Ep 229: Steve Schirripa

Tonight on We Might Be Drunk, Mark and Sam sit down with the hilarious Steve Schirripa to talk about his early days in Las Vegas, breaking into comedy, and life on The Sopranos. From wild nights on the Strip to landing iconic TV roles, Steve shares stories you won't hear anywhere else. Grab a drink and join the fun! Follow Steve here: https://www.instagram.com/steveschirripaofficial Your new wardrobe awaits! Get 20% off @chubbies with the code DRUNKS at https://www.chubbiesshorts.com/DRUNKS Support the show and start your free online Hims visit today. Head to https://www.hims.com/DRUNK Subscribe to We Might Be Drunk: https://bit.ly/SubscribeToWMBD WMBD Merch: https://wemightbedrunkpod.com/ WMBD Clips Page: https://bit.ly/WMBDClips Sam Morril: YouTube Channel: @sammorril Instagram: https://instagram.com/sammorril Tickets/Tour: https://punchup.live/sammorril/tickets Mark Normand: YouTube Channel: @marknormand Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marknormand Tickets/Tour: https://punchup.live/marknormand/tickets We Might Be Drunk is produced by Gotham Production Studios https://www.gothamproductionstudios.com/ @GothamProductionStudios Producer Matt Peters: https://www.instagram.com/mrmatthewpeters #WeMightBeDrunk #MarkNormand #SamMorril #JimGaffigan #ComedyPodcast #StandUpComedy #Comedians #FathertimeBourbon #WhiskyTasting #ScotchWhisky #WhiskyLovers #PodcastEpisode #FunnyPodcast #ComedyFans #PodcastRecommendations #BourbonLovers #DrinkResponsibly #WhiskeyHumor #NYCComedy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Sam Morril?

  Are we rolling? Yeah, alright.

• 0:08Speaker 01

  You didn't know I used to put comics?

• 0:09Sam Morril?

  I did, but I forgot, yeah.

• 0:11Speaker 01

  That's why I started before I was an actor.

• 0:12Sam Morril?

  Dana Gould told me a story that you actually, uh... That you got mad at him because he went onstage with his underwear over his pants one night in Vegas.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Probably, probably.

• 0:20Mark Normand?

  What?

• 0:21Sam Morril?

  Yeah, he was just trying to be funny.

• 0:22Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't remember, but probably. I mean, Dana worked for me a long time ago.

• 0:25Sam Morril?

  Who?

• 0:26Speaker 01

  He wasn't a bad guy.

• 0:27Sam Morril?

  Great guy, great comic.

• 0:28Mark Normand?

  No, great comic, brilliant dude.

• 0:29Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  I got married to the girl from HBO, I pitched her.

• 0:33Mark Normand?

  That's right.

• 0:34Speaker 01

  Alright?

• 0:35Mark Normand?

  Now divorced.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  We pitched her a show, yeah.

• 0:37Sam Morril?

  Who do you remember booking who was great and who do you remember who was an asshole?

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Are we on the...

• 0:43Sam Morril?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 0:44Mark Normand?

  Yeah, we're having fun.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  You were gonna start... I know you liked to beef with everyone.

• 0:48Mark Normand?

  Well, I don't wanna beef.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Listen. I started in 86.

• 0:53Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  Running, it was, uh, the Riviera, right?

• 0:57Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  And it was improv.

• 0:59Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:00Speaker 01

  And, you know, everyone, Spade, uh, Rob Schneider, Rosie O'Donnell, and the generous Bill Maher, Belzer, we could go on and on and on and on and on.

• 1:12Mark Normand?

  What year are we talking?

• 1:13Sam Morril?

  He's in 86.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  86, the 80s.

• 1:15Mark Normand?

  Wow, okay.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  It was in the Riviera Hotel.

• 1:17Sam Morril?

  And this was like, was this a boom?

• 1:18Speaker 01

  This was during the boom.

• 1:20Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  There was a comedy store down at the Dunes, and they would have like five headliners. They would have like Dice, Jimmy Walker, uh, you know, at the time, maybe Carol Leifert.

• 1:30Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Roseanne, they had like these incredible shows.

• 1:33Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  And we, and it was a bigger room, alright? And then we had this club, it started out small. Did you know, you know who David Fry was? David Fry was a very famous comic. Uh, he did Richard Nixon, okay? Uh, he did Richard Nixon, this was his thing. Alright, alright.

• 1:53Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:54Speaker 01

  Very famous, headline Caesar's Palace.

• 1:56Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  Okay? When Richard Nixon was in. Okay? He was a drunk, like, he was about like five foot two, 5'1", okay?

• 2:06Mark Normand?

  Damn, okay.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  He was a drunk, he was hanging around the show.

• 2:09Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  I said to Bud, "Why don't we give, throw David Fry a bone?" You know, don't forget, it's Vegas, it's the 80s. We put him up on the weekend.

• 2:21Mark Normand?

  Uh oh.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  He's wearing the tuxedo.

• 2:23Mark Normand?

  Okay.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  He had been sober every night I saw the guy for months.

• 2:27Mark Normand?

  Oh boy.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  He would come in, meet the comics, comes in, there's a little room in the back for the comics. I go back there, he's got his dick and his balls in a bucket of ice.

• 2:38Mark Normand?

  Oh fuck.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  And I just turn around and I like did a double, I said, "What the fuck are you doing?" And he says, "I don't know, I just have a thing, this is my thing before stage." Now this guy had been around, he was with Rodney, he was with all these guys, you could look them up, David Fry.

• 2:53Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  He was a trust fund, then he was probably in his 50s or 60s.

• 2:57Mark Normand?

  Yeah. Wow.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Goes onstage.

• 2:59Mark Normand?

  He has to dunk his dick and balls in ice to get ready?

• 3:02Speaker 01

  His dick and balls in ice.

• 3:03Mark Normand?

  It's like a cold plunge before.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  I'm not kidding you, he had a bucket of, a white bucket of ice.

• 3:07Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 3:08Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 3:08Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  That's him, okay? Headline Caesar's Palace. A very famous guy. He goes onstage, Bud comes in from LA for it, it's a Saturday night.

• 3:19Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  He does so-so, the first show. He's sober, but he just does okay.

• 3:28Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Between shows, he disappears, he comes back, he is fucking hammered. I mean hammered.

• 3:37Mark Normand?

  Hope he didn't use the.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Completely gone, he's wearing a tuxedo, I mean, you're in a comedy club, he's wearing a tuxedo, he's hammered. Bud Friedman brings him on, he can't hardly stand, he's going, Bud comes on, he says, "Go and get him." I had to get, in the middle of the show, I had to take him off the stage.

• 3:53Mark Normand?

  Ooh, damn. Hope he used different ice for the drinks.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  David Fry.

• 3:59Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  I mean, there was, I mean, Rick Reynolds, I mean, I'm talking older guys, you wouldn't know, he had a one man show.

• 4:05Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Famous one man show, San Francisco comic. Uh, he liked to break people's balls in the audience, he called the guys, he said, you know, well, you know, he had that, that bit like, uh, and it was very famous, he got a sitcom out of it, he was like, became a very hot comic for a while. He was from San Francisco, Rick Reynolds, and he, uh...

• 4:25Mark Normand?

  Pull him up.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  He, uh, would, would do a thing, uh, hey, would you, would you fuck him for five dollars? You know, you know, ten dollars, you know, how about a million dollars? Siwara hua.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Guy gets offstage, the boyfriend fucking, fucking blasts him in the back of the head. Down for the count.

• 4:45Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 4:45Sam Morril?

  Knocked him out?

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Down for the count, from the back of the head.

• 4:48Mark Normand?

  See, now that could launch a career. That's what happened to Jim Jefferies.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  There you go. I mean, uh, there was a guy Larry Beza, he wouldn't come out of his room.

• 4:56Sam Morril?

  I haven't heard of any of these guys.

• 4:58Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  Listen, they're all the comics from the eighties, man. You guys are young guys.

• 5:02Sam Morril?

  Yeah, but we know comedy. We got, look at all the comics we got up there. We

• 5:05Mark Normand?

  We're fans.

• 5:05Sam Morril?

  We know, we know comics.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Uh, Bob was a friend of mine. I loved him.

• 5:09Mark Normand?

  Oh, wow.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  I did his show, Greg.

• 5:13Mark Normand?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  I knew Carlin pretty well.

• 5:15Mark Normand?

  You knew Carlin?

• 5:15Sam Morril?

  You knew Carlin well?

• 5:16Mark Normand?

  Come on!

• 5:17Speaker 01

  Vegas, I knew Carlin pretty well. He would come around. You know, his opening act was Dennis Blair?

• 5:21Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  And Dennis been working for me. He would come around.

• 5:24Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  He was a good guy. I knew Rodney pretty well.

• 5:27Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 5:28Speaker 01

  I knew Rodney, yeah. Who was my, he was my all-time favorite guy.

• 5:32Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  And then, uh, yeah, I get a message on my answering machine. This is like eighty, eight, maybe eighty-eight? Uh, eighty-nine. Hey, Steve, uh, I heard you're the guy, blah, blah, blah, you know, would you call me back? I need some help. I can't do Rodney's voice.

• 5:50Mark Normand?

  Uh-huh.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  So he wants

• 5:51Mark Normand?

  I'll tell you, I'm trying to get my balls in the ice bucket.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  He wants, he wants over to comedy club.

• 5:55Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  At the El Rancho.

• 5:57Mark Normand?

  Uh-oh.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  So he, well, needs my help, you know? So I help him, you know, blah, blah, blah. I meet him in the lobby of Bally's, where he's playing. He's wearing the tank top and the shorts.

• 6:09Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Like from the, like, fuck.

• 6:11Sam Morril?

  Back to school or something?

• 6:12Speaker 01

  It's back to school.

• 6:13Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Right? And then the guy's like, going, hey Rodney, hey Rodney. He goes, what time are you due back on the set of Deliverance? He tells the guy. We go see the show. I'm with my wife. We want to marry then. We go backstage, he made a big deal. We got a booth for you. He really made like a big, big deal. He was very hands on about his comps, you know? He sold out, he played the Hilton. I saw him a bunch of places. And the first time I saw him, he actually opened for Frankie Valli.

• 6:43Mark Normand?

  Mmm, damn.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Aladdin, that was early on.

• 6:46Mark Normand?

  What a show.

• 6:47Sam Morril?

  That is crazy.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  We go backstage afterwards, he's wearing the robe with the fucking cards. His balls are fucking down, you know?

• 6:56Mark Normand?

  Always.

• 6:57Sam Morril?

  You saw a lot of balls in your time in Vegas.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Like a grandfather clock. And he's there, he drinks giant vodka, just like that.

• 7:07Sam Morril?

  He was not a healthy man, huh?

• 7:08Mark Normand?

  No.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  But he was fine, a lot of fun.

• 7:11Mark Normand?

  What a pro.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  We hung for quite a while.

• 7:13Mark Normand?

  Saw his balls.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  Just great.

• 7:16Mark Normand?

  Yeah, he's the man.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  I mean, I saw, you know, Rickles I was friends with.

• 7:20Mark Normand?

  Whoa.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  I know, I saw Sinatra like forty times.

• 7:23Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 7:25Sam Morril?

  So you see Rickles open for Sinatra?

• 7:27Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no. Rickles played the Sahara, he was his own guy, nicest guy. He played there, then he played the Stardust.

• 7:33Sam Morril?

  Did he insult you the first time you met him?

• 7:35Speaker 01

  He fucks around, but he's a really nice guy. He was really a nice guy.

• 7:38Sam Morril?

  But you want to be insulted by Rickles?

• 7:39Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  I didn't want to be.

• 7:41Mark Normand?

  Ah.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  What the fuck? You know, I loved Don Rickles personally. He didn't make me laugh that much. The hockey puck shit and all that.

• 7:51Sam Morril?

  Yeah, who are your favorite?

• 7:51Speaker 01

  You know who else? Robin Williams, who's a great guy and I got to know him. I liked him better as an actor than a comic.

• 7:58Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  I didn't care for him.

• 8:00Mark Normand?

  You like hard jokes, like a Rodney.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  I like Rodney, I like, uh, Damon Wayans.

• 8:05Mark Normand?

  Love Damon Wayans.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  Very funny.

• 8:07Mark Normand?

  Underrated guy.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  Very, you know, very, very funny. I liked Nick DiPaolo in the old days.

• 8:13Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  I like, uh, David Tell worked for me.

• 8:16Sam Morril?

  Sure.

• 8:17Mark Normand?

  The king.

• 8:18Sam Morril?

  We love Tell.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  I don't know, who else? I don't know.

• 8:21Mark Normand?

  You saw Damon Wayans just did a...

• 8:22Speaker 01

  I don't like Ellen DeGeneres, she was an asshole then.

• 8:24Sam Morril?

  Really?

• 8:25Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 8:26Speaker 01

  She was, she got proven to be an asshole, but she was an asshole way back when.

• 8:30Sam Morril?

  What do you think, do you think so, she does the dancing, she does all the, it's like such a cover up, right?

• 8:35Speaker 01

  The whole, the whole show was an act. I mean, that was all, she wasn't a nice person.

• 8:40Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  A lot of it came out.

• 8:41Sam Morril?

  How was she mean to you?

• 8:42Speaker 01

  She tortured, well, she worked for me in Vegas, she wasn't mean then, it's before she had hit it big. She was very nice. And then, I don't know, how many years later?

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Ah, maybe ten? I'm at the Emmys with The Sopranos. I never say hello to anyone kind of first, because I'm always afraid you're gonna get dissed, like some guys are assholes, right? You know what I mean? I don't know if it ever happened to you, it's happened to me.

• 9:11Mark Normand?

  Many times.

• 9:12Sam Morril?

  Who dissed you? Who hurt you? Who hurt you, Steve?

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Well, I'm fucking telling you right now. So I go up to her, and I say, hey, uh, I go up to her and I go, hey Ellen, I don't know if you remember me, you know, see if I ran the Riviera Comedy Club. How hard am I to fucking remember, right?

• 9:30Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  And she just dismissed me like,

• 9:32Mark Normand?

  Mmm.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Like, I don't even think she said anything. And she was with two other people and I just, had a tuxedo on, I just slinked away.

• 9:40Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:41Mark Normand?

  You can do that. Well, she's a, you are what you eat.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  That's it. And then it,

• 9:46Mark Normand?

  if you let me get one in, and they're not bad.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  And then she, you know, it, it came on, you know, De Niro too was an asshole to me.

• 9:53Sam Morril?

  Really?

• 9:53Speaker 01

  He was an asshole.

• 9:54Sam Morril?

  That must have, but you must have loved it.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  You could barely, you know, what?

• 9:57Sam Morril?

  You must have loved De Niro though, must have hurt.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  I did not like De Niro before.

• 10:00Mark Normand?

  What?

• 10:01Speaker 01

  I don't like Robert De Niro now.

• 10:04Mark Normand?

  Come on.

• 10:04Sam Morril?

  What did he do to you?

• 10:05Speaker 01

  You, you, you say hello to him, he's stuck for a fucking answer. This guy is a zero. Now, if he don't have a script in his hand, he can't speak.

• 10:15Mark Normand?

  Interesting.

• 10:16Sam Morril?

  Damn.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  So.

• 10:17Sam Morril?

  You should have written hello on a cocktail app, could have handed it to him.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  Probably, he would have answered back.

• 10:21Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 10:21Mark Normand?

  Right, wow.

• 10:22Sam Morril?

  Damn.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  You know. There was a guy, Larry Beza, he wouldn't come down for the show. He was a Comedy Store guy.

• 10:28Mark Normand?

  Hmm.

• 10:29Speaker 01

  I go up to his room, knock on the door, he won't answer the door, he's in there. I get security, open the door, he's got the mattress off the bed. He's lighting fucking matches, trying to light the mattress on fire. He's fucking hammered out of his mind.

• 10:44Mark Normand?

  Yikes.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Uh, I kid you not.

• 10:47Mark Normand?

  You ever work with Jerry?

• 10:48Speaker 01

  Who?

• 10:49Mark Normand?

  Seinfeld?

• 10:49Speaker 01

  I did not. I know Jerry. I like Jerry.

• 10:51Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah, nice guy.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  I do not. I did not. He never worked there. He was, he was too big by then.

• 10:56Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 10:57Speaker 01

  He was already big by then.

• 10:57Sam Morril?

  How about like Bill Hicks? Did he ever come through?

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Nah.

• 11:00Mark Normand?

  He didn't like Vegas, I don't think.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  No.

• 11:02Sam Morril?

  Nah, he doesn't seem like a Vegas act.

• 11:03Mark Normand?

  No.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  I don't know if he played. He might have played Vegas, though.

• 11:06Sam Morril?

  How about like Robert Schimmel?

• 11:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, he used to work for me all the time.

• 11:09Mark Normand?

  No, he's funny.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  He worked for me all the time. Robert's.

• 11:11Sam Morril?

  He's the type of guy I bet you liked.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  Was that?

• 11:13Sam Morril?

  He had hard jokes.

• 11:14Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  I like, I like Robert a lot. He was a good guy. I mean, I liked a lot of comics. I like Andy Kinler.

• 11:21Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  Doesn't make anyone laugh, you know? I'm the only guy that laughs, but I love him.

• 11:25Mark Normand?

  Comics laugh.

• 11:26Sam Morril?

  He played to the back of the room, always.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  He was, he was, you know, I love when guys bombed. I would love when comics bombed.

• 11:32Sam Morril?

  Certain comics bombed gracefully.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  I would love when they bombed.

• 11:35Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 11:35Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Not, not, not to hurt their feelings, I just thought it was funny, especially if a guy is funny.

• 11:41Mark Normand?

  It's fascinating.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Forget in Vegas, you, you, you're dealing with like a weird audience all the time.

• 11:47Mark Normand?

  Sure. Drunks, tourists.

• 11:48Speaker 01

  From all over the country, especially then. Now it's a little bit, it's bigger.

• 11:52Mark Normand?

  That's true.

• 11:52Speaker 01

  It was a small town, you know?

• 11:54Mark Normand?

  Right, right. Well, like Norm, my hero, he would bomb all the time, but still brilliant.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  Brilliant.

• 11:59Sam Morril?

  Did he work for you there?

• 12:00Speaker 01

  No, he didn't work for me there. No. But I knew Norm from, uh, just from around, you know?

• 12:06Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah?

• 12:06Speaker 01

  I knew Norm from around. I knew Saget. He never worked for me, but I knew Saget from being around, you know? Like I said, uh, then guys in the big room. I gave a lot of guys their first shot in the, in the big room. Uh, True Carey.

• 12:20Mark Normand?

  Whoa.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  You know, he played the clubs, but Damon, True Carey, Spade, Schimmel, Bobby Slayton, uh...

• 12:29Mark Normand?

  Pitbull.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  Jeff Dunham.

• 12:31Mark Normand?

  Whoa.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  Dennis Leary.

• 12:33Mark Normand?

  Whoa.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  I had a show, Bobcat and Gilbert, together.

• 12:36Mark Normand?

  The Voices.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  I was trying to do different fucking...

• 12:39Mark Normand?

  Yeah, I get it.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  I was just trying anything, you know? I mean, the, the Rive was a second, you know, like, you, you know, like you played the Rive on the way up or on the way down, kinda.

• 12:48Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Like I always said, I had the best shows in town if it was 1975, you know?

• 12:53Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  So it was like that, you know? But the big room, a lot of these guys were just starting to, you know? You know Ray Romano, Kevin J.

• 13:01Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 13:02Sam Morril?

  Nice.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  First shot in the big room for those guys.

• 13:04Mark Normand?

  Do you miss that world, that comedy world?

• 13:06Speaker 01

  No.

• 13:06Mark Normand?

  Or was it too hectic?

• 13:07Speaker 01

  Not for me, yeah.

• 13:08Sam Morril?

  Comedians, we can be a lot.

• 13:10Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  No, it's a lot. A lot of guys are trouble guys. And I like them, I have some that are good friends. But you're dealing with four guys every week, you know?

• 13:18Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  Two of them are in AA meetings, one guy goes off the fucking wagon. Guy's gambling, other one's late. Guy's eight o'clock in the morning, he's in the employee cafeteria drinking beers.

• 13:30Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  As the executives are on their way into work.

• 13:33Mark Normand?

  Been there, yeah.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  Then I get a comic goes on the air. He's ripping, he's doing press for us, like on a Friday morning. He's ripping the hotel apart.

• 13:43Mark Normand?

  Ah.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  The towels are hard.

• 13:45Mark Normand?

  Ah.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  The dad is hard, I'm going.

• 13:48Sam Morril?

  Towels are hard.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  You know, my, my, the boss calls me in, he said, who's this guy? It was Tim, uh.

• 13:54Mark Normand?

  Meadows.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  No, it wasn't Tim Meadows, he was already outside in that life. I don't know, whoever, whoever was Tim something, fat guy.

• 14:01Mark Normand?

  Tim Dillon.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  No, it wasn't him.

• 14:03Mark Normand?

  I know.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  And, uh, he says, uh.

• 14:05Sam Morril?

  He was eight years old at the time.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  And listen, and he says.

• 14:08Sam Morril?

  Towels are definitely hard after Tim used them though.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  The guy's killing us. So it doesn't make any sense. We hired you.

• 14:14Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  And you're ripping the hotel.

• 14:16Mark Normand?

  That was a tough hotel, I've done some gigs there, and that hotel has seen some years, yeah.

• 14:20Sam Morril?

  Well, some of those Vegas hotels were really nice for like one decade, and then they just stayed in that decade forever.

• 14:25Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 14:26Sam Morril?

  It's like still the eighties.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  The Riv was a high line place early on, and then.

• 14:30Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  It kinda went south in, uh, 2000.

• 14:34Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  Started going, closed in 2015, it went south, you know, Tropicana. You know, they don't keep anything around.

• 14:41Sam Morril?

  Was Tropicana where the shooting was?

• 14:43Mark Normand?

  Uh.

• 14:44Sam Morril?

  Cause I definitely died there, but, uh, no.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  Mandalay Bay.

• 14:46Sam Morril?

  Mandalay Bay.

• 14:47Speaker 01

  You never worked Vegas, either one of you?

• 14:48Sam Morril?

  No, I've done Tropicana, I've done The Wind, yeah, we've done, we've done The Cellar.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  Did you, did the club at, uh, Laugh Factory was at the Trump?

• 14:55Mark Normand?

  I did that once, yeah.

• 14:57Sam Morril?

  There was a theater at the Trump, it was nice, it was a really nice.

• 15:00Mark Normand?

  Yeah, that was good. Lot of old people though.

• 15:02Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 15:02Mark Normand?

  I had some real bombs there.

• 15:03Sam Morril?

  Yeah, oh yeah.

• 15:04Mark Normand?

  You would've loved it.

• 15:05Sam Morril?

  Better than, better than Reno.

• 15:07Mark Normand?

  I just did Reno, it was, actually, I did Atlantis, uh, two weeks ago, it was killer.

• 15:11Sam Morril?

  Hey, back in the day when I did Reno though, it was like a fucking. A full week and it was like, you just take it on the chin every night.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  What do you do, you know, you know, the thing about playing in the clubs, even Atlantic City, right? You know, you know, what do you do all day? You know, you do nothing all day long.

• 15:27Mark Normand?

  You try not to kill yourself.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  You know, especially like in Atlantic City in the winter.

• 15:30Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 15:32Sam Morril?

  I think my opener in Reno was, wow, I've never seen fake tits and an oxygen tank on the same person before. This is a, it's a rough town.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Hilarious.

• 15:39Mark Normand?

  Very true.

• 15:40Sam Morril?

  There was a guy in the sound booth too, who was just always reading a gun magazine. I'm like, this guy's just waiting to snap. I'm waiting for this guy to snap on me.

• 15:47Mark Normand?

  That guy went to Mandalay Bay.

• 15:51Speaker 01

  You see the video of that comic, the guy was heckling him and then he hits him with the guitar?

• 15:55Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  That's one of the greatest videos of all time.

• 15:58Mark Normand?

  Was that Boston? I think that was in Boston.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  I don't know. The guy, I don't know if the guy, you know, the crowd started turning on.

• 16:04Mark Normand?

  Of course, yeah.

• 16:05Sam Morril?

  But now, now that guy would have had a three camera shoot. It would have been like angles. Now, because everyone's got their whole camera crew out there.

• 16:10Mark Normand?

  He was viral on TikTok.

• 16:11Sam Morril?

  Yeah, look at this shit. This is old school.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  I mean, you know, he told the guy, don't come any closer. I don't know if he was right or not, but.

• 16:17Mark Normand?

  Yeah, he went a little hard with the whole, the whole, he had a weapon.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Have you ever had guys come after you?

• 16:22Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 16:23Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 16:27Sam Morril?

  Guitar acts are always this close to snapping though, anyway.

• 16:30Mark Normand?

  That's true.

• 16:33Mark Normand?

  Uh oh. Got the harmonica on the neck too. Look at this.

• 16:41Speaker 01

  It looks like it's a joke.

• 16:42Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 16:46Sam Morril?

  He's not checking a bag on the way home, I guess.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  I'm sorry, man. The guy fucking came at me. What do you think, folks?

• 16:56Mark Normand?

  No. Trying to taint the jury with that.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  First of all, he shouldn't have asked. What do you?

• 17:00Mark Normand?

  No, no.

• 17:01Speaker 01

  Should have just hit him and they should have walked off.

• 17:03Mark Normand?

  Right. Damn.

• 17:05Sam Morril?

  I mean, I guess, you don't think of a guitar as a weapon, but I guess you got something you could strike it with.

• 17:10Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He broke the bottom of it.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  Nah, he would be sued. He would be, uh.

• 17:14Mark Normand?

  Well, he's out of comedy. I'd never heard of that guy or anything. Did he do the riff?

• 17:18Speaker 01

  You guys are young guys. I never did the riff.

• 17:20Mark Normand?

  Okay.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  You guys are young. I'm an old man. I was there. What year were you born?

• 17:24Sam Morril?

  Eighty-six.

• 17:25Mark Normand?

  Eighty-three?

• 17:26Speaker 01

  So that's what I'm saying. That's why you don't know any of those comics.

• 17:28Sam Morril?

  But we, but we watch a lot of the old, like, we watch all the comedian specials and stuff.

• 17:31Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 17:32Sam Morril?

  Like, we, we know a lot, like, we know.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  Like Rodney's specials?

• 17:34Sam Morril?

  I love them.

• 17:35Mark Normand?

  Love them. Seen them all.

• 17:36Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah. He gave an intro to Bill Hicks. It's one of my favorite intros ever. He goes, "This, this next comic's so far ahead of his time. His parents haven't even met yet."

• 17:43Speaker 01

  That's funny.

• 17:43Sam Morril?

  Give it up for Bill. Like, jokes in the setups for the intros. I mean, Rodney was great.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Well, you know, uh, almost, almost everybody became a star.

• 17:52Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 17:52Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 17:53Sam Morril?

  Isn't that crazy?

• 17:53Mark Normand?

  Yeah. Roseanne, Seinfeld, Robert Townsend, Bill Hicks, Geis.

• 17:56Sam Morril?

  He was hilarious in that one. Townsend was good.

• 17:59Mark Normand?

  I think Leifert did one.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:01Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 18:01Speaker 01

  Roseanne's a little crazy.

• 18:03Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  She's a little crazy. She used to, she came around a few times, uh, looking for comics. Like, she never played there, but she came around. She was out of a mile. Her and Tom Arnold, they came, like, running through. That's when they were running wild, the two of them.

• 18:15Mark Normand?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 18:16Speaker 01

  Pop up, you know?

• 18:17Mark Normand?

  She had a nut farm for a while. Remember that?

• 18:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:20Mark Normand?

  Yeah. How appropriate. Yeah.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  Hawaii.

• 18:23Mark Normand?

  Weird. Weird. She had a weird trajectory, that lady.

• 18:26Speaker 04

  Steve, I got a question. I can imagine that, uh, working at a casino in the eighties, you were probably dealing with some actual wise guys. Is that?

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I knew Spolatro. I knew Tony Spolatro, you know, the Pesci character in Casino?

• 18:39Speaker 04

  Wow. You knew him personally?

• 18:40Speaker 01

  I knew him personally. Yeah, I knew him very well.

• 18:42Mark Normand?

  He was a big guy, right? They made him little in the movie. Right?

• 18:47Sam Morril?

  Is that true?

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Is that a joke?

• 18:48Mark Normand?

  I thought he was actually tall, like, six-three.

• 18:50Speaker 01

  They called him Tony the Ant.

• 18:52Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Nickname. He was a very nice guy to me. I don't know, you know, I don't know all that stuff. He used to, you know, I worked in all the nightclubs. Before I worked at the hotel, I was a bouncer. Paul Anka had a club. I was a bouncer in a bunch of clubs. And, uh, he would come around, always tip me a twenty. He was a good guy. Uh... I got to know him. I knew his son. Always very soft spoken, you know, I knew those guys. I didn't know the De Niro character. I didn't know him.

• 19:23Mark Normand?

  Did everyone know what they were up to? Like, you're like?

• 19:25Speaker 01

  Everyone knew what they were up to. They knew to stay awake.

• 19:27Mark Normand?

  Hmm.

• 19:28Speaker 01

  You know?

• 19:28Sam Morril?

  Yeah, was Rickles like, who do I not do crowd work with before?

• 19:32Speaker 01

  Well, you know, he wasn't allowed in the, by then, he was blackballed.

• 19:35Mark Normand?

  What?

• 19:36Speaker 01

  There's a blacklist in Vegas.

• 19:38Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  There's a whole list where you can't go into the casino. So he never went into the casino. I saw him in nightclubs and bars and all that, you know, before time.

• 19:46Sam Morril?

  Do you ever see those guys get violent though, or no?

• 19:48Speaker 01

  What's that?

• 19:49Sam Morril?

  Do you ever see any of those guys get violent?

• 19:50Speaker 01

  Never.

• 19:50Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  I never saw any of that, but I assume it existed.

• 19:54Mark Normand?

  They do it in the desert.

• 19:55Speaker 01

  I did know they had that hole in the wall gang. They were robbing people's houses and doing that. Like I said.

• 20:01Mark Normand?

  There he is.

• 20:02Speaker 01

  I, my experience with him.

• 20:04Mark Normand?

  He does.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  He was a really good guy in my experience. He used to say, anybody bothers you, you let me know. Cause a lot of people would say, you know, like you're throwing them out, you know, you're throwing a guy out of the club. And, uh, out of the nightclub and, yeah, I know Spolaccio. He's my uncle, that bullshit.

• 20:21Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 20:23Speaker 01

  And then you'd say, yeah, well, go tell him and go fuck, you know, you know, tell him, you know, but tell your uncle I threw you out.

• 20:27Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  And it was a lie, you know?

• 20:29Mark Normand?

  Sure. Yeah, he does.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  And there was a bunch of them. Her, guy Herbie Blitstein was a good guy. I worked his son's wedding. I worked the door. My instruction was, don't let any FBI guys in. How am I supposed, I'm thinking to myself, how do I keep them out?

• 20:44Mark Normand?

  Yeah, they got the earpiece? How do I know?

• 20:46Speaker 01

  You know?

• 20:47Mark Normand?

  Jeez.

• 20:48Speaker 04

  So that's a Jewish mob too? Herbie Blitstein's or a?

• 20:50Speaker 01

  Herbie was with Spolaccio. He was his right hand man.

• 20:53Mark Normand?

  Somebody's gotta do the books.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  So that, you know, I know you know a lot of the older comics, but then I had the club in 95, you know, Shimmel had opened the club and I used, you know, Sebastian worked there.

• 21:06Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  I mean, a lot of guys. I mean, uh, I don't know. You name them.

• 21:10Sam Morril?

  So you live in Houston?

• 21:12Speaker 01

  It looks like he's out of central casting.

• 21:14Mark Normand?

  Yeah, right, like Brandon.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  Really, really good guy. I was very close with him.

• 21:19Mark Normand?

  Did you do any, any Dice stories? You work with Dice?

• 21:23Speaker 01

  No, I know Dice, but I never.

• 21:24Mark Normand?

  Well, come on!

• 21:25Speaker 01

  He was, by then, he was working at the Comedy Store.

• 21:28Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Bud Freeman wouldn't let the comics work wherever, you know? Like, you either work for him, or you work there.

• 21:35Mark Normand?

  Oh, right.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  He wasn't allowing that. You know, him and Mitzi were in that big battle for many, many, many years.

• 21:40Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 21:41Speaker 01

  You know, Dom used to work for me. Dom Arera.

• 21:43Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 21:44Speaker 01

  Worked for me a lot.

• 21:45Mark Normand?

  Nice.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  But, you know, Dom is one of the few guys that didn't listen. He said, "I'm working where I want," you know, blah, blah, blah.

• 21:50Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 21:51Speaker 01

  But Bud used to do that. And, and, uh, so you worked at the Comedy Store, or you worked over there? There was only two clubs in town. Then Catch a Rising Star came in.

• 21:59Mark Normand?

  Mmm.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  And I think Hicks worked there once.

• 22:02Mark Normand?

  Oh, okay.

• 22:02Sam Morril?

  That was supposed to be the big room in the eighties in New York.

• 22:05Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:06Sam Morril?

  Catch was apparently like bigger than The Cellar back then.

• 22:08Mark Normand?

  Yeah, Catch and the Strip.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  That's where I think Seinfeld and Larry David and them, you know, I think that's where those guys, uh, played, you know?

• 22:16Mark Normand?

  Yeah, yeah. Did you ever do the one in Princeton, New Jersey?

• 22:18Sam Morril?

  I, many times. It was awful.

• 22:19Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 22:19Sam Morril?

  Awful room, but I was like, I was like, "It's easy to get to."

• 22:22Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 22:22Sam Morril?

  Yeah, I nearly got fucking attacked on the train on the way back once. Cause I was just taking the New Jersey Transit late at night and I was like... It was just getting through that weekend. I was like, "I'm killing a fucking bottle of Buffalo Trace."

• 22:32Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 22:34Sam Morril?

  Oh, and a guy just, I made a mistake. A guy was fucking with me on the train tracks and he had like, like, something was off about him, but I was, I had a few drinks. I was kinda like, "Yeah, I'll fuck with this guy back. Fuck this guy."

• 22:44Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 22:45Sam Morril?

  So he's just going up to everyone like, "How do you feel about immigration?" And they're, and they're all just like, uh, just like, "What?" And then he came up to me and I was like, "I think they're taking our damn job," just trying to be funny. And he was just like, he was like, "You're fucking racist." I was like, "I go, "No, it's a joke." And then he goes, "I should kill you." And he started following me on the, on the platform and I had to like weave and hide. And I got lucky, cause he popped shit to the wrong guy on the train.

• 23:07Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 23:07Sam Morril?

  He was looking for me and then he found some other guy and he goes, "How do you feel about immigrants?" And it was like this fucking big, tough, black guy. And he was like, "He's New York, motherfucker." And they had to stop the train, cause he was gonna kill him.

• 23:18Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 23:19Sam Morril?

  And I was like, "That was like my guardian angel."

• 23:21Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 23:22Sam Morril?

  Crazy.

• 23:22Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 23:23Sam Morril?

  Yeah, Catch sucked. That was like...

• 23:25Speaker 01

  Where'd you grow up? You grew up here in New York?

• 23:26Sam Morril?

  In Manhattan, yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah? What about you?

• 23:28Mark Normand?

  New Orleans.

• 23:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah?

• 23:30Mark Normand?

  What about you?

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Brooklyn.

• 23:32Mark Normand?

  What part? That's where I live now.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Bensonhurst.

• 23:35Mark Normand?

  Ah.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  Weathersburg, Bushwick.

• 23:37Mark Normand?

  Fort Greene.

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 23:39Mark Normand?

  Hey.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  When I was young, Fort Greene was shitty.

• 23:41Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  Now it's so much nicer.

• 23:43Mark Normand?

  Very nice, very residential family, a lot of strollers.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  It was bad.

• 23:46Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 23:47Speaker 01

  All those neighborhoods were really bad.

• 23:48Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 23:49Speaker 01

  Back then, you know, they cleaned all that up.

• 23:51Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 23:51Speaker 01

  My neighborhood's like Asian now. It was all Italian. It was a big mob area.

• 23:57Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Growing up in Bensonhurst and this.

• 23:59Sam Morril?

  Very Italian neighborhood.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Very Italian neighborhood was. Now they're still summertines, but it was... Now it's like Asian, you know, everyone sold out and they moved to Staten Island.

• 24:08Mark Normand?

  Were you there for the Saturday Night Fever era?

• 24:10Speaker 01

  I was during those.

• 24:11Mark Normand?

  Oh, baby.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  I saw them filming that one.

• 24:13Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  On the bus going to high school.

• 24:15Sam Morril?

  Did you like that movie?

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Back then, I guess.

• 24:19Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:20Sam Morril?

  What do you like, what are your top... We talk movies a lot in this pod. What are like your favorites?

• 24:25Speaker 01

  Of course, The Godfather.

• 24:27Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Dirty Dozen, you probably don't know. Bang the Drum Slowly, you know Bang the Drum Slowly?

• 24:31Sam Morril?

  I don't know.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  Great baseball movie with... De Niro's an asshole, but...

• 24:39Sam Morril?

  They handed him good words for that one.

• 24:41Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  I liked that. Uh... I mean, there's so many that you kind of forget, you know? Like your go-to, I like the Bronx Tale.

• 24:49Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 24:49Sam Morril?

  It's a great one.

• 24:50Mark Normand?

  Right. We had Chaz on.

• 24:51Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  Chaz is a good guy.

• 24:52Sam Morril?

  Oh, he's a man, yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  He's a good guy.

• 24:54Sam Morril?

  He's awesome.

• 24:55Speaker 01

  A really good guy, really, really smart guy.

• 24:57Sam Morril?

  Great storyteller.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, a really smart guy. Uh... You know, what I mean, I'm trying to think of any new movies.

• 25:04Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  You know, like the new movies, like, what was that? Uh... You know, they're not like...

• 25:08Mark Normand?

  It's not the same.

• 25:09Speaker 01

  They're like, okay, it's not something I'm gonna watch again.

• 25:12Sam Morril?

  Hmm.

• 25:12Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 25:13Speaker 01

  You go, you know. I like, believe it or not, I like Jerry Maguire.

• 25:16Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  You know, a lot of people don't like... Forrest Gump, I know people don't like that. It gets knocked. I like that movie.

• 25:21Mark Normand?

  Oh, I like it.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  You know. I like some Sandler's, a lot of Sandler movies.

• 25:26Sam Morril?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 25:28Mark Normand?

  See Two Girls, One Cup?

• 25:31Speaker 01

  What's that?

• 25:31Mark Normand?

  Ah, pull it up.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Oh, I know that. What is that?

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Fake video?

• 25:37Mark Normand?

  It turned out it was fake.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  Was it fake?

• 25:39Mark Normand?

  Yeah, it was soft-serve ice cream. They just packed it up there.

• 25:42Sam Morril?

  Damn, I couldn't watch it.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  It was fake.

• 25:44Sam Morril?

  I couldn't get it through. I couldn't get through it. That was all the rage back then.

• 25:47Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah. This was hot.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  But it's fake.

• 25:49Mark Normand?

  Yeah, but it's still pretty, uh, pretty wild.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 25:52Mark Normand?

  Oh, we don't have to watch it. I can't. I can't do it right now.

• 25:54Sam Morril?

  Even knowing it's fake, I can't watch it.

• 25:57Mark Normand?

  Same, same.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  What movies do you like?

• 25:59Sam Morril?

  I mean, we like all kinds of movies, man. Like, you know.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  I'm not a horror guy. I'm not a-

• 26:03Sam Morril?

  Me neither.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  I'm not a sci-fi guy.

• 26:05Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  I watched Star Wars once years ago. I hate it.

• 26:08Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 26:09Speaker 01

  Hate it. Don't know anything about it. I did Pyramid. They were asking one of the categories for Star Wars. I made a fool of myself.

• 26:14Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  I know nothing. I don't know Yoda from the other guy. I don't know it.

• 26:18Sam Morril?

  You know what I watched the other day? It's new that's actually not bad is, uh, the new Donald Trump movie with Sebastian Stan.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  Was it good?

• 26:24Sam Morril?

  It's surprisingly good. It's like-

• 26:27Mark Normand?

  He's good.

• 26:27Sam Morril?

  It's like, it's like a cool version of New York in the 80s where it's like, it made New York like, look like kinda grimy and cool. It was fun.

• 26:35Speaker 01

  I like movies. I like to see, uh-

• 26:37Mark Normand?

  I'll watch that.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  I like to see New York in the 60s, the 70s. I like those movies.

• 26:41Sam Morril?

  That was a, that was a good era for movies, man. Like Midnight Cowboy and stuff.

• 26:44Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 26:45Sam Morril?

  Like Taxi Driver. Those are like, it's a cool era.

• 26:47Mark Normand?

  The Bob Dylan movie. The best part is seeing old New York.

• 26:50Sam Morril?

  Yeah, like The Village?

• 26:51Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I liked that movie. That was a good movie.

• 26:54Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 26:55Speaker 01

  That should've won. The movie that won was, uh, kinda-

• 26:58Mark Normand?

  The Brutalist.

• 26:58Speaker 01

  It was in-

• 26:59Sam Morril?

  No, Enora. Enora won.

• 27:01Mark Normand?

  Oh, that's Brooklyn.

• 27:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was in Mill Basin.

• 27:04Sam Morril?

  It was good, though.

• 27:05Speaker 01

  You know, it was good. It was a good movie, but not something I would watch again.

• 27:08Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  It's a good movie. That girl did a great job.

• 27:11Mark Normand?

  She was hot.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  And I'm glad she won. And I'm glad she won. I don't wanna hear Demi Moore's speech, you know. Every year, there's that underdog that-

• 27:19Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  And then they have the speech, the comeback thing, you know.

• 27:22Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 27:23Speaker 01

  You know, I, I usually tape it. Like, the Oscars, I would tape. I watched the monologue, right? Which Conan was great.

• 27:30Mark Normand?

  Great.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  And then I fast-forward everything else, 'cause I don't wanna hear all the bullshit speeches. I think, you know, I find a lot of actors, not all, to be full of shit.

• 27:39Mark Normand?

  Of course.

• 27:39Sam Morril?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  So I don't wanna hear that, how much they love. I don't wanna hear it, you know.

• 27:43Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 27:43Sam Morril?

  Well, I gotta ask you, we gotta talk some Sopranos. I know you're sick of talking Sopranos, but like, what's your all-time episode of Sopranos, you think? What's your favorite?

• 27:53Speaker 01

  My favorite one, what I liked a lot was one Whitecaps, which you don't probably know when

• 28:00Sam Morril?

  Which one was that?

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Tony, they were gonna buy the beach house.

• 28:02Sam Morril?

  That was a good one, yeah.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  And then she admits that she had a thing for Furio.

• 28:06Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Good work, the two, that's a real fight there.

• 28:10Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 28:10Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 28:11Speaker 01

  That's just very real, you know?

• 28:12Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 28:13Speaker 01

  Pine Barrens, everyone loves.

• 28:14Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  I'll tell you a funny story with Pine Barrens. We didn't shoot in the Pine Barrens because there was a politician, it's a scumbag named James Treffinger. And he wouldn't give us the permits.

• 28:27Mark Normand?

  Uh huh.

• 28:27Speaker 01

  He said it made New Jersey look bad, made Italians look bad, made, you know, it was just bad for the state. He would not give, so we shot near West Point. And James Treffinger, pull that prick up.

• 28:39Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  Look at that prick, if you know him. And he was arrested and went to jail.

• 28:46Mark Normand?

  Uh huh.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  For fraud and all kinds of shit.

• 28:49Mark Normand?

  Take it, Triffy.

• 28:50Sam Morril?

  I was hoping you'd say fucking kids, that would have been, that would have really been the nail in the coffin for this prick. But that's bad, fraud is bad too.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Look at him.

• 28:56Mark Normand?

  Look at that cum godler.

• 28:58Speaker 01

  Look, he prisoned and he wouldn't give us, so we shot it up there and it just happened to rain. It happened to snow.

• 29:05Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 29:06Speaker 01

  So it wasn't supposed to take place in the snow.

• 29:08Mark Normand?

  Well, that worked in the snow.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  So it made it, you know.

• 29:10Mark Normand?

  It made it better.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  We were up there, we, I remember, I remember we went out the night before, we were like in some bar up there and Steve Buscemi was, he directed it. He was singing I Wanna Be Sedated with the band. It was like three in the morning and I left, I said, we gotta get up early, you know, you know, everybody stayed and.

• 29:29Mark Normand?

  Hell, yeah.

• 29:30Speaker 01

  It was a lot of fun, but.

• 29:31Sam Morril?

  Some of your lines, I mean, one of my favorite things about The Sopranos is how funny it is, like it's, you talk about like rewatching stuff like.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  It's a lot of fun.

• 29:38Sam Morril?

  It is.

• 29:39Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 29:39Sam Morril?

  You have one of the funniest lines ever when, in season one, when Tony is trying to take down Junior and you go up to him and you say, "To the victor goes the spoils."

• 29:49Speaker 01

  That's my first, that's my first scene I ever shot.

• 29:51Sam Morril?

  It's such a funny line. And he just immediately goes, "Shut the fuck up."

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Shut the quotation book up your fat fucking head. You know, I wore a fat suit the first two years.

• 30:02Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah. No way.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then I guess I got fat enough on my own.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  You know, when I got to jokes, right? That's it.

• 30:12Sam Morril?

  No, Sal, don't play it, cause we can't, they won't let us play it.

• 30:16Speaker 01

  That's the first scene I ever shot, but. Uh, you know, like I had gotten the script and there was all these fat jokes. You're a calzone with legs.

• 30:24Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 30:25Speaker 01

  You should start to seriously consider eating salads, all these things. And I'm going, I'm not that much fatter than him.

• 30:31Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 30:32Speaker 01

  The jokes don't make sense.

• 30:34Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  And then they said, hey, you gotta come in and get fitted for a fat suit, so.

• 30:38Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  They made this ridiculous fat suit and I was parading around in front of the producers. It was.

• 30:44Sam Morril?

  That's gotta feel good. You're not fat enough for the fat jokes.

• 30:46Mark Normand?

  It's flattering.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I got the job without being fat enough, so.

• 30:49Mark Normand?

  Yeah, your delivery, uh.

• 30:50Speaker 01

  I worked my way into it.

• 30:51Mark Normand?

  Delivery on the, the Santa Claus episode, I'm shy.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:55Mark Normand?

  I love that.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  They gave me some good stuff.

• 30:57Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 30:58Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  They gave me some really good.

• 30:59Mark Normand?

  Ziti.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  You know, they gave me a lot of.

• 31:02Sam Morril?

  But they made your chara- the beauty of that show is that every character has this incredible, like, three-dimensional story. I mean, like, the, the Karen Ziti arc is so fucking sad.

• 31:11Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  Listen, it is, the writers are brilliant.

• 31:15Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 31:15Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  I mean, they are absolutely brilliant, you know, and when you say it's, it could be a comedy.

• 31:22Mark Normand?

  It is 100%.

• 31:23Speaker 01

  Some of the stuff is so funny, and when we did our podcast and I had to re-watch, cause I hadn't seen it in years. I mean, you're laughing out loud. I mean, you catch things, you know, you catch shit and.

• 31:34Mark Normand?

  100%.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  You know?

• 31:35Mark Normand?

  That scene, the, uh, that we talk about all the time, but the, when they give him an intervention, Chris.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Oh, one of the best things you'll ever see.

• 31:42Sam Morril?

  It's brilliant.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  One of the best scenes in the whole, the whole series.

• 31:45Mark Normand?

  I love it. He sits on the dog, calls the mom a whore, Paulie punches him. It's, it's gold.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  Paulie's, Tony Cirico and Paulie were very similar.

• 31:54Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 31:55Sam Morril?

  I was, I guess.

• 31:56Speaker 01

  Very, very, very.

• 31:58Sam Morril?

  He didn't see me like, he didn't strike me as a chameleon actor.

• 32:01Speaker 01

  But he had been acting for a long time.

• 32:02Sam Morril?

  Oh, he, I remember him in Bullets Over Broadway. I remember him.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  He done a lot of stuff. Woody, Woody Allen loved him. He grew up a Woody Allen's sister.

• 32:08Mark Normand?

  Ooh.

• 32:09Speaker 01

  And I did a movie, uh, uh, Wonder Wheel.

• 32:12Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 32:13Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Woody loved him, and Tony would tell him stories. Uh, yeah, Woody, I used to carry my gun over here. Woody was like fascinated.

• 32:21Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Uh, uh, with Tony's stories. Tony was a great guy, a lot of laughs without even knowing it.

• 32:27Mark Normand?

  Uh-huh.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? Like, one, one, one time we, uh, we're in Atlantic City doing a signing, and the guy says, uh, hey, uh, hey, Tony, my friend Louis, could you sign a picture to him? He's handicapped, he can't come in. But, uh, Tony wrote to Louis, the best handicapper in town.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  He had no clue.

• 32:48Mark Normand?

  That's funny.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  You know, he was a real tough guy, even into his sixties.

• 32:56Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  Fuck with him. He lived in Brooklyn. He lived on Shore Road and Bay Ridge. You know, he's from Brooklyn.

• 33:02Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  And, you know, when he was younger, he used to shake down bars.

• 33:09Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 33:09Speaker 01

  Even for mob, you know, not only for the mob, but bars that were owned by the mob, he used to shake them down. He was a legitimate tough guy.

• 33:18Mark Normand?

  Yeah, look at that.

• 33:19Speaker 01

  There's this crazy film where he's a black and white documentary where he talks about, I forget it, but if you find it, he says some serious stuff. I mean, Tony is, you know, he was a good guy. A lot, a lot of laughs, like crazy, crazy stuff. He was a germaphobe. He had these crazy eating habits. You know, when Anthrax was going on?

• 33:42Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  Remember all that?

• 33:43Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  So he thought he, like, he was gonna get Anthrax in the mail. Like, he was gonna get it. He was a big star.

• 33:51Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  He used to go to the mailbox with the dish.

• 33:54Sam Morril?

  Oh, my God.

• 33:56Speaker 01

  Put it in the microwave to like offset it. He put his mail on fire.

• 34:00Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 34:01Sam Morril?

  Wait, so that would, that would offset Anthrax?

• 34:04Speaker 01

  That's what he thought. You know, that's what he thought. He, you know, a lot of the stuff they got from Tony's, you know, his real life, you know, I mean, he's, you know, he went to jail. He came out. He wanted to be an actor. You know, he did a lot of charity work. He's an iconic TV character forever.

• 34:20Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  You know, when he got the job, when Tony got the job, he was living on a cot in his mother's one bedroom in Marine Park in Brooklyn.

• 34:29Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  Dead busted. Look at these, look at these headshots.

• 34:33Mark Normand?

  I know. What a hunk.

• 34:37Sam Morril?

  He looks like a wrestler there.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Very funny.

• 34:40Mark Normand?

  Look at that.

• 34:40Speaker 01

  That's a Coney Island.

• 34:41Mark Normand?

  Sexy dude.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  What is that? I don't know what, I don't even know what that is.

• 34:44Sam Morril?

  When people come up to you on the street, what do they usually, like, is there an episode they usually mention? Is there a moment they usually mention?

• 34:51Speaker 01

  They just say Bobby. I get some, of course, I was on Blue Bloods for nine years. I get some Anthony.

• 34:55Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  And I get Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. They used to ask about the... A lot of young kids watch it now in their twenties. You know, in their teens, in their twenties. They used to ask about the.

• 35:08Mark Normand?

  The finale?

• 35:09Speaker 01

  The ending, the ending.

• 35:10Mark Normand?

  Yeah. Well, what do you think?

• 35:12Speaker 01

  You know, for a long time, I thought he. For a long time, I thought he was alive. But then after doing the podcast, interviewing, I think he died.

• 35:24Mark Normand?

  You think he got whacked?

• 35:25Speaker 01

  I think he died. I think he got whacked.

• 35:26Mark Normand?

  Interesting.

• 35:27Speaker 01

  Maybe it was wishful thinking, thinking he was still alive, but I think he got killed.

• 35:31Sam Morril?

  The fact that we're still talking about the ending, though, is kind of a worker genius.

• 35:35Mark Normand?

  Brilliant.

• 35:35Sam Morril?

  David Chase's part.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  And, you know, we watched it together. It's the only thing we ever watched together. We did this appearance down in the Hard Rock in Florida. So there was nine of us. You know, Jim and me and Lorraine and Michael and Siroco and, you know. And he. We were like, and I knew how it was gonna end, but like, we were stunned. Like, we watched it like everyone else, like, what the fuck happened? And then, you know, we saw, you know, it was like, kind of stunning, because it said fade to black. I didn't know it was gonna be abrupt like that.

• 36:08Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 36:09Sam Morril?

  Interesting.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  So, you know, some people liked it, some people didn't like it, you know? You know, Siroco, we would do these appearances in the casinos. And, you know, sometimes people were like, you know, like, they would say shit to him and, like, he would be there. Like this, you know, you know, a guy, you know, you're like Santa Claus at Macy's?

• 36:25Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 36:25Speaker 01

  You know, they stand behind you.

• 36:26Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah, like a Comic Con.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, hey, give your, tell your mother hello. Tell your mother hello. He was, he, there was no one he was afraid of.

• 36:35Mark Normand?

  Yeah, that's the thumbnail. Wow.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  No one he was afraid of.

• 36:39Sam Morril?

  You know what's another iconic episode is the one with your dad, played by Burt Young?

• 36:44Speaker 01

  Great.

• 36:44Sam Morril?

  I mean, that is, well, he wants to do the one last hit, remember?

• 36:47Mark Normand?

  Oh, yes.

• 36:49Sam Morril?

  The violence of that season would, I mean, every, you know, every once in a while, you'd be like, holy shit. This is, the guy just breaking the head in with a golf club.

• 36:57Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 36:57Sam Morril?

  That was one of the most shocking scenes.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, and Burt was a great actor, a very underrated actor, you know? I think, you know, he was a very serious actor. And then I think with the Rocky movies, you know, people thought he was Paulie, you know?

• 37:08Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 37:10Speaker 01

  Uh, he was a really good guy, really good guy.

• 37:14Mark Normand?

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• 39:05Sam Morril?

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• 39:12Speaker 01

  You know Triumph had a, uh...

• 39:14Mark Normand?

  The dog?

• 39:15Speaker 01

  You know, Robert Smigel.

• 39:16Mark Normand?

  We just had him on.

• 39:17Speaker 01

  They had a sitcom. You know that? He had a sitcom for a little while.

• 39:20Sam Morril?

  With Burt Young?

• 39:21Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 39:22Mark Normand?

  What?

• 39:22Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no.

• 39:23Sam Morril?

  Oh, okay. That's a weird pairing.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  So, listen, so he hired Burt, me, Kathy Moriarty from, uh...

• 39:31Sam Morril?

  Raging Bull?

• 39:32Speaker 01

  Raging Bull.

• 39:32Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 39:33Speaker 01

  Paul Savino.

• 39:36Speaker 01

  Maybe a couple of other people.

• 39:37Sam Morril?

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  And, uh, we did two shows, like an early one and a late one. And Burt loved to drink. And Burt went downstairs and got fucking demolished.

• 39:51Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 39:52Speaker 01

  And he couldn't do the second show. He couldn't speak. He had a lot of lines. So they gave him to me and I can't learn on the fly. So like I'm doing the best I can. I had to give a eulogy and like one of the producers go, hey, you know, could you get a little? I said, are you kidding? You gave this to me five minutes ago.

• 40:07Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  The thing is this big. And so Burt like barely said anything at all. And, uh, it was all of us, you know? Burt was a, a great, great, great guy. He only did one episodes of The Sopranos, but it was very memorable.

• 40:22Sam Morril?

  Oh, my God, it was crazy.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  And the other guy died that played Mustang Sally.

• 40:25Sam Morril?

  Wow, really?

• 40:26Speaker 01

  He died of a drug overdose. Yeah.

• 40:28Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was a good actor. He was a real New York actor, you know? Burt was in, uh, Chinatown.

• 40:34Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:35Speaker 01

  Jack Nicholson.

• 40:37Sam Morril?

  And Back to School.

• 40:38Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Back to School.

• 40:40Sam Morril?

  Yeah, classic.

• 40:41Speaker 01

  He crushes, he crushes the napkin holder.

• 40:44Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  I would imagine him and Rodney hung out pretty good.

• 40:48Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  You know? Good guy. Yeah, listen, there was no bad Soprano episodes.

• 40:54Sam Morril?

  I know.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  Some you like better than others, you know?

• 40:56Sam Morril?

  I agree. I mean, it's funny that you could tell. Did you watch the documentary they did on HBO?

• 41:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, we did. We had a thing at the Beacon last year.

• 41:04Mark Normand?

  I liked it.

• 41:04Sam Morril?

  What did you think of it?

• 41:06Speaker 01

  I liked it. I didn't like what they did with Jim. They made Jim sound like he was this raging junkie.

• 41:11Mark Normand?

  That's true.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Which he was not.

• 41:12Mark Normand?

  Made him sound like an angry guy.

• 41:14Speaker 01

  He was not. He was a really good guy.

• 41:16Mark Normand?

  He was kind of a hippie, right? Birkenstock.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, with Birkenstock. He would listen to music. He was really generous. Like, you know, he had this big contract dispute in 2004, uh, against HBO.

• 41:30Speaker 01

  And it got really ugly. And when we came back in and he finished it, all the regulars, he gave us a check for thirty-three thousand dollars.

• 41:39Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 41:40Speaker 01

  Thirty-three thousand, three hundred thirty-three dollars. In two thousand four, so he bought like everybody a car.

• 41:46Mark Normand?

  Basically, yeah.

• 41:47Speaker 01

  You know, he was really generous guy. At the, the rap, when we rapped, he bought everyone watches.

• 41:53Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  The cast, the crew, you know, like, you know, the cast, ten thousand dollar watches.

• 41:58Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  He was not, he was really serious about the work. He was a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs. We hung out a lot, all of us.

• 42:06Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  Went out all the time, you know, back then, you know. But I thought the documentary, though I loved it, I thought it was really good. I did not like how he was portrayed in it.

• 42:17Sam Morril?

  I hear that. I heard that from other people, too.

• 42:19Speaker 01

  I didn't like that. It's like, it's like he was a junkie acting. He was an actor that had a problem, you know? Not always, not always. I mean, the performance is flawless, man.

• 42:31Sam Morril?

  Do you feel like he made everyone up their game like crazy?

• 42:33Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 42:34Sam Morril?

  Yeah. I mean, it's, it's so cool when like, someone goes that hard with a, I mean, you can't picture anyone else in that role.

• 42:41Mark Normand?

  No.

• 42:41Speaker 01

  And you know who it came down to? Three people. Stevie Van Zandt, Michael Risfoyle, you know, Michael Risfoyle?

• 42:47Sam Morril?

  He was on the show still, right? He's Jackie, wasn't he Jackie June?

• 42:50Speaker 01

  Jackie June.

• 42:51Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 42:51Speaker 01

  And Michael's a great guy, great actor.

• 42:53Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  The three of them tested for HBO. It came to the wire, the three of them.

• 42:58Mark Normand?

  Well, they went with the right choice.

• 43:00Speaker 01

  You know, and Jim in a scene, I mean, you see him angry, sad, raging. You see, you know, four different, you know, you know, you see four different things. Of course, he upped his game. He was really serious with the acting.

• 43:15Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  It's no secret, there were some problems, you know? And he liked to go out, maybe a little too much, you know?

• 43:22Mark Normand?

  Who doesn't?

• 43:23Sam Morril?

  Do you think it sometimes like goes hand in hand, though? Like when you burn that hard on one end, you need a release of some sort.

• 43:30Speaker 01

  You know, I, you know, I don't know about that. You know, I mean, you know, I've thought about that. I personally, probably I'm not a good enough actor. I, I can't. Go out and then go to work the next day. So I never, ever go out the night before. I don't go out like I used to anyway. But years ago, we were out, I was out, you know, five nights a week, you know, we all used to hang together.

• 43:52Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  Go into restaurants, stay out all night, go to after hours, get off at, finish work at three in the morning and then go out. You know, we all did, you know, we were all hanging out. We used to do casino appearances, travel together.

• 44:05Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 44:06Speaker 01

  You know, we almost beat this guy up in the gym. There was this guy like bothering us at the Hilton. Like a real obnoxious asshole. We were in the Elvis suite with the high rollers and we bit our tongue and let it go.

• 44:18Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 44:19Speaker 01

  And then he showed up again like two years later at the Golden Nugget. And before he said a word, you know, Jim said, that fucking guy is here.

• 44:28Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  He says one word, let's beat the fuck out of him. We never did it, let's fucking do it, right? And luckily, I told the host and the guy, you know, they told the guy to leave.

• 44:39Mark Normand?

  Imagine that story. You're not gonna believe who beat my ass.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  You know, Jim, Jim was a lot of fun. I mean, he was very smart, very, very smart guy.

• 44:47Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  He knew a lot of stuff, but that's what I didn't like about the documentary. I like David's stuff. And it shows you David, you know, he's a genius, but.

• 44:56Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 44:57Speaker 01

  He's.

• 44:57Mark Normand?

  He's got problems too, yeah. Well, I didn't know so much about the mom. I didn't know Sopranos really started with his mom. And then it just grew from there.

• 45:04Sam Morril?

  It's crazy that if that actress doesn't die, the show could be something completely different.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  Something different. Nancy Marshon. You know, they said they audition a whole lot of actresses, some really big actresses. And he said that she came in, she's not Italian, and she like channeled his mother.

• 45:21Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  And it was scary.

• 45:22Mark Normand?

  She's amazing.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  It was scary.

• 45:24Sam Morril?

  Isn't it amazing if it doesn't always go to like maybe the biggest actor? It's just like, oh, that's reminds me of my fucked up childhood the most.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 45:30Sam Morril?

  That's crazy though.

• 45:31Speaker 01

  You know, you know, getting a job as an actor. I mean, do you guys act?

• 45:35Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  Is that a, is that a, you want it?

• 45:38Sam Morril?

  We wrote a movie for ourselves that we're trying to do, so if, if that works, that'd be very cool, but.

• 45:43Mark Normand?

  Yeah, I can't act.

• 45:44Sam Morril?

  He's better than he's saying he is.

• 45:46Mark Normand?

  Ah.

• 45:47Sam Morril?

  I mean, none of us are gonna be Johnny Depp. We just play ourselves.

• 45:49Mark Normand?

  I can drink and hit a woman.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  It's okay, but, but you know what I'm saying? I mean, it's.

• 45:55Speaker 01

  You know, uh, it's so hard to get a job because.

• 45:58Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 45:59Speaker 01

  You know, like, there was this guy came, come in and, and the director, this director told me this story. He wanted to hire, you know, Joe Blow. He said, that's the guy. Don't even show me anybody else. That's the guy.

• 46:11Mark Normand?

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:11Speaker 01

  And the producer says, hey, uh, reminds me too much of my boyfriend.

• 46:18Mark Normand?

  Exactly.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  I'm not gonna be able to handle three months of him.

• 46:20Mark Normand?

  Exactly.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  So the guy who did a great job doesn't get the job. And then there's, I remember on The Sopranos, there was a thing, uh, they read for an FBI agent. And they hired, okay, her, her and her. Oh, wait a minute. Uh, that's three blondes. One.

• 46:36Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 46:37Speaker 01

  Get her out, get the other one in. It's like, you know, how do you even get a job?

• 46:40Sam Morril?

  You can color, you can color your hair, you know?

• 46:42Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  All's gotta be lined up. There's so many factors.

• 46:45Mark Normand?

  Great point.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  Years ago, I, I read when I first started for Chuck Norris.

• 46:50Mark Normand?

  Uh-huh.

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Thing, and it was a great read. It was a mob guy. It was a great read. And, and the, the casting director said, man, well, you know, I was just starting. It was in LA. I was living in Vegas. I would go to LA all the time to audition. And, uh, she said, that was fantastic. Where have you been? You know? And then she said, they'll never hire you. He's 5'8". I'm 6'2". She said, he'll never hire you.

• 47:15Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 47:16Sam Morril?

  Damn.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  You know, so it's like.

• 47:17Mark Normand?

  It's not about talent. Talent's out. It's just luck of the draw.

• 47:21Sam Morril?

  Was there anything you ever read for that you're like, fuck, I really wish I got that? That, that didn't go your way?

• 47:27Mark Normand?

  Good question.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  I was up for a big role. I didn't read for it, but I had worked with Clint Eastwood before.

• 47:33Mark Normand?

  Woo.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  In The Jersey Boys, that Christopher Walken role.

• 47:37Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  I was up for that. And, uh, I didn't get it. I got, I think I came pretty close out to the wire. And then he offered me to play a barber, four lines.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  What was I gonna say, not a Clint Eastwood?

• 47:52Mark Normand?

  You gotta tag it.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  I liked him a lot, cause I had played a chef. I had a bigger role in another movie. And we kinda hit it off, and we went to dinner, and so I did it. I was shaving Christopher Walken all day.

• 48:04Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 48:04Speaker 01

  Put shaving cream on him, you know, but that I would've liked.

• 48:08Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  It would've been a good one.

• 48:09Sam Morril?

  Eastwood's really cool.

• 48:10Speaker 01

  Great guy.

• 48:11Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 48:12Speaker 01

  You know, no bullshit there, you better be prepared. No bullshit, you come in, you know your stuff, he's not babying you, you know.

• 48:19Mark Normand?

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:19Speaker 01

  You don't work long hours, couple of takes, boom, boom, boom. No bullshit, no coddling you, no, oh yeah, it's gonna be okay. You better be prepared, that's why he hired you.

• 48:29Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  Do your shit. There's no like, well, let me work my way into this, and

• 48:35Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 48:35Speaker 01

  You know, all, you know, the nonsense actors do.

• 48:37Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 48:38Speaker 01

  You know, do your shit, get in, boom. He was very nice, we spoke at length.

• 48:43Mark Normand?

  Oh, really?

• 48:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, we spoke at length.

• 48:45Sam Morril?

  What are you talking about?

• 48:46Speaker 01

  Talking about Vegas in the old days.

• 48:48Mark Normand?

  Mm.

• 48:49Speaker 01

  He was good friends with Jimmy Durante.

• 48:51Sam Morril?

  Oh, nice.

• 48:51Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  Like, the old days, he went back there.

• 48:54Sam Morril?

  He's like 95.

• 48:55Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 48:56Speaker 01

  He went back there like in the 50s, he was in the 50s.

• 48:58Mark Normand?

  Look at that, damn.

• 49:00Speaker 01

  You know, you know, uh, so we talked about that, and then I enjoyed that. Then he went to a restaurant here that I liked, I had taken his cameraman, and then he called me, he said, Clint's in, he wants to go, so I met him there. You know, Woody Allen, who I was the biggest fan of.

• 49:17Mark Normand?

  Sure, us too.

• 49:18Sam Morril?

  What's your favorite Woody?

• 49:19Speaker 01

  Crimes and misdemeanors is one of the great, you asked me what movie?

• 49:22Mark Normand?

  That's a great one.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  One of the best movies made.

• 49:23Sam Morril?

  Great movie.

• 49:24Speaker 01

  Great.

• 49:25Mark Normand?

  It bombed too, at the box office, but it's so good.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Great movie.

• 49:28Sam Morril?

  It's hilarious, and it's got the great series, I mean, he does it similar to the Hand and Her Sisters, where they have the two greats.

• 49:34Speaker 01

  So great.

• 49:34Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 49:35Speaker 01

  I mean, he's made so many great movies, so I always wanted to work with him. I auditioned for him. For this, he did a series for, uh, Amazon.

• 49:47Sam Morril?

  Really?

• 49:48Speaker 01

  So I read him for the role. I don't know what the role is. They don't tell you. So I go there, my agent says, uh, they, you know, they want to see you. So I go to this place on Park Avenue. It's an apartment, like office apartment. And I go in, there's no sides, there's nothing to read. And so she comes over and she hands me this. She said, you got five minutes.

• 50:06Sam Morril?

  Oh, good.

• 50:07Speaker 01

  Woody's not gonna say anything.

• 50:08Sam Morril?

  Bert Young just dropped out.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  You got five minutes. He, he's not gonna, he, he's gonna, he can't hear. So speak up. He's gonna know in 60 seconds. You got five minutes to learn the shit. You're gonna, he's gonna know in 60 seconds.

• 50:26Sam Morril?

  Jesus.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  She said, don't, don't, don't take offense.

• 50:29Sam Morril?

  The pressure.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  So, so I go in, I'm reading, it's a role of a highway patrol guy. So I look it over, you know, it's not that much. And I look it over, I'm gonna have the paper in my hand. So I'm saying like, what if I, it's all dark in there. I walk in the room, it's all dark. And he's in the corner. It's like a, like a scene from a movie. He's in the corner, he's wearing the corduroy pants with the jacket with the patches.

• 50:54Sam Morril?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:55Speaker 01

  And he's in the corner, like in the dark. She said he won't, he's not gonna shake your hand. So he was like, like there. Right? And I'm like, how you doing, Woody? Thanks for seeing me. And I'm saying like, what the fuck am I gonna do? So I start talking about the Knicks. Knowing he's a Knicks fan, I figured let me, so they don't let me, maybe he could get to know, you know, something. So we talked a few minutes about the Knicks back then. This is 2018 or something, right?

• 51:21Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Talking about the Knicks, blah, blah, blah.

• 51:23Sam Morril?

  That was, that was a rough year too. You're like, how about a Barneyani?

• 51:27Speaker 01

  You know, we're talking about the Knicks and then I didn't get it. And then when he did this movie, they just gave it to me.

• 51:34Sam Morril?

  Hey!

• 51:34Speaker 01

  And I got to talk to him. He was shy. I worked like eight days, nine days. He was very shy, but then I started talking to him about stand-up. In Vegas, he headlined Caesar's Palace.

• 51:44Sam Morril?

  Wow. He was a great stand-up.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  He said he would love to do, I said, you think you'll ever do it again? Ah, he said it's so hard. And we were talking about Shecky Green, who I knew and I worked with. And, uh, you know, some of the old Vegas comics.

• 51:57Sam Morril?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:57Speaker 01

  We were talking about and, you know, he loved Bobby Slayton. Wow.

• 52:02Mark Normand?

  Really? What? That's incredible.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  Bobby Sainz, and he said Bobby's a really good actor. He put Bobby in three or four of his things. Bobby's got a great scene in his Amazon show, playing a writer in a diner. Like a four or five page scene.

• 52:18Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 52:19Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, he liked, he liked, uh, he liked him.

• 52:23Mark Normand?

  That's so intimidating, though. The dark room with Woody in the corner, the camera. It's like Basic Instinct, you know? That's so awkward.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  You know, and I had heard, and I don't know if it's true, but people had told me that he didn't want to meet the actor, so sometimes he would be in another room, like watching on camera, listening.

• 52:40Sam Morril?

  Like a police interrogate.

• 52:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:41Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 52:42Speaker 01

  Like he wouldn't, like, he would go like this. Like, I put his head down and just like, listen to you. Dominic T. Uncle Junior told me he auditioned for a play.

• 52:51Mark Normand?

  Uh huh.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  And, and that's what he did. He went like that.

• 52:54Mark Normand?

  Weird.

• 52:55Speaker 01

  So that was kind of odd. He wasn't weird on the set.

• 52:57Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 52:58Speaker 01

  You know, he was, he was very nice, you know, nice. But once he got to know me, you know, the Jim Belushi was in the movie, it wasn't one of his better ones.

• 53:05Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  But we worked with Kate Winslet, Jim Belushi, and Circo. And Circo would tell you, you know, Circo would say, hey, after you say that line, look at me, you know, let me get my mug in there. Look at me, give me a look.

• 53:20Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 53:21Speaker 01

  You know, he would actually tell you to look at him, you know, he's directing you.

• 53:24Mark Normand?

  Right, right. Well, he had a mug.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Let me get my mug in there.

• 53:28Mark Normand?

  You said you worked with Walken. Did you get to know him at all?

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I got to know him. The first time I met him, I did a movie, Kill the Irishman. He was in it.

• 53:35Sam Morril?

  Oh, that was a pretty good one, yeah.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  We didn't have scenes together.

• 53:37Sam Morril?

  What was it? The actor passed away recently, didn't he?

• 53:40Speaker 01

  Ray Stevenson.

• 53:41Sam Morril?

  Yeah, he was great in that movie.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Great, great. I had a big scene with him.

• 53:44Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 53:44Speaker 01

  Good guy. Yeah, we had fun. We shot it in Detroit, a double for Cleveland. Christopher Walken, he, he just came. He was, we were shooting another scene, and he was wearing jeans and a rope.

• 53:59Mark Normand?

  Hmm.

• 54:00Speaker 01

  As a belt.

• 54:01Mark Normand?

  Weird.

• 54:01Speaker 01

  He had a rope. He was saying, I'm starting to watch that show. His wife cast the show. Georgia Walken cast the entire run of The Sopranos. She cast me.

• 54:11Mark Normand?

  What?

• 54:12Speaker 01

  And he said, I'm starting to, I'm, I'm starting to, I'm just starting to watch that show, this show. I think the show is over.

• 54:21Speaker 01

  You know, but he was great. And then, you know, we talked.

• 54:25Sam Morril?

  But I watched The Sopranos afterwards, like, I mean, I guess I came in at the very end, but like, it feels weird to have to wait a week to see the next episode.

• 54:33Mark Normand?

  We would wait, we'd have big parties, watch parties.

• 54:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a lot of people. David Chase loved that. You know, so many people had these parties and Italian meals and all this stuff on, on, uh, and it was crazy. Listen, we had the premiere of a TV show at Radio City.

• 54:50Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 54:51Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  Every year, six thou- the first year was at John's Pizza. And then every year after that, it was at Radio City.

• 54:58Sam Morril?

  Oh, my God.

• 54:59Mark Normand?

  That's insane.

• 55:00Speaker 01

  And people were dying to get tickets. It was like the hottest ticket.

• 55:03Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 55:03Speaker 01

  I think at my kid's school, I auctioned off $10,000 for two tickets.

• 55:09Speaker 01

  You know, and then we would have the party at Radio City. Uh, and if the ice wasn't at, like, where the ice is, that would be the, the, the after.

• 55:19Mark Normand?

  Oh, and you put your balls on it.

• 55:23Mark Normand?

  Oh, that's crazy.

• 55:24Sam Morril?

  Damn.

• 55:25Speaker 01

  I mean, it was like crazy.

• 55:26Mark Normand?

  It was, it's, it's so funny that the Italians got so mad about this show. Like, I don't know, I'm half Italian. Who, who gives you, what, what about, how do you feel about Luigi then? If this show bothered you, you know, he's like a real Italian.

• 55:36Sam Morril?

  Well, some people love him.

• 55:37Mark Normand?

  That's true.

• 55:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I, I mean, that's, first of all, it's all bullshit.

• 55:41Mark Normand?

  It's a TV show.

• 55:42Speaker 01

  I had a guy, you know, I wrote a book called Nicky Deuce. And we turned it into a movie and Gandalfini's in it and Michael and Serico and a couple of other people. And I wrote the kid's book and then I sold it to Nickelodeon.

• 55:55Mark Normand?

  Oh, wow.

• 55:55Speaker 01

  And so I was going around doing book signings.

• 55:58Mark Normand?

  Nice.

• 55:58Speaker 01

  And I was going around doing book signings and this guy was like emailing and writing letters to the bookstore saying how I make Italians look bad. You know, the, the, the, the story, it was about a kid in a neighborhood in Bensonhurst and, you know, blah, blah, blah, right? So I'm going like, you know, what do you, you know, what's this guy talking about? Some, some organization. It was some bullshit organization. So finally I called the guy.

• 56:26Mark Normand?

  Uh huh.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  And I said, I think his name was Joe, of course. I, I said, what can I do for you? What is it that I could do for you? Cause you're harassing me. What is it that you want from me? And I said, this is the world I grew up in. This is what I know.

• 56:42Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 56:43Speaker 01

  This is what I know. You know, rappers write about, you know, the hood? This is what I know. I know what I know. It wasn't autobiographical, but you know, there was stuff in there. It's like Brooklyn in the seventies. He said, well, if you make a donation to my The fucking guy tried to shake me down.

• 57:01Mark Normand?

  Wow, very Italian.

• 57:02Sam Morril?

  Yeah, he's the one who's doing the bad.

• 57:04Mark Normand?

  Exactly.

• 57:05Speaker 01

  So, you know, and I used to, you know, people would say, you know, I don't watch that show you're on. It makes Italians look bad. I said, have you seen it? No, I don't watch it. Well, then how do you know?

• 57:15Mark Normand?

  Exactly.

• 57:16Speaker 01

  You know, this is a slice of Italian-American life.

• 57:19Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 57:20Sam Morril?

  You could argue it makes any group, you can argue it makes Jews look bad. Hashes, hashes your fucking one Jew?

• 57:26Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 57:27Sam Morril?

  You could argue it makes anyone, anyone can get offended.

• 57:30Speaker 01

  I mean, if you're, if you're ignorant enough to think that every rap is a gang member, then you're an asshole.

• 57:35Mark Normand?

  It's a good point.

• 57:36Sam Morril?

  There's also that character, Lorraine Bracco's ex-husband on the show.

• 57:40Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 57:41Sam Morril?

  He's kind of that guy that they're making fun of.

• 57:42Speaker 01

  He's an asshole.

• 57:43Sam Morril?

  Where he's always like, this makes us all look bad. But you're like, that's, you're that fucking guy.

• 57:47Mark Normand?

  That was smart to write that guy in.

• 57:49Sam Morril?

  Oh, they, it was such a self-aware show.

• 57:51Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 57:51Speaker 01

  You use, you know, and then they had that thing, remember the Columbus State Parade?

• 57:55Mark Normand?

  Yes. Nick DiPaolo's in that episode.

• 57:58Sam Morril?

  He's a cop.

• 57:59Speaker 01

  Nick DiPaolo, yeah. Nick was, Nick was in, you know, I, Nick got the role on his own, but I think I might have helped him get the

• 58:05Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 58:05Speaker 01

  Well, I certainly talked to them. I said, if it's, I can't get you the role, but if you, you know, it's on the fence, it pushed you over. He did a great job.

• 58:13Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 58:13Speaker 01

  Nick was a crazy soprano fan.

• 58:15Mark Normand?

  Oh, he had a bit about sopranos.

• 58:17Speaker 01

  You know, we, we used to do a lot, we do a live show now, me, Michael and Estor. We're gonna be at Sony Hall, August 18.

• 58:25Sam Morril?

  Oh, that's cool.

• 58:25Speaker 01

  And we do it all over the country. We toured Australia. We're touring the UK in the, in the, in the spring next year.

• 58:31Sam Morril?

  Do you like touring with them?

• 58:33Speaker 01

  It's great.

• 58:33Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  It's great. We, we, we tell behind-the-scenes stories, funny stories. We do Q and A, we agree, we show clips, slides, you know? If you're a soprano fan, it's, you don't want to miss it. It's really good. And we sell out most places.

• 58:46Mark Normand?

  Nice.

• 58:46Speaker 01

  We do theaters, you know? And so.

• 58:51Speaker 01

  Nick, we used to do a show early on called Comedy You Can't Refuse, and we would have a couple of comics, you know, and Nick, Nick, uh, DiPaolo did Westbury, you know, in the round.

• 59:04Mark Normand?

  Long Island.

• 59:04Speaker 01

  Westbury with Long Island. He came, he came out and he said, "Welcome to Jewville."

• 59:14Sam Morril?

  I think that's how he intro'd me on his radio show, too.

• 59:16Speaker 01

  That's what he said. I mean, that's what he said.

• 59:20Mark Normand?

  That's Nick.

• 59:21Speaker 01

  And then in Vegas, I mean, he had one of the best sets I had ever seen.

• 59:25Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 59:25Speaker 01

  But now he's like, he went way to the. Because I did his podcast. It was like, I don't even know if he remembered who I was. Nick.

• 59:33Mark Normand?

  He can find a way to get to Hillary.

• 59:37Mark Normand?

  But he's fucking hilarious.

• 59:38Speaker 01

  Really.

• 59:38Sam Morril?

  Some of those classic albums have some great.

• 59:40Speaker 01

  Really funny, man. I mean, funny guy. He used to, he, he wrote some stuff for my first book. I did that Gumba's Guy to Life. You Might Be a Gumba If.

• 59:49Mark Normand?

  Uh huh.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  We did a bunch of those. You Have More Pinky Rings Than Pinkies. I think he wrote the one, Nathan Lane, you know, something you never hear a Gumba say. Nathan Lane. I adore Nathan.

• 1:00:02Speaker 01

  And Nick wrote that. Nick wrote a bunch of shit, you know. He helped with the book, yeah. He, I think the first two books, he wrote some good stuff. Really funny.

• 1:00:10Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:11Mark Normand?

  Super funny.

• 1:00:12Speaker 01

  I say to, I think I called him once he was, we used to do this XXX show. Like, it was called Extreme Comedy. Joe Rogan did it years ago in the 90s in Vegas. Joe did it and, uh, you know, a bunch of, uh, Nick, maybe you tell, a bunch of, it was like midnight on a Saturday, you know, real blue, as blue as you wanted to go. And, uh, I called Nick, I think he was in his room. I went, hey, what, Mr., I said, hey, what, how grumpy are you today, you know? He said, I know. You're fucking Mr. Happy all the time.

• 1:00:48Mark Normand?

  I love to go back for this. I love that you called that guy, just to get straight to it. The guy who's offended all the time?

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:54Mark Normand?

  That should be a TV show. Italian guy from Brooklyn, if you're offended, we'll call you. And we'll talk it out.

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I used to call comics, well, you know, comics could be annoying.

• 1:01:04Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  So I ran a few rooms in Vegas and they wanted work, right? I did one in Houston. I had the Maxi Motel. I had the Riviera.

• 1:01:14Sam Morril?

  That's not still around, is it, the Maxim Hotel?

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  The Maxim, I think they changed the name, that's not around. They had a comedy, a small comedy club. Right? And, uh, I used to book some acts into the chop. I had a little agency there years ago while I worked at the Riv- And there's guys I just didn't want to use for one reason or another. And they would, like, keep calling and calling, and then I would, like, after the second call, I would call them and say, "I don't want to use you."

• 1:01:39Sam Morril?

  Yeah, take a hint.

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  "I don't want to use you."

• 1:01:41Sam Morril?

  So this is before even email?

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, "I don't want to use you." Yeah, I never used email. I said, "I don't want to use you." That's it. I mean, you know, I get it. "I, I, I know you're a great comic. You're not for me."

• 1:01:51Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:51Speaker 01

  You know, because I know guys were paying their ass. I used to try to book guys that didn't bother me. I don't want to be bothered. I don't want phone calls at night.

• 1:01:58Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  Just do your fucking act. I didn't even, I didn't even go see, I didn't even go see your act. Like, there was this girl came and she said, uh, you know, she was working in the club and she came over and I was walking through the casino and she said, "Hey, are you gonna come and see me or what? I've been here like, uh, since Monday." I went, "Let's leave well enough alone."

• 1:02:19Sam Morril?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:20Speaker 01

  "If I see your act, I may not book your act. Just fucking do it. Leave me alone."

• 1:02:24Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 1:02:25Speaker 01

  "I don't get complaints on you. Come on time and leave me alone."

• 1:02:28Sam Morril?

  Yeah, well, that's the thing. We know a lot of comics. You never heard a comic go, "Man, I'm not that good."

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:32Sam Morril?

  You know, they all, every comic thinks they're good enough. That's the problem.

• 1:02:35Speaker 01

  But it wasn't even that. It was like, for one reason or another, you know? A lot of comics would call on their own. A lot of guys weren't, didn't have representation.

• 1:02:42Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Especially in the club, you know? Richie Miller, we were talking about Richie Miller?

• 1:02:47Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:02:48Speaker 01

  He used to call. He, he would say, "Hey, so-and-so's been there before. You gave him 1,200. You think you could give him 1,250?" I went, "Wow, you're a great fucking agent." I said, "How about if I give him 1,300? You know what? I'll give him 1,400. Does that make you a great agent?" Like, I didn't care.

• 1:03:06Sam Morril?

  Right, right.

• 1:03:06Speaker 01

  It was the hotel's budget.

• 1:03:09Sam Morril?

  That's Dennis Miller's brother?

• 1:03:10Speaker 01

  Dennis Miller.

• 1:03:11Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Speaker 01

  He ran down in San Antonio, right?

• 1:03:14Sam Morril?

  He did Cap City for a minute. Oh, yeah, and Philly.

• 1:03:17Speaker 01

  I don't know, is he still doing it? He's a good guy.

• 1:03:19Sam Morril?

  I don't know. He got very mad at me once, I remember. I told you before, but I missed a morning TV spot. But my phone broke. I was just like, "Oh," I wasn't on purpose. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I overslept and he was not happy.

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you know, so I'm saying, when you, when you, when you're booking the acts, there's so many guys are so crazed. Not all comics, but there's so many of those stories. This guy did this, this guy did that, this guy. You know what I mean? Like, you're all over the place, so you don't get, they don't get the benefit of the doubt.

• 1:03:52Sam Morril?

  Sure.

• 1:03:52Speaker 01

  Unfortunately.

• 1:03:53Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:03:54Sam Morril?

  You know, you can't, especially when you're not selling tickets at that point, you gotta, you gotta not fuck up at all.

• 1:03:58Mark Normand?

  Exactly.

• 1:03:59Sam Morril?

  Fucked up, so.

• 1:04:00Mark Normand?

  Yeah, they were being nice by having us.

• 1:04:01Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, that, you know, that, that was it. It was really the same three comics, you know. I mean, at the Riv, it was three shows a night. At one point, three shows a night, uh,

• 1:04:14Speaker 01

  seven nights a week, 21 shows.

• 1:04:16Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  Bud Friedman would play the opener $500.

• 1:04:20Mark Normand?

  Whoa.

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  Room and food in the employee cafeteria.

• 1:04:23Mark Normand?

  Wow, for a week.

• 1:04:24Speaker 01

  He was making a fortune.

• 1:04:26Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  He was making a fortune. And, you know, there was four comics on the bill. Uh, the two comics in between made 800 to open, 750. And the headliner got maybe 2,500.

• 1:04:39Mark Normand?

  For a week.

• 1:04:39Speaker 01

  For a week.

• 1:04:40Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 1:04:42Speaker 01

  I mean, you know, and, you know, the, the club is doing well, you know, people got bang for the buck. The show came with two free drinks or a buffet at the time.

• 1:04:51Mark Normand?

  Hey.

• 1:04:52Sam Morril?

  That buffet was fun, man.

• 1:04:53Mark Normand?

  That was nice.

• 1:04:54Sam Morril?

  I love, I love a good buffet.

• 1:04:55Mark Normand?

  Good eating, especially when you were broke.

• 1:04:56Speaker 01

  The Riv, but the Riv, the one at the Riv was a shitty one.

• 1:04:59Sam Morril?

  They always say that, but I always find shit I like. They're like, this one sucks. I'm like, nah, I found some good shit.

• 1:05:03Mark Normand?

  Yeah, they got some decent Jell-O.

• 1:05:04Sam Morril?

  They got a walk.

• 1:05:05Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 1:05:06Speaker 01

  But there's a lot of clubs in Vegas now.

• 1:05:09Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:05:09Speaker 01

  Now, there's a lot. Back then, there was only a couple. Back, but now there's.

• 1:05:13Mark Normand?

  There's Jimmy Kimmel.

• 1:05:14Speaker 01

  Have you done?

• 1:05:14Mark Normand?

  Tommy Selleck, many times.

• 1:05:16Sam Morril?

  Yeah, I've done the Selleck, yeah.

• 1:05:17Mark Normand?

  Kimmel, Brad Garrett. I think there's a Wise Guys there now.

• 1:05:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's a couple of Wise Guys. That's all after me. That's all after.

• 1:05:22Sam Morril?

  Wise Guys, but Wise Guys is off the strip, which is, which seems kinda nice, cause like, oh, that's the best part of Vegas is when you get the locals.

• 1:05:29Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah, definitely.

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  They're in a strip mall. They got two of them. There's two different ones. I think there's two Wise Guys. One in the Arts District and there's another one.

• 1:05:38Sam Morril?

  The Utah one is great. That's a great club.

• 1:05:40Mark Normand?

  Great club.

• 1:05:40Sam Morril?

  The one in Salt Lake.

• 1:05:41Mark Normand?

  Stubbs.

• 1:05:42Sam Morril?

  Keith Stubbs.

• 1:05:43Speaker 01

  You guys still do clubs mostly?

• 1:05:44Sam Morril?

  Sometimes. Yeah, I mean, we, we do both. We do theaters and clubs, you know, but, uh.

• 1:05:49Speaker 01

  You tour together?

• 1:05:50Mark Normand?

  No, no.

• 1:05:51Speaker 01

  Well, why don't you tour together? Doesn't that make sense?

• 1:05:53Mark Normand?

  You have to split the money.

• 1:05:54Sam Morril?

  You split the money.

• 1:05:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you play a theater.

• 1:05:56Mark Normand?

  We do it theaters already.

• 1:05:57Speaker 01

  Oh, you're doing theaters?

• 1:05:58Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  I was like, did you do Montclair then I asked you that?

• 1:06:01Sam Morril?

  I don't think I did Montclair. Maybe I'm do- I might be doing it.

• 1:06:04Speaker 01

  What do you do, thousand theaters, fifteen hundred?

• 1:06:06Sam Morril?

  It depends. It depends on that.

• 1:06:07Mark Normand?

  Something like that, yeah.

• 1:06:08Speaker 01

  That's great. You gotta sweat it out, though, fucking. You know, I sweat it out, like when we have a show, you know, if we're gonna sell out or not.

• 1:06:14Sam Morril?

  Oh, always.

• 1:06:15Speaker 01

  And I don't do- and listen, I would say to us, this is just like, kind of a hobby, we do it here and there, you know what I mean? I'm not trying to make a living at it, you know, it's just.

• 1:06:24Mark Normand?

  No, but I hear you.

• 1:06:25Speaker 01

  But still, you wanna do well.

• 1:06:26Mark Normand?

  Tickets are everything. And sometimes you'll be like, ugh, shit, we're at sixty percent, then two days before it'll hit ninety, and you're like, thank God.

• 1:06:32Sam Morril?

  Yeah, no, it's cer- certain cities, you're just like, fucking, like, Phoenix, Houston, it's like, they buy the fucking damn.

• 1:06:36Mark Normand?

  Yes, at the buzzer.

• 1:06:38Speaker 01

  That sucks. You know, listen, when I was doing Ray Romano, I think the first time, it was a thousand seater, he did two hundred and fifty people.

• 1:06:45Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 1:06:45Sam Morril?

  It's amazing.

• 1:06:46Speaker 01

  Kevin James did two hundred people.

• 1:06:48Mark Normand?

  Oh.

• 1:06:48Speaker 01

  It was like, kinda before their time.

• 1:06:50Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:06:50Sam Morril?

  But they were already good comics, though.

• 1:06:52Speaker 01

  They were great comics, but that has nothing to do with that.

• 1:06:54Sam Morril?

  Totally, totally. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta build it.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  You know, I mean, there was, there was, you know, I mean, you're playing Vegas, there's a million things to do.

• 1:07:01Mark Normand?

  Yep.

• 1:07:02Speaker 01

  Paul Rodriguez used to work for me, you know Paul?

• 1:07:04Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:07:04Sam Morril?

  I know of him, yeah.

• 1:07:05Speaker 01

  You know, he, you know, you, you, I was the first guy to use him not on, uh, you know, Hispanic holidays.

• 1:07:14Mark Normand?

  Right, right.

• 1:07:14Speaker 01

  And then I did gay shows. Nobody did gay shows back then. I was just doing gay shows in the casino.

• 1:07:19Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:19Sam Morril?

  Who do you, who do you use? Like Mario Cantone?

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  No, not Mario. Mario worked at, uh, I think Catch. Uh, Scott Thompson.

• 1:07:26Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:07:28Speaker 01

  There's a guy, Scott Tenety, he passed away. We did, uh, an album, uh, an album, uh, gay album, Leah Delaria.

• 1:07:35Mark Normand?

  Uh-huh.

• 1:07:36Speaker 01

  She worked for me, you know Leah?

• 1:07:37Sam Morril?

  No.

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's a comic, and an actor. She was on Orange is the New Black.

• 1:07:42Mark Normand?

  Okay.

• 1:07:42Sam Morril?

  Oh, cool.

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  And but, uh, nobody was doing gay shows.

• 1:07:45Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:07:45Speaker 01

  Even though we had a female impersonator show in, in the, so there was three rooms that I ran. There was a comedy club, there was a topless show, and then a female impersonator show. They were all like in one complex.

• 1:07:58Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 1:07:59Speaker 01

  So you had like, uh, you know, a guy with tits and a dick, and then you had real tits downstairs.

• 1:08:04Mark Normand?

  Yeah, we still have that now. Just different, different names for it.

• 1:08:08Sam Morril?

  I gotta ask you, cause you, I mean, you've worked with Eastwood, you've worked with Woody Allen, is there anyone that you're like, oh, I'd love to work with this person?

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  I don't care.

• 1:08:14Sam Morril?

  You don't care?

• 1:08:15Mark Normand?

  Come on.

• 1:08:15Speaker 01

  You know, I, I.

• 1:08:17Mark Normand?

  Scorsese?

• 1:08:18Speaker 01

  I worked with him on Casino, that's why I got my SAG card. I don't really care. You know, if something good comes along and I like the material, I do it. I'm lucky, I don't have to work. I'm doing Dexter now. I was on Blue Bloods. Blue was good. I was on another show, After the Sopranos, that I did 110 episodes, so I've been very lucky. And I really am not that guy, you know? I mean, if it's a good director, I'd love to do it, if it's a good role. And if not, you know, listen, I'm not starring in no movies. I know my reality, you know, I know what's what, you know? I'm not gonna play an English professor. I play a blue collar guy.

• 1:08:54Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:55Speaker 01

  And that's it. I've done okay so far.

• 1:08:58Sam Morril?

  Yeah, you've had a great career, man.

• 1:08:59Speaker 01

  So far, so good.

• 1:09:00Sam Morril?

  It's nice to be in that place.

• 1:09:01Speaker 01

  And if it's over, it's over, I'm all right. I'm old. You guys are just starring.

• 1:09:06Mark Normand?

  Well, how'd you sell a show to Nickelodeon? That's genius. I would never even have thought of that.

• 1:09:09Speaker 01

  I sold the show to Nickelodeon. I had sold numerous shows. I showed one to FX at one time.

• 1:09:14Mark Normand?

  Really?

• 1:09:14Speaker 01

  The Fox at one time. ABC, I had a sitcom deal in 2004.

• 1:09:19Sam Morril?

  What was that about?

• 1:09:21Speaker 01

  You know, at the time, they had Damon Wayans, My Wife and Kids.

• 1:09:25Mark Normand?

  Yep, yep.

• 1:09:26Speaker 01

  They had George Lopez. They had Jim Belushi. And this was gonna be the Italian version of that. And we, you know, we made a deal, wrote the pilot, it didn't work. Then they put me with another guy, and the guy flaked. A big, big creator.

• 1:09:44Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  And he just like flaked, like we went to lunch. We went to lunch at the Palm and...

• 1:09:51Mark Normand?

  Chuck Lorre, you comeback?

• 1:09:53Speaker 01

  And he was fucking chewing his steak and spitting it in his napkin. We went to the Palm over here on 15th Street.

• 1:09:58Mark Normand?

  What a waste.

• 1:09:59Speaker 01

  And I thought, like, I'm thinking to myself, like, you know, like, it was weird to me, but I don't know the guy, you know? There's a guy, you know, the first person I pitched with, she wrote the pilot, it didn't work, and they wanted to continue on with me, and not her, so they found me this guy who had created a huge show. And...

• 1:10:19Sam Morril?

  And you didn't swallow.

• 1:10:20Speaker 01

  It was fucking very.

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  Very, very weird. And we had meeting after meeting after meeting. And it, he never, he never wrote anything. He just like fucking disappeared.

• 1:10:32Sam Morril?

  Weird.

• 1:10:32Speaker 01

  And the thing ran out and that was that.

• 1:10:34Mark Normand?

  Yeah, well, what's the secret? We're trying to sell shit. Well, how do you do it? What's the move in the room? Is there any trick?

• 1:10:39Speaker 01

  I'm pretty good in the room. I mean, I've sold like six things. Discovery Channel I sold.

• 1:10:43Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 1:10:44Speaker 01

  A cooking channel.

• 1:10:45Mark Normand?

  Jesus.

• 1:10:46Speaker 01

  Be real. Be yourself and tell the fucking story. I mean, I'm, don't be shy and don't be robotic.

• 1:10:52Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:53Speaker 01

  Go in there, tell them what you're doing. You look like a guy that's nervous. You're gonna crack under the fucking.

• 1:11:00Mark Normand?

  And I make jokes and I go too far and I blow it.

• 1:11:02Speaker 01

  Don't, don't, uh, tell the story. This, hey, this is about the two of us, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is what it is.

• 1:11:08Sam Morril?

  I feel, we're gonna, we'll figure it out.

• 1:11:09Speaker 01

  You guys are funny guys.

• 1:11:11Sam Morril?

  Thanks, man.

• 1:11:11Speaker 01

  You know, I'm being serious. I'm not even talking about your act. You guys are funny guys. So a lot of comics are not funny at all.

• 1:11:17Mark Normand?

  That's true.

• 1:11:18Speaker 04

  Funny how?

• 1:11:19Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:20Speaker 04

  Sorry.

• 1:11:21Speaker 01

  Like De Niro.

• 1:11:21Sam Morril?

  Like this guy over here.

• 1:11:23Speaker 01

  Listen, you couldn't have a conversation with Robert De Niro, but if he's got a script, he's a wonderful actor, right?

• 1:11:29Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:11:29Speaker 01

  Taking that away.

• 1:11:30Mark Normand?

  Of course.

• 1:11:31Speaker 01

  Just be yourself. This is what the show is. Whatever, the movie. It's the two of you.

• 1:11:35Mark Normand?

  Yeah, alright.

• 1:11:36Speaker 01

  It took me seven years from when I sold it to get it made.

• 1:11:40Mark Normand?

  Jesus, that's a nightmare.

• 1:11:42Sam Morril?

  That is crazy. Jesus.

• 1:11:43Mark Normand?

  That's TV. That's production.

• 1:11:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, Jim did it. Jim, Jim Sheen in his hilarious. It's one of his last movies.

• 1:11:49Sam Morril?

  Damn.

• 1:11:50Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 1:11:51Speaker 01

  It's one of his last movies.

• 1:11:52Sam Morril?

  It sucks that we didn't get to see him do more. He had, he had such range, you know?

• 1:11:55Mark Normand?

  I know.

• 1:11:56Speaker 01

  He was, he was a good guy. Lot of fuck, lot of fucking fun, man. You know, we had a lot of laughs. That's, that's why I didn't like the, well, I liked the documentary. I thought it was very well done.

• 1:12:05Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:06Speaker 01

  That guy won an Academy Award at Alex Gibney.

• 1:12:08Sam Morril?

  I could have taken another couple of episodes. I was like, this is so entertaining.

• 1:12:11Speaker 01

  It was good. And David's stuff, I, I didn't know a lot either.

• 1:12:14Mark Normand?

  You're right.

• 1:12:15Speaker 01

  You know, they, when we had the podcast, David Chase listened to every podcast.

• 1:12:19Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 1:12:20Speaker 01

  And he came on three times.

• 1:12:21Mark Normand?

  Wow, we gotta get him on here.

• 1:12:23Speaker 01

  He liked it, which, you know, we got his blessing because it's.

• 1:12:26Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:12:26Speaker 01

  He's very particular. This is his thing and he liked it. So we were very happy about that. Michael wrote five episodes.

• 1:12:33Sam Morril?

  That's incredible that he did that.

• 1:12:34Speaker 01

  So he is much more knowledgeable than I was. He was, he was there, you know, behind the scenes. He was there from day one. So he knew, you know.

• 1:12:43Sam Morril?

  How did that, how did that happen? Like, how do, I mean, you cast him as the actor, then how do you know?

• 1:12:49Speaker 01

  Because he had written, he, he wrote, uh, Summer of Sam.

• 1:12:52Sam Morril?

  He wrote that?

• 1:12:53Mark Normand?

  With Legazamo.

• 1:12:54Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 1:12:54Speaker 01

  Him and another guy wrote that, with Legazamo and Spike Lee.

• 1:12:58Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 1:12:59Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:59Speaker 01

  Right? And he had written other stuff, you know, uh, and so, I guess AX if he wanted to write, so he was in the writers' room. He was privy to all that shit.

• 1:13:09Sam Morril?

  Damn.

• 1:13:10Mark Normand?

  Damn.

• 1:13:11Speaker 01

  You know, and, and what detail, like, to the show, like, uh, you know, like, if it said, it's got, you know, whatever, M and M's in, in, in the bowl, it had to be M and M's.

• 1:13:21Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 1:13:22Speaker 01

  Said, you know, if it said spaghetti at the table, it, it couldn't be a different kind of.

• 1:13:27Mark Normand?

  Rigatoni.

• 1:13:27Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no. He would go crazy, David. It was very specific. He, he's wearing this coat, he's doing this. You couldn't change a line, not a word.

• 1:13:37Mark Normand?

  Whoa.

• 1:13:37Speaker 01

  Not a word. People said, hey, that was you, you ad libbed that. No fucking ad lib.

• 1:13:42Sam Morril?

  Not, not one ad lib.

• 1:13:43Speaker 01

  Quick way out of there. You get killed.

• 1:13:45Mark Normand?

  Interesting.

• 1:13:47Speaker 01

  The fuck could kill you off?

• 1:13:48Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 1:13:49Sam Morril?

  Did he, do you think he killed anyone off because they were just annoying?

• 1:13:53Speaker 01

  I think it might have, maybe.

• 1:13:54Sam Morril?

  Wow.

• 1:13:55Speaker 01

  I think maybe, you know, maybe, I don't, you know, I don't know for sure.

• 1:13:58Mark Normand?

  Richie April.

• 1:14:00Speaker 01

  No, no, I think he knew they only had one.

• 1:14:02Sam Morril?

  Yeah, that was a great, uh, when you said jacket, I know, of course, I think, the jacket.

• 1:14:07Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:08Speaker 01

  I was in that scene, yeah, I was in that scene.

• 1:14:10Sam Morril?

  Great.

• 1:14:10Speaker 01

  But, you know, when, when David Proust came on the screen, you kind of got uncomfortable.

• 1:14:16Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:17Speaker 01

  Got scared. He was like cra- you know, it made you cra-.

• 1:14:20Sam Morril?

  Oh, he was, he was great.

• 1:14:21Speaker 01

  Crazy, he was great. You know, he was in Mean Streets.

• 1:14:24Sam Morril?

  I remember, yeah.

• 1:14:24Speaker 01

  And, and, you know, they became stars, he didn't. He struggled the whole way.

• 1:14:29Sam Morril?

  Right.

• 1:14:29Speaker 01

  He was an acting teacher.

• 1:14:31Mark Normand?

  What?

• 1:14:31Speaker 01

  This was his thing. He came on the podcast, he told us.

• 1:14:36Speaker 01

  That he flew here on his own and he read with Jim. And he said he was staying somewhere in there, Central Park West. He said when he got into the hallway, he could hear the phone ringing. You know, coming from the audition and he got in the room, he picked up the phone. And his agent said he got the role, he said he broke down on the bed crying.

• 1:14:59Mark Normand?

  Ah.

• 1:15:00Speaker 01

  He said because he felt he deserved it.

• 1:15:02Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:03Speaker 01

  He said, I deserve it. He said, all these fucking years of struggling, that was it, you know?

• 1:15:10Mark Normand?

  Well, he killed it too, he was the scariest guy on the show.

• 1:15:12Speaker 01

  He was the scariest of all of them.

• 1:15:14Mark Normand?

  Easily, the fucking Janice with the gun to her head, all that shit.

• 1:15:17Speaker 01

  Ralphie was.

• 1:15:18Mark Normand?

  Ralphie was scary too.

• 1:15:19Speaker 01

  Ralphie was crazy, scary in a different way, like a crazy way. Janice was one of the worst characters.

• 1:15:24Mark Normand?

  She was great though.

• 1:15:25Speaker 01

  She was a murderer.

• 1:15:26Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:27Speaker 01

  She was a murderer, manipulator, she stole the girl's leg.

• 1:15:30Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:30Speaker 01

  She was like her mother.

• 1:15:32Mark Normand?

  That's right.

• 1:15:32Speaker 01

  Like an insane.

• 1:15:33Sam Morril?

  She was great in the show, yeah.

• 1:15:34Mark Normand?

  So good.

• 1:15:35Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:36Mark Normand?

  The boob, the tit tattoo.

• 1:15:38Sam Morril?

  The way she manipulated Tony too, I mean, she was so, it was such a great dynamic.

• 1:15:41Speaker 01

  I think, to me, she was one of the most horrific characters.

• 1:15:45Mark Normand?

  Yeah, very layered.

• 1:15:46Speaker 01

  Don't forget she murdered, I mean then, you know.

• 1:15:49Sam Morril?

  He did have it coming though, I mean, that was definitely a move.

• 1:15:51Speaker 01

  No, no, that's something. Yeah, Luigi.

• 1:15:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, Luigi.

• 1:15:58Speaker 01

  Listen, if we're gonna do that, half the fucking city deserves it.

• 1:16:02Sam Morril?

  I know, but this.

• 1:16:02Mark Normand?

  That's true.

• 1:16:03Sam Morril?

  Babe, Richie Apprio was a bad dude.

• 1:16:05Mark Normand?

  Yeah, yes.

• 1:16:06Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  Horrible.

• 1:16:07Mark Normand?

  They all are.

• 1:16:08Sam Morril?

  And he just hit her.

• 1:16:09Speaker 01

  When you think about it, they all are.

• 1:16:11Sam Morril?

  He hit her and then he mocked her, it was kinda like, you know.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  They all are, we rooted, that was the genius of the show. Tony Soprano was horrible guy. He murdered people, he ripped people off, not just in it, not other mobsters.

• 1:16:24Mark Normand?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:16:25Speaker 01

  You know, I don't wanna hear that, just, oh, they hurt each other, bullshit. Christopher murdered, I don't know, 16 people, I think.

• 1:16:32Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:32Speaker 01

  And then he sat on the dog, the people were mad about the dog.

• 1:16:35Mark Normand?

  Right.

• 1:16:36Speaker 01

  They were mad about the people.

• 1:16:37Mark Normand?

  Exactly.

• 1:16:38Speaker 01

  Right, I mean.

• 1:16:38Sam Morril?

  A lot of those people did something that deserved it, that dog, Cosette didn't do anything wrong.

• 1:16:42Speaker 01

  But all these people murdered, yet we liked them.

• 1:16:45Mark Normand?

  Yes.

• 1:16:45Speaker 01

  We thought they were funny and.

• 1:16:46Sam Morril?

  They were.

• 1:16:47Speaker 01

  I mean, Paulie Walnuts, how many people did he kill?

• 1:16:49Sam Morril?

  Well, it would remind you, every once in a while, they would remind you, like, when he killed that old lady, you're like, oh shit, yeah, he's a fucking bad guy.

• 1:16:55Speaker 01

  Whenever you got comfortable, they even showed you.

• 1:16:58Mark Normand?

  Good point.

• 1:16:58Speaker 01

  He killed a lady, smothered her, you know, in that.

• 1:17:03Speaker 01

  They wanted him to choke her.

• 1:17:05Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:05Speaker 01

  But he was very protective. Uh, Tony Cireco was of Paulie. And he thought if he choked her, that the audience wouldn't like Paulie.

• 1:17:14Mark Normand?

  Mmm.

• 1:17:15Speaker 01

  And so he said, can I smother her with a pillow? And they said, yeah, and he liked that.

• 1:17:20Mark Normand?

  Okay.

• 1:17:21Sam Morril?

  Now he's likable.

• 1:17:22Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:22Speaker 01

  The one of the few times they let you change the line.

• 1:17:25Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:25Speaker 01

  Was, uh, they called him in, in one of the, two of the characters said, I'm afraid of Paulie, he's a, he's a bully. And he went to the writers and said, Paulie is not a bully? I don't like that. You gotta change that? I don't like Paulie's not a bully. Of course Paulie was a bully.

• 1:17:44Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:45Speaker 01

  So they changed it to, I don't like that. Uh, Paulie, he's a psycho. And Tony liked that.

• 1:17:50Mark Normand?

  Ah. Interesting.

• 1:17:53Sam Morril?

  Well, I liked, I liked in the doc when they said, uh, HBO was really against having Tony kill the guy in the witness protection episode, the college visit. And David Chase was like, he's gotta kill him. It's like, and it makes you realize how groundbreaking that show was. There would have been nothing like this where the main character is just a cold-blooded murderer.

• 1:18:13Speaker 01

  Kramer never killed anybody. Or what's his name?

• 1:18:17Sam Morril?

  Killed his career.

• 1:18:17Speaker 01

  One of the friends.

• 1:18:19Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:21Speaker 01

  Can you imagine that, what he did?

• 1:18:23Sam Morril?

  You shouldn't do that.

• 1:18:24Speaker 01

  I mean, but could you imagine that? I mean, this guy seriously had an incredible, incredible.

• 1:18:29Mark Normand?

  Brilliant comedic actor.

• 1:18:31Sam Morril?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:18:31Speaker 01

  I mean, that's one of the greatest sitcom actors ever.

• 1:18:35Mark Normand?

  Totally. We should get his career up on the wall.

• 1:18:39Speaker 01

  You should have him up there.

• 1:18:40Sam Morril?

  He was a bully.

• 1:18:41Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:43Mark Normand?

  He didn't think there would be a phone camera. That was when phone cameras were brand new.

• 1:18:46Sam Morril?

  That's right.

• 1:18:47Mark Normand?

  So that's what got him.

• 1:18:48Sam Morril?

  He was the first phone camera cancellation?

• 1:18:50Mark Normand?

  Totally.

• 1:18:51Speaker 01

  But come on, but just to do that was insane.

• 1:18:53Sam Morril?

  Yeah, I mean, you shouldn't do it regardless of technology.

• 1:18:55Speaker 01

  But you know, like he.

• 1:18:56Mark Normand?

  That was a good bit.

• 1:18:57Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:57Speaker 01

  But I read his book and he kind of apologized, but not apologized.

• 1:19:01Sam Morril?

  More N-words than Huck Finn. No, all right.

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  He's not that apologetic.

• 1:19:05Sam Morril?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:05Speaker 01

  Whose book is that? Who do we have there?

• 1:19:07Mark Normand?

  Steve-O, we got, uh, Ofterman, Segura.

• 1:19:12Sam Morril?

  Yeah, well.

• 1:19:12Mark Normand?

  Stan Hope.

• 1:19:13Sam Morril?

  You're going to.

• 1:19:14Speaker 01

  Stan Hope worked for me in Vegas.

• 1:19:15Mark Normand?

  Oh, I'll let go.

• 1:19:16Speaker 01

  He lived in Vegas.

• 1:19:17Sam Morril?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:19:18Speaker 01

  I helped start him. I got him on Evening at the Improv.

• 1:19:21Sam Morril?

  We love Doug, man.

• 1:19:22Speaker 01

  In the old days.

• 1:19:23Sam Morril?

  Doug's a classic.

• 1:19:23Speaker 01

  He does his own thing.

• 1:19:25Mark Normand?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:19:25Speaker 01

  He does it his way and his own thing, that's for sure.

• 1:19:28Mark Normand?

  Not for everybody, but a brilliant guy.

• 1:19:29Speaker 01

  Where's he live? Out in Arizona?

• 1:19:31Sam Morril?

  Bisbee, Arizona.

• 1:19:32Speaker 01

  Now, what's that?

• 1:19:32Sam Morril?

  We had him on here one night and he, I did not expect Doug, God bless him, he showed up loaded at like, what, noon?

• 1:19:39Mark Normand?

  Noon, 12:30.

• 1:19:40Sam Morril?

  And then he said, I'm gonna come by the cellar tonight. We're like, yeah, right. And 7:00 PM, I got a text. He goes, I'm here. Hung with him till 2:00 AM. We had a great night, man.

• 1:19:48Mark Normand?

  He's a good drunk.

• 1:19:49Sam Morril?

  I love Doug.

• 1:19:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, I haven't seen him in a long time. He did very well for himself.

• 1:19:54Sam Morril?

  Well, tell us where you're gonna be with, you know.

• 1:19:57Speaker 01

  Sony Hall, August 16th.

• 1:19:59Mark Normand?

  There you go, look at that.

• 1:20:00Speaker 01

  Nation with the Sopranos.

• 1:20:02Mark Normand?

  No smiles.

• 1:20:02Speaker 01

  If you're a Soprano fan, you're gonna like that.

• 1:20:04Mark Normand?

  Look at the hair on you guys. It's phenomenal. The Italian hair really stays in there. Well, not on him, but yeah.

• 1:20:12Speaker 01

  You know, we went, Jim was like the Bacchus at the Mardi Gras one year.

• 1:20:18Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:18Speaker 01

  And we all went down there and we had a good time, but we went to that, what's it, Moscone's?

• 1:20:25Speaker 01

  The place on the outskirts of town. They said Al Capone, you should eat there. They hosted us. You never ate?

• 1:20:30Mark Normand?

  No.

• 1:20:30Speaker 01

  Are you from New Orleans?

• 1:20:31Mark Normand?

  Yeah, but you know, I wouldn't allow it there.

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:20:33Mark Normand?

  Moscone's, pull that up.

• 1:20:35Speaker 01

  I was wondering, I was wondering if you.

• 1:20:37Sam Morril?

  It was good?

• 1:20:38Speaker 01

  It was good. It was good. It's like a famous place. I was wondering if you had ever been there. You know, they were very nice people. I think it's the same family. It was called Moscone's. It was, uh.

• 1:20:50Speaker 01

  It's in New Orleans.

• 1:20:52Mark Normand?

  Huh.

• 1:20:53Speaker 01

  I think it's called Moscone's.

• 1:20:54Mark Normand?

  Doesn't ring a bell. My mom's a big Italian foodie lady.

• 1:20:59Speaker 01

  Well, I think it's like the most famous Italian restaurant down there. What do I know?

• 1:21:03Mark Normand?

  Oh, Metairie. That's why. Moscone, yeah. I never went to Metairie. That was like the Long Island of.

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:21:10Mark Normand?

  Yeah, yeah, I couldn't go out there.

• 1:21:13Speaker 01

  A lot out there?

• 1:21:14Mark Normand?

  Well, mattery.

• 1:21:17Speaker 01

  Oh shitty?

• 1:21:18Mark Normand?

  Yeah, no offense.

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 1:21:19Mark Normand?

  It's not the same.

• 1:21:21Speaker 01

  I got you, alright.

• 1:21:22Sam Morril?

  Mark, we're gonna be-

• 1:21:24Mark Normand?

  Moscas, that I've heard of.

• 1:21:26Speaker 01

  I know, there you go.

• 1:21:27Mark Normand?

  There you go, you made it more Italian.

• 1:21:30Speaker 01

  You guys are getting drunk all day, when I was your age, that's what I used to do.

• 1:21:34Mark Normand?

  Alright, good.

• 1:21:35Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, enjoy yourselves, I wish I was, I wish I could still do it.

• 1:21:39Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:40Sam Morril?

  What was your drink?

• 1:21:41Speaker 01

  I would drink tequila, I mean, I still drink, but not like that.

• 1:21:45Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:45Speaker 01

  I would drink tequila, chilled it up, Patron.

• 1:21:47Mark Normand?

  I was hungover the other day, it lasted two days.

• 1:21:50Speaker 01

  I can't, I can't deal with the hangover anymore, that's the problem.

• 1:21:54Mark Normand?

  It's bad.

• 1:21:54Speaker 01

  I can't deal with it, that's the problem, not the going out part.

• 1:21:58Mark Normand?

  Sure.

• 1:21:58Speaker 01

  It's the fucking aftermath, you know?

• 1:22:00Mark Normand?

  Yeah, here, here.

• 1:22:01Speaker 01

  I used to be able to bounce right back.

• 1:22:03Mark Normand?

  Oh yeah, what about a little nose candy?

• 1:22:05Speaker 01

  One time, I counted, I went out seventy something nights in a row.

• 1:22:09Mark Normand?

  Jesus!

• 1:22:10Speaker 01

  Seventy nights in a row, like, I, I was, I lived nocturnally for a long time there, like, working in the clubs.

• 1:22:16Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:17Speaker 01

  I worked one at night to nine in the morning, or eleven to seven and then go out.

• 1:22:21Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:22Speaker 01

  Because there was places that, like, you go at one in the afternoon, they're absolutely packed in Vegas.

• 1:22:27Mark Normand?

  Wow.

• 1:22:27Speaker 01

  You can't see your hand in front of your face, right? It's that dark.

• 1:22:31Mark Normand?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:31Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, so I would get home, you know, twelve, one, two o'clock, and, uh, you know, go to bed, wake up, and say, "I'm not fucking going out, that's it, I'm done."

• 1:22:44Mark Normand?

  Yep, yep.

• 1:22:45Speaker 01

  "I had shit, I'm going right to bed," then like about, you know, midnight or whatever time, twelve, two o'clock in the morning, you start, "You know what, I'm kinda feeling alright."

• 1:22:54Mark Normand?

  Yes!

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  "Do it again."

• 1:22:56Mark Normand?

  Story of my life, little nose candy.

• 1:22:58Speaker 01

  "Do it again."

• 1:22:59Mark Normand?

  Little blow, a little Yam Yam.

• 1:23:03Mark Normand?

  No, I'm saying, that doesn't hurt out there in the desert, if you know what I mean.

• 1:23:08Speaker 01

  Two-day hangover, you're still doing it.

• 1:23:11Mark Normand?

  Just say if you need to pick me up.

• 1:23:12Sam Morril?

  These are your dates, Mark.

• 1:23:13Mark Normand?

  All right, hey, I'm in New Brunswick, New Jersey. That's almost sold out. Then we got Ithaca, we got Reykjavik. I'm going to the UK and all that good stuff, London, whatever, Rochester, Portchester, Albany. I'm staying on the east coast. There we go, Wisconsin, Green Bay, Eugene, come on out. And then we're going to Australia. So we'd love to have you out there. Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, you name it.

• 1:23:39Speaker 01

  We toured Australia. Is this your first time?

• 1:23:41Mark Normand?

  Second time. I fucking love Australia.

• 1:23:43Speaker 01

  I liked Australia, we went.

• 1:23:44Mark Normand?

  I always say Australia's like America in the 80s.

• 1:23:46Sam Morril?

  I got Phoenix, Arizona, we got San Diego, Sacramento, SF, Portland. Added a late show on Monday, please come out. Seattle, Vancouver, we added a late show, so please come to that. And then we got Boise, Idaho, and Denver, Colorado. And I just added Montclair, New Jersey, the Wellmont, July 11th, and the 12th, Red Bank, New Jersey, Count Basie. And then in August, we're adding, I think, a few at the Wilbur. So, see you guys out there. Love it. And, you know, great event, man.

• 1:24:17Speaker 01

  I just mentioned Montclair, that's what I told you.

• 1:24:18Sam Morril?

  I know, I don't think we talked about it.

• 1:24:20Speaker 01

  We played the Wellmont, we played Count Basie, it's great.

• 1:24:22Sam Morril?

  That's a great one.

• 1:24:24Speaker 01

  And Australia I've done.

• 1:24:25Mark Normand?

  Yeah?

• 1:24:26Sam Morril?

  Australia's great.

• 1:24:27Speaker 01

  I liked Australia.

• 1:24:27Mark Normand?

  Love Australia.

• 1:24:28Speaker 01

  You guys are out there, man. You're making me tired, just think about that.

• 1:24:32Sam Morril?

  It was great. We never really talked.

• 1:24:34Speaker 01

  No, that's the most I've ever spoke to you.

• 1:24:36Mark Normand?

  Great to meet you.

• 1:24:37Speaker 01

  I know I'm not a comic, so I'm not gonna take my shirt off and all that.

• 1:24:42Mark Normand?

  We're happy about that.

• 1:24:43Speaker 01

  It's the best I can do for you.

• 1:24:44Mark Normand?

  Keep it on.

• 1:24:45Sam Morril?

  It was awesome, man. Thanks for coming by, Steve.

• 1:24:46Mark Normand?

  I don't like when he does it either.

• 1:24:47Speaker 01

  My pleasure.

• 1:24:47Sam Morril?

  All right.

• 1:24:48Mark Normand?

  All right, comedy.

• 1:25:35Speaker 05

  Welcome to the 50th Hunger Games. Witness the beginning of the revolution. Hey Mitch, you've been trying to take down these games from the start. Filmed for IMAX. Make them remember you. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, November 20th, rated PG-13.