing. It wasn't on TV, right? This is just at the 90 seconds street, why. So what I was trying, what I wanted it was, I wanted to, with any of these issues, they're all different. every single example is different. So it's a case by case by case basis. But you want to try and get to some introspection because in lots of these stories, it certainly makes me introspective, right,

in terms of workplaces that I've been in, like behaviours of my, of friends of mine that I may have like conveniently overlooked or turned like a long calloused blind eye to it. So it's, this has really made me introspective. So the fact that I, there was absolutely, no introspection coming out of him

was irritating to me and so he was like retreating from the position that he was that he'd made in that statement and was standing his ground and then was coming at me and I definitely was not going to yield so then we had a problem so then like the funny

and now wag the dog that's the crazy thing is that you know it's not a very friendly audience for me there because there's lots of fans of his I didn't this was not a situation of mind making I personally don't believe that the problems of my questions they were his answers.

But there's still part of my head, which is thinking, this kind of goes back to your early thing about what an audience wants. What the audience wants at that moment is for the tension to stop and they can watch this movie, which is fine. And so I was thinking, okay, we've talked about this enough,

let's bend this background. So I can't remember what it was, but I had a way to get back to talking about Wag the Dog. So we talked about that for another half an hour. but then he brought it back up because he wanted to go. Oh, wow. I couldn't gauge the audience's reaction, though, fully.

Like, was there a split? No, not, I mean, it was... Or Freebird! You know what? Freebirds would have been a great tension, dissipating. Yeah, yeah. Next time you do this is put us in the audience

and we'll just yell free bird to get you out of it. Just free bird. That's your safe word. Yo, so let me just ask you then on the subject since you said you were introspective about the Me Too, the time time. Yeah. And a lot of people,

A lot of women are feeling some type of way about men's reaction, men's vocal ability to speak on the subject. You have a new season starting in a week. Number one, how do you feel and do you feel that something should be said from the male perspective? And number two, how are you going to do that on your show? I mean, I think something definitely should be said about from the male. I think it's important for men to talk to other men about this.

It's definitely not important for men to explain to women that this is an important issue. Because I want you to sit down so we can have a talk. But it is important for men to say it out loud in front of women so that women understand that you two count this as an important issue. It's such a complicated conversation. I think it is important. I've talked to friends of mine about it.

This is a conversation that a lot of us have avoided for kind of understandable reasons with friends, right? When you see your friend doing something gross or, you know, there are many very damaging, to go, ah, that's just, that's, I know him. He's not like that. He's not like that to you. He ain't trying to fuck you.

That's, well, that's the thing. Like, you know, you, I've met a lot of, as these stories have started coming out, and sometimes I've thought, oh, that's weird. He was really nice to me. And you think, yeah, he probably fucking was nice to me. He's a man's man. Yeah. And, but it's easy, lots of the people who have a natural charisma.

And it's, no one is just one thing either. It's complicated. Like you say, there are shades of gray here. Not only is every single situation different, but... It's also a lot to play with comedy-wise, and not for nothing. I'm just saying... Definitely. Definitely.

And in a fun way, because it's a minefield. And it's fun to run through minefields. What other requirement is? What's the eligibility? So, yeah. I think it is important to... We're working on a whole bunch of stories. At the moment, we're working on something.

I don't know. what we gotta work out what we can add to it right what hasn't been said and what we could say that would be constructive and funny it's a blank canvas though for real so so we should have russell on quest love supreme you know oh oh i think we should naturally just yeah but with john and john just steer that in the right direction just play whack the dog for everyone after it's well no you know because i think after a while it's just like Everybody guilty is left. Yeah, in about three years, it's just going to be...

But it's not binary, right? Again, it's not like everybody's guilty. For a start, that's such, that's so depressing. That idea that everyone's good. That's a kind of level of cynicism that even I don't have, right? But I do think the important thing is for everyone to be introspective about it. I think you've got to look at yourself and your friends, and it doesn't, not every incident is going to require the same response.

Right. So how do you not... Just one more. Had Dustin not said or tried to walk back the statement a little bit, the whole point of you calling him out on it was, wait, did you just undo the statement that you said that you... Yeah, I think the point was we have to talk about this. Again, we're at Wag the Dog, the movie about sexual harassment that was squashed. So if you don't think this is going to come up,

that is a level of indestructibility, which is in itself a real problem here. So, no, there was a way for that. to go much smoother and be more interesting and I don't think it was entirely my fault that it didn't go that way. Fight the powers that be, man. Pasty Chuck D. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either.

We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands.

I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. So where we are now with year one with this current administration, I mean, I go back to my first question. which is how exhausting is it how do you have any hopes that well that's a bleak question do you have any hope end of question no well i mean you know i know that a lot is being put on you know god please let these midterms have a turnaround do you have faith Do you have faith in the system still in American people?

Or, you know, my thing is that if Russia did it once, Russia will do it twice. And, of course. You know, will we be okay at the end of 2018? Will we be here at the end of 2018? You're going to put that on me? Will we be here in 2018? I mean, I guess there's,

there's degrees to that right. I think if you're holding up the midterms as this kind of perfect silver bullet that's going to make everything okay, that is not going to happen. So you think we're going to get four years of turn? Four years of turn. There's no reason to not think we're going to get eight years of Trump.

I don't know what you're saying. There's a non-zero chance. We're getting 12 years of him. You really think so. He could change the rules. But here's the thing. Because I can't be here on Earth if that happens. But he is not,

listen, this is, he is a, deeply unpleasant human being. But the shit that he's stirred up doesn't stop just with him, right? Obviously. So if the midterms flip, if he goes,

there is a shitload of stuff still to deal with in its wake. The fact that he's churned up all the problems with white nationalism. Only because you mention it, I'm not pointing directly. You know, white nationalists.

We used to be right up there. That's more mark. Yeah, all the kind of dog whistle racism, which is now audible, which is now just become human whistle racism. Even that speech last night. Oh, my God. Talk about it. The MS-13, like directly tying them to the dreamers. That's some pretty toxic shit.

And that doesn't go away when he does. How about the slave reference? Don't forget about the slave reference when he pointed out the owner, the white owner of the business, who just expanded into another building. And then he says, oh, and the black guy over there. Corey, he's a good worker. He works for that guy right there. And you know what he's going to do with his tax break? He's going to take his tax break. He's going to buy a house and he's going to get education

for his two daughters. Because he's a good worker. Because it was so racist and I knew that a lot of people didn't see that plantation race. Yes, I did. Somebody needed to have the reference of yeah. Nah, me. The MS-13 thing was waiting for deep shit. The thing is he is the

conductor of racism. The orchestra is still going to be there when he's walked away. I can't wait for the black man to come out who had sex with Yvonne. Those bigoted bassoons are still going to be playing after he's twirled his stick around. But your girl recanted her story, the stormy, no, stormy weather, stormy dangles. She recanted?

Oh, she recanted? She was like, she was like, nah, it never happened. Yeah, but she never had it. She's done. She moonwalked it back, but then she shuffled forward again. Yeah, she did. It's not. She camel walked.

Moonwalk forward. It's camera walking. Shout to James. Brown. No, for real, she did? Yes, she did. She was dancing around it on Kimmel. We'll see where she lands.

But yeah, she, uh, she moon walked backwards and I'm certain that, you know, there was another $100,000 check written to go on and just say. She's on a powerful. But she had already admitted to it like two other times back in the past. And both of those stories were the same and they were corroborated. Also, she's, I worry about too much attention on the Stormy Daniels thing. Because who gives a.

shit. His wife, sure. I get how Malani would care. I don't think she care. I get how she would be pissed on. Otherwise, this is not in the top hundred things that we should be really concerned about what is happening right now. It's certainly

funny. I think it just shows a double standard. I think that's why it's become such a popular story because it's showing the double standard. You know, if it was Obama that had sex with the porn star, then he would have been... If Obama had liked an Instagram picture of some model chick, it would have been over.

But this is not the first big double standard. No, no, no, no. I mean, it's just, you know, another in the long line of them. Yeah. And is that new, I mean, you could tell us better than anything, John. I mean, I know you've been here for 11 years, but and when you're watching these stories, does it seem a little different than

what's going on? On in England? Yeah. No, there was a politician. There was a politician in England who was found dead masturbating with an orange in his mouth. Oh, really? Yeah. Please don't. Sure. He had sex with a porn star.

Sounds like a Black Mirror episode. I think it was a Satsuma, a Clementine. I can't remember the exact story. Specific. I just remember that's a hell of a way to go out. Baby. Nutrition and vitamin C. He died as he lived in search of vitamin C.

Oh, mom. But, yeah, I mean, Britain is wrestling with a whole different kind of problems. That Brexit is going to tear. Britain and Europe apart for decades to come. So that is a whole different shitstorm. Don't we kind of blame Trump for that a little bit too? No, that is not on him. Yeah, I was going to say,

where is that coming? I'm about to be like the ignorant journalists. Like, can you still weigh in on issues over there? Like, where? You mean, does anyone want to hear it from me? No, I guess, I guess not. The loss son. In the same way that people say,

I don't want to hear it from a Brit over here. People of Britain are like, hey, you moved to America 10 years here. I'm a man. without a country. So break down to Brexit, like, for those of us, like, what exactly does it mean? It was a fucking stupid thing to do. It was, the first stupid thing to do was to call a referendum on it at all. So it was a, like, an incredibly self-serving decision made from a prime minister who's not prime minister anymore, and the fact he made that decision will taint his record for

the rest of his life. He should be, he should struggle to sleep over calling that referendum. Then, then you're getting into the complexities of the fact that the EU, which was, was set up, you know, for good reasons, with good intentions, which is not perfect, which is flawed, has irritated people, it irritates everyone. Everybody in it is irritated by it, but you don't, you know, you don't get to live in a perfect world all the time. And then there was a lot of anti-immigrant stoking, race baiting, completely bullshit data where people were promised money that would not come back to them.

See, that's where we thought Trump came in, the impression. It's made, there's the same ju-sau source of discontent is made both decisions possible, both decisions which seemed like they would be impossible, made them plausible and then, of course, like, so that it made, it did mean that having watched Brexit happen and it was just heartbreaking to watch that happen, knowing what that will do to Britain and to Europe. So how long does that, how long do we have? until that actually takes until it happens? Yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, they're negotiating now, so they instituted this article, so they're involved in these literally impossible negotiations right now. Wow. So, um, so if and when it does happen, that means what? That is a,

that is a question you should ask the prime minister of the UK and the head of the EU. It's not, it's not clear. It's not clear who will be allowed to live where, who will be able to trade with whom. It's not clear if there will be a hard, order in Northern Ireland, again, which I don't know how much you knew about the troubles in

Northern Ireland here. It didn't work out too well last time. It's almost, it's almost bamboozling. The depth of complexity and problems with Brexit is absolutely mind-blowing. So it's, all you can say for sure is this probably isn't going to go well. But if I can flip that question back on you, Is it going to be okay, Amir? Brexit be okay. Tell me it's going to be okay. Look, I'm only asking because, well, again, this also leads to the, again, back to exhausting and pressure.

How real is the quote-unquote John Oliver effect in your head? Like, you wake up in the morning brushing your teeth like, you know, man, I'll be effective shit. When I'm brushing my, I'm not even effective in. shifting plaque. Well, I'm just saying that, again, it's, does it make you paranoid that as quick as, like Americans are world famous for building someone up

just to tear them down? So are you paranoid that you have so much, you kind of have a power that sort of extends past what John Stewart was doing? And I hate to say that. I honestly don't know that's true at all. I think that the genre effect seems like a really, it's bullshit piece of media hyperbole. I know that. Let me just say it.

I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that I know you're going to think it's a reach. But what I'm saying is, are you at least on defense? No, on defense. I think I'm more aware. if I really think about like are they going to try to to tap into your and then oh sure oh you might look for anything to discredit you to oh I mean look for anything to discredit you to oh I mean of course like we've had like we've done stories

about Russia uh North Korea and oh you know I went to meet Snowden in Russia so we've had like high level cyber security for a while I have a healthy amount of paranoia But I guess in terms of my motivations for things, I basically, I'm trying to think about this as honestly as possible, right? I still fundamentally refute the premise of like this nebulous John Oliver effect. What I will say is I am cognizant of the fact that just by the, by dint of being on TV and being on TV with a show that people watch for whatever reason, there is a, we do have an amplifier effect.

So, you know, I think the first time that nonsense term came up was in the wake of, you know, the net neutrality debate the first time. People have been talking about net neutrality for a long time. There's a lot of people that have been writing detailed articles and good investigative journalism in that whole sphere. Yeah, you brought down to every means. Yeah, yeah. But we were an amplifier, right?

So we have a louder voice. So I'm definitely cognizant of the fact that we have a loud voice. and that's probably the only thing. Don't say loud. See, loud diminishes it. It's not just loud. It's accurate. And it's accurate and it's understandable.

Like people of all levels can understand and it breaks things down. And it's don't do that. That I'm aware of. Like when we talk, I'm aware that people will listen. And generally will, when we say, if we're thinking about getting people to do something, I do think about, you know, sometimes in the past, like even if we were writing things on The Daily Show, you think, oh, it'd be funny if you did, if people went and did this. And the joke is finished and that you don't want them to actually do it.

I'm much more aware now of the fact that if we say do something, people might do it. So like the Chechen Warlord. So like when we were just asking people to fuck with, he lost his cat. And so we were saying, he lost it, he has this dumb cat. Yeah. And he lost it. And so he's very active on Instagram. And so we just said to people, take photos of any cat you see and send it to him on Instagram saying, is this your cat?

That was the first point that I kind of thought, that's a funny idea. I wasn't really anticipating people did it. Oh, they did it hard and he was pissed. At which point, I pissed off a Chechen warlord. So at that point I'm thinking, I probably need to think through when I say do something, what would happen if people actually did it. I mean, what areas, you, along with that neutrality, you've taken it on the tobacco industry, like, you've done a billion. Now, I mean, Oprah tried this once. With the beef industry, you're going to put Oprah on me now?

No, but the thing is that when she tried to go to the beef industry, they clap back. They clap back back. So, what? You do it for the vine. We do it for the bovine. I wish I had my sound effects. That was too classic. That was awesome.

What I'm talking. What do you see a mountain you can't climb? No, because also with these stories, you got to understand. They know what's coming. Like, we work with them. Like, we're in contact with Philip Morris International as we're writing that story. Just like we're in contact with coal companies that we talk about. There's a back and forth in, hey, this is what we're going to say about you.

Have you got anything to say about that? Oh, well, that's not based on anything. Well, here is what that is based on. They know there has been, we don't want to get anything wrong. So, you know, if there is correction, if things have been badly reported, we want to not amplify that bad reporting. But has there been an organization that has said no. I mean, not said no, like Scientology or whoever you want to investigate.

Like, who's the one organization that you're trying to. sort of move past this this gate that I don't know if there is one right I mean it's I don't know if there is like it

there's no kind of So there's no Fort Knox subject to you that you wouldn't dare touch not really not really it's because whenever we're taking swings we're trying to engage the people that we're taking swings at so that we basically agree

on the underlying facts we just might have different conclusions to those facts, right? But those facts have got to be accurate. And so our key difference of opinion is what those facts mean. But so, yeah, I mean, I'm sure that there have been many companies that have pissed off with us. But they can't dispute what we actually said. They can disagree with our opinions, but they can't dispute the facts that we cited. Have you gotten any feedback from any sense?

I mean, any activists in a community, I'm curious more now than Daily Show, it feels like since you're changing some culture a little bit or informing, there'd be some folks to be like call you up. Like, you know, Al Gore, like, I'm so glad that you did. Al Gore does not have my cell number. Oh, man. Does he want your cell number?

If he ever calls me on my phone, I'm throwing it in the river. I'm getting a burner. That's the name, Michael Moore. It's like, no, I don't appreciate you. I don't go anywhere. I don't know anyone. So, yeah, I live in, there's not, not too many tentacles that people can touch me with.

Why do you can touch John? Yeah. But people pitch stories all the time and like as they do within our office and we'll look at them. That's dope. I don't even think about it like that. Like now people are trying to get their word out through you. Yeah, we don't really listen to many outside pitches to be honest.

So there's no idea too silly? Like even the idea of you going to Russia to interview him. That's a dumb idea. Yeah, but no. Because that's literally asking for trouble. That was what was so exhilarating about it. But how do you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just, you just. He's just asking.

Because I thought there was, the thing that I was most interested about with Snowden was, he's an incredibly smart guy, but like lots of people that are smart in that particular way, he's not a great communicator. So, like, he releases incredibly important information for everyone to reckon with.

And you might not like the way that he released it, but the fact is what he released is very important. But there's no value to that unless people understand it. So I wanted to, I wanted to try, and find a way to deal with the contents of that material in the way that made sense to people. So we'd reached out through his lawyer to say, hey, would you ever want to do an interview? Also, the slight connection was that I had to Snowden was that John's first day, having left

that summer, Snowden happened. So what was supposed to be a very first, very calm first day in the chair for me of, oh, whatever, it's summer, let's just talk about different things. All of a sudden, the Snowden story erupts. So I've always felt kind of very tied to him in that way. You and him, yeah, that's right. We're both in trouble in a similar way. But so he, I talked to him on his like encrypted line here.

And then we went to Moscow and the Russians were not pleased. We were there. The American government, I don't think we're thrilled that we'd left. So you kind of end up pissing off everyone. What did they say at customs when you came back? Like, nothing. We were worried. Like, we were worried that we'd split the tapes amongst the crew in case one of us got pulled.

So at least some tapes will go through. Yeah. And the crazy thing is, God, I forgot about this. I've never had this happen on a flight before. But when we landed from Moscow, they said, there was, they said, oh, everyone's stay in your seats. Like the FBI here to pick up a couple of passengers. So me and my producers go, fuck. Fuck.

Wow. But it wasn't us. I don't know who it was. Oh, what? I was not sticking around. Oh, the criminal. Yeah. I don't know who it was.

They got two, maybe they got two people thinking it was us. So when they walked on the plane? Yeah. No, we were walking part. They were there. They were walking past. So they were going to get people as they,

as they pulled up. So how did you know America was pissed then? Because we were, yeah, we reached out to them after we've gone just to, because we wanted to fact check everything he'd said. Also, he wanted us to do that because he didn't want, information to no longer be current. He wants to be right as well.

He doesn't want to be giving out bad information. So we reached out to the NSA and said, this is the stuff that we were. I am sure they knew we were there. If they didn't know we were there, that seems like a problem. I don't think it was a surprise that we were there. Well, I'm begging on between you and Rachel Maddo, my money's on you to break open this current administration. Oh man, you are back in the wrong horse there,

no man, your movie's going to be lit, man. Your version of all the... New season. Let's go. Yeah. On the new season, were there any stories that you were really wishing that you were on the air for?

Not really, because we don't generally traffic in those... We do some slow cooking with our stories, so it's not... We're operating in a slightly different... slightly different arena. So there's nothing particularly that we've missed that it felt like we were going to have much to add to other than everything.

But, you know, yeah, whereas when we were excited to come back, we got a bunch of ideas, some of which are related to everything that's going on and some of which are not. It would totally kill you, but could you operate in a 52 week? No, not making this show. because we make mistakes you know it's just too intense

that with making this particular kind of we could do a different show for 52 weeks but you can't do this one so then that takes out my other question could this be a daily no we could do it we could do a daily show but it wouldn't be this because you just can't it's not physically possible so it takes it takes longer to do this stuff so we can only we can only do the amount of shows that we do because we need to build in breaks

in the year where we're not doing shows, but we're still working because we're getting, if we make a big mistake, we're fucked. Right. Because we definitely have enough of a target on our back now that you get something wrong in a big way, it's kind of done. You don't want to tell us a little bit, John. About what? What we're working on?

What I got in the slow cooker? What's in the crack? I don't know if we got anything that's, one of the nice things I like about the show is I like the fact that you don't know what we're going to talk about, right? With lots of late night shows, you basically know people are eating from the same buffet. And what's nice is that with those main, that main story, that if we're going to say,

and tonight we're going to talk about charter schools, you think, wow, okay, all right. Let's see, let's talk about, yeah. That's what we look forward to. Vaccines or whatever. Yeah. I'm like, is it going to be charter schools? It's going to be a story on charter schools

and I really want to know, which you're, you know what? If we said it was, no one would watch. We kind of have to trap you into watching something that you don't really want to see it. I think you think that. But as a viewer, I'm already knowing. You said charter schools. I want to know what the John Oliver's been on the charter schools. We have to explain as part of the writing why something's important.

So if we were to say, well, guess what? We're going to do something about Sinclair Broadcasting Group. People go, that sounds terrible. How many writers are in the room? It's not so much a writer's room in the traditional sense. but we have, at the moment, we have eight writers plus, plus Tim and I. I think that's the current tally.

And that's what we have right now. We might get a couple more. Do I need to audit your female male ratio, John? Or how are your writer's room doing? How's it doing? Two to six right now. You're trying to leave this to go to his show? No, no, no.

I'm just auditing. I like to audit writers' rooms. It's not, yeah. I think two to size it up to see where you fit into it. No, I'm audited to see if I'm actually in there represented. Oh, okay. That is an entirely legitimate question. So two to six is not the balance that I'm happy with the moment.

So we're in the process of trying to put that right. I have to, that we're in the process right now of hiring. You just got somebody fired like you. No, I did. No, no. No, no. If they're a white man, they'll get a job tomorrow. Come on.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at the time. TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific. con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider,

you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12, and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I got a question. Yeah. So we've talked a little bit about little bits and pieces

about how the show is put together. Can you walk us through like an actual week is like? No, is every Monday pretty much the same? No, because it's not really like one week. So those main stories, we're on four week cycles, right? So like there's a week of like just research to check that the story has been reported accurately that hasn't shifted.

and then like another week of research and footage, looking for footage, whether there's the ingredients in terms of other people's footage that we can use to tell the story. Then we start writing two weeks out from the show. Then there's the week of the show when we're starting to really... Coffee fact-check everything.

Exactly. Oh, this is bad. So those parts of the show are on four-week cycles. The top of the show is on the one week. Do you have a difficult time, like, establishing what's success and what's not? There are some Sundays where on a Monday, everyone's talking about what John Oliver did on his show,

and then some there's not. I don't really pay much attention to that, because we're already worried about the next one. So, yeah, like, if I've paid too much attention to the ripple effect, I'd either go crazy, I'd get frustrated, kind of litigating why people were not taking it. Because it's, I think that what I find frustrating when something does get passed around is you can't control the packaging.

So all that bullshit clickbait terminology of, oh, he destroys this industry. Well, that's not what happened at all. Right. That was not my intention. At no point was that part of it. But the fact it's been packaged that way. That's the way they framed it.

Yeah, and it re-contextualizes what you've done. And it changes the way that people watch it. And that can be frustrating. Unfortunately, it's nothing I can do anything about. So that's like dead frustration. That's like being on message boards that you shouldn't be on. Yeah. After playing the DJ gig.

Yeah. Look, I'm just looking for remixes for certain Michael's songs. trying to save you from yourself. We all are. Welcome to Questlil's right. Yeah. It's basically an intervention with one different guest each week.

I got one more question. I got one more question. So were you guys actually surprised at how much the internet took to some of the long form pieces that you guys did? Because, yeah, it's 14 minute pieces in the internet. 14 is, it's way longer than 14. 14 would be a short, short piece.

Like, they are a right. around 20, again, we've done stories longer than our show is supposed to be. So, yeah, it doesn't make any sense. I don't understand why anyone watches it or enjoys it. I have more than enough self-loathing to find my success inexplicable. No, your show's made for the iPhone, man.

And you, I mean, you break things down. I think that's what, one of the reasons I watch it. You break it down. You explain it to a kindergarten. I think the one thing that is really useful for us, especially being on HBO, is because these stories are running 20 minutes, like they have an arc to them where we kind of need your full attention.

So we can't be breaking twice for commercials in there. Otherwise, you kind of lose people's focus and then you've got to recap. So it's very, very important to us that there is not a commercial break in there, partly because we're sometimes talking shit about companies, but mainly because we need like uninterrupted attention for 20 minutes. not to fish for a compliment for HBO

but do you ever look around and feel good about being on that network saying as though it seems like they support between Vice and Bill like they support this voice of say what you want to say as long as it's truth and politics and I guess I mean I can only

speak from my experience I'm sure people have been annoyed by them have worked for them I can only speak from my experience which is that they said you'll do what you can do whatever you want and but immediately you think, well, that's bullshit.

Everyone says that, and that conversation turns really quick when you start doing things they don't want you to do. And they have kept their mouth shut. Sesame Street was told the same thing. Could do whatever the fuck we want to do. You got the cursing Muppet. You all in HBO.

Curson Muppets. I want to talk about Scientology. Oh, man. That would be great. It's my favorite subject. I love Scientology. I love Scientology. Have you read?

Have you read that book? I've read the books. The book's incredible. It's all incredible. The whole. No, no, not Dianetics. No, no. No, no.

Going clear. Going clear? Yeah. Yeah, the book, I was, that was, that was, that was amazing. I couldn't put that thing down. I'm befuddled. It's amazing. The whole thing.

Anyway. On the other hand, it's a series of mechanics that can really help you turn your life around. It really depends whether you read going clear or dionetics. I'd read that one first. This seems like I'm an amazing human being that just needs to access my full potential. Yeah, I have one last quote. One last question. I really want to work on Tom Cruise's motorbikes.

What's it like to interview Stephen Hawking? Amazing. It was honestly, now the reason I wanted to do that was that he's a funny guy. And so the thing about him that I find frustrating is that, you know, it's very, very easy to just objectify that guy as being, right, a brain. beyond most of our comprehension and that's it. Whereas he's a really, he loves comedy, right, loves The Simpsons, that's why he does appearances or something.

And I know he has a good sense of humour. So I wanted to try and get at that, and that's not easy, right, because of his physical circumstances. And so what we had to do was write that interview back and forth beforehand, and he would trigger it up on his computer. So I would say, I'm going to ask you this question, then he would like say, oh, he would say, oh, this will be my answer because it takes him a long time to communicate now. And then he would have his answers queued up.

But you could see like a glint in his eye because I wanted him to like, this would be a shit talking thing. I wanted to, it was really fun watching his face light up when he knew he was about to give me a, give me the business. So yeah, like the anticipation on his face when he was about to. drop a slam on me was fantastic. So it was great to just slightly waste his time. You just gave us an exclusive. I didn't know those are really his voices on like when he does a Simpsons and Family Guy.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I have a question. Tau Taz. I was just, that's not a question. That's the answer. That's the answer. I was wondering if you had any background

or education and journalism or if you learned all these journalistic skills at your job, at your comedy jobs. It's not just me, right? So the journalistic skills come from my staff. So we got people from, you know, The Times Magazine, from ProPublica. So you have no journalistic skills? Honestly, no.

Like, I'm like, I'm, like, I'm, I'm, I'm journalism adjacent. Like, they, they have worked in journalism. But you didn't study it. So they stop against, no, no, no. I'm a comedian, not just a comedian. I'm a comedian. Which takes me back to, when do you think you will go in front of an audience and just tell us why the chicken crossed the road

and changing diapers and... Talk about pussy. Oh, you mean... What? I don't know. What does that? Dipers to pussy really fast. Because I would never expect John Oliver to do that.

So I was just going... I'm not... I once had a friend in England. He offered me... Like, he ran a gig and he offered me 50 quid to do a dirty set. And he said, but you've got to do it for five minutes. And I was in...

Eve. 90 seconds in. It was like Hugh Grant in four years in a funeral. If I can talk about the Tata's as W. F. Yates, I believe, what's called them. Oh, my God. Oh, where is that? Is it on a tape

so weird? No. No. It's gone for all he does. I don't have a blue set in me. You know what? I think I think I know the taboo interview show that you could tackle

oh yeah it would be crazy and I know he's going to grant an interview who I think you should interview OJ Simpson oh the juice I would the juice loose

on on my I would love to we know I know Ezra Ezra Edelman oh okay yeah who made uh who made made the 55-hour documentary. I watched this shit four times already.

So I think, yeah, I think he might be looking for Ezra before he's looking for me, but, uh, or, or Jay-Z. Oh, yeah, that's true. Oh, he's written a song about me. That's great. What? Yo, when I was watching the Grammys, I was just praying to God that Jay Z won that award just so.

Yeah, so we can get an OJ Simpson clip out of it. It is OJ Prize. Right. Lifetime OJ You know what I think about that No I'm serious I was thinking OJ versus jail

Even more than Harvey Weinstein I think Like it's I know he's in I know he's Sort of Putting feelers out there That you know

He is Reentry Yeah But I think it's more like For money Like the thing like I'll talk for $500,000 I know

That you're not That's motivated by money? Crazy talk. Believe it or not, right? Yeah, but I would think that would be an awesome interview. The thing I loved about Ezra's documentary was,

as a British person, my encounter with OJ was airplane onwards. Airplane to murder. So when that story came out, it was more in England, oh, that guy from, that funny guy in airplane, and then he killed someone. And so it was, he killed someone.

And so it was what I didn't understand was everything before then. I didn't understand. I didn't understand. You didn't know that he looked like Lenny Kravitz? I didn't, I understood he was a football player, but not exactly the kind of football. I didn't understand the Hertz commercials. So there was a lot in that I didn't know. Well, the last OJ, the party OJ.

Yeah. That's the OJ I knew. Right. And that. Have you seen him? Do you. exclusive the first time

we were going around her house I had dinner I dropped him off no seriously I had dinner with OJ one night it was the surreal thing of my life and so they see party so we're in Miami working on an album

and not many people know well I don't know if you know you probably don't even know who Scott Storch is Scott Storch is a former roots member And he might be connected With some friends of ours No way, hey oh, whatever Anyway

You get that reference, I don't know These same friends of ours Are also connected to OJ They go golfing with him and everything So I guess the stories that One of their wives was having a birthday dinner And Scott just ever so casually mentioned Like hey, you know, we were in the studio

And it was like, yeah, let's go on a dinner break so we took A three-hour dinner break And there's like Oh by the way OJ is going to be here too And so Think of like the last supper

Oh my God It's like a last supper scenario Or very godfather's Sure Whatever like just a circle of Just think of that whole Martin Scorsese thing Where he's like all the characters And everything and Johnny two times

And you know that sort of thing You've got to get the papers. Get the papers. Right, exactly. And so, surprisingly, there's like the small children's table. I don't know if you have this Thanksgiving thing. There's like the big fan there. No Thanksgiving, but yeah.

Kid's table. So on the side of, so on the size. Thanksgiving is a different story. But the side table situation, there's like an additional nine people. And it's like me, Buster Rhymes, Scott Storz. And OJ Simpson. Oh my God. You know, the beginning was

slightly awkward. I tried to act as normal as I could. And he's like, yeah, you know, I used to have one of those. He's pointed out my afro and stuff. And then... I know. What was the conversation?

Let's go... You used to have a lot of things. Let's go... An ex-wife. Yeah. Let's go four bottles of wine in. And then like... I don't want to be around drunk,

O's there. The juice. Oh. You don't. And then four bottles of... four bottles of wine and he says to Buster me and Scott he's like, you know,

you know Hurricane Carter you know, all the singers, Bob Dillon and them, they, you know, they fought for Hurricane Carter's innocence. You know, I need the rappers to fight for me. Make a song about me.

And we're all looking at each other. Here's the funny thing. What Bust is? He made a song about him. Yeah, right. He didn't get something about it. Yeah, it was like that. So, and then by bottle number six, I would have left after bottle number two.

No, you wouldn't have. There was a point where he started talking about Dart and Marston Clark and stuff, and then, like, me and Scott's brother were, like, having that trading places, bathroom stall, feet raised up in the air so no one could see us in the bottom thing. And it was like,

yo, are you allowed to be talking to O.J about this sort of thing and not. Like, we were like, we didn't know what we were, it was the weirdest three hours of my life.

Yeah. And so, yeah, we, that is a great fucking story. That is, that is a hard social situation to navigate. And I find every social situation

that's navigate. Are you introduced four bottle OJ into that? Especially saying, you got to just give me, just give me a song. He, He wants his Hurricane Carter song.

He was talking about you and Buster. Yeah. And you know what? And there are knives on the table too. Years later, Jay-Z gave him that song. Just not quite the song that he wanted. Okay. Exactly.

What happened the second time you met O.J? That was it. I don't even went to a strip club situation. Anyway. Oh, God. John Oliver, I thank you very much. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no.

No, no. No. No. You can't leave it like that. Thank you very much, I'm going to go. Oh, Quartzma, yeah.

Don't get a conclusion ever. Don't worry about it. If you're not fun of the strip of life, don't worry about it. Fawkes Bill and I'm Big Bill and Sugarsteeve. We are signing off Quartz Love Supreme.

Quartz Love Supreme is a production of I-heart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts, I heart radio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make, the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider,

you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcasts on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.

I vowed, I will be his life. as target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.