#9 BIG AL Keep On Turnin’

Announcer 0:00

Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff, well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve. But the podcast we all need with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:19

Morty, thank you for that amazing introduction and welcome everyone, to episode nine of the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I'm Jeff Dwoskin. And I'm still psyched about last week's episode, my friends, Ron and Howard join me with a segment called crossing the streams, we went over some great TV, streaming ideas, tons of people shared some ideas with us on the social medias. And we're going to bring them back. So I just signed him up. So we're going to bring him back in the future, we're going to do another segment. That's something we can all look forward to another thing that's pretty cool.

In the Twitter world, you can now schedule tweets right from the place where you actually tweet from. So you're going to tweet, you're like, Hey, I don't want to tweet this right now, I want to read this in six minutes, or I want to tweet this tomorrow at 453, you can do that. Now, it's kind of cool. Kind of cool. You don't need the buffer, Hootsuite or TweetDeck. anymore, you can do it right from Twitter. I don't know what took him so long to incorporate this feature. But it's there. The only issue I had with it, I thought it was a little difficult to figure out after you scheduled it, how to delete it. To get back to it, you just go into the tweets and there was an unscheduled tweet, link and you click on that and all the ones you had scheduled are there and you can make edits to them, which is great. But there was no clear way to delete it, you kind of had to remove it and there was a clear is that you got to play with it. But definitely check it out. It's totally worth it. Very cool feature that Twitter just added.

I would be remiss not to mention our sponsor today. The sponsors are what make this all possible. This week sponsor books, you know, books were on your shelf. So when people come to the house, they think you're smart books. You don't have to read us. Just let us sit here. Well, definitely get some books people, I definitely think that's a good idea. They come in a variety of different hardback, paperback, there's really no reason not to buy a book. So I have a great interview coming up.

I'm really excited for you guys to hear this. When you do get to do comedy like I do. And many people you get to work with lots of famous, interesting, great people. And if you're lucky, you maintain a connection and you stay in touch over the years. And one of those people I've had the fortune of staying in touch with is Elon Musk. evitts. He was a Detroit radio legend for over 18 years. And I'm excited to share a conversation with you. Here we go. All right, we're here with Detroit radio legend. "BIG AL" Muskovitz.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 3:11

Wow, a legendary a big now a legend in my own mind. I'm really well thank you Jeff Dwoskin Thank you for having me.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:18

So for those of you who don't know, Big Al was one of Purtan's people. That's Dick Purtan and Purtan's people that was on for decades. Big Al was an integral part of it for 18 years Detroit morning radio. I'm still

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 3:33

tired.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:34

You originally the name of the show was Muskovito

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 3:37

wait. Yes, I worked part time for Dick (Purtan) before he went to WMC. I worked at Q95 was kind of part time basis. When he moved over to WMC he I was offered a full time gig which was, for me was a dream come true. But he wanted to create a character around me that I could talk on the air, not just me, and Dick, like the edginess of like an East comedian kind of thing. So he kept my name to a certain extent, but he called me Big Al Muskovito. And I ended up talking this and I was almost like Jerry Lewis, and I talked like that until it wore off. just naturally, I ended up becoming just me, but I was always "Big Al" Muskovito but my real name is Alan Joel Muskovitz and Harry Belafonte introduced me for you young listeners. He's a well known singer introduced me at the Opera House one year when I performed with him as Alan Muskovito Who's he said big al Muskovitz. He's Italian by morning and Jewish by night, which was the Absolute Truth. You do voices. You just you just did a Jerry Lewis second guy talk like legendary. I interviewed I had the privilege of interviewing him on my birthday one year at the Townsend hotel. I said to him, he had just said, you know, he got married again. And he had a little kid he was older. And I said you know you have a little kid again who may not know about your work. So when your little girls around you go how they handle it

all. I Oh, and he looked at me. Like you might think You might look

I got it in.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:03

That'd be amazing. What did you do a lot of Oh, you are. You're known for your voices. Well are you just Regis Philbin

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 5:08

I do Regis Philbin. Matter of fact I got a quick story if you know by Jeff Dwoskin Regis Philbin , with Regis filled it came to Andiamo celebrity showroom in Warren, Michigan, great jofa carry location that he was there. And we interviewed Regis on the era WMC. And we said we were going to be at the show. So I did Regis Philbin on the air with Regis Philbin. And this was on a Friday. And so we Derek and I and his wife, Gail, and my wife, we went to see the show, and a few other folks. And on Monday, just on a Lark I taped Regis and Kathie Lee right. actually wasn't read Kathie Lee it was Kelly, Kelly Ripa. So it was Kelly Ripa and Regis. And sure enough, he mentions me on his show on ABC. He says, You know, I was at Detroit over the weekend, and there's this guy named big out how he thinks he can impersonate me. And so he made a stick about that. I couldn't believe it. I was thrilled beyond words.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:10

That is a greatest feeling.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 6:12

yeah, I mean, it was just, and I ended up creating characters on the air, that Regis Philbin had brothers and their names were I think it was, Agreegis just this is my brother outrageous. And this is my other brother egregious. And, and we all talk like this at the same time. It was it was it was funny at the time,

Jeff Dwoskin 6:31

delve into the creative process here for a second. Yep. So the show is Monday through Friday, which you're you're planning and writing non stop

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 6:40

non stop non seven days a week? Absolutely. seven

Jeff Dwoskin 6:44

days a week for 18 years. And you're what's the creative process? Like how do you how do you come up with all these ideas? And, you know, get them passed and ready and prepped and did you collaborate?

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 6:56

Yeah, well, like, like Dick Purtan would would explain to people that we you know, we are comedy was ripped from the headlines, I kind of describe it as a sort of Saturday Night Live of the year. And we took what that means is you're pulling topics from current events, and also just covering all kinds of material in between. But you know, a lot of our show was dictated by what was going on in the world. And we had a lot you know, Jean Taylor may rest in peace, our producer and writer and Jackie Purtan who joined and took, you know, you don't take Gene Taylor's place, but Jackie did, we on her own Ray was spectacular. Both Jackie and I learned so much from Gene, and followed his template for writing scripts. But we would all go our separate ways and pull from the headlines and tell certain topics or dick would tell us certain topics. And while it was a collaborative effort, we all kind of went in our own direction when it came to the writing. But we are always in contact about what's going on. And what we should be addressing on the show.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:50

Take one at a time was one of the biggest shows in Detroit. Oh, and it was known throughout the entire country. I know comedians that would tour and come here. And being on the dig purdon show was a huge deal. It was

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 8:05

Yes, he was and that's why I kind of call him the Johnny Carson of radio because we had comedians in many, many weeks on Thursdays or Fridays who were promoting their events, whether it was at Mark Ridley's comedy club, or other comedy clubs and our showcase, you know, the comedians would love it because they showcase their talent. And the great thing about the curtain was, and it was just like Johnny Carson, he let the comedians be funny. He didn't try to interject with his own brand of humor. He wanted the comedians to be funny and his thing with every comedian and walked in the studio, I don't care how well known or unknown is he would if they started saying something funny before we on the air, he'd say, ah, save it for the air. He didn't want good humor, wasted on commercial breaks. So that was just part of the art and genius of what he did. But believe me, comedians love him for that. Hey, let him be funny. I've, you know, here many folks who go on other shows and say, you know, they didn't give me a chance to do my thing. They were trying to out funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:05

The way we met was at a dick purdon fundraiser. Yep. And one of the things at that fundraiser that was notable was, besides me being hilarious. Well, you were I was Tim Allen. Well, wait a

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 9:21

minute. Wait, can I may I interrupt the host for a moment? Sure. You skipped a major thing, and that is that you forgot to mention that you were the winner of our What did we call it a? What was the name of the contest?

Jeff Dwoskin 9:33

Best New Voices of Detroit or

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 9:35

something like that? Yeah. And you and you won, and you were spectacular. And you had sent us a CD, the material was a plus and we got a bunch of CDs in. We can explain later what a CD is. And cassettes to young folks, and you were by far and away the best and that gave you to be the kind of other headliner for us that night for the Galperin ovarian cancer research one, which was a sold out packed Royal Oak Music theater and there was a very special guest that evening and you're about to tell that story.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:04

Yes, I will say as you brought up Big Al yanked me from obscurity. They're just a little boy essence and a CD. Yeah, there you go. This is to it in this car. And back when cars had CD players. And it was it was tremendous. But but it was a great show. And Kathleen Madigan was there. And Greg Warren and Jake Burton was there and you were there. And Tim Allen, it was Tim Allen's big return to comedy. And it really was. That's no kidding. He was the first time he I think he was doing stand up in years think he hadn't done it in forever. Yeah, I was hanging with him. Oh, my Casa from the Daily Show was there. Yeah. And I remember me and Mike. Were talking about Tim Allen, backstage and then Mike just disappears. And later I said to him, I said, Mike, why did you walk away? He's like, Jeff, didn't you realize Tim was just doing material on us? And I'm like, What? And then he's like later Tim's on stage. And sure enough, there's our conversation.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 11:03

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You were you didn't realize you were as you were the his test case.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:08

My big frustration was later I didn't realize when I was standing there. And later, I realized I'm like, Oh, my God, I was standing with Buzz Lightyear.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 11:16

I know. That would have been great for your kid, right? I mean, your kids would have been,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:20

I would have remembered I would have brought my picture. Somebody has nothing. Yeah, there's anything you would assign. Instead, I asked him about Galaxy Quest. He was going to ever make a sequel to that. And it's it's one of the best movies ever. Yeah. And he said it was all caught up and legal.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 11:37

The thing I remember most about that night about Tim Allen, is that we were you know, we instructed all the communities to keep it clean. And Tim included. And as soon as Tim got out there, there was a few words being dropped. And I remember his parents were in the audience. I was just thinking of what it would what it was, I think is I know for sure his mom was there. But I'm not sure about his dad. But that was so funny, because we had had that conversation and then boom, there he went. So.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:01

So speaking of which, yeah. So there were four of us there. Nobody's open mic'ers. So we did the few minutes up front, then that's, I won that contest. You guys sent me to Cancun. Thank you. You're welcome. But then after the show was over us little people were asked to, to leave. And while you guys did the press shoot, run the stage. And what was awesome about that was, we're leaving and when you're leaving a show, and you guys were all up there, everyone's coming up to us. And one of the people that came up to me was which is to this day, one of the greatest things ever. Was Tim Allen's mom. And Tim Allen's mom comes out to me and she's like, You are great. Oh my god. Oh my god. Tim Allen's mom thinks I'm amazing. It was a because it was to me. There was no better compliment you Oh my god.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 12:51

I had not known that before. And I've known you for a long time. But that is spectacular. That is a great guy. She probably enjoyed your better then her son. She wouldn't admit it.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:01

She She wanted to admit it. She wanted

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 13:03

you could tell in her eyes. She would get tongue held back. That is a wonderful, wonderful story.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:09

That was a highlight. It was definitely a highlight. Oh, I found that I've always been the comedian's mom's favorite. Well, I can't tell you how many comedians come up to me and go, you were my mom's favorite. It drives me crazy. Yeah.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 13:22

Well, it's like people come up to me and say, Oh, you're on the Dick Purtan show. Yeah, my parents used to listen to you. I go, thank you very much. Now I'm on Medicare. What happens? So

Jeff Dwoskin 13:33

what do you think? What's the difference? Like? How do you think you would be today? If the Dick Purtan show was today? How would it be different today than back then?

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 13:41

I can tell you quite honestly, I'd be skittish. I'd be nervous, because we're really on so many levels living in an era that, you know, you know, the whole argument with political correctness was started well before any of the craziness going on in our world today. And I don't say craziness that it's not good stuff going on for change and, and revaluation. I don't want to imply that. But what I mean is, is that humor, it's tougher to be funny, and I give credit to the comedians that go out on that limb stow and do what they think is funny. And as dick personally said, funny, it's funny. Now, we have to be sensitive to the times, we, you know, it has been an evolution. I don't care what your form of humor, you do realize there's certain things you know, you probably, it's not that you you shouldn't do something that you did 20 years ago, and it's not that you don't do because it's politically not politically correct. It's just you realize now, I can see where someone was coming from. On the other hand, there's still plenty of material and sarcasm, and you know, innuendo that a lot of people in this canceled culture that we have are being very frightened off of doing real raw funny humor doesn't mean it has to be dirty. But it's, you know, it's commentary. I can't think I wouldn't think George Carlin would have would go nuts today. He I don't think he would hold back at all or Lenny Bruce. So what I'm saying is it's tougher today you you walk a fine line wondering what the reaction is going to we're just getting so many apologies from so many comedians about what they did 20 years ago, some who do need to apologize, but some not so sure.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:20

What's the best advice you ever got?

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 15:22

My mom she said, Take a jacket, you can always sit on it. My mom's had the same thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's a Jewish thing. It's called, it's supposed to be chilly. Take a jacket doesn't mean you have to wear it. You can always sit on it. That and wash off your fruit, which is my mom would would be thrilled today with everybody washing off their fruit. But the best advice comedically You know, I think what did said to me is funny as funny. Shorter is better. You know, what did Shakespeare say? I don't I can't quote Shakespeare intelligently but brevity is the something of whatever you know that you know what? I'm a gravity. And I think also it's not so much advice. It's my own personal advice is that I'm not going to be dirty for the sake of being dirty. I'm going to stick to clean, sometimes suggestive. Sometimes innuendo, and try to not be mean spirited. And I take that back. Don't be mean spirited. I've had people say to me, they like what I do, because it can be edgy. But it's not mean some people can pull off me. I think john rivers Don Rickles who I had a blast with john Don Rickles, personally, those folks could get away with it. And I really wonder what they could do today. Can you imagine Don Rickles and Joan Rivers, trying to do what they do today. An interesting thought. I agree.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:38

All right. Well, thank you big Yeah, I think leaving on those words of wisdom is a good way to wrap up this episode with you. I appreciate you stopping by you got a website. You got a Facebook fan page. I know.

Alan "BIG AL" Muskovitz 16:51

Yeah, they're embarrassingly inadequate. You can attempt to go to laugh with big al.com and see a bunch of my old humor that I did and interviews with celebrities. If they still play properly, that the technology is probably outdated and I do need to get that up to speed on my Sonic so far. You go to my official big mosquito fan page. I do play some career oriented things on there from time to time.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:12

All right, we'll say thank you very much. Big Al for joining us. Appreciate it, and we'll see you next time. Well, that was fine. I hope you enjoyed that. Big out true Detroit legend. Radio legend, not just Detroit, Dick Purtan and Purtan's people an American classic.

All right, well, I thought it would be fun in the hashtag roundup segment hashtag roundup playing hashtag games on Twitter join in the fun check out at hashtag roundup download the app but I figured is a tie into me winning that radio contest. I dug around Twitter and found hashtag weird radio contest. Do you got an idea of a weird radio contest? Let us know on my Twitter page at Jeff Dwoskin show. Love to hear it but here's a few. Here's a few from Judith. Weird radio contest name five songs by train and win a T shirt from Amtrak. Ah, that's one I won't be winning. I can't even name one song. Oh, here's a good one from Dave entered to win a trip to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. 10 collar wins nothing. You get nothing good taste, sir. All right. All right. Christine, googly. If you don't call, you'll be forced to attend to Justin Bieber contest and sit in a section of just 14 year old girls. That actually happened to me once, man. Here's a good one from view from my office, Twitter user kecia turkey that we are dropping out of the helicopter and it's yours. A little throwback to WkRP in Cincinnati. Well, that wraps up the show. Thank you. This has been episode nine of the Jeff Dwoskin show. Subscribe. Like, tell your friends all about us. We can't wait to see you on the next one.

Announcer 19:10

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

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