#81 Henry Cho, Road Stories & Remembering Bob Saget
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Hello, folks. Welcome to the Nate Land Podcast. I'm sitting here with Brian Bates, Aaron Weber. All right, everybody. Welcome. Welcome. The new year. Is this? No. We had an episode last week. Well, we did. We did. Not all of us did. It's good to be back. Welcome back. Good to be back. Yeah. Still have COVID. No. No. I'm all good. I'm all good.

So did you feel anything? I did. I lost taste and smell for a couple days. That's fun. Two of the more underrated senses. Yeah. You take them for granted your whole life, and then you lose them, and you're kind of like, what's the point? Yeah. Of living. Of life. I think so much of joy is tied to the way things smell and the way things taste. And when that's gone, you're kind of a shell of a person. I don't think it would help you lose weight.

You'd think so, but I don't know. Still, you're in a habit of eating bad. I could still eat Starburst and still be like, that's still fun. Our friend brought over some brownies for us, and I couldn't taste them, and I ate the whole thing of brownies. I don't know why. I was like, I'll just keep trying. It still kind of felt good, and I could remember what brownies taste like, so maybe I'll just think it into existence.

Yeah. And I ate the whole thing. I get that. Well, you got to keep like your joke. You got to keep trying to know if you're getting over it, right? Eventually it'll get back. Eventually it'll get back. Yeah. I could see that. I could eat. I could eat. You know, you just, and two, you're in a routine of it that you're like, well, this is what I would do normal. So I want to live normal. Yeah.

I mean, did you feel sick or you feel a little congested? It wasn't too bad though. Like you don't feel tired. You weren't like laying in bed. If it wasn't COVID, I would have been doing shows. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. Went to your first Titan? Was that your first Titan game? No, I'd been to a few. Oh. That was my wife's first time. Oh, okay. Yeah. And it was freezing cold and sleeting, and she still had a great time. Wow. It was your first time with COVID, though. I think that's what he meant. First super spreader event that you started. That you started. You were the...

You were the super in the super spreader. I was in the clear already by then, and I wore a mask the whole time, pretty much. Really? Yeah. Why? Because I just felt... You still feel guilty, even though I'm fine. I'm cleared by all... You were outside. I don't know. I just wanted to be able to say that I did. Somebody gave me flack for it. I can kind of understand that, but you should be getting flack for wearing the mask the whole time. I mean...

If we would have lost... Wait, you went to the Titans game when... The Dolphins. The Dolphins. We played the Dolphins. If we would have lost that, I would have blamed that on you. For wearing a mask. During the whole game. As you sat outside and just...

You're like just like, yeah. I mean, you're like, what's going on? Not just any mask. You guys were wearing matching N95s. N95s. Yeah, that's the real deal, man. That's the real deal. You know, matching. Like they came from the same box. They didn't have like unique designs on them. It was plain. You wrote Titans on it? Yeah, I said, I'm with her. And then her said, I'm with stupid. Yeah. The...

That is the sign of serious mask wearing is the N95. You're like, oh, this person means business. I think people probably watch what they said around y'all. You think they did that? They weren't. I'll say that. Hey, let's calm it down. We got a couple N95ers over here, if you know what I mean. So I'm sure they're not going to be able to handle it.

The normal stuff we're going to yell. So let's ease into it. Yeah. I just moved up to the 95. Oh yeah. Traveling this weekend. My wife wants me obviously the pregnancy to be really careful. And you know, she says her research shows that one does better. It does the most. It does the most. So I'll do the airport. And I was at the airport for like nine hours. Oh yeah. Getting out Friday and that thing. I was so tired of wearing that dress. Did you ever go sit alone?

Yeah, occasionally. But I mean, it was constantly you're just trying to get out. So I was constantly like on this flight, then this flight. I wasn't a lot of downtime. Yeah. It was just like, all right. I was sitting on a plane for two hours and then they made us get up. John Chris was on my flight. Not wearing a mask. The opposite. He was the only one. And I see him just get up and walk off the plane pretty early. Yeah.

And I'm like, what is he doing? And he made the right call because our flight was a connection to Atlanta. Yeah. He just drove it. And, um, and I mean, by the time they ended up counseling our flight altogether, he was probably halfway to Atlanta. Yeah. So he made the right decision. And he beat you to Atlanta. Yeah. I ended up, I finally got a direct flight to where I was going, but he was already in Atlanta before. Why didn't you take the direct flight first to them?

Because it was leaving so late that that's what I was worried about. So I was trying to take an earlier flight and then it ended up, I booked this flight that ended up taking, I booked it three weeks ahead of time.

And then because all the constellations at the airport, I'm like, I better leave a day early. Yeah. That flight got canceled. Then I kept getting on more and more and it ended up being on the same flight I booked like three weeks earlier. Yeah. And I got a bunch of flights I didn't even get to cancel because I was just booking flights left and right. Yeah. I spent about $2,000 on flights for a Southwest flight, 88 bucks one way to Norfolk, Virginia. Yeah.

What time was it getting in? 2.50. Oh. Yeah. For a 7 o'clock show? 7 o'clock show. That's cutting it pretty close. If anything goes wrong. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I remember when you book a flight, when you book a flight in the old days, what did you call? You'd call... Imagine booking flights. I think you would. You would just have to call the airline. And then...

imagine being a comic then you have to just you're just on the I guess they just drove everywhere I when we got off Delta that was the first place they said call the you know call Delta to try to rebook and I called and they were like there's a two hour and four minute wait time and um

they said the average age is 60 that's holding it has to be yeah it has to be because you can do it on you can do it on an app now it's it almost like kind of pushes you to the direction you should do it does do that yeah and it's like you can just do it on an app and you it has that's so funny it has to be this two hour wait time and everybody and whatever age you are listening to this they're your age waiting for this yeah

But what, but we're, we're in line at the ticket thing. We're also on our phone and they're telling you to call, but then they say, what can call you back? You know, just stay in the line. So I'm finally on my Southwest flight. I've been at the airport all day. I'm finally on my Southwest flight. We're about to take off and Delta calls me back and I'm like,

And I'm like, well, I mean, I'm fine now, but it's just so funny. It's like seven hours, eight hours later, they finally get back to me. Brian Bates. I can speak with Brian Bates, please. That guy's voice is tired. Brian Bates, but I've been on the phone for eight hours. Like his voice is gone. So where are you at? You're like, I mean, I'm already home. Vacation's over. He's like, all right. You get a lot of, so you have a lot of credit now? Yeah. And then I had to cancel my hotel for, cause I was trying to fly in a night early and the lady said,

You can't just get a person there at the spot. And the woman, I think she was in India. And then she's done with the whole thing. She said, she tried to pitch me on Hilton Honor, like for points if I listen to Spill. She had a rooster crowing in the background. And it kept crowing. So I said, ma'am, I can't hear you because your rooster's crowing. And she laughed. She's like, yeah, the sun's coming up here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we finally just had to cut it off. What time did you call?

Well, I call it in the middle of the day here, but in India, it's... Oh, in India. Yeah. Oh, that's... I was like, what? I just pictured you set your alarm, you wake up before the sun comes up. Like Jerry's Nana. Yeah. Chemical bank. Yeah. And the alarm goes off and you're already sitting there and you start dialing and you go... That's what I honestly...

I was thinking Virginia, so I'm thinking you called. At like 4.30 in the morning? Yeah, like 4.30 in the morning. She goes, well, sir, I mean, the sun's coming up. This is the time you get up? You go, I've been up for a few hours. This is what time. I get up to pee, and then I just kind of start my day. Kind of get going. I got up at 4.15 this morning. Why would you not just let the thing crow and then just get the points when she's done?

Let's go over there. Oh, it's making noise. Rooster's grown. Harper's got, she's getting texts now. That was a, she, we gave her her own Apple ID. And so she has her iPad. So we use her iPad to time the thing. And so now it's, you know, it's time.

It's a whole thing. It's weird. It's weird. You're getting texts from her. I kind of liked it because it was like, sometimes she would be texting me. She was like, where are you? I had to take a picture in New York. It's crazy to be texting your kid. And then it's, but it's like, I do like it. I was on the road. Like, I was able to send stuff to her because she would always use our phones. I mean, we watch. She can't do anything on that. Mm-hmm.

We're aware of what's going on, but that's the new what? You got to, you know, but she, I mean, they just, and you just want to read, I want to read them all. What are y'all, what are you talking about? You know? Yeah.

To answer your question, I think I was just so frustrated and so tired that I was just waking up. It's funny to think that you're like, because I would be like, all right, why don't you have to listen to it? Because there's like a rooster crowing. So I got the point without having to listen to Spill. But you go, ma'am.

I'm trying to take this all in. You really want to invite me. I'm trying to write it down. I want to know what I'm getting into. Yeah. I might want to really sign up for this. I want to really sign up for it. Yeah. Yeah. I might like it. But your rooster is ruining it for me. Your rooster is ruining it. I flew in. I was in because I did a night show. And then when we came home that day,

It was the day that it started snowing here real bad. And so I was like, we were... I had to be home. Did I have to? What was I doing? There was something. Oh, I'm writing something. And I had someone I was meeting that we were writing together all weekend. And so it was...

So we were having to meet for that. He was coming from LA. And so his flight was already in the air. So it was like, all right, well, he's going to make it. And I was in New York and then we're watching it. And our flight just got, it got, it ended up being fine. It got put delayed like two hours and we didn't land till, you know, eight 30 or nine. I supposed to be on my like four. And, uh, but I had to stay downtown. Cause it was, it was, it was late. It was, you know, it was, the temperatures were in the teens and,

And so I think it was too hard to, I don't know if we would have got to my house. Yeah. And so I landed and went to the hotel downtown Nashville. Or at least that's what you told Laura. That's what you told Laura. The roads are too bad. I go, I don't know what's happened. I'm going to land in Orlando. I'm going to go to Florida. You know, I thought I was looking at flights because you're like, what if this gets canceled?

what are we going to go do and i was like because then some of it was coming up to new york i was like so we just stay in new york one more day and fly the next day but then i was worried like if this thing hits new york now i don't want to get stuck in new york and so i was looking at like do you go you probably just went to atlanta and then but it was like do i go to atlanta do i go should i just like fly to like florida and like let's just get down there until it's warm

I don't know, just something. Where do I want to be stuck? Yeah, where do I want to get stuck? I might as well get stuck. All right. So, yeah, that was it. But you were here this weekend. I was here this weekend, yeah. And you were headlining. I was in Charlotte at the Comedy Zone. Had a lot of folks come out. Very cool. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. It happened super last minute.

The headliner dropped out, so Wednesday I got the call. That's the best. And then Friday I was there. Yeah. And it worked out. There's something fun about that when you're starting out. At Wednesday, you get the call. It's like last minute. It's just the best, man. Yeah, for sure. That feeling's the best. I don't know if gigs get more exciting than that. I mean, they do, obviously, because everything gets better. Yeah.

There's nothing worse than that either. I wouldn't want to be doing it. But I'm saying I don't know if that excitement, the new excitement, it's special. Right. I don't say you don't get excited. I was excited to sit on the couch of the panel on The Tonight Show. That was unreal. I can't believe I got to do that. But it's...

Like when you're like that, it's just crazy. It's my first time headlining a weekend there. That's a big club. And I think, oh, I have the weekend off and then I get the call. Oh, my weekend's very different now. Yeah. And that's the best. Like that's what you love because it's like you want to work. So like when you want to be working and you're not like going like my weekend was free and now it's not.

I still get excited about that sometimes. Sometimes I think I can have a free weekend and then you're like, oh, I'm working now. And like, cause it's like, I don't know. You just think this will all be taken away. It's all, you know, cause you're, everything's built on nothing. There's no. It's a fake job. It's a fake job. And so you just, I still do this day. Like if you get something, you're like, something pops up and you're like, eh, it's hard for me not to go. I'll do that. Yeah, I'll take it. Like I need, you know, cause it's, I'm afraid that it's hard for me to take off.

like do a vacation it's hard for me to go like i'm not working don't call me i could see getting to that point like if you're busier and you're just like this is getting too crazy but i'm not there yet like it's hard to go like all right well i'm blocked off this time no one called me i still think i want someone to call me every day and be like hey we're still working everybody's talking you know you're always afraid someone's getting ahead of you you're always afraid someone's gonna hit and you feel like if i'm not you know i don't feel like i can just

go away. You're like, no, no, no. I gotta be, you gotta be in and out there. Stay in it. Stay in it. That doesn't go away. Nothing better than that. Comedy zone, Charlotte, last place I drank. Really? Yep. Stop drinking. Not specifically because of that. As I was doing those comedy clubs and then that was one last clubs I was doing and I was going to theaters next. I opened two years ago. I opened for John Lovitz there. And, um,

He's on stage and he's doing very well. And I'm in the lobby and I'm just standing out there, just kind of, you know, you're just killing time. And they say, there's a crazy woman in the bathroom. And what happened was this lady had some kind of breakdown. She went in the bathroom. She locked herself in a stall. She started ripping up toilet paper during the show. So a server heard her screaming and walks in and goes, are you okay? And she's like, she goes, I don't want to talk to a white person.

So the server goes, oh, yeah, okay. Let me go. Let me leave. And they went and got an African-American server. The chain went in, and she said, are you okay? And she said, I'm wanted for murder. I'm on the run from the cops. I get it. I want to talk to a white person. If that's your...

That makes the most sense of like, you're like, why would you say that? And she's like, I'm wanted for murder. I'd like, I totally get why. I totally get it. I think that's, that was a smart move on your end. So this is her story. Her story is she's being wanted for a crime. She didn't commit. She's being wanted for murder. So she's, she's freaking out. She's ripping up the toilet paper in the bathroom and they go, well, you need the show's going on. Like did she sit there? You're 20 feet away. Well, here's, here's what happened. So,

They go, you need to leave. She's like, I'm not leaving. And they go, well, we're going to have to drag you out. So they get all the female servers to go in there and grab this woman. She comes out. She's white, by the way. I don't know why she cared about what race the person. She's getting carried out. She's yelling. It's so crazy. And I'm just standing in the lobby trying to stay out of it.

And they're dragging her out through the lobby to kick her out. Her feet aren't even touching the ground. And she drives past me and she looks over me and goes, hey, you were great. And then just keep walking out. Yeah. Happened at that club. So it's fun to be back as the headline. Did you follow her trial? I don't know how to. I did look up in like the Charlotte newspapers, like murders and stuff. And I couldn't find, I don't know what she was talking about. It was, I think it was drug related. She was just having. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, they were involved at least. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'd like to think she's a serial killer. Yeah. She loved Aaron's comedy so much she wanted one less. Big fan. You know?

Yeah, I appreciate it. Did you say I appreciate it? Hey, thank you. I still want to be polite. Shirts and scans are here. Appreciate you coming out, man. Thanks for coming. Even with everything, it's always an honor. It's funny that just having to deal with comedy, you've got to deal with this kind of crazy stuff.

Where it's like that's a story of like, you know, that's just part of – like you're just used to – most people wouldn't be – I don't know. It's like that would not happen somewhere. People have real lives and they don't – they're at real jobs. And in our jobs, you're like, yeah, that happened. You're like, oh, and you forget it. You're like the fact that you're not – that's not the main story you tell everywhere on earth every day. You should walk out the door every day and go, by the way, let me tell you this one story. But you kind of go, oh, yeah, I forgot about this. Yeah.

I had forgotten about it until I was there and I saw one of the other comics that was on the show. And I go, do you remember when that? He was like, oh yeah, dude. Yeah. I think about it all the time. Yeah. It's wild. Yeah. I thought about like, we were writing the show and I called my dad about something about something with magic. It was like funny to call my dad and then Rob Roselle, uh,

who I was riding with, and he was just laughing at the idea. I was like, it is crazy that I just called my dad and we just talked about this magic thing at like 10.30. I'm calling dad real fast. Let me talk for one second. And I was like, all right, that's what I was thinking about. And then that was it. And he's like, it's just...

You know, and you're like, you know, it's almost you think about your family. You're like, yeah, we're not. We're out there. You're like, that is weird. All right. This week, everybody, we'll start these comments from you guys. This week, we're starting with the comments. Yeah. As always. I don't know. I just kind of had a few thoughts in my head. Mary Marinkovic, right? It's probably Marinkovic. Marinkovic.

This podcast with Sonny is the most fun Nate has had in all of the podcasts, and that made it real fun to watch. There you go. Yeah, a lot of people said this one and the Seinfeld, Martin Norman episode were two favorites. My two favorites. Yeah, and theirs. Oh, and theirs. That is... Why do I have the most fun when you're not...

And I feel like you can just let loose and be yourself. Yeah. Coddle me. Yeah. Yeah. It does feel better. Uh, get more room. I got more room. Step out. And then let's just try it either way.

Matt, I like your... You're having your toboggan on. It's just on. We didn't plan on all wearing Titan stuff. We all wore Titan stuff. Henry is on the show. Yeah, which we recorded Henry for. Now we're back to doing these podcasts. Or doing the comments. But yeah, we all have Titan stuff. Titans won. I mean, unreal, dude. Yeah.

It's so exciting. You never thought in a million years. I don't think I didn't think we were going to get to the playoffs, but I did. First round bye is crazy. Crazy. Yeah. And so it's huge. It's huge. But you have it. I think most people, when we wear a toboggan inside, it's kind of like more up. It's more of a hat. And yours is as if you're going to jump in snow. This is my game wear.

This is what you wear at the game. This hat, yeah. So your toboggan is pulled down. I can't even hear you guys. I know. Well, it's funny. The idea of it is it's pulled down as you go. You got to put your toboggan on. And you're like, well, there's only one way to do it. Like if I wear one, especially indoors and you're just wearing it, it's usually high. It's usually, right? Wouldn't you say? Oh, yeah, for sure. It's usually above the ears. It's a little bit on looser. And yours is on. That's snapped off. That's where I wear it. It's cold in here. It's on a helmet. Like it's on a helmet.

I wasn't apparently wearing it. And then when Henry showed up also wearing a Titan, I was like,

I got to go get my Titans to bike me out of the car. So I went out and got it. Nice. Matt Taylor. I was the first batter to face Sonny Gray in his high school debut. Three strikes right down the pipe. That's pretty fun. That's awesome. That's Matt Taylor, the comedian, comedian friend of ours, right? Oh, yeah. He was a very good baseball player. Yeah. And he had told me about that. He faced Sonny Gray in high school. It's pretty crazy. Oh, wow. That's crazy. It's his favorite. It said his brother played against Mudcat Brewer. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Wow. Wow.

That's fun. Justin Fabiano. Fabiano. Let me get it right the first time. Fabiano. Fabiano? That'd be funny. Have you met them? Have you been with the Fabianos? And you're like, what? And everybody, you don't want to say it Fabiano? And you're like, we say Fabiano. And it sounds, you're like, I'm uncomfortable saying that. I feel like that would be a nice thing to go. I'll be honest with you. I would like the Fabianos to leave.

Because I think I'm uncomfortable with how y'all say that. You go, I don't know what the problem is. That's how we say your name. Love the baseball talk with Sonny Gray. I used to work at ESPN.

and the main show I worked on with Baseball Tonight in 2013 and 14, Rick Sutcliffe was a regular analyst on the show, and he had the best stories. He told us this story about when he was with the Dodgers, there was this day he wasn't pitching. So he's hanging out in the bullpen and decides to get a Dodger dog, and he spilled mustard on his jersey. The Dodgers were getting blown out, and Tom Lasorda makes the call to the bullpen, and Sutcliffe has to come in and pitch.

The reasoning for Lasorda making him pitch was because he knew Sutcliffe downed a Dodger dog and got mustard on his jersey. Sutcliffe told us Lasorda came to him with a few cuss words afterwards, and he learned his lesson not to eat things like Dodger dogs during the game. That's great. And then that's him. And he's just got to pitch with a mustard stain. And you're like, come on, man. He was a great pitcher. Yeah.

Yeah, everybody from that era has that same look. You can just tell. The mustache, the hair like that. It's an 80s baseball player right there. Unusual pitching delivery. They did throw it a little bit differently back then. He especially. Oh, yeah. He kind of cocked it back behind his back a little bit differently, but he was a great player. Yeah.

Jason Moore, Nate's second base throwing yip story reminded me of a similar situation in my church league. The men's first United Methodist team in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Our catcher received the first pitch of the game. Instead of throwing the ball back to the pitcher, he whipped the ball down the third baseline into left field. From my position at first base, it was quite the head scratcher as it was the first pitch of the game.

No one was on any base, and our third baseman was not on the back. The left fielder retrieved the ball and got it back into the infield. The second pitch, the batter took ball two, and once again the catcher sends the ball into the outfield via the third baseline. A now miffed left fielder once again ran and retrieved the bewildering throw.

Third pitch, rinse and repeat. At this point, both teams in the umpire were like, what the heck, dude? This game is going to take all night if you just rocket each ball that crosses home plate into left field. He had to be subbed before the first batter completed his at-bat. Turns out his occupation as a helicopter mechanic for the 101st Airborne Air

division at Fort Campbell has caused him to use some industrial adhesive that day when he managed to get all over his hands to bring home. He sat for two hours in two, he sat for two hour, two innings at the water hose trying to rinse the substance off. So it was like stuck to his hand and it would go, he'd go, he's throwing it there and then just launches it. Dude, that's so funny. That's so, and just, you know,

Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. I mean, that's the deal. When you're playing a game where everybody's got real jobs, you're like, dude, I was at work today. It got crazy. I can't tell. I can't say, hey, I can't work on this helicopter because I got a big... We've got to play First Baptist tonight. Yeah, we've got to play. We're playing the Lutherans. You know how they are. It's a big game. It's a big game.

You know, Catholics are going to be out there, and they get all drunk and start yelling. It can't be. Cody Byer. Listening to Nate talk about the ridiculousness of a character in a Hallmark movie, parking her car in the middle of the road made me lose it. My wife loves Hallmark movies, and every single one I've watched with her, I caught up on some obscure detail. I get caught up on it. I get caught up.

I argued with my wife for an entire movie about the shoddy infrastructure of a so-called wealthy fictional county country country. Yeah.

Another time I got irate about a Royal Family flying coach without any kind of special treatment. They just walked through the airport like a commoner. I couldn't get over it. Anyway, keep up the good work. Love the Air Podcast. I couldn't. That's crazy. If it's a Royal Family. We've experienced something like that. We went to, when we were on the road, me, you, and your road manager at the time, Noah. Yeah. We went to see the latest Bad Boys movie. Yeah. I hadn't seen the...

First two. I think this was the third one. But Will Smith's character is very wealthy, right? And there was a scene. I didn't think anything about it. When we left the movie, you were livid because he flew in coach. And you were like, why would he be flying in coach back there? Do you remember this? So you were very much just like this guy. Yeah, that's... Yeah, it was the bad boys. That's crazy. I forgot we went to that. Yeah, why was he flying? They were like rich, famous...

I thought they were police officers. They were, but I don't know. I haven't seen the original Bad Boys, but you guys told me that he was very wealthy. Their house was like crazy. I don't remember. But you were pretty upset. You were just like this guy. You're pretty fired up about it. I get it. Yeah. I get it, Cody. They're all still fun movies, though. You can just turn them on, you know? If you can look past that.

But I could get you not getting past that. Yeah. That's why my wife won't let me watch housewife shows with her. Because you just dissect everything. I've done one and I'm like, are you kidding? What are these women talking about? And then it's like, don't watch. Get out. She pauses it. I mean, if I enter the room, she pauses and waits until I'm completely out of the room before she presses play. Because she knows she's watching nonsense. Yeah. I have my nonsense too. I get it. But there's some stuff that you're like, all right.

Yeah, well, Lucy will do that if she puts on the Golden Globes or something. She goes, I don't want you around. You're going to ruin my whole attitude watching this. I get that. I'll go somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they enjoy it. It's fun. Everybody's got their fun thing. Brian Townsend. Couldn't believe when Brian said his baby lacks a nasal bone.

The same thing happened with our firstborn, but it ended up being okay and actually making for a funny story. At our 20-week ultrasound, we were told that they couldn't see a nasal bone, that this could signify possible chromosomal issues. That was a lot of curves. I've never heard you bail on a word like that, though. You went, chromosomal? Well, I think I could have handled chromosomal.

I can't even do it now, but I think I could have handled that word. And it was the signify and... I felt like I was on a road. Yeah, that was a crazy run. Yeah, count me...

How many turns are we making here? You know, that's like someone, it's like when you drive a car and it's so turning that you're like, I'm thinking I'm, I'm over driving. You know, sometimes it drives easy and sometimes you're like, is this, where's this, where am I going? Every, it just, it's a left and a right. And you're like, I don't even, I can't do this. Uh, all right. It's a very serious issue. We were scared to death.

They sent us to a specialist the next week. He too informed us that he could not see a nasal bone. My wife immediately started to cry in his office and I began consoling her. At that moment, the doctor said, well, there is one more thing. Often Asian children don't develop a nasal bone until later in pregnancy. Neither my wife nor I are Asian.

The doctor then looked my wife straight in the eye while gesturing toward me and said, so do you have anything you want to tell this guy? He began to chuckle a bit as though it was just a poor attempt at humor to lighten the mood. We couldn't believe it. My wife said, what? No. And began to cry harder. I wanted to punch the guy. He then immediately turned and left the room. We didn't see him again. Everything turned out fine. A happy, healthy baby boy. He looked at Brian in this stressful process, but at least he hasn't been accused of cheating on his wife.

I mean, that's, yeah. The guy trying to be funny? Yeah. Didn't work. Yeah, it's like that doctor's just trying to be, you know. Trying to light the mood some. You want to be like, I would like to see how he delivered it. I think I could deliver that. You know, I think you could put me in that same situation. I want to get Brian and his wife on it. We're going to redo this. I think I could deliver it, and it would be fun.

If you played the doctor. If I played the doctor. Yeah. It's all about, that's what people don't, it's hard to deliver something. Delivery. Yeah. Baby and a joke. You think you're good? Doctors should get it more than anybody. That's a good opening line when you have to, you know, if you got bad news about the baby. Yeah. Listen, there's going to be a lot of tough deliveries coming up here. One is this bad news. One specifically was your baby. What's that? Hmm.

As a doctor, deliveries are tough. I've never seen anything like yours. It was the toughest. What? You think that would be a good job? You could get contracted out by these hospitals. You could deliver the bad news to people because you can do it in a fun way. You can do it in a nice, yeah. I mean, you know, it can't be something that's like. Let's say, Brian, you say you have to tell me that I have gout. You have gout. You throw a gown on. You come in. You have to tell me I have gout. I mean, I would just come in and be like, hey, dude, you know what? You got gout.

And then I would do that. And you'd be like, is that good? You're like, yeah, dude. It's like, you could, a guy your size, you should have 50 things. And you only have gout, bro? And then I would, I go, come on, dude. He'd spit it. I go, that's unreal. Like, that's so, I wish I had gout. You're doing better than me. That's how I would tell you. That worked, man. It works. I feel better about it already. And you're like, dude.

And you would go home, I only have gout. And everybody then would be like, that's not good, though. And you go, no, the doctor was thrilled. He said I should have been. He was thrilled about it. Yeah. I couldn't believe you got out of the car. Because I thought you were the guy I was coming to visit in the car, and you only have gout. That's what I got told that day. He goes, we got one guy you need to see, but I don't think he can get inside. Did you say he'd throw a gown on? No.

He would dress as a patient. No, not a gown. I meant like a doctor jacket. Yeah. One of those white lab coat looking things. He gets down to your level. No, he doesn't put on a hospital gown. He goes, what are you doing? He steps in the back. Are you a doctor? I am. I am a doctor. Psychiatric patient. Yeah. You got gout, son. There's no two ways about it.

Courtney Walker, I completed an MRI on my brain and spine this very morning. A word of advice to breakfast, take the Valium. I was all set up and ready to go when 30 seconds into the tunnel, I yelled, nope, I'm panicking, I'm panicking. Thankfully, they were able to calm me down and I finished the MRI. I hope you had better luck than I had. If not, I can't wait to hear the story.

I did the MRI last week. It went fine. Have you guys had an MRI? I've had a few. I don't think I have. A few of them. Oh, yeah. For what? I had knee surgery. I broke bones in my back. I've had a few different things. How old are you? I'm 20.

Were you like Michael Scott when he burned his foot? Yeah. How'd you break bones in your back? I had knee surgery in seventh grade. And then in fifth grade, I broke two bones in my back. And I had to have a bunch of MRIs done. That's funny that you went backwards and tell those stories. That's true. Well, I don't know why you did that. You go, seventh grade, I had this. Also, third grade, I lost my foot. You're like, well, what are we... First grade, I killed a man. When I was 29, I had eye surgery. But when I was two, I had...

I had my left foot was crooked. That's my doctor stuff. Like if you had to go through your doctor, why would you say it then? I know. Well, for starters, when I was 27, I broke my collarbone. And then, you know, before that, and then when I was five, I didn't have a collarbone. I was born without one. And they go, Asian? That's what they ask. That doctor just says that with everything. That's what that doctor should have said.

There you go. You got to say something because I'm just asking. Well, do you guys have collarbones? And then he makes up some other crazy thing is the Polish don't have collarbones. He just starts going down. And they're just like, I don't. He goes, I don't. Maybe. Does it run in your family? I'd look. Yeah.

So why'd you break your back? I broke it playing football. And then in high school, I hurt my back again. So I've had three different MRI injuries. Yeah. Did you have a concussion? I did have a concussion. I didn't have to get an MRI for that. Oh, they just said. They said. It's probably done. Boo, boo. They just knew it. They go, look at him wobbling around. I did. I walked to the wrong sideline. Yeah. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Football. Wow. Yeah.

And no idea. I could kind of tell what was going on. I was just so out of it. And then I just kind of came to the hospital on campus. You had a hospital on campus? Yeah. Of high school? No, this was college. Oh. When you played... What did you play? We played full pad intramural football. Yeah. So it was dorms against... Yeah, yeah. I mean, just...

High school campus hospital. That's like, you know, like now I play football in college and, you know, we had a hospital on campus. You're like, wow, dude, I didn't know you were that good. No, it was intramural. It was nothing. It was make-believe. It was us, you know, whoever couldn't get past this one level and we couldn't let something go. It was how many – who – that's how we started college going, all right, who's still not over the glory years? That's what it was. And then everybody's like, I still want to get after it. And you go, all right, all right.

All right. Let's wear some helmets and hit each other. They walked the wrong sideline because they're both on the same side. Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know. How would you know? Step right here. You're like, hey, man, your shirt's on. Ours are off. Go back on the other side. Like, that's the jerseys you had on. We had jerseys. You didn't have. Shirts and skins. Shirts and skins. Hey, man, you look pretty stupid over here, but you got blue jeans and shorts on. We're all long blue jeans. That's how we tell the difference between the teams. We're playing in the long blue jeans. Hey, look, dude.

I know it wasn't varsity football, but it got pretty intense, man. So the picture is a picture of my – that picture of my dad up in the top. That's – he played full pad when he went to Trevecca in college. So my dad went to college late –

like when you like so i was five i was probably five when he graduated six or something and uh so i would go down there and they would play dad my dad and all them would play full pad we'd go watch and i would wear like a plastic football helmet that picture was on the front page of the trevecca paper really that's cool yeah and like they're uh and so we would uh

And so I'd wear all that stuff, and I would, like, fake, you know, run around and play. But I'll never forget, we had one guy. I mean, he came under the bench, and his whole face was covered in blood. So, like, he just got hit. And I mean, I was five, and I remember just – and he just, like, wiped it off with his shirt. And I was like, who is this? What is happening?

like and no one was like running no one was you know and uh i never forget that yeah that was you my dad was you my dad can talk about that yeah we could yeah well so are you what i feel like we got distracted no i did the mri it was fun they didn't put you in a tunnel yeah yeah he's fine anyway uh all right had a stroke but wasn't too bad uh lost my nasal bone so you had nothing

They give you a little button to push in case you freak out or something's wrong. And as soon as they put me in there, I have an itch. Like I just want to scratch my face. And the fact that you can't do it just makes you think about that much more. They're like, okay, how long would you think an MRI would last?

Part of me thinks an hour, but is it like 20 minutes or something? It is actually 20 minutes. I thought it would be like really fast. Oh, I thought it was like an hour. I thought it was just like they put you in like a microwave. Yeah. And after a minute, they pull you out. But she's like 20 minutes. And I was like...

I mean, I feel like you have a guy underneath you on the bottom tray. Yeah. It's like, yeah, you can't, you're doing down there. You're right. Yeah. Your insurance only covers so much. So you're like, you see a guy, you know, he's on a grill above you and you're just looking at him.

I'm face down. He's face up. Yeah. No, I think you're, you're face up too, but they don't have that bottom thing. So that's, you know, that he's got the gown on. You're like, Oh yeah. And then they just put y'all both in there and just get it done quick. Why don't doctors do that? Rotisserie. They just, they're just like, let's wrap it up. Let's get them. Let's get these boys in and out, you know?

But it went fine. So you couldn't scratch. Did you press the button? Nope. I'm not going to do it for that. So I just held out. I would have to take something. I mean, now that claustrophobic could be a big problem. Yeah, they ask you that a lot. Do they want you to be... Would I be knocked out? No, I mean, she said she took value, more suggestive value. Yeah. I mean...

I mean, I guess you could, but that's not what they offer. Is it locked? Like you're in it and it's locked or your feet are? Your feet are out. Like, could you climb out? No. I mean, the tube's just right above you. Yeah. But if you had to get out, could you like inch your way out? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You could like slowly. Yeah. To do the worm out of it, basically. See, I would have even thought about that. Now, if I ever get one, I'll be thinking, I can't get out of here even if I wanted to. Yeah. Yeah.

What if we go to different rooms for one? I just think you go in that MR. They're just pushing up.

On the bottom of your feet. Shoving you in there? Get in there. You're kind of caught in between the big and the small. You're like, you've lost so much weight. You're like, the big one was, but it's too big now. We need to get you in the other one. It's like they're loading a musket. Yeah, just pushing your feet in. He goes...

You're such a funny human. Get them out, boys. And they're going to pull you out. Well, they probably get you in there. They got to go real fast. Yeah. You come out of it. That sound when you walk out. Aaron's out. Do they have different sizes? They have to have different sizes. I guess it can go up and down. MRIs? Yeah. I mean, it was pretty big. Yeah. They have ones at the zoo. Oh, yeah. For animals. It's true.

We have to do that one. Wasn't that from a... I just heard that recently. Somebody just had a... They had to use a scale. Oh, we talked about it. It was Louis C.K., right? Yeah. That's right. Yeah, his new special. His new special he talks about.

Michelle Robinson. When Cole said, it's a smart thing, I guess you wouldn't get it. I think they missed that entirely. Cole hanging with the big boys and holding his own. Nice work, young man. Can't wait for the big reveal. I have a daughter applying to university as well. Exciting time. Good luck. Dream big. Yeah, very nice. Cole did good. Yeah. Yeah. I think I could, you know, do a little joke in there. Yeah. Cole coming at me. I think he might have been smarter than you, Aaron.

I think Cole is. He might be. Where's he going to school? I think wherever he wants. I think Notre Dame's his... Safety school. I think he's going to blow his brains out if he gets accepted to Notre Dame. I think that's his... That's what he said last week. It's below a safety school. I go, what if you get to Notre Dame? He's like, I'll kill myself. He goes, I might as well not. I might as well go dig ditches. That's his word for word. Tanner McBride. Cole could have run a...

Why would I have trouble with that? I don't know. That's a good question. Cole could have run. Oh, yeah. Why would you say, why would someone have that? Cole could have run. See, I would have put it, I would have written that as a contract contraction. So it's Cole could have run. Okay. Could Cole could have run. Could have. Could have. Yeah. It's like an awkward little. Oh. Cole could have run. Yeah. It's like your first, it's like you, when you first step out of doors, like a little bit longer down. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're already at the bottom.

And that's what happened. Cole could have Rhode Island. And then I'm like, I'm already at the bottom. I missed four steps. Cole could have run across Rhode Island 27 times this year, north to south. Wow. So last week, Cole said he ran, what, 1,300 miles? Is that right? Which, Nate, says half the U.S. And it would be 3,000 miles. Is the U.S. right? Okay. Is it not? Yeah, 1,300? 1,300?

Why are you laughing? Is 3,000, you're laughing. LA to New York is like 3,000, right? So 13, so, so yeah, I guess it wasn't, it didn't, it didn't merit a laugh. It's like for the general conversation, like, Oh, like basically half the country. You'd say like, I assume that you'd done the math wrong. I'm sorry. No, I didn't look it up. I just assumed. I think I just guessed 3,000 miles is the country. 1300 basically ran half the country. Okay. Making the conversation move on. All right. You know, I don't think you may as well stop it. I don't think you may turn around.

You'd be the only one. Raise your hand. It's actually 200 less than half. Yeah, it's not really half. And I don't know where you're running to. What are you running to?

Just the beginning of California Bakersfield, and then that's it? You go, come on. Who's this guy? That's what you did in your class? Yeah, I guess if you're running from Connecticut to Bakersfield, this teacher doesn't know what he's talking about. Kim Dunlap. Nate, I just cringe when I hear you talking about Sour Patch Kids. I'm a dental hygienist. And when the pH in your mouth goes below 5.5, calcium will leach out of your teeth.

Just make sure and have regular dental checkups. Go all the time. I have to go every day. Do you think you should go to a dentist that doesn't have the undertaker doing the cleaning? Yeah, that's a good thing. Yeah, I go to Jody Jones. I'm like, Jody, could you not? Yeah, he has the undertaker. Does my teeth go? He's fine. It's, yeah, I'm still working on it. I did talk about that on the Tonight Show about having –

According to the A1, my physical is not until the 18th, January 18th. So I'll figure out more of that stuff. I guess I'll do the real thing. Well, according to A1. A1C, which I see right here, Trevor Ramsey. Yeah. Those A1C numbers are bull. It's, yeah, I mean, it's good to hear that.

I guess. I mean, I was on the line. So when I was reading some reviews about it, it was the numbers could be before and after. So I don't know. You know, it's like it could be off one or two percent. I have to be close. In a weird way, this part of me wants to be close because I don't, you know, it's like the way my brain works is you're like, I need something to be wrong. Otherwise, you're like, no, you're fine. You're like, you can't be fine.

You know, like it's hard to quit something when you're, especially when you're addicted to it. And I think I had that trouble with alcohol was, it was like, you can not think you're, you don't think you're have a problem because your only sign of a problem is,

a mess, a guy drinking in the driveway and hiding it. And that's your only sign of like, well, that's bad. You don't, you don't, you don't realize that you're like, no, no, you overindulge and you overindulge a lot. And when you do do it, it's like too much. And like I do with sugar, it's like, I'm doing it. I can't stop. I'm like out of control where I'm like eating. I'm realizing I'm eating like, you know, and it's weird to be like, I'm not,

I'm always talking about being fat. But I'm like... For my probably build, I'm way more than I should. But I'm not a big guy. And so that's even hard too when you think like, well, I'm not huge. I'm not like... I don't look like I'm going to be walking around with diabetes. But then you're like, yeah, but I'm eating... That's why I say my metabolism might be unreal that I'm even at the size that I'm at. Yeah. Because I should not be. I think I eat worse...

I think I eat worse than you. Probably these days, maybe. These days, I almost think I eat worse than people realize. It's not good. I'm trying to think. I had pizza. I had pizza today. I worked out and then had pizza today. Oh, that cancels out. I know, but you're not supposed to canceling out. That's how I would always realize it. We've got a weight loss challenge coming on here. Just shut up. Yeah, yeah. Who's going to be down to 165 is what we would like to get to.

Can I jump in on this? Yeah, what do you want to be? Most people said Aaron, but... We're going to have to adjust the scale. Yeah, it's like inflation. Could you get below 200 before we get to... You got to get to a 1980s 165, which is today a 230. That's not a bad... He's like Elaine in the contest. She's got different numbers here. To get to 200 before you get to 165? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I'll try probably. What are you at? Do you go say where you're at? Yeah. It's like 250, 255. What do you want to get to? What do you want to get to? Get down to 200 would be great. 200? I haven't even thought about a goal. The best shape of my life, the summer between junior and senior year of high school, I was 215. Yeah. And I was big, but I had been lifting weights for football and stuff. I was just built completely different. But 215 was like.

I didn't know it at the time. I thought I was not doing well. It turns out it was the prime of my life. But if I get back down there, that'd be great. 215. 215 is kind of. That's a lot, though. You had to lose 40 or. I mean, I was 330. And so we would have to leave. I was like 191 with shoes on. I'm probably back to 190. So 165. Is that 35 pounds? No, 25 pounds. 25. And then so you'd be 35, which could be fair.

Because if you're trying to, I think you could lose 10 very easier than we can lose 10. Oh, I can lose weight faster than you more easily. Yeah. I think at least off the top. Yeah. And then it's going to, when you get down to that last 20 is when you're going to be right. And we're already kind of close to that. Like I'll be, I think I can get to one 78 pretty easy, but then it's gonna be hard for me to get to one 65. Okay. But I'll get under one 80. I think if I just a good week or two, I could be,

180s, maybe 179, 178. And then it'll be from there. Keep eating that pizza in the morning, dude. We'll see what happens. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I won't eat good. It's hard. Yeah.

I'm a full-on addicted to sugar. And that's why it's like, and it's crazy to think you think I want, like I want to have diabetes so I can say, so I'm like, I'm stuck. It's just how you think. You just want something to be that bad. Like you're always, that's the thing when you got to quit something and I've realized this, the same thing with alcohol and everything. You look at everything and you go, well, I'm not there yet. I need something to happen for me to quit. And you're like, well, it's going to happen, dude. And it's happening. And so like, that's what I'm realizing too is like,

You almost could be lucky enough that you're even reasonable. I'm almost talking myself into this as we're saying this. But I'm lucky that I even...

Don't have to just straight up have it like I'm lucky to be like I can trust your body and you're going if you're thinking like I need to cut back or I need to stop something then you need to stop it like you you know you're It's that's that that's the answer you and you're gonna look for you're gonna look something like you want something to go Well, that's gonna be I need this to happen. Uh-huh

I need to wreck my car. I need to lose my job. I need to something. You need to bottom out. You need to bottom out. So you hear that a lot and you're, you know, but I don't think you, bottoming out is, is, you know, like when I did it in, you're talking about comedy zone. It was like, I was going to theaters and I knew if I couldn't, if I didn't stop this,

I wouldn't get to where I want to be. And so, and I was making a big change from going to this to this. And it was almost like I took things seriously. And like, that's how I need to think about this sugar thing. It's not about like bottoming out, like where I need, you know, I'm thinking I want this diabetes so I can then say I have to, you want to have something. It's an easy excuse. I remember talking to someone once, you want something. You usually want like,

You want to go like, well, I have this because then you get to go, well, there's nothing I could do. And like you're an excuse or something where I need to just quit because it's like, well, if I – and I've thought about this a lot. If I want to do as much as I want to do with my career and how busy I will be if –

drinking is taken care of. Well, now food is going to be taken care of. Because I can't be getting – like when we were writing all weekend, it's like I'm getting tired. Like I go eat this stuff and then I feel tired for a long time after. And you're like – it's like this has got to stop, dude. Like you can't just be at just all hours of the day. You're just like – you could close your eyes a little bit. And, you know, so if I want to go farther, yeah, there you go. Maybe I'll do it. How often are we going to weigh in?

So we did last week. Last week. So the end of this month. Let's see where we're at. Daniel reads, I enjoy watching Nate on Jimmy Fallon this week. Nate seems like such a natural with these. The interview, my question is, are you giving the questions that Jimmy asked ahead of time? You seem like you had the McDonald's and Koi Pond bits lined up. Were those prepared or did you have to steer the conversation there? I kind of give them a heads up.

I let them know what... You do a pre-interview is how you always do it. I think everybody kind of does it even when they do long interviews. We don't do pre-interviews. Like podcasts, you don't always do it. But with that show, it's like... And as a comic, it's a little different. Like when he's talking to the celebrities and they're talking about a movie or they're talking about something like that, like it's...

it's going to be, it's different. It's, you know, like I think they're asking, what's Marvel? Well, anybody, and they might go like, hey, do you have a story you want to tell? And you could be like, yeah, ask me about the, you know, Ron, go to Six Flags. And you're like, all right.

So that one, I was kind of like, all right, I was going through it. Like what I'm, I want to say, and I have a mix of like, so the diabetes thing, I am going to like have a type two to earn kind, which is something we said all on, or when we're talking about on the podcast, I said that, that worked really well. That never done that on stage, but I will probably put all that stuff in on stage and work it out into a bit. And then the Koi pond thing, if you heard that, that's, that is a joke I do on stage, but you can kind of just see, like, I'm still doing these jokes and,

but weirdly enough like you can kind of hide them on panel you know the koi pond was kind of how i do it but the mcdonald's thing i just never have done like you know so i was the first time i was saying it was outside of like us talking about whatever and i said it like in a driveway i've said it like to my friends like you know uh so i kind of was saying it for the first time and you just like you're like all right i'll be able to do it like you know

It's like that's going to a new, that's a different world that I haven't been in. That world of like, you know, you want to be like, I want to be the guy that gets going tonight. You don't be like, I'll just be funny. So I was, I was, I was probably a lot more in control. I was, I felt a little, I felt I rushed myself a little bit. It's hard to learn how to sit there and like let the laughs come. Yeah.

you know, just because you're, you, it's, I've never done that like that. And, you know, you still get there and you're like, I don't think no one knows who I am. Like you're just, and so you're still like, you know, you're sitting on the couch and I'm a comic. You're like, there's a, you're over your comic. Yeah, this is the comic. He goes, and now you're like,

like a celebrity. I don't know. You're like just there and you're like, it's like Cate Blanchett and me. And then you're like, I don't know. These people are like, who? You know? And so I got to like, why, you know, you got to, I got to destroy. That's what I wanted to do. It went great, man. Yeah, it was great. I meant to mention, we're talking about food. I forgot. Did you see your dad's posts yesterday? Speaking of food and the Bargatze family? No. On Facebook or? So, yeah.

um so uh this is where i get my genes from what a burger just opened last week in nashville it's one of like eight or nine locations opening this year around so you're dead spent two hours and 17 minutes in line kidding a really big plate of fries and some other stuff there yeah so i didn't see they put so i was with uh

We talked to them last night in line. We were FaceTiming with them. Two hours and 17 minutes. I was FaceTiming and Harper was talking, are y'all still? And they're like, yeah, we're still in line. None of them should be eating that. Dad shouldn't have that. Dadgum drink. I'll tell you that right now. He does have diabetes. That's why he shouldn't. None of that should be

you know, I mean, he could at least stood next to the car while he waited. That's what I should have made him do. That should have made mom be like, get him out of the car and make him stand there. And, uh, he, he also knows eat something bad with us. They're like, don't tell your mom. You're like, we don't, we're not gonna let you do it either. Like he tells us, like, it's like your family's the one that's not gonna let you do this. But yeah, that they were in line, the line in it's in Hermitage. It's where the Applebee's used to be. And, uh,

Not the one we worked at, but it was, but it, the line is, it's crazy. Yeah. I drove by it yesterday, earlier before they got there. That's funny. I drove by it and then we call them later and they were in it. So it's like looking at Christmas lights. So we got, so the Henry Cho's about to come on.

this is, this will be the longest one I think we ever did. Uh, talk a lot about old comedy. Uh, it kind of worked out, you know, I mean, then sadly it worked. I would talk about Bob Saget. Uh,

And Henry's been around for a while, knew Bob really well, as I knew him too, not as well as Henry. So we talk about all that stuff. And we already recorded. That's why I'm kind of saying it like this is the end. So we would like to welcome our good buddy, Henry Cho, here. Good to be here. Thanks for having me. Finally, our schedule's lined up. Finally. Boy, I tell you, we've been trying for a while. Been trying for a while. It's like I was trying to golf, too. It gets hard.

You got to plan way ahead and pray it doesn't rain. Yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah, I think we're... Comics are very... Like, we're very last minute. It's like, can you do it now? And you're like, I can do it now. Right. That's why, you know, my buddies, they're like, hey, let's do dinner on... And I go, hey, hey, just call me last minute. And they will. They'll go, hey, tomorrow night, meet me here? Sure. Amy and I will be there. And we're there. Yeah. Yeah, we're very last minute people as comics. Like, I think you're just...

You can get to, yeah, like trying to plan. I mean, if it has to be something, you're like, you got to tell me way ahead so I can put it in the, like, it's got to be, we got to have it blocked off. But you're like, I don't know what kind of mood I'm going to be in that. Like we, you know, it's like such a weird thing. It is. That sounds so stupid because most people don't do that. No, no. But most people don't have 23 hours a day to reschedule. Yes. That's the other thing. Yeah, yeah. So we're wide open. Yeah.

Yeah. If it's a sun's out, we're open. Yeah. That's my thing. Yeah. I like it too. Cause we will not too. Sometimes like you want to go and you're like, I'm not, you're like, I don't want to go.

I don't, I think you're out, we're out too much. We're like, it's a, you're going to go to a restaurant. You're like, I don't know. I feel like I'm at a restaurant every night, like doing shows. Yeah. I mean, we're eating in the back, but yeah, we're still out. Yeah. I don't go see, uh, yeah, I don't go eat unless somebody in my family wants to. Yeah. And stuff. And then people always go, Hey, you want to go see this show? No, I really don't want to go see anybody. Yeah. But you, but you know, I'm real. Yeah. And he doesn't want me there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

We talked about going to a show. I went to a concert. But it is nice if you can go, sometimes go to a show. But yeah, you don't want it to be a comic. And you want to be like, let's go sit wherever. I don't want it to be a whole thing. Right. It's like, I just want to watch. Well, you were telling me the story. Was it James Corden that you took your daughter to see? Yes. See, BTS. So this was right before COVID. BTS, the biggest band in the world. Yeah.

So my daughter loves him, obviously. She's a little teenager. And so a buddy of mine said, hey, they're going to be on James Corden. Do you want to bring her out? And I'm like, really? So I go. And for the first time in my life,

I'm on the other side. Yeah. And I'm sitting there with her. We're front row. And the cameraman looks at me and goes, what are you doing here? And I said, my daughter, he goes, wow, you ever been over here? I went, never. Yeah. And he's like, weird? I went, totally weird. And my daughter's like, what are they talking about? I said, nothing. It's all right. And then she goes, oh, I didn't think about that, dad. You've never been out here. I go, I don't want to be out here. Yeah. I'm going to be in the back and hanging out. But it was weird. Yeah. Yeah. It was a...

Yeah, it is crazy. When you're sitting on that other side, just because you're just not used to it, you kind of get used to that, the chaos of the backstage. Right. It's kind of like when someone's driving your car. Yeah. My son was in town. He drove my truck the other day, and I was in the passenger seat, and I went, wow, I don't like this angle. I don't like this view. Yeah, you've never seen the car from that spot before. No, this view, and I'm looking out the right window and seeing things. And finally, I mean, we went literally –

We hadn't left our neighborhood. And I said, pull over. He goes, why? I go, this ain't happening. He goes, why? I go, I'm driving. Forget it. He goes, really? I go, sorry. Not happening. We tried. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was too. She's a kid driving too. Adds that. You probably got to be like, why are you? I mean, my daughter's nine.

but so and she's driving that's great yeah we got her into it early yeah you should uh i let her drive a uh she drives like she'll go if she ever goes golfing with me she doesn't really play i let her drive the golf that's great you know why they actually learn how to steer and how to stop and go it really helps it really does i yeah i remember uh uh a kid from my high school ever to the story about him like in high school the when i took my driver's test and uh the kid uh

That we did at Coach Wade. DCA just won the championship. He coaches there now. But Coach Wade is our driver instructor. And so I got behind a car. And it's like most kids are like, yeah, I've sat in my dad's lap when I grew up. Or I've been randomly behind a car. And this kid, they asked him, and they go, have you ever been behind a car? And he was like, no.

And they're like, you never like said your kids like you never your dad's like you never even like pretended. And he's like, no. And it was and we just drove straight through a stop sign when someone's yard. He just had no clue. None of just any. Wow. And you're and so then I like I always kind of think about that. So then now, like my daughter's been sitting in my lap since she was five. Like.

Like, you know, I'm just not in just like hands on the wood, just like getting the idea. Yeah. You know, and by the time she drives it, they might even have, you might not even be allowed to drive. That's true. That's true. But yeah, but when you're, yeah, having my kid drive, it's, I got, so all three of mine are driving now. It's crazy. Yeah.

Yeah. Can they drop stick shift? Yes. That's a rule of mine. Yeah. So yeah. You know what? Number one theft deterrent. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Those punks get in the car and go, wow, can't drive that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So then go steal Brian's car. They take your radio and Brian's car and you're like, so it could have just been one car. You're like, it could have been, but you can't take my stick shift. That's right. Yeah. Uh, yeah. The stick shift would be, can y'all, can you drive a stick shift? No, no, no, no.

Oh, no, he's that generation, man. That is. I've never had to. I don't know if I've been even a passenger in a car that's a manual. I got my truck out there. It's an 89 Jeep Comanche. Yeah, it's manual, right? Five speed. Yeah, go. Here, let me give you the key. Go around and call the SEC. I love a manual.

I do too. And on certain cars, it's a must, you know? Yeah. And- Well, like your truck is like that, like that would be, you'd want it in that. Oh yeah. That's a perfect truck. And I actually got that truck to teach my daughter how to drive a manual because my boys have a 2000 F250, 98 Ram 2500. I had to go big diesel to get a straight shift for them to learn. But they learn, and it all happened there. And I probably told y'all this story. We're in Honduras on a mission trip.

And I needed a truck moved because I had some supplies I had to get up there ASAP. And I yelled at 12 high school seniors. And I said, hey, one of you boys move this truck. And they're like, we can't, Mr. Cho. And I'm like, why? They go, it's a stick shift. I'm like, oh, really? Y'all push it, okay? So I put it in neutral and they pushed it. And I'll never forget, Jackson was like 12. And I looked at him, I said, that's never going to be you. Yeah.

Yeah. You're going to know how to drive a stick. So I went back to the parents going, you understand you're sending your kids to third world country that is super dangerous and they can't drive one vehicle in the entire country. Yeah. I mean, if something happened and they got to get away, they can't. They can't. And it changed. Everybody's thinking they're like, wow.

wow, never thought about that. Yeah. I'm like, yeah. What if one day your kids have to drive an automatic? Are they going to know what to do though? Yeah. Cause it's automatic. Yeah. Yeah. That automatically comes, you know what? They start like doing this. They do. They do. They get in my, my wife's car. They'll get in. The first thing they do, they're reaching. And I even start pushing my left foot on a clutch. Yeah. You start. Yeah. That's always the fun part when you, uh,

When you were driving, because I learned on a stick shift. I learned on a stick shift. I remember my parents, my mom would try to teach me at our church parking lot, Temple Baptist Church, and couldn't do it. Did it like a couple minutes, got so frustrated. My parents would get, we come from a family that have really no patience. And we try to like help out. And then it's like, I can't do it. And then my mom just got out. And like, it was like, it didn't happen.

But I eventually learned. But I took a driver's test on my aunt's car because it was automatic. Just because it was close enough. Very smart. That you're like, well, let me do at least... Because I was going to... All I had was a stick shift. All they had was a stick shift. Right. Yeah, but you don't want to kill it on a driver's test. I mean, it's so crazy. Automatic cars were not a thing. They just weren't... Stick shifts were everywhere. That's all anybody had. It was a luxury to have an automatic car. Yeah, you had to pay for it. You had to pay for it. I mean, that's so...

I almost like about getting older, like I, I'm reminded almost every day. And like this moment I'm reminded to go like, man, do you know how to, you don't know. Yeah. You just didn't have it. He's never been in 10 years. You've never been in one. Yeah. You're 12 years younger than me. And you just don't ever even, you just never would have seen it. Like, right.

I was born right at a perfect time that I got a good glimpse of everything. Right. Like I got the old ways. You did. And then when I got a high, once phones came, it was just, now it's gone. You're all, you're driving automatic cars. Yeah.

texting and driving. Y'all barely watch the road now. They don't have to. They don't have to sit in the back seat. And sit there and do their little song. Yeah, do that commercial. That's all they do. He watches the West Wing. Yeah. He watches full-on series. Not just a movie. We'd be like, we'll give you a movie. A full-on series that goes on for six years. How long is West Wing? Ten years? I don't know. Seven seasons. Four that are good. Four that are good. Which four are they? The first four. One, three, seven, eight.

It jumps around. It jumps around. The ones with Sheenan. Yeah.

There was a period where on the road with Henry, I had a flat tire probably 75% of the time. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Three out of the four gigs we did, you had a flat tire. But I'm telling you, he blew a tire in, we did Lenore. Lenore. Yeah. North Carolina, the Brewhill Theater. And we came out, Brian has a flat tire. And I'm like, man, you know how to change that? He goes, no way.

no idea so i said okay i said well let's go get a plug kit and he goes oh what so we go to walmart which closed at midnight luckily yeah grab a plug kit i've fixed this tire and he was good to go because you know and everybody's like why did you try so hard i said i didn't want him riding with

Me? Are you kidding? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not as easy. Look at that car. I ain't riding in it. Yeah. So, I was... Oh, go ahead. No, go ahead. I went on a show once with you in Chattanooga. I just stopped by. That's right. He had to stay three hours after the show because I wasn't even on. Yeah. He came by just to say hey and had a flat tire in the parking lot. And I kept him there until midnight because of it.

Where do you get all these flat tires from? Bad rap. I'm kidding. Well, the comedy catch parking lot, that was. Yeah, that was 50-50 anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Half the cars there had flat tires. We have like construction going on in some of our neighborhood and I've stopped driving that way because you would get a flat tire. I mean, I've had like three. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, you just got it now. It's like, and now some of the tires get so thin and small and they're just not made like anything. You're like, it's done. Yeah.

Low profile. Low profile. Yeah, but Brian's case, you joined AAA that night. Yeah. Because I said, I ain't doing it. Called AAA. He goes, I'm not a member. I said, 1-800. Yeah. And you called it. Yeah, I joined right there. Instant member. I'm alone in the parking lot. That's right. Yeah. Good call. Did you think, what if I just wait for A or B or whatever? You were like, well, I'm so close. I might as well hold out. You know, I don't want to go get involved in one thing.

Do they even do that? I don't know what ARP is. That'd be great if they did roadside. They don't. They shouldn't. They don't. They shouldn't. You know, when that thing shows up, you just throw it in the trash. Yeah, the ARP? Yeah. Can't face it.

I got it on my 50th birthday. Oh, on your birthday. Yep. Yep. They're on it, man. Yeah. Well, you know, they got nothing else to do. A bunch of old people sitting around looking at people's birthdays and they send it out. Yeah. Did you embrace it though? No, I was mad about it. I did what Henry did. I tossed it in the trash. But they keep sending them. Yeah. Yeah.

They wear you down. Yeah, you'll give in. I wonder what, I would love to know what their thing is. They go, we start at 50. It's about 62 when people kind of come around. Like if there's an age that they go, you finally go, all right, I'll do it. Yeah, that's it. Once you show up at the Hampton Inn and they go, hey, I'll give you 15% off if you're here. Oh, okay, that I'll do. Yeah, that, yeah. I think 62 is it. Probably takes about 12 years to go, ah.

All right. Yeah, I am. What is it? It's like moving up to the senior tees. It is. So my dad, when he moved up to the senior tees, he was- He didn't start there? No, he should. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He would always switch. Like he would sometimes- It was almost like it was just like we were slowly- He would do it sometimes. So we'd start playing and he's like looking at his age where he's like almost there. It would be like randomly you go to a club where you're like, it's like 55 is like up.

Yeah. But then it's like once he hits 60 and then you're like, well, you can go up now. He's like, I'm not going to go up here. And then he would do, you know, like par fives or something. Maybe a long hole would be like, well, I'll go up for the long hole. Yeah. And then come back. It was like slowly that to then now it's like, well, he just, now it's like, he's just gone. Full blown. Full blown. Front tees. Yeah. Front tees. Hey, I can't wait for that, man. I know. Well, it's, those were those, you play these old guys, you can't beat them. No. Like when they're up there in the front tees, because especially you got like a,

You got like a perfect age where you can still hit it. Oh, yeah. And you're old enough to be up there. And then you're a problem. Yep. You have a good probably five-year run, maybe three, five-year run of just a night. You're just crushing it. And I don't know what year the venue was. It was one of the last ones. Craig Stadler had turned 65, so he got to play from the Whites. Mm-hmm.

Wow. And he did. Yeah. And I'm like, what are you doing? He goes, hey, I don't play anymore. I'm playing for the whites. And lo and behold, he won. Yeah. He won. So he's on the range. People are going, I can't believe you played the whites. He goes, hey, I won. What do you care? What does it matter? He didn't care. He goes, I'm 65. You've done a lot of those celebrity golf things. Yeah. Back before kids did tons. Yeah. Did you do AT&T? I did not. You know, I was on the, I was an alternate and Tom Candiotti was,

I was there with him. And this is before 10 Cup. No lie. They didn't have a range back then. And they still really don't. Oh, Pebble does it. Right. Yeah, Pebble does it. So we went down to this little area where you just kind of hit some wedges, maybe. And we're on the far left. And Candiotti shanks his and almost takes out Tom Kite and Lee Jansen. And it goes almost literally, I mean, just parallel to with us.

So everybody turns around, they look at me and they're like, Hank, what's up? I go, it wasn't me, it's Candy Otty. And Candy looks at me and goes, really? You had to tell everybody? I go, I don't have a club in my hand. And so Candy's standing over the next one. I went, wow, how hard is this shot? He's like, shut up, man. I go, wow. I would whiff it if I did any. Wow. Are you really going to try to hit it? Can you really hit it? He's like, will you shut up? And he snap hooked it so far left. So he wasn't close to anybody.

So to answer your question, I was alternate. And then I got to the point where I couldn't give up five days. Yeah, that's true. My kids started school, moved here, as you know. I coach my kids' baseball and basketball teams. I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said, how'd you do that? I said, it was impossible. It was stupid as possible. I mean, I'd do a show in, say, Atlanta on a Friday night. I'd drive home, coach a game Saturday morning, go back. And this is first, second, third grade basketball.

Yeah. It's not that, but I was a coach for years, kindergarten through third grade, and I'd coach baseball and basketball, and I made it work. I mean, I would even tell my agent back then, when Jackson started playing high school sports his senior year, I said, man, I got to have every Friday night off in the fall. He's like, you know you're a comedian, right? Yeah. I go, yeah, but from August till December.

I got to have every Friday night off. Yeah. I said, I work Saturdays, but so I was doing a lot of one-offs in the middle, you know, and one-offs are hard. You know how you like to try to do a tour and,

Yeah. One off's are going to be the random. It's going to be the middle of nowhere. Right. So I'm sitting there, you know, I'd go, I'd watch my son play sports on Friday night, fly out on Saturday, come back on Sunday. So, you know, I did that for a long time. I couldn't do all these big pro-ams that take several days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of that does becomes time consuming. A lot of times when you even are...

big enough to get invited to this stuff, you're like, well, I can't do it. No. And you're like, it's almost like a weird where you're like, I could have done it a year ago if y'all would have asked. And then they're like, no. And then you're like, well, now you're like, now, where would I, how would I even do it? Right. And it's stuff, it's so much like just the commitment of time. Yeah, because they... You're just not just playing golf. I mean, there's stuff every night and they expect you to do shows and expect you to be here. So, I mean, it's a week and you sit there and go, holy cow, I can't do that. And then I was...

Like you said, the times when I was an alternate was the times I could have done it. I was single. And then I even had it where the kids weren't that mobile. And then there just came a point where I said no to stuff for like a decade. I'd do a few here and there. If they're local, I could bop over here. But yeah, doing the celebrity golf was always tons of fun. I mean, we had a circuit for a while. Who's the worst celebrity golfer you've ever seen? Yeah.

Keep in mind, Bates has done a celebrity. I was going to say. Yeah, well, yeah. Myself not included. So this was Tahoe, good night, 89, maybe 94, something like that. So Rocket Ishmael didn't play. Hey, go Irish. Didn't play. Yeah, he shot 81-81 because they gave him a nine on each hole. Yeah. But the worst was Chris Webber. I'm getting ready to tee off and...

I'm going to be dropping names here. Sorry. No, no, yeah. No, I know. Paul McCartney told me never be a name dropper. But anyway, thank you. So Michael Jordan comes up and he starts laughing. I go, what are you laughing at, MJ? He goes, you don't know? I go, what? He goes, you're behind Weber. And I go, what do you mean? He goes, he's never played. I go, he's not even good? He goes, never played. I'm like, why is he here? He goes, he's playing for Golden State. He's Chris Weber. He goes, who are you? And I went, yeah, you're right. Why am I here? Yeah.

Weber, he's quiffing. It took seven hours, probably. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So everybody in front of him were finished. They're eating dinner and we're behind them. Yeah. Yeah.

Worst experiences ever. So Chris Webber. Chris Webber. Yeah. And I kept saying, hey, call timeout. Oh, you don't have any. Yeah, he really liked that. But yeah, Chris Webber would have been the worst. So you started, what's funny is like, you were one of the first comics when I met. I remember my family and everybody, it was exciting that I met you.

Like it was like everybody knew you and everybody was like, well, you're like, oh, you know, it was like, well, it was like you were known. Everybody's known you for a long time. And so it was always like that was like one of the, you know, like it was like, you know, you're a little brag and you're like, oh, yeah, I got his phone number. But you started in you. I mean, you were. When did you start? What year was 86? 86.

So. Y'all calm down. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You weren't even born yet. No. No, we talk about this. Nate started his quick comedy. He was thinking about getting back in it in 86. Yeah. He gave it a go. Gave it a go. Gave it a go. Then started again. Then started, yeah. Yeah. So you were, where did you go for it? Did you start in? Knoxville. Knoxville, yeah. Yeah. So I'm in college and I told my buddies I want to do stand-up. I was going to try stand-up. Yeah.

And they're like, dude, what are you talking about? I said, I really think I can do it. And they went, really? All right. But you're not funny. I go, I know, but I think I can do this. So I never hung out in comedy clubs, never been on stage, nothing.

I entered a competition. I just called the funny bone and said, hey, I heard y'all got a competition I'd like to enter. They said, okay, well, we're full. We have 12. You're the first alternate. So if somebody drops out, we'll let you know. So on Friday, I get a call. Somebody dropped out. Still been trying. I've been trying to find out who that was. Yeah. That is so great. And so they go, you're on it Monday. Be down here like at seven. Show's at eight or whatever. So-

I told my buddies I'm in. And they're like, what? So we're driving down there. I'm riding my first set ever on the way there. And they're going, well, if you're going to do it, tell the story about this. Tell this story. Tell that story. And so I get there. And I thought it was 12 guys like me just trying. But it was the funniest person in Tennessee competition for Showtime. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it's 11 working comedians and me.

So I watched the first couple of guys go up and I tell my buddies, man, you know, I'm just going to, since we're here, I'm going to do it. And I'm never going to talk about it again. Yeah. So I go up fifth and destroy. Yeah. And I get a standing ovation.

So I walk off stage, a guy named Jerry Kubok owned 12 Funny Bones at the time throughout the Midwest, starting in St. Louis. And he's like, how long you been doing comedy? I said, that was it, man. That was it. He goes, no, seriously, how long you been doing it? And my buddies go, no, that was it. First time ever. Yeah. He's like, wow, do you want to MC this week? And I go, what's that? He goes, oh, you do 15 minutes introduction.

introduce the other acts i'll give you a couple hundred bucks and i'm like 200 bucks yeah yeah so i said i don't have 15 minutes he goes we just do what you did tonight i don't care

I said, all right. So I did. I started working on – so that was a Monday. I started working on Wednesday. Yeah, wow. And I dropped out of college on Friday. True story. Yeah. Were your parents thrilled? Oh, yeah. My Korean immigrant parents? Oh, yeah. They took it like nothing. They took it like a white guy. No, are you kidding? My dad was – he went ballistic. He did not speak to me for like 18 months.

Was this your senior year? I was so close to graduating. It was like I was sniffing it. I was trying on gown sizes. But it was there. And I just went for it. And it worked. It worked. So my big break came. Funny bones. Kuback said, hey, whenever you get out of school – he goes, when you graduate –

I'll let you do all my clubs. And I said, well, I'm not going to graduate. I just quit. He went, wow, okay. Here's what we're going to do. So I did. I went to Cincinnati, then St. Louis and Kansas City. And then there was a gig in Mizzou at Freddy DeMarco's Deja Vu's. And then we did the I-70 tour, which was Manhattan, Kansas and Lawrence. And then all that just kept going and start meeting comedians. I work with Bill Ingvall.

In Knoxville, biggest break probably came six months after doing comedy. Punchline Atlanta had Jerry Seinfeld. His opener couldn't do it, so they needed a clean opener. I was the only clean comedian anybody ever heard of. Yeah. Because this is 1986. Yeah. And so I went down, worked with Jerry. Jerry was like, man, you know, he goes, they're going to offer you the moon.

Yeah. But don't stop doing standup because I can't believe you've been doing this six months. You actually, you get it. And I said, oh, I love doing standup. Was this sold out with Seinfeld? Was he already? Yeah, he was probably the biggest name on our circuit. Yeah. So it was sold out Seinfeld. Because before the show, but he was- Everybody knew him. Everybody knew him. He was Tonight Show four or five times a year, that kind of guy. And so Jerry's like, hey, where are you going next? And I went, well-

Nowhere. I just did the Funny Bone tour and I got nothing. He's like, okay, well, all right, well, let's figure this out. So did some more with him. He goes back to LA. He tells Dennis Wolfberg, Gary Shanling, Bill Maher, Leno, Rich Jenny, you know, the top headliners in the country. And so they start calling me. Hey, you know, Jerry said, you're the guy. I'm going to be here. Need somebody. Can you be there? I'll get there. So, you know,

Next year and a half, I'm working with the top 10, 15 guys in the country, sold out shows, smart audiences. So I learned how to work. And then Jerry gave me the greatest advice. He goes, you need to work everywhere you can. You got to get your chops. You can't be this gravy boat. I said, all right, gravy train. Where'd that come from? And that's an old joke of mine. And so I did. I did creative entertainment. I was doing Meridian, Mississippi, Ozark, Alabama, Chicago.

You called them chicken wire gigs? I did a bunch of chicken wire gigs where they had chicken wire around the stage. Anniston, Alabama. Like Roadhouse? Yeah, just like Roadhouse. Oh, like you stood like... You stood behind the chicken wire. So they wouldn't throw stuff at you? Exactly. No, they'd still throw it. It just wouldn't hit you. Yeah, it just wouldn't hit you. Just the liquid you get. Yeah. No solid objects. Yeah, yeah. I'll never forget me and Jim Gilles. We're doing a show in Greenville, Mississippi, and a guy tried to pay us in cocaine. Yeah.

He throws it on the table. That's 10 times more than your rent. I go, man, my landlord doesn't take Coke. I'm sorry. Sorry. Give me my hundred bucks. Yeah. So, and- You look back and you go, I should have taken that Coke. I didn't say I didn't. So, Galeesh is upstairs, up on stage. And I mean, this crowd was awful, you know, just awful. And we're both eating it as bad as you can eat it. And

He's up there. I just hear him yell, Henry, get the car. So I go get my truck and I back it up the back door and I'm just sitting in it. And sure enough, about 10 minutes later, that back door busts open and Gleese jumps into my truck bed, jumps in the bed and goes, get out of here. I'll jump in the cab in a second. So I pull out of this roadside bar. We were doing comedy.

it's creative entertainment. So I did all these gigs, all these really tough shows. And, uh,

On top of working with the greatest guys in our industry. Yeah, it's a perfect balance. Yeah, I mean, those are the shows that people... It's insane for a comic to perform behind Chicken Wire. I mean, it's insane for anybody. It's insane to even be in a band. Yeah. But much less where you're like, no, I need them to listen to me. Yeah. Yeah. They have to listen. Yeah, and they turn off a Monday night football game right at third quarter and they go, hey, we're going to do some comedy. Lots of stuff.

Didn't you do a gig with Foxworthy where the condo didn't have a front door? Yeah, that was Cincinnati, funny bone, gosh, 87-ish probably. So Jeff drives from Atlanta. I drive from Knoxville. Just by happenstance, I pull in 30 seconds behind him. And we're at a comedy condo, which you know, isn't a condo. It's the cheapest apartments you own a man that can get.

So it's on the second floor and I pull up and Jeff's just standing there and I go, what's wrong? He goes, there's no door. And I go, what? He goes, there's no door. And I go, what do you mean? He goes, the doors on the inside. So I go up there and there's flies in there and it's just nasty. And he goes, you got money for a hotel? And I said, yeah, but you're not, I said, you're not smoking in. He used to smoke. Yeah.

Anybody that doesn't know that, get over it. Anyway. So he goes, what? I go, you ain't smoking in a room. So anyway, he would open the window and straddle it and smoke cigarettes. But there was no door. So he finally, I think he talked the club owner into paying like for a hotel or half over or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Those were the days, man. No front door. Can you imagine? It's just a business. Yeah. You're just, you just, you got your comics that are coming this weekend and you don't give them and you're like, is there, and you don't even like, there's no urgency to go get the front door fixed. No, it was, it was bashed since Sunday night probably and this was Tuesday. Yeah. I mean, that thing's been wide open for two and a half days. Yeah.

It was crazy. Just everything's in there. Oh, yeah. And the crazy thing is, you know, one of the waitresses who cleaned it, you know, they gave her 10 bucks. That was the standard, you know. And the waitress would go clean the condo for $10. $10. $10. Imagine someone, you're listening, would you do anything for $10? He can't even drive a stick. He can do another 10.

If I asked you to go get me another water downstairs, I said, I'll give you $10. Would you be like, I don't know. It's not worth it. I don't know if Harper would. Yeah, for $10. $10 is becoming nothing. Five is like, you got to just, five is what it is now. Five is the new dollar. Like, you just have to give five or a kid won't even bat an eye. Yeah. It's like the tooth fairy now is giving out $20 all this time. Is that where you're missing a couple teeth? Yeah. Pulls them out. I'm not getting those, but I remember a dollar. I was pumped about a dollar. Yeah.

You got bills? Wow. Yeah. Well, I got one. I'm kidding. Anyway, I don't even know if that's correct. Is that correct? Is that Asian? Korean money? Yeah. You're the one that can try it and see if it's not. Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. We're not the ones to look at. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. So Jimmy Tingle, a great comedian out of Boston, used to do this bit when the stamp was going up from –

I think it was going up from seven cents to 12. Yeah. And he was like, for a nickel, for a nickel, some man will come and get something out of my mailbox and take it anywhere I want. For a nickel. For a nickel. He goes, and you people are complaining? Yeah. Yeah. For a nickel. For a nickel. 12 cents. Yeah. I always liked seeing comics that have to update their act. Yeah.

where you would see them like, I remember seeing it. Someone do like a payphone. They used to do like a- Oh, yeah. Because payphones used to be a dime. I remember this. I remember payphones being a quarter, and I remember them going at 35 cents, and I was like, it was annoying. It was annoying. You were like, God, why would they even do that? Yeah. And then it was just over after that. But I do remember I was old enough to be like, I was still using payphones, and it was crazy.

Like probably my senior year in high school, you had to really use pay phones. And so, but I remember comics would, this comic would have a joke about that. He's like, oh, they made it, you know, it was a dime. So his joke was from when it was a dime. Right. So then he's, then he, he was like, oh, you got to update it. So now it's a quarter. It's not even a quarter anymore.

And so then he was like, and then he's still telling this joke like five years ago. You're like, no, not only is no one using the pay phone, you're not even to the right amount that it was the last time they were used. You're right. Like you haven't, this joke has been going on for maybe 40 years. It's three steps behind. And half your audience doesn't even know what a pay phone is. Oh. It doesn't exist. No, wouldn't know how to use it. Wouldn't even know what it means. I remember when they went from 25 to 35, I was doing a joke about...

Billy Ray Cyrus having to change his song lyrics from Here's a Quarter, Call Somebody Who Cares. It's like, hey, and a dime. Oh, Travis Tritt. Travis Tritt, yeah. Here's a quarter and a dime. Here's a quarter and here's a dime. Call somebody who cares. That's a great joke. I was doing this whole thing. Yeah, he didn't like it. That's a great topical...

It's such a good, like, it's a perfect joke for like that. And that time, it was like, that joke was, I mean, the timing, the topic. It killed. It's so funny. It killed. That one killed. What a time. You could do a joke about just raising the payphone a dime. Yeah. And it destroyed. And it destroyed. Destroyed. So you were in Knoxville. When did you, you lived in San Francisco for a while, right?

right? Or would you just, oh, you'd always go out there. I would go there all the time. So I moved, I was in Knoxville, started 86. I moved to LA January 89. Uh, so I go out in 88, do some spots, uh, stay with Bill Ingvall and, uh, crazy thing is, so I did a spot at the ice house, uh, and, uh, Robert Guillaume who played Benson on soap and had his own show.

So, his producer came up to me after I did five minutes at the Ice House and said, hey, you ever heard of a warm-up? And I said, no. He goes, audience warm-up. I said, dude, I just got here. I'm there to see. And he goes, he explained the deal. He goes, Robert has a new show. I'm a producer. Would you like to be the warm-up guy? Yeah.

I said, sure, I guess. I don't know when. He goes, well, you know, Monday. I go, well, you know, I'm leaving Sunday, so I can't do it. And then, so he gives me his card and I tell Ingvall, I go, hey man, that guy wants me to be the warmup. He's like, I've been here three years. No one's ever asked me to. I went, sorry, dude. And so he goes, you got to move out here. I said, all right, well, I will soon. So then I moved January 89,

Uh, lived in LA, used to do the Bay Area all the time, punchline. I mean, there were seven clubs back then. Yeah. Um, I just read an article that said, talking about the punchlines in the nineties, I think he said you and Bobby Slayton were the two top selling. One and two top grossing acts in the Bay Area. Oh yeah. Oh, in the Bay Area. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

So when you were starting and you're doing this, so you're at the Comedy Store and you're at, and one thing that we will, we are going to talk about is Bob Saget today, obviously, because what just happened. But when you were going to, the Comedy Store, Bob Saget was there. Like a lot of those guys, that was, I mean, that was a pretty big time for the Comedy Store. It was huge for the Comedy Store. So you had the Comedy Store and the Improv. Yeah. Okay. So it was hard for us young guys, new guys to get spots at the Comedy Store. Yeah. Yeah.

It happened, but it was hard. It was easier for us to get spots at the improv. So that's where me, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Judd Apatow, all these guys I started with, that's where we would go. And so it was one of these, we'd go back and forth all night long, just seeing if someone didn't show up and maybe one of us could get on. Not all of us, just one of us. And so-

Every once in a while. So then it became apparent to us it was working better at the improv. So we became improv guys. Because there wasn't the whole process...

there was to get stage time. Yeah. With Mitzi. With Mitzi. You had to work there. Work and get up to the belly room and the whole thing. So, I mean, I did, I was blessed enough to do shows both, but it became apparent to us improv was where to go. Yeah. And the improv was taken off. They were opening up comedy clubs at the time. You know, I think, uh, what a year and a half, two years later, evening at the improv is on A&E, all this stuff. So we became improv guys. Um,

Because the store, when I first went to the store, yeah, that's where Shaggett started. I mean, that's where Pryor was, man. And I mean, it was just unbelievable. Would you see some of them go up? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we'd hang out. Yeah. Would it be like Pryor going up? I guess it would be. Is the same feel like Chappelle going up now? It's like that kind of... Not saying they're the same comic, but it's like that allure. It would be...

To you guys, it would be Chappelle going up. Yeah. Okay? You would just go, holy crap, Chappelle's here? That kind of thing. So, you know, back in the day,

you know, we just moved to LA and our only, we had agents, we had managers, but, and we were doing auditions, but no one was making any traction. So we just knew how to do standup. That's what got us there. So we didn't know anybody. We're not going to go hang out at a restaurant. We hung out at the comedy clubs. So, and the Laugh Factory was non-existent back then. It may have been there, but no one went there. Igby's was there.

uh, West LA and, uh, the ice house, Pasadena, then improv and comedy store. That was it. Yeah. And then the improv opened up one in Santa Monica. So now we had another spot, but we would just hit them all every night, you know, we, and this was way before texting and all that. Like phone calls. Yeah.

Hey, let's start here. So we'd all meet at Igby's. We'd get there at seven. Hey, can anybody go up? Got any room? Sure. We've got room for one of you. All right. Well, who hasn't been on stage in a couple nights? Yeah. All right, Spade, you go up. And then, okay, go to the next one. Okay. Take two of you. Okay. Henry, you and Adam go up. Okay. And we just do that. And we'd get stage time that way. And then we became...

pretty good. Yeah. And so it got easier to get stage time. And then we ended up just getting spots and our name wouldn't be on the board. Yeah. And it was legit. Yeah. It's like the best feeling ever. And it was, yeah. When your name's on the, when you're like,

Even though when it starts happening, you're like, look, I know no one's coming because my name's on it. But the fact that they put your name on it and it's that first time and you're like, you're just being, you're recognized by the club. It's like, no, this is one of our top guys. There's not much of a better feeling. No, there's not. As a stand-up, it's the greatest. As a stand-up. Because that's your goal. That's your goal. That's your only goal, basically. You want that. And then after is like almost like you almost can't expect it. Right. But you're like that. At the beginning, that's all you can think about is like, I just got to get my name on that.

If my name's on that board. And so when I first moved to LA, I had all these LA comics who I toured with. Yeah. And so they were like encouraging me to come out. So my first time ever at the improv, I was, they gave me, I had a spot. My name wasn't on the list, but they gave me a spot. Hmm.

So I go up and I read the list. I call my buddy back home in Knoxville and I read a list. He's like, who's there? I went, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Rick Overton, Kevin Pollak. You know, I'm reading this whole list. And he goes, I've heard of every one of them. I go, yeah. He goes, and I know you, but I hadn't heard of you. Shut up. I'm trying. So I go up and I don't know. I went up in the middle. I know I went on after Overton because he just destroyed. Yeah.

And as the MC's bringing me up, Rick just goes, take a deep breath. You got it. Yeah. You got it. And I'm like, you got it. So I went up there, did my thing, did great, came up, and there's all the big guys right there. And no one stays. Yeah. You do your spot and you leave. Yeah. It's almost like having COVID back then. You didn't stick around. You didn't stick around, yeah. And so-

But they stuck around. Yeah. And I came off and they waited and they went, see, we told you, man. We told you to come here. I went, man, y'all stayed? They go, yeah, we stayed. You're our guy. And I went, cool. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it is. A lot of comics, we do leave. And then it's like, it is a nice thing when you find out someone, you're like someone stayed. I remember the first time in Comedy Magic, Ray Romanos, I didn't find out until later.

and they like he went up he was just doing a guest i was like it was like where i could headline comedy magic you know you do like a wednesday or something they give you like you get to do an hour oh yeah and uh so i i remember and then ray was like and i've like i think might have been the one of the first times i met him if not maybe second time so i didn't really know him i just kind of like and uh and then he went up he's like we did a guest set

And I was like, oh, man. You know, you got to follow that. Like, people go nuts when he goes on. Yeah. And then I found out afterwards –

that much later, I didn't talk to him afterwards, but much later I found out he stayed the whole time his kids were there. And you're like, there's not much. You're like, oh man, that's crazy. He stayed? He stayed. Because you know they want to leave. And they had something else to do. Yeah. Even if they don't have nothing else to do. They want to leave. They don't want to be there. And so you're like, you got the mindset of you got to keep them. Almost like if you can keep a comic, they're...

Probably not all the way through, but at least you're about five minutes from closing. That's as good as you're going to get. A communist can think, I'm getting out of here before everybody leaves. Before everybody leaves, right. No, you're right. If they stay, so I'll never get... So Comedy Magic Club, it's my weekend, it's my week. And Gary Shanling, his first time ever hosting the Grammys. Yeah. So he's working on all this material and...

So he calls and goes, hey, I got some jokes I want to run. Can I come down and do a guest set? I said, sure. Shanley's guest set is not five minutes. It's like 25. And everybody knows that. And I said, why don't you go on right before me and then you just introduce me. He said, okay. That worked out great because then I can do whatever I want. I said, yeah, I don't care. You know that. So he comes down. Just so happens –

Louis Anderson's doing five minutes because he's got a Tonight Show spot. I can't remember. It was crazy. Who was that? And Dennis Miller comes in wanting to do a spot, and he looks in, and he goes,

dang, Hank, looks like the 27 Yankees. I go, yeah. He goes, and you're following all this? I go, yeah, I'm closing it, pal. I go, you want to do five? He goes, I'm not going to do that to you. I said, well, it's five more. And he's like, no, really, I'll come tomorrow night. I said, okay, whatever, man. But so he hung out. So Shanley does like 20 minutes and then he introduced me.

And so Gary's like, can I come back the next night? I said, dude, come all week. Just bang these jokes out. So that's what he did. I mean, Shanley would come and do 20, 25 minutes before me with his pad out. Yeah. And during my set a couple, one time for sure.

It may happen a couple of times, but during my set, I'm closing. I hear him behind the curtain going, hey, can I try one more? And so I go, hang on, Gary wants to come out and try another. So I come out and stand with me, pull up the yellow legal pad. And he tried. I'm holding the mic.

and uh it wouldn't work i go that's not gonna work here try it i go try it this way and then i'd say something then he'd try it and hey that worked okay and we're sitting up there writing jokes just on stage in those days you can't do that now yeah no they wouldn't that's awesome they wouldn't have the patience for it now no uh but it's like crazy because he's so like i mean it's such a fun thing because he's i mean he's hosting the grammys and like this is

That type of celebrity then, that's a big celebrity. Like, you know, like it's not that it's not now, but it's just different. It was totally different. There wasn't like almost branches of celebrity. Like I think back then it was like, you're either celebrity or not. Now there's like branches. Like you talk about BTS, like the most biggest band in the world. Like, I don't know what they do. No. Like most, like you're like, there's going to be people that I never even heard of. And you're like, they're possibly more famous than the Beatles. Yeah. But,

They're not because everybody knows the Beatles. Everybody knows the Beatles. And those can name a song. Yeah. Yeah. You're exactly right. Now they're branches of. Now, yes. Yeah, it kind of breaks off. Yeah. And so now everybody's kind of got their own. I mean, that's the world you're kind of going now where like you finally got, you kind of got, well, there's still like the top,

You can get to the top or be, you're kind of like, oh yeah, I know that person. You got to get at the top of your craft. Yeah. I think that's what it, you have to be the, you know, if you can get to the top, whatever, if you are BTS or I don't know, whatever music, you just get to the top of it. Taylor Swift, you're like, well then you're, she just mentioned. Right. Because it's like, yeah, yeah. She's so famous that everybody knows her. Right. You're not going to not know her. Right. Right. Yeah.

But that's how it was back then. You're right. I mean, Shanley, everybody watched the award shows back then. It actually meant something. Yeah. And that's when Billy Crystal was hosting the Oscars. It was that whole genre. Yeah, yeah. And so Shanley doing the Grammys was ginormous. Well, TV was such a big deal then. Yeah, huge. And it was, you know, to watch TV and to, it was still such a,

Not that it was a new thing, but it was a new thing. And it was the fact that there was more channels than I was on. And they would do these big things. And it was like, I think it was pure. It's probably one of the purest it's been. It wasn't a business. Right. I mean, it's a business, but it didn't feel as business-y. No, I agree. There were no DVRs, so people watched stuff live. They watched stuff live. But I mean, you look at like now, it's like they're making, now it's like,

It's like an algorithm of how they're making shows. Like House of Cards, I always heard, it was like they looked at the time. They said, who's the people on Netflix? What's the actor they like the most? It was Kevin Spacey at the time.

And then the director, they go, well, who likes that most? Perfect. Well, that's, they make something. So it was like an algorithm of going like, well, just put them together. Right. And so now there's kind of like the, the heart and the something's taken out of it. Yeah. It's more of a science than just the soul of a, a,

of a creativity. Yeah, yeah. Is what I think. Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah. And also, you know, there's so much money involved with all the ad space now for award shows. It used to not be that way. Oh, yeah. Not that I was a big fan of award shows anyway, but...

I will tell you, when Shanley got the Grammys, we all went, holy crap, they're letting one of us do the Grammys. I mean, that was it. Yeah. That's what you do think. You're like, you can't believe. You're letting one of us. You're like, dude, we're idiots. Yeah. You're going to put us in control of your show? Yeah. But when you think back, because I remember I got interviewed about this a long time ago.

When they started having actors do the Oscars and stuff, it was like, no, you got to go back. Johnny Carson used to do it. Yeah. And you got to have a comedian because a comedian can wing it. Yeah. You know? You get actors. I love them. But you know what? It's like Seinfeld says, you stand here and you say what we tell you to say. Yeah. And then we'll give you a trophy. I mean, you know? They don't have the confidence to do that.

No. Wing it. Because they don't want something not to work. We don't care if something doesn't work. No. It's like it doesn't work. You're like, all right. It's fine. I took a swing. Yeah. Guess what? I'm going to swing harder. Yeah, yeah. I'll make the next thing work. Yeah, you didn't like that? You're going to hate this. You know, that kind of attitude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you see Fallon come up out there? Yeah, you know, so I was doing the Irvine improv. Did you ever do it? Yeah. Did you do it when it was across from UCI or was it at the Spectrum? Yeah.

I might have done it when I was across from UCI. I think you may have. I know I did the spectrum. I think you may have been there right before the move. Yeah. Like maybe once. I think maybe once. Yeah. So that's where I used to go. And...

This is LA, Orange County, but it's still LA. It's the longest, shortest gig in the world because it's 50 miles, but it takes two hours. I did do it. Was it the exit and you would get off, drive down? It was on the left in that little hall? Yes. Yeah. And then you would park. Yeah. Yeah. I did do it. Okay. That was a great room. Yeah. Right across from UC Irvine. So yeah, it was me, Jim Hope, and Jimmy Fallon emceed.

And so a buddy of mine, so Jim Hope, you know, we're talking about this and he goes, remember when Fallon emceed? I went, oh yeah, that's right. And I said, wow. I said, I vaguely remember that. He goes, Henry, you were like, you

you were one of the guys. Yeah. You know, you're not expected to remember that Jimmy Fallon was sitting at the green. And I go, yeah, yeah. But I do remember because he goes, Hey, you were super nice because we went out afterwards. And I remember you invited Jimmy to go and he couldn't believe you invited him to go with us and all this stuff. I went, Oh, well, good. Okay. Yeah. That was good. Good. Yeah. I was, so I just did the time show and, uh,

I was talking to Fallon a lot about like those days with improv. He talked a lot about the Hollywood improv and coming up through the improv. Yeah. And he would have been maybe two classes behind you or something, right? Or one class. Yeah, he was like two. Yeah, yeah. It was enough removed that you would be like, yeah, I don't. Like you wouldn't have known when he started. No, no. And

And so we were just talking about all those old days in the LA. Because he kind of came up through that kind of... I mean, he came out in LA, so he kind of came up through that world. But did a lot of opening for people. And I don't think he ever really did a big, big tour and wasn't that kind of... He got into SNL, and then once he did that, it's like that kind of...

Oh, yeah. Send them off that direction. Yeah. Well, I mean, and that's how they all worked. I mean, even in Sandler and Spade, you know, they were middle acts. Yeah. You know, they used to middle for me and they're on Saturday Night Live. Yeah. You know, I never get, Dave and I did the Tempe Improv and he's from Scottsdale and he's on Saturday Night Live and he's my middle act. Yeah.

So we go do radio. They go, hey, is Dave coming? I go, yeah, Dave's coming. And I bring Spade, and Spade would talk about Saturday Night Live and all that stuff. And he looks at me and goes, you okay with this? I go, dude, sell tickets. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I got a door deal. Sell tickets. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You sell out. I don't care who sells out. Yeah, because they almost like they got it and they didn't. Because sometimes you do. People get it and they don't have the act. They don't have the time. They can't close. They can't close because it's like you're either – that's how I always say you make it 20 or 40.

It's like either happens very quick for you or you kind of go through the whole circuit. Right. And it's like when it happens for a lot of people quick, they can't do it. Having an hour act, it's very hard. It's very hard after one or two guys goes up and talks about stuff you may have talked about. Yeah. So it's even more difficult. And that's the whole thing. I mean, those guys, we used to tour and they were like on their way to being super famous, but we'd still do it because we love to hang out and play golf and do all this kind of stuff. Yeah.

So, and then they got entrenched into SNL and they stayed there. So that's the same with Fallon. Fallon was this guy coming up and, you know, as talented as he is, obviously they jumped on it and made it, you know. But I'll never forget the first time, probably the first three weeks, Adam and David Spade and Stanley were at SNL.

You know, they'd call me and go, man, I just wrote five of the funnest things I've ever written in my life and it didn't get past stage one. Wow. We may be home pretty soon. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, really? They go, yeah, it's brutal, man. So, and you know, and they're getting paid.

Not tons enough, but not to live in New York. Yeah. So, you know, they just kept, you know, battling it out and pitching, pitching, pitching. And finally, you know, they both got breaks. Yeah. And got on the show and they got on the – Yeah. Because they were writers. They were writers. They weren't even supposed to – they made – do little cameos and I'll never forget –

One time there was like some big party scene and they both were in the scene. Like you could see them. Yeah. And it was like the biggest deal in the world. You guys are actually on SNL. Yeah. You didn't say anything, but you're there. You're there. Yeah. You're like, we know them. Yeah. It was a big deal. Yeah. It was cool. When you, like, so when you were coming up, so I mean, coming up in the 80s, well, late 80s, then the 90s, like I said, you get those chicken wire, like all those kinds of gigs. Like it was, I mean, it was really like a wild west, like,

Was it, there was no like corporate kind of world to it or like a manager's agent, you had them, but. No, yeah, I understand what you're asking. Yeah, it was like the Wild West because comedy was booming. Yeah. All right, it was the rock and roll of the 80s was the thing. And there was a huge wave going on and luckily I caught it just before it all busted. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it was, so everybody was doing comedy. I mean, Aubrey Pippen used to own a bunch of gentlemen's clubs and he switched them into comedy clubs. Wow. I mean-

That's how popular it was. That's how popular it was. And it worked. I mean, you know, it was kind of weird. You go out there and, you know, the stage is a T and there's a pole and all that. You know? You gotta walk around the pole. Yeah, you know, I do a little spin. Yeah. But, you know. I mean, every comic had to touch that pole. Like, it's like, you know, you're all going to and be like, well, I might as well touch it. Yeah, may as well. So, and well, that's where we started. Yeah. So comedy started in those establishments. But so, that's how big comedy was. Yeah. It's like, I can make,

you know, however many times more money getting three guys no one's ever heard of to come here and tell jokes than having 20 women I got to take care of and whatever. So that's

That's what we did. We did. We told jokes everywhere. And then they came up with creative entertainment where the chicken wire gigs came in. And so they'd go to a bar in Ozark and say, okay, Monday, you got Monday night football. Tuesday, you got dwarf tossing. Yeah. Wednesday is wet t-shirt contest. Friday, Saturday, you got a band. You got nothing on Thursday. Let's do comedy. And by golly, two of us would show up on a Thursday night and we'd do comedy. Yeah.

And so that's just how it was. So all these bars had their schedule, but there was always one night they didn't have something. And it was the Wild West. I'd always hear stories about shady managers. If you had a door deal, these are in legitimate clubs that would, they tried to cheat you out of door deals and stuff like that. Oh yeah. There was a notorious one in Seattle. And so it was Jeff Dunham, me and Jake Johansson were back to back to back. All had door deals.

So we knew something was up. And so I called Dunham and I said, hey, man, I think you really shorted me, blah, blah, blah, blah. Dunham goes up, first show, Thursday night, packed, and has people count off. Well, he didn't. Walter did. He had his little dummy. Hey, y'all. Whatever, peanut. Y'all count off for me. So he does. He sits there and goes, hey, let's try something here because, you know, I

A friend of mine, Henry, was here. And so we told the whole story. And by golly, he had people count off. One, two, three, four, five, six. The whole thing. Thank you all. Okay. Did his show. Goes back. Checks with the ticket office. And they were off.

yeah he got ripped off so he calls me and goes they ripped me off like 25 so yeah something like that so it became this whole thing but yeah dunham just i go you wait you did what he goes i made the audience count off i go what he goes well i didn't do it i go oh yeah grover did it or whatever his name's peanut okay yeah we're gonna get a fight about this so yeah yeah i'm not crazy i always like that story uh bait said uh

Someone telling the joke over? Where was that? Telling the joke?

The same joke in the same show? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Countless times. Yeah. But it wasn't – one was three times. Oh, was it Mike Spingberg? Yeah, Spingberg. Yeah. Spingberg told – Three times. The same joke three times in the same set. As soon as you walked out, you go, did you say that joke again? Yeah. He goes, is that two times? You go, that was the third time. I go, dude, dude, you've already said that one. He goes, twice? I go, third time. Yeah, third time. Yeah. I think you're done.

I think it's over. It's time to come off. Third time doing the same joke. But that was the thing, you know, so we would do three shows on Saturday night, 8, 10, and 12. And, you know, you're headlining, you're doing 50-ish. Yeah. And if you strayed too much during the show, by that third show, you're sitting there going, holy, have I even set this up? Did I talk about this? So it became a, it almost became sad because Saturday night should have been the most fun. Everything's packed.

But, but it almost, those shows you had to just compartmentalize and just, here's my set. I'm doing it three times. Yeah. I remember Zany's doing Chicago Zany's, the first club I ever got to go up at. And the first one, one of the first ones that I headlined. And I remember having that three shows Saturday night and it was, and I did it. I think some, I caught a little bit of it. They don't really do that that much. Maybe they, some of those clubs still do it. Yeah. Very rarely. But it's, it was, it was so much.

And you were like, by the time you get to third, you're done. You're done. That midnight crowd's drunk. Yep. You don't want to hear your voice again. Yeah. And you're just like, let's just get through it. And you don't know what you've said. No. And it's sad because you do it by rote and you're not really performing. You're just getting through a show. So I always argued about doing those third shows. I said, you know, I said, I get it. We're packed. We're sold out. We're all making money. I said, but it's no fun. It's no fun. I'm here to...

To have fun. Yeah. Okay? The fact that you pay me is crazy. Yeah. But I'm here to have fun. Yeah. Yeah. And plus three shows, good night. I mean, just- The wear and tear. Yeah. When the improv opened in Chicago, North Wells, it was so popular. We'd do two Thursday, three Friday, three Saturday, two Sunday. God.

That's crazy. And that didn't mention the one on Tuesday and the one on Wednesday. Yeah. I mean, that's what I tell these guys all the time. It was like a vacation. You guys have no idea. We used to work Tuesday through Sunday, Wednesday through Sunday, Tuesday through Saturday. There wasn't this...

Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah. And there were all this hotel. Because they would just run because it was so popular. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that was the whole thing. You'd show up on- What are you getting paid like back then? Like for, like if you headline a weekend, you're made no credits or like just whatever you're- No credits, no name, Funny Bone, St. Louis, Tuesday through Sunday, nine shows, probably making maybe 1,200. Yeah. Nine shows. I'll never forget. Yeah. We were in-

West Palm Beach, Florida. Foxworthy and I used to go down there in spring training. So we go down in February and this one place was awful. They have a phone. So he had to use the phone down the street, a pay phone. So I'm down there with a baseball bat so he can talk to his wife at midnight. It's really smart.

But he made $1,000 that week, and he put $1,100 bills on his bed, and we just sat there and stared at it. He's like, can you believe they paid me $1,000 to do that? I go, no. I can't. That is nuts. $1,000. Yeah. Nine shows. Yeah, nine shows. Now they still pay you $1,200, but you just do six shows. Yeah, the math's better. Yeah, it's like you don't have to go out as much. Yeah, that's –

Yeah, it's so... I always talk to like... I remember talking to some guys that have been before your time where they would have even been... They would have started in the 70s. They would have called the entire 80 run. Right. Where it was this boom. And they were saying like... I remember some, the older comics, I was like, you know what? Because people would be doing Carson. They'd be doing... They'd be famous. They'd be known. And I was like, what happened? And they would like say, we just got... We didn't write anymore. We just... They were making...

in the eighties, if you're making 12, they're probably making maybe five grand a week in the eighties. Which is crazy. Crazy. You're rich. You're a rich person. And they would just go and then it was a big party and they had the best time of their lives. But when it was done, it was like, they, they had the same act. They had the same, you know, and then it was like, well, eventually that just cycles out and you're like new guys come and then. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I know guys that did the exact same show verbatim for at least five years. I mean, identical. Yeah.

verbatim and there was no turnover and that's just what they did. It was probably hard to have turnover because you weren't, then you weren't on TV, you weren't on, you know, like you didn't have specials, you didn't have all this stuff. It was hard to turn over because you're working 50 weeks a year. I mean, we worked, my first two years of doing standup, I worked 50 weeks a year. And you got to murder every show. Every show. Yeah. And

It's a lot of shows. Yeah. A lot of shows. So you're... And we, like I was saying, we worked all week. It's not like we had...

four or five days a week off and just did weekends. How long would you be gone? You remember like a long stretch? The first stretch, the longest stretch I did was 18 weeks. I worked myself from Knoxville to Billings, Montana. I'm back. Nine up there, nine back. Yeah, man. That's crazy. Did them all. I mean, it was crazy. I'd sleep in rest stops in my truck. I had a 38 on my chest, stuff like that. There were some pretty rough places. Come home with $800. Yeah.

And then you're like, net, net, net. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I would talk about, I just did the Tonight Show. The Tonight Show, I've done Tonight Show, I think it was now, it was like the 10th time of the Fallon Tonight Show. Wow. And it's an amazing, like Fallon's been awesome to me. Everything's been great. But it's like when you came up, did you ever do Carson? No. So here's what happened. I was supposed to be Johnny's last new guy. Yeah. And so-

It was all, everything was set. And, you know, it's like it is now, maybe even more so having to run your spot. You're set 10 times in town. They're nitpicking it, but I had mine. And so I was going to be Johnny's last new guy. And then Johnny, Mr. Carson announced his retirement. Yeah. Like three weeks after I got my date. So, uh,

Everybody and your brother wanted to do Carson one more time. Yeah. So I was backstage at NBC countless times. I was in the TV Guide, supposed to be on all these things. TV Guide's a magazine. Anyway. Brian knows what it is. Oh, yeah. And then I'd be standing there, and all of a sudden, Bette Midler would walk in. Yeah. Not scheduled. And then Clint Eastwood, and then Burt Reynolds, and then like –

So I went, okay, I guess I'm getting bumped again. Well, I'm getting bumped again. Just kept the whole thing. Mr. Carson, very nice. Always apologized, said, you know, I wish I'd have waited, blah, blah, blah.

So Leno's taking over. So Leno's like, hey, you know, when I take over, I still want you to do the show. And I said, I've never done it. He goes, yeah, you have. I saw you on it. I go, Jay, I never. I was there. I've never done it. He's like, that's crazy. And I told him what happened. He goes, oh, that's right. He goes, I thought Shanley was going to give you a spot. He goes, he was. And then he changed his mind. Because Gary's like, I have three more spots. Maybe I'll give you one. And then he got down to it. He goes, I can't do it. I said, I get it. I get it. Yeah, it was like. I get it. I mean, Shanley guest hosted for Johnny. Yeah.

So Jay takes over. He goes, okay, you're going to be my first new guy. So I was. I was on Jay's first Friday, the week he took over. Yeah. So it worked out. Yeah, it worked out. Yeah. That guest hosting too, that's kind of gone. Yes. Did he do it a lot? Who, Jay? Carson. Carson, yeah. He had a lot of guest hosts. He never worked on Mondays.

Oh, really? No, Carson. So the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson used to be 90 minutes. Wow. It was an hour and a half long. And then he cut it down to 60. And then he cut it down where he only worked three days a week. Towards the end. Yeah, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah. I mean, Thursday, Friday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I think was what it was. So it was like when he was ending, everybody was like, yeah, he's been ending for a few years now. Like he was winding it down to be like, I'm done.

I mean, he's the most famous person on the planet. I'm sorry. I thought it was muted. That's okay. Pulled up. Yeah, this is The Tonight Show. That's 1992. Leno bringing you out. Cowboy boots on. Still wear those. Same size jeans, by the way. Yeah. It's like Seinfeld. So here's the crazy thing. I've never... I never wore jackets. Yeah. And everybody's going, you got to wear a jacket on The Tonight Show. And I said, I never wear jackets. You got to wear a jacket on The Tonight Show. And Seinfeld goes...

It's the Tonight Show. Yeah. I said, I'll wear a jacket. Yeah, it's crazy. Did your parents, like, did it get easier? Like, once they see this, was the Tonight Show like your first, like, everybody's like, oh.

You know, like, you know, you're successful before, but no one gets it. No, we're not in the system. No, no. And there, and then, but everybody knows what the tonight show is. Of course. Yeah. When this, yeah, my dad was fine after this. Yeah. My mom was always behind it. So before the tonight show though, I was, I'd already, I was doing Arsenio Hall. Yeah. Yeah.

I did Pat Sajak's show. Pat was, his ratings were number one for like six months. He was beating everybody for six months. Still doing it. Yeah. Wasn't there a crazy story? You were in San Diego or something and- They flew me up. By helicopter? Yeah. Yeah. CBS. This is the difference. CBS and Fox. So Fox would have sent a car. CBS sent a helicopter.

From where? From San Diego to CBS. Oh, because they needed someone? No, I was on, but I was stuck. Yeah. And so I got to CBS, Television City, helicopter. Yeah. Just do a little stand up on Pat Sajak. Yeah, Pat Sajak. Who was Jeopardy-O's? Alex Trebek. Alex Trebek, yeah. Pat Sajak is Will Fortune. Yes. So yeah, he's still doing it. Yeah, yeah. But so it's great. He had a talk show. Yeah. And so, because I'll never forget, it was at the time I was...

I was in the queue to do the Tonight Show. They were coming out to see me and all these things. And Jim McCauley was the guy. Jim McCauley said, thumbs up, thumbs down, you're on or not. Yeah. And so I asked him, I said, Jim, what do you think? And he said, you know, I think maybe in a year or two. Yeah. And I said, okay, I get that. No problem. He goes, nah, you're blowing up and everybody's going crazy, but I really...

a year or two yeah and he goes unless johnny sees you somewhere yeah and so i thought well how's that gonna happen maybe he'll be watching tv you know stuff like that so then say jack comes up and my agent's going say jack want you and i'm going i don't know i'm you know i'm gonna hold out for the tonight show blah blah blah and then arsenic goes hey can you do you know october 12th

Yeah. Well, heck, if I'm going to do Arsenio, might as well do Sajak. So we told Sajak and Sajak went. No, I did Sajak three times in three weeks, I think. Wow. It was six weeks, something crazy. Because I knew it was going to be a year and a half before I did it. It's a nice show. So whatever. So I'd already done those shows. So my mom was...

Once I did Pat Sajak, my mom was fine. Yeah. But it wasn't until I did The Tonight Show was my dad okay. Yeah, yeah. Because he had no idea who Pat Sajak was. Do you ever think, though, like, you think that with The Tonight Show, that it would have hurt you because you did those other two shows? Or if you'd have waited it? You know, I think it didn't hurt me. Yeah. It doesn't sound like it did. No, it didn't hurt me. Because, I mean, this was...

I did this night show first time, 92. So, I mean, my first six months in LA, I get a spot at the improv, I get an agent, I get managed, I'm reading for everything there is to read. The problem Hollywood had was they'd never been around an Asian guy who talked like I did. Yeah. I don't know if people have- Yeah, they still don't. But I used to have a real thick accent. So I used to talk like this. I used to be like, I was a country boy from Knoxville.

It wasn't until I started hosting Friday Night Videos in 94, 95. Yeah. First video I introduced was Ayr Smith, Stephen Tyler, Ayr Smith. All right, coming up next, we got Ayr Smith, Stephen Tyler, going to walk this way. And the producer came out, Gary Constantine, and he was over all of NBC late then. SNL, Tonight Show, Conan, all Ayr.

And Letterman, he was over all of them. And my little show, Friday Night Videos. Wow. But he came out, he goes, I can't understand a word you're saying. He goes, I hired you because you're a great host and I like your look and I like you, but you got to move your mouth. All right, I'll try. Yeah. So that night is when this voice became what it is. Yeah. Because I had to start enunciating. But still, Hollywood couldn't figure out what to do with me. People always go, man, you got to lose your accent. And I'm like-

Yeah, whatever. And they just go, surely there's other people like you in the South? And I go, I don't think so. There's not. There's not. I know y'all fly over, but there's not. And so it was really hard to get something unique. And there was a lady at NBC over development named Shana Landsberg, and she got it. So she got me meeting with Brandon Tartikoff, who is why Seinfeld happened, the show.

He's the genius behind it, and he's the one who kept it on the air. Yeah, the one that liked it. Yeah. That saw what it was. He saw what it was. Yeah. So I was going to go in to see Brandon, and Shana said, I said, really, Tartikoff? She goes, yes. She goes, he flipped out. He said, what, Asian guy? An Asian guy leading? Are you kidding? She goes, don't think Asian guy. Think Tartikoff.

Think a cowboy would probably kick your butt without martial arts. And so I walked in and he goes, holy cow, you can probably kick my butt without martial arts. And I go, I could if you want me to. Is that part of the audition? And so I had this deal with NBC and Tardikov was involved and all this stuff. And Steve Allen, who invented The Tonight Show, huge supporter of mine back then,

And he's like, Shana, we got to get him on TV. You know, there's never been anything like it. Yeah. You know, I did the comedy festival in Vegas, 89. I come off stage, there's Steve Allen. Steve Allen goes, you ever heard that thing? There's no such thing as a new joke. I said, yes, sir. He goes, you have like 10. Yeah. That no one's ever told. Yeah. 10. He goes, I never could. Yeah. He goes, no one's come from your angle. No. He goes, we had Southern guys. We've got Asian guys. Maybe one or two. Never both. Yeah. Yeah.

He goes, and then Shana came up then and he's like, we got to get him on TV. So it didn't hurt me to do the Tonight Show when I did. I was already, already had stuff going on, you know, but you know, as well as I do, the Tonight Show with Johnny back then. Yeah. That was the Holy Grail. Yeah. And so no one knew he was going to retire. Yeah. I thought I'd always get a chance to do it. Yeah. So then once I got in line, uh,

knowing I was going to get to do it, I was like, okay. And then that never happened due to the circumstances. Yeah. I was fine. Mr. Carson knew who I was, appreciated me. And you got to go there. You got to be the first on the tonight show, which is, which is even, you know, which is almost even cool. Like, cause it's like, you could have either been, it's, you get really looking at it right now.

You can be like, all right, I can say I got to do Carson. It was at the very end. That was when the last comics got on. Maybe the last, but you would have been lost in the shuffle of like a man retiring that's an all-time legend. Right. Or you get, that's how you look at it. You got this great story. You got bumped.

Probably the last comment that got bumped from the show. Yeah. Multiple times. Yes. And the first one on The Tonight Show. Yep. The new one. Yeah. Which then, this is all anybody even knows now. It made your bio a lot more relevant. Right. For a long time. It sure did. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not like he's a flash in the pan. He was on for, what, 20 years or something? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Do you remember when they were all, when he was going to take over The Tonight Show and Letterman and all that? Oh, man. Yeah. I remember that whole, it was unbelievable. And there was so much tension. Yeah.

Because I remember I was doing Arsenio and it was a couple nights before I was supposed to go on and I ran into Jay at the Comedy Magic Club. Yeah. And he just said, hey, you know, I know you're doing Arsenio and there's supposed to be this big thing, but there's not. So he didn't say if or when. If, he said when I take over the Tonight Show. Yeah. I still want you to do both shows. And I went, you're seriously taking over the Tonight Show? And he goes-

And I go, hmm, I heard different, but okay. So sure enough, a few weeks later, he took over. Oh, yeah. Y'all were here in Letterman. Yes. Yeah. And then it was either or. But first, it was always Letterman. Yeah. Because with Letterman just going a lot, Carson really liked him, right? Carson liked him, and I think it was the Midwest thing. I think it was Nebraska, Indiana, Midwest guy, whatever.

But because Jay would go on Letterman with his beef. Yeah. What's your beef today? You know, my beef today is that. What do people do? He always had that. So it wasn't like he went on and was just Jay. Yeah. He always had an issue to deal with. And I think that's all maybe Mr. Carson saw during the time. I could be totally wrong. But this is just my take. So, but Jay ended up being...

A great host. He was just- A great host. Great. And his monologues kill. No one did a monologue better and longer than-

Time-wise? Yeah. Ever in the history of... Well, it's a comic. Jay stayed being a comedian. Right. Which is everything that we love. Yeah. And he worked at it because he went to the Comedy Magic Club every Monday night. He still ran jokes. I mean, every Sunday night. Every Sunday night. Still did. Still does. Yeah. I think they're closing or something. But I would go there and I would see him. He eats a watermelon. Yep. Yep.

It's a, gets a Walmart and cut in half, eats with a spoon. Yeah. And then just, and then goes on stage. He just goes on. And does his act. And like, it's like, and he'd run the jokes for the show. Yep. Yeah. Like, I remember going to, like, I went back there and,

I was just in there and like the first time I met him and I like said hi and he was running jokes for the Tonight Show. Uh, I never did a Tonight Show. Mine, I was kind of, I was like, I had Letterman. I was close. I was supposed to get on it. Uh, they told me they, they, they ended up not liking a joke that I was sending. They didn't think it was right for the show or whatever. And then, uh,

I was in New York, so I don't know if I just... Leno, I don't know if I was ever really thought of. But then it was like I got Conan when Conan was on, which Conan was on as long... Conan was awesome. Yeah, it was crazy. He was on the whole time they were. Like that was even weird. When Conan took over Tonight Show for Leno, it was almost kind of weird thing. You're like, no, you're like basically them. Yeah. You were on the whole time they were on. Yep. And your show was...

great. It was, I know it's not the Tonight Show, but it was like, it's your show. Conan was great. Conan was great. He was great. And then, is great. And then, but he, yeah, so it was like, that's what I remember switching that. I don't know what I was, I'm trailed off now. No, no. So when Conan took over, here's the crazy thing. So mid 90s,

I'm doing Friday night videos. I talk NBC. So we piggyback the Tonight Show. So now all of a sudden, I'm on that stage every week for two years. Yeah. Same stage, same camera guys. Jay finishes taping, hey, good night, everybody. Whatever the theme song was. And then boom, audience leaves. I come in. I sit in Jay's chair, put my feet up on his desk. We run through sketches, blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

So same deal. Okay. Then I'd say, okay, there's a break for dinner. We go cater, come back. We'd shoot from seven to nine every week. Yeah. And so I talk them into, Hey, Jay's going to be in New York. We should do the show from New York. Hey, Jay's going to be in Vegas. Let's do the show from Vegas. That's where my crew is. Let's do it. So they did it. Yeah. So, um, we were doing it and,

I can't remember. Man, you and I are bad. Yeah. I just both go off. It just goes off. It's gone. We started the sentence though. That's good. Yeah, we do. I started. We lead you down a hallway. Yeah, that's right. You know where you're going? You're like, yeah. Man's room, right there. Yeah, yeah. So I'm on the stage every week. I get super comfortable. And then it became this weird thing where, oh, I know what I was going to do. So I get to host NBC's New Year's Eve.

I want to say '96 going into '97. And all I have to do is beat Dick Clark. No, not beat Dick Clark, coming second to Dick Clark. Because no one's going to beat Dick Clark. NBC's never had a New Year's Eve show, blah, blah, blah. So I'm downtown watching a ball drop. I'm up there, got Andy Richter with me. I wrote all these sketches. I wrote one for me and Conan for us to be underneath the tree at 30 Rock. And we're inside the barricades.

And he and I are touching the tree. And he looks at me and goes, man, how'd you pull this off? I said, I wrote it. He goes, yeah, isn't he good? I said, you tell me. And he looked, he goes, oh, that's pretty funny. So we did that. I did a sketch where I was on the skating rink. We cleared the ice during the holidays. And I told everybody, I said, if I do this in one take...

You'll only be off for 10 minutes. So everybody pay attention. I'm going to do it in one take. And you know what? I'm just doing one take. Do it. Y'all been off enough. Let's go. So I shot it and I skated out there and I did this whole bit. And Tim Meadows came out and we did this whole thing. One take. I went, one take. And the place went, ah, 1,000. It was the greatest. So we do all this. And Conan, so I'm doing all this. Now, Conan has been in his spot for less than a year. And there's a lot of questions.

And so they asked me to do some, hey, come right back, you know, stay tuned, come right back from his desk. Yeah. And I said, no. And they're like, why not? I said, I'm not doing that to Conan. This is Conan's show. This is Conan's desk. You know, until he's not here, I'm not getting in that chair. Yeah. And so...

He's like, hey, are you? I go, I'm doing nothing, dude. I'm here just, I piggyback Jay. It's the only reason I'm in New York. I cut some stuff. I wrote a bunch of stuff. So we're doing these sketches. I did some stuff from SNL and all this stuff. I said, but I got nothing to do with what's going on with you. I said, you're the best one out of everybody. So just keep it down. So he was like on the chopping block.

but somehow you got over it. Yeah. And then he just, boom. Yeah. Because they didn't get him. No one got him. Yeah. It was someone that was kind of before his time of like, it was that window of like Carson and the people that watch Carson are still watching TV. And so then they see Leno and Letterman is like more traditional. And then Conan was someone that would have been younger. So someone like when I was

When I was able to finally be old enough to watch that kind of stuff, Conan would appeal to me. Right. And he would appeal to just anybody, just the younger generation. And yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, they wouldn't have gotten it. Yeah, they didn't get it. And he was. I mean, he was literally on... Because they were grooming Greg Kinnear and all this stuff. And I'm like...

I got nothing to do with any of that. I said, you know, I wrote these bits just so I could like do stuff. Yeah. Has nothing to do with you. Yeah. Were there any other clean comedians then? Was Gaffigan on the scene yet? Gaffigan wasn't clean until I talked him into it. He was dirty. You kidding? But yeah, we're Connie Magic Club. So me, Alex, Murray, we're all sitting back there.

And Gaffin's got to go pick up his now wife. She still doesn't like me for this. And I'm like, send a car service. Some girl's flying in from somewhere. Who picks them up at the airport? Send a car service. Gaff's like, I don't know if I should really do that. Come on. Here, I got them on speed dial. Call service. Girl flying in? What do you care? You know, there's girls here. And Sewer's talking about his act.

And it's like, Alex was like, you know, why can't you do it like Henry? He goes, well, now we can do it like him. All this stuff. And I said, one of your jokes has a cuss word in it. Yeah. It's all throwaway. You'll tell a joke and they go, what the F is that for? All this is all outside noise. I said, just stop that. Just do your show. Tell the jokes. Connie Matchcliff goes up. Probably only does 25% profanity.

Then normal. Destroys. Yeah. Figures out he can do it. And then, bam. So Gaffigan wasn't around. Gaffigan was around. He wasn't clean. I see. So back then, considered clean. Jake Johansson, myself, Brown Regan. Yeah. And that's probably it. So there's never been that many. You think there's going to be clean acts. Maybe there's not as many as you think.

There's really not. I always thought there used to be a ton. Not doing the circuit. Yeah. Not doing the clubs. Yeah. So, you know, you got your other guys, but that they stay in one genre. Like Christian comedy? Like Christian, yeah. Yeah, and as I get slammed all the time, because I always say, I've never labeled myself a Christian comedian. I'm a comedian who's a Christian, because Christian comedians aren't funny. Yeah. I always get slammed for that. I know you're funny, Tim Hawkins, chill. But, no, they're funny in their own thing. Yeah.

But I still do Vegas every year. That's what I say. So there weren't that many. It was like everybody considered Bill Ingvall at the time clean. And then people go see his act. They go, man, he said F word a lot. Oh, yeah, but that's just talking. Because you hear that, but you don't hear it. No, they don't. Yeah. Right. And Foxworthy was super clean. He had a couple of jokes where he had to throw in a cuss word. And we had rewritten this one joke every way you could.

And he goes, you know, it just don't work. It does. When my wife comes out and goes, I'm not going. I look like heck. I look like crap. I look, it doesn't work. He's got to say. And so he goes, I tried. I'm just telling you, Henry, I tried, but tonight I'm saying it. So there were guys that effort was there. And Seinfeld, of course, was a super clean Larry Miller. And, um,

Dennis Wolfberg was crazy clean. And so I was a Young Life leader when I started comedy, so that's why I was clean. I thought I might have high school kids showing up to my shows and I knew I couldn't do that. So that's why I stayed clean. I stayed clean through and through, chicken wire, people throwing stuff. I'm like, hey, shut up, idiot. I never cussed anybody out. I was always clean.

And so, yeah, there wasn't a lot to bank on. Well, and that's the thing, too, that when someone books you, if you're not cussing in the chicken wire, then you're like, well, we never have to worry about you. It's just not going to come up. Right. Which is a huge thing. Yeah. Matter of fact, that's something else about going to auditions and doing TV deals, as we were talking about back in the fall.

One of my agents, when I was young, said something that still resonates with me. He goes, you don't understand. Henry will be there on time, and he won't be hung over, and you won't have to bury something in the tabloids. He's going to show up and work, and you'll never have to worry about him. And I just thought-

Wow, okay. That makes sense. Because they do. Oh, yeah. I mean, we know them. Yeah. We know who they are. I think sometimes people think they want that. And then it's the people that are in the business a long time that go, I don't, it's not worth it. No. Because it's like they're people that kind of get, you know, they're unreliable. They're not going to show up. They're going to, you know. I mean, I remember comics doing even like in small stages where it's like they're not showing up for a show. Yes. And you're like.

You're like, dude, we're trying to make it, and you're not even taking this serious. Yes, yeah. So you're like, well, you're never going to... People, you better be... You got to be great to be doing that. You better be undeniable where you're like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. You tell me you used to tour and open with Bill Hicks, right? Oh, yeah. Hicks was the greatest. And you tell me when you'd be waking up to play golf, and then...

Yeah, I'd pass. So this is comedy condos. I'd get up. I'd be waking up and leaving to go play golf about 7, 8 in the morning. He'd be coming in. He's like, hey, wake me up at 6. All right, I'll wake you up when I get up. Yeah, 6 p.m. Yeah, 6 p.m. One of the greatest was we were doing a comedy club and on stage, I had pictures of all the headliners on the back wall. Yeah.

And so Hicks is on stage. Hey, Henry, you in the room? I go, yeah, Bill, I'm back here. He goes, hey, what do you think about so-and-so? And I go, yeah, he's all right. He goes, he ain't funny. Yeah.

And ended up smashing like 80% of the frames. There's glass everywhere. And Hicks would say, he ain't funny. Bam. But yeah, he was the greatest. That's so crazy. Oh, he's crazy. And this was like in his peak? Oh, yeah. Yes. This was late 80s, early 90s. He was the guy. And he was unbelievable. Yeah. He was probably...

I probably worked with him, oh my goodness, 20, you know, 10, 15, 20 times back in the funny bone days. I mean, that's what's, that's a, that's a name that like to like,

I don't know. You don't hear much about people working with him as much as you did. And when I first started, Bill Hicks was the one that everybody said. They go, so who's your favorite comic? Every new comic would be, it's Bill Hicks. Everything's about Bill Hicks. And you remember you're thinking, I'm like, I don't think these people even listen to Bill Hicks. I think I get Bill Hicks more. I think I get, I can get it more now than I would have been when I first started. Yeah.

Like if you go back and listen to it now, you're like, I get what he was doing. And like, you know, it's like Carlin. Like I can listen to Carlin now.

As I get older, I can appreciate Carlin more now. Oh, yeah. Because I don't think when I was 25, I'm like- No, you think he's some old guy? He's an idiot. What do you mean you hate golf? Yeah. You're like, I don't care about this stuff. Right. But then now, as I get older, you're like, oh, yeah, that's why that dude was like that. That's why Bill Hicks was like that. That's why these guys were- They were doing that thing that kind of no one else was doing. They were going against the grain. Yes. And against the, you know. But Bill Hicks is like, you don't hear a ton of people about-

I know Ralphie May worked with him. I did a bunch when he first started. And then, yeah, being with those guys. You were with Kennison? Yeah, so I worked with Kennison a few times. I did West Palm Beach with him. I'll never forget. I walked upstairs.

He's up there like he's in the Scarface movie, Big Mound. You know, man, you're the clean guy. Put his head back down. And then I was on a plane with him, America West. That's how long ago it was, America West Airlines. And we were flying from LA to Vegas. And he was doing a bunch of gigs in Laughlin, which actually, you know, shortly after that is where he died. Car wreck, going to Laughlin.

So, yeah, Hicks, Kennison, the whole outlaws from Texas, Carla Bow, who still is around. Yeah. The most around. But Hicks was... I'm telling you, I've never seen anybody who could take something... I've never seen any comedian take something and take it every way I would have taken it. Yeah. And then...

just twist it somehow and make it even better. And I'm like, I mean, he was, we were in a Waffle House one time and we're, you know, he's sitting there, he's got a book and, you know, I don't know, it's like four in the morning or something. We both had books. We just sit there and just chill and read. Yeah. Get out of condo. And so he had a paperback and our waitress said, what you reading for? And he's like,

oh, you think someone is making me do this? What are you reading for? And he turned that into a whole bit. Oh, yeah. And so after she left, we're just hashing that out. Just making fun of her. What you reading for? Yeah. That ain't supposed to be reading. Would he be one of the first comics you think that you saw that you're like, oh,

this is, they're better. People are better than, like you wouldn't have known who he was. Right. And you're like, oh, this dude, I don't even know who this guy is. Yeah. Like this is a different game. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. That's when you, when you'd see Hicks, you'd go, okay, what he just did, I would never do. Yeah. I would never. Like him smashing the, the,

I would never do that. But you know what? It was hilarious. I had a moment like that with you, Henry. You probably don't even remember this because it felt so routine for you. But I was opening for you at some theater somewhere, and you were on stage, and you were just like, I'm hot up here. And you just walked...

You had a wireless mic, so you just walked and found the thermostat of the theater and changed it during the show. And I was in the back, I cannot believe he did that. Because it just felt like you're breaking every rule. Where you're just like, I'm just going to change. It's a little hot. I'll change the temperature in the theater.

I do remember that. That was hilarious. Yeah. It's a confidence. Yeah, you're like, oh, I'm running this place right now. They'll still be here when I get back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember Shirley Hempel dropped the mic to go pee one time. Yeah. I thought, that's genius. Yeah, yeah. I got to go pee, y'all. Hang on. And she just dropped the mic and went off. And no one can believe that you're like, yeah, it's like, what? What? You can't leave the stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But you're right. I did. Can't leave the stage empty. Yeah.

That's all I remember. The first things I ever heard. And it was like, I still do it. Like when you

I still had that habit of when you're just doing a showcase and someone's actually the stage empty now before I come out in the theater show, but it's right before I come out. But anytime you're doing a show and you're bringing each other up, whatever, you'd always wait. The guy, the next comic has to be on the stage and then you shake hands and you go. You're never supposed to leave it. You never leave it empty. You never leave it empty. I still do the same. Yeah. I do that when I'm doing a corporate thing and the CEO or whomever introduces me,

And they start walking off. I always go, hey, hey, hey, hey, come here. Shake my hand. Yeah. They're like, what? I own the place. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, I know, but this is the thing. I know. This is the thing. These are the rules. Yeah. You don't do it. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of, we've been talking for a while about old comedy, but we do want to talk about Bob Saget. Bob Saget. So this comes out Wednesday. We found out last night. Yeah. Last night that he died away, died 65 years old. I just did his podcast a month ago. Wow. Yeah.

And I talked to him, and it was... This was one of the... This one hurt. I didn't know him. I don't know him. You knew him. You've known him for years. But we've crossed paths before, obviously. And everybody talks about how nice he is. And it's... You don't even... I think it's like people are like, yeah, he's nice. And you're like, you don't get it. He was... It's above nice. Yes. He's a wonderful, wonderful person. He looked out for everybody. Everybody. I mean, he...

Yeah, Saget was the guy. And, you know, everybody knows, if you've seen him, you know, the contrast between his television personality and his stand-up life. I mean, he was filthy and he was irreverent and he was hilarious. Hilarious. But he always took care of everybody. You know, I think back in the day, we'd all be hanging out and there'd be a lot of names. Yeah. But, like, you know, we'd be sitting around and it'd be like,

No one would order until Bob said, okay, hey, we're going to order. Yeah. Everybody decide what you want. We're going to order. No one would do that until Bob said that. And you're looking around the table going, well, heck, every one of us are there that can do that. But we always just relented to Bob. He took care of everybody. And that's who he was. Yeah. So one of my favorite stories is their manager,

who had a lot of big clients, had a dinner. And so there's like, I don't know, eight people at the table. And so Gary Shanling's sitting like here and Bob comes in and a joke they used to always do whenever they gathered, one of them would fake trip and put their face in the other's lap. Yeah. So Bob does this.

And says, Gary looks down at him and says, I don't know who these other two people are. And Bob's like, oh crap, because I don't either. And then there's their manager going, hey guys, this is so-and-so and so-and-so. I wanted them to meet you and they're in this position. And it was very,

That was so good. That was the greatest. I don't know who these other two people are. Gary just, you know, Samlin in that dry, I do not know who these other two people are. And Saga's like, ah. And then we were talking about him taking care of everybody. So we were roasting Tom Arnold. Gosh, I can't even remember. Late A's, early O's. Hard Rock Hotel Vegas. That I do remember. And...

So I'm on the thing and everybody's going, you know, how are you going to roast? You're so clean. I said, I got my stories about Tom. It's all good. You know, people are going, yeah, that's right. Nevermind. So then Saget's emceeing because he takes care of everybody. So, you know, I don't know how many are there. There are 10, 12 of us going up. Saget's getting ready to introduce me. But before that, he goes off on a tangent about he and Tom being together the night before.

last night and all the things they were doing and just got as graphic as you can imagine bob shaggett would get and he looks down the list goes oh sorry hank uh now here's the cleanest guy in our profession and i just opened up with my finger being somewhere here's energy and i came out and he goes sorry man don't worry about it yeah so i mean that was that was bob bob was um

He took care of all of us. Yeah. It was, yeah, when I heard it last night, just the pure shock of it. I don't know. It wasn't expected. It wasn't, you know, you found out after with Norm, it was like you found out he was like sick for a year. And you're like, sometimes that helps you like wrap your head around it. And Bob maybe has something we don't know yet. But it's like the pure shock of it. And then like when I did his podcast, it was a month ago.

And like, so me and him just started like kind of really talking. And it was like someone that I was like, this dude's so great. And he's so wonderful. And it was like someone that I was like, oh, you know, because when you finally do comedy for a long time and you're like, it's a big deal for me to be like, even when it was you would know who I am as a comic or then Bob Saget, like the older guys that you're like, well, we, you know, it's like you want them to know you.

And so it's a big deal when they finally do. And they, you know, when Bob asked me to do on the podcast, you're like, I can't, this is crazy. Yeah, dude. And like, and then getting to talk to him. And so it was like, I was looking forward to that, the friendship that we were,

that it was building. And we were, and like, it was, and then for it to like, and then last night and you're just like, just in the road, you know, he's on the road. We talked about it earlier. Like every comics, biggest nightmare. I said it last night to my sister. You said it today when you came in. We're not, no, and then not talking to each other, but your biggest fear as a comic is to die in a hotel room by yourself, by yourself. Yep. That's your, like, you think of it like, that's just, uh, you know, that it's just, it's the only thing you're doing that you're like, you're alone. Um,

You know, you're like... We're always alone. You're always alone. We're always alone. He was in... Yeah. Bob was in Orlando, so that's a good... He was in Disney. Hey, you know what? It was warm. It's the greatest place in the world.

Yeah, it was Ritz or Four Seasons. He wasn't slumming. Yeah, yeah. He wasn't Motel 6. There was a door on the... There was a door. There was a door. It was an honor. To be honest with you, it was an honor to die in the... Yes. Yeah. I just wonder... Yeah. So hopefully he got his points. Yeah. Yeah. This is all Bob would want. It's... He's... Yeah. It's... I mean, he was the best, man. Do you remember him getting full house? Like, do you... Yeah. So...

I moved '89, LA. I'd worked with Dave Coulier previously and they have just started Full House. I don't even know when it started. Maybe '89. Could have been the year, maybe '88. That sounds right. And I knew Saget from the... Just know names. Yeah. Because everybody toured back then and you didn't just pop up and boom.

Kuye turned 30, that's how long ago this was. And he had a birthday party, so we all show up and there's all, you know, Stamos and all these guys. And I'm like, I mean, I've been in town like a month. I'm like, holy cow, there's John Stamos. And he called my buddy Chief. So we still call my buddy Jay Chief to this day. My mom calls him Chief now. That's great. Why you call him Chief? John Stamos called me Chief. But so Saget was there.

And that's probably the first time I ever really hung out with him. Yeah. Not at a club, just saying hey or something. Yeah, yeah. So, Koye and I are very close. You know, we were texting the very next day. Or, yeah. Last night, yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah, and it's like, and I mean, he's just always, Sackett's always been that guy. He's always been what I knew him as was how he was. Yeah, you take away his stand-up act, and I love the way his mind was bent, but

You look at his television persona, and that's who he was. He was the guy. Not just to mention Full House, but Funniest Home Videos was just so huge. Yeah. 87 is when Full House started. Yeah. So – Yeah. Funniest Home Videos. I mean, didn't he did that for – I mean – Yeah. So I'll never forget when he started doing stand-up again. Yeah. Shortly after the videos.

And he said, man, remember, Henry, you remember when I was funny? Yeah. And I said, yeah. He goes, these people, I go, they don't know you. They know that guy on TV. I said, you just, you're two different guys. Yeah. And so, because he was doing a spot and it was rough. Yeah. But that's what's so funny is like, he was that guy on TV. He was just like a dirty comic. Yeah. But he was-

And it, and it like, it took people a while to get used to it, but it just, I don't know, worked.

There's no ill will behind any of the jokes that he said. No, I mean. There was no. No. It was like, yeah, his mind just would go. He was gutter bound, man. I mean, you know. But it was cleverly, if there was a way to do it, he did it as clean as, I mean, like, I'll never forget. He goes, oh, you know, my daughter, she's, you know, I don't know, seven, like, I am nuts over her. Well, she's about that tall. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a great joke. It was the greatest joke because he's tall and lanky and he would put his hand down and he would be right above her. But that's how his brain worked. The first time he did that, I saw, was at a showcase. He was doing a spot.

And I mean, we all fell out in the back. Yeah. Just going, okay. Even for Saget, that is brilliant. Yeah. It was very quick. It was very jokes. It was very fun. It was very, you know, and that's what like we were talking about when I did this podcast about how

I mean, he put a post up, I mean, the night before saying how he was so excited about it. He did two hours in Jacksonville. He was so excited about this new hours, new material. He's been doing a lot more stuff. When I was talking to him, he's like talking about being more positive and about, he was like, I just wanted people to have fun. I want them to, it was like, what?

Which he always did that, but I think he's even more conscious of it, I guess, as he was getting older. And so he's just like, I just want people to be happy and all this kind of stuff. And there's a video that he did. I mean, yeah, this is in Jacksonville. Really nice audience. That's what he says about being addicted to it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he... Did two hours and going to cause, I'm addicted to this. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, it's...

You know, golly, man. It's like you keep, I don't, you know, it's like some people when they, obviously when you're like, you know, you end up knowing people. It's not like I, it's y'all, like I didn't start with him or know him for all these years. But you're like, that one hurts. Yep. That one hurts real bad. Like it was like, I just was like really getting to start to know him. And it was, and I liked him so much. It was like, you just never thought that would get pulled, you know,

that's going to go away. Like this was a dude that needed to be around. Like, I feel like he just leveled out the comedy world. Yeah. We, we got ripped off. Yeah. Yes. We got ripped off some years here. Yeah. So, I mean, 65, come on. That's, that's nothing. That's, that's how I feel. I feel like we, you know, you always do the rest, rest in peace and, you know,

Our world's less funny, all that. And it is. We got ripped off. We got ripped off. Yeah, this is a real one. Yeah. Not that the other ones aren't real, but it's a real one. No, no, no. But like Bill Hicks, you know, guy had cancer and Mitch Hedberg and all these guys. You go through them all and you just kind of go, you know, there's some... But I don't know what happened. And we don't know yet. And maybe by the time this airs, we know. But...

Yeah, we got ripped off. Yeah. That's how I feel. Yeah, and I think that's why it hurts because you're like, it's not supposed to. He's a great man. Yeah, and not many guys. I'm sorry. I don't mean to cut you off, but not many guys you go through. Norm MacDonald, you said. A lot of these guys, you sit there and go. Personally, I sit there and go, oh, wow, when's the last time I saw them? What's the last conversation we had?

Because none of them come as a... They shouldn't come as a shock. And this one's a shock. I mean, even Kool-Aid said today, just no words. Yeah.

Yeah, like Norm was, you know, it's like you have, I didn't know that. I know everybody that knew Norm. I didn't know Norm at all. I've only met him once. He was great. And yeah, he was a great guy. And like, it was, you know, it's someone like Norm, you thought, you just assume like, well, I'll get to meet him. Like I'll, you know. Right. And then you're like, I'm going to. And you don't think you have to worry about it. And then.

But then it's like sagging. It's like, well, then I did. And then you're like, all right, I'm going to be talking to this dude now from here on out. Right. Is what you kind of think and you're excited. Yeah. Yeah. Here's a guy who's a big guy. Big guy. In our profession. And I can go to him. Yeah. Yeah. And now one of my guys is not there. He's not there. You know? It's sitting there. Yeah. Yeah. It feels...

Yeah. This one hurts. This is worse than, you know, when the old guys go, you know, Don Rickles goes, you sit there and go, wow, that's crazy, you know? And they're...

But that's a different thing. He was in his, you know, he was in the waiting room. Yes. Yeah. You know. He was 90, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's supposed to live. Bob Saget. Like you said, we were talking earlier, comedians, we live forever. Yeah. We don't die like this. Yeah. You know? We've talked about how stand-up comedy is so new of an art form in the sense of what we consider stand-up comedy. Yeah.

The original guys, some of them, a couple died off just recently, Mort Saul and Jackie Mason. They're two of the very first guys, period, of anything. It's kind of crazy. I mean, Cosby. Cosby was one of the first guys of what we consider modern day stand-up. It's crazy they're still around.

Yeah, I mean, it's... How's he doing? Yeah. He's doing better. Still alive. Yeah. I thought he would have died. I'm blown away that he didn't die. Who? Cosby? Well, like, you know, like, not to get... Like, Paterno died when all that stuff had been... Like, Paterno died immediately. Yeah, I think... Yeah, me too. It's insane to be like, dude, how are you still not just... I can't really remember. I've been drinking with him, so I can't remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was going on? I think we were drinking. I can't remember. Yeah. Anyway.

They do. Yeah, like you said, it's still comedy, right? Yeah. Yeah, but those are the guys. But guys like y'all, and I don't mean to put you in a, it's just different age bracket, okay, and career starting point. So, I mean, guys like Saget, Seinfeld, Shanley, Shanley's gone. I mean, those guys to you were like,

Cosby, Newhart, Rickles, to me. So when Newhart's still around, Cosby's still around, Rickles was in his 90s, Bob Hope, all these guys. Did you ever meet Bob Hope? I did. Really? I did his, I hit balls with him in his backyard. Oh, really? Wow. Nine yard par three, do look alike. Yeah. It's the greatest. That,

So I've asked for one autograph in my life and I've taken one showbiz picture in my life. And it was Bob Hope. They were doing press things. So we took a picture and I wasn't going to ask for his autograph. And I took the script that we had or five comedians, six maybe. Everybody else got a sign and my buddy was there. He goes, man, go get a sign. He goes, I know you hate it, but.

It's Bob Hope. Yeah. So I walked over and Bob looks up and goes, killed you to be here, huh, Hank? Yeah. I said, it's not what I do. He goes, I don't have to do it. I said, nah, you better do it. He goes, I'm not going to be around forever, man. Yeah. And he signed up. Wow. Yeah. And I went, thank you. He goes, thanks for letting me be the only one. Yeah. I went, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Bob Hope was...

Crazy. So he's 92 and they prop him up. He's, hey, I got to tell you, you know, he played, I think, I mean, he was amazing. Just amazing. So Bob Hope, Milton Berle, George Burns, all these guys I met. And Rickles was the greatest. And a matter of fact, Saget is the one who's always said,

When you get insulted by Rickles, it's the greatest thing in the world. Yeah. And Rickles used to always come up to me. We'd have a conversation, just be in awe, and he'd start to walk off, and he'd go, hey, Hank, too much starch. Greatest thing in the world. Yeah. Greatest thing. You know, nowadays people go, oh, I can't believe you said that. That's Don Rickles. That was –

He knighted me. It was an honor. Every time he said that, he knighted me. Yeah. And he said it every time. Without fail. Yeah. Without fail. Just do a whole thing. Dr. Chu. It was the greatest. You're going to get us canceled from you doing Don Rickles in 48. Yeah. We all go down. We all go down. Henry did a what? Yeah. Well-

Thank you for coming on. And I mean, you know, and we were having it on anyway. And then with this Bob stuff happened, it's like, you know, it's just fun to talk these old stories, hear about, you know, the days like that. And then, you know, the fact that, I mean, you were around him for so long and,

how much you meant to everybody. It's crazy. - Yeah, you're right. Thanks for having me, man. They're our guys. - They're our guys. - Yeah. - And you're the guy. It was funny. - They're gonna have to say it when I get hit by a bus.

So you're the guy? No, I don't know. They say, who's a nice guy? Who's a nice guy? Yeah. Who's a good guy? Henry's back on. You're like, it's gone. Y'all just said Henry's next week. Henry's just here. Who's a good guy? It's real brief. It's quick. I'm like, dude, but we did more on Bob. And you're like, nah, we just had other stuff. We had other stuff. You know what changes to Henry land? Yeah. Henry land. Yeah. Yeah.

Can I pledge the shows for this weekend? Yes. I'm back out with Leanne Morgan, Greensboro, North Carolina on Friday and Roanoke, Virginia on Saturday. All right. All right. Tonight, Wednesday night, January 12th, I'm headlining Zany's in Nashville. Bates is on the show too. Hey, I may come. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got some friends coming.

Oh, nice. Look at that. Hey. They tell me. Everybody come. Yeah. Can I get a guess at? Probably if you want to, of course. That's not happening. But I may be there. BTS and Aaron Webber. It's very 50-50-ish. Yeah. I don't know what else is going on. Yeah. But that would be great if you come to that. And then this weekend, I'm in Dubuque, Iowa. Yeah. At the Comedy Bar there. All right. Nice. Where you got...

Let's see. I'm in Tullahoma, which you both put these guys down with. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I stay close to home in January. So Tullahoma, Friday night, and the Dixie Theater, Dixie Carter's place,

Huntington Dunn. Yeah. Huntington Dunn, Tennessee. That one's sold out. So I don't have to plug it. Just staying outside. Yeah. See where everybody's going. Yeah, get in line. And then I'm in Jacksonville at the end of the month to play golf and do some shows at the Comedy Zone. Okay. Matter of fact, and that's where Sagat was. I know. I'm not at the Ritz though, so I'm good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, go check it out. We love you guys. Thanks for listening as always, and see you next week. Bye. Bye.

Thanks, everybody, for listening to the Nate Land Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to our show on iTunes, Spotify, you know, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And please remember to leave us a rating or comment. Nate Land is produced by me, Nate Bargetzi, and my wife, Laura, on the All Things Comedy Network. Recording and editing for the show is done by Genovation Consulting in partnership with Center Street Media. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to catch us next week on the Nate Land Podcast.