Fitzdog Radio - Phil Hendrie - Episode 1047

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Radio legend Phil Hendrie talks about slogging his way from local misfit to one of the most innovative and influential broadcasters of our time. Joining us is the producer of his new documentary Patri...ck Reynolds. Follow Phil Hendrie on Instagram @PhilHendrie 

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to FitzDawg Radio. It's April Fool's Day. I guess it's April 2nd when you listen to this, or the 3rd or the 4th, or maybe it's 2035. Maybe my grandkids are listening to this right now and they're saying, oh my God, that guy, he looks familiar. His picture's on the mantle. That's great granddad. I hope not. I got to say, this sounds really cynical, but the way the world is right now, really cynical but the way the world is right now i don't know that my kids should have kids i don't unless they're born with gills and flippers and a permanent spf 50 sunscreen on their skin and are a good shot with an ak-47 i don't know it's gonna take a lot to survive in the year 2044 so um i'm not talking about forced sterilization i'm just saying perhaps wait wait it out anyway uh happy april fools i used to have great, I don't think I did one single
Starting point is 00:01:26 trick today. The day is not over. When I was a kid, we used to do, our house was, that was our national holiday, St. Patrick's Day and April Fool's Day were our two big holidays. And we used to, there was a hose on the sink, you know, the thing, the pot hose you scrub down the pots with. And if you put a rubber band around the handle, as soon as you turn the sink on, it blasted you in the chest with water. And you kept putting it on, and eventually every member of the family got shot in the chest with water. And it never got unfunny. Saran wrap over the toilet seat, underneath the lid, you know, and then you would piss or shit and it would go on the saran wrap and then you'd
Starting point is 00:02:17 have to clean it up. That was the rule. You did it. You cleaned it up. What else? My dad used to punch me in the face. Oh no, that was St. Patrick's Day. So anyway, I hope you had some fun. I mostly wanted to, I wanted to devote a bunch of time on this podcast to talk about Israel and Palestine. Here's how I feel. And I feel, and I feel really strongly about this. I don't care. Okay. I said it. I said it. I'm not picking sides. I don't know enough about the situation. It's far away. I don't hate anybody over there. I hate a lot of people in this country. So hate local. That's my take on it. Hate local. I talked to somebody whose son is Jewish and he goes to school at a very liberal college on the East Coast and he's Jewish and he gets asked point blank by students all the time. How do you feel about the Palestinian situation? And he's sort of put on the spot. And it's like, I think when you're young,
Starting point is 00:03:33 you really you're looking to pick fights politically, fights that you don't you're not equipped for. I'm not saying don't discuss. I'm saying don't proselytize when you're fucking 19. And I'm tired of watching TikTok videos where there's a guy in his early 20s telling me what fucking, what the Stoics said. What Marcus Aurelius or whoever said about how to live life. Let me tell you how to live life. You little fuck. Oh, I said,
Starting point is 00:04:09 fuck. Now I'm going to be a flag by the algorithm. Yeah. You know how little I care about that. I'm exhausted. I don't know if you can tell it at the last few weeks have been just not, I mean, I'm not complaining.
Starting point is 00:04:22 It's good when you're busy, but a little too busy. Uh, I taped two podcasts today, one with Kevin Pollack, one with Neil Brennan. Those will be coming out in the next few weeks. I am doing this intro. I did Childish Podcast yesterday. I did Sunday Papers on Saturday. I directed a one-hour special on Saturday. Zane Lamprey, I did his last special and I did this one and he did great. And we had a lot of fun, great crew, everybody pulled together. We set up a brewery from scratch and filmed it, seven cameras, good lights, and it looked great. And filmed it, seven cameras, good lights, and it looked great.
Starting point is 00:05:06 And he came through. I think he's got a good special on his hands, but it's fun. I really enjoy directing specials. It's something I think I'm pretty good at. I think I'm able to write jokes for the comic. I'm able to help him figure out the camera angles. And I don't know, I felt good. I felt really good. And I'll let you know when that
Starting point is 00:05:27 comes out. Mine, I just did the final edit on my special. So now there's a thing called color correction that has to happen and sound mixing. And hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I'll be ready to shop it around, see where it ends up. Obviously, I'll let you know. You'll be the first ones I tell. The Fitz dogs. I don't know. I don't have a name for you guys. I'm not that guy. What else? Oh, I got a lot of traction this week. Joe Rogan was telling the story about me getting in a fight on stage at Stitch's Comedy Club many years ago. That was funny. And, you know, I realize how far I've come from egging somebody on to the point where they would charge the stage, which used to happen on a regular basis when I was a young
Starting point is 00:06:21 comic. I really, I found the line that people will get up and come to the stage and I crossed it several times. And now I found this way and I give Harlan Williams a lot of credit for this. I found a way to fuck with the crowd in a loving way. And I can say things that are just as harsh, but it's done with an elegant touch and a smile that lets them in on it. As opposed to feeling like the whole crowd is laughing at them. They're in on it too. So anyway, shout out to the Harlan Highway. I think I'm doing that show. Did I?
Starting point is 00:07:04 I just did it. I think I'm doing that shit, did I? I just did it. I think I'm going to do it regularly. That's going to become a regular thing, we decided. I got a note from Richard, no, who's this from? Luke Powell. Hey, big fan. Well, then I wish you lived in fucking Boca Raton, my friend, because I'm there on Wednesday night, the 3rd, and tickets are light.
Starting point is 00:07:30 Tampa looks great. Never been to Boca Raton before. And let's just say there's space left. If you're looking to come down to a show in Boca Raton on Wednesday, the 3rd. He says, I've been listening for many years. My favorite answer to the two types of people in this world, to the two types of people in this world, which is a question I ask people, as you know.
Starting point is 00:07:56 He said, there are two, there are those that believe there are two types of people in the world and those that don't. He says, I think Richard Feynman said that, but actually it was me. He might've also said it, but that's always been my answer. That's what actually started me asking people that question. I keep waiting for somebody to say that to me. And then I will wrap up the segment because that is the only correct answer. So I've only found the one type of people in this world who all seem to think there are two types of people in this world.
Starting point is 00:08:31 Ben Burr says sitting at a barbecue is an overheard sitting at a barbecue restaurant at the table across the aisle. A lady with a strong Spanish accent pointing to the menu and asking the waitress, are those the baby's ribs? I want to get the baby's ribs. Which, by the way, I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, encouraging, what do you call it when you eat human flesh? I'm not encouraging that. Or killing babies.
Starting point is 00:09:07 But can you imagine how tender? Can you imagine? I'm not even going to go down that. All right. Boca Raton, Wednesday night, Meisner Park. Mizner Park or Meisner Park, April 3rd. Maybe no one's coming because I don't pronounce it right. Tampa Bay side splitters,
Starting point is 00:09:25 few tickets left, April 4th through the 6th. Irvine Improv, just announcing this. I will be there April 18th to the 20th. Mamaronek at the Emmeline Theater, May 31st. Austin, Texas at the Mothership, June 7th through the 9th.
Starting point is 00:09:40 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WDVE Festival, June 21st, with Harlan Williams, as a matter of fact. And I want to also tell you guys that support for FitzDog Radio comes from GameTime. We love this app because we love live experiences. Don't spend your money on physical goods unless it's sex toys.
Starting point is 00:10:02 Oh, hold on. I think that's my mother. Let's see who's calling. It's my mom. Oh, hold on. I think that's my mother. Let's see who's calling. It's my mom. Hi, Mom. What time does it start? It starts at 7 o'clock. 7 p.m.
Starting point is 00:10:16 No, 7 a.m. I'm going to do it. It's a breakfast show. At first you said the rec center. Oh. You said the studio center. Oh. You said the studio. Is it which one?
Starting point is 00:10:31 All I know is it's the studio, and I need you to, you got to put the word out because ticket sales are light. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, crap. I didn't know that. I know. So, you know, don't be disappointed in your son when you see me there.
Starting point is 00:10:47 I would never be disappointed. Are you kidding me? I know. I know. You are funny even when you don't mean to be. All right. I got to run. I'll talk to you before then.
Starting point is 00:11:01 I'll call you tomorrow when I'm there. Bye. She's very excited. She loves seeing me do stand then. I'll call you tomorrow when I'm there. Bye. She's very excited. She loves seeing me do stand up. She's bringing some friends and they're going to think her son is a failure. All right. Game time, which by the way, if you want to get tickets to my show, you can't get them on game time. I don't believe that show is on GameTime. But if you want to see Bruce Springsteen at the Forum on April 4th for $100, that's crazy. I mean, it's the worst seats in the house. You can spend $1,000 and be right up front and just watch those
Starting point is 00:11:39 because with GameTime, the tickets go up, they go down. You track them, you grab them when they're low. That's the whole key is there's stress when you buy tickets. It's frustrating because you never know if you're getting in at the right time. Game time lets you really track. It lets you get last-minute tickets. Lauren Hill is playing on April 5th, my birthday. Those are $47. There's last-minute deals and all in prices.
Starting point is 00:12:06 You can get views of, uh, from the seat of what the view is going to be like, uh, everything from comedy to, uh, theater to rock concerts to sports. It's all on game time. You can save up to 60% off buying last minutes,
Starting point is 00:12:22 uh, tickets and they've got, um, what else? Game time guarantee. They will credit you 110% of the difference if you can find tickets in the same row and section, same night for less. All in. Pricing shows you your total cost up front. And it's easy. Couple taps. It's in your phone. No printing. No emailing yourself. It's right there.
Starting point is 00:12:48 It's easy. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account. And use code FITSDOG for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code FITZ, D-O-G, for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed.
Starting point is 00:13:13 All right, listen, my podcast today, I've had him on once before. This guy means a tremendous amount to me. He is a guy, when I first moved to LA, there were things I fell in love with. There was beach with. There was beach volleyball. There was the Swingers Diner. There was vintage cars. But most importantly, Phil Hendry was a voice I heard on the radio and I had never heard anybody do or sense what he does. or sense what he does. It's hard to describe,
Starting point is 00:13:50 but basically he creates a whole scene, a dynamic where he is both the host of the show and the caller into the show. And he has people call in to react to that. And you will listen to him after this. And you'll go look him up online. We're going to talk about how to do it on the show. There's a new documentary out called Hendry. It's on Apple TV, Prime Video, everything.
Starting point is 00:14:18 Patrick Reynolds produced it. He's a dear friend of mine. And, I mean, Phil Hendry has been on everything. I mean, he's a big voice actor. F is for Family, Rick and Morty, Futurama, King of the Hill. But his show is just one of the most important things. A lot of comedians, Bill haters in the documentary talking about him. A lot of big-name comics have been affected by him.
Starting point is 00:14:42 So I was proud and so happy to have him on. And here is my talk with the great Phil Hendry. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the studio with a gentleman who's been in many studios in his life. Dance studios, massage studios. Cartoons. Cartoon studios. Phil Hendry, everybody. And Patrick Reynolds.
Starting point is 00:15:22 Who's this guy with the hat? He's Christopher Nolan in disguise. You see? He came from the Academony Awards. Oh, God. I fortunately missed every beat of that
Starting point is 00:15:37 last night. I did not. Did you miss it for the reason that I missed it? I can't find it anymore because I got rid of DirecTV and I'm just doing apps and I'm doing streamers. And I go, all of a sudden, well, where do i find the academy awards right right it's on sling you can no it's not on sling it ain't on yeah man you know yeah it's on tubi no yeah they're either you know yeah no i was in a hotel room and the hotel hotels now don't have grounded cable they're using the same shitty wifi that we all use wi-Fi, and I couldn't get it.
Starting point is 00:16:06 But I'm kind of over it. Hollywood congratulating. After the slap? Yeah. I'm like, I don't know. I think, with all due respect to Mr. Smith, I love him as an actor, but I think it should have just closed down after that. The whole thing needed to close down, man.
Starting point is 00:16:23 Yeah, it's never going to get that good again. Or they should include it, you know? Or have the annual slap. Yes. You know? The slappy. And now our great actor, step up, Bob. Seriously, we love you.
Starting point is 00:16:35 Bam! You know? I know. And they all do it. It's all in good fun. Are you okay? Are you all right? Let's get him some water, okay?
Starting point is 00:16:41 Get him some ice. Jesus. Yeah, it is amazing watching Hollywood congratulate itself. It's just like, how about the Jannies for the janitors or the Teachies for the teachers? And I don't want to get in trouble. The Screen Actors Guild is a union. It's our union.
Starting point is 00:16:58 Yeah. And they're supposed to kind of work on getting us jobs and this, that, this, that. Do we really need another award ceremony from SAG? Right. No, sag right now the sag awards for all you guys that don't work here's the five that do and we'll give them keep giving them awards i don't know man yeah um i love love love my union but that's that's what do they say that it's a bridge too far for me yeah you know yeah anyway um so phil is here there's a documentary too far for me. Yeah. Anyway. So Phil is here. There's a documentary that Patrick produced.
Starting point is 00:17:28 Well, you directed it. I did. And Jordan Brady produced it. Yes. Yeah. Jordan Brady. And Patrick is my office mate, or his office is two doors down from mine.
Starting point is 00:17:39 You're still over at the Santa Monica Airport? Yes. Thanks for telling all of my listeners who we are. Cut it out, please. No, I'm not there anymore. They kicked me out. They did. Excessive masturbation, they said. Oh, that's the one that they give. That's the excuse they have. Yes. It's usually something else, not paying rent, but they'll always just slip it in. Too much masturbation. I've got five of those notices at my house so i know what those are i give them to myself sometimes
Starting point is 00:18:09 when i've got a script that i'm nine words into after a week i'm like you need an excessive masturbation time out here's some handcuffs put them on behind your back type with your nose because you're not going to get anything done so how much time do you spend um putting together like actual fingers on keyboard or pencil on paper preparing for each episode of the show that you do not a lot man because yeah you know most of it is improv as i go. Right. But I would say every night it's about three good hours of trying to, you know, listen to this and do, let's try that and let's try this. And then sometimes I go in there and I just improv the whole thing. So I'm stopping, I'm starting, I'm stopping, going back and I forget what we did. Sometimes I'll just go into character during the pre-show.
Starting point is 00:19:00 Oh, that's a good character. Let's do that. Let's, you know, try that. Right. Life got so much simpler when I stopped trying to be topical. Right. What's in the news? Let's do that. Ah, okay. There's a war in Afghanistan.
Starting point is 00:19:14 You know, some stuff, it's much better to satirize what's happening in your immediate life. Well, also because your show is evergreen. It's timeless. And so... Hopefully. Well, it is. You've got archives that you put out of, what, 7,000 shows or something. And I don't know how many shows it's been. It was like upwards of 50, 55,000 hours, I think, of material. But our radio show was probably around 25, 30, 30,000 hours.
Starting point is 00:19:39 And you were able to legally access all that? Yeah. Thanks to Craig Kitchen, who said to me um no actually the guy that was managing me at the time doug urbanski said get ownership of that yeah i go what doug they're just the different that the stuff you did get it now yeah don't stop get it all and then call me as soon as you do okay and then we'll make sure you have it and uh premiere and clear channel let me have it that's not like them. Not anymore. Yeah. But back when they didn't think that stuff was worth anything.
Starting point is 00:20:07 Right. See it was there was a time when management and ownership and radio thought well it's all garbage. They would record over your show in fact KFI with all due respect used to record over my show the logger tape would record over because they needed the tape they didn't want to replace the tape so here's all these hours of Phil Hendry recorded over because they need the logger tape. Not that I'm a genius, but I mean, the fact is you got stuff that people honor from television back in the 50s, but what do we have from radio except whatever some guy squirreled away himself?
Starting point is 00:20:36 Well, my father, I think I told you this last time you came on, which was a lot of years ago, so you probably don't remember. It was about 13, I think. Was it 13? So you were early on. You had a partner then. Yeah, Mike Gibbons. Mike.
Starting point is 00:20:46 Yeah. And I told you that my father was in radio my whole life in New York. He was a big New York guy. And luckily, somebody saved what they called the skims. They used to call them in New York on radio. And the skims were just basically, they had cassette tapes of every show. Okay. And his old producer producer who's this woman
Starting point is 00:21:07 who i do stand-up so i was in columbus ohio and this woman comes out and she goes she comes in the audience and she after the show she goes i was your father's producer all those years and immediately i remembered her wow and she hands me this big box filled with cassette tapes of my dad. And he used to have, remember Mayor Ed Koch in New York? I do. So Ed Koch used to come on my, he used to call into my dad's show every day before he went to work. Wow. What was your dad's air name? Bob Fitzsimmons.
Starting point is 00:21:36 He was on WNEW. Okay. And so it was like Gene Clavin. Oh, I know that name. Yeah. Clavin and Finch. Clavin and Finch. That was my dad's first job is he was a PA on Clavin and Finch.
Starting point is 00:21:46 No kidding. And then he moved up. And so Koch would call in because Koch was much more right wing than my dad. My dad was a bleeding heart liberal. And they would just go at it. But back in the days where you could go at it and it was fun and it was funny
Starting point is 00:21:58 and it was even productive sometimes. That's right. So I had all these tapes, which I listened to because my dad died young. He was only like 52. Oh man, sorry. And thanks, I'm just getting over it.
Starting point is 00:22:12 Well, I thought I'd go ahead and give the obligatory serious note and Greg just fucks with it right away. What's the cutoff? What's the cutoff on I'm sorry? Yeah, never.
Starting point is 00:22:21 Never. You always say it? Nefertiti died. I'm sorry. Are you instantly related? You know that Benjamin Franklin is dead. I'm sorry to hear that. I am sorry to hear that.
Starting point is 00:22:33 Well, I am sorry. Yeah, myself. And some people you'll never be sorry to hear. No. We won't mention names. Yeah. Yeah, what is the cutoff? It's a great question.
Starting point is 00:22:42 It's a quotient because it's not just the time. It's the relevance of the person. The significance and the relevance of the person. Yeah, and you're also thinking, did you like, sometimes somebody will go like, yeah, my mother-in-law died. And you've got to quickly go, did he hate that comment? I'm sorry, I didn't give a shit. Oh, okay, thank you.
Starting point is 00:22:58 You're welcome. Glad to hear that. Glad to hear that. That's a good way to, yeah yeah and my father done it oh great that's nice so you got a little inheritance coming that's the other weird thing is my mother has put me in charge of her uh inheritance which is not a big inheritance but i'm the executor of the will and now like i know i'm getting a chunk of this money she's 82 and all of a sudden she's like,
Starting point is 00:23:27 yeah, you know, I'm buying this for your sister. I'm like, well, no, I'm buying it for my sister. It's officially my money now. Oh, man. So anyway, my point is it was such a gift to be able to go back and listen to... Do you have kids? I don't. You don't have kids.
Starting point is 00:23:43 Well, your listeners will get to listen to it. Your listeners are like your children, aren't they? They're like my torturers. They're like my... Yeah, they're like... My listeners are like a herd of bees. Sometimes they bring honey and sometimes they sting. You know, you walk away from your listeners just covered in wells.
Starting point is 00:24:02 What happened? A little bit of honey in the corner of your mouth. I'd be stunned and shocked if the stuff that I've done and it's on tape and is now archived. I guess we're taking this material more seriously these days. Be great for it to last and for it to, the nice thing would be before I die to sell it to somebody and go, here, just take it. Yeah. And they would buy it and then they'd do anything they want with it. And I probably regret that,
Starting point is 00:24:28 but at the same time, probably not. You'd have a bunch of money. I'd have a bunch of money. Yeah, get the money. I mean, all these rock stars are doing it. You know, like Bon Jovi, who's already got 200 million, is going, I need another 100 million.
Starting point is 00:24:40 They sell songs. Like, I think Bon Jovi sold Living on a Prayer to the NFL. Oh, he did? Yeah, that's their theme music. And then, you graham nash put his kids through college with our house sold that that's what i heard anyway you know what the crazy one was somebody sold or or um the allman brothers sold their catalog and then geico did a commercial i'm not making this up super bowl commercial with dude riding a motorcycle through the mountains to do a...
Starting point is 00:25:08 Jessica? Oh, I gotta run to keep from running. It's Midnight Rambler. Two of those guys died in motorcycle accidents. Two of the Allman brothers. Oh, swell. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, eat a peach.
Starting point is 00:25:21 Yeah, Dwayne. Eat a peach. Dwayne, yeah. Oh, the Midnight Rider is what it is. Yeah, Midnight Rider. And I guess, and I've got to believe Geico knows that and they think it's funny. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Geico kind of makes everything, they think everything is funny. Yeah. Well, that lizard is a riot. He's such a great character. It was, for a while it was. And the caveman they brought back. Yeah, the caveman.
Starting point is 00:25:42 The caveman was, they had auditions. And as you know, as a commercial actor, do you do commercials? Not really. I tried, but they won't hire me. I love that. You know, you could have gone the other way and gone, no, I don't do that.
Starting point is 00:25:56 I'm above that. And nobody would ever know that you just hadn't gotten a gig. I don't have the face or the attitude for it or something. But so they audition people. And the rule or the attitude for it or something. But so they audition people and the rule with auditioning for commercials is you can't have them ad lib and then use that in the commercial because then they're considered a writer. They're a writer, yeah. So my friend comes in and they auditioned them for Geico and they said, all right, just pretend you're a caveman who wants insurance or something. And so he improv'd it, and then they hired him for the commercial.
Starting point is 00:26:27 Oh, cool. And they used all his shit, didn't pay him as a writer, and then they made a sitcom out of it and cast his part that he created with somebody else. Did he create the caveman? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:38 Why, why, why, why? Is it worth the eternal hatred that you've earned? The money that you're making, is it worth everybody hating your guts? I don't know. I don't know. I guess. I don't know. Anyway, let's get to this documentary. This documentary about you, which is very important.
Starting point is 00:26:51 And Patrick, I applaud you for getting Phil's essence into a documentary and explaining the uniqueness of him that I think people are always going to want to know about. I mean, there's a place in entertainment lore that you occupy that a lot of people don't know, unfortunately. And this is something that is going to spread the word. So how would you explain how Phil is different than anybody that's ever done radio?
Starting point is 00:27:24 Well, what interested me about all of this was that, first of all, Phil was in a medium, and correct me if I'm wrong, Phil, that didn't seem to fit what Phil was doing. True. Which, actually, I'd like to ask you, what do you think your dad would have thought of Phil would have absolutely loved
Starting point is 00:27:49 Phil yeah I mean my father liked Howard Stern used to shit on my dad because Howard was on his way up and his whole MO was shit on Imus shit on everybody and my dad was one of the guys but my dad liked him from the beginning
Starting point is 00:28:04 because he got what he was doing. He loved when people fucked with the medium. So yeah, he would have liked him. Yeah. So it just seemed like Phil was in this place where he was doing something that wasn't happening in that medium. And this was on AM radio. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:21 Like old people AM radio mostly. Yeah. So I was attracted to this idea that, you know, he had his art in a medium that maybe it didn't quite belong, but in a way it did. And then he just persevered and listened to his voice and just said, no, I'm gonna do this. And and listened to his voice and just said, no, I'm going to do this. And that's inspiring to me. Yeah, yeah. He's right, and sometimes I wish I hadn't.
Starting point is 00:28:53 What I mean is I wish I would have just segged immediately into actual camera acting or stand-up or improv or something and gotten out of radio. But I also hear what Pat's saying. I'm glad that I did stay with radio because it pushed the boundaries of that medium to the point where it exploded, actually. People say, you killed talk radio, and I think in a way I kind of did because I showed it for what it was,
Starting point is 00:29:12 just a lot of horse shit. Right. And now we have Mary. Mary, what do you think? Well, you know, and you're a wonderful man, Bill. Thank you. I just think the president should be assassinated. And these assholes are talking seriously,
Starting point is 00:29:29 and they're taking everything serious. So I didn't just decide. I hated it so much that it just came out. You know how it is. Just stuff pours out of you, man. And that's what happened. But you were deconstructing almost like the playbook for the Republicans, which is repeat, repeat, repeat.
Starting point is 00:29:46 Yeah. So you have somebody on who's a flat earther, and you have callers call in and go, well, factually, no. I think you had somebody on who was talking about he doesn't understand why it rains. Yes, and we don't yet know, Phil. You know that, right? And so to go over that thing,
Starting point is 00:30:03 it was this world of absurdity that radio had not yet dealt with. There's comedy in radio. There's humor in radio. And even a guy like Howard, who is one of the greatest absurdists of all time, will show you, this is where I work, man. And beyond that, we all know this is very funny. But we never really copped to it. And please don't compare me to Andy Kauf kopp and because i think he's genius uh but but like
Starting point is 00:30:30 cop and we never really copped it we just went ahead so the guy goes and how long you've been flying i've been flying for 30 years and uh but it's scary for every pilot it scares you to death why is that we don't really know yet why the plane flies. We know lift and we know it's kind of bullshit. So if you make the guy sound serious enough, people will respond. This guy, he believes that. Give me the phone, right? Or the guy can say, there are pilots who don't know how we fly. You know. Of course I know. I know, but I fly with, probably every week I fly with five, six guys who'd have no idea how the plane works. And that'll get people to call.
Starting point is 00:31:08 If you have a guy doing broad and sketchy, it doesn't work, you know. Hi, I don't think I know how to. But if you do it from that place of reality, and that's where it messes with the medium, like what Pat was saying, where suddenly you've got program directors and general managers going,
Starting point is 00:31:26 well, now wait just a minute. This asshole sounds like he believes. He doesn't. It's Phil. He's just joking. I know, but look what's going on. We can't contain it. We don't know how to put a rope around it.
Starting point is 00:31:35 How do we do it? Right, right. That's kind of what happened. And a lot of times you will have a third person, like Howard has Robin, who's this kind of voice of reason but you're playing the voice of reason and the voice of insanity yes you have to have the moderating voice and uh you know and then you have the insane voice right as long as you're presenting it in a you know where you know in a place where and so what is it about i i i don't know other than for me it's just like
Starting point is 00:31:58 eavesdropping on morons that's you know i hate to put it that way but that's kind of what it was that was the fun of it for me and i think that was probably the fun of it that way, but that's kind of what it was. That was the fun of it for me. And I think that was probably the fun of it for the audience. But it's also a build where it begins where it's completely rational and things are going according to a radio plan. And then as you move through it, you realize, what the fuck's happening right now? Yeah. Well, the other day I was replaying a Doug Danger,
Starting point is 00:32:23 gay man and gay journalist. And Phil, and he was saying something, you know, straight couples have destroyed marriage. Look at what they've done to it. Straight people have done this. And like right now, it turned out he was also babysitting his white trash sister's baby. So by the end of it, he's like, shut up! The baby says, weee! you look at what straight people have done to families shut up i said they shut it went from this really rational kind of yeah straight people
Starting point is 00:32:53 have kind of screwed up marriage to this guy screaming at his white trash sister's baby which exactly what pat's saying each quarter hour break you went further another break right another break further and you took it as far as you could. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's...
Starting point is 00:33:09 The best one, I think, we ended it with, like, gunshots. Killing himself. Oh, my God. No, he's fine. Are you all right, Bill? Bill?
Starting point is 00:33:19 Oh, my God. Well, Mr. Henry and the people, I love your show. They got to get off the phone right away. Someone just killed himself. I know. There's only been gunshots once in the history of the show I don't probably several times you know yeah it'll end with gunshots it'll end with a guy screaming and
Starting point is 00:33:33 falling off of something and it begins with you know thank you Phil I am running sorry I I think I'm funny folks just the thought is yeah thank you Phil I'm funny, folks. Just the thought is, yeah, thank you, Phil. I'm running for commissioner of the city of Los Angeles, and it's great. And by the end is, he's just leapt off of a tower. So you've gone from this rational candidate for city commission to a man who's, you know, has willingly leapt off the top of a warehouse. That's where you want to go. That's the goal. That's the goal.
Starting point is 00:34:03 You've got to get there. You've got to ramp it up. And if you can't, you just keep, and if you don't get any phone calls, F go. That's the goal. That's the goal. You've got to get there. You've got to ramp it up. And if you can't, and if you don't get any phone calls, F it. You just keep going. I did one where it didn't get any calls. I think it didn't get calls
Starting point is 00:34:13 because people were shocked, but it was basically Ted Bell. Ted's in Beverly Hills. Phil, I'm... Oh, God, I don't know what to say. What happened? I took my wife up to Chanticleer, beautiful...
Starting point is 00:34:23 What is that joint up in Santa Barbara? Beautiful hotel. We went up there, we had a cat with him, you know. I feel violated. What happened? She slipped her finger in my anus. I went outside, I wept. I covered myself with a sheet.
Starting point is 00:34:37 No phone calls. Yes, what do you say? How do you, who am I looking for? What phone call? He's weeping because his wife stuck her finger in his ass, which if you've got any kind of a healthy marriage, eventually that's going to happen. It's got to happen.
Starting point is 00:34:51 It's got to happen. Sometimes you wait for a big anniversary. You don't, you know, not out of the gate. Will it be today? Will it be today? Exactly. No, I think you got to pace yourself in a marriage with sex. Relax.
Starting point is 00:35:00 I got anal. I'm waiting for the 30th anniversary on anal. All right. And she's going to be, she's going toth anniversary on anal. All right. And she's gonna be, she's gonna be waiting for it. All right, yeah. She'll be like, why was it 10 years ago, man? What the fuck happened? Wait a minute, he's getting it?
Starting point is 00:35:14 Well, that was 10, you know, and at the time I had a crew from Channel 11 was there and they were shooting, they were doing B-roll. And we just kept doing the shit and the guys in the camera like you know and then um no phone calls but i considered that to be a successful hour because we knew it was funny as hell and we knew that the audience was probably frozen stiff right and maybe we were actually tuning out a lot of people who fucking knows right it was it turned out to pretty funny. Do you find the stuff that's racist pops a lot? Do you get a lot of calls when it's, when it's a racist character?
Starting point is 00:35:49 When, when the show was on? Yeah. I mean, race, children. Yeah. Believe it or not.
Starting point is 00:35:55 There's also these subsets, anything about aviation flyers are right all over the phone. That's talk about aviation. And the pilots are like, yeah, yep. Hence the, the,
Starting point is 00:36:03 the hours that we do about, you know, uh, you know, we don't really know white flies. Man knows pilots. Yes, we do, you know. Yeah. Children, race, parenting. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:36:17 Politics when there's an election on. Politics when there's an event. 9-11 got tricky, you know. And I also had strong feelings about 9-11. A lot of people thought that I turned into a rabid right winger i actually just i'm a warmonger that's all i enjoy war uh you know nothing nothing heavier than that you know who doesn't but um so yeah there's certain um well for a nation that loves sporting events war war is the ultimate Super Bowl. Tribal thing, yeah. Sports is good. In L.A., when I first got on the air in L.A., we did a lot of bits with the Lakers because they were doing real good, and Shaq was kicking ass,
Starting point is 00:36:53 and I actually played Shaq on the air. I don't do ethnic characterizations anymore, but back then I did. And so I can tell you that we are doing the best we can, but there's only so far I'm going to go because I've got a commercial shoot. I have some TV interviews. So if you think I'm going to break a sweat for this shit, you know. And naturally people are calling Shaq. But you give it your all, don't you?
Starting point is 00:37:21 To a point. To a point. Well, Shaq got pissed. Who the hell is doing this? And then realized he was told what the thing was. It's Phil Henry playing a character. And he went, okay, cool. And he sent to KFI a signed basketball.
Starting point is 00:37:37 That's amazing. Did I get it? No. Our general manager did. Howard Neal. Howard, you owe me that basketball. That's hilarious. Howard stole it. That's hilarious. Howard stole it.
Starting point is 00:37:45 That's great. But yeah, he sent us a- Well, Shaq has a great sense of humor. He does. Check out the commercials this cat's doing, man. He's in makeup, full makeup. Right, right. He loves it.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Absolutely, yeah. So one of the things I wondered during the documentary is because early on, you start out down in, is it Atlanta? Well, I started in Ventura oh yeah 19th of summer 1990. yeah and then i left ventura for atlanta in 92. and so how did these gigs come about like because my dad had an agent in new york so all his gigs were in new york yeah but you were you were bouncing around ohio and miami this is before i had and i didn't have an agent this is back in the day when you made a tape and you sent it off.
Starting point is 00:38:26 People back then when I started doing my thing in Ventura, word started to leak out a little bit. There's people in San Diego interviewed me. John Brandmeier in Chicago had heard of me. And when I finally got to Atlanta, I think it was Jim Ashbury had called me who was the
Starting point is 00:38:42 program director at WSB. And I said, yeah, yeah you know and they flew me out for an interview that was in the fall i don't know why i didn't take that gig man i just i i i got scared i didn't think it was right for me so i that's the first time in my life i'm in ventura atlanta there's a big salary difference between those two markets for some reason i didn't take that gig but when i got fired in Ventura, I immediately called Jim and said, well, do you want to talk about that thing?
Starting point is 00:39:09 Yes, okay. And bang, I was able to segue to WSB Atlanta. And then when I was in Atlanta and I was pissing off that radio station, although the market, Atlanta is an extremely conservative market socially. Everybody's in their Sunday best. No kidding.
Starting point is 00:39:25 Everyone in their Sunday best. But kidding. Everyone in their Sunday best. But politically very liberal. But you're skewing. I mean, you talk about this in the documentary, is that you're mostly playing on old people radio stations where they're used to, you know, a Lawrence Welk kind of show going on, and then all of a sudden you show up. There's your caller base, but the listeners get younger and younger.
Starting point is 00:39:44 Okay. The callers are still i don't understand i don't know why w wbsa what is it wsb okay and so uh i'm there and i get fired again yeah i remember the gm there would walk by every time you have a gm that walks by the studio glass and is staring in you know you got a real asshole and we had one there in Atlanta I get fired again well Jim Ashbury had gone to Minneapolis to WCCO the guy that hired me in in Atlanta he heard about me getting fired he calls me again this is Phil I got a thing for you here in Minneapolis which I dude I know a little bit about the south somewhat I didn't know shit about the upper Midwest, but that's what they call Minneapolis. I went up there and immediately started causing problems there.
Starting point is 00:40:33 But the fan base started to grow. The guys in the Minnesota, Tom Kelly, the twin manager, was a big fan. Guys that played for the Vikings were fans, you know. The play-by-play guys, the sports guys. But it was also a tough gig because WCCO is a heritage station. Many, many years as a CBS ONO. And I never had this happen before, but a lot of people on air would badmouth me to advertise. No.
Starting point is 00:40:52 I never had anybody do that before in my life. We had two or three people on air that went to my advertisers and said, this guy's a psycho. Don't advertise. And then one day, and I'm being very serious, I don't want to laugh, but who the guy this is Charles Osborne is there cat on CBS radio oh yeah he came in to do his show Oz good or I was good Charles I was good something like that he came in to do his show for me and today we're in
Starting point is 00:41:18 Minneapolis one of the great oh-noes in the CBS chain and then he'd break and he did a four-minute thing and he had 68 people in there doing whatever. I don't know. He did like four minutes, but he had like researchers. He had back rubbers. He had blowjob, you know, and he did the same thing. He walked by the glass like, hmm, you know, the brow is furrowed. The veins are standing out and pulsating. Yeah. And I actually laughed at that that charles osgood thinks i'm a real this is great i feel great about that what about though you had uh
Starting point is 00:41:51 if he's listening now he'll say i never said that at all phil yeah you know i think you're you're weird and anyway but you had larry king there was a clip of larry king now what what was the genesis of that and then was he in on it as Once I left Minneapolis, I got offered this job. Now things are getting better. Because as much as they hated me on the station, and I got a fan base in Minneapolis. I'm not talking about my fans now. They were wonderful people.
Starting point is 00:42:14 But the station, as much as they hated me, they offered to extend my contract for a year. That was a big change. Wow. But Miami was calling. WID, one of the greatest entertainment talk stations in history. And I had to go. Because they had, in my one of the greatest entertainment talk stations in history, and I had to go because they had, in my opinion,
Starting point is 00:42:30 the greatest on-air talent, Neil Rogers, was doing middays. So I go down to Miami, and I jump into a maelstrom. Miami, WIOD. When you're the flagship for a sports team, you're supposed to talk nice about them, not IOD. And the Dolphins suckod and the dolphins suck and the sunna's fire shul of the best i mean 24 7 you know so i jumped into this and i started pretending that i was another player you know uh who has since uh he and i and i've spoken to him he's a great guy i don't even want to mention his name because I want to bring up a lot of painful things because but I should I?
Starting point is 00:43:06 Sure. Okay. Brian, I love you, man. And your wife. Great people. Great. Brian Cox and his wife. Seriously, they're wonderful people.
Starting point is 00:43:13 But at the time, Brian was having his own challenges there with the dolphins. Yeah. He had brought a lot of controversy. He walked out in Buffalo and did one of these double flipped off the button. Now, the dolphins and the bills hate each other's living guts forever and for Brian Cox the middle linebacker of the Dolphins to walk out like this. Anyway I started doing Brian Cox and I'll tell you something else. Dan Marino wears Jerry Curl? Sure. So what? Brian got so pissed off that one day after a dolphin
Starting point is 00:43:42 broadcast with Jim Mandich saying, Brian how how do you feel? Is this WID? Yeah. Suck my dick. So we really laid into him. The whole station laid into him. Neil was laying into him. And that's when Don Shuler was on the Larry King show and Larry made the very innocent comment, they're really laying into you at your old radio station. Or wait, Larry used to be on IOD. He says, they're really giving it a hard time on your old radio station. Or wait. Oh, Larry used to be on IOD.
Starting point is 00:44:05 He says, they're really giving it a hard time on my old radio station, WID. Coach, I don't know what Shula said. He put something benign. But when I heard about that, and Cheryl Rifkin, okay, Cheryl, now you're in trouble, had Larry's home phone number because she's the executive secretary. So I called up as Bob Green, the general manager of IOD. Larry, I heard, what are you trying to do well what are you talking about i'd like to to come on the uh henry show and let's talk about this okay all right so that's how we got larry to come on the air so we hit the air
Starting point is 00:44:37 hi this is bob green i'm taking over for larry king larry oh man what you did to me oh you're gonna cry about it now he said why don't you go on the on the neil rogers show and cry with him and then he found out it was all shtick you know oh wow i guess he could have gotten really pissed although we didn't really misrepresent we we told him he was going on the air we just didn't say the guy was going on the air with was fake was the parody it was parody laws right i mean you can the thing you have to do is let them know ahead of time they're gonna you want to record them and you have to get their permission. You can't just throw somebody on the air.
Starting point is 00:45:08 Other than that... Yeah. But that was a thing that was so good, we put it on one of our best of CDs. Yeah. Oh, you can't pass that up. Yeah. Yeah, Larry was good...
Starting point is 00:45:19 It was a good sport. I saw him at the Beverly Hills something. There was a feature, some kind of an event at the Beverly Hills Radio and Television. So I walked up to him. Hi, Larry Phil Henry. Oh, yeah, that's very funny, the thing you did. He's standing with like four beautiful women.
Starting point is 00:45:32 He's got four blondes and Norm Pattis, bless his heart and rest his soul. Norm, I really love you. Podcast one. Yeah, Norm, I love you. One of the greats. He's there with Norm, four of the most beautiful blondes you ever saw, and there's Larry. So I'm like, Larry, Phil Henry, no hard feelings.
Starting point is 00:45:47 Yeah, it's very funny what you done did to me. Yeah, Norm Pattis is one of those guys. He syndicated radio. He's like one of the guys that literally took people like you and they took you from a local market to a national market. Put them on the national footing.
Starting point is 00:46:05 Right, right. And he had the best seats, literally the best seats at a Laker game you could have. He did, bro. He took me to a game once. Did he? Yeah. Awesome. You sit in between where the players check in at the desk and the bench where they're
Starting point is 00:46:18 sitting. Wow. And literally every player that comes into the game has to walk past Norm. And I think there's still shots of Norm just standing up and going, hey, what the hell? Like he's talking to the ref. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's giving shit to the players.
Starting point is 00:46:31 Yeah. Beautiful stuff, man. But Norm was bigger than life to me. I couldn't believe he was so powerful. But there he was with Larry. But IOD was the place where we literally had management for the first time in my life. Management said to me, we'll get sued, but we'll cover you. Just make great radio, man.
Starting point is 00:46:51 Make great fucking radio. Bob Green, the real Bob Green, is the only GM that ever sat down and helped me prep my show. No kidding. Yeah, he was a great guy. Did you ever feel like, as you got bigger, because you eventually go national with a lot of stations, and it caused you to be unhappy and kind of check? Did you ever find that because you were going national, you put constraints on yourself that you wouldn't have on a smaller scale? And is that what made you crazy? No, I never did, but I did have people tell me to back it off.
Starting point is 00:47:28 But by that time I was married, Greg. It was not, with all due respect to my ex, it was not the best marriage. I took on a lot. I took on a huge responsibility. When I should have been partying my ass off with guys like you, hey, I'm in L.A., I'm national, let's drink, let's do something. I went ahead and got married and took on this whole family
Starting point is 00:47:47 and buckled down and got serious about my comedy, you know. It was still psycho and gonzo, but I was home in bed, you know, and keeping regular hours and shit. But I never backed off at all. I had, by that point, management at the syndication level a clear
Starting point is 00:48:06 channel telling me let's not do that we had a jingle for ted's beverly hills we want to put our meat in your mouth yes sung by lisa valenzuela she's got a gorgeous voice lisa does commercial singing and there she's we want to put our meat in your mouth you're like wow that's sexy man well they said you're gonna now here's this is radio this is a perfect example of radio janet jackson's wardrobe malfunctions at the super bowl and her breast is exposed do you think the fcc jumps all over cbs and television in general because of that no they immediately call all the radio stations back to washington to give them hell right and what do all the radio gms do like good little boys and girls, they go back there.
Starting point is 00:48:46 Right. And they fold their hands in front of it and they listen to the FCC as the FCC threatens them with all kinds of hell and it had nothing to do with us. It was a TV problem. Right. So, my boss comes back from that and says, Phil, you know that you want to put your meat in your mouth? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:00 Let's beep that out. Okay? Just, we don't want to it again okay we want to put our meat in your mouth most people would be about the meat we beeped out mouth we want to put our meat in your baby to their credit they didn't say they let us do that but I that pissed me off yeah and that didn't piss me off for me it pissed me off for the industry
Starting point is 00:49:26 for the radio for the broadcast industry why are we going back and getting spanked well this was around the time that Imus was thrown off the air because he was
Starting point is 00:49:32 talking about the women's basketball Nappy headed hose yeah and I maintain Don wasn't thinking he just said you gotta know
Starting point is 00:49:41 why you say things why did you say that if he had a really good reason, then he would have probably been able to save the job. But he just, I was reacting. Well, you can't do that, man. He also, I think he also was sort of like,
Starting point is 00:49:55 he started off, I think, doing characters and doing comedy. And then all of a sudden, I remember he announced, I can't remember which politician, but he started having politicians on. And he started to sort of turn the corner and trying to become more of a... Commentator. Yeah, and I think that's why. If the context of him saying that had been, I'm a comedian on the air, he would have gotten away with it.
Starting point is 00:50:19 But he had kind of reset how people saw him. Yeah. That happened to me after 9-11. I got so swept up and pissed off at it. Um, if I had it to do over again, I would have just backed away the way that everybody did and just let, let,
Starting point is 00:50:32 uh, the comedy take over. It eventually did. We got a lot of great bits out of nine 11. I'm sorry, but we did, you know, like putting the names of the hijackers on the Memorial,
Starting point is 00:50:40 uh, you know, from that, it just went downhill from there, man. Um, you know, it and it just went downhill from there man um you know it just and ted bell you know phil i gotta tell you something when the when the world trade center memorial and god rest their souls the people that i'd love to you think i get the ted bell steakhouse thing there just you know we want to put the meat in the mouth and then we say and we're very sorry
Starting point is 00:51:00 that they died some and if you do it seriously enough, people are going to... But that was such a big thing that... And I was so pissed off that I sort of let it... But still in all, we still have fans today who just remember the show and don't really remember those days. So you didn't put that in the documentary, Patrick. I didn't, because I just didn't think that that was really the essence of what was happening. Right. You know, like I was just... documentary Patrick I didn't because I just didn't think that that was really the essence of what was happening right you know like I was just really wasn't
Starting point is 00:51:29 it it was me it aberrantly dealing with a very aberrant time I mean good god you know 3,000 people incinerated in front of your very eyes I don't know how do you how do you be funny about that well eventually we did find our way back to the comedy but I was so depressed about that i was wondering would we ever be funny again right i mean i'm looking at david letterman crying on the air yeah and uh you know you guys remember you guys remember don't you let me drift out here i remember the the one guy who kind of nailed it about two weeks after 9 11 when comedy clubs were just opening up again i see louisK. at the comedy cellar. And he goes on and he goes,
Starting point is 00:52:08 you know, they say you can, what was it? They say you can mark your humanity by how long it took you to masturbate again after 9-11. He goes, I jerked off in between the first and second towers. That's beautiful, towers. That's beautiful, man. That's the kind, I would never know how to
Starting point is 00:52:29 do that. I wouldn't know. That's a great joke. So what is, like, I think it's interesting because when I think of satire and I think of people, you know, who really went for it and said something, I don't know how much you People, you know, who really went for it and said something.
Starting point is 00:52:50 I don't know how much you think about that you're saying something because you do pure satire. SNL tries to call itself satire. It's fucking parody at best. Yeah, yeah, it is. There's no teeth. There's nothing being said. How much are you thinking? Somebody said that Saturday Night Live also comedy washes a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:53:04 I think they were talking about, oh nicky haley oh right right i mean there's a certain set of people with a certain political point of view when she came on they said oh they're comedy washing a real nasty ass person something like that yeah that's what fallon did with trump when he played with his hair comedy wash yeah yeah but so where do you where's your head at when you're thinking about being a satirist? Do you have an agenda or are you only looking for what's funny? I'm looking for what's funny now. When I was on the radio, I was looking for what was funny but would also get press.
Starting point is 00:53:37 Right. Would get people to react because that's kind of what your job was in those days. I suppose I could be thinking the same way now, but there's so many podcasts and there's so much material out there somebody being acerbically crazily pointed politically even if it's great satire i think is going to get at best people maybe digging it your fan base most people kind of like everybody's looking for a laugh now man right you know they want to find the things have gotten so crazy that I think it's good just to be consistently known as a funny guy now.
Starting point is 00:54:09 Back then on the radio, yeah, you were looking to make a splash because there was a million guys beating your brains out up and down the dial and you're trying to figure out what can I do? The Brian Cox thing
Starting point is 00:54:17 was a perfect example of that. I know what I can do here. It's going to piss people off. You know, same thing with Shaq. We did a bunch of, when I was was in la i know that there were times when we uh tried to yank people sean penn people like that but mostly what got the reactions was just the good funny material you know when you just you'd hit it out of the park with something you know yeah yeah i suddenly realized, that's what you got to work at, man. So the show got really easy to do.
Starting point is 00:54:48 I shouldn't say easy to do. The show got easier to do about two, three years into my time in LA when I finally, and this is a process that began in Ventura in 1990. It took me about 15 years to finally figure out how this went in an ABC thing. Get the organic material. Get to the joke as fast as you can. Make it as relatable and believable as you can. Make sure the character is absurd.
Starting point is 00:55:13 And go, man. And the hardest part that we got down was what should the material be? And just, as I said to you, pilots. We'd look around and say, let's do a parent thing today. Let's do a pilot thing today. Let's do something having to do with kids. Let's do something having to do with kids.
Starting point is 00:55:26 Let's do something having to do with pets. You know. Right. You know right away what's going to get people to react. Yeah. And did you have many people on? Like, did you ever have like fool somebody into coming on? Like, have you seen the Eric Andre show?
Starting point is 00:55:42 I haven't, no. Oh, dude. You would fucking love it it he does to late night comedy what you were doing to talk radio he gets real celebrities he gets real celebrities who have no idea what the fuck's going on they walk into the studio and it was it was on a it was on i forget what network it was on and uh first of all the heat was at about 93 so all the guests are sweating and they come on and the house band are a bunch of Mexican guys that are playing classical music.
Starting point is 00:56:10 And then they sit down and then Eric will suddenly get upset at his producer and he'll throw something at the producer and it'll hit him in the head and the producer will bleed and he'll run off. And then he just keeps bleeding. And then halfway through the interview, all of a sudden his desk is just getting broken apart.
Starting point is 00:56:27 And there's a little person who's dressed exactly the same as Eric Andre that has a smaller desk from Eric. And he continues the interview. And these guests are going, their publicist sent them over. They're going, what the fuck is that? I'm trying to promote my new show on CBS. I haven't seen that, man. Is that a network thing? You can find it on
Starting point is 00:56:46 Hulu. That's great. Is that like The Cat in Britain? Borat? The guy that did Borat. What's the cat's name? Sacha Baron Cohen. That's how he started, right? He started out doing that kind of shtick. Yeah, as a matter of fact,
Starting point is 00:57:02 he did a movie that was very similar to Sacha with the same sort of structure, which was it was a narrative mixed in with real interactions with people, real pranky stuff on the street, kind of a hybrid. And yeah, I mean, Sacha Baron Cohen, that's a guy who, again, like, like i mean i think you undersell yourself when you say that you're just going for the for the comedy because what comes through your comedy is a very distinct point of view well yeah i mean social commentary yeah yeah and i think the same is true with him with him yeah um i don't otherwise it's not you don't feel it it's not effective you got to be really like what what's angering me today or whatever right i mean i don't even know um i forget the shows i did people say remember when you did the thing i said i don't remember i
Starting point is 00:57:49 i blacked them out i gotta go back into the show log and look well i always liked uh who was the character who was the uh the local um uh neighborhood watch kind of uh shay sannis there's a lot of good shows we got out of him and you know like the best one of course everybody remembers you know back when the DC Sniper was happening we're back in DC Phil
Starting point is 00:58:10 we are belt sanding cars belt sanding dude because it's a white van okay so what are you doing I'm taking a sander just a little time to paint you know we got a guy calling
Starting point is 00:58:21 you belt sand my car and let me tell you what you know we had a cat almost die I'm pretty sand my car. And let me tell you what, you know. We had a cat almost die. I'm pretty sure he was going to die. And it was Jay. And Jay was talking about, you know, Tiger Woods was new at the time.
Starting point is 00:58:39 A young, fresh, great golfer and black. And naturally, there's where you go, you know. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable having him on my course, but he's a great gol you know this guy calls he's the starter at rancho park i think let me tell you something you can hear this catch he's like let me tell you something are you at rancho park right yeah you got that you've never seen this to a starter. You got that temporary green out on 18, don't you? I don't have a temporary green. And I'll tell you something else. I hit a temporary green. It's about a three par, right? I hit a nine iron and landed right on the top of the shitter.
Starting point is 00:59:17 I went up the outhouse. And there's no outhouse out there either. The guy got off a great lane. He says, well, I was talking to my friends. You don't have any friends. You just have people to talk behind your back. And this was back, and I swear to God, I thought this guy was going to go out and have a stroke.
Starting point is 00:59:38 But of course, I can't take my foot off the gas. You can't. You hope for the best when he lives. But you got to keep going, man. That's great. But he was talking. keep going, man. That's great. But he was talking. And what was it? Race.
Starting point is 00:59:49 Yeah. And it was tied in with one of the most popular golfers at the time, a real coming star, which was Tiger Woods. And I think he's fantastic. On my course, you know, you've got to stop. You've got to take a deep breath. You've got to take a deep breath. And that's really what pissed people off, him using these colloquialisms, you know. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:11 Tiger Woods on my course, you know, I take a step back, maybe hitch my pants up, you know. What are we talking about here, man? Yeah, there's always those little phrases that racists have. They say something and then they go, and that's all I'll say. It's like, no, keep saying. Yeah, yeah, keep going, man. I ain't going to go any further than that. That was Jake Sanderson. That was a voice I picked up listening to KFI many years ago.
Starting point is 01:00:31 I was still a disc jockey in L.A., but I turned the radio on one day, and there was a guy from Pennsylvania. We all know this is a Baltimore accent, but I think this guy said, and I'll tell you something right now, that he used to be, and I said, that's a great voice.
Starting point is 01:00:43 Who is that guy, you know? And I lifted that and put it give it to jay who's there's no better voice for a you know wannabe cop i want to be authoritarian than some dumb baltimore accent right yeah i'll tell you something else he hits my pants up i go i put my shoes on one sock on a toe on one shoe we put the sock on first yeah uh that was a great voice. And then Bobby Dooley, that's another voice. I may be getting ahead here.
Starting point is 01:01:09 Greg told me to shut up. No, no, Bobby Dooley is gold. That was another voice I heard on the air. And I was coming into work one night, and I listened to this woman, and she was talking about the valley seceding from Los Angeles. Los Angeles. We had a mayor who called it that. And I think it may be the way you're
Starting point is 01:01:26 supposed to say it. Because a lot of the old-timer guys would say, I came to Los Angeles in 1938. I think Robert Mitchum said not Los Angeles. But anyway, and we wanted to see it. I thought, this is a great voice. This woman sounds almost sociopathic. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:41 Mm-hmm. It reminded me of my mom. God rest her soul, but my mother was kind of psychopathic. I'm sorry about her. Yeah, well, thank you. I didn't notice I just instinctively said thank you when I'm thinking you know, how deep did we bury her. So, she would just talk like that and I thought this is a great voice, so I just went ahead and mimicked it. And my husband thinks, and at that time, her saying my husband thinks, my husband thinks, got a lot of calls from people
Starting point is 01:02:07 saying, well, what do you think? And in the background, I had Steve going, tell him about the house. Yeah, my husband just reminded me at the time of the house. Well, it got funnier if we just had Bobby have the opinion and Steve weighing in. And then she'd say, yeah, tell me, I got it, Steve. Okay, why don't you sit down and have another cocoa or something? And she became the little authoritarian, the neighborhood Nazi. Yeah, yeah. But that was a voice that I heard. I think those are my favorite of everything you've done.
Starting point is 01:02:38 There was just something about, was it somebody adopted Vietnamese kids or something in the neighborhood and she was upset about it? They have the little Vietnamese. And the other thing is, we said to Bill Hasenbach, you know, there's some of these names. People make up fake names. I think real names are funnier. Bob Hasenbach.
Starting point is 01:02:59 They had a daughter. And it was unfortunate. She's not the best looking girl. So when they said, you know what, we want to have another one, I said, really? Do you really? And so I think she was collecting door to door for a vasectomy for the guy or something, you know? And Bobby is everybody's favorite asshole. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:22 And we actually did a TV pilot for NBC with her. Oh, no shit. Laurie Metcalf played Bobby Dooley. Really? We changed the name to Teddy W. Laurie was knocked out of the park. Wow. She got the character right away.
Starting point is 01:03:33 Had on the real tight. In fact, Laurie played a version of that character in a movie called Leaving Las Vegas, if you ever saw that flick. Yeah. She played the landlady that kicks Elizabeth Shue's character out of her apartment. Okay. The tight pants, the two-inch heels, clicking along. Come on, Charlie.
Starting point is 01:03:48 I said, God damn, that's Bobby Dooley. Yeah. So she did. She played Bobby Dooley, knocked it out of the park in this pilot. And she even, Laurie went so far in makeup as to have the makeup lady lift one part of her mouth up for a bad facelift. Yeah, she was like, why was like oh jesus that's scary you know great yeah and then what was that you did a pilot with judd apatow oh well dad that was
Starting point is 01:04:13 judd that wasn't mine that was judds that i got hired yeah to be the father jason siegel's dad what a cast on that show they had who else did they have in that they had one of the um they had Jake. Gyllenhaal? Not Jake Gyllenhaal. His father's a great director. Directed, oh God.
Starting point is 01:04:34 Jason Segel? No, man. Directed Grand Canyon. The yuppie movie. God damn it. I'll remember that. Welcome to three old guys on a podcast. Okay, we're going to cut all this out, right? Just go ahead and cut all this out
Starting point is 01:04:50 so we don't sound like a bunch of assholes, you know? So what made you... Jake, Jake. Ah, fuck, I was just... Oh, man. You took a running start. Where's my phone? James Franco.
Starting point is 01:05:03 James Franco. I'll get it. And you talk to Patrick while you look it up. He's driving me nuts now. James Franco? James Franco? I'll get it. I got it. And you talked to Patrick while you look it up. He's driving me nuts now. Kevin Hart was in it. How did you first, I mean, so I'm assuming the genesis is this. You were a fan of Phil's.
Starting point is 01:05:14 And then what happened from there? How did this become a reality? So I was Kasdan and his son Jake. Yeah, Lawrence Kasdan. Jake Kasdan was in that pilot. And Colin Hanks was in that pilot. Wow. And Jason Segel was in that thing.
Starting point is 01:05:32 Kevin Hart. And Kevin Hart. And at the table read, all I know is this is my very first table read as an actor, as a theatrical actor in my entire life. I was just so honored to be in this movie. Robin Peterson played my wife. She was this hot-ass chick that was supposed to be my age. I think she was like 10 years younger than me. And at the table read I hear this cat just riffing at the end of the table.
Starting point is 01:05:54 I'm going, God, I wish I had... They're gonna scream at him. They're gonna shut him down, right? No, he's just riffing, riffing, riffing, riffing, riffing. That guy's funnier than hell. And it was with Judd Reinhold. It uh reinhold oh yeah it was kevin hart doing all this crazy ass riffing i said god damn that's great that's amazing yeah that was called north hollywood so that was uh january jones in it too i don't know i think she was yeah yeah i wouldn't know i didn't pay attention i just showed up and went hi i'm bill yeah and they went oh you stand there and be funny yeah but um it was uh one thing about judd is he let me improv i love any director that lets you do that because that's how he does it yeah man i love that you know i played a character in this is 40
Starting point is 01:06:38 where i get to kick paul rudd's ass yes for about five seconds you know but I wrote on a TV show for him for a few years called Crashing, and everything was just like, it was so frustrating as a writer because you sit in the writer's room for four months. Yeah, you write for four months, and you rewrite, and you rewrite, and you're crafting.
Starting point is 01:06:56 Now let's change of to the, and then they go down the script, and they're like, fuck it, and it's just not even there. Oh, Jesus. And then I would go to New York. We'd write it here, and then go to New York and shoot it, and then you'd Oh, Jesus. And then I would go to New York. We'd write it here and go to New York and shoot it. And then you'd stand.
Starting point is 01:07:07 And two of the writers would go to New York, me and another guy, to do Punch-Up. And it was just like, I just ate croissants and drank coffee and watched. I didn't, I shouldn't say that. It's a different kind of writing, isn't it? Yeah, it is. You just showed up with a document sort of that had the basic form. Yeah. He didn't have to write lines per se.
Starting point is 01:07:28 Right, right. Yeah, well, I think that's what Curb Your Enthusiasm is. I think that he comes up with an outline, and then the characters are just told, all right, start here, get there. And get there, yeah. And figure it out, yeah. Wait, so go back. I'm curious about how this happened.
Starting point is 01:07:42 So before I ever thought about making any kind of a film or anything, I was in music school, and I would drive down here for gigs, and I heard, I think the one I heard was this guy talking to the president of the Frank Sinatra fan club, and he would go around tasing anybody that would sing my way at a karaoke bar and uh because we wanted a copyright violation or something no he because nobody should have the right audacity to sing my way except frank man frank and uh and then people were calling in like you know are you crazy and then and then he would engage them and say, what are you talking about? Did you ever do anything your way?
Starting point is 01:08:32 And then I was like, what's happening, man? And then I just, it was a long drive from Valencia down to the thing. And I would end up, it would end up getting so crazy that, like many people in the movie, I said, this is, you know, this has got to be some kind of a bullshit you know and then I started to talk to people and then they were like oh yeah that's Phil Henry man that's like now you're in the club you know right and that was just to me was super interesting that there was these two factions going on one is the people that know nothing about this yeah like you're in on this inside joke and i just never heard of anything like that yeah i think um in in the if
Starting point is 01:09:16 we're looking at the over the overview of it is that what's really happening is about 98 of your audience knows what you're doing so you guys and it probably was still an exclusive club because honestly, my ratings at KFI, when I did afternoon drive, I don't think we ever busted a three share with adults. That's not good. And you say, well, why is that? I think it was the environment we were in. If you're on a straight talk station and then you drop this satirist into afternoon drive, what the fuck? People are like, what? There's going to be a lot of people. It's like going to buy a Mercedes and there's a guy that's got a really cool Volkswagen that he's selling.
Starting point is 01:09:50 And you go, yeah, that's a bitch in Volkswagen. I came here to get a Mercedes. Yeah, right. I think it's kind of the same thing. But yet it wouldn't have worked if it wasn't that context. If people all knew it was comedy going into it. Our show worked on WIOD and WIOD was an entertainment talk station.
Starting point is 01:10:06 Now, not everybody's doing my shtick. Rick and Suds were doing Morning Drive, Goofy Guy. Neil was on just doing this, you know, hanging up on people and bitching about the dolphins and taking a shit. This was an hour for Neil. I was driving to work this morning, and I know a lot of this is happening, so don't tell you. I thought I was going to fart and a little bit leaked out, you you know so i had to turn around and change my underwear that was neil
Starting point is 01:10:28 so and and and then we had sports talk so but our show on wiod got just enough of those callers to call in right so um we did one that this is a miami thing, Margaret Gray. I think there's at least one part of South Florida where we should allow these people to land their boats. You're talking about the people that are coming in from Haiti and Jamaica. Yes, there's a stretch of Bal Harbor. Bal Harbor is real exclusive. A lot of rich people. Margaret wants to land Haitians on that beach.
Starting point is 01:11:02 Jack, that got phone calls. It didn't matter if it was WIOD or not, you know. So when you find that, it's almost like you're prospecting. Yeah. And you find, aha, here's a gold nugget in the middle of what is a park or wherever. You're prospecting for the right kind of caller. But the audience knows. Your audience is listening and they're digging it.
Starting point is 01:11:24 I think the best ratings we had were at night. Yeah. Because that's when everybody's chilling. of caller but the audience knows your audience is listening and they're they're they're digging it i think the the best ratings we had were at night yeah that's when everybody's chilling how many were truckers i always assume you get a lot of truckers because a lot of truckers listened i don't have a few called yeah we did one bit where chris norton and this guy was this guy was crazy chris is like um you know i'm so sussy that i can actually, he goes, I can have sass with a woman, okay? And if the guy comes in, what guy? Well, like the husband. I also have the kind of personality
Starting point is 01:11:54 where I can talk the guy down. Look, I know that I was having sass with your girlfriend, but it's all good. She loves you. This trucker calls, I blow the top of your head off. You can hear the... No, no, you don't understand. I'd blow the top of your head off.
Starting point is 01:12:19 Yeah, those get very extreme, things like that. I want to talk to you about the mechanics of it. By the way, that Chris Norton character? Yeah. I did. James Adamian had a benefit for Armenia at UCB. He said, well, you want to do it? I said, I don't really do stand-up.
Starting point is 01:12:34 Yeah. But I do carry. He said, do that character. I went out and did Chris Norton. It freaking killed. No kidding. It killed, man. So I'm thinking, is there a way for me to actually go out and do live if I'm just.
Starting point is 01:12:44 I met a lot of improvisational actors at that thing that do stand-up. They just did characters. But I don't know if that's something you do on a regular basis. Maybe that's something I should talk to you about. I think stand-up is completely wide open. I don't think there's enough new voices. I think there's so many straight monologists. And I don't mean straight meaning like not gay.
Starting point is 01:13:03 I just mean they stand up and they talk and they are not doing anything to expand or push the boundaries of what the medium is and i think somebody like you coming into it is exactly what stand-up needs right now well just you're like oh my name is chris norton i'm here to get funny for a new movie that i have um a lot of you probably you know i'm i, I'm an adult film actor. I'm very sassy. I have a strong sass drive. Immediately, everybody's in fricking stitches.
Starting point is 01:13:32 The name of the movie, it's going to be emanated, called Daffy Dick. I don't know what the subtitle is. It was subtitled Daffy Dick. Daffy Dick. Yeah, Daffy Dick. The dick goes on. I don't know, man.
Starting point is 01:13:44 But the reason why I bring that up is because of that character, that trucker, you know, that Chris Norton character is so – I loved him so much because he had women calling and telling him what a disgusting, foul, piece of shit he was. And he responded with was, yeah, I can tell there's accessible trash in there. And the chicks couldn't get through to him like no no dude i hate your guts i hate you yeah this is hot this is good maybe you do something that involves q a like maybe you set up a character and then you get people in the audience to yell stuff out you'd be willing to donate money to my movie. It's going to be called Daffy Dick.
Starting point is 01:14:25 The dick goes on or the dick flies or something. And then the follow-up is going to be called Ghost Penis. Because what happens is the Daffy Dick has a stroke. There's the one joke in the whole thing. You get the stroke? Yeah, it's great, man. And the dick, it's now Ghost Penis. And it just floats or it flies and goes into a dude's dick.
Starting point is 01:14:44 What the fuck? Yeah, people love that, man. this, the go, it's now ghost penis and it just floats or it flies and goes into a dude's dick. Yeah. People love that, man. And I walked out of that theater that night thinking, Oh God, maybe I, maybe I can do this.
Starting point is 01:14:53 You know, I don't know. I think a lot of people would come see that for sure. Anyway. Um, all right. So before we wrap it up, I could talk to you all day, but I know you got to get to CBS.
Starting point is 01:15:04 I do. Oh no, we're doing that tomorrow. Oh, that's tomorrow. Wednesday. Yeah. You grew up out here. In Arcadia. And you grew up, and you kind of started out, you were kind of a riches to rags story.
Starting point is 01:15:17 You had money, and then dad left. Yeah, my father and mother moved here from Toronto, Canada in the late 40s. My dad worked his ass off. He worked at a gas station and was selling insurance, that kind of shit. Yeah. And then we moved to Upper Arcadia, which is where the Oaks, which is where EJ Lucky Baldwin, you know, and Santa Anita, the money. And we were there. And then my parents, the whole thing fell apart when I was about 12 years old.
Starting point is 01:15:42 Yeah. And we moved down into an apartment and I slept on a couch and, uh, it was pretty traumatic and, and, uh, comedy was the thing that saved me. And also I developed a friends around me who were going through the same thing, guys that were coming from broken homes and we all kind of formed a little bit of a gang. And, uh, fortunately we all went off and had careers and didn't wind up in prison that's interesting as far as i can tell you know yeah but um i split and told myself uh
Starting point is 01:16:12 i would never trust money again i wouldn't trust family and i wouldn't trust money and by god i was true to my word i didn't make a dime and didn't get married you know but when i started to make money i didn't know what the fuck to do with it because you know i never that was never my goal and here's the craziest thing of all don't you think phil if you have success in the entertainment business you're going to make some money never crossed my mind all i wanted was to get an audience and to get that kind of acceptance as a performer right and then you started making then you start to make money and what did i do i went ahead and i don't know what to do with it i know i'll get? I went ahead and I don't know what to do with it. I know I'll get a wife. She'll know. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:16:47 She'll know how to take half of it. They sure do, don't they? Wow. So that's my life. What's that car you drive? It's a Cadillac. What year is it? Which one?
Starting point is 01:16:57 The one I have now? The one you had in the documentary. Oh, I rented that. Oh, you did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had to put them in a Cadillac. Oh, no shit. It's this beautiful, what is it, a Fleetwood? It's like a- Convertible. It's Eldog. Oh, was it? I had to put him in a Cadillac. Oh, no shit. It's this beautiful, what is it, a Fleetwood?
Starting point is 01:17:06 It's like a- Convertible. It's Eldog. Oh, was it? Colorado, baby. 1976. Wow. My old man had Caddies.
Starting point is 01:17:13 Yeah. I remember my father, this is probably a good story to tell of my childhood. I was sick with the measles. My sister was sick with the measles. We had 103 degree temperature. My mother's going between bedrooms. My dad comes to the door and says, hey Marge, come on, I just got the Cadillac out here in the driveway.
Starting point is 01:17:28 Like we're on death's door. My dad comes in with a gold Cadillac, no shit, white marshmallow interior and a white convertible top. My old man drove this around with a straight face. I don't know, her memory, how do you know? My dad was a salesman, so I guess that's a good car to have. Yeah, you gotta have it.
Starting point is 01:17:43 A gold Cadillac with a white convertible. That's amazing. Yeah. My dad had, he drove Lincoln Town cars. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was the mob move in New York. That was a sweet ride.
Starting point is 01:17:53 Yeah. Yeah. What do you drive now? I have a Jaguar SUV. Oh, there you go. And I don't know why. It was 500 less than, I did have a Land Rover. I got rid of my, had a jaguar jaguar sedan
Starting point is 01:18:07 which was like 1200 a month or some crap to lease it and i like to lease yeah people why do you lease because it's a brand new car every three years i don't know i guess i shouldn't but now i have an suv and the license number is no um what's your address, Phil? Yeah, that's... Yeah. I do. So... You got to have some kind of a ride
Starting point is 01:18:32 that is impressive on some level, but... Yeah, I don't know. Yes, if you're still dating. If you're in LA, I think you kind of have... Your car speaks a lot about you. I drive a 2011 Toyota Pri prius and the fender is being held together with a uh a paper clip and it's rusted and it works it works i don't feel
Starting point is 01:18:52 that's you is that you for you man i want a mustang oh yeah i just want to get because the best thing is i've wanted a mustang since i was a t i had a Bel Air, but I really wanted a Mustang. And the thing now is you can get that same beautiful Mustang without the rotting fucking, you know, interior. You can get a new Mustang that looks like the old one.
Starting point is 01:19:15 So I think that's what I'm going to do. Yeah, I just got a gig where I got a bunch of money and I think I'm going to do it. Well, how much is it, man? I mean, are we over 100 grand for those things? I would buy one that was two years old. Are they restored? And you can get it for about 30 grand. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm going to do it. Well, how much is it, man? I mean, are we over 100 grand for those things? I would buy one that was two years old.
Starting point is 01:19:25 Are they restored? And you can get it for about 30 grand. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm talking about like a 2020, 2019. Oh, okay. Okay, it's not like a restored. You can get it for like 30 grand, a GT. Sweet.
Starting point is 01:19:35 Yeah. Eight cylinders. Yeah. Fucking, why not? Why not, man? Fuck. 14 miles to the gallon. Live a little, man.
Starting point is 01:19:41 Yeah. Everybody's driving a Tesla now, and I hate looking at them. I don't want to look at them, and I don't want to drive one because it's like, I don't want to live in Mad Max where I'm constantly looking for fuel, and it's desperate, and you're on some kind of an app, and you've got to drive to fucking Thousand Oaks. To find fuel for your fucking Tesla. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:01 It's like a heroin addict. They're always looking for a fix. You're miserable until they get that next fix. Guess what I drive? Tesla? No, you don't. Really? So how is it finding...
Starting point is 01:20:12 There's a charger across the street from the office. Right. In the park. Oh. What about when you're driving out? You don't go anywhere? No, we don't go anywhere. You don't go on any trips?
Starting point is 01:20:21 No. You never go on trips? Not really, but we'll rent. Steve's too scared to. I'd be too scared. Yeah never go on trips? Not really, but we'll rent. He's too scared to. I'd be too scared, you know. Yeah. Come on to Palm Springs. We'll go golfing.
Starting point is 01:20:29 I can't make it. I can't make it that far. I can't, man. I can't do that. Is there a place halfway there we can meet up? I heard the funniest story. This is apropos of absolutely nothing, but Peter Ustinov, who many of you young people have never heard of, is a hysterically funny storyteller. He
Starting point is 01:20:49 was an actor. He was in a movie with Kirk Douglas called Spartacus. They shot it at Universal. Kirk Douglas was so tired one fucking day and he lived in Palm Springs that he just piled himself into the limo and laid there. And the limo driver thought it was a pile of rags because he was in his fucking gladiator outfit. The limo driver left the limo at a gas station in Beaumont and left Kirk Douglas to sleep in it. He thought it was a pile of rags in Beaumont. That's about halfway between L.A. and Palm Springs.
Starting point is 01:21:24 All right, so we're going to do a thing. We always close out the show with fastballs with fits. I'm going to ask you a few questions. Okay. All right. Have you ever saved somebody's life? I don't think so. Have you ever let somebody die?
Starting point is 01:21:36 No. Follow-up. Have you ever let somebody die? All right, next question. There are two types of people in the world go funny and psychopath wow yeah it's a fine line isn't it and sometimes a psycho sometimes a psychopath is pretty fucking are they funny yeah i don't know god how could they be um yeah i guess it's like well they funny? Yeah, I don't know. God, how could they be?
Starting point is 01:22:06 Yeah, I guess. It's like, well, I better not say because I don't want to piss people off. Certain politicians that think they're funny. Yeah. And they're like, no, man. No, but a lot of America think they're funny. Yeah. Hysterically funny.
Starting point is 01:22:18 How would you do in prison? Now? Yeah. I'd be the guy they come around to make everybody laugh i'd be you know chuck cracking him up at the yep in the mess hall if i was 20 yeah you know hey now you're gonna take what i give you you know man i love you i love your mouth yeah You got a pretty mouth. No, no, no.
Starting point is 01:22:47 That boy's mine. It's okay. It's all right. I'll take care of you. Jesus. All right. And what is your best story about getting screwed over by a book or a station manager? Oh, God.
Starting point is 01:23:01 I mean. Because it's happened a lot. Getting screwed over. Yeah. Well, you've been fired from a number of places. Oh, yeah, I've been fired from lots and lots of jobs. Well, I would say in Atlanta, you know, when this cat came walking by,
Starting point is 01:23:13 and everybody loved me, and everyone thought I was hysterically funny, and I was doing this show on Saturday nights in Atlanta. It was the Steve Bozell show. I wasn't even Phil Hendry. I came on as, and good evening, I'm Steve Bozell. And anyway...
Starting point is 01:23:27 And I played this bumbling moron. And people dug it. I would go out drinking after that and say, that Bozell show. But this goddamn general manager all of a sudden out of the blue cans my ass after walking by the glass with the veins pumping. And then when I got to L.A. and the show was being syndicated, this asshole wanted the show. He wanted to pick the show up. No shit.
Starting point is 01:23:43 Really? Yeah. And I just said to my agent, the great guy named David Katz, I said, do what you think we should do, but I hate this guy. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:23:52 But that's the tough thing about this business is, like you said with the guy that left Atlanta and then went to Minneapolis, like you have your sponsors in this business. You have people that,
Starting point is 01:24:03 and you kind of have, there's this X number of people that are doing that job as station managers. Yeah. And you kind of got to stay on everybody's good side, even when you fucking hate them. You do, man, you know. And that's a, that was a long lesson for me to learn. Yeah. Which was to be humble,
Starting point is 01:24:18 to tell people in a very nice way, stay the fuck out of my show, please. I mean, I would say, look, I know what I'm doing, you know, but you had to do know what I'm doing. You know. But you had to do it in a nice way. You don't do it in an arrogant way. Yeah. Because people want to sit there and air check you.
Starting point is 01:24:29 Right. And you say I don't really do air check meetings. If you don't like my show it's okay. You don't have to hire me. You can fire me if you want to but I'm not going to sit
Starting point is 01:24:38 and listen to you give me a fucking air check meeting. Yeah. Right. So most people most people reacted pretty well to that yeah but there were the old school guys that want to well in the first hour do you really think your audience can relate to someone who talks like they're from baltimore and wants to go in and smell your wife's briefs
Starting point is 01:24:55 because she's i'm laughing about yeah i think they do think that's funny you really do huh yeah oh boy the fuck man you know all right well listen the the documentary is called hendry it is available on apple tv prime video everywhere you can stream and i want to i think i thank patrick and jordan for for making this movie i mean and uh they're selling it now and uh if it goes big, they're going to make all the money. Yeah. Oh, man. Maybe we should talk about this soon. No, I'm just kidding. Frankly, the point being, you're right.
Starting point is 01:25:33 No, but I'm grateful to them. I really am. And I see it as a feature. I can imagine somebody seeing this and going, like, this needs to be made into a movie. Well, that's where I come in. No, I'm kidding. No, it's when i sat down with these guys and they said they want to do a doc i was like well shit you know that's some kind of level
Starting point is 01:25:51 of cool that you don't reach in your life often yeah right so i was uh grateful to them and it's really well done and you've got amazing cats that are in it oh my god yeah bill hater and uh cats that are in it oh my god yeah bill hater and uh uh henry rollins is in there kevin pollack kevin pollack is in there he's great yeah right bill was amazing yeah bill was doing phil yeah you know like those characters which was just fantastic and he was so nice too man no it's a testament to the people that you've touched in your life you know that these people weren't just mailing it in. They came in passionately talking about you. And these are some of the great comic minds.
Starting point is 01:26:30 They are. These are cats that I think are funny. Derek Waters has been a good friend for a long time. Got me drunk. Oh, yeah? Yeah, and paid me. Oh, you were on that show? Yeah, yeah, twice.
Starting point is 01:26:42 Drug history? And vomited. I know you did it! Oh, you were on that show? Yeah, yeah. Drug history? Twice. And vomited. And vomited. I know you did it. Oh, everybody. Everybody's has to. I mean, I did one. And then I got in the car. And I'm okay.
Starting point is 01:26:52 But halfway home. Big. Then the second one I did, which was about Christmas. And it had Colin Hanks in it. And everything's just wonderful. And as I'm walking to the limo, I puke in the flower bed at the house they rented to, you know. So you really are a method actor.
Starting point is 01:27:12 You go all the way. You know, how did he do that show, man? After a while, he says, you're going to have to have a physical. You have to be, we got to sign you off to 85 different medical things before they'll even let you do the show. They had a nurse on site. It must have been pretty, it must have got too expensive to do or something.
Starting point is 01:27:27 That's hilarious. Alright, it's an important documentary. You're going to laugh. You're going to get it. And then you're going to go check out Phil's body of work. What's the best? PhilHenryShow.com, man. You can go over there and check us out. That's where all of our
Starting point is 01:27:44 archives are sitting. You know, 60 60 000 hours right now it's kind of scary i'm not exactly sure how you migrate all that material what i'm going to do with it but uh right you'll go in you'll go in and you'll you won't come out you'll keep listening all right uh thank you so much patrick for being here thank you man great to see you yes likewise it's an honor to have you back to see you again thanks for doing this thank you man all right it's an honor to have you back. Great to see you again, Greg. Thanks for doing this. Thank you, man. Did you get my message, by the way,
Starting point is 01:28:07 when I was calling in from the traffic jam? Yeah, yeah, yeah. About my last radio station? Well, yeah, but I called you from the traffic jam. Oh, I didn't get it.
Starting point is 01:28:15 No, I think my phone is off. But Greg's old site was in Hollywood, right? Yeah. And there was barbed wire around it. It was in a bad neighborhood. Oh, yeah,
Starting point is 01:28:24 barbed wire and a machine gun sitting on top of the thing. And you know who used to share it with me? Aerosmith used to rehearse there. Did they? Wow, okay. Yeah, yeah. Steven Tyler would come in and take a piss in our, because the bathroom was in our studio,
Starting point is 01:28:36 and he'd come in and take a piss. Piss in the studio. And then I came in one time, and there was only like two spots for the whole fucking studio. So I pulled into a spot, and then the guy who owned the place says to me, you can't park there. I go, what do you mean? I go, I'm on. I used to do a show on Howard Stern's channel for 10 years.
Starting point is 01:28:51 And so I go, I'm on the air. You know me. I'm always fucking late. I go, I'm on the air in literally two minutes. We're live. And he goes, you can't park here. And I just went, I'm parking here. Sorry, I'm parking here.
Starting point is 01:29:02 And I just walk in. Right. And he's walking next to me yelling at me and i finally and i got to the studio and then i go look man i gotta do the show and he said and he goes fuck you and i don't know what it is about someone saying fuck you to me it's not a good thing fucking light switch goes on yeah and i turned around and i and i took a swing at him yeah and my my buddy mike gibbons who who was on last time, he's a big guy. He got in between us.
Starting point is 01:29:28 And I'm swinging and they're going like, my logo. Yeah, my theme song is playing inside and I'm being held down. I'm swinging at the station manager. And I went in and I had to. The station manager? That's who this camera was? Well, he owned the studio. Oh, for sure.
Starting point is 01:29:43 He owned the whole studio. Did you get a piece of him did you connect it's all on camera because they had a security camera and it was flying I didn't hit him but like
Starting point is 01:29:51 you can see my arm getting stopped in mid swing and it went all around the Stern network everybody saw the film yeah I think fuck you is a
Starting point is 01:29:59 bridge too far it's too much it's a bridge too far yeah that's a trigger word alright thanks again thank you Greg God bless America thank you bro It's too much. It's too much. It's too far. It's a trigger word. All right. Thanks again. Thank you, Greg.
Starting point is 01:30:06 Thank you. God bless America. Love you, man. Thank you, bro.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.