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right, this is the Iron Rapports Stereo podcast.

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UH summer calling this the signature

0:58

series, UH

1:01

the interview series. We're

1:03

live from the Gloom

1:05

Tomb in Los Angeles, California.

1:09

UM. I'm in here with my

1:12

guest co host for this interview the first

1:14

time he's joining me on a on a on

1:16

an interview, So the first time I'm sort of taking him

1:18

out in public. Uh,

1:20

Dean Collins's interviewing.

1:23

Um, the iconic uh

1:25

influential, very influential Tom

1:28

Green today. Hell yeah, that's

1:30

exciting for man, all right, why is it exciting for you?

1:32

So, so those of you who don't know Tom Green, Dean,

1:35

why don't you break down Tom Green? Tom

1:37

Green? Uh, he comes from

1:39

the nineties MTV, MTV

1:42

that he had the Tom Green Show, which is

1:45

enormously influential, like my bum is

1:47

on your the wall, my bum is on the and the Tom

1:49

Green Show. Uh. He one of

1:51

the things that he did that. I mean, he was one of the first

1:53

sort of shock real

1:58

uh you know, sort of mixing sort is

2:00

this reality? Is this a stunt? And just weird

2:02

like he had his own thing. He

2:04

he was sort of doing the Zach Allifinnicki

2:06

ship before Zach Galifani exactly.

2:08

I mean road trip, road trip, Freddy got

2:11

fingered the whole Drew

2:13

Barrymore thing, his his

2:15

his whole thing. I

2:18

mean, he was he was doing the damn

2:20

thing, uh for a long time,

2:23

and he's been just a sort of ahead of a curve

2:25

with technology, Like he had a web

2:27

show way before motherfucker.

2:29

Now like everybody's got a web show, but you were on

2:31

his web show. I was on his web show in

2:33

his house like in two thousand and

2:35

seven, you know, And it was like, what the fuck?

2:38

You know, he just he's always sort of been a little

2:40

bit ahead of the curve. He had a little hiccup

2:42

too with I think he had testicular yea,

2:44

he had testicular cancer. And he documented

2:47

the whole thing, and it was the whole docuseries and

2:50

and and and so we're gonna be interviewing him.

2:52

Uh, I don't know, you're dean.

2:55

Dean. Here's what I'm gonna recommend. You're

2:57

gonna have questions. You're gonna get excited, You're you,

3:00

You're gonna want to get it. You're gonna get excited. You're gonna

3:02

ask, Yeah you are, but what what?

3:04

What? What? What? But what I want you to do is ask

3:07

clean and concise questions.

3:09

So so pretend I'm Tom Green and and

3:11

and ask the question. I'm gonna We're gonna do a test question

3:14

right now. Okay, Um,

3:16

what was it like being on the set of Road Trip

3:19

that's the fucking question. That's the question

3:21

you're gonna That's not what I'm gonna ask him. You just said,

3:24

give you an example question. I want you to before

3:26

he gets here, have have your

3:28

list and get your fucking mind right. That's

3:30

great. This the Iron Rapport Stereo podcast. We're

3:32

gonna be coming right back. The

3:36

I Am Rappaport podcast is

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sponsored by Casper Mattresses

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anything. We have not tried, and we are not passionate

4:24

about four hundred and so

4:29

I'm in here for Tom Green with

4:32

this might this might. People think that Dean's

4:34

my son, He's not. He's

4:37

my guest co host

4:40

and not the actual co host. The actual co host

4:42

is a guy named Gimo Nettie um

4:44

a k. The Black Ed McMahon. But he's

4:46

in the Bronx and Dean is

4:48

a big fan of the Albino Rhino. On the

4:51

Albino Rhino, some call me the

4:53

Gringo man Dingo. I have a lot of

4:55

alias, and they just keep coming. And we're in here

4:58

with Tom Green, who ship

5:00

man. You know, I was thinking about We were talking about

5:02

like how I mean, you have to know this and

5:04

and I'm gonna pride at you because I think as performers

5:08

we all have a certain amount of ego. But I was

5:10

thinking about how like when you first

5:12

came on the scene, how influential

5:15

what you did was and

5:17

continues to be. You

5:19

know, um, you know, we were even

5:21

you know, me and Dean, the guest co host, we're

5:25

saying you were doing and it's no disrespect

5:27

and you know, in all this ship but like we were kind of saying

5:29

that we're outside, by the way,

5:33

that's the paparazzi because they knew we had Tom

5:35

Green. Yeah, they got

5:38

security and paparazzi. But um

5:40

so, so don't mind that because normally we do it inside.

5:43

But like I mean, not in any

5:45

disrespect because I I love him too, but like you were

5:47

kind of like doing what Zach

5:49

Galifernakis is even doing.

5:51

Like you you you brought like for me, like

5:54

when I did your your your your web series

5:56

at home, your your web show at home, it's your

5:58

house. I was like when out when I was on

6:00

the way up there, I remember feeling like, like,

6:03

what's gonna happen with this guy? Like am I going to get into

6:05

a fight? Is he gonna be combative? Like I remember

6:07

feeling like a little bit like you had motherfucker's

6:09

on on edge and and and

6:12

I think, and I say that in a good way, like I just didn't

6:14

know like what to expect. And and you know when

6:16

you when you did that, I mean, I'm sure

6:18

you probably say there's you have your

6:20

influences, and I would love to hear them. Um

6:23

but like when you first came on the scene, it was it

6:25

was outrageous, but in a good way, And it was

6:27

shocking in a good way, and there was this sort of line

6:29

is it is it real? Is it not real? Similar

6:32

to like the Galafa Nakis and

6:34

like you know and and even like Will Farrell

6:36

to a certain extent like his acting. Um,

6:39

but you were treading the line like are you like

6:41

are you aware of that now? Like the influence

6:43

and I'm sure people must love those

6:45

guys, and uh, you know, I've gotten it's

6:48

gotten to meet Zach Galifina because he's super

6:50

cool and Will like that. The first time I was ever in

6:52

a movie, I was in a movie with Will Farrell. Was a

6:54

superstar movie. But I mean we were always

6:56

trying to do more. I mean back

6:58

then especially, it was all about the

7:01

video camera, right, It was about real people.

7:04

It wasn't so much acting as

7:06

as Will and Zach are you know, great

7:08

comedic actors. This was more about pranks

7:12

and pulling stunts

7:15

and uh, getting real reactions

7:17

from real people on the street. Back back in those

7:19

certainly in those early times, you know when we

7:21

started the show on cable

7:24

TV, and it was originally cable in Canada,

7:26

Public Access TV in Canada. So I

7:29

was a skateboarder, you know, I was into

7:31

hip hop music. I was into like, you know, counterculture

7:34

stuff back then. Part of Canada.

7:37

It was counterculture back then. Now it's mainstream now.

7:39

I guess. Yeah, isn't that fucking

7:41

nuts that hip hop is? Like yeah, hip

7:43

hop and skateboarding and everything that you

7:45

know we liked when we were kids is now is

7:47

now the biggest thing in media

7:49

pretty much. But you know, um

7:53

yeah, I mean we were trying to do something different. We

7:55

knew there wasn't really there was no YouTube,

7:57

there was no there was none of that

7:59

stuff. It wasn't the instant. Yeah,

8:01

and you came on the scene before the Jackass

8:04

guys came on, you know, like the

8:06

Tom Green Show. That was I mean, that was

8:08

revolutionary. Saying that for the first

8:10

time was like there was nothing like

8:12

it. Yeah. When MTV picked up the show, it was

8:14

kind of surreal experience

8:17

because you know, we've been doing it on

8:19

on public Access TV right

8:21

in Canada. We didn't even get MTV in Canada.

8:25

Now all of a sudden, we were on MTV.

8:27

We knew what MTV was, right, Like we'd heard the Dire

8:29

Straight song, you know, we knew what

8:32

it was. We had much music in Canada,

8:35

but this much music

8:37

didn't really have TV shows. It was much music

8:39

like. It was like music videos. Then

8:41

we're now, all of a sudden, we run MTV and they were playing

8:43

the show. Um, you know

8:45

what part of Canada from Ottawa

8:50

means nothing to me, but except for Canada,

8:52

capital of Canada. Yeah, I know, and the Ottawa

8:54

What did you know that? No, I didn't know. I didn't

8:57

know that. I didn't know that. My brother lives

8:59

in Halifax. Yeah, okay, my brother is a professor

9:02

at the University of Halifax there. And the Ottawa

9:04

has the Winnipeg's, No, the Winnipeg's,

9:06

the Senators, Ottawa San PEG's. Winnipeg

9:09

is a city in Manitoba. And we've

9:11

got the Jets, the winning Pig Jets, the Montreal

9:13

Canadians, the Toronto Toronto,

9:16

Toronto Peleips, Ottawa Senators, Vancouver

9:18

Canucks, Vancouver Canucks. Yea a little bit about

9:20

Yeah Oilers, Edmonton Oilers.

9:23

Yeah, Wayne Gretzky Dynasty back in the eighties,

9:25

right, Mark Messiers

9:28

and uh Iri Curry Coffee.

9:31

Yeah, so Dynasty. They were the

9:33

Chicago Bulls of hockey, right

9:35

Yeah, well, of course because Wayne Gretzky, the

9:37

great one. Yeah, absolutely incredible that's incredible

9:40

time for hockey. That's when I was most into

9:42

hockey, was when the Oilers were experiencing

9:44

their their dynasty years. I

9:47

would love to continue the hockey conversation

9:49

with you, but that's as far as my knowledge goes, as far

9:51

as Canadian. I could talk some New York Rangers ship

9:53

in the seventies, but I feel like that would alienate

9:56

my audience even further. That's okay, that's okay,

9:58

all right, But anyway, so so so back back

10:00

to you and and and and and and your

10:02

stuff. So when

10:05

when did it go? Like this is sort of becoming

10:07

a thing, the Tom Green Show from Public Access

10:09

to MTV, Like when you hit on MTV? Like when

10:11

did it? Like? Was it instant? In

10:14

our minds? We were going to try to make this

10:16

show something big, even from when

10:18

we first started it. When I say our minds,

10:20

my friends and I well, I worked on the show with a

10:22

bunch of my friends. I was a broadcasting

10:25

student. We made videos, We

10:27

convinced the public access station to give

10:29

us a time slot. Um

10:33

and uh so you

10:35

know this was an every day day in

10:37

get up in the morning, edit till four

10:40

o'clock in the morning. Every single day, seven

10:42

days a week. Passion dream

10:44

thing for me. Right I was living in my parents basement.

10:47

Um, but we got like the local paper

10:50

did an article about the show early

10:52

on full page article

10:54

in the Ottawa Citizen that was

10:56

very inspiring. I was able to show my parents

10:59

that I was a see look, they did an article

11:01

in the paper. I'm not wasting

11:03

my time. And so we did it for about another

11:05

five years and we shot

11:07

like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

11:10

of videos and

11:12

uh, then eventually I had

11:14

the opportunity to to send them to MTV

11:17

through somebody that I had met, and uh and

11:20

you know, give you the short version

11:22

of the story. They picked up the show and moved

11:24

us to New York and the show went on the air, and it was pretty much

11:26

an instant hit show. Instant.

11:29

I remember that before before they

11:31

even started airing the show, MTV used

11:33

to run promos all the time, so they'd run

11:35

the promos as much as they ran the show. The

11:37

promo started running two weeks before the show,

11:40

and I remember when we moved

11:42

to New York. Uh, you

11:45

know, the show hadn't even started airing yet, and everybody

11:47

was in the streets. Were you know, you're that guy

11:50

that was humping that dead moose, you know, so

11:52

it was it was pretty cool because

11:54

MTV was at the time, that was the place

11:56

to be. Like now, it's sort of fucking

11:59

joke. I think it's it's an interesting

12:01

thing. Like I don't think television

12:04

will ever relieve and be the same as it was

12:06

back then. You know, MTV. MTV

12:08

was completely different. Television in general

12:11

is completely different. You know. I don't think there's a

12:13

lot of places where you could put a

12:15

TV show on right now and

12:18

uh and experience the kind

12:20

of instant sort of

12:22

notoriety that that that that show got.

12:25

What did you go about it differently when it

12:27

went from public access to MTV.

12:30

Obviously, like it was, it was still

12:32

your thing and it was shocking and outrageous

12:35

and funny. But remember when I said to you, I said,

12:37

if you're gonna ask this fucking guy questions, like, get

12:39

to the fucking point I'm asking him a question,

12:41

but it's a fucking paragraph, like get to the what's

12:43

the question? What it can't have like three words

12:45

and then that's it. But I said, just I said

12:47

before and I said, if you're gonna ask him a question,

12:50

say that okay, But because

12:52

he's looking like he's fucking bored to cheer,

12:56

I'm watching you guys, get

12:59

took my flow out. I can't I can't remember where

13:01

you did you go about it? This is not your son played

13:07

my son on a show and the show

13:10

got canceled and and and he has paid me to

13:12

be his best friend. I promise

13:14

you anyway, did you go about

13:16

it differently when it went to MTV at

13:18

all? Like were the parameters on

13:20

MTV? Uh? There were parameters,

13:23

but uh we did

13:26

We tried to sort of circumvent

13:29

those parameters. And there was there

13:31

was a conflict. There was a period

13:34

of time where we were being told what

13:36

we were not supposed to do, and I didn't

13:38

enjoy that. And I was very

13:41

passionate about the show

13:44

and what it was supposed to be. You know, I

13:47

fought for my ideas. I

13:49

had some pushback from the network, but they

13:51

kind of let me fight for my ideas

13:53

too. They didn't just shut me down. Was

13:56

a content or because you're not a cursor? I don't.

13:58

You're not like I cur my my my

14:01

depths of the English language there, they're not

14:03

long, and I lean on the curse.

14:05

But but was it was? It? Was it scary?

14:08

Was it was it cursing? Like? What were the

14:10

sort of like the thing? It was? It

14:12

was honestly, it was just I

14:16

had I had written and edited the entire

14:18

show, every pretty much everything.

14:20

I had a couple of friends that helped me, but I had edited

14:22

everything. I'd pretty much been the creative director

14:25

of the show. I guess you'd say for

14:27

for now seven or eight years at this

14:29

point, we've been doing it now. When we moved

14:31

to New York, all

14:33

of a sudden, they gave us like six writers,

14:36

you know, and so they wouldn't

14:39

sent all these ideas to me, and

14:41

I would, you know, of course, had the

14:43

right to approve them. But then when

14:46

I didn't approve ideas, you know, executive

14:48

would come in from the network and say, no, I really want

14:50

you to do this idea, and I'd have to say, no,

14:52

that's that's not funny to me. I mean, might

14:55

be funny to you, but it's not funny to me, and that's not really

14:57

what the show is. So that was one argument,

14:59

having its sort of explain

15:01

why I didn't want to do their ideas, that they

15:03

had paid writers to write okay, and

15:06

were writers that these were these were your this wasn't

15:08

your crew. I had my crew

15:10

there of one guy who was a friend of mine who came

15:12

down, but it was mostly their crew, and

15:15

so I had to kind of explain no. And I would go in

15:17

the room with the writers and I would help teach

15:19

these writers how we shot our bits

15:21

and how it involved getting reactions from

15:23

people, and how we had to try to incorporate

15:25

people on the street into the comedy as

15:27

opposed to it just being a sketch and things

15:30

like this, right, and uh,

15:32

you know, they were more familiar with writing scripts

15:34

and and and scripted stuff, and we were

15:36

more, you know, trying to say no,

15:38

no, this is about you know, candid

15:40

camera, this is about pranks, is about about

15:43

interacting with the real world getting

15:45

reactions. Then the other thing is they

15:47

had all our videos that we'd already shot, and

15:49

then they would re edit them and take all the

15:51

funny stuff out they specifically

15:54

wanted to. And I say they it was just a couple of executives

15:57

at MTV. You know, they aren't there anymore,

15:59

and they were in a great way. And if I'm

16:02

not sure, but the thing is they did they I

16:04

don't really like to. I don't want to bad

16:06

mouth them in any way because at the end of the day,

16:08

they know, well, at the end of the day, they are also the

16:10

same people that picked up the show. Okay,

16:12

so they didn't have to do that, right, Like they saw the

16:14

show, they liked it enough to pick it up. Uh.

16:18

And it was a life changing decision for

16:20

me that they then making that decision

16:22

to pick it up. So it really changed my life entirely,

16:25

and so it was a good thing. But then you know, then everyone

16:27

likes to get creative and put their ideas

16:29

and they want there was a policy at MTV

16:31

that they didn't want anybody on the air appearing

16:34

on camera who was over the age of thirty five.

16:37

And so in our show, you go out in the street and do all these

16:39

pranks. I'd go out and crutches and fall on the

16:41

ground and see what people try to help

16:43

me and stuff, and the lot of the times,

16:45

it was funny when like old people

16:47

got freaked out, right and they didn't want

16:49

them. They cut they went and they win the videos

16:51

and they took all the reaction shots of all the old

16:53

people freaking out. And if old people didn't

16:56

exist in the Zeitgei stuff. But it was also

16:58

like that was the joke, right, but we're

17:00

confusing because their fucking executives

17:02

and you know, I mean then like then and then a blanket

17:05

policy. It's MTV, it's a

17:07

youth channel. We never have anybody

17:10

on camera who's over the age of unless

17:14

it's Kurt Loder, you're dead that

17:16

everyone else the rest of the planet is

17:18

just and under. So it took sort

17:20

of a fair amount of explaining

17:22

and negotiating and arguing

17:25

and screaming, yelling, calling

17:27

managers had a manager at this point, I call

17:30

the manager, the manager would call them, they'd

17:32

argue, and then they call and argue with me. But eventually

17:34

they put the clips back in and uh,

17:36

and people started to kind of see what it

17:39

was that we were doing. It was really uh,

17:41

it was really like those early early

17:43

year of years of the show, the early year

17:46

of the show that we're on MTV was

17:48

really me kind of like sort

17:51

of sort of I guess

17:53

I was sort of telling them how to do the show. They

17:55

didn't know how to do this kind of show. They

17:57

didn't know how to do a show where you go out in the street with a camera

18:00

and and like goof around. You know. It was

18:02

the first time we went out to do a sort

18:04

of a prank on the street. Yeah, what

18:06

was it? It was? It was we went to New Jersey.

18:09

We went to Princeton, New Jersey. Was the first time

18:11

I ever shot a piece in America

18:14

with an MTV crew up to them. We were just

18:16

airing our old clips. So we went over

18:18

to Princeton, New Jersey to film this bit.

18:20

It was called Camouflage. I

18:22

wore a camouflage clothing

18:25

and I was hiding in shrubbery and

18:28

when people would walk by, I would jump out of

18:30

the shrubbery and say you can't

18:32

see me because I'm camouflage,

18:35

right. But that was the

18:37

bit we decided to do that

18:39

day. That's what we decided to do with our time that

18:41

day. But um

18:44

so we got to the shoot and I was just amazed. They

18:47

sent like about producers

18:50

walking down the street with clipboards

18:53

with release forms going up to people

18:55

on the sidewalk before I jumped

18:57

out of the before I jumped

18:59

out of the shrubbery and asking

19:01

them, Hey, can you sign a release form?

19:04

Someone's gonna jump out of the shrubbery up

19:06

here. We want you to act surprised,

19:08

and so I sort of had to sort of take

19:11

all of these twenty five producers aside, and

19:14

these you know, these producers are like, yeah,

19:16

guys, my age twenties and

19:18

I just this is not how you do it. And then this is their

19:20

first job. So now they're all worried

19:23

that they're going to get in trouble because that's what their boss

19:25

told them to do. So now there's a big argument.

19:27

So now we're all sulking in the van on the way

19:29

back to Manhattan, right, and we get

19:32

back and I said, well, you know, we can't shoot it like that. We

19:34

have to have a big meeting. Everybody was all worried.

19:37

Um, But then eventually they started to

19:39

understand what it was that I was trying

19:41

to do. And uh, you know, I think they

19:43

got it eventually because they ended up making about twenty

19:45

more shows that were exactly the same. So it

19:47

was so it was so popular. I feel like

19:49

if they tried to reel you, and you had the leverage

19:52

to be like, look, I'm not doing this,

19:54

I'm gonna most of these arguments and things

19:56

happened in the first month, and

19:58

then that's what happened. They got it though, the

20:01

show came out, the show was successful. It

20:03

was there's that show talk soup was right.

20:06

So they would have these huge arguments with me about

20:08

a bit. They said, you can't air this bit, and I would I would

20:11

get really adamant, we have to air this. How

20:13

old are you at this time? So

20:16

I was old enough? Were you nervous arguing with them?

20:18

Because I still find to this day,

20:20

you know, like when you're taking on the quote

20:22

unquote man, it's like, Oh, if

20:24

I take on the man, I'm gonna be deemed difficult. I'm

20:26

gonna you know. I think I was sort of naive

20:29

in the sense that I didn't think that

20:32

people would look at it as

20:34

being difficult. I thought they would look at it as

20:36

me being passionate about my art, right

20:39

right. And uh, you know, I didn't grow up in

20:41

Los Angeles. I had never

20:44

uh you know, been in uh any sort

20:46

of you know, movie or

20:48

TV show. Twenty years old I

20:50

was. I was never really in show business

20:53

in any sense. I had no concept

20:55

of how it worked. All it was for me was

20:57

this is my show that I've made. I've been working

20:59

on it for ten years. I

21:01

am very passionate about what it's supposed to be

21:03

like and I'm gonna make it like this,

21:05

and I was willing to kind of fight for it, and

21:08

uh, you know, I think probably, you

21:11

know, it's it's tough

21:13

to say, like hindsight, if I was to

21:15

go back, I might not have fought as hard, and

21:17

then maybe the show wouldn't have been as as

21:20

ridiculous as it was. So so I wouldn't

21:22

I wouldn't take it back. But I think I learned

21:24

a lot over the last you know, over the last

21:26

fifteen years in l A that you can't just go

21:28

in and uh, you know, it's it's

21:31

it's too bad that. You know, television is a collaborative

21:33

thing, right, It's not about like giving somebody

21:36

an opportunity to go out and just do whatever they

21:38

fucking want, right, which is what

21:40

I wanted that show to be. And that's sort

21:42

of what that show was, right, I mean, you know,

21:44

yeah, that's how it came across. Yeah, it's

21:47

not really I'm not really like that anymore. I mean,

21:49

I have my I get my I think it's the reason why

21:51

I do stand up and why I do my podcast

21:54

is because I don't have anybody telling me what to do.

21:56

And I can go do what I want and then if I go do a film

21:58

or TV show, which occasion you go do those

22:00

things? Still, you know, I'm I'm

22:03

I'm happy to sit back and take direction

22:05

and you know, you know, be

22:07

a team player and all that stuff. It's

22:09

not really it's not really. Uh, it's something

22:12

that's a different thing, but that at that time, at that

22:14

period of time in my life, it was about, you know, protecting

22:16

the integrity of this show. There's no other show

22:18

like it on TV. So what

22:21

your influences? I felt like we were kind of trying

22:23

to create or invent something, you know, were

22:25

you aware that you like, sorry because I took

22:27

to like I threw a question at you, But were

22:30

you aware that like were you like, were you

22:32

like, just like, I'm trying to create this sort

22:34

of genre of comedy, this

22:36

short design you were you were that was

22:39

sort of in your hand, it was written up. We

22:41

had like write ups, Like I had like a

22:44

you know, a treatment of the show that

22:46

explained exactly what we were trying to do, how

22:48

it was different, you know, how it

22:50

was incorporating real people into

22:53

sketches. How you know, the reaction

22:55

shot was the punchline, Um

22:58

you know, and uh, you know, teaching or camera

23:00

guys how to make sure that when you know, I'm

23:02

out in the street doing something crazy, don't

23:04

film me. You know, film the

23:06

person that's watching me, because

23:09

we can always film me later. You

23:11

can't get that shot back a person

23:13

watching me. You know. It was always like

23:15

this, uh, I always like this, uh

23:17

you know quote from

23:21

uh John Cleese, he said, you know, it's funny

23:23

to watch somebody acting silly, but it's even

23:25

funnier to watch somebody watching

23:27

someone act silly. So that was sort

23:29

of the mantra for the show was just

23:32

kind of go out, create a scene,

23:34

get a reaction, film the reaction, and

23:37

um. And so that was that was a big thing that

23:39

when we started the show too, you know what MTV was.

23:41

We'd go out with our camera and I, you know, the bit would

23:43

be I'm a security guard, right, I'm walking around

23:46

and I'm all crashing into stuff, you know, and

23:49

we'd come back and look at the footage and they just filmed

23:51

me and there was there wasn't the people in

23:53

the background or freaking out. They

23:55

didn't get the shots. So but we

23:57

we eventually we eventually kind of got

23:59

every one doing doing what we

24:01

We got a good crew together. It was really cool

24:03

and the Glory Days and

24:07

MTV is such a pilot ship now.

24:09

It really it is like I mean, music

24:11

is a ship show in general content,

24:15

it's like, I mean, so from

24:18

the Tom Green Show, so many other people, like

24:20

it's spawned Andy Millanakis

24:22

and Jackass and all those guys, Like I feel like it

24:24

was some crevo is so much to you,

24:26

especially those guys aren't on TV anymore

24:28

either. But they shut the whole

24:30

thing, they shut the whole thing down. But you were the

24:33

you know, the first one to really to

24:36

do that. I'm not sure. I think I think we're kind

24:38

of in a weird time

24:40

for television in general. Right. It's a

24:42

good time in some ways. There's

24:45

a lot of it. There's a lot a lot of

24:47

television. There's a lot of channels, there's a lot

24:49

there's a lot of networks. But I think it's

24:51

probably hard to break through and actually get that

24:53

kind of you know, audience that

24:56

it was back when there was fewer channels. I agree,

24:58

I agree, which is sort of it's it's a good

25:00

thing for people who are actors and people that don't

25:02

want to make television because there's so many shows getting made,

25:04

but it's never I don't think if you put a

25:06

show on MTV now, you wouldn't have three million

25:08

people watching the show, like you know, yeah,

25:11

you know the first month that's on the air. And

25:13

that just doesn't seem to happen that much anymore so,

25:15

and I hope that television doesn't it doesn't blow

25:18

itself up because there is so many fucking

25:20

channels. I mean, there's so many channels,

25:22

there's so many networks, and there's so many good

25:24

things, but there's just I

25:26

feel like it's like where's It's

25:28

like every day there's this channel, there's that channel, there's

25:31

Apple TV, there's channels within Apple TV,

25:33

there's YouTube channels there. I mean, it's

25:35

just like you're still figuring it out. But I just

25:37

hope it doesn't, you know, like it doesn't like

25:39

the bubble doesn't burst. How was the

25:41

transition from going like going from

25:43

The Tom Green Show to doing movies? Were

25:45

you was it more nerve racking knowing

25:48

that it was like, Okay, I have the set

25:50

of lines, like you know, I could improv

25:52

do my thing, But what was that like?

25:55

It was? It was definitely, Uh, it was pretty

25:57

cool. I mean it was. It was some

26:00

some parts of it were nerve wracking, although I get I

26:02

get nervous about virtually everything

26:04

pretty much. You know, are you nervous right now? Uh?

26:07

I mean a little bit, A little

26:09

bit. It's a good I mean, I

26:12

don't you know, I I

26:14

don't know. I'm not I'm not that nervous now

26:16

because I'm very comfortable in this environment, you know, podcast

26:19

and stuff. But like when you know, when I'm going

26:21

on a show, like a talk show with the audience.

26:23

Yeah, usually when there's an audience involved,

26:25

there's that rush I get. I get that adrenaline

26:28

rush, I get those nerves um

26:30

um. But no, I mean back

26:33

then it was maybe

26:35

a little more nerve wracking because I've never done any scripted

26:37

things before. The first movie

26:39

was road Trip that I really did, and that was

26:41

kind of basically the first time

26:43

I was in a movie. I was in this movie Superstar, which

26:46

will fare all before that, just kind of a couple of lines.

26:48

My friend, one

26:50

of the kids in the hall, was directing at Bruce McCullough,

26:54

and he had been watching my cable show and

26:56

put me in that movie before MTV. That was

26:58

sort of the first sort of eld

27:00

show business experience I had. We shot that

27:02

movie up in Toronto, but I

27:04

really I think I had two lines in the movie,

27:06

so I didn't really have to worry about memory memorizing

27:09

lines or anything. But Todd Phillips directed

27:11

A Road Trip and he uh

27:14

was a fan of

27:16

the Tom Green Show, and he put

27:20

me in these um PEPSI

27:22

one commercials that ran during

27:25

the n C Double A basketball

27:27

Tournament March Madness, uh,

27:30

during the first season of MTV, during

27:32

the first few months of the MTV Show, and

27:35

that that's kind of how I met

27:37

Todd. And then I ended up doing that Road Trip movie and that

27:39

was fun. I mean, I wasn't supposed to stick the

27:41

mouse in my mouth, That's what I was gonna ask.

27:43

That wasn't in the script. I'm supposed to feed

27:45

the mouse to the snake. But then I put

27:47

the mouse in my mouth when the cameras rolling.

27:50

When the cameras rolling, I was dangling

27:52

the mouse above my mouth and it's sort

27:54

of it felt it sort of grabbed

27:57

my lip with this little paw, so I just

27:59

lowered it and it sort of voluntarily

28:01

walked into my mouth. I mean, that was a jaw

28:04

dropping scene, and so I would fucking yo,

28:07

I don't I like animals.

28:09

I I don't. I don't like dead animals. There

28:11

was a fucking dead rat right over there. I

28:15

wouldn't dead. I mean, I wouldn't have

28:17

put a dead mouse in my mouth. But this

28:19

was live and it was there was one take. Did

28:21

you only do one? Well? So then after we did it,

28:23

I had twenty more times. Yeah,

28:25

and the mouse enjoyed it. Really it did

28:28

every time. It was very relaxed in there. I could tell because

28:30

it urinated, so you know, it

28:32

was certainly not nervous. Yo.

28:34

That is fucking How much of that was

28:37

improv like not just that scene, the

28:39

whole movie, Oh, the whole movie with

28:41

with all of your stuff? Not not

28:44

too much, not too much. I wrote the song. I

28:46

wrote the song, the tiny Salmon Swimming

28:48

in the stream song. I wrote that

28:50

like on set right

28:52

before we did it.

28:54

It feels like your whole performance was just all

28:57

of it was. It just felt like it was a lot

28:59

of it was pretty pretty scripted, though a lot

29:01

of it was. I was the tour the I

29:04

think the first couple of days I didn't really realize

29:06

how structured things were in films

29:08

because I was definitely improvising too much, and then

29:10

you know, Todd would be kind of like, okay,

29:13

we kind of gotta tell

29:15

the story now, you know. But

29:17

it was it was cool. I was a fun one for sure.

29:19

Yeah, But then I guess the one that

29:21

really this time was you

29:23

know, one of these surreal times that's sort of probably

29:25

once in a lifetime kind of things that happened where

29:28

you got a hit show and MTV and all of a sudden people were

29:30

asking me to do movies. So I thought, wow, this is crazy.

29:32

And we had this sort of attitude

29:34

at the time where we wanted to

29:36

kind of do things and make everything

29:38

insane, right, And

29:40

the movies were not insane. They were

29:43

normal movies, normal comedy

29:45

movies, funny but not insane.

29:48

And so you know, I sat down with my friend

29:50

and we wrote this Freddie got fingered because

29:52

we wanted it to make something that was insane, and

29:55

we did that, and um, I don't know,

29:57

sometimes I wonder, you know, what would have happened if I just did all

29:59

this sort of normal, funny movies that we

30:01

were getting offered. Maybe I'd still be making a lot more

30:03

movies. But but but we have

30:05

this huge cult following for Freddy

30:08

Got Finger. That's that's pretty cool. And people

30:10

love the movie, So I'm happy Freddy

30:12

Got Fingered and road Trip like those are

30:14

those are fucking kind of classics. Yeah,

30:17

Freddy Got Finger is a weird one, that's for sure. People

30:19

people like know the lines when I do

30:21

stand up now, I

30:24

sometimes end my show with asking

30:26

people to yell at their favorite line and whether

30:28

I'm going to Australia next month again or wherever

30:31

I you know, I've been there a few times, and people

30:33

know all the lines of that movie. And it

30:35

comes like this crazy, like rockery, rocky

30:37

horror picture show kind of thing. Shout,

30:40

just everyone show. At the end of the show, I got everyone, and

30:42

then I reenact the whole movie for people, the whole

30:44

thing. Are you enjoying doing stand

30:46

up? I love it? Yeah, Yeah, I love it. Yeah, it's

30:48

it's I did stand up before all that stuff.

30:50

I did stand up when I was you. I

30:53

did stand up when I was like a teenager,

30:56

um before the public

30:58

Access show and in Anada, and

31:01

then UH started doing it again

31:03

about ten years ago, and UH

31:06

been basically touring NonStop

31:09

and uh it's It's was

31:12

the best decision I've ever made, I think to go back

31:14

and start doing that because because

31:18

I have, like, first

31:20

of all, I have this great audience

31:22

all around the country and Canada and

31:25

the US and in Australia and in

31:27

England, and I can go do

31:30

shows and make a living and

31:33

do what I love to do and nobody's

31:36

really telling me what to do. So that's that's that's

31:38

one nice aspect of it. I mean.

31:40

The main thing though, really is it's just it's

31:43

so uh um

31:46

cathartic to be able to

31:48

get up on stage you

31:50

know, five or six

31:52

times a week for an hour. Is

31:55

that how long you do it? Yeah? And

31:57

I just kind of like can talk about

31:59

whatever is pissing me off and

32:02

hopefully try to make it funny. We'll make it

32:04

funny, you know. And uh and

32:06

I think the older you get, you know, I'm forty

32:08

four years old now, so like there's a lot

32:10

more stuff that's pissing me off. R Now. I

32:12

was pretty piste off before, but now it's

32:14

just like, you know, it's nice to be able

32:17

to get up and just rant about things that

32:19

you just find ridiculous. You know, what are some of your

32:21

recent pissing like rants,

32:23

things that piste you off, like things that you've

32:25

been zealing well very recently, like

32:27

I'm like very recently, Like lately

32:29

I've been I've been talking a little bit more about my

32:31

personal life because it's sort of a mess. My

32:33

personal life is a complete well

32:36

you know, like I just you know, I just recently

32:38

another girlfriend and I just broke up. You know, before

32:41

we broke up, I was with this other girl

32:43

that thank you, I'll have another drink, thank you, thank

32:45

you very much. Yeah, good

32:47

time for a drink. Um. Uh yeah.

32:50

So you know it's talk a bit about relationships.

32:52

How ridiculous that gets? How just how and

32:54

you know I was going out with this girl. She would like throw a

32:56

glass of red wine in my face

33:00

over, wablic over whenever

33:03

she was sort of angry about

33:05

something, she would throw

33:07

a glass of red wine in my face,

33:09

the wine or the glass and just

33:11

the wine. Like what what's the story one

33:14

of the times she threw glass in your and and

33:16

it wasn't It was a brilliant strategy, by the way

33:18

on her part. Like if you're in a disagreement

33:20

with somebody

33:23

and you you're in public,

33:25

and you throw a glass of wine in their face

33:28

and then and then run away. You look like, of

33:30

course you look like the as everyone's looking at

33:32

you, like, oh, that guy's an asshole. You must have done something,

33:35

you must have done something wrong. You're wet, you're

33:37

stained red

33:40

wine all of your thing. It's like, And so this was starting

33:42

to happen very regularly. Are you probably

33:45

not gonna work out how many? Like after

33:48

the first time, you weren't like that? Never

33:50

I thought, Okay, maybe I did something wrong,

33:52

maybe I said something wrong. Do

33:55

you remember what caused the first or second

33:57

time, or any of the time.

33:59

I've never had happened to me. And I'm a

34:01

motherfucker, And which is ordering the red one? I

34:03

would have been like, you're not fucking ordering red? Oh no,

34:05

I mean it got bad. I was literally

34:07

planning my evenings. I'd be wearing like burgundy sweatshirts.

34:13

I couldn't tell the difference I was.

34:16

I was, you know. So I talked about that. I talked

34:18

a lot about technology and my stand up and talk a

34:20

lot about like I've been talking about this for a few

34:22

years now and expanding on it, just about how we're all addicted

34:25

to our Facebook pages and our cell phones,

34:27

and our text we can't stop

34:29

texting. We're always on Twitter, and we're always

34:32

we're all and you go out with people now

34:34

and everybody's on I was. I was

34:36

at l Compadre a

34:38

few uh weeks ago, and

34:40

I'm sitting there with my friend and

34:42

I looked around the room. There's maybe fifteen

34:45

other people in. It was at lunchtimes

34:47

maybe you know restaurants half full. There was maybe people

34:50

there. Every single person in

34:52

the entire restaurant was was texting,

34:55

looking at the phone. It was silent. Nobody

34:58

was talking. We were in a nice restaurant. Nobody

35:00

was talking. Everyone was just sitting there like

35:02

robots on their phone. And that really

35:04

annoys me. You know, being forty four

35:06

years old, you know, you you don't probably

35:09

remember what the world was like before cell phones.

35:11

Probably twenty

35:15

five claim to know what the world nothing.

35:18

Listen, I got a cell phone, yeah,

35:20

and it was

35:22

exactly So that's exactly what I'm that's exactly

35:26

honestly, that is exactly my point. In ninth

35:28

grade, you had a cell phone. I didn't get self until I was twenty

35:30

eight. Okay, now it's like seven years

35:32

all the way through high school without

35:35

a cell to you know I I

35:37

you would walk to school, you'd be alone.

35:39

Nobody could get ahold of you. It would

35:41

just more your thoughts, your fear thoughts,

35:44

your your your your perversions, everything.

35:46

It was a relaxed world. You had freedom,

35:49

You had freedom to go and do things. Now

35:51

everybody always can talk to you. Whenever

35:54

you're anywhere, At any moment, some bad

35:56

news could come in. You're always on edge.

35:58

You always know that the moment this

36:01

thing in your pocket could deliver some bad

36:03

news. Or you might have a great stroke of brilliance

36:05

that you have to tweet out because I have strokes

36:07

of brilliance, Like I mean, it's like I gotta

36:09

get them out exactly before. You just

36:11

think about it. You know it was great, and then you forget

36:14

about it and you would never tweet

36:16

it up and it was nice you

36:19

so you that annoys you. But how

36:21

often are you on your phone? Oh?

36:23

A lot? But I I but I'm aware

36:25

of it now, and I make an effort

36:27

to leave it at home, and then you go to lunch

36:29

and you see it, and then it's like a whole other world. I

36:31

don't leave it at home, but I turn it off

36:33

a lot, all right, I don't check it a

36:35

lot. I'm always very conscious

36:38

of when I'm with people not to check

36:40

my phone, unlike most people like

36:42

that. Most people when I'm with

36:44

people, they're always on their phone, and I

36:46

I actually like feel sometimes

36:49

like it's disrespectful, you know, when you're

36:51

out with people. To start, He's like, Okay, I thought

36:53

we were having our time together. It's bad.

36:55

I thought we were hanging out together. Who are you talking

36:57

to now? Who are you talking to now? Why are you talking

36:59

to some buddy? Were I took time out

37:01

of my day to hang out with you and now

37:03

you're talking to everybody else? And then you gotta repeat

37:06

yourself. They didn't hear it. Yeah, it's like I'm

37:08

not saying I'm fucked up about it too.

37:10

I'm all cracked out on my ship. It's

37:12

like an epidemic. It's fucking

37:15

It's bad. And I have I have. I

37:17

I have a lot of sort

37:19

of u sort of scenarios that I

37:21

paint my stand up about relationships

37:23

and how like Instagram and Facebook is

37:25

just annoying when you're in a relationship, and I'll

37:27

i'll sort of dissect people's

37:30

relationships and married couples in the front row

37:32

on my show. Do a lot of crowd work with people. Yeah,

37:35

it's fun, It's that's cool, It's really fun. I want

37:37

people to leave the show thinking

37:39

like, Okay, we laughed a lot, we had a good time. Everything

37:42

he said was was funny and true, but

37:44

also maybe think you know what I'm actually gonna

37:46

like, you know, turn my fucking phone off once in a while.

37:48

Right, I'm gonna go take a walk with my phone off like

37:51

that. Are you going to be performing in l A

37:53

anytime soon? I will be out, but I'm I'm I'm

37:55

on the road the next couple of months. You're

37:57

going to Australia, going Australian March

37:59

for how for three weeks all

38:02

over Australia, all over Australia. I'll do a

38:04

couple of comedy festivals in Melbourne and

38:06

the broads and the Broads. I've

38:08

never been to us, but I've heard the women

38:10

are beautiful and and and just sort

38:12

of open. Yeah, is that real? Yeah,

38:15

it's like Canada with palm trees Canada

38:17

that Yeah. Absolutely, What are you gonna be like

38:19

it every day? A show every day?

38:21

Or do you act? Do you get some downtime to like pretty

38:25

much a show every day. Yeah, I got a couple of days

38:27

off here and there, the travel days because I gotta go to different

38:29

cities. But you know, it's just one show

38:31

a day, so it's nice to get the whole day off to hang

38:33

out and you go do a show. And I play these

38:35

uh nice theaters in Melbourne

38:37

and Sydney or it's there's

38:39

these big comedy festivals there, so I'll go do six

38:42

nights in a row at a comedy festival in Melbourne. This

38:44

really nice theater and like how many how many seats

38:46

are like these theaters? Uh? And uh

38:49

they're both they're both thousand seats, eight hundred

38:51

seats. That's nice. Is there a specific

38:53

place where it just doesn't translate to people,

38:55

like have you experienced that where you're like, funk, this is

38:57

just that's a good question.

39:00

Sometimes not

39:02

not not not not no The

39:04

answers no, but which was a surprise to me because

39:06

I was sort of the first time I went there, I thought, jeez, I hope

39:08

they you know, understand my accent or know

39:10

what I'm talking about, or but you'll

39:13

notice the first night when

39:15

you're there doing your first show

39:18

that there will be certain jokes that just will fall

39:20

flat. And then you realize, oh, they have no cultural

39:22

reference towards what Sears is.

39:24

You know, they don't know what they don't know what the Sears

39:26

catalogs, you know, or or they or

39:29

if you refer to like, uh, you know, white

39:31

out, they go, you know, like you or

39:34

you don't even know what white what

39:38

is white out? Why does fucking the white ship

39:41

that you put over an area on your paper when

39:43

you had to do that, when

39:45

you had to do that back before you were born, they

39:48

had stuffed. So

39:50

anyway, if you're on a came

39:55

out, what year to Roat trip come out? Uh?

39:57

Two thousand? So I was ten years

39:59

old and I remember when

40:01

that came out to me. My friends at

40:04

camp we were like, holy ship.

40:06

We like I remember my friends at camp

40:08

snuck a copy of Freddie got Fingered

40:11

in their bag and we had a portable DVD player.

40:14

It was like that and we would watch it and

40:16

and they like took it away from us. It was absolutely

40:20

yeah, so so Tom

40:22

when so so when we who are your

40:24

who are your guys? Like? Because one of the what's

40:26

the guy's name? Because I I want to ask you about the letterman?

40:28

But Letterman's guy that was on there for years,

40:31

Christopher no Um, Chris Elliott, Chris

40:33

Elliott because because

40:35

like that, I was just thinking, like and obviously

40:38

Andy Kaufman sort of was, you

40:40

know, bridging that, like what's going on? Is this real?

40:42

Like who were the people like you looked up to an admired

40:46

you know that that you know sort of influenced that

40:48

style that you that you had. Well, Letterman

40:50

was was just the whole Letterman Show

40:52

was probably the biggest sort of

40:56

influence in the sense that I

40:58

mean the whole show was modeled after that, you know,

41:00

I mean not not as much. You know, our pranks

41:02

and things were completely different. But he would go out in

41:04

the street. When he would go out in the street and do stuff when he yelled

41:06

out the window and his megaphone, or or

41:09

deliver a fruit basket over to to the

41:12

you know, the head of the g or

41:14

whatever, and getting getting arguments with

41:16

security guards when he would get in arguments

41:18

with his guests. All of that,

41:20

like TV gone wrong stuff

41:24

was something that was hugely you

41:26

know, exciting to me. You

41:28

know, when when Late Night with David Letterman came

41:30

on, that was like the first time I remember ever

41:33

sort of seeing that where

41:36

it was like, you know, you've been watching Johnny

41:38

Carson with your parents your whole life, and all of a sudden

41:40

there was a guy that was at a desk kind of like Johnny

41:42

Carson, except he was sucking around right like he

41:44

was like, you know, doing stuff that sort of

41:46

seemed like things were going

41:49

wrong. Madonna called him

41:51

an asshole, like crap, someone said asshole,

41:53

and it was you know, Crispin Glover

41:55

tried to kick him, came back, and I'm

41:57

not sure that Letterman liked that bit so much, but it

42:00

was to me that was like, this was one of the great moments

42:02

of the show, you know, when things would go wrong, you know, um,

42:05

did you need the Andy Kaufman thing like

42:08

live or you know, know that the Andy Kaufman

42:10

stuff. I kind of found

42:12

out about Andy Kaufman later actually, which

42:15

was I don't know if it was just something that I

42:18

I mean, I knew him as as from

42:20

Taxi, but I really I really didn't know the whole

42:22

mythology until A Man

42:24

in the Moon came out, which was bizarre because

42:27

I was actually, uh,

42:29

you know, basically when

42:31

that movie came out, I was in the hospital

42:34

with answer myself. At

42:36

the exact same time the Man in the Moon

42:38

came out and people are saying, hey, is this like an Andy Kaufman

42:40

thing? You know, are you pretending to have cancer

42:43

all this guy? But yeah,

42:46

yeah, yeah it was. It was a lot of weird

42:48

stuff there. But I love Andy Kaufman

42:50

now that I've gone and watched everything that he did.

42:53

And but it was like Letterman,

42:55

it was Monty Python,

42:57

it was it was s C to

43:00

t V, Saturday Night Live, a lot of the

43:02

things that like that. And then you

43:04

know skateboard videos, skateboarding

43:07

videos, and you know hip

43:09

hop music and independent

43:12

music. You know, I was a college radio show.

43:14

I did a radio show in a college radio station.

43:17

And you know when I was a teenager, were you playing

43:19

hip hop? Playing hip hop? Did you see there's

43:22

a documentary? I saw your movie. I love

43:24

your movie. No, not mine. We've

43:29

talked about before, though, I

43:31

know I love your movie. There's

43:34

rhymes in life, right, thank you? But did you there's

43:36

a doctor? You should check out my favorite album of all

43:38

time, low End Theory. It's a good album.

43:41

Um Stretching Barbato music that

43:44

changed lives about the stretching Barbido Stretching

43:46

Armstrong, Barbiito Garcia show

43:48

that they did at a Columbia University. You should

43:51

peep it. Fucking love

43:53

it. And because their show was sort

43:55

of on the cusp of everything

43:58

that was going on in New York, and it was, you

44:00

know, sort of a younger version of

44:02

what the Night Younger. It was just it was

44:04

just another version of stuff that was going on in New

44:07

York. And it was a uh, you know, a breakthrough radio

44:09

show. And they did it out of Clumby. You're gonna gave

44:11

me goose bumps watching it, like it brought back all

44:13

the memories. They were like, really really

44:16

into rap music? How

44:18

are you getting it up there? And and and

44:20

see, the thing is is, you know we were

44:22

goofy Canadian kids, right and

44:24

uh, you know, with our Canadian accents and

44:26

our you know, zero street credibility,

44:29

but we love the music. And you know,

44:31

there was an indie record store up there that we go

44:33

to and get you know, vinyl

44:36

and cassettes and we'd get like you know,

44:38

the old you know it really it really to

44:40

me, it was you know, it was I mean,

44:44

I mean the first time I heard a rap song was a rap

44:46

song was sugar Hill Gang Rappers

44:48

to Light. I remember just I had it on a cassette.

44:51

I had it on a compilation cassette and just listened

44:53

to that old game compilation. It

44:55

was it was just it was just like our

44:57

Top forty compilation, but that one

44:59

song was on it. Of course the first time I've ever

45:01

heard anything like it. And I just listened to that song

45:03

for a year. But they weren't playing

45:06

that on the radio in Canada. Was none of that stuff. It wasn't

45:08

until maybe, uh

45:10

really the first year of high school that you

45:12

know, like there was other kids

45:15

listening to you know, Rundy MC, Beastie

45:17

Boys. You know. It was really that's

45:19

when we were Public Enemy. Was when we knew, okay,

45:22

this is this is really you

45:25

know, this is really like something different now

45:27

when we started listen when I started listening to Public Enemy because

45:29

run DMC was still playing on the radio, you know, that

45:31

was that was mainstream at that point, right, you

45:33

know, walk this way. It was mainstream. But that was

45:36

huge. But then you know, nobody

45:38

knew what you know, nobody in my high

45:41

school knew what Public Enemy was. They

45:43

weren't listening to Public Enemy. They

45:45

weren't listening to Boogie Down Production or

45:47

gang Star, you know, and uh,

45:50

and we sort of discovered this world and

45:53

just really kind of got into it. I started

45:55

making music. I started making beats.

45:57

I got into like samplers, did

45:59

you really? Yeah? I got like a kai samplers

46:02

and drum machines and keyboards and all

46:04

this stuff, and really kind of got into trying

46:06

to make music and basically made

46:08

this this this uh started

46:11

making music. And when I was when I was sixteen years

46:13

old, we met this guy

46:15

in Ottawa who was American

46:19

guy from Atlanta.

46:21

Huh uh. He had his brother,

46:24

his brother boogie in New York.

46:27

Was it boogie or boogie? Because

46:29

you said boogie down Productions? And I think

46:31

it's just your acts. Was it b o o G? I

46:33

e boogie? So I say boogie? You say

46:36

yeah, I say it wrong. I say Canadian. I

46:38

know I meant boogie the not

46:42

boogie. Not no disrespect because you didn't

46:44

even say booger boog

46:46

not booger, but it sounds It's just it's just

46:48

a Canadian pasta

46:51

taco taco. We got clamado

46:53

in Canada. We make Caesars, you make Bloody Mary's

46:55

with tomato juice. You know, it's there's so many differences.

46:58

But so Boogie Book from Atlanta.

47:00

Yeah, yeah. So he had a recording

47:03

studio in New York and when

47:05

I was sixteen, he

47:07

brought us to New York to record a demo.

47:10

So we got to New York and we

47:13

stayed at his place for like five

47:16

weeks, oh and recorded

47:19

and uh, you know, sometimes he'd leave for days

47:22

at a time, would just be at his house, like hanging out. Hanging

47:24

out in New York City, sixteen years old. I can't believe our

47:26

parents let us go, but they let us

47:28

go down there and do this. And

47:30

he had a cousin who lived in

47:33

Brooklyn and in Brownsville,

47:36

and we went to Brownsville and we shot

47:39

a music video the fuck At I

47:41

was sixteen years old, and

47:44

I remember that it was because Brownsville,

47:48

that's where I grew up. My best friend

47:50

browns I have a you know, tough part of the don

47:53

and it was I remember that. It was it was, you know,

47:56

we were like these you know goofy you know, white

47:58

Canadian kids from Ottawa. The US have been

48:00

like what the fun? We rolled into Brownsville

48:03

and uh, and we took out some speakers.

48:05

We set up our speakers and we just started wrapping the

48:07

song and everyone crowded

48:10

around, came around, came out of the all the

48:12

projects came out and started hanging

48:14

with us and ship dancing.

48:16

Everyone was dancing. Was totally this totally amazing

48:19

video which I have on a VHS tape

48:21

somewhere. It's

48:23

not on not on YouTube or anything, and

48:26

I have to go find it out.

48:28

Yeah, we gotta premier it here somehow

48:30

we need like, yeah, I need somehow, I gotta

48:33

it exists. It does exist in a cardboard

48:35

box somewhere, in a storage space over in

48:37

a burbank somewhere. So you could have taken

48:39

So why didn't you take the music path? Like

48:42

were you? Were you serious enough to be like I want

48:44

to do. So we got a record deal in

48:48

Canada and uh,

48:50

this is straight hip hop. It was you

48:53

know, it was us trying to do it was

48:55

us trying to be like you know, we

48:57

were trying to do our version of the Beastie Boys. We

49:00

just weren't, you know, as good as the Beastie Boys, right, but we

49:02

wanted to be though. We had we had the we had the desire

49:05

to be as good as the Beast Boys. You know, um,

49:08

you know I like making the beats, but you know, um,

49:11

but we had a

49:13

we had a single that came out in Canada

49:15

in one and

49:18

uh we got nominated for an award in

49:20

Canada, Juno Award, which is like a Grammy. And

49:22

then then you know, we did one

49:24

record, didn't sell enough, records, got dropped

49:26

from the record label. I went back to school and studied

49:28

broadcasting and started the TV show History.

49:32

You should incorporate that on

49:34

your shows, whoever you were doing. That's

49:37

rights of the music, the

49:40

music back. But that was a little bit sillier

49:42

than what we were doing, right, But the group was the rap

49:44

group was always had its comedic elements. You know.

49:46

It was like we would like, uh,

49:49

I always tried to make it really weird. So we

49:52

kind of got a little conflict with the band when

49:54

the band was coming out because you

49:57

know, we'd always been doing really weird ship

50:00

on stage, like we we do two

50:02

songs and then some you know, bad

50:04

industrial music that I made would kick in and

50:06

we'd all put laundry baskets on our heads

50:08

and just like start rotating slowly

50:11

for like three minutes in front of the audience the

50:13

show we opened for Third Base at

50:16

at UM. Yeah. I don't know if

50:18

they even know this, because they

50:20

had this group called the Dream Warriors from Canada

50:23

open for them, and we

50:25

went down to Rutgers New

50:29

Brunswick, New Jersey. We drove down

50:31

there to open for Third Base. Never

50:33

met Third Base. But I don't

50:35

think they even know this happened, actually because

50:37

they would probably appreciate it. This was years before

50:40

I was on MTV and we were opening.

50:42

We were opening for their opening act. So

50:45

their opening act was the Dream Warriors from Canada

50:47

and uh so we went down and uh

50:50

did like three songs in front of their

50:53

crowd, and it was

50:55

it went over pretty good. I'm not I think

50:57

the laundry baskets confused them a little

50:59

bit though. The crowd was a little confused by the

51:01

laundry basket moment, which

51:04

was very enjoyable to me because you

51:06

know, we'd be wrapping everyone be kind of like,

51:08

oh, these kids in Canada, this is pretty cool,

51:10

and then all of a sudden, we break out the laundry baskets

51:13

and like you could tell, like the audience

51:16

you know it was this was this was a hip hop crowd,

51:18

right, because this was like this

51:22

was maybe nine one something

51:24

like that. This these were this was a crowd

51:26

that took their hip hop seriously Rutgers

51:28

University, New Jersey, and they were there to

51:31

see third base and um,

51:34

and then all of a sudden we got laundry baskets on our heads.

51:36

But I don't think they were really quite able

51:38

to like hate on it because it's just too fucking

51:40

weird. So I think it actually went over pretty

51:42

well. It was pretty funny. So since you said

51:45

you made you made beats, who would

51:47

you say your top three hip

51:50

hop producers? Your favorite? And

51:52

I know it's interchangeable and if you want

51:55

to do five, you could do that. Um, you

51:57

know like the sounds at producersducers,

52:01

Uh let's see, well, uh

52:04

Premier Premier of course, like like

52:06

his Gang Star. Yeah, absolutely,

52:08

many many others, the Bomb

52:10

Squad just

52:13

because it was so groundbreaking at the time. Absolutely,

52:15

you know those sounds, all those sounds that they had and there

52:18

they were, they were doing it. You just sort of couldn't

52:20

really remember

52:22

when you when when you're when I heard Public Enemy for

52:24

the first time, you know, you're

52:26

sort of like, wow, what are all those sounds? Yeah,

52:29

how are they doing that? Yeah? That was amazing,

52:31

And I would say, actually, a friend

52:34

of mine who is And I'm not just saying this because he's a friend

52:36

of mine, he's he's he's probably a friend of mine

52:38

because he was. One of my favorite producers is uh

52:40

Mike Simpson from the Dust Brothers Okay,

52:43

Paul's Boutique Okay, which I think is

52:45

a groundbreaking Uh everybody

52:48

considers that such a groundbreaking album for

52:50

sampling and everything. I mean, they killed it. So yeah,

52:53

those would be my my three favorites.

52:55

And then MC's who's your top top top

52:58

five? Top five? Top five? I

53:00

saw Chris Rock at the at

53:03

a thing recently and I um, and

53:06

it was that Saturday night Live party that they had this

53:08

year party and it was just a

53:10

surreal That was a surreal thing. I'm sure

53:13

that Chris Rock was there, and I you know, walked

53:15

up to him and I said, I want to give you my top five,

53:18

right, So I felt pretty cool about that my

53:21

top five. So here's my top five. I have a top

53:23

five. Give it to me in no particular or

53:25

no particular order, Okay, Well, Public

53:27

Enemy Beastie

53:29

Boys, Eric

53:32

B and rock Ham Yep, thirtieth anniversary

53:34

of Eric B for President the other day fucked

53:37

my head up so old. That

53:39

tripped me out because that that song was like,

53:42

yeah, it's still such

53:44

a unique one

53:46

of a kind that the pace

53:48

of it is slow. And

53:51

also, I mean when it came out, but

53:54

I was like, damn man, thirty years

53:56

ago that ship came out, it's

53:58

still every time it comes on. I'm just that

54:00

was the first time I remember somebody rapping like that

54:02

cool, you know, like they weren't like yelling

54:05

like laid back. He just slowed the whole

54:07

thing. Now, that was that was a whole new sound.

54:10

So yeah, Eric rockem public

54:12

enemy Beastie Boys tribe called Quests and

54:16

uh yeah, this is the hard

54:20

part because you'll, you'll you want to pick the right

54:22

one in a changeable you know, it could you

54:25

could be on the drive home, you could say it could

54:27

be a different five. I'm not going to judge

54:29

you. Everybody's never I was never into

54:31

as much like I know a lot of people would say Tupac. I was

54:33

never really into the West Coast style as

54:36

much, even though I like to tupac

54:38

um Biggie. I like Biggie,

54:40

but sort of like, you know, a little more modern

54:43

than maybe what I would say, you know, because I was sort

54:45

of more into it back when I was, um,

54:48

so let's say, Run DMC, they're

54:51

fucking we we we were a

54:53

very similar list because because

54:56

not only you know, they

54:58

were like, you know, they changed,

55:00

they almost created it in a lot

55:02

of ways. Yes, you know that you got to

55:04

kind of give them, I mean and

55:07

at the time, at

55:09

the time, yeah, I was probably

55:11

more excited about Run DMC than

55:14

any of any of them because it was the first one

55:16

that I really got into and they were so good and and

55:19

and and the style and the song making. They

55:21

made great songs and and and

55:23

the flow and then the whole presentation

55:26

with the hats and the Adidas and the you know,

55:28

the shoelist ship and the leather jackets and

55:30

then you know, and they I mean they each

55:33

one of them, Jam Mass j Be in the center

55:35

and then Running d m C as m C s.

55:37

They were just like it was just like a fucking

55:39

supergroup, you know when you look back on

55:41

like the talent level was like Running d MC,

55:44

we're both just and it just

55:46

was and then they brought it. It was they were just so influential,

55:49

and they brought in the rock and the Rick Rubin, and I

55:51

mean they just everything for me is like it

55:53

goes back to when you first discovered something, how

55:55

amazing it was to you, and the feeling that you got

55:58

from music when you were first discovering things. So I

56:00

find it hard to like really get into Like

56:03

for for me, I just I think, you

56:05

know, I'm forty four years old, and I start saying

56:07

things like I used to hear my parents say, like all

56:09

the music is just not like it used to be. But I

56:12

think a lot of it has got to do with just when

56:15

you first like when you're a teenager

56:17

and you're discovering all of these things for

56:19

the first time, not just music, Like you're getting laid

56:22

for the first time, you're drinking for

56:24

the first time, you're partying for the first time, you're experiencing

56:26

some freedom for the very first time, and

56:29

you're discovering music for the first time, and you're you're

56:31

really connecting with music on

56:34

such a deeper level at that age because they're wrapping

56:36

about stuff or singing about stuff that's that's

56:38

meaningful to you. All these new things

56:41

girls, you know, partying fun,

56:43

you know, you know people we

56:46

yeah killing yeah,

56:50

and when you're you know, and then then once because I do that

56:52

and I did that like shooting

56:56

motherfucker's left and right right, Yeah,

56:58

I would, I presume. So yeah,

57:01

you know, I know, I I know what you mean. I know. But what

57:04

concerns me about hip hop in general is

57:06

is that because of technology,

57:09

Uh now, anyone could wrap and

57:11

you could put out songs so instantaneously

57:14

and and and uh you know, even

57:16

like the disc records and all that ship, Like when

57:19

Nas did Ether, like

57:21

that was like, yo, this is this is life

57:23

for death. When he took on jay Z, it was

57:26

like life for death. When l L was going at

57:28

komol D, it was life or death. You had.

57:30

You know, there was no I'm gonna put one out, Okay, this

57:32

didn't work, I'll put another one out, you know, and

57:35

and and it just was you know, like

57:37

when you had a record deal, like even for you you had

57:39

like like it's like you had to do all this ship

57:41

to get the record deal and then

57:44

you know, all this ship to do the single and studio

57:47

costa you know money, you know

57:49

that time tapers

57:51

and you had to go in there with your ship written and you

57:54

like you couldn't funk around. Um, so

57:56

I just I get concerned about the music, the

57:59

musicality and the craftsmanship, like

58:01

you talk about Premier and we talked about Tribe

58:03

and you know, all all

58:05

the people, all the regular cast

58:07

of characters, like it was a life and death quality

58:10

to it, you know what I mean. Like everything's like that now,

58:12

video editing, you know, like you got your lap

58:15

the laptop computer now or an iPhone

58:18

has all of these preset apps

58:20

in them. Now it's basically automatically

58:23

do what required a genius

58:25

and an entire lifetimes of work

58:27

and skill to the touch of a button. You

58:30

know. If you're a photographer, well great,

58:34

it must be nice to have spent like, you

58:36

know, ten years in photography school

58:38

in nineteen eighty and now there's a button that

58:40

will pick the filter and it looks

58:42

better film everything instant

58:44

and there's pros and cons to it. But I just think

58:46

with the music, it's like you can't like I don't

58:48

know, so I don't want to like. I I know what you mean

58:51

because I have two kids. I got a thirteen and fifteen

58:53

year old, and I like

58:56

the people now, Like now it's about how people

58:58

become experts at manipulating the latest

59:01

technology, right like and and coming

59:03

up with good songs. And I mean, I I like

59:05

Drake. I like when I hear Drake on the radio. Yes,

59:08

I like that. I like that, I like like going.

59:10

I was. I was in Europe

59:13

recently and they had this music channel and it

59:15

was playing that hotline blame video all

59:17

day? Did you jump out of a window? Yeah?

59:20

But I was. I was. I sort of became

59:22

the joke where I was singing it all the time to annoy

59:24

people around me, which was funny. But

59:26

I also think that it was catchyas

59:31

I'm Canadian, so I gotta like, you know, it's nice

59:33

to see a Canadian, uh, you

59:35

know rapper, a cross half

59:38

black, half Jewish Canadian rapper. Who

59:40

would have thought that the biggest rapper in the world

59:42

would be a Canadian half black

59:44

bar Mitz foot jew former

59:47

Degrassi junior high. I never would

59:49

have thought it. I mean, I think it's like

59:52

a story by a Canadian. Absolutely,

59:55

But but you know the thing about that, so to also,

59:57

sometimes I wake up. I've never

59:59

listened to song all the way through. I'll wake

1:00:01

I swear to God, I'll wake up sometimes and I'll be

1:00:03

singing that song to myself. And I've

1:00:06

also done that with the Taylor Swift song. Players

1:00:09

gonna hate hate what's

1:00:11

happening? I mean those are good songs,

1:00:13

though, I mean, if you play anything

1:00:16

enough times, but I don't even listen

1:00:19

to the song, like if I hear in a car

1:00:21

passing. That's how good hotline

1:00:23

bling is is that you could you could hate

1:00:25

it and it still gets into your soul. Taylor

1:00:28

Swift has the power to fucking

1:00:30

get in your body and your cells without

1:00:32

you even with like against your own will.

1:00:36

The Eminem thing, Yeah, I

1:00:38

want to because I'm just gonna ask, Okay, now you you you

1:00:40

said just hold on,

1:00:43

don't hold the fun. You've

1:00:45

been preparing to ask the guy the question, get

1:00:48

the questions. Why do you got a preface? You like, like,

1:00:50

why do you have almost power?

1:00:53

I don't want to keep the guy, so we just askay

1:00:56

shut up. Going back to the

1:00:58

bum Bum song. Yeah, back then when

1:01:00

Eminem did his own little parody

1:01:03

of the of the bum Bum song in the Real Slim

1:01:05

Shady, is that a conversation

1:01:07

that you have with Emine? Obviously he

1:01:10

just throws it out, But what was your reaction to

1:01:12

that. I thought

1:01:14

it was awesome. I mean, were you just like so flattened?

1:01:17

I mean it was it was sort of out of nowhere. No, it wasn't a conversation,

1:01:20

Like I didn't know that was happening until

1:01:22

the video came out. And how

1:01:25

did you find radio? And I saw

1:01:27

the video and he was running around in my

1:01:29

superhero suit. I don't know

1:01:31

how he got it's the exact same one that was in the

1:01:36

video, or maybe it's not the exact same one, the exact

1:01:38

same style of thing with the bum

1:01:40

bum the plastic bum bum my

1:01:43

lyrics. You know, my bum is on your

1:01:45

lips, My is on your lips. I

1:01:47

just want to go on TV and let loose, but I

1:01:49

can't. But it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose.

1:01:51

My bum is on your lips. My bum is on your lips. Right.

1:01:53

You hear that and you're like, what, that's cool? And and that's

1:01:56

the songs on the radio all day, the

1:01:59

biggest fucking and it's on on

1:02:01

MTV. He had also done a thing where he

1:02:03

took over Total Request live for

1:02:05

a day and he went out and he did impressions

1:02:08

of me. See that was so prominently featured

1:02:10

in that fake goatee on and he was doing

1:02:12

stuff with a megaphone, and I remember talking

1:02:15

like me, Yeah, it was cool. I never

1:02:17

I've never met em. You never met him. I

1:02:19

never met him. I've never seen him in real life. Yeah,

1:02:21

I'd like to meet him. But I did have

1:02:24

the when I made Freddie Got Fingered.

1:02:27

I directed that movie. So I cut to like

1:02:30

do the soundtrack and everything, and

1:02:32

so I put slim Shady

1:02:34

that song in the credit role. Of

1:02:37

course, you have to ask permission. And he didn't

1:02:39

give you a hook up for fucking He

1:02:42

didn't give me a hook up. He let me use it. Yeah, because

1:02:44

he Officially, they don't. They

1:02:46

did not license music to anybody ever. They

1:02:48

never gave any music to anyone and they

1:02:51

but they gave the music to us. Shout out Paul

1:02:54

Rosenberg. Yeah, are you going to direct another

1:02:56

film? I'd like to. Yeah,

1:02:58

I'd like to. It's a sort of I

1:03:01

mean, I don't know if I if or when I will.

1:03:03

But have you written anything. I'm thinking

1:03:05

I'm going to write a new one, a new movie soon.

1:03:08

I have a few ideas. I just I'm

1:03:10

I'm sort of I get very uh, I

1:03:13

spread myself and all the I'm tour and doing

1:03:15

stand up, I'm always writing new stand up. That's sort of the

1:03:17

main thing I'm actually Uh, I'm actually

1:03:19

gonna start recording some goofy music again

1:03:22

to incorporate into my stand up show. And

1:03:25

then if I get a spare moment, I do kind of want

1:03:27

to write another script, but I'm just gonna

1:03:29

gotta find the time to do it. So yeah,

1:03:32

look, I do love I do love directing, and like

1:03:34

I love the editing process and the shooting

1:03:36

and and and the writing process. But you

1:03:39

know, it's just uh coming

1:03:41

up with the right idea and figuring out what I want to

1:03:43

invest. Uh. You know, however,

1:03:46

many years of my life into getting it made

1:03:48

you know, it's Yeah, Um, how

1:03:51

did you wind up guest hosting The

1:03:53

Letterman Show? Yeah? And since

1:03:56

you you spoke about loving him so much? Like

1:03:58

how fucking tripped out? Were you? Yeah?

1:04:00

I mean that must have been like and

1:04:03

just so flattering to also

1:04:06

sort of you know, obviously he has approval over

1:04:08

that, like to get that sort of stip of approval

1:04:10

from So how did it wind a past? That was the probably

1:04:13

the single most amazing

1:04:16

thing, surreal unbelievable

1:04:19

thing. That's that's happened to me, you

1:04:21

know, through all of this stuff, because

1:04:23

you know, it

1:04:25

wasn't it wasn't just it was unexpected

1:04:28

because he didn't even have people guest to right

1:04:30

then all of a sudden, no, I heard he was having some guest hosts,

1:04:32

and then he stopped and he didn't do it, and then

1:04:34

out of nowhere, like a year after he'd

1:04:36

had some guest hosts. I just I was. I

1:04:39

was in Los Angeles. I just got

1:04:41

a call from uh,

1:04:44

you know, someone I worked with who called

1:04:46

and said, are you sitting down? It

1:04:49

was I thought somebody had died, you know.

1:04:51

I was like, Okay, what what's going on? You're

1:04:53

hosting Letterman tomorrow. Drive to

1:04:55

the airport right now. You've got a flight

1:04:57

in three hours, you know. So so

1:05:01

drove the airport. You know, I

1:05:03

had to write my monologue. You know, on the

1:05:05

plane. I had some you know friends of mine who

1:05:08

were you know, funny people who

1:05:10

threw a few jokes at me. And you know, literally

1:05:12

less than twenty four hours later, I was walking out on stage

1:05:14

at the Sullivan Theater and yeah,

1:05:17

I didn't I

1:05:19

didn't see Letterman that day. But he was actually

1:05:22

there that day was on a Thursday where he did two

1:05:24

shows, so he wasn't even sick. I don't even know why I

1:05:26

had got to do it, but but I

1:05:29

got a letterman jacket, so

1:05:31

I got I got the late show jacket. Who are

1:05:33

your guests? It was Scott

1:05:35

Stevens from the New Jersey Devils. That's

1:05:38

always a great guest. You always want to like when you're doing

1:05:40

it. That's the dream. I want a host Letterman.

1:05:43

And then but you're a hockey guy though. Right they had just

1:05:45

beat the Ottawa Senators, and so

1:05:49

I had this bit that I prepared

1:05:51

with him where I pulled out to Ottawa Senator's

1:05:53

jersey at jew Jersey, New Jersey Devil's

1:05:55

jersey, gave it to him right

1:05:57

there, and then I said, I want to show you how can Adiens

1:06:00

play hockey and we go into the performance

1:06:03

area over by the band. I

1:06:05

throw the puck down on the ground and go try to take this puck

1:06:07

away from me, and then I do a bunch of stick handling and then he just

1:06:09

body checks me and knocks

1:06:11

me across the room. So it's pretty cool. Um

1:06:14

And it was Jolene Blaylock actress

1:06:17

from Star Trek

1:06:20

Babylon five was the

1:06:22

show? Okay, shout out to Joelene. Yeah,

1:06:24

yeah, thank you, Joline. It was a good interview, and uh

1:06:27

there was there may have been a comedian or someone else on

1:06:29

the show, but yeah, it's like no

1:06:31

time to even process and experience it was.

1:06:33

You know, you know, you have those moments where you know

1:06:36

you're kinda in this business where

1:06:38

you just sort of I'm sure you've had a million of them. You know, you're

1:06:40

probably so used to it now, right, but when you're we're working

1:06:42

with somebody, you're like, what the hell am I I don't? I don't.

1:06:45

You never get used to it. And I think that you

1:06:47

know, as soon as you get used to it, or

1:06:50

as soon as you know you start taking for granted

1:06:52

something like that, you've got to reevaluate,

1:06:55

you know, if you still love it, because

1:06:58

at the end of the day, that that's what you doing

1:07:00

it for, Like you're doing it for those moments, you're

1:07:02

doing it for that sort of you

1:07:05

know, when you reach that sort of that

1:07:08

in between I called for me, like

1:07:10

you know, in between action and cut, you

1:07:13

know, or like you know, when you're on a set with someone you

1:07:15

grew up loving or you're hosting you know,

1:07:17

Letterman. I mean, like, you know, to be in front of Robert

1:07:19

de Niro acting, I'm like at I'm

1:07:22

like, I'm in the moment, I'm focusing

1:07:24

it, but like after action and cut, I'm like, what the

1:07:26

fun you know, I'm looking at him, I'm seeing the dimple. I'm

1:07:28

like, what the fun is? You know, like you're tripping

1:07:30

out, you know. But I and I always

1:07:33

you know, I think once you stopped getting

1:07:35

nervous and excited, then I think that's time to like

1:07:38

hang up the cleats. Yeah, that was definitely

1:07:40

the most nervous and excited I've ever

1:07:42

been, other than maybe the

1:07:45

first time I was a guest on Letterman, which was I was also

1:07:47

very nervous, and probably more nervous and excited

1:07:49

at that time because he was actually there. Remember

1:07:52

that time, that was only about a month after I've been

1:07:54

in on MTV, And that

1:07:56

was the first show I ever did in America was

1:07:58

Letterman, The first talk talk show

1:08:00

had ever been on, first any sort of interview of

1:08:03

any sort. Ship He like saw the

1:08:05

show and just for whatever reason just like responded

1:08:07

to it right away. And I remember

1:08:10

standing there backstage and he was standing out there at his

1:08:12

desk and he looked over the side of the stage and

1:08:14

I just was like, I waved

1:08:16

at him, you know, I waved at me, waved back at me. I thought,

1:08:18

oh my god, I thought, I've I've made it. Now I can go back

1:08:20

to Ottawa and move out to the woods and and and

1:08:22

quit. At this point, Lederman just waved at me.

1:08:25

I hadn't even done the interview yet. But then, you

1:08:27

know, okay with a couple of years later, I got to guest

1:08:29

Toasted and I remember sitting backstage

1:08:31

there getting

1:08:33

ready to go out, and you know, they play

1:08:35

the intro and you know, you know, they play the

1:08:38

theme song. And Paul Shaffer was

1:08:40

there that night. He was playing the theme song from

1:08:42

the had Saltman Theater. It's the late show Tonight's guests.

1:08:45

Green Abo was just sitting there. What is going on? Biff

1:08:47

is there? You know, who is like actually

1:08:50

the stage man. You know, he's got

1:08:52

the headset on not doing a bit that

1:08:55

day. He's just there being the stage manager, you

1:08:57

know, and I'm kind of is this for real? I can't believe

1:08:59

that there's been he's actually the stage manager. This is

1:09:01

amazing. So that's fucking crazy, man,

1:09:04

that's crazy. And then and then specifically

1:09:07

because I want to let you go because we've been we've been rocking

1:09:09

for a minute, hour and seven

1:09:11

having me on the show. I appreciate it, man, it's

1:09:14

honor. Man. I've got a podcast too. We're

1:09:16

we're a network labelmates,

1:09:19

absolutely Labet CBS

1:09:21

Radio play at network. What's

1:09:23

an your podcast? The Tom Green Radio Show?

1:09:27

And uh, and it's a podcast, but I called

1:09:29

the Time Green Radio Show. I want to come on here? Yeah,

1:09:31

absolutely, And and I recorded just

1:09:33

down the streets. So you've always been sort of ahead

1:09:35

of the curb because like when I came to

1:09:37

your house, I think it was two thousand and

1:09:39

seven, I don't

1:09:41

know if it was cold. I'm sorry the Time Green Show, but

1:09:44

it was out of your house. Like you know that, You've

1:09:46

always sort of been a beat ahead with

1:09:48

that ship, and you had the live stream and back

1:09:51

then, I I

1:09:54

actually like they were taking, you were taking, you were

1:09:56

taking questions, and I had I had don't make

1:09:58

it about yourself. I'll fucking kick you write the Fox

1:10:01

the interview with making it about all of us. Finish

1:10:05

up the thing. I'm just saying I

1:10:07

submitted a question and when I came

1:10:09

up to your house, and I think it was about road and he

1:10:12

and you thought that that was important enough to bring up. Now

1:10:14

an hour I recorded it a minute on

1:10:17

my phone of you answering the question his

1:10:19

son. Aren't you know I'm really not not

1:10:22

at all prank. No, he's not not.

1:10:26

Um. I

1:10:28

don't care about the details of of of the

1:10:30

relationship. But the one thing I have

1:10:32

to ask you about when you were doing Satenite

1:10:34

Life during the fucking hysteria

1:10:37

of Tom Green and then the Drew Barrymore

1:10:39

stuff and then We're gonna get married on TV?

1:10:42

We're not gonna get married on TV? Can

1:10:44

you reveal what was the real

1:10:47

deal? Have you ever like what were like?

1:10:49

Was that really gonna happen? Was it not gonna

1:10:51

Hell? No, we were never going to get married on TV. Now,

1:10:54

No, we were never going to get married on TV. But we we

1:10:56

thought it would be funny to tell people that we were going

1:10:58

to get married on TV and then have her leave me the altar

1:11:00

at the end. That was that was my idea. It

1:11:03

was my idea. And then the reaction

1:11:06

to that and the sort of ship storm that that whole

1:11:08

thing. Well, you know, I think that that

1:11:10

was a surprise to me that people take things

1:11:13

far too seriously. Um,

1:11:16

I I have I don't have a

1:11:18

lot of regrets in life, but one

1:11:20

one regret I have was and

1:11:23

it's it's got nothing to do with Drew or or or that

1:11:25

bit specifically, but the way that bit work

1:11:27

was, you know, I'm hosting Saturday Night Live. This is my opportunity

1:11:30

to host Saturday Night Live, which has gotta be up there

1:11:32

in the surreal moment. Yeah, it's it's it's you know,

1:11:34

equal to it's

1:11:36

it's you know, like like I said, the Letterman

1:11:39

was the most surreal thing. That was also the most surreal surreal

1:11:41

thing right stripped out live from

1:11:43

New York. Yeah, it was unbelievable and you're sitting

1:11:45

there going, this is actually happening right now. And

1:11:48

for whatever reason, uh,

1:11:52

I decided with my friends,

1:11:54

when we're sitting around kind of thinking of funny things

1:11:56

to do, well and what would be crazy, let's

1:11:58

have a moment where have a thing where we're gonna say

1:12:01

you're gonna get married on the show. Because we were engaged at

1:12:03

the time. Let's get let's get married

1:12:05

and uh on the show, but then

1:12:07

at the end, she'll stand me up at the altar, and

1:12:10

then when she stands me up at the altar, I'll

1:12:12

freak out go into one of my sort

1:12:15

of screaming, hysterical sort

1:12:17

of things that I would do back then, which this sort

1:12:19

of I don't know what that character was, but I don't really

1:12:21

do that anymore, where I'd like to flip

1:12:23

out, and then the entire

1:12:25

cast of the show would uncomfortably

1:12:28

walk away, and then I would

1:12:30

be alone on the stage at the

1:12:32

band would stop playing, when it would

1:12:35

be all along in silence. So this class,

1:12:37

the classic ending of Saturday Night Live,

1:12:39

where everybody's having this great, congratulatory,

1:12:42

beautiful moment, was

1:12:44

ruined for me by this stupid

1:12:47

idea, you know, And uh

1:12:50

I regret that because uh, you

1:12:52

know, I I love Saturday Night Live. I grew up

1:12:54

watching it. It was and

1:12:57

I didn't really really predict

1:13:00

act when we wrote that bit. We thought

1:13:02

it would be funny, but I didn't really really

1:13:04

consider that that's going to sort

1:13:06

of ruin the beauty of that moment

1:13:09

with the band playing and the whole cast around

1:13:11

and everybody smiling and waving and

1:13:13

enjoying that music. And cheering with

1:13:15

the crowd. Instead, the show ended with complete

1:13:19

silence, me alone on the

1:13:21

stage screaming, and

1:13:25

then they yelled cut it

1:13:28

was silence. The audience was confused

1:13:31

because they don't know what's going there there there? Did he really

1:13:33

get stood up at the altar? Is he really freaking

1:13:35

out? And uh? And I I

1:13:37

do, I do kind of wish that we had just done

1:13:39

a nice ending. When

1:13:43

when when that whole sort of wave of

1:13:46

you know, this couple of two celebrities

1:13:49

and you're in it because I I've never

1:13:51

actually, to be honest with you, I've never been

1:13:53

in one of those, you know, but

1:13:55

I see I've seen it happen to friends, and I

1:13:57

haven't been in one sense. But but when you're in

1:14:00

the middle of that wave of you

1:14:02

know, paparazzi and you know fucking

1:14:05

you know, fodder and esquire

1:14:07

and and and gossip and and all this stuff,

1:14:09

like, are you like going what the fund is going

1:14:11

on? Like? Are you making fun of it? Are

1:14:13

you scared? Are you questioning? Like?

1:14:16

Is this is this sort of paparazzi?

1:14:18

And and it is all the the the the the the

1:14:21

what's the word? The gossip? Bringing us

1:14:23

together is is it pushing us apart? Like like what

1:14:25

was going on? Like, are you like freaking out during that?

1:14:28

Is the relationship? Real? Course it was?

1:14:30

Yeah. I mean I think the thing is is my

1:14:32

whole life was everything in my

1:14:35

life I was goofing on at that point,

1:14:38

even you know, like you

1:14:40

know, you know, Drew and I had

1:14:42

a you know, a good relationship.

1:14:44

Obviously it was real. We were engaged for real, we

1:14:47

got married for real, right but U but

1:14:49

uh, you know, it didn't work out in the in the long

1:14:51

run, but it was it was real at the time.

1:14:54

And she's a funny person, and we would

1:14:56

you know, sort of have fun with a lot of that stuff

1:14:59

with the with the you know,

1:15:02

it wasn't really like TMZ back then,

1:15:04

but there was paparazzi and like people taking

1:15:06

pictures and all of the magazine articles and

1:15:08

the tabloids and all that stuff. And and I

1:15:10

I I was probably naive

1:15:13

to think that, uh, you know, you

1:15:15

could just sort of have fun with with the

1:15:17

media and expect them to understand

1:15:20

that I was having fun with them.

1:15:22

And it's sort of a prank, pranking you you

1:15:25

know, the media like actually doesn't like

1:15:27

it when you make fun of them, right, So

1:15:29

I thought that they would kind of see it as, oh, he's doing

1:15:31

sort of an Andy Kaufman type of thing. You know, he's

1:15:34

goofing on us. Okay, now people didn't

1:15:36

like that too much, so so which

1:15:38

you know, hindsight, But it was it was

1:15:40

surreal and and interesting time. But

1:15:43

uh, you know, it was a very surreal time.

1:15:45

I mean, like to put to encapsulate

1:15:47

how surreal it was. The day

1:15:50

after I hosted Saturday Night Live and

1:15:52

did that prank, uh,

1:15:55

got on a plane the next morning to London, England

1:15:58

and went and had dinner with Prince Charles

1:16:00

at St James Palace with about

1:16:03

twelve other people for the royal

1:16:05

premiere of Charlie's Angels. So

1:16:10

you know you're sitting there going like, okay, I just tell us this Saturday

1:16:12

Night Live. You know, people are confused

1:16:15

about the meat bailing on the marriage thing

1:16:18

on the show. Now I'm eating dinner

1:16:20

with Prince Charles at a table with twelve

1:16:23

other people St James Palace.

1:16:25

That's crazy, you know. Now what Now I'm

1:16:27

sitting in a theater watching Charlie's

1:16:30

Angels with Prince Charles.

1:16:32

I'd play this character called the Chat in it right.

1:16:34

So that's how I met Drew. When

1:16:36

I met Drew when she this

1:16:38

is the first Charlie Angel, the first Charlie As

1:16:40

I got a good story when I was on When

1:16:43

I was on MTV, they cast

1:16:45

me to be the chat right, So

1:16:47

um, that's how I met her. We started

1:16:50

dating. Now I'm in in in London,

1:16:53

having dinner with Prince Charles, watching

1:16:55

the movie with Prince Charles. I have my line,

1:16:57

you know, like I come out, I go the Chad's great, you know,

1:16:59

I do some thing. I fall off the boat into

1:17:01

the water, right, and then Prince Charles like leans

1:17:04

over across, you know, and then taps me,

1:17:06

Hey, did you really fall off? Were

1:17:09

you really falling off that I'm

1:17:11

sitting there? What then is going on? You

1:17:16

not to top your Charlie's Angels story? And

1:17:18

I didn't think about this. I

1:17:20

saw Charlie's Angels, the first Charlie's

1:17:23

Angels before it came out in theaters at

1:17:25

Michael Jackson's house. Nice

1:17:27

and I'll give you the short version, but it

1:17:30

was. I was with Damon Dash who started

1:17:32

Rockefeller Records with Jay Z met

1:17:37

a few times, and I grew up with Damon. You

1:17:40

were kids but so Damon and

1:17:42

Kadata Jones and a

1:17:44

handful of Rockefeller people and this

1:17:47

one and that one. Jay wasn't there he

1:17:49

was. Damon was like, Yo, you want to go to Michael Jackson's

1:17:51

house. And I was like, fucky and he was like, come

1:17:53

come meet me and so and so in a few hours, gonna go to Michael

1:17:56

Jackson. So the short version is,

1:17:58

um, you know, we get

1:18:00

to Michael Jackson's house. This is before all the craziness

1:18:03

is. You know, this is when he's alive and kicking. It

1:18:05

was you know, like some of the craziest said it had

1:18:08

happened, you know, the child stuff and all that stuff. So when

1:18:10

we get there, we saw the tree that he had done the

1:18:12

interview he said he likes to climb that

1:18:16

never Land ranch and uh, you know, like

1:18:18

there before like we get there, like I leven, they're

1:18:20

like, you know, you could order whatever you want. And this is a bunch

1:18:22

of New York kipop dues and we're like, I want

1:18:24

to like try to see if that's true. So like

1:18:27

some dudes are like, yo, let me get s cargo. Some dude

1:18:29

are like, let me get clams with Laguini

1:18:32

and all the ship comes for lunch. We're driving and we're

1:18:34

having a whole the whole fucking day at Michael

1:18:36

Jackson. And then we go into the movie theater

1:18:38

later on when the lights, you know, the nights

1:18:41

started falling, we go into the movie theater

1:18:43

and we were in the movie theater where all the there

1:18:46

was beds and ship. Oh god, we're

1:18:48

like the sleepovers and all the stuff, and they

1:18:50

serve us dinner and we watched

1:18:53

Charlie's Angels. Michael Michael Jacks he wasn't

1:18:55

there, he was never there, he

1:18:58

was never but we had like run of the play. But

1:19:00

there were servants. There was fucking security

1:19:02

at once. I mean there was like a house on a hill

1:19:05

and I was like, what is that? I mean far away,

1:19:07

like did you see the monkey and the and were you on the

1:19:09

Black Coaster? The whole

1:19:11

fucking deal of crocodile, a fucking uh

1:19:14

giraffe um, and

1:19:17

and the scope of it, if you if you try to wrap

1:19:19

your hand around how big it was, like you have to think great adventure,

1:19:22

like if you've been to like Magic Mountain or great

1:19:24

like his property was that ginormous.

1:19:27

And I remember kept saying to myself like

1:19:29

take this in and try to remember like the like

1:19:32

this, like how big it was it But there was like a hill

1:19:35

far far away and it was like that's where the

1:19:37

security was. It was like I mean it was like

1:19:39

huge. So that's when if he asked

1:19:41

you to sleep over and he was there, would you have slept

1:19:43

over? You would have just been like type

1:19:48

I. I wasn't his type to tall, I

1:19:50

just I'm no, I'm no man's

1:19:53

type. Anyway, there's

1:19:55

no gay like, there's no gay man.

1:19:58

It's like thinks about like my Rappaport

1:20:00

being like there's like they don't have like a poster you

1:20:04

probably none of you either toime, like like I wouldn't

1:20:06

think that. Maybe in prison they

1:20:09

there's other people they would go to. I

1:20:11

don't know how we got that anyway. Okay, that's about

1:20:14

the all right, Tom, I'm gonna let you go.

1:20:16

This has been a pleasure. It's fun, awesome

1:20:19

be here. I would love to come on your show if you'll

1:20:21

have me. Um, I'm a fan.

1:20:24

Yeah, absolutely, I'd love to have you on the show. I'll

1:20:26

come on. I'm looking forward

1:20:28

to to seeing what else are you having the future.

1:20:31

Your health is good, health is good, everything's

1:20:33

good. I'm touring. I'm come see me on the road.

1:20:35

Go to Tom Green dot com and check out

1:20:37

my tour dates and comes to me on the road. Everything's great.