#68 Getting Jammed with Jon Glaser

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Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world, pop culture, 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.

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All right, Jeremy, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 68 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to be back. Great to have you back. We've got an amazing show for you today. Who Jeff Oh, well. I'll tell ya comedian, director, writer, actor Jon Glaser is here ladies and gentlemen. That's right. Jon Glaser. He was the writer for The Dana Carvey show you loved him as Councilman Jeremy Jamm on Parks and Recreation. You love him in Delocated, neon Joe werewolf hunter, Jon Glaser loves gear. He just recently started an episode of Kevin Can f*** himself and he's here and we're gonna talk about his career and how we kind of cross paths once in a magical place called Brighton Michigan Tamarack camps. It's all coming up in just a few minutes.

I'm still getting emails and DMs regarding last week's episode was Scott Valentine. People really loved hearing his story how he almost died and came back the amazing career that he had does typically the story where he would do laps in the pool while regaining his strength. And the other person in the pool was Christopher Walken. And Christopher didn't know whose guy Valentine was because he wasn't Scott Valentine yet. That's really resonating with a lot of people. Who is calling me

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Hello. Hello, Jeff. I'm listening to podcast. Can you hear me and Scott Valentine episode it's Christopher Walken. By the way. He's talking about swimming in a pool. I would have known it was Nick from family ties. I want to swam over. I have a round inflatable ring like a little dock. I'll swim my dock over there. embarrassing, but how's it float? I said hello, Scott. I'm Chris. Love Your Work. Nick is great. As a big fan of Nick. Fact I add a little button with his face on it at one point. So I would have known of I was swimming in the pool at the break. Nick, come on. Come over. Let's chat. Next time you come to the pool, bring Mallory or Meredith Baxter Birney with you, Nick. Wonderful, the more the merrier. We'll play pool games, whatnot. Hey, white, great shop live from Detroit. Wonderful Dwoskin. Have a great day.

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Wow, that was unexpected. You never know who's gonna call in to live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's so cool that he was not only listening to the podcast, but he also thought to call in worlds colliding. I bet Scott when he hears this episode is going to be so excited that he now has an open invitation to swim anytime. With Christopher Walken. So exciting. Live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show bringing people together and isn't that what life is supposed to be? Yes, yes, it is.

Speaking of which, and now it's time for the social media tip. This is a part of this show where I get to share a little bit of my social media knowledge with here, little 411 I picked up on the street. People are always asking me Jeff has so much pressure to post Instagram, so much pressure to post a tweet out what's the difference? What should I do? And here's my quick answer. Instagram is a visual version of your brand or persona shows you live in the life you want to live and how you want people to think you're living your life. So it's more aspirational, Twitter. This is your voice. Well, yes, you should use GIFs and images to enhance your tweets on Twitter. The difference is, it's the words it's the copy in the tweet that is the driver. So it's your voice. It's your personality. It's your point of view. It's sort of like the opposite of the Instagram where the image on Instagram is the primary and the caption is secondary. It's sort of flipped on Twitter, Facebook, just throw up whatever you put on Instagram, you're not going to get anywhere on Facebook unless you pay for stuff tik tok and reels you should totally be doing those videos. To me, those are like a combination of Instagram and Twitter. It's like a visual representation of your voice personality. So it's a nice little combination. I think that's why it's blown up. That's it. That's all I got to say about that. And that's a social media tip.

If I was being snarky, and maybe a little more honest, I would have said Facebook is better for posting events and fun things that you're doing so you can shove it in the face of the people that weren't invited to do with you. I kid

I do want to take a moment to thank everyone who supports a sponsor. Week after week after week, I can't thank you enough when you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here live on Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. And that's how we keep the lights on. This week's sponsor wants to know is the world make you madder and madder every day? Do you wish you had something you could just grab and throw something you could break? Sounds like you need to make your way to your local RAGE CAGE. The only place in town where you pay to greatly hate what you're seeing on TV, but don't want to ruin your TV computer driving you mad but you can't break your computer. Is your friends just annoying? Because you just ran out of eggs? Well, we've got TVs computers and prejudice just waiting for you to smash. It's just $5 a minute we hand you a bat and You do the rest. I pay you and I get to smash stuff. That's right. Are you the police? You have to tell me if I ask. We are not the police has been called more relaxing than yoga. Oh good. Cuz I hate yoga. Open every day. Stop by today and get your very own rage card. That's right rage nine times and your 10th rage is free. Stop smashing your own stuff and start smashing ours today at the RAGE CAGE. All right, well, I gotta say firsthand, if you're feeling frustrated, if you got a lot of pent up anger, check out your local RAGE CAGE. Okay. It's a great way to let all that stress out.

But it's not the only way to let all this stress out. You know, the second greatest way to let all the stress out is listen to an amazing interview on a podcast. And guess what? You're listening to a podcast and I'm about to drop an amazing interview right in your lap. You're going to be the most stress-free person in the world. You're welcome. I do want to give a huge, huge thank you to my friend Danny Klein, for hooking me up with Jon Glaser connecting the two of us. So this amazing interview that will leave you all stress-free could take place. Danny, I dedicate this interview to you and our friendship. Thank you very much to the rest of you. But mostly Danny. Enjoy. Enjoy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to introduce you to my guest comedian, writer, actor. Jon Glaser. Welcome to the show, Jon.

7:24

Thank you.

7:25

Good to have you.

7:26

pretty solid intro.

7:27

Yeah, you know, I tried to bring it for you. Yeah, you nailed all the all the main points, all the main points. So, Jon, yes,

this is our connection. We have a mutual friend, Danny Klein, we you and I may have literally met many, many decades ago, we were in the same room on so here's the story. The story is we both worked at Brighton Tamarack, not at the same time now. We missed each other. But why knew the years that I was there you came and perform stand up comedy. Oh my god. One of the bits that you did later in life I went on and I have been doing stand up comedy now for 18 years. So you were one of my first

8:09

but I wasn't I wasn't working at the camp. I just came to do stand up on it. Why do I have no memory that

8:14

you had worked and you were probably visiting your pals. Maybe I think we were getting ready for circus day or some big thing I can't remember exactly. And you must have just kind of showed up. You know, do you show the old guy though? The old worker shows up and everyone's like, Oh, yeah, you know, so you did a stand up routine. You did a bit called celery man, which stuck with me. I remember that. You remember that bit. It was like no superpowers. Just celery. Celery. so dumb. so dumb, but I loved it. It was I thought so funny. I'm I was in arts and crafts. I actually painted a salaryman character that they would put up to decorate. I

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feel like I remember seeing that. That's something I think I have a memory of seeing the salaryman painting. Maybe, maybe someone sent it to me. Maybe it was even Danny.

9:05

All right, well, I'm the guy that made it.

9:07

Well, thank you very much. It's nice to finally get to thank you in kind of in person,

9:11

right, right. Right right. But you know, it's it's funny because you were one of the first people that I ever saw like the first one of the first stand up comics that I ever saw like that close I think it inspired me I you know, as I look back because that you know, certain bits stick in your head like certain things and frames and ways of to make people laugh and that always that's always stay with me, and I was probably gosh, that was decades ago. Right. That's a long

9:36

time ago. I don't even know if that building exists. Yeah, I went to visit Brighton on one of the maybe it was three years ago, four years ago. And you know, we got to walk the grounds that people that own the land now have kept some of it intact, but I feel like the was at the Rec Center. What did they call that building that might be gone? I think

9:55

Danny would know,

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but it was still great to be at Danny wood for sure. No, but it was was really nice to be on the camp grounds again. And you know, a couple of the dorms are intact, the main building is intact where the infirmary was. I mean, that's all still there. Some of the buildings are still there, some of the dorms are gone. But it was really pretty profound to just be on the land and walk around. We were there for a couple hours. I think it was pretty nice.

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Campus is a special place. That was a very special place have tons of great memories. Danny then told me like the year I left and went to ortonville, the original version of the camera, he said, You came back. So we just we missed each Oh, otherwise, you'd be like, hey, Jeff, what's up? Well, here we are. Here we are, finally. So Jon, you have this amazing career. Can you tell me though, how did you get started in stand up comedy?

10:44

I mean, you saw it. That was the birth Jewish summer camp. I try to think of the first time that I did, it was probably at University of Michigan, you know, they had a stand up show. And I must have tried it. I don't know if I did any open mics first, or if I just signed up for how I got to do it. But maybe that was the first time I mean, the first time I did it was probably a camp with an audience. But that's different. You know, it's all friends. I think it was Michigan, I don't know. I mean, now I'm trying to remember if I'd done it elsewhere, it must have been U of M,

11:11

did you major in theater, or anything at U of M or what would kind of lead you down this path of becoming a writer and actor,

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I knew that I wanted to pursue comedy. I wasn't a theater major, I had just a very generic communications degree. I don't know what they're what that degree is now if it's the same, but it was pretty generic. And I really didn't know what else I would want to do. I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't want to major in theater. But I did do a lot of I took a lot of acting classes and you know, a voice class in a movement class. And I did do that I just didn't want to major in it. And then I, there was a show at U of M called a really generic terrible name called the comedy company, just terrible. But it was really fun. It was a sketch show, you know, made some really good friends people I'm friends with to this day. And so doing the acting classes at college and doing a little bit of stand up here. And there it was at the U club was it was this room and that at the Michigan union, and they called it the U club on the stand up nights. And so they had a lot of good standup shows there. So between all those things, I really got my fix of being creative doing acting and doing comedy. So that's kind of all we're probably just came together. Was it at U of M?

12:16

improv is kind of party or origin story. Yes,

12:19

not so much until I got to Chicago, you know, I'd never had any formal training. But I moved to Chicago after college. You know, I knew about Second City in Chicago, I'd actually seen the touring company show when I was a senior in high school that really had an impact on me, it just looked so fun. I completely knew that was something that I'd want to try. But I'd never done improv. And I just I ended up calling the theater, I was halfway through my senior year at Michigan, trying to figure out what I was going to do if I was actually going to pursue acting. And I didn't know I didn't really have a big plan. I didn't know if I would go New York, LA Chicago, but I knew I wanted to try Second City. So I called them just out of the blue to see if they ever had auditions for this stage for the mainstage. And you kind of you don't just audition for you to kind of go through the touring company. And then you hopefully get put on a stage. And so they were having touring company auditions, like a month from when I had called. So it was kind of quick. I didn't have a headshot and resume. They told me that's what I needed to bring. And they asked if I had improv experience. And I just lied and said yes. And you know, I didn't have much of a resume. And I remember just kind of expanding it. Like there's probably three things, you know, stand up the sketch show at Michigan. And I'd also taken a year off with some of those people from the sketch show, we booked our own tour. That's a whole other story. I basically just took those three things and put a lot of bullet points under each one to expand it and make it look like a bigger resume for the headshot. I just you know, this is I'm an old man. This is before digital cameras and iPhones and editing equipment and laptops. You know, you couldn't just take a picture and print it out. I had to go buy a roll of film, put it in this 35 millimeter camera, my roommates at the time we took all the lamps in our apartment and we gathered them in one corner so it'd be sort of brightly lit like a studio. And I actually had to hold one in one of my hands to shine it on my face to make my face bright enough. So we just took a roll of film of me making faces took it to an overnight development place, got it developed, picked one for the eight by 10 and then had the eight by 10 in the eight and a half by 11 resume and just took them to Chicago with me. I mean, that's where I got my start with improv. I had a really profound experience where I was auditioning for the touring company. It was at the mainstage Theatre in Chicago that you're on that stage where all these legendary people are performed. The theater is dark, you know, there's a roomful of there's probably like 10 to 20 people watching but you don't know who they are. You can't see them. Maybe more like 10 wasn't 20 knows like a few producers, directors, touring company directors. You know, I didn't know what I was doing. I had never done formal improv is very intimidating, very nerve wracking, but I felt like it went as well as it could and there was even one moment where you know my inexperience really showed where you I hear this voice from the dark going, who is this? There's, you know, they're not stapled together and they're different sizes. And I kind of sheepishly raised my hand. I was like, that's mine, and then later after, so I really thought at that point, I'm this isn't going anywhere. And after the audition, I was just basically going to the train station, there was a train from Ann Arbor right to Chicago. And so I was taking the train back to nr racing with a friend of mine, who lived in Ann Arbor in Chicago at the time, guy that I went to college with Dave koskie. And so I was pretty much just going to the train station from the theater. I left my duffel bag in the lobby, I was untucking my shirt. That was the extent to me dressing up was tucking my shirt in. And this woman comes out of the theater and says, Hi, can I talk to you in my office for a second? And I was just immediately freaking out in my head, but just trying to play cool. Like, yeah, sure. thinking to myself, Oh, my God, I you know, I had a semester left of school and I'm thinking, am I gonna have to drop out of college before I graduate to join this theater? This lady takes me in her office. And it turns out to be a woman named Joyce Sloane, who is was a legendary producer in Chicago. She was the main producer at the theater for years. She was so nice, just completely disarming, you know, was very encouraging. And basically said, I like your audition, you need some training, the long and short of the you know, just to make this long story shorter, basically, it just was very encouraging very kind gave me your card and said, Give me a call when you graduate. And that sealed the deal right there. You know, I went from kind of not knowing what I was doing to just I'm moving to Chicago, I'm going to take the classes that they offer and go from there. And so that was in the winter of my senior year of college. And after I graduated, I probably worked a camp and then worked another couple jobs to save some money and move that fall. And from there, that's where I started doing improv in Chicago,

16:41

when I went to Eastern Michigan, and we had a friend from Chicago that was with us in our fraternity. And so we'd go to second city, Chicago all the time. We are obsessed with we do all our formals there and we go to second city it was I thought it was the greatest place to be

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when I was in the touring company. You know, one of the cool when I eventually got hired in which took probably a year and a half after I moved and moved there. You know, I audition a couple more times before I got hired. When I was in the touring company. One of the benefits that they encourage you to go watch shows and watch improv sets, Amy Sedaris, and Stephen Colbert and Steven corral, were on the main stage at the time and I could just go you know, go to the theater whenever I wanted and just sit in the wings and or sit off to the side not in the wings of the stage. But just the the side of the theater, there was a bench and you could just kind of hang out and watch and I would just go watch them all the time. And those are three pretty gigantic comedy talents, and especially Amy Sedaris was so fun to watch on a almost nightly basis for some of that he just moved there. It was pretty cool. But there was all there was tons of amazing improv going on besides Second City there was a place called the improv Olympic, which really was what appealed to me the most, you know, is more long form improv. And there was a lot of amazing all the UCB people studied there. And they a lot of them did Second City as well. But that was a really cool place that really, I would say inspired and informed. Lots of people that you know, today as far as their background and training and what they bring to the table and all that

18:03

when you're watching them like then maybe they're not anybody yet is like they say you could just tell Amy Sedaris is incredible.

18:10

Yeah, she's a standout. She's She's a very just uniquely brilliantly talented performer. But you know, Carrell and Cobert , they're also I mean, it's no surprise all three of them are have achieved the level of success they have. And you know, there's plenty of really, really funny people that don't have the name recognition but are just phenomenal improvisers. The people that usually make it are usually the people that you're not surprised made it there's always gonna be like, oh, that person, all right, well, whatever. Not for me, but good for them.

18:36

Yeah, Cobert and Carrell. So you also worked with them on the Dana Carvey show? Yeah, I'm fascinated with the Dana Carvey show because I've seen the Hulu documentary How did you make your way to the Dana Carvey show?

18:49

I ended up there just I had auditioned but before audition that same that was that audition happened to be in the fall of 95. And the summer of 95. They had there was a big huge Saturday Night Live audition. And they were you know, they were hiring a whole new cast. So they were really making the rounds of Second City. The Groundlings in LA, I'm sure Second City in Toronto and standard clubs and wherever. So I got lucky to get asked to audition for SNL. I didn't get it. But this guy named Robert smigel, who is a really, you know, comedy world legend. He was a longtime SNL writer and then he was the first head writer producer at Conan and then he was the EP at Dana Carvey show. And he knew a lot of Chicago people including the guy that directed my second city show guy named Tom gn is talented writer director in his own right, and he got in touch with Tom and he had access Robert smuggled into all these SNL tapes of people that did not get hired. He got in touch with Tom and said, Hey, tell Glaser. I saw his tape and I liked it and have them do the same stuff. So that was kind of encouraging going into my audition and then after that audition, they got in touch with me just to basically say, you know, we really liked it. We're not going to hire you as an actor. But would you be interested in submitting as a writer. And at the time, I really was not even thinking of writing as a career or any kind of option. I never considered myself a writer. And I'm not I'm not even sure I still do. I do but not really, you know, sometimes I feel like I really am, I guess, but I just never thought of myself as a writer. And really, when you're improvising, you are spontaneously writing. Basically, this was just a cool enough sounding job with a really cool group of people that I felt like I had to at least give it a try. So I just wrote some sketches. You know, I didn't have any sitting waiting and like a notepad or anything, I just spent a week or so writing up a few sketches and submitted them and they liked him enough that they flew me out to New York for an interview, I got hired. But it was not until this was again, like probably november of 95. And I didn't get hired until January 96. The time I thought now, it's been almost a couple months, I guess I'm not getting the job, which wasn't a big deal, because I was about to start rehearsing a new Second City show with a guy named Mick Napier, who founded the annoyance theater in Chicago, and he's a really legendary director there. And I was really excited to work with him. And so really, it was kind of a win win, I guess. And then a week into rehearsals, I got the call that I got the job and I had to be out there in a week. So it was pretty crazy. I had to pack all my stuff, get rid of shit and then just flew out and stayed at a hotel for a couple weeks. So I found a place and that's how I got the job.

21:18

I mean, this was like, I mean, who's who Right. I mean, it was Dana Carvey, hot off center. I live it Steve corral. Steve co bear Roberts, Michael that you mentioned how there Morgan and then head writer Louie ck. Right. And then you What do you think happened? Hulu put together too funny to fail. I mean, like when you look back now, like this group that you had together? What do you think just in Clegg, it was just people just didn't like to see Dana Carvey the way, you know, he was portraying himself like just slightly different than Saturday live, or

21:47

I think there's a handful of things. You know, there was also a guy named Bill cot was the other cast member who was also Chicago Second City guy very funny. I don't know, you know, it was in theory, I think everyone, probably the network thought this is a dream time slot. It was after home improvement, which is a huge show at the time. And then there was a new Muppet Show that was coming out and they thought this is a perfect time slot. 8:30pm primetime and really, you know, the group of people and writers that were assembled like the comedy sensibility is not primetime at all. It was hindsight, a terrible idea, you know, to try to do this show between these other two shows that are just very family friendly. And I we I remember they did this big two page ad for ABC. That was like Dana Carvey and Kermit the Frog, like, arm and arm, like big smiles to camera. And I remember we were looking at it going, we're doomed, because it just felt like this is not the show. The show is not this fun cutesy family, half hour of comedy and the cold open of the first episode. You know, no one has seen the show yet. No one even knows what it's gonna be. And the very first thing was Dana as Bill Clinton talked about how he's going to be a nurturing president. He's taken literal steps where he's taking like hormones and estrogen and he opens up his jacket to reveal this really hilarious prosthetic that has six nipples, and he's breastfeeding kittens and this gross milk is just dripping from it. It was funny as hell but it was not what people were expecting. I got a home improvement audience that's probably settling in with their families to watch this show. And here's this gross prosthetic that no one was there most people were not ready for and didn't want we got some hilarious hate mail. I remember one in particular we got lucky to get to read it because it was mostly hilarious. It was like one dude is like I'm a die hard republican and I would never vote for Bill Clinton but you do not disrespect the office of the presidency blah blah like all this just stupid annoying shit where it's just and so I think that really killed the show quit that's my opinion. It just seemed like they could never recover from just being in the wrong place. You know, that's not its audience. So I think that kind of set this downward spiral in motion,

23:56

wrong place wrong time. And probably the wrong first sketch.

24:01

Yeah, yeah, maybe hindsight, not the best lead. Not the best start, you know, they tried to sort of tailor it a little bit and ease back and there was still plenty of really funny comedy. It was a good show. But yeah, just a misguided spot.

24:12

Go back a second the Saturday night live audition? Did you almost make it because I mean, in watching you like all the shows you've been on and your acting and your comedy style. Like, I'm just they must be upset that they pass on you. You would have been a great addition. I mean, they're just like, come and go. Like, I don't know how those auditions work where they're like, thank you very much. Mr. Glaser.

24:33

Yeah, Loren. Loren Michaels wrote me a letter saying I regret not casting you. We really blew it. No, I'm kidding. That didn't that never happen? No, they they hired very funny people. It's next. You know, it's really tough to make it. I don't think they gave it another another thought. I don't know if I was close. I cannot imagine there's so many people auditioning. And there's so many really funny people auditioning people that got hired at the time it was you know, Will Ferrell and Dave Kepner were two guys that I knew and still Friends with and to the funniest guys in the world. It's just tough competition. It's tough to get those jobs and you know hindsight not getting it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me or one of the best things that could have happened to me because that allowed Dana Carvey show to happen, which really allowed me to get the coenen job, which really is the better job for me, you know, and it allowed me to kind of, I don't know, if I was, at that time quite ready for something like Saturday Night Live, you know, that's easy to say, maybe I would have been fine. I thought I had a good audition. And I wouldn't have felt insecure about my abilities and all that. But that's like a big, big, huge leap. And it's easy to say looking back, it's easy. It's easy to say that hindsight, but Conan was really the dream job. You know, because that was a daily show. It was extremely fun. It was not this weird, competitive place that I've heard SNL can be at times and and I just thought it was a better show personally, and just a better fit for me sensibility wise. And so it's easy to look back now and go, yeah, I'm glad I didn't get SNL even though it was a bummer. At the time. For sure. I was, of course hopeful.

26:03

So talk to me about working for Conan, you were in skits. And you wrote for Conan?

26:08

Yeah, that was one of the nice things about that job. And one of the reasons I was always hoping to get it as because it was a place where you could do both, you know, they had writers that were just writers that did monologue stuff and didn't really perform or didn't perform much. And then there was a handful of writers that performed all the time. And I think they were looking for people like that, in addition to just the straightforward writers and I know Robert smigel really helped get my packet looked at and I had to submit there, I think two or three times before I got hired, and that's the same thing. It's just competitive. There's lots of funny people submitting you got to have a little bit of luck, and, you know, on top of having a good submission, and yeah, that was really just one of the best jobs I'll you know, I've had really, really fun.

26:49

Oh, wait, you know what, I had another question about the Dana Carvey show the TV funland stuff that came out of that and I remember watching that going Wait a minute, Steve Colbert and Steve corrall were the ambiguously gay duo Yeah, that's one of the things that saturday night live benefited from when that show got canceled smile went back right and and so all that became part of Psy live. So I remember thinking back it's like, Oh, it's so obvious once you know it's their voices but I just thought that was that was kind of funny. Did you write any of those? Were you part of those segments?

27:16

No, that was all smuggle. Maybe Louie helped with those as well. And probably Dino Dino Stamatopoulos. Yeah. I wasn't involved in any of the animation writing.

27:25

I was reading your Wikipedia page. And you have a close friendship with H. Jon Benjamin. His voice is he's got one of the best voices ever archers. One of the funniest things, but specifically, you guys have a matter of trust cover band.

27:40

Yeah, I mean, yes. And no, that was Benjamins. Yeah, it was Benjamin's idea. He just thought it'd be funny to do a band called matter of trust. And that was the only song that they played. And it was he was singing. I played bass. I'm terrible. I really cannot play the bass at all, but I would plink around on it and could teach myself to play stuff. Barely guy named James mcnew, who's the bass player for the band Yola, Tango, and a phenomenally talented musician in his own right. He's played bass on one of the run the jewels, albums. And then Todd Barry's actually a drummer or plays drums, he was the drummer. So we did that at a couple of comedy shows. And the joke was that we would go out and play that song. And that was the act like they were called matter of trust, they only played that song. And the show consisted of two songs matter of trust, and then matter of trust, again, as an encore. And we did it at a couple comedy shows, which is really fun. And then the best thing we did was the band, the new pornographers, who are, you know, at the time, we're getting pretty big, and they were playing a show with Belle and Sebastian at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square, and they were real comedy fans, and they asked us to be an opening band for them. Or maybe it was after New pornographers played, and then we played and so here's this audience that's ready for Belle and Sebastian, and then we come on, and we played matter of trust and then came out as for an encore, and I think half the audience probably got it and half just did not know what was going on. It was really, really hilarious. Yeah, that was that bit.

29:11

Well, I gotta say, when I read that, I was like, this would be the greatest that was like my favorite song. So I'm like, I could sit there and listen to a band play because that's what that was me driving around. When I first got my car. We just replay a song over and over. That's really funny. That really resonated with me, Jon, so I'd like I would thank Sam you guys. When you get the band back together, you let me know and you can enjoy it twice. Well, I won't be in the front row. enjoying it both times. Both times. I will say I embarrassingly on my Things To Do list is watch Parks and Recreation. I have to admit I started watching it when I originally came out and it didn't grab me and then I just never got back to it even though I know became like this classic show and all that kind of stuff. My daughter though, is obsessed with it and I texted her and I said, Hey, you know who I'm talking to? And she's like, whoa. Nick Offerman she nation in every cast member except me. Oh him. Oh, yeah. He's a councilman Jeremy Jamm. She cuz like

30:15

No way. She got in trouble right. You punished her for swearing. You sent her to her room.

30:22

She's old enough so you can swear.

30:25

And then she said you don't tell me what to do. Dad. You can tell her. I said hi.

30:28

I will. I will. I will. If you wanted to say she got jammed. You got her name's Sophie. I'll show I'll send it to her.

30:34

Sophie got jammed Go to your room now for swearing.

30:37

She will love that. Thank you. What was it like working with that cast and Amy Poehler and all them and Nick. And like, because that must have been hilarious.

30:45

It was really fun. You know, that was just one of these lucky jobs that I didn't have to audition, which was always nice. And you know, I wasn't I didn't know it was even in the works. I just got a call about it. And I was really excited. And at the time, I didn't even know what it was if it was going to be a long term thing or not. I think it was maybe just going to be a one off or maybe a couple episodes. And then I just got lucky to get to keep doing it. And I had already known Amy from Chicago days and actually knew Nick Offerman a little bit. We were kind of friendly. But we I got to know him a lot better over the course of doing the show. And I knew Aubrey Plaza a little bit from this ESPN web series we did together with Kenny main, one of the sports center anchors, who's a super funny guy. And that particular web series was really, really fun and really funny. I recommend checking that out too. And I knew Aziz a little bit so I kind of knew most of the cast already, some of them better than others. So it was and I knew Mike Sure, who was one of the show creators and this guy, Dan Gore. And Dan gore was a Conan writer. And Mike sure had been an SNL writer. So I just met him when I was doing Conan. And so that was a fairly familiar and friendly group of people that I was walking into working with, which always makes things easier and more enjoyable. And then on top of it, it was a really great show, and a really fun part. So it was just above and beyond just, oh, here's a job and I'll go do it. It was extremely fun. And they were you know, meaning that even you know, the whole show, like the producers, they were very nice to me and treated me well. And you know, would fly and I live in New York, the shows in LA. So I'd fly out every now and you know, a few times a year to do it. And it was a great time. You know, it's as much fun as you'd think it would be with that kind of group of people.

32:21

I loved your hair and I watched some clips. The hair was awesome.

32:25

Yeah, the hair that was my hair was not a wig. And that was one of my favorite parts about the character because at the time, I remember when I got offered the part and was told what it was, you know, it's he's a dentist, he's also a councilman. He's kind of a douchebag and I just thought Oh, we have to you know, because I've got a real big at the time. It was a pretty big you know, Jew fro I just thought we should blow it out and comb it back. You know, this ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper? You know who that dude is? No, that's all he does. Like that's his job and he's just got this like hardened tough guy like with this quaffed hair and that's what I'm like they should just blow it back and make it look like Mel cuypers here and they were thinking the same thing which was great and so I just love that because it was such a good look. And also I just like get my hair work done so like for 45 minutes every time I would go I'd get to sit in the chair just having like blow dry it and brushing it out got it was like just a head massage every day I started work I was the best so enjoyable

33:25

that is the best part of a haircut was the the you got jammed in that whole thing was that did they just write that in for you? Or is that one of those things that happened by accident and then they just kept going with it? Or you know sometimes those those things kind of stumbled on by accident?

33:38

No, that was the writers that was all that was a whole thing. There was plenty of intention behind that you got jammed catchphrase, you know to make this dick who thinks he's being funny by saying yeah, that was that was in there.

33:50

So you've had three shows where you were the main writer at least three shows where you were the main writer and an actor Delocated which anyone listening you can stream on HBO Max is as very interesting show. I just want to get a show like Alright, here's the idea. I'm going to have a mask on the whole time and you can't hear my voice the way it was so brilliant. I I'm laughing because you're so you're very low key which I totally get your style of humor is very funny. I do people say that to you all the time. I hear there's there's the Jon Glaser the performer and then Jon Glaser everyday Jon Glaser.

34:25

Yeah. Are you talking about just the difference in jet? Yeah, I mean, you know, first like, just as far as the three shows that I had, I was just to be just to clarify, I was not necessarily the main writer, you know, all three of my shows were, you know, ideas that I had that I created and pitched and sold and all that but the production company that I ended up hiring to help me make the shows, and a lot of times that's just kind of the process where you pitch your show, and if you need a production company to kind of help with the logistical side and the producing side and you know, sometimes it's just the paperwork and stuff like that, but the people that I hired at the time Was this group called pf fr and they've done their own shows and they still do. They have done a show called wonder showzen which is really one of the funniest shows you'll ever see. It was like a fake kid show and it was absolutely genius and three people who make up pf fr by john Lee Vernon Chapman and Alison levy makeup pff art, I highly recommend looking them up. If you're listening and you're looking for some weirdo comedy that's pretty brilliant. They had just decided to sort of become a production company at the time that was gonna make the pilot for Delocated it was an easy hire because I knew them and that just brought in a built in sort of creative side. So me and john and Vernon did the bulk of all the writing on Delocated and neon Joe and Jon Glaser loves gear, these other shows that I made, we hired some other writers as well to kind of help with the script writing process. You know, they were working mostly off of outlines that the three of us had written, but you know, we had people helping just to sort of streamline the process and had some really fantastic writers, you know, including guy named Kevin Dorf, who was a guy that he was played my body guard and the first season and a half of Delocated and truly one of the funniest improvisers, in my opinion ever. Joe Mandy, who went underwrite for Parks and Rec and you know, Albert Tina Rizzo is a friend of mine she wrote a little bit on the banjo so we did hire other writers, but it was me and john Byrne and doing the bulk I'm sure there's plenty people out there that think I'm an asshole because Jeremy jam, you know, they just forget that this is a fictitious character. There's gonna be times where I get worried like even with Jon Glaser loves gear where I was playing an asshole version of myself and then sometimes you know, I can't help but wonder like, why am I so good at playing an asshole? Am I an asshole? Yeah, but yeah, does being an asshole does come naturally.

36:39

Dan, it's funny when you're an asshole on the show. I love it. It's the best super fun Delocated I was watching to Paul Rudd in the first episode he dies, right Poor guy. Poor dead Paul Rudd. As I was digging in, I realized you'd like killing off Paul Rudd on all your shows.

36:56

When I got to make neon Joe. I just thought it'd be funny if he got killed again. And he's a very funny guy just naturally he was into the idea. So we killed them off in Neon Joe. He got brutalized by a werewolf and then when I got to make my gear show, same thing he didn't have an on camera death, but there was just a news alert that he had died while camping. We've continued to joke that if I get lucky to make another show, he'll have to die in the pilot. hope that'll happen again,

37:22

neon Joe, how did you come up with that? That that show is it's insane. I was watching it and you're hilarious. The characters hilarious. I can't do that word that you do. I think her

37:37

heel heel. The heel was something that me and Vernon Chapman would do just hanging out while ready. Just Oh God. Oh, he'll just like this and what's called an unintelligible grunt is what we called it. And it's just a stupid noise. But neon Joe the show. I mean, it really came from I was doing Jimmy Fallon's show to promote the series finale of Delocated and I just wanted to do something dumb on the segment. You know, talk shows can get a little boring for me. So I just like anytime I've gone on to do Am I try to just do some kind of comedy bit just to make it more fun for myself. The Delocated finale appearance, I just thought it'd be funny to talk about being sad that Delocated was ending but it'd be excited about my new show. And I just took two articles of clothing that I had at home that I used for live bits on stage. And I just arbitrarily pair them together. I had a neon yellow hoodie from American Apparel and this neon yellow knit hat and and these cores light sweat pants, there was really nothing funny about it. It was all just fake where I just said yeah, it's called neon Joe werewolf Hunter. And I'm dressed as the character now, you know, on the course light bit is just you know, they call that beer the silver bullet. It's not an original joke by any means. And it was certainly not supposed to be funny. But that was where that came from. And again, it was just 100%. Fake. There was no, that was not a real thing I was working on I was just making it up. But at the time, I remember thinking, you know, I'm sure Adult Swim, who I made Delocated for is going to watch this. And they're probably going to think this is just a funny segment. And I could even see them saying, I know you're joking, but that sounds like a show we'd make and that's basically what happened. The head of the network just called me and he says he's like, I don't know what that is. But it's something we'd make let's watch you write it. So I just got to write a pilot script. And if you're listening, you don't know what that means. pilot script is just if you make a TV show, you have to make a what they call a pilot episode. And that's the episode The network will watch to decide if they're going to pick it up to make a series. And so I just got to write a pilot script and I really had nothing. I had no ideas. It was not this thing I was working on. I had to kind of come up with everything from scratch, which was kind of a fun challenge. But we made the pie you know, we wrote the script. We got to shoot a pilot. They liked it. We made some changes and all that. That's pretty much where it came from. It's one of my favorite things about that show is that it came from an arbitrary joke. And then it turned into what I thought was a really cool funny fun show. I really loved making it I wish we would have gotten to make maybe one more season but we got to make two which is great.

40:08

That's awesome and that's hilarious. I was gonna ask you because that are you good friends with Jimmy Fallon because you guys have amazing rapport together YouTube was just feeding me your Tonight Show appearances you guys were just hilarious to get the one in particular where you're wearing this this hoodie that you get him to sit next to you and you both zip it up. Yeah, that pink hoodie is at one point you sing opera. We sing opera for in that thing we you did for a second you sing opera for like a second. And then it was they played it over the thing and then you pretended it was you because we couldn't see your mouth move. But like But anyway, but I was just I was watching him like you got such good rapport with Fallon. I just wondered if you guys were pals. No,

40:46

we we don't keep in touch really outside of the shows. Like we've emailed a couple times here and there. But not regularly. He's just always been a fan. And he's always been super nice to me to you know, to have me on his show. And let me do these dumb bits. And very, very thankful and appreciative of him having me on his show to promote my shows and to do these dumb bits. And you know, even when Cole bear got his show, you know, I was so happy to get to do his show, because I'm just a big fan of his that was also pretty cool. So thankfully, it's two guys that both know what's funny and let people do dumb bits. So yeah, hopefully there'll be more

41:20

a lot of great friends you've made along the way I did. So I was watching Jon Glaser loves gear,

41:24

we got to do two seasons. And then that was that was the end of it. And it kind of I don't think it was coming back anyway. But it was kind of, but you know, no complaints. I mean, it would have been fun to make another season. But we did get to make two. And they really pretty much let us do whatever we wanted just about it was a really fun show to make. When you get to make even one season of a show. It's hard to complain. I mean, you always want to make more but getting to make one, let alone twos. It was great. And it was a very good time.

41:51

So two follow up questions. One, did you ever get gearing in the ditch?

41:57

Now that would have been pretty fun to do for real, we would have had to put a real effort to get people to start using it. But no, although the word I think is in there, it just means something else. But we never got our definition.

42:08

The other thing that when I was watching this scene where you walk in and your wife's giving you all these gifts, and you open them up as if you've seen them for the first time and you just thanking her. And then she reveals that you had bought all of this stuff. And she just rewrapped it and gave it to you and then you know kicked you out of the house. I laughed so hard at that because I feel like that's there's so much stuff, it seems so logical and important at the time and then never use it. And she yells at me so much about it. So much of your comedy in the scenes that you write is resonant, I just find it so funny. Anyway, thank thank you for that. You're very welcome. So what's next for Jon Glaser?

42:46

Oh, I don't know figuring it out. Hopefully, you know, it's been a weird year, certainly with things getting shut down. Because a COVID just been working on several ideas and pitching them and hoping either I get to make one of these shows or that some other jobs will come up. You know, once things. I've had a couple of small jobs on a couple of pretty cool shows, actually, but really just kind of waiting to see how things continue to unfold. I was actually in Los Angeles for a couple months doing a couple small things and then came back right before the lockdown in mid March, you know, at least for here in New York when kids were taken out of school and all that and so I haven't been back to LA since and you know, things have been probably the last six months ramping back up I know there's plenty of work going on. It's just not as necessarily readily available to lots of people there's not as many jobs I don't think happening there's tons of COVID protocols on all these jobs things still getting shut down every now and then I think it's going to be a slow crawl to getting back to what will be a new normal that's just how this past year has been just kind of navigating these really bizarre times trying to be patient and just stretching it out. It's It's strange for sure. But you know, there's been a little bit going on and it seems like it's starting to gather a little more steam

43:58

but where can people keep up with the on the social media?

44:00

I really just do Instagram I don't do it every day. So that's where I pour most of my or all of my social media energy. I can't do multiple platforms, it just seems so I don't get it. It just seems so dumb where you're posting basically the same stuff everywhere and even if you're not, why not just do it all. I don't know that maybe that's just me sounding like an old man, but it just seems dumb to have all these platforms. So I'm on Instagram that's the one I enjoy doing. And I think if you just look me up you'd find me I don't spell my son there's already a Jon Glaser how I spell my name. So I spelled it on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jahnglayzer/. Jahn, just kind of Midwest and then Glaser GL a yzer, that's that's my Instagram handle.

44:43

Thin k if you looked into tik tok, you could create a neon Joe Tik Tok series.

44:49

I guess I don't even know if I want to.

44:51

I'm joking with thank you so much for hanging out with me. It was great to chat with you.

44:57

You too.

44:57

Thank you s o much. I can't I can't thank you enough. Thank you.

All right, everyone. How awesome was that? Jon Glaser round of applause. It was so exciting to talk to him. It really was a way I still remember hearing him do that salaryman bet it's stuck with me for so long. been a fan of Jon's for so long. Thanks again to Danny Klein for connecting us and making the interview possible. can't thank you enough my friend. also want to th ank my friend Darrin Brege voice impersonator for stopping by the show once again and lending his talents he's a school and association presenter illustrator improv comedian check Darrin out at https://karenanddarrin.com/ also want to thank my buddy Scott Curtis for lending me his voice this week everyone check out Scott Curtis and his amazing podcast behind the bits.

Well with the interview come and gone that can only mean one thing I know it's a sad time for us all we're nearing the end of another episode of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show but as the end is near it can only mean one thing that's right. It's time for another trending hashtag when the family of hashtags it hashtag around up follow hashtag roundup on twitter at hashtag round up download the free hashtag roundup app on the iTunes App Store Google Play Store. Totally free tweet along with us in one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you this week's hashtag we took inspiration from all the summer camp talk going on in this episode hashtag with hosers a weekly game on hashtag roundup played #TakeASongToSummerCamp. That's right The ultimate song summer camp mash up hashtag we take a song and you mash it up with something summer camp related and hilarity ensues. Go ahead and tweet your own #TakeASongToSummerCamp tweet. I'll take a look for it. In the meantime, here are some amazing examples for inspiration.

See now most campfire walk like a camp counselor we didn't start the campfire This is a great start to hashtag take a song to summer camp Blue Suede canoes smore than words you span me camp ground baby cam ground anything by poison ivy ah Papa's got a brand new sleeping bag no more Mr. Nice Guy I want a new bug wanted don't staying great meatball night. Great meatballs a fire way I can do it better great me bow great. No, I can't do better color wars the wind. If you're lost you can look and you will find me time after Timberlake camp. Oh, he's the one that I want. Honey that's a Friday the 13th summer camp mash up this girl is making fire Oh that's a good Alicia Keys Masha dream basket weaver? I'm not I don't I'm just should be reading. I don't know why I tried to sing some of these. And finally to wrap up #TakeASongToSummerCamp. LIce lice, baby. Oh, that's an itchy one. All right. Well, those were some great #TakeASongToSummerCamp tweets. Thanks, everyone for tweeting along as always. All of our tweeters will be retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter.

Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram at Jeff Dwoskin show. All the tweeters will also be listed in the show notes. Go to Jeffisfunny.com. All the show notes are always there waiting for you retweet the tweeter, show him some love play along yourself. And one day hopefully I'll read one of your tweets. Well, we're at the end of the show. I now. Can't believe it. The very very, very end. Thanks again to my guest, Jon Glaser. Thanks, to all my friends for helping out with this episode. Thanks to all of you for listening and coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

49:11

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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai