The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Anthony Jeselnik

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Anthony Jeselnik returns to podcasting! The stand-up comedian joins Andy Richter to discuss why he stopped doing roasts, his mission to get more men to read, his upcoming “year of clubs,” why video clips made him stop podcasting, and much more. Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) or ask a question - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to the three questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter, and today I am talking to comedian and writer Anthony Jezzelnick. His latest special, Bones and All is available on Netflix, and you can find his tour dates at Anthony Jezzelnick.com and follow along with his Jezelnick book club at Anthony Jezelnick on Instagram. As always, you can listen to the Andy Richter call-in show Wednesdays on Sirius XM's Conan O'Brien Radio. If you have a story or question for me, you can leave me. a voicemail at 855-266-2-604 or fill out the Google form in this episode's description. And now here's my conversation with Anthony Jezzelnick. So then we quit and then during the pandemic, well, no, Comedy Central gave us a deal. And then that ended. And then when the pandemic hit, I was like, let's do something and went to

all things comedy. Yeah, yeah. And eventually just after 250 episodes, I was like, I can't do this anymore. Well, just because it was too much. We never had guests. It was just started to feel. like the same thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when the, I was telling them when the clip people got involved, where if I said anything controversial, it became like a clip out of context

and I was just sick of that. That it was like, you're just doing a podcast just to say the most like infuriating shit you can. Right, right, right. And I was ready to go. And they, and then you would have to answer to the fallout of whatever the stuff.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I know that's, that is, I think that that happens. where when you talk for so long, we have to talk for a long time. You end up saying stuff that you don't even, like, believe or, you know, just to.

Yeah, you like have to go on a rant to make it entertaining. They're like, we like it when Anthony's angry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was a lot to be angry about. And then it's like, why am I, why am I speaking on this at all? But to not say anything also, it drives you crazy. For like, for your anger to become like the hoop that you jump through as a trained poodle, You know, that kind of thing.

It's like, anger's not fun, you know? And to like, be that the thing, like, hey, do the thing. Do the thing. And I would come to the podcast in a good mood. Yeah, yeah. And, like, talk to my friend and talk to the producer and then sit down. They're, like, rolling, and I would just get mad. And I was like, this is not healthy.

Would they bait you with stuff to try and make you mad? I could do whatever I want, but I would just get riled up. And it was, I think it was just being sick of the format. Oh. And just doing the same thing every week. And I was on the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I was doing a ton and I was just over it.

Yeah, yeah. We made it to 250. We're still best friends. Like, nothing, it wasn't like, I'm, I got to quit this. Right. But we talked about bringing it back. And then we were like, do you miss it? Like, no. Yeah, yeah.

But, uh, do you podcast at all anymore? It's what I was telling them, I haven't done it. And like, I did press, like a press tour right after my tour ended. Yeah, yeah. And I was a mess at the end of that tour. So it was like the awful time to come in and be doing press where I'm like, I can't deal with bad friends right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can sit there and deal with that shit.

And so I was saying no to stuff. And then when you say no long enough, people, stop asking you. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, listen, I'm about to go back on tour. I'm launching a book club. Like, let's get back out there and do things. Right, right.

To promote. Yeah, see, me, you could come on here anytime. I'll be, I'll see you next week. All right. Nope. That's great. Well, you're from outside of Philly? Is that right?

Way outside of Philly. Way outside of Pittsburgh. Oh, outside of Pittsburgh. Yeah. Oh, okay. And Catholic, right? They tried their best. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And is it Slovenian? Is that what it is? Technically. Like, we're from like what would have been Prussia. Oh, okay. I think like Slovenian technically, someone told me Slovenia, but I've never been there. Right, right, right.

I know it's like three brothers came over, but I don't know if they changed the name. Right, right, right, right. And we never got that deep. You know, my family used to say German and then someone reached out and was like, actually it's this. No shit, really? Yeah, it was like one of those. Like even your parents were like ill-informed about your ethnicity? Yeah, didn't really, didn't really know.

And then when I tried to tell them, they were like, okay. Who cares? What do you want us to do? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What do we have to change our Christmas meals? Yeah. Like into some sort of Slovenian something.

Isn't that what, uh, isn't Melania Trump Slovenia? Yeah. Melania Trump's our North Star. Oh, wow. That's what we all aspire to be. Yeah. Yeah. There's a, one of the pros on dancing with the stars.

Jan Robnik is Slovenian. And he's great. So there's, there I know two good Slovenians, you and him. I think is a basketball player. Oh, there's a hockey player. There's a bunch of hockey players. Yeah. Copitar.

Is Luca? Lucas Slovenian. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I try to get like a Slovenian hockey, like soccer jersey, but you can't even... Really? They don't sell them here. They're not interested.

Wow. Yeah. I don't know where the hell I would wear a soccer jersey, but I thought maybe that's as much as all... Right, right. Identify a Slovenian. One of my writers on one of my old TV shows got me a Slovenian flag and a frame. as like a like a thank you present gift. Or was he serious?

He thought it would like mean something to me. And I was like, okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, my rich heritage. It is kind of funny, though. And it's so American to be like, I'm what? Slibe?

Okay. Like German, not German. Oh, Slibe. Okay. But that part of the world changed so much. Yes, absolutely. Like, it's why I like to say just Prussian. Like we be alone.

I don't really know. As you wear a helmet with a big point on the top of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or a big handlebar mustache. No, that part of the world is so, like, mixed. And I just, I love in history, too, like, when I hear something about, like, the Etruscans, like, what are we talking? Is that Turkey? Is that, you know, Bulgaria?

What are we talking? You know, just, and it's the, the current words don't really matter that much. No, just tell me what shade of black they are, you know? And then, like, give me a color scale one to tell. And then I can put it in the words. And how much deal they put in their borshed. Yeah. You didn't start out.

Well, I guess you were funny as a kid, right? You know? And the way that everyone was like trying to be funny. Yeah, yeah. I remember just wanting to be funny. Friends who had older brothers. I was like, I wanted them to laugh. Yeah.

I was always trying to make the older kids laugh. And I was failing until I think like maybe like my freshman or sophomore year of high school. Yeah. I finally got some older kids. kids to laugh and it was a groundbreaking moment. Uh-huh. You know, I was, what it's, I would say I would try to get the teacher to laugh. If you make a joke in class and the teacher laughs out of it, you can't get in trouble. Oh, I, so those were like the best feelings. To me, and it still remains like one of the best

feelings ever is when a teacher is pissed at you for being a smart ass and, and cracking wise, and then you make them laugh while they're pissed at you. It is the, it's like, you know, people, a lot of, like comedians will come on here and I'll talk about that first laugh that they got, like, that's nothing compared to the laugh that you get from an angry teacher because it makes them angrier. They're laughing, but they're now angrier at you. But it also feels like you cracked a code. Yeah. Like, you got it, like, this is how it's possible. Right. You split it right down the middle. Right. And the first time it happened, I remember just being in disbelief. Yeah. It was like a glitch in the matrix. Yeah, yeah. That was a, you made a teacher laugh.

Was that in junior high, high school? The first time I made a teacher laugh was in the second grade. Oh, wow. And I don't think I was even really trying. I was just being a jerk. There was a girl in my class was moving to another, like, part of Pennsylvania. And it was a pretty big shithole. Right, right. And I didn't even know what it was, but she was like, we're moving to like Allentown or something. Yeah. And I go, oh, send us a postcard. And the teacher cracked up and then called my parents to be like, your son's very funny. Oh, wow. You made me laugh at this today. My parents reminded me all those years later. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Were your parents funny? I mean, did they... No. No, really? No. There wasn't a lot of laughter in the house? I don't think they really understood comedy. Yeah.

My parents famously would tell me that when they would watch Saturday Night Live back in the day, they didn't know when the band was playing versus a skit. Like, the band would come on and they would like think it was supposed to be funny, too. They were never comedy people. Never like, oh, you've got to watch this comedy. This is very funny. They liked Peter Sellers. Yeah, yeah.

But I didn't understand that as a kid. But there was no. like this is funny, we're laughing. And if I could make them laugh, it was great. Yeah, yeah. You know, as a kid, if you make people laugh, everything is okay. But I was really going after my friend's older brothers. Yeah, yeah. That was the big one. Yeah. And as you get into high school, I mean, and you, you know, you have to start thinking like, what am I going to do with myself as a job? I wanted to be a novelist. Oh, really? Yeah, I was always a big reader. I learned to read early. I was in Montessori school. And as well as my mom tricked me, I was, I was,

was like three or four years old. And she was like, do you want to go somewhere where you can like color and like cut out pieces of paper? And I was like, yeah, let's go. Yeah. And then she just dropped me off at Montessori school. And that was like the next like four years of my life. And I was furious. And they said the only way they could calm me down. Yeah. I was so disruptive. In Montessori school is just do what you want. Yes. You know, we'll teach you whatever. But you just here, there's no structure. And that was terrible for me. That I was ruining everyone's Montessori experience. But if they read to me, I was docile like a little lamb. Oh, wow.

Where they would have volunteers come in. Like retired people would come in and just read to me. And they're like, he's the sweetest kid in the world. They're like, yeah, as long as you're reading. Oh, wow. And then once I learned how to read, then I was just off in my own little world. And that was my, that was my big thing. Yeah, yeah.

I remember getting the first grade in public school. And the teacher's taking me around to classrooms and like, listen to this kid read. Like, he knows how to read. Yeah. And I was like, this is just what I like to do. Yeah. I had my, my oldest kid went to Montessori. and I had never, I didn't have any experience with it.

And it was just to know the history of it, that it was like, it was, you know, and that in the, Maria Montessori designed it because in those days, kids just sat behind a desk and were drilled things and had to be, you know, memorized shit. And she's like, no, you go around and you have little tasks. And you know, like Montessori school, it's like one thing you fill a jar with sand. And then, and it just to me was like it was so evidently like, light manufacturing for children, like little skills of like, you know, putting, here's, if you get a job at the clock factory, you're going to be at a little station where you're like putting gears together. I remember learning how to tie my shoes. Yeah. But it felt like playtime. They couldn't really get it through my head that it wasn't playtime. Right. You know, so I was just wanted to run around and then like, no, find an activity and do it. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I tied my shoes. I'm good here that I didn't, I don't know Montessori was the best for me. Yeah, yeah. But I got a lot out of it. Well, especially if you aren't good with structure.

Because then my second kid, my daughter, Montessori was not for her. She needed. She needed a cage. I probably did, too. Yeah, yeah. It felt like punishment. Yeah, yeah. I felt like jail.

Like, you've got to go do this. And then like, all, you're done with Montessori school. I was like, great. And then like, welcome to first grade. Yeah, yeah. The next 18 years. Yeah, yeah. And so you went to Tulane in New Orleans.

How come from Pennsylvania to New Orleans? I always just assumed that college you wanted to get as far away from what you grew up in as you could. You know, it would seem to my dad was big into college. He went to Notre Dame. My dad had grown up in this place in Pennsylvania called Renova. That was like just, it used to be like a railroad town and the railroad went away. And now it's like a hunting town. Yeah.

But he couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Went to Notre Dame on an ROTC scholarship because he had no money. And then went to Georgetown on his own. It was right after the Vietnam War. So they let him go to Georgetown and get his law degree. and then go into the military to serve. I see. And so he was always big on college.

Yeah. And I remember being obsessed with New Orleans as a kid. Had never been, but just the idea of it from like a literary perspective. Yeah, yeah. Kind of dark, mysterious, dangerous, and going to like a college fair in high school and seeing the only thing in Louisiana was Tulane.

Yeah. I asked my dad if it was a good school. He said it's a great school. And that's just all I wanted to do. Oh, wow. And it was the best four years of my life. Oh, wow. It was amazing.

And what didn't you stay down there, you think? I was ready to leave. I mean, four years of New Orleans is a lot. Four Marty Gras in a row is tough. And I mean, are you drinking like you sort of have to in New Orleans during that whole period? I mean, I drank like I wanted to. Yeah, yeah. But that was the scene.

You went to bars. Bars didn't close. I remember coming to L.A. and going to a bar for the first time and hearing last call and not knowing what that meant. And then trying to pour my beer into a plastic cup and walk outside and getting tackled. I mean like, in New Orleans, this is very okay. Right, exactly. And I think it almost saved my life.

Because when I came to L.A., I was just like, I know, I'm not doing this. I'm not, I'm not driving anywhere. I'm not paying for these drinks. Like, New Orleans was just such a drinking and food culture. Yeah, yeah. That L.A. was like almost, you're here to work. Yeah. You know.

And what did you study there? Literature. In literature. Oh, so, and it was really still to just kind of write a novel. I thought so. I mean, I would have, if I really, if the novel was the old. ultimate goal, I would have gone to a college that had creative writing as a major. So there wasn't. Tooley, I didn't have that. It was literature, but I thought the education I would get from New Orleans

and being there would help me. And I ended up in L.A. because one of my friends who grew up in New Orleans was friends with one of my fraternity brothers and went to UCLA. I was like, hey, Anthony, you're funny. Come out to L.A. and I'll get you an internship at like Warner Brothers. And I had that between junior and senior year. And so graduated and thought, I'll just come out here and figure it out. And at that point were you thinking like TV and movies too? I mean, TV and movies, anything. I was like an extra for a couple days. Oh, wow.

And I remember thinking like maybe I'll get into acting because I was talking to other extras about how you can do this for a living. Yeah. And I went into my best friend who had gotten the job we both interned for. And I went into the office to tell him how great my day was working on the adventures of Pluto Nash. And I said, I might want to do this actually make a go of. being an actor. And our boss came in, this guy named Paul Hall, who was a big producer. And he goes, and this is at Warner Brothers. He had a deal at Warner Brothers. And he goes, you're doing what? And I go, I think I'm going to get into extra work and, like, get my union card. And he just looks at me.

He goes, you don't want to do that. And that was the end of my acting dreams. Like, I was like, okay, you're right. I'm done. I'll try to find, like, a writer's assistant would have been a dream job. And that was just impossible. Yeah. Unless you knew somebody. Yeah. And my dad knew a guy. The reason I even, I got into comedy. My dad went to college with a guy named Jimmy Brogan. Uh-huh. Do you imagine? He was the head writer at the show. I met with him and I thought he would just be like, here's an internship. Come work with me. And he said, just do stand-up.

Instead of having someone read your jokes, you can tell them your jokes. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. Took a comedy class and then started going to open mics. Oh, wow. That movie comedian, the Jerry Seinfeld movie, that movie, like, changed my life. Oh, really? I've never seen it.

No. It's amazing. Yeah. And it's like Jerry Seinfeld, who's on top of the world. What year is it? This is 2002. It comes down in October of 2002 because when I go by the first day I did stand up by being October 11th, 2002.

Okay. The movie hit theaters. It was right up at the Sunset 5. I lived nearby. I walked over there. So, and it's like he's just done the TV show. He's done his act for the last time. Does a special.

And then he starts from scratch. And that's the documentary. Yeah, yeah. So it's this guy who's this guy who's. couldn't be bigger, but he's just eating shit everywhere. Yeah. These audiences are going nuts. And then they're like, wait, what?

You don't have anything? Yeah. And I was like, oh, wow, if he can do that, start from nothing and be embarrassed on stage. Like, watching someone bomb is more inspiring than watching someone kill. Yeah, yeah. And so watching him bomb like that, I was like, got it. And then just started hitting open mics like crazy. Wow.

Yeah. And before that, you hadn't ever really occurred to you? It wasn't like, because I mean, so many, because, you know, having different comedians in here through the years, you know, so many people were like, oh, I was, you know, like, I knew I wanted to be a comedian and stand up. And you just kind of fell into it from. It didn't seem possible. I always loved stand up. Yeah.

But didn't seem possible. And the standups that I saw, I thought they're like Stephen Wright, where they're a genius. Yeah. And I can't do that. Or they're like, I know my haircut's stupid. My shirt's dumb. I'm like, idiot, you picked those. You know, like, I didn't want to be that kind of comment.

Yeah, yeah. It was people like Sarah Silverman, you know, who was like cool and sexy that I was like, oh, being comedian can be cool. Yeah. And then I saw, you know, B.J. Novak? Uh-huh. I saw B.J. Novak at an open mic doing one-liners. And I was like, oh, you can do this.

Yeah, yeah. Because in 22, 23, I had like nothing interesting about me. Of course. That I hated telling stories or trying to pretend like I was a man. Yeah. You know, I didn't want to talk about politics or anything. Yeah. I was just really banging my head against the wall.

And then when I saw that, I thought, let me find a vein and just do jokes. Yeah, that's the hard thing. when you're a young person wanting to write is, what the fuck do you write about? Like, I went to film school and I was a screenwriting major. And in retrospect, I'm like, what the, what did they expect me to write about? You know, I mean, it's like, I think my end up, my main project was like a terrible zombie movie, you know, because I was like, I don't know about life, but, okay, I've seen a lot of zombie movies. I'll write a zombie movie, you know.

My second time on stage, I took this class and at the end, you went on stage. And the first time I just told a couple stories from my life. Yeah, yeah. And it did well. And the second time, I made up a story. It was like when that stomach stapling surgery had just come on, like, come on the scene. Yeah, yeah. And I said I used to be 500 pounds, but I got my stomach stapled.

And I was even skinny than I am now. And the audience was like, like, like, clapping. And then I would just do like the most brutal fat jokes I could for like 10 minutes. And then when people found out I was lying, they were furious. Of course they were. But I was just like, I got to try to, I got to do a character. Yeah. Because Anthony is not that interesting.

There's no reason for you to be listening to me as a stand-up. When I see young kids now, I'm like, why would I ever listen to what you say? But, I mean, because, well, there's a certain sort of, I guess it's a fearlessness about doing something like that where you're like, because you had to know what a line, like, you were giving yourself permission to tell jokes that people would normally groan at. Correct? And then, and then, but you. You knew that there was a good chance they'd find out, right? Didn't you? I thought that mean was funny, but you had to like the person. And I was like, let me just try to lie. I see. How much do I have to lie in order to get them on board?

The fact that I just say, I used to be 500 pounds. They believed that. And I was like, off to the races. Right, right, right, right. That was more experimental. I only did it a couple times. Yeah, yeah. But it was just like, how can I find a way to not be myself and still be accepted? Yeah, yeah. You know, there was a guy in my class who did an Irish accent, and they, like, loved him. And then he stopped doing it halfway through when they turned on them. Because they want to, they feel like the bit they've been misled.

Yeah, of course. You have to commit to the bit. Of course. You know, and then you would see guys who were trying to do Andy Kaufman. And I was like, you're wasting everybody's time. Yeah, yeah. You know, I didn't want to do that either. So I had to kind of find that vein.

Really, it's a, that's got to be, like, finding your thing in stand-up. I don't envy that, that journey for anyone. and luckily I never had to do it because I was I was well first I just I'm improv so I like I had the safety of numbers on stage and and also you didn't have to do you didn't have to have a thing in Chicago improv I mean out here there's with it was more sort of character based because you're close to the industry so they want you to do marketable you know business minded comedy because you know everybody's here to get into comedy professional. But in Chicago, it was a lot more esoteric and kind of like, don't do the same thing over and over. The notion of like coming up with a character was frowned upon. And if you did something once, you weren't supposed to do it again. Which in hindsight, I mean, there's something sort of interesting about it as a challenge, is an artistic challenge.

But in hindsight, it's like when you're young kids that are going to try and be doing this for a living, it's like, what to fuck you to them? It's almost too pure. Yeah. Yeah, like, yeah, you found something good. Now, don't do it. Like, oh, but people really liked it. You got to find another thing that people really liked.

Now, I took an improv class out here, and I wonder if I had gone second city if it would been different or UCB, it had been different. Yeah. I did the ground links. Uh-huh. It was like the only one I could afford. Yeah. And at the end of the class, and I'm like, I'm killing it in this class.

But at the end of the class, they put you out in the hallway and they bring you in one by one. And we're going to tell you if you're going to skip a level or repeat this level. And I think you may have even, like, been able to skip two levels because you were like so good. And we're out in the hallway and they're like, Anthony, you're going. They're going to put you in the Sunday show. Like, you're great. And I get in the room and they say, you're going to repeat this class. And I go, what are you talking about?

I'm the funniest guy here. Like, I was legitimately shocked. There was an ego. It was like shock. And she goes, you're always funny. Yes. And that's important. But you're always Anthony.

And we're trying to teach you to be like other characters and other people. And I never came back. I was like, Anthony's really funny. Right, right, right. Let's go just be Anthony. Anthony's enough for me. But if I do, if I'm in a sketch or an, improv scene, I'm terrified. Because if I mess up, you mess up. Yeah, I don't want you to mess up. Yeah, yeah. If it's

me on stage and it's not going well, I can eat it for however long I have to. Yeah, yeah. That, that I always, sketches and acting always raised my temperature because I don't, I'm worried about the other person. Yeah, yeah. You know, in a way that, I guess if you have trust, you don't have to deal with that, but I always, I was always more nervous doing things with other people. That's interesting to me, because, I mean, your reputation for, well, I mean, I guess it's evolved over the years. But, you know, you were the guy that was going to say the stuff that, like, made people go, ooh, you know. And or, I mean, as in reading the stuff about, you know, you were writing all the jokes that Fallon wouldn't do. Yeah.

Because they were too mean and he didn't want people to not like him or whatever. And it's funny to me to hear you have that concern for another performer, but like that lack of, because that's a lack of concern. concerned about the audience in terms of like how they're going to take what you're going to do. Isn't it? I didn't see it that way because if I was in the audience, I would want to see what I was doing. I see. The art that I liked was edgy, not for everybody. You know, the comics were like, I want everyone to like me.

They're thinking of their mom. Yeah, yeah. You know, and my parents had no sense of humor that I was like, that's the last people I'm thinking about. Right. And even if I said something edgy that people were like, ooh, they're okay. Yeah, you know, offended is nothing. Nothing. And people want to tell you when you're younger. People would always tell me, oh, Anthony, if you were just a little nicer. I'm like, I'm not mean. I'm like making up a third person to be mean to. The audience didn't like me when I walked on stage because I was a 23 year old, skinny, good looking white guy. And I was like, let's play with that. Yeah. Like, I could tell jokes that would make you not like me because you already didn't. And once you realize what I was doing, two or three jokes in a row, you could get on board. Yeah, yeah. I love that person in the audience who looks upset and then starts laughing.

And maybe it's not the first joke, but I will get them eventually. And it just felt like a safe space. Yeah, yeah. You know, I came from alternative comedy. Yeah, everyone had to be wildly different and it was an incredibly progressive space. Yeah. People assumed I was a club guy. I went to clubs after because you have, I wanted to go on the road and make money.

Yeah, yeah. Alternative comedy is not the, the golden faucet, people think it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I came from a place of, if it exists anymore, even really, you know. No, no, yeah. But I was never trying to hurt people or, like, upset people. It's just the character had to be doing that in order to pull off these jokes. I see.

Yeah. And is that what was the process like of coming up with that? I mean, did you go through various kind of personalities? And, you know, like you said, there was a point, like you were a storyteller and you realized that didn't fit you. Yeah. I had a couple stories from college that I was like, I don't want to be the college guy. Yeah, yeah. And then seeing BJ Novak was an eye opener, but you can do clever.

smart jokes. And the funniest thing in the world to me, and I've said this many times giving him all the credit in the world, is Jack Candy. Jack Candy's deep thoughts. So I would buy his books and read them, and go to open mics two hours early, read the books, write my own jokes, and I would tell one liners. Yeah, yeah. And then one night, I had a dark one. One that had a dark twist to it, and the audience went, ooh, and then laughed. And I was like, that's it. I see. That's my thing. That one was... It was... My girlfriend loves to eat chocolate.

She's always eating chocolate, and she likes to joke. She's got a chocolate addiction. She's like, keep me away from those chocolate bars. I'm addicted to them. And it's really annoying. So I put it in the car

and I drove her downtown, and I pointed out a crack addict. And I said, you see that, honey? Why can't you be that skinny? And to make a roomful of open micers, like, it was like, I could feel their jealousy

that I was like, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I got my thing. And then became a question of can I do this for a long time? Yeah, yeah. You know, can I make this seven minutes? Can I do it for an hour? Yeah.

Like, it took me years to get to a place where I could do it for 45 minutes an hour and then to do it again. Yeah, yeah. It's always a real challenge. Yeah. And that is, that is, it reminds me very much of like a lot of what Sarah's stuff years ago used to be where, I mean, and she also, I mean, and she would talk about how that, you know, she looks like. snow white and then she would just say the most like blood chilling stuff you know and it and but there was always that sort of you know she had like a naivete yeah yeah yeah about her that like she doesn't she can't really mean it yeah but you knew she meant it like it was i mean she was my

my gold star yeah i looked up to her so much yeah getting the right for her was like a huge dream yeah for a couple jokes um and she's now evolved but that early sarah silverman was just like it was the coolest comic. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. She, I mean, she talks about, and she has talked about how, you know, when you make a joke that is offensive in some way, like, or where you put on the sort of like the clothing, the comic clothing of like a racist person or like a body shaming person or, you know, like in your joke, like somebody that like would tell his girlfriend you're too fat. if you put that on like yeah people are laughing there are what you want is people to laugh because they know that you're kidding and that you have and that you're assuming that was the sort of

character of an awful person but i think that at a certain point she realized awful people were laughing because they were taking those jokes at face value and i wonder how much that has happened with you in your career where you realize like i'm saying all this kind of nihilistic you know, sort of whether it's sexist or whatever kind of, you know, just anti-life kind of stuff. And are people taking this seriously? I noticed it and I've adjusted to it as I've gone through my career where I noticed that, you know, misogynists were like really on board with like my first hour. And I was like, okay, like let me, how do I get out of this?

And it became, I realized, you know, racist laugh at racial jokes. If I do a racial joke, it's really got to be so absurd. that, you know, what side I'm on. Or I thought that death is universal. That's why I kind of went as dark as I did. Was it no matter who you were, death is going to take everyone back a little bit. Child abuse jokes are going to take everyone back.

You know, there's not like someone who's like, I think child molestation is cool. You know, like it was just I had to find more universal and darker things than racism, yeah, abortion, you know, things like that. But I've tried to get the message out that you're not an awful person. Or just like fuck off to the people who

who are laughing for the wrong reasons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and it's like, one of my specials, people thought I was conservative. So I'm like, I need to do something. And I had like a 25-minute bit about taking a friend to get an abortion. It was like very pro, I'm on her side kind of thing.

And it's like, all, maybe I lose some people that way. But I've always been very happy to tell large chunks of my fan base to fuck off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it. Yeah. I mean, you do. You kind of, if you're going to talk about stuff that isn't just, you know, if your one-liners is sort of funny turns of phrase, that's one thing, you know. And if you decide you're not going to, you know, because there's a lot of what they call clean comics.

And it's like that's a good, great career. And if that's where you want to live, that's great. But if you're going to say serious stuff about serious stuff to be funny, yeah, you're going to have to at a certain point piss people off. You know, I mean, I certainly, I was, I was just, there's a guy doing work on our house who just today warned me to watch it on Instagram talking. Because I just was reposting stuff about the Minneapolis shooting. And he's like, you got to be careful. And I was like, I'm okay. Don't worry about me.

I haven't been on Twitter in a long. I quit years ago. I used to follow you. I would see your posts. Like you were like, and it's the kind of thing where you can, you can say nothing. Yeah. And it's okay because Twitter is just Twitter. Yeah, yeah. But then you get you start to feel like by not saying something. Yes. I'm like bowing down to them. Yep. And then that makes you crazy. Like I had the same thing happened to me. I was I would see I was always non-political. And then when

Trump one came to power, uh, the first time, I was seeing myself on lists of like top conservative comedians. And I was like, just because I'm not PC. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't mean I'm with this. And I lost my mind. I bet. And I was like, I have to. make some sort of statement. But I tried to keep it minimal. But I will see comments of like, you used to be funny. And now you're just like a libtard.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, man. Whatever. Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, it was the same way. And when I was, and it's also just because it would be stuff

that I would feel. And, you know, and I, but I, you know, but there was like, because I used to be really into common sense gun control. That was a really important issue to me. And I used to talk about it. lot because I felt like so much of the information that people used against common sense gun control

was horseshit and it was all easily debunked. And that's why I attempted, I would attempt to do that. And then I started getting like people call in my house, sent me like little drawings of me with bullet holes in them. And I was like, yeah, you know what? No, maybe they win. You know, like I, you know, I got kids. I can't, I can't keep doing And that kind of sucks. But, you know, but I, but also at a certain point, like I had this feeling, you know, with Trump winning and then winning again. It's like, especially the second time we won, I felt like I have tried. I have tried to say, hey, this shit is bad.

And, you know, I mean, in addition to the jokes and keeping people happy and doing stuff, I have no one to say, hey, you know what, this stuff is bad. I mean, to those of you who are persuadable, this is bad stuff. And then it's like, no, okay, fuck it. You know, I do and do and do for you kids. And you go and elect that fucking idiot again, you know. Can't you tell my loves it grows? I was lucky with Trump that my big break in comedy was roasting him.

Yes, yes. Like way before that I was like, just replay the clip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. If he ends up going from cancer, I'm going to be the biggest comic in the world for about 10 days. Like, there's a joke that people have already keyed up. But at this point, I'm just. Which is, I mean, yeah.

It was Donald Trump. The only difference between you and Michael Douglas from the movie Wall Street is no one's going to be sad when you get cancer. And this is back when Michael Douglas had cancer from eating all the pussy. From eating pussy. Sure. The pussy eating cancer. Yeah, which I've tried to write a joke about that and no one bite. No one's into it.

Oh. And do you find sometimes, though, that, um, like do you feel like you run out of taboos? Like, you know, does that get hard? Yes, I'm mining for gold in a field that I have mined a lot of gold out of. But I think that for me, the challenge is to not give up. Yeah, yeah. You know, I see a lot of comics who start out with jokes and they turn to storytelling because they run out of jokes.

And I'm like, every time I do it, I'm more impressed by myself for having done it. And people keep telling me, do something different. But I doing what? Like finding a new. Doing jokes. Finding new ways to be a little shocking. Yeah, yeah. To kind of make this character evolve without actually saying like I am evolving.

But I just, I really love writing jokes. And the biggest response, I'm not being edgy for the sake of being edgy, the biggest response you can get from a one-liner. Now, if you just read Jack Candy's deep thoughts on stage, most of them aren't getting a laugh. Yeah. They're funny to read on the page, but I need to make the audience explode. Yeah.

And the tension you get from joking about a taboo, whether it's in the setup or the punch line is just so much bigger than anything else. Yeah, yeah. You know, that I, and I'm not trying to make people be like, oh, you're saying what we're all thinking. Like, I am this niche thing that I just enjoy just hitting that nail over and over again

and seeing what comes out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's my favorite jokes I've ever written in my 20, almost 5 years, 25 years, are in this new, you know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes I'm putting together right now. Uh-huh. I'm going on the road with that I'm just like,

oh, if I can still find pieces, of gold, it's worth it to me. Yeah, yeah. Do you ever feel, does it ever feel limiting to you? Do you ever feel like I, like you've, like you've created a niche for yourself that you can't go out of, even if you want to? It's limiting, but I, I welcome the limits. I found that, like, I think that you can find genius if you put yourself in a box. Yeah. And I put myself in a box a long time ago, and I just really enjoy, like, the idea of like, what if I did it again? Every time I'm like, this is the last one. Yeah, yeah. This is it. And at the end, I'm like, what if I did this again? Wouldn't that be crazy?

Then I don't really find it. I'm not like, oh, I'm dying to go up there and talk about my life because I'm not. And I'm an open person. There's nothing you can ask me that. I'm like, oh, no, I don't want to get into that. But on stage, doing stand-up comedy, I just like doing comedy. Yeah. And I'm not into the, you know, let's be vulnerable and teach the audience a lesson.

I don't want to tell anybody how to vote on stage. Yeah, yeah. And maybe there's some hints there. But I'm kind of like an edgy person for progressive people. Yeah, yeah. That's my favorite part of my audience. Because progressive comedy is usually real bad. Yes.

You know, that... It's preaching to the choir. Yes. Yeah, yeah. That I think I'm a villain, but it's very safe. Yeah, yeah. You know, there's no... No one's really getting hurt.

Yeah. I mean, you've spent a lot of your early years writing for other people. Mm-hmm. And what is the difference for you? Like, what is... Are you writing just... Are you writing for Anthony and just giving it to somebody else pretty much? That's why I was, I would, there are a couple people I would write for, and if I liked the joke, they liked it too. And they were like, thank you.

Yeah. And then a lot of people who were like, I can't do this. And I'm like, I understand. But I'm not a comedy writer. I'm a comedian who writes jokes. Yeah, yeah. You know, so. And were you aware of that? Like, when you got on Fallon, like, did you have that or was it working on Falun? Because that was kind of your first big show, right? That was the regular job. But I had written like a couple weeks for a monologue here, a couple, like, you know, award show things. Yeah, yeah. A couple weeks here or there. And Fallon, they didn't know what. Jimmy's voice was going to be or how successful that show would be. Oh, was that at the beginning? Yes. Oh, okay. I was the very, I was the first monologue guy they hired. Oh, wow.

And we just didn't know. And the show was such a success right off out of the gate, you know, with the roots. It seems like, like just knowing now what we know, like having you be the first monologue writer for Jimmy Fallon does not seem like the right fit. It was some people were like, why are you doing this? I'm like, I need the money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a dream job for me to be in that.

Because I would hear about, you know, early. days of Conan sounded so much fun. Yeah. You guys were like finding it and trying to keep it, where Jimmy was very much in there. Yeah. He had the roots. You know, people were going nuts for him right away.

Yeah. And they liked me and kept me around, but they were like, we're not doing any of this. And maybe there had been an alternate universe where they needed me. Yeah. You know, if the critics had come out with knives, they would have been like, well, Jimmy needs to have an edge. I see.

But it was very much like, we can't do these things. And they were right. I'm surprised they kept me for a year. Yeah, yeah. And I remember thinking, like, if I quit, But people were going to look at my resume and say, what happened here at Fallon? And no one would have ever said that. I stayed for a year.

Yeah. To be like, so that way I have a calendar year and it wouldn't have mattered at all. It wouldn't have mattered either way. Yeah, yeah. No. Was it an unhappy year? Or were you, I mean, did you, was it, did it feel debilitating to go in and just not get a lot of shit on the air? It was frustrating.

Yeah. You know, it was certainly frustrating. And I was pretty unhappy, but I understood. Yeah. And they seemed okay. It wasn't like I ever got yelled. that. Yeah, yeah. It was just like I would turn in a lot of jokes. And because I was the first guy, I had to turn in like 70 to 100. And they weren't taking any that I'm like, could I just maybe

turn in 10? And they're like, no, we need the numbers. Because Jimmy was finding his voice and didn't know, you couldn't hand him 10 jokes. You had to hand him 100 and have people look through it. So I was just at a weird time. Yeah. And yeah, I was I was pretty unhappy. Yeah. Because I wanted to get stuff on. I still wanted to win. And I was doing stand-up and not writing any new stand-up. And I was doing stand-up and not writing any new stand-up. Yeah. I would just get up every night because I was afraid

I would lose the muscle. Yes. But, and so maybe if I had not done stand-up, I would have been better suited to it. I don't think I would have done necessarily a better job, but I wouldn't have been so unhappy. I see.

Now, did you, did you, a lot of the jokes, could you just take those and put them into your act? Or were they not appropriate for you? They weren't, they were monologue jokes. Yeah.

There was one I had that I used, I had a show called the Jesselnik offensive after, because I leave Fallon, I tour for a year. I'm not a name. I'm doing comedy clubs to people just coming to see comedy.

Yeah. And I put out an album that was well reviewed. And then I get on the roast. And then it was the next day my life was different. And writing, you're writing the roast before you're...

I wrote for a roast ended very well in the room where they almost put me on that roast. It was the David Hasselhoff roast. And then we're like, no, you've been giving way your best stuff. Let's save you for the next one, which was Trump.

And then Charlie Sheen was four months later. But those two, like, I remember going to comedy clubs and just like, hopefully, maybe two people in the audience know who I am. Yeah. And then like, why is this guy talking about dead babies?

But then after the Trump roast, it was like sold out and they're going nuts from the jump. Yeah, yeah. It was amazing. Yeah, wow. It was amazing. And the reason that you get noticed is that because you just sell your jokes in the room at the roasts? You know what I mean? Like when you do the first one, when you do the, what was David Hasselhoff?

David Hasselham. Yeah. What are they going to put you on for? Do you go on stage and tell your jokes? Is that how the process works? You're in a room. Like, it's a bunch of people in a room. And the head writer would say,

all right, for the next hour, everybody write jokes for Pamela Anderson to say, you'd have like the list of the dais, and it's always changing. Sure. So that first week, it's like Pamela Anderson can say about David Hassel.

Yes. And you're just writing or just jokes anyone can say about David Hassel. Or anyone can say about Pamela Anderson. Yeah. And then they read through. And like, and you're looking. looking for the audience or the writers to laugh.

Yeah. And it's all these, like, you know, fat, like 40-something old, like bitter guys. So to make them laugh was huge. Yeah, yeah. And they'd be like, who wrote that one? And they were like Juselnik. Then it was like, your heart grew a hundred times. I see, I see.

And I was just getting a lot of those on where it was not just like the ones where they'd like, we can't use that, but it's really funny. I had a lot of those. I see. So it was like, okay, this guy knows what he's doing and can hang with these guys. Do you still enjoy roasts? No. I didn't. I did the last one I did was Roseanne. And it was like diminishing returns because Trump was like changed my life.

Yeah. Sheen was the biggest one they'd ever done where it was like that was crazy. Yeah. And then Roseanne like no one knew what happened. Like it was just like it just didn't really chart. The ratings weren't there. It did. So you just mean it didn't it didn't make an impression. No. And I felt like I was repeating myself. And the James Franco roast, they were like we don't want them. And the beginning of the James Franco roast they thought they were getting a classier. version. They were like, we got Natalie Portman. We got Kate Hudson. And like, we don't want Anthony going up there and be in Darth Vader. And I was like, I get it. It's your party. And they lost all those people. I'm like, we'd have loved to have had Anthony up here, but I was done. And now, every time they do a roast, they ask me. Anytime anyone does a roast, except that fucking Mr. Peanut thing, they ask me to do it? And I've always said no. There's a number. Do you say no just because fuck those guys? Or do you say no because you're tired of that format? There's no

bitterness. It's just I feel like I gave my all to those three that I did, where that is really diminishing returns. Yeah. I don't want to repeat myself. Jeff Ross is amazing at always having new stuff for everyone, and I just didn't want to, and that wasn't my thing. I was always like, I'm going to be so much meaner, and not even about the person, just a mean joke that would be about something else. Yeah. And it's just not worth it to me. I don't want to have someone right for me. Yeah. I like writing my own stuff, and it's just not worth it. Right. Yeah. I, it's, roast to me, too sometimes i mean i understand why they're popular but for me and because i you know i'm so fucking jaded about like i don't watch much comedy anymore at all it just because i as i say i only

see the scenes you know it's like i would always say like if you're a plumber you don't go home and watch home improvement shows you know you because you do that at work so for me the ross i always just see the template you know like that that because there is there's so many formulas to those jokes where it's like, you know, you say something complimentary and then you just buy a change of words, you see that it's an insult, you know, and like that kind of thing. And so to me, I would, I would just feel that at a certain point, it would feel like you're doing the same trick over and over and over. It does feel that way.

Yeah. Like a really great. And like, you don't, not, you never have a great joke for everyone. You know, I have some of my best jokes I've ever written were on those roasts. But then there's some that I'm like, I've got to tell one for William Shatner. Right. you know, and I started to hurt people. So I started to people getting very upset with what I was going to do.

Or, like, I'm backstage with these people that I look up to, and they're fucking terrified of me. And even after the roast, they're still kind of mad that I'm like, I don't enjoy this. Yeah. And they treat the comedians way different than they treat the celebrities. You know, they treat. By the day, you mean the producers? The producers, everybody.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are kind of treated like shit. And I was sick of that. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I'm going to be the clip tomorrow. But you guys are fawning over Peyton Manning. over here? Like, come on. Yeah, yeah. I don't, uh, I don't need this. Yeah. I thought the one thing I thought would be fun to do would be to pick one person on the dais who's not getting, there's not like the,

like the main target of the roast. Yeah, yeah. But pick with the, the least likely person. Like, there was a roast of Rob Lowe. Yeah. And they put Anne Coulter on it. And they were like, Anthony, would you want to do this? And I was like, oh my God, to tee off on Anne Coulter and only Ann Coulter would be great. And then I looked at the dais and I was like, you know, who's next to Anne Coulter? Jewel. Going hard as hell at Jewel for 10 minutes would be so funny. Yeah, yeah.

That I was tempted to do something like that. Yeah. But now they're like unedited that I'm like, this is weird. Yeah. I think they should be edited. And I just think I'm done with it. Yeah, yeah. You know, I have a number.

Like, Whitney Cummings was doing some for only fans. Uh-huh. We're doing me and Burt Kreischer. We really want you. Like, give me the number. And I gave her the number. And then I, like, texted her back and done. I was like, that's not enough.

Like, I need. And second thought. Yeah, yeah. But it's just creatively, it doesn't, doesn't do it for me. Yeah, yeah. But it did change my life. And it's funny, because Nikki Glazer has talked about she did Ann Colter jokes. And she was on that.

And she also, too, I just recently on social media came across her jewel jokes for something because she did some jewel jokes and look them up, people. I will fuck them up if I try and remember them. But she did some fucking jewel jokes. And Joel was, you know, Jewel was enjoying them. But, yeah, but I remember Nikki, I think she talked about it on one of the Conan shows she was on it. Like, she was really, like, Anne Coulter was upset and, like, didn't realize seemingly that she was Ann Coulter. That, you know, like.

I give Anne Coulter more credit. Maybe I shouldn't. But I think that her move was to be upset. Oh, really? So that people would, like, Republicans would feel bad for her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. get mad, get mad. Right.

She didn't prepare. They were like, we're giving her jokes and she's like, no, I'm doing my own thing. And then so she can bomb and say, you know, I'm a victim here by my, she's holding her book up the whole time. Yeah, yeah. She knew what she was getting into and just decided to play it that way. Yeah, yeah. Which is the worst way you can play a roast.

Like, why do it? Yeah, yeah. Unless, you know, I mean, I do see, I do see that there's some logic to, because if she, you know, she does, she has her stick. and if if she's going to do a roast and be unhurt by people attacking her shtick that's going to kind of be like it's going to you know like the k-fabe in wrestling you know like it's going to kind of be like she will be she's going to let she's going to basically be letting on that like okay yeah this whole thing I do is an act like basically what I am is all it's a shit but if she's hurt you know yeah yeah. Yeah, I guess. I mean, anytime anyone asks for advice, I'm like, when they make fun of you, laugh. Yeah.

And everyone will love you. Yeah. Everyone will love you. They can't say anything bad. If you just laugh and look like you're laughing, then it's fine. Yeah, yeah. What we're annoying me, especially with Comedy Central, and I can say this now, is that they would edit the laughs. So they would tell me they'd like, Anthony, we love when you do these roasts because your jokes kill and you pause.

You don't go on rants. You tell the joke and then pause so we can take your laughs and give them to other people. And I was like, why are you doing? And why would you tell me that? Or they would have a joke that would like make me mad, but they would edit me laughing at someone else's joke. So it like it gives them permission to use. Yeah,

like they would make a joke about a black person and then cut to a black guy in the audience laughing. And like, he's not laughing at that joke. Right, right. He's laughing at something else entirely and you're just making this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That gets on your nerves because they don't let comics in the room to help with the edit.

Yeah, yeah. What was it like having your own show there for a while? I mean, was that, was that like a dream come true or did you feel sort of like I'd rather just be in the clubs doing this? It was a little of both. You know, I had two shows on Comedy Central. The second one was the best thing I've ever done.

I enjoyed it so much. And it was just an interview like this. It was called Good Talk. Yeah, yeah. And I had a writer's room with six people and they pitched things and I would like put it in my brain and spit it out. And that would be the, like, it would be my version of it. I see.

The Jesselnik Offensive was a weekly topical show where I'm just like in this avalanche of jokes. other people have written, and I'm doing my best to get it out there. And you got to do them. Yeah. Yeah. That I didn't, I did not enjoy it. But it also like, it was my big break. Yeah. I'm, I'm, if I don't want to be a failure, I'm looking at Tosh Point O and that's kind of like what I'm trying. That's my goal. And at Comedy Central at that time, it wasn't like you get to do your dream show. It was like you get to fit a show in with all the other things we have. So it was like, don't be too much like the burn with Jeff Ross. Don't be too much like Tosh. Point O. And I'm like, like I'm suddenly in this little niche thing. Yeah. They ended up being like, let's offend everybody.

And then if I did do something really offensive that was like newsworthy, like Colbert was great at doing the Colbert rapport. If he got in the newspaper, the next day they had a whole bit about it. Yeah, yeah. But if I got in the newspaper, it was like Viacom's mad. Yeah. And I need to shut it down that it was pretty miserable. Yeah, yeah.

It was pretty miserable. And I was always feeling like I was responsible for a hundred jobs. Yeah. On this show that's meant to, to obsessive. people. I'm like, I'm eating shit everywhere I go just to keep everyone employed. Yeah, to keep the guys going to be canceled. I was like, I was like, a good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Do you find sometimes because, you know, you do, you do have sort of a reputation of having like a funny cutting take on a thing that's going on.

And does that become, like, do people just expect you now to have the smart thing to say about lots of different things out in the world? And it was more of a Twitter thing. Yeah. In those days where everyone was doing those knee-jerk things, it kind of became my thing. I did a bit about it on one of my specials. They became one of the most famous bits. Then people were like, where is this?

I haven't done it in 10 years. Yeah, yeah. You know, I started to feel like the bully instead of, like, the young upstart. It was like coming out of nowhere. That once it was expected. it wasn't as fun, and I had failed enough times to be over it. There were some times where I was like, oh, I nailed this one. Sometimes I was like, God, I can't believe I said that about Whitney Houston.

You know, that you're like, well, you don't need to be doing this, but eventually you talk yourself out. Yeah, yeah. Like the greatest day of all time for jokes on Twitter was the death of Osama bin Laden. Yeah. Where everyone was just going off. And I was like, this is so much fun. And then you would try to recapture that.

And it was just like you kind of felt like you had. had to do it. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I don't want to, this shouldn't be a job. Right, right. It was a way to make fun of Twitter, and then Twitter became too serious. Yeah, yeah. What's in the future for you?

I mean, I know you've gotten, tell me about the book club. The book club is brand new. I started this year, and I've like set the groundwork for the book club. I've always loved reading. I talked about in the beginning, beginning of Montessori school, and like, I've always been a big reader. Are you always reading all the time? Yes. And is it one book at a time, or do you sort of jump around?

I will do, it's always, I love literature. So one book at a time literature. I give it 100 pages and if I can't keep going, I bail. Yeah, yeah. But I'll do audiobooks nonfiction because I can't. I get bored with that shit. Yeah, yeah. But it drives me crazy that people will say, like, I read serious books.

You know, I read nonfiction, especially guys. Like, they're great literary books that teach you empathy, you know, teach you all kinds of stuff. And it chills you out. And I'm putting words in my head. I'm a writer, so I want to be doing this. So the past few years on my podcast, we would do a recommendation at the end of each show. And it became recommending a book instead of a movie or whatever.

And you're mostly novels, mostly fiction. And my podcast partner was a big reader too. And so we would get competitive over like, oh, there's a new Rachel Cascalli, who's going to read it first? Yeah, yeah. And that was fun. I like reading new stuff because you really don't know what it's going to be. You're trying to figure it out. Critics can be wrong.

You don't know if it's going to be popular or not that I enjoy. like getting a weekly release. So last year, I did a thing called New Book Tuesday, where every Tuesday that books come out, I just picked one based on either I recognized the author or it sounded cool. Yeah. And I did that have a pretty good run. There were a couple that I hated, but for the most part, I enjoyed it. But it's good ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good instincts. But it's hard to read a book every week. Sometimes you're like, this is 600 pages. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I know. But at the end of the year, I announced the Jocelyn book club. And I'm trying to get guys to read. Anyone can do this, but they're like books that I would be into.

I've got a dark sensibility. They're darker books. Usually a twist ending or a very dark ending. It's January now. The first book was The Getaway by Jim Thompson. Have you ever read The Getaway? I haven't read. I honestly don't.

I've read some Jim Thompson, but I don't know that I've read The Getaway. It's been years. Have you seen one of the movies? They did one with Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw. And then I've followed one and Kim Bay. I've seen that one. Yes.

I've seen the McQueen one. Like they end it early. Uh-huh. Like there's another chapter. and that chapter is one of the darkest things I've ever read. I had seen the movie and I'm reading the book just like, okay. And when I got to that chapter, I was blown away. Yeah, yeah.

It's fun to read after seeing the movie because you're picturing Steve McQueen and the character is much darker in the book and much more evil. But I'm trying to find books like under 250 pages. Yep. That a guy can be like proud to be reading on the subway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like you have to finish it because it's all about the ending. Yeah.

So I've got to line up for 2026 and we'll see how it goes. Now, is that what's your taste? too, or do you read kind of more literary kind of novel things? And are you just, are you, like, is the book club more for guys and you're so you're kind of trying to play to non-readers or less and enthusiastic ones? I'm trying to get people in in the beginning. Yeah. Keep it short. Keep it like a little more action-oriented or at least exciting. But when I say books for guys, there is a whole genre of book that is like a lifetime movie of the week. You know, It's not like it's just for girls.

It's like it's a lifetime movie that there are plenty of books I read that would be geared towards women but are still great literature. And the modern stuff that I would love to get some of that in there too. But if I'm like, this is a lesbian love story from the 1800. It's like I'm probably going to lose some people. Yeah. So maybe in a couple years. And a lot of my favorite authors, modern authors are female writers. But I'm trying to just get people in who would never pick up a book before in these first few months.

Yeah. I have terrible attention problems. So I have trouble, I have trouble reading, sustaining a book. I read all the time, but it's, you know, it's articles, it's magazines and things like that. But my book, I actually just, we're in this frenzy of organizing and I went through boxes of books and gave a ton away. I found that ones I was keeping are mostly like involving murder, you know, crimes and murders. And I'm reading one right now that's called The Man from the Train. Do you know that one?

Bill James. I've heard of it. It's really pretty fascinating because this guy just happened to find he was, I don't even, I don't remember why. He was researching old mass murders, like families being basically slaughtered with an axe. And then found out that they're all around, there were these exact same MOs for, like 15 or 20 years in this country from Virginia to Iowa, always within walking distance of a train track and that it was just some guy going from city to city and everyone had an axe

in their yard and he just would pick it up and murder everybody in the house and then move on. So it's true crime. It's true crime. And he pinned it to eat like, you know, he and his daughter researched all this and figured out like, oh shit, nobody ever put this together because law enforcement didn't talk to each other and, you know, there was no sort of sharing of the information. And I haven't gotten to yet, but they've, they figure out who it is, apparently, you know, so. To be a serial killer back then seemed like heaven. You know, you could really get away. Yeah, there's no, yeah. There's no sort

of like profiling. Yeah. There's just, there's just, let's fingerprint. Let's get to, let's, let's hang the local drunk, basically, is what, and that's what happened like so many times. and so many of these murders, they just pick somebody in town that usually was a fringe kind of person and like, that guy did it, you know? I just think with reading, there is a pleasure and people are like, I see arguments

in the book club of like, I need to do audiobooks. Like, that's fine. Yeah. If you were to follow along, fine. Stories, yeah. But the pleasure of you pick up a book and the accomplishment you feel when you realize you're halfway through.

You get lost in the story, it feels great. When you're tired and you've got to go to bed, but you realize you got 30 pages left. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, fuck it. I'm going to be tired at work tomorrow because I got to finish this book. That feels great.

Yeah. And you don't get that from an audiobook. Yeah. I love my Kindle. I'll read that percentage thing and be like, I get 10% left. I got a, I got a whole group. So I was going to say, how do you feel about the e-readers? I love it.

Yeah, yeah. I love an e-reader. And I almost like a machine, especially when I'm on the road, you know, I don't want to have a bunch of books with me. Yeah, yeah. Always put the overhead light. I love an e-reader because it's just like, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. I'm flying through it.

But again, a book, a physical book is great. Yeah, yeah. And is it, are you making money off this book club? I'm not making a fucking dime. Wow. It's like, I'm not even going to try. Maybe one day someone comes down and says, I want to sponsor this. Yeah, yeah.

I think with the entertainment world in flux, that I think books are going to make a comeback. And maybe I am seen as some sort of authority who can talk to people about books. I would love to be. Yeah, yeah. There's Oprah. There's Jenna Hager Bush. Oh, really? I would love to be the next to her.

I don't even know what she's done. She's a book person. Oh, is she? Dua Lepa is crushing it. Cushing it with the booklop. Yeah, but it's like a lifestyle site. Oh. Like, what's her,

um, Reese Witherspoon, like, buys the rights. And if the book does well, then she makes the movie. That's how she makes her money. I don't want to do any of that.

Oh, I want someone just like sponsor me and be like books. Yeah, yeah. And I don't want to deal with a publishing company who's like, you're reading this next month. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not doing that. Right, right. And I don't want to sell people mugs. I'm just hoping that if I'm pure, If my intentions are pure, I'm not asking for money. Yeah, yeah. You know, find the book however you want.

I'm not the book, Police. I'm not going to tell you not to go to Amazon. Uh-huh. But you will get something out of this. Yeah. And I'm giving people their best shot. If they don't want to ever read, I'm giving you your best shot at enjoying a book. Yeah.

Are there things you've got left undone? I mean, is there a screenplay you're dying to produce? Or are you just, you're going to be in clubs telling jokes? Being in clubs telling jokes. I feel like a lot of my contemporaries have given up on comedy clubs. They go straight to theaters now. Yeah. It's like they're like, we do the podcast.

It sets us up for theaters. I think it's a mistake. I think from what I, like this is my year of comedy clubs. I start in February and I'm in clubs every other weekend for the whole year. And then I'll go to theaters when that act is bulletproof. And as a one-liner guy, you really have to make it. For the whole year from February to December.

Wow. Yeah. Because I just like that. And I look at these schedules and I'm like, oh, people aren't doing these clubs anymore. Yeah. It's like a lot of younger kids, but they're struggling that I like my year of clubs. And by the end of it, I will be so sick of comedy clubs.

But I want to do this. And I'm being happy to, if somebody wanted me to act, I would be like, okay, I'm not going to audition, but I will show up and do your movie or your TV show. I can't believe no one's asked me for voice work. That's when I, during COVID, I was like so happy to be anonymous. This is I open my mouth. People are like Anthony Jesselink that I'm like, no one's going to make me a fucking squirrel. Come on. Like it seems like it would be a thing.

So my job now is to keep myself healthy and just keep moving. Yeah. Your tour dates can be found at anthony jeszenlyck.com slash tour. And your most recent special, Bones and All is on Netflix. Is that doing well? I mean, do you get metrics on that? Do they tell you? They give you like a couple weeks after they'll tell you.

And then like six weeks later, they'll tell you more. And it's mumbo-jumbo. They'll give you a number, but I'm like, well, what does that mean? I just said, am I funnier than Jamie Fox having a stroke? You know, that's the only thing I need to know. And then I just said, do you want to do the next one? Yeah. They wanted to put it up on Thanksgiving weekend.

Oh, wow. Okay. Like, that means you have faith in me. Who knows what the market will look like in four years and I'm ready to do another one? Yeah. Like, I really take my time. Yeah. But they've all, they, I think each one does better than the one before it.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. That's good. What do you think is the most important thing you've learned over, over the course? of your years on this planet. I think trust your instinct will be the more generic thing I could say. Yeah. But that it's okay to be a problem.

Like everybody wants to seem to like get along and move through life in the easiest way possible. But there is an exquisite pleasure in being a fucking problem. You know, that I'm just, I'm not going to make it easy on anyone. I'm going to be polite. I'm going to have empathy. I'm going to try to help people when I can. but I'm also a problem.

But are you a problem for just being a problem's sake? No. No. It was a Catholic. I forget the guy's name. Someone in the comments will say who this was. He was a either Catholic historian, I forget, or a philosopher. And they said, what is the problem with the world?

And he said, that's easy. I am. And I was like that, just to relax and let yourself be a problem. And maybe I'm, it's, it's, uh, I wouldn't say that if there were different people in charge, but I'm okay upsetting the right people. Are you a problem for yourself? Yes and no. I mean, I could go live on a beach somewhere and never have any stress.

My biggest issue is like grinding my teeth and I'm working on that. But there are highs and lows to this life and this career that I wouldn't give up the lows. I wouldn't give up the highs just to give up the lows. So I think I'm pretty well adjusted. You know, I've worked on myself. Yeah. And there are times where you're, it's, it's a tough business to be in. Yeah, yeah.

As you know. But I think I've, I've, uh, I've treated myself pretty well. Therapy. Therapy. Are you, right? Are you, still involved with therapy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I go on and off.

Yeah, yeah. You know, but it's one of those where like I was doing so well. They put me down to once a month and I was like, fuck yeah. Oh, wow. That's nice. Yeah. That's not. Yeah.

I've been going for decades. And I, he does not talk about decreasing. I still am fucked up. No, actually, he's, I go once a, it's once a week, and it's been the same guy for 30 years. I've been like, I'm like 12, 13 years maybe. My thing, I got sober a couple years ago, and I thought that would make everything really easy. Yeah. It doesn't change anything.

Yeah, yeah. You still got all the issues. It's just like, and you just hurt in different places. Yeah. It's fascinating to me. Yeah, yeah. You look better. Well, thank you so much, Anthony Jesnick, for coming in here.

Good luck for the next year of touring. Thank you. And be safe out there. And I'll check out your book club. I'm interested in to find out, you know, going through my old books and then, and there, I did have this moment of like, I got to read some of these fucking things, you know, because I don't know how you are. Do you have a bunch of books in your house that you haven't read yet?

People send me so many books. Yeah. And one thing I will tell people, it's okay to forget what you've read. Yeah. People like, I read it and I don't remember anything. Like, it's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just putting words in your head.

is good for you. Yeah. Just do that. Do you pick up a book that you think, oh, I never read this? And then you start reading it and realize, oh, yeah, I read the whole fucking thing. I've read the back and been like, oh, yeah, I think I've gotten into this. Yeah, I have done that a few times? Yeah, yeah.

I just like people, I talk to Patton Oswald. Yeah. And I'll be like, have you read this? And then I walk away with like four other books I've got to read right away. Yeah, yeah. People like, how do you read so many books? You pick short books. Uh-huh.

That's the secret. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, or you just take your, you know, you just take your, you know, you just take your time. You can do that too. A little bit every night. All right. Well, thank you so much. And thank you all for listening. And I'll be back next week with more of the three questions.

The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Madi Ogden. Research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to the three questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my loves are growing? Can't you feel it ain't it showing? Oh, you must be a knowing. This has been a Teen Coco production.