The Nick DiPaolo Show - Jim Florentine| Nick Di Paolo Show #1627

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

In this episode right leaning comedian Nick Di Paolo interviews fellow comedian, Jim Florentine! Like what you hear?  Get TWICE as much "Nick Di Paolo Show", full episodes of Steven Crowder’s “Louder with Crowder” show and more on Mug Club! Sign up today to get all their content at https://Nickdip.com and use the promo code NICKDIP to get your first month FREE! SEE NICK LIVE: 9/27/24 - Wise Guys - Jordan Landing, UT 9/28/24 - Skankfest - Las Vegas, NV 9/29/24 - Skankfest - Las Vegas, NV 11/9/24 – Bridge View Center Theater – Ottumwa, IA TIX:  https://www.nickdip.com/tour    For Tour Dates, Merch, stand-up clips and more visit https://nickdip.com 

Music playing Hi folks, welcome on a beautiful Thursday. How you is, what it was. Can I go three words without getting cancer in my fucking chest? Jesus Christ, I can't wait for life to end. Good to be with you. Good show today. Very special guest. A long time friend of mine who who I call him the king of New Jersey. He's such a Jersey guy and a guys guy. And he seemed, when I was in New York he always seemed to be there when I was having a meltdown on stage. To the point where I would almost blame it

on him. Look up, he'd be in the doorway crying because I'm calling some woman a suitor. Anyways, it's the very funny Jimmy Florentine he's got a new album coming out what did he say the end of this month end of this month call you can't please them all first the audio comes out I guess and then the actual special so keep an eye out for that so by the way I know I teased having Steve Sweeney on but he has to have a medical procedure apparently they have to Remove a 9-volt battery from his ass. No, I don't know he he didn't get specific but he's he's at that age

Could be a heart could be Bunions But he's having a procedure. So instead we got the great Jimmy Florentine. Jimmy how you going? How's it going Nick? Good to see you. Same here man. I see I love that Gut Fell uses you so much and do you enjoy doing that show? I found it tricky.

I have an open invitation but like I think we've talked about this I refused to fly to New York. My manager's like oh you don't want to do TV I'm like it's a long story all right just fucking do you find you do that show you're very good at it because you you don't want to come out too jokey when you're on gut fell I mean Jamie Lissow does that great he I mean he's known as the joke guy so people know it's coming but it's tricky and cuz you're talking about serious shit.

You don't want to sound like you're trying to be Tom Brokaw. And you're there for the comic relief. And you seem to handle it pretty good. How much preparation? No, I spend the whole day. I treat it like a Letterman appearance, like back in the day. Because that's the audience he has. He has 2 and 1 half million people watching a night. So that's pretty much in the day. Because that's the audience he has. He has, you know, 2 and 1 half million people watching a night.

So that's pretty much doing like Letterman. I do it like once a month. So I really prepare all this. As soon as I get that material, I'm just working through it. I want to make a good point and then maybe end with a joke. Sometimes it's not even a joke. Right. So that's the way I look at it.

So no, I take it. I love doing the show. It's great. And it's huge exposure. Yeah. And yeah, you make it look natural because some people it's sometimes it's not red eye. We used to do red eye. And that was something about knowing that was going to air at three in the morning.

I mean, I would hardly prepare, which was stupid. But he just had faith in me to come up with something on the spot. But yeah, when I see you on it, I go, he's got it down. It's kind of tricky and shit. What's up career wise, Jimmy? How much of the road are you doing? I'm doing a lot, you know, a little slow in the summer,

but the fall's here, so it picks right back up. I still love being out there working, working jokes and stuff. The traveling's starting to get to me a little slow in the summer, but the fall's here, so it picks right back up. Yeah. I still love being out there working, working jokes and stuff. The traveling's starting to get to me a little. Yeah. So, um, but you know, I got a new album coming out, a special coming out at the end of September. Oh, so now I'm working new material. Yeah. It's called, you can't please them all.

And you're talking about brats. I know. I wish that's see that now I can't even play I can't even please one of them Jimmy's a fucking ladies man don't let him kid you hey you uh fuck I was just gonna ask you now. Oh does your son ever come up? How old is your son now? Probably 14. He's 14. Holy fuck. 14. Does he ever come with you on the road at all? Yeah he comes he loves it he loves watching stand-up you know watch all the comics he has a ton of fans. We watched some of your special he was dying. Yes that's my demographic the 14 year old Jersey boys love me. But you know you want the young kids to like your stuff. You're telling me. You know

who you know who he's into he likes like Kinnison he loves Kinnison. Oh he has good taste. Watch clips of him. Oh yeah no he had believed me he's he's just like me what's the same shows same sports teams beautiful so he's going to be a horrible human being is that what you say the act that at some point he could have a girlfriend and i could be back at his mom they'll be a hat-trick as the jimmy for a quick

uh... date what now last time we talk he actually i think you said That's the Jimmy 14. Now, the last time we talked, he actually, I think you said, didn't your son actually go on stage and tell a few jokes or am I dreaming? Yeah, he he he hasn't been on stage in like three or four since before the pandemic. He doesn't want to do it anymore. He did it a lot. But now he's a teenager. Once I hang out with his friends, he's playing basketball all the time. So, yeah, you know, I'm not going to push it on him.

It's a lonely life. You know what it is. Oh boy. I, and what's funny is you, you, what's funny is we're talking to the great Jimmy Flarty, you just said, yeah, the road starting to get to me now. I said that I think two years after my first open mic. I love, I love telling you this story because we have the same agent. And he's like, I go, is Nick at tour?

And he goes, Nick doesn't want to go any flight past Chicago. He's not going. I remember that. I started laughing. Like, Chicago? Yeah. Yeah. That doesn't leave much.

It leaves Amont and New Jersey. Yeah. I look when I was young, did all those fuck I went to Seattle twice a year sometimes in LA and all that shit and I just fucking can't sit still in a plane two hours is the fucking but but look I'm going to I'm going to Vegas at the end of the month here Skankfest are you are you gonna be there or no? No I won't be there this year. I've never been they've asked me like ten years I've never done it.

So Joe List sort of, they ambushed me. They were on the air live. And Joe called me and I haven't seen my boy Joe List. And I like all those guys. Big Jay and those guys. No, it's great. It's great. It's easy. Yeah, you do like two or three shows and that's it. Yeah, like 15, 20 minute sets. Yes, yes. That like 15 20 minutes sets. Yes Yes, that's why I said yes

The night before I'm doing so this proves that I do go a little west I'm doing wise guys in Utah and then that one sold out already Which you know, it doesn't happen often. So I'm happy about that and then the next two nights I'll go to skank fest and So I'm happy about that and then the next two nights I'll go to Skankfest and But you and like you said we love it Look the we try to tell people when you're on stage and telling jokes and murdering there is no better feeling in the fucking world But you know as well as I do when it came to me I was not oh I was well when I first moved to New York me and Louie would do six seven sets a night in that and because

You're in New York. You're like, this is, I gotta make it here, fucking whatever. But you know, as well, later on, after I had done my lettermans and tonitzos and shit, I fucking even didn't like going to the cellar and doing three sets a night. And you would always be there when I lost my shit on stage. Jimmy would always be there. I don't know if, I was almost ready to blame you.

Every time I fucking lost my shit, I wouldn't even know he would be watching. I'd look and I'd hear that laugh from the corner. Stand up or the comedy cellar. I wish those sets were filmed because it was like it was a comic having a mental breakdown on stage but he was killing. Like if one joke didn't get a 10 out of a 10, you would scream at the audience, you fucking Hillary Clinton cunt liberals. What do you guys know?

And the crowd's like, I just didn't like that joke, and the next joke would kill. It has to be me, because it has to be me, because even Colin Quinn would go, Collin would go to me, don't be that guy that can't hear the laughter. And I said, you're too late. Even the doorman down there, the big dude who I think died since, he said to me one night, because one guy was sitting there with his arms crossed, the guy was wearing one

of those Irish galley caps, And he made some crack to me. So on the way off, I said, good night, everybody. He was right in the front. When I was coming off the stage, I flipped his hat off his head, and the doorman goes, what the fuck you doing? You're going to start a fight. And then, you know who wise me up, Jimmy? Ironically, I said, and I was saying it for years, this place now brings the worst out.

And it was my favorite room like everybody else. And I said, this place now brings the worst out me. And Sherrod Small looked at me and he goes, that's because you've outgrown it. And that just rung so true with me. I loved when we go on the road, you do 45 to an hour. And then to come down, and again, those places are workshops, it's there

to work out new shit but it would be very hard to work out new shit when there were other guys going on doing their best 15 young guys coming up and ripping the tits off the crowd am I people don't see all that right no and especially if you do edgy if you do edgy material you got to get the crowd to like you and if they don't know who you are and you're only doing 15 minutes You got to spend like the first seven minutes getting them to like you and then hit them So it's not like a regular set on the road where you got time that Do the brutal stuff later on in the sack you got to get your shit right away

Yeah, and everybody's doing the greatest hits at the clubs Trying to follow Greer Barnes Right exactly. Yeah yeah yeah or something yeah somebody like that who I love by the way that's not as that's not a slap in grair but he had he would do the same fucking 15 and I mean honed and really funny and just and then then I'm going up there with like the notes in my hand because you got to get new work done right and then fucking they're looking at me like and Jimmy goes like you said they got to like you work done, right? And then fucking they're looking at me like, and Jimmy goes, like you said,

they got to like you at the beginning. I don't think my face gives off that vibe. Even when I'm enjoying myself. Sometimes I do sets in New York now. I'll just tell the crowd to go, listen, I'm just going to be nasty right off the bat. Are you guys okay with it? I'm really a nice guy.

I got a kid. I take care of them. I'm a single. Can I just get right to my shit? I Don't have five minutes of nice stuff to warm you up with let me just get to my stuff see that that's how to handle it Yeah, that is how you go. I got a kid. I take care of him obviously obviously I'm white listen That's what I do and I'd say a line like that, and that would make me, again, you're gonna forget who you're playing to down there.

And I always say this to people. I go, you realize the Comedy Cell and all those clubs are on the campus of NYU? I would go, I've been in the enemy in that room forever. You know, first three or four years I wasn't, because I was just doing, I wasn't really leaning into the political shit. And then by the end, Jimmy, like years, when did I leave there? Five, six years ago? I would go on and it was me again, but I could see

them after the first joke, fold their fucking arms because I wouldn't warm them up either. I was like you, I didn't explain that I was going to be nasty. I was just nasty. They would cross their fucking arms and then I, the last set I did was at the underground in New York, which is around the corner, same people own it, the comedy seller. I ate a bag of shit and called the audience every fucking name in the book. Of course I look up and Colin is there. And then Colin tries to give me a you know a dead son talk And I go calling for fuck's sake I said I don't want to do good in front of these communist cocksuckers I was so glad when I fucking left that play, but I do but now I'm down here Jimmy I got no way to fucking work out Savannah doesn't have a scene. So what do I do?

There's no clubs at all there nothing not unless you want to do cabaret and follow a fucking stripper. Right. And I'm glad they don't, Jimmy, because I always had this theory. Same with New Orleans. They really don't have a comedy scene. They have theaters where, you know, Big Name would do comedy. But those tourist places are not places where you want to do comedy. No. Because the audiences have nothing in common common at least at the comedy cell

I knew they're all left-wing douchebags and I could work with that but when but but right like New Orleans and in the Savannah You don't want a bunch of tourists You know mom and dad with their fucking 14 year old daughter there and shit at least I don't Know and that's why I that's why I like working the stand in New York City because it's all New Yorkers. You're not getting tourists there which is great. That's way better crowd. Yes, that's what I did after Nome sat down and talked with me and said, look we're getting so much hate mail.

And I didn't even argue. I go, Nome, I go, I'm not even going to try to argue. I said, I know. I said this place brings the worst out of me. And I said, I'm going to, and I said to him, I'm going even gonna try to argue. I said, I know. I said, this place brings the worst out of me. And I said, I'm gonna, and I said to him, I'm gonna take a little break from this play. He didn't tell me I had to. So I was going to the stand and you're right.

It was a little more of a New York vibe to it. And then they said, Nick, you gotta take it easy. And I said, where am I gonna go now? No, no, that's where I saw you a lot when I was at the stand and I would hear you cackling. No, I wish I could have videoed those sets. So what are we looking for on this new album or special? What did you touch on? You know the tranny stuff, men can get pregnant, know, the usual. Yes.

Does your good. I talk about, you know, in Jersey, and this is true of my son's middle school, they were they they sent a letter home that they're going to teach them, make it get pregnant, but you get opt out if you wanted to. If you didn't want your kid to learn that in health class. So I'm the only parent that opted in because I wanted to know what the hell they were, how they were explaining that to my kid. So I talk about that in my special. And they also in Jersey, if my kid wants to be called the girl's name or wants to start taking, you know, counseling on transitioning, they won't notify the parents. They'll keep that. If he misses homework, you know, it's 17 phone calls, right? You

know, they'll call home. But so he, you know, they'll keep that if he misses homework, you know, it's 17 phone calls, right? You know, they'll call home but they so he you know, they'll keep that shit private at school I talk about that on my special and then they're just a regular dick jokes Which tight which sorta tie in with a transgender but it's weird because That's why I call especially you can't please them all because people would walk out on my set I would just guy you can't please them all wouldn't even bother me Especially with the transgender stuff. They really wherever you are in a country Oh, you'll get people to walk out as soon as they hear you bring it up. They're done. Oh, absolutely

Absolutely. Luckily, I'm at the point Where I guess I'm known enough I've been around so fucking long, that they know not to come out to my show, these fucking... But they'll always be those sheep that wander in because they saw a comedy club. And that's what I like to explain. There's a lot of people on TV right now calling themselves comedians. I don't want to name names, but they're not comedians.

They're people that are on TV shows I don't want to name names but they're not comedians. They're people that are on TV shows that got very popular and people come out to see them because they're on TV shows. They didn't do open mic nights. They didn't do The Road for 25 years. To me, those are the comedians. But everybody likes to throw around comedian in the title now. And you and I know the fucking difference. So people that come out to see me know what's coming. Am I sort of preaching to the choir? Yes.

But what am I going to do? I was preaching to the enemy in New York for 20 last 15 years of my career. So yeah, I finally earned the right to have people who like what I do come out. Are you finding you have more of a fan base that knows what comic Jimmy or? Yeah, I do. I absolutely, but as a comic, that's what you want.

At the end of the day, you want people that like you to come see you perform. That's the ultimate goal. But I like going in a stand too because they're like 25 year old kids, they have no idea who I am. So I want to see if this stuff works in front of people that I don't know, which most of the time it doesn't. That's actually a great point though.

Because I'm still doing, I'm pulling stuff up from three albums ago, because I don't have a place to work shit out. I always freewheel off the cuff. I've always done that my whole career, hoping something will land. I have that ability, thank God. But now I'm dipping into shit from like three albums ago that I forgot about that is still relevant and good material only because I can't sit down and write an hour and I get nervous because I see you putting

out a special you know all these guys Joe List and Colin and whatever and I get antsy I almost don't feel like a comic but I get to do this every day and be funny off the top of my head and and then I I still pick my spots on the road but I do miss that being in a club that's what I was most proud of I don't know if you agree I said this to Colin I said the thing I'm most proud of honest got about my career is that I could hold my own at the Comedy Cellar for 20 something years every night going off to going on after a David Tell or Chappelle walked in or even a Seinfeld or

Greg Giraldo or Patrice Didn't that don't you think that's why the guys that came out of New York still held in high regard? Absolutely, I mean I tell people on the road or you know when they do like a macho comedy festival or Whatever the order is gonna to be. I'm like, hey, those comedy seller sets on a Tuesday night following Jim Norton or Colin or you or a tell, that's going to make you better. And when you have to deal with that and when you're filming a comedy special

with six other comics, you're not afraid of it because you've already went through it a million times. No, it's definitely, that's why I always tell comics, young comics that would open me on the road. I go, you got to go through New York. If you want to be a standup on the road. I go, you got to go through New York. If you want to be a stand-up and do this for a living, you got to go through New York. And luckily, I was from a town in Boston that had a great comedy scene, and you had to follow these guys that have been doing it.

It's my first year, and they've already been doing it for 12 years. And in Boston, you know, the star is the host of the show. So I'd have to go on after Steve Sweeney or Don Gavin or Lenny Clark opened with 15 minutes and blew the roof off the dump. And then, that's why I was sort of prepared when I went to New York. And then they couldn't understand me because of my stupid Boston accent. Some of my jokes were, go ahead. I still think that the Boston comics, that city has the best comics have come out of and it's probably because of that.

No question around the world, Boston has the best comedians. I honestly, I say that because, I say being a comedian from Boston is like being a football player that grew up in Texas or Ohio, you're proud to come out of that pedigree, you know? Right. And even Colin, Colin's very fussy, like me, who he likes and who he doesn't. He always loved Boston and still quotes Boston comics.

And yes, a lot of famous people, I mean Billy Burr, we always talk about this, but Joe Rogan, Billy Burr, Louis CK, Steven Wright, Paula fucking Poundstone, Jade Leno, Conan O'Brien, just to name a few. It's like being a football player out of Texas without the pussy. No, it really is, you're right. I mean, I've always, Robert Kelly, Dane Cook, Greg Fitzsimmons, Patrice, there's four more.

Yes. And plus all those local boston comics that never left that never left boston like steve sweney yes and um... uh... kevin i forget that i kevin's last name i still work with him up there all the time that that's a bunch of a yet kevin mean guys that yet meaning but all the guys that never left boston they were unbelievable yeah yeah even tony Tony V yeah solid

comic just consistently funny and Kevin Kevin Knox Kevin Knox who got that guy was a machine on stage I open for him all the time God rest his soul he would Kevin Knox died of cancer I didn't even know he had it. I came home to do a comics come home or one of those things and I run into him and his head is shaved. I go, that looks fucking great. Why'd you do that?

He didn't say anything, he didn't lead on. I just like it this way. And then I find out like a month later that he's dying of cancer and lived seven years longer than they said he was gonna. But Kevin Knox, for Dallas, my producer, guys who aren't familiar with him, another guy that didn't really leave Boston,

but he'd come on in a sweatsuit, kinda unzipping down here like it's the 1970s, and he loved his blow, and he would just come on. In the 80s, when AIDS was at its peak, and everybody was afraid to talk about it, his joke, opening joke would be, hey, you know it eight stands for audio sin affected dick suckers

that that that would be his opening joke and then like david tell in these new york comics would go up to boston for the weekend to do a gig and they would come back on i can't believe this guy safe uh... and in boston the crowd and this is in the 80s it's so ironic now because Boston so politically correct and liberal but they were just the opposite it couldn't get rough enough for them comedy wise and in Kevin

Knox would tear the fucking room to shreds and the most likeable guy of course it never happens to the I'm not gonna mention that's 40 people I hate I keep wishing can't run people I'm gonna be right once for those of you guys watching on mug club stick around for the second half of my interview with the very funny Jimmy Florentine the rest of you if you want to join my club go to Nick dip calm and if you do that you'll get my entire show Steven Crowder's entire show you get his undercover team who breaks national stories and is sitting on two doozies Alex Jones Alex Jones every other week It's a great deal and you're crazy if you don't do it and while you're at NickDip.com

Click on the tour button. You'll see that September 27th, I'll be at Wise Guys Jordan Landing Utah and then the next two nights the 28th and the 29th I'll be in Las Vegas at Skankfest I'm not even sure what hotel they're doing that maybe they're doing it in the street I don't know and then November 9th this just went on sale today I think or yesterday whatever November 9th Bridge this just went on sale, today I think, or yesterday, whatever, November 9th Bridgeview Center Theater, Ottumwa, Iowa. I can't wait to do that one. Nice conservative enclave.

And I haven't, I don't think I've done a gig in Iowa. Looking forward to that. So that is that. Now with all the business taken care of, let's get back to the very funny Jimmy Florentine. Hi, good night everybody. Oh, yeah I'm out.