#102 Mike Binder Wrote Directed And Stars In This Episode

Announcer 0:00

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:16

All right, Bill, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. And you get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode one 102 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back as we start to climb this second set of 100 episodes with our eyes on 200 and beyond. Today, I have a very special guest for you. comedian, writer and director hailing from Detroit Michigan. MikeBinder is here today. That's right director and writer of the Comedy Store, documentary writer and star of the mind of the married man, director and writer of rain over me black or white Indian summer, the sex monster we talk about so much. And this amazing interview Mike Binder is a comedic force to be reckoned with. And we have an amazing chat and that is coming up in just a few minutes.

fI do want to thank everyone that reached out with congratulations during the 100th episode week, such an exciting week, episode 100 with Ronnie Cox and a special shout out to Casey Ryan plot. If you haven't listened to the Rodney Cox episode yet go listen, the interview is amazing. But also before the interview and after the interview. There's a party scene with a ton of celebrity voices wishing me well and some great dialogue. I did that with Casey Ryan plot extremely talented voice artists. So check that out. I also want to thank Jackie the joke, man martling for visiting me on the bonus episode of crossing the streams for that first ever celebrity edition ever you're a celebrity and you've been on the show and want to join me on a celebrity edition of crossing the streams heavier people call my people.

And now it's time for the social media tip! All right, this is the part of the show I love where I get to share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you a little 411 I picked up on the street, something I can make you aware of and then you can dive deeper into if it is of interest to you. I've been in the social media game for a long time. And I love sharing tips and things that I hear so we can all raise our social media game together. Recently, an email came in telling me that if I buy Twitter blue, I can put an NFT as my profile picture. Well, one, I don't have Twitter blue, but two, I also don't have an NF T. But if I get Twitter blue, I can add an NFT. So that's interesting evolution of Twitter and NFT is non fungible token, you know, whatever. I just knew that without googling it. It's a unique digital item such as artwork, and that you own that so it's yours. So you can show off your profile picture by connecting your crypto wallet to your Twitter account. Then it shows in a hex shaped profile picture so you can really shove it in people's faces that not only do you have Twitter blue, but you also have an NF t you can throw that swag around. It's kind of cool. So I want one thing it means we all need to start learning what NF T's are if you're looking for an NF T to add my friend at Gen Fascino Gen fusino at the dick pics NF T the DI CK pix and ft you can buy one of our pixelated dick pics. She has 777 hand drawn decks that you can choose from sounds like the perfect profile picture if you asked me so head over to my friend and artist Jen Ficino. She also has a podcast you can check that out. So if you're looking for an NFT there's a place to start. There you go. I've combined a new feature on Twitter, a little bit of NFT chatter and was able to promote my friend Jen Pacino. And that's the social media tip.

I do want to thank everyone in advance for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show and that's how we keep the lights on. Today's interview sponsor is STANDUPWORLD.COM. The most important bookmark and stand up history all the stand up comedy news, stand up comedy lists and stand up comedy sites aggregated because you are lazy. That's right the best in comedy news right at your fingertips lists of all your favorite comedian podcasts, their tour dates, Instagram comedy, the best in YouTube, Twitter, Tik Tok and vinyl it's all there at standup world calm head over to it put together lovingly by Mike Binder. It's a site he talks about at the end of our interview which hadn't been completed yet but now it exists. So head on over to STANDUPWORLD.COM, but not before you listen to my amazing conversation with the writer director of black White The Upside of Anger reign over me the sex monster Indian Summer crater of the amazing Comedy Store documentary and I'm barely scratching the surface Mike Binder. Enjoy.

Alright everyone excited to introduce you to my next guest writer, director, comedian Detroit legend, Mike Binder. Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Binder 5:23

Thanks for having me on. Jeff.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:25

Great to have you, man. It's I've got so much to ask you and talk about I've been doing a Mike Binder Film Festival. This is a ramp up to this. And I do want to get out of the way early. Indian summers like one of my favorite movies, one of my favorite movies. Love it. I'm not a Tamaqua guy. I'm a Tamarac guy, but I love it. You know the feeling of the camp.

Mike Binder 5:49

Oh, you are camera guy. I would have brought some different stuff to work on the show because I have some Tamarack stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:56

Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. That's not

Mike Binder 5:59

always call it our bizarro world. was bizarre. Oh, Can somebody give me all this Tamarack stuff was really fun. A friend of mine. I would always teach Tamarack, especially when I was like playing in the very early days at Mark Ridley's first comedy club in the basement at the meeting place. I think that's what it was called at Orchard Lake and middle belt or something and others, but the very first comedy Castle was in there, and I would make all these Tamarac jokes. It would Estonian place it ever worked.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:32

Did I read correctly that you were the first headliner for Mark Ridley?

Mike Binder 6:37

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:39

That's pretty cool. That's really that's a nice little footnote. Yeah.

Mike Binder 6:43

And Dave Kouyate was the opening act. Dave. I love that might be my second time there. But Dave quia. That's how I first met Dave. He was my opening actor, and he killed when did he kill the cooking following.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:54

He's awesome. I opened for him at comedy castle. It was one of the few times like I was like, a bit starstruck. I could not get a word out talking to Dave cool. Yeah. And like the second night, he says to me, we're in you know, about to walk, you know, where you'd walk on stage behind the stage. And he says to me, Hey, Jeff, you're gonna be around after the show. And I'm thinking myself, Oh, my God. Dave wants it out with me. And I said, Yeah. And he says, Great. Here. Here's my merchandise. Could you make sure that the MC has, like crushed I was crushed? That I'm leaving the comedy castle.

Mike Binder 7:36

I'll tell you what. That's so unlike Dave, though. We did. I thought I was gonna say yeah, what do you want to hang out with you? That's Dave.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:43

Oh, Jerry did I was just it was just in that moment. Because when I was leaving, he was really cool. He when I was leaving, he was like, by Jeff. And I turned and Allah could go through my head was Oh, my God, Dave could they remembered my name, and I smashed into the door. And as I was leaving while he was selling merch, so that was my exciting moments with Dave. One. Just before I reached out to I watched the Comedy Store documentary, which I loved. It was great. It took me a while to finally watch it because I didn't have Showtime. And it was getting embarrassing.

Mike Binder 8:16

Amazon and Hulu then to be a Netflix. Oh, fantastic.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:19

So more people will be able to see it. Yeah. Because I kept interviewing, like I was talking to rich Scheibner or Steve Bluestein. And like that, and I was like, Oh, I haven't seen it yet. They all kept talking about how great it was. So it was great. And we can talk about that in a little bit. But I'd love to kind of what's your origin story? Like when did you know you wanted to get into comedy? Because you're a comedian before your writer director before you're making movies. So that's kind of the path. How did you know when comedy was going to be your destiny?

Mike Binder 8:46

Oh, really young, really, really young. My dad told me that I was watching The Ed Sullivan Show when I was a kid like seven or eight years old and Woody Allen came on and now I turned around and I said what's he doing? What do you call that? Because that's what I wanted to do. That's awesome. Yeah. And then also, I lived at seven mile living toy, not far from Baker's keyboard lounge was eight mile and living toy. And we were riding our bikes. And Lenny Bruce was playing at Baker's, and it's a conic Lenny Bruce on the sign. And I remember I must have been like six or seven. And I remember asked my dad said what is what's that mean? Comic when he Bruce because I thought it was like Sunday comics. And he said, No, that's a comedian. He's a comedian. And then he told me what a comedian does. And I thought, that's a great job. I love to make people laugh. Even as a young kid. Every time I would see a guy on television because I wasn't allowed to stay up, watch the tonight show or anything like that. But every time I would see anything to do with a funny guy, it just sucked me in an incredible way. I was just obsessed with comedy, and stand up comedy from really a bizarrely young age. You know, I was doing it when I was 16 years old. Were we doing at 16? Ah, any place I could get up on stage talent shows and I would steal a lot of Woody Allen's albums stuff. I remember I would go up to Ann Arbor and go ask guys at jazz clubs, if I could go on and, and then Dave and I years later, this was like to remember when this was what we would do like the student union and our I would play places called the pretzel Bell and just nutty places up there

Jeff Dwoskin 10:33

anywhere you could get into anymore. I could get on Yeah, you were pretty motivated. Then I was just talking with John Heffron, and he would do the same thing at Eastern Michigan University. And yeah, he

Mike Binder 10:42

actually his mother worked for my dad. Oh, really? Yeah. That's so cool. I knew his mother for a long time. She was my dad's secretary.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:52

Small world. Do you know John Glaser, John Cleese, you know, John's a comedian. He was on Parks and Rec. And he was he wrote for Conan for a long time. The only reason he said to try to but he was a Tamarac. Guy. Oh, no, no. So in the Comedy Store documentary, and I've heard you say this other places as well. You said that going to the Comedy Store and being at the Comedy Store was your college education. But you mean that literally right? Because I read that you actually left college, and we're headed to LA?

Mike Binder 11:22

Yeah, I didn't know I didn't go to college a year, I went to LA and I went to LA Community College for about two weeks. And you said, This is ridiculous. I know what I'm going to do.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:34

So you find yourself at comedy star? Let's say Tolkien.

Mike Binder 11:37

Yeah, I was really lucky. And it was too because I was a crazy kid. I was really like, I had so much passion for it. I would do anything. I mean, I drove across the country, you know, and I just, I was there every day for 789 years during the day and at night comedy was my life as it so happened. It was the right place at the right time. And I was lucky she did take me in. And it was a crazy time too. But I was lucky that I was there at that time. And then I was I left and I was gone for many years and kind of got an incoming call. Hey, do you want to make this film about the Comedy Store? The only thing I really done with the comedy stores? I've been on Mark Marin's podcast. And he'd been asking me to do it for a while. And I really didn't. I wasn't really doing any podcasts or anything like that. And I had this novel. I said, Okay, I'll come on. But I want to talk about the novel, we want to talk about the Comedy Store. Because it seemed to me that Mark was kind of stuck in the past, wanting to talk about the Comedy Store and all these, all this stuff. And it seemed like whenever I talked to anyone from that era, or any comedians, they were all kind of stuck in the past. And I wasn't really thinking about comedy that much anymore. You know, that was like, talking about going back to your high school, if you know what I mean. You know, sure. I had this great time talking to Mark and then I made this movie with Kevin Costner. And we were having trouble casting apart. And the guy that was building my house was a friend of mine and kept saying, Hey, do you know this guy, Bill Burr, and YouTube? No, I never heard him. I thought you like Mr. Comedy. You all know, all the comedian's that go well, I don't know the YouTube community. We had this part. It was a really good part. It was a big part. At the last minute. We were about a week away from shooting Jason Sudeikis was a couple guys had fallen out. And then Jason Sudeikis couldn't do it. And Bill Burr came out on Conan one night, I was watching the room down in New Orleans. And I called Kevin, I said, watch this guy. But this guy's funny. I've heard about this guy. And he liked him. So I called him to come down to New Orleans and do this part. He had been on like one thing he had done Breaking Bad. And we became really good friends. And when the movie came out, we did a press thing on Sunset Boulevard. And afterwards, we went to the Comedy Store and it was packed. And I thought wow, because it had been like a dead zone for years. And I guess cuz I went in that night. I think they thought of me to do this film. So they called me and it took me back to really you know, since then, I've really kind of gotten back into stand up I phone back in love with it. Not that I do it, because I don't but I'm doing so much involved with stand up again. It's really become a big part of my life. You know, I just did Bill's new special bill and I just produced this guy, Brian Holtzman special on him. And we're doing I have a new platform coming out all about stand up and three books coming out. You know, I mean, we're just really doing a lot of stuff on stand up based on just some of my love for it.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:55

That's awesome. Yeah, Bill Barr was great and black or white. He was really good. Yeah, it was really good. He's a good actor. He's it. He was great in the Mandalorian. He kills it every time. He's on Saturday live.

Mike Binder 15:05

He's an excellent actor. And he was really good at paper tiger, the special we did in London at the Royal Albert Hall. Did you see that? I haven't seen that yet. Oh, you have to see that. It's unbelievable. hexy I think it's just a special. He has a new one we just did. We just finished up in Denver at the red rocks.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:24

Oh, wow. That's me. I've been there. I mean, I haven't been at a show there. But I've been there and I've climbed those rocks. That's a beautiful place. Bill Burr is one of my favorite comedians right now. He's amazing. Me too. I

Mike Binder 15:35

think he's incredible. You know, when I was a kid in Detroit, one of the things that really, really got me kicked into the whole thing was George Carlin. And he reminds me of George Carlin. Yeah, yeah, him and Robert Klein. Those are the two guys that I loved. And Bill seems like the most in that vein. It's just a guy standing there just talking. He's also so prolific. Yeah, he's amazing. This new special he's got coming out is it's genius. He's got stuff in there. That is so intelligent.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:09

I can't wait to see that. Speaking of Kevin Costner is he liked your guy, cuz that was a second movie you made what have I got stuck Upside of Anger. Also, I did. Sometimes directors have people that I like to work with

Mike Binder 16:20

you. I like to work with you. I like Yeah, I do. I mean, I don't know. I guess you got to ask him. You know what, I like to work with them. And we get along and I mean, my writing. He does a good job with my writing. Yeah, it

Jeff Dwoskin 16:34

does a great job. He was great. And both love Upside of Anger and Black or White. He was great in both of those

Mike Binder 16:41

things. Yeah, he, he was he's a good guy, too. You know, he's, he's very real.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:46

I kept buying the elet and to stop drinking and black or white. I mean, I'm sure that was the point. But so he was doing great.

Mike Binder 16:53

Or you should see him in real life. He's a God damn drunk, Jeff.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:58

No, man. So alright, let's go back to the Comedy Store. So you're at the Comedy Store. One of my favorite tidbits from the documentary is that you babysat Pauly Shore and it's his brother. That's hilarious. Yeah, dude. So how did you pick like that was the timeframe that you were gonna pick because there was an era before that? was? Was there is that when it started? It was around before that right?

Mike Binder 17:21

Well when you're when you're narcissist, everything starts when you get

Jeff Dwoskin 17:26

right from your point of view. Right. You had started from when you were there because you're making the movie, but just totally

Mike Binder 17:31

but no, it started probably started about two or three years before I got there. And I covered some of that, but it really that was so what Showtime wanted me to do, you know, they wanted me to make it really personal.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:44

It was it was extremely part. So I didn't know most of that about Freddie Prinze. The Sam Kinison stuff was really interesting. Was it difficult because it was you're going back so far, a lot of it was kind of voices over images that you had to pick. And so just kind of picking the narrative and the stories of why you kind of focused on for the documentary? Yeah, it was

Mike Binder 18:05

strange. And you know, listen, it's like, there's a lot of personalities. And the Comedy Store even there now is just a hotbed of incredibly talented, incredibly gifted, intelligent, morons. You know, even back then we were always stepping on each other's feet and our own comics sometimes can't help themselves. And going back at first, I was tiptoeing around, and then I got real loose. And then I then I started bringing Letterman and Leno and Jim Carrey and everyone back and I realized we were all playing the same roles. We played back when we were just getting started. And then I started dealing with the Rogan's and the new people the Whitney Cummings in the Elisa's and, and they all had their kind of perks and personalities and same way that everybody did back when I was there, and everyone you knew who had to tiptoe around and then who was a bully and who was great and who you could kind of just kind of goes just stand here and say this line, it just was the same exact thing. It was the same group of psychosis jar of psychosis, but it at the same time, they were really wonderful people. Eliza said it the best she said, You know, it's like an old boyfriend you know, I drive there I go, What am I can't wait to get there. Can't wait to get there. I get there. And I don't know, I've never gone back there again. But then I can't wait to get back there. And they're really wonderful people, but we're also flawed and just so much into our head and thinking about what we're doing and what we're creating and what we're it's an odd place and and also something about the darkness of the place and how big it is and the specter of Mitzi and it just, it's never going to be much different. It's just going to have a different group of comics. And I will also say that What I thought was very interesting was you come back and you go, Well, when I was here, that was the golden age, you know, you'll never, you'll never duplicate Robin Williams and David Letterman and Jay Leno and dad as the Marvel, golden age, you know, and then you go full ship. These people hear Bill bird, Rogen and Chappelle and this. This is the golden age. And there's a new group coming up that are as good as this group, if not better,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:30

everyone wants to believe they were part of the Golden Age. But yeah, it's fun watching all these new people emerge. I remember I met Eliza once for five seconds, she was opening for my friend Jay, Chris Newberg, in Detroit at the Comedy Castle is before she was on Last Comic Standing. And so it's fun though, when you you meet someone, you see someone and then you watch their trajectory, and they become one of the biggest people. That's what I always thought was interesting about comedy is you meet so many people, and you work with so many people, and then so many of them can become super famous. It's just always great. And then you say, oh, yeah, I worked with that guy. I knew them. It was fun.

Mike Binder 21:07

Oh, so what's great about it now is that you guys all have your own world, you can create your own world, you know, I always said like, we would come into the club. Well, who's here who's here? Who did you know who's in the audience, you know, just in case we could get discovered or get out of show. And people come into the clubs now in the cellar in New York, and they don't care who's there, they're too busy, their minds are going a mile a minute, you know, I got my podcast going and I got this, I got a tour, I got to start, I got to go out and play in this club. But they're just you guys are in charge of your own destiny in every way. And you know this better than I do, Jeff, the way you're doing, you know, I mean, you're just making your own shit happen, you know, and it's fantastic. And I think it's just the tip of the iceberg of the way that's gonna happen. I think we haven't even begun to see the platforms that are going to exist for comics to be able to just do anything they want. And I say that all the time, you know, you will get to the point where if you build up a following, and you have makeup movie, and 100,000 people around the world that you've built up, fans will buy it, you got to hit, you got a huge hit. You don't know if you're listening to anybody or studio you don't, you know, you just make your stuff and you make it good. And then you make the next one, and you make it better and better and better and better.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:36

Yeah. And it's an amazing time right now even just to be alive. I mean, just like with technology to be able to do things and get it out there and for comedians to do an entire special and just

Mike Binder 22:47

listen, Jeff, I'll tell you what an amazing time this is. We're about a minute away from the fact that we'll be able to take this whole interview and you'll be able to take a thing like called a mask or green screen and get rid of that clumpy black curtain behind you. Right? To be able to just get rid of it in post. Oh, I'm kidding.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:08

You don't like my shower curtain. I like blocking shower,

Mike Binder 23:11

waiting for your mom to come out and just beat the hell out of you with a pan.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:15

My office is amazing. Except for the angle that the camera sits on my computer every other day. I've got I got an amazing vinyl collection over here. The wall of eight by 10s over there. You got a very nice picture behind you in a window.

Mike Binder 23:32

Hey, very soon, you'll be able to just empty Listen, it's not a lot better than my wall to the neighbors right there.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:44

You have a lovely shrubbery growing up your window though. Mike, I get Willie Horton. Yes, that's it. That's lovely. That's a nice shot, looking at a picture of Willie Horton.

Mike Binder 23:54

But I'm just saying, you know, it's amazing cuz like, my son is 27 He just made a little movie. It was believable what they did him and his friends from Emerson and a couple of my buddies, let him use some equipment stuff and they made it for nothing. You look at a low budget movie. Like when I started, I made these low budget movies, and they looked like crap. And I look at Sam Raimi is low budget. And they just look like crap. This thing looked it looks beautiful. And they're editing laptops and stuff. They look like unbelievable. Marc Norman, you know, Mark Norman. No. Oh, you got to get into Mark Norman. You got to get into Mark Norman. I love this guy. He's gonna be so big.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:40

I'm gonna write that down. Mark Norman. Mark Norman.

Mike Binder 24:43

He's unbelievable. He made his own special call out to lunch. He put it up on YouTube and a new tuple each got it on every site, but on YouTube alone. He's got seven and a half million views. Wow. And he made during the pandemic he made all these little shorts running around. Tom, New York. It just played with the empty city. And they're fantastic. It's unbelievable. I mean, we just finished this some special that we're doing for Brian Holtzman. You know, Grant Holtzman is that name. I know. He's the guy that was in the documentary that like the late night comic at the Comedy Store that everybody loves the kind of nutty guy late at night. Right? Right, right. in Bern, I just did a special for him. And we use these incredible cameras. But I took an iPhone 13, the last day of shooting, and I was using it. And then I just throw this into the can't tell which is which that's awesome. Tell Jeff, and figure out how we learned all these fucking expensive cameras next time? Why don't we just shoot him with a bunch of iPhone 13. It looks fantastic. We're not far away from that. And we're not far away from just everything's just going to get a little easier. And it's going to be a little bit easier to find the people that want this stuff. And it's really going to be about how good is it? Nothing else?

Jeff Dwoskin 26:02

Nothing else. Let me let me ask you a question. Guys. I had a few questions. Why do

Mike Binder 26:05

you got to control everything here? And

Jeff Dwoskin 26:10

when it's your podcast, we'll talk about it now. Now you threw me off night. Oh, so the interesting thing about the Comedy Store documentary or one of the interesting things about the Comedy Store documentary was Michael Keaton. Because love Michael Keaton. How long was he a comedian? I mean, like for 10 minutes before he just became like this amazing, like an acting Oh God, working staffs and all that kind of stuff. Yeah,

Mike Binder 26:34

I wouldn't say 10 minutes by you, not me like quick, but a few years. I mean, he was around a lot. He was around a lot at the store. When I first got out there. And everybody loved. He was a great guy. He was really friendly. He was really funny. He got a sitcom right away. And then another one that failed. You could just tell that he wasn't gonna be around mom. You know what I mean? Because he didn't like go on the road. He didn't he just you could see that. It was like a stepping stone. And plus his movie career took off. And then he didn't come back, you know, was like, like, when Robin hit with more Committee. He was back every night. You know, whenever it was around, but Michael just never came back. I really had to twist his arm to get him to do that documentary. He was the i You don't I don't want to do this. Why are you doing this? Why are you forcing me to do I said, and then I finally said to him, I said you're gonna really when you see this finish, if you're not in it, you're going to be bummed up. I said, we're all to everybody's in it. And he was great in it. And even the day we shot it once he got there. He was so glad to be there. And he called me from the car on the way oh damn, so glad I did that. That was so much fun. Oh my god, you were so right. And you know, I've known him over the years because he lives in my neighborhood or live in my old neighborhood we moved recently he just felt like I don't want to do that. I get Letterman Leno and I get Richard Lewis and I get everybody else would be in but I'm not I was I was such a short time about my life and I said you're going to be one of the most interesting parts of this

Jeff Dwoskin 28:20

he was I cuz I didn't I don't know if I knew he was a standout I mean I knew he was hilarious. I mean a buddy of mine when we were just talking about him and night shift like it's so funny wasn't that that was a that was a cool part of the of the documentary like though that little that little surprise some of the people you assume oh, you know what the other story I loved was Freddie Prinze trying to kill John Travolta crazy right? Wow, I felt bad for the guy that everyone thought he used his gun. They still think it is who in the documentary like when you were there and like David Letterman's there he wasn't David Letterman yet like like Sam Kinison rock like like Sam Kinison when you tell the story you can tell he was a doorman Mitzi put them on late then he hit and then he was just huge right? So that trajectory you can see who there was like, took the worked with, like took some time and then ramped up. Like how fast how much was Jim Carrey around before he became even the version of what he is today?

Mike Binder 29:18

Oh, no, all of them Jim Carrey was nobody would admit nobody. Maybe I was bigger when than Jim Carrey. I'm not kidding. You know, I believe you would play the comedy castle in Detroit. He would open for me it would. It was the opposite story you told about cool. Yeah, a duel. Hey, man. This is what I loved about Jim though. It was so covered. Hey, Mike. Hey, hey, Jim. How you doing? You get to be around for my acronyms. They go Oh, he wants to see me to watch and give him some notes. Yeah, sure. No problem. Okay, can you can you work my tapes for me? You want me to work your tapes? Yeah, I need one my tapes because I normally have a guy in Canada does it So I'm like doing Kermit the Frog 10 need on time, you know, I got to get there early every night and, you know, give me such a young kid you don't need like 17 or he didn't think anything he does okay. But you know what, he was such a good guy. I mean, that's how long we all knew Jim. We knew Jim from the very beginning. And by the way, when I say I was nobody to you know, I, but I was at least a gun to LA and comeback, but we were all brand new, you know how we men Dell would come down and, and Dave and Tim Allen was hanging out.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:37

Yeah, but Dave Coulier. I remember we were sitting at the bar at the Ridley's. And he was telling a story about how he I think he was saying he slept on Dennis Miller's couch. I think it was Dennis Miller. And and then he was talking about Tam. He was like, Tim, I have all these letters. He wrote me from jail. Yeah, they're amazing. Do you want them? He's like, nah. Now. Yeah. It's just funny when hearing people like that talk about the people. They just happen to know who now they're all super famous. Yeah.

Mike Binder 31:04

Dean came on. He was my roommate. He was my roommate for several years. We had an apartment together.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:10

Oh, that's awesome. So here's a funny story. Well, I think it's funny. 1015 years ago or so. I was just starting to do comedy. And my step mom says, Jeff, I've got a show for you like Oh, great. He goes, you need to send a VHS tape. So then I'm dating it right? Yes. It's Mike Binder, Mike Binders putting on a show. I'm like Mike Binder. Are you sure how do you know my he goes Mike by his mom talking to his mom. Right? All right. And I'm like Mike Binder. I go Detroit Comedy Jam Indian summer. And she's like, yes, well, it turns out, it's Mike Young, not Mike Binder. But he's a pretty funny guy. Mike young, a great guy. And we're friends to this day from that. But the funny thing is, I'm sitting there one of the things I didn't get the gig. I remember I was at a bar mitzvah or a wedding. And I think it was Jessica golden. She was standing there. And she was talking about how she's opening for Mike young when he comes to the comedy castle. I'm like, This is how I find out I didn't get it. I just happened to overhear her talking. Then I'm watching rain over me and Jessica Golden's in the movie in the very beginning. She's a comedian bombing. I just thought that was a funny connection. Friend of mine. I don't really know. I did one other event with her many, many, many years ago. So that was just funny. It was just a funny story. I thought my stepmom was hooking me up to work with you turned out to be Mike young went to Jessica golden. Anyway, here we are. 15 years later talking.

Mike Binder 32:32

I've known Jessica for pretty much your whole life. I know really? Well. I know a family Tumaco.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:38

Are they smarter? Yeah. And her dad was pretty sexy specs. He's a pretty popular guy here. I know them for my almost connection to you. So speaking of Detroit Comedy Jam, I was I was doing some research that you did many years. Right. But you only taped it once.

Mike Binder 32:54

We did once. Yeah, I'm actually going to do another one. We're going to film another one. How he and I and Paul and beef.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:01

Alright. Oh, the same crew, the same crew from that. Yeah, I found it on YouTube you had on your one of your YouTube channels.

Mike Binder 33:08

I hadn't had it for years. And when we were doing the documentary, we digitized everything. And they digitize that the sound is wrong. I never did anything really with it. But I'm gonna actually I'm doing this new platform and we're doing a bunch of stuff for and one of the things we're gonna do is another Comedy Jam.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:27

That's awesome. I was Googling and I found this old article that said you had promised your backers that you could sell it to HBO, but then you couldn't you're having troubles with that and that George Carlin and his agent saw it and liked it and then helped to sell it to HBO. You weren't good? Yeah. It happened to be a good timing because red skeleton was supposed to have a special on HBO failed to deliver it for whatever reason. They needed a special and there you are with the Detroit Comedy Jam.

Mike Binder 33:55

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what happened. But what really happened was George had a deal with HBO. We were doing a live show in Detroit at the Royal Oak theatre, and we sold out two nights, two shows. And there was a big article in the paper and my brother Jack and I got all puffed up and we went over George's doing a show at the I think it was the I think it was a I want to say like the f1 amphitheater. There's an amphitheater. It's not piling up that I usually see towards there all the time. The other one meadow downs, meadow Brook. Meadow Brook. Yeah, that's right. So we were just I just went to the back door and I basically said, Hey, it's Mike Pinder from show business. Can you tell George that I'm here and you know, that Free Press story out? Are you in the Free Press Saturday? We you were you didn't just go tell George I'm here. He talks for some reason or other. You're just so sweet that he said and we sat there for them for like an hour. He just talked to us and he was just a grace. And I was like, he was my idol. He was my idol growing up and he just We showed him all the stuff about the Comedy Jam and everything in here. He ended up selling it to HBO for us.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:06

That's awesome. Yeah, you have to get Mark Ridley to bring you on stage again. I think he was the voiceover. Yeah, that's right. That's right, guys. I remember him telling me that many many years ago and I when I was really listening to it, even though it's a younger version of his voice, I texted him just to confirm I'm like, that's you. That was you? Right?

Mike Binder 35:25

Absolutely.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:27

Did you call pops? Yeah. That's so funny. Yeah. How long were you at the Comedy Store before you're doing make me laugh like 60 times you got an HBO special one nightstand? How long? Were you doing all that before you kind of made your pivot and decided I'm going to be a full time storyteller in the medium of writer director.

Mike Binder 35:44

Oh, that was a long time later, I was all through my early 20s. I was doing talk shows and make me laugh tech stuff. A lot of stand up a lot of opening for bigger named Max and a lot of specials and stuff like that. And college tours did that probably temos 18 to 10. I was like 26 or 27, something like that. I went on this really great college tour with Steve Ray and Howie Mandell, the three of us that was a great time, Budweiser Comedy Store college tour. And then I opened for Christmas glass neck tips was the last thing I did in Vegas, which is like a cool thing. That that

Jeff Dwoskin 36:25

sound cool.

Mike Binder 36:26

Yeah, it was cool. And I quit to go to do the movie Coupeville, which was my first movie. It just cut too much. But I was probably 29. I was about 29. I just said I was married Larry Brebner. Who was at Ron's Jaffe, Mr. President, he was he produced Cookeville. And he was really like, kind of like, he was my manager, but he was my mentor, you know, and he just like, you got to do too much doing too many things, which has always been my problem, or always was my problem. I was supposed to go to London to do this BBC special. He said, You should be on the set of Coupeville Sheesh, first movie, your script. It's also his rehearsal for this big part. And I got to go to London. I love London as big BBC comedy thing. I got Rick over to replace me. And I went, and I just was one of those things where I thought, Okay, I'm gonna stay here all summer and just be here and be on the set of this movie. And then I knew and I just started making movies. It was like three years till I started doing stand up again. By time that point was like, almost like, the addiction world. If you know what I mean.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:36

Sure, did you just shift the addiction out? Like oh, writing, directing, creating a movie? It's just so much more fulfilling? Oh, yeah.

Mike Binder 37:43

For a few years after my 30s and 40s. I just, I was always doing some making a movie a year TV show, who's constantly

Jeff Dwoskin 37:52

because that's your thing, right? You like to write and you like to direct sometimes star in your own stuff you like to everything's up film by Mike Binder. I love that.

Mike Binder 38:01

Yeah, I was for a long time was for a long time. And then then another shift came, you know, everything's changed. You gotta, you gotta be really willing to change. I just wrote this book about it. A lot of it is, on one level, I didn't make a mistake, because I love I love my career, and I love my life. And I've been able to get so much done. But I probably think, you know, when I'm writing a book and talking about why some guys made it much bigger, and some guys have careers, some guys don't, you'd need focus. And that is one of the problems I had. And it is one of the problems that I think that we'll come to new guys today, when you can do too many things. You do too many things. And you don't focus bill burr focuses, and he did focus for years, he just became a great comedian. And now he gets to go, oh, people come to him. You want to act you want to direct. I didn't stay focused long enough with my standup and you have to kind of it can't be all over the map. You have to kind of be you got to sharpen the tip of your spear and get really sharp and then just lunch because if you don't, when you finally lunch, showbusiness says gently steps to the side every time you fail. And look, I get up. When I fail, I get up and I get another movie made. But it's it's hard. Whereas if you run a new lunge with precision, and you have your movies, you have a big hit. It's there. You're very Levenson for 4567 movies in a row. People know exactly what you do. But when you're jumping back and forth, I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. I'm a writer. I diaper kids for a living, you know, whatever. You got to be really careful. And I think that that is one of the problem that I think is going to come To a lot of new guys, because they can do so many things. Does that make sense?

Jeff Dwoskin 40:05

Yeah. Oh, yeah, totally jack of all trades master of none. Right. But it's also about doing what makes you happy right? And it sounds like you know you're fulfilled with the the movies you have you have quite a repertoire.

Mike Binder 40:20

I've been very lucky to you know, I mean, I've been really lucky. I didn't able to, by and large, I never really worked for anybody, you know, I just do my own thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:29

Do you get your movie self financed? Is that No, not really.

Mike Binder 40:32

But for the most part, except for a couple times when I worked on like Ray Donovan or billions or something, or Nashville, I don't really. I'm always doing something I created. So when I'm a creative, the creator of it, people, if they've signed up to finance it or signed up to start it, they know, I'm in charge, and I cut something in my head that they're trying to help me get out.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:55

No, I mean, that's, I think that's, that's great. Can I ask you a couple questions about a couple of your movies? Yeah, sure. We talked about Tamaqua earlier that not only has Sam Raimi in it was very funny and you don't really think of as an actor is well known director, but you went to camp with Sam Raimi at Tamaqua is that right? Yeah. Are you friends with them in Michigan also, or just like camp buddies?

Mike Binder 41:20

Yeah. Friends. Yeah. Okay. So this day, so yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:24

sometimes you have camp buddies, and then Sunday, you know, you live at different places, you know, that kind of things. He was pretty funny. He doesn't seem to act much. I met Sam Raimi one time and we were just Shiva. So I was trying to be respectful of the fact I see Sam Raimi and I'm like, is that Sam Raimi?

Mike Binder 41:42

By the way, he loves it. When people come up to him and shivers

Jeff Dwoskin 41:47

I was kind of like, exploding inside. I see Ted Raimi. I'm still very good.

Mike Binder 41:52

He was in one of my movies. Yeah, he

Jeff Dwoskin 41:54

played I think a lawyer, right? Yeah,

Mike Binder 41:56

he's a great guy.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:57

So the universe rewarded me for being chill, and I'm standing downstairs, they're doing a ceremony and Sam Raimi comes and literally stands shoulder to shoulder with me. I turned to him. I say, I'm sorry for your loss. He says thank you. He puts out his hand. He says, Hi, I'm Sam Raimi. And I said, Hi, I'm Jeff Dwoskin. But in my head, my head's exploding. I'm like, of course your fucking Sam Raimi? Spider Man, me. It's like, I'm going. I'm dying inside, but I'm trying to keep real cool. On the outside. I always like I'm Sam Raimi. I'm like, Yeah, I was just like, it was a real geek moment for

Mike Binder 42:33

me. It's really funny. He's a wonderful guy.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:37

Yeah, real nice. Well, speaking of Sam Raimi, the as I was watching some of your movies, I noticed the Indian summer you have will conda the Indian god of summer, it will kinda and then in Spider Man's part of that as well. Not only Sam being in there, but that's the club that they're in. And then in rain, I may Don Cheadle is reading a Captain America book and making fun of the Falcon costume in the comic book and then black and white. Anthony Mackie it was the Falcon is in there practically predicted the entire MCU with their the CEO of Mike Mike Phelps.

Mike Binder 43:10

Well, you know, it's funny, he says a funny story because Avi Lerner you know, Avi Lerner. He's a guy that owned Marvel and produce this Spider Man's that Sam did and everything. He's like, you don't I knew Sam would be the perfect guy to do Spider Man who Yeah, when was when I saw the whole thing with the painting Spider Man on the wall to Indian Summer. Hey, that was me. And was just a guy fire that every time we got on the boat, okay.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:42

That's so funny, because

Mike Binder 43:43

I knew that when I saw his love for Marvel's Spider Man, okay, I'll

Jeff Dwoskin 43:49

be what could have been. And now he's doing

Mike Binder 43:53

dinner. This is when I knew. But we were obsessed with reading comic books to camp. And we used to ever they're always drawn on the walls and shit. And also, you can't see it. But in the walls of my office. There's all kinds of both rare comic books all over the walls here. Oh, that's

Jeff Dwoskin 44:14

awesome. Yeah. Silver Surfer

Mike Binder 44:16

number one to some amazing comics. Oh, tip in the wall. In Beggs,

Jeff Dwoskin 44:21

you're hardcore. Oh,

Mike Binder 44:22

I was when I was a kid. I was Susannah. But I really was.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:26

That's really cool. Oh, let me ask a question about your time at Tamaqua. I read this and I think the same article I was talking about earlier, Chevy Chase was your counselor or our counselor? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Where did he grow up that he was

Mike Binder 44:40

he was from Becky's girlfriend took him there. But Ronnie wife, I'm sorry, writing wife guy that we all knew met him in New York living in New York, and he hadn't come up for the summer when summer.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:52

That's fine. People like him. Yeah, everybody loved the movies. Great.

Mike Binder 44:55

had long hair and he's had a big dog and a beautiful girlfriend. She was up there that summer to the girls camp. He was great. He was talented, funny, and that place had a lot of I mean, Gilda Radner was there there was a lot of comic talent there.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:12

The reflected this in the movie and being somewhere else but the people that started roots, the Yeah, the apparel company

Mike Binder 45:19

Bugman dang Green who we did a lot of comedy shows. There's a guy named Dave Nick. Brian, that was so funny. Genius. And Dave stringer. We used to have a radio show the Brian and I did and Dave stringers radio show called Cat and camp and his little buddy beaver who was like a radio comic show.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:40

That's cause Yeah, it

Mike Binder 45:41

was great every day at lunch,

Jeff Dwoskin 45:42

so you kind of got your start doing comedy at Tamaqua Oh, yeah, absolutely. Let me see. So your movies one thing I didn't know is while you're moving you you attract like amazing talent. Do you have amazing casts in your movies? Indeed. Summary at Alan Arkin. Bill Paxton was with Parkins Diane Lane. I mean, just to name a few Kevin Pollak been in a couple of your movies Tavia Spencer Anthony Mackie, we mentioned Joan Allen love Upside of Anger by the way, which I did want to make a joke. I like the West Bloomfield address on his drive on the on the husband who died so the address was wrong. It's a Birmingham address. But okay, our girl Puritan Avenue. Just you know, it's good. It's nothing I would notice. As I'm watching it, and I saw West Bloomfield, Tom like I paused it I'm like, wow, because I was curious if it was a real address. So I was like, but um, I love how in all your movies and stuff that you're like, moved to LA and that's where you started all your comedy, but all your movies are so rooted in Detroit and have such Detroit kind of themes like an Upside of Anger one on one riff one on one with Arthur pantile that I thought was one of your better acting like I enjoyed that version of Mike Binder that swarm a character I thought if I may say if I may be so bold. What's what's your favorite movies that you've done of a film by Mike Binder, which your favorite?

Mike Binder 46:59

I like that one? I like that one. A lot.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:03

Upside of Anger.

Mike Binder 47:04

Yeah. Yeah, I do. I really liked that one. I like this one or watch. This one I'm doing with Keri Russell. I'm really excited about you know, I like to think forward. I rarely watch anything I've done again. What I do like that one.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:19

Was it Keri Russell and Upside of Anger. Awesome. She was one of the daughters, right? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what movie I just watched yours that I thought was hilarious. Was sex monster with Mariel Hemingway. Yeah, I like that one too. That was fun. The cautionary tale of successfully talking your wife into a three way. Brilliant.

Mike Binder 47:36

We're really good time making that. I'll tell you the movie that I really liked. I think was one of the most successfully made movies mining bombed horribly, but it is really people love it over the years. Blank man.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:49

Our Damon Wayans is the only movie I ever made that I didn't

Mike Binder 47:53

write just direct it. Yeah. And you know, I just finished in summer and actually came out and then in summer did well at the box office for the first two weeks it was made to low and you know, people were all excited about it. And Damon asked me to do it. And you know, I love dark man Tim's movie dark man, dark man was great. One of my favorite movies. And I love the idea of creating your own superhero. And I love the Batman show as a kid. So I love the idea of kind of spoofing it, but also creating and Daymond and David Allen Greer together, I thought was so great. And we made this movie. And it did. It was so funny. And it was really one of the best years of my life working on that movie. We laughed so hard we and all my agents and managers just don't do it. You're on a roll. You know, everybody in Hollywood love crossing the bridge pretty loves Indian Summer, you're like the thinking of you like, in a really cool way. This little bomb. Damon's hard to work with. You don't want to you know, and I was like, this is like producing a friend's album. You know what, no one's gonna hold it against me. It tested through the roof. audiences loved it. They came out and the movie bombed so bad. I mean, the theaters are so empty. You could have killed somebody in the theater, and nobody would have seen you do it. That would be the perfect place to commit a murder. I'm telling you, my career was there was like taking me into a field and shoot me as a director for three, four or five years, four years. It was exactly what they said was gonna happen. But I didn't think like that back then. I didn't know that. That's because I was just a comedian sort of making his own movies. I took all the brunt for it. When I made five movies in that fight in those years, you know, but I loved the movie. And over the course of the years, that movie has become such a hit on cable and internet and kids dress up like blank man and Halloween and I mean it's amazing how big that movie Because

Jeff Dwoskin 50:00

I haven't seen it, but I will. I will hunt it down. I will find it. I've seen a million of other ones but not sorry.

Mike Binder 50:09

I don't you know, listen, it's a very niche audience.

Jeff Dwoskin 50:13

I have one other question. What was it? What was it like working with Spielberg and Tom Cruise in Minority

Mike Binder 50:20

cook off the hook here you I make one black theme movie and you can't be bothered to watch it. And you know why white supremacy? That's why

Jeff Dwoskin 50:29

no black or white was above a black theme movie.

Mike Binder 50:34

Oh, my movies. I've always loved to work with black actors, black writers, everything. I just

Jeff Dwoskin 50:41

know. It's right there. There's a yes, you you do a great job. And

Mike Binder 50:45

I've always had I mean, it's i i You know, one of the things about being a stand up comic when we started, you know, at the Comedy Store, it's funny when the commie doc came out, some guy wrote an indie wire his review or maybe it wasn't new. I don't know what it was some. Oh, you know, it's a thing. This documentary is all about how a bunch of white guys were like, What is he talking about? The Comedy Store. Mitzi Shore was into diversity. 25 years before anybody else. You know, there was Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Jimmy Walker, Freddie Prinze? You know Whoopi Goldberg. I mean, the Comedy Store was all about who was funny, and the Wayans brothers and, and comedy is like that. And we were all friends with all my friends. Were there. It wasn't we were our own minority. Do you know what I mean?

Jeff Dwoskin 51:37

No, yeah, totally.

Mike Binder 51:38

I have no black guys Mexican guy, who it was about who was funny. And I in very young from from 1718. And I never I always just thought about talent and about hanging. You know, I never I wasn't, I wasn't in a segregated society.

Jeff Dwoskin 51:56

I think that's unique to comedians. I think comedians that hang out with comedians, just see them as people putting in the grind the talent, you don't see color, you don't see necessarily gender. It's just you're just all in it. And you're having that shared experience. And you just you mess with each other. You do you have fun with each other. And it's like, it doesn't mean anything and you walk on stage and you do your thing. That's right. I see what we think about who I was gonna ask about working with Steven Spielberg on Minority Report because as a as a director, I must have been great to kind of be directed by Steven Spielberg. That's how I was gonna ask. I have

Mike Binder 52:30

not enjoyed working with Jews. been a problem for me? No. Yeah. course that was amazing. And it was just another one of those incoming calls. You know, I was in that movie, The Contender, Rod lures movie and he was distributing it. And I was playing poker with Rod glory one night, and he goes, you know, Steven Spielberg came in the editing room, and we were watching things. You were in a scene and he asked me who who's this guy? And I am sure he did, right? He goes, No, he really wants to know about you. But a week later, my assistant says, Hey, Steven Spielberg's on the line, I wouldn't know that Dr. Murray is fucking with me. He goes, Well, she said it was Steven Spielberg. So you should take it. So yeah. Hi. Students build, we're going to talk to you. Okay, that's wonderful. Put them on in Stevensville. We're good to go. Hi, how are you? I'm just playing around. And then I realized, it's really students voice. He goes, Hey, man, I want to do this movie Minority Report. And I want you to, I want you to play a role. I've got a really cool role in it for you. Can you come over to the office tomorrow and just I just want to talk to you about it. You don't have to read or anything you just want to meet you. Say hello. Okay. All right. So I hang up. And I tell recall, Raghu you wouldn't bullshit those. And so then I go, and I had this great meeting with Spielberg. And Rob's office will say at Universal to and Spielberg goes by the way thank you. Oh, Rod, Lurie and apology he's waiting for you're in his office told us right, so I go over to his office and his assistant goes in. He's in the middle of the room, dissonant chair. All this desk has been moving down. What do you have to say?

Jeff Dwoskin 54:20

That's amazing.

Mike Binder 54:21

Yeah. He was great. Steven was great. And that was that was incredible. And, and then I wrote, I wrote a movie for him to direct and it worked with him for a long time on it. And at the last last minute, it was a very personal movie. At the last minute. He called me up. I was in London working on something else. We had budgeted and everything. And he said, I can't I'm not gonna do the movie. Mike. My wife talked me out of it. She said, she doesn't want me to do a personal movie about me who was asked to do a lot with someone in showbusiness, attacking someone in show business like a person a stalker. Right, right. Okay, he said, but you can do it. He can direct it and we'll make it here at DreamWorks. That's cool. And so I started working on the movie and then it's a long story, but I ended up using Ben Affleck and he didn't want me to use Ben Affleck and FX career went cold and he had done a movie to pamper them.

Jeff Dwoskin 55:17

And that's before after Goodwill Hunting. Oh,

Mike Binder 55:20

no, this was long after this is after Gili Oh Lionsgate put the movie out in the palm, but it was it was a crazy movie, but it was fun writing it with Steven. That's very

Jeff Dwoskin 55:32

cool. Did he help move along mind to the married man? Did I read that somewhere? No, he

Mike Binder 55:38

was he just loved it. He would call me every Monday after watching it. You know, there was a while his band of brothers than my man Curb Your Enthusiasm. He would just he just he just loved it. You know, it was he was when I was making malaria report. I showed him the pilot. I told him about the pilot and I figured he'd watch it. And then one day at lunch, he comes back I watched it lunch in my trailer. It's fucking great. And he called Chris Albrecht and HBO and told him how much he loved it.

Jeff Dwoskin 56:05

That's awesome. Yeah, I still in touch with them. And anyway. Yeah,

Mike Binder 56:09

not as much as I used to be. But that's quarter. But yeah, back they just call me about to do a small part in his new movie. Which one is he doing? It's like an autobiography of his younger life. Okay, but I just couldn't be crowded. It was just in like the part just and I was busy. I was so busy doing other things and it just I don't know even I'm just not in that head anymore. But it was nice. Was it just kind of do you

Jeff Dwoskin 56:36

like acting? Really? You've done a bunch of it you just phasing out of it? You'd rather just write interact? Yeah, well, you're not in Indian summer because it was just one of her. It was one of your earlier movies.

Mike Binder 56:45

I was just trying to get my my head straight. Got it. And then

Jeff Dwoskin 56:49

I did have a question about sex monster and this is just this may just have been you wrote it for the way the plot needed to work out but did they not do and it's easy anesthesiol And it's easier and easier with colonoscopies back I mean, maybe for funny seeing we've got them Paul, like, I was like, Oh my God. That's like how I thought it was gonna be before I add mine. Is he's just screaming.

Mike Binder 57:13

Wouldn't have been funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 57:14

No. Okay, that's I thought I just wrote it. Having just gone through it. I had a different point of view. By the

Mike Binder 57:21

way, you know, with that those cameras. Wait a minute. I know what I'm I don't know what I'm saying. They don't really knock you out for those cameras.

Jeff Dwoskin 57:29

I was out called you were out cold. I was so out called that you could have paid me a million dollars or euro two euro. And I couldn't have proven or even had any recollection of having 10 feet of cord up my

Mike Binder 57:43

No, they do that. That's right. I don't think they do when I made that movie. I don't think you did it quit like that. But since then, the right they do they just snap out.

Jeff Dwoskin 57:54

But hey, you got to work with Kevin Pollak again. So that was that was cool. You know,

Mike Binder 57:57

that movie was made so cheap. That office, his office was in the living room of the house.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:05

That's awesome. And it's so funny. When you worked on The Contender with Joan Allen. Was that how you made the connection with Joan Allen? As for Upside of Anger? Yeah, she was amazing in that.

Mike Binder 58:15

No. I loved it. She was so good. She was so good to work

Jeff Dwoskin 58:18

with so got her and Kevin Costner had good chemistry and

Mike Binder 58:22

I love to I love her.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:24

Yeah, she was she was so great. You wrote that for her?

Mike Binder 58:27

I did. I wrote a part for her. But she couldn't do it. Different movie. Yeah, read over me.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:33

How much time do you spend kind of picking up music? Like ran over me had amazing music. And it is that a big part of your process is just picking the right songs. Yeah.

Mike Binder 58:41

And I work with this great guy did Jord with him forever.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:45

I final question. I have read something that said you actually turned down the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson as you're coming up

Mike Binder 58:51

when I was young. Yeah, I wasn't ready. First time they asked me to do it. I wasn't ready. And then when I wanted to do it, they didn't want me for a long time.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:59

Because you said now or Oh Just no. Just couldn't work it back into the

Mike Binder 59:03

No, no, it was just a different guy. He didn't you know, when the very first time it was kind of like a novelty kind of thing. You know how young I was. But I ended up doing it. I ended up you know, later. I just the next time I wanted to do it. They were like, No, you know, the stuff you're doing isn't right for Johnny. No, Johnny, I love it. But I just didn't want to go on as like a novelty. Like, oh, look, he's 17 he's 18 years old. Look at him. He's 90, you know, whatever I was because I did it on Merv Griffin stuff. And it was okay. But it doesn't. I didn't have enough to back it up. And also, at the time, I was really close with Leno. And he was he was right. He was like, Don't do it. Don't do it. He had six minutes at the most

Jeff Dwoskin 59:47

in case I had invited you back or something. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Looking back. Do you think that was still the right would you have done it the same way? Oh, yeah.

Mike Binder 59:54

Oh, yeah. I didn't. I never heard that. My life that was hey, That was right. All that stuff was right how the talk show stuff. It never does anything for you. You know, unless you like Seinfeld or somebody that's really what you want

Jeff Dwoskin 1:00:10

to do but in the Comedy Store documentary did a lot of it talks about how the whole connection with feeding Johnny Carson and then exploding and becoming

Mike Binder 1:00:19

I was too young that I missed that era to be honest. And unless I wanted to do be a CIT do a sitcom or you know, I wanted to get an HBO special, which I did and then and you know a sitcom which I did you know, Tom I want was going on The Tonight Show I would go sit down on the panel pick to have to come out and do six minutes every time and stand there like a paid monkey for Johnny and the guys now today there they don't even bother with those shows they do you get more doing these shows

Jeff Dwoskin 1:00:52

that you're gonna blow up after this goes I can tell.

Mike Binder 1:00:54

No, but you know what I'm saying? Like when birded paper tiger didn't even go on those shows. He did he's promoting it. He did Rogan, you know, and he did Marin and he you know I mean you get so many more

Jeff Dwoskin 1:01:08

by right? Yeah, they because while Rogan and and Marin they have such a huge following. So when's the next to try Comedy Jam gonna be? Oh, it's gonna

Mike Binder 1:01:15

be fun for a while. Well, probably we probably won't even get around to shooting it until next spring or next summer. When's your next movie probably will shoot in the spring Till There Was You

Jeff Dwoskin 1:01:27

that the name of it? Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. I look forward to that. Is there a name for the site that you mentioned early on?

Mike Binder 1:01:34

It's gonna launch soon. And I don't want to say it is yet was it? You'll like it. You like it a lot. It's really definitely it's gonna be fun for comedians.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:01:44

Awesome. Looking forward to that. Where can people keep up with you on the social medias? Where do you like,

Mike Binder 1:01:49

I don't really, you know, I'm when this launches. I'll be all over. Because we're going to open up somewhere over but I have a I have a Twitter thing. But I had to go off it for you. My kids took me off. Because I do know them or get in trouble on it. But I have a Twitter thing. But I am not on Facebook. I'm not on anything else. And I think I'm about to get taken off Twitter again. So I'm not politically correct. And when I made the Comedy Store thing, they took me down for a year.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:20

All right, well, nobody found out I'm

Mike Binder 1:02:23

about to come out with it all. I'll tell you about it in about a month or so. Really cool.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:29

Very cool. Yeah, I'm looking forward to I can't wait to hear about it. There's a lot to it. Well, thank you so much for hanging out with me. I

Mike Binder 1:02:34

really appreciate it. My pleasure. It's been fun. Thanks for asking me.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:37

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it been a big fan for ever. So this was a joy.

Mike Binder 1:02:43

I want to cite your podcasts to get huge so that you can hire some really big burly men to come over and move the desk so that the camera sees the really good part of your office.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:56

I've got a great vinyl collection, your grandmother's dress. That's a shower curtain block the light and mica tuba and I do have a nice vinyl collection. I do. I'm

Mike Binder 1:03:07

telling you man, is she now why can't you sit that direction?

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:11

Because the mic my computer when I bought the house is like the cord is right there. So it's only like a foot long. So I'm very limited to where I can be

Mike Binder 1:03:20

speaking now to Jeff's viewers and fans. We're going to set up a GoFundMe and we're going to give him an extension cord. All we're asking is for his $18 It's $18. But you won't have to look at that giant black MooMoo ever again. Okay, that's $18 GoFundMe, Jeff's extension cord.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:42

Mike, thank you so much. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. How amazing was Mike Binder, definitely dive into his movie catalog. If you haven't seen that Comedy Store documentary yet it is a must view especially if you love comedy. If you love comedy, definitely head over just stand up world.com Sign up for the mailing list and check out all the great content there. So during the interview, Mike twice made fun of me and joked about a GoFundMe for my backdrop. I know this is an audio only podcast. But during the interview process, we can see each other and so my desk was up against a window and to block the window so that the backlight didn't ruin the camera. I had this horrible like Bed Bath and Beyond shower curtain. So Mike called me out on it. And it's no it was a horrible backdrop. It really was I made no effort to have a good backdrop game. So anyway, after the interview with Mike Binder, I rearranged my whole office I moved my desk I redecorated everything. So now even though you will never see that either. I've got a great backdrop when I do interviews for the people I'm interviewing so maybe I'll put a before and after picture up so you can see what the shenanigans were all about. Anywho so no need to send money. well with the interview over it can only mean one thing. That's right. It's time for a trending hashtag from the family of hashtags that hashtag are around. Download the free always free doesn't cost a penny hashtag roundup app at the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and be notified every time a game goes live tweet along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on an episode of live from Detroit de Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you keeping with the theme of today's episode with comedian Mike Binder, or diving into the catalogue and reading tweets from a hashtag from the musical hashtags game on hashtag roundup hashtag Comedian Song or band the ultimate Comedian Song or band a mash up hashtag game take a comedian take a song mash them together take a comedian take a band mash them together the hilarity is endless. Alright, here are some of my favourite hashtag Comedian Song or band tweets Chris Rock You Like A Hurricane? A flock of sea Goldman's what does the red fox say Kiss Me MABLEY what a great start to hashtag Comedian Song or ban tweets. Here's the more Richard Jeni and the Jets jets jets can't help fell in love with you. Earth Wind and Richard Pryor Total Eclipse of new heart light my prior 99 red fox balloons 99 red fox balloons back in Louis black Billy on the Street Eilish Lou edit a and it's in my mind the time Papa's you can call me Ali Wong These are awesome hashtag Comedian Song are banned to AIDS but we're not done. Bernie Mac the knife she's got Larry David eyes Schumer of 69 I got my first real six dream Schumer off 69 We will we will Chris Rock you Chris Rock you Arsenio Hall notes Chris Rock and Roll never forgets Bernie Fleetwood Mac, take another piece of new high Alright, sorry for the bad singing Sinbad to the bone. And our final hashtag Comedian Song our band tweet, Mitch Hedberg and the Detroit wheels. Oh, right. Those are some awesome hashtag Comedian Song or banned tweets, head on over to at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter, retweet all the tweets I read, follow them like them, show them some love well with the hashtag over. And the interviews over can only mean one thing. We're at the end of episode 102. I want to once again thank my amazing guest Mike Binder for joining me. And of course, I want to thank all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

Announcer 1:07:58

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