 Mark Thompson joins us you are one of my I don't want to say oldest friends but we've been we've known each other a long time we we have and you are an esteemed broadcaster an award-winning that's true an award-winning television and radio personality but not only that you've created and sold some of America's favorite television shows including The Bachelor right that is true and that's who wants to marry a millionaire and you were the voice of Fox and ABC and yeah American Idol is probably my best biggest brand that I was the boy so but I hear you I hear you all the time on true TV narrating reality crime shows and you're a busy busy man yeah but I'm quite impressed with myself and after that introduction I'm even more impressed with myself and for years you are the weatherman on Fox news in LA and KFI you host on KFI and do the news on KFI and today's guest is Phil Hendry now I am not as articulate as you all I am is terrified of talking to Phil Hendry and one of the things that occurred to me is we have listeners all over the world who may not know how important Phil Hendry is could you articulate the importance of Phil Hendry please first it astounds me that you have listeners all across the world I'm a regular listener to your show and the length of your show alone discourages me from coming back week after week but somehow I do but I I will tell you that your your you get the most terrific guests and your conversations are so awesome I really love your show and today will be no different if you've got Phil Henry coming up because Phil Henry to me is one of the true inventive geniuses of the broadcast medium and I know they we use the word genius a lot in these you know this kind of the culture that overhypes everything but this guy created a whole universe of within the genre within within the universe of radio his own universe of characters of of re of different realities and everyone was appreciating it on a different level and here's what I mean by that Phil Henry came on like a traditional talk show host you'd listen and it sounded like a talk radio show like exist in every market in America and then as he began to bring experts on on different subjects something began to hit you he he himself was doing the voice of the various experts that would have come on and he would even do the voice of callers sometimes so you have him playing the host him playing the voice of the expert and playing the voice of the callers but that's a word just that it would be genius then and insane but it was even better because the whole thing played right down the middle to begin and he would start with an expert sounding quite informed sounding quite sane on a subject and then slowly Henry geniusly and this really was the art of it he would just tweak it over a little bit so the expert would say something that was like that's an odd thing for someone and then he would crank it over a little bit more and you go wait a minute that I just say that and by the time you're 20 minutes into an hour you're taking this is crazy who is this person who he's talking to and other callers are then calling going who are you how can you say these things I mean and Henry and his quote guest they they in even Henry as a host began to reprimand the quote guest and again the guest is Henry okay he's playing a character it was absolutely genius and by the way these guests in this world was populated by regular regularly appearing members of his sort of cast of crazies so we'd have the the guy who is the the head of his neighborhood watch he'd have the the the woman who is a community leader and and her husband as they drive to wherever I mean it all sounded so real and and it was that reality and it was the the creating a texture to all of those recurring characters that I think may fill Henry an absolute genius absolutely you cannot overstate the genius of Phil Henry Bobby Dooley I think was the name of the exactly Bobby Dooley Bobby Dooley was this woman who lived in I don't remember the name of the housing development but I can remember driving with my kids and not telling them what was going on and all Bobby Dooley was saying is she was complaining about a neighbor who wasn't putting the Christmas lights up properly and you know he's black but that's okay and you know we I spoke to him about the Christmas lights and he went over to his house his wife is black and you know that's okay and that's all that's all he did for about ten minutes is describe this conflict she that he he was doing the voice of Bobby Dooley and he just kept planting the stink bomb of you know my neighbors are black but that's okay and within 15 minutes the phones lit up and it was Katie bar the door yeah people calling saying don't you realize you're talking to a racist somebody's a racist and he goes well that's a that's a big allegation to level and what are you talking about this woman is an outlet and so so you're right I mean and you're right to point to that he gave also his characters usual quirky quality sometimes like one of his characters that might have been Bobby Dooley who who as the callers of making a point will just sit around the line and go mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm and it becomes this this way of nudging the caller back and to the audience it's a wink wink that's what I also think is genius about Bill Henry there were a number of times where the audience who is hip to it is getting the wink wink from Henry but constantly there were new people coming into the mix who had no awareness of the fact that the whole thing was completely phony right and he told the listeners at the end of every hour that these are fake calls that he's doing all the voices as I understood it he was on KFI which is the station you're on and that's a big station in the most listen to talk at the most listen to talk station the most listen to talk station in America is KFI as I understood it he went on KFI and then they would syndicate the show to backwater affiliates to get the callers so you know you had all those callers from North Carolina yeah yeah yeah he was on like a 5 watt station in bump feces Idaho and they'd hear this is people calling in going hey Phil I'm sorry to interrupt but I don't think I don't think this person's for real man I think they're putting you on and and he would say well you know again that's how can you say something like that I mean they you know I'm you know well Phil I just can't believe someone's like so my business got it so you have a you have people constantly swimming through his pond who had no sense that it was a an alternative reality completely of his creation what would you like me to ask him I know that Tim Badour went to the Paley Center to watch Phil Hendry do a live taping of his show and it was sold at this must have been 15 years ago and Tim said did you go with Tim now I would have loved to go down to that I've only seen him do a show on various profiles that of him like they you know what I mean like a somebody that a news profile of them or something like that how seamlessly he moved from voices it was it was beyond anything you can imagine the way you would listen to him and know well he's doing all these voices how is he doing this and Tim said he went to see him at the Paley Center and still couldn't figure out is there anything you'd like me to ask Phil Hendry well there are a few things that are remarkable about him and one of them is that even if you accept this cool premise which is that I'm gonna be the host and I'm gonna create these phony experts and I'm gonna have them on the line you still have to carry it off as you say seamlessly and the other thing is like a writer you have to come up with this every day on a show that's multiple hours so the reservoir of ideas you need has to be pretty deep I was very impressed with that but what I really would be curious about is actually a question just because I like you you posted on KF5 then I listened to him on the other station that he was on when he was in Los Angeles and and I try to turn everybody I knew on day I feel like I was an early adopter on him you what what I would but what I was curious about is what happened to him why he left one station went to another I mean I guess my question is sort of about the business how can you be as great a genius as Phil Henry is and not just write your ticket or did he just write his ticket in other words I am curious what happened with him from a career standpoint because it is constantly interesting to me it's like it's in it never ceases to be amazing that people of that genius can write a ticket it would seem to me of whatever they want and I'm always curious what they decide to do and how and what course that career took I know he's done voices for family guy I think he's done voices for the Simpsons I'm not sure about that but in other words for other animated fair I know he's done a lot of those voices maybe decided to go in that direction so what he did with that that great palette that he had I'd be really curious to know and what and what decisions were made and why mm-hmm okay I think app it's how I think app it's how worked with him on something exactly exactly I mean I also think you know I also think that radio has just become insufferable to anybody who's trying to do something original that's all yeah there's tremendous pressure tremendous pressure in radio to you know right to to follow a certain course and I don't know I think it's a very I think it's a brilliant medium because you connect to the audience in a way that you don't and so that's why I love podcasting you know I think that you connect to the audience your audience comes back week after week and I and that's the hope anyway and then you connect with them in it in a different sort of way there's a comfort level that's radio has that same thing but now I think it's being you know largely ruled by sort of a corporate structure that prevents any kind of real innovation your podcast is the edge the edge it's an edge-show.com the edge with Mark Thompson yeah it was a bad name we first came up with the name the edge because we're building a different kind of beast it was supposed to be originally a show that was going to show you how you could have the edge and travel and blah blah then we abandoned all of that but somehow we kept the name the edge and there are a million podcasts call the edge so it's the worst name but we're stuck with it so it's the edge with mark comps if you look for the edge 300 shows will come up but there's fortunately only one that's the edge of Mark Thompson and who's on this week this week and the show I think drops right away this week there is you have to understand our show we I think it's not so dissimilar from your model that you have great guests we have great guests too but sometimes we veer toward things that are just kind of interesting conversations and this week we talked to a guy who gave up a successful criminal law practice come an uber driver in Las Vegas and you have to hear his story it's really cool so I mean and you might think it's twisted and weird or whatever but how you can let go of a successful world 13 years I think you practice law in in in that world and then gave it all up to go to Las Vegas to drive for uber you have to hear it that's in the middle of a lot of stuff I also talk about going to see Steve Martin and Martin Short who you know we talk how was that show I hear Martin Short and Steve Martin do a show together I understand that very few people show up to see it and it's a real you honor let me tell you I first of all love Steve Martin and Martin Short of course I know you do too when you have written for both and I paid top dollar to sit in the first three rows and I'm and I'm so glad I did and then of course I message the only guy I know who has written for both Steve Martin and Martin Short who knows them and that's you and I say hey I'm here and it would mean so much just to be able to get like a you know go backstage get a quick 30-second hi Marty nice show thank you so much you know this is my girlfriend and I get no traction from you on that nothing on that I said no I said if you if you're backstage because I know they have like a VIP thing where you can do a meet-and-greet I said I said mention my name and they'd go oh my how about you mentioned my name I couldn't believe that you I mean I'm thinking oh well David I literally met Martin Short at the David Feldman podcast and he complimented me on a Kelsey grammar impression I was doing for a sketch that David had written and I'm thinking oh this is gonna be easy this is a ship shot this is a layup for David and nothing nothing nothing and so I end up cursing you like all your other friends angry that you have let me down at this one moment such a little favor thank you for letting me we live the bilis rage I was it so the show was good did you go backstage show was brilliant the show was brilliant it is funny it's funny it's music and then it's more funny and Martin Short is he's got that you know grab the mic kind of charisma of a Broadway actor Steve Martin is sort of a more studied but also brilliant comedian and performer but and so they make a kind of good yin and yang and then Steve Martin has this Grammy or winning award-winning bluegrass group that he is touring with I have their album I'm telling you everything about this show is right for me I already have the Steve Martin album I like bluegrass music I love Martin Short and I know the guy who writes material for them I couldn't get David you're dead to me line up for that yeah that well and the show I love you David I love you too I love your podcast I really do I love the edge I love you thank you and I miss you and I when I get to LA I hope to see you and hang out and I miss the sketches we did all the comedy you know somebody's curating all the comedy we did it's unbelievable what we were doing back in LA it's amazing the people who are writing the stuff and performing it and it's all sitting there on my website waiting to be curate the early people should know the early incarnations of the David Feldman show were a lot about sketch comedy and I remember just as a listener laughing so hard used to listen in the gym so hard that I had to get off the exercise but I was gonna hurt myself and that's not an exaggeration I mean multiple times so it was genius it was great now I think the show is still rich and terrific it's just gone in a different direction but I I love enjoy and enjoy your show I mean listening each and every week so I'm a regular listener the way I have a lot of new listeners they don't know who you are in terms of the show you're the voice of the show oh that's right you use my voice let's hear you're listening to the David Feldman radio show you sad pathetic hump I can remember the night you Feldman radio network I can remember the night you came over my son was there we're in my home office my wife bribed you with veggie vegan ziti and that's right because I'm vegan and I have me was delicious yeah and my son and I were watching and you were in my office and you went you're listening to the David Feldman radio show you sad pathetic hump and you can we had to do like five takes because we kept laughing at that well first I thought you really want me to say that and you and you're not it yeah who would know it's still being used 10 years later it's still being used well it wasn't 10 years ago we have to maybe we should come up with a new tag line hey it's working for you go with it yeah all right I love you I miss you I'll see you soon and next time Phil Henry that's a great thank you and next time you're gonna go see Steve Martin and Marty short you should have called me and told me I could have set you up backstage you could have had dinner with them hung out you know you're a you're a you're a total low life that was your moment you'll never have it again that was your moment I love you hi David thank you let me back see you bye all right bye bye