Carol Leifer

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Speaker 2 Folks, I like that word. Folks.

Speaker 1 That's what a lot of politicians say. They go, they go, for the folks at home.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 2 that's true. You know what?

Speaker 1 They don't say, you can't say men or women. They say for the folks at home.

Speaker 2 It's a good word for Obama. Folks are hurting.
Folks, folks aren't sure how to pay the bill. That's what folks are doing.

Speaker 1 Folks are feeling the pinch.

Speaker 2 Folks are feeling the pain. Folks, it's definitely a lot of politicians use use it.
It's kind of a homey thing. But folks, we have a super guest today on super, super flying the ball.

Speaker 2 Carol Leefer is with us,

Speaker 2 who's a mainstream of comedy

Speaker 2 from 1981 or two. She was on David Letterman, and she's worked as a stand-up.
And also, David, her writing career.

Speaker 1 Huge writing career. Seinfeld.
Seinfeld to hacks presently where they're winning Anderson.

Speaker 2 Some of the Kirby enthusiasts are doing well.

Speaker 2 Good friends with Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. And she has some interesting takes on their relationship.
Teaser Alert.

Speaker 1 She has a book out, Dana. It's called How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding, a Bar Mitzvah, or Birthday, or Any Other Event You Didn't Want to Go To in the First Place by Carol Leafer.

Speaker 1 We laughed a lot during this one because she's a stand-up that you knew in the old days. I've known her recently, and I just saw her at the Laugh Factory, actually.

Speaker 1 So, very funny,

Speaker 1 great storyteller, exactly what we want in this show.

Speaker 2 Yes, and also, one last thing: the sort of famous season of 1985,

Speaker 2 she was there writing, and she'll talk about

Speaker 2 Robert Downey Jr. at like 19 years of age, skating down the hall, and stuff like that.
So, it's really fun. She's super likable.
I've known her for longer than I want to remember.

Speaker 1 15 years.

Speaker 2 Please enjoy the one and only Carol Leaf Her.

Speaker 4 You mean the set that I did for the tonight show?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, it's a bit of a saga because.

Speaker 4 You know, Letterman saw me on the big New York laugh off.

Speaker 3 Oh, the laugh off.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah, because, you know, in our day, that's how you got people to pay attention to you. You did contact.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 he saw the big laugh off. You know, that's the one where

Speaker 4 Eddie Murphy came in fifth and I came in fourth.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 4 So he had seen me on the big laugh off and he recommended me to Jim McCauley, as you know, the talent booker for the tonight show.

Speaker 4 And then they passed.

Speaker 4 And then probably when I saw you, Dana, they saw me again and they passed. And I auditioned 22 times until I finally got the tonight show in 1992, right before Johnny left.

Speaker 1 Never even heard of that. That's that many times.
I've never heard of that.

Speaker 3 Over a decade? Or what's the timeframe of the 22 auditions?

Speaker 4 i would say from 1980 to 92 but what was happening also was

Speaker 4 it is that um you know i was doing letterman a lot during those years so tonight show also saw me as a letterman act so that did in my way but it just became like i don't know should i wear a dress the next time okay oh yeah like it just became a bit of like

Speaker 4 okay I guess I'll go out there again.

Speaker 1 And it's always Macaulay.

Speaker 4 It was always Macaulay. Yeah.
I mean, you remember how powerful he is.

Speaker 3 Of course, great and powerful odds. I didn't even try.
They just like, you don't, you don't, you don't got it. Don't even audition.
Just, yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, I was doing characters and stuff, and they like jokes. I was just going to ask you, from a personal point of view, what kind of stand-up in your head were you in 92 compared to 1980?

Speaker 4 Well, i was much more

Speaker 4 you know you have 12 years of experience as you know i mean you get better every year and at that time in new york i mean you guys didn't come up in the new york scene but you could do eight sets on a saturday night

Speaker 3 well i don't do that in a year

Speaker 4 it sounds preposterous but it's true yeah i've heard that i've heard that yeah you know with all all the different comedy clubs, I mean, you'd have, you know, a 710 here, an eight, you know, 8.15 here.

Speaker 4 It just went on and on and on. So I just was a better comedian.
But like, wait a minute. So, David, you never did the tonight show with Johnny.

Speaker 3 I did, but I came out as a guest from Saturday Night Live. I never came out behind the curtain and did that terrifying thing.
What I want to ask you, two things about those days.

Speaker 3 Did you ever say and step on it to the cab driver in New York? And did you ever get so good that like, Leafers here?

Speaker 3 Like, you, because I think confidence, you know, Eddie Murphy had peak confidence at 19. He has it now.
There are certain people, Sandler, took me a long time, but when you get the confidence,

Speaker 3 it's fun. Do you ever walk in and go, I'm the shit, man.
Fuck you, people.

Speaker 3 I've heard her say that. Okay, two questions.
Step on it.

Speaker 3 I'm about to have a baby. Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 4 Step on it was definitely something. And I learned in many different languages to communicate with all of the cam drivers.

Speaker 4 But I think by 92, you know,

Speaker 4 I remember it was just, I had done the New Year show with Leno

Speaker 4 before. And I just feel like they kind of felt like, oh, we got to put her on.
I mean, this is ridiculous already.

Speaker 1 It's such an omission at this point. It looks weird.

Speaker 3 So who were your peers? It was Elaine Boozler.

Speaker 1 Who were your female peers?

Speaker 4 Elaine Boozler was actually not my female peer. She was before me.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And I got into stand-up because one of the big reasons was because of Elaine. You know, I'm sure people have talked about on your pod that.
Not, not really enough.

Speaker 3 Not that much. Yeah.
She was the, yeah, the top, the female stand-up that when I've, in those early days, she was. Yeah.

Speaker 4 She was on the cover of New York magazine and,

Speaker 4 you know, funny girl. And it just kind of changed.

Speaker 4 I was like, oh, if this, you know, woman can do it, like maybe I can do it. I remember Seinfeld and I talking about that cover.

Speaker 4 It had an impact on him in wanting to go into stand-up because it was a new,

Speaker 4 uh, new type of woman and person going into stand-up.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the 70s is when it all kind of shifted and what was allowed. And then lately, I don't want to jump too far ahead, but we have a lot of our great women comedians or call them comedians.

Speaker 3 Comedians.

Speaker 1 It's all about the same now, but it was more differentiated.

Speaker 3 And there's a liberation of really being as hardcore as the men. It's just been a shift where the audience, you know, the women are more,

Speaker 3 they can be sexual,

Speaker 3 they can step outside the lines. But you were kind of riding that wave and you had Phyllis Diller.
not Phyllis Diller. She's a little more back there.
Joan Rivers.

Speaker 3 She was quite a, you know, she was sort of body and intense.

Speaker 4 yes um and joe rivers was great but i think what differentiated her from my generation was you know it was a very like am i right ladies you know

Speaker 6 can we talk elizabeth taylor dog

Speaker 3 she said five facelifts and a boob job please can we talk can we talk barbara bush is not sexy can we talk i mean

Speaker 1 yeah barbara bush not was rosie o'donnell around then or was that a little bit?

Speaker 4 Rosie O'Donnell came a little after me. But, you know, my peers were like Rita Rudner and Paul Levinstone.

Speaker 4 But I remember with Rita, because we went on a catch rising star together, you know, in those days, they wouldn't put two women on after each other.

Speaker 3 It was like horrifying, horrifying.

Speaker 4 You know, like, okay, there's the singer. then the ventriloquist, then a woman, and we'll have a monkey act, and maybe another woman.
You know, it was just.

Speaker 1 How were two women on the same show? That's revolting to the audience.

Speaker 3 It was, it was revolutionary.

Speaker 1 I worked with Rita. She was a linesmith.
She could write great jokes. It was just boom, boom.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 She is one of the all-time best joke writers for sure.

Speaker 1 Really good joke writer. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Maybe underrated because I don't hear about her enough because I worked with her for a week and I was new and I just kept going, wow, this is, you know, really, I was like, it is just bam, bam, bam, bam.

Speaker 1 Interesting delivery, you know, interesting persona.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah. She works a lot.
She gets a lot of the corporate gigs that I want to get.

Speaker 3 I'm sorry, Magarita.

Speaker 3 All right, let's put that out into the universe.

Speaker 1 Leaper with corporates are fun.

Speaker 3 Yes. Juicy, corporate.
She's clean. She's funny.
She's likable. And she'll go for pictures afterwards without any complaint.

Speaker 1 CEO's kid, even if it's not part of the deal. Can we take a quick picture? Yes.

Speaker 3 You're kind of like, this lane, because you're still here and you started there, and you're getting more famous, and then your resume.

Speaker 3 Um,

Speaker 3 like I only found out this week, and I want to talk about it because there's a whole documentary briefly just about your work as a writer while you were being standard.

Speaker 3 And I don't know what your one was before the 85 season on Saturday Night Live, which did you okay? So, let's just talk about that a little bit, how you got the job.

Speaker 3 And it, you have you seen the documentary about I have seen the documentary.

Speaker 3 uh

Speaker 4 or they what is affectionately unaffectionately called the weird year of s and l

Speaker 4 55 when uh lauren came back and um i remember i auditioned at the comic strip uh to be a performer and uh al franken the great al franken and

Speaker 3 sorry

Speaker 4 and Jim Downey, as you know, famous head writer came

Speaker 4 to for for a showcase. And I did well.
And they came over to me afterwards and they were like, would you want to think about being a writer? And I was like, would I want to be?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 So I lived in California and they said, well, come in and have a meeting with Lauren.

Speaker 4 So I came into New York. I was all ready for my, you know, I had it all planned, you know, an hour of what I could say to, you know, prospective, prospective questions, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 4 And it was literally Lauren was auditioning talent in that big kind of like studio room in Broadway. I don't know, where they held the auditions.

Speaker 4 It always looked like where they would audition dancers for like a chorus line, you know, like, no, and two, three, four, and, you know, but,

Speaker 4 and I came and they said, okay, Lauren's going to meet with you now. He came outside the door of the audition room and he he said, you know, they've said very good things about you.

Speaker 4 I said, oh, thank you. And, you know, the job, I don't do a good Lauren impression, so somebody could do this for me, but all.

Speaker 3 Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3 Let's guess what he said. The job is not easy, but you'll find it's exciting.

Speaker 3 It's that thing of like, you're going to find your voice this year.

Speaker 3 and then you'll go on to like much much bigger things.

Speaker 3 We like you.

Speaker 3 Go ahead. Somebody like.

Speaker 4 like how do you like new york well it was almost exactly like that exactly just

Speaker 4 you have been told that tuesday nights they are late and you you work very late and i went yeah they went okay so it lasted about a minute

Speaker 4 meeting and um and then i was hired um

Speaker 4 yeah it was a cra it I love that documentary about

Speaker 4 the year because it was crazy and it was nutty

Speaker 4 but i still you know i always like to tell young people you know we wrote uh wrote longhand on yellow pads then you'd give it to the trainers me too me too i say that all the time yeah um

Speaker 4 so that was it and then i was really the only woman writer that year but you know it was amazing uh like murderers row of writers like Smigo was an apprentice.

Speaker 3 Whoa.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I always teased him, but apprentice means you need to wear goggles in the writer's room.

Speaker 4 You know, John Swartzwelder and

Speaker 4 Jack Handy and George

Speaker 1 Meyer.

Speaker 4 Meyer and

Speaker 4 Don Novello. And

Speaker 4 it was just amazing. But I've had a lot of stuff on.
I have to say, I look back and it was like, I got, you know, I wrote a lot with Franken.

Speaker 4 We did this sketch quirky.

Speaker 4 Yeah, this Tom Hanks sketch. You know, a lot of people don't know, as you guys know, you can write a sketch and have it at read-through.
And if they pass on it, you can bring it back

Speaker 4 a few more times.

Speaker 1 And it's a little stinky, but you bring it back. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And then Tom Hanks finally,

Speaker 4 yeah, put it over the finish line.

Speaker 1 Who was your cast? I can't remember.

Speaker 3 Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit for people who don't know. But this pivotal year was the first year that Lorne came back

Speaker 3 after leaving with the seminal cast of all time in 1980. It was first year back.
So a lot of pressure. Lorne is back.
We've had the Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Christopher Guest year.

Speaker 3 We had the Eddie years with Joe Piscobo. And now Lorne Michaels is back.
So

Speaker 3 who was on that show?

Speaker 4 Cass. Well, it was

Speaker 4 Dennis Miller, of course.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 3 Thanks for the call. Shout out, Leifer.
Okay.

Speaker 3 Good.

Speaker 4 You know, it was Nora Dunn, Joan Zach,

Speaker 4 Denny Travance.

Speaker 4 Then the guys.

Speaker 1 Was it Terry Sweeney?

Speaker 4 It was Terry Sweeney. It was Randy Quaid.

Speaker 3 Anthony Michael Hall.

Speaker 4 Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., who I just saw at the Oscars.

Speaker 3 Did he remember? I mean, but surely he did, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. He goes, hey, Carol.

Speaker 4 It's like, I remember you skateboarding down the halls of

Speaker 4 the 17th floor.

Speaker 4 Yeah, no, it was, you know, they talk about in the documentary, Lauren hired actors more than comedians. And it's that sort of, oh, and Lovett.

Speaker 4 Slovitz was a cast member and he did really well that year. I think he and Dennis were the, and Nora were the only people that were brought back after that.

Speaker 1 Survived the fire. Yeah.

Speaker 3 People don't, do people know this at the end of the season, they, the some sketch, I was watching it live, and then every, all the cast had to go into a fire, except three of them didn't have to go into the fire.

Speaker 3 I mean, it was really sad. Who wrote that? Al?

Speaker 4 I wish I remembered who wrote that uh

Speaker 4 yeah it was and then do you remember when madonna came back the next year to host she apologized for the entire 85 86 season or like a darling kind of thing my first like a dream studio she was our cold open

Speaker 3 oh that's when you were there dana

Speaker 3 yeah that was third year um

Speaker 4 When did, so was your audition in one of those

Speaker 4 chorus line rehearsal rooms? Like I saw them?

Speaker 3 No, I just, real quickly, I had auditioned at the comedy store in like 20 people with no MC in the original room. And I followed Kennison at midnight.
Before I went on, they said, SNL is here.

Speaker 3 I don't think it was Lauren, but SNL is here.

Speaker 3 I bombed so bad. And Al Franken saw me at the punchline.
I just bombed and bombed. And then

Speaker 3 it was show came around again real fast. I just went to Igbee's.
You remember that little 100-seater? Yes. Rosie O'Donnell was headlining.
I got a hold of Jan Smith.

Speaker 3 I said, Lauren Michaels will come see me because we had the same, my manager was managing him. I was with Bernie Brillstein and Brad Gray.

Speaker 3 So then I met Rosie, who seemed like just

Speaker 3 so confident in New York and everything. I can't believe how young we both were, but I got to do 40 minutes.
Lauren came, brought Brandon Tardikoff, and then Cher.

Speaker 3 And I got 40 minutes in front of a regular audience instead of five following Kennison. And that's kind of how I got the show.

Speaker 4 Wow.

Speaker 1 Did Cher do five? How was her set?

Speaker 3 Cher came out and she had like a sequin dress on and she goes, half funny.

Speaker 3 Half funny.

Speaker 1 Is it a half breed?

Speaker 3 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I like it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you believe I'm 74?

Speaker 3 She's just kind of reaching with the leafer pod. I don't know what she gets it.

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Speaker 7 What's up? It's Draymond Green. I'm back for my 14th NBA season and my podcast, The Draymond Green Show, is back too.

Speaker 7 This season, I'm breaking down games, reacting to the biggest NBA stories, and sitting down with teammates, rivals, and culture shapers. And trust me, I'm not holding back on the court or on the mic.

Speaker 7 Two new episodes every week. New segments, big conversations, real basketball talk for the real hoop heads.
Listen to and follow the Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcast. We're back.

Speaker 7 We're better. Let's get it.

Speaker 4 When did your audition spade? When was yours?

Speaker 1 Thank you. I'll take this question, Dana.

Speaker 3 I'm going to stay quiet because this is where the deal.

Speaker 1 Funny story. I was born in,

Speaker 1 no, I'm kidding, going too far back.

Speaker 3 I went

Speaker 1 with Schneider. It's funny because you were mentioning New York clubs.
I've never played them. And they had us audition off a young comedian special.

Speaker 1 They brought us in to audition at probably Catch Rising Star, if that sounds familiar. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And on a tough night, and they all came in.

Speaker 1 From Downey to maybe Smigel to maybe Franken to

Speaker 1 not Lauren. I don't think Lauren is there.
But I remember it was me, Schneider, Tom Kenney. I always say this like it's negative to Tom Kenney.
It's not negative to Tom Kenney.

Speaker 1 He was a San Francisco act that was very just broader.

Speaker 3 I knew him well, SpongeBob. He killed SpongeBob, and he owns most of Nevada.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But anyway, he's so rich.

Speaker 1 But Dennis Miller was there too, and he was helping. And, you know, before I went on, he goes, I told Dana, he goes, Spud,

Speaker 1 you know, you don't want to kill too hard. They don't want some polished fucking road hack.

Speaker 3 And I go, so don't do good.

Speaker 1 He's like, all right, three, two, one. I'm like, wait, Dennis, what? So anyway, I took his advice, did not do well.

Speaker 1 His advice was the right thing. It just, in the whole complexities of it, all, I didn't really get it.
They were just really looking at the writing of the jokes.

Speaker 1 for me to be a writer, maybe a performer later. I thought I was to be a performer.
So I'm like, yeah,

Speaker 1 I give him the the whole John Bonnet routine, really amping it up. And then afterwards, I got off early because I said, I think I was supposed to do 20.
I did 12, maybe.

Speaker 1 I think Schneider went off early.

Speaker 1 But Tom Kenny did do very well. But Rob and I got the call to come in and

Speaker 1 write, write and perform.

Speaker 4 Oh, wow. But you thought that night you hadn't done well.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 1 I just knew it was a tough night, but it was pretty sparse, you know, and it was probably half, it's probably 15 from SNL and 15 people so regular people so they don't laugh a lot but they're just looking at sort of you know it's the same way i am now i can watch a comic and even not killing i almost don't hear it i just go oh that was a good one oh you know like i like it who cares if they like it i was like i think that's good and well written or something about it you can you can tell like uh name that tune in two jokes you go i think this guy's got some game Yes.

Speaker 1 And so, you know how it is. So at a certain point, you know that, but at that point, I didn't.
But luckily, some of the jokes, they kind of liked how I put them together.

Speaker 1 And that really got me in as a writer that was not ready to be a writer

Speaker 3 with my legal fan. Would you have liked to have been a cast member, Carol? Did you ever think of that or audition for?

Speaker 4 I think, well, you know, the weird year, it was like, I don't know that I want to be a part of

Speaker 1 yourself in the fire at the end.

Speaker 4 But, you know, I feel like that year I had one foot in and one foot out because I really wanted to concentrate on my stand-up. So,

Speaker 4 yeah, I don't think I, I just on the weekend, you know, weeks off, I'd be doing sets and all that.

Speaker 3 So, um,

Speaker 4 yeah, no, certainly maybe if I had been on a more successful year, I would have dreamt about it.

Speaker 1 But did you ever take, do you ever feel weird about taking a stand-up bit and putting it into sketch or feel like you're kind of wasting it and it's a selfish decision to go, do I try to get this on there and then I can never use it again?

Speaker 1 But it would help here.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 4 I didn't really have

Speaker 4 that fear because, as you boys know, you know, you got to get stuff on

Speaker 4 or it's a very bad feeling there, you know.

Speaker 3 That's a good way to put it.

Speaker 3 I'm not getting things on.

Speaker 1 And people start ignoring you. And it's like, oh, no, they go, you're not even a formidable opponent here.
You're just,

Speaker 1 you want to get on. So it's, of course, goes into the show if it can.

Speaker 4 Exactly. So I always felt like if I had to take for my act, dig away.
Because

Speaker 4 if it keeps you alive at the show, 100%.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's so crazy, but people don't think of that, but it is a weird thing goes through your head. You're like, because you're running out of ideas quickly.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Every host looks the same. And you're like, wait, I got a,

Speaker 1 I got this guy. And the next week it's Corbin Burnson.
And then it's, you know, I think I had.

Speaker 3 Corbin Corbin Burnson was there when I did it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was, I think he was an overlapping guy.

Speaker 3 Great guy. I think he was the third host.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And

Speaker 1 funny.

Speaker 4 And I just,

Speaker 4 sorry, I'm showdropping the Oscars a couple of times. Please do.

Speaker 3 John Litho

Speaker 4 was

Speaker 4 presenting this year. And I saw him, the writers hanging out in the green room.
And I saw him and I said, you guest hosted the year that I wrote on SNL.

Speaker 4 And he was like, Oh, you know, he likes, well, he was very sweet. He was like, Oh, you must have been a young child when you worked there.
I said, Yes, of course, child labor. But

Speaker 4 no, I told him that, you know, he was such a great host.

Speaker 4 He learned every writer's name that week, and he was incredible. And he remembered the sketch that

Speaker 4 we had written for him.

Speaker 1 That got on.

Speaker 3 yeah yeah so he was he was amazing and still is did you ever so what other can you tell us about the oscars you were at the oscars i wrote

Speaker 3 yeah i wrote on the oscars and you wrote so conan's team brought you in or whatever or how does it work

Speaker 4 and then um this is my 11th time i was part is there writers that come with

Speaker 1 a lot for the oscars over the years Yeah, yeah, are you baked in and then Conan can bring some extra people? Is that how it works?

Speaker 4 No, Conan has his own team of people.

Speaker 4 And then there's a show team that I'm part of.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 4 I don't know if you guys know this guy, John Max. He's the head writer of many, many great.

Speaker 4 He's the guy to go to for your award shows.

Speaker 3 And yeah.

Speaker 4 And then we.

Speaker 3 Ms.

Speaker 1 Valanche in there?

Speaker 4 No, no, Bruce Valanch. But

Speaker 4 yeah, it's a good group and it's fun. You guys know it's fun writing.

Speaker 1 Of course.

Speaker 3 Well, Conan, who's the greatest host that you've written for

Speaker 4 did you write for billy did you write for billy yes i wrote for billy a couple times billy's great i'm going to say on this podcast they've all been great yeah

Speaker 3 i loved billy's um broadway songs about the current movies

Speaker 3 i'm a wicked man you know i mean it's so but billy was just great, great host.

Speaker 1 I don't know if he was the first one to go into the movies and be like, they'd use the actors or the real movie. He'd be inside of them.
Yeah, he was in an air. That was funny as shit.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 I love those. Yeah.
Well,

Speaker 4 Troy Miller used to direct.

Speaker 3 Oh, right.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And I loved Conan's substance

Speaker 3 parody.

Speaker 4 How funny was that?

Speaker 3 That was, because for people who haven't seen the movie, he crawled out of, in the movie, Demi Moore sort of becomes

Speaker 3 a walking corpse or like a monster. Anyway, he climbed out of her backside to start the 119th Oscar show.
His head is, I mean,

Speaker 3 it was definitely catching. It was like, okay, we got something different here.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 But even I loved his,

Speaker 4 his musical number was a lot like,

Speaker 4 it reminded me of the great Billy stuff too, like that.

Speaker 3 He was

Speaker 3 great.

Speaker 1 I thought for Conan, it was a a little edgier than normal for him to say, like, it's halftime. Usually Kendrick would be calling Drake a pedophile.

Speaker 1 I'm like, a pedophile joke is kind of a lot for the Oscars and Conan. I was fine with it, but I thought, oh, good, at least he's out of the box a little bit.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It was.

Speaker 4 Look, funny is funny, but I agree that

Speaker 1 I'm saying I'm just surprised sometimes they don't, they, they tamp down a few things at different shows. You know, they go, I don't know if that's what we do here, the kind of thing.

Speaker 1 But at least they're saying, hey, it's getting harder and harder to get people to watch. Let's just go crazy.
Some of these things pay off these days. Like, get out there and shake it up.

Speaker 4 Exactly.

Speaker 1 It's fun to have more free reign. It's hard to get jokes killed.
It's like, ah, come on, come on.

Speaker 3 So, just so the people familiarize, so you wrote 12 times for the Oscars. You wrote for Seinfeld.
I mean, can we talk about that a little bit? Has Jerry changed? Has Jerry changed?

Speaker 3 we know him pretty well we had him on the podcast yes I heard I heard it it was great

Speaker 3 yeah um Jerry Jerry um he

Speaker 4 is a great great guy he made all my dreams come true a couple of weeks ago because I was in New York

Speaker 4 and

Speaker 4 As you can see, I'm a big Beatles fan.

Speaker 3 I have don't get me started.

Speaker 1 Did you go to

Speaker 1 the Bowery or something?

Speaker 3 Yes, yes. Oh,

Speaker 1 how great yeah

Speaker 4 and not only did we i go with him to see mccartney at the bowery ballroom but afterwards there was a little after party and he introduced me to um

Speaker 4 that's as good as it gets yeah and he said my name he said hello carol

Speaker 4 and kissed me on the cheek.

Speaker 3 Whoa. He kissed you on the cheek?

Speaker 4 Kissed me on the cheek. yeah

Speaker 3 he doesn't do that to her

Speaker 3 yeah i haven't seen it i know so seemed like a really nice lady you know so i get a little i gave her a pecker on her cheekies you know just to kind of cheer up the whole room you know then david sped came over

Speaker 1 not as impressive as carol well you guys i have to say this is would you say that so as far as musical living legends, I'd say McCartney, there's Mick Jagger, there's, I mean, there's a couple, but those two definitely could be the top two, or I'm sure I'm spacing on some people, but Ringo.

Speaker 1 I mean, if you're in the Beatles, you're up there, of course. Yes.

Speaker 1 And Mick is such a, just a worldwide phenomenon of,

Speaker 1 you know, legends. So who else is up there? Like, it's still, because when you see Paul, you just get like shook a bit.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm going to ask you. I want to ask you about your introduction to the Beatles and your lifelong love affair because I was, we're in the same age group and then to meet him later on.

Speaker 3 But to me, I'm sorry, there's just the Beatles and then there's incredible bands, Zeppelin, Stones, Pink Floyd, and then, you know, go on and on, Eminem. And,

Speaker 3 but there's just one Beatles because there's just too much music and too much revolutionary things going on. So were you a classic I Want to Hold Your Hand in 64 or when did I see you?

Speaker 4 Yeah. Yes, yes.
I mean, I was lucky that.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes. The whole rise.

Speaker 3 As a little, little, little girl. As a little, little fetus.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 I was introduced. No,

Speaker 4 you know, I have an older sister who's five years older and a brother who's 11 years older. So I heard their music a lot as a kid.

Speaker 4 And remember the Ed Sullivan show, them coming on, going crazy, you know,

Speaker 4 what a happening it was. uh it's hard to explain to people how revolutionary their haircuts were i mean that it was like what what what are these just just the haircuts alone shot them up

Speaker 4 alone but then i was lucky enough in 66 yes 1965

Speaker 4 yeah um my brother was home from university chicago And the night of the Beatles concert, he said, because we lived on Long Island, hey, hey, squirt, you want to go see the Beatles?

Speaker 4 And I was like, yeah.

Speaker 4 And we drove to Shea.

Speaker 3 We got tickets that night.

Speaker 4 My sister, who had gotten tickets six months before, she was like four rows in front of us.

Speaker 3 It's like,

Speaker 4 and saw the Beatles at Shea State.

Speaker 1 At Shea State. That's a legendary.

Speaker 3 Big thing for a band, rock and roll band, to play a giant.

Speaker 1 They have two PV amps.

Speaker 1 Dana, wasn't it some shitty sound or whatever?

Speaker 3 I think they only did 30, 35 minutes. They couldn't hear themselves.
The roar of the crowd, they just couldn't, you know. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Just not

Speaker 1 love it, though. How great.
Oh, my God. What a part of history.

Speaker 3 If you had a not famous Beatles song, like what is one of your favorites? I'll throw out some. She's Leaving Home and I Love Her.

Speaker 8 No Reply.

Speaker 3 Hard Day's Night. I want to Hold Your Hand, which I think is, I think that

Speaker 3 she loves you is a masterpiece. It's like two minutes and five seconds.
But are you kind of a Strawberry Fields or are you

Speaker 3 Penny Lane? Yeah, five seconds.

Speaker 4 I kind of am very wedded to their early stuff because it reminds me of The Mania and of first seeing them and all that.

Speaker 4 So like I saw her standing there, you know, that early, early stuff, but I'm also a Wings fan, you know?

Speaker 3 Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 4 and I just worked with Lawrence Juber, who was like his guitar player in Wings.

Speaker 3 Um,

Speaker 4 so I run the gamut, you know, with McCartney.

Speaker 1 Did you tell McCartney you saw him at the Shea Stadium?

Speaker 4 What is that?

Speaker 1 Did you tell him you saw him?

Speaker 4 No, I was too. Um,

Speaker 1 he would have probably freaked out. That he doesn't hear that every day.

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 4 but um, he was talking about

Speaker 4 um,

Speaker 4 you know, they didn't,

Speaker 4 people couldn't have their phones that night

Speaker 3 at the Bowery Hall. At Chase Stadium.
Oh, Bowery's Hall. No,

Speaker 4 I broke my landline.

Speaker 3 2025 is calling Spudly. Okay.

Speaker 3 I know.

Speaker 4 But it was great because they were, and to watch the

Speaker 4 show, because we were up in this little, you know, I mean, it maybe has like 300 people in the whole place, but to watch a concert now with people not having their phones, it was such a joy because it's like, oh, right, people actually experience it and not

Speaker 4 wanting it for later.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It was incredible.

Speaker 1 Were you sitting or was it standing only? Was it sitting? You get to sit.

Speaker 4 The VIPs, like Jerry and his plus one, were up on a balcony.

Speaker 3 you know

Speaker 4 so we were standing but you wanted to stand everybody was standing There was no.

Speaker 1 Well, you stand every song anyway because it's a hit. So you stand up anyway.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
Every song's a hit, basically. Can I do a clumsy kind of forward thing?

Speaker 3 Because during the peak of the Seinfeld years, and how many seasons did you write on that show?

Speaker 3 Three. Three.

Speaker 3 I think they were in the Rolling Stone almost like. they were so got so big there's only the beatles but they were almost like a beatly

Speaker 3 sitcom and and i'm always interested in the dynamic between Jerry and Larry, you know, because that this partnership.

Speaker 3 And so how did you get hired for that? They just already knew you, loved you. They knew you from Letterman and you were just, was that an easy kind of?

Speaker 4 Well, we really go so far back as to when I auditioned at the comic strip.

Speaker 3 along with Paul Riser and Rich Hall. Paul Reiser.

Speaker 4 Wow. Yeah.
Jerry was the MC and he put us through the audition. And then when I auditioned to Catch Rising Star, Larry David was the MC and he put me through that audition.

Speaker 4 So I go back to my first days at these clubs with them.

Speaker 4 But what happened with Larry and Jerry was weird because I remember they, I got a call from both of them and it was like, why are my friends calling me together?

Speaker 4 you know i mean you know in 93 that was probably like

Speaker 3 you know

Speaker 4 conference call like they had to you know be on the same phone but I was like why are they calling me and they were like hey do you want to write on Sunfeld and I was like uh yeah

Speaker 4 um but my advantage was and I think other writers advantage was they didn't want people who'd written for sitcoms before

Speaker 4 because Larry hated all other sitcoms

Speaker 4 they wanted people new to the task. So I was lucky that way.
So that's how I got hired.

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Speaker 3 It was such a, you know, interesting sensibility on that show, how it was kind of just about little things. And everyone knows the soup Nazi and the puffy shirt.
It's like trying to catch the wind.

Speaker 3 It's even now with Curb Your Enthusiasm these last 15 years. It's like, what is that sensibility? about you know it just but it really pops the cast was super likable

Speaker 3 um but there's something about the writing

Speaker 3 that is so smart and and subtle and well observed. So that's just a, I mean, that must, that's the best writer's room on a sitcom in history.
I think I'm not shitting on Cheers or anybody else, but

Speaker 3 I think it's got to be.

Speaker 1 Well, as far as it worked, I mean, it just worked through the roof.

Speaker 3 Our greatest half of the time.

Speaker 1 I think Cheers was more considered just a great sitcom and Seinfeld was a little off-kilter, not just a sitcom. It was like sort of a different thing going on there.

Speaker 3 What is the thing about Seinfeld?

Speaker 3 What do you think made it

Speaker 3 go

Speaker 3 so huge?

Speaker 4 You know, in a lot of ways, it was like SNL to me because

Speaker 4 you had to pitch your ideas to Larry and Jerry. You would go in and

Speaker 4 set a time to go in and

Speaker 4 it was like two sentences kind of max, you know, like

Speaker 4 I went in, you know, Elaine thinks the Korean manicures are talking about her behind her back

Speaker 4 at the nail salon, you know, and that kind of thing.

Speaker 4 Go, yeah, yeah, we're doing that. Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea.
Yeah, yeah. And then you pitch other ones, and he had this habit of like rolling his shoulder and going, nah, no, no, you know,

Speaker 4 I could see that on another show.

Speaker 3 No, you know.

Speaker 1 Does he say expand in the room? Like some ideas are a little more than that. Like he'll go, I like it so far.
What else is on there?

Speaker 4 Or just go write it yeah he would be like if he likes something like that or like elaine thinks there are skinny mirrors at barney's

Speaker 4 you know he would go yeah yeah i love that but you know come back with like a george a jerry um and kramer story you know that kind of

Speaker 4 But it was the same thing. Like if you pitched ideas and it was a lot of, no, I don't know, you know, you sort of started to get anxious about it.

Speaker 4 But when he liked something, he was so effusive about it. It lifted you to go off and do it.
Right.

Speaker 1 Exciting.

Speaker 4 I do think, and let's go back to the Beatles here.

Speaker 3 I'd love to.

Speaker 4 What made the show great was the two of their sensibilities together.

Speaker 4 I always call it kind of like Lennon and McCartney, you know, Jerry, the more kind of pop sensibility, you know, friendly stamp and

Speaker 4 Larry being more the Lennon, you know, the curmudgeon, um, having the edge and that together it made it uh lightning in a bottle.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 3 sure. That's interesting.
That makes that makes sense to me. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And even working on curb, I know Larry so well from Seinfeld that it was the same thing at curb, you know,

Speaker 4 you'd go in and pitch ideas and he would love them or not like them. But when he loved something, he was, he always like, I remember the first time I pitched him curb ideas, I said,

Speaker 4 you know, when you are with regular people, and by regular people, I mean not comedians, and you make a joke and one of them goes, but um, bum, you know,

Speaker 3 you want to strangle them,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 like,

Speaker 4 you know, um, the equivalent of saying the n-word, you know,

Speaker 4 um, and he was like, he loved that, you know, so when he loves something and you're on a good roll, you can

Speaker 1 for sure.

Speaker 3 How fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You, you wrote on so many, though. I've been looking at, you did Modern Family also hacks, right?

Speaker 4 Yes, Hacks just won an Emmy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hacks is a big deal, of course. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think I saw Hannah at that party the other night. I don't know her, but I think I saw her walk by.
Is she possibly taller than I would think?

Speaker 3 She seemed like, I thought she was. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And isn't it amazing that she's Lorraine Newman's daughter?

Speaker 1 Yeah. I did not, you know, I didn't even put that together for so long.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And sometimes when she delivers lines, it's like, I totally

Speaker 1 love Lorraine. I saw Lorraine at the thing.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 50th. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Mutana, were you there?

Speaker 3 No, I had the flu. Ooh.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 3 So I missed it, but

Speaker 3 I've already thought about just what I'm going to do on the 60th. Yeah.
And it's going to be great.

Speaker 1 I thought about the hundredth, what I'm going to do.

Speaker 3 Let's keep it a little quiet. Keep it real on the don't

Speaker 3 start getting curious, Leaf.

Speaker 1 When people say badum bump, I literally, it's like cutting your balls. It's such a weird move to say you're this is a bad joke, you're stupid, and then they look cool or something.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, it's a weird, it's all weird vibe.

Speaker 4 And he loves all that small stuff. Like

Speaker 4 he loved, I had a pitch about, you know, when

Speaker 4 you pitch something to TV people and Zach, and they go, you know, I don't love it.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I don't like it. It's like, no, I don't love it.
And, you know, that's the kind of thing he sparks to, like, immediately.

Speaker 1 I felt like a story.

Speaker 1 When that's in the ether, now when I'm out and there's a situation.

Speaker 1 I almost think of Curb. I was out somewhere.
And this might even be an episode, but I said bye to everyone.

Speaker 1 It took me forever to get out to the the front and say bye bye bye and then I forgot my keys inside and I go I'm not going back in I cannot go through there again and just that awkwardness of like I just left but I'm they think I'm coming in for I ditched them or something and so it just made me think that's one of those weird things that

Speaker 1 makes you think of that show you go I could picture him in some awkward situation yeah but but every episode I watch I think oh this is such a good little weird curveball like

Speaker 3 just everyday thing but they make a whole meal out of it yeah you when you see stuff like that like the puffy corduroy pants looks like he's excited okay we'll build a whole episode around that and you go it's so simple it's so funny everybody knows what he's talking about but

Speaker 4 he would totally he would have totally made something about that totally yeah

Speaker 4 have you talked about the snl 50th like uh ad nauseum spade or well not really i mean with it's funner with people that have been there because we talked a little bit about it but what is your experience of it you can say anything you want oh well i wanted to know i was only there for the concert um so i didn't see what did you think of the concert

Speaker 4 concert was amazing yeah

Speaker 4 even with my shitty seats it was amazing

Speaker 1 i think everyone i talked to had shittier seats than they thought they were gonna have yeah

Speaker 4 like hmm maybe this was i'd have a better view at home i i said lovitz were you at the american girls store for that too

Speaker 1 he goes no i was at banana republic

Speaker 1 that was very close to radio city jealous yeah no the 50th was a blast to just goof around and but the the uh

Speaker 1 the the weekly events of that was that night what you went to which was I think more fun than people thought.

Speaker 1 And then the next night, there was like a little toast thing. And then

Speaker 1 the next night was the show. So I did get a lot of it.
That's why I wasn't at the party forever the night of the show.

Speaker 1 Because I think it was a Sunday. And also, I just done everything with everybody all week.
And I thought, there's a three-story party. I don't think I could do it that long.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Did you go to that thing or did you skip it all?

Speaker 4 Well, the next night, the Saturday night was the Writers Guild Awards.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 3 And we won for hacks.

Speaker 3 Oh.

Speaker 3 Hacks never, because doesn't kind of, don't they win kind of everything? I mean, they win a lot. A lot of stuff.

Speaker 4 Well, I'll say this past season we sure did.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Where's your hardware? You got hardware back there somewhere?

Speaker 1 I mean, yeah, you should throw it right up there in that cabinet.

Speaker 4 I do have an Emmy, but it's in the other room.

Speaker 1 I think it needs to be on camera.

Speaker 1 Also, is it interesting?

Speaker 1 You go from SNL, you go to Seinfeld, and you're like.

Speaker 1 everywhere feels like it just couldn't be as good. Then you get a show like Hacks, it's a great show.
And you go, okay, that feels good. Modern Family is a great show.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah, no, it's

Speaker 1 a good streak.

Speaker 3 So, when shows are really

Speaker 3 one common denominator, but I'm not, let me just think

Speaker 4 what it is. What would it be?

Speaker 3 Start at Carol, Carol King. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 But anyway, I mean, you must be proud. I mean, it is pretty cool how many great shows you've worked on.

Speaker 3 So, clearly, you're a valuable commodity, and I would like to negotiate whatever your next deal is. Personally,

Speaker 3 you're not going to to push.

Speaker 4 You guys know as well as I do, to be in a room with other funny people is just, it's just the greatest. I mean, as much as I love stand-up

Speaker 4 and I saw you recently, Spade, at the Image Power Prime,

Speaker 4 there's nothing better to me than being in a room with. funny people.
It's just the greatest thing.

Speaker 4 It's like, I always think it's like, you know, you go to a foreign country and say you're there for like a month, like Italy, and, you know, everybody's speaking Italian and nobody speaks English.

Speaker 4 And then like an American comes in and you're like, oh my God, you know, and you just bond with this person. To me, that's like with any comedian, there's always this kind of just instant bond.

Speaker 3 And yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm always happy if I'm at some event, then I see a comedian or a comedian I know. And that we're just going to look at it all differently and try to

Speaker 1 just clown on everything going on. That was the same thing I went to some Oscar thing the other night and zip right to the comedians and then just sort of make fun of the whole situation.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 It's the only comfortable spot.

Speaker 3 But that's why I like sketch is because I was a stand-up and then I had never done sketch comedy. So then it was like, oh, you say that, I say this.
We're working together.

Speaker 3 And then, of course, you get funnier if you're in a writer's room and people are starting to riff. Your brain gets kind of associative into this.

Speaker 3 Everything's funny or how about this thing oh how about this so i think i totally relate to that if someone wanted to see

Speaker 3 i said carol leafer is a great stand-up is what would you want them to look at

Speaker 4 i don't i would say probably

Speaker 3 some of your 25 lettermans

Speaker 3 or

Speaker 4 you know what i really have a great affection for my first letterman which was in 1982.

Speaker 4 Just because,

Speaker 4 you know, your first time, like, oh my God, I'm on TV and people are seeing this. And what I dreamed about, to me, that's like my most precious kind of memory because

Speaker 3 the first

Speaker 3 was Fernwood Tonight. When I came out and saw,

Speaker 3 does anyone remember Fernwood Tonight?

Speaker 3 Martin Moll and funny it is. Yeah, kind of a parody of a talk show.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Did you ever work with Wendy Liebman?

Speaker 4 Yeah, this is like the perfect setup. I am working with Wendy Liebman

Speaker 4 on March 20th at Comedy and Magic Club.

Speaker 3 Oh, Comedy and Magic?

Speaker 4 How great. Also with the great Kathy Ladman.
So three funny ladies all together.

Speaker 3 Exactly, are you

Speaker 3 publicizing it as three funny ladies or no?

Speaker 3 Or just as a comedy?

Speaker 4 I think they're calling it the ladies of laughter.

Speaker 3 Oh,

Speaker 1 the ladies of the night.

Speaker 3 Dave and I go out as the pip squeaks of funniness.

Speaker 3 The pip squeaks twinsies. Two little pixies with a dream.

Speaker 1 We just did a corporate together. It was pretty fun.
We've never done one. It was pretty fun.

Speaker 4 Right? Yeah. How much time did you have to do?

Speaker 1 Well, we

Speaker 3 kind of tweaked, tinkered with that. This is inside baseball, but we kind of like as a stand-up.
Well, I love being out there with a friend just riffing.

Speaker 3 So I said to the guys in charge, I said, because they wanted 45 each, you know, and it's hours in a ballroom. All that, I said, you don't, how about

Speaker 3 we do 30 each or 25 to 30, and then we come out together and just sort of talk to the audience and they yell stuff out. And he goes, You would do that?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I'm going to go out in a limb. I'm not going to try to redo the deal.

Speaker 3 We will come out without a script or our act, you know, and they're yelling out Garth or Tommy Boy, and we have

Speaker 1 it's a little chaotic, but it, you know, because we threw it at them late if we could have had a microphone up there or something.

Speaker 1 But it's just fun because they just also want to see a picture of us together. You know, whatever, out together, and it made it more fun for us, too.

Speaker 4 That must have been a great gig.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was super fun. They'd never had comedy, and they were like, oh, this is great.

Speaker 3 So the sound was good. It's really important.
You know, the sound.

Speaker 1 Sound is great. That's, that is important.
You don't hear muffled jokes.

Speaker 3 I didn't go, I don't go to sound checks, but I, they, the Jay Farrell played the night before some casino in West Virginia. I go, they're going to need a sound check.

Speaker 3 How was the sound for Jay Farrell? Oh, it's great. He loved it.
So then I go out. First thing I hear is a huge slap back.
Hello. Hello.
Hello.

Speaker 3 I can't stop the show and do a sound check. So it's difficult.

Speaker 1 You think they do a show every night? You think, I think they know what they're doing. And then you go, oh, they don't.

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Speaker 4 Can I tell you a great story about Joe Rivers with that kind of stuff?

Speaker 2 Yes, we would love it.

Speaker 3 All right.

Speaker 4 So I had a corporate gig in New York when I was coming up, and they had booked

Speaker 4 Joe rivers to just open the show and introduce me and leave so i get there you know before her obviously and i you know like you guys you know you don't travel with your agent or manager for these so i show up and i see that there's uh no spotlight so i say to the guy the tech guy um yeah i'm the comedian i see you have a mic but you don't have a spotlight and he looks at me like oh sorry we don't have your spotlight share

Speaker 4 You know, like,

Speaker 4 you know, I'm so Deva.

Speaker 3 It's like, people need to see me in the park, you know, and he just like blew me off.

Speaker 4 It was so brilliant. So then Joan Rivers gets there.
She says hello to me. And she goes, where's the spotlight?

Speaker 3 And I go, I know.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 4 and the, you know, the tech guy was like hanging his head in shame. She literally went on stage and she was like, yeah, she did her bit, you know, cue you doing your Joan Rivers impression.

Speaker 4 But she goes,

Speaker 4 listen, I'm going to bring on the next act, but you be very nice to her, all of you, because there's no spotlight and it's very unprofessional. And it was, I mean,

Speaker 3 I mean,

Speaker 4 I love you, Joan Rivers. May you rest in peace.

Speaker 3 We've all had these situations. I was in a club once and I asked them to turn up the mic for the second show because I couldn't, you know, and they just turned it down.

Speaker 3 It's like just aggression and anger. Sometimes the club owner is a frustrated stand-up and kind of hates you.

Speaker 3 It's like, so we turned it down.

Speaker 1 You can't get laughs out there.

Speaker 3 We're like, I don't think they can hear me.

Speaker 1 Oh, is that why? I'm like, yeah, that is why they can't hear me. People are yelling, I can't hear you.

Speaker 3 Did you like the clubs on,

Speaker 3 you know, touring or going on the road? Or did you just do it? Or, you know, were you in condos with other guys and venturis?

Speaker 4 The comedy condo was the worst experience of my life ever.

Speaker 4 I did a gig. It was in Phoenix.
It was a comedy condo. I was doing it with my friend Sue Kalinsky.
We get there and we go to this disgusting comedy condo.

Speaker 4 And they didn't see, you know, the other guy there. And like, oh, you're

Speaker 4 here if you want to go, whatever.

Speaker 4 So about seven o'clock. Sue and I get ready.
We're getting ready to go to the gig. And we yell up to the guy.

Speaker 4 Well, it's, you know, we're an hour away from showtime if you want to come down now we're going and the guy comes down and he's like oh i'm not a comic i just live here

Speaker 4 oh my god never heard of that condo yeah had just one of their friends living in one of the rooms

Speaker 4 i mean if you don't call 911 then i i really don't know what Just

Speaker 3 for people, just, I mean, so you go to these cities and instead of putting in a hotel, they'd have a comedy condo. And there was the main room or the headroom.
And if you

Speaker 3 were for the best place with its own bathroom, if you come too late, the venture of the Chris is in there with Chuck Wood. You can't look at his puppet.

Speaker 3 Don't even look at Chuck Wood. Don't even David Strassman, I think.
No, I'll kid you. But openers get the couch sometimes.
They're a unique breed. It's not a joke.

Speaker 3 That is definitely like that Anthony Hopkins movie. Chuck Wood was real.
You know,

Speaker 3 you must have worked a lot.

Speaker 4 Before it gets too late, fellas,

Speaker 4 can I promote my new book?

Speaker 1 Yes, let's do it now. We're wrapping up.

Speaker 3 Oh my God.

Speaker 3 We'll put it in the intro too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. It's

Speaker 4 how to write a funny speech for a wedding bar mitzvah graduation and every other event you didn't want to go to in the first place.

Speaker 1 That's a good title.

Speaker 3 So come on, it's going to fly through the ship. That's a good title.
I like it. So that is literally instructive and also humorous, but actually trying to help people with that process.
Trying to

Speaker 3 Say the title again.

Speaker 4 How to write a funny speech for a wedding or a mitzvah graduation and every other event you didn't want to go to in the first place.

Speaker 3 Okay, I like it. And I want to ask you a question.
So, has no one written this book? Because

Speaker 3 I think it's a great idea.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it is. Yeah.
No, no one has written. I wrote it with my comedy writer friend, Rick Mitchell.
And no, no comedy writers have written a book like this. A lot of stiffs, you know, from the

Speaker 4 corporate headquarters, whatever have written it, but no,

Speaker 3 not funny people.

Speaker 4 Right. We were tired of going to events where someone just stinks up the room with their

Speaker 4 speech, and we felt like we could give them some help.

Speaker 1 Well, that's the number one fear, right? It's public speaking, or it's way up there.

Speaker 4 So, yes. And most comedians' greatest fear is not speaking in front of them.

Speaker 3 How sad.

Speaker 3 and obviously, I just want to where if people want to get this book, you just go on Amazon, it'll be on

Speaker 4 Sayer Amazon.

Speaker 1 You can just click, click a few buttons.

Speaker 3 Yeah, and if you don't remember the title, you can say Carol Leafer book. Yeah, exactly.
Carol Lee.

Speaker 4 Very, very easy. Oh, I wanted to ask you, Spade, because when I saw you, I loved your bit about Amber Alerts.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I got an Amber Alert, I think, that day. That was new.
Got an Amber Alert, Dana. And

Speaker 1 I just want to know how much investigation I'm supposed to be in charge of. What is my job here? What are my duties? If the kid isn't laying on my dashboard,

Speaker 1 I feel like the search is over. It's a cold case.

Speaker 3 That crushed at the day.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, I did it the other night. Yeah.
Yeah. That's new.
Thank God. I got one.

Speaker 3 You were killing at that point. I just said to the guy, I go, can we get him off now? I mean, I think he's over.

Speaker 1 Give him the light. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Can we just, is it okay to give him a light? I mean, I don't want to push, but yeah, because you were killing so hard.

Speaker 1 Danny goes, Actually, I got a light.

Speaker 3 I'm going to run in the back real quick. You always want to sabotage your friend if you can.

Speaker 1 God, there's guys at the comedy store, they get the light, and it means now start your act.

Speaker 1 Because I'm like wrapping up, they're like, What else is going on? I'm like, There's no, what else is going on?

Speaker 3 You're doing your last bit and getting off, not like what else is going on, what's going into the crush. Yeah, what else, Mike?

Speaker 3 You're done.

Speaker 3 What else? What else is going on?

Speaker 3 That's a good special

Speaker 3 advanced title.

Speaker 1 What else going on? All right, Carol, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 Thanks for being here. Congratulations on your career, your book.
Nice to see you. You're always, she's one of the most likable people that, you know, in this scene.

Speaker 3 I think you have that reputation, but I'm always happy to see you. And you're very kind.
I'm just going to say it.

Speaker 4 I just love you guys. You're just so, you're both so incredibly talented, and I enjoy your talent.

Speaker 1 This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review, all the stuff, smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss-Berman of Odyssey, and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.