Larry Charles | Comedy Samurai

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Larry Charles: I had been learning

how to play the harmonica.

 

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I was even taking lessons.

 

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And then this, working with Bob

Dylan and I actually gave up the

 

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harmonica 'cause I felt like an idiot.

 

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You know, playing harmonica

like with Bob Dylan around.

 

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It's like ridiculous.

 

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Announcer: Welcome to Story Craft.

 

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Now here's your host, Marc Preston.

 

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Marc Preston: Okay, here we go back again.

 

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You and I thank you so

much for stopping back by.

 

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It means a lot to me.

 

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Hey, if you're brand new

to the show, welcome.

 

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My name is Marc Preston and, uh, you know,

we've been, uh, out for a couple, three

 

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weeks or I lost track of just a few weeks.

 

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Took a little hiatus, spent a

little bit of time with, uh, I

 

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used to call 'em my little people.

 

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They're not so little anymore.

 

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Uh, my, uh, college kids, my youngest

daughter, about to go off to Europe

 

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to study for the fall semester.

 

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Also, uh, my son who is uh,

about to wrap up his last.

 

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Semester of college.

 

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So, you know, enjoyed spending

some time with them, stirring

 

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up a little bit of mischief.

 

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So took a, took a moment to do that

back today with a great episode,

 

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sitting down with a comedy icon.

 

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Larry Charles.

 

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Now, uh, Larry has written,

produced, uh, directed.

 

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I mean, some, some of the.

 

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Most notable television shows, uh, movies,

uh, over the last 20, 30 plus years.

 

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Uh, Seinfeld, curb Your

Enthusiasm, uh, entourage.

 

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He's worked with Sasha Baron Cohen on

Borat, and, uh, Bruno and the Dictator.

 

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And, uh, uh, also, uh, Matt, about you.

 

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Bill Mars documentary, religious,

uh, he's also done, uh, the comedians

 

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with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad.

 

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You know, he is just done a lot

and he's documented it in his

 

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new memoir called Comedy Samurai.

 

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40 Years of Blood Guts and Laughter.

 

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Uh, we talk about that.

 

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Uh, and really it was just very

cool to sit down with a guy

 

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who has his kind of pedigree.

 

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He's been there, he's done it, uh,

and he's got stories from the field.

 

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Do me a favor, if you would just

do a small little favor, grab your

 

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device, phone, iPad, computer.

 

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Well, don't grab your computer.

 

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Well, you get what I'm saying?

 

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Go ahead and, uh, follow a

story and craft, if you would,

 

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that way you get notified every

time a new episode comes out.

 

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Also, leave a review, leave some stars.

 

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A little bit of love.

 

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Always appreciated.

 

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Uh, also if you go to story and

craft pod.com, everything about the

 

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show, it's right there past guests.

 

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Reach out, drop me a note.

 

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Always love hearing from you.

 

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That's very cool.

 

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Uh, so it is all right there.

 

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And, uh, also on the front page you can

see some ways where you can help support

 

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story and craft some new cool ways to, uh,

kind of be a part of what we got going on.

 

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Okay, so let's jump

right into it, uh, today.

 

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It's Larry Charles Day right

here on Story and Craft.

 

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Larry Charles: Where are

you joining me from today?

 

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I am in Ventura, California.

 

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My house in Malibu, uh, burned

down on the fires of January.

 

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And so we were homeless for a

while and kind of vagabonds,

 

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Marc Preston: I'm so sorry to hear that.

 

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I, I had lost a home, uh, uh,

as a result of a hurricane.

 

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And I, I know that feeling of

like, okay, uh, what do we do next?

 

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And, and then you start really

prioritizing, you know, you start

 

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really realizing how important stuff

is, and you start like, the same

 

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time you start realizing some things

were more valuable than you thought.

 

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You know, it's, it's a whole

mental exercise, but that's,

 

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I'm glad to know you're okay.

 

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That's the most important

 

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Larry Charles: thing.

 

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We're okay.

 

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Our dogs are okay, but you're

really right about that.

 

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I mean, things that seem trivial or

frivolous have, or I have been imbued

 

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with a certain significance over time.

 

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And when you lose those things,

you start to kind of feel the

 

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loss of those things as well.

 

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There's not nothing, almost

everything is replaceable.

 

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That's important, but there are

things that are irreplaceable

 

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that are kind of, uh.

 

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Very poignant losses in our life.

 

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Marc Preston: For me, it was like, uh,

I didn't lose everything, you know?

 

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And that's the difference that I fire,

you know, hurricane Janelle, they're

 

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coming, you know, you know, you can

compare it to a degree, but if you're a

 

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little bit of a pack rat, uh, I, I wasn't

a pack rat, but there's some stuff I'm

 

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like, I just don't need that anymore.

 

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I know why.

 

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I'm still schlepping it around with me.

 

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Well, okay, well, mother Nature

took care of that for me,

 

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Larry Charles: right?

 

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Well, we had a fire in 2018.

 

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Not to belabor this point.

 

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But we had a fire in 2018 and, um, we've

had, we've evacuated a number of times.

 

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In 2018, we evacuated for like two weeks.

 

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We couldn't come back.

 

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And it, when I, when we survived

that fire, I took everything I had

 

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of like value, like memorabilia

and stuff that I had accumulated,

 

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and I actually put that in a vault.

 

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So all that stuff is saved and

I felt very lucky about that.

 

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But I've accumulated, because I am a

pack rat, I've accumulated a lot of stuff

 

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from 2018 to the present and most of

that stuff was completely obliterated.

 

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So, you know, it's a lot.

 

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Marc Preston: Yeah.

 

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The thing I'm doing now on my, my

father passed, I ended up, well, I say

 

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my grandparents passed and my father

passed, and I'm now the recipient of

 

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Untold Boxes, which reside in one of

my kids' closets of, uh, pictures going

 

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back to the thirties and, and earlier.

 

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Yeah.

 

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And.

 

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I keep telling myself I need to sit down

and scan all these pictures and then,

 

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you know, 'cause I always hear about

people say, I lost all these pictures.

 

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Like, did you, you

didn't scan any of them.

 

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And which is something our

kids are never will even think

 

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about 'cause it's all digital.

 

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Yeah, yeah.

 

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No, true.

 

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So are you rebuilding the

same, uh, the same spot or

 

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are you kind of reconsidering?

 

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Larry Charles: No, no, I don't

think, I don't think we'll be able

 

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to go back to Malibu anytime soon.

 

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We might be able to rent a house there.

 

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We actually are gonna look at a house

this weekend in Malibu to possibly rent.

 

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'cause this place in Ventura,

uh, is, is temporary.

 

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Uh, but we're looking elsewhere also.

 

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I mean, we've been talking for

years about going north and you

 

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know, I'm not sure where to go.

 

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Um, and that's one of the things

that comes in the wake of this

 

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is like, wow, where should we go?

 

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We could go anywhere now.

 

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And we're, so, yeah.

 

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And, and with all the political craziness

we've even thought about Canada, so

 

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we're sort of like, you know, we're

exploring our options right now.

 

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We'll figure something out.

 

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Marc Preston: By the way,

congratulations on the book.

 

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There's so much stuff.

 

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I really wanna sit down and,

and even digest even more of it.

 

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Uh, but thank you.

 

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A lot of what you've done is, I was trying

to think of a way earlier to phrase this,

 

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but it's been, you know, it's kind of like

messages in the world that kind of need

 

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to get out or contemplations the satire

and, and which we'll get to all that.

 

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But just in the last 24 hours, it's

just like, okay, there's some really

 

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unserious people having a lot of

control over our lives right now.

 

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Yeah.

 

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Larry Charles: Yeah.

 

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That's a really great way to put it.

 

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Um, yeah, it seems like a, we're

in like a science fiction novel.

 

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And, um, it, it a science fiction satire.

 

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Um, and it's, it's hard

to know what the truth is.

 

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It's hard to ground yourself

to know what Well, that's

 

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their, that's their objective,

 

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Marc Preston: isn't it?

 

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Yes.

 

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To, to, to not even know what truth is.

 

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Larry Charles: It's working.

 

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I think we're all kind of unsettled and

unmoored and, um, I think as long as

 

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we're off balance, they have, um, control.

 

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Marc Preston: I look at it like this.

 

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I, uh, remember, uh, going to

Hebrew school and all that as a

 

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young kid, and I'm, I'm sure you

the whole never forget thing.

 

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I think there's a certain resonance to

that message and that vibe and, and, and

 

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that, and that in my ninth grade, uh,

American History books, uh, you know,

 

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talked about a lot of what was going on.

 

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Turn of the century,

turn of the last century.

 

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Right.

 

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And it, it makes me wonder for

somebody like yourself, is this

 

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in, is it in a backwards way?

 

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Is this beneficial?

 

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Is it inspirational to you to create.

 

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Something new, a new story, a new

message, a new way to communicate,

 

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the absurdity of the moment.

 

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Uh, it, it are weird times

like this inspirational to you

 

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in any way to create comedy?

 

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Larry Charles: Well, I think in a perverse

sense, yes, uh, uh, I can, I can take,

 

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you know, comedy as somebody once said,

and many people take credit for, the

 

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quote is tragedy plus time, you know?

 

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Um, so there's a lot of tragedy, um, and

comedy as I've learned over the years.

 

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My favorite kind of comedy, the

comedy that I kind of traffic in

 

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is, uh, um, often like a thin line

between the tragedy and the comedy.

 

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Finding things that aren't funny and

finding an angle that allows you to, uh,

 

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find a comic hook for it, an angle that

will make it funny and without, without

 

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exploiting it, without cheapening it,

uh, respecting it on some level, but also

 

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finding the humor in it, which is right

there on the surface and people need.

 

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That outlet also when they're

facing these insurmountable

 

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Marc Preston: things.

 

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If not, I think you're gonna get

a, a bottling up sociologically,

 

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a bottling up of a lot of stuff

that's gonna pop at some point.

 

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At a very, yeah, yeah.

 

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You know, you can't forecast that.

 

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But like, uh, George Carlin I think

was just a, a master at, just like

 

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right now, I'm like, if we could almost

like, you know, say a prayer, can we

 

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get him back just for a few months

just to comment on what's going on?

 

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Right.

 

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Because this, he foretold

 

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Larry Charles: all of this.

 

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I just heard a new George Carlin

thing that I'd never heard before.

 

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It's called I kind of, it's an album,

uh, that kind of got suppressed.

 

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And it's called, I kind of like

it when a lot of people died.

 

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And, uh, I was like, wow, I can't

believe that's the title of the album.

 

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And I listened to it and it is the

most extreme George Carlin album.

 

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It's one of his last

things that he recorded.

 

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I actually, actually, he

recorded it on nine 10.

 

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Uh, 2001.

 

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And that was

 

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Marc Preston: No kidding.

 

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How did, how did you rummage this up?

 

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Because I don't, I remember his last

comedy special or two where I know he

 

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got some people dinged him because it

seemed like he was a little acidic.

 

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Yeah.

 

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But I think it's kind of the culmination

of just, it's almost as if it's his way

 

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of saying, were y'all not listening to me?

 

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You know?

 

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Right, right.

 

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Uh, like a frustration kind of like that.

 

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This,

 

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Larry Charles: this was a, first of

all this, it's really super funny,

 

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00:09:47,145 --> 00:09:52,155

um, but it's also as dark as you

could possibly get, but Carlin is

 

220

00:09:52,155 --> 00:09:57,525

such a skilled craftsman that he's

able to find the angle, the hook.

 

221

00:09:57,824 --> 00:10:04,935

To talk about mass death in a way that is

undeniably funny and yet still honors the

 

222

00:10:04,935 --> 00:10:07,005

horror of it at the same time, you know?

 

223

00:10:07,095 --> 00:10:07,395

Yeah.

 

224

00:10:07,515 --> 00:10:08,415

Larry Charles: And I heard about it.

 

225

00:10:08,415 --> 00:10:12,435

I heard, I was listening to some

interview with, uh, Anthony, Giselle,

 

226

00:10:12,435 --> 00:10:17,145

Nick and another comedian, and this

Anthony brought, brought up this,

 

227

00:10:17,145 --> 00:10:18,855

this thing, and I'd never heard of it.

 

228

00:10:19,005 --> 00:10:21,645

And I immediately went to

iTunes and there it was.

 

229

00:10:21,975 --> 00:10:26,265

And, um, uh, uh, well, what was,

what was the name of it again?

 

230

00:10:26,265 --> 00:10:27,615

It's called, what was the name of it?

 

231

00:10:27,620 --> 00:10:30,194

I like it when a lot of people die.

 

232

00:10:30,555 --> 00:10:31,574

It is one of a kind.

 

233

00:10:31,574 --> 00:10:32,595

It is one of a kind.

 

234

00:10:32,775 --> 00:10:35,805

The good thing about, uh, you wanna

bring back George Carlin, which

 

235

00:10:35,805 --> 00:10:37,214

I understand that would be great.

 

236

00:10:37,485 --> 00:10:42,165

But the good thing about standup is

that there are always progeny, you know,

 

237

00:10:42,165 --> 00:10:47,355

there are progeny of Bruce and of Richard

Pryor and of George Carlin, and there

 

238

00:10:47,355 --> 00:10:53,835

are standups today working who are mining

that territory and, and walking that line.

 

239

00:10:54,209 --> 00:10:57,630

So there are like sort of the children

of George Carlin are out there.

 

240

00:10:57,810 --> 00:11:00,120

Marc Preston: Y you have such

a deep, well, I don't even know

 

241

00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:01,949

where to kind of kind of fish out.

 

242

00:11:01,949 --> 00:11:04,709

Like, you know, the good, I mean

there's so much great stuff.

 

243

00:11:04,709 --> 00:11:07,350

Like right now I'm like, okay,

would be a good time right now for

 

244

00:11:07,350 --> 00:11:09,390

a re-release of re of Religious.

 

245

00:11:09,660 --> 00:11:10,380

That would be great.

 

246

00:11:10,380 --> 00:11:14,219

You know, I just am curious what was

the impetus for you to write the book?

 

247

00:11:14,219 --> 00:11:17,490

Were you just trying to pull all

these notes and ideas together?

 

248

00:11:17,490 --> 00:11:20,640

Kind of explain where you're at

besides just telling some stories.

 

249

00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:22,410

What was the impetus for

putting the book together?

 

250

00:11:22,439 --> 00:11:25,500

Larry Charles: Well, the original draft

by the way, was a thousand pages long.

 

251

00:11:25,500 --> 00:11:30,240

So I had been making notes on my

life from the time I was a kid.

 

252

00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:35,939

I don't know why, but I had always kept,

uh, I have a great memory for some reason

 

253

00:11:35,939 --> 00:11:41,790

genetically and I have always kept track

of these crazy surreal events in my life,

 

254

00:11:41,970 --> 00:11:46,680

starting with my childhood, which, which

was the first 500 pages originally of this

 

255

00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:52,500

book that we really, really, we cut that

and we're gonna make that a separate book.

 

256

00:11:52,935 --> 00:11:55,725

Um, because they didn't wanna

publish a thousand page book.

 

257

00:11:55,725 --> 00:12:00,345

It's just not economically really

feasible these days for most, most books.

 

258

00:12:00,525 --> 00:12:04,485

So, um, I've just been keeping

track of this with the thought of

 

259

00:12:04,485 --> 00:12:06,675

writing something at some point.

 

260

00:12:07,035 --> 00:12:10,035

And, you know, it's spilled

over into my professional life.

 

261

00:12:10,035 --> 00:12:14,205

I've had so many surreal

professional experiences as well.

 

262

00:12:14,325 --> 00:12:19,155

I'm just somebody who like ha has

weird stuff happen to them and, you

 

263

00:12:19,155 --> 00:12:21,645

know, and so I kept track of all of it.

 

264

00:12:21,795 --> 00:12:26,205

And then when the pandemic happened

and I was kind of sitting around, I

 

265

00:12:26,205 --> 00:12:30,765

thought, well, maybe this is the time I,

I was, you know, hungry to do something

 

266

00:12:30,915 --> 00:12:34,725

and I was kind of restrained by the

pandemic and I was able to sit in my

 

267

00:12:34,725 --> 00:12:36,885

house and start working on the book.

 

268

00:12:36,885 --> 00:12:38,745

And I actually wrote the book on spec.

 

269

00:12:39,060 --> 00:12:42,689

You know, without thinking about what

I thought, maybe I published it myself.

 

270

00:12:42,689 --> 00:12:47,040

I didn't know what I was gonna do, and

suddenly I had this thousand page book, I

 

271

00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:50,670

gave it to my agent, and then, you know,

the rest is what, what you're looking at.

 

272

00:12:51,089 --> 00:12:52,020

Marc Preston: I think it's wonderful.

 

273

00:12:52,020 --> 00:12:54,750

I think, you know, to say that you,

you've been a part of things that have

 

274

00:12:54,750 --> 00:12:56,370

been talked about a lot, you know?

 

275

00:12:56,370 --> 00:12:56,371

Yeah.

 

276

00:12:56,610 --> 00:12:59,069

Be it a be it a series that just hit it.

 

277

00:12:59,099 --> 00:13:01,530

There's certain things I don't

know if could happen today.

 

278

00:13:01,530 --> 00:13:01,890

I don't know.

 

279

00:13:01,949 --> 00:13:04,235

I mean, because you have so many

different, like, you know, you're

 

280

00:13:04,235 --> 00:13:05,760

talking about like Seinfeld, you know?

 

281

00:13:05,790 --> 00:13:06,030

Yeah.

 

282

00:13:06,089 --> 00:13:09,780

When you had only three, I guess we had

four networks back then, but you didn't

 

283

00:13:09,780 --> 00:13:11,430

have streamers and all that, you know?

 

284

00:13:11,490 --> 00:13:15,540

Um, it, it had me thinking, what

would Larry Charles do today?

 

285

00:13:15,540 --> 00:13:17,130

You know, what would be different?

 

286

00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:19,349

Or would there be any kind of

difference in your approach?

 

287

00:13:19,349 --> 00:13:23,339

Because back then you could have one

show and you could, and it's like that.

 

288

00:13:23,339 --> 00:13:25,140

Or like shows like er or whatever.

 

289

00:13:25,140 --> 00:13:25,199

Yeah.

 

290

00:13:25,199 --> 00:13:27,569

Which had insane audiences.

 

291

00:13:27,599 --> 00:13:27,660

Yeah.

 

292

00:13:27,660 --> 00:13:27,839

Really

 

293

00:13:28,290 --> 00:13:30,209

Larry Charles: pitch tens of

millions of people in those days

 

294

00:13:30,209 --> 00:13:31,890

when there was only a few choices.

 

295

00:13:32,130 --> 00:13:34,410

I, today, I could tell you I would be.

 

296

00:13:35,670 --> 00:13:37,230

And, and I have a YouTube channel.

 

297

00:13:37,230 --> 00:13:40,020

I mean, I would be doing

much more independent stuff.

 

298

00:13:40,350 --> 00:13:45,360

Uh, I would be sidestepping the

mainstream media most likely and trying

 

299

00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:50,100

to go directly to the audience through

YouTube or other methods like that.

 

300

00:13:50,100 --> 00:13:54,090

I think that would be where most

of my work would be at this point.

 

301

00:13:54,090 --> 00:13:56,880

And that's where most of where

I'd like most of my work to

 

302

00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:58,530

be going forward, even now.

 

303

00:13:58,770 --> 00:14:03,330

But I think if I was starting the,

the, uh, the liberation of YouTube

 

304

00:14:03,330 --> 00:14:07,920

without having to go through the, the

studios and the production executives

 

305

00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:12,660

and the notes and the filters that

try to, you know, take the edge

 

306

00:14:12,660 --> 00:14:16,530

off of everything, you could create

something, whatever it is, by the way.

 

307

00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:21,630

And form is even more, um, you know,

open-ended now than it used to be too.

 

308

00:14:21,630 --> 00:14:25,260

A sitcom has certain rules, a

variety show has certain rules.

 

309

00:14:25,380 --> 00:14:26,970

Now there are no rules either.

 

310

00:14:26,970 --> 00:14:30,930

You create your own set of rules

and if it works and the, the.

 

311

00:14:31,305 --> 00:14:35,115

The, the parameter for what

something working is, does

 

312

00:14:35,115 --> 00:14:36,345

an audience respond to it?

 

313

00:14:36,345 --> 00:14:37,905

Does it resonate with an audience?

 

314

00:14:38,055 --> 00:14:39,345

You could do that directly.

 

315

00:14:39,345 --> 00:14:43,605

You put your thing on YouTube and you just

let it out there and see what happens.

 

316

00:14:43,785 --> 00:14:48,135

That, to me, is a very exciting way

to create, uh, without the middleman.

 

317

00:14:48,165 --> 00:14:48,255

Mm-hmm.

 

318

00:14:48,705 --> 00:14:51,735

Larry Charles: And, um, that's definitely

what I would be doing now, and that

 

319

00:14:51,735 --> 00:14:53,565

is sort of what I am doing now.

 

320

00:14:53,745 --> 00:14:55,305

Marc Preston: I, I completely

identify with that.

 

321

00:14:55,305 --> 00:14:56,475

I started off my career.

 

322

00:14:56,905 --> 00:14:59,875

I think 17 years old

working in radio in Dallas.

 

323

00:14:59,875 --> 00:15:02,845

And, and I, and I, at a very short

time, I ended up working at a bbc I a

 

324

00:15:02,845 --> 00:15:04,225

syndicated show and is really great.

 

325

00:15:04,225 --> 00:15:07,585

And I'm like, you know, that's one

thing I love about this format of

 

326

00:15:07,585 --> 00:15:11,155

a podcast is it's, it's kind of,

you know, I've done the thing where

 

327

00:15:11,155 --> 00:15:14,785

you're, you're formatted, you've got

your network clocks, you have to think

 

328

00:15:14,845 --> 00:15:16,135

about all these other kind of things.

 

329

00:15:16,135 --> 00:15:18,595

And I'm like, and I'm like,

you know, what do I want to do?

 

330

00:15:18,595 --> 00:15:21,865

What is, you know, and I'm, I'm, uh, hard

just hardheaded enough to do whatever

 

331

00:15:21,865 --> 00:15:25,375

the heck I wanna do sometimes, you

know, it's like, this makes sense to me.

 

332

00:15:25,675 --> 00:15:30,444

Uh, because in the, in traditional radio

format, you had five, maybe you're lucky,

 

333

00:15:30,444 --> 00:15:33,865

15 minutes to chat with somebody, and

it's usually hyperfocused, you know,

 

334

00:15:34,194 --> 00:15:35,694

the, the opportunity to speak with you.

 

335

00:15:35,694 --> 00:15:37,015

I'm like, yeah, this is what I love.

 

336

00:15:37,015 --> 00:15:39,325

I, you know, be able

to ask other questions.

 

337

00:15:39,330 --> 00:15:43,285

You know, you know, you talk about the

YouTube idea, is it something, and I

 

338

00:15:43,285 --> 00:15:46,255

haven't had the opportunity to check it

out yet, but is it something where you're.

 

339

00:15:46,740 --> 00:15:49,680

Just, is it commentary or

is it, is it, are you doing?

 

340

00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:49,980

Uh,

 

341

00:15:50,100 --> 00:15:53,370

Larry Charles: uh, you know, I'm very,

I'm, I'm as, as you might know from my

 

342

00:15:53,370 --> 00:15:57,060

inability to like, you know, kind of do

all the stuff that, you know, that were

 

343

00:15:57,060 --> 00:15:59,340

the requirements for the podcast itself.

 

344

00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:00,450

I'm a technophobe.

 

345

00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:05,610

I'm really not, um, very good with

the technology of anything really,

 

346

00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:08,130

uh, like from a toaster on up.

 

347

00:16:08,460 --> 00:16:09,210

Uh, and mm-hmm.

 

348

00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:15,240

So, um, what I've done a lot of are these,

um, social or political commentaries

 

349

00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:20,220

where I'm just using my phone and just

filming myself doing a, you know, a

 

350

00:16:20,220 --> 00:16:27,090

two to three to 10 to 20 minute essay,

uh, directly into the phone and then

 

351

00:16:27,090 --> 00:16:29,280

putting that out on social media.

 

352

00:16:29,460 --> 00:16:35,610

I've also, with my own money and very

small amounts of money, I might add, I've

 

353

00:16:35,610 --> 00:16:41,010

made like three, uh, documentaries, non,

non, let's call them nonfiction shows.

 

354

00:16:41,010 --> 00:16:42,450

Not really documentaries.

 

355

00:16:42,750 --> 00:16:44,235

Uh, one is called Who Killed God.

 

356

00:16:44,850 --> 00:16:49,140

Which is kind of like a, uh, a

who done it about looking at, I

 

357

00:16:49,140 --> 00:16:52,500

was looking at the world going,

wow, the world is so messed up.

 

358

00:16:52,590 --> 00:16:55,620

If there is a God, if there

was a God, where is he?

 

359

00:16:55,830 --> 00:16:56,370

You know?

 

360

00:16:56,370 --> 00:17:00,510

And so I had this idea of a,

of a kind of a dateline type

 

361

00:17:00,510 --> 00:17:02,130

of thing about who killed God.

 

362

00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:07,440

And, uh, I did a, a, a documentary,

uh, I had written a, a treatment,

 

363

00:17:07,500 --> 00:17:11,130

uh, for a Smother Brothers

miniseries that didn't sell.

 

364

00:17:11,250 --> 00:17:16,380

So I took that and I made that into

a documentary of my own for YouTube.

 

365

00:17:16,410 --> 00:17:21,810

You know, so I've done these things

that are like YouTube centric, you know,

 

366

00:17:21,810 --> 00:17:25,680

and reaching a certain good audience,

you know, and that's been exciting.

 

367

00:17:25,950 --> 00:17:30,030

Uh, again, bypassing all the

notes and all the filters that

 

368

00:17:30,030 --> 00:17:33,270

you usually have to go through to

get that stuff done and doing it.

 

369

00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:38,460

I'm also committed to trying to do things

on a, as low a budget as I possibly can.

 

370

00:17:38,460 --> 00:17:40,175

Also, I don't wanna, uh, uh.

 

371

00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:42,540

Indulge myself.

 

372

00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,870

I don't believe in that kind

of Hollywood indulgence where

 

373

00:17:45,870 --> 00:17:48,060

movies cost two $50 million.

 

374

00:17:48,330 --> 00:17:49,830

It seems crazy to me.

 

375

00:17:50,070 --> 00:17:53,310

So I love the idea of doing

these things like out of pocket.

 

376

00:17:53,685 --> 00:17:56,385

And being able to reach an audience

and the audience doesn't care

 

377

00:17:56,385 --> 00:17:57,675

how much it costs, you know?

 

378

00:17:57,885 --> 00:17:58,095

Marc Preston: Yeah.

 

379

00:17:58,095 --> 00:18:01,575

Like you had mentioned even, uh, uh, in

your book, just the way you described,

 

380

00:18:01,575 --> 00:18:06,465

I think the paramount lot the uh, uh,

offices there, you know how unsexy

 

381

00:18:06,465 --> 00:18:09,975

it was, how gr dingy, you know, it's,

it's not really the money it gets done.

 

382

00:18:09,975 --> 00:18:12,435

You show up and you just

kind of put yourself into it.

 

383

00:18:12,435 --> 00:18:14,745

You start creating and

what happens, happens.

 

384

00:18:14,745 --> 00:18:18,195

And I, and looking at your body of work,

I'm like, and when I talk to guests, it's

 

385

00:18:18,195 --> 00:18:22,245

like you think of what does it take to

get a movie or a TV show made for, go

 

386

00:18:22,245 --> 00:18:24,135

from an idea to, okay, it's out there.

 

387

00:18:24,345 --> 00:18:26,535

It's a miracle sometimes it seems like.

 

388

00:18:26,565 --> 00:18:28,905

Uh, but now you could literally,

like you say, pick up your phone.

 

389

00:18:29,265 --> 00:18:31,080

You've put something into

the world, you gotta, yeah.

 

390

00:18:31,305 --> 00:18:31,515

Yeah.

 

391

00:18:31,545 --> 00:18:33,765

Um, you know, we were talking

about your wonderful memory.

 

392

00:18:33,765 --> 00:18:37,305

I have a good friend of mine named

Chris, who, who, who sort of, I think I

 

393

00:18:37,305 --> 00:18:41,025

have a decent memory for the years gone

by, but he remembers all the minutiae.

 

394

00:18:41,505 --> 00:18:41,835

That's one.

 

395

00:18:41,835 --> 00:18:42,645

I love talking to him.

 

396

00:18:42,645 --> 00:18:46,125

Like, you remember like little things

like what our kindergarten teacher

 

397

00:18:46,125 --> 00:18:47,595

might have been wearing one day or so.

 

398

00:18:47,625 --> 00:18:49,605

I don't know how he does it,

but it's, it's a miracle.

 

399

00:18:50,055 --> 00:18:52,280

The origin story wise, you know,

going back, you grew up, um.

 

400

00:18:53,250 --> 00:18:54,630

In, uh, New York, right?

 

401

00:18:54,630 --> 00:18:56,010

Or where, where exactly did you grow up?

 

402

00:18:56,010 --> 00:18:57,000

Larry Charles: I grew up in Brooklyn.

 

403

00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,590

I grew up in a section of Brooklyn, um,

called Coney Island, Brighton Beach.

 

404

00:19:01,590 --> 00:19:04,800

I grew up right in the middle

there in a place, uh, uh,

 

405

00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:06,960

ironically called Trump Village.

 

406

00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:11,940

And Trump Village was a housing

project, a seven building housing

 

407

00:19:11,940 --> 00:19:17,190

project for low income families

built by Donald Trump's father Fred.

 

408

00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:17,910

Yeah.

 

409

00:19:17,910 --> 00:19:18,090

Who

 

410

00:19:18,090 --> 00:19:20,940

Marc Preston: was a Yeah, I'd

seen, yeah, I saw that as I got me.

 

411

00:19:20,940 --> 00:19:23,850

I wanna, I'm glad you brought that up

because I, I wanted to touch base on that.

 

412

00:19:23,850 --> 00:19:28,860

'cause you, you have a front row

seat to the, the unfortunate origin

 

413

00:19:28,860 --> 00:19:30,210

story of where we are right now.

 

414

00:19:30,420 --> 00:19:33,660

Um, so the, uh, what

were your folks up to?

 

415

00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:36,630

I mean, what was their, uh, you know,

where were your people from and how

 

416

00:19:36,630 --> 00:19:39,480

kinda how they kind of get to where,

because it sounds like to me, were

 

417

00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,060

they first generation in the US or,

 

418

00:19:42,090 --> 00:19:43,980

Larry Charles: yeah, my

father was first generation.

 

419

00:19:43,980 --> 00:19:46,470

In fact, he was the baby of his family.

 

420

00:19:47,054 --> 00:19:48,855

And, you know, his parents spoke Yiddish.

 

421

00:19:48,855 --> 00:19:50,774

They were from Russia and Poland.

 

422

00:19:51,195 --> 00:19:55,274

Uh, my mother's side of the family had

been here a couple of generations already.

 

423

00:19:55,514 --> 00:19:59,895

Were much more Americanized, but

both of my parents were extremely

 

424

00:19:59,895 --> 00:20:04,485

American and also born in that

time, uh, like in the late twenties,

 

425

00:20:04,485 --> 00:20:08,745

early thirties where they were like

coming of age after World War ii.

 

426

00:20:08,865 --> 00:20:14,985

My father was in the occupation forces,

um, in World War II in Japan, and he

 

427

00:20:14,985 --> 00:20:19,455

came out of World War ii and instead

of like, like a lot of people at that

 

428

00:20:19,455 --> 00:20:24,314

time using the GI Bill to buy a house or

something, he went to, he used it to go

 

429

00:20:24,314 --> 00:20:26,625

to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

 

430

00:20:26,774 --> 00:20:29,415

He wanted to be an actor and

he wanted to be a comedian.

 

431

00:20:29,835 --> 00:20:36,225

And, um, his stage name was sko,

the exotic, neurotic, and tried

 

432

00:20:36,435 --> 00:20:39,915

to, uh, he tried to break into

show business and really didn't

 

433

00:20:39,915 --> 00:20:42,794

have the persistence required.

 

434

00:20:43,185 --> 00:20:48,195

To make it and eventually dropped

out and essentially regretted

 

435

00:20:48,195 --> 00:20:50,115

that decision his entire life.

 

436

00:20:50,445 --> 00:20:56,175

Um, and never really found his footing in

life because he was so in love with show

 

437

00:20:56,175 --> 00:20:59,265

business and, and had kind of a bad, well,

 

438

00:20:59,505 --> 00:21:00,975

Marc Preston: where do you

think that love came from?

 

439

00:21:01,125 --> 00:21:06,495

What he was something that he just

loved watching and or was he just a ham?

 

440

00:21:06,495 --> 00:21:08,655

I mean, where, where did that

love of show business come from?

 

441

00:21:08,655 --> 00:21:12,285

Larry Charles: He was, he was a ham and

he was on all the time when we were kids.

 

442

00:21:12,705 --> 00:21:17,955

And, um, he was like, he was basically

our comedian, you know, in my house.

 

443

00:21:18,105 --> 00:21:23,715

He was doing shtick all the time, and,

uh, he loved movies instead of me, instead

 

444

00:21:23,715 --> 00:21:28,665

of pushing me to like learn or, you know,

my math or do my homework in science.

 

445

00:21:28,755 --> 00:21:30,855

He was like, who starred in this movie?

 

446

00:21:30,855 --> 00:21:33,675

You know, what's, you

know, quote this, you know?

 

447

00:21:33,675 --> 00:21:37,185

And he was always trying to get

me into the movie trivia and

 

448

00:21:37,185 --> 00:21:41,475

stuff, which worked because I was

inspired by that to a large degree.

 

449

00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,175

And, and he instilled that dream in me.

 

450

00:21:44,325 --> 00:21:49,065

And he had a lot of friends from,

um, the American Academy of Dramatic

 

451

00:21:49,065 --> 00:21:53,355

Arts who didn't wind up being

actors, but stayed in show business.

 

452

00:21:53,565 --> 00:21:57,015

And we would go visit them

in their various jobs like.

 

453

00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:01,379

You know, the production manager of

the Ed Sullivan show or you know,

 

454

00:22:01,409 --> 00:22:05,490

uh, we, the lighting director for the

craft music hall, and he would take me

 

455

00:22:05,490 --> 00:22:10,169

as a little kid to see the rehearsals

of the Ed Sullivan Show and of craft

 

456

00:22:10,169 --> 00:22:12,060

music hall and things like that.

 

457

00:22:12,270 --> 00:22:15,690

And if we saw a celebrity in the street

in Manhattan when we go to a movie,

 

458

00:22:15,810 --> 00:22:17,970

he would stop and talk to that person.

 

459

00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:20,129

So I was very exposed.

 

460

00:22:20,250 --> 00:22:23,580

And also seeing the Ed Sullivan

rehearsals, my father was into the

 

461

00:22:23,580 --> 00:22:25,710

glitz and the glamor and the star.

 

462

00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:25,889

Mm-hmm.

 

463

00:22:26,490 --> 00:22:29,100

But I was like, wow, is

this how you do a TV show?

 

464

00:22:29,100 --> 00:22:30,810

It's, I found it fascinating.

 

465

00:22:31,185 --> 00:22:33,735

Like all the, the logistics of a TV show.

 

466

00:22:33,735 --> 00:22:37,875

And I think that also got planted

in my mind, the behind the scenes.

 

467

00:22:38,055 --> 00:22:38,175

Well,

 

468

00:22:38,175 --> 00:22:39,885

Marc Preston: the, it sounds

like he kind of gave you the

 

469

00:22:39,885 --> 00:22:41,445

idea that this is within reach.

 

470

00:22:41,505 --> 00:22:44,715

This is not, you know, so far out

there where you could never get to it.

 

471

00:22:44,925 --> 00:22:45,075

You

 

472

00:22:45,075 --> 00:22:48,825

Larry Charles: know, yes and no, because

I think he was, he was not at all.

 

473

00:22:49,065 --> 00:22:52,545

I know this sounds strange based on

what I just said, but he was not at

 

474

00:22:52,545 --> 00:22:55,695

all encouraging of me to do this.

 

475

00:22:55,785 --> 00:22:59,775

This was just what he wanted to do, and

he kind of dragged me along with him, and

 

476

00:22:59,775 --> 00:23:02,835

inadvertently it had a major impact on me.

 

477

00:23:03,075 --> 00:23:04,005

Marc Preston: What did he end up doing?

 

478

00:23:04,005 --> 00:23:07,035

What was, was he trying different

things or did he kinda lock

 

479

00:23:07,035 --> 00:23:08,385

into a different profession?

 

480

00:23:08,835 --> 00:23:09,585

Through most of his career, he

 

481

00:23:09,885 --> 00:23:10,785

Larry Charles: drifted quite a bit.

 

482

00:23:10,785 --> 00:23:12,075

He had little businesses.

 

483

00:23:12,075 --> 00:23:16,455

He had jobs when he would start to get

successful at something, like he went

 

484

00:23:16,455 --> 00:23:21,465

and became a, a, a a, an accountant

for a while, and he started, he started

 

485

00:23:21,465 --> 00:23:25,575

working in hospitals as a controller

and he kinda worked his way up.

 

486

00:23:25,575 --> 00:23:26,955

He was a smart guy.

 

487

00:23:27,375 --> 00:23:30,015

And he was a together

person if he wanted to be.

 

488

00:23:30,225 --> 00:23:33,135

But it never filled that hole.

 

489

00:23:33,285 --> 00:23:34,305

And he would leave.

 

490

00:23:34,695 --> 00:23:38,235

And he was, uh, uh, very

unfaithful to my mother.

 

491

00:23:38,235 --> 00:23:41,205

And he was very self-destructive

in a lot of ways.

 

492

00:23:41,205 --> 00:23:47,085

So no matter how close he came to finding

something else to fill that hole, he would

 

493

00:23:47,085 --> 00:23:49,725

also sabotage it in some way, you know?

 

494

00:23:49,965 --> 00:23:54,345

So he drifted through his entire life

looking for something that he wanted

 

495

00:23:54,555 --> 00:23:56,625

and never really, really found it.

 

496

00:23:56,775 --> 00:23:57,045

Was

 

497

00:23:57,045 --> 00:23:59,505

Marc Preston: your mother a

stay at home mother or was

 

498

00:23:59,505 --> 00:24:01,155

she, was she working as well?

 

499

00:24:01,155 --> 00:24:04,155

Larry Charles: My mom was also

like, wanted to be an entertainer.

 

500

00:24:04,155 --> 00:24:08,265

She was a singer and, um, she made

like a record when she was like

 

501

00:24:08,265 --> 00:24:12,465

a teenager, you know, but again,

her parents were very discouraging

 

502

00:24:12,525 --> 00:24:14,895

and, uh, said, this is ridiculous.

 

503

00:24:14,895 --> 00:24:15,975

You have to get married.

 

504

00:24:16,365 --> 00:24:21,825

And, um, so she basically was a

housewife most of her life and also,

 

505

00:24:22,155 --> 00:24:26,265

uh, very unfulfilled until she finally,

my parents finally got divorced.

 

506

00:24:26,610 --> 00:24:28,080

We moved down to Florida.

 

507

00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,860

She married somebody else that

was an unhappy marriage as well.

 

508

00:24:31,950 --> 00:24:35,610

And when she, when that husband, the

second husband who was a good guy,

 

509

00:24:35,820 --> 00:24:39,870

well, when he passed away, that's

when she was able to liberate herself.

 

510

00:24:40,050 --> 00:24:42,060

They had moved to a condo development.

 

511

00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:44,310

She became the star of the condo.

 

512

00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:46,830

She started all the shows.

 

513

00:24:47,070 --> 00:24:51,000

You know, she did Chicago and all

these shows, and she was the star, and

 

514

00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,470

she was finally able in a way that my

father didn't, she was able to find an

 

515

00:24:55,470 --> 00:24:58,620

outlet for her creative muse, you know.

 

516

00:25:06,030 --> 00:25:07,919

Marc Preston: Well, you're

watching both of your parents at,

 

517

00:25:08,014 --> 00:25:12,330

at different levels of, you know,

inspiration and disappointment.

 

518

00:25:12,449 --> 00:25:15,090

How did that color you, your decisions?

 

519

00:25:15,090 --> 00:25:18,090

Because you're at a young age, I

mean, we're so like impressionable and

 

520

00:25:18,090 --> 00:25:21,120

probably by the time you're in junior

high, high school, you're seeing your

 

521

00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:24,239

parents a little bit more clear of

eyes and kind of where they're at.

 

522

00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,659

How did that inform what you chose to do?

 

523

00:25:28,469 --> 00:25:30,360

Larry Charles: Well, I don't,

you know, it's, in a way, it's

 

524

00:25:30,360 --> 00:25:32,040

like I didn't even have a choice.

 

525

00:25:32,100 --> 00:25:36,780

I, I knew from a very early age

that I wanted to be involved

 

526

00:25:36,780 --> 00:25:37,949

in the arts in some way.

 

527

00:25:37,949 --> 00:25:39,330

I was a cartoonist.

 

528

00:25:39,629 --> 00:25:42,929

You know, I, I, I didn't know

which, what form it would take.

 

529

00:25:43,590 --> 00:25:46,950

But I knew that I was attracted

to that world in some way.

 

530

00:25:46,950 --> 00:25:51,960

You know, it seemed like cartooning

or writing stories was something

 

531

00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:53,250

that might be attainable.

 

532

00:25:53,250 --> 00:25:58,110

The idea of show business or, you

know, being on TV shows or making

 

533

00:25:58,110 --> 00:26:03,060

movies, that seemed like a distant,

unrealistic dream to a large degree.

 

534

00:26:03,450 --> 00:26:05,670

Um, but I knew I wanted to do something.

 

535

00:26:05,670 --> 00:26:09,659

I was, I would've been happy, at

least at that time, being a freelance

 

536

00:26:09,659 --> 00:26:15,149

cartoonist or writing short stories

or that, that kind of world was fine

 

537

00:26:15,149 --> 00:26:17,490

with me and I was prepared for that.

 

538

00:26:17,790 --> 00:26:22,800

Um, but inadvertently stumbled

into Los Angeles and, you know,

 

539

00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:24,659

show business and it worked out.

 

540

00:26:24,899 --> 00:26:28,170

But I knew that I didn't

wanna wind up like my parents.

 

541

00:26:28,500 --> 00:26:32,250

Uh, I love my parents, but I

didn't want to wind up with a dream

 

542

00:26:32,250 --> 00:26:34,620

deferred and look back and go, wow.

 

543

00:26:34,620 --> 00:26:34,800

I,

 

544

00:26:34,980 --> 00:26:37,440

Marc Preston: well, Eric,

wonderful cautionary caution,

 

545

00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,420

not a bad, but a cautionary tale.

 

546

00:26:39,420 --> 00:26:40,920

You saw the result of not.

 

547

00:26:41,625 --> 00:26:43,274

You know, sticking with it for lack.

 

548

00:26:43,455 --> 00:26:45,225

I mean, of course they

had responsibilities.

 

549

00:26:45,225 --> 00:26:48,014

They had, I mean, uh, they had

you, but did you have any brothers

 

550

00:26:48,014 --> 00:26:49,245

or sisters growing up as well?

 

551

00:26:49,245 --> 00:26:49,365

Now?

 

552

00:26:49,370 --> 00:26:49,449

I

 

553

00:26:49,449 --> 00:26:50,355

Larry Charles: had, I

had a younger brother.

 

554

00:26:50,355 --> 00:26:51,135

I still have him.

 

555

00:26:51,135 --> 00:26:52,034

He is still around.

 

556

00:26:52,095 --> 00:26:54,314

And, uh, it was the two of us.

 

557

00:26:54,314 --> 00:26:54,675

Yeah.

 

558

00:26:54,735 --> 00:26:57,495

Um, and that, that was it

though, just the two of us.

 

559

00:26:57,584 --> 00:26:58,574

What did he end up doing?

 

560

00:26:58,695 --> 00:26:59,564

Marc Preston: Was he inspired?

 

561

00:26:59,715 --> 00:27:00,314

Kind of the same way.

 

562

00:27:00,389 --> 00:27:00,730

My brother,

 

563

00:27:00,794 --> 00:27:03,885

Larry Charles: my brother, I don't know

how much he's comfortable talking about.

 

564

00:27:03,945 --> 00:27:11,834

He, he was kind of a lost child because

my father had, um, lost interest in the

 

565

00:27:11,834 --> 00:27:16,125

family by the time my brother was born,

who's about three years younger than me.

 

566

00:27:16,605 --> 00:27:21,165

And so by the time I was six or

seven or eight, somewhere around

 

567

00:27:21,165 --> 00:27:23,235

there, my brother was four or five.

 

568

00:27:23,625 --> 00:27:27,764

My father was like drifting and he

was, you know, seeing other women

 

569

00:27:27,764 --> 00:27:30,014

and he just wasn't around anymore.

 

570

00:27:30,044 --> 00:27:35,475

And he was like very absent for quite

a few years before my parents broke up.

 

571

00:27:35,715 --> 00:27:38,445

And so my fa, my brother

was very fatherless.

 

572

00:27:38,850 --> 00:27:45,330

And, um, and he found solace, kind of

like in the kids in Brooklyn and kind

 

573

00:27:45,330 --> 00:27:49,140

of was like, you know, got into kind

of a, you know, I hesitate to call it

 

574

00:27:49,140 --> 00:27:54,540

a gang thing, but that's really what

he found a family there, you know?

 

575

00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:55,260

Mm-hmm.

 

576

00:27:55,500 --> 00:27:59,610

Um, where I was still, I was like

the kind of the darling of my actual

 

577

00:27:59,610 --> 00:28:02,190

family, my, uh, my extended family.

 

578

00:28:02,670 --> 00:28:06,960

My brother was kind of like a,

sort of a outsider in that world.

 

579

00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:10,560

He wasn't interested in that world

and loved being with his friends.

 

580

00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:16,410

And so he kind of also drifted for a long

time, got involved in some, you know,

 

581

00:28:16,740 --> 00:28:22,470

criminal activities, paid the price, um,

even though he was a solid, honorable

 

582

00:28:22,470 --> 00:28:27,360

person with a family, and eventually,

um, he's found some peace and he's

 

583

00:28:27,390 --> 00:28:32,340

having a, you know, a, a a, some kind of

contented life at this point, but never.

 

584

00:28:32,340 --> 00:28:33,510

He also, I think.

 

585

00:28:33,899 --> 00:28:39,780

Had dreams of something else and didn't

really pursue it and there was nobody

 

586

00:28:39,780 --> 00:28:42,360

around and I didn't help him really.

 

587

00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,629

But there was nobody around

to sort of encourage him to

 

588

00:28:45,629 --> 00:28:47,399

go down that path, you know?

 

589

00:28:47,610 --> 00:28:50,100

Marc Preston: But of course you're young

as well, you know, I mean, we're not, you

 

590

00:28:50,100 --> 00:28:55,439

know, I doubt you're wired at that, at, at

that age to know how to be able to help.

 

591

00:28:55,500 --> 00:28:56,610

Larry Charles: Yeah, no, I

 

592

00:28:56,610 --> 00:28:57,810

Marc Preston: can look back on now and

 

593

00:28:57,810 --> 00:28:59,220

Larry Charles: see that, but at the time.

 

594

00:28:59,550 --> 00:29:03,750

I, I was kind of like concerned

with my own pursuit, you know?

 

595

00:29:03,754 --> 00:29:04,125

Mm-hmm.

 

596

00:29:04,125 --> 00:29:06,389

And, uh, that's sort

of how that worked out.

 

597

00:29:06,629 --> 00:29:07,080

Marc Preston: You're great.

 

598

00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:08,340

God asked this question too.

 

599

00:29:08,340 --> 00:29:11,879

I always, being a Jewish kid, I always

loved bar mitzvahs and weddings and stuff.

 

600

00:29:11,879 --> 00:29:14,940

When the old guys would get together,

you know, and you would talk, there was

 

601

00:29:14,940 --> 00:29:18,149

a, there was a different vocabulary,

the way they communicate and their

 

602

00:29:18,149 --> 00:29:19,649

sense of humor and sensibility.

 

603

00:29:19,649 --> 00:29:24,480

And it made me wonder, what, what in your

mind is it in the Jewish DNA that, that

 

604

00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:29,790

so many of our tribe have found their

way into comedy and, you know, the world

 

605

00:29:29,790 --> 00:29:31,649

that you, you know, have succeeded in?

 

606

00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,070

Well, first of all, do you think there is

something in the, in the water, or is it,

 

607

00:29:35,250 --> 00:29:36,780

is it kinda like the pizza in New York?

 

608

00:29:36,780 --> 00:29:38,040

It's like, you know, it's a water Well,

 

609

00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:40,889

Larry Charles: being a Jewish kid

in Dallas, by the way, I, I knew a

 

610

00:29:40,889 --> 00:29:45,000

few, uh, family Jewish families in

Dallas, and to me that was like,

 

611

00:29:45,030 --> 00:29:46,710

that was like an alien experience.

 

612

00:29:47,100 --> 00:29:49,530

Marc Preston: Our family actually came

up through Galveston, which is kind of

 

613

00:29:49,620 --> 00:29:53,760

there, you know, there is an interesting

documentary called Shalom Y'all, about how

 

614

00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,420

all these Jews came through like mobile

and New Orleans and Galveston and prison.

 

615

00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:58,530

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

616

00:29:58,530 --> 00:30:01,110

You know, and I'm still, you know,

he would've made a great governor

 

617

00:30:01,110 --> 00:30:02,790

compared to knucklehead we have now.

 

618

00:30:03,090 --> 00:30:03,480

But yeah.

 

619

00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,620

What, what do you think was the, what

do you think is the thing that kind

 

620

00:30:07,620 --> 00:30:10,020

of precipitated so many Jewish folks?

 

621

00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:13,050

Was the vaudevillian thing or what,

what do you think it was or is?

 

622

00:30:13,230 --> 00:30:15,990

Larry Charles: Well, there's a couple

of, uh, I, I've thought about this a lot.

 

623

00:30:15,990 --> 00:30:20,220

I mean, for one thing, the part part

of Brooklyn that I grew up in also

 

624

00:30:20,220 --> 00:30:28,050

fostered Larry David, Mel Brooks, Woody

Allen, Lenny Bruce, um, a lot of comedy,

 

625

00:30:28,500 --> 00:30:32,490

a lot of seminal comedy came out of

just this neighborhood in Brooklyn.

 

626

00:30:32,670 --> 00:30:37,200

It was kind of like how Kingston

Jamaica was like this little place that

 

627

00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,600

sort of fostered, you know, reggae.

 

628

00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,560

This little tr golden triangle

of comedy in Brooklyn.

 

629

00:30:43,830 --> 00:30:49,170

What wound up being like this incredibly,

you know, rich breeding ground for comedy?

 

630

00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:49,800

Why?

 

631

00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,990

That was the reason, in my opinion,

uh, uh, this was a, this was working

 

632

00:30:54,990 --> 00:31:00,390

class, poor people really to a large

degree, but very Jewish, you know, I

 

633

00:31:00,390 --> 00:31:04,530

went to like a very religious Hebrew

school, Orthodox Hebrew school.

 

634

00:31:04,770 --> 00:31:06,000

Um, really?

 

635

00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:06,300

Yeah.

 

636

00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:06,480

Okay.

 

637

00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:10,530

My parents were, were secular,

but my grandparents and my, my,

 

638

00:31:10,530 --> 00:31:14,130

my larger family was very Jewish.

 

639

00:31:14,130 --> 00:31:17,910

And the neighborhood you grew up in,

this Brighton Beach, Coney Island

 

640

00:31:17,910 --> 00:31:19,950

neighborhood was almost complete.

 

641

00:31:19,950 --> 00:31:21,060

It was like ale.

 

642

00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,090

It was almost completely Jewish, you know?

 

643

00:31:24,090 --> 00:31:28,140

And so there was no almost

exposure to the outside world.

 

644

00:31:28,500 --> 00:31:31,950

Uh, and I think the other part of it

that was important is there was this.

 

645

00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:35,610

You know, there's a

rabbinical quality to this.

 

646

00:31:35,610 --> 00:31:39,120

I had thought about being a rabbi

at one point when I was a kid.

 

647

00:31:39,330 --> 00:31:45,360

I think this Talmudic sort of interaction,

the debate that goes on in the Talmud.

 

648

00:31:45,629 --> 00:31:45,870

Yeah.

 

649

00:31:45,870 --> 00:31:50,280

You know, where, where people are kind

of giving opinions back and forth.

 

650

00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,820

I always felt that that was kind

of like the basis for almost

 

651

00:31:53,820 --> 00:31:57,000

like writing and writing comedy.

 

652

00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,290

You know, you're exploring questions

and if you explore those questions,

 

653

00:32:01,379 --> 00:32:03,870

and some of them are absurd, if

you look at the Talmud, a lot

 

654

00:32:03,870 --> 00:32:05,190

of those questions are absurd.

 

655

00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:11,370

I think that humor almost naturally

grew out of this Talmudic exploration.

 

656

00:32:11,370 --> 00:32:11,850

You know?

 

657

00:32:12,030 --> 00:32:15,750

And I think that may have

been part of the, um.

 

658

00:32:16,169 --> 00:32:20,040

You know, part of the DNA of

of Jewish comedy that became

 

659

00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:22,709

so seminal and so influential.

 

660

00:32:22,709 --> 00:32:27,030

You know, I think that that was a big part

of it, that, that sort of tradition and

 

661

00:32:27,030 --> 00:32:33,090

then being in these very, um, you know,

oppressed environments in Eastern Europe.

 

662

00:32:33,389 --> 00:32:36,840

I think, um, again for survival purposes.

 

663

00:32:37,020 --> 00:32:40,919

And now you could go to Africa, you

could go to countries in Africa or

 

664

00:32:40,919 --> 00:32:44,520

the Middle East, and you'll find

people who are oppressed and you'll

 

665

00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:49,889

see that they have great humor and

oppression is, humor becomes a survival

 

666

00:32:49,889 --> 00:32:52,439

tool for people who are oppressed.

 

667

00:32:52,590 --> 00:32:54,750

It's one of the few

things that they could do.

 

668

00:32:55,035 --> 00:32:58,455

To battle the oppression

that they must live under.

 

669

00:32:58,455 --> 00:32:58,815

You know?

 

670

00:32:58,815 --> 00:33:04,185

So I think those factors kind of led

to, in that period of time, a great

 

671

00:33:04,185 --> 00:33:08,055

flowering of Jewish humor that had

an influence on American culture.

 

672

00:33:08,415 --> 00:33:10,635

Marc Preston: It's so funny you say

that, that there is a, there is a,

 

673

00:33:10,965 --> 00:33:15,705

not an, uh, acrimonious argument to,

to the culture, but that's one of

 

674

00:33:15,705 --> 00:33:19,905

the things I enjoyed just being the,

the older guys being a contrarian.

 

675

00:33:19,905 --> 00:33:22,035

Because like, it's almost like,

are you just trying to argue?

 

676

00:33:22,575 --> 00:33:25,635

It's one thing I, I, I found

irritating, but yet I miss now.

 

677

00:33:25,835 --> 00:33:29,195

You know, uh, uh, I remember, uh, when I

worked at a BC radio network, there was

 

678

00:33:29,195 --> 00:33:32,435

a fellow who worked there who's Jewish,

and there was a fellow who is a kind of

 

679

00:33:32,435 --> 00:33:33,905

devout Christian, who's a good friend.

 

680

00:33:34,054 --> 00:33:35,105

They, everybody, they're all good.

 

681

00:33:35,195 --> 00:33:35,945

We're all good friends.

 

682

00:33:36,004 --> 00:33:38,945

And they's, they, but they were

about 20 years my senior, but they

 

683

00:33:38,945 --> 00:33:41,975

would sit down the arguments they

would get into, and they just, it

 

684

00:33:41,975 --> 00:33:43,655

would just be funny to listen to.

 

685

00:33:43,655 --> 00:33:46,355

And I miss being the fly on the wall.

 

686

00:33:46,685 --> 00:33:46,745

Yeah.

 

687

00:33:46,745 --> 00:33:48,665

At family events and things like that.

 

688

00:33:48,665 --> 00:33:51,365

And, and where you heard, you know,

I can hear my grant, just the, the

 

689

00:33:51,365 --> 00:33:54,665

drier sense of humor, you know, uh,

like for instance, you mentioned Mel

 

690

00:33:54,665 --> 00:33:58,715

Brooks, and if I was to be able to go

into a time machine and travel, like,

 

691

00:33:58,745 --> 00:34:02,195

okay, I would love to sit down with him

and Carl Reiner for one of their get

 

692

00:34:02,195 --> 00:34:04,145

togethers, just, just to listen to them.

 

693

00:34:04,145 --> 00:34:05,105

What did they talk about?

 

694

00:34:05,105 --> 00:34:05,855

What did they talk?

 

695

00:34:06,095 --> 00:34:09,935

Because Carl re reminded me so much of

my grandfather, his humor, it wasn't.

 

696

00:34:10,305 --> 00:34:10,635

Yuck.

 

697

00:34:10,635 --> 00:34:10,875

Yuck.

 

698

00:34:10,875 --> 00:34:13,695

It was kind of this dry,

but it was just hilarious.

 

699

00:34:13,725 --> 00:34:14,085

You know?

 

700

00:34:14,085 --> 00:34:14,805

It just landed.

 

701

00:34:15,045 --> 00:34:19,005

Who are your kind of, your Mount Rushmore

when you were coming up comedy wise?

 

702

00:34:19,065 --> 00:34:21,885

Uh, well, the people you're looking at,

like they're doing the thing I want to

 

703

00:34:21,885 --> 00:34:22,005

Larry Charles: do.

 

704

00:34:22,070 --> 00:34:26,355

The, the person, uh, before I got

turned onto Mel Brooks, mill Brooks

 

705

00:34:26,355 --> 00:34:30,525

was not like a onscreen personality

for a long time when I was a kid.

 

706

00:34:30,525 --> 00:34:35,055

He was like, he'd done the producers

and I wasn't really like exposed to the

 

707

00:34:35,055 --> 00:34:39,705

2000 year old man when I was young, so

I didn't really know too much about him.

 

708

00:34:39,885 --> 00:34:45,765

The person that was the, not even a

Mount Rushmore, he was all by himself.

 

709

00:34:46,095 --> 00:34:49,065

At the top of that heap

was Woody Allen for me.

 

710

00:34:49,425 --> 00:34:49,995

Um mm-hmm.

 

711

00:34:50,235 --> 00:34:53,625

We shared the same birthday, which

always I thought was a cool thing.

 

712

00:34:53,775 --> 00:34:57,135

This is all pre controversial Woody Allen.

 

713

00:34:57,375 --> 00:34:58,305

This is what, right.

 

714

00:34:58,305 --> 00:34:59,295

The young guy.

 

715

00:34:59,295 --> 00:35:02,955

And he was, he was the fir, you know, he's

from this neighborhood and here he is,

 

716

00:35:02,955 --> 00:35:08,535

he's made movies, you know, and I thought,

wow, somebody who actually did this.

 

717

00:35:08,865 --> 00:35:12,825

Somebody was able to do this, you

know, and I was amazed by that

 

718

00:35:13,004 --> 00:35:14,805

bananas and take the money and run.

 

719

00:35:14,955 --> 00:35:19,064

I must have seen them each like a,

a dozen times each, you know, and

 

720

00:35:19,064 --> 00:35:20,055

Marc Preston: just absorb.

 

721

00:35:20,145 --> 00:35:24,015

Oh, plus he was the first guy

that had his physical stature,

 

722

00:35:24,015 --> 00:35:25,365

the way he spoke and all that.

 

723

00:35:25,575 --> 00:35:28,575

He's the first one that ended

up, you, you know what I mean?

 

724

00:35:28,575 --> 00:35:28,634

Yeah.

 

725

00:35:28,634 --> 00:35:32,174

You wouldn't see this, I wanna say

Nehi guy, I wouldn't say that about

 

726

00:35:32,174 --> 00:35:34,725

him, but he, you know, there wasn't

anybody else like him out there.

 

727

00:35:34,725 --> 00:35:37,544

So I can see that, that a lot of

people probably saw themselves.

 

728

00:35:37,544 --> 00:35:39,225

He was original also,

 

729

00:35:39,225 --> 00:35:42,855

Larry Charles: he started by

writing jokes for other people.

 

730

00:35:43,154 --> 00:35:45,915

And I thought maybe that's

something I could do.

 

731

00:35:46,305 --> 00:35:51,435

I could maybe write a joke and give it

to a comedian or give it to a columnist

 

732

00:35:51,435 --> 00:35:56,384

or whoever I could give it to that might

need it, and maybe I could make money

 

733

00:35:56,384 --> 00:35:59,294

that way as a freelance comedy writer.

 

734

00:35:59,504 --> 00:36:05,504

And so he gave me ideas about he,

he gave me a way to sort of ground

 

735

00:36:05,504 --> 00:36:07,455

my ambition in something real.

 

736

00:36:07,830 --> 00:36:12,660

You know, then I, I got exposed to, there

was a show on in New York, uh, David

 

737

00:36:12,660 --> 00:36:17,340

Suskin used to host a show on Sunday

nights, and he did a show about how to

 

738

00:36:17,340 --> 00:36:23,465

be a Jewish son, and David Steinberg

was on, and Mel Brooks was on that show.

 

739

00:36:24,270 --> 00:36:28,200

As well as a couple of non show

business guys, but Mel Brooks,

 

740

00:36:28,890 --> 00:36:32,490

that was my first real exposure

to him, and he was hilarious.

 

741

00:36:32,700 --> 00:36:36,270

And then I became very addicted

to Mel Brooks, also got into the

 

742

00:36:36,270 --> 00:36:39,030

2000 year old man very soon after.

 

743

00:36:39,090 --> 00:36:40,710

You know, I loved the producers.

 

744

00:36:40,980 --> 00:36:44,160

And then the Blazing Saddles

came along, which was again,

 

745

00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:44,730

oh yeah,

 

746

00:36:44,730 --> 00:36:47,580

Larry Charles: that was one, that was one

of those earth shattering moments Also.

 

747

00:36:48,339 --> 00:36:49,690

Seeing Blazing saddles.

 

748

00:36:49,810 --> 00:36:55,089

So those two guys, I mean, later on, like

in high school, I got into Lenny Bruce.

 

749

00:36:55,330 --> 00:36:58,330

You know, he was a, he was too

adult for when I was a kid.

 

750

00:36:58,450 --> 00:37:02,259

But once I became sophisticated

enough, I got into Lenny Bruce.

 

751

00:37:02,350 --> 00:37:05,410

And those three really

are like the Mount for me.

 

752

00:37:05,410 --> 00:37:06,580

The Mount Rushmore

 

753

00:37:06,790 --> 00:37:07,390

Marc Preston: of comedy.

 

754

00:37:07,660 --> 00:37:10,779

Well, Lenny Bruce was the first one who

you get, the older you get, you realize

 

755

00:37:10,779 --> 00:37:14,529

the chances he was taking in the, in the,

uh, middle finger he was extending to Yes.

 

756

00:37:15,190 --> 00:37:16,509

The way things were done.

 

757

00:37:16,569 --> 00:37:16,660

Yes.

 

758

00:37:16,660 --> 00:37:19,600

To, to, you know, really he

was, he was the first man who

 

759

00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:21,190

landed on that shore, you know?

 

760

00:37:21,190 --> 00:37:21,399

Yes.

 

761

00:37:21,730 --> 00:37:24,250

Larry Charles: The fourth

person who doesn't get, um.

 

762

00:37:24,675 --> 00:37:29,415

As much attention, but my parents

would go up to the Cascos for like

 

763

00:37:29,415 --> 00:37:31,995

a week, once a year in the summer.

 

764

00:37:32,265 --> 00:37:36,735

And um, they would have nightclubs and all

the comedians would play the nightclubs.

 

765

00:37:36,945 --> 00:37:40,365

And the funniest comedian who

had the audience rolling in

 

766

00:37:40,365 --> 00:37:42,405

the aisles was Jackie Mason.

 

767

00:37:42,795 --> 00:37:44,205

And Jackie Mason.

 

768

00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:44,360

I

 

769

00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,485

Marc Preston: was, I was, as

you're saying this, I'm thinking

 

770

00:37:46,485 --> 00:37:47,685

Jackie Mason in my head, you know?

 

771

00:37:47,715 --> 00:37:47,925

Yeah.

 

772

00:37:47,925 --> 00:37:48,285

He

 

773

00:37:48,285 --> 00:37:49,935

Larry Charles: was, I

would sit in the back.

 

774

00:37:50,445 --> 00:37:54,255

The, you were allowed to sneak into the

nightclub and watch, and I watched him.

 

775

00:37:54,255 --> 00:37:59,805

I must have seen him also a dozen

times live like that in the hotels and

 

776

00:37:59,805 --> 00:38:04,185

what he could do for, to an audience

to get them rolling in the aisle.

 

777

00:38:04,215 --> 00:38:07,245

It wasn't even that he had

material, he didn't really have

 

778

00:38:07,245 --> 00:38:09,255

material the way Woody Allen did.

 

779

00:38:09,375 --> 00:38:10,965

He just had a rhythm.

 

780

00:38:11,385 --> 00:38:15,795

And like, he would like get you caught

up in his rhythm and people would

 

781

00:38:15,795 --> 00:38:20,745

start laughing and the laughing came

like in tidal waves after a while

 

782

00:38:20,925 --> 00:38:23,265

Marc Preston: and it was, it's kinda

like Don Rickles was the same way.

 

783

00:38:23,265 --> 00:38:23,385

Right.

 

784

00:38:23,385 --> 00:38:24,255

You know, Don had that.

 

785

00:38:24,315 --> 00:38:26,235

It was, it was very similar.

 

786

00:38:26,265 --> 00:38:26,325

Yeah.

 

787

00:38:26,325 --> 00:38:26,355

I

 

788

00:38:26,355 --> 00:38:29,115

Larry Charles: loved Don Rickles

also, and I loved Rodney Dangerfield.

 

789

00:38:29,115 --> 00:38:32,715

I would say that would round out

my youth basically right there.

 

790

00:38:32,715 --> 00:38:36,165

You know, I mean, I love George

Carlin too, and I loved when Richard

 

791

00:38:36,165 --> 00:38:40,335

Pryor came of age, uh, with his

concert movies and everything.

 

792

00:38:40,485 --> 00:38:42,315

Richard Pryor also changed my life.

 

793

00:38:42,315 --> 00:38:46,155

He came out with a couple of albums

and then the concert movies and that

 

794

00:38:46,155 --> 00:38:48,525

was yet another step up, you know?

 

795

00:38:48,525 --> 00:38:52,365

And he was really like, George Carlin

was like a non-Jewish comedian.

 

796

00:38:52,615 --> 00:38:56,545

So he was drawing on other influences

and Richard Pryor being a black

 

797

00:38:56,545 --> 00:38:58,525

comedian, was drawing on his influences.

 

798

00:38:58,705 --> 00:39:01,555

And that expanded my

comedy language as well.

 

799

00:39:01,825 --> 00:39:01,975

Marc Preston: Yeah.

 

800

00:39:02,065 --> 00:39:04,525

Richard Pryor, he changed the game.

 

801

00:39:04,525 --> 00:39:07,075

You know, when he came in it

was a whole different thing.

 

802

00:39:07,075 --> 00:39:10,225

And I just remember when I was a

kid, Eddie Murphy, you draw the

 

803

00:39:10,225 --> 00:39:14,545

kind of the daisy chain he connected

to, to uh, to Richard Pryor.

 

804

00:39:15,325 --> 00:39:17,995

And I just love that one thing when

he said, bill cos Butch, of course

 

805

00:39:17,995 --> 00:39:20,575

this kind of holds up in its own

way, but he talked about Bill Cosby

 

806

00:39:20,575 --> 00:39:23,725

and how Bill Cosby called him up so

you can't keep saying these things.

 

807

00:39:23,785 --> 00:39:23,845

Yeah.

 

808

00:39:23,845 --> 00:39:26,065

And he called up Richard

Pryor, Richard Pryor.

 

809

00:39:26,065 --> 00:39:26,755

It's like, fuck him.

 

810

00:39:26,755 --> 00:39:27,085

You know?

 

811

00:39:27,085 --> 00:39:29,005

It's like, who are you watching now?

 

812

00:39:29,005 --> 00:39:31,915

Like who, who is it now that

you think is carrying the torch?

 

813

00:39:32,005 --> 00:39:36,325

Uh, comedically, uh, even the

writing, even kind of telling stories.

 

814

00:39:36,505 --> 00:39:37,855

Who, who's out there

right now you're watching?

 

815

00:39:37,855 --> 00:39:40,735

Larry Charles: Well, both, first of all,

just lemme say both Richard Pryor and

 

816

00:39:40,735 --> 00:39:43,285

George Carlin continue to have influence.

 

817

00:39:43,465 --> 00:39:46,165

Even today on standup comedy.

 

818

00:39:46,165 --> 00:39:47,815

You see their influence.

 

819

00:39:48,134 --> 00:39:54,225

Those two schools of comedy still are,

you know, being explored that, that they

 

820

00:39:54,225 --> 00:39:59,174

started really, uh, even though they

have roots themselves that go back, um,

 

821

00:39:59,384 --> 00:40:02,055

I really like a, I like a lot of standup.

 

822

00:40:02,055 --> 00:40:08,325

I mean, I don't find too much in

movies or in television that actually

 

823

00:40:08,325 --> 00:40:12,944

makes me laugh out loud, you know,

but I can watch, you know, uh, bill

 

824

00:40:12,944 --> 00:40:17,805

Burr or somebody like that and they

will really, really make me laugh.

 

825

00:40:17,805 --> 00:40:21,404

You know, there's a lot of comedians

that I'll just, again, I'll go on

 

826

00:40:21,404 --> 00:40:27,674

YouTube or TikTok or Instagram and I'll

get turned on to all kinds of comedy.

 

827

00:40:28,004 --> 00:40:30,765

Uh, and I'm, I have

eclectic taste in comedy.

 

828

00:40:30,765 --> 00:40:33,285

It doesn't have to be a

certain kind of genre.

 

829

00:40:33,285 --> 00:40:35,055

I like all kinds of things.

 

830

00:40:35,265 --> 00:40:40,334

There's a guy named Tim Heider, who, who

does brilliant stuff, very conceptual.

 

831

00:40:40,334 --> 00:40:43,725

You know, there's Bill Burr who

just kind of is like talking.

 

832

00:40:44,190 --> 00:40:47,040

From his soul, you

know, and there's just a

 

833

00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,020

Marc Preston: lot of, yeah,

I wouldn't wanna get into it.

 

834

00:40:49,025 --> 00:40:51,750

The, the other side of a debate

with Bill Burr about something

 

835

00:40:51,750 --> 00:40:52,920

he's very convicted about.

 

836

00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:54,690

You know, it is like, he

has strong convictions.

 

837

00:40:54,720 --> 00:40:56,310

'cause he makes good arguments.

 

838

00:40:56,370 --> 00:40:59,250

Uh, you know, and I just saw something

the other day, uh, he was on a red

 

839

00:40:59,250 --> 00:41:02,040

carpet or something and somebody

started talking politics with him.

 

840

00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:02,880

He's like, why you, I don't watch.

 

841

00:41:02,885 --> 00:41:03,750

Why, why are you coming to me?

 

842

00:41:03,750 --> 00:41:04,050

You know?

 

843

00:41:04,500 --> 00:41:06,060

And he just lays them out.

 

844

00:41:06,090 --> 00:41:06,510

He, he's a

 

845

00:41:06,510 --> 00:41:07,530

Larry Charles: great word before.

 

846

00:41:07,530 --> 00:41:12,570

'cause I think that, that a contrarian,

I think comedy and, and I've

 

847

00:41:12,570 --> 00:41:13,800

hung out with a lot of comedians.

 

848

00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:19,470

There's a contrarian quality to comedy

that is part of what sort of jet, you

 

849

00:41:19,470 --> 00:41:22,470

know, kind of, uh, inspires and motivates.

 

850

00:41:22,470 --> 00:41:23,490

And as a catalyst.

 

851

00:41:23,805 --> 00:41:26,984

For a lot of comedy is the

contrarian point of view.

 

852

00:41:27,285 --> 00:41:30,134

And, and George Carlin really

personified that really well.

 

853

00:41:30,134 --> 00:41:30,585

I thought,

 

854

00:41:30,765 --> 00:41:32,654

Marc Preston: you know, it's

only when I got a little older

 

855

00:41:32,654 --> 00:41:33,615

that I started appreciating.

 

856

00:41:33,615 --> 00:41:36,464

He wasn't just being at a contrarian

for the sake of being a contrarian.

 

857

00:41:36,464 --> 00:41:42,045

He, he was more just don't fall into

the, the, uh, propaganda of everything.

 

858

00:41:42,045 --> 00:41:42,134

Right.

 

859

00:41:42,134 --> 00:41:44,685

You know, question it, just be

questioning, you know, you may land

 

860

00:41:44,685 --> 00:41:46,065

at the same place, but question.

 

861

00:41:46,154 --> 00:41:46,274

Yeah.

 

862

00:41:46,815 --> 00:41:49,815

Look a little, you know, one of the things

I was curious about is the, you know, the

 

863

00:41:49,815 --> 00:41:53,475

things that you'd done, uh, like mad about

you when you give birth to something and

 

864

00:41:53,475 --> 00:41:56,625

you've created it and that's out in the

world and it starts taking on a life of

 

865

00:41:56,625 --> 00:42:00,734

its own and people start back in the air

when you had four networks and even three.

 

866

00:42:01,235 --> 00:42:04,565

What's that like for you when you

see a show or Seinfeld or anything

 

867

00:42:04,565 --> 00:42:06,155

else that just skyrocketed?

 

868

00:42:06,725 --> 00:42:08,045

Is it humbling?

 

869

00:42:08,045 --> 00:42:09,545

Is it sort of like, okay, this worked?

 

870

00:42:09,545 --> 00:42:10,895

Or you think about it mechanically?

 

871

00:42:10,895 --> 00:42:13,925

What's going on in your mind as you

see something taking off in the moment?

 

872

00:42:13,925 --> 00:42:16,295

Are you feeling like,

wow, this is awesome?

 

873

00:42:16,295 --> 00:42:19,475

Are you even, is it only after

the show's off the air and you can

 

874

00:42:19,505 --> 00:42:22,925

retrospect look back and you can

fully appreciate the impact it had?

 

875

00:42:22,925 --> 00:42:23,975

What, what's that like for you?

 

876

00:42:24,035 --> 00:42:26,465

Larry Charles: Well, just to,

just to clarify for the record,

 

877

00:42:26,465 --> 00:42:30,935

I didn't create mad about You or

Seinfeld, but, uh, I was, I was an

 

878

00:42:30,935 --> 00:42:32,915

important part of both those shows.

 

879

00:42:32,975 --> 00:42:38,195

I would say that the, the, um, the

experience, it was so hard to produce

 

880

00:42:38,195 --> 00:42:43,535

a sitcom, um, in terms of logistics

of actually the production itself.

 

881

00:42:43,830 --> 00:42:46,920

The casting, the editing,

but mostly the writing.

 

882

00:42:47,130 --> 00:42:50,970

The writing, there was so much

pressure to come up with scripts

 

883

00:42:51,060 --> 00:42:55,740

that in the moment, even when the

shows became wildly successful, there

 

884

00:42:55,740 --> 00:42:59,970

was no place to step outside of it

and go, wow, well, look at this.

 

885

00:42:59,970 --> 00:43:00,720

We're doing great.

 

886

00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:01,049

You know?

 

887

00:43:01,170 --> 00:43:01,259

Mm-hmm.

 

888

00:43:01,500 --> 00:43:03,690

It was like, what's next week's story?

 

889

00:43:03,990 --> 00:43:05,460

What's next week's script?

 

890

00:43:05,460 --> 00:43:06,240

What are we gonna do?

 

891

00:43:06,240 --> 00:43:08,130

We don't have a story for next week.

 

892

00:43:08,340 --> 00:43:13,470

So the pressure was, was crushing

really for a show like Seinfeld.

 

893

00:43:13,770 --> 00:43:16,200

I mean, Larry David

wanted to quit every week.

 

894

00:43:16,515 --> 00:43:20,415

He just did not want to go on because

the pressure was just crushing.

 

895

00:43:20,775 --> 00:43:22,694

Marc Preston: Uh, and well, when

you say the pressure, is it the

 

896

00:43:22,694 --> 00:43:26,295

pressure to succeed or is it pressure

from the network or pressure?

 

897

00:43:26,325 --> 00:43:26,625

No,

 

898

00:43:26,865 --> 00:43:28,995

Larry Charles: the, an

internal pressure to create,

 

899

00:43:29,295 --> 00:43:29,444

Marc Preston: uh,

 

900

00:43:29,444 --> 00:43:30,674

Larry Charles: to come up with the story.

 

901

00:43:30,674 --> 00:43:34,575

You know, one of the reasons Seinfeld is

great because we put a lot of pressure

 

902

00:43:34,575 --> 00:43:39,765

on ourselves to come up with great,

funny stories that made us laugh.

 

903

00:43:40,065 --> 00:43:42,165

And that's not easy to do.

 

904

00:43:42,165 --> 00:43:45,884

And it goes to your question of

why there isn't a lot more comedy

 

905

00:43:45,884 --> 00:43:48,645

today that that feels that way.

 

906

00:43:48,645 --> 00:43:53,115

And that's because the language

of comedy is in flux right now.

 

907

00:43:53,295 --> 00:43:57,345

Um, all the cancel culture

and the woke culture and those

 

908

00:43:57,345 --> 00:43:58,634

things have a lot of value.

 

909

00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:01,649

And they are important, but

what they absolutely have done

 

910

00:44:01,649 --> 00:44:04,230

is thrown comedy into a flux.

 

911

00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:10,529

Uh, and so now people are trying to find

their footing and figure out what's funny.

 

912

00:44:10,529 --> 00:44:12,870

Nobody really knows anymore.

 

913

00:44:12,990 --> 00:44:16,680

There was kind of a common ground

of what was funny for a long time.

 

914

00:44:17,190 --> 00:44:17,399

Marc Preston: Yeah.

 

915

00:44:17,399 --> 00:44:19,319

Blazing Saddles could not get made now.

 

916

00:44:19,319 --> 00:44:19,529

Right?

 

917

00:44:19,620 --> 00:44:20,605

There's no way

 

918

00:44:21,044 --> 00:44:21,720

Larry Charles: right now.

 

919

00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:25,830

And it's a smaller audience for each

thing, and that's good in a way.

 

920

00:44:26,009 --> 00:44:29,759

But it means that the language

of comedy is very hard to define.

 

921

00:44:29,940 --> 00:44:32,910

And it's, it's kind of like we're

coming up with a new language

 

922

00:44:33,060 --> 00:44:36,029

and it's an evolutionary process

that will take a little time

 

923

00:44:36,299 --> 00:44:37,140

Marc Preston: for its time.

 

924

00:44:37,140 --> 00:44:40,890

It was, I, I just, I, I just

enjoyed watching about Entourage.

 

925

00:44:40,890 --> 00:44:43,980

How, how did that, how did

you get involved in that?

 

926

00:44:43,980 --> 00:44:47,040

Because that's a little different than

kind of everything else you were doing.

 

927

00:44:47,100 --> 00:44:47,339

Larry Charles: Yeah.

 

928

00:44:47,339 --> 00:44:52,230

Although, uh, for me, it connected, um,

you know, uh, Doug and Steve, the two

 

929

00:44:52,230 --> 00:44:54,210

guys who basically created the show.

 

930

00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:59,280

Um, we're trying to do, we're trying

to take the, trying to recreate their

 

931

00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:02,880

experience in Hollywood, which was

like, they were guys from Long Island.

 

932

00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:04,259

They were buddies.

 

933

00:45:04,380 --> 00:45:08,220

They eventually, you know, Steve

became friends with Marc Wahlberg.

 

934

00:45:08,430 --> 00:45:13,380

Marc Wahlberg had this crazy

entourage and, uh, a real people

 

935

00:45:13,380 --> 00:45:15,930

that the show was based on and right.

 

936

00:45:16,020 --> 00:45:20,520

They were like regular people thrust

into this world of show business.

 

937

00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:22,530

It wasn't really about show business.

 

938

00:45:22,650 --> 00:45:26,790

It was about these friends trying

to navigate a world that they really

 

939

00:45:26,790 --> 00:45:28,440

didn't know and trying to maintain.

 

940

00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:30,330

Marc Preston: See that, that's

kind of the way I perceived it

 

941

00:45:30,330 --> 00:45:31,920

and it kind of grew throughout.

 

942

00:45:31,950 --> 00:45:34,470

They seemed to get more

ma matured into it.

 

943

00:45:34,470 --> 00:45:38,190

And if you're a young man in his twenties

in Hollywood at, at that era, I mean

 

944

00:45:38,465 --> 00:45:40,380

that, that seemed to be kind of real.

 

945

00:45:40,380 --> 00:45:41,430

That's why I think it connected.

 

946

00:45:41,430 --> 00:45:42,990

It seemed like it's very plausible.

 

947

00:45:42,990 --> 00:45:43,530

You know, I think the key

 

948

00:45:43,830 --> 00:45:47,370

Larry Charles: to all of these things,

as you're saying, is um, this is true

 

949

00:45:47,370 --> 00:45:49,410

of sci ffel and this true of entourage.

 

950

00:45:49,785 --> 00:45:50,865

Is honesty.

 

951

00:45:50,924 --> 00:45:55,035

You know, you could, you could criticize

them, you know, you could say a, a lot

 

952

00:45:55,035 --> 00:45:56,865

of things about them that are critical.

 

953

00:45:56,865 --> 00:45:57,855

That would be true.

 

954

00:45:58,154 --> 00:46:02,295

But the thing that you cannot deny is

that they had a certain level of honesty.

 

955

00:46:02,505 --> 00:46:02,955

And that

 

956

00:46:03,345 --> 00:46:03,585

yeah,

 

957

00:46:03,645 --> 00:46:06,495

Larry Charles: resonates with

an, an audience is looking for

 

958

00:46:06,495 --> 00:46:08,654

something that's real and honest.

 

959

00:46:08,745 --> 00:46:13,485

No matter how surreal or crazy or

stylized it is, it's gotta have

 

960

00:46:13,485 --> 00:46:16,245

some sort of truth to it, you know?

 

961

00:46:16,395 --> 00:46:19,545

And if that truth cuts through,

the audience gets a chance

 

962

00:46:19,545 --> 00:46:22,005

to really connect to it.

 

963

00:46:22,335 --> 00:46:26,775

And that's a, that is a very

hard variable in all these shows.

 

964

00:46:26,775 --> 00:46:27,975

A lot of shows miss it.

 

965

00:46:28,275 --> 00:46:30,795

A lot of shows don't

really nail that truth.

 

966

00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:35,670

Um, even though they might be cool shows

and they never really connect in that

 

967

00:46:35,670 --> 00:46:40,950

way, but Seinfeld and Entourage, despite

whatever justifiable criticism people

 

968

00:46:40,950 --> 00:46:45,540

might have of them, they were speaking

truth and that couldn't deny, and,

 

969

00:46:46,290 --> 00:46:48,420

and that spoke volumes to an audience.

 

970

00:46:48,420 --> 00:46:51,029

And you can't, you can't change that.

 

971

00:46:51,029 --> 00:46:55,080

That's really an important connection,

that that is something you strive

 

972

00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:57,630

for, but you can't really force,

 

973

00:46:57,720 --> 00:46:58,320

Marc Preston: you know?

 

974

00:46:58,440 --> 00:46:58,560

Yeah.

 

975

00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,620

I think people have a sense of BS

meter for lack of authenticity.

 

976

00:47:01,620 --> 00:47:02,820

You know, they, they crave that.

 

977

00:47:02,820 --> 00:47:06,210

Whether it's something that they

ascribe to or believe in, you know,

 

978

00:47:06,210 --> 00:47:07,020

it's like, oh, this seems real.

 

979

00:47:07,020 --> 00:47:07,980

It seems like it can happen.

 

980

00:47:07,980 --> 00:47:08,190

You know?

 

981

00:47:08,460 --> 00:47:10,500

I wouldn't do that

necessarily, like Right.

 

982

00:47:10,650 --> 00:47:12,870

I'm wondering when y'all are crafting.

 

983

00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:17,640

The idea of a quintessential, like

a, an agent of a, a certain age and

 

984

00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:21,840

a certain how, how did, uh, uh, Ari

Goldberg, or, or was it Ari Gold?

 

985

00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:22,680

Ari Gold, right?

 

986

00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:23,430

That was the character.

 

987

00:47:23,430 --> 00:47:25,890

But was that something like,

okay, let's create an agent,

 

988

00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:29,730

Larry Charles: Marc Wahlberg, uh,

and, and Marc Wahlberg's agent, and

 

989

00:47:29,730 --> 00:47:31,920

my agent was a guy named Ari Emmanuel.

 

990

00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:34,170

Uh, he was Larry David's agent.

 

991

00:47:34,230 --> 00:47:40,230

He was the, uh, Uber agent of

Hollywood, especially at that time.

 

992

00:47:40,620 --> 00:47:46,110

And he was like this kind of force

of nature sort of personality that

 

993

00:47:46,110 --> 00:47:48,810

was, he was like ferocious, you know?

 

994

00:47:48,990 --> 00:47:51,750

And if he was on your

side, that was great.

 

995

00:47:51,750 --> 00:47:56,550

Later on in my life, he was against me

and it was much less comfortable, you

 

996

00:47:56,550 --> 00:48:02,940

know, but the, that character, Ari Gold,

was initially based on Ari Emmanuel, and

 

997

00:48:02,940 --> 00:48:05,130

then the brilliant casting of Jeremy Pi.

 

998

00:48:06,105 --> 00:48:07,665

To embody that role.

 

999

00:48:07,694 --> 00:48:13,785

He also was a ferocious, intense actor

and he brought that character to life.

 

1000

00:48:13,904 --> 00:48:18,254

So it's almost like Kramer, there was

a real Kramer, but casting Michael

 

1001

00:48:18,254 --> 00:48:23,085

Richards' Kramer, that synthesis

is what made Kramer so amazing.

 

1002

00:48:23,294 --> 00:48:24,884

And the same thing with Ari Gold.

 

1003

00:48:24,884 --> 00:48:29,504

That was Ari Emanuel, but Jeremy

Vin playing Ari Gold is what

 

1004

00:48:29,504 --> 00:48:31,154

brought that character to life.

 

1005

00:48:31,214 --> 00:48:31,365

Yeah.

 

1006

00:48:31,365 --> 00:48:31,605

Know the

 

1007

00:48:31,605 --> 00:48:32,685

Marc Preston: idea to hang

 

1008

00:48:32,685 --> 00:48:36,464

Larry Charles: out with characters

is a big part of what makes TV shows

 

1009

00:48:36,464 --> 00:48:38,535

successful, or at least used to be.

 

1010

00:48:38,805 --> 00:48:41,325

I mean, people want, you wanted

to sit in the coffee shop

 

1011

00:48:41,325 --> 00:48:42,585

with the Seinfeld characters.

 

1012

00:48:42,794 --> 00:48:45,674

You wanted to go on Adventures

with the Entourage characters.

 

1013

00:48:45,825 --> 00:48:47,865

You wanted to sit at the bar of Cheers.

 

1014

00:48:48,075 --> 00:48:52,424

You know, like that was a kind

of a important element in what

 

1015

00:48:52,424 --> 00:48:53,714

made those shows successful.

 

1016

00:48:53,714 --> 00:48:55,245

You could see yourself there.

 

1017

00:48:55,424 --> 00:48:59,565

You wanted to be there, you know,

and that's, that was a kind of a

 

1018

00:48:59,565 --> 00:49:01,095

great seduction of those shows.

 

1019

00:49:01,515 --> 00:49:04,755

Marc Preston: You know, one thing that's

I I I've been curious about with Sasha

 

1020

00:49:04,755 --> 00:49:09,345

Baron Cohen, who just feels fearless,

like to be, you know, the stories I

 

1021

00:49:09,345 --> 00:49:14,055

hear about the making of these films,

you know, he was legitimately in danger

 

1022

00:49:14,055 --> 00:49:15,555

it seems like a few times, you know?

 

1023

00:49:15,615 --> 00:49:19,155

Uh, how did, how did that collaboration

come together, where y'all were, you

 

1024

00:49:19,155 --> 00:49:23,475

know, clearly there was a story you're

wanting to tell and kind of like put

 

1025

00:49:23,475 --> 00:49:26,385

a mirror up to culture, if you will.

 

1026

00:49:26,475 --> 00:49:29,535

Uh, h how did that all come

together, just, you know, generally

 

1027

00:49:29,535 --> 00:49:31,965

with you and Sasha Baron Cohen,

and the projects y'all worked on?

 

1028

00:49:32,355 --> 00:49:35,925

Larry Charles: Well, that movie

started, um, with a different director.

 

1029

00:49:36,315 --> 00:49:40,815

Um, there was a, a, a director named

Todd Phillips, very successful director,

 

1030

00:49:41,295 --> 00:49:45,165

started making that movie and he

and Sasha did not get along and they

 

1031

00:49:45,165 --> 00:49:48,645

shot for like two weeks or something,

and then they went to separate ways

 

1032

00:49:48,855 --> 00:49:50,325

and the movie sort of fell apart.

 

1033

00:49:50,535 --> 00:49:52,575

And I was working on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

1034

00:49:52,575 --> 00:49:55,875

And if you rewind like about

two years before all this.

 

1035

00:49:56,175 --> 00:49:56,505

Larry.

 

1036

00:49:56,505 --> 00:50:00,585

David and I used to go quite often

because we worked for HBO, we would

 

1037

00:50:00,585 --> 00:50:06,675

go to boxing matches that HBO was, uh,

broadcasting and we went to a boxing

 

1038

00:50:06,675 --> 00:50:12,195

match downtown at the Staples Center

in Los Angeles and we would go into

 

1039

00:50:12,195 --> 00:50:14,175

the VIP lounge and kind of hang out.

 

1040

00:50:14,175 --> 00:50:18,465

It was very luxurious and um, it

was a very privileged time for me.

 

1041

00:50:18,465 --> 00:50:21,615

It was something I haven't

really experienced much since.

 

1042

00:50:21,915 --> 00:50:28,425

And at that VIP lounge waiting for

the fights to begin, Ari Emanuel was

 

1043

00:50:28,425 --> 00:50:32,925

there and he had a client, and that

client was Sasha Barron Cone, who

 

1044

00:50:32,925 --> 00:50:35,310

I knew from his TV show in England.

 

1045

00:50:36,525 --> 00:50:40,395

Where he did the LEG

and he did war at Bruno.

 

1046

00:50:40,995 --> 00:50:44,535

So he and I kind of met,

uh, in, in this lounge.

 

1047

00:50:44,805 --> 00:50:48,405

And we just talked for a while with

no, as you know, no sort of, uh,

 

1048

00:50:48,615 --> 00:50:50,895

ambitions, no agenda whatsoever.

 

1049

00:50:50,895 --> 00:50:55,605

We just kind of hung out and

talked and we really liked each

 

1050

00:50:55,605 --> 00:50:56,925

other and we really hit it off.

 

1051

00:50:56,925 --> 00:50:58,425

And then we went our separate ways.

 

1052

00:50:58,545 --> 00:51:02,655

And like two years later I got

a call, uh, asking if I would

 

1053

00:51:02,655 --> 00:51:05,415

be interested in directing Bora.

 

1054

00:51:05,715 --> 00:51:11,325

And I came in and um, uh, you know,

I loved Bora, I loved the TV show.

 

1055

00:51:11,325 --> 00:51:13,275

I loved his sketches on the TV show.

 

1056

00:51:13,605 --> 00:51:16,845

And so I immediately, and I saw

some of the footage and I thought

 

1057

00:51:16,845 --> 00:51:20,835

it was amazing and one of a kind,

and I immediately said yes to that.

 

1058

00:51:20,835 --> 00:51:22,095

And, uh, we started working.

 

1059

00:51:22,335 --> 00:51:24,015

We almost, we had no prep time.

 

1060

00:51:24,015 --> 00:51:27,555

In fact, we almost went, went out

almost immediately and started shooting.

 

1061

00:51:27,795 --> 00:51:31,485

And it was kind of on the job

training for me to figure out

 

1062

00:51:31,485 --> 00:51:33,945

how to get a great Borat scene.

 

1063

00:51:33,945 --> 00:51:35,446

But I had a great instinct for it.

 

1064

00:51:36,030 --> 00:51:36,930

And it worked out,

 

1065

00:51:37,170 --> 00:51:39,210

Marc Preston: you know,

he is such a talented guy.

 

1066

00:51:39,210 --> 00:51:40,740

Like the, was it the spy?

 

1067

00:51:40,740 --> 00:51:45,030

I think the drama about, uh,

the Israeli, the Israeli spy.

 

1068

00:51:45,030 --> 00:51:45,270

Right.

 

1069

00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:46,710

I never, with the Egypt.

 

1070

00:51:47,340 --> 00:51:47,640

Yeah.

 

1071

00:51:47,670 --> 00:51:50,640

It was, you know, you see him do

it, I'm like, oh, this guy can do

 

1072

00:51:50,940 --> 00:51:51,955

seemingly everything, you know?

 

1073

00:51:51,955 --> 00:51:52,155

Yeah.

 

1074

00:51:52,155 --> 00:51:55,200

But, you know, you've directed, you've

written, you've produced, was there any,

 

1075

00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:58,290

is there any preference in any vein?

 

1076

00:51:58,290 --> 00:52:01,320

Like, okay, I, I, I like being in the

director's seat, or, you know, I like

 

1077

00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:03,660

just kind of saying it, you know,

writing it, putting it out there.

 

1078

00:52:03,660 --> 00:52:04,830

I mean, what's your preference?

 

1079

00:52:04,830 --> 00:52:05,670

Or do you have one?

 

1080

00:52:05,730 --> 00:52:08,880

Larry Charles: Well, directing was

a kind of a, a pipe dream, you know?

 

1081

00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:11,100

I, it was, seemed like

very unrealistic to me.

 

1082

00:52:11,100 --> 00:52:15,900

I was embarrassed, like if in Brooklyn

you couldn't say to people, oh, I wanna be

 

1083

00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:18,300

an actor, or I want to be a, a director.

 

1084

00:52:18,585 --> 00:52:22,005

You would get beat up, you know,

you would get chased, you would get

 

1085

00:52:22,005 --> 00:52:25,575

abused, you know, so I'd never told

anybody I wanted to be a director.

 

1086

00:52:25,815 --> 00:52:30,825

And even once I started having

writing success, I had this hankering,

 

1087

00:52:31,005 --> 00:52:36,015

this dream to direct and I didn't

know how I still, even, I was in

 

1088

00:52:36,015 --> 00:52:37,785

show business, I was successful.

 

1089

00:52:37,905 --> 00:52:42,795

I still couldn't figure out how to make

this transition from writing to directing.

 

1090

00:52:43,005 --> 00:52:45,315

And at a certain point that

kind around mad about you, I

 

1091

00:52:45,315 --> 00:52:47,175

kind of gave up on it really.

 

1092

00:52:47,175 --> 00:52:49,845

And then Larry David did

Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

1093

00:52:49,845 --> 00:52:51,555

He started Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

1094

00:52:51,825 --> 00:52:56,295

And he said to me, you know, you should

direct one of these just out of the blue.

 

1095

00:52:56,445 --> 00:52:59,895

He knew from Seinfeld that I was

very into where the cameras were and

 

1096

00:53:00,165 --> 00:53:04,275

you know, Mo where the actors were,

you know, uh, blocking and stuff.

 

1097

00:53:04,335 --> 00:53:07,935

So he knew that I had an

innate kind of instinct for it.

 

1098

00:53:07,935 --> 00:53:09,375

And he said, you should

direct one of these.

 

1099

00:53:09,375 --> 00:53:10,365

And I said Yes.

 

1100

00:53:10,605 --> 00:53:11,955

And boom, I was a director.

 

1101

00:53:12,510 --> 00:53:13,170

And,

 

1102

00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:14,940

Marc Preston: uh, yeah, that

show had a different field.

 

1103

00:53:14,940 --> 00:53:17,640

It was mostly, it wasn't, uh, you

didn't have the camera on sticks.

 

1104

00:53:17,640 --> 00:53:20,670

It was mostly, it was almost

handheld documentary style

 

1105

00:53:20,670 --> 00:53:21,540

in kind of a way, you know,

 

1106

00:53:22,020 --> 00:53:25,410

Larry Charles: it was a great way to

start directing because it was, it was

 

1107

00:53:25,410 --> 00:53:32,430

all instinct and, um, it wasn't about, uh,

crafts as much as it was like discovering

 

1108

00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:34,860

and finding it and figuring it out.

 

1109

00:53:34,890 --> 00:53:37,650

It was a lot like Seinfeld in

the sense that there was no

 

1110

00:53:37,650 --> 00:53:41,460

Seinfeld, you know, there to, to

create the formula for Seinfeld.

 

1111

00:53:41,460 --> 00:53:44,760

Took a few seasons until

we cracked the code.

 

1112

00:53:45,030 --> 00:53:46,170

And the same thing with Curb.

 

1113

00:53:46,170 --> 00:53:50,640

There was no curb, but it evolved

into what became Curb, you know, and

 

1114

00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:55,200

I was able to be there in the kind of

nascent stages of both of those things.

 

1115

00:53:55,410 --> 00:53:56,400

And I became a director.

 

1116

00:53:56,400 --> 00:53:58,035

So I wound up, I love directing.

 

1117

00:53:58,649 --> 00:54:04,950

But directing is a, uh, a is a, is hard

work in the sense that you have to get

 

1118

00:54:04,950 --> 00:54:08,580

up in the morning and you have to show

up whether you feel like it or not.

 

1119

00:54:08,759 --> 00:54:13,379

And you've got to interact with hundreds

of people and you know, you've got to be

 

1120

00:54:13,379 --> 00:54:17,819

on, and it's a performance as much for

the director as it is for the actors.

 

1121

00:54:17,940 --> 00:54:22,170

So there's a lot of that kind of

pressure in directing, but it's very

 

1122

00:54:22,170 --> 00:54:24,089

satisfying, it's very fulfilling.

 

1123

00:54:24,270 --> 00:54:26,640

It's you, you're leading

this gang of people.

 

1124

00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:31,020

It's like being the captain in

an army and it's, it's very, very

 

1125

00:54:31,020 --> 00:54:32,970

satisfying on all these other levels.

 

1126

00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:34,470

Besides the

 

1127

00:54:34,740 --> 00:54:35,880

Marc Preston: Yeah, because

you want them to trust.

 

1128

00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,880

Seems like it's a really a,

it it's really an exercise and

 

1129

00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:40,950

invo evoking trust from someone.

 

1130

00:54:40,950 --> 00:54:41,100

Yeah.

 

1131

00:54:41,190 --> 00:54:42,060

You know, they trust you.

 

1132

00:54:42,060 --> 00:54:42,840

They'll, right.

 

1133

00:54:43,049 --> 00:54:44,790

You know, 'cause you're asking

'em to do things they may

 

1134

00:54:44,790 --> 00:54:46,200

not necessarily agree with.

 

1135

00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:46,440

You have

 

1136

00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:50,490

Larry Charles: to create a security,

a security blanket for people to do

 

1137

00:54:50,490 --> 00:54:53,460

things that they wouldn't normally

do, especially in something like Bora.

 

1138

00:54:53,670 --> 00:54:59,040

But writing where I can stay home, get

up anytime I want, and start writing

 

1139

00:54:59,040 --> 00:55:01,470

and be by myself and be in my head.

 

1140

00:55:01,770 --> 00:55:06,569

That is a more, I, I find that

to be a more relaxing experience.

 

1141

00:55:07,290 --> 00:55:12,060

I'm not putting my life on the line no

matter what I crazy ideas I might have.

 

1142

00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:17,069

If I'm writing them, I'm safe and

I'm in a kind of a cocoon and an

 

1143

00:55:17,069 --> 00:55:18,750

environment that I'm very comfortable in.

 

1144

00:55:18,750 --> 00:55:20,009

Whereas directing.

 

1145

00:55:20,295 --> 00:55:23,655

You'll find yourself in very,

very precarious positions.

 

1146

00:55:23,835 --> 00:55:26,505

And you can't, you can't say,

oh, I don't feel like doing it.

 

1147

00:55:26,745 --> 00:55:27,645

You have to do it.

 

1148

00:55:27,645 --> 00:55:28,905

So you have to push through.

 

1149

00:55:29,085 --> 00:55:34,065

So directing has other, um, you know,

it has other, uh, pressures that writing

 

1150

00:55:34,065 --> 00:55:36,045

doesn't have, but I love them both really.

 

1151

00:55:36,045 --> 00:55:36,855

I'm lucky.

 

1152

00:55:37,065 --> 00:55:41,985

I feel totally lucky that I have both of

these sort of, uh, arrows in my quiver.

 

1153

00:55:41,985 --> 00:55:42,465

You know,

 

1154

00:55:49,545 --> 00:55:51,015

Marc Preston: before we get

going, I always do what I call

 

1155

00:55:51,015 --> 00:55:52,575

my seven questions to wrap up.

 

1156

00:55:52,905 --> 00:55:52,935

Okay.

 

1157

00:55:52,935 --> 00:55:53,925

A little extra fun.

 

1158

00:55:53,955 --> 00:55:56,565

And, uh, the first question

I always ask, 'cause I always

 

1159

00:55:56,565 --> 00:55:58,245

talk about food at least once.

 

1160

00:55:58,485 --> 00:56:00,495

What is your favorite comfort food?

 

1161

00:56:00,495 --> 00:56:02,145

That one thing you've had?

 

1162

00:56:02,205 --> 00:56:03,225

Good day, bad day.

 

1163

00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:06,031

It doesn't make a difference,

it just kinda lands for you.

 

1164

00:56:06,055 --> 00:56:10,860

Larry Charles: Well, you know, I would say

that there is, there are deli, um, items

 

1165

00:56:10,980 --> 00:56:16,260

that, uh, um, go back to my childhood that

still give me, um, that kind of comfort.

 

1166

00:56:16,320 --> 00:56:20,730

Uh, whether it's chopped liver or

pickled herring or bagel and locks.

 

1167

00:56:21,210 --> 00:56:24,450

Those are the kind of things

that I, I've always loved.

 

1168

00:56:24,810 --> 00:56:30,510

Um, I just had white fish salad the

other day and, um, that kind of, that,

 

1169

00:56:30,515 --> 00:56:34,590

that, the, the sort of association

with those foods really give me

 

1170

00:56:34,590 --> 00:56:35,910

a tremendous amount of comfort.

 

1171

00:56:36,090 --> 00:56:38,190

Marc Preston: I, that, that's

what a wonderful way to put it.

 

1172

00:56:38,190 --> 00:56:40,860

You're association with a food,

it's not just the food itself.

 

1173

00:56:40,860 --> 00:56:41,910

Yes, it's, it's, yes.

 

1174

00:56:42,585 --> 00:56:45,105

I can't ha I can't have a

hard kosher salami without

 

1175

00:56:45,105 --> 00:56:46,005

thinking of my grandparents.

 

1176

00:56:46,155 --> 00:56:46,395

Exactly.

 

1177

00:56:46,395 --> 00:56:47,535

And they would hang the salami.

 

1178

00:56:47,535 --> 00:56:50,865

And my grandmother, I swear, if you

ate the very end of it, you better run

 

1179

00:56:50,865 --> 00:56:54,060

because my grandmother will find you,

you know, you know, growing up in New

 

1180

00:56:54,060 --> 00:56:55,365

York, you had all the great stuff there.

 

1181

00:56:55,365 --> 00:56:57,510

And I'd spoken with Andrew Zimmer

and you know, the, uh, sure.

 

1182

00:56:58,155 --> 00:56:59,325

You know, food Network and whatnot.

 

1183

00:56:59,655 --> 00:57:04,545

And we were lamenting over how like

delis are, uh, kind of going by the

 

1184

00:57:04,545 --> 00:57:06,165

wayside, which really breaks my heart.

 

1185

00:57:06,390 --> 00:57:06,630

I know.

 

1186

00:57:06,825 --> 00:57:07,275

I don't know.

 

1187

00:57:07,365 --> 00:57:07,875

Totally.

 

1188

00:57:07,875 --> 00:57:10,995

But like in New York, you had

a, um, oh, the big one closed.

 

1189

00:57:11,145 --> 00:57:11,595

Larry Charles: Yeah.

 

1190

00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:11,955

A a

 

1191

00:57:11,955 --> 00:57:14,085

Marc Preston: bunch of them

closed here too, in Los Angeles.

 

1192

00:57:14,085 --> 00:57:17,835

So, um, but yeah, C Caners is, uh,

I remember I was there, my grand,

 

1193

00:57:17,835 --> 00:57:21,705

my grandfather actually met my

grandmother at, uh, the Bullocks

 

1194

00:57:21,705 --> 00:57:24,225

on Wilshire, which was a back Sure.

 

1195

00:57:24,225 --> 00:57:25,245

It used to be a department store.

 

1196

00:57:25,245 --> 00:57:26,055

I, I know it well.

 

1197

00:57:26,115 --> 00:57:29,925

He was traveling and, uh, he was, he

back when department stores buy directly

 

1198

00:57:29,925 --> 00:57:33,525

from salespeople, but, and they met out

there and then, so he had this little

 

1199

00:57:33,525 --> 00:57:34,965

connection LA and I was out there.

 

1200

00:57:35,025 --> 00:57:35,550

I forgot I was.

 

1201

00:57:36,550 --> 00:57:39,065

I was out seeing my agent or something,

I forgot what I was doing, and

 

1202

00:57:39,065 --> 00:57:40,265

he said, you gotta go to Cantor.

 

1203

00:57:40,265 --> 00:57:41,285

I says, Cantor, what's that?

 

1204

00:57:41,555 --> 00:57:44,615

I show up, I'm like, oh, this

is, this is, this is my place.

 

1205

00:57:44,615 --> 00:57:46,475

You can go there it the right time of day.

 

1206

00:57:46,475 --> 00:57:49,265

You can see somebody who can barely

have a couple nickels to rub together.

 

1207

00:57:49,265 --> 00:57:51,995

And then you have folks

in TV and film, you know.

 

1208

00:57:52,085 --> 00:57:54,905

So I took my daughter there for the first

time, uh, the last time we were there.

 

1209

00:57:54,905 --> 00:57:58,235

And I felt, I felt like, okay, now you're

the fourth generation who's been here,

 

1210

00:57:58,235 --> 00:57:59,585

you know, so I'm glad they're hanging out.

 

1211

00:57:59,735 --> 00:58:00,485

They're hanging in there.

 

1212

00:58:00,490 --> 00:58:00,550

Yeah.

 

1213

00:58:00,550 --> 00:58:00,751

When I

 

1214

00:58:00,756 --> 00:58:02,975

Larry Charles: first lived in Los

Angeles, when I first came to LA in

 

1215

00:58:02,975 --> 00:58:05,225

the late seventies, it was 24 hours.

 

1216

00:58:05,435 --> 00:58:10,055

And when you did the comedy clubs,

that was the place to go after the

 

1217

00:58:10,055 --> 00:58:13,475

comedy clubs closed like at two

o'clock in the morning, and the music

 

1218

00:58:13,475 --> 00:58:15,605

clubs would also close at that time.

 

1219

00:58:15,815 --> 00:58:20,075

So Ken was like packed at two

o'clock in the morning with famous

 

1220

00:58:20,075 --> 00:58:22,085

musicians and famous comedians.

 

1221

00:58:22,325 --> 00:58:23,795

'cause it was the place to hang out.

 

1222

00:58:23,795 --> 00:58:24,275

It was like.

 

1223

00:58:24,630 --> 00:58:26,910

It was a dream really to

go there at that time.

 

1224

00:58:26,910 --> 00:58:27,509

I loved it.

 

1225

00:58:27,600 --> 00:58:30,420

Marc Preston: Oh, they got that mishmash,

which is, you know, I'm, I gotta go say

 

1226

00:58:30,420 --> 00:58:33,810

the one thing I've got at a, a recipe

I've come up with over the years of, uh,

 

1227

00:58:33,810 --> 00:58:35,910

matza Ball soup, which I'm quite proud of.

 

1228

00:58:36,270 --> 00:58:38,069

But when I'm out there, gotta

do that mishmash with this kind,

 

1229

00:58:38,069 --> 00:58:38,940

I throw everything in the bowl.

 

1230

00:58:38,940 --> 00:58:40,620

My I and a salami sandwich.

 

1231

00:58:40,620 --> 00:58:41,790

I'm very basic.

 

1232

00:58:41,790 --> 00:58:42,299

Very basic.

 

1233

00:58:42,660 --> 00:58:43,110

That's great.

 

1234

00:58:43,380 --> 00:58:46,950

But I, I love how you said the

associations, because again, it's not,

 

1235

00:58:47,190 --> 00:58:50,549

uh, it's not just the way it tastes,

which is great, but it's, it's memories.

 

1236

00:58:50,549 --> 00:58:53,700

You feel like, you kind of feel the

history and it why, you know, but,

 

1237

00:58:53,700 --> 00:58:57,210

well, the next question I got for you,

of my seven is, is if you're gonna sit

 

1238

00:58:57,210 --> 00:59:01,500

down, uh, you're gonna talk story for

a few hours over coffee, let's say at

 

1239

00:59:01,500 --> 00:59:05,640

Caners, who would the three people be

that you would like to sit down with?

 

1240

00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:09,779

And it's not just your conversation, but

you get to observe their conversation.

 

1241

00:59:09,779 --> 00:59:12,450

Who would tho living or not, who

would those three people be you

 

1242

00:59:12,450 --> 00:59:13,470

would enjoy sitting down with?

 

1243

00:59:13,740 --> 00:59:15,900

Larry Charles: Well, one would

be the, the name that popped into

 

1244

00:59:15,900 --> 00:59:17,970

my mind first was Billy Wilder.

 

1245

00:59:18,450 --> 00:59:23,009

Um, Billy Wilder to me was

the consummate craftsman.

 

1246

00:59:23,549 --> 00:59:29,880

His stories, his movies, his

screenplays are jewels of craft.

 

1247

00:59:29,910 --> 00:59:31,860

They're kind of perfect in a way.

 

1248

00:59:32,339 --> 00:59:34,650

Um, so he would be one person.

 

1249

00:59:34,980 --> 00:59:39,900

Um, you know, um, I mean, can, can

I say somebody like Shakespeare?

 

1250

00:59:39,900 --> 00:59:42,540

You know, I'm just curious what yeah.

 

1251

00:59:42,540 --> 00:59:47,069

What his take would be on, on

writing today, you know, to be

 

1252

00:59:47,069 --> 00:59:51,420

able to sit with him and find out,

you know, what his craft was, what

 

1253

00:59:51,420 --> 00:59:54,420

his, his writing habits were even.

 

1254

00:59:54,810 --> 01:00:00,150

And, um, that, that to me would be an

incredible person to, to include in

 

1255

01:00:00,150 --> 01:00:02,160

that, in that sort of group, you know?

 

1256

01:00:02,700 --> 01:00:07,620

Um, and the third person might be

somebody like Lenny Bruce actually,

 

1257

01:00:07,620 --> 01:00:12,420

because when I was young and I

would like read, I actually read

 

1258

01:00:12,420 --> 01:00:14,549

Lenny Bruce before I even heard him,

 

1259

01:00:14,819 --> 01:00:17,250

Marc Preston: and I was Really,

yeah, because there was a book.

 

1260

01:00:17,370 --> 01:00:19,980

What, what does he, what did

he have like little articles?

 

1261

01:00:19,980 --> 01:00:21,815

He do he have books or He had like, uh,

 

1262

01:00:21,960 --> 01:00:24,990

Larry Charles: he had a book called

The Essential Lenny Bruce, and he had

 

1263

01:00:24,990 --> 01:00:30,180

a book called, uh, how to, um, how

to Top Dirty and Influence People.

 

1264

01:00:30,450 --> 01:00:36,270

He had those two books and um, so

I learned his routines from the

 

1265

01:00:36,270 --> 01:00:40,560

books before I heard the records,

and I was always struck by.

 

1266

01:00:40,950 --> 01:00:42,990

The craft of those things too.

 

1267

01:00:42,990 --> 01:00:47,339

I, I thought, wow, these are like

stream of consciousness sort of

 

1268

01:00:47,339 --> 01:00:54,089

stories that, um, you know, are unique

in the way that they're like jazz,

 

1269

01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:56,670

but with comedy, you know, so he

 

1270

01:00:56,795 --> 01:00:57,480

Marc Preston: Right, right.

 

1271

01:00:57,509 --> 01:01:00,480

He might be, oh, that's what a

wonderful connection, jazz and comedy.

 

1272

01:01:00,480 --> 01:01:05,009

It's, it's freeform with a little bit of a

plan in there, you know, it's, it's, yeah.

 

1273

01:01:05,009 --> 01:01:05,910

That, that would a great con.

 

1274

01:01:05,940 --> 01:01:06,240

Yeah.

 

1275

01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:06,990

I see that.

 

1276

01:01:07,410 --> 01:01:11,160

Um, you know, well, as kind of a side

note we mentioned, I forgot to ask

 

1277

01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:15,210

you, uh, how did the religious thing

come together with you and Bill Maher?

 

1278

01:01:15,210 --> 01:01:19,319

Was that something that, did y'all already

have an established relationship where,

 

1279

01:01:19,350 --> 01:01:20,850

you know, this was being discussed?

 

1280

01:01:21,210 --> 01:01:23,759

Uh, or did he kinda like, okay,

we need a director for this thing?

 

1281

01:01:23,880 --> 01:01:27,509

Larry Charles: No, actually it was,

it was interesting because I, we had

 

1282

01:01:27,509 --> 01:01:29,009

totally, we, we didn't know each other.

 

1283

01:01:29,009 --> 01:01:30,630

We had a lot of mutual friends.

 

1284

01:01:30,930 --> 01:01:32,250

But we did not know each other.

 

1285

01:01:32,250 --> 01:01:36,629

And after Bora was done, Fox

wanted us to do a sequel to Borat.

 

1286

01:01:37,350 --> 01:01:40,109

And we sat, we didn't, we

really didn't wanna do it.

 

1287

01:01:40,109 --> 01:01:45,569

And Sasha was absolutely against doing a

sequel, but we had one meeting where the

 

1288

01:01:45,569 --> 01:01:50,339

writers and myself and Sasha talked about

could there be a sequel to this movie?

 

1289

01:01:50,580 --> 01:01:57,089

And at that meeting I suggested that Bora

tries to find a new religion for Kazak.

 

1290

01:01:58,319 --> 01:02:00,149

And the idea was rejected.

 

1291

01:02:00,149 --> 01:02:04,680

But I went off myself and I thought,

wow, there's something about religion.

 

1292

01:02:04,680 --> 01:02:09,810

And I knew because of my knowledge

of movies, I knew all the religious

 

1293

01:02:09,810 --> 01:02:14,339

movies, you know, all the Charlton

Heston stuff, all the King of Kings and

 

1294

01:02:14,339 --> 01:02:18,600

you know, just all the cheesy religious

movies that had been made in Hollywood.

 

1295

01:02:18,750 --> 01:02:23,250

And I was like, wow, I could do some

kind of religious satire and use.

 

1296

01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:27,299

These movies, these pop

culture references, and this

 

1297

01:02:27,299 --> 01:02:28,770

would be like a fun movie.

 

1298

01:02:28,920 --> 01:02:34,049

And I told my agent and he said, we just

were told that Bill Maher wants to do

 

1299

01:02:34,049 --> 01:02:36,029

a movie that's a satire of religion.

 

1300

01:02:36,480 --> 01:02:40,410

So they got us together and we

sat down and Bill had written a

 

1301

01:02:40,410 --> 01:02:42,509

number of essays about religion.

 

1302

01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:46,440

And I had all these ideas about

satirizing religion through

 

1303

01:02:46,440 --> 01:02:48,420

using pop culture references.

 

1304

01:02:48,795 --> 01:02:51,674

And we put that together

and that became the movie.

 

1305

01:02:52,065 --> 01:02:55,485

Marc Preston: I think at the time people

attacked it as being, some people attacked

 

1306

01:02:55,485 --> 01:02:56,895

it as being an attack on religion.

 

1307

01:02:56,895 --> 01:03:00,315

It really, it was just, I think

no religion was left untouched.

 

1308

01:03:00,315 --> 01:03:00,404

Right.

 

1309

01:03:00,404 --> 01:03:01,665

You know, for the most part, you know?

 

1310

01:03:02,055 --> 01:03:02,115

Yeah.

 

1311

01:03:02,115 --> 01:03:04,755

And I always, which I, one of the

things, even being a Jew, I'm like,

 

1312

01:03:04,755 --> 01:03:08,505

you know that thing of, uh, the, what

they call the Shabbas goi, you know,

 

1313

01:03:08,505 --> 01:03:12,705

the, you know, it's like, okay, but

you're the one who decided to have them

 

1314

01:03:12,705 --> 01:03:14,445

do this so you're equally accountable.

 

1315

01:03:14,445 --> 01:03:17,355

You know, like, oh God, where

is, I think you're in Israel.

 

1316

01:03:17,355 --> 01:03:20,355

And he went somewhere and they were

like being elevators or telephones.

 

1317

01:03:20,355 --> 01:03:23,415

And it's like this whole, right, all

these contraption people come up with

 

1318

01:03:23,775 --> 01:03:25,424

Larry Charles: around the chais rules.

 

1319

01:03:25,830 --> 01:03:27,330

That was like, yeah, yeah.

 

1320

01:03:27,330 --> 01:03:27,839

Fascinating.

 

1321

01:03:27,839 --> 01:03:31,799

That It's like, well, why are these,

why do these rules exist if your job,

 

1322

01:03:31,799 --> 01:03:35,040

if you just spend your entire life

trying to figure out ways around it?

 

1323

01:03:35,220 --> 01:03:36,870

And they would say,

well, this is what God.

 

1324

01:03:36,870 --> 01:03:39,810

God wants us to figure

out a way around it.

 

1325

01:03:39,810 --> 01:03:40,020

You know?

 

1326

01:03:40,020 --> 01:03:40,915

So there was all this kind of.

 

1327

01:03:41,335 --> 01:03:46,465

Always this soft sophist logic

to all these different religions.

 

1328

01:03:46,465 --> 01:03:51,445

They all had their own, uh, hypocrisies

and they had their own rationalizations.

 

1329

01:03:51,445 --> 01:03:52,585

You know, it's fascinating.

 

1330

01:03:52,855 --> 01:03:53,095

Marc Preston: Yeah.

 

1331

01:03:53,125 --> 01:03:58,045

That's one of the things that I think

it's, it's so relevant today because

 

1332

01:03:58,045 --> 01:04:02,215

you, you, the way that you know,

and, and again, no, no organized

 

1333

01:04:02,215 --> 01:04:06,085

religion is, is safe from criticism,

but you look at what's going on

 

1334

01:04:06,085 --> 01:04:08,140

today in America, uh, the way that.

 

1335

01:04:08,550 --> 01:04:11,040

And you got a lot of good

friends who are Christian.

 

1336

01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:14,640

Some were very devout Christians,

and, but they don't ascribe to the

 

1337

01:04:14,640 --> 01:04:17,760

stuff you hear about on, you know,

these folks who are like, they were

 

1338

01:04:17,760 --> 01:04:20,190

voting on something in Congress the

other day and everybody's praying.

 

1339

01:04:20,190 --> 01:04:23,790

I'm like, I don't know much about

the, the New Testament, but I know

 

1340

01:04:23,790 --> 01:04:24,900

you're not supposed to do that.

 

1341

01:04:24,900 --> 01:04:27,150

Like, doing it out in the open is not

like, you know, it's supposed to be

 

1342

01:04:27,150 --> 01:04:30,900

a private, now it's being used as a

justification, kind of a gift, like a

 

1343

01:04:30,900 --> 01:04:35,490

wrapping around a more nefarious, you

know, intent, which is, I don't know.

 

1344

01:04:35,490 --> 01:04:38,310

So it's even in, in a way it's,

it, let's just say it holds up now.

 

1345

01:04:38,310 --> 01:04:42,360

I think that, uh, anybody hasn't seen

religious, it's just, I, I wa I can't,

 

1346

01:04:42,540 --> 01:04:43,440

I don't know where it's streaming.

 

1347

01:04:43,440 --> 01:04:44,460

I want my son to see it.

 

1348

01:04:44,460 --> 01:04:45,570

'cause I know he would love watching.

 

1349

01:04:45,570 --> 01:04:46,105

It's, it sounds,

 

1350

01:04:46,105 --> 01:04:48,390

Larry Charles: it sounds somewhere

like Amazon or something like that.

 

1351

01:04:48,390 --> 01:04:48,900

You can find it.

 

1352

01:04:49,140 --> 01:04:49,620

Marc Preston: Isn't that funny?

 

1353

01:04:49,620 --> 01:04:51,390

We live in an area, it's on somewhere.

 

1354

01:04:52,410 --> 01:04:55,260

Like, it's like I, and, and like

this thing, everything I wanna watch

 

1355

01:04:55,260 --> 01:04:56,820

a lot of times is behind a paywall.

 

1356

01:04:56,820 --> 01:04:57,840

So I guess I have good taste.

 

1357

01:04:57,840 --> 01:04:58,145

Right, right, right.

 

1358

01:04:58,290 --> 01:05:01,920

Um, but uh, but the next question

I got for you is if when you were

 

1359

01:05:01,920 --> 01:05:05,010

a young guy, uh, you have a good

memory, so we gotta know who was

 

1360

01:05:05,010 --> 01:05:06,690

your very first celebrity crush?

 

1361

01:05:08,085 --> 01:05:10,455

Uh, you mean like a woman

that I fell in love with?

 

1362

01:05:10,725 --> 01:05:11,115

Yeah.

 

1363

01:05:11,115 --> 01:05:11,295

Yeah.

 

1364

01:05:11,295 --> 01:05:13,484

Somebody saw like, oh my God, who is this?

 

1365

01:05:13,694 --> 01:05:15,585

This is, well, that's a

really, you know, captivating.

 

1366

01:05:15,674 --> 01:05:18,944

Larry Charles: Um, it might have

been somebody like Mary Tyler Moore,

 

1367

01:05:18,944 --> 01:05:21,464

actually, um, more than a movie star.

 

1368

01:05:21,464 --> 01:05:26,145

I mean, I, I I, you know, I remember

some like it hot and being completely

 

1369

01:05:26,145 --> 01:05:31,845

blown away by Marilyn Monroe in that,

um, that's not the most original answer,

 

1370

01:05:31,845 --> 01:05:33,615

but I think a lot of people were.

 

1371

01:05:34,035 --> 01:05:38,685

Um, but Marilyn Monroe was,

was absolutely, um, singular

 

1372

01:05:39,134 --> 01:05:39,915

in her beauty, right?

 

1373

01:05:40,154 --> 01:05:42,825

I mean, I, I loved all those women.

 

1374

01:05:42,825 --> 01:05:47,085

I loved Rita Hayworth and Jane

Russell, and I love the TV women too.

 

1375

01:05:47,384 --> 01:05:51,345

I mean, uh, you know, Mary Tyler

Moore, even Donna Reed, you know,

 

1376

01:05:51,345 --> 01:05:55,395

it's like, I, I didn't, um, I don't

think I discriminated very much.

 

1377

01:05:55,395 --> 01:05:56,625

I, I really was like.

 

1378

01:05:57,465 --> 01:06:00,705

Interested in all of 'em and, you

know, just, just kind of like turned,

 

1379

01:06:00,855 --> 01:06:02,595

Marc Preston: well, Mary

Tyler Moore had the chutzpah.

 

1380

01:06:02,625 --> 01:06:05,295

She was kind of a dynamo

in the industry as well.

 

1381

01:06:05,295 --> 01:06:05,505

That answer

 

1382

01:06:06,890 --> 01:06:09,885

Larry Charles: had that enthusia and,

you know, she just had a certain,

 

1383

01:06:10,365 --> 01:06:14,445

uh, kind of, uh, way about her

demeanor that was very appealing.

 

1384

01:06:14,745 --> 01:06:15,525

Marc Preston: Well, very good, very good.

 

1385

01:06:15,525 --> 01:06:18,285

Now the next question I got for you,

if you're gonna be forced to live on

 

1386

01:06:18,285 --> 01:06:21,855

an exotic island for a whole year,

alright, it's somewhere you want to be.

 

1387

01:06:21,855 --> 01:06:22,995

It's, it's somewhere very nice.

 

1388

01:06:23,145 --> 01:06:23,175

Okay?

 

1389

01:06:23,445 --> 01:06:24,555

But you don't have streaming.

 

1390

01:06:24,555 --> 01:06:26,895

So you, if you, since you don't

have streaming, you're gonna wanna

 

1391

01:06:26,895 --> 01:06:30,195

listen to music and you're allowed to

bring one CD or let's say a box set,

 

1392

01:06:30,195 --> 01:06:33,225

you can do that too, uh, that you

can listen to over and over again.

 

1393

01:06:33,285 --> 01:06:34,575

And the same thing with a movie.

 

1394

01:06:34,575 --> 01:06:37,335

So you can bring a DVD,

what would that CD be?

 

1395

01:06:37,335 --> 01:06:40,095

Or a box set, and what would that

movie be you'd bring to the island?

 

1396

01:06:40,095 --> 01:06:41,805

Something you could watch

over and over again.

 

1397

01:06:41,805 --> 01:06:43,215

You're just not gonna tire off.

 

1398

01:06:43,275 --> 01:06:45,915

Larry Charles: Well, you know, I was

just thinking this morning, um, I didn't

 

1399

01:06:45,915 --> 01:06:49,815

know you were gonna ask this, but I was

thinking this morning how much I loved,

 

1400

01:06:50,235 --> 01:06:52,305

um, pink Floyd's, wish you were here.

 

1401

01:06:52,785 --> 01:06:56,625

Um, and, uh, particularly

shine on you crazy diamonds.

 

1402

01:06:57,285 --> 01:07:02,384

Um, and I, and that's a, an album that's

now, I don't know, 40 years old or

 

1403

01:07:02,384 --> 01:07:07,485

something, but I, I constantly go back

to it and, um, there's something that

 

1404

01:07:07,485 --> 01:07:09,615

really resonates in that album for me.

 

1405

01:07:10,005 --> 01:07:15,015

And I think if I was, if I had to,

I might choose that album or I would

 

1406

01:07:15,015 --> 01:07:17,235

choose like a Pink Floyd box set.

 

1407

01:07:17,654 --> 01:07:24,825

Um, because their music spans so much

interesting styles and genres and, uh,

 

1408

01:07:24,825 --> 01:07:31,245

periods, um, I always find there's more

to be gotten out of their, their music.

 

1409

01:07:31,575 --> 01:07:36,015

So again, off the top of my head, I

might say Pink Floyd as far as a movie

 

1410

01:07:36,015 --> 01:07:40,095

goes, one movie that is a, a tough one.

 

1411

01:07:40,095 --> 01:07:44,865

But I might choose something like,

um, and this is a weird, might seem

 

1412

01:07:44,865 --> 01:07:49,695

like a weird choice for me, but it's

not is a Weekend by Jean Luca Dart.

 

1413

01:07:50,115 --> 01:07:52,335

Um, it's a French movie.

 

1414

01:07:52,335 --> 01:07:54,075

It's very dense.

 

1415

01:07:54,345 --> 01:07:59,295

It's a kind of movie that you

can't really watch one time and

 

1416

01:07:59,295 --> 01:08:01,635

get everything out of it, you know?

 

1417

01:08:01,635 --> 01:08:04,245

And I think a movie that you're

gonna be stuck on a desert island

 

1418

01:08:04,245 --> 01:08:08,655

with is a movie that has to keep

on revealing itself, um, yeah.

 

1419

01:08:08,655 --> 01:08:09,225

Layers,

 

1420

01:08:09,375 --> 01:08:11,445

Marc Preston: you know, like where

you're kind of seeing different, yeah.

 

1421

01:08:11,445 --> 01:08:11,446

Larry Charles: Yeah.

 

1422

01:08:11,451 --> 01:08:14,985

And so the Weekend was always, has

always been a movie that it's like,

 

1423

01:08:14,985 --> 01:08:20,295

wow, I never, you, I'm, I, every time

I watch it, I see it from a different

 

1424

01:08:20,295 --> 01:08:25,395

angle and I see new things and it's

almost like a painting in a way that

 

1425

01:08:25,395 --> 01:08:27,705

keeps revealing different details to you.

 

1426

01:08:27,765 --> 01:08:28,215

So.

 

1427

01:08:28,545 --> 01:08:28,815

Right.

 

1428

01:08:28,815 --> 01:08:31,520

It might be my two choices, but tomorrow

I might have different, how great is

 

1429

01:08:31,840 --> 01:08:33,194

Marc Preston: I, I, you know,

I've never seen that before.

 

1430

01:08:33,255 --> 01:08:35,115

That's, I, that's one thing

I love about doing this.

 

1431

01:08:35,115 --> 01:08:37,484

I get to discover things

I hadn't heard of before.

 

1432

01:08:37,575 --> 01:08:37,635

Yeah.

 

1433

01:08:37,635 --> 01:08:38,415

Or seen, you know.

 

1434

01:08:38,415 --> 01:08:38,685

Yeah.

 

1435

01:08:39,435 --> 01:08:41,355

If you were to define, uh, next question.

 

1436

01:08:41,355 --> 01:08:43,279

If you were to define from the time

you get up to the time you go to sleep.

 

1437

01:08:44,295 --> 01:08:48,105

All the component or a handful of

component parts of a perfect day for

 

1438

01:08:48,105 --> 01:08:51,675

you, what would that, what would some

of those component parts be like?

 

1439

01:08:51,675 --> 01:08:54,645

Uh, if you had these things

happen in a day is like, this is

 

1440

01:08:54,645 --> 01:08:56,025

a perfect day, what would that be?

 

1441

01:08:56,775 --> 01:08:59,085

Larry Charles: Well, I, I was

just hanging out with my wife and

 

1442

01:08:59,085 --> 01:09:01,305

I really, really adore my wife.

 

1443

01:09:01,755 --> 01:09:07,425

And so any, any perfect day would

involve me hanging out with my wife.

 

1444

01:09:07,815 --> 01:09:08,955

I really like that.

 

1445

01:09:08,955 --> 01:09:12,525

I'd probably feel the

most myself with my wife.

 

1446

01:09:12,675 --> 01:09:17,085

And, um, and so that, that

would be one, you know, absolute

 

1447

01:09:17,085 --> 01:09:18,495

essential component of it.

 

1448

01:09:18,825 --> 01:09:23,655

Um, writing something that, you know,

kind of, uh, stumbling into something

 

1449

01:09:23,655 --> 01:09:26,055

that I was excited about creatively.

 

1450

01:09:26,400 --> 01:09:30,540

In my writing, that would also

be a very important component.

 

1451

01:09:30,660 --> 01:09:34,080

I would say directing, but

you can't really do anything

 

1452

01:09:34,080 --> 01:09:36,000

else if you're directing.

 

1453

01:09:36,330 --> 01:09:36,510

Yeah.

 

1454

01:09:37,260 --> 01:09:39,000

Larry Charles: So, um, I love directing.

 

1455

01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:42,270

If I was to have a day of

directing, that really went well.

 

1456

01:09:42,450 --> 01:09:46,770

That also the end of a day of good

directing where things really worked out,

 

1457

01:09:46,980 --> 01:09:49,320

that's an exhilarating day also, you know?

 

1458

01:09:49,325 --> 01:09:49,545

Mm-hmm.

 

1459

01:09:49,625 --> 01:09:50,760

So those kind of things.

 

1460

01:09:50,760 --> 01:09:54,660

Watching a great movie, you know,

or, and reading a great book,

 

1461

01:09:54,660 --> 01:09:56,310

both of those things are things.

 

1462

01:09:56,925 --> 01:10:01,605

That I, that I pretty much do every

day and, uh, when I have the time.

 

1463

01:10:01,844 --> 01:10:04,365

And those give me great satisfaction also.

 

1464

01:10:04,545 --> 01:10:06,915

So it would be some sort of

combination of those things.

 

1465

01:10:07,184 --> 01:10:08,295

Marc Preston: Now, next question.

 

1466

01:10:08,295 --> 01:10:11,415

If, if you weren't doing this for a

living and somebody said, you know, Larry,

 

1467

01:10:11,415 --> 01:10:14,804

you're not gonna be able to do anything,

you know, writing, directing, anything

 

1468

01:10:14,804 --> 01:10:19,094

like this, you've gotta find another

vocation or something else you could have

 

1469

01:10:19,094 --> 01:10:21,405

done that would bring you joy as well.

 

1470

01:10:21,405 --> 01:10:22,695

What, what, what do you

think that would be?

 

1471

01:10:23,235 --> 01:10:25,455

Larry Charles: Well, I always

regretted not learning how to

 

1472

01:10:25,934 --> 01:10:27,825

play an instrument or read music.

 

1473

01:10:27,884 --> 01:10:32,175

Um, but, so let's take that out of

the equation since I can't do that.

 

1474

01:10:32,175 --> 01:10:35,625

But I think I would choose

drawing actually, like cartooning.

 

1475

01:10:35,985 --> 01:10:40,065

Um, cartooning is something that

I've, I've always been attracted to.

 

1476

01:10:40,275 --> 01:10:42,644

I was very good at it at one time.

 

1477

01:10:42,915 --> 01:10:46,485

I've kind of fallen outta practice

'cause I don't really do it anymore.

 

1478

01:10:46,755 --> 01:10:50,535

But I think if I was, if all those

other avenues were closed off to me,

 

1479

01:10:50,804 --> 01:10:54,315

I think I would go back And again,

drawing like writing is something

 

1480

01:10:54,315 --> 01:10:56,235

I could do sitting here at my desk.

 

1481

01:10:56,625 --> 01:11:01,304

So I, and I love that idea, you know,

that I can be as creative as I want.

 

1482

01:11:01,514 --> 01:11:06,764

I could be in any world that I want

inside my head and put it down on paper.

 

1483

01:11:06,945 --> 01:11:09,945

I think cartooning would be the,

uh, the creative outlet for me.

 

1484

01:11:10,155 --> 01:11:12,195

Marc Preston: The thing about the

instrument, I, I'm the same way, you

 

1485

01:11:12,195 --> 01:11:14,535

know, but of course you have like,

you've had the opportunity, like you

 

1486

01:11:14,565 --> 01:11:15,884

spent time with Bob Dylan, you know?

 

1487

01:11:15,974 --> 01:11:16,094

Yeah.

 

1488

01:11:16,455 --> 01:11:17,955

I would be inspired at the same time.

 

1489

01:11:17,955 --> 01:11:19,245

They'd be like, yeah, I can't do that.

 

1490

01:11:19,394 --> 01:11:20,985

You know, there's no way.

 

1491

01:11:20,985 --> 01:11:22,964

So you, you could, that's your thing.

 

1492

01:11:22,964 --> 01:11:24,644

I know I'm not gonna get to that level.

 

1493

01:11:24,690 --> 01:11:25,275

Right, right.

 

1494

01:11:25,514 --> 01:11:27,195

Larry Charles: I had been learning

how to play the harmonica.

 

1495

01:11:27,195 --> 01:11:28,695

I was even taking lessons.

 

1496

01:11:28,964 --> 01:11:33,585

And then this up, working with Bob

Dylan and I actually gave up the

 

1497

01:11:33,585 --> 01:11:35,415

harmonica 'cause I felt like an idiot.

 

1498

01:11:36,210 --> 01:11:39,690

You know, playing harmonica

at le like with Bob Dylan

 

1499

01:11:39,690 --> 01:11:41,100

around, it's like ridiculous.

 

1500

01:11:41,100 --> 01:11:43,710

It's like he's the greatest

harmonica player of all time.

 

1501

01:11:43,920 --> 01:11:45,780

Marc Preston: So I act, you see

a guy like that and he's got

 

1502

01:11:45,780 --> 01:11:46,950

the guitar and the harmonica.

 

1503

01:11:46,950 --> 01:11:47,790

I'm like, what's going on?

 

1504

01:11:47,790 --> 01:11:49,050

How does this, how is this possible?

 

1505

01:11:49,050 --> 01:11:51,360

I just wa it was the, uh,

the, uh, a complete unknown

 

1506

01:11:51,360 --> 01:11:52,020

watch that I'm like, yeah.

 

1507

01:11:52,050 --> 01:11:53,340

Which I think is just so wonderful.

 

1508

01:11:53,430 --> 01:11:53,520

Yeah.

 

1509

01:11:53,850 --> 01:11:59,670

I think to be a musician, you have

to almost be so deep into it to

 

1510

01:11:59,760 --> 01:12:00,810

really, you know, I don't know.

 

1511

01:12:01,260 --> 01:12:04,530

I don't know if I'd have necessarily

the, uh, patient, I, I, I'm too

 

1512

01:12:04,530 --> 01:12:06,630

impatient, I think, to be a musician.

 

1513

01:12:07,110 --> 01:12:07,560

Me too.

 

1514

01:12:07,860 --> 01:12:08,400

Um, that's

 

1515

01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:08,880

Larry Charles: my problem.

 

1516

01:12:09,150 --> 01:12:10,470

Marc Preston: Now, the last

question I got for you.

 

1517

01:12:10,470 --> 01:12:13,290

If you were to jump into that

DeLorean, and you can go back to

 

1518

01:12:13,290 --> 01:12:16,320

when you were 16 years old, you

have a piece of advice for yourself.

 

1519

01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:19,470

You got a few minutes to offer a piece

of advice, either to make that moment

 

1520

01:12:19,470 --> 01:12:22,620

a little bit better or maybe put

yourself on a little different track.

 

1521

01:12:22,620 --> 01:12:26,160

What would that piece of advice

be, uh, to 16-year-old you?

 

1522

01:12:26,970 --> 01:12:30,090

Larry Charles: Well, I, I

would say trust your instincts.

 

1523

01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:34,230

Don't, um, you know, have

doubts, have uncertainty.

 

1524

01:12:34,575 --> 01:12:38,985

But, but become comfortable with those

doubts and uncertainty because if

 

1525

01:12:38,985 --> 01:12:43,515

you can navigate your doubts and your

uncertainty and trust your instinct,

 

1526

01:12:43,845 --> 01:12:46,065

you'll get to a place that is fulfilling.

 

1527

01:12:46,665 --> 01:12:49,395

Um, you know, Joseph Campbell

used talking about following your

 

1528

01:12:49,395 --> 01:12:53,475

bliss, you know, and I don't think

there's any substitute for that.

 

1529

01:12:53,805 --> 01:12:58,155

I think that you have, but when you're

a teenager, you're, you're all over the

 

1530

01:12:58,155 --> 01:13:00,405

place for a million different reasons.

 

1531

01:13:00,765 --> 01:13:06,825

And what I would suggest to the

16-year-old me was relax, you know, get

 

1532

01:13:06,825 --> 01:13:09,375

into yourself, think about your mind.

 

1533

01:13:09,765 --> 01:13:15,255

You know, don't be scared of the

future, you know, be trusting

 

1534

01:13:15,255 --> 01:13:18,345

of your own instincts and

you'll get where you have to go.

 

1535

01:13:18,525 --> 01:13:22,815

It may not be where you think you wanna go

even, but you'll get where you have to go.

 

1536

01:13:22,815 --> 01:13:23,055

Mm-hmm.

 

1537

01:13:23,210 --> 01:13:25,485

Marc Preston: Which kinda reminds

me of that phrase, man plans.

 

1538

01:13:25,485 --> 01:13:26,685

God laughs, you know?

 

1539

01:13:26,985 --> 01:13:30,375

But, um, but that kinda brings it back

to your father, you know, because,

 

1540

01:13:30,615 --> 01:13:34,245

you know, he didn't necessarily

go that direction and that.

 

1541

01:13:34,615 --> 01:13:36,625

There was some regret there

from what you told me.

 

1542

01:13:37,585 --> 01:13:41,515

Um, but I, but I think you, you went

a pretty good direction, you know,

 

1543

01:13:41,515 --> 01:13:44,755

I think, I think you, you know,

and I, and I'm, I can't wait to, to

 

1544

01:13:44,755 --> 01:13:46,645

get really further into your book.

 

1545

01:13:46,750 --> 01:13:48,145

I, I really have enjoyed it.

 

1546

01:13:48,145 --> 01:13:51,475

I like your writing style is,

is just, it's an easy read.

 

1547

01:13:51,475 --> 01:13:52,195

I will say that.

 

1548

01:13:52,195 --> 01:13:55,135

And I, I'm so looking forward

to it, and it's a jewel box

 

1549

01:13:55,135 --> 01:13:56,575

of a lot of wonderful stories.

 

1550

01:13:56,575 --> 01:13:59,995

And I, I think that's, uh,

it's, it's a, it's its own gift.

 

1551

01:13:59,995 --> 01:14:05,155

And I think it's a, especially having

watched all of these shows, and I think

 

1552

01:14:05,155 --> 01:14:08,430

there was a, not a, I don't wanna call

it a golden era, but there was, and,

 

1553

01:14:08,695 --> 01:14:13,705

and let's say the nineties TV was, a

lot of things were becoming possible.

 

1554

01:14:13,705 --> 01:14:15,985

And you were right there and you're

doing a lot of amazing stuff.

 

1555

01:14:15,985 --> 01:14:19,550

And I, and I'm, I'm so fortunate to

do, and I really do appreciate the,

 

1556

01:14:19,585 --> 01:14:23,935

the opportunity to just sit down

and, uh, uh, uh, and give it, just,

 

1557

01:14:24,085 --> 01:14:27,775

you know, shoot the shit you, and

I'm looking forward to the other.

 

1558

01:14:28,010 --> 01:14:31,760

Part of the 1000 pages, you know,

for the next one, uh, I wish you

 

1559

01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:33,830

nothing but the best and hopefully

you'll have an opportunity to,

 

1560

01:14:33,830 --> 01:14:34,670

uh, catch up down the line.

 

1561

01:14:34,670 --> 01:14:35,510

Same to you my friend.

 

1562

01:14:35,510 --> 01:14:36,320

Larry Charles: Great to meet you.

 

1563

01:14:36,320 --> 01:14:37,370

Thank you for your time.

 

1564

01:14:39,320 --> 01:14:39,590

Marc Preston: Alright.

 

1565

01:14:39,590 --> 01:14:40,040

There you go.

 

1566

01:14:40,040 --> 01:14:40,490

Larry.

 

1567

01:14:40,490 --> 01:14:44,750

Charles, what a cool, pulling back of

the curtain to kind of find out a little

 

1568

01:14:44,750 --> 01:14:46,550

bit more about how things were made.

 

1569

01:14:46,550 --> 01:14:49,160

You know, some of the most

iconic television shows.

 

1570

01:14:49,190 --> 01:14:53,840

Uh, you know, uh, again, he's just

been involved in everything it seems

 

1571

01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:58,100

like, and, uh, all different corners

of all things comedy, which, you

 

1572

01:14:58,100 --> 01:14:59,450

know, me, if you listen to the show.

 

1573

01:14:59,450 --> 01:15:00,860

I, I love comedies.

 

1574

01:15:00,890 --> 01:15:02,210

I want more comedies.

 

1575

01:15:02,300 --> 01:15:04,130

Uh, the Goofier the Better.

 

1576

01:15:04,970 --> 01:15:08,900

And don't forget the new book, uh,

from Larry Charles, the memoir, uh,

 

1577

01:15:08,900 --> 01:15:10,970

which is, uh, I, I like the title.

 

1578

01:15:10,970 --> 01:15:11,750

It's a lot of fun.

 

1579

01:15:11,750 --> 01:15:16,490

Comedy Samurai, 40 years,

that was Ranger by the way.

 

1580

01:15:17,280 --> 01:15:18,600

You know, I'm not even gonna retake this.

 

1581

01:15:18,600 --> 01:15:19,650

I'm just gonna go do it again.

 

1582

01:15:21,900 --> 01:15:27,360

Uh, comedy, comedy Samurai, 40

Years of Blood Guts and Laughter.

 

1583

01:15:27,810 --> 01:15:29,580

And, uh, it's, uh, it's a great book.

 

1584

01:15:29,580 --> 01:15:30,570

I've gotten into it.

 

1585

01:15:30,570 --> 01:15:31,830

It is, uh, very cool.

 

1586

01:15:31,860 --> 01:15:33,360

Uh, a lot of great stories.

 

1587

01:15:33,360 --> 01:15:34,530

And, uh, he's a great storyteller.

 

1588

01:15:34,530 --> 01:15:36,330

Like the way, uh, he writes.

 

1589

01:15:36,330 --> 01:15:38,550

Also very easy read, as I mentioned.

 

1590

01:15:38,640 --> 01:15:43,080

Do me a favor, if you would just, uh,

pop on over to story and craft pod.com,

 

1591

01:15:43,080 --> 01:15:44,610

everything you wanna know about the show.

 

1592

01:15:44,610 --> 01:15:46,590

Doggone it, it is right there.

 

1593

01:15:46,920 --> 01:15:48,870

Uh, you know, you wanna send me a note?

 

1594

01:15:48,870 --> 01:15:49,410

You can do that.

 

1595

01:15:49,410 --> 01:15:51,420

Also, you wanna find

out about a past guest?

 

1596

01:15:51,420 --> 01:15:52,680

Well, that's there too.

 

1597

01:15:52,740 --> 01:15:56,040

Also, uh, do me a favor, if

you would, on your podcast app.

 

1598

01:15:56,040 --> 01:15:57,840

Make sure to follow Story and craft.

 

1599

01:15:57,930 --> 01:15:59,250

New episode rolls out.

 

1600

01:15:59,250 --> 01:15:59,520

Boom.

 

1601

01:15:59,520 --> 01:16:00,990

You got yourself a notification.

 

1602

01:16:01,260 --> 01:16:03,600

Also, leave a review, leave some stars.

 

1603

01:16:03,600 --> 01:16:05,460

Help people find story and craft.

 

1604

01:16:05,460 --> 01:16:06,780

It is much appreciated.

 

1605

01:16:06,930 --> 01:16:10,230

And, uh, as, uh, you know, I

mentioned we're living in kind

 

1606

01:16:10,230 --> 01:16:11,850

of a wild world right now, man.

 

1607

01:16:11,850 --> 01:16:12,901

It's, especially if you are.

 

1608

01:16:13,394 --> 01:16:16,365

One of our US listeners,

it's crazy Times Atel.

 

1609

01:16:16,394 --> 01:16:19,004

So if you're like me podcast, kick it on.

 

1610

01:16:19,004 --> 01:16:20,565

I get to kind of check out for a moment.

 

1611

01:16:20,565 --> 01:16:24,105

So if you've jumped on to listen to

the show, just to kind of check out

 

1612

01:16:24,105 --> 01:16:25,455

and have a little time to yourself.

 

1613

01:16:25,634 --> 01:16:28,605

Thank you very much

for, uh, for doing that.

 

1614

01:16:28,724 --> 01:16:29,504

It's a compliment.

 

1615

01:16:29,684 --> 01:16:32,924

Again, thank you so much for making

whatever I've got going on here,

 

1616

01:16:32,924 --> 01:16:37,335

part of whatever you've got going

on, it is greatly appreciated.

 

1617

01:16:37,424 --> 01:16:40,455

So, uh, go have a great rest of

your day, great rest of your week.

 

1618

01:16:40,455 --> 01:16:41,110

We will see you.

 

1619

01:16:41,495 --> 01:16:45,305

Shortly on the next

episode of Story and Craft.

 

1620

01:16:45,605 --> 01:16:48,365

Announcer: That's it for this

episode of Story and Craft.

 

1621

01:16:48,394 --> 01:16:50,825

Join Marc next week for more conversation.

 

1622

01:16:51,035 --> 01:16:55,265

Right here on Story and Craft

Story and Craft is a presentation

 

1623

01:16:55,295 --> 01:16:56,705

of Marc Preston Production's.

 

1624

01:16:56,765 --> 01:17:03,184

LLC Executive Producer is Marc Preston,

associate producer is Zachary Holden.

 

1625

01:17:03,665 --> 01:17:07,144

Please rate and review story

and craft on Apple Podcasts.

 

1626

01:17:07,175 --> 01:17:11,375

Don't forget to subscribe to the

show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

 

1627

01:17:11,495 --> 01:17:12,965

or your favorite podcast app.

 

1628

01:17:13,325 --> 01:17:16,265

You can subscribe to show

updates and stay in the know.

 

1629

01:17:16,415 --> 01:17:20,555

Just head to story and craft pod.com

and sign up for the newsletter.

 

1630

01:17:21,125 --> 01:17:21,635

I'm Emma Dylan.

 

1631

01:17:22,295 --> 01:17:25,835

See you next time and remember,

keep telling your story.