 Tuesday was an international day with that women, which meant on Tuesday I had to trust my gut that I was a worthless piece of crap. It's Friday, 3 a.m. March 10th, 2017. We have a lot of show, so let's get right to it. Welcome to the broadcast. I'm David Feldman, DavidFeldmanShow.com. On today's program from Veep and the new Showtime series, I'm dying up here, comic Rick Overton, my old buddy. Rick Overton, a graduate of my alma mater, Dwight Morrow High School, greatest high school in America. Dwight Morrow High School in Anglewood, New Jersey. Richard Lewis also went to Dwight Morrow High School. Rick Overton went there, as did I, something in Miller Pond that made us funny. And so did John Travolta, which makes me the second most famous Scientologist to graduate from. I'm not a Scientologist. I belong to Heaven's Gate. Remember that cult where they cut off their nuts and flew to the Comet Cahotec? Was it Comet Cahotec? I think it was Comet Cahotec. Doe ran that Heaven's Gate. They were out of San Diego. They all put on Nike's and cut their testicles off and killed themselves to fly up to the Comet Cahotec. I think it was the Comet Cahotec. But more importantly, besides Rick Overton, we have the host of the Majority Report, Sam Cedar, and comedian Todd Glass. Also, Howie Klein. Is this fantastic? Is this informative? Is this funny? Yeah, you know why? Why is this such a great podcast? Can anybody answer me? You're listening to the David Feldman radio program, You Sad Pathetic Hump. Oh, that's why. Hey, we drop, we drop new episodes. I'm going crazy. The world, I'm insane. We drop new episodes and the show's gone insane. If the longtime listeners know that the show has gone absolutely off the rails. It's fantastic. But we're in crisis because the country's in crisis. We drop new episodes Tuesdays and Friday mornings at exactly three a.m. Eastern Standard Time, whether we're ready or we're not. In that last episode with Keith and the girl, Jerry Stahl and Judy Gold, we dropped that Tuesday. That is an amazing episode. I really recommend that you download it. And by the way, that's not my mother. That's Judy Gold. I actually had people write to me and ask if that really was my mother. I'm losing my mind. I have listened to that opening where Judy calls in as my mother. It's a 35 minute piece of gold. It's Judy Gold and it's just gold. And I'm obsessed with it. I listened to it over and over again because I'm going insane. I think it's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life. And yet people wrote to me wondering if that was really my mother. And I can't believe that there are some people who actually think that's my mother. Am I crazy to think anybody would be crazy to think that's actually my mother Christ? I wish my mother were that gentle. No, I love my mother. Anyway, she is. She's an amazing person. Coming up, Todd Glass, Sam Cedar, Howie Klein, Rick Overton. This is an embarrassment of riches. We're talking with Sam Cedar from the Majority Report Monday through Friday. People should download it as a podcast. Majority Report, live streaming on YouTube. Is it majorityreport.com? It is. No, it is majority.fm, majorityreportradio.com. There's a multitude of ways of getting there, David. And it's tremendous. I think a lot of my listeners first listen to you and then they go, you know what, there's still 10 minutes left in this traffic jam. Let's see what Feldman is rambling about. But you're doing it. Or maybe they just said, you know what, somebody can do this, but just a little bit better. And that's how they ended up listening to you. I ran into you at the Democratic Convention. Correct. In Philadelphia. You had the look of a man who was self-satisfied, working for himself, and I was toiling away just, I'm happy to work for a puppet. But you're a self, but you're doing this by yourself. You're an entrepreneur. I guess, you know, I don't like being like running a business. I don't like it. I also sadly have found that over the years that I don't do well working for people. So I, you know, it's a predicament. So I'm perpetually a little bit agitated. Well, but yeah, I mean, you know, you don't like working for people. Bob Dylan says you got to serve somebody. But well, you know, who do you say who you're working for? You got to work for somebody, right? Well, I mean, that's the thing that I like about what I do. I mean, I genuinely feel an obligation to my listeners. And I have, I feel quite good about that, frankly. And I mean, that's, I feel like I've got to do a good show every day. And some days I feel like I did a good show. And some days I feel like I'm not as good as it could have been. But I mean, I feel compelled to do good show. I mean, I feel like I have a responsibility. And so in that regard, you know, I feel like I owe it to them. And I shouldn't say, I mean, I think that I can work for people. It's just that very often I've had problems with my bosses. And so it's been in enough different capacities that I'm starting to think it's maybe me. Do you go into a job thinking you're a partner? I noticed that there's a certain type of worker B who was raised a certain way. And he thinks he's a partner as opposed to an employee. Because my father said to me two things. And no, I always, I always preface it with a disgusting joke, but I have too much respect for you. But I think you know that I was going to go for some horrible joke. Right. Okay. My father used to say, your boss is not your friend. He's not your partner. When you go out to dinner with him, it's okay to take him to a restaurant to say thank you, but don't show off. Don't take him to a big fancy restaurant. Don't try to show him how well you know how to live, because then he won't give you a raise. He'll think, oh, this guy has money, but you're not his partner. And so many times when I've gone to work for people, I've looked around and there are some employees who think they're the boss's partner that they're the equal. Do you come into that? No, no, no, no, no. No, not at all. I mean, I think I'm, I'm, I mean, I sort of feel like on some level I am probably at or I think I am like a company man. And maybe, maybe too much. I mean, so like, and I've experienced this in different contexts, including like awaiting tables in, in, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I mean, I remember distinctly John Benjamin and I were roommates at the time. Oh my God. All right, stop. Stop. Stop. We need to end the interview. Stop. You roomed with John Benjamin, John H. Benjamin. John H. John Benjamin. Well, we were, I mean, we've known each other since elementary school. Are you kidding me? Yeah, no, no, not at all. John was one of, was my best man at my wedding with another friend. No, I know John for a long time. All right, slow down, slow down, because I've never met him. Oh, well, you're not missing much. No, he's one of those guys who, I just had Brian Stack on the show. He's one of those. And he's one of those guys where I get, I would be very nervous around Benjamin. My kids, I knew about baby pranks. I knew who he was. Then my kids forced me to watch John Benjamin as a man. All right. So how did you, how did you grow up with him? Well, how is that possible? Well, I mean, we lived in the same city. What city? Newton? We lived in Worcester. Worcester, Mass. Oh, the home of the birth control pill and Abbey Hoffman. And Abbey Hoffman. In fact, my folks both knew Abbey Hoffman, and I met him in college. And, you know, hadn't, you know, he was a hero of mine, you know, growing up because he was from Worcester. I would also say the Valentine's Day card, the rocket outside of Worcester. I mean, there's, there's, I could go on. But the birth control pill and Abbey Hoffman. Right. Well, that's Abbey Hoffman wrote about that. I think in, what was it? Steal this book or something, right? The two things that came out of Worcester, but, and not a coincidence. But so yeah, Benjamin and I grew up together. And we, at one point, we were both doing comedy in Cambridge. And we both got a job at a restaurant in Harvard Square, the same restaurant. In fact, I got him the job. And because I'm very diligent and responsible. And he is not. And and so I got him the job. And I'm the type of employee that I think managers sort of hate in some way, because I'm like going up to my manager and saying like, look, um, I've, I figured out a system to make this more efficient. And the manager doesn't like that. Meanwhile, Benjamin would literally take food from one table after they were done and deliver it to another just to screw with the customers. And the thing over the years that I, that I came to understood the difference between, and then ultimately I got fired. And then working there for, no, he was there for years. And I realized that like the difference between Benjamin and I is like Benjamin, uh, when he didn't like somebody or disrespected it, they, they would enjoy, he would just tease them or mock them and they would love it. And with me, um, if they were laughing at my mocking of them, I got upset because I felt like, no, no, you have to understand. I really don't. And I think to a certain extent that's why I, um, that was a frustration I always had with like, with, with standup is like, wait, no, you think I'm kidding. And so they would, you know, I'd get a laugh and then I'd be like, wait a second, no, I'm pretty serious about this. When did you meet Benjamin? How old were you? I mean, I think we went to honestly like to, to JCC camp when we were like four or five and then That's like Larry David and Richard Lewis. We were at the same, well, Benjamin, I also ran to Richard Lewis in like Italy, like 30 years ago, took a picture of his ass. That's a totally different story. But, um, Well, that's in Italy. Once you get to Italy, everybody admires everybody's ass. Oh, it was, it was, it was, it was all the rage. When in Rome, when in Rome, they're, they pinched, I got, I got my ass pinched in Italy. So you went to, but how, when were you aware of Benjamin? Um, probably in, well, my sister went to his mom's ballet class. So like probably like fourth grade. Or hang on, hang on, his mother taught ballet. Uh-huh. And your sister, okay. So your sister went to his ballet class. And so you were aware of him, like, when did you, I knew him from camp, like vaguely. And then we went to the same junior high, Worcester Academy for a couple of years and we were enemies. Why were you enemies? Well, I mean, he likes to pretend like I was his bully. And, and the fact is that I was his friend's bully. And he, I think just felt left out. And so he pretended, I don't know, he liked disco and I liked rock. I think it was or something. And, um, I was fat. He was short. You were fat? I was a fat kid and he was a short kid. And, um, and then- Wait a second. You were a bully? Well, he claims I bullied him. He's also sort of like, I don't want to say a pathological liar, but he lies. I mean, I, I think a pathological liar lies without reason, right? I mean, I, he's borderline pathological. He likes it for the attention, but I also, so- So you were enemies, you were enemies in, in junior high. That's right. And we, and, and you were aware of each other. Oh yeah. And you knew, and both of you knew you didn't like each other. That's right. And how did it manifest itself? Did it come, ever come out, shoving insults, anything? I think I got beat up his friend at like Bar Mitzvah's. Oh my God. We would get fights. And then Benjamin tried to slow to hang on, hang on, hang on. Sam, you cannot, you cannot say that and then move on. I know you belong- It wasn't, it wasn't, I wasn't like curb stomping. It was, you know, like, it was like, you know, like 12 year old, you know, Jewish kids just sort of like shoving each other around and going like, you know, you're fat and you like, just go, I don't know. I mean, it was, and then like, you know, Benjamin and I, that was, that was basically our relationship. You need to slow down, young man. You need to slow down. Now just stop. Just stop for a second. Stop talking. You just be quiet. Check it, Pawakasha. Hey. Worcester, Massachusetts. Bar Mitzvah's. You're 13. Sam Cedar. You're a progressive. You were raised, I would assume, I like me or red diaper baby. And by that I mean, oh, hang on, let me do the joke first. Sorry. And then I got to start all the way at the beginning to get to this joke. And you're going to hang up after I do the joke. We were both red diaper babies. And by that I mean, we were born with irritable bowel syndrome. Yeah. That's right. That doesn't bother me. It bothers me that you made me have to do that. Yeah. So you're at a bar Mitzvah with John Benjamin, H John Benjamin. What does the H stand for? All right, I can't tell. Hillel. So you're at a bar Mitzvah with him. And you're the bully at the bar Mitzvah, right? No, no, I'm not. You're looking for a fight. You're looking for a fight. No, he and his buddy, his buddy and I. Who's his buddy? Who's his buddy? What's his name? Robbie Polanski. I mean, I feel like. Robbie Polanski. Have you seen if you're listening? I'm I'm we're cool now. Have you seen him? No, not in five. I don't know. 35 years. Did you give him a black guy? Not a black guy, a black guy. That's what that's what Jews do at bar Mitzvahs. If they don't like somebody, they give them a black guy. And then the guy has to go home and threaten to date the sister. That's right. No, there was none of that. And it was like, I don't know. That was shoving around in like, you know, in the bathroom at Temple Manual. That's. And is this a is this a reformed conservative orthodox reform reform? Wouldn't have done that. No, okay. So you were a bully. I put you're a progressive, but you were you grew up as a bully. You had a chip on your shoulder. I had a chip on my shoulder, but it was more like I, you know, you know, he would call me fat and I'm going to show you how much of this is muscle. And you know, that type of thing. So all right. And then when did you become friends? He was your best man. So I saw Benjamin through high school. I ended up going to a different high school than he did. And did you think he was funny? Did I think he was funny? I'm talking about the bar Mitzvah. Was he fun? No, no, no, he just he was just, you know, he was just some like short kid who, you know, like, uh, danced, you know, that was, that was, you know, he would like do, I feel, well, maybe, yeah, I feel like he like tried to make it like he was break dancing or something. I don't know. And, um, and so he was not a class. You're saying like people who knew me back then when I say I became a comedian, they, they smell filthy cheese and say, yeah, figures. That makes it like, not that you were funny, but now we kind of knew you were going to do that. I feel like none of that got formed around like that age. I mean, I just, you know, uh, there was, I don't remember him as being funny then at all. And I don't know that he would have, you know, remembered me as being funny. I remember going in junior, I mean, in high school, ended up in his house because there was a party and a bunch of my friends from my school who were very intimidating. Some of these guys, uh, came into his house and like this house was like destroyed. It was like, well, those things were like, there was like hundreds of people in the house and his parents were out of town. And then I didn't see him for a long time. And then literally the night before I'm going to college, I went to Connecticut college in New London, Connecticut. Uh, my aunt says, uh, you know, John Benjamin is going to Connecticut college. I'm like, oh, yeah, whatever. I don't like that kid. And, uh, he was literally across the hall from me. I mean, the, his dorm room was four feet from my dorm room. And, uh, I did not like my roommate. He did not like his roommate. And the drinking age at that time in Connecticut was the only state in the country except for, I think, DC, where you could drink if you were 18. And so, uh, I think he got like a 1.5 GPA that semester. I thought that was his blood alcohol level. I suspect it was considerably higher. And, um, and then we became, uh, uh, good friends and, um, And did you ever have it out? Did you, did you ever get drunk? Oh my God, we would fight. Oh, I would beat him up because, because at that age, like it was all, you know, at, you know, at that age, it was all, it was all good fun. But yeah, no, I, I specifically, and we still talk about this, we would get it. We would, you know, like in college, you wrestle with your friends. No, you don't. No, you don't. Maybe, maybe, maybe there was some tension there. There was some sexual tension. Yeah, yeah. And, um, but I do remember like Benjamin is, it was, you know, he, he's, he's a, he's a bigger guy now. He's not any taller, obviously, but, um, and I remember like, I would have this move where I would pick him up and ram him into the corner of a wall. Just because when he got somewhat injured and angry, his eyes would light up, thought that he was turning into the Hulk. And it would, and it was always fun to, to see that. So. What did you major in? I was a religious studies and government, uh, major. I, I don't want to violate, I don't want to violate any trust about, uh, Mr. Benjamin, but the little boys, were they coming up to his room even back then? Without violating any trust about his propensity for young boys. Were they cut? No. Because no, what, what, I mean, you don't have to tell me, but was he, what did he major in? Was he a good student? Was he a serious student? Or was he just looking for spectacle? Was he creating spectacle at all? No, no, he was. I mean, he, he was a good student. I mean, he was a, he was a, I think a, a decent to good student by the time he graduated. What are the two of you? What is the two of you? He was going to get his PhD at Northwestern. He actually got his masters in history. I think he wrote his master's thesis. His master's thesis was, um, if I remember correctly, either about the trains or Eichmann. And, um. The trains or Eichmann. Yeah, I can't remember which, which, I, I feel like it was, it was like, how they got the trains, how Hitler, like, orchestrated the trains or something. All right, hang on for one second. First, I was impressed that he has a master's. But then when you told me it's about Eichmann and the, the Holocaust. Right. Um, what Jew, I mean, come on, that's like, that's like, you know what that's like? That's like my friend, Jose Arroyo, who was born in Spain and speaks English, getting a master's in Spanish. Right. It's like a Jew getting a master's in the Holocaust. Oh, he wasn't terribly motivated. I mean, it was all, yeah, right. I mean, people understand that people of our generation, like, we were there, I was subjected to like, Shoah, like first grade, you know, at Hebrew school. Hey, you have to have Jerry Stahl on your show. Oh, you know, I met him doing Marin's show. Yeah, you should, you should have him on your show because he just did a six-part series for Vice about his 14-day Holocaust tour of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau. And he is so amazing. He's so articulate and funny. And he actually makes you not feel guilty for laughing hysterically about the food court at Auschwitz about eating at Auschwitz. Okay, so if you were to, so I'll give you Jerry's number. You should definitely have. Okay. He's amazing. So if I were to go back in time to that dorm and see the two of you working, what would I think? Well, if I saw John Benjamin and Sam Cedar, what would I, I would look at these two guys, let's say junior year. And I would say these two are going to be this. Well, junior year, we didn't live in the same dorm. And I at that point was like heavily involved in student government. We did also have a cake delivery business, I think at one point. I don't know. Who had a cake delivery business? I mean, I guess to a certain extent, you mentioned I'm an entrepreneur. I mean, I guess, you know, I was doing some of that at that time. What do you mean you had a who? You and Benjamin had a cake delivery. Yeah. Like I had this idea of like all these parents need to send birthday cakes to their kids, but they don't know how to do it. So I put flyers out on cars during like parents weekend. And Benjamin, I was supposed to deliver cakes and he kept screwing up. And so it was a bad business. It was the beginning of me realizing like I can't get, I can't rely on him for anything. Like I just like, I think probably have repaired my credit from living, from being a roommate from years ago. Like we were just talking about this the other day. Like at one point when we were roommates in Boston, Benjamin would not do any dishes ever. And so I was like, I finally say like, all right, fine. You're not going to do any dishes. I'm not going to do any dishes. And so we just had this pile of like mold and fast dishes. And we had to actually like throw them out. We just basically got rid of dishes. And we had like, like, like whenever, you know, every couple of months we would clean the house, the apartment. And I finally like, like, like barbecue, bones under a chair. I mean, it was just all right. So you're responsible person. The closest comedy friend I've had over the years at one period was Jeff Garland. And I know Jeff you and Jeff and I would not have a serious conversation that we would go out for the night. Both our kids are kind of the same age. And so we were on the same track. So we he and I would have boys night. We'd leave. And our conversations were about the dry cleaning store that we owned. He was Smoke Von Smokerson, who was a frustrated wedding DJ. And there was a dry cleaning store that we dry cleaning business that we were, you know, partners in. And we go to a movie and the entire drive consisted of discussing this dry cleaning business and his frustrations as a wedding DJ, never talking about our families. That was I imagine you and Benjamin had that same kind of relationship. I can't imagine you two sitting talking about your problems, your worries, your dating life. I would assume that the two of you had arguments about imaginary issues, like the Holocaust, for example. We would actually have arguments like we would have it's over the year. You know, we've been friends now for 30, 40 years. So we it's evolved over time. I mean, we would go into parties and this was really obnoxious. And we would give each other jobs that to try and expose the other one as a liar. Like so, and I would get really clever, like, oh, you're going to be, you're going to be, you're going to work, you're going to be a basically an arms dealer, like you'll work for like, and then he would just say like your dentist. And then we would go to like these parties and it would end up being like, there was someone there from the same dental school that I suppose it was that. So I would always end up being the guy who's like, I don't know why I said that. I don't know why I pretended like I was. And you maintain a friendship because you grew up in a progressive household and you have you're as liberal as they get. He's a Huckabee supporter. Does that add that adds a little spice to that surprise you that he was so big for Mike Huckabee. I mean, he that John Benjamin was. I think he just he just floats through. He lives in his own universe. He doesn't care. He doesn't care. Now he does. Now I mean, look, he's he's done so well for himself. All he cares about is getting his taxes cut. Was he for the Muslim? Was he for the Muslim? Totally. Was he for the was he for the Muslim ban even back back in high school? Was he for that? Because I know he's a big. I would say the weird thing, the reason why he did so poorly in the first year at Kennedy College is because he would hand in for any assignment right up a Muslim. Like math. Have you spoken to him about this stuff? Because it's said you should back off. You know what? I don't even know. I'm I'm afraid of him now. John's politics are very similar to ours. Of course. Yeah. I mean, I think we're we're friends because I think to a certain extent like we we just we're both at arm's length from our emotions. All right. Well, the wedding he was the best man. Were there tears? Was he capable? Of course not. Was there any? Did he give you any any emotion? Any weld up eyes? No, no, no. I mean, I wasn't terribly emotional. So did he make you laugh? Did he try to make you a laughter in the wedding? No, I don't think so. I mean, we I'm trying to think what was it that he sang? He sang a song. But I can't remember a serious song. No, no, not it's not a serious song. No, I can't remember it wasn't. Gosh, what was it that he sang? Wow, that's impressive. I have the tiger at my wedding. Wow. All right, let's get back to how you on time, by the way. I'm fine because you know what? I wanted to talk to you about the current state of the media. Then you go off about I know John Benjamin. Jesus Christ, Sam, I wanted to believe me for the vast majority of my life. That's it's been a liability. I wanted to talk about serious issues and all you Jesus. So there's an article we're talking with Sam Cedar. How long have you been doing the majority report? When did you leave Air America? Well, I left Air America when it died, essentially. But this show I've been doing, this iteration of the majority report, I've been doing since I believe it was November of 2010. So. And you also know Bobby Kennedy Jr. Yes, I am doing, I also do Ring of Fire radio, which is a terrestrial radio show. It's also a podcast, but it's primarily a terrestrial radio show. That was a show that came from Air America hosted by Bobby Kennedy and Mike Papantonio. Those guys still do the show, not like they used to in terms of the amount of time. But yes, so every now and then, Bobby Kennedy will be on Ring of Fire radio, and I met him at Air America. And you can pick up a phone and call him and he'll answer. No. I mean, I occasionally will text, but he'll never respond. But you know him. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when I see him, I say, hi, Bobby says, hi, Sam. And he was very supportive of me at Air America, which of course, for me was like, when I was waiting tables at another place after that place, I got fired from in Cambridge. I gave him, I served him coffee in Harvard Square, you know, literally 30-some-odd years ago, maybe less, maybe 27 years ago or something. And I remembered that. And then to have the opportunity to work with him and then have him be supportive of me at Air America because, you know, I kept getting fired by different people and he would come on the air, call in and say, you know, and be supportive much to the chagrin of whoever was running the company at that time. But yeah, so. It's supposed to be incredible to talk to him. I think I shook his hand at a benefit once, but it's really unfair to him to react to him the way some of us do because he looks so much like his dad. He talking, the conversations I've had with him on the show and off though are amazing because he is, you know, when he says like my uncle or my dad, he is talking about some of the seminal figures of American history. And his experience has been so varied from like traveling with his dad to Appalachia, you know, on a poverty tour. His, I mean, just his, just the experience is just, it's overwhelming in his sense of history. He's a very smart guy and, you know, we have disagreements about some stuff. You know, I don't, his perspective on, he's, I mean, I don't want to mischaracterize his position. But on the water, you're, you're for dirty water, right? I am totally for dirty water. No, he's, you know, he's got some controversial views of suspicions of, of drug companies in terms of vaccinations. And to some extent, I can understand why he holds those views. I think they're wrong. And I think in some respects they're dangerous, but you know, I don't want to overstate his skepticism. I think there are times that it has been, but you know, he's worked in, he's done a lot of litigation of polluters and has worked with a lot of attorneys who do litigation with drug companies. And I, you know, because of Ring of Fire, I go to a tort conference twice a year under the auspices of Ring of Fire and Mike Papantonio. And I talk to these lawyers, a lot of which I do these interviews, a lot of which is also off air because there are certain things that they can't say because of, you know, of settlements, where they look, you know, they're, they're doing discovery on decisions that major drug companies have made or, and, or major polluters. And it is just stunning. I mean, it's unbelievable. Like stuff that we think like, ah, human beings can't possibly make these calculations and they can't articulate it. You know what I mean? Like, ah, if we, we know this is going to cause X, Y and Z cancers, but, and I think, you know, if you see enough of that, the level of skepticism that you can have about anything goes through the roof. It's kind of like Private Ryan saying I have to kill two of my soldiers to save 12, the bean counting that he does. Yeah, except for the bean counting that these people do, I'm talking about what they find in discovery, you know, decisions that, that executives have made is we're going to make X billion dollars and maybe a certain amount of people will die and that might cause us to pay out Y billion dollars. But that difference between X billion and Y billion, that's our business plan. And is that how they think or do they think the way Assad's father thought when he would kill, there's that, not a great story, but from Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas J. Friedman, is it Tom J. Friedman? Tom Friedman from The New York Times tells the story about Assad, the father in Syria, creating this massacre, I think in 82 where he wipes out 75,000 insurgents and to set an example to say anybody else want to come up against me and in his mind, he sleeps at night by saying, well, I had to kill 75,000 people to save 5 million. Yeah, no, I think with actually with some of these products, it's just like, we're going to save money and we probably, you know, the worst case scenarios, we've got to pay out some settlements. Do they know they're evil? I mean, that's the question. This is a question I literally ask these lawyers all the time and they're like, I'm not qualified to answer that, but some of them I look at them and I say, yeah, they're evil and I don't know if they know that they're evil. I mean, I think when you work in a corporate structure, part of it is that the responsibility is so diffused so everybody just moves the ball just so incrementally that they don't feel like they've moved the ball at all. But at the end of the day, the ball gets moved. You know what I mean? Right. I mean, I think that's part of, I mean, I don't know that that's the reason why you have structures like that, but that's one of the things that allow structures like that doing to do such horrible things. Ice. That it diffuses, it diffuses. Well, ice, I mean. No, no, I'm talking to my assistant. I don't like my water room temperature. Thank you. Go ahead. I think that's how you, were you talking about ice? Like those, I mean, just this past week, I mean, some of the stories that the ice, I've, you know, those. No, no, I haven't been following that. Who is ice and what are they keeping us, our borders safe from what I, is there, do you have a problem with ice? Just some of the stories I just, this week has been just. Do you go after them? I have been going after ice, not the people giving them the orders. I'm going after the people following the orders. Is that fair? I think, I mean, I imagine that there, you know, we're in danger of painting with too broad a brush, but as far as I can tell from the reporting that I've seen, all right, to the extent that it's reliable, these people are reprehensible. And they're enjoying their, that they have the opportunity now to round up what are soft targets, but in their mind are poisoning the nature of this country. And I find that just despicable beyond words. So they're bad people and they should quit. I think they're bad people and at the very least, they should quit. Yeah, because my, I go on and on, on this show about whether or not taking it out on ice, but my feeling is you cannot kick open the door of, as you say, a soft target, separate a mother from the father and the mother from the child, and then play the victim say, well, you know, it's my job. I was given orders and, you know, I have a family to support. You can't, you can't have it both ways. You can't be a monster and a victim. You have to, you have to make a choice. And if you don't realize that there's a choice, then you're a psychopath. I, I think, I mean, look, I think if, if I felt that the people carrying out these raids were the, had the disposition that you just expressed, I'd have more sympathy for them. Okay. That like, I don't want to do this, but I'm being forced to do it. And I've got a family and, you know, my wife needs insulin or whatever it is. If I, if I, if I had knowledge that there were people like that working at ice who had no alternative but to quit, I'd feel more sympathy. But I suspect based upon what I'm reading and, you know, that, and just the idea of them going to ice in the first place, right? Which is a union gig, by the way. It's, they weren't the union endorsed Donald Trump. And I think that's also indicative of, of like something attitudinal, right? I mean, because it's not like, it's not like, I just like Donald Trump because I'm just a misogynist or I just like Donald Trump because, you know, he's for the working man. It's, I like Donald Trump because I work for ice and he on day one is saying that, you know, the Mexicans coming across the border are rapist, although I'm sure some of them are probably good people. Well, let me say the same thing about ice. I'm sure some of them are. There's a narrative that's forced upon us after 9 11, that we were told, don't ask why they attacked us. It was evil. And that's all you're allowed to say. Do not ask the question. Well, what would provoke somebody to do that to us? You're not allowed to ask that question with ice. You're not allowed to attack the people who are doing this. You can attack the policy and the people giving the orders, but you're not allowed to create collective guilt for the people who are getting paid to carry out these venal acts. That's who you who's who's who according to whom. Well, if this were mainstream media, if we were on network television right now, you have your own network television, you wouldn't even hear a critique of ice anyways. Yeah. I mean, you know, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, broadly speaking, you wouldn't hear a critique of that anyways. And I don't even know that you hear that critique in the, you know, out in the world. I mean, I think that, you know, there's, I just find it reprehensible up until the iPhone, you were not allowed to really question the police until there was just enough video that was undeniable. Yeah. You could not say, well, you know, some of the guys, some of like, you know, Furman, some of these guys are vermin. You can't say that they're keeping you safe. Right. Right. Of course. And what kind of democracy do we have when you're not allowed to question the people who have the potential to be the enemy of our democracy? Well, the biggest threat to our democracy is not a terrorist. It is the military and the police. Historically, the biggest threat to freedom, it will always be the police. It'll always be the military. You have to question them. That's the patriotic thing to do. I agree with that. And I would say that 9-11 made it, you know, sort of really hard that. But I believe like there was also a pushback from the 60s. And so, you know, during the Reagan era, you got a lot of that as well. And it also came, you know, to be honest, you know, it came from, you know, there was a certain amount of respectability politics, I think that the Democrats engaged in, probably continue to engage in some respects, that made it much harder. I mean, so, I mean, I don't... Is there a narrative to the Majority Report? Is there a story that you will not discuss because it goes against what you're pushing? Well, wait, those are two different questions, right? I mean, up until the Trump election, the primary narrative, starting in November of 2010. I mean, I think the first guest I had on, first couple of shows, I was just sort of getting my sea legs. But the first guest I had on, I believe, was either Jacob Hacker or Paul Pearson on their book, Winner Take All, which was about wealth inequality. And to a large extent, that's an important sort of theme throughout the vast majority of the show. I mean, other issues involving race, to a certain extent. That is, by the way, that is my narrative. Yeah, I mean, I think that's where... Protecting the 1% from the mobs, the unwashed hordes of filthy barbarians who want what I've earned. The tyranny of the majority. The tyranny of the majority, of course. Yeah, I'm going to keep them at bay. Yeah, I'm a Madisonian. No, but that is the issue. I think that is the issue of our time. And anything else, to me, is irrelevant. If you're not discussing wealth inequality... The worst part... Well, not the worst part. But one of the things which frustrated me so much during the general election, and I obviously was a Bernie supporter, I mean, I've been interviewing Bernie Sanders since 2004. I think probably Janine Garofalo and I, on the majority of four, when we were on Air America, were probably the first person to put them on national radio. And although I don't know that for sure, but nevertheless. Well, his doo-wop band got a lot of airplay in the 60s. And yeah, God knows what happened with his folk, his folk stories. But you know, in the general election, I was very frustrated by people who would draw this equivalence or this notion that somehow the election of Trump would be good for the left. And because I went through the Bush years and know that what happens invariably, inevitably, well, hopefully not inevitably, but I think inevitably, that a popular anti-Republican, anti-Bush in that era, now anti-Trump front begins. And ultimately, there's this tendency like, you know, David Fromm is now an ally. I mean, God help us. And Bill Crystal. And Bill Crystal. And thank you. This is driving, but not just those guys. Like, you know, I realized that people who I thought were my ally, well, when I was on Air America, I'm having arguments with them about Social Security in 2010. And, you know, I ended up having, you know, and that's what happens. The left does much better under a Democratic president because you're having the baseline of the argument changes from, are we going to slash Medicaid to, are we going to cut, you know, the cost of living of Medicare, you know, which is what we did under Obama. And, you know, or that was the argument, I should say. And so the baseline changes. And you're able to push the ball forward. And so I was very frustrated by that. And I still, frankly, you know, every day, I had debates with people nominally on the left who think they're of the left or think that their perspective was more to the left because, tactically, they were choosing to do something stupid in my mind. And, you know, now we're stuck with this, you know, all the time is being spent on whether or not Donald Trump is corrupt with Russia, which I think is a legitimate question. But, you know, the issues that we would be discussing today would be so much more on a progressive left terrain. If Hillary Clinton were president, that it's almost unimaginable, right? You know, we would be arguing about, we wouldn't be arguing about how we're going to destroy the EPA. We would be arguing, you know, maybe, maybe we would be arguing about the Dakota access pipeline. But I have a feeling we would be on to the next pipeline that we want to get rid of, rather than they're removing the word science from the Office of Science at the EPA website. I mean, the destruction that we are going through already is stunning. And so much of it is being missed. Yeah. And so much of this is predictably, so predictably was going to be missed. Yeah. Had Hillary won, and we all had questions about her, but because of the climate, both climate change and the progressive climate, we were about to embark on a progressive wave that would have been just the, would have brought back a lot of what Franklin Roosevelt wanted for us. And Obama had slowly turned the ship around, and we were ready to go full steam ahead on a progressive agenda of shutting down private prisons, tackling climate change free. I mean, there was a lot of talk about, there was going to be a big push to really focus on antitrust issues, which is a huge problem in this country, and has been ignored by both parties for an extended period of time. And the idea now of a national debate on antitrust is just unfathomable, right? Like, you got to be kidding me. There's somebody even like, you know, like every time I book somebody on my show and try and maintain that those type of stories and interviews and authors, I have this moment of like, it just feels, what I'm doing feels anachronistic in some way. And so that's a constant struggle that I'm going through. Like, you know, this week on my show, I had Nelson Dennis on to talk about Puerto Rico, which has been savaged, just absolutely savaged. And really for the hundred years that we have basically had it as a colony. And, but yet at the same time, I'm thinking like, how many other things should we talk about? Like, is this, you know, is this helping? I mean, it's a very unfortunate time to say the least. And I got to say like, obviously, it's a lot worse if you are, you know, a 13-year-old girl and you'll watch your father getting pulled out of the car because of a DUI he had, you know, 12 years ago. And now is, you know, wakes up and he's in El Salvador or a private prison doing slave labor, essentially. Exactly. I mean, and that's just the beginning, right? I mean, we're going to just see, it's just going to get worse and worse and worse. It's very, it's very upsetting. Well, people who are listening to me need to listen to you. You're on five days a week. It's the majority report. I know everybody who listens to me would love listening to you. So people should listen to the majority report. Before you go, there's an article in The Nation magazine written by Kyle Pope. He's the editor-in-chief and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review. And his article is entitled, Is There a Business Model for Real Journalism? And I wanted to ask you, do you consider yourself a journalist? You know, I sometimes ask myself that question and I tend not to worry about it. I mean, I think arguably I practice journalism. I mean, I think my interviews, I think are journalistic. I also think that I am, you know, without placing, you know, just again, a very sort of value judgment way. I think I'm also a propagandist in some respects. I think I'm a, you know, an entertainer in some respects. So I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I think my interviews are legitimate journalism. But I don't do any reporting per se. My name isn't per se. We've done this joke a million times. You always call me per se. And I always say my name is... That's my Massachusetts accent, per se. Oh, wait a second. I think I gave that to somebody. I think I gave that to Lewis Black, the per se, but as a gift. I hope he's not using it. Why? It's like my irritable bowel syndrome, red diaper baby joke. Surely. Yes. When you started this, not this in 2010, I know it feels like this interview started in 2010. When you started the majority report as a podcast YouTube channel, what did you think it was going to be? I thought, I didn't start it as a YouTube channel. The YouTube thing was, and even now, and this is actually important to me, is ancillary to me, because I think YouTube is, I think there's a real danger with YouTube. That isn't there as much with an audio show. And when I started the majority report, it was even a podcast was sort of almost, I was more interested in maybe the idea that this could be internet radio, and that maybe I could get back on to daily AM radio. Because AM radio is Mark Levin. It's Mark Levin, and it is ubiquitous. 95, 6% of people have radio, and when we were doing the majority report, we had very big numbers and very big clearance. Millions of people across the country, and there's something to doing live radio that I think is really interesting. But they won't allow your politics on AM radio. Well, I mean, they did at one point. I don't know if they will in the future. I don't think, I do not think they allow. I think there's an opportunity for a new model in radio. But put that aside. I started thinking that maybe it would migrate to radio. And then I realized, you know, as a podcast, I'm not doing the same thing I did when I was on radio. My audience is different. My audience is geared towards a different, and it changed my show into being a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more nuanced. And the problem with YouTube that I think exists, when you have a lot of people out there doing YouTube shows that are ostensibly news shows, right? One of the problems that we have with corporate media, it seems to me, is that it is so ratings-driven. There's also a problem that it's owned by companies who have political agendas, without a doubt. But it's also another problem is that it's so ratings-driven, like in the moment. And it causes shows to make editorial decisions based on those ratings. And nothing, there is no better example of that dynamic being a problem than on YouTube. Because you can see the next day how many hits your YouTube video got. And usually when you're doing YouTube, your margins are less. And so, you know, I could be the host of a show on MSNBC and see my overnights when I have on this, or I have Donald Trump pre-empt my show, or whatever it is, and I know that it's going to go upstairs and it's going to get filtered back down to me, and there's going to be some pressures and whatnot. But if I'm also doing an exclusive YouTube show, and that's where my revenue is coming from, and I'm doing videos, and I'm putting out six videos a day, and I'm getting 75,000 hits on them, I'm making real money. And if I don't, I mean real, real money. And if I don't make that, if I don't get 75,000 views, if I come in and I've got one only, like 12,000 views, a big drop-off on my income. And I think that creates perverse incentives. Is that why you do the show with that your shirt on? Well, I've got it that I'm trying to mitigate that, trying to put a ceiling on how much I can do. But for me, the YouTube is secondary. I mean, not even secondary. It's like three or four on my list of things that I worry about. I'm doing the show anyways, but I don't do a YouTube show. We just cut up the radio show. And that's a difference in terms of the pressures I feel. Now, we'll do in the member half of our show, I'll do the sort of low-hanging fruit like, look at this insanity that Bill O'Reilly did, or here's Dennis Miller thinking that he's funny. We'll do some of that because we want to have some comedy, but it's mostly member stuff. It's not the primary mission of our show. And for a lot of YouTubers out there, it is. And I think it, frankly, affects their judgment. Yeah, I don't think you can tell people to boycott a product if you're running ads. I did a show where I was telling people to boycott Home Depot because the founder donated $7 million to Trump. And as I was saying that, I was thinking, well, if this show were on terrestrial radio, actually I said it, I have a show on Pacifica, which takes zero corporate financing. Zero corporate financing. So I did call for a boycott of Home Depot and I thought, well, you would never hear anybody say that on NPR. No, never. Never. So the idea of there being freedom of speech on radio or television is fallacious because you cannot attack the people who really run things and it's the corporations. Well, I rather look at it as, because I think there's a, I think there's a category that's freedom of speech. I think that is a perfect example of why money cannot equal speech. But I don't think that's a function of freedom of speech. I think the problem is that it's the mass media has a high bar to entry. But I do think that there's models out there to create a radio network that doesn't rely on that dynamic, that you can be much more exclusive with who you're going to allow to have it. Like, you know, on my podcast, I reject, I don't know, at least 25% of the ads offered to us on basically, you know, I think are on political grounds. You know, like, I'm not, I'm not going to do an ad for, you know, I was rejecting Uber ads since the first day I got offered them, you know, a while back. I don't know how long, a year or so ago, two years ago. I was, there were ads for like online, like, crowd lending things that I'm just like, I don't feel comfortable with that. You know, I get on the phone where they do these, these, you know, the, well, they want to explain it to you. And I'm like, who regulates you? And the guy's like, oh, that's a good question. I'm not sure. I'm gonna pass. And yet you, and yet you like to call yourself the back page of the airwaves. Well, that's the thing. I will do those. I will do immoral. Just not think of one counter to my politics. Hey, Sam Cedar is the host of Majority Report. How do people follow you on Twitter? How do, I mean, I presume in the same way they follow everybody. Well, what is your handle? Oh, Sam Cedar. And how do you spell Cedar? Like Cedar, but in a way that Gentiles wouldn't know. And it's, it's, yeah, it's like S-E-D-E-R. Okay. And how do people listen to the Majority Report? I think go to majorityreportradio.com. Or you can just, you can listen to the podcast on iTunes. Great. And it's five days a week and everybody should subscribe to it. Thank you, Sam. David, thank you very much. My audience also loves you, which is why I have to talk you down a little bit on air, because it's, you know, I don't want people to unsubscribe from me. I feel like there's a lot of that that happens. What? I'm done with Cedar. I'm going to upgrade. And then... No, it's an ever-expanding universe. Let's hope so. There's room for everybody. Thank you, David. Thank you. Joining us from Los Angeles is one of the stars of Showtimes. I'm dying up here. And you can see him this season on Veep on HBO, one of my lovers. Intellectually, not physically. I tried. Rick Overton. Yeah, yeah, we were. Hi, David. How are you? Very good. Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, Rick Overton, actor. You know best. And somebody who is, I would say, has a personal hand in the development of modern stand-up comedy. I'm not going to embarrass you, but there's a reason Jim Carrey asked you to be in I'm Dying Up Here. Well, it's a wonderful thing that he did for me to let me recur as the tonight show booker on I'm Dying Up Here and it's going to be a lot of fun. And Melissa Leo placed the club owner and just got an incredible cast. It's going to be a lot of fun. It starts in June on Showtime. And it's the story of behind-the-scenes comedy in 1973 on the Strip. And it's amazing that most projects, when they show a comedian on stage, they show how he sucks and how it's pathos and we got to feel bad for him. But they all do it. The struggle of a comedian, they don't show, some of them are absolutely brilliant, but this show does that. It's one of the few things where it's written by really funny comedians. So even though it's 1973 material, it's universal and it works today. And it's just like, we do remembered laughing at one of those guys back then. Who's writing it? Dave LeBotte and a wonderful team of people. And Jim Carrey. And so it's a great, and Jim Carrey's producing it. And his love letter to the business that got him going, and that's a wonderful love letter. That's a great project. So was Man on the Moon about Andy Kaufman. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I knew Andy, and man did he nail Andy. You knew Andy. I met him once. He was my hero. I did not know. Yeah. I met him once. Oh, okay. Yeah. When I started doing comedy, he showed my generation that laughs are not why you do this. It's not about getting laughs. Yeah, but they're a nice side effect, but actually. They're a nice side effect. You know, I remember Tom Sawyer telling me that you had told him about Jim Carrey. Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Book Cops, he's really an unsung hero of the comedy boom of the 80s and the 90s. Oh, and, and one of the best impressionists I have ever heard ever. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Very opinionated. He follows a great impressionist. Yeah. And, but when it when he nails an impression, there's nothing like it. Yeah. Very opinionated. If you were starting out in San Francisco, you had to get his approval and it was hard to get his approval. Even if you were coming through as Jim Carrey or Robin, Tom would corner Robin and tell Robin what he was doing wrong. It took a lot of balls for Tom to do that. But he had impeccable taste. So you told Tom about this guy, Jim Carrey. This is how I remember it. There was a guy named Jim Carrey whose impersonations were almost like the Twilight Zone. They were so freakishly good. It was almost as though somebody had made a Faustian bargain to be an impressionist. And he, and the reason Tom had such an affinity, and I told Tom about him, is because I said, firstly, you're going to love him for the impressions he does, because you love your impressions and you're both so good you will have an affinity. But he is a chrysalis form and he's about to transform into something new, and you should spearhead that. And were you helpful with Jim Carrey when he was going from an impressionist to a full bodied comic? In as much as I got out of the way and made recommendations, because I thought he was magnificent. You know, I don't know what advice I could give. He's too good for advice and impressions or whatever else he does this thing. I didn't, there wasn't really anything to say except to tell club owners to be there for it. Is it fair to say that Robin was a bad impressionist, which is what made him so great, that he was able, I remember watching Robin and he did Ed Sullivan. I remember thinking, it doesn't sound anything like Ed Sullivan and I'm laughing hysterically. Right, he, you know, he did his version of it. It would be like Gilbert, actually Gilbert nails impressions constantly and he's not known that he's also one of the great impressionists. But now it's a little Gilbert impression, no matter what. And you laugh twice as hard because of it. Sometimes accuracy alone won't throw you on the floor. You know, a lot of guys are accurate with the impression, but not in the nailing of the joke around it. Right. By the way, and then we'll get to the important stuff, although this may be more important. If you haven't heard Gilbert Gottfried's podcast, it's the best. You should go listen to Gilbert. And there are two episodes that you would love. I've been telling, I told Smigal to listen to this people who are impressionists. There's one with Will Jordan, who. Yeah, who is Sullivan. He was the Sullivan for ages. And then there's one with John Biner, who. Oh, Mr. Pasaditi. I had a dream about Felix Facilditi last night. I can't believe you mentioned that. I swear to God. Not really. No, I swear to you. I swear to. Do the, I can't do the voice. I don't know if you can, but. I can't do it either. Yeah, but we. It's a Donald Duck kind of. Yeah. Oh, tricky. When I was a kid, I had, I had a comedic crush on John Biner. I mean, I was like eight years old. He was. And the great thing about this interview that Gilbert did with John Biner is. I remember Biner being the coolest guy in the world. I remember staying up late to watch him on the Tonight Show and the albums that he put out. He's even cooler than I remember him on Gilbert Show. He tells stories that are so just, you know, just amazing. John Biner. Anyway, I don't know why I mentioned that other than I wanted you to hear. He's an odd, he's a sweet guy and Don's a great guy. He's a kid. Yeah, John and Don. They're both good guys. This is sunny. Makes sense. I met his daughter. Entertainer. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. They're all, all the biners are talented, smart, funny, good people. You know, he, we. John, John made a good batch. Yeah. I, I met the, I don't know. Like you did. We're going off on a tangent here. I apologize. I just remember. I want to hear about your, I want to hear about your kids too, man. Well, my son's in Germany. I want to hear how you guys are doing. My son's in Germany. What's he, what's he doing? He's speaking fluent German and I, yeah. And he's not here, which is good. Well, don't worry. We'll be speaking fluent German here soon. We'll get to that in a second. And tell me more, I'm trying to be happy today. I know, man. So let's, I'm dying. Find it where you can, brother. Find it where you can. I'm dying up here on Showtime. It's takes place in. In June. Starts at 73. Starts in June. It's on the sunset strip. It's sort of the opposite side of America of vinyl. Yeah. And do you play Jim Macaulay, the booker from the Tonight Show, or somebody like him? No, I'm a little more freddy-ish. Dakota, uh, Dakota Bask. Oh, like a tweed jacket. Yeah. Cause by in 73, it wasn't, I don't think it was Jim yet. And is there a Johnny Carson? Is there a Johnny Carson? Yeah. Yeah. Really? Johnny, well, he doesn't, he doesn't appear much on the show, but yes. And there's a, oh, but, uh, I, I had seen with John Caponera. And, uh, Domarera plays Fritzi. So it's great. So anyway, you're gonna love it. Who's Fritzi? Wonderful. The cast is incredible. You know, Fritzi, you know, Domarera's guy. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Old Catskills guy. Oh, right. Right, right. It's just, it's just lovely, man. And it's written so brilliantly. Good. I'm so, I'm very grateful. It's, it's really amazingly. It's one of the things that standups will go. Someone got it right. It's like Reverend Punchline, now all the comics, left the theater. Where's my locker? Why didn't I get a locker? The, we know where my, where my get-up that makes me funny is. Because every comic wants to think it's my fucking get-up that got all the laughs. You hang the suit up, you're not, you're not funny anymore. You walk away from the funny part in the closet in the locker. Is it my imagination or are the early days of comedy, for some reason, and when I say early days of comedy, the early 80s, late 70s being looked upon. The boom, the boom. The, this new crop of comics look at that comedy scene the way Jimmy Page and Keith Richards look at the Delta Bluesmen. Yeah, I guess the Golden Age, it was when it was all glut. It was all kind of, it was like the Battle of Britain. They had more spitfires than 14-year-olds. They could stuff into the cot. They were running out of, we had more gigs than there were comics back then. They were desperate in need of the ones who existed. And you got your training by being thrown into a pool where you can't drown. It was amazing back then. And now it's not that way. And competition runs into sort of, we're in this sort of industry ice age, in as much as, in times of plenty, everyone's pretty chill and shabby. Now that the market's kind of closing in, the walls are coming in. There's certainly, you could do a special and hopefully some new network will buy it from you after you pay this, do it yourself. But the days of getting the discovery, getting the Tonight Show, though that dynamic's pretty much gone. It doesn't matter how many Tonight Shows you do anymore. It won't lead instantly to a sitcom like it used to. Yeah. It's a different breed of comic. You have to be funny, but you also have to understand business, the promotion and marketing. We were handed things. There were stepping steps. There was a path, get five minutes ready, take it on television, then headline the clubs. I mean, there was a path that you could follow. Not anymore. No, there's no path anymore. You have to, well, I mean, I'd say the days of just wait for a college tour, wait for this or that to discover you. Waiting to be discovered is over. Making a thing to be discovered for is, seems like the new model. You've got a crowd source or something else. There is a way to do it. You just have to comply. You have to look at it in a different way than we looked at it for decades. You can't use the model that they idolize to succeed now because it won't work anymore. That market's gone. People had to go out. The live club scene was contingent on boredom and the madness of staying in your place when there's no home entertainment centers yet. They didn't even, and I barely had BCRs here at the mercy of whatever the three networks played. And people, they would get antsy and they'd have to get out. And that drove them to the new thing that was the new rock and roll club that they were getting bored with. Rock and roll was starting to die down and people still wanted that go out feeling. So they went to comedy next. And we rode that like a wave, like surfers. So before we get to the happy fun time stuff that's going on in America. These are good times. Here's the thing that I'm ashamed to tell you is if you asked me what my favorite show on television is, I would say Veep. I love, yeah, I love Veep too. Julia's a genius, Lucy level genius, forever genius. Lucy, Lucy level genius. Absolutely. Absolutely. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is perennial. She will go on forever. She will be like Betty White, beloved forever, but she will have her hit earlier than Betty. At the same level as Lucy. The only thing I take pride in is I've been saying that for a couple of years now. That she is as good as Lucy and you know, go back and watch Lucy. Lucy still holds up. Why is she that good? What, what is it about? I don't know that's genetic or something because it's, she was that good to begin with. She's just been that good from the second she arrived. Yeah, she was instantly unbelievably great. She does, the difference between Julia and Lucy, I think is that Julia does just enough and no more to get the joke. Well yeah, you know what, Lucy was playing theater rules when they rolled those cameras because it was the live theater crowd and the people way in the back had to see the uh oh eyes way in the back, you know, but now it's all close up and it's not shot for a live crowd and when the cameras this close in movie format, you can't do it anymore. Once there's no crowd, you got to stop all the bull face, you know. You play a congressman on Veep. Armando Iannucci is gone. He's no longer running the show. In the Loop is my all-time favorite movie. Uh, the series that it's based on is incredible. There's a new show, Mr. Man, David Mandel is running Veep now, right? You bet, Dave is doing a fantastic job rolling with the uncertain, the perfect storm of uncertainty for a writer on a political show this year to have to have called it in advance of all this series of events. Yeah, amazing. Ow, what a Herculean hair ripping tap. That'd be this sequence. Picture yourself as the producer, writer, creator, showrunner of a show that has to predict a horse race that's gone insane for all your jokes to either work or, hey, John Watney figured it out, make it about the people. It survives the storm. He's a genius and I took every everything he did. I was taking a note like, yeah, that's how that is done. Thank you. Note to self, you know. Yeah, and you play a congressman? Congress, the dim-witted congressman Spencer. He doesn't know it though. He thinks he's very clever and funny. Are you shooting in Maryland? Where do you shoot? Here. Oh, you shoot in LA? Yeah, they do exteriors. They go, they load on a plane and they do all their be real walking in, walking out, anything that would dialogue out in front, you know, try to really map that out in advance for the class trip. It ain't cheap, you know. And you're taking everybody away from all the interior stuff. They got to go back to LA to shoot. So good. I'm so happy for you. All right. Oh, thank you. All right. Strap in, everybody. I know you're too well. I know that sound of all. All right, now the bad news. Women, what is that now? Hey now, wait a second. I didn't get the memo on that. No, I'm kidding. They're the only thing. Listen, let me explain that I know that when David Feldman, my description of your comedy, and I stand by it, is you are like the advice you're giving in a camping trip, if you take a hunter's arrow to your leg, your drunk shithead friend, oh, dude, sorry. And it's halfway in your thigh. If it's a hunting arrow, there's two ways to remove it. The right and wrong way. The wrong way is you pull it backwards out of the hole, because then it leaves a conical shotgun blast hole in your leg because of the barbs on the head of the arrow. So the only way to survive it safely is to hope you miss an artery while you intentionally push it further and further through the muscle tissue of your leg, and watch it poke out the other side, grab it while you're screaming and pull it through the other side to minimize damage. And that's what you do with dangerous ideas. You make, oh, you didn't like that? Ah! And that scream they let out at the end is a laugh. I'm dying up here. It's basically, it's a great title for this stand-up series. That is what I am thinking all the time when I'm... I'm in the documentary, another thing that's dying laughing is a documentary that just came out with lots of comedians. And can I just say, I think if you look into dying laughing, you'll see it's for a young comedian now, David, it's one of the most instructional through these stories being told things. Some of them are just great comedy docs to get a feel for it, but these stories lay it out for you, man. They really, it's one of the most instructive, cautionary, and yet entertaining documentaries made on comedy ever. Is it about bombing? Is it about horrible road stories? Partly, yeah. And how you learn to fall and roll as a clown. Clowning isn't always how you stand up, it's what you do when you went down. Yeah, once you survive a second show, Saturday night, packed ass headlining. Or should I say, yeah, hacked house, because you have to follow two guys that set the wrong tone, man. Yeah, yeah. And you learn it is possible that in a room of 300 people, you're the only one who's right. No, the customer's always right, David, because though I manage a comedy club now, I make restaurants gruel, and you're just a fucking employee to me. Where's your, where's your bling on your suspenders? Where's your flash? Well, that's why comics, I'm kind of segueing into Mr. Trump. We, I never believe that we were the moral compass until most recently. I never believe that comedy writers and comedians were the moral compass until this year when I realized we're the only ones off the grid, no matter how successful we're ever going to be, we'll always be off the grid, outside looking in, always rejecting the mob. Always questioning. Yeah, I'd say conditionally, absolutely, with the rare exception of the corporate comedian who is no longer permitted to express any of that and keep working. And they are trapped in a rock and a hard place with kids in a nice pad somewhere, and they can't say what they mean anymore, and they have to work ocean liners and the cruise lines, look at those posts on social media. And if you can't do anything harsh on social media and still work the boats anymore. I mean, it's really an interesting thing that they now monitor your opinions in every other format. Well, wait, wait, if you're a cruise comic, they check your social media? Well, I know certain corporate people do, and if it's a corporate that then books into, I've had guys say, tell me that they got to watch their thing a little bit, you know, it's not all of them, I guess, experience. And there are certainly cruise lines that allow you to be a little wilder in the midnight show. So that's not so big a deal, but the political stuff, they got to really watch it on a boat. They got to really watch it. Yeah. On an ocean liner, that's as harsh now as a as saying a big sex thing or using a lot of language, it's kind of getting off the boat as fast. Unless it's one of those, you know, specifically, it's a Democrats cruise liner or whoever, you know, and that's all for people to sign up and charter the boat. It's not standard procedure for ocean liners though. Well, I mean, there's a reason you're the reason you always only see me on land, David. I'm a land-loving comedian because they won't, they won't let me do my act on a boat. Are you, are you happy? There's a part of me, even though I've become a bit of an agoraphobic in the true sense of the word, meaning that I won't shop right now. I, you know, Gora. Yeah, I don't, you know, I'm kind of just laying low and but there is a little part of me that's... Are you, are you a rugged endorsement? Are you a little energized by this? I am, I'm energized by it, the thing that's sitting in Obama's chair. Well, it's out of necessity that we might not have had this feeling under any other circumstances being lulled out being or lulled or MMA choked out the sleep. This was a wake up call and people are starting to abandon previous distinctions and barriers and borderlines that they had drawn to just look into a friendly neighbor's face and see who agrees on the basics here. And that means people are starting to draw the line to determine what the basics are. They're finding what those basics are and that's actually a very positive thing. And what are the basics? The water, food, so air supply, DAPL was a huge wake up call to that and working in correspondence with the other series of events. It's starting to click with a lot of people that it's a larger thing than the team jerseys we are given to fight over in our own neighborhood. What is DAPL? That's the Dakota access pipeline, oil line that Native American territory is being treaty breached to eminent domain this pipeline through across sacred land. So there's a big problem with this going on right now because that will take out a massive fresh water supply for a lot of people. It will poison that water supply. So what do you, I want to ask you, what are the, go back to the basics. What are the issues that you have to draw a line in the sand over? You're saying water, water, water is more important than anything else. Nothing, no one's opinion from the beginning of time is more important than water no matter what they think in their own head. No matter what they tell themselves, nothing's more important than water. There's no life without it. There's no nothing, nothing that we call anything without water. It's just a spear being thrown around a star without water. And is that how you- Everything else springs from it. You just said- Clean water. Yes, and you just said springs. I'm about to say filters. Is that how you filter everything through water? I'm being serious, I'm being serious though. Yes, absolutely. You wake up every- Now I would say, no, I would say though as a priority, when I'm looking at it I say how does this affect that? How does this individual vote in correspondence to that? I think it's a very clear-headed and prescient thought. I think that the other politics, yes, you know, if there's going to be a war that affects water, that everything that is major that affects life, rather than someone who touched a vagina necessarily alone, that's not a great thing. But I'm not making that more important than the water supply of earth. He may have been searching for water. Hey, hey, I'm divining you. I'm divining you. My divining rod is- So yeah, that's very interesting. Trump, it's not Trump. He's the circus act. We have to look what's going on. The basement. What's going on in the basement? Yeah, no, he's the joker. Pence is Dexter. You're supposed to look at the jokes. You're not supposed to notice Dexter with the big roll of saran wrap walking downstairs to the basement, you know? And you always told me don't take the bait. That the best thing we could do, that the media could do, and I'm almost predicting what you're about to say because you've guided me through many difficult periods in my life and you would say to me with Trump, don't take the bait if you're the media, ignore him. That will, that is how you torture Donald Trump. If he's not gaining, if you can't get access to Trump, don't cover what he says, cover what he's doing, ignore him. Does anyone remember how he got this powerful? Who remembers out there how he got where he is? Who made him? Who is Dr. Frankenstein? They keep confusing the monster calling that Frankenstein. No. Who's the doctor that made that? The mainstream media is the doctor that manufactured him from fucking scratch. He is a media-made monster. They gave him billions in pre-advertising and more time than anyone after he'd already come off being the host of a TV show while we're watching everything that should have a regulation preventing, not be prevented anymore so that we abandoned, we abandoned any hope in anything within the system working. Everything that grassroots action and pulling money out of certain financial institutions seems to have zero effect. It's like a Star Trek episode where no matter what they fire into the thing, it just gets bigger except those two things. The only thing that shrinks the enemy is you pull the money out of their institution and grassroots action that in local terms, like today's vote here in Los Angeles would hopefully bring more progressives into the previously held local positions. It's from the ground up again, man. And we got to start from scratch. And so some of that aliveness is just out of animal necessity. Your adrenals reactivate to save you. People are just, we're running on educated instinct. Hopefully it's educated. We're re-educating all the time. How many facts have we had to abandon recently that we were guaranteed to hold this true for our entire lives? A lot. We've had to dump a lot and retool everything fast and pride makes that incomprehensibly difficult because we hate admitting we were wrong moments ago, especially when that's our only weapon. No one likes to admit it. So pride is hanging everything up. That's why there's a sort of elite version of the Democratic Party that won't admit that they were massive contributors to this problem too, as they try to re-insinuate themselves into being the answer when perhaps it might actually be more along the lines of a third party that takes the power, even though the main structure and everybody making over $250,000 a year, they don't want that to happen, but that can't be the problem because they're still just the 1% of that side. There's still a 99% of everybody who goes, yeah, but that's not our problem. We're not going to make the money that's being, you're trying to protect that you're willing to throw everything away for. We don't have that income. So you can't sway us with your philosophy of us fucking helping you for nothing, which is what that is. Since 1973, which also happens to be when I'm dying up here takes place, since 1973. Very, very transformative time. Just before Watergate, there's so many things we're changing. All the guarantees were falling away. Since 1973, since George McGovern, the Democrats have been telling us to calm down. Don't be so angry. Whereas the Republicans are saying, get angry, get angry. And the angrier the Republicans get, the more hateful the Republicans get, the more they get. But we have... Well, they're playing, they're playing an addiction. Your own adrenaline. Look, you know what an adrenaline junkie is. Why do you think they say it's a junkie? Because you'll do completely irrational, stupid, junkie-level things to achieve it. To stay angry. To stay angry. That's only to feel that rush of your own adrenaline, of your own bile burning through your bloodstream. It's a rush. And then when we're all numbed out on everything else, on pills or whatever else they've given people now, and that's like the only way to feel alive, it's like a cutter or one more piercing or one more tattoo. Wow. Because they're numb. That's the last thing they feel. Let's stick with this because I've been talking about this on the show a lot about the narcotic effect of rage and being depressed. And for me, so often the cure to my depression is isolating someone or something and getting blood boiling mad. So are you saying it's wrong to get blood boiling mad? I know you do mixed martial arts. I know you do martial arts. Are you blood boiling mad when you're doing martial arts? No, you're useless when you're like that. That's when you have that jittery... Remember Jeff Altman's angry dad with his arms trying to fix his pants? And you wait until you've missed her. I'm going to show you a letter and he'd go angry, fidget hands. And he's so shaky and fidgety, he can't hurt you. He can't hit or do anything. He's just jumping around. His nerves are going bicep, tricep, bicep, tricep, d-d-d-d-d-d-d. You're just jiggler as opposed to just tricep. Boom! Just bicep. Pull it back, you know? No drama. So if you're stressed, if you're angry like that, you're a jitterbug and you're burning your battery out for nothing. If the calm master, have you ever been telling a joke and in the middle of the joke, you just gesticulate to the side and you hit someone by accident and they go flying and you had no idea? I wish. That you would hit them. Well, I've just done it where you hit them by accident, but I'm slinging. I'm so, and this guy's slinging a song. Bang! And this guy goes fly, oh, I'm sorry. Christ, that was hard. I had no idea. And that's because I was relaxed when I hit. That's why an ape can beat you to death with its forearms and wrists. It's just wop, wop, wop, wop, forward with these two-by-fours on your head. I've been clunked by one in a movie scene. A teenage ape just took a liking to me and thought I was the alpha and started fist-biting with me for fun. And this adolescence beat the shit out of me and you can't hit him back. You're just walking, just a, ow, on your arm, big red goose eggs of him, dog. It's like someone swinging a hammer at your arms. He started it. But it was a, it was, it was monkey-style master because he showed me just relax and swing. I came away with a different philosophy after that little guy. He was trying to accomplish what? Did he want to hurt you or play? No, he says he's starting to be a teenager and teenagers start to push buttons with alphas. This teenager wants to challenge larger things. That's when he's just starting to not be workable anymore as a movie ape. They switch. They're only, they only got a few years and then they attack humans, no matter what. There's like a, there's a stop age when you can't work with them anymore. They try to hook them on cigarettes. Not enough. They wise up, man. They go, you're my captor and I, I freaking hate you now. I can't blame them. How old, so they're child apes who find work in Hollywood? Yeah, up until about three or four. And then I say it's dangerous after that. They will convert to this angry, you know, they only want to follow Caesar into the woods after that. The cigarette smoking is to stunt their growth or just slow them down? I'm just kidding. I don't know, but there's always shots of the cigarette addicted ape in the shots. You know, the lab gave him a smoke or that some other nation did. I, uh, bitter, bitter old hack, you know, in the business. Right. Smigal and I, anyway, I was gonna, there was a sitcom. We had an idea where Eddie Pepitone played a 21 year old child actor whose parents try to, try to stunt his growth to keep the money coming in, right? Yeah. So they did everything with his testicles and he's now 21, but it's Eddie Pepitone. He got older. Yeah. That's great. But he's only 21 years old. But anyway, how do you see this next four years? Because he's not going away. He's not going to be impeached. Don't you think we're falling prey to the, the movie script of twists and turns? Oh, we're going to lose him today. I know, he saved himself. I wouldn't. I just reference everyone to Clinton. Oh yeah, they impeached him. Didn't mean shit. He just trained us, went boom through it. Like one of those log blockades for the railroad that just crashes through and keeps chugging meant nothing. Like a comedian, second show Friday night saying, I'm the only person here who's right of the 300 people. Yeah. So how do you see this playing out? How do you see the next four years? Do you, do you believe that everything is different? Do you think we're, I think we're already are in an authoritarian state? Well, I think we have been longer than we understood that it actually is made clear by recent circumstances. But the backbone of it, the spine and skeleton was, was assembling itself under our feet for several years previous. Because the institution of the president is a, in many ways, a symbolic thing, more than an actual, certainly when you watch the things that Obama tried to get done, you know, it was, he was met with a lot of opposition that maybe it was interesting now is to see that there's opposition from both parties to what's going on now, as though something larger is at stake. Now, that even though there are Republicans worried about it now, isn't that interesting? What do you mean? That there are Republicans showing concern with this administration. Not, you know, across the board, but there are some who will speak out and say that not all of this is cool McCain has even gone against some of the things. I always say, go watch. And Bush, George W. Bush spoke out against it. Did you see that? Yes, but they're slippery. The gold standard for this is Marco Rubio grilling Rex Spillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil. You know, and he really, I don't know if you remember, but during the hearings for Secretary of State, Rubio was grilling him about Ukraine and just like there was no way Marco Rubio was going to vote for Rex Spillerson. But he, you know, he made his little point. Look at me on Marco. I'm an independent thinker, but he voted for Rex Spillerson because ExxonMobil donated $300,000 for his campaign. There's a lot of... Hey, you know what? Enough of your tin foil conspiracy theory. We didn't land on the moon bullshit hippie. I mean, if you and I were in Washington, and you were Rex and I was Marco, I would say to you, hey, listen, I'm going to have to give you a bad time during the hearings. This is wrestling. I'm going to throw a couple of chairs. You might want to fall to your left because I'm going to be going to your right. And Spillerson, you know, goes, yeah, that'll be fun. Good. Yeah. Ukraine? Good. That'll be fun. Got it. Okay. Good. Spillerson goes, oh yeah, buy the numbers then, right? Right. It's wrestling. It's a dance. It's, you know, it's routine six. You can see them while they're fighting, whispering in each other's ear. Okay, here we go. Ready? And a one, and a two. Well, yeah. Are you scared? Scared. That's a choice. And it isn't touching the part where that level of fear would kick in on a practical level for me. I want to make sure that I have a clear view of what it is, rather than just what the media would like me to feel in that. Do you know what I'm saying by that? I don't want to have a media assigned emotion attached to an event. I don't always trust their manipulation of my feelings. Would you agree that there is some emotional manipulation behind all of that? There's a main thing. Yeah, the thing they've gotten me is the guys from ICE. And that is emotional manipulation and terror, the true definition of terror. They're rounding up of the undocumented workers and putting them in private prisons and creating slave labor, which is what they're doing. That is true, but it's been going on since, yeah, for a year, you know, under George W. Bush. It's now been given sunlight under Trump. And that becomes terrorism. It was always wrong. It was always wrong. Obama was rounding up undocumented immigrants. Two words, Eileen Gazales. Remember that, the photo of the guy with a gun with a screaming kid and pulling it away, you know? And there's a photo, a perfect photo of just a cop on one side crying, pulling parents on the other side tug of war with a kid, you know? And that's years and years and years ago. That was, Eileen Gazales was a kid from Cuba. Cuba. And he was hiding in the closet in Miami and Clinton ordered, was it ICE? Who was it? Immigration to go in there and? Immigration, yeah. Take him back to Cuba. So this has been going on. We've been terrorizing the Latinos in this country. I had a long conversation with my mother and my sister and then some people I actually love and I asked them about going after ICE because I've been going after the people who are doing this, not just Trump, not just Kelly over at Homeland Security, but the actual apparatchiks, the bureaucrats, the doughy alcoholics who are working for ICE, collecting a union paycheck, kicking open doors and separating mothers from their children. At what point can they stop saying they're the victims too? At what point can they not say, well, I have PTSD from doing this? At what point do we have to hold the people following orders accountable for this? Well, I think looking into the future for it is optimistic, but you have to look at so what mechanically, if you're troubleshooting and no matter what happens when you touch this one thing the circuit breaks here, what's the reason the circuit broke here? You can look at the overall, but also look at why it broke in this one place. And the one place is why aren't they thinking like I think? What's different in their brain chemistry that they made a different decision from mine? And that goes all the way back to their childhood and the unaddressed purpose breeding of children at home to make them attack animals later. You know, that kind of stuff is going on. And who knows what the kids are learning behind those walls, but they all suddenly want to go drive around with a truck and terrorize birthday parties and get thrown in prison, you know, their brains don't know that couple, their brains weren't working very well. During the sixties, it became wrong to blame the American boys who were drafted and went to Vietnam. And that, you know, there's no evidence that anybody came back from Vietnam and was spit on. That's a lie. The liberals never spat on Vietnam vets. That is just that there's a book that was written about that. That was just created by the anti-war movement never went after the vets. If anything, the anti-war movement wanted to protect the vets by creating fewer. Well, personally speaking, my friends, older brothers were all vets there. And I'm not a bad mouth. My friends older brothers, I knew those guys. They weren't bad guys. I would never have heard of me to do it. And I didn't know anyone who did that. All I heard was the story that had happened. No matter where I looked, I never met anyone who acted like that or thought like that. Right. Nobody blamed the kids who were drafted. And during the Iraq war, the most recent Iraq war, nobody blamed the soldiers who enlisted and went off after 9-11. There was never a blaming of the troops. But the scoundrels like Bush and Cheney would say, when you question the war, you are besmirching our troops. So they would hide behind our troops. Hold this trick in the book. And they don't want the troops listening to what the other people are saying. Because all you want, the worst thing you could have is an ex-guy working for you that has a complete turnaround tells everybody. So anybody who thinks they're joining you goes, oh no, listen to this other guy, he's saying don't go there. Right. And reduce their numbers. Right. Now there's a difference between serving in the military and working for ICE. ICE is a union job. This is a union job. Right. At what point do you have to say the work you're doing, you, the work you do, what you get up every morning, go to work and separating mothers from their children. This is not patriotic. This is not keeping us safe. This is not American. This is, this is your choice and you're wrong and you should quit. Am I wrong for, for saying that? Or is that disrespectful to the brave men and women who go out every day and separate mothers from their children? You've got just like if you had a pension, you'd kind of bend the rules to keep it. Because you've got a kid now. Once you have a kid, you'll, you'll do damage to others outside your own family to protect the kid and your family. That's an old rule. Wag a kid in someone's face and especially if it's their own and they'll give up on a lot of moral things, go yeah, I had to this one time because it was my kid. And that's, that is the, that's the implement waved in the face of the, of anyone who is doing something that they're probably now at this point, they're, they have enough YouTube at home, whatever. They've probably seen that the protest things and as you know, some of them it might be getting to the other ones. That's just about the money. You know, I'm sorry. Money's too good. Sorry. I would say to, I'll deal, this will pay for my therapy later. Right. Right. I would say to the people who work for ICE, it's not working because you say to me, well, this is a high paying job. Where else can I make this kind of money? Well, it's like pipeline work. Pipeline work pays crazy. But the whole point of working for ICE is to create high paying jobs. The reason you're sending these people out of America is because these people are taking work away from us supposedly. If you stay working for ICE because you can't find other jobs, it means what you're doing for a living. The reason you go to work is fallacious. You're not creating, you're, you're kicking these people out to create high paying jobs and choice. But it's not working. There's no, you're stuck in a job. Does that make any sense? And not only does it make sense, but if they got kids, they're kind of shrugging right now. I'm going, yeah, sorry. I know what you're saying, but sorry. Yeah. If that matters more to you, because of my kid, it matters more to you than to me right now. Yeah. I got a kid. And so you can, you know, I appreciate what you're saying. I got a kid. Yeah. So does a drug dealer. So does a drug dealer. And so does somebody who comes into America to escape gangs in Guatemala. They got a kid. Hey, Rick Overton, let's plug some comedy kicks. Are you still doing your podcast, by the way? I put it on hold for a little while and I would like to restart it one day, but sideshow network, it went away. And so that was the, that was sort of the auspice through which and but you had some, you had Jonathan Winters. Yeah, man. I had his last interview and tell me about the podcast. It's still on iTunes. So tell, what's the overview? Yeah, still on. It's called overview. Rick Overton's overview. And you can still get it on iTunes and there's an archive of some great stuff. Got a lot of comedians and some other very interesting people in there and they're talking about, but I got people to talk about other kinds of things, which is really wonderful, insightful stuff. And I miss you, man. Where are you now? Tell me about you. Where are you? I'm in New York City. Yeah. Yeah, where? What part of town? Well, we have listeners. So, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, but I'm in New York City and it's, you know, divorced and chugging along, you know, dealing with women. Is there a pill that makes you gay? I'm sure there's an evangelist that has one that will make you. Can you pray this straight away? Because I'm thinking, let's pray this straight away. I'm thinking this must be, I mean, they must know something we don't because it's got to be, you know, it's, yeah. I showed you my impression of the senator. Here's my impression of a senator and I'm just pretending to blow some guy in the bathroom when I go, when I go, what? You mean I'm blowing a game, man? Why? Never, sir. How dare you, sir? How dare you put your gay penis in my mouth? I only blow straight men. Rick Overton, how do people contact you? How do they follow you on Twitter and your through you, David? All contacts, send all your messages to David and he'll relay them to me. You know, Rick Overton at Twitter, at Rick Overton and my Facebook page. Rick Overton, thank you so much. It's been too long. David, I miss you, man. I know. It's been too damn long. Let's do this more often, brother. I know, I know. I'll talk to you soon. Talk to you soon. Thanks, buddy. By the way, we're rolling. We are, oh, I got to turn it on. Well, I'm just saying, before we start, I have not hit the record button. So anything you want to talk about before I introduce you, let's go over it. Just so, you know, I don't want to embarrass you on the show. So, well, you, you, it's not live anyway. So, right? Yeah. But if you say something once we're recording, I'm not going to edit it out. So if you were to say anything that your mother doesn't want you to hear or a loved one. No, I'm good. Okay. If it's any, I'm an open book. All right. And the thing that you got going with Andy kindler. Hello. Wait, say that again. This thing, this fight with Andy kindler. Can I intervene or is it just are the two of you literally going to fight over the price? No, no, are you? Honestly, I didn't know I was in a even a fake fight with Andy kindler. The XL sandwich in the car. What are you talking about? That he ate an XL sandwich in your car. And you called him. I don't know if you, I don't know if you're joking or not. Oh, okay. I can't tell if. No. Wait a second. Are you not? Are you joking that you don't know if I'm joking or not? Okay. I, here's what I, this is my most unfavorable part about bits. Yeah. I don't, I'm being, I'm being too, I have a safe word in my podcast and it's safe. We somehow we came up with it. It's to George Carlin. He says to Joe Pesci, we came up with to George Carlin about five years ago. And we never break it. I'm being totally honest. Okay. Because sometimes in a bit, you don't know, and it's frustrating. I don't, I don't want to do it. I like doing bits where everybody knows it's a bit. I don't mind. So to George Carlin, I have no idea about Andy kindler in an XL sandwich. To George Carlin, are you being serious? Yes. I'm being fake. I'm just busting and we're rolling. You know what? We're rolling. I think you should leave this in. Okay. Because I'm being totally serious. I, some people like doing bits where like, even when I do bits on the Twitter with Rory, I like to do it when the audience knows, like when the Twitter audience knows, oh, it's a fake fight. Sometimes they don't. And I go, no, I don't want to do it. It's just like, you just, you take, you take advantage of the good nature of people that they care. And so I, I love doing bits. I love when they're crazy, but I want to know their bits. Dom Dore hates it. Dom Dore hates it. So does Rory. But I don't want to do a bit like where the audience is in on it. Now, if some people, if I think they should be in on it and it's so overtly and a few people aren't, yeah, then I'm okay with that. But overwhelmingly, I want people to be in on the bit. You know, if that's interesting, you say that because we had Lewis Black on the show last Friday. A lot of people came, a lot of new people came to this show because of Lewis Black. My problem has always been getting people to stick. Like you want, you want people to listen to the show because Lewis Black is on and say, oh, you know what, I like this David Feldman guy. I'm going to see what else he's got. And the next show with my new Lewis Black listeners, the first thing out of the gate, I have Judy Gold calling in as my mother. And some people, some people actually thought it was my mother braiding me for 30 minutes. You know, let me just say something. I'm not backing out of it. It's an interesting conversation because first of all, I love Judy Gold. I love her energy and her just frenetic. Like she's one of those people, I think, like every bone in her body is funny. Yes. And so I'm not just backing out because I respect her. There are situations where obviously, yes, I'm okay with it. That one there. I'm like, oh, that would make me laugh if I wasn't sure who cares. I call it when comedy meets a slight hand because I love slight a hand. I'm not someone who minds slight a hand. You know, but the thing with slight a hand that's a little different, a good person, I call it slight a hand because even them, they're not calling it magic. They're like, no, it's slight a hand. Why have to call it magic when slight a hand is just as unbelievable? Watch someone do close up slight of hand. And it's like, I don't care if it's real, but slight a hand is amazing enough. Like, what? But you know it's not real. They're not trying to pretend it's real. I love that. Like, what the fuck did you just do? So, but when it's too long or people get, you know what I mean? It's like when they send a camera crew out and they do bits that involve taking advantage of people's maybe naivety sometimes. I don't like those bits. I don't like them, but am I making sense at all? Yes, you are. And before we spoke, before you called me and begged me to come on the show. Before you said, hey, if I don't get on your show, I'm not going to be able to sell tickets in Lake Tahoe. I said to you, why don't you call in and the bit will be that you have to reschedule and then I'll keep you on the phone for an hour and we'll create this false tension where I've manipulated you that you miss your first show because I've kept you on the line and you specifically said to me, no, I don't want to do a bit. I'm tired of doing it. Yeah, I did. Well, I'll tell you how I would do that bit though. Oh, I hope this is not boring. I would do that bit like on my podcast. We'll do a bit. I'll be like, but we'll set it up and let the audience hear it. Like, you know, like we'll set the we'll set the bit up. I'll be like, hey, be my mom and you all in. And then I will commit to it. Like, oh, fuck, I will commit. I'll be like, no. And then I'll put the phone down and be like, no, he's got me on hold. No, I love David Bowman. I don't want to be on hold. I told him I can't do it. Now he's got me in hold for an hour. I'm basically doing the show. Jesus Christ. Let me. Hello. What show are you? Hello. What are you? You're in Lake Tahoe. You have your you're doing a four PM show. That's beneath you. You should stay on my show and talk. Who are you performing? I was just doing. I was. Do you understand what I was just doing? Yes, you were saying putting the phone down, acting like we were doing the bit you wanted to do. Where you say, I don't want to be on the show. I have to reschedule when you keep me on the phone for an hour. It's acting like if I committed to that bit. Right. Oh, you're going to have to edit the fuck out of this. No, we go live to tape. But the point I'm making is. No, no. What is your point you're making? The point I'm making is you are beloved. You have a very successful podcast because you're smart enough. Now I've got some time. Go ahead. I don't want to interrupt you. You're going to be a good guest. That you let the audience in on the joke. Whereas I'm kind of coming from that Andy Kaufman school, where if the audience is in on it. See, you know what? Let me tell you something. This is an interesting conversation. I'm always afraid of any conversation where I can't cleanly make my point right away. That's what I get nervous about. So I think this is sort of an interesting conversation because I have a lot of respect for Andy Kaufman. And I know, I know that he is part of my fiber. But my favorite part of Andy, even though I love it, maybe I can love something but not want to partake in it. That there might be just the answer. Because I don't want to partake in something that fools everybody. I don't mind if it fools certain people. Sometimes I'll do a bit that is so obvious to me on Twitter that it's a bit the way it was set up. Then if they don't mind I go, oh come on, how could they think that's real? Come on. Now, but other times I go no, even the most astute person in the world could think that was real. I don't really have any desire to do that. Now on a one-time call and someone pretends to be your mother. Yeah, because that's, let's, here's what I've come to. There's gray areas. There's gray areas. That's why, you know, nothing's easy to explain. There are gray areas. But I don't like to take advantage of people's nature. If I call you and act like I'm mad and then somebody else texts, oh why was Douglas being such a dick to you? I don't want to do that. Yeah, this is really valuable because we talked last week. You got into a little trouble. I don't think I'm violating a trust. As a practical joke, you were in New York and we called. We said, hey, you know, Trump and Steve Bannon are really fanning the flames of hatred in America. Let's start calling Jewish community centers and threatening them and have them, hello? Yeah, I thought, yeah, go ahead, I'm here. And see, yeah. See that, I don't want to do, I don't want to be anybody. I know you're kidding. I know you're kidding. But I lost my courage. But even like if somebody would go up to teach, I'll give you an example of comedy that I used to love. We're talking 15 years ago. And even 15 years ago, I got tired of it. We're like, there's someone doing a man on the street thing. There's ways to do great man on the street things. But man on the street things, let's say teachers, because I remember this bit. There was a guy doing a man on the street thing. He was going up to teachers that were striking. These are hard-working teachers in the striking. He was going up and doing a bit where he acted like they didn't deserve more money. Why should you get paid so much? You're a kindergarten teacher. All you need to be is to graduate from kindergarten, kindergarten kids. Okay, is there an element of that yet? But then I don't like it because there's teachers out there. They're not in on the joke. And you're forcing them in to be a part of something. And I just don't like it. Now, are there gray areas? Of course, someone could show me something and I could go, oh, god damn, that's so funny. But overwhelmingly, leave those people alone. I agree with you, but what about the audience? What about torturing an audience? By the way, I should tell you this, that I think Jimmy Kimmel, all the bits he does, he manages to have, they're funny. They have guts. But overwhelmingly, they're not making a buffoon out of somebody, you know, just a good-natured person. What were you going to say? Let's talk about me for a second. And I'm being serious. I'm being absolutely serious about this. I don't think I ever pick on people who are weak or vulnerable. I think that I will always abuse my audience as a stand-up. Is that fair to say that from day one... Well, I think that if you go see somebody that's absurd as a stand-up, you might be able to figure it out. But look, this is not an easy thing to explain. But yeah, I think there's types of comedy. If someone heard me talking right now and they said, oh, I bet Todd doesn't like fill-in-the-blank, I might go, oh, no, actually I do like them, but I think I'd be able to explain why. But I just don't like, I don't know. I agree with you. You know what? No, hang on, I agree with you 100%. I think taking somebody off the street and making them the object of ridicule, I think that's unfair. But I think that if a performer is on stage and he is so offensive that he's alienating the crowd, well, that may not be your cup of tea. No, there's times where it is. Let me interrupt here real quick. Jimmy Kimmel has a bit where he goes out on the street and asks people fake news stories, or did you hear about this? And because people want to be on television sometimes, they just say yes. It's called lie-witness news. Now, I love that segment. And I think it's because you deserve to be teased a little, those people. Like, come on, they're asking you questions. Have that, be able to say, oh, I'm not aware of that, instead of just going, oh yeah, I thought that was wrong with that celebrity. They'll just make up stuff. And instead of, now look, there's a ton of people that probably go, I've never heard about that, but they don't show them. I get that. But there's, because that's important to show them. Everyone, that's a given that not everybody that they went up to just decided to lie and go along with it. But that person deservingly needs to be comedically teased at best, you know. So I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Does that make sense? Yeah, and I disagree with you on that, in all honesty. No, what the fuck do you know? That's true, that I think- You're sitting in your bed. Go, why do you disagree with that? I'm sitting in my mom's basement. Why? Yeah, that's- Let's clarify some- Why do you disagree with that? Do you genuine? Oh, let me explain one more thing. So the reason I came up with the word to George Carlin on bit, it's not a lie. To George Carlin, if you're lying, and I think you're, if someone's lying, and they go, to George Carlin. Now, I don't use it for that reason. I use it for bit. Because if you can fool me, you fool me, and I'll love it. But if I say to George Carlin, like a lot of times I'll do this with John Door, he's doing a bit, I smell it's a bit, and I'll go to George Carlin, he hates it. But I'll tell you why I love it. Because remember your uncle that used to do the thing when I got your nose, or he'd do this handshake where you tried to shake his hand and he kept putting his hand- Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson's uncle literally got his nose. So sometimes a joke can go too far. That's a great one. Anyway, um- So hold on, I want to, I want to get this thought out. So to me with George Carlin, just by the way, don't let the name, we just, that means truth. Basically, forget it's to George Carlin. I have a running bit on my show, not a running bit, a running sort of thing, that if you ever say anything, we say truth. Basically, that's what George Carlin means, and you have to say it's the truth. So if I go, if someone called and during the show, they go, hey Todd, did you hear about this? And I smell it. If I don't smell it, I won't say truth, and you get to do a brilliant bit where you get me. I'm all right with that. But to me, if I know you're joking and I go seriously and you go, yeah, and I know you're joking, I have to now go along with something that I don't believe. And to me, that's like your uncle that takes your nose. And now you're 11 and you know he didn't get your nose and you can't get him to fucking stop it, because whatever the reason is. So to me, truth means just fall, go no. Don't look at it like I'm ruining the bit. It wasn't good enough to fool me. Now by the way, there's times where I don't say truth or to George Carlin. Someone tells me something like Rory or John, I go, what? And then I ask another question and they go, really? They got into a fight at the improv and I'm like, well, where was there, was there any, did the police get called? And then I find out they're lying. That's okay, because I didn't ever smell it. So I was genuinely engaged, but I don't want to fake engage in something that I know is not real. So don't fucking make me, because you're just the dumb uncle. So that's why I came up with that. If I smell it's a bit and I ask if it's a bit, you're, the bit's over. Not good. Now, unless it's a bit we're both in on, then I'll do it for an hour. Then I'll commit if we go, hey, let's do a bit with this and that. Yes, then I'm in on the bit. Does this make any sense? Yeah, and I think that there was a time, I think there was a time when Americans were capable of critical thinking, that they could tell when they were being teased. I think we live in a time now where anything is possible and anything can be true. So that if you were to say that David Feldman got on a ladder and punched Gary Gullman in the face, you would think, yeah, I could see that happening. Whereas maybe 20 years ago, you'd go, no, that's impossible. Right? Well, I don't know if it was a, I'm always with people until they put a timeline. Like 20 years ago, this wouldn't happen. 20 years ago, it happened too. All those, like you talked about Andy Kaufman on Letterman. A lot of people believed that he got punched. So I'll chomp at this as long as it's just a conversation. I don't believe 20 years ago it was anything. What I'm saying, here's what I'm saying. And I should hit the record button, but I don't want this to be part of the podcast. Are you serious? See, this is what I'm talking about. Of course not. And I think something has happened. I don't know. I think something has happened. Nothing's happening. Yes. I think something, that's what old people say, that they're miserable. Nothing's happening. The world's fine. Everything marches forward, and everything's better than it used to be. That's just, people ask me why I talk about the same thing over and over again, because it comes up over and over again. You're starting to, to me, tramp into that territory, or step into that territory of, oh, it used to be, it's not, everything's better. Everything is better than it used to be. Get over it. Okay, I want to get back to, I'll get to that in a second, because I know you're for the Muslim ban. Hello? Well, hello. I love you, I love it. Hello? So, then I'll move on, because I want to get back to the point you're making that everything is better. But I do believe, I'm going to stick to this, because I've had some insight in talking to you. I have noticed that when I lie to people, and I like to tease, I like to say insane things, to make people laugh. Like friends, you know? You know, it's as a joke. Hey, isn't it, something, I think we all do that, but I think something has happened where people now believe that anything could be true. I'm not talking about fake news. I think we have seen so much garbage come our way that it is conceivable that David Feldman got a divorce because he found out he married his sister. Okay, so what should we do? What's your answer? How do we fix that? I think we should make it legal to marry your sister. Why should a perfectly good marriage be uprooted just because of incest laws in this country? Exactly. Is that what you want me to do? Look, you and I never got along. Wait a second, if we go on the road together, we're traveling four hours to Bakersfield. Yes. You and I are not going to have a fictitious conversation. Of course, because you know what? I got to just let go that this is the type of conversation we probably have off of a podcast, but I'm all right to have it, because maybe it relates with people. Whenever you think you don't relate with everyone, maybe you do it another way. No, in the car, because we're both in on it. And then I will be, of course, I will be absurd. If I'm going to chomp at the bid at something when we're both in on it, we all, of course, I will do it. But like if you say I'm in on the, if you say, let's say, Todd, you voted for Trump. And then I go, you know what? Here's me. I'm going to do the bid. Now everyone knows I'm not doing the bid, but they know that I'm not serious. But here would be me if I did it, and then I'll say, why wouldn't want to do it? Yeah, ask me if I voted for Trump and maybe can I go along with it? Okay. Todd, you voted for Trump. Okay. Who's there? What are you talking about? Knock, knock. No, ask me if I voted for Donald Trump and I'll do a bid like you want me to do on your podcast and then I'll tell you why I wouldn't do it. Okay. Now everyone knows I'm not. I'll tell you how good I could sell it. All right, let me set it up. Why I don't do it for you. Okay. Go ahead. A midget, a midget you say, a midget you say I'm leading you into the bid. Yes, yes. I heard you voted for Donald Trump. Is that true? You know what? I'm going to, I'm being genuine with you. I don't really want to discuss that in full detail because I get that people, that freaks people out. It's the type of thing where me and you have to sit down. If you want to talk to me an hour why I did, just tell you this in short. I'm not crazy and I think some of the things he does are despicable, but in short, there were some things that I thought he was going to do that were good. I don't want to really talk about it now. And actually, if you want to have me on for an hour and I'll talk about why I voted for him, but I gave it. I love you to death, but I really don't want to talk about it for 10 minutes and have people not understand why I voted for him. So is that cool? Am I being a good guy about this? Yeah. We will come on your show and talk about it for an hour. But I'd rather do it when we're in the room and we can look at each other's eyes and I will tell you why I voted for Donald Trump. Is that cool? Okay. Now I could have done that bit with you just now, but for what? For what? It's more annoying than it's funny if I would have committed to that. Now, it depends what the content is. Judy Gold calling in as your mother could be hilarious. But if it's Julie Gold calling in saying, it depends what you're discussing, what your fake bit is. When it involves a social issue that really fucks with people's being and it gets them upset, I don't want to do that bit with Donald in the car with me and you where we both know it's a bit. Y'all do it for an hour, but that's the difference. See, I just sold that pretty good. I could have done that. But for what? For what? For people that maybe think I'm serious. Like, what do I get out of that? I think it's what the fake bit is about. Now, I don't want to do a fake bit that involves that gay people shouldn't get married and sell it like a fuck. I don't want to do that because that's, you know why. Does that make, that does make sense. I'm not going to ask if it makes. So when we say I don't want to do a fake bit, no, there are fake bits that would be hilarious. Oh, and then Judy Gold called in, she acted like your mother. Yes, I get on, depends what you're faking. But when you're faking a bit that involves something that affects people and, you know, it's different. Maybe even, look, there are gray areas. And I say that a million times because for anybody that's listening, going, well, then Todd wouldn't like that person. Like I said before, there are gray areas. There's probably comedians and things that have been done in bits on television that I love. But overwhelmingly, I'm not a fan of it. Of course there's times when I go, no, that was funny. That's all I'm saying. Well, it's interesting that you bring this up because when I was at the height of my stand-up, I was a great stand-up in the mid-90s. Do you remember that? I'm being serious. First of all, you're still, well, of course I do. I loved you and I think if I had more time, I could explain why I did. I, when I watched your whole act, I knew that you weren't serious about some of the absurd things that you were saying. And I kind of, and what happened was, hey, by the way, let me say something else. Things change. Comedy evolves. Maybe some of the bits you did back then were funny back then. Maybe now, someone could explain why. Maybe not anymore. Yeah, I stopped doing that. I've stopped doing a lot of the Chinese waiter routine I stopped. Shut up. Can I tell you something about when your comedy goes out? But by the way, any great comedian, and Dave, you know, I really do think you're funny. I think, like I said about Judy, every bone in your body is funny. But that will never change. But when you stop doing stand-up for a long period of time, and then you come back into it, and I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about anybody that says that. That like, oh, the problem is, everyone's, and I've talked about this before, but I'm really think I'm gonna hit it from a different angle. When someone says the problem is everyone's too PC or whatever verbiage they use to explain that. Do you know what I say? No. Blockbuster went out of business, not because of the world. When Blockbuster went out of business, the only way the owner of Blockbuster can have another successful business is to go, no, I fucked up. I made a mistake. Not go like a restaurant that's failing instead of emitting what you did to Trump, which by the way, if you admit what you do that was wrong in business, your next business can be crazy successful. But you can't blame, well the problem is with Netflix and the problem is you went out of business and when your act goes out of business, when society changes, you can either blame society or you can go, no, I'm going out of business. I can take ownership for it or I can blame society. Well, the problem is now everyone's this, everyone's that. How about you fucking blame yourself? Just like Blockbuster. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. I had a moment, a come to Jesus moment two years ago where I was doing my act where I was saying things I didn't mean and it was kind of irrelevant. I was playing Brooklyn. Alex Brazel, my manager was with me and I thought I am irrelevant. I mean, I'm getting laughs, but this is just an old guy saying what he doesn't mean and I wrote an entirely new act. Before that, and I agree that in the mid 90s, I noticed that by pretending to be a conservative on stage, I was getting really, really, really smart liberals to laugh as well as really, really, really stupid conservatives. And I didn't like that. And I had this. No, you feed idiots. Yeah. Not you meaning you, but anyone. By the way, very important and I'll interject quick and then let you finish. Very important to realize. You don't have to have comment on comedy and what you think about to think you're the best person in the world or the best comedian because I don't. I care, but it's like when you have an intervention for a family member, you couldn't have an intervention for a family member that was having a drug problem. If everybody that had the intervention for that person had to be perfect. No, everyone, if you think your problem is overwhelming, you can have an intervention for somebody, even if you're not perfect. And that's the way I feel about when I comment on comedy. I don't comment on comedy because I think I'm perfect. No, I have waste. I want to grow. I want to keep evolving. But I do know that when I have jokes in my acts, I look back on jokes from 15 years ago. I go, wow, I've grown since then. I do, but you can't. And I'm not talking about isolated audience. Yes, one blockbuster store can go out of business. Try to follow me here. One blockbuster store can go out of business. And it doesn't mean that they have to close down. They're making a mistake. Maybe in that one area, they can have a legitimate problem that doesn't have to do with the overall business of blockbuster. They can go, the problem with that store was it, the neighborhood wasn't good, and that could be true. But when every blockbuster goes out of business, and what I'm saying is yes, there can be an isolated audience. Thank God that we don't let audience decide what's funny because then we wouldn't have some very, very brilliant comedians. So I'm not talking about because one night, an audience doesn't like you. The collective pulse of that audience could have been they don't get comedy, they don't get irony. But when everywhere you go, forget about the bad clubs, even when you're going to the good clubs that cultivate smart audiences, they get comedy, and they get irony. The act me, the DC improv, when those audiences aren't laughing at you, okay, it's not the world. Stop it already. And a lot of comedians do that. And that's a good analogy. No, no, the whole world, yeah, blame it on the world. Your act is great and the whole world now. No, people grow, people change. And if your act doesn't reflect that, well, you know, then just a minute, you're going out of business. If I talk to someone about Blockbuster, it all makes sense. They're like, yeah, of course it's Blockbuster's fault they went out of business. But then if you go now, they'll apply that to you. It's a little harder to go, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, it's the same thing. Now I do a podcast. I'm asking you for genuine advice. I do a podcast because of you. I do a podcast because I was trying to produce a show for you back in 2009. We couldn't sell it. I still think it's a great idea. I do, too. Yeah, two Jewish men posing as nuns living in Nazis. That's a great idea. Well, because that show, and remember, we dressed up as nuns and we went into the pitch and Doug Horsak threw us out of the office? Yeah. All right. Hey, we hooked up. Hey, we have a, we have, by the way, you still have my crucifix. We had a show we were pitching around town. I still think it was basically a show where you solve people's problems. And while we were working together, I did your podcast with Jimmy Doar. Podcast, just beginning, this was 2009. Comedy and everything else. And because of you, I thought, hey, this is an amazing way to blow through a lot of time and money and bury my career. And I've tried many self-destructive avenues. I'm pretty sure this one will work. And I've become obsessed with a podcast. And eight years later, I'm still doing, almost eight years later, I'm still doing this podcast. What is the name of your podcast? Comedy. My, oh, is the, the Todd Glass show. I just, you know, kept it easy. People say called the Glass cast, but everyone had been playing with the names like that. I just figured out just called the Todd Glass show. And how long do your shows go? Well, you know, that's the thing that's great. You can do anything you want. I don't, until I hit an hour, an hour is when I feel like now I'm ready to go. So my shows usually are anywhere from two and a half hours. There's the average show where I feel fulfilled. So about two and a half hours. Once a week. Once a week. And let me tell you something. It's pure joy. It's pure joy. I love it as much as I ever did. It's just, it's just, it is like, you know what it's like, it's for me, it's like being able to be at that age where you do a fake talk radio show in your basement with your, with, you know, with your friends or in your garage. And it's getting to be just so silly and just so, you know, I do talk about social issues sometimes. I enjoy that, but mostly it's just, you know, doing bits and silly. And I have the studio that I built in the back. I used to have my studio somewhere else, but now it's in the back of my house. I guess when the house was built in the 30s, they were carriage houses. There was two of them. And now they probably in the 40s or whenever they were turned into garages. Certainly when I bought the house, they were garages, but I turned it back into like a little barn, one of them. And that's where I have my podcast. And it's this crazy world. I have bubble machine. I have a, I have like a fake thunder sound that comes from outside. So we can make it sound like it's thundering, but it comes from a speaker on the outside of the house. And in the back and there's, there's, you know, I have just light and the lighting can all change. We have a smoke machine. So it's just like you go in there with friends and you just get ridiculously silly like little kids. And it is very cathartic. And it's not televised. You know, some people say, oh, you should shoot it. You should shoot it. I tell you why I don't want to, because theater, the mind, everyone knows theater, the mind. To be honest, I get a little aggressive about this because people go, you should shoot it. I go, but, but then I give up theater, the mind. I agree. Now I do put pictures. I do give up. I do give pictures online once in a while when I feel like on the Facebook page, when I feel like, oh, I want people to see the room we're in. I want people to see this. But if I do a bit that involves theater, the reason that I always think that books are better most of the time than movies, and when a movie can take a book and give it justice, that's how amazing that is. Because theater, the mind, there is no budget. There's no budget. In theater, the mind, if you want seven million helicopters to come over the horizon, you have the budget for it. So there's no budget ever on the history of the planet that has the budget of theater, the mind. So if I put four cameras in there and I go, oh, let's show it, I basically take theater, the mind, and throw it out. And I like when people imagine it and people come in and they see the smoke and the bubbles and everything and they go, God, you should have this. You should shoot this. Put in like five mounted cameras and just, I really don't want to. The only thing I would do that I thought would be fun is meet in the middle. And if it was a TV show, it would just come on as a radio or an internet TV show. You'd see a radio. That's it. And people would have to sit around the radio because every so often the radio would sort of split down the middle and open up. And I could say, I could show them an old video. Like, I love finding old music videos from like the 70s. They're so cheesy and they're beautiful. An old Engelbert-Humperdick, you know, theater or show Ernie Kerr, is it Ernie Kovacs? An old show, show a clip of him. So you get people reason, you think, well, how are people going to sit in a circle and watch the radio? Because you give them content every so often that makes it necessary. Every so often he's going to split the radio, we'll part in a creative way, and we'll let you see something, or we'll have a live performance in studio. But mostly then it goes back to the radio and people sit around the radio. And I think it would, my dream would be that people go, it's a weird way to say it. Have you watched the Toddler Show? It's crazy because you sit around the radio, like it's 1930, but it works. I just had, I think, some insight. I've always been curious, how do people listen to my show? And I find out, well, a lot of them are in the car. And then I kind of project my time onto other people. And I think, well, certainly nobody is just sitting in a chair listening to this show. I can't imagine that. And then I think, well, when I smoked dope, which I no longer do, I would sit in a chair and listen to an album, just stare into space and listen to an album. Now that more and more people are smoking dope, is it possible that people light up, sit down, and listen to a podcast, and just stare into space? I think that's a really good question. And I think it's happened without pot smokers, because when I first listened to Adam Sandler's first CD, The Why, I forget what it was called, Me and My Nephew, when he was 13, we really bonded over that, because he was 13, he didn't smoke pot. And we would sit and listen to it. It was all bits, and they were out by the pool, and you had the splashing, and all those bits, we would sit, and we all were imagining, we never checked in, how are you picturing the pool? No, we just never realized, we're all picturing something different, sometimes the same. But we did sit around, now I think with podcasts, because I ask people sometimes, and they email me, some people are on the train, some people are on a plane, some people are just at the end of the day, like you said, and I think people do, their house the way they like it, maybe turn the lights lower, if that's what does it for them, and just sit and then listen to a podcast. So I think people do everything. So that's why with Theater of the Mind, with my podcast I do, I'll tell people, I'll be like, hey, listen, I'll play it, I'll go lower your lights. You know they're too bright, get up and lower your lights, make it nice, light a goddamn candle, let's live a little, you know. Can I brag to you about something? Oh yeah, go ahead. Yeah, that a lot of Jerry Sandusky's victims say that they heard my podcast playing in the background, and now, like the thought of hearing this podcast makes them sick, but he was, he used to listen to my show while he was doing what he did. That's not true. How am I going to make jokes with you? What should I say to that? Oh my God, do you want me to go along with a bit? Now I could have laughed, but I didn't know if you were serious or not. How could you not know? How could you not know? I know. Okay, I'll take that one. I'll take the hit on that one. I was pretty sure you were kidding, but I wasn't positive. All right. Hey, by the way, a while back, I'm going to go a while back. I don't miss a beat. Remember you said we were going back and forth, and you said me and you never got along, and I blurted out a big laugh. All right, I knew you were joking then, so careful. We've never had. You can't tell me a bit. Hey, that's like sleight of the hand. You have a guy who's doing sleight of hand, and you're like, why? And then he does it again, and you go, I saw you how you did that. He goes, how am I going to do sleight of hand if you're going to call me every time it's not good sleight of hand? That's his fault, not mine. Have you and I ever? I'm trying to be a dick. Have we ever had a falling out? A good analogy, by the way. That's a good analogy, by the way. It's your fault. You do it. If you can't do sleight of comedy, let's call it sleight of comedy, where it looks like one thing, but you fool somebody. That's your problem. That's not my problem. Have you and I ever had a falling out? No. No. No, right? No, I love everything about you. I do, even. You know my favorite part when I used to go over to your house, and you still had a landline, and you said you hardly ever used it, but like me, I kept it for a while, and then the landline would ring and I would hear your son go, you know, hold on, I'll do it, watch. I love that. It was always just going over your house. It was so much fun because the kids in your kitchen had like food out. It was nice. No, we've never had a falling out ever. We've never had a falling out. I remember my son went off to college, and I was doing the Montreal Comedy Festival, but I was working. Like it was a seven day a week. I was getting up at six. Yeah, you were writing. Yeah. And so I said to him, you're going to have this. He hung out with us one night. Remember he hung out with us one night? Not one night. Every night. He was great. How old was he then? He had just started college, so he was 42. Because, see, he's stupid. He was a delight. He was, everybody said, I'm being honest, like my truth here. We're like, that kid's going to be successful because he was so great the way he hung out with everybody. And can I tell you, we smoked pot. I've been over here the past. And he was just, everybody adored him. You know, it's like when you're like that age, you're a full grown adult. He got all, he got the jokes. He was easy to hang with. He got it. We were like, that was, that was, we loved that kid. Everyone was like, whose kid was that one? I'm like, David Feldman. You're like, he was the best. Well, he, first of all, he was, if you go back and listen to a comedy and everything else, the show you did with Jimmy, there's some episodes, I think from 2009, where he was on making fun of me. But, right? Do you remember he came on the show? I don't remember that. I don't, maybe it was without me there. Because I didn't do that for a long time. He was, you were there, you were interviewing. But this is what I remember about Montreal. I said to him, so you're going to have the time of your life. You'll stay with me. We'll get an extra bed. And I'll be working. But you know, just hang out. And I said, and the comics will be nice. And he grabs me by the shoulders. Don't worry about that. Like, I can assure you they'll be nice to me. So I would go to bed, I don't know, one in the morning, at six in the morning, the door would open. The door would open. I'm so tired. I go, it's six in the morning. Ah, tie glass and elevator races. I go, what? He says, I can't get into. These elevator races are getting really intense. We would get on elevators and have elevator races to see which elevator got down. But then that turned into elevator theater, where what would happen is there were all these sofas all near the elevator. So like at five in the four in the morning, it started when, you know, you wait. I would wait by the elevators and the sofas because I knew comedians getting home late. I would still have energy. Because keep in mind, four in the morning there was only one in the morning in LA. But you're with comedians. And so we started this bit where you would get in the elevator and you would say something. And I wanted to bring a flashlight the next year and like crank it up a little bit, the production of it. But you would get in the elevator and you would have, you knew, you started the time it out. You would press door close. You knew how you got better and better at it. And then me, your son, we were all hanging out like James Addomian, hanging out at the elevator, you know, on the sofas near the elevator. So the door would shut. So before the door shut, you'd go like blah, blah, blah, blah. You'd give like a one-liner and the doors would shut. We would laugh so hard. Then James Addomian was doing Eddie Peppitone. So he did Eddie Peppitone. The door shut. We were cracking up. And then he came back down. He did it again. All of a sudden three minutes later, the doors open up and he's like, And another thing. 15 minutes passed by and we're like, do you think he'll come down again? And then eventually we knew he wouldn't because, you know, enough time passed. We knew he's not coming down again. He probably went to bed. 45 minutes later, the doors open up. He goes, Todd, I was in bed. I was laying there and I thought, I bet they're still down there. So I got dressed, got in. And that's all we did. We called it Elevator Theater. And I wanted to see if next year, there were a lot of bright lights where the sofas were. I wanted to see if we can get those turned off. And like five people, we all bring flashlights. And we do Elevator Theater. We put a flashlight in the elevator. The person says something, the door shut, boom. And then we call it Elevator Theater. And it's sort of like just for the comedian played at night. But your son stuck it out. I mean, he was there. He was there late night. You know, and he was, it was just ridiculous. You know, I always say that we're supposed to hang out. I think as an evolved human being, at least what I consider evolved, yeah, a lot of your friends should be your age, just the way it happens. But not everybody. You're supposed to hang out with, you know, 18-year-olds and you're supposed to, if you're 40, you're supposed to have a 70-year-old friend. Yeah, it's good to have people all over the gambit. So like hanging out with your son and just that, that energy and that, it's always just enjoyable. It's always so enjoyable. Yeah, I remember my daughter went to the Vancouver Comedy Festival and hung out with Tig Nataro and James Adomian. And they, I don't know, they got into this Yoko Ono. For some reason, but it became this thing where for two years afterwards, my daughter would be alone by herself going, and I'd go, what, I kept hearing that you and James and Tig and you wouldn't understand. Yeah, I raised my kids the same way I talked to an audience, which is you figure it out. You figure out. I really did. With my kids, one of the things I did when we would walk, I would hold their hand very tightly. We'd see a stop sign or a red light at the crosswalk. Then I'd say, well, it was still red. I would say, okay, it's green. Let's cross. And they would begin to cross. And I'd say, no, no, no, no. It's still red. Just because I said it's green doesn't mean. I swear to God, I did this. Just because an adult says that's a red light, you make it. They, by the way, that's a great thing, a silly way to say that because when people go, we should go back to the way it used to be. I'm going to talk about the same thing I always talk about. Yeah, yeah, you can teach your children to respect adults. We get that. Can we move past that? Do I have to preface it? Yes, it is very important that a child understands that he has to respect an adult, but not so much where an adult gets to molest that child because it's a teacher or a priest. And that's why I wouldn't want to go back then. Back then a kid would respect a teacher. Yeah, I'll go forward and find a happy medium, even if it's not where it is now. But yeah, because that in a funny way goes, yeah, adults, you know, don't trust every adult. You don't got to listen to every adult and question them. Just because I'm telling you that light is green, you have to decide. And, you know, it worked. I have five kids now instead of six. It doesn't always work. Why do you remember that? Because Adam, with Adam's your son name, he got hit by a truck. Adam was a good kid, but... His last words were, you told me it was green. I was, I was there. Do you remember I was there? Uh, were you? Oh, no. I do remember. Was I saying no? I wasn't there. No, because I do remember. I remember two incidents. There are two incidents that I have that every... Well, anyway, it's two. One of the things about being a parent is being absolutely terrified all the time. And by the way, my son didn't throw you under the bus because he was coming home stoned, right? And I do not. I have zero tolerance. And I said, come on, who got you stoned? He said, none of your business. I said, come on. Who got you? Who did it? And I asked him for a year. I wanted to know the comedian. Oh! Well, first of all, it wasn't... By the way, I don't take 100% responsibility. I just didn't say no, you can't have it. I wasn't luring someone in. With my nieces and nephews, I knew they were probably smoking pot when they were at least in high school. And I didn't partake in it with them. I decided they came and visited me when they were in high school. And I said, no, I just didn't think it was time. But once they were in college, then I decided, okay, it's time to not... You know what I realized about my nieces and nephews? When they used to come visit my mom's house, and I would be home for Christmas, and they were like 13, they were bored out of their minds. Because everyone was still treating them like 11-year-olds or 13-year-olds, and they've already experienced stuff. But once we accepted, yeah, they're adults now. And we treated them like adults. Now they love coming to Christmas. You know, now they... Because they're... And that's... It's a hard age, yes. By the time they're 20, everyone knows, treat them. But I'm telling you, it happens when they're... When they're 13 and 14. That's when they... By the time they're 20, everybody knows. Yeah, they're adults now. But when they're 13 and 14, you gotta start... Like, again, I'm not saying when they're 14 to start smoking pot with them, but know that at 15 or 16, or probably a little older, high school, I said, whatever age that is. They're drinking. That doesn't mean you have to drink with them. But you gotta start, you know, you gotta start understanding, unless you want them to be bored out of their minds at family functions. Yeah, don't... You gotta treat them like adults. You gotta start going into that area. Is that you? Does that make... So the answer to that is, when your son wanted to partake and he was in college, I was like, you know what? I'm not his dad. Let him... I don't mind. Yeah. Now, if he was younger, there might be an age where I would go, no, no, no, you can't. I can't. If you do that when I'm not around, that's your thing. No, there would be an age where I would step in as an authority figure. But I remember, like, when my niece and nephew came to visit me, my sister-in-law goes, please, Todd, make sure they brush their teeth at night. I go, no. No, I won't. I don't care. I'm their uncle. I want to be fun. Not, don't care. Make sure they... I don't care, Meryl. I'll make sure that they're, you know, safe and they're, they're, they're, they're, you know, got a comfortable bed, but I don't care if they brush their teeth. You are in Lake Tahoe. And now they have... You're in Lake Tahoe. I am in Lake Tahoe. Are you working for Howie Nave? I am working at the Improv at, at Harris, at Harvey's. And I am on the 20th... Whatever the top floor is here, overlooking the lake, it's the most majestic thing to wake up to. Literally, I look out my window and there are the lake with the mountains with smell all over them. Just beautiful. You know, one of my listeners, Jonathan Alper. I met him. Jonathan Alper. Do you listen? Is he a listener? No, no, no, but I like his name. I was, I was working Harvey's. I was at Lake Tahoe. A member, he contacted me. He was one of the listeners to this podcast. This must have been five years ago. And I remember sitting at Harvey's and he wrote to me, I know you. I listened to your podcast. I know exactly who you are. That's one of the great things about podcasts. You can connect with people remotely, right? Yeah, it is. It, look, it constantly... You know what? I've said this and I think I might have said it on your show before. Here's what I think podcasting did. You know, people love, I don't connect them, people love stand-up comedy because it is amazing. You know, it's, the reason it's so amazing is because you write, you direct, you edit, it's, it's, yeah. And that doesn't mean it's going to be great all the time, but that's why when it's good, Eddie Pepitone could not do his stand-up comedy. Or if we go back to people like George Carlin or Lenny Bruce or whoever it is, Mitch Hedberg, if they had to get, even from other smart people, forget about getting notes from people that aren't smart. Let's say you get notes from brilliant people. We still wouldn't have Rodney, we wouldn't have Mitch, we wouldn't have any of those comedians because that takes one person going out there and writing, directing, starring. So if it's bad, yes, maybe really bad, but when it's good, it's so fucking good. And I think that's what attracted me to stand-up comedy. It's just so much one person's vision. So the way you, how can you make radio that enjoyable? Well, in podcasting. Podcasting gave radio the purity of stand-up. And that's, and by the way, this is a little bit dickish of me for all those suits over the years because the suits and radio were always worse, I think. I would go to a number one station in a town and go, hey, when you're number one for eight years, did the suits lay off of you? They go, you'd think. So for them to wonder, I would imagine this is a suit talking about, you know, being the, you know, an executive at a radio station going, you know what, I'm not saying those morning guys don't have talent, but you know, if we weren't around, you know, we serve our purpose. Well, guess what? I think podcasting proved you didn't. Because the question is, what would happen if you took radio and got rid of all the suits? I think we just witnessed it. I think we witnessed it. The most miraculous thing that ever happened to radio. And I think that's why podcasting is so, because you get to direct and write and you do everything you want to do. There's nobody telling you what to do. And it's just pure stand-up. And of course, it's going to be, you know, that's why I love it. When did you and Jimmy start the podcast? Because we just had Keith and the girl. Do you know Keith and the girl? Yes. They celebrated their 12th anniversary of podcasting in 2005. They started in 2005. That's I think. When did Pardo start? Because I always know Pardo was the first person. Like that's who in the comedy community, Pardo. And he started, he had to start 2005. And people were listening and they were listening on an iPod, I guess, right? Is that or an MP3 player? You know, that's a good question. You're right. Because it didn't go right to your cell phone, but probably your iPod. They would download the, you know, never not funny. But I, so I don't, what was the question you asked? The question is, when did you start podcasting? You started with Jimmy Dore. Well, I started with Jimmy and Steph. And, and we, and I guess maybe you're right about 2009. And then we did that for, I don't know how many years. It must have been 2008 or 2007. It probably was. It probably was. That sounds, yeah, because I remember, yeah, yeah, you're probably right. When did you think, when did you notice that it was beginning to affect your stand-up? That's a good question. I hope it's not boring for you. Then don't answer it. Um, just let's, let's just acknowledge that I asked a good question and move on. Thank you. I'm gonna bow. I'm gonna bow. That was a great question, David. I'll work backwards. Now I will add, I will, I'll start where we're at now and then I'll go back to why even a year into it, it was helpful. Now, if I do a show and I go, I always ask two questions. How many podcast people are here? And they get a round of applause. It gives me a pulse. And how many getting high with dog people are here. Because I notice a lot come out from that. And I can tell you something, getting, getting Doug Benson fans, they're, they're great. They get comedy. They, they don't yell. They get, they, they're just great. They're really everything you want as an audience. So there's always a lot of his people. And I did notice that, you know, doing shows like Jimmy Kimmel or, you know, you know the deal, it's, it's so much fun because we grew up watching the Tonight Show and it's just amazing doing those shows to do, to do that show in your backstage and you go out and you sit at the chair. It's, it's a lot of fun. But when it comes to drawing people to a comedy club, I noticed that if I do like comedy bang bang, you know, the Jimmy Pardo show, comedy bang bang, Jimmy Pardo show, and maybe getting Doug with high, it, a lot more people show up there because they're comedy fans. But when I started, I would ask how many people are here from the podcast? How many podcast listeners are here in a room that holds like 280 or something, 300? And maybe 20 people would applaud, 25. That's great. That's, that's amazing. But that's a big deal because you, because that affects the audience. There's three, there's three people there. There's six people there. There's a couple there that listens. There's a couple there that listens. There's a couple over there that listens. There's another two over there. And that really, even at 20 people, you know, you would go, that really helps the show because there's 20 people that really get into you, you know. And now it's like, you know, maybe 50, you know, out of a crowd. I'll be like, how many podcast people here? 50, maybe a Saturday night. There'll be 75 out of 300. That's a lot. And now it's grown. That's amazing. That's, that's, you know, that's why, that's why I don't really charge for the podcast because sometimes I'll put a show on the, on the, on my website. Or what am I saying? On my, on my, on my page because like Andy kindler sat in when I was out of town. No, no pod. I'm the only podcast person like, you know, the old tonight shows where they'd have somebody sit in. I've had like, well, you did one of my shows where I wasn't there with, with Daniel Kino. You were the guest. I have guest hosts. Oh, you do. Okay. Cool. So you know what, I think I got the idea from you. The more I think about it, the more I read it. I think it's fun. I think it's fun to be out of town, let someone else be the guest host or maybe let Daniel Kino guest host and then see what they do with that vehicle. Like, you know, it's fun to listen to it later. But I, I forget what I was gonna say. Well, just the, the impact that it has on your standup, it, it, it's a great way for people who, who love you to get to know you better in a safe environment without, you know, with that, where you can control the dynamics, where you can go. Right, right. Because, you know, sometimes you get cornered and you go, I gotta go. That's my, my dream, my dream would be to be not, not what I'd be happy with my dream if I could wave a magic wand. I don't want, look, if, you know, I'm, I'm in the process right now. I have a show that we shot the pilot. It's called camping with Todd. And yeah, it's exactly what it's, so I take people for one night. We already had the tent set up and the fire was ready. I didn't want people to have to do the part of camping that sucks. I think the part of camping that is so amazing is sitting around a crackling fire in the middle of the night. No phone, no, no TV, no internet. And then you're sitting around a crackling fire in the middle of the night. I think the part that sucks about camping, he is the chopping of the wood and the setting above the tent. But the camping is so special, you're willing to do all the groundwork because what you end up is this very special thing. So we thought, well, don't make it. I don't have to shoot the pilot where, oh, look, Jimmy, you know, John Doar can't chop the wood, but Zach Alvinakis can. Now fuck that. So we had all the tents set up. We had the firewood chopped. We still made dinner around a fire. We still hung around a fire. We still had a musical performance at the end. So right now I'm trying to sell that pilot called Camping with Todd. So that would be okay, but I felt to shoot it once a week and it'd be a pain in the ass because I'm lazy. No, you're not lazy. I'm not. I love to stand up. You're shiftless. You're shiftless. I don't want to, look, here you'll get my point in a second. I really, I don't really want the work probably of shooting a show once a week, let alone five nights a week, like guys like John Stewart. But to me, my dream career would be almost like Lewis Black had segments on the Daily Show and through some other vehicles, but didn't have the responsibility maybe of his own show every week, but could go around working theaters in a tour bus. So my dream would be to have a tour bus. I tour around doing my stand-up and in the back we have the podcast studio and we do the podcast from the tour bus. I would, I would love that life. You like to travel. You like the road. You always have like the road. I like the tour bus. I like the tour bus. I like to do stand-up. The tour bus eliminates any negative part of traveling. You know, the tour bus to me is like you get into a bus. It'd be like if you got into your hotel bed at the end of the night and then you get in your bed, you go back to your hotel, you lay in a comfortable bed and then the hotel starts up and drives 10 hours. I don't give a fuck what the hotel's doing while I'm sleeping. And then you wake up in Portland. Your eyes open up and you're in Portland. There's no downpour. There's no negative. You know, even the guys that fly private planes, which is a nice life, they still got to get up in the morning. They still got to go, you know, get on the plane. Yeah, it's easier than going to a national airport. But to me, the tour bus life is, you bring your comedian friend or two with you. You know, that's what I want so bad. You've done that with some other people. Yeah. I've done that with other people. And how many? Matter of fact, I'm, go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I think with the question you're going to ask, I think when you're in a band in the early stages of your career and you're in a tour bus and there's 15 people, no, that gets a little much. But when I was on a tour bus with like David Cross or Louis CK over the years, actually Mike Berbiglia was the first person that ever brought me on a tour bus. Um, you, uh, there's five people, four sometimes. So you have your own room. You know, you have, you have an area. Sometimes there's two bathrooms. So to do a tour when there's four or five people on a bus, matter of fact, I'm getting ready to do a tour with Daniel Tosh. Well, we'll have two tour buses and I've never done that before. So I think that should be a lot of fun. And is there a shower? Yeah, but you know, the thing is when you're, when you're doing the tour bus thing, you, I, by the way, I didn't know any of this. I always pictured everybody slept on the tour bus. And there are times when people do that. But when you're sort of going with someone that, you know, they're, they're making enough money where they can do it right. The tour bus would pull into the hotel. Now, if it was like seven in the morning or eight that we got there, sometimes they'd let you finish out your sleep in the bus. They turned the bus off. You heard, you heard the bus shut off. So you knew that we're probably at our, but you finish out your sleep. But a lot, but when you wake up, you, they have your luggage in your hotel room already. And your key is on the, you know, is in the front of the bus with your name on it. So you just sort of get off the bus, whatever time it is, your luggage is in your room. So well, even if you're only there for the day, you get to get out of the bus, have a real shower. So that's the way most of the tours I've been with, like Louis CK, like, you know, we, we had hotels everywhere we went. And what about the weather? What about the weather? Hold on, the only, the only person that didn't take the hotel room most of the time was me. Because I thought, you know, I'm on the road a lot. I can always bring people back to my hotel room. That's fun. But to bring people back to the tour bus, like at the end of the night, you know, you have some friends in that city or you meet some local comedians that you like, you're like, you want to go back to the tour bus? Like that was like ridiculous. The weather, like, you know what, we lucked out. That's a good question. We never really dealt with, with, you know, bad weather. So we lucked out. I get a little worried about the fog. Whenever you're on the road, I'm always, you know, how it's, how is it? I'm worried. Call me. We just have a, go ahead. No, I was, go ahead. We had a bus driver once he would go, I remember him going, I was making coffee and he goes, hey, you're mine. You know, she was a super nice guy. I was like, he goes, you mind getting me a cup of coffee? And we're like, I don't like the fact the bus driver's drinking coffee. Is he, you know, if he's fighting, sleeping. And you go right out. I mean, when you, the show's over, you get on the bus. Well, there, there's so many scenarios. If it's a short trip, sometimes they will say they'll, the bus driver sleeps. Like the bus driver takes you where you gotta go and then he parks the bus somewhere and then he, sometimes it's at the venue. That's the best way. But sometimes then he'll go to sleep. He'll, you know, he'll find, you know, he'll have a hotel for him. He sleeps all day. That's why he can drive through the night. And then sometimes at the end of the show, if it's a long run, when the minute the show's over, they'll say, let's get on the bus and we get going. Well, then you'll watch a movie. You know, you'll watch a movie, you hang out for three or four hours. But there were runs where it's a short run. So go out after the show. Go out after the show, have fun. And then at one in the morning, we meet at the bus and then we go. And then, yeah, you go right on. I have never been unhappy on a train. Me neither. Never. I keep thinking, to me, a train is like nitrous oxide. I, when I used to do nitrous oxide, I'd say to my friends, tell me the most. No, shut. I, laughing gas. Oh, okay, okay. I used to say, okay, tell me something really depressing while I'm on this. And they'd say, you're David Feldman. And it didn't work. And I just started laughing. And the same thing, if I'm on a train, I think if I just lived on a train, I would, I think I'd be incapable of anxiety or depression. When you're, What do you think it is? What do you, go ahead, go ahead. For me, I, you know, I'm a whirling dervish. I run on adrenaline. I like to keep moving. I like, I have attention deficit disorder, I guess in a way, not really, but you can just. What does whirling dervish mean? A whirling dervish. What does that mean? It was a, it's become an idiom. But at one time there was a sect of Muslims who would get so worked up through the chanting and the praying, they would spin and whirl. Hence the name. You know, I think I could get it. I think I could get into that. Yeah, the Judaism crap ain't working. So when you're on the bus, I mean, can you bomb one night, get on the bus and be okay? I mean, I think that's the same as if you're not on a bus. You get to the point where, you know, it's funny because one of the, this kid that works on the podcast, his name is Aaron Simon, and he's like 18 years old and he just helps out, but he also started doing stand-up comedy. And you know, he had the night where he bombs and I said, look, it does suck more in the beginning than it does. You never like it, but you have to go out. He was bombing and then when he bombed, he would want to go, it bombs a strong word, but you know, not to have to set. He wanted, he would go right home. And I said, I did this same thing when I started, I would, if I had a set, I didn't like, I'd go right home. Everyone else was hanging out, but the first night you hang out, even when you do a horrible set, you don't like it and you hang out, you realize 20 minutes later, hanging out with all those comedians, you forget about it. So I said, the next time you have a set, you don't like, try going out because I think you might find that it changes your life. As far as, you know, every time you have a bad set, you got to go home, you know, but you know, I don't, you know, the sets don't usually go that bad. You're doing, you know, especially if I'm torn with someone else, what am I doing 20 minutes? I can, you know, usually do pretty good. Where are you next week? Next week, I have a, I don't usually do like two days, two days, two days. I like to go to a club, spend the week there. I go in a night early. I might say, I go to clubs the night early. You know what? Do sometimes two nights early, pure joy. If you're working in Denver, you get in two nights early, you just hang out, you go to the, you know, maybe you go to a show one night of it, you know, even if you're not on it and just hang out or you go to the local open mic night and meet comedians. But, um, as we get a close to what I love, but this week I'm in Tahoe till Monday. Then I go with David Spade to Denver for two days. Then we go to Chicago for two days. And then I go to Las Vegas for two days with Daniel Tosh. So that's my next week. That's great. I, you know, God bless you. The idea of showing up two days early for a gig. Well, most of the time it's always a day early, but once in a blue moon, like if it's D.C., something great about getting into a city. First of all, you leave the day of no show. What a beautiful day of traveling. You leave LA at 11, you get in at 8, maybe you know a few comedians, you go, hey, you want to smoke a little pot and go to dinner. And then the next day, you don't even have a show. But, um, so sometimes it's two days, but mostly it's just one day. You know, you are so normal. Normal and you're a human being. I think that that is just not my makeup. I wish it were the idea. Well, I just, it's not in me to be able to go in. Can I get something? Yeah. It's not, I think we just, it's in our DNA where we will just relax in other areas. I wish I could relax and be normal. And I'm not. But in that sense, I figured it out. Go in early, enjoy it. And I stopped, by the way, there are times if something I'm going on in LA, I have to be back for an audition, but that's no more because I don't really go in auditions anymore. But when I did, um, yeah, I would have to, you know, I have to be back early on Monday. So, but I stopped leaving early if I have shows and Sunday I'm flying back to LA. I used to get a, of course, don't get a six o'clock in the morning flight, but I used to get a 12 o'clock in the afternoon flight. That sucks too. You look at the clock, it's nine o'clock, you got to get up. I leave at five at night. That way when it's Saturday night, I'm hanging out with everybody, having a good time and it hits midnight, I'm not like, uh, you start thinking, I got to get up early tomorrow. So I get in a day early and I leave very late the next day. And I just, um, you know, it's funny you talked about I'm normal. One time I, some of them, I saw the comedians talking about comedy and they say you have to be, you know, I knew that if you were a little off kill, you became a better, you were a better comedian. Like even when I was like 20, I knew that like, and I knew that like my, I come from a normal family and you know, I'm not an alcoholic. So I said to this other comedian, I think Steve Shaper and I go, I feel like I won't be a good comedian because I'm so nor, I'm too normal. And he goes, oh, you think you're normal? I go, I'm not, I'm not. He goes, Todd, no, you are anything but normal. Just cause you're not an alcoholic and you have a good family. I go, that's the best news I ever got. How abnormal am I? He goes, Todd, you're really abnormal. I go, yes, yes. I was so happy. A 20 year old kid finding out he was, he goes, Todd, come on, you're anything. He goes, I think it's funny. You think you're normal. He goes, why don't you try telling the crowd that after you do 40 minutes of comedy? Tell them how normal you are. I never thought. And I was like, the best news I ever got. Two things before you go. And I'm going to keep it short because I'd like you to come back more often. Sometimes I go long and then you go, all right, that was another year. So I'd like to be able to have you back more often. I have two final points. Well, you were texting me. You were texting me the other day and that's it. Because today had something to do, but I could have moved it anywhere. So when you were texting me and you had me laughing, I just moved what I was going to do today until tomorrow because the names you were dropping and you're like, I was like, oh, I got to talk to Dave because I haven't talked to him in a while. I miss you, buddy. I'm in New York. And two, two quick questions. Gary Mann, who was a big shot over at Comedy Central, and we know him from the days when he booked us all on the, was it not Star Trek, Star Search? Star Search and everything. Gary brought, you know, he was actually brought, brought us in on a lot of stuff. The sweetest man in the world and comics owe him a great debt of gratitude. My memory of going to Montreal in the early 90s for the first time was you creating these scenes in another country. Do you remember what you used to do to Gary, man? I thought this was the funniest thing. I used to... Gary? Yes, I know exactly what... Matter of fact, I'll tell you what it is and I'll say something funny Gary did when they brought me up to the Aspen Comedy Festival. Oh, by the way, I didn't smoke pot then, except once in a while. Like once a month maybe back then. And I used to get high and listen to what anybody told me to do because I never had that experience. So it started one day, Gary was coming out of the Acme or the Improv in LA and I was at the car getting my car and I went, I'm going to move my phone away from my mouth to do the bit what I would do. Or it started at the Improv restaurant. I was sitting there at the restaurant, that's where it started. At the Improv restaurant, I'm sitting at the table and I go, where's my waiter? I'm Carrie Man, goddammit. I can't believe I have my waiter in here. I'm Carrie Man, this is bullshit. So Gary would get mortified and our joke was nobody really went home and went, hey, Gary, man, is he rude? I mean, I don't know him, but I heard him at the restaurant. He was saying it's Gary, man. He wanted to know where his waiter was. Then I see him a week later. I couldn't stop doing it. I was leaving the Acme Comedy Club or the Acme Theater. He's waiting for his car. I start yelling, I'm Gary, man. Where's my car? I'm Gary, man. And I think Gary loved it and hated it. He always had a good sense of humor about it. So he brought me, when they invited me to the Acme Comedy Festival, literally my manager calls me and he goes, Todd, do you know what's in your contract? I go, what? He goes, that you can't do that bit. And you know what? I understood. I really did. So I didn't hear to it. But then we're at the festival and Dave Rath goes, we were the Comedy Central had a party. You know, like different people would have different parties at different Thursdays, Comedy Central throwing a party. And there was food, but it wasn't as much food as we wanted. You know, like, so Dave Rath goes, get up on that chair and start yelling, listen, we appreciate the party, but we want a guy serving a car. We want a carved roast beef. We want chafing dishes full of food. Come on, you make a lot of money. And no, seriously, cut the bullshit. We're not picking together some finger foods that are going around. But how many of those do you have to get the food yourself? Put some legitimate food out. Even if it's one guy carving a roast beef with Kaiser rolls. Put something out next year. And then I'm up on a chair doing this. And then I have a realization. You know, in the pot lessons a little, and now you're aware of how they're throwing a party. I'm not spending any money on a party. How rude it was. And I was like, I would genuinely get mortified. Like, am I just being a dick? And I would get down off the chair and like, go, I think I don't think that was a good idea. And Dave would be like, it's fine. Everybody's laughing. But that was, is that what you're talking about? Well, you know, I'm not going to ask you whether or not this is true or false because I have one other question I want to ask you about. So I'm just going to. Well, I want, I want you to ask me. Don't tell me whether or not it's if it's correct. This is what I remember from the Montreal Comedy Festival. This was what I was told that in customs, as you were arriving in Montreal, you screamed at the Montreal immigration that you were Gary Mann, and you don't need to show your passport. And there is a teeny bit. Don't ruin it for me. Don't ruin it. OK, OK. Don't ruin it. The story I had heard. This goes back, I think it was 93 or 94, that you created an incident in Montreal at the airport saying that you didn't have to show your passport or your work papers because you were Gary Mann. Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to leave it lay. I'm going to let it lay. You're requested. Finally, I saw Michael Coman. Michael Coman, one of the great comedy writers of all time. He created Nathan for you. I think he's over at SNL now. I mean, it's just a great, brilliant. No, he's it. He might, you know, I live with Michael. That's what I was going to ask you. This is why this was my question. So he has a baby. And I said, yeah, they had a little. Yeah. And I said to him that the thing that, because my kids are all grown up, and I said the thing that tortures you as a father is you look at this thing and you don't know what it's going to be. So you want to fast forward 30 years to see how it turns out. What what's inside of this muffin? What's whatever this and, but then you don't want to lose this baby. But you know, you want him to stay young, but you want to see, you know, and I always used to say to my kids, who are you? Who who are you? What are you going to become? Who are you? Who are you? There was a time when you, Steve Rosenthal and Mike Coman were babies in Los Angeles and you live together. And I think that is the most incongruous group of humanity. The three of you living together. You bring that up because I was probably 29, but those guys were, Steve was like 20. Mike Coman was like, I think when I met Mike doing stand-up he was 18. And we got this house. It was a really cool house, but I could see even at that age what it could do to make it great. So everybody gave like Mike, you know, everybody had a little money. Mike had a friend that wasn't a comedian, also that lived there. So it was me, Steve Rosenthal, Mike Coman, and James, and James Milton. And it was this big house. He wrote Paradise Lost, right? James Milton. Six, no, no, different James. No, I don't even know that. I don't know you. But it was a big house with that four bed, four bathrooms and six bedrooms. And we made it really cool. Like it ended up, I put a little work into it. And we made it really cool. We had a fireplace with a fire pit in the backyard. But those guys were really young. And I came home after an audition. This is how Todd's coma got started. And I said, I don't want to go on any auditions anymore. And Mike Coman goes, maybe you could play a guy in a coma. Now, he said it jokingly. But I went, whoa. Now, when it came time to who got the creative credit, Mike was really cool. He goes, yeah, I said it sarcastically, but I would have never followed through. So he just stepped back at having the creep, you know, even though he was his idea. And you know, they were so, they were workhorses. So we set up, like, we're going to do this as a show. So we started like, you know, we set up a bank account. And that's where we got money from. And we started casting people. And we got Ben Stiller. And then once we got Ben Stiller, it was a little easier to get other people. Now, keep in mind, we were going to do it at the Comedy Central Workspace or the HBO Workspace. So I was at the workspace going to lay in a bed. And they were going to, anything that had to do with me, they would have to roll in pre-shot clips. Because that's the show. Like, Sarah Silverman would come by and go, oh, me and Todd used to date. Oh, he was fun, but he had a temper. The lights in the theater went down and up on this mammoth screen would be the dream sequence. That's how you had to do it live. If it was a TV show, obviously, there had been more creative ways. And then we got Herb Albert, who played a nurse, who denied Herb Albert. Yeah, the musician, the musician, who, and then, and then we got, the thing, Herb Albert. Herb Albert played a nurse. And now his scenes were live, because he was a nurse in the little, we made like a fake hospital room stage. What year was this? This was, I only really can tell you, what year did something about Mary came out? Because it was like a year after that. Wow. So, 90 something, 93. No, no, no, no. So, no, that was like late 90s. Oh, oh, I'm sorry, late 90s. I'm, I apologize. Right, right, right, right. And it was Morris Albert. Feelings, nothing more than feelings. And so then we got Herb Albert played at Ben Stiller. He was in the live show, like he was there. He was in the dream sequence. Jesus. So Ben Stiller was a dream sequence, like, you know, in the live show, we got a letter from Ben. That's how we went into it. Hey, me and Todd used to be roommates. You know, Todd, we really was a creative atmosphere and then the lights went lower. And it was a pre-shot thing with Fred Willow, with Ben Stiller. Fred Willard, we ended up just getting, you know, I think it was such a weird show, it was easy to explain to people. Wait, the guys in a coma never gets out of bed and people come by and they tell stories about them. Fred Willard played the doctor who knew everything about everything. Like he knew about guitars, he knew about cars. The only thing he was shady about was medical stuff. And Jimmy Pardo played my brother and they did the whole show. They cast it and they put it together and they wrote it and they directed, you know, everybody that had to do bits in the show and then, like, we ask people that we go, well, what do we do if they say yes? You don't want to have somebody say yes and then you don't need them. And we said, we'll find something. So, like, Ray Romano, we were gonna have him do the Ben Stiller thing, but then Ben said yes. So Ray Romano did this thing when the show was over and everyone was leaving the theater. He came up on the screen and went, come on, somebody buy this. This is a good show. And he did it from the set of Everybody Loves Raymond, like you could see in the background. They went over there with a little handheld camera and they, and my manager was Duncan Strauss, who was so supportive. And you know what, we never sold it, but Sarah Silverman, a lot of times she'll say, you know what, you should bring that back. That could sell now because your past is endless. Like if the Rolling Stones come by or whoever, you know, Nathaniel Radcliffe comes by, how did you know Todd? That's what the family wants to know. Oh, Todd was my drummer, but the problem was he had a real temper. And then there's, you can, and you can go endless. She said, and the reason she thinks that would be a good show for me is someone that doesn't, I don't want to come in seven days a week and learn lines. You just do pre-shot sketches. So for every show, you're just doing the pre-shot sketches. And so that was Todd's comment. That was a long answer to you mentioning Mike Coleman, but you know, he was like 18 or 19 then. And we, we, you know, we did this thing. And, you know, we're still very close. And same thing with me and Steve. And Rosenthal's a genius. Rosenthal plays the piano. He edits. He writes. He's amazing. He really is. And he's doing great. He's a profession. He's, you know, a successful editor in New York City. And he's doing great. And so is Mike doing awesome. And James Milton, even though he wasn't a comedian or an actor, he was just Mike's friend from USC, still talk to him. And yeah, they were, they were really special days in that house over on Canyon Drive, behind Gelsen supermarket in Los, I guess you could say Los Filos there. Yeah. Hey, do you have your phone in front of you? Yeah, I do. I sent you a text once you read it. Hold on. By the way, we've been talking for a while. I know. I know. Tell you the truth. It's a good thing because I picked it up. This is not going well. He goes, he goes, he goes, this is not going well. Pick it up. A Todd Glass. How do people find you on Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, Myspace? They'll figure it out. Is there a website? I do have a website. Matter of fact, Computer King, Speller with a K, they just redid it and they did an awesome job. But mostly my podcast. And I tweet when I'm in the mood, but mostly my podcast every week. The Todd Glass show. I say you're going to listen once. You probably won't like it. But if you give it three or four shows, it might grow on you. Yeah. It's hysterical. And it, and I wouldn't be doing a podcast if it weren't for Todd Glass and Jimmy Dorre. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We, uh, you speak to Jimmy at all and Jimmy. I haven't spoken to Jimmy. Won't return my calls. Well, you probably did something rude to him. Why don't you apologize? I'm sorry, Jimmy. There you go. But, uh, this was fun. You know, I'm here. I don't have a shuttle nine. So like doing this actually helped pass the time. Who's your opening act? I'm here with Caleb Sign. And it's a really funny comedian out of Atlanta. And he's, he, this is one of those shows where it really helps to bring a comedian that you get along with real well, because you're going to spend, you know, a lot of time. It's not like there's anything to do, but really hang out in the hotel, you know. So, uh, I brought Caleb and he's a really funny guy. And he, he's in LA now. He just did a really good, he had a good, uh, he was on Conan and had really good set on Conan O'Brien a few months ago. And that's it. All right. Have fun. Get my love to Howie Nave. Thank you, Todd Glass. Now your wife, you killed her, right? Yeah, I'm the stop tape. Yeah, I killed her. Good, good, good, good, good. Howie Klein joins us. He's the founder and treasurer of the Blue America Pack, which raises money for progressive candidates around the country. And everybody should go to his Down with Tyranny blog. Down with Tyranny is a great source of information. Today we're going to talk about the former mayor of Stockton. And we're going to talk about Donald Trump's name being used in China properly. I know it's a toilet in China, but apparently more than just a toilet. Hello, Howie Klein. Tell me about the mayor of Stockton, the former mayor of Stockton. Right. The former mayor of Stockton was beaten by a guy who's now the youngest mayor of a mid-sized city. This city is, I think, 350,000 people in it. So it's the ninth biggest city in California. And the kid who won, Michael Tubbs, was a Bernie fanatic. So when Bernie went up and down the Central Valley of California, campaigning in the primary, this guy, Michael Tubbs, who's very well-spoken and eloquent, would introduce him. So he's a 26-year-old African-American kid. He was on the city council. He beat a Republican incumbent in Stockton to get on the city council. And then he ran for mayor against the incumbent in this last November. And the mayor at the time is a guy named Anthony Silva. So Anthony Silva, the name might ring a bell for some people. And there are some reasons for that. There aren't that many mayors of cities of that size that are Republicans, for one thing, especially in California. I mean, after all, Stockton is in the Central Valley, but it's not that far from San Francisco. And in fact, some people commute into San Francisco to long commute, but people do it. In any case, Silva was... Well, let me start before I tell you what... Well, I'll just tell you the ending. Is he a Republican? And I'll go back into what happened. He's a Republican, right? We again, Silva got arrested at the San Francisco International Airport when he was returning, I think, from China. And he's in jail now. Now I'll go into why that's important and what that's all about. It was from Columbia. He was returning from Columbia. Oh, from Columbia? Oh, Jesus. So in any case, Silva was not a very good mayor. He was, aside from being a Republican, he went out of his way to antagonize the LGBT community. He was very, very anti-gay. He would do crazy things like have city council meetings in this mega church where they used to preach against gay people. And he would keep doing things to antagonize gays, little things, but he would do them constantly. So he was unpopular with the community. And Republicans don't usually go out of their way to do that unless they're trying to call attention to themselves as being anti-gay for a reason. And more often than not, that reason is because they are closeted, which is it turns out he was. So a couple of years ago, in 2015, a young boy turns up shot and killed. I think he was 13, a 13-year-old boy shot and killed. So the police do an investigation. This is the big, big news in town that this young boy got killed. And then they find lo and behold, he was killed with the mayor's gun. Mayor Silva's gun was the weapon that killed the young boy. So the police, we now find out, had filed a report that Silva was not cooperative in their investigation. They didn't arrest him. His claim was that he had lost the gun and forgot to tell the police that he lost the gun. Because in California, if you have a registered gun and it's stolen, he said it was stolen. That's right. You have to report that to the police. And he forgot to do that, he said. Okay, so they let him go. They let the mayor go without anything further. Then a year later, he got in real trouble. And the real, this was, aside from being mayor, he was the president of the chief executive officer of the Stockton Kids Club. And he was having or luring or having or something underage boys over to his apartment and he would take them up to his bedroom and get them drunk, 16-year-old boys generally, and then film them playing strip poker. So there have been no charges that, at least the public, that he was actually doing anything more with them than giving them alcohol and filming them. But I think that that's yet to come out. And I think the pattern of that kind of thing is that it will come out. So he was arrested this weekend on all sorts of charges, like extortion and money, all money-related things. And they threw him in jail. Normally when someone gets thrown in jail on those kinds of white-collar crimes, even if they're serious white-collar crimes, they get a reasonable bail. He was given a million-dollar bail. Now, that's not reasonable. I mean, that's immense. That means you're staying in jail. And then his lawyer went to the judge and he said, hey, this isn't fair and I want a reduction in bail. And his lawyer was told, no, we disguise a danger. Now, you're not in a danger because you're an extortionist. You're a danger because you murdered a 13-year-old boy and you were raping underage boys. That's why you're a danger. So that's why he's in jail and that's why he's sitting there today. And have they discovered who the murderer is? Well, he's the murderer, but they haven't discovered it yet because that's yet to be investigated. In other words, that's an old case where they gave the mayor of the city, i.e. their boss, more or less, a pass. The only thing that the police had put on the record was that he was uncooperative. So now I think they will do a real investigation to see if he murdered this kid, which from me looking at it, from the outside looking in, it looks like he did murder the kid. We don't know that yet, but if I had a bet money on it, I would bet money that he murdered the kid. And if I had a bet money that he was having sex with underage boys for the whole time he was mayor, I would bet on that too. In fact, in 2004, he had a run-in that didn't come out until just recently when he was the water polo coach. And he was doing the same thing, getting boys drunk, again underage boys, getting them drunk and filming them. Well, there isn't a normal thing. You don't do that. But then he has to it was doing. Then he has to it was a wrestling coach and he was fondling and in other ways having sexual relationships with teenagers under 18, which is illegal. And even though that isn't what he wound up getting charged with, then he has to it is rotting in jail right now because of that. I mean, they went after him on financial things because it's too embarrassing for society for to have the speaker of the house in jail for having sex with young boys. Same thing with this guy. He's in jail for extortion and things like that rather than for fondling and having sex with young boys. But we'll see if they let that stuff come out. There's a good chance that they'll do with him what they did with Hastert, which has let him plead guilty to the financial stuff in return for not bringing up all the real crime, which is the rape of children. We've talked about this before vis-a-vis... Yes, it's a Republican illness. Mitch McConnell. I want to save Mitch McConnell for the... That's the dessert because I said to some... The thing is with Mitch McConnell, there's no indication that he likes underage boys. He's gay, but all the people that I've talked to about it, who including one of his victims, they were all over 18. I never heard of him going for underage boys. So underage, that's a whole different situation. When you're getting involved with boys between 13 and 16, these aren't necessarily people who can make informed decisions, especially when you're getting them drunk. And that's a much, much, much more serious crime than just being a Republican closet queen. I mean, Mitch McConnell's just a closet case. He should be ashamed of it. He should come out and be who he really is, but he won't. But it's not a crime to do what he does. What this guy Silver did, allegedly, is obviously a crime. Even if it's just what he's already been charged with, which is getting these 16-year-old boys drunk and filming them, that's a crime. You had said on the show that McConnell had an incident when he was in the Army. Yes. Would you like to help me remember that? Well, I barely remember it myself in the details, but I actually talked to that guy. But basically, McConnell was a young guy himself at the time. He was, I think, a lieutenant. He was only in the Army for a week or two, and he was fondling this kid. When I say kid, I don't know, 20-year-old kid. And he got reported up the chain, and he got asked to leave the Army. And is it an open secret in D.C. that Mitch McConnell is in the closet? Yes. It was an open secret that Denny Haster was in the closet for decades. In other words, quote, everybody knew. Everyone in Congress knew it was no secret that Mark Foley was both in the closet and having sex with the Pages. I mean, when he was, that whole scandal about the Pages, people in Congress, not every person in Congress, but many people in Congress in both parties, were very aware that he was doing that. I mean, he was getting caught. He was an alcoholic, and he was getting caught doing stuff with young boys, many of whom complained. They complained to their fathers. I mean, who were the Pages? The Pages are the sons and daughters, although in Foley's case, it was about the sons of big Republican donors. So here's this guy. He gives lots and lots of money to some Republican in a backwater district in Louisiana. This is a natural story. And the guy is so happy that this big donor gave him a bunch of money that he gives his son a job in Washington as a Page. And the son goes off to Washington. And there's a committee that's supposed to take care of these kids and watch out for their welfare. And the kid is apparently a nice-looking guy, and he catches Foley's eye. And sure enough, Foley's like climbing in the window of the dormitory with a ladder drunk. And some of these boys complained, including this particular boy from Louisiana. They complained. They went and told their father they can't sit down. And the father went to the congressman that gave him the job. And the congressman went to Hastert and Hastert did everything he could to cover it up. I mean, obviously, I mean, you know, he's doing it for a fellow closet case. So these kinds of things are known. And it's not, I mean, to me, the tragedy of this particular one was that Rahm Emanuel was on that committee that was supposed to be taking care of this kind of stuff. So he was very aware of it as well. He was the chairman of the DCCCC at the time, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and he figured if he didn't blow the whistle on Foley, until it was too late for the Republicans to take him off the ballot, then he would be able to have a Democrat run and beat Foley. Even though Foley wouldn't be running, Foley's name would still be on the ballot. And that's what Rahm did. So the day after it was too late to get the name off, one day after it was too late to get the Republican name off the ballot, that's when Rahm blew the whistle and leaked it out to the media that Foley was fooling around with the pages. But he knew that. So my question, of course, has always been, how many boys got raped because of Rahm Emanuel's game playing? It says here that Mitch McConnell, during his last year in law school, joined the U.S. Army Reserve in Louisville, Kentucky. After five weeks, he received an honorable discharge for medical reasons. He had optic neuritis. He had a problem with his lenses. He had an eye for men, apparently. That was five weeks he survived. He was very close with John Sherman Cooper. Who at the time was the senator from Kentucky, who gave Mitch McConnell a job. And he was able to get the records changed to this optic neuritis or whatever instead of fondling young boys, young men. The reason I bring this up is we now have Vladimir Putin calling the shots in D.C. And we have this new WikiLeaks dump telling us that the CIA can spy on all of us just through our Samsung television. How much is Vladimir Putin controlling McConnell and Ryan? What does he have on McConnell and Ryan? Or is that just my smoking something? He has anything on any of those people. I mean, I literally don't know. I mean, so maybe he has something on them or maybe he doesn't. I have no idea, like zero. We know who he does have something on, which is Donald Trump. But would that explain the behavior of the Republican Party under Trump? Could it be possible that Vladimir Putin has stuff on McConnell and McConnell? I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I literally don't know. I mean, McConnell has gone out of his way to, you know, pretend he has to make believe marriage to Elaine Chao, who's in Trump's cabinet. He tries to pretend that he's straight. And but it's not a secret. I mean, you know, I mean, it's kind of well known. Even people in his own state are aware. You know, I guess if you live in some hollow in the appellations, you might not be aware of it. But I think savvy voters all over Kentucky are pretty aware that there are and have been for decades, very, very strong rumors. I mean, if you tell people that you saw Mitch McConnell driving around Pickle Park in Louisville, they'll just laugh and they know what you're talking about. Pickle Park? Pickle Park, where he goes to pick up pickles. He picked a peck of pickles peppers. Yeah, so I want to get to Trump in a second. But that's kind of why he's successful because he has that secret. There are predators in politics who go out of their way to find somebody who's in the closet and then they move them ahead because they can control them. Yeah, I mean, that's a possibility. You know, he did. I've never heard any and I've paid attention. I've never heard of him doing anything illegal. Would there be shame? Would there be shame like Lindsey Graham? Yeah, he also doesn't do anything illegal. So it's a different situation. When you get a Mark Foley or like the guy like this guy, Anthony Silva, it's a different thing when they're doing illegal stuff. You wind up in jail for that. So that's when you could really bribe somebody or blackmail somebody, I should say. But for all I know, from what I know, I should say, McConnell is into mature men who can make up their own decisions about what they want to do. He doesn't even have to give 13-year-old boys alcohol and get them drunk and rape them. Right. Well, I believe Hastert became Speaker of the House, not in spite of the pedophilia, but because of it. I think Delay, you know what? You're right. That's a good point. And that was Tom Delay's doing. I mean, Tom Delay would have been and should have been really Speaker, but he became the majority leader and he needed someone who wasn't as venal as him as the face of the party as Speaker. And he gave that job to Hastert and you're right, he was able to control Hastert because he was certainly aware that Hastert was not just a closet case, but also had a predilection towards underage boys. Trump, are you enjoying this? This is a ground game. This is, he's not going away. This is, we're in for four years of this, right? And are you enjoying this or are you just terrified? Are you depressed by this? How is this affecting? You know, the interesting question, David, and I think that, and I'm hearing this everywhere, still anecdotal, but there are a lot of people who are extremely disturbed by this. People go to psychiatrists, people are turning to drugs and alcohol. I've seen people myself who I know who I've never seen depressed like this. A friend of mine committed suicide on Friday night. I'm sorry. I'm telling you, this is not just coincidental. Their people are so depressed and nervous and uptight about Trump. And that's really something that's happening nationally. In fact, I read something the other day, that woman from Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski or something. She was talking about that as well. I think that he's got the whole country on edge and I'm not one of them. I'm not, I don't feel disturbed by him. Well, he's a terrorist in the true definition of terrorism because what he's doing, for example, to the Mexican undocumented workers is kind of what, it's a little different, but it's kind of what Obama did. But Obama did it surreptitiously. Trump is doing it inelegantly. And by doing it so ham-fistedly, he's creating terror. The number... No, no, there is a big difference. Obama really was going after criminals. Trump says that, but he's not. I live in Los Angeles. I know what he's doing. He is going after anyone at all, almost randomly. Anybody for any reason who is from Mexico or Central America, you have to, you know, they just round you up and then you have to prove that you belong here. I mean, it's very, very different from what he said he would do, which is basically what Obama was doing. And I think most Americans feel that it would be a boon to the country for the president, the chief law enforcement officer of the country, to get criminals, real criminals out of the country. That's a good thing, I think in the minds of most Americans. Now, there are a lot of people who don't agree with what I just said, but if you have a gang member who is shooting and selling drugs and things like that, and you can get them out out out of the country, I think that a lot of people would approve of that. That isn't what Trump is doing. Trump is a racist, and he just wants to go after, you know, I mean, they're using like they're saying here in LA, you hear about this all the time, they went after somebody who had parking tickets. Okay, well, that's yeah, you know, parking tickets are illegal, so I guess technically it's come some kind of a criminal, not a real criminal. And that isn't, you know, that's not what people want. People, if you go after a murderer and deport a murderer, no one's going to really complain about that much. But a guy with traffic tickets who's been here for 30 years and has a family here and has a job, that's horrific. Yeah, we want them to go after MS-13, not a 13-year-old girl. I've asked this of every guest on my show this week, ICE. You were the first one, the first guest, to almost cry over what they're doing to the Latino, Hispanic population in Los Angeles. At what point do you stop blaming only Trump and start blaming people who work at ICE? To me, I just think back at, you know, I think back to Hitler. He couldn't have done anything himself. It was all the people around him and it went all through society. And when I get really, really, I mean, certainly anyone who's working for Trump is guilty. I imagine in my revelry that someday they'll all be on trial in the Nuremberg kind of trial. Anyone who's in this cabinet, anyone who's a close advisor. And sometimes when I get really nuts, I think every voter should be asked, did you vote for Trump and hooked up to a lie detector? And if they voted for Trump, they should lose their right to vote until they take, at least until they take a civics class. My daughter has taught me about white privilege. I never understood, you know, she taught me what checking your privilege means. How old is she? She's in her 20s. Okay. And she would say, check your privilege. And I checked my privilege. And I want to ask you to talk to my listeners about checking their privilege. If you are an American citizen listening to this show, if you don't have a criminal record, if you pay your taxes and there's nothing on your computer, you have checked your privilege, what is your obligation then when it comes to people who work for ICE and the police? What is your obligation if you're an American citizen who hasn't committed a crime, who pays his taxes, who's an upstanding member of the community, who cannot be arrested? What is your obligation? Well, let's, let's, for people to think about this, let's go back to another age and take it away from where we are right now. You're in Amsterdam in 1942. The Germans are starting to round up Jews, your neighbors. What is your obligation at that point? Is your obligation to take a Jewish family in and hide them? Or is your obligation to, you know, wear a virtual blindfold and not see what's going on? Yeah. Do you have a family? You need to protect your own, how about your own family? How about if you want to take in Anne Frank, but, but you're afraid because the Germans will kill your whole family if they catch you. I mean, that's real. You know, and what, and what about ICE? You know, keep the names for later. You, you know, what, what, what are you going to do? What do you mean keep, what do you mean keep the names for later? Keep the names of the, of the, of the ICE agents so that they can be tried in the future. Are they committing crimes? I mean, when you say keep the names. Aren't, aren't. Some of them, you know, you let these junior level fascists do whatever they want and they are going to be bullies. I mean, who's taking these jobs? Are there decent people working at ICE? I'm sure there are. Are there monks working at ICE who love that, that Trump is doing this? Love the opportunity to be little asshole bullies? You bet there are. Right. In Los Angeles, I used to give the police a hard time. And I used to do it in front of my white children. And they'd say, why are you doing this? And I would say because I'm not a criminal. I'm not an alcoholic. I pay my taxes. If not me, then who? A lot of my listeners don't pay their taxes. They, they owe money to the IRS or they may be married. Well, if they're married to an undocumented worker, the worker would be an American citizen. But a lot of people are on the fringes and don't have the privilege to speak out. But if you are privileged, and by that I mean, you're an American citizen, you have no criminal record, you are white, Jewish. You have an obligation right now to speak out. You cannot remain silent right now. I understand why certain people don't speak out. If you're, if you've been marginalized and there's a possibility that you could be arrested and spend time in prison, I see why you keep your mouth shut. But people have an obligation right now. All the time, you know, various people who fit the description that you just gave. And we'll ask them, for example, to do a guest post on my blog. And they'll say, they'd like, you know, maybe they have a great idea. And they tell me this great idea. And I said, why don't you write that up as a guest post? And they'll say, I don't know, you know, I don't want to make any trouble with Trump. I mean, you never know what's going to happen. And they're literally envisioning a knock on the door in the middle of the night. And you think that because you pay your taxes and you're an American citizen, you're protected. I mean, yes, by in theory you are. But what's the reality of some cop who thinks he's, you know, who believes everything that Trump says and thinks he's saving the country, taking out a gun and shooting you in the head in self-defense? Well, about, oh, I don't know, when was 9-11? 2001. So it's 2017. That would make it about 16, 15 years ago, the Patriot Act got passed. And we started putting people in Gitmo. And then all of a sudden, Obama used drones to kill American citizens. And a lot of us thought, well, yeah, there's no habeas corpus, but they're terrorists. And, you know, the drones are killing Al Iwaki and his daughter and his son. They're American citizens, but not really. They're doing something bad. It's not going to happen. It's not a slippery slope. I think Americans are waking up to the slippery slope, right? Some, absolutely. But, you know, Al Iwaki was doing something bad, and he was in doing it in Yemen. And he's, you know, chose to be on the battlefield. Right. But they killed, they just killed his little hero. They killed his daughter just now. I don't think they aim for his daughter. They, you know, when you say that Obama was killing American citizens, okay, those three were American citizens, you're right. But he's not sending drone strikes into Columbus, Ohio to do that. They really, I mean, you know, yes, maybe it is a slippery slope. And I'm sure I know a lot of people who absolutely feel that way. But like I said, it's different when we're talking about an active participant on an active battlefield that is in a war with the United States, whether that war should be happening or not is another question. But, you know, there is a war that the U.S. is fighting in Yemen. An undeclared war that they are not asking us to fight for them. Well, there are Americans over there who are fighting. But the Houthis, I mean, it's not as though the people of Yemen have asked us to come and get involved. Well, it depends how you define the people of Yemen. Right? I mean, you know, these quote, legitimate government very much wants us to fight over there. But how legitimate is the legitimate government? Not very. Let's turn to China. The name Trump is synonymous with toilet in China. There's some copyright infringement going on in China. Tell me about the Trump name in China. Well, wait, you tell me about this toilet thing you mentioned it twice. And I think you're referring to something specific that I don't know about. Oh, there's a Trump brand of toilets. It's been around. I think I don't have the article in front of me, but it's like Trump Tuan. And they have been the leading maker of Chinese toilet for 30 years. It's pronounced Trump. Trump's lawyers for years have been trying to get them to change their name. They have not won. The Trump people have not been able to get the company to change their name. So, you know, David, that's extremely interesting, especially in light of some news that came out today. Today, or yesterday, AP reported that Trump had asked for, I think it was the 38 trademark trademarks for like Trump hotels, Trump salons, Trump golf course, Trump this, Trump that, all these different branded things he can do, restaurants, retail stores, tons of different things, as well as services like real estate and brokerage. And China approved this in record time and without interfering. I mean, lawyers who who I read about it in the AP story said they've never seen anything like this before. I mean, China really, you know, put you through a lot before you get this stuff. But with Trump, they just rubber stamped it right through. And one of the interesting things that I found was, you know, you're reading about, you know, hotels and golf courses, the regular stuff. And suddenly there's like he's Trump massage parlors, Trump's spas and Trump escorts, which reminded me of Trump's very, very big modeling agency, Trump model management or something in New York, which has always been very, very, very well-sourced. There have always been very well-sourced rumors that it was a front for an escort service and a prostitution ring. One of Trump's biggest supporters, financial supporters, Sheldon Adelson, runs a series, according to a court case, runs a series of brothels in South China around Macau, where he's the sort of gambling king of Macau. And, you know, Chinese brothels can be pretty, you know, gross, you know, inexpensive and they're horrific and horrible in every way imaginable. And that's not the kind of brothels that Adelson is running in Macau. He's running high-end brothels with, you know, lovely women, some from China and some from other places that they bring in. And you're not buying them for $2 an hour. You're buying them for hundreds of dollars an hour. Any from Slovenia? I'm sure. It's always been a good place for that kind of thing. So now Trump can do it. He can open up casinos. He can open up hotels, massage parlors. I mean, this is unbelievable to me. I mean, this just happened. This happened yesterday. This is the president of the United States we're talking about. He literally asked and received a trademark to open a massage parlor in China. That doesn't mean he's going to do it while he's president, but he got them to agree to it while he's president. And then when he's not president, presumably in four years or in two years or whenever it is that he's not president anymore, he can open up his, you know, you can go to the Trump restaurant, the Trump hotel, Trump massage parlor, Trump spa, and Trump hooker. Well, if, yeah, tell me about Azerbaijan. You were there and you say Rachel Maddow got something wrong. How can Rachel ever get anything wrong? Isn't that great? Sometimes she does, but she doesn't always have great researchers. Some of them are. Some of them aren't. This particular story the other day that she did on Baku, the capital and the only real city in Azerbaijan, she got, she was completely sourced from a story in, in the New Yorker. So, you know, she, she made no bones about that. In fact, she had the author on as her second segment. Her first segment was about the story. And then the second segment was an interview with the author. So she wasn't hiding that she got her whole story from him. But he, he, and he was in Baku as was I. Now he talked to different people than I talked to, and he didn't get all his facts right. So how do I know that some of his facts are wrong? Well, the, the matter of fact, Trump tower in Baku, the, the, the hotel that he built with like sort of the head of the Azerbaijan mafia, uh, who was being financed by the, the, um, um, revolutionary guards of, of Iran, that hotel he claimed never opened. And in fact, it did open. It opened only for a few days. So the scandal in Baku when I was there was that they went and they hired the best people from all of the high end hotels. So they would go like to the four seasons, for example, and the flame hotels and all these great hotels in Baku, Baku is a wealthy educated country. It's very, very rich from oil and, um, and the people, uh, you know, it's not like some back, it's a Muslim country, but it's not in any way backward. It's a very, very modern people are very well educated. They're very with it. Everybody's got an iPhone. Everybody's got their own personal computer. It's in, you know, in Baku. I shouldn't say everybody. That's not fair. You can't even say that about the United States, but certainly the middle class is very much, and it's a middle class city and the middle class is sort of connected to the same, the same wavelength that we're connected to here in the US. And even though it's a Muslim city, a Muslim country, it's very secular. So, um, you know, we may hear be, we may be Jewish, we may be Christian, we may be Catholic, whatever we are, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're, you know, some kind of a fanatic and it's the same thing there. You meet the people in Muslim, but they're, you know, they're Muslim the same way that you, that you're a Protestant or whatever you. So, um, in any case, they, so they went, they went to all these hotels and they hired the best people and the way they were able to do that was by paying them, uh, I think it was six months in advance. So they paid very high salaries and they paid it in advance. They had lots and lots of cash and the hotel didn't ever have their grand opening that they had, they were planning. That didn't happen, but they did have an opening. They were selling rooms. You could go to hotels.com in those days and, and, and, um, you know, check out a room. I mean, purchase a room, uh, that you can't anymore because, because the partners, and this is the part that Rachel got right, the partner, uh, the Mamedovs, one of the most powerful, corrupt families. It's like the Al Capones. In fact, uh, uh, I think, I think it was Mother Jones. One, it was some magazine did a story on them and they called it the Corleones of the Caucasus. This is a, this is the most powerful, corrupt mafia family in Azerbaijan and they were money laundering for, um, the, the a revolutionary guard of Iran and there were, there were weapons involved and there were export, there were things that had to do with North Korean missile projects. I mean, this was a, a real nightmare and, and here's Trump in the middle of it. I mean, something that people that never really came out in a big way during the election was that Trump's partners all over the world are all corrupt mafia types. So if you go to Indonesia or you go to India or you go to any place where Trump is in business, he's always in business with people that belong in prison. He's never in business with upright, uh, standard, normal, uh, good citizens. He's always in, in, in business with gangsters, always, everywhere, no exceptions. And I witnessed it myself when I was in Azerbaijan and once he started shooting his mouth off about Muslims, the people there were very hip to it. They understood exactly what he was saying. They understood he was talking about them and that was the end of his place. It closed down in less than a week. Uh, it was completely boycotted by everybody and no one wanted anything to do with it. So when we went there, he had this gigantic chump tower in the middle of nowhere in the city. It wasn't where any of the other good hotels were. Uh, and glittery and, and glitzy and, uh, kind of ridiculous looking and, and shuttered this closed down and not long after the Mamadou's set it on fire and tried to burn it down so they could, they could collect the insurance. So that didn't work. Still sitting there closed. And I mean, when we were there in June, they were talking about, you know, trying to get somebody else to, uh, buy the property and change the name from Trump tower. You know, pull down the big giant Trump thing that they were paying him for. They were paying him $2.8 million a year. Uh, not just for the use of the name. I mean, the Trump, the Trump family was very, very involved with this. Ivanka had just been in, uh, in Baku just before we got there. And she was, you know, micromanaging everything like the color of the carpeting and what kind of lens to use and all this kind of stuff. Uh, and they were, and they pay a fee to, to the Trump organization for those services. So in like 10 years, when all the files are open, we're going to, we're going to discover that Putin thought, eh, you know, we'll run Trump for president. I'll help him. Trump thought, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll take their help. Nobody's, this country can't be stupid enough to elect me president and I'll have some money and we'll open up a new right wing television news network and the brand will continue. Right. I mean, they didn't follow any campaign finance laws because they figured they weren't going to make it to the Oval Office, right? I think that that's correct. I don't know about the Putin stuff. I mean, that's yet to, that we're yet to find out what's, what's real and what's not about that. Oh, I mean, I, my gut tells me that there was Putin involvement, but I don't know that. I mean, I, I feel it, but I don't know it. It's the plot to the producers, essentially. Right. They thought they could run. Yes, that's right. The worst possible candidate and have some fun. Anyway, Howie Klein, thank you so much. You are the, to remind you, Howie, sometimes you forget, you're the founder and treasurer of the Blue America pack, which raises money for progressive candidates. Is there a candidate you guys are getting behind right now? I know there are a couple special elections coming up. Yes, we're, we're into, uh, John, uh, off off in, uh, in Georgia today on my blog, if you've got it down with tyranny.com, you can read a, um, a, a special guest, um, post by a young guy who is a cancer specialist, a very, you know, not just a doctor. He's a great doctor, but aside from that, he's a, one of the primary researchers, one, one of just 10 in the whole country, working on, um, these rare lymphoma diseases that, um, and I know that because he, as it just turned out, he worked with my doctor and there were, there were like eight of them. And she's here in Los Angeles. He's in, in Houston. So in any case, he's running for Congress now and he did a, uh, a story for us about why this new, uh, Ryan, uh, repeal and replace bill for Obamacare is such a catastrophe. He talks about it from the point of view of doctors. In fact, you and I never got to talk about it, but, uh, people should be aware that the AMA, which has always been very anti-Obamacare and very pro-Republican came out today saying that this replacement is a disaster and they're against it. So both the American Medical Association, basically a Republican organization and the American Hospital Association, both of them have come out strongly against this replacement, which looks like it'll fail. Anyway, let's talk next week. Yes, sir. Thank you, Howie. Well, thank you. Bye. Bye.