#70 Road Stories with Ritch Shydner

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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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Alright, Sam, 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 70 of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. great to be back for another week of podcast goodness and oh my goodness. Do we have the goodness for you this week? Yes, we do. The legendary comedian Rich Shydner. Ladies and gentlemen. That's right. Rich has been making people laugh for decades. In the world of stand up comedy. He is a legend. He has written books on stand up comedy in the 80s. He has written books capturing some of the most amazing stories from so many comedians on the road and he is the producer and he has performed in the award winning documentary I am comic rich is here to share some amazing stories with us from the world of stand up comedy big names, you know, I'm Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison, and so many more. I don't want to spoil it that's coming up in just a few minutes.

One of the amazing things about doing this podcast is being able to talk to so many amazing people and one such person was at Asner. And as I was finishing up my podcast last week after I was done I got word that Ed Asner had passed away. And as far as we all know, his TV icon and it was a real honor when he gave me even just a slice of his time when we talked earlier this year. It's Episode 56. If anyone wants to check it out, it's such a loss. But he left so much great stuff. I'm gonna put a link to the Ed Asner Family Center in the show notes. If anyone wants to make a donation and his memory. It was a huge loss. And I just wanted to kind of recognize that it was such an honor to have talked to him and may his memory be a blessing. That's Episode 56 event again, if anyone wants to listen to my conversation with Ed Asner, I know you'll love it.

You know what else you love? Head over to Jeffisfunny.com Wait a minute, Jeff. Isn't that the official website for a live from the droid the Jeff Dwoskin show? Yes it is. You can do so much there. Some people spend weekends there. Some person wrote in and said I just spent an entire week at your website. It was glorious. I was so happy to hear that I really was if you go right now to Jeffisfunny.com. You can sign up for my mailing list. You can buy me a coffee, you can listen at every past episode of the podcast for free. That's right, you can click a button that says follow the Jeff Dwoskin show and that'll pop up all the podcast apps you can follow like subscribe for free to live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show on all your favorite podcast apps don't just do it on one dude, I'm one to 10 maybe 15 apps you never know the first 14 could fail. You don't want to miss a notification when a new episode goes live. You don't want to be the only one in town not knowing what's going on. So definitely, you know, stack the deck in your favor and follow me on at least 10-15 20-30 40-50 podcast apps also follow me on youtube while you're at it. You might as well just go all in the Jeff Dwoskin show on YouTube. We do a live show every Wednesday me and a bunch of pals we talk about amazing shows you should be watching streaming bingeing. That's right. You're always asking your friends, right? What are you watching? What should I watch? I don't have anything to watch right now. There are 39 hours you heard me right. 39 hours of TV watching suggestions is waiting for you at the Jeff Dwoskin show on my YouTube channel. And we do a new one every Wednesday 9:30pm Eastern Time. Every Wednesday, there is no excuse why you shouldn't be filling up your entire life with television shows, movies and documentaries. Absolutely no reason at all. also sign up for my mailing list so we can stay in touch that way. I just want to connect with you tweet at me at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter or comments on one of my Instagram posts. I love hearing from you. I'll respond I'll get you back. So you got your homework, go do all that stuff.

And you know what time it is, it's time for the social media tip! Alright, this is the part of the show where I share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you a little 411 I picked up on the streets already kind of laid out a little bit of social media strategy for you in my last few comments earlier in the episode where I said if you comment to me, I'll comment back that is your go to strategy. You got to recognize the people that are talking to you on the social medias. But also you got to kind of stoke the flame as well meaning you got to give to get I know I've probably said this before, but on Twitter, you got to retweet Like comments and other people's posts, you can't just have a timeline that's just you on Instagram. I spend time liking tons of other people's posts and Yeah, sometimes I think to myself, Oh, this person never likes any of my posts. But you know what I still like their posts. You know why? Because it's free is free for me to show appreciation for other people's posts with likes and comments. It's free to make that connection and reply to someone who reached out to you. Remember folks, it's social media, not one way media... and that's the social media tip.

I do want to take a quick moment to thank all of you for all of your support of the sponsors week after week. I can't thank you enough they call me they generally sell out within hours of the podcast launching it's incredible support you show them we use the board them you're supporting us and that's how we keep the lights on here added I from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show today's sponsor, Gary shoes and accessories for today's woman located in New Market mall. Gary's shoes focuses exclusively on women's shoes and accessories, give her boots but give her flats looking for high heeled shoes. Well you've come to the right place because Gary's is here to serve you and Karis is the exclusive supplier of happy souls what where and did you say accessories? Oh, do we have accessories? Whether it be purses, scarves, belts, shoe inserts or hosiery? Gary's gotcha covered? Isn't it time to make your feet happy? Come down to Gary's shoes and accessories for today's women today. All right. Well, if you're a woman and you need shoes, definitely check out Gary's side note My wife has bought a pair. She loves them. She loves them. She said Gary's Customer service is not top notch, but the price was right. All right. Well, you know, I think it's time for me to share the interview I did with rich shydner with you. Are you ready for this legendary comedian. He's got so many stories. I am so excited to share this chat with you. Enjoy. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, comedian and author Rich scheibner how those

7:14

Thank you, Jeff. Thank you very much. Not many people get my name correctly. You got my name right off the bat. First shot

7:21

right off the bat. Well speaking of which, so I was watching a clip of you on Johnny Carson. And he kind of made some comment and then you came out and kind of made what looked like an off the cuff choke did he get your name wrong like the entire episode?

7:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I should have changed my name when I first started but I never did. I had names when I first got up on stage is Elvis degroot I would on stage is bud lunch. And I just I use my real name and I never should have done he Jackie martling used to call me he Schneider which I should have gone on is he Schneider I like that with rich shydner always got messed up always.

7:57

Okay, so Oh, see? Okay, so you know, Jackie, he's a great dude. I interviewed him twice. So Johnny Carson got your name wrong. You walk out you kind of went rich whatever. Was that off the cuff? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Well, the reason I'm asking is because they they like to kind of clock in there don't say everything I've ever heard like they want to know exactly what you're gonna say.

8:18

Oh no no the sets were locked in what I was going to say I got in trouble my second one because I changed the ending to my set like an hour before it on but I got in big trouble with that but they do they lock you in what you want to say was locked in these for comics at my level and then you're what you're gonna do on panel was all set up to

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got it. Very cool. All right, so now back to Jackie the joke, man.

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Jackie. So the first time I met Jackie there were the showcase cubs didn't pay very much money and no money at all. Really. And these gigs started open up in New Jersey. There were $55 and my rent was 115 down in Lower East Side of Manhattan. So these were payday gigs. They were big gigs is always in stand up comedy. If you have reliable transportation, you'll work. Jackie had a car he lived that Long Island. The Booker says look at the improv. Yo these two guys will pick you up the improv and you'll get do two gig in Jersey. So Jackie and his buddy Bob Woods who is called the round mound of sound, he's a big guy. They picked me up in a 1970s land yacht. It was a big station wagon with fake wood paneling on the side. I don't know what it was huge. I get in the car and I used to drink and do whatever chemicals were available back then. I get in the car. I get in the backseat they got a cooler filled with beer. This is probably 40 minute drive out to Jersey. They got a cooler filled with beer. They got a they got a thermos filled with my ties. They've got about a dozen joints rolled. They got a bottle of whiskey just for seven. We've nearly got lost in the Lincoln Tunnel head now. We were hammered by the time we got into jersey and we're lost. We are lost. There's no GPS. There's three drunk guys who have not been in a jersey North Jersey much so we kind of new to town and new to them in a place. Jackie was Let's ask this coffee over there so we pull over to a cup We are drunk and rolled out a with a cup rose as we're trying to get the Freddie's in bernardsville he was follow me and he got a cop the lead us three drugs to the gig escort says to the gig.

10:17

That's amazing. Yeah, that's the first time I work with Jackie. He was hilarious. He would yell at the audience. Come on, come on. Come on. laugh You bastards laugh come back. It was hilarious. Man, it is too funny. Yeah. Before we talked you mentioned that measuring you're an actor but you had you had a you had a bit of a run and a few spotlights.

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I took acting classes I'd never got into acting. When I got in stand up comedy. I was doing stand up comedy. I was free and clear up there. I was in the moment. I was totally beyond myself. No bit of self consciousness. enacting I would always be going okay. Is it my line? Is it my line? When's My Line? Keep talking? When's My Line? Here comes my line. Why is my hand moving? Where's my arm going? What's it going? I never got that enacted. I was a five and under guy. Little rolls here and there. I've went to a lot of acting classes. Never got it. I got into stand up for the laughter I chased the laughs That's what I did. I just had to hear those laughs And I never cared about anything else. Really, teacher.

11:15

Let's go but you still you Roxanne was Steve Martin. So yeah,

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yeah, yeah, that back. You know, we all got casters, I think six stand ups in that movie. We were cast because the Barton wanted to put a lot of standard comics in the movie and I loved it. I look, I got a chance Steve Martin was I mean, I saw him at the Capitol Center, a rock arena, like 13 14,000 people. Wow, I'd seen him when I first went to DC at the Kennedy Center. Probably two thirds a house, maybe 1500 2000 people. And then I saw him I'm standing there. Amongst 13,000 people watching this guy. It was a rock star and then I'm on a movie with him. And there's a scene in a movie where he does all these one liners a guy hackles him about his nose and he rattles off like jokes he the darts, right just hits a football boom does a Hey, we you want to come over and help me rewrite these the night before I was in that scene. So he's as you want to come over and come over to his hotel room and go over those jokes and rewrite with him. I walked out of there going I just had a session writing with Steve Martin. I mean, I just was part I couldn't believe I started in one place where you're a fan in the audience, just one of 13,000 people. And then I'm sitting in a hotel room going that's not as funny as this one. It's a surreal moment.

12:33

It's pretty amazing. And then you were with Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop two.

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Yeah, he has another one. It's the you know, he hired a bunch of his buddies. I worked with Eddie when I first started. I was there at the improv and Eddie came in and auditioned for the improv and like so Sunday nights they have audition night and I would say cuz you got 50 bucks from Santa. So I did as much as I was in town. I do it back in 1979 80 is about 8081 Eddie comes in and he's one of these people you know a bunch of people are sitting out there in a bar waiting and I go next up Eddie Murphy your next guy doing five minutes it got the end of the bar does young black guy get stands up? He's got a cashmere coat draped over his you know like over his shoulders and entourage. What are the guys lifts the coat off him? And he walks in with this beautiful woman on his arm. I go disguise it auditioner. He's got an entourage. I don't forget it. I mean, I was like, you know, he did bet on impressions of Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. But he did their material, you know, within it. And he did some other stuff. But that was his main thing. He did unbelievable impressions that night, just sort of five minutes. But you could see he had it. You could see there was a presence. Unbelievable and told the owner it came out that a boy said this guy's great. Somebody else at the bar what Yeah, but he did Richard Pryor's material cause of material and before I could explain Yeah, but within the impression it was okay, you know, and she says, I we're not having any thieves here. So she wouldn't pass him. See, wherever the comic strip and they immediately passed him. And they managed him all the way through, you know, all those movies. They made millions and millions with Eddie Murphy. They wanted Oh, yeah, they you could see him from a mile away. It was not difficult to see at 17 or 18. Whatever it was, he had it. It was it.

14:11

Oh, wow. That's pretty cool to have been there and see that now. I guess if he was really, really close friend, you would have been in Beverly Hills Cop one.

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So I'm in Beverly Hills Cop two in a scene is to come up and I'm like a security bug. So I've been literally like, take two days and I think I was on screen for like 15 seconds. I come up and hassling him and of course he blows by me and other stiff white guy that he blows by he has they're delayed the shoot or something is seen or delay not getting the lighting, right. So he says come on. So we get down to this. We're at the Playboy Mansion. So get down to this pond and he's throwing bread or whatever, to the geese or whatever. And this is where you see the power of it. So then an assistant comes over, says Eddie, they're ready for you. Yeah, but I'm not ready for them yet. Okay, that assistant comes back a couple minutes later anyway. Now you know now that we find they had a bunch of women playing volleyball behind the scene and directors go, gals jump Moyes tonus first ad to tell jump more jump more, he's trying to get jiggled out of them. Right. And he's telling me girls jump jump. Hi, would you play about Joe pie? And I tell it I go, I go ahead you just too much silicone out there for the jiggle. And he does that Eddie Murphy patented laugh right. Record turns are yours God tell Richard said he can't get gigolo out of fake breasts, you know, and the directors I forgot. Let's move on. Let's go. So it's fun. And he's a fun guy. He was obviously he's a talent beyond you know, he's once is once a generational guys. But my experience with him. He's a fun open guy. That was that was my experience.

15:51

That's awesome. And then you had a run it looks like in the first season of married with children. Yeah.

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I got the role and lost the role the same day, but I didn't know it. It was Fox was was even a network on that. It was this is a show that they were building these shows and, and so you know, you go through audition, I gone through audition, where they go to network back then which meant there's three actors, the producers and the network would get together for the first time and watch the final three and then decide who gets the role. And I'd gone to network not long before this on the role that Woody Harrelson got on cheers was the coach had died and so they had to replace him. So the three blond haired guys I was, I was the dumb East Coast blonde hair guy house, a woody house and played the Midwest dumb guy. And then a guy on the West Coast named Timothy thread. Gil was the West Coast dumb blonde guy, a Timothy threadgill. Ended up being Grizzly man, if you ever saw that documentary, where a guy tries to become a grizzly bear whisper and ends up becoming a meal. Well, it's a great documentary. It's an unbelievable, so I've been that experience of getting close to a role and not getting it. So the three actors of this we're waiting for married with children to see to Bruce's in the Fox network. People were sitting there waiting. And the two producers come in, they come come down the hall. And the actor sitting across me jumps up and runs in hugs, one of the producers Michael Moore, and Michael's like, you gotta love LA, got my wife's got your rooms set up or get your set away and the guy's got I noticed then the guy's got this lovely cheap cup from the airport, because I'd get my driver to put the luggage in the car to go. What is this done, buddy? This is what are we doing here for the other actor, he looks good shot, he just slumped down his seat like he knows when I know it's over. And I'm getting ready to walk away. And then right off the bat, they go richer and first. So I walked in with I didn't give a shit attitude, which I never had before. In any audition, I make fun of the fact there is no network. I'm making fun of everything. And they love me. And so they overrode the producer wanted his buddy for the role. But fox is not enough. This other guy's too funny. You got to put him in. So he hated me from day one. So I did seven episodes. And as soon as I was finished seven, he killed that character van just got rid of here's how you find out the Hollywood you're not on the show. So I'm gonna get the Friday we would get the script. And on Monday, you would do a table reads. So one Friday, I don't get my script. I call my agent. Hey, I didn't get my script today said because I'd work on a weekend with an acting coach. So he said, Oh, no, that's a literary mistake. Don't worry about I'll call you right back. He calls her up x is bad news. You're fired. Okay, good to know. I will have to show up Monday and find out I have taken on a lot.

18:38

Man. It's rough. It's showbiz man. That cast Oh, when I ED O'Neal and

18:43

he was a great guy. He is a great guy. I did one episode with Jerry Hall who is married to Mick Jagger at the time issues of a model and beautiful and really nice and one time we're you know, the The walls are just plywood and then two by fours behind it. You know, so it's just a Hollywood wall. So one time we're standing behind a wall waiting to redo the scene again. And out of nowhere she just goes you're probably Rolling Stone fan. Oh yeah, I go Yeah, cuz I hadn't mentioned said anything about Mick Jagger. I knew she was married to everybody did. Yeah, of course. I saw him ever since I was a kid. 1972 she goes well, it makes a cheap son of a bitch. I'll tell you that right now. Just a cheap son of a bitch. I go. Okay. It doesn't matter to me. Funny just because you like the stones will like them now cuz miksa cheap son of a bitch. Out of nowhere. Okay. Whatever you say. I guess a husband's a husband when you're married. Doesn't matter as Mick Jagger, Ed O'Neill or Al Bundy. You know, husband's a husband. Oh,

19:46

man. So that's funny. So you have a book kicking through the ashes. My life is a stand up in the 1980s comedy boom. And I know you mentioned like Steve Martin and you mentioned Eddie Murphy. As if they were any name, but on your website the testimonials for you are from Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Jeff Foxworthy Bill Maher, some big names you were the comedian and other comedians went to watch and like that's that's a huge compliment, especially from this lineup of comedians. I mean, that's, that's incredible, really incredible. So tell me about the 80s sounds like it was quite a time

20:25

I hit the wave, right? That's all there was to it. I started doing stand up in washington dc in 1977, January 1977. There no comedy clubs, I was just banging around anywhere I could do it. I'd go to you know, the singer songwriter nights at pubs and worked my way on and anywhere I could do it. I did it band would take a bar break and I jumped on stage, you know, try to do it in front of a bunch of people drink it at a bar. There were all sorts of places. I went to coffee houses. And then I moved to New York and 79. And when the wave broke, I mean, in 1980, clubs started opening, they started opening. I just had been doing it for three years and work really hard at it. And I just hit it the right time. You'd go out in the road. And I remember one time this is like 8283 down in Texas working with Bill Hicks. Bill Hicks was a young guy. He's about 10 years younger than me, but he was real. Everybody knew how funny he was. And we like to hang out with each other. We like to drink and do drugs together. And they hired us to go work out of Tulsa and Oklahoma City had two new clubs open. So he went from Austin to there. And we ended up spending like eight weeks on the road because every time we'd finished a week they go We'll go over to this place, go to here, go to Amarillo, go to Beaumont go to all these clubs were just popping up. The clubs were packed, they didn't need you to do you know social media work. They put your eight by 10 on their front door to go hit. This is this week's monkey. Here's who's here. They didn't care. They were like excited to see it was brand new is fresh. You're getting paid more each week. It's impossible to tell young comics today like the MC. At one point, I remember talk with one of them. See, he was getting 1500 bucks a week I was getting eight grand. I mean, it was ridiculous. These were unknown or unknown. There are comics back then who were doing serious six figures a year with no TV, you'd never heard of them. But they sold drinks, because this is before the drunk driving laws change. So the club owners were like do to shows as long as you want. We're selling booze here. So they loved the comics who saw booze, the john boxes, the Alejo printers who would drink on stage with the audience. They would do shots and the audience would do shots with them. And the club is you'd come in the club goes based off $15,000 last week rally Joe Can you top that I said I might if my liver can hold out till weekend. That's what it was. It was so it was a different time. It's hard to explain, you know, and there were only three networks and everybody wanted to go on tonight's show. There wasn't cable TV, you know, that came in 285. And Sam Kennison was the first guy to break out really break out from just a cable thing showed a new path. It was just a different time in the early 80s. I mean, I'll tell you any story you want. I mean, I've just given you a over overview of the 80s

23:04

it was perfect. Alright, so let's let's talk about Tim Allen. Tell me a story about Tim Tim Allen's from Michigan. Right. So

23:10

Mark Ridley, the first time I went there, he had a is a small side room in a bowling alley. I do believe if I remember correctly, there were guys that I met there. There was a scene there was a Detroit comedy scene. There were a lot of these comedy scenes in the late 70s. All over. So then mark Ridley, he moved to a nice place. I work with Tim Allen. And I was goofing around. I was labeled on my tours for no reason other than make it sound like it was something and I did one was a power tool tour, right? Bring a power toolkit in free. And I was just doing it as a goof i was i was mocking guys for for that kind of stuff. And Tim, and I remember working with him, and we hung out. He really liked the power. He really I mean, he talked about cars. I didn't give a damn how big the edge was of a car, what it had under the hood and all that sort of thing. And he was really into it. I remember that he was totally into all that kind of stuff. It was like a fine line, right? Because I'm sort of like that end of the Alan Alda sensitive guy thing and Tim was beginning a I think he called himself a masculinist or whatever. But there was gut reaction to all that feminism of the late 70s, early 80s that men started. You know, I don't want to be a guy just a guy again. Can I just be a guy and Tim rode that he fell on that side of the equation very well. Perfect timing. I mean his career timing, as well as job timing. Sam Kinison had perfect career tiny. Tim Allen had perfect career timing when he was doing that act. There were guys like this is who we want as our banner, you know, holder is there's the guy right? Our banner in the battle. comedically he was a good guy and and we hung out there were a lot of Xeloda new cheese were comedy team. There were very few comedy teams and they were their clubs would attract people you'd come into town. Even it was a new club that didn't have a scene like Atlanta or whatever, you come into town. There's no comics hanging out next time even now. There's eight comics hanging out local comics, you know, because a guy would go he'd be working at Sears making 200 bucks a week selling appliances. He goes down to the comedy club thinking he's a pretty funny guy talks to the guy who's the emcee says the I'm making 15 $100 a week. He's as funny as that guy. I'm quit my serious job today.

25:18

Did you get to work a lot with Sam Kinison to get back to him for a second. You got Sam stories, it sounds

25:26

so everybody, you know, news. I mean, I go watch Sam in a backache. I met him when I first came to LA and 82 we just became buddies. We both raised Pentecostal Baptist we had that we had a lot of, again, affinities for certain chemicals, but Sam was like a guy who was the last thing she put on Mitzi would put him on like the embargo they used to call it the chaser act and it changed her Act would clear the room it would be so bad horrendous that it clear the room so they can get ready for the next show when these continuous shows above though, and Sam was the chaser act at the Comedy Store Mitzi putting on last It was a door guy they put him on to be three tourists who didn't understand the show was over and Sam equipment would that classic opening you know, you've seen a lot of people here tonight. A lot of funny engaging comics and I'm sure you will remember them and I'm a little different. You're gonna wish you'd never seen his face. You know, and he'd get right there right in front of them and scream and comics. We love the which the comics were in the back of the room. We're watching Sam and he's entertaining us like crazy. He's hilarious. When he starts getting good. You can see starting to attract a hip crowd all sudden, the room is filling up at 11 o'clock, or 12 whatever it was to see Sam late. When hipsters rock and rollers, strippers. A different crowd is coming in when it's empty, all sudden are filling up. You don't want to be in front of Sam at that point because they didn't care about you. They were there to see said. So we do this. We get a gig of a local one nighter at UCLA. This young guy hires Sam and I could work it. So we're driving or disguise drivers or it's just a $400 in town drive to it drug money for that night gig. That's what it was. We're driving over and Sam goes. So you close the show. seiger. I said, Sam, he followed you down. He was swaggered he was getting real good at the store. He said no, no, no, hey, we have college kids will hate me. They don't get what I'm doing. And they hate me. So I'm not falling for that. Sam, I'm not following you. You close the show. He says Scheider closes show Trust me, it's gonna work out better for everybody. If it doesn't work out. If you can't follow me when I'm doing that. I'll guarantee you, I'll give you my salary. And I'll still pay for the drugs. So okay, well, I can't lose, right? Just okay. It Sam goes up. And I mean, he bites it. They're not buying into it. He's doing one thing about being married and how this illusion is with love. And he has all these bits that that are really about this illusion of life, you know, and they're young college kids going to blame it, you know? And he does his Ethiopia bit about this is sad. And does this do we just don't live there? And they're like, that's kind of neat. mean, you know, they're just not buying and Sam. He takes his beating. He doesn't turn on them. Which is the worst thing a comic could do. Working from another comic is make the crowd angry, right? Just turn him until he got the comic. Right. Right. He just takes the beat. Then he brings me up the kid was terrible. And Sam knew not even tried to get that baton pass. He just said you know you hate me. You're gonna love this guy. You gotta love this guy. It's and I have a killer set. This is like I'd say spring of 85. So that summer, Sam does Rodney Dangerfield young comedian special, and I'm working with a band. Have you ever heard his band before, but it's called little feet little feet was a big 70s band that I'm doing like some opening ackward for them in the south. So one Saturday night, we do a show. And the next morning, we're all getting into the van to go to the next gate. And all the guys in the band are gone. They're all doing impressions of Sam. And oh, Sam has gone man. He is on his way. That one shot five minutes, eight minutes, wherever it was. He was off. He was thrown. So he comes up to me at the Comedy Store. A couple of weeks later he says a Scheider. I just got rebooked in UCLA for 15 grand. You want to come watch. He's in the big hall now. And I bet money there were kids in that they gave him a standing ovation when he walked out. And I bet there were kids there that saw him and didn't like him five months earlier, you know the previous spring. So it just goes to show it's it's career timing. He the TV's showed him in a different way. And the second half of the 80s was different than the first half of the 80s the first hippies was Reagan's you know morning in America. We're going to do it. It's all great. And then that second half got a little darker the second Reagan term things got a little darker people got a little bit more disillusioned. They realize a trickle down economics. Hey, something's put it on my head here. What is it different and Sam rode that darkness. He had that right attitude.

29:54

That was such a tragic loss. Ah,

29:56

well, you see the Comedy Store special that Mike binder who's a Detroit Native, he directed the Comedy Store documentary. You saw that right?

30:04

I haven't seen it yet. I haven't

30:06

seen it because Sam's buddy karlovo tells the story of the accident. I've heard a bunch of times, but it's, it's really, it's phenomenal.

30:13

Did you work with Rodney Dangerfield?

30:16

Yeah, Rodney was a was something else, man. He had his club in New York. And he wasn't when when I got to New York, they weren't regularly using young comics in any kind of way. But I think it was like the spring of whatever 79 or whatever, I got involved somehow to be he would have, they would have these prom shows. So you know, guys who are of his generation, and Jackie Gail or Jackie Mason, or they would do regular shows. And then afterwards, they bring these drunken prom kids in from Long Island, right. And it was just a chair in a whip stuff. I mean, it was just crowd control board and comedy. You know, I got hired to do 75 bucks again, a ton of money. I can. It's funny, I can't remember the number. So I got became one of the regulars and do these things in the spring that spring and working and Rodney, you know, he would sit in the back, he'd be done and he'd finished a show his shows or whatever, he'd be back here watching it, you know, he wore a robe. Anybody knows the story, you know, Rod, he always took his clothes off as suitable. And he put a robe company never wore anything under the rope. And half the time didn't bother to shut the rope. So Rodney would just walk around his club or anywhere with a robe on naked underneath. It was just the way it was. So one night, I remember this, you know, there's comic and, and comic and comic and keep these kids go on for two, three hours, right. And so the comic who is in front of me jumped off early, and I had to jump on to cover him. And then the comic was supposed to come on after me was late. So I'm up there a long time. And I mean, it's just, you know, you know, you just pick out the big mouth and put them up on a cross just just brutalize somebody to teach them all a lesson. And of course, they loved it. You know, I'm up there banging a bang. And so I came offstage and Rodney comes up to us. Hey, kid, you got a lot of balls, man. I'd heard that a lot when I was opened up for rock bands and stuff. And I was really, you know, it's a backhanded compliment. It's like you almost succeeded. You got a lot of balls, no talent. So I believe what you got there. As long as you do what you got through it. You got a ball. I'll tell you that. You know, you're really high. You don't get the stage like that. You know, you want to do some cocaine. And I was like, hey, cocaine, Roddy. Yeah, that sounds pretty good to me. So I got a ride in his office. And part of it was he gave me some ties. I used to wear old suits, like 40s and 50s suits in a tie. And he had some old ties, people would give him ties because he always wore red tie, but they gave him ties that had patterns on it. He's like, where to shift. You know, I've got stuff on him and I just wear a red tie. Hey, take off. I got these. I stopped these ties. I got for Rodney and they were drinking and doing cocaine. First of all, I don't know if you you probably weren't I hope you weren't a coke addict. But it was my first experience doing celebrity drugs you know, I you know, I was doing street Coke, you know, which is cut with baby laxative, which keeps you more regular than it does. Hi. You know, he just celebrity coke. That was my first thing I noticed. And then I'm hanging on Rodney so I thought I should try to get some advice. So I said, you know, what can I do to get better? And rod He's like, well, you got to tape yourself. You know, you should have tape player to like tape yourself because the audience so you know, you got to listen to what they're laughing. I said, Yeah, I don't. I'm like tape myself as a sound like an idiot. You know? Right? He's like a quarter an idiot. You're a comedian. What do you think you're a brain surgeon? You're an idiot. Tape yourself, because the audience will tell you what's good. I'm telling you individually. They may be a rangatahi Music Group. They're genius. And I found out I talked about the people that was one of Ronnie's favorite lines you know about the crowd individually and maybe you're wrong at times, but as a group do genius. That was a fun night. But remember the lesson I learned that night was every time we were doing cocaine we're doing off a glass table. Every time I bent down to do a line of coke. I can see Ronnie's nuts hanging at the table. So actually, that was my lesson. There's no such thing as free cocaine. That's what I've really learned that.

33:51

My favorite thing about talking about comics in Rodney Dangerfield, there isn't a comic that when talking about Rodney Dangerfield doesn't do his voice.

34:01

It's like I can only you know, if I tried to do any impression or come outside like Rodney, I can only do rodya that's the only but he was he was he was an honorable guy. He was a totally honorable guy for comics, right? This actually have I was emceeing at the improv. And Pat buckles is imagine she said Rodney is on the phone come to the phone. He wants to talk to you so I got a phone he goes, Hey, listen, here's like I got this thing. I got this situation here. You know, I get a suit. I bought some material. I got some jokes for this guy. They were all shit. But there's one joke there's one joke it's really good man. It's too good. You don't make don't fit the other jokes I'm thinking of stole it. So let me see if you know who does this joke so he tells me to joke ago but that jokes Ronnie shakes joke. And Ronnie shakes was a great one liner comedian like Rodney and right. Ronnie died at a heart attack at 40 when he just started to get really hot, but he was unbelievable. Great writer jokes. I said it's Ronnie shakes jokes is alright. Well give me his number. We're gonna call him up. So we give him Ronnie shakes number. So next night Ronnie shakes comes in. He says, Hey, thanks a lot for that. That was a great thing for me. I said What happened? He said, Well, Rodney Dangerfield calls up Ronnie says, Look, I got these jokes. One of them is yours apparent I found out I'd already done them at my club. I normally pay 50 bucks. But if you want to sell to me, I'll give you 250 if you don't want to sell it, I'll never do to joke again. But I'll give you 50 bucks a week because I did I feel bad I did it without checking cuz I knew this joke was too good. And Ronnie shakes was a huge danger pill sent and he said no man, go. Take it. I'm honored. You are doing my jokes. Rodney is going out to do the tonight show that Friday night. That's why I wanted that joke. You want to put it in this slideshow set? Cause Ronnie shakes back a couple of minutes later and says listen, I got two tickets to go out to LA to do the slideshow. Why don't you come with me, kid, once you come with me. And he takes Ronnie shakes with him out to LA.

35:49

Nice. That is a good dude.

35:51

And then he gets some spot at the improv. So the guy from the night show could see Ronnie for the first time and he didn't do it right away. But you need to be on the radar screen. And he got on a radar screen. That's a very honorable thing to rob to get.

36:03

And I always heard Rodney was so good to other comedians share a story about Jerry Seinfeld.

36:10

Jerry probably well, you know, he's one of the best joke writers one of the best comics of my generation. But he absolutely thought about it more thought about more of the art of stand up the mechanics of stand up than anybody. So when I worked with him, the first time it was one of those, Jerry Stanley was the agent of book those jersey gigs. It was one of those $55 gigs. I knew Jerry was because before I ever got into stand up really, really into it. I was down to DC I didn't know other comics were doing this. And I was in law school and a friend of mine from law school. She says hey, you know there comedy clubs doing what you're doing up in New York, with young comics like you in them. I'm like, really. So she takes me up to New York for a weekend. We can't get into catch your eyes and start, we can't get into the improv, we get into the comic strip, which is the newest of the three clubs. So I'm sitting in the audience. I've been doing stand up for less than a year. And I'm watching comic after comic come up thinking myself. I'm funnier than this guy. I'm funnier than that guy. I should move to New York right now. And then Seinfeld closes the show. And after I Sipho, I got to stay in DC for a little while. I think I got a little more to do. He had the goods material did a whole long piece of that going to the amusement park and the helpless father and son bump in car team. And it was just so tight and well written. So I got to this jersey get cut through this as like 78. Now, a year later, so I'm up in New York, and I'm working with Jerry out in Jersey, and I battled tested for a rock bands. I've been broken up for all sorts of rock bands, I could handle any crowd and I've been working a lot. And I felt cocky. So we go to this gig, and it's a jersey bar gig, right? And I know these people cuz I'm a jersey guy. So Jerry goes, just goes, he'll go on early. So I was kind of Wow, he's a bigger act in the city than me. But Booker said, Oh, Jerry wants to go on earlier. So he goes on and he does his material. He does his act. And he does not deviate. They want dirty, he won't go dirty. You don't mean you can feel a crowd going. So I go on stage. I give him dirty. They go crazy. I get a bigger, much bigger reaction to Jerry that night. And we're driving back together. He says, you know, he said you're a funny guy. But you know, working dirty is not going to help you get on The Tonight Show. I was working towards that goal. That's what I was doing. Practicing. I've been worried about tonight's show. I'm practicing towards something else. And I had to work my act because I didn't even thought about doing it tonight show. So that's the goal. We got to get on TV. And if you take all your curse words out, your timing, your jokes going to be off, you're going to have gaps hesitations, you know where that word should be that you're putting in there. It will mess up the timing of your joke, you won't be as funny. You can work clean and be your hilarious guy and do TV. And I redid my whole act. I took that to heart as I'd watched this guy with a discipline he had as funny as he was and what he thinks about things he you could tell he was looking to add in a way that I wasn't the type and I redid my whole act. I started working clean and I felt more comfortable working that way.

39:05

Yeah, he's amazing. The way he kind of breaks it down to the mechanics of the joke and the execution of it. It's he is he is amazing. Anytime I've ever seen him interviewed and talking about joke writing

39:17

I write every day he says I write every day you got to write you got to write before you go on stage. Because sometimes, because I focused on the setup the material I wanted to do that I don't have a punch line for I find that light on stage. And I took that that was another thing I learned from him. No matter if I was hung over. It didn't matter I wrote every day. I don't care how, what it was I wrote every day. So that's the job. That's the real job that most comics don't see. Yeah, he was very thoughtful. Then,

39:44

when I was starting to do stand up comedy. I saw him live. It sounds silly, but I like had a little notebook that I would write everything down and that's not the silly part. I kept the ticket stub in that notebook and like I had it with me every time I went on stage. He was so good and special. Coming off just watching him on Seinfeld and TV events, watch him live. And it was so great.

40:06

I mean, it was just so amazing. I remember sitting around with a bunch of comics once, and they were talking about their favorite comics and someone said Seinfeld and a couple of the comics. What? Yeah, you know, with Jerry, I don't really get anything from Jerry on stage. I don't really get who he is, you know, I don't really get who he is. I said, you're not paying attention. He's stating very clearly who he is. He gets irritated when he loses a sock in the dryer that drives him nuts, right. He's irritated by these little things that the language and the misuse of it and he's irritated by those things. He's very clear who he is up there. He likes his order. He likes things in set like things the way they should be. I always dug him I always thought he was top shelf. Obviously. I'm a genius art, I cheat Jews.

40:52

He's He's, he's really and I love that he still does. I mean, for a guy that I mean, could buy us all over and over and over and over again.

41:00

I tell you another story. So you know, he had a role on Benson It was a sitcom. He played assistant to the governor something like that small role. So we're all friends back then. My first wife was a real good friends when she's still good friends when Carol leaves. So Jerry gets fired from this role, his acting role. everybody's like, we got to be at the improv tonight. Jerry is going to be there to make him feel better. You know, come call your buddy, come hang out. Make sure if he comes in not a problem. He just got fired from the sitcom when everybody was trying to get sick comes a heating carries, like I just want to do stand up. That's all I ever wanted to do stand up. I'll just do stand up. I'll do it forever. I don't care. That's who he was. He was a stand up first and foremost. And he had a really clear and he was okay with that.

41:40

That's cool. It's so cool. You guys were there for him. I love that hearing how tight how you guys were

41:45

everybody was you know if you did it tonight showed everybody in our community knew they would they had TVs in the catch rising star the improv in LA comedies of the improv and they turn that they'd go everybody shut turned a jukebox off. And if a comic was on at night, everybody would the bar or the comedy standard or watch you on a Tonight Show, you know, and then you could cause I remember before I did my first lecture of psych Don't call me up and said this was his message. He goes, you've already hit the home run. You're just rounding the break basis don't trip. It doesn't look good for the fans. Basically what he said, You've already hit the home run. You're there. You're there. Just go out and do it, man. Just round the bases look good.

42:25

It's great advice. It's a great perspective to it's it really is. That's awesome. So let's let's talk about Jeff Foxworthy for a second. So you helped him write his two Grammy Award winning comedy albums?

42:36

Yeah, we were I was writing on his TV show i'd wrote on Roseanne show. And Jeff sold me on a lot. His his show was done the same thing. So I'd like you to come right on my show. Roseanne show was was winding down. It was the last season. So I thought I'd make the jump, you know, over to Jeff's show, because I thought it had some positive possibilities. And we became friends. He's a guy who he's, you know, the in the 90s have started the balkanization of comedy where you could break down to more smaller groups become the become the Mexican comedian, I just break off my demographics just break off, you know, you'd have to go for three networks as broad as possible. You could, I'll become and Jeff took the biggest common denominator stuck to his guns, you know, they couldn't tell him to get rid of your accent, that Southern thing will go and he says, I'm just going to stick with who I am. And other comics, you know, we're doing the same sort of thing. I'm going to be a lesbian comedian, I'm going to be you know what to go for who I am and celebrate that comedy and find my people. That's the whole that's the whole challenge, right? He did that better than anybody. He's great. He worked out a whole new comedy form, he does this. The setup is after the punch line. If you write if you do this, then you must be a redneck. I didn't even do need to do to set up that's a whole new joke for

43:57

what is it like helping somebody write an album is it writing the material then he goes on stage he just hones it and then kind of what was what's the writing process like that because it's it's not like music right where you just do it and record it. It's

44:10

just some of the material we wrote together and some of them stuff from my old act i was not really doing much stand up at the time so I just took some stuff with certain people like Jeff we had a very much similar backgrounds and similar comedic voices. Right. He was a married guy and we're very similar in in the ways that time so it was easy for him to adapt it but you still have to take it and Jeff you know take it from my new jersey IRA to his Hi y'all. He had to transfer the words and the timing to his language, comedic language. people you work with I would be his opening act in Vegas whoever so I could work with him on Jeff works hard. He worked hard if you ever saw how he got his books out there and how he became that redneck me those books. That was like a big Random House release National Book. That was a little imprint book that he pushed on radio shows he would do 810 radio shows a morning his wife for and coffee for him and him sitting there banging out one radio show after another to try to get the word out about these red netbooks. So when I worked with him, I was impressed by his work ethic. I've worked on other comics where you can't get to do one or two jokes a night Jeff would go up there he be in a you know, an hour show. If you could try a couple new jokes would be great. I mean, people are paying money. You don't want to try too much. Hey, do five minutes and make it work fast. He's a quick study. He's a smart guy. And he works real hard. A lot of companies don't realize that that's where they go, you know, I could just work what hour night goof off the rest of the time. But the ones who make it the Ray Romano is the Seinfeld's the Alan's the you know, so there are so many. They work hard. They work hard in the daytime before they come out and play at night. The nights this the play.

45:49

Who are you who are some of your favorite comedians right now?

45:52

Well, I'm a huge fan of Bill burrs, obviously, Dave Chappelle. I love Maria Bamford. I think what she does is special. She's like one of those very unique people. Those are a couple ones. Obviously. That's that's easy to see. Those are special people.

46:07

Yeah, that Maria Bamford is one of my favorites. I went I seen her Margaret Lee's comic, Yes, I do. I got to open for her one. It was it was a joy to to be able to kind of hang out and, and meet her.

46:19

The art form is so further along than when we were doing it. It's really, you know, every generation is better and better. It's just so much better. We would see like, if you could see five minutes somebody doing five minutes on TV once in a while doing a tonight show or some talk show back in my day comedy albums. You didn't get a visual, but you could you know, you could hear it right? Your generation and subsequent generations came preloaded with so many different joke forms and joke ideas because you watched a countless specials, hour long specials. I remember when Richard Pryor first movie came out in the movie theaters back in like 78 or 79. I sat in there watched it like six days in a row, watch this movie, because I had never seen anybody do long form like that, or do that kind of really gets a chance to study it. It's it's different. And that's why it's better and better. Just, there's so many more comics that you have amateurs, we never had amateurs. We'd have people we'd have hobbyists, you have a hobbyist, you have people that never intend to quit the day job that used to be a Heckle. Somebody yelled don't quit your day job. Like you go up to somebody today. I would go I don't tend to I got a full medical grade for one I just goofing around here. Never had that one. When I was a comic young comic, you would get stage time to those people. You have so many more comics now.

47:35

You seem to love it with this book, kicking through the ashes and then you had I killed another book and then the movie that you've produced I am comic, you seem to have a very interesting thread of wanting to capture all these stories of the people. And when you talk about Mike binders, documentary earlier, but you've done a lot of things to help kind of put all these things in the memories of people and documented so people can have record of this all these stories of all these famous people, famous comedians. That's pretty cool. I think that's really awesome.

48:09

Thank you. I was working on a show in 2005 2006 was called Blue Collar TV Foxworthy. Bill engvall. Ron White already cable guy. And so one day, we're in a writers room, and it was Blaine capatch was young comic, myself or a couple other I can't remember. But he was there. We start telling stories. All of us are telling stories. You got like six, seven stand ups or 20. Some people in this room. There's so much laughter going on people down the hallway from other production companies come down and join the room. At the end of it. I look around. There's 3040 people jammed in this office. This does tell stories. And one of the other writers. Again, I can't remember her name, I think was Emily Cutler. She turns to me. She goes, you should write a book. You should put together a book of these stories. They're unbelievable. Okay, that's the genesis of that. I was like, absolutely. So I went and got my friend Mark shift. I said, between us, we know pretty much everybody we can put together a book. It was harder than we could imagine. You know, getting those stories edited them. We messed up. I think, I think Mark Berridge story got credited as somebody else have you ever made, but we did the best we could. And I'm writing a book now on the history of stand up comedy that's what I wanted to eventually you know, it's an American art form and I think it deserves to be really dealt that way. So its own book.

49:25

That book sounds amazing you you have a very pleasing weight. When you tell these stories like though it's is great listening to your version of these retelling. So it's very compelling

49:38

lessons and all these stories. There's so many lessons if you go back to George Burns, you remember George Burns grace, George and Gracie for sure. You remember that? Okay. He said, the comics soul is eternal. The mechanics change, you know, the technology changes, but the actual soul the comedian, it's forever It's the same. It's the same as it was from the first stand up comic. Today, it's the same person that all they care about is making people laugh. And what can they do and got to get those laughs and how hard can I make them laugh those things, all the same

50:10

beautiful w ords, think well, thanks for hanging with me. And I could listen to these stories forever. But

50:17

as you can tell, I can say him forever.

50:21

But maybe we can come back and we can talk about some other comments.

50:24

Any time Jeff was my pleasure, I can tell you guys into it. Maybe I'll come back. We'll talk about the history of it sometime. Be a pleasure.

50:31

That would be amazing. Is there a way to, for people to keep up with you on the socials? I'm on Facebook. I don't do much, but I'm an old lazy guy. Alright, so well, they can follow you at the website. And then your books are on Amazon. And I'll put links to all those in the show notes. Thank you. You're welcome. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate this is great. It was really fun. great stories. Thanks, Jeff. All right, everyone, keep it going for rich shydner how awesome was that? So many great stories, huh? I did not lie I told you. I'll put links to all Rich's books and everything in the show notes as always, so you don't have to worry about that. Just go there. Jeffisfunny.com. All his show notes for every episode at Jeffisfunny.com.

If you love hearing interviews with comedians. Oh my god. We've done a million of them. Dave Merheje, Ricky Glore, Craig Shoemaker, Maryanne Hooper, Bob Zany. Hal Sparks, Bil Dwyer, Jackie martling, Alonzo Boden, Bobby Collins, Steve bluestein, Horace hb Sanders, J Chris Newberg, Bret Ernst, Hal Sparks, Dave Landau, Mike young just to name a few. I know amazing right? So dive in go to Jeffisfunny.com, just search and they're all waiting for you.

But here we are. nearing the end of another episode. But you know, that means Oh, yeah, you know, that means me It is time for another trending hashtag when the family of hashtag games at hashtag round up hashtag roundup on twitter at hashtag Roundup, download the free hashtag roundup app on the Apple or Google Play stores. Tweet along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show we thought we'd have a little fun this week. But a little haha in the hashtag i'd tag from sneaky Fridays a weekly game on hashtag around up #ComedyCereals. Oh my god, how many ways are there to make cereals funny? Well, I think we're about to find out with these #ComedyCereals the ultimate mashup game where you combine something funny with your favorite cereal. So here's some of the best hashtag comedies cereals, candies, Max Al Franken berry Dane cookies and cream. Funny comb. Dude, where's my Cocoa Puffs, cereal Burnett, Total Franken, Lucy charms, Dane Cookie Crisp, golden girl grams ,Apple Jacks black, Cheerios Oh cheri, frosted mini pearls,and the final comedy serial, Andrew Dice Krispies. Oh, Hickory Dickory Dock. Why do I attempt impressions? I do not know. Oh, those were some amazing #ComedyCereals coming at ya. As always, I'll retweet them at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter. There'll be listed in the show notes, retweet them, show them some love. And you don't forget to play along every day. So that one day I'll get to read one of your tweets.

Well, here we are at the end of another episode. Can't believe Episode 70 has come and gone. I'd like to thank my guest Rich Shydner. And I'd like to thank all of you for coming back week after week means the world to me. I can't thank you enough. And I'll see you next week.

54:05

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. 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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