0:00

Did

0:00

he ever say I love you before he died? He

0:03

did not. And he, my father's father

0:05

left him when

0:08

he was two years old. So he

0:10

had his, my father had his own thing, you

0:13

know? So I don't, I don't

0:15

fault him for being who he was, you know,

0:17

he just, he tried and he couldn't.

0:20

But I remember towards

0:22

the end when we kind of knew, you

0:25

know, probably in the next year we

0:27

wouldn't have him with us anymore. And

0:29

I remember he was in the hospital here. And

0:31

I, you know, of course at that moment, I

0:34

wanted to say it. So I said, all right, I'm going to like, all

0:36

right, I love you dad. And his

0:38

response was, I know you do. Oh my God.

0:41

And that was it. Yeah. I

0:43

can't take it. I can't take it. Yeah.

0:46

That

0:47

is the voice of the great Ray

0:50

Romano.

0:51

Oh

0:55

my gosh, what a dream. I've wanted to have Ray

0:57

Romano on this podcast

0:59

from jump. From the moment

1:02

we're nearing our hundredth episode. I've

1:04

wanted to have him on from episode one.

1:07

One of my favorite comics of all time. I think he's one of the greats.

1:09

In the last few years, I've been lucky enough to get to know

1:11

him. We work at the comedy cellar a bunch

1:14

together. We're often back to back. He's

1:16

a phenomenal comic and now a phenomenal

1:19

filmmaker. I mean, I just saw his new

1:21

movie. It's called Somewhere in Queens and it's really

1:23

emotional. It's just beautiful. It's

1:25

just a beautiful piece of independent film. It's

1:28

in theaters everywhere

1:29

right now. I

1:31

urge you to see it. I cried. I had a

1:34

very, so did Jenny. We had a very emotional

1:36

reaction to it. It's a lot about parenting.

1:38

It's about a father son relationship, a mother

1:40

son relationship. It's really

1:43

emotional stuff. We talk a lot about

1:45

that. We talk about

1:46

parenting and relationships

1:50

and marriages and really about authenticity

1:53

in storytelling. I love that about Ray, his

1:55

level of authenticity in his standup and his films

1:58

just shines through.

1:59

Speaking of which, I'm trying to have

2:02

authenticity in my new material I'm writing

2:04

right now. I was just in DC and

2:07

Providence. I'm gonna be

2:09

in Indianapolis. I think there's like, I

2:11

don't know, 100 tickets left or something like that in

2:13

my shows in Indianapolis. And

2:15

then I'll be in Philadelphia. There was a few left.

2:18

I think Madison sold out. All of these,

2:20

by the way, you should just sign up. If you wanna

2:22

see me live, go on burbigs.com,

2:25

sign up for the mailing list. I'm gonna

2:27

be announcing a bunch of new cities soon

2:29

with new material and

2:32

some old man in the pool stuff, possibly

2:34

abroad. That's right, abroad

2:38

in other countries.

2:40

I think you're gonna love today's episode with Ray.

2:43

Of course you know him from Everyone Loves Raymond. And

2:45

we talk about that. And we talk about stories

2:48

from Ray's childhood and Queens

2:50

and Italian families. And a lot

2:53

of stuff that he and I have in common, oddly.

2:56

I'm an Olive Garden Italian. He's a real Italian.

2:58

And we end up somewhere

3:00

in the middle. Enjoying my conversation with a

3:02

great Ray Romano.

3:06

Oh, working here.

3:13

What is the thing that keeps

3:15

you doing standup, keeps you like challenging

3:18

yourself? Like where, like, cause you don't have

3:20

to.

3:21

Well, I don't have to

3:22

financially. That's why I brought you. I'm

3:24

lucky. I'm not doing

3:27

this for the money.

3:30

I do this for the steps to get the steps in.

3:36

Yeah, I mean, I wanna not

3:38

be bored, you know? And I wanna not be,

3:40

I wanna, it's

3:42

scary, but

3:45

I've been quoting Lionel Richie all week. Because

3:50

he says on American Idol, he says

3:52

to the singers,

3:53

life begins at the end

3:56

of your comfort zone.

4:00

just signing on to direct this

4:02

was the scariest thing, but it

4:05

was that kind of philosophy. Life begins at the end

4:07

of your comfort zone is a fantastic quote.

4:10

Yes, I don't know if it's with Lionel,

4:12

if it's his quote, but he does say

4:14

it a lot and I get

4:16

it. But

4:18

everyone, occasionally people

4:20

tell me, why aren't you retired? Just blah, blah,

4:22

blah, blah, blah,

4:23

because I don't do it for the money.

4:27

I have to do it. Yeah,

4:30

I mean, it keeps me going. It gets me up

4:32

in the morning. I like to

4:34

create and I like to,

4:36

I get to high

4:38

from it.

4:40

To quote another

4:42

director,

4:44

I'm not gonna say his name, but

4:46

they asked him, why do you make a movie?

4:48

So many movies. And he said, because

4:50

it keeps me from thinking of death.

4:53

Oh my gosh, yes, of course. Little morbid,

4:56

but- That's really funny. And

4:58

of course, when you're retired at the seller, all

5:01

we talk about is our health. I know. It's

5:04

like every other conversation is you

5:06

being like, what's your cholesterol look like in

5:08

the States? That's so funny. You

5:11

really, like recently you

5:13

said to me

5:15

with a degree of certainty that someone

5:17

who isn't a doctor, I don't think has ever had

5:19

to me, you were like, you should

5:21

get on statins. You were like, I

5:23

wish I had gotten on statins 15 years ago. Well, you

5:25

know, I can say this now because, did

5:29

I talk to you about my head? Yeah, you had a stent. A stent, yeah.

5:31

Right. Which for people who don't realize,

5:33

it means you didn't have a heart attack. No, no. Or

5:35

you had a blockage.

5:36

Yeah, but I had, the weird thing

5:38

is I said it on a marathon, I just said I had a stent.

5:41

And right now today,

5:43

I'm googling myself because my movie's coming out and

5:45

I wanna read the reviews. But

5:48

everything, I'm not kidding.

5:51

I wanna show you something. I wanna

5:53

show you something. This is ridiculous.

5:55

Can you Google Ray Romano and go to news

5:58

and you will see the top 10 things. about Ray

6:00

Romano heart surgery. That's so funny. It's

6:02

all click bait, cause it's not, I didn't

6:04

really have a heart surgery. And it was two and a half

6:06

years ago. You couldn't be getting better

6:09

reviews for your surgery. I

6:12

mean, the reviews for the surgery are through the roof.

6:14

Well, what's funny is, what's good is if they click on it,

6:16

they'll say, he was on Maron promoting

6:18

his movie. So my movie gets the plug anyway. You

6:20

got 90% on Rotten

6:23

Surgeries. That's ridiculous.

6:26

Your movie is by the way, like 97% on Rotten

6:29

Dominoes, which I was

6:31

glad about because I actually feel like,

6:33

I saw the movie without reading a review. I had

6:35

a super emotional reaction. I

6:37

was crying, crying. Jenny did too.

6:40

I'll tell you what's great about seeing a movie in a theater.

6:43

People cry around you. You're crying.

6:46

You can hear people sniffling. You gotta

6:48

see it in a theater. It's a human connection. Yes,

6:50

it's a communal experience. This

6:53

is why I forget about my movie. I just want

6:55

theaters to exist. I

6:58

don't want people to go just for that reason

7:00

you're saying. Even the laughter,

7:02

when you, you know, crying. The laughter too. Hearing

7:05

people cry and seeing people get emotional. That's

7:07

okay, but then the laughter,

7:09

there's nothing better. You know,

7:12

for a comedy, yeah,

7:13

okay. I want people to watch the movie, but

7:15

watching it in your living room and

7:18

not having the soundtrack of the audience.

7:21

Because when people laugh, it's

7:23

like watching an action film

7:25

without a soundtrack. You know what I mean? If

7:27

you're watching a comedy by yourself on a couch,

7:30

you can still enjoy it.

7:32

But, and then it's that bond

7:34

of, these are strangers and

7:36

we're all kind of feeling

7:40

the same thing, you know, different

7:42

ways, but yeah. Well,

7:44

I had the thing that crushed me and it's

7:46

funny. Cause you were saying the other night,

7:49

I was like, your movie made me cry. And

7:52

you were like, you know, my show, Old Man in the Pool made you cry.

7:54

I was thinking about that later. I was like,

7:56

oh, well we both have dad stuff. Cause

7:59

my, in my show. I talk about how my dad doesn't

8:01

say I love you. And then this movie,

8:04

there's like a dad who withholds love

8:06

in some way, shape or form. Yeah, you can't say it, yeah. Yeah.

8:09

Yeah. But that's what killed me. That's my

8:11

life too. That's what killed me. I always have

8:14

the line, if my father hugged me once, I wouldn't

8:17

have to do any of this shit. Sure. Yeah.

8:19

One hug. One hug. That's all

8:21

it would have took. Did he ever say

8:24

I love you before he died?

8:25

He did not. And he, listen, I don't, my father's

8:28

father left him

8:32

when

8:36

he was two years old. So he

8:38

had his, my father had his own thing. Yeah.

8:41

So I don't fault him

8:43

for being who he was, you know? Yeah. He

8:46

just, he tried and he couldn't.

8:48

But I remember

8:50

towards the end when we kind of knew, he

8:53

was okay, but

8:55

he was close to, you

8:58

know, probably in the next year, we wouldn't

9:00

have him with us anymore. Yeah. And I remember

9:02

he was in the hospital here and I was living

9:04

in LA. So the times I would come in

9:06

and whatever. And when I left, he

9:08

never knew if I was gonna see him again. Yeah. And

9:11

I left the hospital one time

9:13

and I was going back to LA and I go, all right, dad, I'm going to like,

9:16

all right.

9:18

And I never,

9:19

you know, had a hard time saying it to him because,

9:22

you know, we never said

9:24

it to each other. Yeah. And I, you know, of course

9:26

at that moment, I wanted to say

9:28

it. So I said, I'm going to like, all right, I

9:30

love you dad. And his response

9:32

was, I know you do. Oh my God. And

9:35

that was it. Yeah. I

9:37

can't take it. I can't take it.

9:40

I know you do. And I don't know if that was his

9:42

way of saying it or if it was a. My

9:45

sister, Gina, sent me this today. As much as he could say.

9:47

This is my dad's family in Queens

9:49

when he was growing up. He's

9:52

the kid. He's the boy. Wait

9:54

a minute, which boy? Oh, he's a little boy there? Yeah, he's

9:57

a little boy. Yeah. Oh wow. That's

9:59

my dad in Queens. Somewhere. Wow, the mother,

10:02

the one, who's behind him? Is

10:04

that his mom? I think it's his mom, yeah. She looks like a

10:07

member of my family. They all

10:09

do. That's my somewhere in Queens.

10:12

So you're Italian too. I'm Italian, Sicilian.

10:15

Oh, you know my wife, that's where I am. Yeah,

10:17

that's what I'm saying. The looks

10:19

and the dresses, the black dress. Yeah, yeah,

10:21

yeah.

10:23

That's wild. Do you have other

10:25

members of the family who are emotional, who say I love you?

10:29

My younger brother probably. Yeah. My

10:31

younger brother, me and my brother and I are a year and a half

10:33

apart. So we had the same,

10:37

you know, the same era of my

10:39

father. Yeah. My younger brother is seven years

10:41

younger. So he softened

10:43

up a little, still didn't say it, but wasn't

10:46

as, you know, we were kind

10:48

of afraid of my dad when we were kids,

10:50

you know. And then when he became, when he got older,

10:53

he had a dry,

10:54

weird little sense of humor. And

10:57

he would, we would laugh at him, but we

10:59

would make him laugh. But

11:01

like my wife did

11:04

not get him. Yeah,

11:07

sure. My

11:10

wife didn't get him as probably an understatement

11:12

of the century.

11:13

So he would,

11:15

he found a way

11:17

to play back our outgoing messages

11:19

on our machine.

11:21

Okay,

11:21

he found the code, you know, he could play, when

11:24

answering machines existed. And he would call

11:26

up, listen to our machine, and then he would leave a message

11:28

and say, Anna,

11:30

you know, your friend Linda went

11:33

to the doctor. Maybe he should go, all right, he thought

11:35

he was being funny. Yeah. And my wife

11:37

was furious. You know, that's like reading

11:39

our mail. And this is just, we were just

11:41

only married one year, two years.

11:44

You got to talk to him. I would tell him, dad,

11:46

I think it's funny. All

11:48

right, I'm gonna give you credit.

11:51

She doesn't think it's funny.

11:53

Ah, come on.

11:54

I go, please tell me. All right, all right.

11:56

And then he topped himself. He

12:00

found a way to change our outgoing

12:03

message. Not though, he didn't listen to our messages.

12:06

He changed

12:07

so when instead of- When you call, it's your

12:09

dad. Instead of you saying,

12:12

hey, it's Ray, leave a message. It's

12:14

your dad. So he wrote, and

12:16

we called up once, and hey, you've reached Ray

12:19

and Anna, leave a message.

12:20

If you want Al Romano, I'm at 268-200. Oh

12:24

my God. And my wife cried. She actually

12:26

literally cried. She was so

12:28

mad. Did your dad like

12:30

that Peter Boyle play? Peter

12:33

Boyle was a legendary actor. Yes.

12:37

Like some of the greatest film and TV

12:39

roles of all time. Yeah, yeah. He was

12:42

a great man. He was just

12:44

the kind of just the opposite of the guy

12:46

on the TV show. Yeah.

12:48

He was so smart, you know? Yeah.

12:51

Did you know John Lennon was the best man at

12:53

his wedding? And

12:55

he was a monk who took a vow

12:57

of silence at one point. And

13:01

so he could talk to me about the stupidest things,

13:04

and then he could argue politics with Patty

13:06

Heaton. So he was

13:08

all of that. He was really great. When

13:10

you were making the series, because man,

13:13

so many seasons, so many

13:16

episodes. It's like, and after a certain

13:18

point, first season you're probably basing

13:20

on your life, probably season two,

13:22

three on, it's what

13:25

is it at that point? Whose life is it? Is the

13:27

writers wrong? That's right. And everybody,

13:29

they were all married with

13:31

family except for one guy. So everybody

13:33

brought, you know, Phil Rosenthal would come in and say, what

13:36

happened? Tell his stories, yeah. Or he

13:38

would ask the guys on the weekend,

13:40

go home and have a fight with your wife

13:42

and bring it back in, you know? Did

13:45

Anna ever object to anything on the show

13:48

where

13:48

she'll go, actually,

13:51

it happened this way kind of thing? She

13:54

would say once in a while, she would

13:56

say, I don't wanna

13:58

see this on the show.

13:59

Oh my gosh. Yeah, and

14:02

this is my stupid joke.

14:04

And I would tell her to

14:05

go cry on a bag of money. Oh my

14:07

gosh. Yeah, that's my stupid joke. But

14:11

once in a while, but

14:14

not in that way. One night we were

14:16

sitting in bed watching

14:19

and there was a scene with me and Patty and

14:22

she watched the scene and she said, you've

14:25

just talked to her in that

14:27

scene more than you've talked to me the whole

14:29

week. Oh my gosh.

14:31

And I said, well, we have writers.

14:33

Oh my gosh. I don't have a writer

14:36

for you. She never

14:38

really got too

14:39

bent about what we

14:42

do. And even in my act, you know, in my

14:44

act I'm worse than what was on the

14:46

show. Yeah, yeah.

14:48

You know, constantly about

14:50

what, 35 years married, no

14:54

sex and all that stuff, you know. And

14:56

she does a

14:58

little bit now, now I gotta go listen to you

15:00

say, you know, I got to,

15:03

I have this stupid joke.

15:05

When we have sex now,

15:07

my wife has to take off her Apple

15:10

watch because it keeps going, time to move. But

15:13

I gotta hear how dead I am

15:15

at sex now, whatever, you know. But she

15:17

never really follows through. It's always just,

15:21

she's just voicing it, but she knows it's

15:24

part of the deal. It's

15:26

not the deal, but it's harmless

15:28

really. You've such a sweet family. I met

15:31

Anna, I

15:32

met Allie, it's all at the commie teller.

15:34

It's really sweet. Yes, did you meet the

15:36

boys? I think I met the boys too. I think you

15:38

had a whole family one night. Yeah.

15:40

Your daughter, I don't even know if it's

15:42

public or you say she just got engaged.

15:45

She did, yeah. So, you know, she got engaged when

15:48

I was in Vegas.

15:49

This weekend,

15:51

I was in Vegas. I worked Vegas this weekend and

15:54

we got there.

15:56

Why my wife came with me because, and

15:58

she never comes. But we...

15:59

because we were flying here to do the movie stuff

16:02

from Vegas. So she came to Vegas

16:04

and we got there. And an

16:07

hour later, my

16:08

daughter sent a picture of her with

16:10

the ring on.

16:12

And I said, I'm in Vegas for an hour. I'm

16:14

already down 500,000. Ha ha ha

16:17

ha. But

16:21

yeah, she's engaged and my son is engaged.

16:23

My, my, one of my twins got

16:26

engaged. So we have two ready. I'm

16:28

ready to be a grandfather. Does

16:31

it feel like

16:33

your kid's getting engaged? Does it feel

16:36

like a stage, like a next step

16:38

in your life? Yeah. It's

16:42

like, you know, I have friends,

16:44

like I said, I'm

16:46

in a different age than you. You're

16:49

not gonna hit that grandpa age

16:51

yet, you know? But my friends are,

16:54

kids are having kids. Yeah. And

16:57

I'm looking forward to it, you know? And yeah,

16:59

I wanna, I wanna

17:02

move on into that stage quickly

17:04

before I wanna be able to

17:06

bend down and pick them up,

17:08

you know? I get that, yeah. Yeah. I

17:11

always say this to you at the seller. I always says, there's

17:16

not that many comedians who

17:19

stay funny over 60,

17:22

you know, you're 65. It's

17:24

like, and because I think about it all the time.

17:27

Cause sometimes I go like, well, maybe. I

17:29

know what you're saying. Maybe I won't do

17:31

standup in my 50s. Maybe I'll direct movies

17:33

or this or that, or maybe I'll do something else. Because

17:36

I have that fear. What

17:38

if I'm not funny at a certain age? You're

17:41

a riot. It's like, do you think there's

17:43

secrets to it? I don't know what the

17:45

formula is for that, you know? I know

17:47

what you're talking about. And

17:50

I don't even know if

17:51

I, you know, I always worry,

17:54

am

17:55

I going to outgrow

17:57

standup? Of course you're... your

18:00

audience can also come with you. Well,

18:04

what it is, I guess, is

18:06

will I be able to play for the

18:09

same age as the audiences that go to

18:11

the comedy seller?

18:13

Yeah, if I go

18:15

do Vegas, people that are gonna come to see

18:17

me are gonna be my audience. But

18:19

I wanna go into a club and be able to go

18:22

on stage. And I don't know, I don't know if it's,

18:24

I don't know what, there are comics, all

18:27

older who still

18:30

hold up.

18:31

In your fifties now, it's nothing.

18:34

I mean, Sebastian

18:36

Maniscalco's in his fifties. Yeah,

18:40

and Mark Marin's in his late fifties, Sandler.

18:42

Sandler and Kevin James are all in fifties.

18:46

So I think that's happening too. Fifties

18:50

and sixties is not as old as it used

18:52

to be. This rock is in his fifties. Yeah,

18:55

they're all late fifties. Spades, spades,

18:57

everything, yeah.

19:00

But what makes it a style

19:03

where it holds up? I

19:06

don't know if it's having that conversational

19:09

style, maybe, like if someone

19:11

was a

19:12

character,

19:13

does that hold up over the test of time? I

19:15

don't know. Probably not.

19:17

Yeah, maybe not. Probably not. Probably

19:20

not, yeah. Well, because it's authentic to who you are, right? Like

19:23

my favorite book on directing

19:25

is Ilya Kazan on directing.

19:28

And I'm paraphrasing, but

19:30

he says this thing that stuck with me, which is like, the

19:33

directors who lose it with age

19:36

are trying to be hip and

19:39

young, and they're not honest

19:41

to what their age actually is. I

19:44

think that's true of standup. I think it's true of movies.

19:47

Yeah, yeah, I never thought of it, yeah. Yeah,

19:50

like I'm wondering, I'm thinking about myself,

19:52

I unconsciously

19:54

do that when I write standup. I

19:56

don't say, all right, I've got

19:58

to bring it up to date.

20:00

I just,

20:02

I don't know how you write, but I,

20:04

yes, there are times where I'm like, all

20:06

right, what's a, let's think of something funny, but the

20:08

majority of my act

20:10

is either something funny

20:12

pops in my head and I write it down, or

20:15

my wife says something, I write it down, my kids

20:17

say something, I write it down, and then I expand

20:19

on it from there, but I don't

20:22

sit down and say time to write, time, okay,

20:24

let's think, time to write. No, I

20:26

always tell that to people, because a lot of creatives listen

20:28

to the show, and I always say just like write everything

20:30

down, like literally keep a journal,

20:33

write it all down, because it's all, usually,

20:36

I think, at least me and comedians,

20:39

I know, it's you write down things

20:41

that happen, and then at some point you

20:43

go, oh, the punchline's this. Yes,

20:46

I long-handed, you know, in the

20:49

back of my book, I have my big calendar,

20:51

I like to, I have a hard copy

20:54

calendar, you know, month at a glance, and

20:56

the last four or five pages that are

20:59

blank are new

21:01

bits, and I just have those buzzwords

21:03

of the stupidest things, whatever, and

21:06

will they amount to a bit? Yeah, if I go,

21:09

I mean, I don't know if they'll amount to it, but I

21:11

have to take it on stage, and

21:13

I, you know, in one week at the seller, you can,

21:16

I can kind of know if it's a bit

21:18

or not, because I can get on stage 15 times,

21:21

you know? Yeah.

21:22

And I don't have it, I

21:25

don't even have a bit written out, I

21:27

just have the word.

21:29

I'll tell you the one thing about the seller, that's funny,

21:32

that is, because it's New York, it's

21:34

different, is like I told this

21:36

story at the seller recently,

21:39

it was just true, from the subway, I was on

21:41

the subway home, and there was a person that took

21:43

off their shoes, I was like, ah,

21:46

and then they took off their pants,

21:48

and I was like, oh, I long for this, those

21:51

taking off the shoes days, those

21:53

are the good times. That's funny. That's

21:57

funny, I have written in my book,

21:59

Nothing with the subway. I just, and again, I

22:02

don't have a bit. I just thought I was watching

22:04

TV and it was

22:06

the kid at the zoo

22:08

who falls into the gorilla pit.

22:10

Oh yeah. You know what, how that happens. Yeah,

22:13

yeah. And so my, and

22:15

I don't know if this will develop into a bit but

22:17

my thought was,

22:19

you think when a little kid falls

22:21

into the gorilla pit, the other gorilla

22:24

will just look at each other and go, we're gonna

22:26

take a bullet in the head now, aren't we? Yeah.

22:30

We're gonna get

22:32

shot in the head because of this little asshole. Oh

22:34

my God. Is it really funny? That's

22:38

a great joke. You kidding me? I gotta

22:40

go somewhere with it. I gotta figure out where

22:42

it goes.

22:43

Like just don't go near him. Don't go near me. I think

22:45

that's done. Yeah. Don't

22:48

go near him. Yeah, the other gorilla's like,

22:50

I gotta go near him. I

22:53

gotta sniff him out

22:54

or something. I

22:58

gotta go.

23:09

Working it out is brought to you in part by

23:12

Helix Mattresses. I cannot

23:14

say enough about Helix Mattresses.

23:16

They've been with us for three years with the podcast.

23:19

I think at this point, everyone I know has a Helix

23:21

Mattress. It's just super

23:23

comfy. Shows up in a box,

23:26

pops out of the box, super

23:28

easy. Oh, this is the new

23:30

thing that they have, which is great. They

23:34

have a Helix Kids Mattress,

23:36

which is a two-sided design

23:39

for kids

23:40

who are growing. Have you heard this about

23:42

kids? They grow. So it's

23:45

firmer for kids three to seven to

23:47

give spinal support and softer

23:50

for kids eight to 12 to offer a more comforting

23:53

feel that kids prefer as they

23:55

grow up. So it also has

23:57

an antimicrobial shield, hypoallergenic...

23:59

cover water and stain resistant. All

24:02

this is with safety in mind. Helix

24:05

is offering 20% off all mattress orders, including

24:07

the Helix Kids Mattress and two

24:09

free pillows for our listeners. Ooh,

24:12

go to helixsleep.com slash pervigs.

24:14

This is their best offer yet, and it won't

24:16

last long with Helix. Better sleep starts

24:19

now.

24:21

Working it out is brought to you by Athletic

24:24

Greens AG1. This

24:27

is a sponsor where at first they wanted

24:29

to be a sponsor, and I was like, I don't know. I

24:32

have so many health things. I have to really

24:34

believe in it. And then I was

24:36

talking to a friend who works in nutrition.

24:39

She recommended it, having no idea

24:41

that that was on the table as a thing.

24:44

So I was like, I'm gonna give it a shot. Now

24:46

I do it every day. It makes me feel great.

24:49

It's good for your immune system, gut

24:51

health and digestion. It's got vitamin

24:54

A, C, E. It's basically

24:56

like powder that you put in like a bottle

24:58

that you can get the AG1 bottle.

25:01

You shake it up, you drink it down.

25:03

I think it's great. If you want to take ownership of your own

25:06

health, that's not really a thing I would say,

25:08

but that's what I'm supposed to say. I

25:10

agree with it though. Take ownership of your own

25:12

health. Today's a good day and time

25:14

to start. Athletic Greens is giving

25:16

you a free, wait a minute, a

25:18

free one-year supply of vitamin D

25:20

and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

25:23

That's really, that seems really good. Go to

25:25

athleticgreens.com slash pervigs. That's

25:28

athleticgreens.com

25:30

slash pervigs.

25:36

Oh wait, this

25:37

is called the slow round. What

25:44

nicknames did you have in your life that were really good

25:46

or really bad? I

25:49

had Dizzy. Dizzy, that's

25:51

nice. Is it a good one? That's positive I

25:53

think. What's it based on? I

25:56

think some guy just said it

25:58

once. I may have, one

26:01

of the older kids thought I

26:03

was being stupid and said, what

26:05

are you dizzy? And then they started calling me Diz the Wiz.

26:08

Yeah. Did

26:12

you get hit growing up? Did you get beat up?

26:14

Beat up? Yeah. Like

26:16

was it tough? Was it green tough? You

26:19

know, I mean, it

26:23

wasn't, you know, I'm

26:25

not gonna make like it was one

26:27

of those tough neighborhoods where

26:31

we got

26:31

in fights every day, but I got held up

26:34

twice at gunpoint in

26:36

the gas station. I

26:38

worked that. Geez. Yeah, when I was,

26:42

I guess I was 19, 20,

26:44

I worked pumping gas in

26:47

Yellowstone Boulevard in Queens and

26:49

two separate times. Yeah, I got held

26:51

up. Do you give the person

26:53

cash?

26:55

Yeah, this is when it was all, you know. These are all

26:57

cash. Well, it wasn't all cash. It

26:59

was credit cards, but you had to take the credit card going, kinking.

27:01

Yeah. It wasn't automated

27:03

at the pump, you know.

27:05

And there was a kid who came in and a

27:08

young guy pretended he needed

27:10

to use the payphone. This is when there were payphones.

27:12

Oh my gosh.

27:13

And it was just me and this other guy working

27:16

there, young guy working. And

27:18

we just running out coming in and

27:20

he kept pretending the phone was busy. And

27:23

he looked, you were the young kid, looked

27:25

like a college kid. We

27:27

never suspected it, you know. And

27:30

we started talking with him, laughing and

27:32

whatever, and he was waiting for the right time, you

27:34

know, because cars kept coming in, cars kept coming in. And

27:37

at the right moment when there was a lull, he

27:41

pulled out a gun. He had a gun in his, he goes, he goes, guys, I

27:43

like you, don't do anything. Oh my gosh.

27:45

You lay down, yeah, and we let him take all

27:47

the cash and he left. Oh my gosh. Second

27:50

hand was the guy in the car, it

27:52

was two guys in a car, one in the front seat and one

27:54

in the back seat. I should have known right then. You

27:57

know, one guy was in the front, one in the back.

27:59

And it was at night, and you have a sign

28:02

that says,

28:04

we don't make change. Because

28:06

we want to let them know we don't have money on us. And

28:09

the guy in the front said,

28:12

I want three, this is how long ago it was. He

28:14

wants $3 a gas. He

28:17

goes, he only has a $10 bill. And

28:19

I said, all right, I'll give it to you.

28:21

And I pumped the gas.

28:24

He gets the 10, he hands me the 10.

28:26

And I take out a wad

28:29

of money. It's all singles, but

28:31

it looks like a lot of money. Which

28:33

was good. And then I hear from

28:35

the back seat,

28:36

I go, and as soon as I

28:39

heard you, I went, oh no. And

28:41

he had a gun pointing out the window. And

28:45

he said, give me all that. Throw it

28:47

in, and I threw it in. And he goes, empty your

28:49

pockets too. And I

28:51

take out my wallet.

28:52

And he goes, throw that in here. And I

28:55

know I was scared. I'm not saying I'm a brave

28:57

guy, but I was scared. I

28:59

said to him, and I

29:01

showed him what was in the wallet. It was only a dollar. I

29:04

go, can I give you the dollar, but

29:06

I want to keep my license and whatever.

29:08

And the guy took the dollar and he goes, yeah,

29:11

you can keep that too. He let me keep

29:13

the wallet and let me keep my dollar. And

29:17

then they drove off. I knew exactly where you were going, that

29:19

story, because the moment you said, give

29:21

me your wallet, in my mind,

29:23

it became my wallet. Yes, and then I got

29:25

to remove my license. And the

29:27

this and the that and

29:30

the social security

29:31

card. But it was

29:34

not a bad neighborhood. It wasn't that bad a neighborhood.

29:36

You got held up a gunpoint twice.

29:38

Yeah. I mean, you're

29:40

trying to downplay a bad neighborhood.

29:42

That's not a good neighborhood. It wasn't like it was,

29:45

you know. It wasn't Main Streets. No, it wasn't Main

29:47

Streets.

29:48

Wow. What can you, oh my

29:50

gosh, this was so obvious for you. I

29:52

always ask people, you think of a moment in your life that

29:55

changed your life, but you didn't know it at the time.

29:57

That I didn't know it at the time. You didn't

29:59

know it at the time.

29:59

I was gonna change your life and then it did.

30:02

Well, I mean, career-wise, it's

30:05

a Letterman, doing Letterman.

30:09

Because I just thought

30:11

it was gonna be a great spot. I mean, doing Letterman is a,

30:14

it could change you

30:16

just having a good spot on Letterman could

30:18

help your career. I had the same

30:20

thing. But does it lead to a TV show?

30:22

Yeah.

30:24

I'm very micro level, I had the same thing.

30:26

You had a great Letterman? I had a good Letterman set and then I

30:28

got the tour. You have

30:30

to be a headliner, 24 years old. What

30:33

year did you do Letterman? 2002, I

30:35

think. Oh, wow. So

30:37

it was like, it completely changed everything. Because

30:42

for me, it's like once you get to do an hour,

30:44

you can work out an hour. And for

30:46

you, obviously, it's series

30:49

your whole life. I did get

30:51

to do Carson also,

30:54

right before he retired, I did it

30:56

in 91.

30:58

The thing was at that point, it

31:01

wasn't like doing Carson in the

31:03

late 70s, where you became

31:05

an instant almost household

31:07

name headliner. It was still the pinnacle

31:10

for a comedian. It was the dream.

31:13

Me and my friend, one day in the

31:15

kitchen, my brother was in the other room,

31:17

we were the funny guy, whatever

31:20

we thought.

31:21

And I think we had been drinking a little bit. And

31:24

my older brother, we were busting his

31:26

chops. And he

31:28

was telling us to shut up, inside,

31:31

we were being stupid.

31:32

And then we just said, we're gonna be on Carson. Oh

31:35

my gosh. He goes, you're not gonna be on Carson.

31:38

I go, within five years,

31:40

we're gonna be on Carson. It

31:42

took

31:43

probably 20, 15, 20 years. And

31:46

it was just me, on Carson. Yeah, yeah,

31:48

yeah. Well, we did throw that out there,

31:50

okay. Yeah, it was funny.

31:54

I think we might've made a bet. We might've bet on that,

31:56

like in five years, we'll bet you, all

31:58

your laws will be on Carson.

31:59

You had the existence of an

32:02

archetype that

32:05

comedians wanted for like 20

32:08

years of following it. Like, which is you

32:11

went to Montreal just for laughs. You did new

32:13

faces. You did Letterman. And

32:16

then from Letterman, you got to deal with Letterman's

32:18

company to do a sitcom and

32:20

the sitcom's a hit.

32:21

And from that point on,

32:23

every manager and agent was like, go

32:25

to Montreal, create

32:28

a comedy set that's about your life.

32:30

And it becomes a sitcom. And even I had

32:33

that where I did new faces and

32:36

I did Letterman and they tried to build a sitcom

32:38

around my life. And then I realized like, this doesn't

32:40

feel right. And I kind of walked away

32:43

from it and did what I did. Did you have a Letterman

32:45

development deal?

32:46

Wasn't with that company, but it was with

32:48

CBS. I had a CBS

32:50

pilot they shot, this is my life,

32:52

Mike Birbiglia project, whatever it was. And

32:55

then it was like, but it was weird because I

32:58

feel like your show had artistic

33:00

integrity. They did not let

33:02

our show have artistic integrity. Like by

33:04

the time we finished the pilot, it didn't

33:06

feel like me at all, but yours

33:09

did. Like, how'd you do that?

33:11

Yeah, we had to fight for stuff too. I mean,

33:13

they wanted to

33:16

take it out of the city.

33:17

Oh. They wanted, yeah. Really?

33:20

They felt like we had to appeal to

33:22

middle America. Wow. And

33:25

that's why we gave them long, we compromised

33:28

and gave them Long Island.

33:29

Oh, interesting. Yeah, otherwise we wanted

33:31

it to be in Queens or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

33:34

And they said, it won't appeal to middle. Meantime

33:37

at the time, Seinfeld was the number one

33:39

show. New York City, yeah, yeah. The number one show. Yeah. Yeah,

33:42

yeah.

33:42

They wanted the wife to be a little more,

33:48

you know, unethnic, you

33:51

know? Yeah. I've heard Phil Rosenthal

33:53

talk about that's your partner. Talk about

33:55

also like,

33:56

we need someone who's like super

33:59

hot to be. the wife, it's like

34:01

they gave us that, they were giving us that note

34:05

at the network. And we were like, no,

34:07

no, no, it's supposed to be funny. It's

34:09

not about who's, it's not a modeling

34:12

contest. This is insane. Yeah,

34:14

yeah.

34:15

How about when Phil went to

34:18

Russia and brought the show to Russia

34:21

and they wanted, the wife has to be

34:23

glamorous, dressed, dressed

34:25

to the nines every day. Yeah,

34:29

she's a housewife, she's doing laundry.

34:30

You know,

34:33

there's a little story to that Letterman

34:35

spot.

34:40

So this is the spot that I'm here.

34:43

This is why I'm here. Why you're here at the Letterman

34:45

spot. So it's my first Letterman room,

34:47

I'm backstage

34:48

and I'm watching the show

34:51

and Dave is doing a bit

34:54

about can we cut

34:56

your pants into shorts?

34:59

And his first guess is Mel Gibson.

35:01

And he,

35:02

and cause it's kind of, it's May maybe. So,

35:04

you know, summer is coming and

35:08

he's gonna summarize everybody's pants. And

35:10

he cuts Mel Gibson's pants into shorts.

35:13

Right out there, you know, Mel wasn't expecting it

35:15

and the crowd goes nuts. Yeah, and

35:18

then he goes, Paul, you gotta

35:20

have your pants. And he cuts Paul Shaffer's

35:22

pants. And then he goes, you know, and

35:24

I gotta be a good sport. I'm

35:26

doing a few and he cuts his own pants into shorts.

35:29

So I'm backstage and we're all thinking,

35:31

I go,

35:32

should I go out with cut pants? Like

35:36

go out, Ray Lee's down in the radio model and walk

35:38

out and my pants are already cut. And

35:40

the producer brought back scissors. And

35:43

he goes, you gotta go out with that. You gotta cut

35:45

your pants off. Oh, that's so funny. And we had

35:47

the scissors and I was,

35:49

yeah, I guess. And at the last minute I

35:51

rethought it. Well,

35:53

because I said, I thought it might get a little,

35:57

but this is, I'm an unknown.

35:59

and I'm walking out and

36:03

it's a little distracting. Yeah, there's an initial,

36:06

but it's also like, you're not

36:08

part of the club yet. Yeah, you're not part of the club.

36:11

Yeah, and I made

36:13

the choice not to do it.

36:15

Now listen, I had a great set, even

36:17

in my, I'm hard on myself, that set was

36:20

really good. It led to this. And I

36:22

told Dave this at the very end, I go, and

36:24

I think if I came out with those pets, I don't

36:27

know if this happens. I agree. I

36:29

think if you cut off the pants. The dynamic changes.

36:32

I think all of a sudden,

36:34

it's the night that's about the pants.

36:37

And it's not about, oh, this new voice

36:39

in comedy. It's a guy

36:41

who's kind of just standing in bed. It's

36:44

a little thing, but you don't know how it snowballs.

36:46

I think the butterfly effect is not there. Yeah,

36:50

I think that's a smart move. Also, you ever hear the phrase,

36:52

you can't follow the costume?

36:54

No. I think that's a super smart,

36:57

I don't know who invented this phrase, but

37:00

it's such a smart point, which is like, if you come

37:02

on in a silly outfit, a big outfit,

37:05

you wear a chicken suit or whatever,

37:08

it's funny for a minute,

37:11

and then you gotta do something. You

37:13

know what's funny? Sometimes you'll say, you

37:15

and I will be back to back at the cellar, and

37:18

you'll be like, oh, great, I gotta follow. You

37:20

gotta married stuff. Married stuff with

37:22

more married stuff. Is there anything that

37:24

you feel like you can't follow for real?

37:27

The funny thing about the cellar is,

37:30

I'm always, first

37:31

of all, I don't care how long I've

37:33

been in this business, I'm always nervous about

37:36

following whoever's up there. David

37:39

Tell, I used to follow. David Tell's hard to follow. Yeah.

37:42

But it's subject matter. Like with you, it's subject

37:44

matter. Like I saw Paul Reiser at the

37:47

Comedy Magic Club. I was like, you and I

37:50

cannot work together. That's funny.

37:52

Yeah, because he's- He's hating the same stuff. Yeah,

37:55

we're talking about relationship, marriage, wife,

37:57

wife hates us, the whole thing.

37:59

a little bit about marriage, which is that, that

38:03

I've been working on, which is like in

38:07

marriage, I think the most special thing is that

38:09

you can communicate so much with so few words.

38:12

Like a friend of mine was like, I want to go skydiving

38:14

and I want you to come. And

38:16

I was like, oh, that sounds great. I went home to

38:18

my wife, I relayed this, and she

38:20

said, you're going to do that?

38:22

And that's when I realized I wasn't going to do that. I

38:25

said, no, because I'm more afraid

38:28

of my wife's judgment of me

38:31

than I am of jumping out of an airplane at 30,000 feet.

38:34

That's funny.

38:35

Yeah, I feel like I'm in that space

38:37

right now where I'm trying to, like

38:40

when I'm writing new material, it's like 80

38:43

to 90% of my life is spent with

38:45

my wife and daughter.

38:46

It's like, what am I going to write about? Yeah,

38:49

that's it for me, man. Same

38:51

with me. And of course, and

38:53

Jenny's a poet. And so a lot of, look, when

38:55

I wrote the last show, the new one

38:57

about having a child, I

38:59

used her poetry in it.

39:01

And so she was a writer on

39:03

it. And so there was less, it's

39:08

just a less challenging thing because ultimately like

39:10

her words are her words. Like she expressed

39:12

it with this, you know, I'd say the poem,

39:15

but doing autobiographical

39:17

writing about

39:19

relationships, marriage, whatever it is,

39:22

it's challenging because ultimately

39:24

comedy is based on conflict. Films

39:26

are based on conflict. I mean, your whole film is based

39:29

on conflict. Yeah, that's funny.

39:31

People used to say about everybody that was raving,

39:33

why are they always fighting? And

39:36

yeah, the answer, well, do you want us to just

39:38

be sitting on the couch, getting along?

39:40

Yeah. And

39:41

what episode is that? Tell me what's that

39:44

episode about, you know? Yeah, it's

39:46

conflict. And my

39:49

wife, I

39:50

got COVID for the first time,

39:53

two months ago, two days before

39:55

her birthday, she was turning 60. And

39:58

we planned a big party in her life. in a restaurant

40:01

here in New York. You know, we rented out a restaurant

40:03

floor or whatever, and

40:05

now I can't go, right? And

40:08

she's going to the elevator

40:11

in our apartment, and I'm standing in the

40:13

doorway in my pajamas, you

40:16

know, and she says, before she gets in the elevator,

40:18

she turns and I wave, and I

40:20

go, happy birthday, I'm

40:21

thinking maybe she'll say,

40:24

you know, we're gonna miss you, you know, I hope you feel better.

40:27

And she just looks at me and goes, I

40:29

feel like punching you. Oh my gosh, Jesus. Oh

40:33

my gosh. Blaming me for

40:35

that. Because she knew that

40:37

there was probably a little bit

40:40

of me that liked that I didn't

40:42

have to go. Oh, that's funny, yeah. That's

40:44

the thing about marriage, is that it is worth writing

40:47

about, is that you're so close to somebody that

40:49

actually they can read your mind. Yeah, yeah,

40:52

yeah. That's what makes the dramatic

40:54

element, I think, worth watching. Even in the movie,

40:57

the relationship between your character and Laurie Metcalfe's

40:59

character is

41:01

very deep, but part of

41:03

what makes it deep is the conflict. The

41:06

characters are in conflict with each other like

41:09

quite a bit.

41:10

Right,

41:11

and we also wanted to write

41:13

it, you know, coming from people

41:15

who don't, can't articulate

41:18

much like that. Oh, that's interesting, yeah. Don't say it

41:20

that much, you know. Yeah, they're not in couples therapy

41:22

or anything. No, no,

41:24

no, so, you know, she's

41:27

struggling with her fear of dying

41:30

cancer, you know, cancer, and

41:33

they don't know, you know, he doesn't really

41:35

know how to

41:37

deal with that and process it,

41:39

you know, but he says it in the best way he can,

41:41

you know. Just like the father

41:43

says,

41:45

he finally gives the kid a guy

41:47

a compliment, but it's on his back, you know. Yeah,

41:49

yeah. Yeah, he can't even do it face

41:51

to face.

41:52

It's interesting, because if you think about it like conflict in movies

41:55

or jokes or whatever, it's like, in

41:58

some ways it indicates. that

42:01

people care about each other at all. That

42:03

they don't? That they do, that they

42:05

care about each other at all. Like when I'm

42:07

watching somewhere in Queens and

42:11

your character and Laurie Metcalf's character are

42:13

arguing the way they are, I'm like, yeah,

42:15

that's a marriage. You're like, oh, they love each other.

42:17

Yeah, they love each other. That's

42:20

funny. They're gonna be there for each other. Honestly,

42:22

if I was watching that movie and they're indifferent,

42:25

and they're like, I'm not there. Yeah, well, that was

42:27

the key for everybody and it was Raymond is, yeah,

42:30

yeah, yes. They yell and scream

42:32

every episode. But you

42:35

know that they love each other. You know

42:37

that? Yeah. Did you ever

42:39

have rules for how to make sure that that's

42:41

expressed?

42:42

Like, did you ever have a tip over thing where

42:45

you're like, this is too much, too much arguing?

42:48

I'm sure we did, but we always had, I think,

42:51

we wanted to always

42:53

get somewhere.

42:55

So yeah, they're gonna yell and scream and I'm gonna do something

42:58

horrible and stupid and whatever. But

43:00

there's gonna be, within those 22 minutes,

43:04

there's gonna be an arc and you're gonna,

43:07

he's gonna learn something, somebody's gonna learn something,

43:09

subtly. It's not gonna

43:11

be pushed in your face and it's not gonna

43:13

be, we're not gonna be preaching

43:16

to anybody. But always

43:18

something, a little bit of something. And

43:21

I think

43:22

that's why people stuck

43:24

with it is, because yes,

43:28

we attack each other, but

43:31

I think they've felt, you

43:33

just give them a little taste of sweetness

43:35

and love

43:37

and

43:39

then you can go the long way.

43:43

I remember the father, there was an episode

43:45

where Peter Boyle did

43:49

something with a baseball.

43:51

I don't know what it was, but I remember

43:53

Phil wanted me to kiss him on the head

43:56

and I said, Phil, no, no,

43:58

never, my character.

43:59

and when Phil and

44:02

I never really came to odds at anything, you

44:04

know, Phil's thing in the writer's room was,

44:07

whenever I would say, no, no,

44:10

my character wouldn't do it, he would say, yes,

44:13

but that's why you do it. Because your character

44:16

wouldn't do it. And I say, okay, I can never. Wait,

44:18

what's his logic? That's why you do it because

44:20

he wouldn't do it? Yes, yes, he thought that was what

44:22

was good about it, was we don't think

44:25

he would do it. I go, I guess I can never argue

44:27

a point then. If the reason I do

44:29

it is because I wouldn't do it, then I

44:32

guess anything you put down, I

44:34

have to do.

44:35

But he just did it at this one moment, it was funny.

44:37

I always call

44:40

him on that. But in this part, he

44:43

wanted me to kiss Peter well on the head at this sweet moment.

44:45

And I thought it was too much for these

44:48

two guys, you know?

44:49

And we were going back and forth, back and forth. And

44:53

it wasn't loud, you know.

44:57

And he finally said to me, just

44:59

do the scene, and if you feel it, do it. Yeah.

45:02

If you feel it, do it. It was very smart. That is smart.

45:05

He knew I was gonna do it. And

45:07

I did, I did. Oh, that's nice. And

45:10

the audience loved it.

45:11

Yeah. Yeah.

45:24

Working It Out is brought to you in part by GameTime.co. GameTime.co,

45:28

it's a great site for finding tickets

45:31

to your favorite events, music, sports,

45:33

comedy, theater. I

45:36

was just, I was on their site. It's actually,

45:38

it's a phenomenally convenient

45:40

site. Like I was looking up the national,

45:42

it's like my favorite band. They're coming to Madison

45:44

Square Garden.

45:46

And then I clicked on tickets. It

45:48

gave me like a photo of the exact

45:51

view from those seats. Cause trust

45:53

me, I've been at Madison Square Garden and been like,

45:56

wait, where's the show? Like I'm looking

45:58

around like, is it, is it normal?

45:59

North or South? Like I literally,

46:02

it's a lot. Snag tickets

46:05

without stress with game time. Download

46:07

the game time app, that's even easier. Create an

46:09

account, use code WIO. That's

46:12

working it out. For 20 bucks off your

46:14

first purchase, terms apply,

46:16

again, create an account, redeem code

46:19

WIO. For 20 bucks off we got our own code.

46:21

Look at us. Download game

46:23

time today. Last minute tickets,

46:26

lowest price guaranteed.

46:28

Working it out is brought to you in part by Liquid

46:31

IV. If you've seen Old Man in the Pool,

46:33

you know I'm pretty health obsessed these days.

46:35

Trying to, you know, be

46:38

alive and everything. Liquid

46:41

IV is the category winning hydration

46:44

brand fueling your well-being.

46:47

Their hydration multiplier is the

46:49

one product you may be missing in your daily routine.

46:52

In just one stick you get

46:54

five essential vitamins and two times

46:57

faster hydration than water alone.

47:00

Use it first thing in the morning before a workout, when

47:02

you feel run down after a long night

47:05

out

47:05

and on long flights, that's a good

47:08

one. I always get dehydrated on the

47:10

flights. Grab your Liquid IV in

47:12

bulk nationwide at Costco.

47:15

Always a good place to stock up Costco.

47:18

If you want

47:19

a million rolls of toilet

47:21

paper and some Liquid IV. Or

47:24

you can get 20% off when you go to liquidiv.com

47:26

and use code working at checkout.

47:29

We got our own code. That's 20% off

47:31

anything you order when you shop better hydration

47:34

today using promo code working at

47:36

liquidiv.com.

47:42

I have a thing I'm working on right

47:44

now about marriage,

47:47

which

47:50

is

47:51

that my wife,

47:52

the thing that I love most about my wife is

47:54

that she's so thoughtful, much more thoughtful than me. I

47:56

go the other day she made me a pancake.

47:59

And then I go, you're a kid.

47:59

I hear you heard that correctly. I see you

48:02

on your car, there. Eat a pancake. Pancake.

48:04

Yeah, I was working with Bert last week, but

48:08

I go pancake, and I go, which, because

48:10

she understands my health profile. She knows

48:12

the right amount of pancakes for me to eat,

48:14

because it is pancake. That's a great

48:16

joke because it's

48:18

just, you're just taking one letter.

48:21

One letter. And it's a joke

48:23

now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you said

48:25

she's making me pancakes, it's not a joke. Yeah.

48:28

And you're just removing one letter. But

48:31

then the follow up joke to that is, and

48:34

I go, so she makes me pancake, and

48:36

I go, thank you for pancake. And

48:38

then I wanted to do something nice for

48:41

her, because my love language is keeping

48:43

score.

48:44

And then what I do in the crowd is, because

48:48

usually, literally someone claps. And

48:50

I go, if you're clapping. Way about keeping score.

48:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I go, if you're clapping,

48:55

it's because you're keeping score.

48:57

And if you're not clapping, you're

49:00

keeping score

49:01

and you're losing. That's funny. This

49:05

is not, we're not doing the same bit. No,

49:07

no, no, no. But I do a thing about

49:09

scoring points with my wife. Oh, you do? You're the same thing?

49:11

Not the same thing. Similar, yeah. But I

49:13

say, I just bring it up like the other day,

49:16

I scored points with my wife. And

49:18

ladies, we're always trying to score points. And

49:21

every guy is trying to score points.

49:24

I don't know what game we're in with you. Yes. You

49:29

have the lead at all

49:31

times. I say, we are like the Washington Generals,

49:34

the Hall of Globetrotters play the team,

49:36

the Hall of Globetrotters, boy. That's

49:38

a great take. So one of my-

49:41

Yours is different. It's funny.

49:43

Oh, no, of course, no. One of my, that

49:46

yours reminds me of is, I

49:50

go, marriage is teamwork and

49:52

we've lost a lot of games. We're

49:56

in a slump.

49:59

Sometimes at the end of the game, I'm like, I

50:02

was under the hoop for an hour. And

50:04

she's like, you couldn't score if you had a ladder and no

50:06

defense. I was open. I

50:09

was open. I was open, yeah. That's great

50:11

though. Your take is actually more

50:13

filled out than mine, which is

50:15

this idea that like,

50:18

you're basically, that you're keeping score because

50:21

you kind of know the other person's winning. Because they're

50:23

always in the, yes. They're in the lead already. Yes.

50:26

That's interesting. Yes, we always need

50:28

points because we're behind, we're always behind

50:31

on points. But it's funny, I think the

50:33

reason people are clapping, why that keeping

50:35

score thing gets reaction is

50:37

I think some of those people, there's

50:40

no outlet for, and this is the

50:42

same reason everyone loves Reem and connects with people.

50:44

It's like, there's no outlet for people

50:46

to be like,

50:48

this is, this dynamic

50:51

of marriage and relationships and living together

50:53

for your whole life, and it's your lover and it's your, it's

50:55

the mother of your child and it's your wife, your mother,

50:58

your roommate. Like,

51:00

it's so complex that

51:03

if you can put words to it with an analogy

51:06

or any, anything. There's no outlet

51:08

for people to share

51:11

what's the

51:13

stuff that's hard, the stuff that's wrong

51:16

about it, the stuff that's hard about it.

51:19

For people to

51:22

bond over,

51:24

yes, yes, I

51:26

go through that same shit. You

51:30

can't complain to, you

51:32

don't wanna complain to the her about it. No.

51:35

So you wanna see other people talking about it. Yeah,

51:38

fuck, I go through the same thing. Like

51:41

I do a bit,

51:43

and this happened, this is what

51:45

happened. I think you must have heard this.

51:48

We were having dinner

51:49

with my son and his

51:51

girlfriend, just me and my wife at

51:54

our house, and in the middle of it, I got a text

51:56

and it was from my wife, it was right there,

51:59

and it was just,

51:59

just two words,

52:01

chewing loud. Yes. I'm

52:03

chewing loud. And

52:06

that happened to me, I wrote it down and I took it

52:08

on stage and I just said it and

52:10

it got a huge laugh. I

52:12

think- It was basically your wife commenting

52:15

on the-

52:16

Talking to me, yes. Yes,

52:18

chewing loud. Chewing loud.

52:21

But I'm saying I thought I was,

52:23

I need to write a punch line

52:25

here and no- No, that's it. Sometimes

52:28

the setup is the punch line. Pancake.

52:30

Pancake.

52:38

The last thing we do is we call it working out for a cause.

52:40

If there's an organization like a nonprofit or anything

52:43

that you donate to or anything,

52:45

we donate to them and we link in the show notes

52:48

to them.

52:48

Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I mean, we

52:52

have a couple, but the main

52:54

one we go to is Harvest Home. It's called

52:56

Harvest Home.

52:57

It's in LA and it's a nice

53:00

organization that takes

53:03

women who are pregnant,

53:05

who

53:07

find themselves either to be homeless

53:10

or just out of work

53:11

and it helps them, it takes them

53:14

in and helps them have,

53:16

put some on their feet and helps them

53:18

have their baby and get them work

53:21

and a job and all that. Yeah, so we'll

53:23

link to harvesthome.org and we'll

53:26

donate to them. Ray, thanks

53:28

for coming on. This is just a phenomenal,

53:30

I love it. You're gonna edit it, right? We

53:33

gotta tighten it up. All

53:36

right, thanks, Ray. All right, man.

53:37

Fix it in post. Fix it in post, we'll fix it in post.

53:41

Working it out, cause it's not

53:43

done. We're

53:46

working it out, cause there's no.

53:49

That's gonna do it for another episode of Working

53:51

It Out. That is Ray Romano. I

53:54

just feel lucky to know that guy.

53:56

So funny, so talented, he's a

53:59

legend.

53:59

Ray Romano's a legend and his

54:02

movie's fantastic. Somewhere in Queens,

54:04

the showtimes are at somewhereinqueensmovie.com.

54:08

Jenny and I loved it. We were

54:11

crying and everyone

54:13

around us was crying in the movie theater. See you in

54:15

the theater. It's a really good

54:17

movie to see in the theater.

54:19

Our producers of Working It Out are myself along

54:21

with Peter Salomon and Joseph Birbiglia, associate

54:23

producer, Mabel Lewis, consulting producer, Seth

54:26

Barish, assistant producers, Gary

54:28

Simons, Lucy Jones, and Nick Dimitralakis.

54:32

Sound mix by Ben Cruz, supervising

54:34

engineer, Kate Balinski, special thanks to

54:36

Marissa Hurwitz and Josh Upfall, as well as David

54:38

Raphael and Nina Quick. My consigliere

54:41

is Mike Berkowitz. Special thanks to Jack

54:43

Antonoff and Bleachers for their

54:45

music. Of course, J. Hope

54:47

Stein, my wife, the

54:49

poet, she's got these really cool

54:51

broadsides of her poetry

54:54

that she signs, like of Little Astronaut

54:56

and the Now Clock and a bunch of her other poems

54:59

on her Instagram right now. It's

55:02

at J. Hope Stein and she

55:04

sells on merch table. We got a bunch of fun

55:07

Birbig's stuff on merch table as well.

55:09

Special thanks as always to my daughter, Una, who

55:12

built the original Radio Fort made

55:14

of pillows. Thanks most of all to you

55:17

who are listening. If you're liking the show,

55:19

go on Apple Podcast and spend

55:22

two and a half minutes writing a review.

55:24

Just say what your favorite episode is. It might be this one.

55:27

I think it could be this one. I love the Ray

55:29

Romano episode. I've said it before. I'll say it

55:31

again. Tell your friends, but even tell

55:33

your enemies. Go to Ray's movie in

55:36

the theater, as he intended. If

55:38

someone's talking in the movie, maybe they're on their phone, it's

55:40

annoying. Don't yell at them. Walk

55:42

up to them while they're on their phone or

55:44

texting. Hey, maybe

55:48

don't text her in the movie. And also,

55:51

have you heard about this podcast? Mike Birbig

55:53

is working it out. He interviewed the director

55:55

of this movie. You might enjoy

55:58

it if you stop talking. and

56:00

texting and actually

56:02

watch the movie. Probably not the best way to

56:04

deal with that situation, but we'll

56:06

keep brainstorming. I'll see you next

56:08

time everybody. We're working it out.