00:00:00
great dude today Dana mike Burbiga i'd like to buy a vowel burbiga yes burbbegs
00:00:08
known as Burbigs if you don't have time you say Burbigley and you lose the A save time
00:00:16
yeah mikey B by the end of the podcast we're very good friends mikey B has a
00:00:22
new special on Netflix The Good Life uh he's one of the great storytellers we
00:00:27
have out there and uh he'll deep dive into his methodology about having a
00:00:33
theme where he can go kind of serious and funny it's very interesting yeah he explains a oneman show what's the
00:00:39
difference between a stand-up set uh went to Georgetown did a comedy contest
00:00:44
early on i did at ASU also uh so we had that oh we talked about that we kicked
00:00:51
and scratched about that uh yeah he's a sleepwalker we make fun of him for that
00:00:56
he does sleepwalk and there's some danger involved and it's a long story and uh it's a it's a something that's
00:01:04
been a big part of his uh zygeisty material and if you don't know him he's
00:01:09
well respected comic out there in the New York circuit uh give it a give it a listen and you'll know him more we like
00:01:15
to get people on here that you may not be a household name yet but very close and uh sure he will be he writes he
00:01:23
directs movies he did a Sleepwalker movie and uh he's working on a new one so he breaks down his his methods for us
00:01:31
yeah and we have a bunch of laughs so stay tuned
00:01:37
[Music] oh whoa whoa whoa wow as I live and
00:01:42
breathe as I live has anyone ever told you um
00:01:48
that you kind of when you smile there is like your your long lost cousin Bob Odkirk just in this I get I get I do get
00:01:56
I do get Odin Kirk sometimes he in a we shot a pilot once for CBS like 15 years
00:02:03
ago where he played my brother oh okay so I buy it so So that's the one that didn't go that's the one that didn't go
00:02:10
yeah we heard that saved your career getting away from Bob yeah whatever whatever happened to him and and Nick
00:02:16
Croll yeah yeah exactly exactly i like the executive that passed on it i mean
00:02:21
if it's something like that you just say yes you even if the show sucks you go "Yes let's get all these guys under a
00:02:27
deal." And then you start changing it or whatever you want to do sometimes I think that I go "Why are you passing on
00:02:33
this package it's too good." Did you think it was bad because you know I know Bob Odok fairly well and he would
00:02:40
be he's very comedy is really really important to Bob to say the least thank you no no it's great to show you guys
00:02:50
are so he's awesome he said the single we're nonsequiter but since you're
00:02:56
smiling and you know him the single maybe funniest thing has ever been said on the podcast cuz we knew Bob when he
00:03:02
was like an underling he was like on SNL and stuff but I always loved him and he's a writer but he's kind of
00:03:08
struggling it's in his book he comes on our Zoom and like we're you know Better Call Saul was kind of like you know he
00:03:14
knew comedians have like what what the [ __ ] bob Hooker now he's like winning Emmys as an actor and then when he did
00:03:22
Nobody or the Fighting One what was that called yeah nobody yeah and he said to himself "If this thing works man you
00:03:29
guys are going to be going "What the fuck?" Yeah and everyone did action star
00:03:36
now it's just like cuz we know Bob from before so it's funny and there's a sequel dan we're going to let you talk
00:03:42
in a sec but I just want to No no no we don't we don't need to do that no I I
00:03:48
mean Odin Kirk yeah he came to the filming of The Good Life uh cuz he's in town doing Glengary Glenn Ross and he
00:03:54
he's just like a deeply supportive person of I think comedians he's just
00:04:00
really good to comedian fellow comedians yes he good dude overall he he if I'm
00:04:06
not mistaken he rode living in a van down by the river you are not mistaken yeah you are not mistaken gave the one
00:04:13
of the biggest gifts to SNL by the way do you remember when we met this will be a really quick story you may not i
00:04:21
opened for you in Rhode Island at a college is that what it is that's it but I was on I was on some kind of doing a
00:04:26
little mini tour i had a friend of mine Mark Pitter was my opener and then no one told me that the they booked an an
00:04:32
opener so when we showed up they go "This guy Mike wants to go up." And you know and you don't come off like a cocky
00:04:40
guy you're kind of unassuming i go "Oh no what's this [ __ ] guy what's he going to do?" You really need him i
00:04:46
didn't know i didn't know you do we really need him oh yeah so you know I'm thinking this is going to be a cluster
00:04:52
[ __ ] this guy i'm not getting good vibes so then I'm watching you not good vibes what the well cuz he Mike is unassuming
00:05:00
and and and quiet and then I'm watching the show i'm like he's building and building i went "Holy [ __ ] this guy is
00:05:07
great." Yeah a That's so nice i I thought it at the time and I do not
00:05:12
think I followed you correctly i think you left awake cuz it was clever and
00:05:18
stuff i made some faces did some funny sounds and after 10 minutes it was like they were done it was it was like you
00:05:25
know you absolutely crushed it was I I don't think I'd never seen you live but you know I grew up on both of you guys
00:05:33
on SNL so I would do in seventh grade I remember I was doing at school church
00:05:41
lady Hans and France George Bush senior so sorry and by the way killing
00:05:47
literally doing your characters no one really knew what they were from SNL so I
00:05:53
was just getting I was like the seventh grade hack so they didn't know you were from so you're doing your new character
00:06:00
in junior high called the church lady like that yeah exactly and killing with it i was killing it you want to do it
00:06:07
i'd be I'd be I would never I would I would never It would It would be the most embarrassing thing that's an easy
00:06:14
one to do but you know well well everybody I mean that's one of the things about your impressions is that
00:06:20
your impressions are so good thank you i mean your Biden is so crazy good that
00:06:26
essentially it's that thing in culture where everyone retrofits their Biden
00:06:31
they all everyone goes "Now wait a minute it's like walking everyone turns into a walk-in at a certain point you go
00:06:37
oh now I can do it it's like a home kit." And guess what and by the way it
00:06:42
was the nonsequator guess what and by the way the fact of the matter is I'm not getting around here i mean serious
00:06:50
i'll knock you out Jack get your facts you're not going to beat the hell out of you take them away call
00:06:56
those people Jack how would I known about the cancer they couldn't have known they don't do checks
00:07:03
for that kind of thing there you go what if they knew about the cancer for
00:07:09
four years it's like another thing they're like "What there's another thing we kind of spaced out the No but okay so
00:07:15
I used to do SNL impressions in seventh grade and then I remember one the Here's the mistake I made i did John Loveitz's
00:07:22
annoying man and people don't know the character he
00:07:27
just shows up yeah dennis He shows up to Dennis Miller's update and he just goes annoying man he puts his fingers around
00:07:34
his eyes and [ __ ] i did it to this guy in class named Kenny who was tough and I
00:07:40
go Kenny annoying man [ __ ] I don't know if I can say curse you can't curse
00:07:46
so sucked me in the face so sucked me in the face bleeding in science class
00:07:51
seventh grade and I never did annoying men again the character the name of the
00:07:56
character is who the character is I just love the annoying we did too much of that back then I think it Santa was
00:08:04
crazy spoon spoon man and he had a crazy spoon opera man we had a lot of man's
00:08:10
metal on the head productions man i don't think they do it as much anymore like that you know just straight up
00:08:16
here's what it is what do you think Mike just building it out from who the people are oh comedy is started because we
00:08:22
would have little jingles like he's massive massive head wound hairy or ly
00:08:27
the effeminite heterosexual and when I was out there I asked them and they said oh we don't we don't do that anymore
00:08:33
well I guess it's out of fashion but to me it's so funny to lay it all out like
00:08:38
that present it i think I think my favorite analysis of SNL through the years because I've you know I've watched
00:08:45
it since I was a kid I still watch it is when Seth Meyers said every single
00:08:51
episode since the beginning of time some of it is great some of it's terrible
00:08:57
some of it's okay and it's never changed very true no it's never changed that's
00:09:03
why we don't have a plethora of other live sketch shows in America except now
00:09:09
they're going to do one in Great Britain I guess Saturday Night Live in Jolly Old London so but yeah it's not easy and you
00:09:15
you're humiliated half the time you know you kind of just it didn't really happen you know it didn't happen the audience
00:09:21
knows it didn't happen lauren Michaels know it didn't happen and you kind of just
00:09:27
blew it i made I made a mo I don't know if you guys know this i made a movie called Don't Think Twice years ago about
00:09:33
Keegan Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs are part of like an improv group where everyone's best friends and then one of
00:09:39
them gets cast on like a Saturday Night Live type of show called Weekend Live and then everyone else doesn't and it's
00:09:45
about what happens in friendships when when people realize they're not going to get the same thing do you did you guys
00:09:50
have that when you guys got it yes sure yeah that's the whole that's going back
00:09:57
to the improv and seeing people you saw and now you got a little heat on you and um but I watch people do it before me
00:10:03
and after so it's always just an odd and then you get on SNL and it's the same thing people get in sketches and all
00:10:10
their stuff gets on that week and yours does and you go "Hey good job go get them." Yeah it is a funny thing it's so
00:10:16
hard to cover you're like cuz you're coming from your standup scene and your friends you know and then suddenly
00:10:21
you're on television and they're not and it's just kind of awkward you know bobby Sllayton was like I can't believe I
00:10:27
can't believe this song live i can't believe it i can't believe this life of all people
00:10:33
all people you know and Seinfeld was always because Jerry had you know this
00:10:38
spectacular confidence even way before he made it you know see I met him in
00:10:43
like 1980 he was in his suit and he had it all together yeah I've always heard that and then when I got on SNL and went
00:10:51
to some award show for comedians or something he go he just walked up and goes "Congratulations you made it." Just
00:10:57
walked away it wasn't no envy nothing but um I Yeah show business is like
00:11:03
"Have you had that experience?" Because what I was going to ask you is this and it goes to a overarching theme of how
00:11:09
you do your performance when you were coming up through in the clubs did
00:11:14
because a lot of times the blenders going you gotta follow a dick joke guy you know and so how did you survive
00:11:20
those days before you became Well it was funny it's like I remember
00:11:26
cuz I was a writer you know when I was in high school I saw Steven Wright live
00:11:31
at the Kop Melody tent and I was just like "This is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life." You know before
00:11:37
that I'd watched SNL i'd watched Early Letterman but then when I saw a comedian live I was like "This is crazy." And he
00:11:43
was a different comedian like just a perfect linesmith yeah it's like perfect
00:11:49
perfect comedian and I was just like I want to you know I want to do this and then I just started writing jokes and I
00:11:56
had you know notebooks of jokes and then by the time I when I was in college I was working the door at the Washington DC Improv and Great and yeah great club
00:12:05
to when you were like Mitch Hedber Dave Mattel you know and uh Margaret Cho and all
00:12:12
these people who are great you know Dave Dave Chappelle and Reg Brian Rean and it was great and then when I would work the
00:12:19
road after when I after I was 22 after college I was working like hard gigs and
00:12:25
I remember like I would open for these guys and they would I remember one guy he just said to me he goes you're gonna
00:12:32
make it like I would do like not great and he goes like you're going to make it and I was like I literally go why why do
00:12:40
you think it's a great question and and he goes instead of thanks you write he goes you're right you write your jokes i
00:12:48
was like what the [ __ ] are you talking about we all that wasn't enough information no there's a lot of there
00:12:56
was a lot of road warriors that did a lot of dick jokes one guy I can't remember but he got this guy was so hung
00:13:01
they call him the human tripod you know you know in loud bars and so to survive
00:13:08
in that environment you start to get louder and faster and bluer but yeah you actually craft maybe yeah you're crafty
00:13:16
writer you're writing good material it will surface because you're you're you
00:13:21
know if you get a crowd that listens I think that's what you need and some people can do it with this sound off so
00:13:28
the way you write it's sort of like Nate does right now he's gets a quiet crowd that listens and waits for him and so I
00:13:34
think you over time like I've never heard one negative thing about your actor or anything and you know usually Oh that's nice usually it's me kind of
00:13:41
starting the guy i don't want to fan out over you i was watching saying they're bad
00:13:47
you know what I mean just to get the thing rolling just like hey you know it's kind of shitty but I like some of
00:13:52
it but it's just you know so I do that but um I think you've got a good rep out
00:13:58
there and I think that just grinds through and keeps your career going and keep getting better and better and
00:14:03
better that's a good thing to have cuz it's hard to stick around in the biz as we all know
00:14:11
[Music] i'd like to make an observation about that in a minute but first I just want
00:14:16
to know about your first set because that everyone remembers their first set
00:14:23
so oh you know it's funny i just realized this first set was funniest person on campus contest at Georgetown
00:14:31
University nick Croll was in the contest with me great comic and uh the host was
00:14:38
Victoria Jackson oh really really that's a better story than I thought love it
00:14:44
love it you're so funny Mike you're cute and funny up there
00:14:51
she that's who she is i mean she's I swear to God I came off stage i came off
00:14:56
stage and I you know it was like me doing a a big character there was a musical number it was it was
00:15:04
bani back then yeah good job and I walked off stage and Victoria Jackson
00:15:10
who you know I idolized watching SNL and she goes "You're going to be a
00:15:16
comedian." Oh I love it he's literally the first person in my life to tell me I'm going
00:15:21
to be a comedian i was like I can't believe it but coming from someone famous that means a lot it was crazy it
00:15:28
was a crazy experience cuz she on SNL she would obliterate like she would kill
00:15:35
in sketch so hard so so unique i've said this before but
00:15:41
when I was in the 17th floor and I think I just got in the show and Victoria was there and Lauren Michaels came up to me
00:15:47
because he just had talked to her he said "Dana will you talk to Victoria and try
00:15:53
to figure out what what that's all about because you're funny what does that mean
00:15:58
there's something funny was she playing a character you know but she wasn't you know and that purity bounced off the
00:16:05
screen and SNL uh this innocence the true innocence about her but um so what
00:16:12
I was going to observe about because I like we have standups on this show and as a standup you're I'm pretty much good
00:16:19
with a great standup for about 15 minutes you know as Spade said at the 50
00:16:26
i get the general gist you know we know how the uh but with you and there's
00:16:31
others but you're it's personal and so there's a sto a through line and a story
00:16:36
i know and I want to ask you about standup versus one man show and the you know the blurring of that but I found
00:16:42
myself really compelled of this idea when you tell maybe a ch a story to your
00:16:48
daughter you make up a story then she pauses and says "And then what happens?"
00:16:53
And so you you subtly ride this narrative and so and then you go for this moment
00:16:59
uh where you just land a somber moment about your dad you just say he felt sad
00:17:04
and it just sits there and I'm like so the you and you're also balls out funny
00:17:11
all the time so it's very interesting i found myself like I'm literally going to
00:17:16
finish it i only got halfway through today because I want to know what happens so it's a Anyway that's all I
00:17:23
had to observe i'll let you guys talk now well that that's that's definitely the the goal like what happened was is I
00:17:28
when I was in school I was studying film and and plays like how to write
00:17:34
screenwriting and playwriting and I I thought for sure when I got out of
00:17:39
school like I being a delusional 20-year-old I was like I'm going to be a screenwriter of course everyone wants me
00:17:46
to write films everyone's waiting yeah yeah they're all waiting everyone's just
00:17:52
looking for scripts hurry get out of school yeah and so I And so And so then the closer I got to
00:18:00
graduation the more I I would talk to people in the business or adjacent to the business and they're like "Yeah no
00:18:06
one wants movie scripts at all especially not from you who has no credits or credibility." And someone
00:18:13
said to me and I I I and I thought it was good advice they were like "You should just keep doing standup because
00:18:19
you know you're working the door and you're you're you're pretty good at it and then eventually you'll be able to make movies." And so along the way I
00:18:27
started kind of merging playwriting and standup into a thing and so when I think
00:18:33
of the shows I think of them kind of like what you're describing like movies like in a movie you have to have the
00:18:40
scene uh lead to the next scene so then the next scene so then the next scene and if it doesn't have that propulsion
00:18:47
you just shut it off like so people fade out well you're surviving laugh to laugh then the ultimate opposite of this yeah
00:18:54
you know and Yeah but then I go you know like I think where I met Spade was over
00:19:00
at the comedy seller one night um like maybe a a year or two ago and that's
00:19:06
where I work out the joke part of it cuz like the joke cuz that's important too like you have to have the jokes work in
00:19:13
isolation with audience members that aren't there to see you that that's the
00:19:18
goal that's true and then because it's different than standup because standup is literally like you're if you go 30
00:19:24
seconds without some sort of laugh you're like what's going on but if you have a oneman show and you're doing it
00:19:30
like a story you can have ups and downs and parts that are sort of dramatic is that what you're saying kind of yeah and
00:19:37
like you know I was lucky about I don't know 15 years ago oh 17 years ago I met
00:19:43
up with Ira Glass who's the host of this American life on public radio and and he kind of sort of he kind of taught me how
00:19:50
to shape individual like 8 to 10 minute stories and I was doing this moth
00:19:56
storytelling series in New York and so over the years I just got I got kind of hooked on this idea of like oh if you
00:20:03
can have the jokes work and the story work and then and the larger show work then like it's kind of a magical thing
00:20:10
who else is doing what you're doing of your generation i mean I know you you knew John Melany or you know John Malany
00:20:16
and Nick Croll and stuff is anyone else cuz seems like you kind of stick out in this way u right now if you consider
00:20:24
yourself as a standup but but you're also a oneman show guy so well I produced Alex Edelman's show which is
00:20:32
called Just for Us um and uh it's kind of it's definitely kind of in that vein i mean like
00:20:39
uh Jaclyn Novak I produced Jaclyn Novak's show Get on Your Knee which is a little bit in that vein it was at Largo
00:20:45
a lot like in the last few years and really funny and title title's a bit you know leading billy Billy Crystal had I
00:20:52
think it was called A Thousand Sundays that's right that's right billy does it really well chad had a narrative yeah
00:20:59
yeah he's fantastic john Leguisamo does it who's really good he's another one but like the the the the format is re is
00:21:07
actually really big in England like like Edinburgh like I went to Edinburgh
00:21:12
French Festival a few years ago for the first time i had never gone and I was like oh like like a hundred people are
00:21:19
doing shows like this simultaneously but it's just never really caught on here yeah because with standup specials I
00:21:25
don't know now but a few years back it'd be like you'd have your maybe a current event chunk or you'd have relationship
00:21:31
chunk and then you might have driving in cars and how dogs are different from cats and it would be sort of an
00:21:37
archetypal kind of and then when it's one through narrative with all its different tributaries I don't know
00:21:44
sounds fun if I wasn't lazy and and went to uh College of Sono I would do what
00:21:52
you do dummy dummy alert you should though i mean you and you but you have a really you have a lot of great raw
00:21:59
materials for it because you had that whole health like scare in the you know a few years ago like the things that you
00:22:06
could talk about are endless that's that's true all right thank you that is true
00:22:11
i've distilled it now to just kind of going back to sounds and trying to get
00:22:17
people involved with abstraction so it's a wholly different course but I want them like in junior college with my
00:22:24
friends were stone I would do a Star Trek bit and it would go on for 10 minutes and stuff like that you know
00:22:30
I've just g I've gone full circle you can do your thing about the hospital and play all your
00:22:35
organs just give them all like a little personality hey man it was a box bypass two words that don't belong together but
00:22:42
he got one out of the two arteries right so he's 50/50 you can't judge it listen
00:22:47
so you know that that'll keep you in the NBA i mean in a in a way Shandling did
00:22:53
it to a degree right like it was very personal it it didn't it didn't have an arc necessarily but like it was just
00:23:00
very personal that's a that that's it is some when it's personal that's also another thing that attaches if it's just
00:23:07
abstract jokes but when it's personal um you know I don't know who do you like out there right now and I was going to
00:23:14
ask you about this phenomenon of people in the last 6 eight years playing
00:23:21
stadiums or arenas like it was not so common 20 years ago so what is that
00:23:27
about and would you like to play Madison Square Garden i feel like like you know there's a
00:23:33
handful like uh I'm trying to think like at Katsica who has an HBO special I
00:23:40
think is really really funny i think this there's this guy Chris Fleming out in LA who's from Massachusetts really
00:23:46
really funny i mean I I think like I love Tigaro i mean she's in my sort of
00:23:52
class u we sort of been doing shows yeah very personal but um yeah it's weird the
00:23:59
stadium thing feels like it's got to end right i
00:24:04
feel bad when I go I'm going to Tempe next month and I people like "Oh Sunundevil Stadium." I go
00:24:10
"No I'm playing a theater." They're like "Oh I guess a lot of people were playing
00:24:16
Sunundevil Stadium." Like a lot of people are one
00:24:22
one guy is playing I won't say who he is he's playing Nebraska they're setting up a state north border of Nebraska they
00:24:28
have they have speakers all throughout the state book Nebraska that's a pretty
00:24:33
big state i hope wow i would play the Four Corners
00:24:38
i I've never I've never I I saw I think one or two shows at Madison Square
00:24:45
Garden of Comedy and I was just kind of like yeah I don't know it It doesn't It doesn't allure me but you know I like
00:24:52
like I filmed my special at the Beacon at the Beacon Theater to me that's like the perfect big venue 2700 would you act
00:25:01
in a big 10,000 seater is it the same thing or is it too small to listen to i
00:25:07
have I have I think with screens I mean cuz Nate Nate is similar in some ways
00:25:12
but I think the screens must do it I suppose otherwise ow yeah because I I I
00:25:18
opened for John Stewart years ago at Merryweather Post Pavilion that was like 9,000 people and it was good it's just
00:25:26
like you're playing for television yeah right it's like the screens it's like you're just projected on a 40ft screen
00:25:34
yeah i think it's uh it's it's great for your your pocketbook but it's not I mean
00:25:39
if money wasn't um any concern or anything what is your favorite size room just for you having fun i mean what's
00:25:47
funny is in in LA I don't know if you guys go over there much but like I think Largo is the best comedy room 300
00:25:56
yeah unbelievable and And then in New York the comedy seller is unbelievable
00:26:01
it's 140 seats in a basement yeah i I really that Sorry just the compression
00:26:07
of the energy and it feeds around and so for me especially because I'll just get
00:26:12
into some rhythm and if I'm getting that energy I'm just going to keep riding it you know with some character and and so
00:26:19
I do like 100 seater 80seater low ceilings you know for fun what's fun
00:26:25
yeah like like my favorite probably my favorite thing I I've ever done in comedy is like being at the cellar and
00:26:31
Chris Rock pops in and you're seeing him in front of 140 people like work out new
00:26:38
ideas you're just like "This is the craziest thing." It's like a fantasy sequence of as a comedy fan that's the
00:26:44
fun of the cellar i think it's wide it's It's about 3 ft deep and uh like if you
00:26:49
go to the restroom in there I think Colin was on last time I was there and I had to go pee and I'm like "No cuz he'll
00:26:55
see me for sure it's just distracting like you you have to walk right in front of him and everyone and it's so small
00:27:01
that it's too obvious." Um I have a question about that table the comics sit at that's always curious to me who's
00:27:08
allowed at that table that's a good That's a really good question i think even barely the comics
00:27:14
are allowed at the comics table yeah yeah some of the comics are allowed at the comics table no I mean I love that
00:27:21
place it's like it's Yeah here's what I'll say it's one table there there's an auxiliary table
00:27:28
there's an auxiliary table spillover table yeah there's a spillover um I think that
00:27:35
well when I was in my 20s and I was playing there I would get you know it's
00:27:41
the early 2000s I would get murdered by you know Patrice O'Neal and Bill Burr
00:27:47
and all those Colin Quinn like it was all the tough crowd guys Greg Geraldo and they would just rip me to shreds i
00:27:55
mean it was just a it was a different You mean if you sat there or they would just give you [ __ ] that's who was sort of Yeah if I if I sat
00:28:03
there or even like Jimmy Norton was like that he was in that group and and I love
00:28:08
these guys but like back then like cuz I was like this wideeyed kid it's funny i remember one time Todd Glass who I know
00:28:16
you guys know Todd he's a brilliant comic funny he came he was visiting me in town and he came and he saw those
00:28:24
guys just rip me apart at the table like and he couldn't believe it like I don't think he'd ever seen anything like it
00:28:31
and he was like "Why do they talk to you like that?" And I go "I don't I don't
00:28:37
know man this is I'm I'm new i'm young whatever." And then he brought up you Spade he goes he goes "The only other
00:28:44
person I saw this happen to was David Spade because when he came to LA he was immediately really good and young and he
00:28:52
got a lot of stuff fast and so people like came at him really fast." Is that true i've never The way of the world but
00:28:58
yeah that was at the improv and the worst part was I was like they're like "You're doing a movie already?" I go "I
00:29:03
guess aren't you supposed to is that I mean I've I've done five sets i've paid
00:29:10
my dues but the improv was a place where like it goes back to you saying you want
00:29:17
to write movies but to do standup was good advice because you have to somehow be in front of people doing something
00:29:23
because people won't see you when they go people in my acting class are like "Oh I don't do commercials i don't do
00:29:31
soap operas i don't do this." Or TV shows you go "If you're good they will find you but you have to be in front of
00:29:37
somebody you could find someone good even in a commercial you go or they just catch your eye you have to be out there
00:29:43
and to stand up you get to be at the improv if you get on or the store now and the seller obviously is very famous
00:29:50
but there's there's always someone even if it's other comedians like they might be writing something you know who'd be
00:29:55
good this guy cuz you're in front of them and so I got stuff because casting people would just drift into the improv
00:30:02
and go "Oh I wasn't even here to see this guy." But they'll just grab somebody and go "Oh they'd fit." you know we should and that really helped
00:30:09
you did not look like a regular standup David you know you had the long surfer blonde hair you looked maybe 16 when you
00:30:18
were 22 i I watched SP when I was in college i watched your half hour and it
00:30:23
was like a perfect half hour you were like young with that hour man that was
00:30:28
so great because I didn't realize that was one of the reasons I got spots at the improv because the chalkboard lineup
00:30:34
they rode on the chalkboard in the old days and it was Kevin Nean and Leno and Seinfeld and uh Richard Bzer and just
00:30:41
guys that did not look like me and I was just from Arizona i was 20 and I had
00:30:47
long blonde hair so I think Bud Freriedman was like "Oh we need one of you just you just look different just
00:30:52
get up there and mumble around i don't care." Oh sure [Music]
00:30:59
i do think there's no greater calling card than standup if they know you're you wrote it they they can see you can
00:31:06
land a joke and in your case you could they could see you're an actor you could definitely you know and you've done
00:31:12
movies and stuff sleepwalk with me do you bring that corkboard into your meetings to show how hard you work
00:31:19
is that full of Saturday Night Live sketches and the yellow ones are the funniest and the pink ones are under
00:31:24
construction it's literally just Yeah are those your ideas random ideas yeah
00:31:30
that goes back to when I was 18 years old and I started writing jokes and just putting them on not cards on my wall i
00:31:36
still do it well they want me to have a background here so I'm going to do that i think it looks really photo of that it
00:31:42
looks like very professional like I'm so [ __ ] busy if you could take a picture of that send it to me i'll blow it up
00:31:48
you know what's funny about that is that it it shows shows people that it's hard
00:31:53
enough to do your act when you see it polished this is the [ __ ] that you're doing all day to get something that
00:31:58
works for 30 seconds like to get anything that works is so hard
00:32:04
no it's I always say that to people who are starting out in comedy it's like I write four hours of comedy to do an hour
00:32:12
of comedy and even now have a good feel for it and
00:32:17
before you'd write something it' be like a random thing would work but now you go I think in my head this will work i did
00:32:24
that last week so I have to work on new stuff and I'm like these three will work and two two didn't and I'm like what why
00:32:31
at this point do I still not know for sure what will work it's so confounding
00:32:37
sometimes mike have you ever written a bit uh or a piece of your special or whatever where you kind of thought well
00:32:43
I don't know if I'm ever going to write something that lands this beautifully like full circle you know i think I
00:32:51
think like yeah my sleepwalking story is like that and to an extent which is like
00:32:57
you know basically 20 years ago I sleepwalked through a second story
00:33:03
window in did you fall i've seen did you fall yeah i No I
00:33:08
jumped through the glass okay and cuz I had a dream there was a guided missile
00:33:14
headed towards my room and they told me the missile coordinates were set on me and so in my dream and as it turns out
00:33:21
my life cuz I was diagnosed with this thing called RBD REM behavior disorder i jumped through the window and I landed
00:33:27
on the front lawn of the motel wow i took a fall i kept running and I'm running i'm slowly realizing I'm on the
00:33:33
front lawn of Linta Inn in Walaw Wallala Washington in my underwear bleeding and
00:33:39
the and the tr and the strangest thing is in that moment I was relieved that I hadn't been hit by the missile i was
00:33:47
like that would have been a disaster that story I could see where it's like it's so nobody else goes I've heard that
00:33:54
from a lot of I've got one like that everybody jumps through a window
00:33:59
especially Lita but no I could see where you kind of like that's why you know you did a movie as well right or and you put
00:34:08
mittens on after that is that the rumor for a period for a period of time I wore
00:34:13
a sleeping bag a doctor told me to do this wear a sleeping bag up to my neck and wear mittens so I can't open the
00:34:19
sleeping bag so awesome so I did that for years for years I did that i don't stay away from missiles
00:34:26
he said that's probably the smartest as well and maybe think about the Holiday
00:34:31
End next time i don't know maybe the first floor i don't trust Linta so one
00:34:37
thing I'm kind of curious about you because I don't know in specific like you in your career like like when was
00:34:44
the first time you knew okay I'm going to make enough money this is now my job
00:34:50
after you graduated college okay I'm I'm good this is what I'm going to do with my life i remember I had
00:34:58
like one of those calendars from Staples and I would I would go through and I
00:35:04
would in highlighter if I had a club week booked you know it'd be like San Jose improv and it would be like and
00:35:11
you'd write in parentheses like $300 you know what I mean like $300 for nine
00:35:16
shows yeah or whatever yeah it'd be like Cincinnati go bananas
00:35:22
325 like this is such Yeah yeah it's such a small amount of money and you
00:35:28
would just And every month I would go if I can just make
00:35:34
$1325 I can pay my rent and and it was probably like I would say like a year
00:35:40
into moving New York to New York where I was like "Okay I can I think I can do
00:35:46
this." And then uh but were you going in and out of town yeah I was driving my
00:35:51
mom's station wagon that had like 130,000 miles on it to gigs a lot of
00:35:57
them on the east coast thank God right so when you were traveling like that were you the MC or the opener or co-head
00:36:03
i was the MC or the feature i was the MC or the feature and I mean I've just opened for I mean I opened for Hedberg a
00:36:11
bunch of times i remember I opened for Jake Johansson who was a brilliant film from San Francisco oh my god it's like
00:36:17
comedy school like that you go [ __ ] I get I get to sit in the side and watch this it's crazy that and that was my
00:36:24
favorite part of it and then I got and then I got Letterman from doing Montreal Comedy Festival i I did Montreal Comedy
00:36:31
Festival New Faces when I was 23 yeah and then wow Eddie Eddie Bril saw me and was like I think we could work on a set
00:36:37
for Letterman and I was like that's crazy like this is literally between SNL and Letterman that's like all I grew up
00:36:43
on so I was like this is crazy and then it was like a year later so 24 you're
00:36:48
doing a set on Letterman yeah it was bananas and for the crowd at home it takes a year to buff out a set to Right
00:36:56
it does it takes a long time oh yeah yeah for sure they have to keep seeing you and go change that word i'd put that
00:37:01
sentence at the end i'd open for the And you're like it'll do good the fear factor going on of letter i What was
00:37:08
your head space um behind the curtain and you heard hear Letterman announce
00:37:14
you how were you you were I remember that's I remember they came up and I remember they came up and they go "Uh do
00:37:21
you want Q cards with your jokes of your jokes?" And I go "No I think I know the
00:37:28
jokes." And then my brother Joe was there with me and Joe goes "Yeah he
00:37:34
wants the Q cards." Like he likes time and then I swear to God I said my first joke my brain you know you're standing
00:37:41
on like this like circle in the middle of the Ed Sullivan theater on the stage the moment I said one joke I forgot
00:37:49
everything in my act and I was like I am so [ __ ] right now i am completely and
00:37:54
totally [ __ ] and I look up at the Q card and I'm like there's the other jokes what does it mean by says
00:37:59
McDonald's and you go oh I know what that means folks so I went to McDonald's
00:38:05
last night we're good and was it a travel he didn't invite people to the couch but how good was that set was it
00:38:11
good enough or very good i think it was good enough i think it was like you know
00:38:16
my agent who was a new agent at the time like he hadn't he was kind of the he and
00:38:22
I were the same age which is always good it's so funny when people people always ask you like "How do you get an agent?"
00:38:27
It's like "Well try to find someone who has like no career no clients." You know what I mean no clients
00:38:34
and now now he's like the biggest agent there is like he you know Melany and Kevin Hart and all these huge at the
00:38:41
time he No it was Mike Burwood mike Burkwood okay oh big and but at the time he had nobody and it was me he actually
00:38:49
he had me and Greg Deraldo that's who he had okay no and who was a brilliant comic and and uh and he was like "Well I
00:38:56
could market you as like the youngest comic to ever do Letterman," which was a
00:39:02
lie who's like fully alive i can think of lies so it sounds good and you Yeah
00:39:07
yeah so I would go to like Joker's Comedy Club in Dayton which is like attached to like a strip club and like
00:39:15
sells like dildos and you know dildo straws in the lobby and they and they
00:39:20
would and they would and they would have it was like for bachelorette parties and things and then they would uh and then
00:39:26
they they would it would be marketed as like the youngest guy to be on it was like literally a lie it was just a fun
00:39:34
yeah yeah not funny not even but young but young but young and then uh and then
00:39:39
I figured out how to do an hour but it's like it's funny cuz when you're starting out and I did like God I must have done
00:39:45
like a 175 colleges like the one that you and I did in Rhode Island but like I I mean
00:39:52
you I feel like you figure out how to do an hour of comedy when they tell you you
00:39:58
have to do an hour of comedy it's hard it's so hard you guys dealt with this i had the exact same thing because I was
00:40:04
there just for a second when the clubs were just being built basically so I think it was Laughs Unlimited in
00:40:09
Sacramento and not everyone had I didn't have the time they go well we'll headline you but you need to do an hour
00:40:16
so that's why I got the guitar and did a few things and I had props i mean I did anything to grab time you know so go
00:40:22
ahead but were you headlining on SNL because I I got SNL as a middle so when
00:40:28
I got enough fame to go it was gradual but when I got to headline I'm like I don't think I can [ __ ] head i barely
00:40:33
have I did my longest middle set was like 35 and then you got to go to an hour and
00:40:39
I'm like an hour or 40 45 is good and they go "Yeah maybe an hour we'll put the checks out what about when they put
00:40:45
the checks out and it stops your act in its track and you go?" Everyone just I remember I did I had
00:40:52
done uh this show called Premium Blend on Comedy Central and and someone saw me on it and booked me at a long defunct
00:41:00
club called the Comedy Spot in Shamberg Illinois and they just fully just emailed me from my website hey can you
00:41:06
come headline our club i was you know you're delusional when you're a kid you're just like "Oh absolutely i'll be
00:41:11
right I'll be there next week." I show up first of all no one shows up no one's heard of me there's like no like
00:41:18
completely empty it's like a new club and I I have 25 minutes of material i
00:41:23
mean they're literally like "So you do an hour the opener does 10." And I was like "Okay sounds good." I go out I'm
00:41:30
fully through my act at a half hour and I'm you know and that's how what's weird that's how you learn how to do crowd
00:41:35
work you have to i was going to say you got to go to the crowd yeah where where you been where are you
00:41:41
from yeah did you did you when you went on Letterman did you have special clothes or did you just did you buy a
00:41:48
jacket for the show or did you just wear your coat no that was the whole thing is they they they always said you have to
00:41:54
wear a suit cuz Dave likes he's like old look right dave likes when you wear
00:42:00
a suit and so I I bought my you know my first suit that's kind of cool though but it's sometimes it's bad because you
00:42:07
know I don't think me or Dana would be fully relaxed in a suit when you're
00:42:13
always wearing something else on set i go what is the closest what I always wear to make everything the same as a
00:42:19
club cuz when I did my first TV spot I walked out and I did like you with the Q cards i was staring at the shiny floor
00:42:26
and the crowd and the cameras going I couldn't even think of my act i was like holy [ __ ] this is what it looks like out
00:42:31
here i'm always looking this way and then I'm like dear in headlights and they're like go ahead and go and I'm like oh okay um what else yeah i had a
00:42:40
related thing with with you because I remember hearing you talk about when you would do Hollywood Minute on SNL and the
00:42:47
people were mad like because you're making fun of real people for me you
00:42:53
started an industry kind of you know yeah like I remember doing a show on uh
00:42:59
one of those VH1 talking head shows yeah yeah yeah and they were like "What do you think of Huey Lewis in the news?" And I'm like "Blah blah blah he sucks."
00:43:06
Whatever the joke was and I got an email from like a whole bunch of Huey Lewis heads who were just like "You [ __ ]
00:43:13
suck you who the [ __ ] are you we don't know who you are we love Huey Lewis what
00:43:18
have you who are you?" I got a lot of that cuz I was new it was actually funnier that I was new and making fun of
00:43:24
people cuz it was so out of the blue but it was I always say it was the era of People magazine where celebrities were
00:43:29
so adored and you forget that they're all trash now but when when back then to say uh you see this movie they didn't
00:43:37
they kind of suck in that everyone's like wait what why would you just said they were bad in something and you're
00:43:44
like yeah my friends went to that it [ __ ] sucks and you're like this is how real people talk but they were you
00:43:50
know who helped me with Hollywood Minute bob Odenk oh oh did he oh it's hilarious that's well that's that's sort of the
00:43:56
secret of Bob is he's like a silent killer right he's like super nice Midwestern and then behind the scenes
00:44:03
he's like actually and he's smart and he said maybe frame it like there you know we were trying different things I think
00:44:08
it was like guess what you're an idiot like we were doing stuff about celebrities and I think it was Michael
00:44:15
Bolton we you know you got long hair in the back but guess what we all know what's happening on top cuz it was like
00:44:22
really thin up here Bob Bob owner Kirk and I think it was Smiggle and myself but they had and I think it was
00:44:28
primarily Bob the grumpy old man that I did on SNL was the reverse of what you
00:44:33
would expect cuz the guy's like "We didn't have flame retardant sleepwear if
00:44:39
you went to bed smoking you woke up engulfed in flames look at me whoopde-doo i'm a flaming corpse." And I
00:44:47
like it i love it and that was all Bob it was such a weird twist on the classic
00:44:53
old guy [Music]
00:44:58
i just wanted to insert for a second because it's in my head that wearing suits on talk shows so initially I'd
00:45:05
wear kind of a loose shirt sometimes a t-shirt leather jacket cuz the host was always older than me it was either Leno
00:45:12
or Carson or Letterman and then when the host became older than me like Jimmy
00:45:18
Fallon in a suit I can't wear a t-shirt i'm older than I'm older than him so then I switched to the suit i just want
00:45:24
to tell you that I remember I was so starruck i was opening in for uh Pablo Francisco
00:45:34
killer unbelievable killer and Jimmy Fallon came cuz they
00:45:39
had been in an acting class together and it and that was another one where like Jimmy Fallon was there and he came
00:45:46
up to me and I'm friends with Jimmy you know still today but like he came up to me afterwards and he was like he was
00:45:51
like I he was like you're going to do this you're going to do this like you're going to make it you know and I feel like sometimes that kind of thing like
00:45:58
the Victoria Jackson thing and the founding like it does kind of get you through the hard it resonates someone
00:46:04
real in show business said I was good that's right yeah it's very true this
00:46:10
was a told me about that yeah jimmy told me about beating you and thought you're
00:46:15
going to make it and I said you really think he's going to make it it's only makeup this is crazy sorry i just do it i I do it as a
00:46:24
sound this is a crazy uh but um yeah I
00:46:29
was going to ask you just this sort of overarching joke like where are you now right now now you're going on tour and
00:46:36
when is this special come out on Netflix is this the comes out the good life the good life the good life is out uh I
00:46:43
think by the time this comes out August May 26th okay okay so and you have So
00:46:49
it's May 26th The Good Life Netflix on Netflix and uh and then I'm write and
00:46:55
I'm writing my next movie my first movie was Sleepwalk with me my second movie is called Don't Think Twice and I'm writing
00:47:01
a third movie which is like an ensemble comedy that takes place at a wedding about a bunch of old friends and uh I'm
00:47:08
just psyched about it like I'm I'm taking some time off from standup i'm doing a few shows with Melanie this summer me and Fred Armson and Nick Croll
00:47:14
and Melanie are doing a bunch of out outdoor shows this summer in Canada and Maine fun but yeah it's just I you I
00:47:22
feel like you never get to do shows when you headline as a comedian you never get to hang with your friends doing shows so
00:47:29
we're I love that we're just doing a bunch of show and you're just in the mix there you don't necessarily close or open you're just going to be I'm not
00:47:35
closing no I John I don't want to close John even though it's fun he's got to go out there and mop john knows what he's
00:47:42
doing up there john's killer yeah he's a killer so you're um I just want to ask for a second like when you write a movie
00:47:50
do you have like three bulletin boards first act second act third act you start putting up ideas or you write a you're writing it uh like a story uh computer i
00:47:57
do I do two bulletin boards i go I go the story cards the scene cards and then
00:48:03
the other one is the characters right um I listen to this great affiliate aspiring screenwriters i listened to
00:48:09
this uh podcast for years that John August and Craig Maine do called Script Notes and it's like 600 episodes about
00:48:17
screenwriting craig Maine did The Last of Us he wrote The Last of Us directed it you know John John August did Big
00:48:25
Fish like they're just like great writers and you know I I just think like
00:48:30
you know I try to just think about everything the reason I do with a character bulletin board is like I always try to think of everything being
00:48:36
in relation to like what would the character do as opposed to like what would happen to the character and would
00:48:43
you direct this yeah so that would be the ultimate creative
00:48:48
play boxes or toy box I can see is to write and direct a movie get all the toys out there all the actors all the
00:48:55
stuff and then try to visualize your your dream basically totally i mean
00:49:01
that's I mean like when I think about my favorite stuff it's like you know like James L brooks movies like broadcast
00:49:08
news and terms of endearment yeah as good as it gets what was that no
00:49:13
yeah i just you know Mike Nichols's career i'd love like I I love the idea of just directing a bunch of movies and
00:49:19
I Yeah I hope that yeah and Kramer versus Kramer or um The Graduate or Oh
00:49:27
yeah i'm just trying to think in the sensibility that you're going for you know great yeah I would say close to the
00:49:32
Yeah I would say close to The Graduate like I I just love movies and I feel this way about my specials too i love
00:49:39
things that have jokes and jokes and jokes and then they kind of get you when when you don't expect it emotionally
00:49:46
tootsie Tootsie was great big comedy but you know has all when the dad has to sit
00:49:51
dust and hop and down at the end and talk to him was you know you know another one by the way
00:49:57
trains trains planes and automobiles I feel like is like that just to obviously Tommy Boy is is that Tommy Boy has a
00:50:04
little Well that is true we talked about Tommy Boy uh recently with the director and uh Chris at the end in the sailboat
00:50:12
talking to his dad and stuff i mean yeah it had that that was like a late edition like how to wrap him up and how to make
00:50:18
it all make sense and it was so important the lore of Tommy Boy cuz that's such an
00:50:23
iconic movie for me it's like the lore of you guys talking about how you were
00:50:29
just doing it like on like weekdays you'd fly to Canada and during SNL and
00:50:35
then you'd fly back like what the hell like doesn't make any sense it's why
00:50:41
we're all crazy sometimes in comedy I don't know your particular style but sometimes money can
00:50:48
get in the way and so many days to shoot can get in the way some the first world was such a low budget 25 or 30 days we
00:50:57
just didn't we just kept going going going um but in your case how how many
00:51:03
pages will your script be yeah when you're ready to shoot it'll be it'll be a hund It'll be probably a 100 pages and
00:51:09
we'll probably shoot it look they're going to they'll probably say it'll be 25 days and I'll I'll just fight and
00:51:15
fight to try to get 28 29 days i mean that's the thing that's so hard to explain about making movies it's like
00:51:22
you're just begging for time you're just like "Please cuz you're just bleeding money you're going to miss something you
00:51:28
don't want to miss anything you're like I need one more take on this i need one more location just to just make everything better if we could just We
00:51:34
need this we need it." Yeah would you have somebody um like do a rough edit
00:51:40
after every day like a really quick digital edit so you can kind of see what you got our editor was this guy named
00:51:47
Jeffrey Richmond who who actually edits Severance which is brilliant show and uh
00:51:54
he would do he would do assemblies but a lot of it would be he'd be he'd be like
00:51:59
hey if you can go back into the kitchen and shoot a thing where she says like I
00:52:05
don't have the hammer that would really help us have this whole [ __ ] thing that's better than re-shoots i mean then
00:52:12
you the kitchen set is still around you know exactly yeah yeah yeah so so
00:52:17
basically just to sum up on this it's like you're busy life is life is good y
00:52:24
good life Netflix right now for you creatively you're It seems like you're very engaged and excited about this
00:52:30
movie and everything you're doing you know and you have plenty of work i'm excited about the special i'm excited about the special i'm excited to make my
00:52:36
next movie and uh yeah I'm lucky you know I live in Brooklyn with my wife and daughter she just turned 10 and we had
00:52:43
like a like a birthday sleepover this weekend the girls watch Clueless it was great she's just like "Oh is that 90s
00:52:50
Clueless?" Yeah and see John Hughes all those movies you can show as your
00:52:56
daughter and the as they like 13 Pretty and Pink all those movies are just Yeah
00:53:02
and she's got And she just started watching SNL and so like it's it's really fun to watch her like get why
00:53:10
it's fun like get why the live aspect of SNL is kind of the best part of it that
00:53:17
it's just messy and everyone's in a costume or wearing a fake nose or whatever and it's just yeah it's it's
00:53:23
it's silly and ridiculous it's a lot of pressure but yeah there's not much more fun you can have if you're in a good
00:53:29
sketch on SNL and it's it's really doing well it's it's pretty buzzy because it's you know it's going out live to a lot of
00:53:36
people well thanks Mike it's great to see you again and um thanks for coming on with us
00:53:41
we we enjoyed chatting with you and say hello to John Melany and Nick Roll or whoever else you're out there with all
00:53:47
right thanks a lot you guys just love the podcast and uh I I am honored to come on
00:53:54
now I'm going to go watch the rest of your special amazing amazing thank you all right be well all right i'll see you guys soon take care this has been a
00:54:01
presentation of Odyssey please follow subscribe leave a like a review all the
00:54:06
stuff smash that button whatever it is wherever you get your podcasts fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana
00:54:12
Carvey and David Spade Jenna Weiss Berman of Odyssey and Heather Santoro the show's lead producer is Greg
00:54:18
Holtzman