#331 From NBC Page to Podcast Star: Bari Alyse Tells All

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Sasha, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and next week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 331 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Welcome back to what's sure to be the greatest episode of all time. My guest today is none other than Bari Alyse, host of the community news podcast. She is here to tell us stories of her amazing career in entertainment. She was a page at the Letterman show it's Saturday Night Live. So many great stories await us and they're coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds. Dean Cameron was here last week. That's right star of summer school ski school, so many classics from the 80s such an amazing conversation but nothing more amazing than my conversation with my friend. Bari Alyse is coming up. Right now we're diving into the Keenan ivory way show the Carnie Wilson show Letterman Saturday live ready for the T we got the T we got stories. There's so much coming at you right now. Buckle up or bury Elise. Enjoy. All right, everyone. I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, comic producer, speaker, writer, co host of community news podcast. Welcome to the show. Bari Alyse. How are ya?

Bari Alyse 2:01

Hi, Jeff. It's so good to see you.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:04

Great to see you too.

Bari Alyse 2:06

I don't know if your viewers know that you have a perfect smile like you. Your orthodontist would be so happy to know that nothing has slipped like it has with the rest of us. You look like you just got the braces off. perfect teeth.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:21

Thank you. That was it's one of the perks of being a son of a dentist. Oh, okay.

Bari Alyse 2:26

Yeah, makes sense. Because I had braces. But things have shifted and moved around like most people, but yours are you look like the new reveal when they just take them off. Which is pretty good. Thank

Jeff Dwoskin 2:37

you. I appreciate that. You're full of compliments, which is how we met. Oh, yeah. When Jay gets em from Barry's, I, hey, I discovered your podcast. It's awesome. Blah, blah, blah. So we became Of course, best friends.

Bari Alyse 2:50

Yeah, it was so funny how I found it too, because I remember someone had died. And I was like listening for interviews of that person. Like I put their name and to look for podcasts they were on. And they were on all my usuals that I listened to. But then I saw yours. And I didn't know your name at the time. And I was like, Oh, I'd rather hear him on someone I haven't heard before. And I listened to him like wow, he's a good interviewer. And I like your voice. And so then I started listening to a whole bunch of yours. So yeah, not insincere compliments. I was like really blown away.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:19

I appreciate that. I do remember who it was it died out probably Ed Asner, maybe. No,

Bari Alyse 3:24

I'm trying to think who it was. It was someone younger than Ed Asner. Well, God to nuda No, I feel like it was a man sad that I now don't remember. I feel like it was somebody in their 40s or 50s Not someone way older.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:40

But Carla Flanagan did. Did you talk to Mr. Belzer? No, no,

Bari Alyse 3:46

no. Okay. Wasn't Richard Belzer trying to think it was around that time. Like when around the time that he had passed? I'm trying to think who else had Did you talk to Bob Saget?

Jeff Dwoskin 3:57

No, no, I'm starting to think like Bari wasn't even listening to my podcast. No,

Bari Alyse 4:01

it definitely was. That's how I found it. I'm just trying to remember who it was. But it was someone you know, it was someone who did a lot of people's podcasts. And like, I didn't want to hear them on all my usuals I thought oh, let me hear them on someone. I've never heard them on before and that was how I found you. But I gotta really try to remember if I look back I guess if I look back, I would find it. I'm trying

Jeff Dwoskin 4:21

to remember I listed off most of the people who have passed away they've been on the show. I don't know why I can't. Okay,

Bari Alyse 4:26

they miss sound mean and weird. Maybe it wasn't that he passed away. It was that I weirdly at the moment and I was looking up and civil Williams I think because of some story in the news. Oh potties not dead. No, and he's not dead. So I don't want to I don't want to sound like I was looking at dead people. That's what it was. I was looking him up because of something he had just done or was in and I'm pretty sure that's how I found you. If I look at my message, messages, I could find

Jeff Dwoskin 4:56

it but that sounds right. That sounds right now. Yeah,

Bari Alyse 4:58

I think that's what it was there was some reason why I was looking him up because he had done something or said something. And then I was like, Okay, well, I've listened to all those shows. So I'll listen to this one. Does that make sense? It does make sense. I wish I could remember what it wasn't. He did. Why was he in the news? Or he was making comments about someone who had

Jeff Dwoskin 5:16

gotten married. He became mayor at some points

Bari Alyse 5:19

by Right, right. Right, right. All right. When I was mayor, yeah, yes, I was trying to figure out what it was that he was up to now kind of thing. I think I was actually trying to see what the age difference was of him and his wife. That was good. So anyway, that is how I found you at Patsy. Patsy, that was a good interview. And I've been listening for a long time. And I'm like, Wow, I love it. I love the show. It's great. Well,

Jeff Dwoskin 5:43

thank you so much. I love your show, too. It's super fun. How did you? Well, we'll get into community news in a second. But because you got like so much others. Teaser teaser. We'll get into that. Sir Bari's got a great podcast. So all right. So you've done daytime, you've worked in the daytime world of TV late night. Let's start with you got to NBC, MTV, CBS, we're not gonna go in any order. Let's start with page at Saturday Night Live.

Bari Alyse 6:11

Okay, so I was a page in 1991 at 30 Rock in New York. And we were pages long before the TV show 30 Rock and the character of Kenny the page. And I have to say, my page friends and I and we're still like a big group that are in touch. We resent that character, because it makes it look like pages are idiots. And it's really hard to become an NBC page, you have to have a very high GPA, you have to have three or four internships already from other TV things. You have to have references. It's not easy to get in there. They take 40 a year. And the you know how there's always those articles, like what's harder to get into than Harvard. It's one of those where they've written that about that because just to statistically, there's not as many there they get something like 30,000 applications a year for 40 spots. So I've read articles that say being a Delta flight attendant is harder to get into them to get into Harvard being an NBC page is harder to get into than being in Harvard. And some kind of like special ops in the military so hard. That seems to be like an all over the place to tist ik that people like to throw out when they like to say it's hard to get in. But anyway, there were no cans, everybody was really aggressive. And really, you know, knew what they wanted. And everybody I would say half the people wanted to be on TV and the other half wanted to run TV. We did end up you know, with some famous pages the years before me and the years after me, but during my time, the most the person who became the most famous is a lady that you all would know by the name of Larissa Spencer. But when she worked with us, she was Lera von seelen. But she became Leora Spencer who hosts Good Morning America and Antiques Roadshow and all that kind of stuff. Oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 7:53

that's pretty cool.

Bari Alyse 7:55

Yeah, yeah. She was like the day she got in the building was like I'm getting on TV.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:59

I think most recently, one of the famous ones that came to light was Aubrey Plaza. Yes.

Bari Alyse 8:04

So that was long after my time. But listening to her interviews, I have to laugh because she would be so hated as a page because everyone wants to do more than be a page. But when you're a page, you gotta be a page because that's what you're supposed to be doing. So if she was like, I can see how her co workers must have hated her because she said she was a terrible page. She didn't do the job, that kind of thing. But back to Saturday Night Live paging that and Letterman paging was some of the funnest stuff that we got to do, because like you would sometimes escort first of all, no day was ever the same. Unlike my life now, which feels like every day is the same. But some days you'd be the talent escort you'd be like going down to the garage and escorting Bruce Springsteen up to Saturday Night Live and other days you'd be escorting up musical guests and guest hosts that you're like, What did I do? I just graduated college and got into this program. How the hell am I the person that is like the talent escort for this? For this person, my friend Mike, who was a page with me, he's a jersey guy, big Bruce Springsteen fan. And the end of that night when Bruce was musical guests, somebody else was supposed to take him in the elevator down to the garage, and Mike asked if he could do it. And somebody kindly let him and I remember when he came back up, he goes to me and he's the nicest guy he goes, I could literally die tonight. And I'd be good with my life like because he got to meet his hero and take them up and down in the elevator. So it's interesting when you're a page because you have you make no money you make back then we made like 10 bucks an hour. You're the lowest person on the totem pole but we always say we have the most access to everything. We had the keys to every elevator, every office you by being at the bottom, you know what's going on everywhere in the building. And then like because there's 40 pages, we're all working at different units in different departments. So we all knew what was going on in other departments before like the executives knew if that makes sense, because it's like a little you know, like a game of tell The phone and there was a page lounge that you'd go back to in between assignments. And everybody talked, of course. So yeah, when you get to a page on SNL or Letterman, it was fun because we'd meet, you know, whoever the celebrities of the day were the musical guests. And we all laughed to going like we were 21 and 22 years old. And the fact that they even gave us that responsibility, or just decided that we would be like, appropriate or even like mentally stable enough to be the representative of the network on behalf of these like superstars. It's kind of hilarious when you think about it, and back then we didn't have cell phones, you know, so we were not encouraged to take pictures like now it's a whole different thing. People take pictures with anyone, they even walk across the street and see someone famous. We were told, you know, don't ask for pictures. Don't ask for autographs like we were all very appropriate. But now I look at people and think like how were we that appropriate at such a young age? Because now anybody is at a bookstore and they see a celebrity they're running up and taking a selfie? Well

Jeff Dwoskin 10:59

back then you didn't have the tools to do it right? You didn't have a camera you you could have gotten an autograph but I mean

Bari Alyse 11:07

could have brought a cardboard one of those cardboard disposable cameras if you really wanted to, but you would be probably fired.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:13

But no one else has to take that picture. There was a time people listening there were someone else had to take the photo for you. If you need to be in it. Hey, I

Bari Alyse 11:23

guess unless you held it out for but nobody did that no

Jeff Dwoskin 11:26

one invented the selfing until Thelma and Louise in Paris Hilton who was answering I live what was like the remember some of the cast what was the general cast what see us

Bari Alyse 11:35

when I was a page was seriously one of the most amazing casts Phil Hartman was on

Jeff Dwoskin 11:40

what was it season 19 ish.

Bari Alyse 11:42

It was 91 to 92 When I was a page and then I still work the building at the Today Show and Dateline NBC and I got to be an extra in a bunch of Saturday Night Live sketches because when you work in the building, that you have featured extra, whatever they call it or feature something. So I got to be down there all the way through like 9093 94 to be backgrounds and certain sketches. But Phil Hartman was on Dana Carvey Mike Myers, the junior squad was like David Spade and Chris Rock and Chris Farley was there during my time and alive. Adam Sandler was probably there. I'm Sandler. Exactly. And I like horn. Ellen Clegg horn was on That's right. And then Julia Sweeney, and was it Melanie? Hutsul. I think back then. Yeah. Tori Jackson, and Victoria Jackson, right. That was during a time where people were even those women say the women weren't the strong, they didn't get the strong stuff. But the men got a lot of really strong stuff. But then I was in the building all the way through When Molly Shannon was on, and nor McDonald and Cheri Oteri, like some of the younger women that got to do a little more, you know, and I got to know Molly a little bit back then, which was amazing. And norm. I mean, Phil Hartman was just like watching a master class in acting or improv, you know, it was amazing to watch him and so nice, one of the nicest people. When Phil

Jeff Dwoskin 13:07

Hartman died, that was that was rough. And the way he went to was absolutely, as well. It was just such a loss.

Bari Alyse 13:15

I lived in LA by then and no longer working at 30 Rock, and he hadn't been at 30 rock because at that point, he had a sitcom. But yeah, I would constantly replay. elevator rides with him. And he would just always joke with everyone and was always you know, smiley and making people laugh. And it's just so horrendous to think that that's the end that he came to. I always think about his kids.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:39

So tragic. Yeah. 30 rock, I think what not 30 Rock news radio.

Bari Alyse 13:43

Radio. That's right. Yeah. So

Jeff Dwoskin 13:45

you were there sort of. I mean, I think like your Alan Clegg horns and Julius Sweeney are great, but you were there when Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri. That group I think, is when the women started to really pop.

Bari Alyse 13:58

Me too. So I wasn't a page on the show. At that time, I would just do extra work. But I also did like the wrap around promotion for I think it was the 25th anniversary. And we all were in Aspen together and so in Aspen, I got to hang out with Molly a lot and got to know her really well. So yeah, so I wasn't a page when they were on but when they were on it did feel like the show was opening up to women because before that it was pretty much a boys club with like a few girls doing you know, like small parts, side parts. But the best thing was people probably told you this if you've interviewed anyone else who like was on the show, whatever. Thursdays we could as pages when we were giving our tours, we could look down at eight H and watch the musical guest practice because they would practice all day on Thursdays and we could take our tours and they'd see Aerosmith and Counting Crows and The Rolling Stones, you know, and then what my page friends and I would do is in between if we didn't have tours or if we had lunch or any time that we had that was not accounted for. We he'd just go sit in the seats on the top of H and watch the musical guests. And that's when you're like, I cannot freakin believe you know, I'm one year out of college and I'm having a private concert with like the best bands of today and also of yesterday kind of thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:14

Do you remember any specific ones?

Bari Alyse 15:17

I remember watching Pearl Jam. I remember watching. Oh, I watched Madonna rehearse, and I had never seen anyone so like, what's the word white, but like albino like her skin like, like so alabaster kind of, you know, my friends and I we were in some scenes with Aerosmith, which was exciting for us because we grew up liking Aerosmith, a girl from my high school and I ended up being extras in like two scenes with Joe Perry and Steven Tyler. That was super cool. You know, because you're that age where you're like, Oh, it's just so cool that I'm even standing next to and like in a scene with so that was pretty neat. And yeah, Bruce Springsteen, Sinead O'Connor, I was there when the infamous sinead o'connor show happens when she ripped the picture of the Pope. And you never heard that room go silent like that. No one knew what to do. It was just absolute silence. That was pretty wild. Oh, I remember also while we were there not a not thing to be excited about or brag about. But Joey but a few go hosted or guests spotted on during the Joey but a few go Amy Fisher news story. And I remember thinking like this is gross. Why are they giving this guy any publicity? You know, I mean, he's the guy who cheated on his wife and caused his mistress to like, shoot his wife. But he was there. I remember that show being like, Oh, why? Why do we give a platform to this? There were times you really questions because they would take things that were like sensational of the day and sometimes bring them on for guest spots or hosting. And I think there were times it felt like, Oh, that's gross. But anyway, but they were fun times. And we got to go to the cast party after every show, which was amazing. You know, the cast themselves hung out a lot. The younger cast hung out with the pages because they didn't really necessarily feel part of the older cast yet. And they didn't necessarily feel like the musical guest and the guest host are kind of out there, you know, like on a pedestal. So my page crew and I we hung out a lot with the younger SNL cast, we were pretty much the same age within a couple of years. Yeah, those were really fun times, my page friends and I are always like, we could just have that part of our life back like that. That piece of it not giving tours, but working on SNL was like, really, really fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:33

So yeah, couple questions. So Sinead O'Connor. So the studio went silent. Yeah, remember anything as she walked off, like the chatter behind the scenes, anything like that?

Bari Alyse 17:45

I just remember people's mouths were like drops, you know, you say that as an expression that literally dropped like nobody knew what was going on? I think at the time, you know, there was a question about did the show? No, it's been proven that Lorne Michaels didn't know on the show didn't know. But when you're standing there in the studio, and like, all the different through screen camera guys to what's it called cue card guy like the grips like everybody, nobody knew, like, was this a planned thing? Or was this just like off the cuff, and it definitely was just something she did off the cuff. But I've never seen it silent like that in there. And it was, you could hear a pin drop, it was so silent. You know, the funny part about SNL is like, in between the scenes, the chaos that goes on. So in between, you know, watching the sets move around, the cast are out in these, like makeshift dressing rooms that are almost like a clothing stand with a sheet over it. And they have people coming and dressing them. And it's just all happening so fast. But that was like it probably was 30 seconds. But the quiet felt like it was 10 minutes, because nothing ever really came to a frozen moment there. And it's not just that on stage and on age, it's the whole hall leading up to it. It's the side halls where there's these makeshift dressing rooms and the makeup rooms like It's so chaotic. So it was really weird for everyone's just kind of be like, What is going on?

Jeff Dwoskin 19:05

Were the people in the audience acutely aware what was happening? Because I mean, the way I'm picturing it is, and again, there might have been cameras and giant video screens. But if there weren't, then it would just be in a photo, you know, that no one would have been able to see, you know, it was more like the people at home probably saw or anyone you know, monitoring the monitors. But were the people in the audience even aware of what was happening. What was going on? Or after that happened. I mean,

Bari Alyse 19:33

yeah, I can't say if they all saw it was a picture of the Pope, but definitely her like fight the real enemy and tearing the picture. Like I think if people thought maybe she's kidding, but then she was clearly not kidding. She was very serious. You know, I don't know, could they see the actual picture? I'm not really sure. I mean, there definitely are close up cameras, you know, throughout, but people were in serious shock. I mean, nobody knew what to do. It was weird. It was definitely One of those times where like, this is live television, you know, because I've worked on a lot of shows where they call it live to tape, meaning that it's, you tape it, and you try to keep it live intact. You try not to edit or have stop points, but you can. And there's always that backup that you can, but Saturday Night Live is fully live. It's really one of the few shows like that other than sports, where it's literally just going and whatever happens happens, you know, so most shows that I've done, they're, they're live to tape. So there was always that chance of like, we can go back and edit or we can, even if it's a show taping at five o'clock, and it's on late night, that night, there's always that chance that you could go in and take something out. But Saturday lives Live Live, which is really one of the most ballsy things about that show, you know, right, right.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:48

You mentioned your skits and background. Do you were you in any that would be considered classic?

Bari Alyse 20:55

No, I wish I could say I was I know I was the one with Aerosmith. We were in a lesbian poetry scene, I thought to try to look it up on YouTube to see if I could find it. But we were all playing supposedly lesbians at a lesbian poetry thing that he and that Joe Perry and Steven Tyler found their way into and were performing. And you know, even that is just so funny to me the like, the difference between the political correctness now and then like, now, nobody would say there's anything inherently funny. Or they would admit to it anyway, to being a lesbian to have to hard rockers at a lesbian poetry reading, right? Like nowadays, you couldn't really say like, Oh, that's funny. It would just be like, Oh, well, what's different than being at any? Open Mic? Right. But back then that was allowed. So that was I just remember it being a funny scene. And what was the other one we were in with them? It was some kind of matchmaking. It was like a dating game kind of scene. And it was that one of them was being auctioned off. I think Steven Tyler, but ya know, none that I would say became like, super classic, famous or anything, but it still was fun to do the featured stuff, and it helped me get my sag AFTRA card to awesome.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:09

What were some of the experiences being a page on the Letterman Show?

Bari Alyse 22:14

Oh, well, that was interesting in a different way. Now, David Letterman has this very, almost friendly, folksy welcoming personality, like he's on his Netflix show, it makes it seem as if he's like, everybody's friend, and this really sort of genteel person, but back then he was, you know, steeped in the insecurity and neurosis that he's talked about even of hosting his own show. And he wasn't at all genteel or sweets, or I had a page friend who we were told, okay, so there were different spots. You had to stand it was very methodical, whereas SNL the response, you needed to be as a page, but it was kind of chaotic, and nobody was really going to get in your face if you weren't right by the age table, or you were over by the phone. But for the Letterman set, it was like you had one page right outside six h was his studio, you had one page inside the door, you had pages up and down the stairs, the balconies and I, we were always told, Don't look at him, when he's coming down the hall to start the show. We weren't allowed to look in his eyes. And, you know, I guess it could distract him if he's trying to get in ahead, you know, show head or whatever. But one of my friends was a pretty new page. And I don't know if she just got nervous, or maybe no one told her but she was standing at the door, the six h door and he was coming. And she was like, hi, Mr. Letterman with a big smile. And he was so angry that in his intro, he talked about her. And you know, he talked about like, the dumb pages in the intro, and the girl ended up crying and it was a whole thing. And you know, he worked at you know, he worked into the show, whatever he did with the audience beforehand. So in his monologue, he was talking about the dumb pages and some dumb page. And then he referred to her in the beginning of the show. So yeah, so we all realize like, they're not joking when they tell you Don't look at him, you know, in that spot. Some things that were cool when I was a page and other pages who had the Letterman, if they had the there was one spot where you were sitting outside of Letterman's door, and you'd answer the phone like he'd call from in the studio. So he did a few funny things. Like he sent one of our fellow pages on a cruise. He just called them and he's like, you know, Chris, have you ever been on a cruise before? He's like, No. And he's like, Would you like to go? And he's like, sure. He's like, Alright, you're off on a cruise. And I mean, all the kid had was his page uniform. And they literally sent him off. You know, he got to buy some clothes on board. And then throughout the week, they did really funny cutaways and live spots of him on this cruise. So there were funny things like that. That would happen if you had the assignment right outside the door. Another friend of mine, he used to call because she's like, sort of, I would say nonplussed But I'm trying to think of a better word like an not an overly enthusiastic person. And it was just I think he found that funny that he could call her and she was so like blase about everything he would ask her, you know, but that was That was funny. I mean, I will say I was a person who all through high school and college watched Letterman, so did a lot of my page friends. And that was the show that when we worked on it, we're like, oh, this is why they say don't meet your heroes. Because you know, everything that was fun and funny and amazing at home was a little different than the way it was laid out. You know, and I don't even I don't blame him even for that some of that was his producers and his executive producers and them trying to protect him. I've worked on other shows, too, where this dynamic happens, where it's like, the people that are at the top are trying to protect the talent, to the extent that they make the talent seem like a total asshole, and maybe the talents just sometimes an asshole or a little bit of, you know what I mean? But they make it where they're so worried about protecting them, that the rest of the staff that comes off like the talent is this horrible, horrible person. And that's not always the case. But I think what I would say from every show I've ever worked on, except for maybe news and Dateline, all the other shows, the entertainment shows, there's like too many chefs in the kitchen. So there's not like one, there's not one decided upon way things are going to happen. And that tends to cause problems. It

Jeff Dwoskin 26:27

sounds like a mess. But yeah, I'm sorry that he wasn't nice. It's, I got you kind of comes off as a commander in a little bit. Now, I think you've nailed the before and after. But during

Bari Alyse 26:40

that time, well, listen, I could say this, because what do I care? I'm not working on any TV shows right now. And I don't know that I ever will again. So I feel like I can just say yes. I mean, I don't think that he was like an asshole, per se by himself. I think he had insecurities. I think it's a lot of weight to put on anybody to be hosting that show. I think that, you know, back then when there were only three show three networks, I think these people thought like the show or die. Right. But I will say because like I said, I don't think I'll be working on any late night shows again in the future. The other thing that was going on, like while I was a page all the way through the next couple of years that I worked in the building on news, he was dating so many women in the building. So there was that piece going on to like on three different units, I knew three different people that were involved in what they would consider a serious relationship with him. So you have that going on to that, like, you've got a secretary receptionist at this show, and a talent coordinator at that show, and an intern at that show who are all seriously dating him in their minds? Or maybe that's what he led them to believe. I don't know. But so you also had that going on? At the same time? You know, where it's like, Yes, an erotic, insecure, big deal of a show, but then also dating all these people simultaneously throughout the building. I mean, it's hard to it's hard to sort of take that super professionally.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:07

Right, right. Right. Didn't that blow up in his face eventually, like eventually

Bari Alyse 28:11

it said, but like not with the women that I knew that he was actually like, these are women I knew personally, like, knew them while worked with them, socialize with them after work. So yeah, it did eventually blow up in his face where he was already married the lady he had a baby with who was a stage manager at NBC all along. And he was with the intern, and then that interns boyfriend from some other show, like blackmailed him. And that's when it became all public. But, you know, that wasn't the only time like that was going on for years and years and years. And it's why a lot of people say like, was that show fair for women who wanted to be writers and producers? Like I have a friend who was one of the writers on it. And she wrote a whole book about it. And you know, she says like, she stayed a year because she wasn't going to have an affair with him. And that was the way it seemed to her the only way to like get ahead or get your stuff on the air. So there was a lot of there was a lot of drama going on. Back then in the 90s at 30. Rock. It sounds

Jeff Dwoskin 29:11

like you have six h eight H is there any other H's that you worked?

Bari Alyse 29:17

Yeah, no, I worked on today's show, which was I think studio three a at the time before they built the outside like waving idiots. Hi.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:27

Is this Matt Lauer today's show? Yeah,

Bari Alyse 29:30

I was I was Katie Kirk's assistant when it was Katie and Brian Gumbel. And Matt started as like a freelancer while I worked for Katie. So I wasn't there. When Matt was one of the anchors. He was lower on the totem pole, but I will say that even lower on the totem pole. He was pulling shenanigans when some of us would think like, you would think that someone who was just working like cutting down trees for two years because they couldn't get a job on TV would value You being brought into the network and 30 Rock to do all these extra. They were like entertainment pieces and stuff. But he was like, right to it right away, you know, with certain pages and certain interns and yeah, there was kind of this like very strange dating, it felt like there it felt like it was like Tinder before Tinder, back there in the 90s, where for a lot of people, they were just swiping and there was a lot of dating going on behind the scenes and just inappropriately inappropriate positions of power. You know what I mean? So even if it was consensual, it's like, is that okay? For a 21 or 22 year old who's trying to make their way in this field to have a 35 year old who has all the power, having a relationship with them, even if it's consensual, I would say probably not my friend, my friends and I that worked at today's show and nightly news, Dateline NBC back then, we always laugh as of like, I don't know, about 10 or 11 years ago, because we're all in group text and stuff like that. We're like, can you imagine that we were so naive that we thought we could have careers there, like just working and just getting promoted and moving up. Like we actually believed that there was just this like, it's news. It's idealistic, it's fair, you know, we're gonna get a fair shot. Like, we're like, looking back. It's so absurd. And we all said, we wish someone told us like, yes, that's not going to happen. They're like, leave there go somewhere else, because it's not going to happen there. And you're not really there for that. Little did we know. So

Jeff Dwoskin 31:30

I guess the most important question I could possibly ask in the history of the world is How close was the Matt Lauer shenanigans to what the morning show portrayed?

Bari Alyse 31:43

I would say it was pretty much spot on, like, on the money. And I think what the morning show, I don't know, if I don't know what people take away watching it. Would you take away that they felt like the executives all knew, and everybody was in on it, and people knew what was going on?

Jeff Dwoskin 32:01

I think they answered that a lot. Yeah. Okay. Yeah,

Bari Alyse 32:04

I think they did hint at it. Because absolutely, that was the case. I mean, I never was in one of those situations, but I know people who were and who reported it, and got zero help with it, you know, it was either leave, you can leave, or you can figure it out, like this is how, you know, you have to figure it out how to get along with people. So it was you know, you have daughters, so I feel like I don't why, if I could appeal to that part of you that it's like, you know, it's sometimes I think men blow it off as like, it's nothing. But if it was your kid, or your wife who's just trying to like make their way up the ladder doing the right thing, so unfair to be in these situations, even if you aren't a person playing along the fact that your colleagues are and then they're promoted two or three times, and you're not in those scenarios. I'm not saying that's always the reason, but I saw it happen a lot. But we all my friends and I realized, like we were idealistic, we thought like, Oh, we're in journalism, and we're with these all the best journalists, and we just didn't even consider that that kind of stuff was going on. Until it was too obvious to obvious that it wasn't

Jeff Dwoskin 33:11

Sorry to interrupt, but we have to take a quick break. I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to the amazing berry Elise, we got more stories for you coming up right now.

Bari Alyse 33:29

So when I was working at Dateline, I was doing standup at night because I was like, I needed a break from the sort of seriousness of Oh, and I was on Dateline when it was like a 60 minutes or 48 hours not the murder mystery that it is now. Got it. So yeah, so then I started doing stand up at night, and I'm sure from some of your other interviews, you know, so I feel like I was in two really weird Sodom and Gomorrah environments because the Stan of environment is like, oh my god, there's as you know, no HR, no rules, no nothing of any kind of appropriate behavior. So yeah, my intro to New York City in my 20s was definitely like I always think like, how different would my life be if I worked like an insurance or some banking or something, but I don't know banking? I think people are sleazy, too.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:15

I hear in insurance you still got to sleep with the guys to get the good deals.

Bari Alyse 34:23

But I feel like you know, I don't know something that was just that was boring and like followed HR rules. My husband actually works in insurance. And when I met him I was living in LA and he he would say to me, your industry is one big HR abuse after another like he couldn't believe the stories and the stuff he saw or even just the hours we worked, but neither here nor there. So I but I can tell you like then at some point I went and worked on those daytime talk shows after I did news, and there I saw some of the craziest Shi T.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:56

We talked in Kearney Wilson's show yeah month.

Bari Alyse 34:59

Tell Williams was one that was really that corny, too. But Montel Williams I had a lady who she liked my friends from that show we still like sometimes we'll say red shoes we like quote some of these incidents to each other. What happened I had these red high heeled shoes on that actually a friend had given me weren't even something i at the time had the kind of money to buy, they were like fancy, I think Ferragamo shoes. And this lady who was going to be a guest said right before we were putting her on, I'm not gonna go out there unless you let me wear your shoes. And I'm like, I'm not putting a talk show guests in my shoes. Like what? You know, no, go on stage and do what you're here to do. Right? But she's like, I'm not going out there unless you give me your shoes. And then I had a boss saying just give her your shoes. I'm like, I don't want this. You know, I didn't say but like skanky lady with her feet, my shoes. Like that's so gross. So I wouldn't let her have my shoes. I tried to find her another pair of red high heeled shoes to go on. But it was funny on those talk shows, they used to have a seat of the people before we flew them out. And when they went out to do their segment, they'd have a say, now remember, if you don't show up, or if you don't deliver the story, you said you're gonna deliver, we will sue you for the the cost of the production, which is over $100,000 You'll be sued. These people didn't even have telephones, we had to call them at payphones that they would come at a certain time down the street. Okay, so we're like, how big of a threat is it to tell someone who doesn't even have a telephone line in their apartment that you're going to sue them for a couple $100,000 for the cost of the production? Like I don't really think that's an effective threat. But anyway, yeah. So I had to like cajole that lady to get get out there and not in my shoes. We had another whole crazy situation. I don't want me to every story sound like about sex. But we had this guest coming on. It was from a news story, a serious news story. It was the Oklahoma City bombing actually. And he had lost two kids in the daycare. And you would think this should be a bereft sad, you know, grieving father and I had booked him and flew him to New York. And right before he got on the plane, he told me that the reason he did our show and sort of Oprah or Geraldo who were all there looking for guests, Montel wasn't there. It was just our staff. He said he did the show because of a certain part of my anatomy. And he asked me if I would literally below him in me, dropping him off at the airports flooded New York, and I was like, You, oh, my Eli, I'm not doing that for someone famous. I'm definitely not doing it for like the truck driver from Oklahoma City. You know what I mean? Right?

Jeff Dwoskin 37:35

If you're not letting someone step in your shoes, you need an app that you didn't even have to say you weren't gonna do that. Yeah. I'm

Bari Alyse 37:41

not following people that are like rock stars, like people that maybe it's attractive, like, you know, so I'm like, no, like, that's not how it works. You signed the papers, you're going to New York, and he's like, Well, I'm not going to do the show. Unless bla bla bla, then he tries to ask me if I would at least touch him. I'm like, get out of the car. And I call the person in New York who was going to get him on the other side. And I say, Just be really careful. Don't send any pretty pas to get him production assistance. I say send some guys to get him at the airport. Because he's like, you know, after days of helping him calling people for the funeral, helping them pick a coffin. All these things. I felt so sorry for this guy. He's asking me for like sexual crap in the car. So I told them don't send any the female pa send the boys. Well, they did send one girl. And sure enough, he hit on her on that side. And then we had to keep him babysat at a hotel overnight in New York, because they were worried he was gonna just like run up and down the streets of New York and find hookers. I mean, he needed him on the show the next day. Meanwhile, he was our segment one, two, he was our sympathetic story, you know, because he lost two children. And I said to him, you lost two little kids, like should your focus be there? He's like, Oh, I've got 12 Kids, which we had no idea. So it's, you know, I thought it was a sad story when he lost his two kids, but he acted like, I've got 10 others. We then obviously we didn't put that on the air. But it was a nightmare trying to get this guy to come out and do his segment wanting to win now we all knew that he was a total predator and a pig but we're still supposed to be treating him with like kid gloves and like, oh, this poor bereaved father, you know, oh my god, that was a nightmare like the biggest nightmare was trying to not let our executive producer know that this was all going on. So myself and some of the younger staff all like keeping it amongst ourselves but trying to like make sure he was babysat. And in his room and that he was going to get to the studio the next day. The worst. That

Jeff Dwoskin 39:32

is an insane story.

Bari Alyse 39:34

It is right. Oh, I had I I proved my friend Tommy Tommy. I won't say his last name. But Tommy See, he would say he remembers the exact the whole story and I had a PA with me Dominic, who still works in television, and he knew and we all were just like floored because I felt sorry for the guy. I was like fighting for him to get money to get a funeral suit and stuff with my executive producer. I was like, I felt so badly for him. He lost two kids and he couldn't get into to his apartment. And meanwhile, he was totally playing all of us. I mean, he did lose two kids. That was true. But he was like, but a man's a man. And it was the grossest thing. That just brings me to say, I don't know how many people you've talked to you that have produced, like daytime talk shows, but in and of themselves, it's such a crazy environment, because you're literally banking on the most unstable people the most, like they don't have telephones, they're, they don't have jobs, necessarily some of the worst behaved people that they might even be coming on to talk about some really bad behavior, and you're counting on them to be a professional to get on a plane to show up at this time to be at the studio at this time to say what they say they're going to say, I mean, it is such a nightmare to produce those kind of guests because at least you know, like a celebrity wants to be there. They want to promote their next book or their movie or whatever. There's a there careers involved and problems is involved these other people, it's like a wild card.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:59

Wow. Was was a was the was the other one that Carnie Wilson was was tamer or is that just as crazy? That was a

Bari Alyse 41:09

little tamer, I will say, well, when they pitched Carnie Wilson like, to me, I was still working on Intel, and they pitched it like it was gonna be the Rosie O'Donnell Show, which they replaced it with a year later. So they're like, oh, carnies gonna do celebrity interviews, and we're gonna do like fun stuff and like, go to the mall and do fun, you know, shoots with people and games, and I thought, Okay, well, that'll be better than the daytime stuff, which I hated. I mean, I only went to daytime because they made me head of the news producing at Montel. And I'd come from a news background, so I thought that would be fun. But then instead, it turned into like, just a copy of the Ricki Lake Show. So every day it was like, I have a crush on my friend, I have a crush on my neighbor. I have a crush on my coworker like these were the shows of week after week. I have to do after like covering Oklahoma City bombing after working at Dateline NBC on like, major crashing news stories. So it was pretty mind numbing to every week have to do a crush show. But then eventually, I just tried to make it fun for myself by like booking people that I would know one of the people and tell them like so who has a crush, and we'll bring him on the show. Like just it was so stupid. But carne herself was very nice. But the show itself, the quality was like ridiculous. And then they signed Rosie Warner Brothers, who were our bosses, they signed Rosie and they gave her the hour that Kearney used to be on in and then we were all out of a job, which is what happens with these TV shows like that's why you're lucky if you're on a letterman or like a Kimmel, once it's running, you don't really want to leave because so many shows get one season and they're done. So you know, when you're on a show that's actually existing, you kind of want to stay there. But the flip side of it is and I don't mean Letterman or Kimmel. But the flip side of that, let's say for daytime shows is that the topic matter is so insipid and so stupid, that it's mind numbing, and you're like, Wait, am I did I go to school and study television and broadcast journalism like or am I working at the DMV? Because the people you're dealing with feel like you're at the DMV. See, these are things that I shouldn't say if I wanted to work on another daytime show, but I don't give a shit because I don't so what

Jeff Dwoskin 43:12

about Al Franken work? Let's talk about Al Franken and let's talk about your podcast. Oh,

Bari Alyse 43:18

okay. Well, Al Franken was that was for me a dream to get to work with Al Franken. This is before he was in the Senate. He was after Saturday Night Live. And he already had the movie out when a man loves a woman, the audio biographical movie, and he was pitching a show called Lateline. And it was a show that was made him like an anchorman. And it was sort of a take off of like Nightline, but a little bit Dateline. But it was really like supposed to be like a Nightline kind of show. And he was the anchor. And I was trying to get into writing for sitcoms I really didn't want to do. I never wanted to do daytime talk shows I wanted to do late night and comedy, but because I didn't get hired in any of those. This was like a big opportunity for me that he said, if you work with me, and my executive producer, who was John Marcus and Jamarcus did Golden Girls, and what was the other big one Golden Girls and another really big I'm not I don't think it was that. But he was EP of fish. It was also one of the EPS on Cosby. I could be wrong, but I have to google that. But anyway, he was a big executive producer. And he was signed on to do this show with Al and it was owl and John and John had an assistant named Jessica and Al said if you come on as my sort of like writer's assistant, you know, then if the show gets picked up, you know, we can bring you on as a full writer's assistant, move you up to writer and I was like, Oh my God, you know, there was the first person that offered that to me in New York because I kept trying to get jobs and some of the late night shows in New York. And you know, I was a comedian. I was a producer, but I wasn't getting to do the comedy producing so I worked with them. It was just four of us in an office which was like really fun because I always looked up to aL Frank and I thought he was really, really funny on SNL, I thought he was really smart. And you know, I've watched him since I was a kid. So to get to work like that closely with him was kind of thrilling to me even though you know, some people would goof on an owl or whatever, but I just thought he, he's brilliant. And he's so funny and so quick witted. And he was so nice. So anyway, we worked together. And I told the story when all the nonsense was going on around him in the, you know, the that girl that Fox News girl, like pretending that he had messed with her and all that I had written this story, and it went a little viral. He's the only person I've ever worked with in television that apologized to me. And he didn't even have to apologize to me. Like he didn't need to, but he literally apologized to me for raising his voice at me. I mean, that's like how good of a person he is. You know what I mean? And when he did, I said to him, like, you don't have to apologize. Like I was slow writing out the scripts. And I thought I was fast would be faster. And I'm disappointed that I wasn't as fast as you needed me to be. But he was like, No, I have a daughter, I have a wife. I would never want anyone to talk to one of them like that. I'm was that a line? I shouldn't have talked to you like that. And I'm like, Oh, my God. I've worked with so many. At that point. I've worked with so many on air people. And even just executives. No one apologizes ever for anything. But here's this guy like an hour later out to dinner calling me because he felt bad that he thought he raised his voice to me, and that it was uncalled for. And it was it was barely raising his voice when I tell you like, it's some of the things I've seen. And that's

Jeff Dwoskin 46:31

good to hear. I love Ken, I think he's awesome. Yeah, he's such a

Bari Alyse 46:35

sweetheart and so smart, and just always on the right side of things. And that's why that was so disturbing to watch him being taken down. But anyway, I loved working with him. And then what happened was, I got an offer from the Keenen Ivory Wayans show to be their comedy producer in LA and Lateline. The pilot had been picked up but not the 13 episodes. So I didn't know what to do, because I didn't want to leave them. But Kenan had like 40, I think 44 weeks cleared or 40 weeks. So I asked Alan John, what they thought I should do. And they said it, you know, we want you here. But if you get that job, that's 40 Guaranteed weeks of work, you should take it so they gave me their permission to fly out to LA and interview. And I flew on the weekend, like on a Friday came back on Sunday met with the senior supervising producer on a Saturday. And then they offered me the job and I had to like pack up, give away all my stuff in New York, you'd be there in 10 days, you know. And then we started the Kenyan show, which was a really fun, like it was the first time I got to work on a late night show as a writer producer. Every other time I was either a page or something not a writer or a producer. So it was really like felt like oh my god, I'm finally getting to do what I've been wanting to do. You know, even though I have to move 3000 miles to do it, and leave all my friends and leave all my furniture and whatever. I thought it was the best thing ever. And I thought from there, I'll only be working late night comedy and sober sitcoms, but doesn't always work out like that. But I worked on the show until it was canceled. And then I worked on the John Salley show, but the Kenan show was so funny, because there was a, there was also I don't know if this, I'm telling all the stories that are like so bad. There's also a lot of sexual misconduct happening there at that show. And so we were always late to tape because of things that were going on leading up to our five o'clock tape time. And so it became known around Hollywood and some of the best, publicists wouldn't give us their guests anymore, because they're like, they don't want to sit in a waiting room in a green room for two and a half hours, while whatever goes on over there. So yeah, that was problematic. But when we first started working there, I thought like, this is the best show I've ever worked at, because it was the first show that had a green room that had sushi and an open bar. Like it's sort of started that where they wanted it to be like, we want this to be the place that people want to come to and hang out, you know, and like have it be the hippest show in town. Now I think every show has an open bar in their green room. But we were the first and at the time, it did feel like wow, we're in the center of like, all the coolest stuff. We had great guests, and we had this all girl band, and it was very cool show to work on but I wish it lasted longer ladies of the night. Is that the name of the band? looked it up. Thank you. I didn't remember that. No, I

Jeff Dwoskin 49:20

just knew it. Oh, you knew it? Of course.

Bari Alyse 49:24

Well, I was gonna say it was funny because we had the old girls band and they dressed really sexy. And one of my jobs i My job was to put the comedians on the show and pick the comedians for the show. And I was also supposed to pick like musical guests and variety acts that were different that Kenyans thing was he wanted people that had never been on late night TV before and he wanted people that were not white. So he wanted to give a break to like, you know, Latino, black Asian people that hadn't yet made a late night debuts they couldn't have been on Leno or Letterman but they needed to be ready with five minutes and there's a really small parameter of people even probably now that fit that bill, you know, like if they're good enough, they've been on the other shows, and if there haven't been on the other shows, they probably don't really have a solid five minutes yet. So there was a small group of people to pick from, but getting back to the band. One thing that was really I remember so funny to me was now everybody knows the Pussycat Dolls, like that act has been around, but at the time when I moved out there in 1997, they had never been on TV. They just performed cabaret. So because I was booking all those kinds of acts to I got a video of theirs and I thought Christina Applegate, I think was guesting in it she was like the only guest celebrity at that point, it became more like every actress in Hollywood eventually did but so I watched the tape and they're in the sexy outfits, but they're like, you know, really dancing very cool nightclub. And I thought this is perfect, you know, for our show. And from one of our so I pitched it and some of the executive producers were like, Are you kidding me? No, there's no way we could put that on. It's way too sexual. And I was like, really? We have a band of women that are like wearing leotards, you know, like, I don't know why this is worse than that. And we have the band every night and the band was dressed up very sexy, but they wouldn't go for it. And I always thought like that. And another thing I pitched that I thought they're nuts not to take and became huge as ozomatli. You know, the band was a motley Oh, yeah, it was a motley. Yeah, so that was pitched to me when they were just like a nightclub band on the Sunset Strip. And I was like, Oh, my God, their sound is so unique and so different. And I tried to get that on the show, but couldn't get it on the show. And I, I always look back, whenever I hear of Pussycat Dolls, or Oza Motley that became sort of, I would say, I don't know if household names is the word but like people who watch TV no of them. And I always think like, they could have had that. But just let it go. You know. And there's, that's so much of what television is like, I think by the time we get to see people that have broken through, they're sort of already out there. And nobody wants to take a chance on the stuff that's that, you know, nobody wants to be the first one. Let's put it that way to put something on. Even when I was a Dateline, it felt like that, like nobody wants to, they want to wait till the New York Times breaks the story before they put it on. And that's something that always bugged me about television production, because I felt like the whole get is getting the person that no one's had on yet. Like breaking someone to the to an audience and being the first show to like, bring this person out there. But that wasn't the that wasn't the way things went. Well, you

Jeff Dwoskin 52:31

tried. You almost broke the Pussycat Dolls to the world. So we we thank you for almost doing that.

Bari Alyse 52:39

I know it sounds so silly now. But it's just weird when you're like being told when we can't have that it's too sexy, or like, look at our band. Like isn't that the whole point of this show? Like sexy women? I don't know, to me doesn't make a lot of sense. Like I'm sure other people who've been here, whether they've acted or been on the other side have probably met come to that conclusion, right? Nothing

Jeff Dwoskin 52:58

is what you ever hope it is. You know, things, everything just kind of works. Everything happens. And then we look back and go oh, that was brilliant. Right and brilliant. Let's talk about community news. Your podcast with Paul. Oh, Sasha.

Bari Alyse 53:13

Thank you, Jeff. I feel like those stories I told you weren't very good. They were all boring. I love every one of those stories. For real. Oh, you're next year really? Nice. That's why everyone loves him. He's nice. But so community news with Paul and Sasha is a podcast I do with a partner who I shared an office with at Warner Brothers in New York over 25 years ago. And we were producers on the Carnie Wilson show together and we had kind of like a funny chemistry then I mean, he's just a really funny guy. And years later, he went on to produce a bunch of shows he produced actually Donnie and Marie and Penn and Teller and this other show that's not well known called rfl. And Fred but it was Arthel Neville and Fred somebody Willard, no Fred somebody I don't know. But Donnie and Marie he was like senior supervising producer of and he loves that show. But so we worked on lnd worked on Richard Bay too and so did I but at different times. So we never worked together again after Kearney but we were in touch we both moved to LA around the same time. And then years later, like Facebook brought us back in touch and we kept talking about we should do podcast, but we we've thought like we should do an interview podcasts like what you're doing and I think you do it really well but there's a lot of people that do it and it's just a lot of the same stuff like yours is not that I really like yours. That's why I listened to yours the first time and then I listened to too many more. He thought no, we should do something that's like a little different. So at first we were going to do a show we came up with an idea of doing something like as seen on Facebook and we were going to do a show kind of just riffing and goofing on all the like latest Facebook trends and whatnot. But anyway, then we decided to make it more of a story because what we would love to do, maybe some will be listing we would love to sell it as a TV show. But we thought let's make like a whole town and a backstory, whatever. So we we both play characters. We're Paul and Sasha and we are these community news podcast hosts in a small town we call the town town port, and it's based on Westport, Connecticut, where I used to live was about 23,000 people that live there. Although Shonda Rhimes moved there after I left, and I was thinking maybe Shonda Rhimes can make the black community news into it because she has power to make television shows. But anyway, she moved into someone's house that we know there. So we play these two we sort of we sort of semi autobiographical and semi fictional we played it is like to former TV show producers and comedians who are now stay at home parents in a small town in Connecticut, and dealing with all the nonsense that we all deal with, right? When you're raising kids like PTAs, and school nonsense, and neighbors and town ordinances and all this, we felt let's just see if anyone thinks funny. And we couldn't believe that like people from not just suburbs, but cities, people all over the world are listening to us. I'm sure they already YouTube. And it's just fascinating. And we're like, how is this entertaining to people in China and Singapore and all over the world, Netherlands, but it is, and we're glad about that. So they're short shows. They're like under 20 minutes each. And we have like some running jokes and running through lines, but someone could pick up anywhere and pretty much get it. And I don't know that makes us happy hearing from people that say that the show made them laugh that's been like the one project I've had through COVID and before COVID, and for the past five years, but I would love it if we could do something more with it. But in the meantime, it's just a podcast. And if anyone wants to listen, they can find it community news podcast with Paul and Sasha, and I play Sasha.

Jeff Dwoskin 56:43

Yeah, it's amazing. Over 300 episodes, they're right there. They're about 15 minutes average. So you can burn through and become addicted pretty quick on your daily walk. Especially if you had to x like I do, you can knock off almost half a CS.

Bari Alyse 57:05

And that's when they're doing their laundry when they're walking.

Jeff Dwoskin 57:09

And you do you have great chemistry with your guys. It's a really fun podcast. So yeah, definitely. Hopefully Shonda Rhimes will catch on and and

Bari Alyse 57:22

yeah, it's I hope some people give it a listen. It's a fun show to do. And if you're just a person on the planet, there's stuff you can relate to on it. I think we're just talking about like, every day, nonsense and whatnot. And there's some running characters and we've had some friends come on and play some of the characters but mostly, it's just these two talking about day to day life from the suburbs.

Jeff Dwoskin 57:44

It's super fun everyone check it out. I'll put links in the show notes. So you can it will try and find that Aerosmith YouTube clip of bear will look

Bari Alyse 57:53

for that me and the lesbian poetry like room which now that would be not PC right. Would that be PC that they were performing in a lesbian and poetry night?

Jeff Dwoskin 58:03

I don't even know. I don't know. The

Bari Alyse 58:06

gender roles. I don't know if that's like okay, not okay. But I should look for that again. Cuz I looked a few years ago, I couldn't find it. And just for a little fun side note that Joe Perry that night had a crush on my high school friend. And that funny yeah, he like hit on her during the show. But then he hit it on her afterwards at the wrap party and of all those other salacious stories. I told you, that was one that we were excited about. Because it wasn't like she was just an extra. It wasn't like he was doing something. You know, it wasn't like they worked together.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:33

I love it. So many great stories. Thanks for hanging out with me, Bari. I appreciate it.

Bari Alyse 58:39

I hope I was interesting enough. I'm thinking that I tell the good stories. I don't know the red shoes.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:45

I love the red shoe story. She wanted to walk a mile in your shoes, and you shut her down. You're like, not on my watch.

Bari Alyse 58:53

I'm gonna say how many jobs do any of us have? Or someone demands that they'll only do their job if you'll give them your shoes like what the fuck? There was just a point where I'm like, you know, you have to give everything for these jobs. But there's a point where you have a limit. That was my limit. That an oral sex to some rando guy in a car. Those are my limits.

Jeff Dwoskin 59:14

Don't care if you just lost half your family you did not come crawling to bury she that's not enough. That is

Bari Alyse 59:23

a blow jobs for me. So all

Jeff Dwoskin 59:26

right, well, this television barrier Awesome. Thank you so much.

Bari Alyse 59:31

It was nice to talk to you Jeff. Thank you for having me. Hi.

Jeff Dwoskin 59:35

How amazing is Bari sharing so many amazing stories from her career unfiltered? Definitely. Check out Bari's community news podcast. It is a great great great podcast love it. Well the interview over a guy me one thing I know another episode has come to an end. Thank you very much to my friend Bari Alyse for hanging out with me. And thanks all of you for coming back week after week means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 1:00:06

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