Steve Sweeney
Guests: Steve Sweeney
Full transcript · Read the full conversation in order, with its original context.
§01Transcript - 00:00 start
look at you I'm enjoying this Jim I wish we had a speed bag that's my favorite thing to one test Steve Sweeney ladies and gentlemen how are you hey I'm great I can't wait you know what I've done so many things in my life you know movies TV all this stuff stand up but Joe Rogan oh my god Jack and Boston Jesus your run Joe broken yeah I get you got fans you know that like all these different ages and all different kinds of people and uh I'm very proud of you thank you one of the things that happened you don't remember this but you opened for me many times louis c.k opened for me Nick DiPaolo open for me so people that want a little show business advice open for me it helps then then you get to go by me and you know I get to watch you guys become stars I've said I'm playing Chinese restaurants and Saugus some of the best stand-up comedy in the world is at Chinese restaurants in
Saugus and that's a fact still to this day all those people that live there they don't know how good they have it well you know what it is I you know you work with these guys you and I have worked with guys that are like genius you know what rent something whatever word you want to use but doing stand-up is not about being funny it's about going into these shitholes and like developing this extra skin you know you're a martial artist and sort of you have some kind of that mentality but you know when I started it was like I came from you know I was an actor I was very serious person I was like an actor you know that I do like these obscure impressions I'd Paul Scofield and Lawrence the Laurence Olivier you know all right so nuts and all this and I'd be playing at places like the Sugar Shack do you remember the negative it was a black R&B joint and I opened for BB King Wow
yeah and I'm doing like John Lennon it was very important when we started them in the do some dirty man what the you doing don't you know any jokes so in the back I can't heckle my first heckler Oh sack and I said yeah you who you he says I'm BB King I hired you oh no and then I was doing I will never forget this do you remember the channel the channel yeah yeah yeah yeah rock and roll place so I'm opening for like these bands you know it was like that Blues Brothers scenes with a throwing at the cage yeah so the bouncer he says you know point to people and we'll throw them out so I'd point to them but then they bring them out in the alley and beat the out of them you know but I I'm thinking because you're a martial artist so I've kind of got this thing about people and fighting and growing up in Charlestown and I think back on certain incidents when I was starting to
and stand-up and I was at this place on Comm Ave and this guy stole one of my lines no I know that you're big into that right so he goes off stage I hit him with a right cross goes over the tables and I'm thinking to myself my friend I thought you wanted to be Jonathan winters and Ritz they don't do like that and then another time we were at the ground round in Brighton I'll never forget round round yeah I'll never forget this Joe so amonst the guy on before me the guy in the audience is throwing little ice things at him right so I said my opening line usually you try to get the audience to like you you know or make them laugh or whatever so my opening line was like the first that throws something at me I'm gonna knock them out you know you're not exactly setting the stage for a hilarious comedy but you know I really work what's that how's that work out
terrible I bombed you know people think you know when you do this for a while you've never bought I mean there's no experience in a life like bombing in Louisville Kentucky I'll never forget that and a guy comes up to me afterwards and he says and he was trying to make me feel good he says well I could tell by your tone funny uh no but I'm doing like about subways and stuff they don't even know what they are right so those early years there was like one there wasn't even a comedy club so you just kind of did it I fell into it what year did you start oh my god people you know people I am now at that point Joe where people come up to me and you know they say I'm so glad to see you I keep telling my husband I'm Tom he's not dead he has not died so it's been like 30 or 40 years I don't remember the year but I remember the over the year you started no I don't remember
I started in 88 and you were a legend I was in 88 yeah you were for sure dude I watched you one night at Nick's calm me stop kill so hard I start I thought about quitting because I had only been doing comedy like a year I was like this I gotta get the out you know you know when I had that feeling Richard Pryor's first performance film do you remember yeah yeah yeah Richard Pryor live he filled it in Long Beach I was I went to see that with Steven Wright and both of us walked out we said we don't even want to do this you know it's it was so intimidating yeah I know that feeling man yeah well you know we got that feeling a lot in Boston and as as a kid starting out there it was I tell everybody that I stumbled into the the greatest comedy scene in the history of the known universe in 1988 when I started it was insane it was insane Don Gavin was in his prime you were in your
prime Rogerson I would watch these guys go up talk about there was so many guys that were so good NOx was killing back then there was so many guys that you would go any night you would go and watch some of the best stand-up comedy on the planet it was it was amazing Mike Donovan Mike Donovan to this day people don't know Mike Donovan is really he was a physician Johnny most do you know Johnny most most people don't know yeah he would do this long but you know what job but it's funny you say in your prime because and I've talked to people who've been in it longer than me this is one job where you can get better yes you can get better more skillful you know but it's something that you you know you just have to give the finger to the business because they're looking for the fat guy the small guy the black guy that you know they're they're always looking for something other than what you are
right so you do what you do like you've done what you did you know the business in terms of like movies and television shows yeah they will try to lure you away and they lure you away with money but the business of stand-up comedy is really about what you do in front of that microphone you know how the audience responded on stage I followed a woman and she had a lot of TV credits but she had no material and it was unbelievable you know you forget when you do something you forget it's like you're a trained fighter you're trained radio person you forget that in order to do it you've developed a certain set of skills yeah and like in Boston they have a st. Patrick's Day breakfast where the politicians try to be funny and it's it's excruciating you know what I mean and you forget oh yeah I do this all the time it'd be like me trying to give a speech before I came on
this show I talked to Nick DiPaolo you know your buddy sure and he says well Joe and I always talk about politics and I said well no nobody help himself not nobody nobody talks to me about politics I'm just not that smart good I'm done with politics I'm gonna quit yeah yeah you know where we are in this country now is like well I I kind of uh I don't like to not like someone because of what they believe so I just kind of do silly I was thinking the other day with the Democrats you know that I'm gonna run I'm gonna run and they but they've got the moderate lane the progressive Lane so I'm gonna run in the breakdown lane you know just a silly little you know now I try to you know keep it upbeat whatever but I got into this I fell into this because I kept thinking I'm gonna get an acting job and I won't do stand-up this is gonna end at some point you know what I mean right
and I have you know I like people the kids would will actually ask me for advice and I say advice are you me I fell into this I expected at the end but I say alright you want some advice don't ever work at a place that's named after the guy like if it's Vinny's pizza parlor or a Joey hole of Bobby's money-making piece of when it's named after the guide you know it's never enough you know on Nick's comedy style Nick's now I'm gonna do something feel okay we're gonna play a little scene okay now you ask me say is Nick's a mafia joint is Nick somavia joint yeah is this Nick still around a hundred percent yeah Nick's is around was it the same ownership and do you know that there isn't one inch of that building that I didn't do coke and I believe that it was it was really something I mean I mean it was like I know that you know I lived in LA many years ago and it's like I'm driving
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around say oh I know that's what so with Nick's I know every spot the building by the way I didn't know that this was a camp area though she all the campers yeah right out in front of your place they're everywhere well they find these side streets where the ops won't kick them out yeah and semi homeless people they're not homeless they just have mobile homes you know what it is the homeless people here are so peaceful they're like uh like the caravan you know they just they don't bump change they don't do anything they just kind of walk around I'm sitting in front of a building here it was like a fashion show for the homeless one guy comes by with a Buffalo Bills jacket and the other guys then you know and they're just quietly talking themselves some and you know it's freaking me out I've only been here 12 hours but everybody is either really I've spoken or I'm losing my
hearing because like even at though I'm rent in the car and the woman says did you wanted them on do you want to sit I said what what did you want to sign that's what you know in Boston be like what do you want for a cat you want to be upgraded you know it's like the noise pollution well it's louder there and colder and people are angrier it's a different place out here it's just even the homeless people they don't have it so rough if you're gonna be a homeless person this is the place to go people are very open-minded it's relaxed it's warm I mean the cold as it gets is like 40 that's as cold as it ever gets yeah but you know at if you're giving advice to homeless people it's like like I was I was sitting in Westwood and a Starbucks right and it's the guy was just sitting there you know and all these people are having their lattes and and he's just you know one of those
crazy laughs everybody's just going along with their conversation you know the I don't know what to say about the homeless thing have you ever been in downtown you ever seen I myself was homeless when I was like 16 I was a hippie my mother passed away when I was 15 and it was a different time you know no I haven't bent down you you were almost for like how long I was a hippie and it's different than being homeless but a couple of years really yeah I I you know the worst moment I was lying I was downstairs in this guy's house and I overheard his girlfriend saying no he was saying to his girlfriend I don't know I keep asking the guy to leave but you know I was you know I here's what happened to me Joe I read Jack Kerouac on the road okay so I wanted to beat Jack Kerouac and I want to be a writer so I did everything that Kerouac did except rights you know I was
living in YMCAs and drinking the wine and the whole thing but it was a whole different country then why didn't you start writing was it one of those things like eventually you'll start writing all right I wanted to be a writer I didn't want to right you know what I mean right look you ready the artist you don't want to paint Brett writing is the hardest job in the world I don't know how people do it but we did this movie which I'd like to mention it bill Broadus wrote this movie it's called Sweeney killing Sweeney and you can get it on iTunes it's not right now pre-order it once it out it's gonna be the middle of March but they can pre-order it ok but this guy bill brought us wrote this script and I'd like my twenty-something movie I've been in a lot have done a lot of acting and I said this thing is so good and I wanted to be able to get guys who I knew were
tremendously talented to not be in these clubs you know it's very like demeaning sometimes you know for a guy who's really good at what he does and somebody's like texting and you know all this like I had a woman you know usually I'm like ok about it you know I say okay listen you're putting us out of work like in the future I'll text you a joke then you text back lol you know silly little but I had one woman and she's the arrogance you know and it was a benefit to and she's doing this and she said soak I can multitask so I said oh okay so when I stick it up your ass you're still gonna be able to talk and everything you know I mean so I see guys like Steven Wright who's in the movie Nick DiPaolo Bobby Slayton Jonathan Katz you know all different styles of comedy took Lenny Clarke and Tony v and Frank Santorelli I wanted to I wanted to see them get into something
where we could really work you know and they all did it they're all in the movie and it was a fantastic experience woman director Lisa mola and was just it was great it's first time I produced a movie which is really hard what is it a dramatic movie like what is it I'll tell you the plot briefly you know I guess it's a comedy but it has its moments is the HBO maybe or Showtime or some company comes to town and they want me but they say the characters are too local got to get rid of the characters so then my characters try to kill me so I plays by different part six like a Peter Sellers kind of thing okay from Doctor Strange so like you're losing your mind like your character's eternal you gotta figure that out okay okay you don't know whether I'm losing my mind but I had just come off the equalizer with Denzel Washington I was in that and that was an interesting experience
because like I got this beard you know and um the director would did training day he said to me you know you got to shave your beard and I said listen man I saw my face twenty-five years ago scared the out of made this beard is here for a reason I'm the most ugly I've ever seen I can't do it then he told me how much money I was gonna make I said would you like me to shave my balls too similar experience Something About Mary so my scene if you haven't seen it Ben Stiller's things caught in a zipper so I I'm the cop I come in the window and Peter was directed I said you know I don't have to grab his crotch right he says yeah you're an actor you gotta grab it I said anything against it but I just I just can't do it then he told me how much money I was gonna make I said you want me to just grab it cuz I'll give it him anyway uh that was my experience with that do you really feel like it's
demeaning working clubs I still enjoy working clubs I love it I mean out here of course we do the comedy store all the time I do the improv but some clubs on those audiences are easy they're great they're there laughs you mean like shitty clubs you mean like bar gigs you know here's the thing is when I'm on stage I'm okay you know but when I'm driving to East Methuen Elks Club it bothers you that I get a depression you wouldn't believe it's funny but you start to feel old in the day like driving to those gigs was awesome like something shifts like what is it that shifts is it is it in your own head is it is it just that you've done too many you know what I think shifts is you stop drinking I've been sober 26 years that's the problem as well yeah I'd say to be sure I kept drinking my career to be through the roof you know know there are great clubs giggles is a great club
it's great club rude wine on saw good pizza - and good pizza and I'll do a theater I love that I'm just giving you the other side of the story because you know people do get into this and they don't have an idea of what the life is like yeah you know what I mean to be on the road and like a lot of my friends and now doing cruise ships those are depressing you're trapped and if you eat on a cruise ship yeah you you're stuck with those people for seven days well that's that's the problem and they keep coming up to you you were awful you personally ruined our whole vacation we're from Ohio we had never even seen the ocean you ruined it and then they'll say yeah this is true you know saying oh you stay on the ship no actually I swim next the ship then what were 150 miles out in the shark-infested water they scooped me up tell a few stupid jokes then they throw me overboard you know I
I got fired from a cruise ship for the weirdest for religious joke and you know I said this this dumb joke about Mitt Romney because it's hard being a Mormon in Massachusetts it was always just me and mitt I thought I was Mormon my father kept saying you're a so silly little joke and they that's what they complained I heard you for that they complained about I never heard in any way with those cruise ships you know it's it's really good if you if you are an active alcoholic you'll knock it's wonderful or if you're addicted to food oh my god yeah the lunch buffet the breakfast buffet the midnight buffet I know it's like a you you go on you look like a normal human being you get off this ship feel like waddling yeah yeah there's a lot of there's no manufactured some fun it's like I love your warehouse here and everything you know what I like about its quiet
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you know the one of these gyms sound sound and these cruise ships you can't even go to the pool without hearing 80's disco you know it's like this thing have a good time if you not having a good time there's something up about you you know have a good time well I think what they're trying to do hippety activities give people something to fill their time with whether they're stuck on a floating vessel yeah yeah I'm not interested I mean I still love clubs I still enjoyed going to clean you know what's great in a club I'm a time I probably overstated the other one but I'll tell you what does shift this when people are there to see you that's good yeah that's a nice thing because then you're actually able to make people feel good and in service but I've always had the same problem Joe is when people try to help you by heckling or whatever and they think you know this is helping
whatever I it's it's like you know you're a fighter you you feel that temper come up you know when it comes up quick and you got a you got to contain it and yeah act and but like in real life I wouldn't want to know those people right they yeah so every timing yeah and I just feel like you know you prepare this material and you've you've worked on it you want to give it a people yeah you know yeah but a lot of complaining I made my living out of this you know so I mean it's just you you want to be realistic like on somebody's kid asked you you know what what is it like you know yeah you know what you know an audience I hate is an open mic audience why cuz the other comedians they're really tense you know what I mean but the really tense right because they're thinking it's like an audition right they're nervous yeah so you feel it in the air you'd feel in the air man yeah but if
you can go up and be smooth I remember Teddy Bergeron going up an open mic night there's another one I wanted to stop doin comedy when Teddy was in his path first started in 1988 the first night ever went on Jonathan Katz was hosting at stitches and Teddy went on and did a set and I was like good lord his timing his material everything was so sharp and so good just seems so unattainable it seemed so out of reach yeah so that was a thing like about open mic nights in Boston like pros would stop in they'd stop in and let you know how it really should be going well I was at the Comedy Store when Richard Pryor was working out and he'd start on a Monday and he'd go upbeat bomb didn't matter he's working the material a week later he had this unbelievable set yeah I worked with George Carlin I work with Rodney Dangerfield that work best part about being in this business for me is the
people that I've worked with you know just meeting them and seeing them and seeing them seeing people great at what they do you know I'm sure you feel that way with MMA whatever you know sure yeah well both comedies well you know I mean it's um it's been amazing watching people develop their acts and and know and just to know that that's that's a process that we all have to go through you know the the the process of creating material it never gets any easier it's always hard I mean to this day when you were working out new material it's probably weird right it's funny the material seems to come to me ya know it's I'm at that point where it's just sort of the events right it you know Bob Kraft and the whole thing and you know but here's what I don't like about is this sound like a session right now no you sure yeah we just talking shop okay what I don't like is it's Trump all day
and then all the late night shows it's more Trump yeah you know what I mean there's no escape from this well that's what they think people want to hear yeah yeah I don't think it's that creative though it gets a little tiresome yeah I think specially after two years yes you got something really funny to say I always keep the door open some really funny you never know you know the you don't hear stormy Daniels is doing stand-up now you know that's another thing people you know what I mean she's probably got five minutes of material if yeah and see that you know there were guys I think it was Richard Lewis and Dennis Miller and a couple of other guys came through Nicks and they didn't want to close you know they follow me of course I've watched some of those sessions and then I said one of them said you know I'm gonna can i middle I said sure that I'm gonna get
your money though right he said oh no I said welcome to your the deadlines are you know well that I mean I've followed Jay Leno at the at The Improv you know you gotta follow people yeah you gotta follow people but in all fairness what I used to see and I saw this many times at Knicks was some poor who had like a couple of TV credits on his hot and they would go on and they would headline at Knicks and they would stack the deck and it would be horrendous it was you and Lenny and Knox and all these savages would go up and Boston style comedy where there's no breaks it's just Baghdad right yeah there's a style of comedy like hey I know you worked all day you don't wanna hear anybody bullshitting up here everybody talks fast and they're funny and Gavin would go up and no murder and then these poor bastards would go up after them and just these people with their TV credits
you would see them just be within five minutes they'd be lost it'd be very observational have you ever gone to an airport well they just only expect that they would see three world-class headliners do 50 minutes I'll tell you a funny story about Nick's Sam Kinison right he you know he had been up for a few days obviously but anyway you know I mean you know the era so I said and Sam was a good friend of mine he's a nice guy when he was straight he had a dark side you know like we all do yeah but I said Sam this isn't you know this isn't LA you know these guys Joey the job and Billy the fraud and false yeah you know what I mean this sitting up front and he's Lee you know how Sam was and I said Sam I'm telling you these are the wrong guys to piss off yeah they had to fire him because you know those guys they'll kill you they don't they don't have any sense of humor
no no well not only that they don't want to be with yeah it's just two bosses so one of the some of the weirdest people in terms of like the way the rest of world works they're ready to fight there's a lot of people that are ready to fight they'll ready to fight you then I gotta shoot you or stab you they're gonna beat the out of you right they're gonna do it right that in there it'll happen anywhere it'll happen at a restaurant will happen at a bar is one of the last places that we won we used to tour them ready to break out well you would see real fistfights yeah like all the time like Ari Shaffir used to say that like me and him while we were leaving Fanueil Hall once and there's a brawl breaking out in front of this McDonald's and he's like you people are savages here I'm like I'm telling you it's a different kind of human it's cold for too much the women are
oh yeah men are everybody's ready to fight and everyone's drunk it's a different kind of place well you know the I grew up in Charleston right they did a movie about the town and all that it's a movie but anyway I grew up over there and you didn't have to win but you had a fight yeah and my record was probably like two wins and thirty losses and two you know there's a lot of draws because they break it up right away you know but there were actual fistfights ya know one time I'm in the projects is kid Davy ladder he did the one thing you're not supposed to do he kicked me in the balls uh-huh and then everybody jumped and beat the out of him the one thing about kicking people in the balls too don't ever miss yeah cuz then the other guy gets very mad it doesn't work as good as people think it does really it hurts now were you in street fights I started fighting to avoid street fights
I know it's very late I wanted to fight like as an amateur like in martial arts tournaments because I was scared of street fights to me it seemed to me to a are frightening terrifying you never know what's gonna happen people follow you around never know when it's gonna I was scared of fighting that's why I got into it I was I just I did not like to you remember that day when you're in grammar school the kid offers you out yeah at 8:30 in the morning early in the morning so free in the afternoon what's that one down your pants did you just yourself yeah and then you're in the schoolyard and they're all circling around you you know it's this whole thing but my father used to train fighters boxers over the new garden gym and me and my brother we would get into terrible fights and my father never it's hard I said it's wrong I throw a shot or anything just give us these big enormous
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frickin gloves I just let you go to war at each other yeah it's weird why don't he teach you probably tired from teaching people all day yeah maybe yeah probably maybe he wanted us to beat the out of each other you know I don't know that's a good question I just figured out on your own yeah or it's you know you I remember coming back and this kid beat the out of me Bobby Buckley and my father said what are you doing at home you better go back out there what fight him again alright yeah but I you know there's a lot of different ways to be like in Charlestown growing up I mean I was I grew up with some guys that were like unbelievable like you know there's a there's a whole morale thing maybe or a social thing about say robbing a bank I mean would that ever freaking cross your mind no but that's a Charlestown thing that's one thing I was true about that movie
the town but but what I was in awe of people that would do it it's like where do you get the balls that you know and I'll never forget this friend of my Joey Rocco who's no longer with us so I see him up at government somebody remember government Center yeah so I see him up there and he's got like his lunch and I said Joe are you doing he's kind of blew me off then I see him a week later he says hey Swain's what's up I said what's up you blew me off a week ago he said oh I'm so sorry I was waiting to rob crimson travel and I had my gun there and I was interested as interrupting his work so he came into next comedy stopped of 400 people I did fantastic I was like practically a standing ovation whatever so Joe's in the audience right and I so I talked him afterwards so there's a number of things he could say like jeez I liked this show I didn't like your show good for you
getting out of Charlestown he gave me this look I was like wow it's gonna be a lot of money in here I said you think I'm here to case the joint for you it was unbelievable we used to uh part of the thing at book shops now growing up let's see how to shoplift that was did you do that when you were a kid like sure I got caught shoplifting candy why yeah you were bad you probably were terrified right again terrified I got brought into a manager's office I think it was 12 oh yeah I got in trouble I was terrible till I was so paranoid but anyway there was a department store called Jordan Marsh and my job was to catch the football they'd throw me the football I'd catch it and run down Tremont's street so we just you know stole on a football right so that's that was a gig so one time I'm up there and uh this other kid says to me pick up the end of this Cano I said what he said
grab the end of the Kanoa still in a kanuto but so we're walking down watch that Street in Boston with a Cano right now hmm I don't know where you're from but it's not a big item in Charlestown canoes and the project's you know what I mean it's like not something that you couldn't fence it did you take the Charles River I don't know what we did with it you do try to you end up either giving it away or selling it for like three bucks that was back then the the river was very very dirty like I used to swim in that oh that was the what we used to call the oil ease because there was so much oil in it and better now though right didn't they clean it up a little bit that's what they say you know they mean they've they've cleaned up the whole of Boston I don't recognize boss anymore they got this part of Boston called the Seaport it's all these big buildings it's like
freakin Dubai you know there's no kids there's no neighborhoods no characters it's all just gentrified and very rich people know right yeah apparently yeah what is it like bankers like who's got all that money that's what I keep asking myself who does have all this money yeah Boston is definitely but la is the same way you know yeah always no money yeah but there's normal neighborhoods in LA look around here like Woodland Hills like wander around West Hills like yes Studio City there's normal neighborhoods there's regular houses there's plenty of but you know whether normal spots what I've noticed though is I was in Portland Oregon and there was a whole like city of homeless people yeah in LA it's just it's sparkly it's like Jimmy's on top of an ice cream you know you got to go to skid row you never seen anything like it Skid Row's a homeless City it's insane
there's thousands of homeless people wandering through the streets they they've taken over entire neighborhoods like it is it is bizarre it's bizarre we used to film Fear Factor downtown we would film it at these abandoned warehouses they would rent them out and we would you know throw people off the roof and and we there was this one area where you would go where and I'm not exaggerating there might be a thousand people on this block like a concert just let out like they were having a homeless concert and they're all just wandering around there's needles everywhere and tents and garbage in the streets and and people just shuffling around walking back and forth so they I guess there's some homeless centers you know where people go and get food and things and shelter it you know I'm starting to wonder like what's wrong with me with you because I seem to focus
on that you know every city I go to I say wow it seems like there's more and more homeless people and other people are saying oh let's go to the freedom trail let's let's look at the beauty of San Francisco what guys on the street to me that's like unusual San Francisco has an app where you could find where the people are them not sure we pulled it up before yeah there's so many people in San Francisco on the street say like my friend Jake Shields got a photo of this guy taking a right in front of him just shits brain out of his ass right into the street from the side no I don't know what and they just do it in front everybody yes I don't know why people you know who's sicker the person with the app or that guy takin a dump well I think there's a certain open-mindedness that San Francisco has a lot of very progressive open-minded people which is good but the problem is it opens the
door for some ridiculous stuff like people on the street too many homeless people - they're too open-minded and too liberal look at that that's the that's the map that's where all the people are that's that's a dark puddle of where so many people were on the street in that area and I don't even know how they clean that up I mean what do they do they scrape it hose the street down is that an extra is that right are they creating jobs let's look at it on the positive side god maybe those lesbian my hobby of the parades when they stab the horses there's nothing you could do either I mean what are you gonna do you're gonna give these people a place to live you're gonna give these people food you're gonna give these people money there's that's not gonna fix their mental illness the that's what people don't understand about a lot of these folks it's not they run on bad luck
that's they're not on bad luck they're mentally ill they have their brains not working correctly and if they don't want to be on medication and they don't have anywhere to turn they don't have anywhere to go they're gonna stay there and they don't have anywhere to and you know they just want to use the street and I don't know if they could put up porta-potties and say for homeless folks only and what can they do we're not gonna solve that on the Joe Rogan we might I'm an optimistic person Stevie those you know I was thinking of myself you just you know it's just your pants so anyway we've covered that what else is two problems that we have in this country the Salani a lot of the I always look why is everybody so pissed off in this country because everything's going well so much going well the terms of the economy in terms of safety in terms of that because so people are
focusing on other things to be mad at when we away from war to you know like you know and when when you don't have to worry about as much violence people concentrate on microaggressions that's one of the things that does happen there's definitely problems in this country for sure but I think that part of the outrage is that people are it's recreational they're looking to be outraged about things because there's no real problems well doing these real problems people focus on you know when there's you know what you you have to really worry about violence or you have to really worry about health people focus on you know the good things in life people are only happy if they have a certain amount of adversity that they have to deal with when there's less and less adversity I find I find that people become more and more outraged and easier they're outraged it's small minor
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details or they're denying that people should be allowed to just up and make some mistakes here and there they concentrate on those mistakes like it's the end of the world this person should be ostracized from society and kicked out and this is the end well going back to politics if you get in a discussion with somebody you agree with mm-hmm you still end up being pissed off because you're pissed off at the other side or the other political thing is you angry at each other for different points of view yep but I always think to myself as I'm sure you do it's an amazing place to be we have enough food we have enough water I myself I think life has two things life is a gift and life is short yeah you know in a purpose of life my opinion is to develop whatever talents you have and then share it so I can't agree more what what a what a place to do it the best place in the world to do it you
have the opportunity you know and but you know it's like we I think we do tend to complicate things what I don't like is when we let other things get between us as human beings because it's it's a whole that's why I like Buddhism example because you're never gonna see outside of rare exceptions a Buddhist country is never going to invade another country because the whole principle is mindfulness in other words it's all within you so you don't have to push your beliefs on other people like I have a lot of friends will become Christians which is great for them but they always put you in a feel like a put in a box yeah like have you accepted Jesus you know how the gonna answer that you know what I mean not yet say not yet keep-keep it's on the way yeah that's right it's like one of those unanswerable things you know well it's also a thing where people can hold Muslims Christians
it seems like they they believe that you know people have to hear this great message and if they don't hear it shove it down your throat I think half of them don't even think you have to hear it they just want to have it over you the Dave they've accepted Jesus into their life and you haven't so they win there's a lot of that there's a lot of that I mean that you see so many hypocritical Christians that don't really follow turn the other cheek they don't really treat everyone as if it's their brother they don't really do that they don't really they don't really feel that way they're not they're not out there well that's because that's that that's standard it's like you're gonna be Jesus right you know I mean Jesus Christ I mean you know and I mean no pun intended but who can live up to that so here's someone can but so there's proselytizing art no I people that
process eyes anything is like it's very uh you know it's like what get away from me yeah well it's a it's a shitty psychological tack down doesn't work yeah it just makes people it's we should talk about it's like when you try to get people to do things they're less likely to do those things as soon as you are angry at them that they're not doing it they're gonna go the other way people don't like being told what to do well it's just like if somebody wants to get sober right right if you if they are ready I work in jails that's one of my part-time jobs so what are you doing jails I do substance abuse stuff in jails so if you if they're ready everything you say you're like guru hmm if they're not ready doesn't matter what you say right so I do groups in jail I teach meditation I also teach gold setting we're doing about six years I've been in the field of substance abuse for
awhile and it's very rewarding it's not you know you don't make any money but it balances the life yeah you know I don't want to sit around all day most comedians that's what they have to do you know they work at night right so yeah I work at Plymouth Jail how often you do it two or three days a week yeah that's good so it's not not every day no and I take the summers off - because it's intense yeah I mean I've had groups you know I had one guy he came in and you do you do divide people ethnically white guy but six six big you know he did state time he was all jacked and he was wired and he started complaining about the place and I said hey this isn't I teach him to breathe you know like that guy Hoss you had on your show went off yeah but I teach him a different method it's just you breathe in for you hold it for you let it out it's just a calming breath
mm-hmm so anyway this guy I said hey place isn't a hotel let's do our breathing let's relax but you a lot of guys they can't see they can't see themselves I can't see contradictions that one guy he was in he was a Muslim right so I said so you guys pray like five times a day how do you know when to pray and listen to this show he says the guy said well if I'm doing a heist in the afternoon you know I'm gonna miss that prayer you don't see any contradiction amazing yeah guy the big giant guy that was angry or did he have a certain amount of time before he got out or was you know for life no no he was he was on his way out he was coming close that's what you guys get the most anxious how long had to be in for he'd been in for about 17 years it's a very polite society really prison society is very polite because every little thing just picture you're you're trapped with
all these other guys a lot of mental health a lot of stuff but every little thing is picked up on and reacted to you know it's like that scene and heat between De Niro and Pacino where they're just reacting to each other so you say can you please pass the salt look I pass it because at any minute that's what I try to teach us it's about impulse control any minute I think it happened yeah well you know you're dealing with a bunch of very impulsive people that also have a very short fuse they're used to violence violence is one way of acting out so what I say to them is I have the same thing but it's not through violence for me it's like texting or something you know I react or I drank yeah you know so it's about stepping back bang calm yeah it's hard when you get tripped up with you but you mind listens to the breath mmm that's the key rather than going up in your
mind take that breath and you know like when something's happening like a car crash or something first impulses hold your breath don't hold your breath let you breath out mmm I mean a lot of traditions have this you know Tai Chi you know pranayaam in yoga so yeah breathing is critical it's everything when wim HOF teaches it you know if you follow those methods you can you can really change your physiological state you can you can get out of a lot of things you can get you through a lot of things you know the thing that I don't buy those that cold water I don't want to go onto the Arctic like him holy Sh yes that's cuz you live in Boston and get get an allergy to cold my friend Mark Telegraaf a he's ready to go he's done he's been there for too long just talking about this weekend a lot of people they get like that but hit the wall you know that I think two of the
most boring subjects on earth are like how cold it is and how wonderful the weather is out here and then the other one is how someone lost weight you know I look at like what makes you think I give a how you lost this week and then they'll ask me how somebody else lost weight like Frank Santa oh he lost weight and he wanted to tell them it's jump Frank this isn't this is a car we have to talk about something with more substance and then people will say to me how did Lenny Clarke lose weight it's like I don't give a how he lost weight you know I'm a self-centered comedian anyway you know the good thing about cold weather those it teaches people character the people out here that have never had to deal with an earthquake they don't know any weather-related nature related hazards after you stay here it just stays warm and then it gets a little cool and it stays warm
I spent one winter out here that I was was horrible I was trying to get sitcoms and never getting anything and it rained every day it was it was horrible and I was staying in one of these corporate apartments that Woods Gardens yeah yeah but it was her initials the cheaper version and the guy next door was from Jamaica and it was on the phone all night he said this is the only time I can talk to her it's gotta be this time a night I'm telling you man it's real important I'm bangin no it's going uh-huh yeah how long you been out here since 94 oh you've been out here a while forever I've been here more than anywhere else in my life that's my observation up in Newton didn't you well I lived there from I lived in Jamaica Plain from I guess 13 - yeah 13 - 14 I lived there for a year and then I lived in Newton from 14 to 20 and that I lived in Revere and I lived in
§06Transcript - 48:24 start
Saugus for a while you got a you got a reputation for what it's a good reputation oh it's good yeah what did I do well it's just what we were just talking about you have a reputation as a badass oh that reputation yeah that's a good thing it's mostly it well you had Tyson on yeah and it was interesting that he didn't want to go back to it you know Marvin Hagler has the same problem oh yeah well he was the only guy that ever just quit the talk but he won't he won't punch a bag or anything grills that thing comes up in him where he he wants to do it again it's like an addiction and he's got to be 60 now it's still ya know welling up inside of him I respect him so much you know I always looked up to him when I was fighting because I remember the discipline that that guy had like I remember watching videos of him he was living on the Cape he would treat his truncate and he would
run and boots combat boots on yeah he was it was yelling war he was like getting ready to fight Mustapha Hampshire and he's running in shadow boxes yelling war and I'm like thinking could you imagine if you had a fight that guy when he was the middleweight champ in the world first of all he was chiseled like he was sculpted out of bronze didn't even look like I mean he was he was so jacked for a boxer when you think about like most boxers they didn't have that kind of of physique his physique was like almost like a gymnast you know when he was in his prime and he just was so disciplined and so fun and then beat the out of everybody and then lost that one very controversial fight to sugar I was at that fight yeah and then he was like that's it see ya I've had enough went to Italy came a movie star which is crazy he's apparently I mean I've never seen an Italian movie with Marvelous Marvin
Hagler in it nobody has I think it's a myth it might be a myth or eternal can you see more broke filmer the rumor was always that he threw the fight Leonard that he could have ko Leonard but he did if you all you had to do is let Leonard go to a decision you would lose that decision they pay him a boatload of cash and he goes to Italy what is this Marvin Hagler in a movie Jesus Christ oh that's a long time ago because he looks really young back oh my god he isn't why don't one's ever seen those movies Wow so this is an Italian well you know they made all those spaghetti western Eastwood they did all those movies in Italy oh my god isn't that something those movies those job look at you look at he's shooting everybody oh yeah I wonder well he's still jacked in that movie that's been doing some kind of exercising look at him oh you know God so India it looks like oh this is so hilarious
this is so hilarious so now you know you know you know when you do a movie and the guy hits you you're supposed to move your head so that he's not actually hitting you mm-hmm and I hope Marvin know that I'm sure cuz he yeah thank God he pulls a punch I did a movie in Boston called Southie with a guy throws me in a dumpster and kills me right and they had to do it over and over I think I just got out of wall Paul - State Penitentiary I'm not gonna mention his name but he's he's the director now out here as a matter of fact I said hey you know this is a movie you know because he's fire in the fight you know the shot that the starter's pistol and he kept throwing me over that guy is in everything with Brian Dennehy since 1989 yeah India won so 89 was probably just a few years after he retired how I feel like he retired somewhere around 86 87 when did he fight Leonard what a what an
era that was oh I was amazing we used to watch these closed-circuit fights we'd go to a theater and watch it on a big screen closer to tell you how many I got so ripped off because you had Tyson on I remember driving I was out here to go to this big fight 50 bucks and I walked in and Tyson knocked him out in the first round that was all that ever happened people were trying out here he's amazing yeah yeah but it was its Whitley 787 interesting huh yeah and that was it he said I'm done so that was only two years after he retired he's doing movies but the best John the Beast Mugabi but Marvin Hagler vs. John the Beast Mugabi have hair for Mugabe no I remember seeing Martin with hair at the gardens well that's yeah did he grow it out for a goof no he had a Harley heart he had an extra inch of skull or something they were saying no is the side temples giant
temple muscles they said he was almost like built with dead Mugabe yeah and Mugabe was a murderous no that's Thomas Hearns no voices promise that's Mesabi for sure Mugabe he hit Marvin Hagler with an uppercut snapped his head back and this is an uppercut that he was knocking everybody out but nan Marvin Marvin took a punch better than anybody he said the fight only started an I think Wan Roldan was the only guy that ever knocked Marvin down but it wasn't a real knockdown it was a trip and they counted it as an island down he was a tremendous fighter you know inside look at how he gets in soso is Mugabe Mugabe was a murderer at oh wow I was knocking everybody out he knocked out Terry Norris he knocked eat knock people out dead like you would hit them and they would go flying but not Marvin Christ Marvin stood right in front of him and eventually kayoed him and then Mugabe
was never the same again once you realized that this could stand right in front of em hell what is this referee stop what is he doing I don't know what's going on there that's Mills Lane hey now that we have a break in the action I'd like to I'd like to plug my movie Swaney killing Sweeney yeah we talked about it it's coming out come on I want to plug it again plug it will plug the out of it Eric when it comes out we'll put it on Twitter right buddy but I appreciate that but he was that guy Marvin Hagler was to me like he was the epitome of discipline you know and I thought about like a discipline fighter like that was him always in shape always ready to go and then the discipline to never come back that was amazing to to me I respected the out of that because fighters never know when to when to leave he knew when to leave and to this day I saw him in an interview recently he's fine
talks completely normal I had some chowder with him at the Prudential Center how old how often how long ago rather that was maybe a year ago he's a very very regular guy yeah like no no brain damage no no slur no where it's fine yeah that's that's amazing and a fighter can figure out how to get out before all that stuff hits but you know how they feel they feel like no one else should tell him when to quit oh of course have you had Mickey Rourke on this show no haven't ya I would though because I think that I read he was fighting at 57 and rusher oh I'm older than that really he was 62 I think he was 62 and he had his last fight and it might have been a fake fight oh really not gonna lie to you it looks like that maybe Mickey thought it was real and the gentleman he was fighting 666 he was 66 and he was in a box in 66 now I believe he was 62 or 63 when he in
his last altercation inside fighting boxing gyms the old ones were fun to hang around I remember I was sitting there with these five guys and we're talking about some election and they weren't saying anything and that the guy said do you realize that we're all convicted felons like why are you talking to us about it who vote for you is that him now that's Mickey Wow that's in last year five looking good for 65 looks like he's at some sort of a homeless shelter or something where is he getting his clothes there he's got no shirt on somewhere in Rome I just saw something with him and he was doing a we was walking in a fashion show yeah I've seen him at the UFC's before he's always there saying hi he's a nice guy but in very good shape for his age you know I mean he used to spar with James Toney he's too like one of the things that he did that was probably very questionable was when
he was at the height of his movie career he decided and become a professional box writer but I think he was a fighter before you get asked he was but when he stops down in Miami I think he kind of felt like acting was fake and that he needed something real in his life so he's gonna have some professional fights but apparently that's why he started getting all that plastic surgery his face up his face was no it smashed him you were an amateur and yeah I got no MMH kickboxing and Taekwondo kickboxing there was no MMA when I was fighting it didn't exist yet at least not in America Wow I didn't find out so that like being in the ring kick box house nerve-racking the thing about it too is there's no money in it you know what you're fighting for free and you're you know you're training for months or weeks or you know however long it is for this that you have you're constantly sparring
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you're constantly getting kicked and punched it's uh it's terrible for you but it's a good thing to learn I think it's a very important thing to learn to know how to fight is a very good thing but to fight you got to know unless you're doing it professionally you got to know when to stop you got to know when and I started getting a lot of headaches these years yeah I was I was sparring but that's one thing about Boston like we're talking about Boston you know Boston audiences are hard Boston sparring's hard boss Boston fighters they there's not a lot of like technical sparring like when you technically spar with somebody like if you hit him you hit him like this you know you don't hit him full blast you know you tap each other you know like so you know like where you making mistakes there was none of that it was just swing for the bleachers every you know it's you know
it's like that that I still go to I love is the Golden Gloves oh yeah I mean it's all action 3 rimes some competition what I'm talking about is training yeah the real beatings you take her in the gym the beatings that nobody ever see you know and you know what's amazing is that this friend of mine Jimmy Farrell at a gym in Quincy and I look at these guys and I say wow this guy's amazing he said that guy's record it's five wins and 13 losses and I said that guy I mean that's how good you have to be them these guys are like this there's no well also some they're inconsistent like a lot of fighters are very impulsive people so they're often inconsistent like they'll get in shape for a few fights and then a few other fights they'll off they drink too much they party and then they go and ring and they lose they lose a close decision or lose a lose a war isn't a
lot of it about style - sure yeah yeah my favorite fight ever from a boxing point of view was Ali and Frazier mm-hmm because well for one thing was a fight to the death right I mean they literally were fighting all three times yeah to the death but Joe Frazier was an insight fighter and he was solo mm-hmm and then Ali would stay away from him and just jab and it was just a beautiful exhibition of fighting styles inside fighting and outside fighting do you think so anybody listening to this that is interesting they are believing the left hook that Joe Frazier the left hook Joe Frazier dropped Muhammad Ali with when he won the title when he when he beat him when the Ali's come back and that was like this is one of the greatest punches of all time when the most epic but one of them yeah I mean just swung that wild left hook and clipped around the chin and dropped him
it's one of the most iconic photos of all time is Joe Frazier leaping through the air landing that left hook on the jaw a volley and Ali going down I'm gonna go back okay what are you gonna do there was a guy named Floyd Patterson sure who had that he lost his Sonny listen Sonny Liston I was reading about Sonny Liston Sonny Liston was a murder Sonny Liston was one of 25 kids he was his mother you know whatever was his father was like a sharecropper wine he got involved in gangs and all this and one of those guys you know I think he ended his career a shot or something to died no I died of a drug overdose oh I'll go over I think he ended his career as a like a bouncer in Vegas yeah you know I got doorman or something like that right to see you know but one of those one of those guys like Joe Lewis whatever yeah those big guys that end up yeah you know it's a funny funny sport
do you ever watch that fight with him in Floyd Patterson not that one oh yeah I think I may have terrifying but I remember when I'm old enough to remember when Cassius Clay beat Sonny mm-hmm yeah be him to Mars he was like eight to one that was another fight where a lot of people thought it was fixed the second fight Lewiston Maine yeah hits punch well was that you could see the punch is said they said to call it a phantom punch you could see the punch but it was like he called it an anchor punch because it's like as Liston was coming forward he dropped it down on him like that and a lot of people say it didn't land but you could see his head react it definitely landed the question was whether or not he decided to stay down once he got hit and I think he did if you watch it just doesn't look realistic I give you watch when he goes down the way he went down scene may be
legit but the way stumbled around it he didn't stumble around like a guy whose central nervous system got jacked here we were watching right here oh wow what a great producer you've got the best watch this look at this pink see that's a real punch 100% and the drug that him dropping is real - there's no doubt about it the question was whether that was enough to take him out look at that bank it could have but watch the case see if you could find the knockout Jamie because the what's not what's crazy about it wasn't him dropping him cuz I think that was legit what's crazy was how afterwards he stumbled around like he couldn't move like he couldn't get up it just didn't seem real we just had it there a long explanation I don't know if they're gonna show the actual thing well they they just showed him trying to get up that kind of like Kevin Spacey here it is here it is play it watch here's
the punch boom now watch he goes down and he just sort of laid down on his back and then he kind of stumbled around and acted like he couldn't get up they just keep showing it over and over again it was a hundred percent of legitimate punch and people who say it's not they've never seen people get Kayode because people get K out in all sorts of weird ways it doesn't really make sense like it's a human being getting punched the face weird happens especially you get punched on the jaw like people get touched with like a jab sometimes and they go out it doesn't make sense and also sometimes here it is it's right here it's also sometimes it's weird because you might have gotten hurt real bad in training so a lot of guys come in to these fights and they're already injured they just pump right there now let's watch them stumble around so he goes down and he lays down on his back
see this is where I'm not buying it this he just seems like horse but I could be wrong now he's stumbling see like right there that seemed like he decided to stumble and go down and he's trying to get back up I could be wrong I could be wrong but I'm not buying it and so the referee was Jersey Joe Walcott who's a very famous yeah champion of his own but now they still a vital stop the fight I don't know I don't remember I don't remember well you know the first fight 5th round I think it was Liston put some white stuff on his gloves yeah and he blinded this is how crooked the game was he blinded Ali yeah Cassius Clay so listen wasn't above you know cheating yeah do you remember that fighter oh my god this is so frightening he wrapped something in his arrest oh yeah sounds junior no it took all the padding out of his gloves back in the day the they used
to use horsehair with the gloves and you could you could put a little hole in the gloves and pull the padding out and Louis resto Panama Lewis was his trainer and Panama Lewis was also the same guy that gave Aaron Pryor that little jab cocaine right before he knocked out Alexis Arguello remember I mean they think it was cocaine he said give me the other bottle the one that I prepared he gives it to Aaron Pryor and then Aaron Pryor goes out and starches Alexis Arguello and they had a crazy war of a fight and then he gives him something in this little bottle and then Aaron Pryor goes out like a bat out of hell and went and the question was always what was in that bottle because there was no sophisticated drug testing back then but Panama Lewis but there was one of them that actually put cement or something in their gloves there was that that was a more recent
one that was that Mexican gentleman that fought uh who did he do that - is that the redhead no no no no no no no no he doesn't doesn't fight anymore I'm drawing a blank on his name but he he beat up some really prominent fighters that way for the did he there was a one fight in particular boy I'm seeing the guy in my face you know yes Antonio Margarito who pull up his record cuz he did it - he did it - some like legit fighters and really beat them up and they were like it didn't even make sense how hard he was hitting me because he he would put plaster of Paris apparently inside the rap and Al Cotto that's who it was right and then Miguel Cotto beat the out of him the rematch - Shane Mosley Sugar Shane Mosley beat the out of him when they found this see after he knocked out Miguel Cotto we beat him up in the eleventh round he stopped him it was a horrible stoppage to he beat the
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out of him then the Shane Mosley fight was the fight that he lost that was the next fight in during the wrapping of the gloves Shane Mosley's camp was school what the is in his raps they recognized it and had him to rewrap his hands and then Shane Mosley beat his ass and then he beat Robert Garcia and then Manny Pacquiao him up and then Miguel Cotto him up but the Miguel Cotto fight the first one it was it was bad I mean his face was busted up and pray and that's when people had suspicions but they didn't know until they saw the wrapping of the gloves and then they looked at every one of his fights before that they were go oh this has played you ever see them losing that city Fat City Stacy Keach it's about club fighters down at Stockton fantastic movie I don't know whatever bridges first movies yeah and John Huston directed it one of the best fight movies ever this fight that I was
talking about earlier the lowest o fight this Billy Collins junior guy was uh he was an up-and-coming contender and he was blinded in the fight and he could never fight again Wow this kid that he fought Louie resto they pulled all the padding out of the gloves and he just up this guy's face to the point where you know I had detached retinas and he couldn't see straight I lent him an alcoholic afterwards when there he is right there look at his face Wow yeah and it became a really big a big store salt with a deadly weapon yeah I think at the end of the other guy's life or at some point he admitted that he did it there was some documentary about it that the guy finally admitted that he was using you know have done that forever people have done that forever I was sparring with a guy once and I went to touch his gloves and I was like what the your gloves and his padding had all been it was
those old-style old-style boxing gloves the padding they've all been pushed back and it was like it was all like almost raw knuckle people are yeah I've experienced that before what's interesting now is that people are actually fighting bare knuckle there's a whole bare-knuckle boxing organization out of why don't you have all your knuckles yeah they're all there someone broke in I won that was broken yeah oh wow mousse weird yeah Lix that was Bobby Selvi snows Bobby's Salvi is there a more Boston named Bobby salary Bobby said I'll be I hit him with a overhand lefty plaque I went down like I'm walking track operators you know what's good - is the rap you know when guys gonna fight you know like rap it and well no it's a I used to beat guys like you up on the way to a fight practice fall an you know like it's just like a basketball you know that the trash talk
trash intel yeah yeah sometimes it works there's the thing about when somebody gets inside your head someone's really mean that that I was kind of thinking that when you see Liston and Ali right yeah how could like it looked like Liston was like afraid of him how could he be well you know he go back he's a stronger the reason why and this is Ali did this on purpose he acted like a crazy person because he's like that Sonny Liston was a bully and Sonny Liston was a big scary and what he felt like Sonny Liston would be afraid of as a crazy person someone who wasn't afraid of him so when all the press conferences and all the different things leading up to the fight he would scream at him he would show up at Sonny Liston's house and honked the horn in the middle of the night and get on his lawn and scream and yell at him like he did a lot of crazy to Sonny Liston
to with him psychologically he wants something he did he did it psychologically there he wanted Sonny Liston to think that he was a crazy person and that you know that he would never stop yeah and that's I mean he essentially did it and there was one point in time when they were see we just let me hear some of this he yeah he let him know he wasn't scared of him and they were doing his blood pressure and his blood pressure was so high his heart rate was so hard they weren't gonna let him fight they like doing funny Oh No alleys he had to calm himself down cuz he got himself worked up into a lather he was just so so angry and so you know so hyped up trying to act like a crazy person then when they were doing his pre-fight medicals they were like hey you know like you can't fight your there's something wrong with you and this here it is they're calming him
down he had to relax and calm down I don't look great if I don't grace by the time I beat him oh he was just so so smart at like psychological warfare there'd never been any anybody like him psychologically that could just he would first of all he was very funny he would say hilarious like Howard Cosell to set some the champion seem very truculent he goes whatever truculent is if it's good on that the timing was just perfect he so he would you know say things that were funny he would say poetry he had that guy bundini brown behind him yeah and they were always you know they were always like laughing and joking around together like he had a tremendous support team and on top of that he could fight his ass off and he was a heavyweight that moved around like a middleweight unbelievable I mean he was a 200 and plus pound 215 220 pound man and he would shuffle and move and bob and weave
and he would be out there almost like a welterweight he's the greatest boy it's hard to say who's the greatest heavyweight of all time but he's certainly in the conversation I mean you would have to say how would he have done against some of the bigger stronger guys of the past like a Lennox Lewis who you know was in his prime the high 240-pound range he was a much bigger much bigger guy but there was nobody like you see Holly also comes in two stages there's ollie before 1967 when they took his license away and there's Ollie after 1970 when he came back and when he came back he was never as fast he was never as fleet of foot because he didn't work out at all for three years he didn't do I mean this you know and when he came back his return fight he just didn't look right he didn't look like he had the same movement his body didn't have the same musculature he just he
thought Jerry no wasn't Eric or Jerry quarry that's how it was and he beat him you know he beat him up but he just didn't look like than the anomaly that fought like he still go to boxing matches yeah yeah I'll still go to boxing matches I love watching on TV yeah yeah I try not to go to many live events anymore cuz I'm I go to so many of them with the UFC you know you know it's hard for me to go and you know go go see more of them live but I do enjoy them you know yeah it's nothing like being ringside for Golden Gloves have you ever been to a UFC fight no will you come I'll get you tickets sure next time we're in Boston I'll hook it up all right we go to Boston almost every year okay yeah yeah I love that some big fights together in Boston yeah I want you to go it's crazy it's wild to see it live I'll get you get you right there on the floor right in front of the cage it's amazing
yeah something something unique it'll be a good date yeah it's um it's way Wilder like when you get used to watching the UFC sometimes it's I mean I really appreciate boxing I love it as a sport I love it as a just as a martial art I appreciate the elite of the elite but it's it's not as wild the UFC because there's takedowns and kicks and strangleholds and armbars it's just way more wild yeah its way it's way more exciting like a street fight it's like a super technical street fight between trained killers that's what it's like yeah that's yeah yeah well listen I want to thank you oh well thank you no I mean it I want to thank you I mean listen but me when I was coming up like a boxing show we just fit who cares they say you don't have it Mohammad we can do whatever we want man that's the beautiful thing about podcast yeah whatever the you want yeah but
you were a big inspiration of mine English you and and all those legends of Boston comedy and to this day I think I saw some of the best comedy of my life ever when I was a young man coming up and when I was just starting out and you know opening for guys like you and you know you know you know what made it special is nobody was doing it as a job we were all just doing it yeah cuz they said I want to do this yeah yeah you know and there was no fourth thought or afterthought it was just I mean that's what I'd still love about performing you know acting or stand-up is you're in the moment right right you're in the moment well Fitzsimmons is is a good buddy of mine and Greg Fitzsimmons we started out together yeah we talked about it to this day that back then we didn't think of having a career like what are you talking about a career though the best thing that we could ever envision was
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one day would be able to pay our bills doing stand-up comedy that's right that's all we would hopeful yeah because I would look at guys like you or all the the the Boston guys that were getting you know they were making a living I was like these guys you know Jesus I watched those guys myself and I was in awe guys like Kenny Rogers sent us a sure what a mind yeah Stephen right I mean they do things I can't - you know yeah and they did the way they can create jokes Oh did a movie with rod name back to school and I just watched him you know create these jokes yeah you know like the one line like a haiku poem I go to the dentist the other day for yellow teeth he says wear a brown tie you know your minds going in one direction yeah I'll tell you another guy who was a fantastic joke writer he could eat the jokes he did he couldn't you couldn't do now is Martin Mull Martin Mull from him Martin
Mull from that television show Oh Sharon wood tonight he was on The Tonight Show and Johnny said how you doing and he said Johnny I'm his busiest jumper cables at a Puerto Rican wedding you couldn't do that joke today so he say said watching roots for 20 minutes no one scored a basket I turned it off by the way that's Martin wall it's not me and it's not Joe did you like the the documentary when stand up stood out I did not participate in that how come because I didn't want my family to go through watching that how so what do you mean was about the decadence of it all and drugs and all that I'm I like to think you know the important thing is to work yeah you know well it was a little bit about the decadence but it was also about ice apparently Crimmins and those batteries a very very was very sad but I was very happy to know him and I used to say to Barry I'd be on a gig with Barry
and I'd say Barry you're making these people are here to drink you're making references to the third under secretary of states policy and freakin Uganda you know they're not gonna get it yeah so you can't get mad at them for not getting it but he was you know I didn't agree with his politics at all but he really meant it yes so I respected that well he's a very smart guy and he also had extremely powerful ethics like he was one of no.1 respected any hacks in Boston many thieves were punished as it was it was because of Barry like you had to have original material and everybody policed it it was a very unique environment because a lot Rodney Dangerfield said that he said when somebody steals a joke from me it's like slickly they're hitting him onto my kids or something yeah do you feel that personal you know well you know how it is when you're working on a
bid and it doesn't work well in the beginning and then you know it takes months to figure out how to twist it and affect it and then someone comes along and takes the finished product it's it's a horrific thing yeah you know but Barry made sure that that environment of Boston was not it was it wasn't just that it wasn't there was no there was no thieves it was also no hacks like if you were doing like cop doughnut jokes or like he would just spin your face he didn't want none of that you know Barry was a and he was a scary guy man I remember when I was an au pair I was so intimidated by him when he started being nice to me I was like huh whoo I made it through I'm so worried that he was gonna hate me that's was so worried he was and I hate me well I was worried that all those guys gonna hate me and you guys were all really yes isn't that varible are you terrible when
you're first starting out and you see guys like you and Gavin and I was always you know I was felt like I was never gonna be inside I was never gonna make it you know oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I was that's felt like it was unattainable and you guys were the the king and now like I said you open for me you're gonna gonna hit the big time that's what the movies about by the way it's Boston comedy yeah we shoot it at the kowloon we shoot it downtown and we shoot her all over the city it's about Boston it's about comedy and I hope people come out and see it tonight Thursday it's at the Lemire Music Hall here in Beverly Hills oh is it really this Thursday yes do you want to go yeah I would love to go what time is it 7:30 I have a show at 8:00 I'm at The Improv oh well either even if I can't make it on Thursday I'm definitely yeah I'm at The Improv at 8 o'clock unfortunately but I spent a lot of
nights at The Improv yeah on Melrose and home yeah but was there it was great those audiences were fantastic they still are to this day I've been doing a lot I'm there tomorrow night I'm there Thursday night as well I'm there I'm trying to do more shows there cuz I'll mix it up cuz I mostly just do the Comedy Store when I'm in town in the Ice House in Pasadena did you ever do that place I think so how long you in town for Friday morning I'm flying out oh yeah what are you doing tomorrow night you want to do a set of the improv sure all righty Tuesday tomorrow it's Tuesday yeah why not come on baby all right that'll be fun you get on oh yeah you're gonna be on okay yeah it'll be hot then people know you from the show all right yeah thank you my pleasure um so when you decided to do this this this movie about Boston comedy and you didn't want to do that that when
stand-up stood out documentary that was many years ago what what is so you you knew it was just gonna be about the decadence of but there's also documenting what stand-up was like and I didn't know what guys I didn't know what it would be so you just decided yeah I didn't know you know you know was one of those decisions you know it's like sometimes you make decisions that are really up like remember Ed McMahon had a show what was it starved with our search know was something Ed McMahon had this wasn't he Star Search yeah we start with it was that what it was Kevin James one so so I'm auditioning for this show and I'm saying Here I am auditioning for show I don't want to do and I've been turned down you know so I said wow this is this is awful I did a lot of that edition sitcoms that I really didn't want and then or movies rather that I really didn't want and do
you like if they had him anyway no no I retired I'm retired 100% from acting Wow yeah last movie I did was a Kevin James movie but it's Kevin's a buddy of mine yeah and now I would do something with him just for forgive but I don't enjoy acting I don't enjoy sitcoms I don't enjoy actors I like comics too much yeah I like hanging around with comedians so much the one I'm hanging around actors I'm like God I wish you guys were comics because comics Dave them how many filter they're loose yeah where you stand it is so you know where you stand with them if they like you they really like it and they're accepting of weird and flaws like yeah it's crazy what he gonna do funny though you know the little people say like that like you know what they used to say to me say are all these comedians on drugs and I'd say no only the good one George Carlin and Richard Pryor yeah
yeah yeah well this they're the wild impulsive people but a lot of them you know like Bill Hicks got off the drugs and was probably even better when he was off the drugs yeah it had a lot of great drug stories oh yeah it did you look back and there are great stories as long as you can look back yeah and as long as they're just stories yeah as long as you're not in jail and as long as you get through and they're funny when you look back but they're not so funny when you're in the middle of it well the ding ho when you guys were starting now that was that was the legendary place that was what we'd all I had come a little bit too late I think the Dino and host was always there was a bartender there named Henry and I'd always asked this crazy question I'd say see an or is he Chinese so it's like you know mutually exclusive you know Chinese you know you don't know
if they're pissed off it's like oh well you do you want Sweeney it's when they're not here Sweeney again you know I'm on the phone yeah I'm Sweeney yeah Sweeney did not tell we don't know what Sweeney you know I'm Sweeney I'm trying to get in there you you got the ding ho that was that was wild the guy lost the place in a dominoes game no name was shun Lee and he was compulsive gambler so it was a Chinese restaurant with a theater like oral oh it was restaurant the ding whole restaurant but there was a stage and there was a stage but the you know one time came in the doors will lock - you lost it and what you guys would think of as a card game but apparently they played Domino's gambling you know how did it get started how did ding ho gets krumins crimin started yeah kremens so what was going on before then there was no comedy club no comedy and what year was this
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I don't know I don't remember anything what had to be like the 7a Tomatoes the 90s I don't remember data but but it closed in 84 right I don't remember what was I think he closing 84 because it was gone like it was a legend when I came around I came around 88 and people like ha you missed the ding ho once we all had our own shows there I was Sunday nights and I'd do all these crazy characters I was just trying to you know find out what do I want to do you know so I was doing like characters right but one week that's when the magic happened is Peeta love Sally from The Tonight Show came in and at the time the Tonight Show was The Tonight Show he saw Stephen right and the next week Stephen Wright was on The Tonight Show it was amazing you know because with every what we were catapulted from Inman square freaking Chinese restaurants who Johnny Carson who was amazing was wonderful when did
the other club start opening up it was after that when they when people found out there was some money in it you know but then that I was in the suburbs and yeah it was all over the place do you remember that there was one time where there was duck soup a cross soup was Nick's calmly stopped down the street from Nick's comedy stop was the combination action and above it was common at the Charles Playhouse remember Mike Clark was booking comedy that Charles Playhouse for a while so there was four clubs on the same block that's right in Boston and you know what they were all filled the same guys were working on all of them and everybody was shuffling right yeah but the shows were filled it's like they couldn't write remember when Nick's was doing three shows in three different rooms yeah they were doing the disco downstairs they had the smaller middle room and then they
had the upper one Saturday night I did stitches which was on calm out I did three shows there I did four and they I did about nine shows in one night Wow and at the end of the night I was just I'm saying the audience did I already do that joke and I was so tired yeah I was like I'd be like setting it up and then what's the punch line of this yeah you know in diminishing returns sometimes you're not even they King about what you're doing right and they're not laughing and I say then you say well you realize you're not saying it right you're not delivering it and you know then you deliver it and they laugh and then there's this other voice in your mind saying wow that's interesting if I change my voice they'll laugh and it's like me watching me do this yeah that's crazy yeah you know I mean I can remember if you want to hear a horrible coke story I was down in New York I was up for a show
called not necessarily the news I remember that so we backstage at catch a rising star and that place you know when somebody comes out to see on these shows they're always late so I'm downstairs and the guy says they're not here yet all right do you want to do a wine I said all right you know so I did it and now so now time is going faster because you up and I said they here yet they said well you just asked five minutes ago no they're not here do you want to do another wine I said you know okay okay so I get by the time I'm on stage just like you know there's no comedy you know when you're jamming looks like that the intensity is unbelievable on stage like this right so they were there to see me and I go out and I did this and I was like setting up a joke and not doing the punchline and starting and ideas and it was up it was like Charlie Sheen you
know what it means that there's no dots to put together not supposed to make any sense I go off and I said to the kid how was it he said how was it you're supposed to do 25 minutes you did four minutes I said I thought I was out there for like an hour that's off this is when I think of those days when did you quit 26 years what was the reason you know when I talk to kids they they say that sometimes what and the closest thing I can say is something we'd say in the program I was sick and tired of being sick and tired I was always exhausted yeah yeah always tired right yeah so then I came back to life you know and now I enjoy every day beautiful yeah and I enjoyed being on this show enjoyed having you thanks bud x-man appreciate you for real right thanks sir I hope we can do it again we will and you're gonna be the Improv tomorrow night a p.m. show all
right you know what I'll come and watch you come on now you say you are you went on a date yes well I'm on I close I'm on last so I'll go on it like 9:00 it's not my time yeah I'll do five minutes all right beautiful all right sweetie ladies and gentlemen and sweetie sweetie you can get it on iTunes in a couple of days pre-order thanks sir all right