Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7EjrIrOng
done ladies and gentlemen one of the greats jim gaffigan hi sir thank you thank you it's great to be here great to see you man i'm excited that you're doing a special on amazon yeah i think it's important that there's a bunch of other platforms for all of us to do specials on and when a guy like you goes over to amazon legitimizes it makes it a big deal it's exciting yeah it's uh it's fascinating how the the outlets for specials has changed so dramatically because when we were when we were kids it was just hbo yep and then comedy central when uh our release beyond the pale it was that perfect moment where uh in every dorm room in america comedy central was on yeah you know it had shifted from mtv to comedy central probably because of chappelle and and jon stewart and so but it shifts you know it's like then netflix was big and um and we see these other platforms coming out so it'll be it'll be interesting if i can convince people because everyone goes to amazon or someone in their family does so if i can convince them the next time they're buying paper towels and socks to just go over to prime because they everyone has a prime membership that's a weird part about it right it's like it's shopping but it's also like the same as itunes it yeah people have asked me they're like what if uh you know well one person asked me they're like what if someone doesn't have a prime membership and i'm like then they're probably not on the internet yeah who are you right they probably can't afford even uh you know high-speed internet so it's like but i don't know it is gonna be interesting i've watched stuff on prime but it's like it's like every time you you know i think comedians we like the we like to explore and do things different you know even uh you know new rooms and stuff like that we we kind of are risk averse but there is always the possibility of like i don't know i mean it comes out friday
um there is some support but i don't know and i know that amazon is this enormous company but i don't know i don't know they could i mean in the grand scheme of things you know my special is really not that big it's not as important as the toothpicks they sell on amazon so i don't know if they're gonna get behind it or not it's so weird that it's an entertaining company and also a massive shopping outlet i mean it's huge it's two giant things but they they do support like mrs maisel oh you see that everywhere yeah so if they have a hit they will get behind it and make billboards and and i've seen a lot for uh flea bag as well i've seen a bunch of ads for that so i think they're really picking up their support but i haven't seen any support so far for how many specials are there that they've done besides yours comes out friday mine comes out friday and then uh a week later there's four that come out and alonzo bowden has one coming out for sure and uh there's three other people with him and then um i don't know they you know there's also something of uh you know the the free the flow of information isn't as as dynamic as you'd imagine because i'm like a nerd for like if people follow me on instagram they're probably like yeah we know you promote so it's like i'm not shy about saying i'm coming to atlantic city and uh so i'm like hey when is this going you know what how can i help and they're to like there's a little bit of an attitude of like we've got it you know what i mean we know all the information there is or they don't care i'm not sure yeah i think they're probably overwhelmed right it's probably a new thing or they just you know some of how it was explained to me was i released uh noble my special before this uh independently right you know through a lot of different plans why did you decide to do that well some of it was i i got an offer that was attractive
uh i knew that i mean i i love netflix i have five specials there uh but i kind of looked at netflix i always describe it as it's a it's a swimming pool swimming pools are great the you know a special having a special is kind of like a floaty but like netflix there were just hundreds of floaties in this in this pool so how do you know people are gonna watch yours you get like a week at netflix uh for for accessibility and i also thought that uh it would have a greater impact internationally i don't think it did for me personally um and and it was something to try differently you know what's weird too is you never really know what the numbers are no you don't know they don't tell you you don't know the numbers and it also shifts like so like the the great success that uh segura and ali wong had and you know like we're comedians we watch all of uh the specials on netflix i mean whether we watch the whole thing is another thing right yeah that's like with ted alexander and i we're always like i'm like did you watch it and he goes uh ten minutes did you watch the it's like the best compliment is i watched the whole thing i watched chris rock's whole special right you know and um so i wanted to do something different you know i was offered uh and it's it's you know it's a you know it's expanding your audience and i also understood that a lot of people consume things on demand like i have young kids so i'm just i'm still buying on itunes like it's 1981. you know and people consume things on demand i was convinced on that and so it went uh we did this kind of like everywhere but netflix and then there was a second window that was on amazon prime and it got a real uh a lot of viewers and so that prompted amazon to approach for this special
so independently when you release your last one did it like a production company come to you and say hey jim this is what we wanted yeah it was comedy dynamics and they were like we're gonna we're gonna distribute it uh we're gonna sell it piecemeal different places and so i was like yeah you know what i wanted on uh airplanes right right and i you know i have netflix but not everyone has netflix and also you know the swimming pool metaphor it can get kind of lost in there so yours was available on apple tv was available on everything it was on available on everywhere yeah and it was even in theaters do you get a sense of the numbers from them oh yeah definitely so netflix is the only one doesn't give you the numbers the yeah supposedly amazon will give the numbers supposedly i think they would gotta get in a room with them i think that they um you know it's it's it's gonna be so interesting because i have no idea but i also you know just as how we consume specials has changed i think that uh you know getting i think specials serve almost they're very personal for us right by the way your last one was great thanks but it's very personal for us but it also indirectly serves as like an infomercial for our sentiment sensibility yeah so it's like you want other people to see it so they can go yeah i like this kind of stuff and so the appeal of it being in different places was appealing to me yeah i like the idea of it too i mean i really do enjoy that netflix has gotten so big in the stand-up specials because they've given so many people opportunities and exposed the world to so many great comics i don't like the fact they don't give me the numbers that's a little annoying yeah but i do like the fact there's other options now i think it's great i think look hbo now has a streaming option you know and they're trying to get really behind hbo go and hopefully more people do that so hbo specials will be what they used to be used to be if
someone got an hbo special like holy [ __ ] it would transform their lives oh my god like kennison and all these different people we found out about them because of hbo yeah i think it's it's going to be interesting i think that uh you know seeing what disney plus does and seeing uh you know hbo max and apple but it's i had i had approached um amazon back i think with my special obsessed i wanted to do it on amazon they had prime at that point and i was like i'll give it you give me this amount of money and you guys own the special and they're like at that point they weren't you know they're they were packaged goods company they're like no we'll give you six cents for every view and i'm like no no no you don't understand i'm gonna drive people to amazon.com and they're like nah we're not interested but so it'll take some time so yeah you know we might think that apple and disney will step up immediately for comedy specials but we don't know we don't know i think in the future there's not going to be anything on live television except sports i really oh yeah definitely tv like the idea of like tuning in at eight o'clock on tuesday night that's the only time to see something oh yeah ridiculous no appointment television is absurd that's a great way of putting it yeah appointment television yeah it's just it's insane yeah release date and that's one of the other great things about netflix like when stranger things comes out you get the whole damn season yeah yeah definitely and so like the binging thing is really it's absurd like there's there's got to be some consequences of that oh yeah it's unhealthy we're just not getting enough sleep now this my friend of mine she told me that she was up watching uh stranger things till six o'clock in the morning she had to get up at 10 to take her kid to school yeah it's just there's and we binge it like like there's some reason behind it yeah there's it's just convenience just get obsessed i want to find out what's next oh yeah they left me hanging yeah what's
next and like one more just one and those suckers that would wait you know uh like we my family i don't want to sound too macho but we watched jane the virgin because my uh teenage daughter was really into it so as a family we watched jane the virgin i don't even know what that is it's a tv show it's amazing i mean it's one of those things where my family would be watching and i would come in and i would kind of criticize it and then after like two episodes i was like move over it's totally it's a telenovela it's about hispanic culture it's it's great virgin what's it on great performances it was on the cw i don't think like i feel like in my adult lifetime the cw appeared and i still have never watched the show on the cw like have you ever watched the show on the cw i don't believe so right it's a real network yeah but it's wb yeah i think the wb was i think the cw is it might be that right there was a few of those little fringe networks way back in the day like i remember the wayans brothers had a tv show on one of them yeah there's it's one of those weird networks that was i think it was owned by cbs but they're like it's just kind of like uh uh you know like it would be teen shows like teen romance shows and you like the show uh jane the virgin i liked it i liked it i you know i'm not ashamed to say it you know like if i asked myself six months ago would i be on joe rogan's podcast saying that i like jane the virgin i would say no of course not well i remember when you know people used to think that being on one of those networks wouldn't do you any good one of those little small networks but then true tv put on impractical jokers and those guys are selling out arenas amazing that [ __ ] show is so crazy popular it's you know it's fascinating watching that show because i you know you try and understand it because but i think it's the authenticity of those guys they're pals and it's not manufactured right and and i think people like that yes it's very appealing you're like you know and i think that's also like real guys yeah i
think there is so much beautiful people that we consume so so much beautiful people that we're shocked when we see a regular looking person we're like wait a minute what what did that person that person must be a bad guy i used to have a joke about that they seemed like you could hang out with them too like they seem like regular guys that would be fun to hang out with yeah it's like oh i want to be with them no like when i first heard the premise i was like oh this is but by the way it's been going on for a while quite a while and i was doing shows in london and we have the same agent and they were doing an arena three nights in a row in london that's crazy crazy it's amazing like who the [ __ ] saw that coming when i heard about it from ari ari shafir was telling me that these guys were selling out theaters i was like really i'm like that's incredible i go how big they were like 5 000 people i was like what yeah what and that was years ago now it's they've moved to arenas yeah and and they just keep going and they have like a whole multimedia show right they show videos and all kinds of crazy [ __ ] and they interact with and and they're also like the they're still the same guys yes so they were always those guys yeah it wasn't like uh some cute boy who's trying to act like he's one of the guys right like a record company produced boy band yeah yeah no that's who they are well that's probably why it resonates with people because it is authentic i think authenticity is really important i think that's what people like about i think that's the success of this podcast is the authenticity that it's not pre-packaged there isn't um like i mean people you should understand it's like even it's it's a it's a weird thing i i don't know i don't know if you want to talk about this or not so i won't talk about it that's a weird thing to me it's and i do it but like did you because i did this back when it was at
um the ice house and it's like it's amazing yeah it's pretty crazy it's pretty crazy yeah who the [ __ ] saw that coming i didn't see it coming yeah it's like it's a perfect example of doing something on your terms and at working out yeah for sure and also zero promotion of it i never promoted it at all i never did any television shows to promote or took out any ads or did other people's podcasts to let people know about it i just kept doing it i just felt like let me just keep doing it i enjoyed doing it just keep doing it and then it'd be totally 100 built by word of mouth and so what articles that are written about it do you read those or no no nothing i don't think it's wise because also like eve generally when there are articles written about comedians uh you're kind of there's always like all right let's see what this half day of research how they interpreted do you i mean i remember in their body of work in the 90s there would be like new york magazine would be like the end of stand-up company and you'd read the article and you're like well i guess oh they followed that person they don't even really even do stand-up yeah yeah so it is there is no point behind it but i'm just kind of a sucker for trying to understand where the zeitgeist is trying to steer things but in the end i think comedy you know seinfeld describes it as like it all comes down to butts and seats butts and seats like they can kind of promote uh you know like the new best thing but you know those people uh show up to shows they you know they're not told where to go i think what's also important to note is that the narrative is no longer being controlled by media like you you can't an article in newsweek or uh on a website or an uh some youtube piece it doesn't define things anymore the the landscape is too big not no media outlet has any sort of monopoly on how to define someone or something the people decide now it's really a meritocracy in that
way yeah if you if you have something that's good people find out about it and they like it and you can write all your hit pieces that you want they don't work anymore it doesn't work you know you'll you'll change a few people's minds because they'll buy into it but then if they investigate themselves they'll find oh you're a piece of [ __ ] journalist this is a terrible article about something it's you know if but i sometimes think like i have two theories on this one i sometimes think was it always like this and i didn't see it or here's my other theory my other theory is that in the collapse of traditional media meaning the collapse of newspapers and and just you know television news bureaus that they're because there's no money to pay uh someone to be say like uh a movie is he used review write movie reviews in milwaukee and he would review the movies and that was his job and that job is really only present in very rare situations otherwise it's just the opportunity of someone that does it out of a passion thing meaning someone who has a blog or it's someone who is doesn't need a financial incentive so in other words they're like you got 50 bucks to write a review of this thing or so it ends up not being close to objective does that make sense yeah no it does and i think if you're going to really study something like if you if you want to know about a person you know say if it's a politician or you know an actor or comic or whoever you're writing about the idea that you're going to figure them out with just a few hours of google searching it's kind of crazy it's absolutely crazy and the the rush is to define someone in either very flattering or very unflattering ways that's really where most of the energy goes right most of the stories are either hit pieces or
they're fluff pieces that seem to be propped up by a publicist yeah there is i i feel as though like i did this movie that came out um it was just a small indie comedy where i was a guy uh who had two separate families and they didn't know about each other so it's like he's a good guy no but he had two families and it's a comedy it's set in the 90s and you know the the reviews that didn't like the movie that didn't surprise me you know or the criticisms but like a lot of the reviews were kind of um there was a tone of like how dare this white male have to like they couldn't get beyond like it wasn't like they would insert like a a social commentary uh on to a platform that was not for that yeah do you i mean like it was there was there was a portrayal of and there were great female actor uh uh actors that played my wives and there there was some reviews they're like they underserved them and it's like you know what the movie was really about my character and his son you know and but like people were frustrated about story but because of the day we live in it it had to be kind of deciphered through this uh kind of social critique that is just absurd and it wasn't here and there it was a lot of reviews like that well they feel like there's an obligation to discuss that now too if they feel like there's some sort of an imbalance sexually like between genders on a television show or intersectionality if it's uh if it has something to do with race or gender or politics or they feel like that this is something that must be discussed and one of the things that i hear from friends that that are very frustrated is that when they pitch shows when they pitch shows to the network if they have a story an idea like this is what we're trying to this is the thing they're like okay where's the diversity
yeah it's like one of the first questions they're like well it's about an irish family that lives in the box like i don't know what to tell you yeah you know it's this is what this the story's about like well where's the diversity like you have to insert diversity to meet their criteria like you can't just have a you can have a story as long as the person's like you could have a story about a haitian family and it'd just be all about the haitian family no one's going to say well what about white guys we need to get some white guys on the show no because if you inserted the white guys then it's the white savior story so you can't be the white guys yeah yeah i just can't wait until we're done with all this i mean maybe maybe it'll be long after we're done long after we're dead yeah but when there's no more racism and this is no longer an a viable story line and they like no one gives a [ __ ] if you're chinese or indian or from pakistan we legitimately don't care they're just different varieties of people and there's no judgment whatsoever i can't wait for that time but until then we just have to deal with these absurd people that pedal in this this narrative that you have to have you know x amount of like i was reading something where someone was saying that i should run for uh i should uh moderate the presidential debates and someone's it's never you'd make them all smoke pot before for sure it's never gonna happen but someone said why do that when you can give it to a talented black woman like okay i'm out we're out we're not we're not talking and by the way here's the thing it's and i think you'd agree with me i i do think there's an imbalance and we do have to correct it yes and i do think that like uh you know and it's great that we have the the knowledge and the foresight but humans we're just clumsy yeah we're just clumsy you know with um you know we're just like uh let's just stick this here when when you know creativity is much more complex than that like even even any comedian we could have carrot top here there's a nuance on every joke he does like people can sit there and be
dismissive but like he's like you know what i can't do that joke before i do this joke yeah whereas people just think it's like no just stick this in there stick a speech in there but i almost feel is like when green book won because i saw it after the fact i was like because you know like there's this this belief of oh you know you if you play a a disabled person you win and but it's much more of like that movie winning was like oh yeah you know it's it's you know the great crime of america and race so it brings that up it also deals with uh you know uh homosexuality and like the struggle of that which is profound i can't even contemplate it but it's like that's why the movie won and it was also we love italians america loves it hey you gotta talk ladies who doesn't love that america loves italians they love boston and you know that's you know that's there's certain things that america loves so i was like oh that's why it won i'm not saying it's a bad movie i'm not saying viggio wasn't great i'm just saying that's why it won yeah and it's weird it is a little weird but it on the other hand one way to look at it is the like design the idea that there can be no darkness without light right there could be no there can be no real appreciation of true diversity without an understanding of racism like in it to have it around in its ugliest form makes you appreciate the people that don't express that that aren't racist that are just even keeled people that appreciate everybody well you know there's there's also this too is that you know i'm i tend to lean left i'm pretty uh liberal socially and um but i and you know when trump was elected and like there was the women's march and all this stuff there was this i had this thought process of like how do i how do i you know how can i contribute how can i help make this country better which is sounds grandiose which it is but the thing is is like i'm not changing anyone's mind i really believe that it's like
and if anything i think at my shows it's like people are kind of like a break from it yes dear i mean like it's we're all thinking about it all the time they're like all right there's a a tariff uh a chinese tariff what does that mean i don't know what that means is that are american farmers destroyed what what's going on but like when they come to my show they don't want me to rehash it yes yeah no i think that's one of the keys to your success is that you provide a vacation yeah fun silly well thought out comedically brilliant sort of vacation from but also pointing out that humans are we're absurd we're stupid yes yeah we are so stupid like we just think humans think we have it every generation we think we have it figured out yeah that's like the the assuredness of people makes me concerned like you know there were people at a time that were like here's how we serve the how here how we solve the flu is we're going to put these leeches on people trust me it's working like they they were convinced that would work yeah yeah it makes you wonder like what how we're going to view this generation 100 years from now or 200 years from now oh it's going to be fast i mean i've got a i've got a 15 year old who uh is so uh my children are they're so fascinating and you live in new york city i live in new york city yeah which is great i always we talked about this a long time ago that that's a wild place to raise kids is it i don't know i feel like there is um there is socioeconomic uh cultural more diversity my kids walking to a subway station sure than if we lived in the suburbs for sure um and uh yeah you know it's you know they don't have a yard but like i'm kind of like i don't know it seems like people that have yards they're like paranoid about their kids getting snatched anyway so uh but i don't know it's what i also
you know i feel like there's a lot of convenience in new york that i like and i also to be perfectly honest it's like in la i feel like i feel kind of smothered by the entertainment industry and and maybe it's uh my insecurity but it's like no i think you're right there's like you drive down the street there's all these billboards and each of those billboards is saying you're a failure look at this person this person this is their fifth show where they're gonna get an emmy nomination and people don't even know your name yeah you know so it's i mean obviously just fate had it where i stayed in new york because there's plenty of reasons to live in l.a well first and foremost you're a comic you're always recognized as a comic but you do a lot of other things as well but like being you do a lot of other movies and television shows and stuff but being in new york city i think you in in some ways you get the best of both worlds because you have many clubs to perform in many clubs to practice in but you also don't get that sort of scrutiny of the the agents and the managers and the entertainment industry so you can work on your [ __ ] and then on top of that you're not surrounded by the business yeah you're around [ __ ] regular folks just hustling and doing your thing i mean i'm traveling constantly too so it's but there is yeah i just like do it i mean here's where i think i'm doing the doing it wrong or doing it right it's like i just care about good stage time quality stage time whereas i think uh you know even you know like i don't work at the seller in new york city and that's you know some of that goes back history but like some of it is i just want stage time and i can eat dinner with my kids put some of them to bed and decide to do a spot go do the spot come back and wrangle my two other kids to get to sleep whereas uh if i went to the seller or if i had to make the journey the drive in la it would be a different commitment what's the thing about the seller that makes it more difficult well you know some of it is is peers and
friends like i don't like the idea you know the hierarchy of i always kind of get you know a little bit like i'm just kind of like i just want to do stand-up i just want to do it uh i spent a lot of time hanging out in comedy clubs and some of it is like in at the seller i don't want to bump some of my friends that i started with right and i also don't want to get bumped by somebody else um it's like i you know i you know i'm not gonna abuse doing a set but i'll go in and i'll do 15 minutes it won't disrupt anyone's night but i also know that at the seller you you know there's gonna be people that show up sometimes there's a pack of three or four people that are gonna do sets and everyone's kind of off uh for that night but also it's you know it goes back like 20 years ago i'm a low energy kind of comedian and uh it used to you know i used to put in a veils at the seller and it would kind of determine i would get you know like you get a spot wednesday at 1am and so like i would be bummed for the week so i don't want to i don't want to give my power away no situation i just want to do stand up she'd rather just do i'd rather go to gossip yeah and and also and i look i love the seller but i feel like that's also the the layout of the room is far more interactive whereas i want to try out material um but i don't know it's shift it's shifted because the seller is it's a great club with a great complex i mean there's three rooms so but some of it is i'm now at the point where i just want to do one set and i also don't want to like i don't want a friend like todd berry looking at me like you're bumping me yeah i mean do you call in or do you just show up i call in yeah so i'll call but sometimes i'll decide at like 8 10 i'll call gotham and i'll go is it okay if i come in and they'll say yes it's better if you come in at 8 40 or 9 10. just so that i don't screw anyone up yeah and then you know but like at gotham seinfeld always goes there too so it's like i'm like i gotta get there
before jerry well that's a beautiful thing about a big city like new york particularly about new york there's so many different options in los angeles we really only have the comedy store the improv the laugh factory and then the there's a few on the outskirts but new york city has so many more options it's amazing the transformation the comedy store has gone through yeah like it is the i would say it's probably one of the most important clubs in the country beyond a doubt maybe i'm thinking it's like up there right as like the sure fire thing if you're an audience member you go to the store you're gonna see a great show but like 15 years ago i don't know if that was the case no no it wasn't the case in 2008 yeah yeah it was it was pretty now who is who is responsible because that that comes down to management that has a lot to do with it also the internet a lot of us uh talking about how great the comedy story is also getting rid of the old management firing them right they found the old guy was running the place was stealing money and they fired him there's how many is a piece of [ __ ] anyway there's so many stories where it's like and then it was revealed they were stealing you're like yeah yeah they they did a sting operation and caught him stealing money oh yeah he was a bad guy but just running the place poorly too yeah and he was the reason why i wasn't there for seven years yeah yeah so i came back and you know all the talking about the store with comics on podcasts too get people so excited about it and then you'd look at the lineup like on a tuesday night it's just a murderer's row and also those rooms are great with the layout of the rooms are like great for performing yeah they're not kind of like this you know like i love zany's in chicago but it's like it's not like the stage is three feet higher than the audience it's it's almost perfectly designed and laid out yes yeah yeah you don't want to be above like the the store like the original room is probably the best room in the world to figure out if your jokes are any good yeah because if if if you
have any weird fat in your material or just extra words or fakeness or it just gets exposed in that room yeah i love i love going to different places and i call it purifying a joke are you doing a spot tonight anywhere no i'm uh probably not come on i'm an old man get the [ __ ] out of here are you going there yeah yeah maybe i'll go i'm up at 9 30. all right i'll go i'll get up here i'm going to go i'm going to go and bump you i'll i'll call in for you i'll make you bump me no no uh yeah i mean it's just i've been doing this all this promotion for this amazon prime thing there's so many shows like there's shows that i'm like and i've heard of them but i'm like how many like it's it's getting to the point where people like we're doing individual shows for just one person like i feel like i'm like i'll do these shows and i'll be like all right you know and i don't want a name but but you're like either like i'll look at my publicist i'm like is there people that listen to this and he's like yeah a million people i'm like really there's so many people jim that's what it is it's just it used to be the uh but like it's strange to do a show have a great time you know you really kind of engage in conversation and it drops and no one says anything on twitter or instagram or facebook well there's if you really stop and think about how many television shows are in terms of like shows you can binge watch it's impossible you would literally lose your entire day every day of the week just trying to keep up with the hits there's no way it's impossible and then you have how many people have talk shows how many even is james corden and there's a tonight show and there's colbert when did you decide to not because you used to do those shows yeah was there was it's a time management thing it's a time management thing and it's also i don't believe that they have a good format i think that format is nonsense i think the format of waiting for commercials and the audience being right there and playing to the audience it's not
it's not an effective way to have a conversation it's definitely not an effective way to express ideas that are complicated you want to be able to like air them out in a long form way and you can't do that on those shows you just can't it's it's in it's out and if anything weird or controversial comes up you stick your foot in your mouth you never have a chance to take it out nobody really gets a chance to see how your mind really works like what what are you thinking what what where is your head at how do you come to these conclusions what's your thought process who are you as a person are you a good person are you trying to do good yeah are you flawed are you what are you and you find that out in a long form conversations like when i had bernie sanders on one of the things that people said was most interesting was like this guy's not a cartoon he's a really nice guy i see him on these shows and he seems like this [ __ ] cartoonish character right but now you see him here in this long form conversation where there's no interruptions at all he just has a chance to think and talk and express himself and you go oh now i know the real bernie because i never knew him in these goddamn debates and he's screaming for 12 seconds right about health care or about taxes or about whatever it is it's fascinating like all right here let me let me ask you this okay because give me one of them let me try that oh they're beautiful they're delicious i go original flavor and you used to used to do the chew right i used to dip and then i used to smoke cigarettes like there's my wife has videos like you know we have all these old videos of us doing stand-up and she was transferring them to like dvds at the time now we're gonna have to get them off the dvd and she would find these videos of me doing stand-ups smoking on stage whoa back in the day son and she was like what are you doing and i'm like yeah i used to smoke i used to you know i had yellow fingers i was training cigarettes before i got on stage even recently i smoked one of chappelle's cigarettes uh last weekend
it gives you a crazy head rush before you go on stage i like it it's when i want to smoke cigarettes sorry for the smacking in the microphone folks it's a terrible thing to smoke cigarettes but there's a weird rush that you get from from the nicotine it's like uh it's a head rush it's like you feel good yeah you feel it the first couple times and then you're chasing it for the rest of your life but you just shovel money into a garbage can once a week if you smoke a cigarette once a week for you on stage that's a real that's hey kids out there just listen just listen to uncle joe just smoke one cigarette a week and it'll be fun well i'm thinking maybe your nicotine gum might be the uh substitute for that because what i'm getting is the nicotine right i mean that's what they're doing that's great why do i start smoking cigars before i go on stage oh yeah i the the the nicotine gum it used to curb my hunger it used to curb nothing does now nothing at all curbs it it's like but we were talking about this outside i'm like there are times when i've been more in shape than others but i feel like at this point i'm like you know maybe i'll just go it all in and fat guy i might just be like you know what i'm just i'm just gonna go all in you know like you know i'll just you know i'll take the place of panette you know i'll just do that yeah i mean you seem thinner though than i've seen you before i'm not i'm not i'm not at all but it's just i have low t i don't know what that even means like i see those commercials low testosterone yeah do you take testosterone or take testosterone you seem like you drink it every morning have you ever like but like i i feel like i just need like energy yeah that'll give you energy your body's dying and it is dying your endocrine system no longer produces the hormones you lost um i mean there's this when you see an older person when they have the diminished muscle and their mass is like
shrinking that's what's going on their body doesn't produce the hormones in order to keep the mass going so what you have to do is two things one you have to lift weights that's one thing and two you have to supplement your hormones too hard no uh but yet some of it is i'm so focused on eating no i'm so focused on i i sometimes listen to my set while i work out it's like when you work out you have to focus on working out yeah but that's a good thing to do i do that when i'm on the elliptical sometimes i listen to listen to comedy i think listening to sets is uh one thing that not enough comics do they record their sets but they don't listen to them because it's gross and you feel oh it's annoying you don't want to hear it yeah but it's way the way you learn and i feel like i mean i don't know i would like to know how you feel about this but i feel like the amount of time that you spend concentrating on your material has a direct result and how good it is and how good it gets quick especially when you're producing specials so you abandon all your material you have to write new stuff for me the process is greatly accelerated by physically writing physically writing is very important i devote a lot of time to sit in front of a computer staring at it smoking pot writing things out looking at notes writing things out yeah performing those are critical but also listening listening to those recordings and then writing notes on the recordings yeah for me the process is it shifts all the time right so there's sometimes you just give birth to a chunk it just comes out and you're like oh my gosh thank god and sometimes it's just like you're chiseling away at granite and it's just bit by bit underneath but for me it's doing these longer sets like doing an hour and ten minutes i will and it's a shift from before it used to be like i needed the sits assets and the city to like uh build piece by piece but now i'm kind of i'll talk about like something that happened uh when i was a kid and then i'll polish it over a long period because in an hour show it's you know i believe you have to do a
material every time you do a theater and it has to be new because you want people leaving going i'm coming back when it comes back here yeah and so but the writing process it's it's always moving for me sometimes it is it's a lot of times like something will bump me and i'll write it down on my phone and then sometimes i'll write around it or i will uh just go on stage and talk a little bit about it are you um when you are doing sets in the city are you ever doing long sets like an hour not usually because it's i mean my when i'm in new york you know having five kids it's just just the commitment for like i'm looking at september and i'm like oh my gosh like the the curriculum nights alone oh yeah are going to be insane and there's going to be you know uh you know my daughter's in soccer and there's going to be all these meetings and there's just innumerable things so like assemblies school assemblies you know like chatting with the principal who talks about their philosophy and so like there's there's a commitment but like doing the hour i don't really usually do it in new york but what i do do is i will i like to do uh i don't know what they're called now but alt shows in brooklyn which is it'll kind of like uh i'll do material that would work in a comedy club but like in a in brooklyn in front of like a more i don't know how to describe it hipsters or more precious audiences precious dear i mean where you know like when i go on stage in new york city in manhattan i'm a white guy who's like fat when i go on stage in some of these rooms in brooklyn i'm a white man you know what i mean so it's a different experience and it's very important to see that because how i characterize things uh you know it's it's good to like be educated on like oh you know all right maybe that does sound a
little picky so i'll pull back right right and then i'll go on the road like i used to like a great example is i used to have back when usa i'm sure usa today is still there but i used to have all this material that i developed in uh in brooklyn about the usa today how like it's just like a coloring book you know what i mean and how it's just kind of like do you like news but also pictures of news and it was just great and it would kill in brooklyn it would kill in new york and then i would go on the road and people be like what the hell are you talking about i like the usa today that's what i get when i travel you know i mean or it's got a great sports section so it's like there's so much value in traveling around with material because you gain different perspectives oh sure the road is so critical for that yeah you get a sense of how people especially when you're doing clubs i found that the road when you're doing clubs you really get a sense of like the feel of a city whether it's cleveland or colorado oh yeah yeah i mean i love the fact even you know how uh you know doing talking about you know i make a point of not doing too much material on having uh five kids but like i'll do like if i talk about having five kids in new york city in at a show in new york city people are like you're crazy and then if i talk about having five kids in boston uh and i'm generalizing people in boston might be like you're crazy i came from one of those families and if i do it in utah people be like yeah we are crazy for having five kids so it is the same joke and it's the same point of view but it's tweaked a little bit and it's so fun kind of traveling around and learning that material and learning the impact and how it's digested well comics have a unique perspective on america because of that because we don't just go to these different places but we also perform material in all these different places so i think like we i've been talking a lot with comics lately about like what was your reaction to trump winning the election
comics saw it coming more than most people who live in l.a because most people live in l.a very liberal very left-wing convinced that you know this is even it didn't matter who you voted for hillary was going to win california no matter what yeah like we were this was a pro democrat state and when trump won i i ran into people that were shell-shocked they couldn't [ __ ] imagine i mean i think uh i mean i was surprised i was definitely surprised but that being said i wasn't surprised by um the uh the logic behind some of the people that voted for trump last time that are sheepish to admit it now yes um i understood some of that logic but i thought it was fascinating because there was a time for me because i tour with uh ted alexandro a lot and he's like he's like he's like an occupy wall street guy like he's like uh very progressive and we would tour and he would have during the election he would have some material on hillary and some material on trump and it worked everywhere worked in texas worked in tennessee which i think is the most conservative place outside of nashville and and so it will work everywhere and then the election happened and that same material and it wasn't just the context of the at post election it was i describe it as people looking at the ceiling is that people didn't want to hear it and i think some of it is people like we deal with this all day we need a break from it but it was both sides yeah so like trump voters were more emboldened kind of like that's right and then also the left people were like please can i i just want to hear jim talk about horses for 10 minutes do i mean yeah and so there is something fascinating that occurs and there's also something fascinating about international shows because when bush was when w was president
there were much more people coming up to me going how dare he you know start the iraq war and with with trump they're like yeah you probably didn't have anything to do with that yeah i would say that's my takeaway yeah it's people are definitely fatigued i think we have political discourse fatigue it's never ending never ending and it is how much of you is your life if you really stop and think about if you're alive for 75 85 years on this planet and most of your waking time interacting with people is discussing politics how much of it actually does affect your life other than those conversations those conversations it's a a giant part of a lot of people's anxiety a giant part of the art but the real life like getting up in the morning fixing breakfast for your kids taking them to school how much does [ __ ] trump play a part in any of that i did i did a cbs uh sunday commentary on how all conversations lead to trump like it's just every conversation eventually gets to and then trump did something like that but it is i i was also thinking like because we we live in this very precarious time and uh you know a very divided country on a lot of different levels and there's so much drama and there's you know uh you know environmental disaster impending and uh and again to my point of like we finally figured it out this is the most dramatic period but compared to world war ii no this is nothing nothing this is nothing i was in central europe what the like human beings like we i you know you know and we're going around this uh terrorism this place outside of prague where they stuck all the jewish people and with my children and my children who like just want to play on ipads were just mesmerized they're like what and and the takeaway was not oh the germans are bad and nazis are bad the takeaway is oh humans are crazy
like it's just a matter of months that these same people that were your neighbors that you would go to their kids birthday parties you were waving goodbye to because you got their apartment and i'm like oh like it was terrifying like human beings it's very easy for us to go yeah it was the germans it was the germans that did that you know it was lithuanians did but it wasn't it was human beings that were like manipulated like that yeah if we catch the wrong leader yeah yeah like we're right next to you that's that is a world war two helmet that's a legitimate world war two helmet in a bayonet wow that uh it's a good reminder it's filled with little holes and [ __ ] there's apparently places in europe where you can find thousands of those things just scattered out there you know there's areas in france that are impossible for people to go to because there's so many rounds that have been shot into the ground there and so much toxic chemicals and stuff from world war ii that to this day they they don't want people traveling to i mean it's an enormous size the size of paris that's in france yeah see if you can find that that's amazing like there's all this day from the 40s so like when i was in prague and you know you go on these tours and the punishment like they would just be like and this i also learned this in greece they'd be like they'd be like uh okay so as punishment we are gonna murder an entire village so we're gonna and you're like what and by the way again we can characterize this this because on the internet everyone's gonna be gaffigan was defending nazis that's not my point at all is just that human beings like it wasn't that long ago when like rape and pillage was the go-to tactic it's like all right we'll conquer then we'll rape and pilot you know there were some guys they're like you know what can i just pillage i just you know i got a girlfriend now and i don't really feel like raping well we were talking about kyrgyzstan the other day that to this day 20 of all marriages begin in kidnapping
what yes 20 so one out of five marriages started with the groom kidnapping the bride like that's how they had to get married because he raped her so in order for her so it's romantic it's that's unbelievable it's [ __ ] crazy here it is the red zone in france is so dangerous that a hundred years after world war ii it's still a no-go area there's all sorts of rounds and munitions and and there's all sorts of i mean there's so many rockets were fired into this area that this [ __ ] is still in in the soil and everyone why you know this also brings up a separate point why why is this surpri like humans also have a really a real short-term memory problem like we don't remember things right like i don't think people really uh appreciate you know that world war ii was like 70 years ago right like it was not that long ago right like even the you know like serbia i was in dubrovnik and they're like yeah up there the montenegrins used to shoot at us uh those guys you know now we go to their bar and you're like what like that was the 90s yeah it's just it's just terrifying it's it's hard to believe but if you're in the wrong place in history at the wrong time like right now if you're in libya libya right now or syria yeah well libya is a failed state i mean syria is horrible you got assad running it but libya is no one running it libya they're selling slaves on youtube i mean you can watch slave auctions in real time right now it's a terrifying terrifying place and it's because they killed uh muammar qaddafi and then the rebels took over and then it became a felt a failed state it's chaos and this is right now in 2019 if you were unfortunate enough to be born in libya you are stuck there right now and you're living in hell you're not living in manhattan in 2019 where it's wonderful jim gaffigan can hop on over to gotham yeah yeah say hi to jerry seinfeld do us and have a meatball sub and you know do whatever the [ __ ] you
want no you're living in a chaos filled environment where barbarians are running the show and this can happen this can happen and this is one of the reasons why our democracy is so important it's one of the reasons why compassion is so important and kindness and talking to people and it's also important to look at things objectively and label things based on compassion and looking at things in in an intelligent non-biased way so you could really get a sense of what the landscape really is if you're you know if you're everybody's a [ __ ] nazi and everybody's terrible and white privileges white privilege that everyone's a criminal everyone's bad no no there's real crime in the world there's real terror and real awful things and we have more unity we have more in common than than we promote you know what i think is and i think this is also a reflection of the success of comedians podcasts is that what people don't realize is that comedians really appreciate a different point of view we actually like we have friends that like we don't agree with in fact we almost find it entertaining like let's talk to this friend because i know i disagree with him and we can have that banter and i think that particularly in this uh canceled culture there is and so like you get these comedians like you hosting these podcasts having these discussions and and comedians have kind of like the uh boldness to step in it and say hey i don't know about that tell me about that whereas like from a societal basis there's like don't question don't question uh why we're pursuing this because if you question it that means you're not a true believer and we're looking for true believers whereas and by the way it's it's just interesting because i think you know i have a friend tom chalu who i love who's who has a show on uh on fox uh nation and it is weird because like six years ago and i did this interview and i
talked about it and and i could see the interviewer go you're friends with someone that works at fox and i'm like yeah you know it's like it's okay yeah it's okay he's not a monster yeah he's not killing you know he's not putting children in cages i'm good friends with steve hilton he has a show on fox he interviewed trump about my family and his family go on vacations together nice guy it's like why like it's it's it's this strange thing where i'm like i can understand how important these beliefs are and i can understand how threatening um democracy is and i can understand how we have to face our history and and all these things but it's like the discourse has to remain doesn't it yes we have to be able to talk to each other and i think that's one of the things that kind of died with the trump election people were like you're with us or against us you're either for him or you or you're for the future and compassion and and caring about everyone or you're a monster and there's no there's no discussion about finances or the best way to run the economy or international trade no no no you're you're with the good or the bad you're binary it's one or zero you're black or white you're one or zero and it that is the same thing that they criticized about w mm-hmm saying you're either with us or against which by the way being a father of daughters you know is also a line from beauty and the beast yeah but this is true appropriately so right it's like very childlike like that that perspective is very childlike there's a lot of people that are conservative that are very good people absolutely that's i i you know here's another thing that i find very frustrating i feel as though i'm sometimes and sometimes i'll get uh
messages on social media and they'll be like you know that some of the people that like your comedy are trump supporters and i'm like i hope so i i hope that i appeal to a lot of different people uh you know i it's it's a very strange like i remember the success i had and i'm so grateful for the success that i've had uh on beyond the pale i remember like i came back to new york after i had done this tour and you don't know with stand up you don't know how long it's gonna last you don't know what's going on and i came back and i remember someone reading an article maybe it was in timeout new york and they're like he's very mainstream mainstream and and there was recently a new york times article he's very conventional and i'm like what is that do you mean like conventional in that people want to go and see me perform like a lot of people like that's like that's a crime yeah like that's he's you know you know it's like it's so we live in this age like there used to be comedians and i think it's inhibited some people's success where like if it's like bill burr one of the best comedians today and i think people are sometimes people in the media are like you know uh the wrong people might like his material and you're like that does it do you know what i'm saying yes maybe i'm being paranoid but i'm like no i get that from this podcast it's it's a very strange it's it's it's almost kind of a i you know and i and i don't know if i've talked about this but like you know like there's this cultural revolution that is occurring that is it's well intended but it's almost it's almost puritanical and and by the way i'm not somebody i'm against any form of censorship but i'm also somebody that believes that if we can articulate transgender terms that make people that are transgender feel comfortable there's there's nothing wrong with that we can
adjust our language we do it all the time but i do think that there is kind of this almost puritanical thing that's ironically happening on the left that is what we you know as comedians we used to make fun of the right for does that make sense yes it's a very strange kind of like wait you guys are doing what you accuse these guys of doing forever they don't see it that way because they feel like they're right and if you're right then it doesn't matter and i do think it's well intended i do think it's well i don't question someone's motives like i don't think that like i remember and i'm gonna get blow back on this look i don't think that w uh what had malicious intent i think he was well intended you know he failed at things but i think he was well intended i think that's probably a logical perspective and i think dick cheney is probably satan you think so i think dick cheney was running straight from hell that's why he had that bunker deep deep down but i think that bunker existed he was right it wasn't like he was like it's not like he was like yeah i need a bunker he had a straight shot straight to hell that's what it was there was that it was down there that's how it was heated that's why it was so warm that's what he remember when he was in the bunker after 9 11 there was a dick change in a bunker how come george bush is playing golf w is out there well because he was the target he was in dc and there was a separation of of powers i don't know and then we all saw the adam mckay movie you're like how much is that true i know right um how much is that true imagine the power to because dick cheney like i i you know i also doubt everything i always quote you know like everything i i hear about i'm kind of like cut it in half which makes me kind of still think trump is absolutely crazy but but like you know dick cheney is there
like is he is and i don't think he cares but like there's no like the the narrative has been set for him yeah there's no kind of like you're not gonna believe this but dick cheney is like one of the funniest storytellers like that's there's no there's no changing the narrative of dick cheney right like george w s painting and he does a lot of painting it's good his painting is kind of lovely it's like it's cute sweet stuff it's like it shows you where his mind is at this is where he chooses to spend his but katrina he didn't go there right away well he hates people according to kanye west right but dick cheney is a completely different animal like he shot his friend in the face and his friend apologized yeah but he didn't do it he obviously didn't do it on purpose he's probably drunk and then he disappeared for 24 hours do you know that he didn't immediately turn himself in he went yeah yeah he was most likely drinking they they were doing what's called a canned hunt where they open up these gates and they let these birds fly out and they just start blasting them and he shot his friend but it was it could have been a mistake it was a mistake but i'm like i'm known as the dick cheney apologist oh nice so explain us halliburton so he was the ceo of halliburton he leaves halliburton and then he he becomes the vice president and then he gives hal burton these no-bid contracts to rebuild iraq after they blew it up so explain that as a as a apologist um you know uh i would say one uh no bid contracts happen often that's what i've heard how can you chew another one of those my heart is pounding out on my chest because i'm a real man i'm more manly than you you know like you're only those i'm a real type a i'm a real like i get up i do what are those bells that you kind of said kettlebells kettlebells i you know what i eat a bowl of those for cereal nice when you're a man like me that's what i do i put cbd oil on my knees and then i just lift i lift bulldozers that's what i do for breakfast wow then i jog up mountains
and just yell and then i just come home and i just eat elk meat but you know unlike you i don't cook it i just eat the elk when it's a lot raw sometimes it's better to cook though what does elk meat taste like you want some really i wish you're around here not really you don't care i mean i have a kitchen here if i had a kitchen here and i cooked some would you eat something we're at this compound you you have this huge place you got a horse track in the back you don't have a kitchen here i'm going to open up a kitchen here seriously yeah i'm actually i'm going to i'm thinking about putting together a restaurant so elk thing what makes you maybe you've talked about this and i haven't heard the episode but elk meat is that good or it's just plastic yeah it's a wild animal it's why but does it taste like deer you know like vanity well venison you're like oh this is good you know if i have really strong mustard and i'm not hungry no man it's just prepared poorly yeah this is delicious it's it's all of it is how the meat is taken care of after the animal dies whether it's cooled quickly and how it's processed that's all it is how it's cleaned how it's cut up how it's vacuum sealed and frozen almost immediately after the animal dies how you don't let in the glands like they have tarsal glands that they can get they have hormones like a lot of times when you're shooting these animals it's during the rut so they're they're breeding and this is wow this is when they see they get these hormones and these tarsal glands they put these and why don't we get more elk why don't we eat more out because it's a wild animal it's an illegal animal to sell you have to go out and hunt them yeah but why doesn't someone just start an elk farm because it's it's down on those well there's a lot of there's a lot of factors there first of all you can buy it's the meat lobby yeah no no you can buy it from new zealand new zealand sells a lot of it and i think there's some places where you can buy commercially raised uh elk in north america i'm not exactly sure if that's the case but it's illegal to sell wild game and there's a difference between an
animal that's been penned in and force-fed and just you know big bales of hay and whatever or a wild newspaper yeah i'm interested in wild animals because i think wild animals are healthier also i think the the karma of what you're doing is very different you're just going after a wild animal that's in the rut and they wind up killing each other they get killed by mountain lions and wolves and bears and what i'm doing is i'm dipping my toe into the natural world it's the circle of life i'm going after them the way a mountain lion would go after them i'm just using a bow and arrow and i'm getting them and i'm bringing it back and then i eat that one animal a whole for a whole year i'll feed my family you know tom papa yeah tom papa is a and then he makes bread out of it with bread out of uh yeah it's like you and papa like at your restaurant you have to have papa do the bread for sure yeah he'll be the bread man yeah and then doug benson could sell the weed and then anybody could sell the weed today right i guess anyone could today yeah but uh but like you love elk you wake up and you're like you know what i want out i had a deep breakfast well who doesn't have elk for breakfast do you have the elks area i had sausage yeah elk sausage for breakfast and do you make your own elk sausage no i get that made i get it made by a butcher that i know and so do you think that when i come back because i do this podcast every six years do you think when i come back do it as often as you want oh well thank you you just didn't have the right phone numbers do you think that we will that uh what is the um what is the do you think that elk is the new kale that you are gonna that we're gonna track it back it's too hard to do to go out and get it yourself it's very difficult you have to be like really committed to learning how to hunt and then to be fit enough to climb the mountains and then what do you drag it back you have to carry it out in chunks yeah you chop it up and then you carry
it out and chunks you quarter it meaning you take the legs off and you take the back straps you know that there's like grocery stores right it is not the serve elk and it's a different experience why wouldn't someone listening to this start an elk ranch and so they think it's illegal it's not legal no it's not legal to sell wild game and then there's a reason for that it's and also when you have these farms there are farms that raise deer and some other animals there's a real problem with chronic wasting disease and certain diseases that get easily spread when all these animals are eating off of the same food source so if they have like a bin where they're all eating out of and they share saliva it actually contributes to the contamination of certain diseases and there's a real problem in this country with something called cwd which is chronic wasting disease and wow it's the same exact thing of as uh mad cow disease it just hasn't jumped over to other animals it's jumped over to mice but it hasn't jumped over to humans but if it did jump over to humans it would be a gigantic [ __ ] problem and part of that problem they believe stems from farms from farms that are raising deer it's very controversial really there's people and so where do you where do you go to hunt elk because we're maybe it's one it might be different from where i hunt elk i go to utah every year go to colorado's a great place to hunt montana is a great place that's a great elk hunting area you just gotta go into that you joke you should come with me man i would i would if unlike you i wouldn't quarter it i'd just drag it back because i'm strong enough and then put some kettlebells on stick your dick in and just carry it out like a condom you just sit so they're big animals so like if they if you missed will they charge you elk most of the time won't do that but a moose certainly would moose yeah they [ __ ] you up that's elk right there there you go yeah i shot that one in central california and so how do you get that on an airplane well you have to uh quarter it up chop it up into portions freeze it and then stick it in like a yeti cooler and then i'll seal the yeti cooler and you have to bring it through customs and
then they have to uh they have to look at it not customs but uh tsa they have to open it up and check it inspect it and make it make sure it's not human yes not a human yeah and then they uh they wouldn't really wouldn't know if it was a human as long as you package it you could say it's wild pig idea hollow and so what is that thing there that is for my friend adam greentree that is an asiatic water buffalo that he shot in australia yeah he's a buddy of mine he gave it to me so decided to put it and so uh how many how many elk have you shot like you you really it takes you a year to eat it yeah yeah about no i can eat one in about six months my family eats a lot of it i give a lot of it to my friends and dude do people it's like the are your daughters like elk again sometimes yeah sometimes you get annoyed we eat a lot of meat and and a lot of elks do and it's healthier than beef oh yeah but why is it healthier it's got more protein per ounce it's got more amino acids it's a darker richer color like if you look at grass-fed beef versus grain-fed beef yeah one thing you notice is the grass-fed beef is a darker color that meets a darker color because it's a healthier animal that's what you that's what beef is supposed to look like what don't you eat um i eat a lot of things do you eat fast food occasionally yeah occasionally i'm not i'm not rigid like i'll eat in and out burger i love it yeah yeah i'm not that rigid like when you're eating an in-n-out burger are you imagining that it's an elk burger no no i'm just enjoying it do you consider yourself an elk meek elk meat advocate yes you are human beings you want to convert people no no why not buy a ranch no no no no i don't want people to buy it like that i think i'm not even saying that you should go out and hunt i'm not saying that people should do it what i'm saying is if you did do it you'd have a completely different relationship with your food when i'm eating something there's like a real good feeling that i know that i harvested that thing i was out in the woods i chased it for days i was trying to like get the wind right so that my
the wind is on my back blowing towards the animal i got to sneak up on it slowly i have to figure my way to where i can get a clean shot on this animal then once i kill it then we have to drag it out of there we have to cut it up and carry it down do you aim for the head or do you aim for the heart game for the heart but if you have a high-powered rifle there's a lot of um um people that are chefs that shoot them in the head there's uh they think that it's quicker like you did if they die quicker they taste better but they taste delicious i don't i don't really think there's any need for that i mean there's a there's an idea that if the animal has too much adrenaline in it like if it's spooked that yeah it'll taint the flavor of the meat but what is the universal i hijacked your show but what is the unit what is the unifying thing that comedians ufc fighters and hunters all have in common it's difficult we're doing difficult things that's a unifying thing yeah it is a difficult pursuit yeah comedy is an extremely difficult pursuit the idea of taking an idea crafting it and then distributing it performing it in front of people who paid money to hear you talk when they can talk to you you're not you're not doing there's an objective yeah you're not doing flips you don't have a [ __ ] multimedia show there's no pyrotechnics but you're just talking and people will pay money get a babysitter drive and you got to make sure it's right man cause they'll get [ __ ] angry at you yeah the is there's a direct correlation between how happy people are when you make them laugh versus how angry they are if you don't make them by the way i believe that you know people talk and my tickets are are not uh high or anything but i think people care more about their time than they do about the money yes it's like because if you're a parent you you're like i got this is my one night yeah it better be good yes yeah it's like it's like when you go to a restaurant and you're like really this is my entree yeah you know i mean granted i eat out
every night but um but when i used to be healthy when i used to be healthy and i'd have that burger like once a month you'd be like this is my burger okay and it's bad now i have like two burgers a day yeah and it's like i'm always happy well that's good it's good but i think the thing they have in common is that they're all difficult things martial arts are incredibly difficult there's no [ __ ] in martial arts you either hit someone you don't either hit you or they don't you either win or you don't it's like it's really cut and dry and it's just a matter of how much effort you put into it how much you've learned your craft how much you've recognized your weaknesses and short up your holes and your defense and your offense and and then you execute when you have to which means like when it's time for a fight you perform you rise to the occasion or you don't very similar to going on stage not with the same consequences but very similar in terms of like rising to the occasion is it something you have to be you have to like stand up you have to be doing it like it's not you know eddie murphy is amazing but the reason he didn't just pop back into doing stand-up is he understands i took it like like i'm friends with him but he understands you have to do it yes often to be i mean that's by the way chris rock amazing that he literally took like 10 years off and then got back into the ritual and the because it's a commitment there's nothing really that fancy about it but like when it comes to ufc uh you have to you can't just pick it up right but hunting you can pick it up right well or no you can pick up some kinds of hunting right like you could pick up rifle hunting for certain animals all you have to do is understand how to keep your breath under control how to not flinch when you pull a trigger how to aim how to use a weapon properly and have someone who puts you in a good position where you know you have a guide maybe that helps bring you along bow hunting is another level of commitment that requires athleticism you're most likely going to have to be in really good shape
because you're going to have to go into the mountains and just the altitude alone and then going climbing up hills you're going up several up and down several thousand feet of elevation in a day and there are grocery stores there's groceries there's no grocery stores to serve wild up so fascinating fast i think because sometimes i'll look at you know the the the community of comedians which i truly enjoy i re and you obviously do too it's like you'll sometimes run into other communities that because there is this solitary nature to it and then there's this shared obsession like i sometimes feel like chefs or people that you know just even cooks that really get true enjoyment out of it are have that shared kind of you know like the prep time the kind of uh you're doing it for yourself like you know a chef will come to the table and say do you like your meal but they don't need someone to approve it they know so it's like with stand-up it's it's the respect of your peers too it's like it's gr it's gratifying the audience liking it but there is something about the creation of the material that is so profoundly uh approving and the also the feedback that you get from an audience that is separate from like the supposed family how dare you put an alarm i know what are you trying to do that's that's that means it's time to eat help yeah no i mean i think many communities that are like important communities have uh are important to the people involved they have like they share a lot of common aspects whether it's comedians or i mean i think anything that's difficult right if you there's not like is when you think about comedians there's not that many of us if you really stop to think about there's 300 million people in this country how many professional comedians is there even a thousand i mean how many people are really making a living off of just doing stand-up i
mean i would venture that might be about 250. which is amazing because by the way when i started and and uh and you're around the same period it was there was like nobody there was no and by the way in seinfeld's era there was even less nobody but lenny bruce's era there was like him and mort saul and like one other guy yeah yeah insane insane yeah insane but now there's like professors mm-hmm yeah that's ridiculous they're all ridiculous i i if you interviewed one guy and he wrote a book on con oh yeah but that's ridiculous generally i think that uh i think that stand up when people it's like when we try and figure out why a joke works so that we can figure out how to do another one we lose it like there is some magic there's some magic not to get too there is something of like there's a moment you know like sometimes singer songwriters talk about this that like a song just appears and some of it is we put in the time and we we put in the work on ourselves and kind of like self-reflection and we're open to understanding who our point of view is and we're embracing our embarrassment that kind of opens us to material yeah then there's also the more you do it and the more frequently you do it the more you kind of have a feel for it and when you take time off that's when it's really weird like for me i went on vacation recently to italy and then i went back on stage after like 12 days i was like do i know how to do this it's a weird feeling it's a weird feeling you got to be immersed in it all the time yeah but i also think it's great to take those little vacations oh you get a great perspective on materials yeah it's like suddenly you come back and you you find the the piece to the puzzle to make it work you need like little breaks but i think that's the case with virtually everything that we all need perspective and you need discipline and you need this the work ethic to do all to put all the time in and do all the work but you also need to think clearly and you need enthusiasm and sometimes that like it's intelligent and it's disciplined to
take a break yeah it is it's i i find it hard i mean i also like i'm somebody like i always arrive in a market with an hour of new material but and i have there's plenty of people that they do a special and then they take a break and they uh hang out and they might kind of slowly develop more material and to me that is i don't know if that's yeah i'm on both sides of it i understand the value of it but i also there's i don't i don't have control of when the stuff's going to come out so i kind of want i want to be paying attention when the material comes out because sometimes you know the comedians all have this it's like you had a great idea but you didn't reach over for your phone when you were falling asleep and it's gone it's gone yeah ever that's i jump up i'll i'll put i'll plug my ears and run out of the room if my wife and kids are talking if i have an idea guys my wife is awesome about it like she i just go i have an idea and i just have to say it to her so she doesn't think i'm just playing with my phone while we're at dinner i just go yeah i got an idea yeah and she'll let me she'll do that but you have to do that if you don't do that those things slip away they're like a salmon in a river like grab it grab it that's right and we are the bear oh we are the bear and then the elk is watching and then joe shoots the elk and the idea dies what does an elk sound like like that and they're just huge they're like 500 pounds and what do they eat just are they vegetarian yes yeah they're vegetarians and what about a bear have you ever shot a bear yes have you been to a brown bear no black bear they're very good they taste good and you have to shoot them otherwise they eat everything they eat each other they eat all the elk babies they eat all the deer babies fifty percent of all elk and deer fawns are uh or elk calves and deer fawns are eaten by bears 50 wow yeah they devastate populations but
it's a balance of life you know i mean it's the circle of life yes but it's a balance it's like you have to there has to be some control of predators yeah it's so interesting so interesting it's a wild world and i've been involved in it since like 2012. that's when i really got in and so when you were growing up you were did did you hunt when you were a kid i did a lot of fishing yeah and where did you grow up well i was born in new jersey but uh i lived in a lot of places i lived in san francisco for a while from age 7 to 11. i lived in florida from 11 to 13 and then boston from 13 to 24 then new york is it nature nurture are you because of you because of life experience or were you born like this i think there's a little bit of both first and and also some of it is you know you've been on this self you know i i feel like characterizing this is an insult but it's not but you are somebody who's like i'm gonna self-improve myself yeah try to do that all the time mentally physically everything elsing but i think you can always do better right and so how do you find out if you can do better was that your mentality was that your mentality in your early 20s yeah i think it came from martial arts yeah because if you if you don't try to get better you wind up getting [ __ ] up like it's dangerous like you get hurt you know because i grew up from from high school from the time i was 15 until i was 21 all i did was travel the country and fight i competed with mr miyagi no he wasn't around back then but that's that's really what i did that's all i did and so that the mentality had to be constantly looking to improve figuring out what you're doing wrong figuring out how to do better and and being brutally honest about your your strengths and weaknesses well yeah we'll be right back it's a weird transition from that in the stand-up comedy you know but i think there's some parallels there's some parallels because bombing on stage is one of i've lost fights but bombing on stage might feel
worse it might be the worst feeling you could ever feel other than like physical pain yeah you know there is something about it's i always think it's weird when people will say i could never do that and and in some ways i think comedians we forget because there are particularly at the beginning there are dark days there are levels of humiliation that most normal people would go don't ever do this again but comedians are such lunatics that they're like that's fine that's fine and by the way what they don't realize is there's some of us that break through and we kind of figure it out but there are some people that try stand up fail miserably have the perseverance and never get better that's true it's brutal there's certain there's a certain mindset that never improves and i don't know what that is i don't know if it's a genetic thing if it's a lack of brain horsepower there's certain people that just never get it they never get it and they try and they don't and they just they never they never figure their way through and there is also something about i i have a big belief that comedy changes just as we were talking about you know there's a difference between political correctness and like there is a um a cultural trend that's almost kind of looking for someone making a mistake that it's shifted every i i call it decades so like there is a uh in the 80s the you know at the peak of kind of seinfeld stand up which transformed into his show he didn't need to provide any autobiographical information it was just jokes and there was also um and it was even carlin at his peak he he wasn't he he would provide some he was grounded in authenticity but it wasn't like
uh you know i struggle with whether i'm a good dad or not it was but in this day and age there is we're such an exhibitionist and voyeuristic culture that there is a requirement of that where i think that when i watch stand up and you know and by the way i also believe that when people go all my stories everything's true that's true it's like it's not true it's it's it's inspired by truth but but authenticity is so important so when you hear a comedian say my girlfriend or my father and it's not true like that could have worked in the 80s but i think now the authenticity is the audience is like oh that's a great joke but that's not your girlfriend or your dad or your brother or like do you know what i'm saying yeah you have to maybe if you're like a real absurdist and like it's obvious you're lying about everything and that's part of the joke oh yeah yeah other than that yeah if you just make up a story and by the way i also think that in 10 years it might be all lies but like now in this kardashian kind of reality show era people want to see a little bit behind that you know i mean i think that whether it's uh bert or segura there's these stories that people relish in their lives in seeing their lives and sharing the experience and and that's something that wasn't necessarily uh prevalent or maybe i'm just talking about my ass no no i think you're right i mean i think we didn't really know much about comics back in the day we just know about that i mean pryor did this 40 years ago yeah but he was an anomaly he was he was you know so unique and wouldn't it be amazing to see prior back then on a podcast like see prior and gene wilder sitting down just shooting the [ __ ] for hours it was incredible unbelievable well it's it's i remember when i saw when i you know was deep into stand up maybe like eight years and i went and consumed prior
stuff again after you know being in the business it was so shocking how much had been stolen from him like entire acts you're like oh my gosh yeah uh you know that's in so and so special that's in you know every comedian that comes from a certain area does these jokes and it was like he was really revolutionary on so many different levels forget the the true gift of like uh being funny and autobiographical and kind of vulnerable like people don't realize that like when he did that show in long beach it's like any open for patti labelle like and people were coming in at the beginning it's like that's absurd that someone that was someone special do you remember when he was doing that special in long beach and there was a guy who walked up right to the stage with a camera he's like get the [ __ ] out of here man go sit down he left that in there he left that in there and and by the way people have to understand that that wasn't you know half those people were not they were there to see patti labelle yeah like that's really amazing yeah like that's super talent that's like you know like and i think chappelle has that chappelle has like just you know i don't know it's like almost like a level of genius where he's almost kind of like i'm gonna set up a hurdle for myself yeah it's absurd well shouldn't it make me also constantly working man like he just popped into the belly room uh two nights ago just showed up does a set in the belly room she does a set in the in the main room goes over the improv constantly hopping around you know i've told this story before but it's a it's a crazy one i was in denver i was doing the comedy works and it's uh friday night at 10 o'clock show i get done i go into the green room dave's there i go what are you doing man he goes oh what's up joe i was just i decided to come by like he decided to come by meaning he flew into denver on a private jet with no show set up because he knew that i was going to be there and want to do a set wow so he
just does what he wants like he just shows up when i go do you want to go up he goes oh [ __ ] i go [ __ ] yeah hold on a second i run back on stage i tell the audience i go come back sit down dave chappelle's here they're like what and so everybody comes back in and sits down i go ladies and gentlemen please welcome dave chappelle he goes up and does 40 minutes just free just does it but he's just doing that all the time it's not all for money it's all for the craft it's all for performing working out the material just travels around and does these things yeah and just shows dc does like 18 shows at the werner just like over two and a half weeks just does just is always always on top of it you know and that is why it's not just his his his obvious talent and his brilliance but also his work ethic all those things it's there's not one without the other you don't just get the guy who takes six months off and he's just brilliant always and you wake him up and he's got the best set ever no it's like he's constantly grinding constantly yeah and i think with ours with this art form that we do it requires diligence it requires maintenance it is totally diligent yeah it is do you write on paper do you write on a laptop i do i don't even have my stuff here but i'm always putting stuff down but like i uh you know some of it's bits and nubs you know like these are notes from like ireland i mean i love being in other cultures because i not only do you see the eccentric side of their culture but it also exposes how absurd our culture is yeah but yeah no some of it is just and also you know it's just uh just absurd you know it's like also in another country as opposed to cities it's so different and i am an american so i i can just kind of horse around for 10 minutes and sometimes i'm doing the equivalent of like the subway joke you know like when people would come to new york and they're like i was on the subway and you're like don't do that but when i'm like in spain i'm like you know what
i'm probably doing the equivalent of a subway joke but they appreciate the research and i really do i do i am fascinated by other cultures and i am fascinated and you know in kind of observing different things and understanding the history it's kind of like i think that like visiting other countries is kind of similar to talking to like a a really drunk angry guy like if you're talking to a drunk angry guy and you're like i understand you i understand that like for 400 years the english didn't let you make cheese like the the drunk angry guy is like yeah thank you for understanding that dear i mean and that's you know they're not asking for it but it's fun so do you mostly just write down notes and then work those notes out on on stage yeah some of it it's you know like when i was in ireland uh and i i i went to donegal which i love and i what is donnygal it's a county in the northwestern part of the republic that should be part of northern ireland but it was so catholic uh that the british were like you know you guys can keep that one like it's way up there and it's kind of um relatively isolated so there's there's not american tourists it's really kind of just people that live there and uh i spent a week and then i did a show in letter kenny and um and i kind of was like picking on them but it was not you know not the roasting form but it was just you know because it's all gale talk you know like they speak gaelic that's so weird what does that sound like it sounds nothing like english it's it's really weird because it's you know you does have some english sounds in it not really well there'll be an english word that they'll just i think they add a sheen to the end of an english word they're like oh you have to go to the airport machine and you're like what but i can barely under it's kind of like the scottish i can barely understand when they're speaking english but i loved it northern ireland's very interesting in that regard i was in
northern i was in belfast and uh listening to people that were drunk talk oh yeah you might as well have been on another planet well by the way those the british isles including uh the republic of ireland there is something so tribal there like there's something really interesting as an american that you know we have this cute notion of like i'm irish i drink too much whereas like the uh the irish and the english and the scottish and the welsh there is something that is there it kind of comes out at 11 o'clock at night like you'll see a different side like i was at this i was at this house party in donegal and the next day i ran into the guy he goes and there was probably 10 adults there he's like yeah jim we drank 29 glasses 29 bottles of wine i'm like what 29. and i know that i maybe drank one of them but and not i don't think all the adults drank you know by the way in ireland not everyone drinks it's just the people that do drink really do it yeah so there's like i think someone told me the percentage of ah uh you know irish that drink is smaller than the rest of europe but the percentage that do drink and um i can't even remember was remember what i was going to say but it's just i could talk about ireland forever because it's so fast oh that but around 11 o'clock at night there's something that happens and this by the way this guy was not drunk but i was at this cocktail this dinner party and the kids are everyone has five kids so there's like five kids there's 400 kids in the backyard and this guy's just railing into me he's like he's like you're you know the media has already decided that it's kamala harris how can you decide and i'm like wait a minute i'm like first of all what are you talking about and he just consumes he's doing all this research this guy you know uh but he's convinced he goes it's camel harris the media big bro uh big brothers have decided it's kamala harris and i'm like whoa and it's just fascinating but it's how
do they know we don't know a [ __ ] goddamn thing about their people the the some of it is and by the way people were kind of how do you know this and some of it but i bring that up because there was uh behind it was this tribalism kind of like this um you know and obviously the irish are very different than the english but there was something about this that was um you know you you you see it a little bit you know with southerners that are kind of like we're going to give you hell kind of thing but like and i've seen it you see it in england all the time like 11 o'clock you're like what happened to like hugh grant you know it's just like a different world well once they abandoned all the the the niceties you get to see who they really are yeah with a couple of pints in them too it's super authentic but it's also like that culture and i know that you're the but like the whole like oh you know what would be fun is to go out and drink a bunch of pints and then we'll get in a fight like to me that sounds horrible but you would like that wouldn't you no no i'm not interested in bar fights i think it's a terrible idea that's how people die people get crippled but people do that all the time yeah i saw andy dick got yeah i'm conscious did you see that oh man yeah i just saw that video he got really [ __ ] up um i'll send it to you i hope he's all right he's definitely not all right he's a frail little fella you got to get out of here i do oh there's a car waiting for you i was wondering what's going on i have a meeting what do you have what's going on you're a [ __ ] moving around a shaker you're a player out here in hollywood no i'm not at all but like i have this meeting of uh you know for a tv show it's a producer meeting but it is last question i love that do you do you do is it hard for you to balance because i know you've done a lot of acting gigs i know you love stand up is it hard for you to find like the time balance
it's it's different uh because i love stand-up i am a stand-up it's something that i'll have to do i'm sure it's the same with you it's like it you're gonna do it until you die yes right i think like when people like i can't believe seinfeld went back to stand up i'm like of course he did he's a comedian but the acting is something that i love but i don't view it as an income source you view it as a lie i view it as it's it's it's something that and by the way you're a good actor thank you i i love it i love playing a character i love playing a bad guy i love kind of that seems fun justifying uh you know every actor wants to play someone flawed but i love playing these people that you don't have any sense of doubt why you're doing something in a scene like you're like this is all i can do and afterwards i love the moment when you're at craft service and there's somebody that looks at you like the character they're like you know i mean i usually i used to play a lot of nerds so people would be like dismissive of me and i annoyed that i'm like look i'm not the character but i love it when i'm playing someone who's kind of doing something maniacal and people are like why would you do that like i'm just playing a guy that would kidnap somebody i'm not going to kidnap you i i enjoy that kind of stuff but i just i do too many things as it is so i've kind of sworn off all acting really yeah i abandoned it a couple years ago what if it was the perfect role i mean it's it's highly inefficient but yeah i just think it's so fun like i sent you that link to the movie and i want you to watch it because i think if you watch it you're gonna go oh i get it oh i do get it i get it i just can't do it but it's like that was like by uh i remember that was like three weeks and ever you know on weekends i had shows it was really inefficient it was all night shoots it was utter insanity but you're happy with the result but that's one of those where it worked i think also it's it's more experienced
in life in general that i think enhances your stand up and i i think it's difficult for us to look at it that way but i think the more different things you do the more different experiences that you have the more your perspective gets enhanced yeah and there's there's moments that are almost parallel that you know obviously as a comedian we love the laughs and we love kind of creating changing someone's mood and similar to you know alleviating the tension and stand up and acting like sitting in that tension and just kind of twisting a knife in the audience is kind of exhilarating and something unique that you're only going to get in acting yes yeah jim gaffigan you're a bad [ __ ] please tell everybody uh when your new special drops friday this friday i think friday the 16th what is today wednesday yes you have two days folks two days two days but they can add it to their watch list but next time you go to amazon to buy your paper towels or socks just check it out check it out [ __ ] please thank you sir thank you everybody pleasure thank you thanks for nicotine gum too and i'm addicted i totally [Music]