Will Cain Country - Hollywood’s Woke Jokes FLOP at the Oscars (ft. Aaron Berg, Troy Duffy, & Craig Carton)

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Featuring Guest Host - Comedian and Actor Aaron BergWith Will out on a well-earned vacation, Comedian and Actor Aaron Berg takes over ‘Will Cain Country,’ joined by the one and only Creator and Director of 'Boondock Saints' and 'Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day,' Troy Duffy. Aaron and Troy dive into the decline of big-screen comedy and the lackluster excuses for “humor” at this year’s Oscars ceremony, before Troy shares the story of how Harvey Weinstein tried (and failed) to bury the film that has defined Irish-American culture for decades.Plus, Host of ‘The Craig Carton Show’ Craig Carton sits down with Aaron to savor the schadenfreude of Canada being absolutely demolished by the U.S. in every winter sports category this season and gives you the inside scoop behind the New York Mets' off season makeover.Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠⁠Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠⁠@willcainnews⁠⁠⁠)Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello America and welcome to Will Kane country. And many of you looking at the screen today going, man, Will looks like a shrunken down Vin Diesel that morphed into Bruce Willis. And I'm waiting for him to do karaoke right now. Not going to happen. Who am I? Aaron Berg filling in. Will is on a well-earned vacation, just taking some downtime. And as such, I've been asked to fill in.

today and what a great day it's going to be. Many of you on the northeast are getting ready to lock down for a huge hurricane that's hitting the more southern part of the northern hemisphere. And then, of course, if you're in Chicago, you're probably snowed in. Many of you are wondering when those airport lines are going to give up, but the Democrats have no intention of doing that. Very exciting today. I am not here by myself, some lovely friends in the booth. Hello? What's happening? Thanks for coming in. We appreciate you. I'm really excited. I got a brand new suit just for this. It looks great. I thought it was purple.

I was going to go with the grimmest look, but it turns out I'm going colorblind as my age increases. So it's like a light blue gray. We have such an important week ahead of us because yesterday, of course, the biggest show that nobody watches, the Oscars was on to give out awards, not just for DEI, but also for great movies, great performances, great soundtracks. This is the first time that there's ever been a tie in the Oscars, I believe. Fascinating. Some sparklingly amazing humor was not present last night. A lot of bomb jokes, which in fact is good timing because of what's happening in Iran,

but a lot of really good bomb jokes. We're going to cover some of those. But also, tomorrow is St. Patrick's day. one of the most important Asian holiday. It's an Irish holiday, actually. Did you know that? St. Patrick's Day. I thought corned beef and cabbage was an Asian treat, but it's not.

An Irish holiday, the biggest of the Irish holidays is tomorrow. Not to be confused, Black Friday, not an Irish holiday. That's just a shopping thing set up by commercialism. As such, we've got two great guests joining us today. later in the show, the one and only New York icon, the guy you go to for sports knowledge in America. Mr. Craig Carton will be joining us. But I figured what a great way to start the show off since we're going to be talking Oscars, since we're going to be talking St. Patrick's Day, since we may involve what's happening in,

you know that straight that's all clogged up now where there's like oil trying to get through? How do you pronounce the name of that straight? Hermose? It sounds like vermouth to me. Vermuth is better, I would say. Vermouth is better than vermoos. And how do you spell vermoos? I don't know.

Me neither. Is it an English word or is it an Arabic word? I googled it says straight of vermouth. Yeah. That was the first thing that came up. We were right. The straight of vermouth is, it sounds like a James Bond type of thing. Like, I like, well, shake and not stirred.

Very exciting. This guy that I'm going to bring to you right now is known in the Irish world for making two of the greatest Irish movies ever because these, I believe, stand on top of the Irishman, which was, you know, I think a good movie, but kind of fell short. He's the writer and director of the Boondock Saints one and two, the film franchise. It's been known for 25 years. He also has a brand new book out right now called Blood Origin. Also, great friends. friend of mine, we're working on a project together called King of the Castle, which is just about to be made. We're just $3 million short. So if there's any billionaires listening, no, $3 million is a drop in the bucket. Steve Jobs, Elon Moss, great movie. Please welcome my friend, writer and director of the Boondock Saints 1 and 2, writer of the great new book, Blood Origin, Volume 1, Mr. Troy Duffy. Hey, hey, hey, A. Ron. How you doing? Happy St. Pats, Brother.

It's almost here. How excited do you get as a man that's helped form Irish culture in America for this day? Oh, man. This is our day. I'm here in Nashville, and I don't know if you can see this, but it just started snowing outside. So it's a winter wonderland. Every Irishman's favorite for St. Pat's. We're going to have a white St. Pat's.

I mean, most Irish people that I would think of leprechaun, et cetera, fall into the White St. Pat's type of thing. Are leprechauns real? Are leprechauns real? Yeah. Yeah, you are one. What are you like, five, two? I've never tossing you a few times.

I have loafers on right now, but without loafers, I'm five, four and a half. Yeah, you know, I never understood the loafer thing. I've seen you perform so many times. Yeah. And the loafer thing. I just like this kind of Miami. Yeah, but you're huge. It's almost like get some work.

boots or something. I used to wear work boots. Some butt kicking stuff there. Let me explain. When you get older, you start to get these diseases like planter fasciitis and things that, you know, I think crocs become a much more sensible type of footwear. All right. I remember you were wearing penny loafers once and they had actual pennies in them and I'm like, you actually like put them in your shoe. I think you're thinking about somebody else. I've never worn pennies in my shoes. It's far too stereotypical. Okay. All right. We'll talk off air. Let me ask you this. Tell me about the book right now. I know it's moving forward. It's selling. You got some big news about it. The audio book is out right now. Tell us where this goes in terms of the Boondock Saints line of time. Well, I mean, a couple of years ago when I made a deal for three to kind of put that aside, over here, I was going to retire and write books, right?

So I wrote the Boondock Saints book, Boondock Saints Volume 1, Blood Origin. It's out right now on Amazon and Audible. And yeah, the fans are highly recommending the audible because I narrated the whole thing. And evidently I have a very smooth and silky voice that's pleasing to the ear. It is, except when you try to make it sound like that, then it's very abrasive and aggressive at best. Now, your movies affected a whole generation of people, not. initially because you had issues when the first movie came out. By the way, at the time, hottest script in Hollywood.

People clamoring to do this movie. You're going through A-list actors. You're picking and choosing, but then the studio heads and the agents all get involved. Harvey Weinstein at one point, who had a huge article come out. Last week, somebody interviewed him in Rikers, and he's still got that abrasiveness to him. but the movie comes out Harvey Weinstein basically tries to block the success

of the Boondock Saints when it comes out, right? Mm-hmm. So you get relegated from this movie that's supposed to go all around America to how many theaters does it open in? Only two theaters,

one in L.A., one in Waltham Mass, and we forewalled them, which is basically I buy all the tickets and, you know, hopefully we do okay, which we actually did. made like 38 grand in the one theater in Waltham mass one theater because it was a college town so kind of got out of control but yeah what happened there was part Harvey part you know the world because when we were doing our screenings for the industry on Boondock the Columbine incident occurred and we were blacklisted from US theater screens so we weren't going to get we weren't going to get a theatrical release period and that was back in the day you know you're talking about 99, 2000, being banned from theater screens, you know, even there was like weird

crossover with Boundai, two characters in trench coats and two young men did the violence. And so we just got, we just got like hammered. So immediately the only thing we're getting is a straight to video. But Blockbuster really stepped up and gave us what was called a Blockbuster, like it's some kind of release of a straight to video where they don't put like two copies of your little stupid movie per store they put 120. So it looks like a big movie

that everybody missed in theaters. It's called a Blockbuster Exclusive. That's when it hit the fans. Now for the kids that are under 40 listening, explain to them what a Blockbuster is. Oh yeah, blockbusters, video stores, man. You remember that? You just have to go in,

look at the shelves, pick a thursday, thing and rent a VHS. It was funny. We were one of the last VHS movies that was right during the transition to DVD. It was a different time. You would go out, rent a movie, watch it with your family, as opposed to just lock your eyes on your phone with earbuds, hopefully with earbuds. If you don't have earbuds, then you're on a United flight now, they'll kick you off, thankfully.

So this movie gets buried all of a sudden on the... VHS, people start watching it to the degree that there's somebody in the sound booth here. Yeah, I was telling him. I love the movie so much. He auditioned with the speech from the courtroom. And he says, not uncommon. It's a great speech. It's a great monologue for theater. And I said, do you remember how it goes? Listen to this, Troy. And Shepard, we shall be for the, my lord, for the power hats ascended forth from my hand.

may my swiftly carry out that command and we shall flow a river forth to thee and teaming with a soul shall it will never be and no many of Potsche and Filii spiritu sulked I didn't do the accent I didn't do the exit I thought like you know he kind of pushed out because he told me before we got on the air

and I was like oh that's cool did you do the accent and he's like no man but I got the part did you cry did you let tears well up in your eyes when you were doing it tried really hard but it just didn't come What was the overwhelming emotion you ran with? Was it anger? Was it ventful anger?

Yeah. It was vengeful anger. That was the best part of the movie. I mean, that's the feeling that it's like as a young guy, I watched that movie. I was like, oh, yeah, this is like, you're. You know, that's that feeling that like, that revenge that, you know, that anger is great. Troy, the overwhelming sense of the movie was about vengeance, was about brotherhood. But there's also so much great comedy in what you do, right?

Right? Is it a thing that comedy and violence go hand in hand? Because I find extreme violence hilarious. Oh, yeah? Yeah, is that odd? Kind of. Well, actually, no. I mean, we have different emotions, don't we? I remember, like, I haven't cried in probably, I don't know, 20, 25 years. And the last time I did was during the battle scenes of Braveheart.

Yeah. you know, for whatever reason. I think I was having a glory moment, you know. I cry all the time. If you get married, you'll cry a lot. It really, yeah. When you're married, you cry a lot. You have to.

Mostly in the shed in the backyard. Yeah. I've been married. I did not cry. I did not cry. Not even at the end. When it was over, I almost did. When I divorced, I came this close to cry.

Yeah. We'll be right back on Will Kane Country. This is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the fifth. 52 episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Join Fox in supporting our troops. From daily needs to global emergencies, help us be there for those who serve. Visit go.com. Fox slash Red Cross to donate to service to the armed forces today. Tell me, we have a clip. I want to show. Pierce Morgan had guest on, and they were talking about the last really rebellious comedy

to be made. And I want you to watch this clip, and I want to get your take on it. Sure. I don't agree with me. The Tropic Thunder is not only a great film, but possibly the last balls out comedy to have been made, you know? Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah, 100%. It's such a shame. It's such a shame that we've had 10 years, where it's been kind of like a desert, you know? Well, let me ask Dr. Anastasia, we're on a lighter subject here. What's your favorite comedy, movie? Not my genre of choice, so I'm learning a lot.

You surprised me. You don't find things fun. Well, last time, Piersn, you told me I'm not fun at Farty, so I'm really matching my gratitude. Well, you just prove the point. If you can't think of a single comedy movie, you like. Is it all the most behind me? But Anastasia, it's what I mean about the Woke Brigade.

You don't like laughing. You're joyless, people. It's anastity. Where's the fun? Thoughts? Yeah, I completely agree. I think we're witnessing the death of the comedy. When was the last great one we saw, right?

And in terms of irreverent comedies like Tropic Thunder, that was the last one. Yeah. I can't name one, you know? And it's strangely, you know, great segue, Aaron, but it goes right to King of the Castle, our project together that you and I are working on. Like, probably what? year ago, you sent me your script, which was basically, I mean, I don't want to, like, out you on your, on, on your buddy's show. But it's semi-autobiographical about a man who has to return to mail stripping at 54 when, when tragedy strikes his family.

But it was the best comedy cold open that I had read. And it was because it was so irreverent. I was like, dude, you nailed this. The rest was a hot mess. and I got in there and you and I worked hard and we fixed it. And now we're only three million short in our three million budget. Yeah. So three million on our three million bucks.

Okay, I get it. So this movie is bringing back the irreverence to comedy. Why do you think it's died? Why do you think we're watching a woman on Pierce Morgan saying she just doesn't find humor to be in her genre? Isn't laughing such an essential part of life? Like, how miserable must you be if you don't find things funny? Oh, God, man. It's, it, when politics seeped into absolutely everything, from sports to any kind of entertainment, singing, rap, everything, we can't really escape it.

Once that happens, it's almost like the comedian and the comedy were like almost the first, the first, the first, casualties, you know? What they did to Chappelle and try to like all that stuff. It just it seems like when people get too damn serious and you're actually losing friends over politics, I mean, think about your your mom and dad's day. I remember going to Red Sox games, Celtics games. My grandpa and my dad and my grandpa would be like, all right, that's it. No politics. We're going to go root for our guys. That's it. You know, with their friends. And this used to be, The only thing that's probably more annoying than the California Democrat is the Massachusetts Democrat where I grew up. You know, and back in the day, it just wasn't even a thing.

And now family members and friends are being lost over politics. So we just kind of watched it, didn't we? You know, we watched it over the last 10 years. Just the back of comedy has been broken, man. And hopefully now, I mean, I think the, I think the, pendulum starting to swing the other way. Because I talked to my friend Gary Beakler on Nerd Rodic and Chris Gore on film threat. And we had like a long discussion on a podcast one day.

And I think it was Gore that said it was like the the patient has kind of, you know, recovered. All right. But he needs bed rest in medicine. Yeah. You know, we've broken the fever. So we're coming back. We watch stuff like. There was a roast not too long ago of who is this famous football player that's escaping my mind right now.

Tom Brady. Yeah, why? He's the goat. You know why? You don't get that name. Well, I'm a hockey fan. I'm rooting for the New Jersey Devils and they're not even in the playoffs right now. So excuse me if I'm not thinking about a guy that's kind of retired from football that played New England when I live in New Jersey.

The greatest quarterback that ever lived. That's him. Tom Brady. The roast of Tom Brady did so great that everybody's like, okay, there's room for irreverential comedy to come back. So it's just- Is it reverential a new word that you just made up? Yeah, it's like irreverent, but it's moving forward, a reverential.

Is that not a real word? It's like systemic irreverence. Yeah, systemic irreverence. That's exactly it. And I find it important to also note that there has been such a political swing where like years ago when people were trying to. cancel rap records. It was, you know, on the Republican side, and now the Democratic side wants to cancel

anything that people find funny because it kind of adds levity to these situations where they don't think levity should exist. Dude, what do you think about these people, like on my Instagram accounts, you know, these hecklers that jump up and get offended at live comedy shows when you're on the mic? I mean, that's what you're famous for. Let me brag on you for just a minute, but I can. Is it going to be a reverential? It's going to be a reverential braggate, braggadociousness.

But I have seen you go on. No comedy, no comedian wants to follow Aaron Berg. Thank you. He just gets up there, destroys and leaves. And it's funny because you're not like a sort of woke guy at all, and I have never seen anyone heckle you. Has that actually happened? Because your type of comedy would seem to attract these people.

Yeah. I think on the base of it, it should, but because it's so well crafted and because the audience is so involved in what I'm doing, they realize, oh, this is fun. And I do get a lot of people that will laugh and then be shocked that they're laughing, which is like a really cool response for me as a performer to have. Is this like, oh, I don't want to laugh at this, but there's just something that hits them in the gut. Yeah. Sort of like, oh, God. I do really love that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like surprise laughter. I guess that's the answer then.

I mean, do you ever get them coming up to you after the show and dressing you down? No. It's very rare that anybody will come up after and go, I really hate it what you say. And if they do, I go, well, thanks for sharing your opinion. They're entitled to not like it. I had a woman at a sold-out show last week, 300 people. everybody's dying laughing. And this woman in the front, pink hair, just like the internet come to life.

Like she is a troll, like you know on the day that Trump first got elected, she was the one on her knees yelling, no. It was exactly that. She was with her daughter. Her daughter's laughing at first. And then the woman stopped. And I go, look, I'm picking up on your energy. I'm really not digging this.

I get you don't like me, but look around you. And she goes, I don't understand why everyone is laughing. And I said, because you are the problem in this equation. Everybody else is having a blast. You're the one. And I go, you're free to get up and leave. Please get up and leave. I don't want your energy in here.

Nobody does. And she goes, no, we're going to wait and see the rest of the people. And I go, I'm last. And it was just the misery on her face. It brought me so much joy. It brings me joy to make people laugh and have a great time. but to really upset small-minded individuals is one of the greatest things a comedian can do.

Oh, I love the time. There's been a few times where the audience revolted against the heckler and shouted them down until they left. It's so much fun. I'm loving that. There's nothing better. What do you got planned for St. Patrick's Day

and how should Boondock Saints fans celebrate St. Patrick's Day? That's a fun question. It's so weird. The fans have got these rich, I mean, Boondock has been a cult hit for 25 years. And the fans have developed these drinking games that they do on St. Pat's. One is like everybody will just be watching the movie and they'll all say the dialogue. Yeah.

As with it as it goes along. The whole movie. They've memorized the whole movie. Oh, God. There are people. Yeah. There are people that have memorized the whole damn movie. So they'll say it when somebody, you know, stumbles that he's got to drink.

The other one is, this is a little known fact. We're exposing it for the first time, a scoop here on the Will Kane show, as narrated by my friend Aaron Bird. We have the highest number of F bombs in Boondock Saints one. And that number is? 247s. Some fan actually counted, which makes sense. We actually have an F-word monologue at one point where Rocco says it like 50 times in a row. But, like, for instance, Scarface has a hundred less than us.

Wow. And he influenced me in my suit purchase. What's that? He influenced me in my suit purchase, Scarface. Every suit I get now, I'm trying to look like Scarface. You went with the shark skin, huh? I love it. All right.

The other one is... Every time an F-bomb comes up, they'll drink. So they get bombed on St. Patrick's Day watching the movie. Okay. So I will probably join them in that. Is there like a live stream or is there like a group chat that you have that goes on St. Patrick's Day for Boondock Saints fans? No, I'll probably do. I'll probably shout out doing a shot on our socials, but one of the things I am looking forward to is we may be able to.

There's the Boondock St. Bar in New Orleans. I may want to do a live shot with live stream with them to pull up a glass with those peeps down in New Orleans. you and I were there just a little while. Yeah, we were there for a comedy festival, and we did a wonderful show. That was a blast, and I hope we get to do it again. Well, happy St. Patrick's Day. Final thought.

Thoughts on the Oscars last night. Of course, one battle after another, took Best Picture. Thoughts? Yeah, never heard of it. It was a huge movie. You work in movies. It was a really big movie.

I know, I know. But the Oscars is just like... Sean Penn. Leonardo DiCaprio, never, there's this great car scene at the end that goes on for like eight minutes. You know what, I'll check it out. I'll check it out. But I saw, I saw clips of everybody complaining about the host. Conan O'Brien, great host.

There were a couple of jokes. No, no, no, no, I was thinking of Jimmy Kimmel. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Conan, they said, did a pretty good job, huh? I guess, yeah, Conan always does a good job. I know his head writer, Lori Kilmartin, very funny comedian.

There was a good joke bomb that I want to share with you before we go. And this was Kumail Nanjiani, if you don't know Kumail, very funny guy. Then he got in action movies. He got all ripped. And there was all this controversy. Is he on roids or is he not on roids? So he had a joke.

Let's take a look at that joke and see how it lands if he read the room appropriately. And if the joke was well-timed or real-timed. Instead of it's a wonderful life, how about it's a wonderful month? Westside anecdote. The King's Tweet. Some of that jazz. Call me by your nickname. No county for old man.

One battle. That's it. You get one. Choose wisely, Paul. Schindler's post it. Not bad. Yeah, that was like an avalanche. I mean, it should have probably,

he should have probably put that in the middle and closed with no country. I'm not offended by it. As a Jewish American, I am not offended by it. It's not like he drove a car through a synagogue. You know what I mean? Did you notice all the laughter? He was getting medium laughs. I love that Hollywood is so,

woke yet at times they still get offended by old school stuff um Troy thank you for joining us tell people where they can find you and tell them where they can get the book all right blood or cool here's some shameless self-promotion uh I gave I actually gave Jimmy uh Phala when I was there doing his show with you Jimmy's right next door right now I might knock on these all right so our blue dog a brother's crosses from the movie um are pretty much the prize possession of a lot of fans and we haven't had them available for a while but now they're available on boondock saints.com beautiful um also yeah the book uh amazon and audible just boondock saints volume one and you know uh we are actually seeking a uh physical book publishing deal something like a leather bound bible hardcover

type thing just being bookstores and we're having some we're having some some good luck with that and uh the last thing i mean you didn't know ask me, but I have to address it because fans are, they're just crazy, you know? Sort of like, what's, what's happening with Boondock 3? What's happening with Boondock 3 is what I wanted to ask you. All right. All right. Well, yeah, that's like, I could, I could like announce on any social.

Oh, my God, my mother died. Yeah? What's happening with three? That's the first comment on everything, right? So basically a couple years ago and I decided to beat and retire and just write the book series on Boondock Saints. I did a deal with this great company, kind of the action franchise kings of Hollywood.

These guys did, with a... John Wick movies. They did the John Wick movies. They did this Carrillo movies called Thunder Road. They're terrific. Big fans over there. But they have a focus on sequels. And our fans, I mean, you, I don't know if we mentioned this.

You were in Boondock, too. That's how we met. I hired you. And you did a fantastic job. But the fans had to wait 10 years between one and two. and now it's been 15 between two and three. Yeah. Right?

So, you know, as Pierce Morgan said, you know, all those waitings for the bids. And he, the fan, I'm really just shocked and surprised that the fans have, they still even want it after all this time. But they certainly do. So they're aiming for the last quarter of 2006 to begin production. And the holdup has been that what they're trying to do is, put story elements in there so that they can do a three, four, and a five in fairly rapid succession.

Wow. So they really want to kind of take the franchise to the next level, and it's taking some creative tweaking, but we're on it, man. I have a question. With the, like, recent popularity of peptides, TRT, hormone therapy replacement, is it possible that, spoiler alert, I'm killed in the second movie? is it possible I come back for 3-4-5. Like there's a new peptide.

I take a lot of BPC 157 or TB 500, and all of a sudden, Jojo-Rama comes back? No. Okay. I just wanted to run it by you. I just thought there were a lot of innovations and medicine and science, and I thought that...

You and I need to focus on getting King of the Castle made. So like you said off the top, calling all billionaires with balls. You got it. Troy Duffy, thank you for joining us today. We will be right back after a short break here on Will Cain Country. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology.

Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. That's nice, do you hear? That's really good Will Kane country music. It's got a vibe to. I would drive to that in my truck. If you send me that link, I'll listen to that on the way back to Jersey

while the rain's pouring down. It's got a vibe for sure. Yeah, it's got a vibe. Country vibe. It's country, but it's got some edge to it. That's how I like my country. You know how I like my friends? Bald with some edge to him.

I love this. That song gets you one traffic light. We don't live in Austin. We don't live in rural Texas. Like one great country song, I went from 35th to 36. 8th Avenue. 8th Avenue is a nightmare today. 8th Avenue.

Like, what are we doing? You're right. Play that song on Loop. Oh, my gosh. Host of the Craig Carton show. My dear friend, Mr. Craig Carton, how are you? Doing great. I didn't realize you had clothes.

This is crazy. I usually, you don't know this. Craig does some of the best charity shows anywhere, anywhere in the world. We raised a whole bunch of money for St. Jude's last week. We raised like almost a million bucks since we started doing it. Yeah. Craig is so active in the community and puts on these amazing comedy shows. So luckily, I get to be a part of these comedy shows with him.

He goes up, he talks, he's hilarious. And by the way, I don't want to spoil this. His son is a budding edge lord community. median. I love 15 years old. He runs jokes by me. That's hard at that age, man. That's tough. And Craig will look at me and he'll go, you can't say this on stage, can you? And I go, yeah, you can.

And his son is killed before. I've seen him up there. Yeah. Because there's a difference like, you saw him, I guess he was 13, let's say, maybe 14, right? I was trying to explain to him. My son Anthony was in ninth grade. You get to an age where debatable material is no longer cute because it's coming out of the

mouth of a 10-year-old, right? And I'll never forget, when he was two or three, and he's just learning how to speak, I would play him dice clay stuff, right? The original dice clay stuff. Such a great dad. And then I would feed him a line. He'd reiterate the line. I would then edit it together.

So I had like a three-year-old saying, you know, what's in the bowl? Right? That kind of stuff. So I'm doing the radio in New York City, and we've Dice booked as a guest. Yeah. And I was thought, like, when Opie and Anthony, I thought they were the best radio show in New York city for comedians. Yeah.

Because they gave comics platforms. And I've always wanted to be able to replicate that level of success because the interview on comedians is not easy. Right. For like the normal DJ or talk show host isn't good at it. And a lot of comedians aren't great if they're not doing their material. So it's kind of this weird moment. Like you have guys, your fans of that are really funny, but how do you make it a funny

20-minute segment on radio, right? Right. So Dice comes in. I'm so excited. I'm like, Dice, wait, do you hear this? my three-year-old does your act. And I'm playing like, merry, merry, right? But it's a three-year-old doing it.

And I'm so proud of myself and my three-year-old. And he looks to me and he goes, you might be the worst parent on the planet. Come on. And I'm like, are I talking to Andrew? Or am I talking to Dice? Because Dice was doing stuff in AC. Good job, Dad.

Goose. Yeah, like go-go, go-go, good, good. Right. And it was the most deflating moment I found in radio where he was upset. That I had my three-year-old saying bad words and doing his act. So that's the genesis of my son doing stand-up. How did you, you started to love comedians because of that O&A generation?

Before that, they just did it in a manner. I've never heard anyone on radio do it. Yeah. Where there's Ross or obviously Jim Norton, the guys that were on their show a lot in their heyday at W&W. And as a guy, like, I'm a radio geek, but you like to see other people really good. good at what they do. Yeah. And it was more Anthony than Opie, for sure,

because I think he's brilliant also from a comedic mind standpoint. Of course, he's gotten himself in some trouble, but haven't we all? Yeah. But I just thought they did it in a manner no one else before them had ever done it. Yeah, they let comedians just be funny.

Yes. They just brought comedians on. Because there are some comics where I've had comics come in, hey, listen, Craig, ask me about my bicycle. Yeah. And I'm like, like, it's not conversationally funny. You know what I mean? That's the whole essence of,

of Comics Unleashed. Or I haven't seen the new version of it, but Comics Unleashed used to be like, he'd be like, so I understand you just got an aquarium. Right. What's that like? Jumped to the, man, man, these fish be all weird and stuff, be looking out at me like,

when you're gonna feed me? And they don't talk, but I know what they say. And you know what I'm saying, Byron? I have billions of dollars. You make billions of dollars with that show. You're really an awesome and American. I love the way you live your life. You invite me over to barbecues, even though I've never come.

That, to me, is quintessential American. Inviting somebody for a barbecue. How much pride do you have watching America wipe up the floor with Canada in everything? It was awesome. Because it's not even on a sport. Like, we borrow it for a small period of time. And seeing, like, I get joy. I'm sure there's a name for this.

Like, it's a mental illness for sure. ADD. No, no, no. It's like when you get joy out of other people. people's failures. Shot and Freud. What's that? Shot in Freud.

Yeah, that guy. Shot in Freud? It sounds German. Sean Freud is like when you start feeling bad for the kidnapper. Well, you know, they needed kids. Can you blame the guy? That's a real thing? Yeah.

Yeah. Not to be confused. Not to be confused with that. What's that thing where you start to love the person that kidnapped you? Stockholm syndrome. Similar. Wow. Yeah, I guess they kind of go hand in hand.

Okay. Yeah. So am I a huge hockey guy? I know you are. I'm not, but the fact that we want something that's not ours and they're complaining and bitching about it, I don't think a three on three is fair. Like, no, no, that's what we do. Well, them's the rules. It was three on three.

Right. You were the three arguably best players on the planet on the ice. We had a couple of kids with no teeth and we won. It's awesome. He lost his tooth trade in the game. It makes it sound like that health care is so bad that he had no teeth. Well, you notice how he hasn't put the tooth back. He loves that look, Jack.

It's his image now. I take my daughter, Piper, to the games all the time. I love going to the game. And now, lucky enough, we'll sit in, like, you know, the first row or two. And, oh, my God, it broke her heart the other day. So she makes a sign to take. Kids want a puck. Right.

I don't know if you've ever got. I never got a puck as a kid. So my daughter made this sign. We'll cheer all game for a puck. And she's holding the sign out. She's a little kid in the window, right? And no one gave her a puck. And then the season ticket holder came over, nice enough guy.

We sit right near him and, and there's another girl next to Piper. And he goes, do you want a Puck to the other girl? And he goes, hey, Cotter. He yells a Cotter. Puck. Cotter throws a Puck. I go, dude, can you get one from my kid? Guy just walks off.

So my daughter literally starts crying. Right. What's wrong with me? Eight years old just starts. And I'm like, we're sitting in the front row. Everything's great. We're going to the lounge, eating, you know, decent prime rink. rib for free. What's the issue? And I, and as a dad, I don't know if this is the right dad move.

But I go, I go, honey, stop crying. You're going to get a puck before the game's over. And so now I know come hell or high water, I got to get her a puck. Luckily, you go up the stairs. There's a gift shop. For 10 bucks. I bought her a puck. But did you fake it like? I came down. I don't lie to my kid ever, but I came down and I go, pipes here. And she goes, I was, she. She was so happy. And she goes, Dad, I've never been happier. And then like 10 minutes later, she's like, where'd you get this? And I don't want to tell her.

I don't want her to think that money solves problems, even though it does. All the time. So I said this. I go, you know the girl that got the puck down here? And she was, yeah. I go, I went and beat her up. And I took the puck. But because, Dad, no.

Oh, shit, in my five years? I go, I talk to somebody and I got a buck, which is true. did you have to like take the price tag? Yes, I took the price tag off. And there was a hieroglyphic thing on there. I was like, I'll leave that one on. The devil's mascots on it. She's like, that's not the puck they use, Daddy.

It's not the same puck. It's got the devil's logo. It's got the devil's logo. But it's like, that's a thing. You had no choice, though. You raise your kids. Did they like your sports teams that you like? Yeah, they do.

But my kids, and I think Piper will probably, if she's a sports fan growing up, you'll find it, it's frustrating. when you like love a team growing up. Whether a team wins or loses is immaterial. Kids today like teams, but they love players. Yeah. So like my oldest son, son, he was a basketball nut.

Nick fan, as I am, but he's a bigger Steph Curry fan. Okay. So these kids today, the allegiance to teams like we had growing up, it's very different because probably social media and access, you can watch every game. So, like, my kids are Jets fans. They're Nick's fans. They're not huge hockey fans, but if they are, their Rangers fans.

And then they kind of, they've divided Yankees and Mets. But they like players more than teams. It's strange. Because we didn't grow up that way. We like the Knicks and hated anything not the Knicks. Yeah, we like the guys on our team. Like screw you, Larry Bird, you suck, right? Or whomever it might be.

But these kids today, you'll find as she gets older, they're star efforts, really, more than anything else. And the team fan, well, it's nice they won. But did you see what so-and-so did last night? Yeah. And that's frustrating. Yeah, my daughter right now is still a team fan because she'll get really upset if the Devils lose and we're at the game. And that's almost, to be fair, that's like child endangerment, what you did there.

What? Making her a devil's fan. I was a lover. Do you love him? Yeah. Daddy doesn't love you. Yeah. What do you mean?

Look, we're Devils fans. You also probably live in New Jersey. Yeah. And you went across on the Hudson River for those prices. I'll tell you this. I am going to MSG Wednesday night to watch the Devils play the Rangers. Because the Devils are playing? Because the Devils are playing, and a dear friend of mine was able to get me into a suite.

That's a free ticket. Yeah, that's a free ticket. Yeah, those prices are insane. You're still a comedian. Yeah, the Rangers are horrible. And they still command those prices. Yeah, like probably 3, 4X, what you pay to go to a Devil's game. That's correct.

And the Devils have been so bad. Yeah. And because it's in Newark, it's almost like they feel like, we better be extra special to fans that actually show up in Newark to watch hockey. So I'm not surprised that your experience is probably great. Let's take a quick break, but we'll be right back on Will Kane Country. And by the way, yeah, the Rock is a great place to watch a game. I agree.

The food's good. I played there. You played what? Hockey. No, you did. Yes, I did. When you were how old. When I was like 45.

Yeah, we used to play charity hockey games. And I can't skate backwards. I played at the Garden. I played at Barclays, played at Nassau, played at Yankee Stadium when they had the outdoor NHL game. Come on. And played two or three times at the Rock. Give me your numbers when you were goaltending.

Awesome. Goals against average. Yeah. Oh, probably 10. That's not good? No. Double digits. Were you the backup or the starter?

No, I started, played the entire game. Who else was on this team? It was all, you're not going to believe this. It was celebrity slash former Devils, Rangers, and Islanders. Come on. So I'll give you an example. The guy that taught me how to play goalie is one of the great New York Ranger players of all time. Enric Lundquist. No, a defenseman, actually. Who? And took me out in the garden ice and peppered me with shots for a half hour. And then Nick Fittillo came out and peppered

me with shots. Adam Graves. Wow. Yes. One of the great year, I think you think retired his jersey. Was he number nine? I don't know. What number was Adam Gras? I think that was Billy Bathgate was nine. He might have been nine too. So yeah, I played at the garden. He was number nine. And Adam Graves was my coach. That's insane. He was awesome. 91-0-1. Yeah. Does it make you want to play hockey more? No. A goalie, yeah. Like we can't skate backwards. I can skate backwards. So what would you do? Just grab the crossbar and pull yourself back. No, I can skip forwards. Yeah. I can make a circle and get back to where I need to be. Is there video of you play? Yeah. You're on YouTube right now. Okay. I would love to watch Craig

Carton. So one of the highlights you find on YouTube is, the slowest attempt at scoring a goal of all time. I think we were playing, it was either the rock or the garden, and I decide with like 30 seconds left on the clock to come out of goal and try to skate down the ice and score against Rick Di Pietro. Okay. The former Islander goal.

Right? And it does not go well. And they're all mocking me for. And this is on video. Yeah. Yeah. This is a dream coming through to me. I had no idea that you did this thing.

And this was all for charity. I could skate, but I was horrible. So in 12th grade, I was playing, like, junior varsity. And I got in a fight because I would fight more because I was a horrible skater. I played right wing, and I kicked the guy with my skate on. I was kicked. This is before Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore ever came out. And I'm not saying that.

No, I didn't, like, not Blade first. I kicked him, I punched him. I went after the refs. I mean, I had a loose nut. And then they kicked me out and I had to write. an apology note to Pickering College, which is the team. And then the guy after, he goes, you're dead. I go, okay, come on.

And his friends grabbed him and they go, he already made a mess. You don't go against him again. Yeah, but I was a really good scrapper. I was a little scrappy guy. I can see it. To me, I love that part of the game. That's one of the best parts of it. And I also, I know this can be cliche, but like you men's men, right?

Yeah. And I also think the NHL is probably the best league. We got footage of me playing hockey? Yeah, right there. There you go. That was me stopping a breakaway right there. Wow. And then watch the dance.

Watch the little hockey goal tender dance. I give it to you. I'm pretty sure. There you go. Yeah, it's an intermission. Dude, this is. Who played goal on the other side? That I think was Rick DiPiator.

Yeah. But it was all like legendary former Devils. You look good on skates. Yeah, but watch this. Give me a stick. Give me a stick. And they're all obviously making fun of me. Yeah.

And then this is the slowest attempt. ever. Now the clock's running down, so it's an empty net. I'm like, I need gloves. I don't know what I'm doing because I don't play hockey. Yeah. And I'll go down to try to score against Rick. Yeah. There you go. Watch this.

And I get the puck. You can skate decent for a goal. Just the speed there. I can skate forward. I just have backwards pretty easy. No speed. Backwards, I can't do. You can learn how to stay. And I'm sure there was a penalty call. Don't you love a nice pat on the butt? Oh, boy, you.

Look at you coming in. Take your time. That's Ty Domi right there. I love Ty. There you go. By the way, you know some guys do skate this slow in shootouts now. I lost the puck. Yep.

And then Rick comes out a goal and tries to score on the empty net. So there you go. Yeah. That's amazing. And what charity was that for? Do you remember? So the first game we played, which I'm sure that game was one of those games, there was a kid in Jersey, unfortunately, was paralyzed.

while playing high school hockey. Yeah. And we met him and his dad shortly after he was paralyzed. And we made him a pledge that we would raise money because he never lost his love for hockey even though it robbed him

of the use of his body. And we decided to do a charity game at a small little kind of amateur rink in Jersey the first time. You know, and it sells out because we raised money for a kid. We did it there a second time and then the Devils came in and said

we would do that event here. And then the Yankees came in and said, we'll give away two free tickets to Yankee games for anybody that buys a ticket to the hockey match. Wow. So I would say, I mean, you could see the crowd there. We're like 5,000, 6,000 people came to a random, yo, weeknight charity hockey game. And it was great.

You're so involved in this stuff. I mean, you must feel good about yourself, or is it just so selfless that you do this? Look, there are certain events that you feel good when you raise a certain number where you see the results, a happy family, a kid. And, you know, obviously you're raising your money for people that need help. Yeah. So to see the satisfaction, the joy on their faces when we help. And to be fair, also, you know, I got a second chance at life.

You know, after my quite public for into gambling, become a compulsive gambler. And I just made a pledge that if I ever got back in radio and TV, that to the extent I could, I'd pay it forward. Yeah. And that's what I've, I always try to do beforehand. I probably has more of a meaning to me personally now because, I'm blessed to have a second chance so I can use that position

to help other people but yeah like with the event we did the other night you raised like 15,000 bucks for St. Jude in the honor of someone who lost their life to cancer and you see the family and that's the payoff you know

yeah the people that you get to be with that are at these events they're really touched in real time by it and it also connects with other people because you're like oh everybody's affected by cancer everybody sure so there's this thing that goes through the room and it's a great night where they're laughing their butts off.

Yeah. And they're like, oh, we almost forgot why we came here was this horrible sad thing. Now we're getting charity money and we're having a great time. So it's really cool. What's I don't know, I'm having a mental block right now. The Affleck comedian who passed away.

Gilbert Gottfried. All right, so I'll tell you a quick, Gilbert Gottford's story. Okay. So we're doing a comedy show. It's before you and I met. And it was for, there was a an annual event for people who have this ocular issue where they lose their sight. They go blind later in life. So you've had your site for 30, 40 years and you have this disease of the eye. I think I have it.

My vision's horrible. Yeah, but you're not blind. But it's really bad. Like I need readers. You tell my wife anything. I've got that. No, no, you don't have it. Like, you're not like, you know, a leper.

I promise you, your pinky's not falling off. Okay. So Gilbert Godfrey agreed to do the event. Yeah. And I think he's the only comic that I could have pulled this off. Maybe Norm McDonald, maybe. And Gilbert gets up there, packed house, 250 people, Gotham Comedy Club. And it's again, it's a charity for people who lose their sight.

And he goes, you know what I hate? I hate blind people. He opens with that? Yeah. And then, like, can you laugh at that? Yeah. He goes, but you know what's worse than blind people? kids, but not just any kids.

Kids with cancer suck. You're sitting there like, and within about two or three minutes he had the home room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Side splitting laughter, but I'd never seen a guy make fun of the charitable cause that we were there to raise money for.

I like doing it. I like doing stuff like that. I love the irreverence. Because it's so unique. Did you see they had on X, there was the Paralympic game? Yeah. And they called it seated rivalry. Oh, I did not.

I didn't. Dude, I saw that. I didn't. That's a tough one. I thought it was the onion. Did you see the video today that came out? No. Oh, this is crazy.

What is it? So our Paralympic hockey team, I think won gold medal. Yep. Yeah. Video came out this morning. It's all over TikTok and Instagram where they're coming out of the locker room to go to whatever post game celebration there is. And they're all walking.

Come on. I swear. And people are like, wait a minute. The whole team is fake Paralympians. They just walked out and were like, that's hilarious. Did I see that? I find it. Oh, my God.

I saw it this morning, so he's trying to find it pretty quickly. And the reactions are like walking with their gold medals. Kind of changes everything, doesn't it? That'd be so far because I remember during the Olympics, Team Canada got accused of cheating and curling. where they curled and the guy would push the thing and you're not allowed to do that. I think it would be hilarious if for the Paralympics none of the competitors on Team USA were Paralympians.

I saw the video. Now, maybe they've got a prosthetic leg or something for sure, but they're like, this is weird. All of them were walking? Dude, they all walk out of the locker room to go to the party. Yeah, and that's not an easy Google search. Paralympians walking with gold medals. I'm Googling this on a Fox computer.

Yeah, it's going to... I saw it this morning. On TikTok. Yeah. I'm sure you guys will find it. It's on Twitter, whatever it is. Current status of New York sports teams. Yeah.

How do they look? What's going to happen? The Islanders are going to go to the playoffs. Okay. You don't care about hockey. I don't. Yeah. The Mets.

Big reshaping. J.P. Aaron Seabia, stepping in, which is pretty exciting. What did you say? J.P.R. and Cibia. How do you pronounce it? New guy? J. P.R.N.C.C. CB.

I don't know if you talked to you have to. J. P. Aaron Seabia. That guy. Yeah. J.P. Aaron Seab. Does he pitch? No, he's like, part of the coaching staff. Are the Mets in trouble? I mean, they sold off. The big guns are gone. Well, Pete, so they're gone over politics.

Diaz is gone. Like, which is a crazy thing in baseball. Oh, because Pete Alonzo voted for Hillary Clinton. No, no, no, no. No. Looks like her, but didn't vote more. No. So Francisco and Doors' wife did not get along with Brandon Nemo's wife.

Come on. No, because the Nimmo's are quite famously, huge Republicans. Really? And it became an issue of politics and Trump and there was a falling out amongst the wives. No. Now, I don't care what guy you are. If your wife comes home and she's pissed because one of your teammates' wives has different political beliefs. And there was a group of wives that didn't go to a baby naming.

They were like, there was, you know, guys not talking on the road, clicks didn't set up because the wives didn't get along. So Brandon Nimmo got. to go, right? traded for Marcus Simeon. He goes to Texas. Jeff McNeil, bye-bye. And ultimately, Pete Alonzo, I don't know if Pete's ever voted in his life or not. Yeah. But there's those three guys were a click and their lives all not alone. And then you have, you know, Francisco Lendor's wife, who's quite famously a socialist now and a big supporter of our current mayors, which is I thought interesting, when you support socialism and the current mayor, as you're moving into a $23 million apartment on the Upper East Side

and you're throwing like crumb cakes outside for your people, so they can eat a little bit too. So a little hypocritical. So that's the Mets story. That's why the Mets I had no idea this is happening. Stearns, the GM of the Mets, was never Pete Alonzo guy. So if you take politics and all the nonsense out just baseball-wise,

he tried to get rid of Pete two years earlier. And Steve Cohen wouldn't let him. Boba Chet stepping in, pretty solid player, past his prime? Not past is prime can hit Canfield. Yeah. The Mets should be fine. Like the Mets should be a playoff team this year.

Sure. Right? It should have been last year, but they weren't. Yankees, I think, have the best team in the American League, probably the best pitching staff in all of baseball. You can probably say the Dodgers are there too. But yeah, the Yankees, they're a lot to be in the postseason, and then you roll the dice.

So if you do chronologically, the team of the best chance to give us a championship of the Knicks, right? They're going to win 50 games. They'll be the two-seat of the three. three seed and that's when their season starts and then the Yankees after that. But that's, that's it. The jets aren't winning a Super Bowl. The Giants aren't winning a Super Bowl.

You tell me if the Islanders are winning a Stanley Cup, probably not, I'd say. You've got the stud kid. Islanders maybe second round. Was that 18 year old kid you guys are all going crazy about? Schaefer. Yeah, who lives with my former partner's daughter. That's crazy. That's crazy to me that an 18 year old hockey star doesn't have his own apartment.

Yeah, so he's making millions, right? Millions. Yeah. He lives with Matt Martin and Boomer's daughter. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's crazy to me. What about soccer?

Does anybody pay attention to soccer? Soccer. Is that how I say it? You say soccer. Jibia and Sibia. He sounds like you play soccer. Well, I mean, Americans don't care about soccer unless you're 90s. People pack out these games, though, but it's all international.

Yeah. It's like watching the world baseball classic. New York Red Bulls. You know? New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls have a great crowd. It's a great stadium. So your daughter would love it because the experience is great.

I'll give them that. Too loud. It's in Harrison, New Jersey. Too loud for an old man. I mean, I like, I got to sit either in like a suite or like or something. Yeah, or right by the ice. You do get to a point in life, especially when you're in entertainment. Yeah.

Where we're blessed where people do offers things that the average person doesn't get offered. And I own that. And that's like tickets to events and things like that. Yeah. But let's be honest. Are we sitting in regular seats anymore? You can. And if you have to, we went to a kid's birthday party.

Oh my gosh, we had so much, so much drama over the devils. Kids birthday party, and we're up in the 200s, and I'm like, what are we doing up here? Who are we? What is this? It's your kid's birthday. What are you doing? You don't love your kid. Drop a couple bucks.

You could have called me. I would have got, go on one of the resale sites. Why are you talking to the people in the front office to come to this place? Dude, it's always such a pleasure talking to you. You're such great radio. You make everything so easy. You're so giving you such an important part of the community. Let these people know what to watch and where to do that.

Yeah, look, social media, Craig Carton Show. It's not my ego. Do you have a better name? If you do, I'll use it. No. WFN Radio, also called the Craig Carton Show. Yeah, it's a new thing. And I have a special secret podcast coming up with one of the greatest rappers of all time.

So that'll be announced the next week. So check that. out with vanilla ice going to be on the Craig Garden show. It's going to be somebody better than that. It's been a pleasure filling in here on Will Kane Country. You've got special guest hosts coming up this week. You want to tell everybody who is going to be filling in for the rest of the week for me? We've got Tom Shaloo tomorrow.

Tom Shaloo. Nice. Surprise Will didn't ask me. We've known each other for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, it keeps asking me to come on the show and canceling about an hour before the appearance. Anytime I'm here, you're always welcome. I appreciate that.

Thank you for tuning in. We will see you later. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon Music app.