0:00

Hi, I'm

0:02

Frank Imperial, the engineer at Here's the Thing.

0:05

We're in the middle of our summer staff Pick series,

0:08

where we choose our favorite episodes from the

0:10

archives. This week, I wanted to

0:12

share with you two interviews that are among

0:14

the most popular and funniest we've

0:16

ever done, comedians Chris Rock

0:18

and Jerry Seinfeld. Chris

0:21

Rock has always been a boundary pushing comedian.

0:23

The Emmy and Grammy winner is well

0:25

known for his work on Saturday Night Live, his

0:28

numerous comedy specials, films

0:31

like Grown Ups and Madagascar, and

0:33

the sitcom based on his life, Everybody

0:35

Loves Chris. In recent years,

0:38

the funny man has been pushing his own boundaries,

0:40

digging deeper into his acting. He

0:43

starred in the fourth season of Fargo

0:45

on f X, but before that, Alec

0:47

met up with the comedian when he was on Broadway

0:50

in his very first play Here's

0:52

Alex two thousand eleven conversation with comedian

0:55

and actor Chris Rock backstage

0:57

at the Showenfeld Theater. His

1:00

dressing room in Broadway shown Field Theater

1:03

was five floors up, no

1:05

elevator. Chris's

1:07

show The Mother with the Hat was

1:10

about a group of dysfunctional friends

1:12

and lovers, where every relationship

1:14

had gone bad, really bad. Drugs,

1:17

booze, cheating, No one was loyal

1:19

to anyone. Chris played a recovering

1:21

alcoholic who had first glance seems

1:24

to be a good guy, but after a

1:26

few minutes it was clear he was the

1:28

most self serving of the bunch. Oh

1:31

Man, you do a great man, you want to press If this is

1:33

something beautiful, come and

1:35

stay with me and Vicky Man get on a nutritional

1:37

beverage program. Man. Before this

1:39

past spring, Chris might have been the

1:42

last person you'd expect to see starring

1:44

in a Broadway show. I mean, Chris can

1:46

sell out Madison Square Garden, ps.

1:49

They have an elevator. Yet there

1:51

he was between performances in

1:54

his attic dressing room at the Shoonefeld

1:56

Theater. I wanted my acting to grow. Do

1:59

you have to see a huge following

2:02

black and white in your concerts? And

2:04

yet when you go out in this audience, how black is the audience?

2:07

Well, I mean put this way. In the old

2:09

days, they used to have signs up whites

2:12

only, whites only. Now I have a

2:14

new thing. It's called prices. You know,

2:17

some nights it's darker than other nights.

2:19

I buy tickets every night when

2:21

this play is over. Spent

2:26

almost a whole weekly paycheck on

2:28

tickets as gifts for friends otherwise

2:31

couldn't come see the show. Otherwise could not afford

2:33

to see this show. I tour

2:36

and I'm normally you know, at the garden or whatever,

2:39

like sixty thousand

2:41

seats to give away what I'm normally

2:44

on tour, and people have gotten used to this. My

2:46

man takes care of us, and

2:49

you know, I don't. I can't take that away from

2:52

friends and family. You haven't

2:54

done a lot of theater. Correct, This is the first play I've

2:56

ever done. This is the first play you've ever

2:58

done. I didn't do a play in high school. I didn't

3:01

go to high school. So so not

3:03

only your Broadway debut, but

3:06

your first play period. You're with

3:08

a pretty cool group of people, a lot

3:11

of experience, you know what, and

3:13

they have held me up. No

3:15

one ever got frustrated

3:17

at what I didn't know. You

3:20

know, this is a bunch of little things that

3:23

people take for grant. I have no idea.

3:26

You're never supposed to walk straight at somebody,

3:28

supposed to loop. Just all these weird little

3:31

things My favorite is that you don't give information

3:33

to the person. So if you're standing here telling

3:35

them something, you tell it out.

3:37

You said, they're going to open, open, open to the audience

3:39

as much as possible. All that open, open, open, open

3:42

open stuff. Yes, even today, I'm working

3:44

on it. The Chris Rock that I know from your live

3:46

shows, I don't see much of him in this show

3:48

because that Chris Rock is

3:50

like marauding the stage

3:54

and as complete control over

3:56

the audience. This is a different Chris I see

3:58

in the play. I'm really try to act here,

4:02

you know. Have you enjoyed it? I'm

4:04

enjoying it a lot. A lot.

4:08

Is the hardest thing I've

4:10

ever gone through in my life. I always tell people

4:12

it's like having the Empire State Building shoved

4:14

up your one brick at a time

4:17

and to play. Can't believe

4:20

there's ever gonna be a day when you

4:22

know these lines. What's

4:24

been the surprise about doing this for you?

4:27

Honestly, I'm surprised I'm doing it. I

4:29

mean, I'm surprised that I'm

4:31

not bored with it already. Are you

4:33

afraid of that? I'm really that that what's

4:35

the that's the biggest fear to

4:37

actually be stuck

4:40

doing anything. Does this change

4:42

for you night by night by day? You know

4:44

what's weird? I'm figuring out how to make it

4:47

change now. So I'm actually figuring

4:49

out how to add lib every night without

4:52

saying words, how to

4:54

work eat, seeing a little different

4:56

in each line, and try to find

4:59

laughs and places that I didn't find

5:01

one the night before. So yeah,

5:04

so it's to answer your question, it

5:06

changes every night. Well, what I love about

5:08

this plant? By the way, everybody

5:11

has loved someone, and

5:14

not too far into the relationship, you

5:17

say to yourself, not only is

5:19

this probably wrong, this

5:21

is definitely wrong, but you can't

5:23

get out of it. How does

5:26

this play resonate with you in your personal

5:28

life? I've been every person in this place,

5:32

a person betrayed everything,

5:36

everything, and it's the one who the

5:38

other person in response to the betrayal, the

5:41

revenge every person.

5:45

It's the kind of play you can't watch without

5:47

putting yourself in it. When you write

5:49

your material for stand up, how do the people

5:51

in your life react to how

5:54

you fill at them on stage?

5:56

If you're you know what, I'm like a lawyer in

5:58

a sense. I mean that's it's almost

6:00

like a legal document. It's a word

6:03

like it's all our wives and all

6:05

our you know what I mean. It's like like if you if I

6:07

gave you the transcript, he'd be like, he hasn't talked

6:10

about anybody. It's about your

6:12

baby. It would all hold up in court, you

6:16

do. But you never have anybody in your life? No,

6:19

No, everybody's uncomfortable. I remember I

6:21

read a quote Tarantino said, if

6:23

people in your life aren't uncomfortable, you're not really

6:25

writing, you're not really hitting

6:27

it. You know, somebody better

6:30

be uncomfortable. Did you grow up in

6:32

a situation that was remotely like this? And

6:34

then emotionally and most

6:36

turbulence my parents place

6:40

way My mother cursed a lot, screamed

6:42

a lot. You know. My father, my

6:44

mother beat us with a curtain rod. Yeah, well

6:46

we got beatings with curtain rods and brooms

6:49

and brushings and hangars or whatever. But

6:53

me and my father, it's weird. My father, his

6:56

temper towards my mother was always

6:59

controlled, right, what else

7:01

he could lose it? Why do you think it was you

7:04

wanted to protect that? I don't know. I mean,

7:06

first of all, I mean, guys from that era

7:09

did not view women as their equals.

7:12

They did, and they were loving

7:15

and blah blah blah blah blah. But

7:17

they did not view women as

7:19

their equals. Therefore they

7:21

could actually deal with the

7:23

woman's emotional whatever swings

7:27

way easier than a guy in my

7:29

age, because I view a woman as my equal.

7:32

So if I'm with a woman and she

7:34

starts crying, I look at her like I'm

7:36

with you when you start crying,

7:38

don't go female on me. I'm like

7:41

something, I look at her life. I would look at a guy

7:43

that gets emotional. Yeah, I thought, if we were equal, then

7:45

you can't play that car. Don't play the female. So

7:48

I'll just say my father and my grandfather's

7:51

both of them were really delicate

7:56

with their wives. You

7:59

know, not a child, but close to

8:01

a child. How

8:03

it's different for you. My wife's

8:05

my equal, and you

8:07

know, you know,

8:09

any budding of heads is because I

8:14

I want I'm dealing

8:16

with you the same way I would deal with myself, or I deal

8:18

with any guy. And we're

8:20

both wrong. What are you gonna do when this is over? Do

8:22

you know how much sure I think I'm gonna

8:25

direct a movie that sort I'm feeling.

8:27

So this is the time in your life, and you do all the things

8:30

you told yourself you'd never do. Play

8:32

on Broadway. Direct a movie.

8:34

Why do you want to direct a movie? I

8:36

don't know. I put

8:38

it away. If I can get a great director to direct

8:41

me, I'll do it. But once, yeah,

8:43

once you get to the sea list, you might as well do it yourself.

8:45

That's what I say. Yeah, how

8:48

picky are you about the films you do? Because you

8:50

don't do a lot of films. Um, I don't

8:52

know. I mean I turned out

8:54

a lot, but I don't have a list of great

8:56

films I've turned you turned down regardless

8:59

of whether they're great or not. Do you turn

9:01

them down? Because for you, you always

9:03

have the stand up thing in your pocket and the concert thing

9:05

in your pocket. You're not in any hurry to go out and

9:07

make a living. Most

9:11

movies suck man, early

9:14

suck. See. I'm I'm

9:17

messed up because I like to see something I

9:20

haven't seen or haven't seen with a black person.

9:22

Black people in film is still at its

9:25

really at its infant stage. And

9:28

what do you think, I

9:30

don't know? You know what, here's the thing. You

9:32

know, you hand a studio person of script, and

9:35

sometimes the studio people are good at

9:39

a time. When you hand somebody as script, they

9:42

pick a person in the movie that they identify

9:45

with. So if you hand a woman

9:47

a script, if the woman's got nine lines in

9:49

the movie, the first person who gives you notes

9:51

about is the woman. And

9:53

if you hand the boss the script, he's

9:56

gonna give you notes about the main character. And

9:59

if you hand his assist the script is gonna give

10:01

you notes about some other everybody

10:03

figures out who they are in the movie.

10:06

Now, when you had somebody a black script,

10:09

they don't relate to anybody.

10:14

That's a very good point. I'm serious, even

10:16

when it's and when you have any seconative who

10:18

does relate to a black person's script, what does that mean

10:20

to you? You You struck gold Well, Really,

10:24

they just they're making a

10:26

product all of a sudden, That's

10:28

what I've experienced. And

10:33

when you do, because i mean, there's

10:35

no black studios or whatever, so

10:38

you end up you always

10:40

end up with just a

10:43

person trying to make a piece

10:45

of product. They might as well, they

10:47

might still be making an iPads

10:50

kind of a sustainable stateship business. But

10:53

you seem to me, because you're so smart and

10:55

so clever that you have as much of a white audience

10:57

as you do a black ondies, don't you think so in

11:00

spite of the fact your stand

11:02

up can be pretty tough on white people.

11:05

Yeah, but I always

11:07

say my stand ups like Chinese food and

11:10

what's Chinese food? Well, Chinese food is

11:14

one of the most popular foods in all of America,

11:17

and they don't put Americans on their

11:20

menus. People really want

11:22

Chinese food. They don't put fries

11:24

and grilled cheese, grilled cheese on

11:26

the menu of the

11:29

most popular Chinese food of

11:32

people comedy. So I'm just saying, when people

11:34

see people come to Chris's restaurant,

11:36

think about Chris's menure. I'm

11:41

talking with Chris Rock backstage at the

11:43

Chaunfeld Theater on Street.

11:46

This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to

11:48

here's the thing. How

11:51

old are you know? I'm forty six forty

11:54

six, which

11:56

means you

11:59

started and you started. I started probably

12:01

five seven years before I got on S and

12:03

O. But I always I haven't been you know, I

12:05

havn't been poor day since I met Laura

12:08

Michaels. I never broke a

12:12

lot of his stuff sticks with me. What thing

12:14

he said to me is like everybody loses their

12:16

first money. Now if you're

12:18

talented, you'll make some more.

12:20

That He's so right, he

12:22

knows more about Let's take a moment to talk

12:24

about the wisdom of Lord Michael. You know, he's

12:27

always there to remind you how

12:29

you can lose perspective about this business. At

12:31

least in my case. He's very good.

12:34

But how much of things changed in your mind?

12:37

And not just for you but for you specifically,

12:39

but in the business. I don't know about

12:41

you. I find a business a lot smaller, less

12:46

movies, less, I

12:49

mean less stuff that relates to me, you

12:52

know what, Less stuff that relates to me. I'll say

12:54

that for the young people. You know, this whole reality

12:57

thing, I'm not going to dismiss

12:59

it. You know, sound like I'm some old

13:01

person talking about rap music. It's not gonna last,

13:04

you know what I mean. But do

13:06

you think the same time I don't get it. Do you

13:08

think you'd make it today if you came in today?

13:10

Yeah? Me and Sana, Well that's our little

13:12

tests with each other. We kinda we assessed

13:14

the stand ups we're gonna Yeah,

13:18

we still got it. I still got it. Yeah,

13:20

I keep the weight off a little bit. You know. That's

13:22

what I'm trying to do it. Du bon

13:25

Jovi, still doing

13:27

it, Still doing it, man, Just look hot,

13:30

Just trying to look hot to somebody. You

13:32

don't have to lie. You're still got you still look how many kids

13:34

you have done to nine?

13:37

Get ready nine and get ready by seven? So what

13:40

are you worried about raising your kids in this world? I

13:43

care that they're good with money.

13:46

I don't care if When I say good with

13:48

money, I just mean you've got

13:50

two dollars and you spend

13:52

one and you put a dollar. But I don't mean

13:55

that they run Microsoft or they flip

13:57

money and buy a house. I just mean, does that come

14:00

from your childhood? Yes, it comes from my childhood.

14:02

I just mean can they handle

14:05

their own That's it? Because

14:08

to get out of it's a tough hole to get out of, and

14:10

it's a weird hole for a pretty woman

14:12

to get out of, and they end up

14:15

in relationships with guys they wouldn't have

14:17

relationship with. There's a great line that Anthony

14:19

Quinn has in Lawrence of Arabia where he says,

14:22

I am a river to my people. Yeah,

14:24

I'm getting a lot of that now. Well,

14:26

Hey, here's the thing. You can only

14:28

help. Like, I got some

14:30

family right now, guy wouldever

14:33

losing his house whatever, I'm

14:35

gonna help him move in to wherever he's

14:37

gonna move into. I'm

14:40

not buying his house because

14:43

he's never gonna be able to fold the house. So

14:46

yeah, I my, I'm

14:49

a river. But

14:52

it's a little river. It's a little river because

14:54

when you turn down somebody

14:56

and they know you have the

14:59

money, this is one thing

15:01

to go. These kids are kicking or

15:03

whatever, and you don't have the money.

15:06

They know you have the money. It's so it's

15:09

almost like a woman. It's like I

15:11

know you have vagina and you

15:13

have sex, you just don't want

15:15

to have it with me. I

15:18

remember I used to do a movie and they'd say

15:20

to me in whatever way, what would come back was, Uh,

15:24

we don't have the money for that. And what

15:26

they really were saying was, we don't have the money

15:28

for that for you, for you, we don't

15:30

we have the exactly for

15:33

Leo, we're gonna sell our houses. Remember,

15:37

for you, we don't have the money. And that's what you're

15:39

saying to people in your life is I don't have the money for you. I

15:41

don't have the money for you.

15:44

You're not gonna be the reason I'm doing

15:46

some bad Kung Fu movie. Okay?

15:53

Comedian and actor Chris Rock. When

15:55

we come back, we'll have Alex conversation

15:57

with Jerry Seinfeld from two thousand thirteen.

16:13

It's an understatement to say that Jerry Seinfeld

16:15

broke the mold. His brand of observational

16:18

comedy is universal and led to his

16:20

success as a stand up comic

16:23

and in his namesake sitcom,

16:25

Seinfeld The Show About Nothing ran

16:27

for nine seasons and became one

16:29

of the most memorable, acclaimed, and

16:31

influential series of all time. Following

16:35

up one success with another, Seinfeld

16:37

then produced and hosted the roving

16:39

talk show Comedians in Cars

16:41

Getting Coffee, which is exactly

16:44

what it sounds like, for eleven seasons,

16:46

and he continues to do what he loves,

16:48

touring the nation performing stand up. Here's

16:51

Alex two thousand thirteen conversation

16:54

with the legendary producer, actor,

16:56

and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Who

16:59

makes it in comedy? Who

17:01

are the ones that make it? And it's a change in your lifetime?

17:03

What does it takes in show business? Let's answer

17:06

that question, because I haven't. I'll tell you who's in show

17:08

business. You know it's in show business? Like who

17:10

wants to be more

17:12

than anyone else? Those are the

17:14

people that are in it. The people that just

17:16

go, I want to be in it. I'm going to

17:19

be in it. Do

17:21

I have the skill set? Do I have a

17:23

talent? I have something to offer? We'll find out

17:25

or not. But it doesn't I may not take

17:28

on that with between Baccino, I said to him, what do you do

17:30

when you do a movie and the other person

17:33

isn't that good? Like you're doing a scene

17:35

and I said, do you go up to the director and give them notes?

17:37

Say tell them this other? And said,

17:39

no, I never do that. I never do that. No,

17:42

no, no, I said, I said,

17:44

what do you do? I? I said, what do you do when the people that you're

17:46

working with they just I mean, you're so talented, and

17:48

it's like tennis and you and you're and you're hitting the ball with some

17:50

and they're not that talented. And he said, I like,

17:53

like all of us in the business are

17:55

talented. Everybody's talented. Some

17:58

of us are just more talented than

18:00

others. But everybody in

18:02

the room when you're working, they've got some kind of

18:04

time, like you'd say he has a talent

18:07

for storytelling, he had a talent

18:10

for this. But you're saying

18:12

that people who determination is a big part

18:14

of it. I'm saying it's most of

18:16

the people we see in in

18:19

the arts are there not because

18:22

they had the most to offer, but because

18:24

they wanted to be there the

18:26

most, you believe. So when

18:29

you're in clubs in your early years

18:31

and you'd see people who were working, did you

18:33

have did you not? Not that you cared about this or

18:35

you were focused on this, but would you Sometimes because

18:38

my friends who were in clubs and who were comics,

18:40

there was a lot of evaluating of each other in the competition.

18:42

It was very competitive. And would you look at people

18:44

and say, I think he's got it or she's got and they're

18:46

gonna make it and they don't or this one doesn't and

18:49

and a big part of your saying is just the drive as

18:52

they wanted. They're a dog on a bone.

18:56

You see a lot of that, don't you think? I think so? Well?

18:58

In the in the movie business, you can see people

19:01

who they put it before everything else, you know,

19:03

I mean, they're not what business, what

19:05

what field of endeavor? Has the highest

19:07

bullsh factor right

19:10

in your opinion, Um,

19:13

because you've been in a number of different branches.

19:16

Now, well, I think, well,

19:18

obviously a government is government

19:21

higher than I think entertainment. Did

19:23

you enjoy the Anthony Weiner show

19:25

this season or

19:28

not the show that he

19:31

put on for us when

19:33

when that was going on? Did you were

19:35

you disgusted? Were you going? I love this?

19:38

I I loved it because to me it was

19:40

the visible man. Let's take off the

19:42

face of the clock and watch the gears. And

19:44

that's what that was. This is you know, we're

19:46

talking about people our ownership show

19:48

business because they want to be he

19:51

wants to have he wants

19:53

it wants and most of most of them

19:55

have all the guyses and veils and

19:59

and you know, well they pretend that

20:01

what you just hit on a very important point, which is that they

20:03

pretend to some degree that it's selfless.

20:05

That well that also, yeah, that that they don't crave power.

20:08

But the other thing about Weener that I found

20:10

unusual. I mean, listen, this

20:13

is I'm not going to say anything. I don't think

20:15

I'm capable of saying anything that hasn't been said before.

20:17

But the idea that you want to take

20:20

pictures of your genitalia and send it to women

20:22

that you barely know. I wonder

20:24

if there's an unconscious part of him that's like, I'm

20:26

gonna send pictures of my genitalia to

20:29

a couple of women who I don't even know that well, and

20:31

let's see what happens. Let's let's roll the dice

20:33

here. I'm putting all my chips on black.

20:37

I'm all in. I got another pile,

20:39

and I'm all in on sending this chicken picture

20:42

of my you know what of my personality?

20:44

I don't have that desire, right,

20:47

I'm not I'm not exacts. It's easier to understand

20:49

than his get off was. Ding.

20:52

He looks at the phone, Ding, let's

20:54

it just press send? Where

20:57

where's the thrill? Everybody has

20:59

as some component of them for what I call

21:01

negative excitement, like what's your thing? You

21:04

want to do that that you indulge some

21:06

weakness of yours? You know what I mean? Some people

21:08

have food issues, they have drinking your mind,

21:11

what would be yours? Uh?

21:14

I don't think I mean beyond tomato

21:17

sauce. Maybe, yeah, that's

21:20

not that. Yeah you are.

21:23

And for people who don't know you see This is the thing

21:25

that, in all honesty,

21:27

I always when I think about you, the

21:30

list of things I think about is, is how

21:33

not just professional and committed in all

21:35

those other kind of lame were you know, lazier words,

21:38

but how you know, just

21:40

just focused and hard working. You are

21:42

like a lot of people look at you and view

21:44

you as someone who is but let's be very candid.

21:48

You're someone people people view you as someone who is

21:50

this incredibly gifted person. I

21:52

love this show, right, and no you are. But the point

21:54

is that you like you don't

21:56

work like you do

21:58

things like like you going on a trip

22:00

to go do some gigs. It's kind of a thing.

22:03

You're probably just doing a favor for someone. I

22:06

think that's more you. I don't

22:08

think that's the general perception. I think that's you.

22:10

I think your image of me or

22:13

what you think. Yeah,

22:15

I think that's your sense I'm projecting.

22:17

Yeah, I think you're projecting. But you know

22:20

that that's not me. No, no, not at all. You

22:22

know that I love to work. You've incredibly

22:24

so, but but not um,

22:28

I'm not driven by anything very

22:30

healthy healthy, I'm not driving by anything unwholesome.

22:32

But you're healthier. But you are healthier

22:35

than anybody else I've ever met in

22:37

your profession. Everybody

22:39

else I've met in your profession, it was

22:41

you could do Saturday Night Live and be roaming

22:43

the hallways of that building. Yeah, for over

22:46

the course of you know, it's really more like four

22:48

days, not a full week. And you're around them

22:50

other people. I did a sitcom with other

22:52

people. I've been around a lot of people who make their

22:54

living in comedy. I made films with them, and

22:57

some of them, you'd be around them. You know, within

22:59

ten minutes you understood what was really their deepest

23:01

problem that they hadn't resolved.

23:04

Some of them took a question a few days. You

23:06

don't have any problems, No, I don't, but

23:08

I do relate very

23:11

deeply to to all of those people describe.

23:14

In fact, I was watching the Emmy's. Is the only part of the

23:16

Emmys that I like When they do the Comedy

23:18

Writing Award and each Comedy

23:20

Writing staff puts up funny pictures,

23:23

and then when the the actual staff comes up

23:25

on the stage and you see these gnome like

23:27

cretans just kind of

23:29

all misshapen, and

23:31

and I go, this is me, this is

23:34

who I am, This is that's my

23:36

group people. Yeah, but

23:38

you don't. Yeah,

23:41

do you see that in me? Oh okay,

23:43

well then you've learned something here today. What

23:45

did I learn? You learned that despite

23:48

maybe I am healthy and somewhat functional,

23:52

but I can I see myself as

23:54

one of those guys that that

23:56

that that group of Colbert Report

23:59

writers that are us. It

24:01

looks like would never

24:03

let them speak Colbert musticks.

24:06

Now those that's where I want to hang out with

24:08

those guys. You do, Yeah,

24:10

like Barry, Yeah, yeah, you're

24:12

more comfortable with the berries of that. I'm only comfortable,

24:15

only comfortable with those people. Really.

24:17

Yeah, describe Barry, you

24:21

have a special relation. Harry Martyr is my very

24:23

special friend. Barry is the author

24:25

of the Letters from a Nutbook under the nom de plume

24:27

ted L Nancy, and

24:30

he is um.

24:32

He's also fascinating compilation

24:36

of function and dysfunction, which

24:38

any interesting person is. UM.

24:42

He's a guy Who's what I love about

24:44

Barries. I can call him right now it's eleven

24:46

thirty that he will just say hello. He's always

24:48

there, always at home. He's

24:50

got a red couch. His living room

24:52

looks like a murder scene. This you

24:55

know, Uh, very

24:57

scary looking stains on a white

25:00

ug. He lives into Lucca

25:02

Lake to Luca Lake and

25:05

we talk every day, usually an hour on

25:08

a good day, two hours. And

25:10

um we were talking yesterday about

25:13

the chantics, the quit

25:15

smoking drug commercial

25:18

where they list the side effects, and

25:21

one of the ones that people have experienced

25:23

with chantics is weird dreams. And

25:26

now we're trying to figure out, well,

25:29

what's a weird dream? And do

25:31

they have a hotline that you can call

25:33

up? Say, Bob, I got a guy here's you

25:36

know, woke up? He dreamt he had orangutank feet.

25:38

Is that weird? And he goes,

25:41

no, I've had that one. You know, that's

25:43

that's weird. Who

25:45

who doesn't have weird dreams?

25:49

There's no dream, it's not weird. More

25:53

of Alex conversation with Jerry Seinfeld

25:55

after the break. This

26:05

is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's

26:08

the Thing on the TV show.

26:10

Seinfeld, Jerry, Elaine Cramer,

26:13

and George were characters driven

26:15

largely by unabashed self

26:17

interest. Come on, let's go do something. I

26:19

don't want to just sit around here. I

26:21

want to go get something to eat. Where you want to go? I

26:23

don't care, I'm not hungry. Growing up,

26:26

Jerry Seinfeld's own family life

26:28

served as a useful model of

26:30

just that. Look, my mother is an orphan. My

26:33

father left the house probably eleven years

26:35

old to work on the street

26:37

and make a living on the Lower east Side. You know,

26:40

they got married in their forties. They

26:42

had no concept of what a family

26:45

should even be. And all

26:47

I craved was the same fierce

26:50

independence that they had

26:52

in their lives. They rested on instructible,

26:54

indstructible, self contained,

26:56

self reliant people. This is

26:59

not great going into a marriage, may

27:01

I say? You know? And I

27:03

was that guy saying, well, I gotta go now, I gotta go to work.

27:06

And you don't think that this

27:08

might be a problem for a person

27:10

that's not used to being around that. So

27:12

it took me a long time to learn that. You know that

27:14

you have to be understand because to me, to

27:18

me, this life, my life,

27:21

what I would call my life in comedy, is

27:23

a life of sacrifice that I am only

27:26

too happy to make.

27:29

All my relationships I got married at forty

27:31

five. All my relationships were as disposable

27:33

as a dixie cup. Excuse me?

27:36

With women you make yes, I gotta work.

27:38

You've gone. But well if you don't, if

27:41

you don't want you know, well, if you if you're gonna

27:43

be on the road that much, we can't be together. Goodbye,

27:45

goodbye. This is this

27:48

my I have had a sense of mission. You

27:50

were like Lee Strasburg in The Godfather Part

27:52

two. Yes, he say, if

27:54

I come back here, I have

27:57

a partner. I have a partner.

27:59

If it's not, I'll know, I

28:01

don't, I'll know. I don't what

28:03

he said, I'm going in the other room. It's the last

28:06

time I really out of shape. Man took his

28:08

shirt off in a movie and it wasn't

28:10

bad. Hair on the top

28:12

of the shoulders,

28:15

a little little little like a little tumbleweeds

28:17

of hair. Yeah, did you know him?

28:20

Did you know when I studied acting

28:22

at this school on fifte Street. When I went to n

28:24

y U, I went to Strasburg. They assigned

28:26

you to the studio. You went to Adler

28:28

Strasberg's up. I went to Strasburg, and

28:31

I had wonderful teachers, Marsha how Freckt and Jeffrey

28:33

horn Is a wonderful too, beautiful people. But

28:35

you know the method of Strasburg was very uh

28:38

severe. Did it work for you one

28:41

of the well, it opened up your eyes to the idea

28:43

of whatever word you want to

28:45

use. I'm never going to use the right word for everyone.

28:48

To mind your past and mind your

28:50

emotional fabric to get

28:52

where you want to go. Whereas Strasburg

28:55

and Stanislavski, both people don't

28:57

necessarily stumble across this fine

29:00

print and all these writings

29:02

of their where What Stanislavski and Strasbourg

29:04

both said is that the method, so to speak, is

29:06

something that you apply only if the inspiration fails

29:09

you. You don't you don't need to go

29:11

off into a room and twist yourself into some kind of psychological

29:13

pretzel to do this work.

29:15

If you can just say the words and you're there,

29:17

you feel connected to the character in and of yourself.

29:20

Do you do you have a desire as an actor

29:23

to be one of those guys, one

29:25

of those I'm gonna take

29:27

my rib cage and separated.

29:29

When I was younger, I did you did When I was

29:31

younger? I did did you feel you there was there

29:33

was there a role where you felt you got close to that? When I did

29:35

street Car named Desire on Broadway and Amy

29:37

Madigan, I would scream stella stella for her

29:40

to come downstairs, and Amy would come and the

29:42

minute I would touch Amy, I'd burst into tears.

29:44

Remember I didn't I loved Amy more

29:46

than any woman I ever loved, you

29:50

know, at that moment, I mean and it was real.

29:53

I was in love with Amy. Do you think I'm

29:55

capable of that kind of work? I think you are.

29:58

Be a tremendous mistake your car, it

30:01

would be a huge would be one of the poorest choices

30:03

probably in show business history, for you to go

30:05

and to sell. You want to know, what do you want to do? A street

30:07

car? On um?

30:11

I was in an acting class where a guy did have

30:13

me play Brick, but that's cataa hot tin roof.

30:15

He because I was able to handle the light comedy

30:18

so easily, he said you, I need to

30:20

challenge you more. So he had me and he said, I want

30:22

you to study the role of Brick. Wasn't

30:24

that the name of the character street and

30:29

the Yeah, Maggie

30:31

and Brick. Yeah. Well that's when I left

30:33

that. There's a girl I could you'll you'll appreciate this because you're from

30:35

Long Island. And I met this woman, uh many

30:38

years later and even she laughed about it. So

30:41

I can say this, remember Pergament's

30:43

hardware storm. Okay, I went to

30:45

I went to college. I went to g

30:48

W for three years and I went and I took my last

30:50

year there, my junior year before I

30:52

climbed over the wall there and went to end. While you to study

30:54

acting, I took acting for non drama

30:57

majors. It was a gut

30:59

course you take at g W. I took

31:01

acting for non drama majors. And everyone

31:03

in the class. This was one of the things that gave me

31:05

the impetus to be an actor, because everyone in the class

31:07

was so horrible and I could,

31:09

I could. I squeaked by like I

31:11

wasn't that bad. I was okay in terms of performing.

31:14

And the teacher said to me, I want you to do a scene

31:16

from Canada Hutton roof of Maggie Brick scene.

31:19

And your partner is Debbie Pergamant, who

31:21

was the daughter and I don't want

31:23

to call her the heir to the pergam And fortune, but

31:25

let's just say that for our comedy purposes, Debbie

31:28

Pergamant and literally she was this

31:30

lovely girl, adorable, gorgeous,

31:33

really cute as the day is long. But

31:35

she was from you know, like Roslyn

31:38

or somewhere. So when

31:40

she would say she was the only person who made

31:42

brick a bi syllabic where she was like brick

31:46

brick, I am like a

31:48

cat's on a Hudson roof here, I

31:51

am so upset. Debbie

31:54

Pergamant was who was my partner in a

31:56

scene study class? And it was it

31:59

was I open. So where do we want to go now? Your

32:02

your career now? Um

32:05

you you you're seeing another carridor

32:08

for yourself? Is something you want to explore,

32:10

something you have to offer or be honest with me. Are

32:13

you just tired and you just don't

32:16

want to travel and slap and deal with

32:18

these idiots you want to know? The truth is I want to

32:20

be more like you, really, because

32:23

you are a very happy

32:25

like I look at you when I see to myself, everything is always

32:27

like, why aren't you doing what other people do? What?

32:30

Meaning? Like the first thing people

32:32

would say in the business, I mean even

32:35

outside the business, if they have some savvy about it, what they

32:37

say, did Jerry want to ramp up a production

32:39

company and just print TV

32:42

shows? I mean, I mean how many sitcoms

32:45

could you have? Launched with the promoter of

32:47

your name. Forget it. Forget it. You

32:49

can have your own channel, the

32:51

Jerry Channel. But I didn't

32:54

take that bait. Why because

32:56

I know what it is. I

32:58

know what it is. That's what

33:01

if you can't pull that over on me? What what

33:04

is? I've sat in all the chairs, I've been in all the rooms.

33:07

I know what it is. Look

33:09

alec you you've you've

33:11

been there, right, Yes,

33:14

you can't trick me into thinking

33:17

thinking what that's that's

33:19

good? Why? Because don't Most

33:22

of it is not creative

33:24

work and not reaching

33:27

an audience. You want to be on the water. How

33:29

do you want to be on the water. You want to be on a yacht. You want to be on

33:31

a surfboard. I want to be on a surfboard.

33:34

I don't want to deal with the yacht. That's

33:37

a yacht. And you just also some people want a yacht

33:39

to say, to see my yacht, And

33:41

you just didn't want people do you. And you also didn't

33:44

want to ultimately wind up

33:46

putting your name as is often the case. Look

33:48

at which if you're the goose that lays the golden egg, you're

33:50

the successful person, and it all emanates

33:52

you're the godhead, if you will, comedy wise,

33:54

and you go launch all these other shows, and all those other shows

33:57

they aren't maybe as good, they're not, And

33:59

how much of your name? But well, why doesn't he want

34:01

to do it? How much would we have to even

34:03

get much for you to be in the performs just to whatever

34:05

it is? Yeah, whatever it is.

34:08

Let me tell you why my TV series in the nineties

34:11

was so good bespides an inordinate amount

34:13

of just pure good fortune. In

34:16

most TV series, fifty

34:19

percent of the time is spent working on the show. Fifty

34:22

percent of the time is spent dealing

34:24

with personality, political,

34:27

and hierarchical issues

34:30

of making something. We

34:32

spent our time writing me

34:35

and Larry the door was closed, some

34:38

somebody calls. We're not taking the call. We're gonna

34:40

We're gonna make this seem funny. That's why the show

34:42

was good. I didn't want to go from that

34:45

two. Um you

34:48

know some some H. G. Wells

34:50

contraption machine you

34:53

know of of trying to control the weather. That's

34:56

what that's what these these deals are. That's

34:58

what making a movie is. It's a movie.

35:01

It's this giant machine, is this giant

35:03

ship and everybody gets on it and

35:05

they shove off and nobody knows where it's

35:07

going. And the captain is

35:09

doing where's the captain? He's

35:12

getting high and and and

35:14

and you know, and sleeping with the first mate.

35:17

He's his sleep period. Yeah, So

35:20

it's too much time and energy

35:23

spent on that is not

35:25

the juice. The really good stuff

35:28

is a great line. So when you go out that

35:30

stand up comedian, I can control that. So

35:32

when you go out on stage now, so for now,

35:35

for you, other

35:37

than whatever other things you're involved with, writing

35:39

or comedians and cars with coffee and

35:41

so forth, you go out on stage, you perform

35:44

live. How many shows you do on

35:46

average? Would you say, I'm not sure. It varies, but you're on the

35:48

road how many how many shows a year? Um?

35:50

Maybe sent so so

35:52

you do seventy five appearances a year? And

35:55

is it just very simply a case where you walk

35:57

out there, that exchange of energy between

35:59

you and then they want what you've

36:01

got, you want what they've got. You're at home, you

36:03

feel comfortable, you're happy. It's a it's a

36:06

it's it's a very

36:08

fulfilling, uh

36:11

unsolvable puzzle that

36:14

is endlessly Um.

36:17

It just because it was right to your soul. Does every

36:20

night need to be different? If you can make it? So? Do you try to make

36:22

it different? Says there's nothing I can do about that. It's gonna be different.

36:24

It's gonna be different. But if I can get

36:26

them right where I want them and and

36:29

get myself where I want myself, and

36:31

the thing just explodes, Well,

36:34

you know, it's fun. That's life. People

36:36

who perform live. I'll never forget. There was an article

36:38

like an Esquire magazine or somewhere, and they

36:41

did an article about Wayne Newton and they

36:43

took it was about Vegas, and I think it was about

36:45

Wayne Newton, and I love this article. And they weren't mean

36:47

toward him, were diminishing him, and they

36:49

were saying how they thought it was uncanny how the

36:51

guy went to the show in Vegas with a stopwatch

36:54

and Newton came out and you

36:56

did the same thing every show, the same exact thing,

36:58

the same exact beats. It was just it

37:00

was just he just cloned one show after

37:02

that and he would come out, but he would create the dynamic

37:05

tension that this show was different, and

37:07

he come out on stage and people will be screaming and the women

37:09

are throwing their panties and they're throwing their hotel room

37:12

keys. Had him his crowd, and then he

37:14

sit there and he'd say, um, um, you know, we

37:16

gotta we gotta wrap this up. But you know, I love

37:18

you people. I'm gonna do someth I'm gonna sing a song I never sing

37:20

anymore. And the song he just sang, like

37:22

you know, ninety minutes ago, I must sing a number

37:24

for you guys. I never sing anymore. I never would never break this one

37:27

out anymore. And he just re created the same,

37:30

uh you know, mock freshness of the whole thing,

37:32

which many performers. I assume they do that. Yeah, he used

37:34

to say to him, locked the doors, they

37:37

don't want me to go long. But but

37:40

this audience, I don't, I

37:42

don't. I'm gonna do something I never do. I'm breaking

37:44

the rules. Yeah, And of course you would

37:46

write on the button you performed in Vegas all

37:48

the time. So they throw the hotel

37:51

room key. How desperate is this entertainer,

37:53

by the way, to just pick up fifteen

37:55

D and go I'm heading over there. I'm going

37:57

over there, which one of you was fifteen

37:59

D. Oh you I'm sorry, let me give you your key back. I'm

38:02

sorry. I don't want that kid coming

38:20

up. More from Jerry Seinfeld. He's

38:23

got so many years of stand up under

38:25

his belt. When he travels as he does

38:27

most weekends, every move is

38:29

planned. It is organized with military

38:32

precision, not

38:35

an ounce on the day. It's

38:37

three guys, three suits, three garment bags.

38:40

We're in, we're out, and we

38:43

have a great time. We worked

38:45

very hard. It's zero dark thirty.

38:49

Yeah, get in loud and go thinker

38:52

with the dead bodies bag. It's

38:55

a beautiful thing. This

38:58

is what I was given from

39:00

the TV series, that I could

39:02

live like this now on my

39:04

own terms. That that's what

39:07

we're looking for on my own term term.

39:10

Right, God, that's such a foreign

39:12

concept to me. Yes, the

39:14

lack of an actor is anything but anything

39:17

but right. But this is where we're

39:19

moving now with Alec God. Yeah,

39:22

my god, on my own terms. More

39:26

wisdom from Jerry Seinfeld in

39:28

a moment, This is Alec Baldwin.

39:35

Take a listen to our archive more

39:37

in depth conversations with artists,

39:40

policy makers, and performers like

39:42

Patty Lapone, Erica Young, and

39:44

Debbie Reynolds. Good morning, Good

39:46

morning, it's great to stay

39:49

in Blake. Good morning, good morning.

39:52

Look fun you see, I can't sing

39:54

to save my life if you put a gun to my head

39:56

and said saying are you almost saying go

40:00

too? Here's the thing dot org. Here's

40:17

the thing is supported by Capital

40:19

one offering the venture card from

40:21

Capital one. What's in your wallet?

40:24

Information about benefits at Capital

40:26

one venture card dot com. This

41:54

is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's

41:56

the Thing. When Jerry Seinfeld

41:59

was ten years old old, he started feverishly

42:01

studying the techniques of stand

42:03

up comedians on TV, devouring

42:06

it everything. It's like, just like my daughter does.

42:08

Now, my daughter has totally

42:10

got whatever that gene I had, She's

42:13

got it. She can do any voice,

42:16

accent, takes lines. Her

42:19

brother said to her, this one. She's wearing glass. She has glasses.

42:21

Her brother said, he

42:24

said, are those are those real glasses? She

42:27

looked at him, She said, what do you think

42:33

that's she's twelve, She's

42:38

she's not ready to go play iron Rand at the local

42:40

library. And the fake glasses. But

42:48

um, okay, so my house, Um I

42:51

assume my my childhood

42:54

was my relationship to my parents, was

42:58

you do what you gotta do. I'll do what I got to

43:00

do, and I'm just living here till I can figure

43:02

something else out. That

43:04

was my house, and to

43:06

me, that was great. We've talked about this. You and I was

43:09

very independent. My father

43:11

never hugged me, never told me he loved me, never threw

43:13

me a ball. No problem. I'm

43:18

good. I'm good. I'm good. He's you're

43:20

good. I'm watching you, gonta

43:22

do whatever some

43:24

time together? Right? Who was the

43:26

guy who blew the horn in the in the

43:29

when the tower and the tower fell over? Remember

43:31

at the beginning of each show, I forget what was

43:33

it? Was it Larry? It was another No,

43:36

Larry Storch was a garn he was an

43:39

There was another Larry was Captain Parmenter.

43:41

Captain Parmenter. He wasn't

43:44

really funny. But there was another guy, another

43:46

Larry, who was at

43:48

the top of the time the tower would fall over because

43:52

he was very kind of vanilla looking. Yeah,

43:54

it wasn't. It wasn't Larry Wilcox. He went on to

43:56

do Chips. No, No, it was another

43:58

Larry anyway, But yeah,

44:01

I was Abbert and Costello was I really

44:04

became obsessed with them because of the precision

44:07

word play they were see

44:09

that's where they went beyond there

44:12

was there was Laurel and Hardy and then Martin Lewis,

44:14

but Aben and Costello had this precision.

44:17

I mean, who's on first is

44:20

a piece of It's

44:22

like that that museum

44:24

in Spain, you know, the what

44:27

you know, the no, the other

44:29

one that what's his name? Did

44:32

that? Yeah? Whose real name is Goldberg?

44:34

By the way, really yes it is.

44:37

He changed it in college, Frank Frank,

44:40

Yeah, the what's the name of that museum in northern

44:44

Billo. Yeah, anyway, that's what Who's

44:46

on first? This? It's like what a construction,

44:48

What a brilliant piece of construction. So

44:52

and when I heard things like that, I

44:55

um, I just would get very excited that

44:58

you could do things like that with words, ideas

45:00

and attitudes and and

45:03

have laughs, you know, I have laughs. I remember

45:05

when I was a kid and my dad would go to

45:07

work and my brothers and sisters would go to school,

45:09

and my mom was lonely. M I

45:12

probably missed school like thirty or forty

45:15

days a year. You did, and

45:17

it was a game. I was totally foolish. I said to my mom

45:19

I don't feel good. Remember

45:22

like, all right, you get in there and go to the breakfast

45:25

table and pretend you're going to school until your

45:27

father and then when he's gone, you can go back upstairs. And

45:30

I would go and lie on the couch and

45:32

they would show the same movie five days

45:34

in a row. So the housewives who could

45:37

only catch a piece of it here and a piece so they show

45:39

Inherit the Wind, And by Friday

45:41

I was laying in bed. I missed school for three

45:44

days. And Friday Spencer

45:46

Tracy would say, this man wants to be afforded

45:48

the same rights as a sponge. He wishes

45:50

to think, and my lip sync the words I knew

45:53

that. I'm like the Door. I became

45:55

a complete movie,

45:59

so that to where it began. And then we got into

46:01

the arrand spelling years. I abandoned.

46:03

He never watched TV again. No

46:06

Charlie's Angels, And now what do you watch? Uh?

46:10

Now I come into your house. It's ten forty

46:12

five at night. Everyone's the wife, kids,

46:15

babies of sleep. I'm reading, you're reading.

46:17

I'm reading on the internet. I read, I read them, I read

46:19

a book, or I read the New York or to get me to sleep reading,

46:21

we get full asleep. But when I watched

46:24

TV, God, when NFL,

46:26

I watched Makeup Hoements for NFL

46:28

sixty minutes. I watched MSNBC. I watch

46:31

Uh, I've watched

46:33

snippets of these shows, you know, like Breaking

46:35

Bad and these contemporary you know, these

46:37

jobs. They don't. I don't have time.

46:40

I don't have time. I don't don't I don't

46:42

understand either, And I don't know where are they find in the time.

46:45

Did you download House

46:47

to Cards now? Eight

46:49

hours is the first episode? Yeah,

46:53

I can't do What are they doing? What kind of how

46:55

long are their days? Well? Always weld get that I would always

46:57

be flattered for a moment. There was always a double beat

47:00

there. When someone would walk up to me with Lauren and

47:02

they woke up, they'd say. Lauren would say, you know

47:04

Dave here, Dave Swanson from you

47:07

know, from Comcast, and I'd

47:09

go high, nice to meet you. And he turned to Lauren and

47:11

go, god, you guys, I gotta tell you. My son broke his

47:13

leg skiing and he was in bed. He was

47:15

in traction. And we watched seasons two

47:17

and three or thirty Rock and I thought I'd smile

47:20

and then I thought, well, that's how you get to watch

47:22

season's two or three. You gotta go and break your leg skiing.

47:25

You gotta go wrap yourself around a tree. Then

47:28

you can lay in back and binge view all

47:30

this. I don't understand how people

47:32

are fitting this into their day. So there's not even

47:34

one show that your I really love Madmen

47:37

because that was my dream growing up on Long

47:39

Island was to get us Sampson

47:41

I briefcase going along Island Railroad.

47:44

I was going to go in the city and I was gonna work at a big ad

47:46

agency and right funny ads. That

47:48

was my first dream. That was because

47:51

stand up comedy that I was seeing

47:53

on the Sullivan Show. That was too far

47:56

out. That was these are some

47:58

genius alien people. I could never

48:01

be one of those. I'm not gonna get that,

48:03

but maybe I could be a copywriter

48:06

or or something in the ad game. I love advertising.

48:08

I like I like man I love Manhattan.

48:10

You remember, growing up in Massapeko, Manhattan

48:13

was was oz it was the Emerald

48:15

City. Tell people when we were kids,

48:18

there was no Bergen County correspondent.

48:21

The Martians could have landed out in in in

48:24

in in Hempstead. No one cared that

48:26

the Martians did land in because they knew there were

48:28

no cameras out there. When you grew up in our

48:31

generation, it was like the mayor announced today

48:33

of the subway. Today, the cops shot on the I n

48:35

D. The prepetating this, the bank robbery, this, And

48:38

it was all Manhattan, Manhattan, the garden today

48:40

the heavyweight shot. Everything was Manhattan,

48:42

not even the other outer boroughs, right. And when you lived

48:45

where we lived, that was Saskatchewan. To

48:47

the media, remember Alan Burke,

48:49

did Jevers Allen Burke, Yes, And

48:52

they would come up and they never correctly

48:55

estimated the average height of New York of the podium was always

48:57

way too high. Mr Bike, I

49:00

just came in from Mars where

49:02

the Taxi and Limousine Commission there they

49:06

right back from New York issue. What were

49:08

we saying before? I just lost my train of though. When we were talking about

49:10

before you said about New York and Madman.

49:13

Now, oh yeah, so Madman

49:15

that is my fans said. When

49:17

did you cross over and decide I could do the other

49:19

thing? Um? It was beginning

49:22

in college, Queen's College.

49:25

What did you study there? A theater,

49:28

communications, film all that stuff. I was.

49:32

I was circling the field, you know, going,

49:34

how do I How could I? I wonder

49:37

if I could? You know, did

49:39

you decide? And then there was Andy Kaufman. Then

49:41

Andy Kaufman happened. There's this guy

49:44

in New York who goes up on stage and he plays

49:46

the bongos and starts weeping. He's

49:49

crazy to So

49:52

we all ran in to see Andy Kaufman at the improv.

49:54

And as soon as I walked in that room and I saw

49:57

what was going on in there, I

49:59

gotta get in on this. Yeah, I want to

50:01

be one of these. And when you got up there and finally

50:04

through whatever apprenticeship

50:06

you had, and when you got up there and you did that was your a

50:08

moment where like some guy comes up to you. I don't want me to

50:10

be too Broadway Danny Rosen. Yes there was. Did some

50:12

guy welcome to and go kid call me?

50:15

Yes? There was? And you know who that guy was, Jackie

50:18

Mason. Jackie

50:21

Mason alec I was doing comedy

50:23

about three weeks. Three

50:26

weeks, and I mean stumbling

50:28

nobody three weeks. I'm nineteen years old,

50:31

twenty years old of going up

50:33

on stage. But there wasn't even a stage. There was a restaurant

50:35

where they take a table out and they would take one of the lights,

50:38

the lamp and they would take the shade off it. That was the

50:40

show. He

50:43

was in the audience people right,

50:46

was one of these cabaret things West forty four Ster

50:48

was called the Golden Lion Pub. He

50:51

crooks his finger and he says, come over here. He

50:54

takes me over to the bar. He

50:56

says, you have it. He

50:58

says, you are going to be so big. He

51:00

says, it makes me sick to

51:03

even think of it, how successful

51:05

you're gonna be. And I was just

51:08

starting wow. And that

51:11

I mean, that was that was it because

51:13

he was, like, you know, he was very big comedian.

51:16

It's still one of my favorites, a great comedian. But

51:19

to have a guy like that come up to you as a kid,

51:23

I had that. That's still you

51:25

know when I talked to you about I went in the improv

51:27

and I saw all these guys and I thought,

51:29

I want to be one of these guys. That's

51:31

still how I feel now. Was there a moment

51:34

when for me one

51:37

of the real pure joys

51:39

of this business are the people I've gotten to me and

51:42

I don't want to, you know, go on and on on. But were there people

51:45

who came to you that

51:47

were like these godlike figures to you? Were you just admired

51:49

them from your world They came up

51:51

to you and said, hey, man, they wait to You said,

51:53

it could be it could be Carson across the room. Well,

51:56

Jack Rollins, who I looked

51:58

up because I saw your movie which I loved, Blue

52:01

Jasmine. You were great, And I

52:04

see, like Jack Rollins in the credit, like I

52:06

look, he's still alive. His

52:09

daughter was a waitress at a comedy

52:11

club on the Upper East Side, and she

52:14

brought him in to see me and Larry Miller and Jimmy

52:16

Broken and he watched the three of us, and then he sat and talked

52:18

with us afterwards, and he was very encouraging, very

52:21

flattering. That was really big because we

52:23

were in about a year at that point. We didn't

52:25

know. There was no business to get into

52:27

even if we could do this didn't even

52:29

exist. There was no place to work as

52:31

a stand up comic in seven

52:35

didn't even exist. It happened in the eighties.

52:38

Once they were all these guys around then

52:40

these clubs started opening around the country. What about

52:42

someone else, someone beyond year

52:45

old man have exist. In the credits of a Woody Allen movie,

52:47

who was some iconic stand up figure.

52:51

I saw Richard Pryor and in those days,

52:53

um he would come into the clubs and we

52:55

would say, George Carlin. No, we

52:57

never said anything to me, but just to meet, to

52:59

be those people. Was there one at some point

53:01

who give other than Mason said you've got it?

53:04

Was no, no,

53:06

no. If you don't need that any any

53:08

self respecting professional

53:12

comedian, you don't need that. You

53:14

don't need anyone or anything. You

53:17

are built for brutality. You

53:20

have this relationship with the audience that

53:22

is private between

53:25

you and them. You critics

53:27

want to write, people want to talk. We

53:30

we have our own thing that nobody,

53:33

nobody can break that. Once

53:35

you build that, it can't be broken by

53:37

outside forces. This is the difference

53:40

between being a comedian that

53:42

has his own thing and everybody else in

53:44

the entertainment field who needs to cooperate.

53:51

Our thanks to Jerry Seinfeld. Thank

53:54

you for listening to this week's Summer staff pick.

53:57

Here's the Thing is brought to you by I Heart Radio.

54:00

We're produced by Kathleen russo Zach

54:02

McNeice and Maureen Hoban. Our engineer,

54:04

well that's me, Frank Imperial. Our

54:07

social media manager is Danielle Gingrich.

54:09

Alec Baldwin will be back next week. M