Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson - Lewis Black

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

This week on Joy, Lewis Black, in Craig’s own words “One of America’s best and crankiest comedians”. Craig and Lewis passionately discuss joy, comedy, culture and much more. Give it a listen and see for yourself what level of cranky they reach. EnJOY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling, as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said, like, in my head for, like, 16 years. Wild. Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez.

And on my podcast, I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life. I had the best dad. And I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get emotional with me, Radhi Devlukia, in my new podcast, A Really Good Cry. We're going to be talking with some of my best friends.

I didn't know we were going to go there. People that I admire. When we say listen to your body, really tune in to what's going on. Authors of books that have changed my life. Now you're talking about sympathy, which is different than empathy. Never forget, it's okay to cry as long as you make it a really good one. Listen to A Really Good Cry with Radhi Dabluke on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Craig Ferguson's Fancy Rascal Tour continues in November 2023. For the full list of dates, please go to thecraigfergusonshow.com slash tour website. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interesting people about what brings them happiness. Here is Louis Black, one of America's crankiest and best comedians. Thank you for coming, Ben, and we'll see you next time.

Perfect. How are you, pal? Every day, just a bigger and better and brighter world, isn't it? i don't know i i battle a little depression i do too do you really do you really actually have this first time in my life during the pandemic and during the pandemic it came on and after it's kind of lingered it kind of went away a bit and it's lingered and uh and then you don't know if it's grief because my mother passed away six months ago i'm so sorry to hear that your mother was she left to be over 100 years old 104 wow i mean it's funny like i don't know if if this happened to you but if i have like people i love if they live really a long time people feel like

they you don't get as much grief as you would be allowed if they were younger. It's like you run out of grief. Has anyone hit you with that? Or am I just being an asshole? No, that's what you think. You're right. But the thing is, is they've been there so long, it becomes something else. It's a different type of thing. Yeah. Because when you, as I say in the act, but when you're arguing with your mother about when to take Social Security, well, the statute of limitations has been passed. But 104, and just to give you a sense of it, what that age means is my mother, I got a call from the funeral home,

and they said that they had discontinued. My mother wanted to be cremated, they discontinued her urn. Oh my God. She outlived her urn. She outlived the urn model. They had to get another one. Do you realize that?

Isn't that, first off, that they make that many, that they're coming up with new urns because people are going, oh, this is a better. Is that a better urn? That's. It's, you know, it... Is it a better urn? That's... It's kind of great. It's a triplex. Yeah. It's funny, though, because you were very close with your mom, though, right?

Yeah. It's funny. I don't know if you would agree with this, but my wife says that all good stand-up comedians have kind of the same mom. stand-up comedians have kind of the same mom that's a better and more interesting than that thing of you know some sort of a bitter life or no Catholic Jewish Italian Irish no you can you can have all of that you can have a better life and be Catholic Jewish Italian and Irish but I don't think you can be all these things at the same time but maybe maybe you can. It's America. It's spectacular. Yeah, but she says, because she knew my mom,

and she was right about my mom, she said, I love my mom, my mom loved me, but she was kind of a cold woman, and she had poor boundaries. And my wife says that's kind of like a stand-up song. How did you find a woman that that that smart and married you? Yeah, I know. She's got a real blind spot.

But she said that. That's interesting because my mother was cold. Right. But to me, you know, but it's not cold, but emotionally not, you know, withdraw. You know, we're not going to talk about, you know. No, no, no, no. I get it.

You know, I mean, to give you something I haven't really shared with a lot of people, except my close friends, and you're a good friend. When I went to say goodbye to her, that is literally one of the few times I can remember my life when we looked each other in the eye. Yeah, I understand that. You know that one? I was exactly like that with my parents, too. I was exactly like that.

But I think, I wonder if that was a generational thing as well with those guys because my father and mother were both kids during the Second World War and Glasgow was bombed really heavily and they saw death when they were young. And I think it may be, they weren't frosty in the sense that they were emotionally distant, but they were very careful about using words like I love you and all that kind of stuff. No one did all of that. Yeah, my father was warmer, much warmer. Yeah, my dad too, I think.

Much quieter. Yeah. I wonder if it is that. You know, here's the example of it. I won an Emmy, and I said to my mom, I won an Emmy. She was still alive, and she went, uh-uh, daytime Emmy. She really? Yeah.

Well, that's my mom. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of that thing, right? Because if you're a stand-up, and you've done that, every stand-up who's good, and you're really good, right? Any stand-up who's good, because there's a lot of stand-ups, especially now good all right any stand-up who's good because there's a lot of stuff especially now everybody's a stand-up but you know it's like there's a stand-ups who are proper stand-ups you know what i'm talking about there's you there's like a tell there's like you know guys who really are it and you've gone up on a stage at some point in your life and you've died horribly on that stage probably in the first maybe six months

of your career oh easily and you went back and did it again yeah see i that that and you smile when when i and that's that's like i did that too and as my wife says why why would a person do that and i said well i don't know you just kind of want to i guess well the thing is is i think is is that this like with theater and this is has to do maybe with the mother yeah boy they're going to use this in psychological sociological textbooks this discussion yeah they're going to steal from us they will yeah because because academics always steal from comedians they certainly certainly do when there's insight because they have none. But what, no,

I probably forgot what I'm going to say because I wanted to make a joke. No, that happens to me all the time. Nowadays,

though, I'm reaching the point in my life where I forget what I'm going to say and I don't make a joke. I just forget what I'm going to say.

I stare into space. Yeah. Let me give you an example and this may jog your memory so I'm talking you know Leno right yeah alright so Jay Leno

I'm talking to and Jay's mother was Scottish and I was trying out my theory about all stand-ups or my wife's theory about all stand-ups

having the same mum all good stand-ups having the same mum and Jay whatever you think about Jay Jay is a great stand-up I mean

and he said his mom, when he got the cover of Time magazine, when he was doing the Tonight Show, he said to his mom, Mom, I'm on the cover of Time magazine. She went, oh, yes, it's probably just the local edition.

Time magazine, Mom. There is no local edition. That's right. It's perfect. It's never enough. It's never enough. It's never enough. And I think that that part of getting on stage, getting back on stage, even when you've died, there's something in you. The death.

The death is the, first off, you choose because of your mother in part that we're comfortable with that dying. Theater and stand-up are the two places you learn from failure. Right. You don't learn by being successful because when it works, you're like, especially early on, you go, what the fuck did I just do? No, I have to be able to do it again. I don't know what happened in the first place.

But if you fail, you kind of go, well, I can try this. I can do this. I can do that. I've changed the line, the delivery, da-da-da-da. I started too high with the audience. My energy was too low. All of that. All of that comes into play.

And so I think it's that that we get from our mothers, like, you know, Jay's mom saying that, that sense of, like, we're comfortable with the fact that we've been in front of a major primary relationship that we take as our backboard. It's like this is our judgment. And it's constantly going, oh, forget it. Yeah. You have failed again. Right. And so failing, I know how to do that.

And also failing can look like love. Yes. Wow. Because you just go like, well, you know, I failed, my mom loves me and she's always saying mean things. So it's... And the other thing is that I've said about it, which is I believe about what separates those who go on and stand up is there's a certain kind of a joy we get out of dying.

I totally agree. And the stupidity of that joy is, oh, you think you got me in a corner? Yeah. You guys, forget it, because I have something coming up now, even though nothing has worked for 10 minutes. Yes. But this one, I've been saving this one. I can't believe what I'm going to do to you. And then you pull that out and boom, and it's worse.

And you're just digging your grave. Well, what's interesting, the reason I started this conversation talking about that is because before I ever met you, I saw you perform doing exactly that in front of one of the worst audiences I had seen in my life.

And I've seen some really bad ones usually when I'm in front of them, it was at the Layton Live gig at the Edinburgh Festival years and years and years ago. Oh, you saw that? I was there. And I was like, oh, my God, they're going to kill him. And you just wouldn't back down.

And I saw them turn, which was amazing. And I thought, Jesus Christ, I don't know how a guy can do that. You were there because that, for me, was a historic moment. It destroyed. I had gone over there in hopes of then, this is my way to get into England and Scotland. Right. That killed it.

Really? Oh, yeah. I think they all, you know, it did because the thing that had kicked it off was that I did a joke about golf clubs stolen from a car that I had, a rental car in Florida, and that the policeman who came was Jamaican. And when I didn't, there was something at the time, I don't remember the joke because it's almost as if that night traumatized me with the joke. And so I said that, and it was just a true story that I didn't know what he was saying.

And that's when the audience, you racist piece of shite. And it started to pour out. And I was like, and that's why I put my foot down. You fucking, really? You guys are going to call me racist? That's what I remember, which was awesome. Because it was fantastic to watch. And there's a famous audio recording of Bill Burr doing pretty much the same thing.

Do you remember that? The audience, they want to kill him. And he's like, I don't care. I'm doing my time, you guys. And he went at them. And they're trying to drown him out, you guys. And he went at them, and they're trying to drown him out at one point, and he won't give in. I remember those nights.

They don't happen often now. In fact, I haven't had one for a long time. It'd be bad if you had them when you're in your 60s. But when you're a kid starting out, that's why I wonder, you know, kids coming up now, everybody does things differently, and they're doing their comedy on YouTube and stuff like that, and that's great. I would do it if I was that age too, you know, but they don't get put in front of the adversity.

They get it in a different way. They get negative comments on their thing and people saying mean things to them online, but they don't get the immediate fresh in-your-face hatred, which I think does you so much good. Well, it does, and it also is how you learn. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think for some of them, it works as kind of like, okay, it's like sending out an audition tape

to the people you really want to audition for. So in that way, there's an upside. I just did my... Your special? My special is on YouTube now. Yeah, and I was going to ask you about that, because I'm getting to the point, you know about every couple of years when you have an act

and you're like, okay, I'm going to have to burn this stuff because I can't keep doing it. I can't keep saying it. Yeah, I can't keep saying it every night and pretending it's the first time I said it. So I'm going to have to burn this. So I'm coming up to doing a special and actually somebody had told me

that you had put yours straight up on YouTube, and I went, you know what, I think that, because Louis did that as well, didn't he? He just puts it up on YouTube, and it is what it is. Yeah. Well, because a lot of it was, and I wasn't happy about it, because I'm going, well, you know,

this is for kids, you know what I mean? Right. But it apparently is where a ton of people are watching their stuff. The industry is changing, and it's changing so fast. Like the writer's strike and all that. I mean, everybody's like, what's going to happen? But I think in terms of stand-up comedy,

the idea of having any executive have any input on material is over as far as i'm concerned i just wouldn't it'd be a thing that i would listen to now yeah no it's really absurd it's but it also is the uh amazon prime has a thing a part of their deal now right i'm going to just tell you i will talk about it later but right you would find it unacceptable. Netflix, basically, I don't know. That's a club. They dismissed us because we were already cretinous.

I did a couple of stand-up specials for Netflix. Did you really? I did, yeah, back in the day. You prick. I did not get one on. No, I did. I think I did. I thought you got... One of the first ones I did. It wasn't the first one, but I was all they could get. I think I did one of the first ones I did. It wasn't the first one, but it was like in the first. I was all they could get. I think I did a couple for them.

$40 million you got the. No, no, I didn't get anything like that. No, I got like a free subscription. But when I did the Netflix special, I think it was, they were definitely streaming, but it was, you know, it wasn't just the DVD. Well, yeah, the show was way back. Yeah, it was, they were definitely streaming, but it wasn't just the DVD. It was way back. Yeah, it was wild.

And it was before they went in the money psychosis. But when they started tossing money around for comics, and I was still in that kind of sweet spot of like, okay, I should be one. Right. No, got blocked. And then now, forget it. We basically checked in. Right. The guys pitched, yo it. We basically checked in, you know. Right. The guys pitched, you know, well, what about Lewis?

Yeah. Well, we have 12 people for every slot right now. And I don't get it. But as a result, you know, bumped out of that. And then HBO has kind of gone its way. Right. You know, Showtime. Can you make it a bit more Game of Thrones-y?

Can you be on fire? Is there a dragon in it? Can it have a dragon in it? Is there some blood? Yeah, maybe tits. Tits, blood, and a dragon. And incest. Well, actually, now that you mention it, yeah, I think that is my new special.

I think that's what I'll call it, tits, blood, and incest. That'll get you some attention on social media. They'll be turning on YouTube. Oh, boy, oh, boy. But I think what's interesting as well. It's coming. I'm serious. I may even use that.

I think that putting it on the egalitarian nature of just throwing it out there and then anybody who wants to watch it watching it, I don't think the streamers have quite understood i don't think the executives are executives whether they were working for cbs in the 1950s or netflix now they're just the same fucking middle management pricks that they were back then and so what they do is they don't see when change is coming they didn't fucking see that and they think like like all humans, they think they're the end of the evolutionary cycle. And you go,

you fuckers don't understand. Netflix, you're gonna be done. You're gonna be done because people don't need to pay for stuff anymore. It's just like fucking music. What happened to the musicians?

People just grab this shit from wherever they want. And now musicians have to go out, like that's why all these 80s bands are on tour again. Like, oh, God,

and playing casinos and stuff with the nights and what's happening. Well, it's, you know, but that's the, and it's in part the one thing about what YouTube does because where the money is going to come, you know, now is much like

with rock and rolls coming from the gig. Yeah, you got to do it. You got to play live. So that YouTube, you know, now as much like with rock and roll, it's coming from the gig. Yeah, you got to do it. You got to play live. So that YouTube, you know, brings in more diverse and a different audience for us. Right. Or that's what they tell me, but we'll see. I think it's working. That's happened to me.

I don't know if you know. I noticed my audience is getting younger. I even had to say to them one night, you fuckers better be here ironically. I'm not Rick Astley you don't be here like never gonna give it all cheeky monkey hello everybody

this is Craig Ferguson letting you know that my fancy rascal tour continues throughout the fall of 2023 for a full list of dates and tickets

please go to my website thecraigfergusonshow.com slash tour. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life and marriage. I don't think he knew how big it would be, how big the life I was given and live is. I think he was like, oh yeah, things come and go. But with me, it never came and went.

Is she Donna Martin or a down and out divorcee? Is she living in Beverly Hills or a trailer park? In a town where the lines are blurred, Tori is finally going to clear the air in the podcast, Miss Spelling. When a woman has nothing to lose, she has everything to gain. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

Wild. Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez. Check out my podcast where I talk to some of the biggest athletes, musicians, actors in the world. We go beyond the headlines and the sound bites to have real conversations about real life, death, love, and everything in between. This life right here, just finding myself, just this relaxation, this not feeling stressed, this not feeling pressed. This is what I'm most proud of. I'm proud of Mary because I've been through hell and some horrible things. That feeling that

I had of inadequacy is gone. You're going to die being you. So you got to constantly work on who you are to make sure that the stars align correctly. Life ain't easy and it's getting harder and harder. So if you have a story to tell, if you come through some trials, you need to share it because you're going to inspire someone.

You're going to give somebody the motivation to not give up, to not quit. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone. I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm Amber Ruffin, a better Lacey

Lamar. Boo. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. You thought you had fun last season. Well, you were right. And you should tune in today for new fun segments like Sister Court and listening to Lacey's steamy DMs. We've got new and exciting guests like Michael Beach.

That's my husband. Daphne Spring. Daniel Thrasher. Peppermint. Morgan J. and more. You got to watch us. No, you mean you have to listen to us. I mean, you can still watch us, but you got to listen.

Like, if you're watching us, you have to tell us. Like, if you're out the window, you have to say, hey, I'm watching you outside of the window. Just, you know what? Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you think that the thing with stand-up, because we were talking earlier about the immediate failure of live stuff, and what happens is maybe it's changing for us too. Maybe live stuff is kind of like,

like the kids that are coming up, they start out on YouTube. They start out on free content. But if you start out on free content and you don't have an hour and a half to do once you get to the theater, it's going to work against you a little bit yeah well it's i think when they started doing uh you know when you had the five minutes people were

working on their seven minutes set for yeah carson and stuff and then they and then you know they would go and that that's what they had and they didn't have the even the 30 minutes to be a middle act yeah you know yeah and it's crazy i now, I mean, now it's really, but I'm crazy because now I actually, people go to, you go to clubs to work out your material. I go, no, I just go into a theater and work it out. That's what you do, right? I kind of mix it up a little bit.

Especially because the mechanics of touring, because I know you tour a lot too, and we're dinosaurs, man. We tour like fucking old rock bands. You get on a fucking fucking bus and you've got the big foreign guy with the tattoos doing the sound check and all that kind of stuff and that's a kind of old model but I do it so if there's a you know if you book a theater on a Thursday and you don't have another theater until a Sunday because I was you because Lewis Black's in the fucking theater that night so you can't have it. Or there's not a

city in between. Right. So I'll do a club and I'll do a run of clubs. There are clubs that I really like. Which ones? The Comedy Works in Denver. Both great clubs. The one in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wow. I bet.

Yeah, it's really good. What's the name of that one in Charlotte? I like the... There's Comedy Zone. Yeah, the Comedy Zone. Which is a little weird. Used to be really weird because they had about 100 of them and they were... No, it's just one.

Yeah. That's where I thought. Yeah. I think it's kind of... There's still a few of them around, but they're not... That one is... If it's a particularly good one, that's... That would be why.

That's a find. No, no, it's good. It was the Comedy Zone in Charlotte, and there's a couple of really nice ones, like there's some improvs that are really nice. There's one in San Jose. Oh, that's a great one. That's at Lake Theater. Yeah.

I love that one. And the one in La Brea in California. So they're there. I like, did you ever play Hilarities? No, where's that? That's Cleveland. That's another great one. Oh, you know, I saw John Lovitz there one night.

Nick is the guy who owns, it's great. And importantly, and sadly to say, really great food. Really great food. And not to you wouldn't appreciate this, and a really good wine list. Well, I think that's okay. I mean, look, just because I don't drink wine is, you know, I used to drink a lot of wine. Oh, I know. Yeah.

You don't have a thing with that. You've never had a problem with it. I probably did, but what I had was I was functioning. Right. Really well. I didn't have a, I would basically, it kind of, you know, it was like, so let me get this straight. I got a job where I can drink when I'm done with the job until six in the morning, let's say.

Yeah. And then I still have, I can sleep for 12 hours. Yeah. And then wake up, I don't have to be on stage till nine. So I don't see how I could possibly. See, that's a very healthy attitude, I think, because the way I was doing it is that I would like, so I have a job that I have to stop drinking for.

That seems like a lot. So I had a different approach to it. But I was a long, we've both seen people who screw up. I mean, and from that to drugs. I mean, where they call you and they say, so-and-so passed and you knew it. You knew it. Yeah. It's just, when was it going to happen?

Yeah. The great moment, the thing I, when this just, this is a little off to the side, but it's really, one of the stories I repeat in terms of drinking was you and I, and also it's about drinking, but more importantly it's about why it's important you just talk to somebody. Right. I really loved being on your show. I loved it. The great thing about it is you ripped up the cards and just talked. I just talked.

That's great. I'm glad you felt that way. And I loved having you on the show. Oh, and it was terrific because I was completely comfortable and we enjoyed it. I knew if I had nothing, you had it. You knew if you had nothing show oh and it was terrific because i was completely comfortable and we were enjoyed and i knew if i had nothing you had it you knew if you had nothing i had it it was like a great ping pong match and nobody was trying to win right and but you and i and this was and it's what made par show and why i watched it you know aging me or not but those early shows like alan

steve allen that what made them great was the fact that they were in a conversation they weren't you know, aging me or not, but those early shows like Al and Steve Allen, what made them great was the fact that they were in a conversation. They weren't trying to promote anything. And how is it to work with Licky Dick? Well, Licky Dick licked my dick. You know, that stuff. And so it really gave, we discovered while talking that we lived in the same neighborhood. We didn't know that.

That's right. The East Village. Right. That we discussed, which bar did you go to? We went to the same neighborhood. We didn't know that. That's right. The East Village. Right. Which bar did you go to? We went to the same fucking bar. Same bar, yeah. And we both sat there. And it was like literally we went through a progression of understanding

that we'd been fucking around each other. We were both drinking that we never noticed. Yeah, at the same time. The Pyramid on 7th Avenue. There was the Last Resort on 7th. WDBO or whatever the one on 7th. Right. And the Pyramid Club was on Avenue B or something.

Avenue A, I think. That's right. It was next to the Odessa Russian Restaurant. It was a really good borscht that you could get at 4 o'clock in the morning. It's gone now. Yeah, of course. It's a fucking YouTube or something. It's a fucking YouTube or something. It's a Netflix screen or something.

But it was, like, all of that time, when I look at, because I was tooling around, as you were tooling around New York in the 80s, in the East Village, they make movies about shit like that now. They make movies about, you know, like, Basquiat and all this. I remember Basquiat, you knowiat hanging out at the Pyramid Club and it saved the robots.

And you don't think anyone's going to make a movie of these things. But I guess that you get old enough and you don't die and they start begging the old in the before times. So when you were doing it, you were doing stand-up then, right? Yeah, but only off and on. I really was theater. Yeah. I wanted to be in theater.

What drew you more into stand-up then? Or did you still want to do theater? I mean, I still would like to do more theater, but I just, you know, the stand-up kind of fulfills the writing. It fills everything, writing and acting. Yeah, it does. And I've never been a director, but I'm directing,

and it doesn't take much. I mean, no. You're directing, you're stand-up. Yeah, I mean, it's the thing, when I talk to young actors, I go,

do it, do it just to do it, because you're learning directing, writing, and acting simultaneously. It's the reason I started doing it as well, because in Britain, you had to, in order to be an actor and work in a theater,

you had to have an equity card. You have an actor's union card. I don't know what it's like now. In order to get the union card, you had to do three shows in a union theater. But in order to get a show in a fucking union theater, you needed to have a union card. I was like, what the fuck?

But there was one loophole which is if you did stand up they would put you on to do stand up and give you a union contract so i did three and by the third one i was like okay i think i think i might have found something i enjoy or at least i can do sufficiently to get by so when when did you start doing John's show? Because that was like a real gear change for you, wasn't it, when you started doing The Daily Show? Yeah, that was a big gear change. But that one I was doing, but I'd already kind of transitioned into stand-up, and I was... Oh, yeah, I knew that.

But I was doing it when Kilbourne was on. I was there from the very, very beginning. How did you get... I never met him much. I talked to him... I did his show that I ended up hosting, the late night show. Right, yeah.

And he was always really nice to me. I didn't really connect with him. I didn't really know him at all. I don't think it was much to connect. I was with him and it was... Yeah, he was kind of a quiet guy. Yeah. Yeah, he kind of kept himself to himself. Yeah, I mean... I think. He kind of a quiet guy. Yeah. Yeah, he kind of kept himself to himself.

Yeah, I think. He went from sports to that, and I think he was a little bit of a fish out of water there because a lot of the times, I mean, he didn't know what the joke was. Yeah. I mean, the idea was... Like that woman in the Marx Brothers movies.

What was her name? I can't remember. Is it Dumont, Mary? Yeah, Margaret Dumont, right? I get 50 points in the race to come back next week. Do you know what? There's a great Groucho Marx quote about someone gave her a job.

He said, oh, great. I'm glad you gave her a job. She hasn't worked since the last Marx Brothers movie. What am I saying? I haven't worked since the last... Yeah, no, the Daily Show. The Daily Show was, I mean, I was on like the first or the second week. Right.

And have been on ever since. And then when I became of the gear change, you know, like I knew you were. I'd seen you in Edinburgh. I knew you were the stand-up. I knew you were the stand-up that you are. I knew what I was dealing with when I saw you and how good you were at it. But I became aware of the gear change for you on that show. And it was round about, it was after Clinton, was it after Clinton? Was it George, was it Bush? Bush. Yeah, it was Bush. Bush kicked it in. Right.

That's where I believed, began to believe then, and when I talked to people that it was part of what success has to do with in our business is timing. Yeah. And it's got nothing to do with reality. No. This was, George Bush came to power. It was right in my sweet spot. Yeah. The show was on.

There was finally, you know, they began to, you know, the audience, which I already knew was paying attention to this stuff, their knowledge and interest increased, let's say, even 10%. And I had George Bush, and it really cracked things wide open. It's an interesting thing, though, that show, because the phenomenon of that show kicked off a lot, both for, I mean, obviously for John, it changed his career, but the idea of the fake news, which was a great joke, and now

it's kind of, it's not kind of, it's fucking real. Now nobody, and I don't care if you're on the far right of Hitler or the far left of Trotsky, nobody believes anybody anymore. You don't know where to go for any news. And people used to trust the Daily Show for news, which was the

fake news show. This is strange, right? And then what it evolved into was news shows. I think it evolved into MSNBC and Fox, because then we have news, but what we're going to do is comment on the news. And that came from the Daily Show.

Yeah, and that, of course, is a Frankenstein's monster because now it's not even news. It's just we're going to comment on everything all the time. Yeah, and it's really reached a point. I keep screaming it on stage. Four years ago I was saying it. Five years ago, before the shit hit the fan, I was going, I said, we don't have a two-party system of ideas

it's two separate realities people they're living we are literally i'm in this country is living in two separate realities yeah if not four yeah but two solid separate realities that they based it on and and i see it when i sent out the special the youtube special but you know some of the comments are like well you know yadda, you didn't do that, you know, your take on this and that. What are you talking? I'm talking about me, Schmuck. You've decided that was your reality.

I'm telling you what my reality was. But the thing is, because everything now has a polemic, everything has a polemic, that even to not have, to not be political is to be political. And it's so funny. It's such a weird twist. It's like, I'm not have to not be political is to be political yeah and it's it's so funny it's such a weird twist it's like i'm not going to do politics oh so you're a trumper where did i'm not going to do politics did i say that you know it's kind of oh so you're not a

trumper oh fuck you trump's great it's like what's happening is that i think this is my theory about it i don't know if you agree that people love to feel smart and the thing about politics is it's a really great way particularly for politicians it's a really great way for dumb fucks to feel like they're clever like they say stuff and they get to wear a suit and walk around in big buildings and say very important and they're i don't know about you, but the politicians I've met all the way up to presidents, I'm like, I can't believe how fucking stupid this guy is. Like, they're fucking stupid.

But then I get it, because who else would be a politician but a fucking idiot? It's crazy, right? Because you lose half the audience right there. Well, they're also nerds. Yeah. And they used to be better at being nerds, which was like not try to get beyond their nerdishness

and just, I'm going to go there. What they wanted to do was go in that room and work. Right. They didn't want to go out. And then they found out you could make more money. You know, it's kind of when Hollywood and D.C. I'm from D.C., around that area. I'm from Silver Spring, Maryland.

And literally, you know, when I was young, there was no Hollywood was here. And then once Reagan came in, there was the marriage too. And then it's the, we're going to present you with this. Did you ever do the Hollywood, what do you call it, White House Correspondents' Day? No, I did the Congressional Correspondents' Dinner. All right, okay.

Is that like the Illuminati one or something? Yeah, no, that was, it had its own, it was the same, but I never got that high. That's my career. It's like, did you do that? No. But I did this. Well, it's fun. I did the White House Correspondents' Dinner the last year of Bush. Oh, I remember you did it. Well, it's fun. I did the White House Correspondents, the last year of Bush.

Oh, I remember you did it. Oh, my God. It's such a weird gig. Because you know when you do a corporate gig and you know it's going to suck. Yeah. They're like... Like you can smell the warm lobster

before you start talking. Those are better gigs than I am. Well, sometimes it's more... You know what? I used to do this. I had this thing once. Go on with it. I had this thing once where

I used to do this bit in the act about Tom Cruise. Like, it wasn't particularly nice about Tom Cruise. It was about, like, you know, his take on depression and all that kind of stuff. And it was just about...

I mean, it wasn't particularly nasty about him, but it was a thing. And I did it. I used to kill every night. I used to kill every night. And one night I do a corporate gig, total silence. And then I come off stage and somebody says, you know, this is Tom Cruise's law firm. Is that right?

Yeah. I'm like, oh, my God, are they going to sue me? They're like, no, but I don't think they'll have you back. God. God, it's scary do you do a lot of corporate gigs no no no they do not even come near me i don't know they came they they kind of dried up during the covid i think they're beginning to come but they stopped before the covid they stopped that i had some and some really worked well and then uh but also they you

know there was this thing that they didn't realize i could, you know, oh, he's going to come here, he's going to say fuck a lot. No, you idiot. Yeah, you. You pay X, I'm not going to say fuck. I'm not here to say fuck. It's funny how people will say that. It's like, please don't say fuck. Like, I'm capable of that.

I did one, I remember it was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just before I walk on stage. The guy says to me, please don't say fuck. And I'm like, I knew it, right? I mean, I knew it was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just before I walk on stage, the guy says to me, please don't say fuck. And I'm like, I knew it, right? I knew it. When I say the contract, it says PG-13 or something. But I walked on stage, and I said to the audience,

I've just been told that I'm not allowed to say the F. I've just heard this minute. So we're going to have to, we're just going to have to make up another word. And it actually played pretty good. That's good. But I think that the whole world, because of social media, has become HR.

Like everybody is like, you've got to not offend this, you've got to not do that. But offending people is a byproduct of doing what we do. You don't have to be an asshole or a bully, but you are going to offend someone. You're going to say something that you don't... That's why I think when I see you, I think you're so good at this. You will say a thing that you patently don't believe in

order to make a joke. But if I write down, Lou Black said this, it's going to look like you do believe that. Because they remove your skill from what you just did. Yeah, exactly. It's gotten out of hand. And also, for me, a part of it is, is I'll find myself on stage, I'll say something. Like, I'll say it's something, you know, and the guys will understand. And then I go, oh, fuck. Okay, look, by guys, I said I did not mean to exclude every woman on the planet.

Do you understand this? And the fact that I even have to fucking stand here and make sure that before you leave this theater that you understand that this had to do with everybody and I didn't say everybody and that somehow I slipped that word in. And you kind of go, and they get it. Of course they do.

Because they've been dragged through this. Yeah. Because it's both sides have created this madness. Yeah, yeah. It's not, I don't think it belongs to any particular group of people. No, because it works in, you know, it's, I said, just recently I was talking about, I brought up George Santos. That's him.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. On stage. He's a trip. Oh, God. Oh, what a guy. So I bring him up because I started it as a joke about, I used to say, Herschel Walker. Right. And that's all I got to say.

And the audience, when I said his name, the audience would be like, how? Just how? I said, that's where we're at. Do you understand? I don't need, you don't need me anymore. I'm done. Just say the name. I'm just out of the name.

So I tried it with Santos. He doesn't do as well. So, but I met, you know, I started to talk a little about it. I'd said he was a liar. And on one side of the stage, a guy yells out, well, Joe Biden's a liar. And I go, okay, look, all right. Do you understand the difference between the types of lies I'm talking? And then the other guys at the stage goes, you know, Biden wouldn't be where he was if he wasn't.

I said, what? I said, what are you talking about? And I go stage. Now, all I've said is George Santos. Just his name. Yeah, and that he makes shit, you know, that he was lying. Right. And I started to get into, you know, the two jokes.

And then I tell the audience, you can make a joke. Right. Just pick anything that you think he might not have ever done. And you're going to get a laugh. And so the guy says, and this shocked me and actually stopped me. You know that moment where you go, I can't believe this is fucking coming out of this person's mouth and this is happening. Where you go, I can't believe this is fucking coming out of this person's mouth and this is happening. He says, well, you know, if Joe Biden's wife and son weren't killed in that accident, Joe Biden would be a used car salesman. Okay.

And I was like, what the fuck did that have to do with what? Jeez. And I was like, I said, you know, I got to stand here now and explain to you the difference between these two people that I have to reprimand you for the fact that this is not the type of thing you say. You want to say this at home, you say it at home. That's fine. Right. You're on the dinner table with your family, fine. I don't care.

But you don't come into a public space and say something that nasty about anybody. No, that's what home is for. That's what Thanksgiving dinner is for. Exactly. It's like that thing when, you know, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry said, someone in the royal family is racist. And I'm like, yeah, it's a family. So, yeah, someone in the family is a racist. If you don't know who the racist is in your family It's because it's you

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Listen to A Really Good Cry with Raleigh Dablukia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. It seems to me that, I don't know, being offended is some kind of badge of honor and I don't understand it. I get offended, but so what? You know, Ricky Gervais has got a very nice little phrase about it. Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right.

You're just offended. But this was astonishing. I mean, I just hadn't. Yeah. Because I hadn't heard that in so long, that kind of mean-spirited, I just won't, I don't abide it. I mean, that's what we get to do. And the reason we get to do it is we try to put it, take it, encapsulate it, and put it into a joke. And make it ridiculous.

Yes. So if you take a sentence which is mean, or you take a sentiment which is mean, you hold it up for being foolish or stupid or reprehensible. But I think that, you know, the nuance, I think it's a little, I don't want to be like cranky about social media, but at the same time, it's hard not to be. Because it's kind of really just a bathroom wall. You know, you just write, youig ferguson is shit and shit so therefore it's true yeah you know and you were never funny yeah you're not funny which i don't really understand because you don't say to a musician you're not music you go yeah yeah i fucking am people are dancing like if all these

people are laughing and you're not laughing maybe i I am funny, maybe you're just an asshole. Yeah, it's like, what was I thinking? You know, did I, if I just, you know, there's nobody laughing and I'm hearing it, that's what the level of psychosis I'm at. Yeah, good. And they're really unbelievable in terms of the fact that they, it's high school.

Yeah, a little bit. It feels a bit like that, yeah. Well, that was the thing I've been thinking about this, is that social media is all the things that people hated in high school and it brought back. So you're walking down the hall and somebody found out, you know, you were pissing in the urinal, you missed the urinal, and you're walking down the hall, you missed the urinal!

You know, and so you get 60 of those. Yeah. And 80 of these. Yeah. And part of the problem was, and it's happening now with AI, is they just said, okay, here's Facebook, go, do it. And it was like, when it happened, I was like, this is bullshit. Never in the history of anything did you become involved with something and they don't give you

any instructions. Just play with it. Well, you know, just playing with it created real problems, fucknut. It's interesting, though. I have a slightly different feeling about AI. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that... Probably. You are probably

wrong. You're totally wrong. God damn it! I can't believe I've got to sit here. He shit, I wrote it in shit, so it must be true. I said we're not going to talk about AI. AI, I think, finally devalues it completely. Like, it completely devalues it. Like, I saw a post... Devalues...

Devalues all social media, all it's all garbage all the time which is uh you know obviously one of my favorite performers of all time saying all garbage all the time but but it is it is it's all garbage all the time and i think the ai makes it so worthless as a... See, I think the failure of journalism in the sense that they got so lazy, they used social media as a source, that they gave it some credence and some validity that it doesn't actually have. Well, is that true?

Right. It started before him, but it really blew up in the Trump era. Right, well, he used it very effectively, though. I mean, because he just used the noise. But the big tragedy there, I used to say, was that when they started putting his tweets and stuff on TV, I go, you don't get to do that. That's our job. Yeah.

Okay. Your job is to discuss the political. These tweets are the pathological. That's our bread and butter. That's right. That's right. You fucking pricks. Yeah.

And I would go out there and I said, you know, I would read these tweets to you, but you've already heard them 300 times and you shouldn't have heard them at all. And I said, and that's why my act will be shorter tonight. Yeah. Because they've taken away. They've taken away all your stuff. A third of what, I mean, it was unbelievable. It's an odd thing that you can say, but that's why I think AI is actually going to save the human race, because you can't believe a fucking word of it,

and you're going to have to grow up. It's not like, well, I get my news, it doesn't matter where you get your fucking news. If you get your news from an electronic device, you're fucked. You're going to have to go and see for yourself so if something happens in ukraine and you think what's going on in ukraine get on a fucking plane and go and find out because that's the only way you're gonna fucking know i wouldn't advise it because i suspect it might be dangerous but if you really want to know what's going on go and fucking see now that you can do the i mean which

ai is you know that you can you can, it came out before. And the thing is, is too, with AI is it's really literal. We're talking about this. And this is probably four weeks after they announced really AI. Right. Where they told the world, hey, look what we got. We're going to fuck with everything now. You thought we were fucking with you, but now we got something.

We're really going to be really fun. Yeah, we're going to shove something right up your ass. Boy, oh boy, get ready for this, shitass. But it is that thing now, too, which they kind of just before AI, they said, oh, you know, we can put fake people into these things. Right. And they look just

like you. What? I want to be in porn without having to do it. Yeah. Like, so you use my face and then give me a huge penis and make me great at porn, and I'm fine with it. Go right ahead. Just don't focus on me going,

eh, eh, eh, like that. But I don't know. I think that because, look, the human race is evolving. Evolution doesn't stop. Everybody thinks, well, that's it now. It's like, well, we got the wheel. That's it now. Well, we, the human race is evolving. Evolution doesn't stop. Everybody thinks, well, that's it now. You know, it's like, well, we got the wheel. That's it now.

Well, we got the fire. That's it now. What is this fire? It's like, it's not like it's going to fucking stop. Well, screaming, that's the way of the future. No, it's fucking not. It's the way of the now. The future, you don't fucking know what's coming.

Yeah. The AI, too, is, I think, is, I say, you have a world filled with people who have no intelligence. Just tons of us. And from out of that group of people who have no intelligence, a number of people who have a little more of no intelligence than those people without intelligence, just a touch more, are going to create intelligence? Fuck you. That is not possible. I saw a robot when I was in LA. I was in LA with my son about a couple of months ago.

I saw a delivery robot. And it was a robot on its own going down the road delivering a thing. And I was like- It wasn't a commercial? No, no. It's a real fucking robot. They have delivery robots. I know they do, but I've never seen one.

No, I saw one. That was the only one I saw. And I was thinking, you know what? I don't care, but I've never seen one. Yeah, well, I saw one. That was the only one I saw, and I was thinking, you know what? I don't care how well you've made that robot. If I want what that robot's got, I'll fucking take it. And I don't need a gun. I just need to unplug

that motherfucker. I know where his batteries are. The whole idea of it, I refuse to be frightened of it. I think people are who they are, you know. I just, I refuse to say, oh, the AI is going to get us. Fuck them. Well, I don't think it's going to get them, but I think it's going to undermine education for a while.

Well, not as much as the fucking failure of the education system has undermined the education system. Well, that's true, too. But that's got to do with another problem. mind the education well that's true too but that's got to do with another problem but i mean when you for those who are kind of past you know in college once you get to college and you kind of go fuck i got three papers this week oh that's true that critical thinking thing goes out the window yeah i mean it you know it's like when they said you know you don't have to this was an amazing one that i did on which is talk about stupid okay this. This is how dumb I am. I said, I'm just going to tell you this. This is not funny. It's not anything. It's just information you should have when you go to a PTA meeting.

They've stopped teaching cursive writing. Really? Here. In a lot of places in the country. Oh my God. Can you imagine? Yeah. And do you write stuff down? You write it, right? Yeah. Or do you? I do both. Yeah, exactly. And so I said, you know, I had written plays for a long time. And then, you know, when the word processor and all that came out, I started to try to write plays. Oh, now I'll be able to keep up with my brain.

And I tried to do that. And I wasn't writing as well, and I realized, then I went back to writing in longhand, cursive, and I went, fuck, I'm thinking different. Yeah. It's a completely different way of thinking. Oh, well, how much do you read versus before or after smartphones? Like, I mean, I used to read, I always had a book in my hand i would always read and and now

i read but i read like garbage on on this fucking little little toilet funnel in my hand i read less much less i also think the pandemic did it uh for me too yeah because i sit down and it was like it was still like oh i got plenty of plenty of time. I'll read this. And then the next day, I'll read this. Then the next day, I'll read this. And it was really almost true. I would start to read something, and in my head, it would be, I'd get about three paragraphs in, and my brain would start going, stop, drop the book.

You're going to die. Did you get COVID? No. You never got it? I had it twice. And I've had all the shots. I'm like a COVID Petri dish. Wow.

Yeah, I've had it a couple of times. I think you're the only second person I've ever met that's not had it. Yeah, I know a few who didn't. And I had this kind of spray that I don't know if that's what did it. Yeah. That they claimed worked. Would you spray other people to keep them away from you? No.

Like a cat? That would be a different spray. Wow, twice. Did it knock you out? First time. First time it did. Second time I was like, okay, it's no big deal. But the first time, I think what was worse with the pandemic wasn't,

the COVID was awful, of course it was. Now, were you there or here? I was in Scotland. When you got it? Yeah, yeah. Well, you've never been a clean people. No, no, we're not. We're damp and we do a lot of breathing on each other and touching things. And washing our hands, that's fully English. touching things. So we, I'm washing our hands, that's fully English. So,

the thing about it was the fear that they put into it. Do you remember in the 1980s when they were trying to terrify everybody when AIDS first started and the fear campaign,

rather than saying, look, here's what we know so far, which would have been helpful, I think, to a lot of people who subsequently got sick. They just tried to make it about shame-based sexual contact. It had echoes of that in it. It was like, the main thing you have to focus on here is your fear. It seems kind of sinister to me.

Anything that comes, it's like, nobody kind of sinister to me. Anything that comes, it's like nobody kind of wants to help. Well, at least that's the kind of vibe I go from it. It's like, I don't think you guys want to help. You're just loving this. I mean the media, you know. It was very weird. Yeah. Because, you know, it was that thing.

It was, my whole life I thought if we were invaded by, you know, another. Aliens? Aliens. Yeah. That the world, because of all the books, you know, and all the science fiction, would come together. Yeah. To defend themselves. And here is an invasion by an alien.

Nothing. Not even close. No. Not even in the ballpark. Nope. What are you doing? Shh, don't tell them. Don't tell them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was like, what fucking, are you people ballpark? Nope. What are you doing? Shh, don't tell them. Don't tell them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was like, what fucking, are you people this crazy? Yeah. And here, too. It was, you know, and my special has stuff in it about what happened. Yeah, yeah, I did, too. Yeah, I did. I remember about it.

And the response of some people is that, you know, well, you're, you know, and it was like, you know, they had their own take on it. And I said, and to me, the problem always was, is that what you had to have happen here was the, whether it worked or not, there are people who are going to ignore it, but the Democrats and the Republicans had to get together. Yeah. And they had to sit down as one,

and with him, with the perfect storm, you know, with Trump, and kind of present a united front and say, here's what we're going to do. And they never did. No, they never did. You can do this, or you can do that. I was fucking, I mean, seriously, I was, and it wasn't a joke. I'm washing shit with Clorox.

I could have killed myself. Yeah. You know, it's like in Britain, the prime minister was making the rules for the COVID lockdown. And at the same time, this is why they kicked him out. He's having like parties in number 10 down the street. And he's like, oh, yeah, you're not allowed to see your grandma. She's dying.

Oh. I was like, what? But it was an odd, a weird, I don't remember anything like it in my lifetime when things got that strange for that little period, that first six months of COVID. I'm like, oh my God. It was bizarre.

Really fucking weird. Really weird. And then really, you know, oh boy, you know, this whole thing about, you know, I'm not going to take the vaccine and then that became a political, how does that, it's not. How does it get political? It's not a political issue. Okay. Yeah. It's either you, you trust that science or you don't. Yeah. That's it. If I'm taking it, I am not striking out at you. And if you, and if I don't

want to see you because you didn't take it, it's because I'm going to go see my mother. Yeah. And I can't fucking afford. I'm not even worried about me as much as I am getting something. Because I will see my mother every two weeks. Yeah, and that must have been the thing. Because your mom was, what, like 102 at the time? Yeah, at the time.

And never got COVID. Jeez. In a nursing home where they were dropping. Yeah. That happened in Scotland as well. They put a bunch of people from the hospitals that had it back into the nursing homes. It was a mess. Yeah, it's crazy.

It was a mess. And then people blame people for that. It's like nobody knew anything. Nobody knew what was going on. Do you remember? Because right at the beginning, we thought you could get it from not having enough toilet paper. That was not the world's greatest moment. Panic buying fucking toilet paper. And then I would get things on my, you know, there's comments because I talk about, you know, that I had food delivered.

Okay. Yeah. Well, you son of a bitch, you made those people come out and fucking, you know. Deliver food? Deliver food to you. I said, well, you know, no. I didn't really do that. I didn't.

I was trying to, you know, I paid for it. It wasn't like I put a shit. This is Louis Black, and if you do not deliver food to me, I will have you killed. You know, so what's my choice? You know, they're going to deliver the food, or do I just not eat again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Anyway.

There's an upbeat. There's a bit of joy. We're kind of done. We can't end on that. Oh, I've enjoyed myself immensely. But we can't end on this. What do you want to end on? Jesus.

You work with this guy? Are we trying to sell a product here? No. No, we're not trying to sell a product here? No! No, we're not trying to sell a product. Yes, we are. I have a whole fucking idea. See, the whole idea

I like about this podcast thing is this, because I used to think, do you have a podcast? I have a rant cast. A rant cast. And I'm going to go home after this.

And rant about this? And say, I sat with that son of a bitch and it was so depressing. I hadn't seen him in years and he ended with this thing about COVID. No, starting with AIDS. Oh, yeah, yeah.

He started with AIDS. Yeah, yeah. To go back in the, because we lived in that neighborhood, was like the AIDS capital of the world. Yeah, I remember. I thought I had it. Did you think you had it? No, I was barely poking.

Yeah, no. And that's how you got it. But, no, I how you got it. But no, I thought I had it a couple of times. Do you know, this is the truth, do you remember

at the very beginning, well no, it was a little bit into the age, maybe it was as late as the 90s, I think it was in the 90s, the first,

because I never wanted to get a test, an AIDS test, but then they came out with the mail-in AIDS test. So what you did was, it was like, I think the movie phone guy was involved. And what you did is like the, you got a card from a drugstore and you pricked your finger with it and you put your little bit of sample of blood on the card

and you sent it away and you waited a week. And then they gave you a number to dial and you dialed in the number. I swear to God. You dialed in the number and then you had a number on your card. So you say, punch in the number if you want to know if you have AIDS. And so I was like, you know, 833-456 or something. And it said, 833-456, you do not have AIDS. If you want to hear this message again, press 1.

So, of course, what you do is you go, boom, I want to hear this message again, press 1. So, of course, what you do is you go, boom, I want to hear it again. You press 1. It goes, you do not have AIDS. Do you want to hear this message? If you want to hear this number again, press 1. So, you press it again and go, you have exceeded the amount of times you can hear this. You must reapply. And you had to reapply for the thing. Did you know? That's the one I did. Wow. That was scary. I had a friend. I talked about it. One of my friends got the thing where it just took the test.

Yeah. And he took the test, and they said, oh, you have AIDS. Now he's close to getting married. Yeah. I got AIDS. And then the next day, nah, only kidding. I mean, it was literally...

Oh my God, false positive? False positive. See, the thing was as well, right back then, if you got AIDS, you were going to die. That would say it was done. Yeah.

I mean, I've got friends who've had AIDS for years. Or not AIDS, it's HIV positive for years and they haven't developed AIDS. So let's end on that. Yeah, there's something up, B. Wow, that really is unbelievable.

And they're fine. I am really glad. I have a buddy who was in a car accident but he's doing okay. Now, is this what you're doing now? Is this it? No, no.

This is just like a side hustle. Everybody says to you, you have to have a point. It's like, who made you have a Twitter account, Kathleen? Kathleen really said you've got to have, because you have to keep your name out there. Right, that's so... And tell people where I was going to be.

Right, and I bet you the podcast is the same thing. Well, the rant cast was when I was stuck inside, and I didn't... I wasn't one of those people. I need an audience to do stand-up. I can do it with you. There are people that I can banter back and forth with and stuff like that.

But basically, I'm going to go home and sit by myself and talk about the writer's strike. I got one rant that came in. But I had all of these rants that people had already sent in. I'd been doing it for years, where I read these rants on stage live. Oh, yeah. And they went throughout the world.

And what was great about it is, some of them were spectacular. I mean, so fucking good. In the last year, they were really remarkable. And my tour manager said, this would be a great thing to put. And I thought, great, because people didn't, you know,

if you didn't see it that night, you'd only see it. You didn't see it. It was gone, yeah. And so I was able to get those out there. And then I do an intro of what happened that week. And then I started reading rants that were coming to me. So people write down the rants and you read them out for them. Yeah.

And so I'll be reading the rant of one of the writers today that... Well, now, technically, if that writer wrote a rant for you to read out, didn't that writer then write for you? Oh, no, no, they didn't write it for me. Just wrote... Just wrote it. Wrote a thing saying this is... Right. Talking about it and sending it to some friends.

All right. Then, and then I... I don't want you getting in trouble. I'm not getting in trouble for this because it's really about getting it out to the public as to why this is bullshit and why we need to go on strike. I'm on strike. Yeah. I'm on strike. None of this was written down.

Excellent. Yeah. And you're a WGA member, right? Yeah. Yeah, me too. So we're on strike. We are on strike. Yeah.

But, you know, did you ever get anything asking you for your vote? No. Did you? No. Yeah. Yeah, me too. So we're on strike. We are on strike. Yeah. But, you know, did you ever get anything asking you for your vote? No, did you? No. Yeah. I think you had to go and vote in the auditorium. No, there was no auditorium. Oh, there was no auditorium. And the fact that you even used that word means that this podcast has dropped 10% of its audience.

What's an auditorium? That's where people go to get COVID. All right, let's finish on that. Good night, everybody. Good night. I'll see you next time. Sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years. Wild.

Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez. And on my podcast, I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life. I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to know how to leverage culture to build a successful business? Then Butternomics is the podcast for you.

I'm your host, Brandon Butler, founder and CEO of Butter ATL. And on Butternomics, we go deep with today's most influential entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders to peel back the layers on how they use culture as a driving force in their business. Butternomics will give you what you need to take your game to the next level. Listen to Butternomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.