We Might Be Drunk - Ep 240: Larry Charles (Seinfeld & Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Larry Charles drops by and the comedy wisdom flows. The boys dig into his wildest adventures with Sacha Baron Cohen, the mystery of Seinfeld laughter, and what it was really like leaving one of the biggest shows in TV history. They debate the death of the movie theater, the beauty of undignified characters, and why pet peeves make the best punchlines. Plus, tales of Johnny Carson, toaster oven rage, and the evolution of comedy—from network notes to full creative freedom. Sponsored by: 🛍️ Start your $1/month Shopify trial https://www.shopify.com/DRUNK 💨 Get 20% off your first Lucy order with promo code DRUNK https://www.lucy.co/DRUNK 🏠 Save an average of $800/month with American Financing Call 855-581-5828 or visit http://www.AmericanFinancing.net/Drunk NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org 🎧 Subscribe to We Might Be Drunk: https://bit.ly/SubscribeToWMBD 🛒 Merch: https://wemightbedrunkpod.com/ 🎬 Clips Channel: https://bit.ly/WMBDClips Sam Morril: https://punchup.live/sammorril/tickets Mark Normand: https://punchup.live/marknormand/tickets ⸻ 🎙️ Check out That Sounds Right — the comedy panel show hosted by the producer of WMBD: https://www.youtube.com/@thatsoundsrightshow Produced by Gotham Production Studios: https://www.gothamproductionstudios.com @GothamProductionStudios | Producer: https://www.instagram.com/mrmatthewpeters #WeMightBeDrunk #MarkNormand #SamMorril #LarryCharles #Shopify #Lucy #AmericanFinancing #ComedyPodcast #StandUpComedy #Seinfeld #BodegaCatWhiskey

Hey, we're here folks, we might be drunk. We're here with Larry Charles, our best dressed guest ever. Thank you. Yeah, who died? I thought I'd bring, yeah, that's exactly, I'm trying to find out, right? He's the godfather of Harlem, I think, right now. This is crazy. Yeah, the undertaker is here.

I was thinking, have we ever had a guest rock a suit? I think this is, this is classing it up the pot. Really? This might be a trend, maybe. Maybe, start it. Yeah. I guess so.

No one's going to wear this. I walked in with a bathing suit on. No, you've got to be crazy. I wouldn't either if I had my choice. It's a heat wave. This is all I have. Yeah. You have the sunglasses on.

I feel like I've only seen you in the sunglasses. Right. I thought I would take them off and, you know, so we can have some actual icons. I appreciate it. I prefer them on, but what are you going to do? I can put them back on. But from a distance, I would think Hasidic Jew. Often mistaken for once.

Aha, me too, actually. If I had a black hat, you know that that would be happening. I'd be also putting the tefillin on as well. I remember Hannibal Burr, he said that joke about he had never seen Hasidic Jews. So he first moved to New York and he's like, why do these Jews, why do these Amish people have blackberries? That's great. I fucked up that joke.

Sasha and I used to get into arguments actually quite a bit. Where we'd be doing like a white supremacist scene. And he would like say, you can't go in there. I go, why? So you look too Jewish. And I go, well, have you looked at yourself? You look too Jewish. That's true. And we'll be arguing

outside the white supremacist house about who looked more Jewish. And of course I was lost because he had to actually go in and do the scene and I'd have to stay outside on the porch. That is the most Jewish thing, two Jews bickering outside a white supremacist. That happened more than once. So was that the one, was that the throw the Jew down the well one? No this was, we actually interviewed, this was part of Bruno where he's supposed to get a white supremacist, he starts to flirt with a white supremacist.

And this guy was a virulent anti-Semite, he had Nazi stuff all over his house. Oh wow. And he has to get him to flirt with him and then Bruno's boyfriend supposed to barge in and go what's going on here and like catch them, you know that kind of thing and It turned into like a violent melee Wow, and that guy his name was Glenn Frazier I believe Glenn Miller actually or he wound up not but not the The white supremacist guy got it and he wound up going he wound up, but not the orchestra guy, the white supremacist guy. Got it. And he wound up going to a synagogue in Kansas City, that's where this was, and shooting three people. Whoa.

Yeah. Oh my God. And he went to the synagogue to shoot three Jews, and the three people he killed happened to not be Jews. Oh my God. So, yeah, yeah. Jokes on him. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Damn it. What were those non-Jews doing at the synagogue? Well, he was an idiot to begin with, Oh my God. Yeah, yeah. Jokes on him. Yeah. Yeah. Damn it. What were those non-Jews doing at the synagogue? Well, he was an idiot to begin with, so I'm not surprised he didn't get that right. He shouldn't have gone on Saturday. Right. Well, also, we had somebody, you had me and him,

me and Sasha were there. Right. If he had just shot us, he would have been much, you know, he would have been on target. Weird. Do you ever hear from people after they got, like, just humiliated in the show or movie or anything like that?

Usually through their lawyers We had probably over 150 lawsuits for boy deals with that HBO I Don't know who deals with it actually well, you know that was made by Fox actually Borat But there was a lawyer involved and most of those only one lawsuit that I know of in the two movies that we did like that actually Most of those, only one lawsuit that I know of in the two movies that we did like that actually succeeded. And that was actually a terrorist, a Palestinian terrorist that we did on Bruno, where he shows the guy a sex tape that he made and he's trying to get his opinion about the sex tape and he's trying to get the guy to kidnap him, you know. And the guy was really

clueless and he wasn't, we had bad research, which was a fewueless and he wasn't we had bad research which is a few times and he wasn't actually currently a terrorist he was a retired terrorist and so we identified him as an active terrorist. They moved to Boca? They get residuals from the bus bombing? A condo development there. But he sued and he actually won some money. Of all the people.

What? There was one? He couldn't beat the Jewish lawyers? Yeah. No, I know. That was the one time. Wow. What is he suing for?

Defamation or something? Yeah. That's hilarious. And it was actually in Palestine. We did it in the West Bank. Wow. And yet he was able to sue in an American court. It's always about the banks.

But actually, he was right. I mean, we about the banks. But he was actually right. I mean, we had the research wrong. He was kind of like a shopkeeper when we interviewed him. Pretty peaceful guy, actually. So he actually got us. But we probably sued hundreds of times. And none of those other suits worked. Well, you get a release, right?

Or how does that work? You get a release, but people still try to get past the release. Once the scene's over, they realize they made a horrible mistake by signing the release. And so then they want to tear up the release. But they've also, we give them $100. And that's like a binding contract then.

And so nothing could really be done about it. They're really kind of stuck. That's your reputation, $100. Yeah. I mean, that's when I see you have guys like Rudy Giuliani. I'm like, how the fuck do they, how are they so stupid to agree to be on camera? People, you know, it's two things that I'm sure you run into a lot in your lives, ego and vanity.

People want to be on camera. People want to, you know, they think they're better than they are. They think they're very photogenic, very charismatic. I play, as my role, I often play into that. So you know, you should be on TV. How come you've never done a pilot before? You know, that kind of stuff. You should work for Girls Gone Wild.

Exactly. And people will be very seduced by that very easily. Oh yeah. So it works. Man, your life is dangerous. I mean, you put in the harm's way quite a bit for a comedic writer I have I mean I've been to you know I did a show for Netflix called Larry Charles dangerous world of comedy where I went to Somalia Because there's comedians in Somalia. I mean I I'm in dangerous situations, but being a comedian in Somalia That's like those are the worst cruise ships ever

Crash into the shore there. But there's a lot of assassinations amongst the comedians that I interviewed. Yeah, I mean, because they really get the government upset. And the state-run media, so it's a very tense situation for people in Iraq, but there are comedians in all these places. Liberia, where there was a big civil war, comedians.

So I thought that was fascinating that people do comedy because we have it pretty easy here. But in some places, doing comedy really is risking your life. I thought that was fascinating. Yeah, I feel like when people call comedians brave here, where it's like, shut the fuck up. There's really no, the more we talk about it, even with canceling comedians,

it really never sticks when it's a joke or a word. The only ones who have stuck are the sexual assault people. Yeah, there's a lot of people in these countries who are constantly under threat. Their lives are under threat and often are killed. So it's a pretty big deal, but they feel it's a really important thing to do, to speak truth to power,

to speak out against the government, and they're in these dictatorial kind of countries, and they want us to speak out about them, and people do respond to it also. So they are playing a kind of important role and a healing role also for people that are oppressed. They get a chance to laugh, you know, which is kind of a rarity in those places.

Here we can laugh pretty much as much as we want. Even as Trump, our dictator is talking, we can still make fun of him. We're sitting here making fun of him. Yeah, pretty great. There's a little bit of freedom. It's crazy, we bitches, comedians, we get heckled or a drink thrown at us.

These guys are getting killed, maybe, all for $28 at a club, you know, chicken wings. Maybe that's their income for the year. Yeah, couple of drink tickets. That's crazy, the balls on those guys. Yeah, that's major balls. What's the most scared you've been in one of those situations?

You know, the weird thing for me, I'm from Brooklyn originally, and a very kind of violent Lord of the Flies kind of Brooklyn section. And I don't get scared. I mean, I get scared like coming on this show. I get nervous about that kind of stuff more than I do. Like I was in Somalia, we got stopped.

Suddenly all these militia people came out. They all had machine guns. They were all pointing it at the vehicle. That's insane you're more scared to be here. I swear to God I kind of. I'm a big fan of yours, I'm much more scared of the machine guns in Somalia. But something happens to me, I don't know why,

maybe I'm a sociopath or something, but my fear level goes down, I get kind of calm, I sort of surrender. It's like okay, well this is it, and I'm like I'm sort of surrender. It's like, okay, well this is it, you know? And I'm like, I'm okay with that. It's like a race car driver. They say when they go on 800 miles an hour, they're like, I'm weirdly zen.

Yes, and that's what happens to me in those situations. So I've been in a lot of those situations. I'm uniquely suited in a way to direct a borat or to go to Somalia to talk to comedians. Because in those situations where the guns are being pointed at me, which has happened more than once, I kind of get into that zen state.

Interesting. And I don't get, I have more trouble getting to the airport to go to that place than I do when I get to that place. Wow. It's like the little things are more annoying. Exactly, exactly. I get what you're saying.

I have to go to the airport later today. I'm freaking out about that. But when I got to Somalia, I felt okay. Well, that's why the shows like Curb or Seinfeld are so resonant, because I feel like minutia to guys like us is way more interesting and more important than the big issues of the day. You're right, yeah.

When something horrible happens in my life, I kind of like pause and deal with it, but when it's the little things, I get so fucking angry. Yeah, something horrible happens in my life. I kind of like pause and deal with it But when it's when it's the little things I get so fucking angry Yeah, like people violating basic social codes mean that we talk about peeves on this podcast all the time Yeah, I have I've written down a bunch for you. Don't worry. Yeah. All right Yeah, I think comics are good with that like well I was at a restaurant with a comic on the road recently and I could overhear people talking about Iran and Trump and Elon and all this stuff and then I looked at us and we were we

were in like a 20-minute deep dive on types of toast. You got sourdough, then you got wheat, then you got whole grain, then you got a muffin, then you got a croissant. And we loved it. It was really good. You remind me, my wife insisted we get a toaster oven you know to make toast and and I said, okay, but I have found that you cannot make good toast in the toaster oven. It only toasts one side. They don't toast equally, so there's a peeve. Let me get Jerry on the line. Yeah, yeah, find out about that.

Toaster oven. Yeah. I mean, you directed, so you directed Borat, Bruno, Religious, which I saw in theaters with my mom. I was like, I'll go to Temple with you if you go to Religious, which I saw in theaters with my mom. I was like, I'll go to Temple with you if you go to Religious with me. Did she like it?

She did. Her critique, which I understood was, there was that great scene where he's talking to that politician, another guy, where you're like, how the hell did he get this guy to agree to be on camera? And I was like, oh man, I wish there were more scenes like that.

I think that was her critique, which I heard that. Because those are the, when he's talking to people who are like, well this guy's clearly just a dumb grifter, it's not as interesting. But when he's talking to someone who's like, oh this guy actually has political influence and power, to me as well, that was more like, oh well, Bill is smart enough to kind of outwit those people,

so I wanted to see that more or less. Well it's always hard to get the truly powerful on camera. That's why getting politicians, people know better. But they didn't know Borat the character a lot of these people. No, but they were still like, they didn't have the need, they didn't have that ego need to be on camera at any cost. So it's easier, unfortunately, to get people who are slightly lower level to agree.

They want their day in the sun. Yeah. What a good combo, you and Bill. Because I feel like Bill is, you're going in front of a tank, but he's going in front of psycho people and just saying crazy shit. He'll push back on anybody. He's great that way. His whole thing is, he's actually a good listener, which doesn't come through a lot of the time,

but he actually listens to what the people say so that he has something to respond to. And that makes him very dangerous to the person he's interviewing. Because he's not just thinking about what the next thing is he wants to say, he's gonna base something on what you just said and sort of pick that apart.

And he's very effective that way. He'd be a good prosecutor. A lot of comedians used to be lawyers. We talked about that. Oh, that's interesting. I mean, Greg Giroldo was a great stand-up lawyer, Demetri Martin, a lot of comics. Mercurio.

Alu Bell. Oh, wow, damn. I think, yeah, a lot of good stand-ups. Yeah, well because there's an argumentative quality to being a comedian. You're a contrarian. And so it makes sense that people who were lawyers would feel sort of hemmed in by that eventually

and want to use that same trait on stand-up and just be funny about it. I mean, can you just picture like Chris Rock being an incredible trial lawyer? Yes. You know, you just by the end, you'd be like, fuck, I do think that way. That's horrible.

I'd want him to defend me, absolutely, yeah. I wonder if you could just hire him anyway, even though he doesn't have a license. Yeah, maybe. Now, what the hell? You did Jackass. No, I did not do Jackass. Sorry, sorry.

Who did Jackass, sorry. A guy named Jeff Tremaine. I thought you were involved. Who you should have on, very cool guy. I love Jeff Tremaine. Yeah, yeah. But I don't know why I thought you directed that. I felt like a Larry Charles joint. First five I love Jeff Germain. Yeah, yeah.

But I don't know why I thought you directed that. I felt like Larry Charles' joint. First five seasons of Seinfeld. Right, right, which I did not direct, but I was a writer. But you wrote the Bookman scene, right? I wrote the Bookman scene. Yes. That's maybe my favorite scene.

It's a great scene. I love that actor, Philip Baker Hull, so much. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, one of the cool things about Seinfeld was our influences were not the usual sitcom influences. We were more into like Abbot and Costello or Dragnet or Superman than we were into like Cheers

or shows like that. And so that's why that show has such a weird vibe to it. It's not like those other shows because it's not influenced by any of those kind of contemporary shows. That's a good point. And you did the LA one. Was that you?

I did the LA one as well, yeah. Okay. That was a to be continued, yeah. Two-parted, yeah. Yeah, that was actually a three-part because the first one is where Kramer loses the keys, and he, which was the end of the season before. Yes.

He loses the keys, and that's what sort of propels him to take off for California, and then it's a two-parter in California. I remember being such a dumb kid. I was in Louisiana watching this as a child. And I was like, wait, my dad told me they shoot in LA. But on the episode you went to LA. Yeah, yeah.

And I remember being like, they're not in New York all the time? I was so stupid. No, no, you know what? Most people, I was always shocked that people actually, cause the New York street that we used was like a back, it was a crappy back street in Studio City.

And I was like, we're not, this looks like such, can I say shit? This looks like such shit. Please, please. You know, and, but yet people believe the illusion and thought the show was shot in New York. Ah, yeah. It wasn't just you.

Those shots of just outside, I mean, we are easily tricked that just the outside of Jerry's apartment You're like, it's New York. Yeah People bought the illusion over the feather, but that is in LA Jerry's building Even Jerry's building is in LA. It's in Los Yeah, I did America's Got Talent back in the day not bragging But I remember they had me walk pretend to be walking in New York and it was some set in LA. Yeah. Like I'm stewing. I'm like, I'm on like a stoop. Yeah. There are some that are better, there are some back streets sets that are better than others. Yeah. Yeah. That's

in those filas. That's hilarious. Yeah. Wow. We shot an episode, I guess it was the limo, which I wrote also. Murphy. Yeah. With Murphy, yeah. It's a great episode. That backlot is the Paramount backlot, which is a pretty good backlot actually. If you shoot from the right angle, it could look real. By the way, another white supremacist, like you're writing some, this is dark shit for network TV that you're writing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no notes, there was no notes either, so. And that joke was the girl, she's a cute nut. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that was the guy from Six Feet Under was in that. That's right, that's right. I forgot his name. Peter something.

Oh, and he was on the Sports Night, was that the show? Yes, yes. He was on Sports Night. Yeah, he was great on that. Oh man, that was, and they're going to the Knicks game too, right? And that's based on a real story. There was a guy named Mark Jaffe who wrote for Seinfeld who told us the story of a friend of his

who got off the plane and didn't have a ride. And so they used to hold the signs. You know, the drivers would hold the signs. He just said, I'm that guy. And he got in the car and I said, what if that guy was a Nazi? And that was, that's how I wound up writing that episode. That's comedy.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Letting down, make a guy a Nazi. Yeah, why not? Yeah, there's the guy holding the sign right there. No relation to the Woody Allen Jaffe. No, not at all. Okay, okay. No, this guy was from Cleveland.

Ah. That is such a great episode, and that's also one of the great episodes that so much of it's just in one setting. You just, I mean, those were the Seinfeld episodes were like the the famous one where they are at the Chinese restaurant. Yeah, yeah. It's like it's like a play more than a sitcom.

Almost. Yeah. It was like a Beckett play. Right. Instead of waiting for Godot, you're waiting for a table. So it was. Yeah, that was great. That was Larry David. I mean, he's a brilliant writer. Is that you in the parking garage? That is me. That's another episode with a lot more hair and even heavier than I am right now, which is way overweight.

I gotta ask. I've been watching your work for 30 plus year, whatever. Did Seinfeld and Larry ever zing you? Just because Seinfeld is so particular about like tucking in the shirt, and I've hung out with him and he's always like, what is that? What is that? Are you gonna shave or are you not gonna shave? You know, like, he must have given you shit. Well, Larry David also is a very fastidious dresser, you know, very specific to the quarter zip When you would come in in the morning, you would be critiqued Okay, there was a fashion critique going on at all times, you know So I was I got very used to that. In fact, I mean at one point and it became an episode

I used to I was in one room and then they were in like this bigger room that had a bathroom in it. And I used to just kind of go into their bathroom. Cause a lot of time, I spent a lot of time in their office kind of talking about stories. And in the middle of that kind of conversation like this, I would just go to the bathroom. But then I started, when I was in my own office,

I would just, whatever they were doing, I would just walk in and go to the bathroom. Sometimes I had a magazine with me. I wasn't just going to take a piss sure You know and I'd be in there for a few minutes And and they I realized they were kind of like looking at me like what the fuck are you doing? Yeah, and eventually they didn't never said to me because neither one of them really wanted Confrontation yeah, so but they eventually wrote an episode in which George starts using the boss's bathroom and gets fired.

There you go. That's the most passive aggressive way to confront you. Instead of just being like, hey, you do that, they're like, we're going to write the show about this. The most comedian thing. Because we do that to people. I can't imagine how many times, like, we have friends, it gets back to them, we're like, I have a peeve, and then they're like, was that me?

Yes, yes, exactly. So true. So I stopped doing it after. We're like, I have a peeve, and then they're like, was that me? And you're fucking. Yes, yes, exactly. So true. So I stopped doing it after. But that's. Well, there's also the George episode where he's taking the books in the bathroom at the bookstore.

Oh yeah. And they flag it. Yeah. A lot of that stuff is true stories of Larry. Right. The true stories of Larry are also legendary. I mean, there's another George story in a bathroom where he was gonna have sex with this woman, and this actually happened to Larry, and he had George story in a bathroom where he was going to have sex with

this woman, and this actually happened to Larry, and he had to go to the bathroom, and it was a small New York apartment, and the bathroom was right off the bed, and he couldn't – he had to actually – instead of having sex, he just left. And that was the end of that relationship. So shooting Curb must have, you did some Curbs. Directed for like 20 years, right? Wow, okay, so. But it's 20 years because Larry would take four years off.

Right. You know, he really spread them out, so. But was that a little bit of a breath of fresh air? I mean, with NBC, you got these execs sniffing down your back. With HBO, I feel like you get a little more freewheeling. It was, well, first of all, once Seinfeld became a hit, there were no more notes.

Oh, okay. Seinfeld had no notes on the Nazi episode, which for NBC is crazy. Good point. And the contest, which is a famous episode of the outing, those had no notes. I mean. Because you never say Jack off.

Right, exactly, there's no bad words. But it's wittier to be like master of your domain. Right, right, right. King of the castle.. But it's wittier to be like master of your domain. Yes, king of the cast. So there was no real notes, but it was still a structured sitcom. It had commercials. It had to be a certain length. That could not be, you couldn't waver from that. So Curb was a looser environment.

Curb was really fun. It was like we'd be hanging out like this, and then we would just go and shoot the scene. It was just like a very loose environment, probably, and then we would just go and shoot the scene. You know, it was just like very loose environment, probably the most fun I've had on a set. It was really great, yeah, that was fun. It's basically a clean comic versus a dirty comic. Right, but you could do whatever you wanted, really. But it's the same comic.

Right. So he's kind of, I mean, it's almost like doing a late night set versus an HBO special, you know? Yeah. To some degree, which is like, man, so much more fun to be able to say whatever. Of course. JB Smoove, we were talking before we started here

about how there were some clean comedians now who were sort of like, it's almost like a trend in a way. But JB Smoove is certainly one of the last of the dirtiest comedians around. Yeah, very filthy and hilarious also. I opened for him a few times, and even I was like, Jesus Christ. And you know what's funny, I think I've told this story before, I did Carolines with him

and it was when Kurt was getting hot and he would come out to the ba-ba-da-ba-da and it was a lot of yarmulkes in the audience and by the end of his show there was like one yarmulke because they were all exodus like in the desert of Moses. A literal exodus. Yeah. Wow. A literal exodus. Yeah. Wow. But he was hilarious. I mean, he's pouring sweat and just doing crazy stuff with the microphone.

And that was the liberation of Curb. There was no language barrier. There was no time barrier. If you wanted, it should have been 35 minutes. Our original cuts of Curb were often an hour. Wow. And I would really lobby Larry to put that hour version out because those were amazing.

The weaving of the stories and the other scenes that didn't make it. And he was very tied to keeping it to 30 minutes. But there's some episodes that are like 37. Well, eventually he started to loosen up a little bit and allow the episodes to go, because HBO didn't care. HBO would have been happy with hour and a half episodes.

They were totally cool with it. So it was really about his level of control over things. Do you think it was like, I mean, similar to the show Seinfeld, so concerned with overstaying their welcome? Well, and there is a point to that, I think, also. I mean, Sasha's the same way. I'm not. I like things running long.

I like seeing running long. I like seeing sort of like the stuff that's not necessarily the most hilarious, but is really weird or interesting or compelling in some way. But those guys really want to sort of control how much you see, make you want to come back for more, and also only use the A stuff.

You know, what they consider to be the A stuff, which could be a debatable point. Which, everything that you really had to fight him to put back in that that he reluctantly let back in and you thought really worked I'm sure there was I can remember situations where there were but not specifically Okay No a lot of that. I mean, that's the good thing. That's the Talmudic part of this stuff Like we're talking about, you know the Jews and comedy and lawyers and all this kind of stuff. There was a Talmudic quality to the editing, or even in the story making, where you're arguing back and forth about this is funny, let's try it this way, it would work better that way, and eventually you find that, you hopefully find that synthesis that works.

Yeah. So how's it going with Larry now? I see a lot of buzz about this documentary. Everybody's talking about it. We both read the New York Times article. That's why. Yeah, right, right. Well, we're doing our research. You know, I mean, we're not talking.

Ah, you hate to hear that. It's not that big a deal though, really. But if you called him right now, would you be good, do you think? If you were like after the show, like, hey, can we get coffee? Yeah, yeah. In the book, you, hey, can we get coffee? Yeah, yeah, I think so. All right. In the book, you'll see that I think he came to me... Comedy Samurai, by the way. Comedy Samurai.

Quick plug, get anywhere you get books, right? Amazon, the bookstore. Yeah, it's everywhere. And I did the audiobook also. Oh, nice, nice. But, because it's like one long monologue, in a way, the audiobook. He came to me a couple years before.

This is in the book me a couple years before, this is in the book, a couple years before this all happens and I met him for lunch and he said, look, HBO wants to bring some new blood into the directing of the show. And so there were a couple other older directors, David Steinberg, Brian Gordon, Bob Whitey, who had been the original director.

And he said, they asked me to let them go. And you're our favorite director, me. You're our favorite director, but I think, will you take a hit for the team? Because I don't want to get rid of all those guys and then keep you, it'll look bad. And I'll feel bad.'" And I was like, of course.

At that point, I was only really directing. He's taking him home to lunch and saying the same thing. Look, you're our favorite. I never thought about that, you know what I mean? I thought, well, yeah, I'll take one for the team, and I appreciate the idea of this idea of diversity, like hiring women, hiring people of color to try, see what they come up with, why not?

And then that season, I noticed that Jeff Schaeffer, who's a friend of mine, and was running the show at that point, he directed almost all the episodes. So there was no, it was another white guy, and I was like, huh, you know what, I think Larry fired me in his kind of passive aggressive way. And that may have been, and then I was like, kind of upset about that for a minute,

and then I thought, well, you know what? I had lost my temper on the set that season with all the actors, and I just kind of lost my shit one day for a stupid reason that I immediately regretted, but I did lose it, which happens to directors a lot. So much tension and stress. Was it Garland? No, it wasn't that, actually, in that case.

All right, all right, it can be a lot. No, that would have done it also. Okay, okay. I'm not saying it wouldn't. It wasn't in this particular case. It was in the episode where Bob Einstein is dating the woman with the bad tap water. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. Do you remember that? And Larry has the stabbing thing.

He picks up the knife and he's like, I really wanna stab. You know? It was a really funny scene, but there was something going on in the kitchen in the background that was distracting me, and I thought it was ruining the takes. So I kept on saying, will you stop moving back there? And they were going, nobody's moving.

And I'm like, I'm seeing it on the monitor, you know, and so I lost my shit. Sure. Very bad behavior. And so I thought, okay, well if he fired the monitor, and so I lost my shit. Sure. Very bad behavior. And so I thought, okay, well, if he fired me for that reason, he'd be justified. I mean, that was wrong of me to lose my shit in that situation.

Okay. So to get back to your point, as far as I was concerned, everything was cool. If he fired me for that reason, I understood. If it was a true attempt to diversify the thing and he just didn't do it, that's cool. Larry can be very passive aggressive. We're both emotional cowards when it comes to

confronting situations. So that's why a couple years later, when I went to him and said, would you mind if I'd like to interview you, he immediately said yes. And we did the interviews at his house and they went great. He said they were the best interviews he immediately said yes. Yeah. And we did the interviews at his house and they went great. Ah!

He said they were the best interviews he'd ever done. I would love to see this. Yeah, and then the guy that shot the interviews, the first half of the interviews, the first two hours actually, he didn't do- He was a trans-Haitian guy, he made sure to get diversity on this one. Yeah.

He was doing the sound and the picture. Yeah. And he didn't do a great job with the picture. And so it was a lot of shakiness, a lot of blurriness. And I was like, oh wow, it's all ruined. What am I gonna do? And I was really depressed. And then I thought, well, what if I put a clip in here?

What if I, and I sort of built it into a regular documentary and it came out great. Okay. And so then I did the second part, and I did that with the second part, so we had a four hour thing with Seinfeld, so he would tell the story of what happened to him, and then you see the Seinfeld clip that we used

that kind of was from that story. Yeah. And all his influences and all that kind of stuff is a very, very cool documentary. He looked great in it. We talked about all kinds of heavy subjects. He wasn't odd. He wasn't odd like a comedian.

He was himself, which is a much more sort of worldly, wise, generous, thoughtful, contemplative person at this stage of his life. And there was a moment where he cried. We talked a lot about death. We talked a lot about family and his kids and stuff like that. You brought up the Jets, that's where he cried. We talked a lot about death. We talked a lot about family and his kids. You brought up the Jets, that's why he cried. So I was really happy with it,

and he was really happy with it, but there was something about it that he felt that he was exposing himself too much. And so I gave him an opportunity, he gave me notes. I tried to make it, but I knew once this thought was planted in his head, it might never go away. And we actually got to that point where I finished it, and it was ready to go on the air the next day,

they were marketing it already, on HBO. And he called me and said that he wanted to postpone it. And I said, postpone means kill. And I was actually directing another movie at that point. And I was- How much time did you put into this? I probably worked on it through the entire pandemic and then after for like, I worked for a long time.

And I was upset about it, but I would say really still not angry knowing him and knowing myself. We just needed to have that conversation like two years before, you know, where he was like, I'm uncomfortable with this. Cause then I would have taken the unadulterated footage and put it on YouTube or something like that.

Rather than make it polished and nice for HBO, I would have just put it out like that, you know, if I was gonna put it out at all. Do you think he's like, he's this old school type of comedian where like, you know, we've talked about this guy's like Eddie Murphy, they kind of have a mystique to them. Yes. And kind of the less you know,

or the less you see them being super vulnerable, it's better for everything else they do. Do you think that's kind of the school he's from? Well, I think that he evolved into that. You have to remember that he had kind of given up stand-up when we were doing Seinfeld, and then Curb was his attempt initially to get back into stand-up,

and then it became Curb instead. So he did develop much more of a TV persona, a comedy persona, that he thinks the audience really wanted to see. They want him to be funny, and. They want him to be funny, and they do want him to be funny, and he is funny. But this was more of a kind of a lower key version of him. The version that I knew,

I know the guy since I'm like 22 years old. You know, so I've known all those different levels of him, and I think that in some way, he didn't want the audience to see that version of him at this point. Sure, I think that in some way he didn't want the audience to see that version of him at this point. Sure, I get that. That's why he wanted to do a live thing where there would be an audience and then he could get laughs.

I saw that. And I wasn't as interested in that, personally. Can I buy it from you? I just wanna see it. How much would it take? I have it on the phone right now. Really? No, no.

I've been buying it. I do have it. I have it. Because I remember the ad, pull up the poster for the documentary. I remember waiting for it. Right, that's right. I was pumped.

What's that? What's it? The Larry David story. I remember going, hey, call it a friend, like, here we go, baby, let's watch this together. It's great, actually. The trailer for it's really good, and you get a sense of how it worked.

Yeah. And even his kids, he told me my kids loved it. And I thought, well, that's a guarantee. But that might work against it comedically. When your kids love it, you're kinda like, well, they love me unconditionally. I think that's part of the problem was there was too much emotion.

He is like no hugging, no learning. That's the Seinfeld. Like if my mom says, that's a great picture of you, I'm like, you're my fucking mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So there was something about it that he just was not comfortable with. What was it that made him tear up?

Ooh, good question. I think he was talking about his kids, actually. He was talking about his kids and how much they meant to him. I mean he had genuine emotion about that. Whereas of course if you watch him on Curb, it's all about him not having any feelings about anything. And no kids.

Right, and no kids. That was a choice as well. So yeah, that's what it was. It was about his kids. Damn, not the divorce, not his childhood. Well we talked about the divorce, we talked about the childhood, but that didn't bring tears to his eyes necessarily.

Got it. Wow. But you're a Coney Island guy. Yes. And he's Sheep's Head Bay? Yes. Man, crazy, the amount of comedy in Woody Allen. I think Seinfeld's from Brooklyn.

Queens I thought. Seinfeld's from Queens originally, then Massapequa I think. But I would say that the area of Brooklyn that I'm from and that he's from, and Mo Brooks is from, yeah. I mean, that is like the Kingston, Jamaica of comedy. It's like why Reggae sort of became this thing in Kingston, Jamaica, that's like this comedy triangle there in Brighton.

It's amazing that all those people, I don't know why. I don't either. Did you know any of them before comedy or no? No, because I'm younger than Larry and much younger than someone like Mel Brooks and those people. What did you work on with Mel Brooks? First of all, he did a season on Curb.

Oh, that's right. He tried to produce and produce with David Schwimmer. And he was also on Mad About You when I was the showrunner of Mad About You. I didn't know you were the showrunner of Mad About You. Wow, you've done a lot of, you were getting residuals. Mailbox money. It's not worth that much anymore, believe me.

Only Seinfeld, really. Okay. Seinfeld is still kind of like out there. I make a little bit of money from that. But the things like Mad About You, they're not really in syndication. Syndication doesn't really exist that much anymore. Everything gets sold off to Netflix

and there's a buyout and it's over. What was your favorite season of Curb? My favorite season of Curb was probably, I had a lot of favorite seasons, but maybe the season with the Seinfeld reunion. Oh yeah, the eye toilet. That was a lot of fun actually, to work with all those actors again and to direct them was a great experience actually.

Yeah, that was big. It was like, world's colliding. Yeah, yeah, that was fun. But there's a season where he dies at the end. Oh, yes. And he goes to heaven. Yes. And I directed that heaven episode.

That was a lot of fun. That was the finale. I remember that one. Yeah, yeah. So there was a season where he had made that deal with Cheryl that if they stayed married long enough, he could have sex with somebody else. In eternity.

Yeah. Yes. And so that had the survivor in it, where there was the guy who was on Survivor and the Holocaust survivor got into an argument. That's one of my favorites. That's gold. I'm a survivor.

Yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly. So good. Man, I think the old seasons were much better. I tend to. Shit on Larry. Right, better. I tend to. Not to shit on Larry. Right, exactly, I tend to. I love so much, but I think my favorite episode ever

is Corpse Sniffing Dog. Oh, classic. Yeah, those are all great, yeah. I mean, some of the ideas, and that's the thing, as outrageous as the ideas that Seinfeld had at that time in that context, were nothing compared to the ideas that curb had the concepts of curb Were so outrageous, you know, they were kind of brilliant and I think that's it just releases

It's a cathartic kind of laugh those forbidden things, you know Like his mother's buried in the wrong plot or you know those you know that kind of stuff just makes you explode Because it's so forbidden to even be laughing at that. It's about, and this is a big part of my kind of comedy, is something that's not funny and trying to find an angle to make it funny. And Larry sort of taught me, I mean, I was, again, 22 years old when I met him, and he sort of taught me

that anything could be funny if you do, as you know, it's stand ups. If you can find the angle, you know, and not always a good do, as you know, it's stand ups. I agree, I agree. If you can find the angle, you know, and not always a good angle, but if you look for it, you'll find an angle for any subject at all, and that can make it funny. Sometimes I'll see. Because the audience wants to laugh.

Sometimes I'll see a comic though, and I agree with you, I totally agree with you, but sometimes I'll see young comic kind of finding their way a little bit, and it's all high heat, it's all like they're throwing like 102, but it's not anywhere near the strike zone. It's like trans bit. It's all like they're throwing like 102, but it's not anywhere near the strike zone. It's like trans bit.

Abortion age. You know, like a pepito joke. Yeah, and I'm like, none of them are funny. And I'm like, oh, you just need better control. Like you need to like run the strike zone. It's like early Nolan Ryan. He used to be hitting people in the stands. He figured it out, you know what I mean?

So yeah, I agree with you. We're super like, you know, we were always pumped back in the day, Mark and I were comics that wanted to get on Late Night, but we had a lot of jokes that kind of would push it a little bit for that type of comedy, so we were always pumped to do Conan's show, where you could do a little edgier,

because it was on TBS. But you know, man, it was tough. Late Night Now is like, I mean. Oh, it's even squeakier. I think I sent him one, he was like, we don't want to. I've never, I think I sent him one, he was like, we want to get you back on Fallon. I sent him and he was like, none of these jokes work. And I was like, all right. Yeah, my friend did it.

His opening was, yeah, you ever have that friend you hate? And they were like, you can't say friend you hate. He's like, he's my friend, I hate him. But they're like, hate's too hard. He's like, hate's too hard? That's not the F word. Well, the problem became that you as a comic are now representing the host

Right So Jimmy's nice so I have to be nice Mike, but that's not how I am That's so true. It just got weird. Well, that's also you really kind of like tapping into how comedy itself has changed really Yes, so that's a big that's a big thing the way it's fragmented Well, you had like, you know tens of millions of people watching the same thing, now that doesn't happen anymore. The audience is very fragmented. Political correctness has kind of like taken over

a certain segment. Certain segments, yeah. And it becomes a little bit more challenging to figure out. In fact, to me, it's almost like a new language needs to be invented for comedy to reach that mass audience again. Interesting. Which is to be very, very hard. that mass audience again. Interesting. Which is to be very, very hard.

I mean, you couldn't, Blazing Saddles, Richard Pryor's concert movies, all those things that I grew up on, Yeah, yeah. are, they would not be really allowed, most likely today. They wouldn't be made in the first place. Oh, no chance. We think there's a hunger for,

I think a movie like Blazing Saddles, I think there's such a void right now. I think people are dying for a movie like that. And not everyone's gonna like it, but it's not for them. And they can tweet all they want, but I'm like, just don't watch it and let us enjoy. I'm sure there were people in the 70s who hated Blazing Saddles and thought it was gross

and inappropriate and irreverent, but they didn't have Twitter. But even still, a lot of those people still thought it was funny. People who basically would not think, like Bora was like that also. Yes, yes. People thought it was funny who were not necessarily

politically in the same place that we were. It didn't matter. Yeah. It transcended a lot of the kind of bullshit. It's so splintered. And just gets to that part of you that makes you laugh. Yeah. Like it makes you cry or makes you scream

and makes you laugh. Well, the fact that you started in like all these network shows and playing to a broad audience and then going to a place that's a little more irreverent. I mean, that must've worked so well for you because you know how to do the clean stuff, but then you're, you're well equipped to handle the more offensive stuff. Yeah. Well, they always told us to write clean as a start as a car. But we were always attracted to, I mean, to Richard Pryor and that kind of thing.

Yeah, the producers, this fucking Hitler, what is it? Right, exactly. Springtime for Hitler. Right, that would be a problem today. But again, it was a musical. He kept it going as a franchise for a long, long time. And the Holocaust was what, 20, 18 years before that? It's so recent. It's that? It's like so recent.

It's crazy. It was very immediate at that point. It's like doing a 9-11 musical now. Right, exactly. It's crazy. It's crazy. But you know, it's always funny, like I'll have an angry lady at my show yell at me like, I cannot believe you said that's horrible to say that.

I'm like, that's why I said it. That's what I'm going for. I'm trying to make fun of that horrible thing. And that person would at one time, in my opinion, laughed, even if they felt that was a horrible thing to say. They would still, they would be beside themselves and they would still give it up. Right.

They'd still give up the laugh. And now people get, immediately they get defensive about it. Yeah. You know, it's much harder to get the audience to relax and just laugh at it and move on rather than, you know, rather than getting very upset about it. But I think a lot of people who get offended are the ones who just dip in on social media

and know nothing about you. Yeah, true. I think the audience that you've built up a trust with, you do an abortion joke like 20 minutes into the set, they're like, ah, he's proving he's not a piece of shit. You know, but they just dip in. It's like they're opening a door and being like, who the fuck's this guy?

Well, you weren't meant to see that yet. You know, you came in at a weird, I mean, it's literally like, if you just saw a clip of Ving Rhames getting butt-fucked in Pulp Fiction, but you didn't know the rest of the movie. Like, well, there's a point to everything he's doing there. And they're liberally using the N-word in those movies also. So I noticed that that's one of my favorite Richard Pryor albums that you don't have on the wall.

It was called That N-Word is Crazy albums that you don't have on the wall. It was called That's N-Word, it's crazy, but we can't say that word anymore. Can they even sell that record? I mean, can you sell that record? Kanye's got some pretty crazy records out there. That's true, that's true. Kyle Hitler.

That's true, yeah. Right, right. Yeah, we used to have his record up too, we took it down. One of the great recent comedy albums. I work with Kanye, I did a pilot with Kanye. Wow, that's what you do. He had to do a curb, right? Whoa, do tell.

He said, the first thing he ever said to me. He didn't go, that's why he hates Jews, because of you. Yeah, that's right, I really did that. I also think about how different his life would have been if the show got picked up. Was he the guy who shot the synagogue? No.

That's very possible. But I mean, the first thing he ever said to me was I'm the black Larry David. He was a very different person at that time. That's crazy. He was always putting his foot in his mouth and apologizing to people. And he found it hilarious.

And he was a very, very different, yeah, there it is. Was the show funny? The show was pretty funny. JB Smooth was on it. It was a great cast, actually. And was for HBO? Wyatt Sinek was pretty funny. J.B. Smooth was on it. It was a great cast actually. And it was for HBO? Wyatt Sennick was on it. Oh, I know who I am.

Yeah, yeah. It was for HBO and they passed on it. Yeah. But if they had gone for it, he was before Kim Kardashian even. His life might be very different. This is about he goes to see a Make-A-Wish kid. And then the make-a-wish kid turns out the kid's not dying, you know, and it was it was pretty funny. Could Kanye act at all? Kanye could be Kanye, you know, and that's all he needed to be. He was surrounded by very funny people. Well my friend told me he knows like one of Kanye's agents or lawyers, and it's all Jews. Like the whole team is Jewish, so it all it's all an act i think obviously but yeah well he may have mental issues i mean i'm not saying he doesn't but it was he they

obviously had not kicked in at this point he was a very approachable person you know interesting yeah he was very cool we had a great time together i really enjoyed working with him well there's something amazing not to bring it back to larry but he somehow like transcends every group like he's this Jewish guy from Brooklyn who's bald with glasses. But black people love him. I'm not Jewish. I love him. Jews love him. He has some weird, he's so authentic seeming that I think everyone had just on board. That's a key word though, authentic. If you could project sincerity and authenticity, it will transcend any kind of demographic.

And I've been, you know, not fully around the world, but I've been to a lot of countries, and even Islamic countries, and people love Seinfeld, and love Curb, and love Bora, and everybody will come to me and say, my friend's just like Kramer. You'll hear that like in Jordan, places like that. And that says something about how it translates. It really does kind of communicate to almost any person who's a human being who has other human beings around him. You get to connect to those characters.

What's the deal with burkas? Well, Jordan, we used to, we were doing Bruno in Jordan and you would walk down the street in Amman and there would be these street sellers, you know, they'd have blankets and they'd be selling trinkets or whatever and books and bootleg DVDs. And there was always the same three things on the blanket. There'd be a bootleg DVD of Seinfeld, a bootleg DVD of Borat, and a copy of Mein Kampf. It was every single personalized speedo. You wrote two out of three. Those are the things I bring on the road. That's crazy. That's going to be kind of flattering for you.

I was very flattered actually. I had a copy of Mein Kampf ready, so I didn't need it. But I would buy the Borat DVDs really crappily made. But they were there all the time. I saw Borat in the theater and it was pure mayhem. People jumping, falling out the chairs, popcorn flying. I mean, it was a real event. Yeah, that's what it was meant to be. I mean, again, we had the arrogance to say, let's try to make the funniest movie ever and see what happens.

And also, I tend to think of it as, like, my approach to it, the dynamic, was more like a horror movie. Like, I love going to a great horror movie. This doesn't happen anymore either. But I remember going to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre when it first came out, and the audience just flipped out. People were screaming and jumping up in their chairs,

and I was like, if I could get people to laugh like that, that would be a triumph, you know? And Borat did that. Instead of bringing you to the place where you would scream, it brought you to the place where you would laugh. But I would watch from the back. Sasha and I would watch from the back during the naked fight,

and you would just see bodies flailing, you know, just with laughter, out of control. That was a really greatly satisfying feeling. Yeah, that's incredible. What makes me sad a little bit is like, I feel like that just doesn't happen. I know. I mean, we're lucky enough that people come to see us

on the road and live comedy is doing well right now, but I miss that movie theater experience of seeing like Borat of the Hangover in the theater and just how hard people were laughing. I know. Well, that's why the standup I think is doing well because the country, they do need it. People need to laugh, and there are not these,

the TV shows and the movies are not providing that kind of laughter, but stand-ups are more unfettered, more uncensored, and you're making a real direct communication with the audience, which I think really counts. There's no committee, there's no notes, there's just one person. That's right, there's no notes, exactly, exactly.

That is refreshing. I think so as well. Did you guys, oh sorry, did you guys want to do peeves? I know that we... I don't know if I have a good, do you have any good peeves? I got one. I wrote down a bunch actually. I'm excited because I don't think I have anything.

I'll throw one at you while you look. Okay please, give me one second. You ever have this one where you go, you're at the restaurant and you go, I'm thinking about getting the gnocchi. And they go, oh, I would get the Carbone or whatever. The waiter says that? Yeah, he's like, the carbonara, that's the way to go. And in my head, I'm like, I don't want carbonara.

But I'm like, I'm thinking about gnocchi. And he's like, I'm telling you, the gnocchi's okay, but the carbonara is unbelievable. And I'm like, how do I get out of this one because I want the no key But he keeps pushing the carbonara and he's already told me that the no keys mediocre But the carbonara is the way to go no party is doubting your brain because I doubt my brain buckle. Maybe I'm an idiot Yeah, of course. I do that too, but I just crave it the no key Yeah, and get the no key and then you love it, then what's this guy gonna say at that point? But is that an insult to him? He's like, it's okay, but this is the way to go. And I'm just going, I disagree with you completely.

Fuck you, I'm getting the gnocchi. I don't know, it just feels hard to turn it on him like that. My fear is getting the gnocchi and it sucks. Yeah, that's the only way. Because I'm like, fuck, he warned me. That's a possibility, but I don't like the too much persuasion with a waiter. Even after I've said I want one thing, he's like, this is better. You should get this. And I'm like, but I want this.

I'm not you. It's weird if you ask. It's weird to just unsolicited be like, you shouldn't get that. Yeah, he could sense my insecurity about it. And I think he was trying to prey on that. And that's what was pissing me off. Yeah, and then he's going to judge you afterwards. I know.

Yeah, yeah, you have the judgements. Did he get it? I got the gnocchi and it was not great. But I could just tell he went back to the kitchen like, I can give the guy the gnocchi like he's rolling his eyes. He was offensively spitting your food. He was particularly bad at your food. Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. You couldn't possibly have liked the gnocchi. So that was a peeve. Mine are much more lame, I think, actually. I'm excited to hear them. Going slow on the fast lane. That's the worst. The worst. I don't understand what the logic is behind that. Also the slow walkers.

Same, same. Slow walkers. How about the guy on the airport moving walkway who's like all over the thing. Oh my god. Just get to the side. Yeah, yeah, make a choice. Yeah.

It's not that hard. Make a choice. Speeding up when you're trying to get on the freeway or trying to get in a lane and the person decides to speed up to not let you in. Oh, that's blamed. How angry is that person? These are very LAP.

These are LA. So far, they're all on the freeway. Malibu fires. I was texting these as I was driving. News them? Oh, shit. Ice raids? Here's another LA one.

Stopping at a yellow light when they had plenty of time to go through. Ah, yes. What is that? It's just turned yellow. Why are you stopping now? Live a little, you coward. Go through.

It's a short street. It's not a big boulevard. This is why I don't drive. I'm all your peeves right here. Or the person who doesn't make the left on the red, as it's changing from yellow to red, they wait. They wait. They wait. You get coward, live dammit.

There's also the people who don't pull over for the ambulance. Have you seen them? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That happened yesterday. You guys are actually both guilty of that. No, no, I saw that today. That's why I was thinking we had that fire truck go by and people weren't getting out of the way so it was just honking like a madman.

Yeah, and there's also, I'm sorry. I'm so like desensitized to, I mean like New York ambulance sounds, you just become desensitized that anyone else is suffering, that you just hear it and I'm just like, I'm so desensitized to, I mean, like New York ambulance sounds, you just become desensitized that anyone else is suffering, that you just hear it, and I'm just like, I'm trying to listen to a podcast. You're like annoyed by the siren. I got Terry Gross here. Keep it down. There's a lot of people also, and this is an LA thing too, who use the ambulance to

have an excuse to go fast. Oh, I've done that. They get behind the ambulance and they speed up. Yeah, my dad was an ambulance chaser as a lawyer. Having worked on sitcoms for years, one of the worst things that used to really annoy me was fake laughter. Because the writers would know that if the joke didn't get a laugh, it would be cut. So they would all fake laugh to try to fool the network executives. Interesting.

Can I add something to that? Yes. I've seen every episode of Seinfeld maybe 40, 50 times each. I hear a really strong laugher in there. I'll tell you who it is. Is it Kramer? Is it Michael Richards? I always thought it was Michael Richards.

No, it's not Michael. Michael Richards doesn't laugh. Oh. Whoa. He never laughs. I've never heard him laugh in my life, actually. It might have helped him with one set if he threw a laugh. Whoa. He never laughs. I've never heard him laugh in my life, actually. It might have helped him with one set, if he threw a laugh at it. Yeah, it would have, I believe.

It's often the time. It was Glenn Padnick, who was the head of Castle Rock. He had a kind of squawking laugh. I almost thought he was doing that to spur on laughter to the audience, being like, laugh now. You know, it seems like that, but that was actually, some people like Eddie Murphy, some people have weird laughs and that was his laugh, you know.

Pull up a paddocks, you can find one. Yeah. Good luck. You can hear it, it's very clear. That'll keep him busy for a few hours. People. Oh. I'm sure you. Hand him one of those little paddle ball things.

The ball in the cup. I'm sure you guys have done a lot of Q&A's and there's always people at Q&A's who wanted to ask a question just to hear themselves talk. Yes, yes. They don't really have a question, they just want to have a moment. Totally, totally. I saw that during the Larry show. Oh my god, everyone would try to make, they'd be like, hey do this joke and he's like, fuck you.

I know, I know. It was funny to see him say, like, fuck you to people, and it would just kill, and you're like, oh man. Well, when he did his stand-up, that's how he was also. He was very hostile with the audience. If he didn't get the laugh he liked, he would throw the microphone down and walk off. I've seen him spit at the audience. He spit Johnny Rotten.

I mean, I don't think he actually wasn't spitting on anybody, but just spit in anger, you know? Like, tuh! He walked off quite a bit, yeah. Damn. Spitting. Never done that one.

People who don't realize you're in a hurry and monopolize your time. Yes! I'll add to that one. When you're already like 10 feet down, and they go, oh, one more thing! Oh, I was so close! I know.

I was so close to getting away! You were out, and they pulled you back in. People who lie about their plastic surgery, you know, it's like a lot of stars. Another LA one for sure. Yeah, right, right. No, you look great. Oh, really? Thank you.

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Yeah, it's like I'm trying you know I'm trying I can't breathe you know So but that is I don't like it when I see people doing that now No, the Lewis Black episode of Queens and Carr's Getting Coffee, it's hard to watch because he's such a gross eater. And we've had Lewis on, he's a great guy. I love Lewis, yeah. Even Simon was like, dude, you're 50. He said something?

Yeah, he's like, what are you doing? Like watching you eat is really, really off-putting. He says something like that. People who went to Harvard and always mention in every conversation. Yes, that's a big one. That's a big one. And finally, accusing someone of a pet peeve that you're actually guilty of. That's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I a big one. That's a big one. And finally, accusing someone of a pet peeve that you're actually guilty of. That's one of my biggest pet peeves.

Way to tie it all up, Claire. Thank you very much. Well done. Boy, look who does the homework. This is why you're successful. Well, I felt pressure. I told you, this is where I feel the pressure, is like to be on your show,

they said, well, you have some pet peeves. And I'm like, I don't think I have any. And then I started working on it. Literally had guns drawn on him and you felt pressure with it. Yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. But I'm glad I did it though. I feel much better now.

Yeah, how did you get in with the, cause you're a Brooklyn guy, you started on Fridays. Was that how you met Larry, I assume? Yes, that's right. Michael Richards? Yes. Wow, that must've been a big get when you landed that gig. Larry, I assume? Yes, yes, that's right. And Michael Richards? Yes. Wow, that must have been a big get when you landed that gig.

Friday. I was a bellhop. What? I was a bellhop before I was a TV writer. Geez. That was my last job. And I was also writing for a few comedians, and there was one of the comedians, this guy Darrow, who's the black comedian on Fridays. And his wife was an editor of Chic Magazine which was kind

of like a Larry Flint publication and I had written for Screw Magazine when I was a teenager. Your credits got way better. Yeah yeah I used to write humor like porn humor for Screw and I was really happy about it. I got published and I got paid and everything. I wrote porn novels which was a big thing at that time. Never heard of Screw. Yeah yeah oh yeah I don't think it's out anymore, unfortunately. It was pretty interesting. Nice. But I wrote comedy stuff for that.

And so I thought, well, I'll write some porn humor for Larry Flint's stuff. And I called her up because I'd already been writing for Darrow. And Darrow was in the office when I called her up to pitch the porn humor. And he said, hey, I just got cast on this TV show. I told them about you, I don't know what happened to you,

I haven't heard from you for a year. Why don't you get your material together, they'll read your material. So I didn't even have a typewriter, I mean this is all handwritten stuff. And I hitchhiked to the interview and they liked my material. Hitchhiked.

Yeah, I hitchhiked and I gave them handwritten material. Wow. What was like your best bit, do you remember any of that stuff? No, I hitchhiked and I gave them handwritten material. Wow. And what was like your best bet? Do you remember any of that stuff? No, I really don't remember actually right now. That's such a long time ago. And I said to them at the end of the interview, it's in the book actually,

that look, I don't care if I don't get, I don't know what propelled me to say this to them, but I said, I don't care if I get this job or not. All I care about is don't hang me up. Tell me that I have it or I don't have if I get this job or not. All I care about is don't hang me up. Tell me that I have it or I don't have it. I can handle the rejection. I like that. And I left, I hitchhiked back to my apartment

on Cherokee in Hollywood Boulevard, and the phone was ringing and it was Jack Burns, who was the producer, and he said, I have good news and bad news. The good news is I'm getting back to you. And my heart sunk, and then the bad news is you're hired. And that's how I got hired. That's great.

So I went from being like literally a bellhop to being a TV writer. Now when you hitchhiked, did you look like the Larry we know with the beard and the glasses? I had just been a bellhop so I was actually clean shaven. Okay. Because I can see if people go on, we're not picking up. I had to go out and get a shirt though. I had all of my black and whites. That's all I had from being a bellhop. It was also a parking valet. Those are the kind of jobs,

that's what I was gonna do for my life. I didn't see any way out. And then this came along and I got very lucky. For a Brooklyn guy, good amount of driving. A lot of driving, yeah. A lot of accidents that people didn't know about also. Check the other side of your car when you valet. Oh, yeah.

Because it's the passenger side where the dents take place. Good to know. I'm a New York guy, I cannot really drive at all. Yeah. I don't really got it. But so you go from Fridays to Seinfeld? No, I go for about seven years. After Fridays, I thought, oh, this is it, I'm in.

You know, I'm in show business. Yes. And then I didn't get a job for seven years. And just kind of bummed around and worked here and there. I wrote for Richard Belzer, I wrote for David Steinberg. What was Belzer like? Belzer was great. He was a really cool person except because he was so

spontaneous on stage, he wasn't really good with material. He wasn't really good at memorizing and all working it out. He liked to just come on stage and wing it. He was really good at that, but for a long time, so he didn't have that kind of level of story. I'm like Robin Williams,

all these guys used to come and watch him. And Larry was like that also. They were like cult comedians. But he was very cool to me and very warm to me and very mentorish to me. He had an interesting life himself. So he was great. So I did stuff like that.

I wrote for people like Steinberg also. I used to write Steinberg's Johnny Carson appearances. So I got to meet Johnny Carson and all that kind of stuff. What was Carson like to you? Carson was just like he was on TV, except if you met him in person, he was like a big strapping, like an army sergeant or something.

Yeah, he looks so slight on TV. Yeah, he does. But he was really kind of like, he would like kick your ass. You know, he was like that, actually like that. He's a Midwest guy. Midwest guy, very, very straight, very erect person. Interesting.

But then I got a job finally on Arsenio. And that's where I wrote jokes for Arsenio for a year. And after about six months he stopped using my jokes. He was getting so much hate mail about being just a black person on TV. This was before the internet. And I used to write pretty controversial. Luckily it's all gotten much better.

Right, right, of course. The internet's really made that okay. But I used to write pretty controversial jokes for him and he couldn't do them anymore. So I went six months without getting a joke on the air and then I finally got fired. And then after that, I got a chance to work on In Living Color, went to meet Keaton Ivory Wayans,

and he stood me up. Ouch. And it was an accident, as it turned out, but I lost my shit. I used to be very temperamental that way. And instead of going, oh, could we reschedule? I went, oh, fuck him. And I stormed out of the place.

And when I got home, Larry David called me, and he's like, you know, I'm doing the show, and it'll get canceled, and we'll make a little bit of money. And I was like, I needed a job, and I said yes. And that's how I got on Seinfeld. That's also such a Larry David thing to do, to be like, fuck you, and then it somehow worked out, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, again, very lucky, totally lucky. A lot of synchronicity. What were the feelings of season one of Seinfeld? I mean, did you just think this is not gonna make it? I think Larry really begged for it not to work, because I don't think he wanted to get involved in something like that. And what that did was liberate us to like, okay, fine.

It's gonna go off the air anyway. Let's just do what we wanna do. Let's make it as funny as we can. What we think is funny. Don't worry about the audience. Don't worry about the network. Let's just do something we think is funny. Don't worry about the audience, don't worry about the network, let's just do something we think is funny. And in a way, that was the key to the success of the show.

I love that. Yeah. But you also had to have, what was it, Ludnick? What was that guy's name? Yeah, well, there was Glenn Padnick and Rick Ludwin. Ludwin, sorry. You put those together. I put them together.

Yeah, yeah. They were like one person. But he let you breathe a little. He let the show evolve and find itself. Well, the show failed. It was failing in the ratings. We were losing to Jake and the Fat Man and all these really lame shows.

And put it away. I don't even know what that is. I remember that. You should check it out sometime. It's basically a great premise. It's about a fat cop. That's the premise. Look at the Fat Man.

That was Jake. That was the Fat Man. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. So there's Jake on top. Joe Penny his name was. Man, this show would be a Jake and the Body Positivity Man. Jake and the guy who's trying to lose the way.

But yeah, so we were losing to shows like that, but they had nothing else to put on and they left it on a little while and then they finally had the idea of moving it after Cheers on Thursday nights, which was that must-see TV time. And Larry's response to that, I remember very well, Warren Littlefield said, we want to move the show to Thursday night after Cheers.

And Larry said, anybody who's not watching it on Wednesday can go fuck themselves. And everybody went, no, no, wait, wait. And Larry said, anybody who's not watching it on Wednesday can go fuck themselves. And everybody went, no, no, wait, wait. And they talked him into doing it and the show immediately exploded. Did he not realize they're trying to help? Like it's a good lead in, right? He's a very stubborn guy.

Yeah. Damn. I guess so. So what season was that when they moved it behind? That was, I think, in this, see again, I get to see, because it was a pilot, then there was four episodes, then there was 13 episodes. That's how long it sort of dragged on for,

until finally the 22 episode year. And I think it was either that year or the season after that it moved to Thursday nights. I can't really remember anymore. Yeah, what a run. I mean, you were part of, I would say, the best sitcom of all time. Well, the fact that it still has-

You could say two of them. Yeah,. Well the fact that it still has- You could say two of them. Yeah, true. The fact that it still has resonance, that's the shocking part that people still treat it as if it's a current show. Yes, right. People quote the lines, it's like when I was young, the Godfather was like that.

Everybody used to quote the Godfather all the time. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies close, whatever that was. Taking off your camera fuse. Yeah, exactly. Leave the gun tape, the cann enemies close, whatever that was. Making off you can't refuse. Yeah, exactly. All that stuff was fun. And that's how Seinfeld is now. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Yada yada yada. I mean those things have become part of the lexicon. It's incredible.

It's just an amazing phenomenon. My wife is younger than me. She's 11. But she watches Seinfeld every day. It's very courageous of you to admit that. Thank you. Well, you know, I'm Islamic. But she watches it every day to start getting ready for bed. And it's just in the house, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I think that's a big part of the country. It's like church.

It's like you go to church every Sunday, you hear the same sermon or whatever. It's like that's what Seinfeld is. People want to check in again. Yes, yes. And there's no cell phones in it. There's no Teslas or same sermon or whatever. It's like that's what Seinfeld, people wanna like check in again. Yes, yes, and there's no cell phones in it, there's no Teslas or EVs or whatever, but it still resonates. Yeah, technology plays a very important role

in comedy I think though. I agree. Like there was no cell phones at that time, how different the show would be with cell phones. It'd be very different. It'd be a whole new bag of mishaps with cell phones. When you left in season five, what was the reason for leaving? And did they try to keep you there?

Yeah, I mean, I was locked in. I could have stayed forever there. I was a senior person already at that point. But I'm also a gambler and a risk taker. And a couple of things happened. One was it had started to get a little bit more bourgeois for me. Like, I loved it when it was much more of a lower class people struggling kind of show. You know, Kramer's underworld, you know, and all that kind of stuff.

But then, you know, as they hired new writers from Harvard and places like that, they came from better families, they came from better economic circumstances. And so their stories reflected that. And I related to that a lot less. You know, it just didn't seem like the Charles Bukowski kind of world that I was kind of interested in. The other thing was I had kind of run out of stories. I hit the wall and creatively I felt

like I was already pushing. And I felt like I wanted to try something different. I wanted to tap into a different muscle. And that's why I went to Mad About You, which was less funny, but more emotional, more real. I was in kind of a troubled marriage. I wanted to sort of reflect that in that show. And that was, I wanted to try something different.

And I never did anything, I never went into show business for security. You know, it's like, that's not what it was about for me. Or for money really, for that matter. So I thought, I wanna try It's like that's not what it was about for me, you know? So, and, or for money really for that matter. So I thought I want to try something different and that's okay. I've done Seinfeld, I have the credit, you know, I could afford to go do something else now.

Hear, hear, good answer. Yeah, that's good. I read a Think Piece about Seinfeld, the show, and it said that the use of black people, they were used in positions of power. Was that intentional? I don't think so, actually. I think there was maybe, like again,

the idea that there was so much intention to the show, I think is mistaken. Because every week you're trying to come up with a story, you know, and any story might work, you know? I mean, I had some scripts that were actually canceled. You know, I wrote a script about Elaine buying a gun. And that was a show that we cast everybody and we built the sets.

And there was a few people that were very uncomfortable and they canceled that episode. I also wrote an episode about, do you guys know Mario Joyner? Yeah, sure. So Mario Joyner's a good friend of Jerry's. And I thought I'll use him in the show. And so I had a scene in the coffee shop

where he ordered a salad, and George says, I've never seen a black person order a salad before. And that upset everybody also. So I don't think there was too much of that kind of intentionality in terms of who played what. It was just like, who's the funniest, what's the story gonna be? There was a desperation every week

to come up with a good Seinfeld story. Is it true that Elaine came in, or sorry, Julie Louis-Dreyfus came in, and said she didn't like her plots in the beginning? I was in the room when this happened, and she was, you know, people, we were like three guys, and we did not write women well, and we didn't really know how to write women. And so Julie was kind of a foil for the guys,

and she wasn't really getting meaty stuff, and she was great, but she wasn't getting the meaty stuff. And she came in one day to the office where the three of us were sitting, and she started weeping. And she's like, you guys, you're wasting me, you're not using me. And we, being guys, when a girl cries, you feel guilty. And we're like, okay, we'll take care of it. But she was right, she was completely right. And so we did two things.

One thing was we had a whiteboard on the wall, and we had all the characters on there. And after that, that Larry would we'd have to check off every character to make sure every character had a story. This time Elaine's gonna ask a black guy why he's ordering a salad. Exactly, exactly. She's gonna buy the gun. And then the other thing was, this was the brilliant thing that really changed everything, was the decision to give Elaine a George

story. Yes. There's so many George stories, you know, like because Larry had a million stories. Right. And so there was a story, it was a true story about Larry had a girl coming to stay with him for a weekend from out of town and he was really excited and then by the end of the weekend he wanted to get rid of her and she decides she wants to stay longer and of the weekend he wanted to get rid of her and she decides she wants to stay longer. And he's got to try to get rid of her somehow, you know? And so that was a George story, a very traditional George story and we decided to give that story to Elaine.

Whoa. And she, so suddenly she had the darkness, the pettiness, the small mindedness, the neurosis of the guy characters and that liberated that character. I love it, and now she's maybe the greatest comedy character of all time, just with Veep and then this, and then another show. No, she was incredibly talented, and finally that got tapped into.

Yeah. And now she's like the first lady of comedy now. I agree. She's really kind of evolved into that. But that character really, like, how many other women in comedy got that type of opportunity, especially like in the 80s? Yeah, that's true.

Like, holy shit. And she brought so much to it, like, you know, she would say a line that maybe isn't that great on paper, but she's like, I mentioned the bisque. Or he took it out. Like, all those little pauses and rhythms, that's great. She was willing to be undignified. She was willing, even the women that were like Mary Tyler Moore

or those kind of, there was a certain dignity to those parts. But she was willing to let it all hang out. And that really tapped into a need that, again, the audience, we didn't know the audience needed that. But the audience needed that kind of character to reach that catharsis for them. Yeah, yeah.

And it really responded to it, and that really allowed her, it also made it much easier to write for her at that point. Sure. So that made a big difference. She's a dream, we just had you to hopefully get to her. Yeah, no, I mean, good luck. Yeah, she's a tough get. But I do, I know you gotta go in a minute.

But I do feel, don't you find it strange how people get mad when you, if you say, you couldn't make a lot of these episodes today? Like, Seinfeld has come out publicly and been like, a lot of these episodes we couldn't have done now. And people like yell at him. And I'm like, well, don't you think he might know more about TV than you? You know, also like, why does that make people so angry? That statement. You know, I tell you the truth, I don't worry about it. Comedy has its time and like, we don't need to make Seinfeld today because that Seinfeld

is still relevant today, you know, and that's what the phenomena is to me. I don't really think about the timeframe for comedy or the context for comedy. If something's funny, in my opinion, if I think it's funny, I'm gonna assume, and I think you guys are the same, you're gonna assume somebody else is gonna find it funny.

Or you're gonna hope that someone's gonna find it funny. But you find, I mean, that's the funny thing about standup is like, I had all these ideas last night, just threw it to the wall, and I'm like, oh, I thought that was really funny, nothing. I like that you know immediately. mean, that's the funny thing about standup is like, I had all these ideas last night, I just threw it at the wall and like, oh, I thought that was really funny. Nothing. But I like that you know immediately. Right, right, right. But to go off what you're saying is, I mean, yeah, I mean, Seinfeld had its place and it's

still relevant, but I feel like the stuff that gets greenlit these days is not just existing IP, but then like, aren't they remaking the office? Are they? They're doing another naked gun. That's what I mean. It's like Liam Neeson. These are not fresh ideas. Like I feel like they want not fresh ideas. They want, they're so safe, but it's like,

but all the things that we love were original. Were original at one point. I totally agree with that. How do you guys feel about the rehearsal? I love it. I gotta watch it. I think it's amazing. Yeah, I mean, the second season with the, I didn't see the rehearsal? I love it. I gotta watch it. I think it's amazing. Yeah, I mean the second season with the,

I didn't see the first season. Masterpiece. Yeah, I mean that just taps into what you're talking about. It's original. Yeah, it's just him. I love Nathan for you. I love nothing like it, you know. And that I do appreciate. HBO, that's on HBO.

By the way, quick rec, I started the Cigurra rec, 000. Oh. Excellent. Oh, really? Love it. Yeah, on Amazon. Awesome, awesome cartel show. But yeah, rehearsal's next, that's for sure. I actually watched the Ben Laden doc off of his wreck and that was great.

Unreal, they have footage of killing Ben Laden. It's worth watching. Right, right, that was funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what is there, what do you wanna do next? Like what's the next thing?

We got the book. Yeah, we got the book. Get the book. Comedy Samurai, wherever you get books. I'm just looking, you know, I'm writing all the time. I'm looking for cool stuff to do, stuff that makes me laugh that could get made, you know. And I'm hoping to do a movie this summer, which I'm not going to talk about because it probably won't happen.

But if it does happen, that'll be cool and I'll come back and happily talk about it. But I'm just looking for stuff that's cool, either self-generating or something that I'm excited about that somebody brings me. So I don't have a career. I've never thought of myself as having a career. I just kind of gravitate and I've been lucky enough

to gravitate to cool things that I think are good. And I just do those thingsitate and I've been lucky enough to gravitate to cool things. Yeah, they're good Definitely I just do those things and that's my life, you know, and I haven't had like a plan of any kind That's cool. I just been sort of like a pinball just banging against the walls. You're like kung fu You just kind of going through life. I'm comedy samurai. Yeah I would say maybe now feel free to kick me in the balls here, but the Rick Rubin of comedy. Well, Rick Rubin is the other reason I'm saying that. He's the beard.

That's the other reason I'm saying that. No, but you've worked with these amazing comedic, just like they work with Tom P, he worked with Tom Petty and the Beastie Boys and Jay-Z and all these guys. Rick Rubin and I were very tight at one time. Also, we were very good friends, actually. Don't tell me there's another girl to fall in love with.

Yes, yes. Did you really? When is it you, Larry? It's friends, actually. Don't tell me there's another gay to falling out with. Yes, yes. Did you really? When is it you, Larry? That's for part two. It is me. Okay. It is me. We got to the bottom of it. Absolutely.

He's gonna read this part and be like, those guys suck. When you read the book, you'll see what an asshole I am. Okay. I promise. All right. We hope you and Larry make up, because that's such a unique friendship. He is the most important, I would say really,

he's the most important person in my adult life. He's done more to change my life than anybody. So call him up. Well, maybe I will. Maybe at some point I will. I don't hate him. I love him, actually. And like I said, he made me a writer,

he made me a director. Yep. And I was like, again, a young guy when I met him, and he kind of showed me about integrity and discipline and the craft. I mean, he really kind of laid it all out for me. And so I have deep gratitude towards Larry David, and I always will.

It's the shit part of this business. It's a business. Like, you and Larry, you're artists, you're writers, you're creators, but the business part makes people have to get fired and disconnect. Yeah, yeah. Me and him shot a show show and then some guy bought it

and they're like, well, what do we need him for? And I'm like, no, we gotta keep him in. So we're trying to keep him in, but it's a whole thing because it's business now. Yeah, well, and business has a lack of ethics. Yes, exactly. And artists have ethics. Isn't that weird?

Yeah, it is weird. Should be the other way around. It should be. I think your friendships in this, I mean, that's literally why we started this pod. It's like, you know, Mark and I were open micers together. We've been friends forever. And now after reading your interview in this, I mean that's literally why we started this pod, is like Mark and I were open micers together, we've been friends forever, and after reading your interview in New York Times,

we were talking about it, we're like, man, I hope we're friends when we're older. Right, right, right. Because the friendships in this are so important, the business is one thing, but you and Larry have made incredible stuff together. And been friends for 40 years. Yes. Long fucking time.

So this is a blip, this is a hiccup. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And the fact that the documentary got friends for 40 years. Yes. Long fucking time. So this is a blip. This is a hiccup in a long friendship. Yeah, exactly. And the fact that the documentary got killed sucks, but like, you know, I hope you guys figure it out. You'll figure it out. 100%. Well, like I said, I don't think there's any hostility really.

No. It's just like the way, you know, life, you know, I'm sure you guys have friends that you've drifted apart for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes people die, but it's not always that. Sometimes you just drift apart for one reason or another. Somebody marries somebody you don't like. All kinds of other pet peeve thing maybe. But shit happens, and that's really true. And so that's sort of the situation here. By the same token, things could, as they unravel, they could re-ravel. Definitely re-raveling.

So yeah. What did you say? Oh, I was gonna say that Sam had a girlfriend that Disliked mark. Yeah, I hope oh yeah, and I was like are you afraid this is gonna drive a wedge between you two He's like I'll be around when she's gone I'm here, and this is what's great about Seifeld also not to come back to that But I mean we did an episode Larry had a girlfriend who nobody really liked and wouldn't say anything and then he broke up with her and everybody just exploded with that oh we hated her and

then he got back together with her you know and so I wound up marrying her actually the environmental chick yes anyway but. But that's a big universal problem. Now you get to be like, I was right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. She went all the way to the bank. That's right. She got that Seinfeld money. That's right, exactly.

The book is Comedy Samurai, Larry Charles. I'm definitely gonna check it out. Awesome to talk to you, awesome to meet you. Oh man, it was great to meet you. I'm gonna get you two more hours. Great to meet you guys, thank you so much. You've shaped my whole comedy influence. We'll do it when he leaves because he's got an Great to meet you guys. Thank you so much. You've shaped my whole comedy influence. We'll do it when he leaves because he's got it now.

But alright. Thank you Larry. My pleasure man. Thank you guys. Really appreciate it. Thanks man. Good luck with the bris. Yeah.

August 7th I'll be at the Wilbur in Boston. August 22nd through 24th I'll be in Irvine, California at the Improv. The next weekend I'm in Oklahoma City at Brick Town Comedy Club. September 19th I'm in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Venetian. Then we got Rochester, New York. And then we got Chicago Theater October 4th, Winnipeg Canada October 5th.

And we just are adding now a Euro tour that month, so it's not, it might, it should be on my website now when this comes out, but we got like Barcelona, I believe Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam. Holy shit. London, Dublin, Manchester, and Berlin, and Milan. So I'll be all over, so that's why we're back loading pods here, but all over Europe,

tickets on my site, Then we got Salt Lake City Reno At the Atlantis and then I will be Carnegie Hall in New York City December 4th. So please buy tickets. I can't wait No, no Iran. No Tehran. I'm working on all right. All right Bunker Buster. Hey, but the Cape Cod Melody tent. It's a it's an honor to play there it's like a legendary spot in Hyannis. Then we got Foxwoods, Connecticut, Ben Salem, Pennsylvania at the Parks Casino. Then we're off to New Zealand, Melbourne, Sydney, we're adding shows, Adelaide, Perth. Then we're off in the Hamptons for a little fun in the sun.

Calgary, Vegas at the Palazzo Theater at the Venetian and Dallas we got a bunch of the improv and Akron Dayton Halifax Ottawa Huntsville Hattiesburg Mississippi Boulder come out to Boulder we're gonna shoot that for hopefully a special we're gonna try to get it in two and then we're off to Europe for a little little fake a shows bullshit Oslo Helsinki Dublin and then we're off to Europe for a little fake-k shows, bullshit Oslo, Helsinki, Dublin. And then we're back in Valley Center, California at the Harris Resort and then Magoobies to write a new hour. So, got to go to Baltimore.

Right back to work. Back to work, baby. You don't give yourself a fucking moment. No, no. Talking about highs and then lows. Yeah, yeah. Athens to Timonium. Washington, DC at the Lincoln.

Love that room. MarkNormanComedy.com. We're on Punch Up. Bodega Cat, you cum guzzler Nazis. Get yourself a drink. Live it up and have a fun summer. Love you guys. Comedy.

Sunday's the day for my next vendor. I bit a Piva rec, you know the future's close. I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her

I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her

I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her I'm out to lunch here in New Orleans This woman doesn't look like I remember her And I get down in the same way We might be drunk