#1418 - Don Gavin

[0] Three, two.

[1] Hello, Don Gavin.

[2] Hello, Joe Rogan.

[3] Good to see you, sir.

[4] It's good to see you.

[5] It's been a long time.

[6] Yeah, it's a pleasure to get you on here, man. I'm a thrill to be here.

[7] We've talked about you, I don't know how many times, many times.

[8] I've heard that by my son.

[9] He says you mentioned my name, Glowingly.

[10] Yeah, well, hey, man, you were a giant inspiration to me when I was coming up.

[11] That's good to hear.

[12] Well, you know, I've talked about this so many times, but that era of Boston comedy, when I started in 88 and you guys had already been through the dingho and all that had been gone and it was the heyday of comedy.

[13] It was an amazing time and, you know, I was very fortunate to be able to see guys like you and Sweeney and, you know, and all those guys.

[14] Mike Donovan and Kevin Knox and, I mean, you go down the list over and over and over again.

[15] Lenny Clark and just an amazing time for stand -up back then.

[16] Yeah, that was certainly the heyday.

[17] I came in, started at around 79.

[18] And it's been going on for one or two years, but going on, meaning not much going on.

[19] And then it built and built and built and then to the point that that explosion is just it, wow.

[20] And I always like to think people talk about a Boston style.

[21] It wasn't a Boston style, other than being very aggressive maybe.

[22] But everybody had different ways to do it because we didn't know.

[23] It wasn't like an L .A. style or New York style.

[24] There was just all different approaches coming out to the same man. Yeah, you started in 79, so that was really like the beginning of comedy clubs, right?

[25] Yeah, well, they weren't even comedy clubs.

[26] You mentioned the Dingho.

[27] Dingho used to be a, like a saloon, and the guys that were sitting at the bar, and we first went in there, they refused to leave.

[28] So they stayed at the bus, and all they would do is when we put somebody in on the, up on the stand, you know, they'd turn around and say, shut the fuck up, we're trying to drink here.

[29] We couldn't get, we couldn't get rid of it.

[30] So finally we will let out because they get so tired of here.

[31] the microphone.

[32] But that was just a joint.

[33] That's all you can say.

[34] And it became a Chinese restaurant.

[35] Yeah.

[36] So it wasn't a Chinese restaurant at first?

[37] It was just a saloon, I think.

[38] And and then Shunley, this guy came in.

[39] It was approached to put comedy in there.

[40] And Barry Khrman was one of the guys originally.

[41] Lenny, myself, Sweeney, as you mentioned.

[42] DJ has the people like that.

[43] Jimmy Dingle.

[44] There was a bunch of us that came in at that time.

[45] And once again, no particular one style other than the fact that we kind of created that the headliner would be the host yeah that was a weird Boston style like when you have the Don Gavin show you would go out there and host and you do a few minutes in between each comic right yeah well we didn't know it was weird because I wanted to be in charge and if Joe Rogan went on and you're supposed to do 15 and you do great great now Bill Johnson comes on and he blows I'm going to go up and take the mic after about six minutes Yeah, that was Bill Jones.

[46] And then go on to the next cut.

[47] Yeah.

[48] And then at the end, that headliner would close the show.

[49] Yeah.

[50] So you had that much control over.

[51] But when you started doing more and more shows, like I started in Nix in Boston, initially it was a joke.

[52] It was supposed to be a tax write -off.

[53] They tried to sabotage it.

[54] That used to be a stake joint.

[55] Really?

[56] Yeah, Nick's Stake Joint.

[57] And so when we did it, one week the stage was collapsed.

[58] Next week, there'd be no sound.

[59] Next week, no lighting.

[60] the doors would be locked and then eventually more more people coming in then they got upset because we were getting in the way of the people going to the stake pot and then they said well maybe we can make money of this.

[61] We'll go upstairs there was an upstairs there and that was used only on one night of the week for Greek belly dances where they were paid $200 the next was $200.

[62] In fact these Greek belly dances the production food they brought in their own liquor so they only made $200 for the liquid.

[63] So one's Once we were going to theater, one show, then the show, and eventually, and around the time when you came in, we were doing five shows.

[64] My night, on Saturday night, five shows in the same place, upstairs and downstairs.

[65] Yeah, I remember that.

[66] That was before I was getting paid, so I was really an amateur, but I remember watching, there was a show in the upstairs room, and then there was a smaller downstairs room, and then there was another time where they did it in the disco, right?

[67] They had, which is, it is a disco now, I think, right?

[68] Well, if it is, it's a very sad disco.

[69] Well, it was sad then, too.

[70] Yes.

[71] But it was strange that everyone was cycling from room to room.

[72] Right.

[73] And you go from upstairs to downstairs.

[74] And again, the first week we tried that with the fire show, you were trying to host.

[75] It was impossible to go, but, yeah, I mean, the guy on the side of the stage would go, you're supposed to be on downstairs.

[76] I'm going, I just started up here.

[77] And it was so confusing that you get on stage and you say, good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

[78] Have I already said that?

[79] I mean, you weren't sure.

[80] It got to the point, and also with a few drinks involved by the fifth show, yeah, with some repetition sometimes.

[81] Well, that was the thing that was also about, that was interesting about Boston comedy, was that the partying.

[82] Like, you guys were a bunch of fucking savages.

[83] I mean, that's what I remember.

[84] Yeah, it was pretty widespread.

[85] But again, we didn't know.

[86] And almost all of us got in trouble.

[87] with the IRS because you get paid in cash.

[88] Right.

[89] And then you just kind of forgot.

[90] That's what I said to when I got called in.

[91] I hadn't paid taxes since seven years, and I got called in.

[92] And I said to the guy, I thought it was humorous.

[93] I said, well, I forgot.

[94] And he didn't think there was that humorous at all.

[95] So that went on and on and on and on and on to finally get that cleared up.

[96] How do they catch you on something like that?

[97] How did they calculate it?

[98] Because I was on a cover of a calendar magazine in the Boston Globe.

[99] There was a group shot of about eight, ten of us.

[100] and there was my picture and this guy had the picture and you know when he confronted me he goes I'll come we don't know anything about this so you know did they pay for this what do you do for me you know used to be a teacher where's that money you know so yeah so that was how he got caught so the little bit of infamy of fame I guess that they had this went yeah everybody got done in with the IRS I know Donovan he got done in oh the whole crew the whole crew everybody how do you clear that up like how do they decide how much you owe Oh, that's certainly, that's a give -and -take type of situation.

[101] They have an impeachment thing.

[102] I mean, I had guys knocking on my door at 7 o 'clock in the morning, and then you'd have to meet with this guy, and then that guy would get fired and would start all over again, and lawyers.

[103] Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

[104] But it finally got cleared up.

[105] They took extra money.

[106] They weren't going to get the old thing, so they took some of them.

[107] How many years did it take to clear it up?

[108] For me, it was quite a four or five years.

[109] is, I think.

[110] Wow.

[111] Yeah.

[112] Yeah.

[113] Jesus Christ.

[114] How much they hit you for overall?

[115] At one point, I was a little behind.

[116] I think it was $128 ,000.

[117] And that was the figure that they came up.

[118] But 80 % of that was in interest on the, you know, the fact that they didn't pay them the $400.

[119] That $400 finally would go up to $1 ,500.

[120] So that's how the deal was.

[121] But somebody thought it was a gold mine to attack the entertainers.

[122] And that was us.

[123] Once they got one, they get another on another.

[124] And the dominoes kept following.

[125] Oh, did anybody skate?

[126] Did anybody wind up actually paying their taxes?

[127] Oh, almost all of us still.

[128] No, but did anybody, like, not get in trouble?

[129] Oh, yeah.

[130] There was some, a few of intelligent people.

[131] Like who?

[132] Well, the ones that had families.

[133] Oh, okay.

[134] Yeah, the normal ones, I guess.

[135] That actually paid.

[136] Yeah, the ones that were not at those parties.

[137] There was a thing about you guys, though.

[138] Like, it was, for us, young guys coming up, like, you guys were like, you guys were like Peter Pan's like you were you were living this life as what you know Boston's a very blue collar place right sure hard work in place all of New England and we stumbled in as amateurs as open micers to this environment that you know where you guys were the kings and you guys were fucking wild men like there's we heard those stories nicks would pay in coke and it's just everybody was drinking all the time and it was like everyone was laughing and yelling and I was like How is this possible?

[139] How do these men get to live this life?

[140] And what I was doing when I first thought, I was a high school teacher.

[141] Yeah.

[142] So I was teaching and doing this, getting out of the clubs at three or four in the morning and then attempting to be a teacher about three or four hours later.

[143] When did you quit?

[144] I got out of teaching in 84, I think.

[145] So I did maybe crossed over the two together.

[146] And that was a rough patch there.

[147] Because I knew something had to give.

[148] Yeah.

[149] And I tell the story that I was coming home from teaching, not from the clubs at night, but teaching.

[150] And I fell asleep at the wheel, and this was on the highway, and I was hitting the stanchion on the side of the highway, bang, bang, bang, bang.

[151] And eventually, as I'm going down this gully, you know, all they pass in front of you?

[152] No, what passed in front of me was, how am I going to make it to the show tonight?

[153] And my head went through the windmill, the whole deal.

[154] I came up, climbed up out of the gully.

[155] I'm trying to thumb to get home.

[156] I've got blood running down in his face.

[157] I had no idea how bad it was.

[158] Then I had to go to the hospital.

[159] So I go, my friend, we go back, I was going to get the car out of the go -week.

[160] The car was total, you know, I mean, beyond total.

[161] And there's hair and blood on the bleach here.

[162] Oh, I'd better pick one job with the other.

[163] So the comedy won out.

[164] Did they have open mic nights in 79?

[165] Oh, no. In 79, no. When you first started, what was it like?

[166] Well, the first time there was only one place in existence, that that was the comedy connection.

[167] The little one?

[168] The one on Warrington Street?

[169] Yeah, probably, yeah, 150 seats at 200.

[170] And two guys ran that.

[171] I think there was, Sean Morrie was the guy that had been on the Tonight Show.

[172] So that's, in our days, that was like, oh, my God.

[173] So he ran a comedy class, and two guys took the class, Billy Downs and Paul Barclay.

[174] And they decided that, you know, maybe we'll do this comedy thing.

[175] But again, people didn't know what a comedy club was.

[176] You mentioned that.

[177] Like when Jay Leno was way before us, There was no comedy clubs.

[178] He worked in maybe strip drawings or like at an auto place or this or that.

[179] There was no place to go to say.

[180] And even people would say, what's the comedian?

[181] Other than watching TV, you didn't know really what stand -up comedy was even.

[182] So the beginning of it started off slow.

[183] And I remember my first paycheck once I get paid, $8.

[184] That was your first?

[185] $8, yeah.

[186] Wow.

[187] And I still have that.

[188] I have the copy of the checks.

[189] Do you really?

[190] copy of it.

[191] I actually cashed it.

[192] I needed the $8.

[193] Of course.

[194] So that was what Billy Downs and Brockley did that.

[195] And in those days, you auditioned instead of an open mic.

[196] So it was just the two of them.

[197] And I had to go in front of them.

[198] And I looked at the two in and I said, I don't, I don't really like this because I said, no, at least one of the you two are not going to understand what I'm doing.

[199] Because you really don't look like a brain trust yet.

[200] And I got hired.

[201] And I immediately was really good.

[202] and the next show I did was really good I'm doing the same 10 minutes because I was a bartender and had some patter and the third one they called me like a night before and said somebody fell out can you come in and what I had done I had written 15 minutes of comedy that day sure I have you know but in my mind that's what I thought and it was the worst death of the world that 50 I got about two minutes in and people always say you know what happens when you bomb well you don't you don't really you don't really bomb after you doing this for a while, but that two or three minutes seems like an eternity, you know.

[203] It seemed like hours, and then I just went back into some of the old stuff, and I get out, and I actually got into a fist fight with Lonnie Clark about it, because he was, he kept understanding me, you know, do you work in New York?

[204] You know, I said, I'd never been on a stage before in my life, you know, and so we, when we were not friends at all at the beginning, and we get into, we get into a little to go over that.

[205] And you guys said a fist fight?

[206] Well, he said, yeah, he said, oh, that was a great set.

[207] He was shitting on me. And his friend saw him, you know, with witness to the fight, and broke it up and he says to Lenny, he goes, he goes, he said, what's all about it?

[208] He said, he said, he just said he had a good show.

[209] He sucked, he knows it, and you're being an asshole to call him, you know, calling him out.

[210] And then maybe he came fast friends after that.

[211] That's hilarious.

[212] Yeah, Lenny was the second guy I ever got paid to open for.

[213] Really?

[214] Yeah, the first guy was, um, God damn it.

[215] Warren MacDonald Yes Bill McDonald's brother It was George McDonald's brother Wasn't there Bill McDonald's brother?

[216] No There was George McDonald was the host of the open mic night He could have been Yeah Wasn't there a Bill McDonald's too Didn't they have another brother named Bill?

[217] Not that, no No, I'm fucking it up No Kevin Kevin was a fighter Kevin McDonald That's right Kevin wound up Going away for a little bit Yeah, he visited a couple places.

[218] A couple places.

[219] Yeah, that's right.

[220] That's right.

[221] Okay, I fucked it up.

[222] Right.

[223] But I opened up for Warren.

[224] Right.

[225] Open up for Warren in a Norm LaFo gig in Western Massachusetts.

[226] Very good memory.

[227] Yeah.

[228] Yeah, Warren was one of the original way back guys.

[229] Yeah.

[230] And then another normal foe gig was when I opened up for Lenny.

[231] Wow.

[232] That was Jay's in Pittsfield.

[233] Did you ever do that one?

[234] I don't remember that one.

[235] No, that was a good one.

[236] Really?

[237] Yeah, it was a good one.

[238] Three and a half hours away.

[239] And well worth it.

[240] Yes.

[241] Well, it was.

[242] for me because I got to know Lenny and Mike and just to get on just stage time yeah yeah yeah because there were so few places that were in effect doing comedy but but during the time when I was an open mic or things exploded I was very fortunate that was when there was three clubs on Warrington Street alone right right there was Knicks there was the connection and then there was a comedy club of the Charles above the connection that duck soup that was across the street yeah but you remember when Mike had the comedy club of the Charles above the comedy connection for a brief period of time?

[243] Yeah, yeah.

[244] So there was three, and then there was duck soup that was on the other side, so it was four.

[245] All within like a hundred yards.

[246] It's crazy, and they were all packed.

[247] Yeah, and their lines would be out on the street.

[248] The middle of winter, I remember going out at my show on the Saturday.

[249] There's people out there were two inches of snow on their head, and I'm going, you're actually waiting to see me?

[250] There's something wrong with you, people.

[251] Well, it was something magical about those times because comedy clubs just overall were only a couple decades, old in the whole country.

[252] I mean, you had the earliest ones where like comedy magic club, Comedy Connection, Catch Rising Star in New York.

[253] Right.

[254] He had a couple of clubs that were open before, you know, before the Boston explosion.

[255] But this is all real recently.

[256] So like, imagine's an art form that takes over the entire country and it really only started in the year 2000.

[257] Yeah, from the inception, from the inception to the explosion.

[258] Yeah.

[259] It was not a mature a art form maybe 10 years, 12 years Right, you got Lenny Bruce in the 50s George Carlin in the 60s Prior You know and then all the sudden You're in the 1980s It's a couple of decades And these clubs were fucking packed I mean I really wish somebody had done a documentary on it back then Because it was such a strange time If you could get real footage I know Fran Salamita had that one Documented when stand -up stood out But I would like to have just shown, like, how crazy it was.

[260] People were scalping tickets.

[261] Yeah.

[262] I said, oh, my God.

[263] But it wasn't anywhere else like that.

[264] Chicago never had an explosion like that.

[265] Boston had the weirdest explosion.

[266] Yeah, and there was a multitude of people that were talented.

[267] Yes.

[268] It wasn't just, you know, a few.

[269] There was a lot, because I used to go down in New York, and New York had a scene and L .A. had a scene, but nothing as expansive as that.

[270] And I started after those two had already been done, you know.

[271] Yeah, the Boston scene was a different animal because you could work everywhere.

[272] The thing is you could work in town and you can get paid in town.

[273] You could do, you know, there's all the different places.

[274] Say it again, played against Sam's, right?

[275] Stitches.

[276] All those different clubs.

[277] But then there was all these satellite rooms, all the Dick Doherty rooms and all the connection had rooms and Boston comedy had rooms.

[278] There were everywhere.

[279] There was hundreds of rooms.

[280] Right.

[281] And they were good rooms.

[282] And then I think.

[283] The demise, at least from the real apex, I think, came when the comedians were no longer running the clubs.

[284] You know, his owners came in and the greed factor and every corner store, you know, a tire company would go out of business.

[285] Oh, that's a comedy club now.

[286] The gas station, a bowling alley.

[287] How many bowling alleys do we work in in those days?

[288] So why after that?

[289] And I think what happened was it gets so diluted that people would go to a show and say, I don't know what all this is all about, this vera, because it's, this is, they didn't get to see the good community.

[290] Well, there was a, there was about 12 of you, you know, there was like 12 murderers who would just run around.

[291] And to this day, I swear, I tell everybody, I think they're the best comics I've ever seen in my life.

[292] To this day.

[293] There was moments at the, at the, at the, at the, at the, uh, the next comedy stop and it stitches where I'm like, that is about as good as standard of comedy ever gets.

[294] And some of those moments, like the, the comedy stop, Nick's comedy stop.

[295] Comedy Stop used to do a dirty trick when a famous comedian would come into town.

[296] Yeah, an outsider.

[297] They would have some poor bastard like, you know, like, you know, fill in the black.

[298] You don't even need to name it.

[299] Just someone who didn't do comedy that often.

[300] Richard Lewis, let's say him.

[301] And he would be the headliner.

[302] Right.

[303] But before him would be you and Sweeney and Kenny and Kenny Rodgerson and it would just be a murderer's row of fucking savages.

[304] Yeah, Mike McConnell.

[305] Yes, this guy after this guy.

[306] And these poor bastards, I saw, I came to Nick's comedy stop right after Billy Crystal had bombed.

[307] I, like, he came up the stairs and they were talking about it.

[308] Like, you guys had set them up.

[309] And, you know, people were saying, like, you never seen nothing like in your life.

[310] This poor guy's a movie star, and he went on stage, just ate plates of shit.

[311] Yeah, after, yeah, after five people had just been destroying.

[312] He's destroying for an hour, right?

[313] So you got, like, each guy's doing 15 minutes.

[314] And you've got all these guys going up there just killing.

[315] And it wasn't unintentional.

[316] It was for, you know, why is this guy in our town?

[317] Yes.

[318] Yeah, yeah, that's it.

[319] Well, that was the thing about Boston.

[320] Like, when a guy came into town, like, if you do stand up in any, like, you do stand up in Philadelphia.

[321] Like, if you showed up in Philadelphia, people would go, oh, let's go see Don Gavin.

[322] They would want to go see you.

[323] If you do stand up in Boston, you're from out of Boston, everybody's like, fuck this guy.

[324] They just just set them up.

[325] And the club would set him up.

[326] That was what was so crazy.

[327] Well, the reason they would bring these other outsides and they would get plugs possibly on the Tonight Show or something like that.

[328] None of us were on the scene or on the, you know, on the radar.

[329] So they would bring in like George Miller was a guy, I remember, you know, a nice sweetheart of a guy.

[330] But, you know, he was just what you said, running the gauntlet before, you know, before he got on.

[331] What did those guys think when they watched that?

[332] They must have been fucking terrified.

[333] Well, Richard Lewis went on TV, almost in tears complaining about it.

[334] And they put all the skirts in there.

[335] I know where they got all these guys.

[336] And I did it first night.

[337] And then they did it the second night.

[338] And I don't understand what they have against me. And I think she said, well, maybe they're funnier.

[339] You know, it was one of those comments.

[340] Yeah, well, it was a dog -eat -dog world there.

[341] You had to be able to survive in Boston.

[342] And the tension span, like the way the stand -up was, it's like they didn't let you guys, like, I should say they, you didn't let anybody breathe.

[343] There's a Boston style of comedy.

[344] It's like, here's a fucking bunch line.

[345] There's another punchline.

[346] There's another punchline.

[347] Take a breath.

[348] Boom, there's another one.

[349] And these other guys that would come in from out of town were not accustomed to that style of performing.

[350] More laconic and more much like this.

[351] And I was told that I talked 70 words a minute, gusts to 100.

[352] And I have, you know, those VHS tips.

[353] And I play some of those one time recently.

[354] I'm going, I have no idea.

[355] All I know, there's people laughing, but I have no idea what I was saying.

[356] I'm going, oh, my God.

[357] Yeah.

[358] Well, you had sneaky punchlines.

[359] You would sneak punchlines in.

[360] It would look like you were done, and the sides would come in, and boom.

[361] Or a tag here and a tag there and move over there.

[362] Did you just develop that style on your own?

[363] Yeah, I didn't.

[364] Again, what don't I know about style?

[365] That's just the way it was.

[366] I was always a fast talker.

[367] You know, you come from big Irish families, and if you don't talk fresh, you're not going to get the bread or you're not going to get the food.

[368] So I had three brothers, and downstairs, my cousins lived, and there were six there.

[369] So, you know, it was always bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

[370] And it was all, everybody was an Irish Catholic, basically, that was on the comedy scene, you know.

[371] Yeah.

[372] It was certainly not homogenized by any means.

[373] Well, that's also interesting, too, because it was, in a lot of places, it was more of a Jewish thing.

[374] Sure, sure.

[375] But Boston, it wasn't.

[376] Boston, it was like a lot of, and big guys, too.

[377] That was the other thing.

[378] Everybody was like six foot three.

[379] Everybody's a big half fucking gorilla.

[380] Yeah.

[381] And they were all doing Coke and drinking.

[382] And it was like, whoa.

[383] Oh, this is a crazy place.

[384] It was almost like, well, you better be funny.

[385] And also, if a fight breaks out, you'd be better be good at that too.

[386] Yeah.

[387] I'd just be sort of good at it, but certainly you're not backing down.

[388] But that was the thing about it.

[389] It's like comedy in a lot of people's eyes is thought to be something that like nebishy, you know, sort of insecure people get involved in.

[390] You guys were all fucking savages.

[391] So it was weird for me because, like, people would say, oh, I always felt like comedians hated themselves.

[392] And they're all real insecure.

[393] I'm like, I didn't really see that.

[394] Like, not where I started.

[395] I can remember Ballot at the Ding Hall.

[396] I mean, it was a pretty good brouhaha at the end.

[397] It started, I think it started outside the club as they were coming in, and it emanated that it was inside and outside at the same time.

[398] And at the end, we went to finish doing the show, and at the end, all people were talking about nothing about the show.

[399] It was just about, hey, man, that tingle really held his own, didn't he?

[400] You know what I'm talking?

[401] We're talking about.

[402] I said, you don't have to see someone on someone, so it's a two headlock And they're going, what about the show?

[403] Oh, yeah, that was good.

[404] But then nothing to do it.

[405] There was a lot of brawls.

[406] I remember brawls.

[407] I remember a lot of brawls breaking out of clubs.

[408] But it was just, to me, I didn't realize how lucky I was to start there in 1988.

[409] I really didn't.

[410] When you came in, I always thought when you came in, I'm saying, wow, this guy has got something.

[411] But I thought it was a little too dirty.

[412] I thought that wasn't going to work for it.

[413] But you knew kind of, you had it in your head what you had to do.

[414] You knew that you had to measure up or how you could be pushed to the side when you came in.

[415] Don't you agree with that?

[416] Well, there was not much room.

[417] You know, you had to be good.

[418] Like, even if you wanted to go from being an open mic or to hosting or to getting a gig, you know, on the road, you had to be good.

[419] Boston didn't leave you any room for scrubs.

[420] There was, it was too many.

[421] Right.

[422] Too many good comics.

[423] Yeah.

[424] That was definitely dirty.

[425] But I was, that's all I was interested in, you know.

[426] I mean, like, when I was 21, I was a fucking savage.

[427] All I cared about was sex.

[428] Sex and I came from fighting.

[429] Yeah.

[430] So, like, that's all I, I didn't know anything.

[431] It would fit in, though.

[432] Yeah.

[433] What I thought was funny was, you know, just, it was kind of fun.

[434] And I was talked into doing comedy by guys that I trained with.

[435] Right.

[436] So I didn't think that I was funny.

[437] I didn't think I was going to be funny.

[438] I made them laugh, but I thought, well, you guys are fucking psychos.

[439] Of course, I'm making you laugh.

[440] My sense of humor is wrong.

[441] It's all fucked up.

[442] They're going to think I'm an asshole.

[443] So I was talked into doing it And the first comedy show that I ever saw I went to Stitch's Open mic night And I went and watched And I remember seeing going Sitting there watching all these guys go up on stage And seeing people do it for the first time And I realized oh a lot of people suck Like you could do this Yeah I'm better than that guy I'll probably be better than some of these people at least Yeah when I first came in An audition thing I talked about I went in a number of those people We were talking about were on stage And I was prepared to do this audition and I was with this girl at the time, and she goes, what about the audition?

[444] I go, no, no, I don't think so.

[445] So I just left, but didn't even explain it.

[446] And I went back to the next week, and then again, real good guys, but there was one guy, and I won't mention the name, you wouldn't know the name.

[447] But I'm going, oh, finally, someone I know that I'm better than this guy, and that's when I auditioned that night.

[448] But he got me in the show business.

[449] I could, well mention his name.

[450] Gene Franz was his name.

[451] He may still be alive, I don't know.

[452] But he has no idea that he got me in the company.

[453] well that's Richard Jenny said that once that that's the purpose that really bad comedians serve they inspire people to try it oh it were it's something real to that but I remember my first open mic night when I went up you know it wasn't very funny but I got to see Teddy Bergeron Teddy Bergeron performed that night and he fucking lit that place on Jonathan Katz was the host wow yeah Jonathan Katz was the host and there's a guy you talked about that was kind of uh you know know, a different direction.

[454] It's a smooth and slow, slow, easygoing.

[455] And yet he was a fan favorite.

[456] Yes, hilarious.

[457] Yeah.

[458] Great comic.

[459] And then went on to do that cartoon, Dr. Katz.

[460] Yeah, which I did that.

[461] Yeah.

[462] That was fun, yeah.

[463] But watching Teddy go on stage, so Teddy was in his prime, it made me want to quit.

[464] I was like, oh, Jesus Christ.

[465] Yeah, he had been on, he had already been on, like, the Tonight Show and the gold diggers with Dean Martin and stuff.

[466] So when he was, you know, when he was sober.

[467] Yeah On his game Wow Oh my God Yeah To this day He's one of the best I've ever seen He was so smooth Yes Yeah I'm app polished Where a lot of the other guys Were rough fixed Yes it was different And he had more pauses And he was a slow And he dressed well And yeah He almost stood out Just because of that But it was kind of classy You know He looked like He could do no wrong So when he would have a problem With drugs and alcohol I was so confused I was like How that guy Yeah I was like That guy's the same smoothest ever yeah because you know when i saw him he was like in his 30s he was he was young and just uh fucking on top of it right i got i got a chance to work with him a bunch of times yeah weird gigs like the matt of poise it in and this a bunch of all these names i don't know it's my curse they're gonna a bunch of strange names for places stuck in the head down the cape and the one night is yes yes those were great though i mean boy you talk about seasoning you would get a a lifetimes worth of on the road just traveling all these different places and seeing all these different weird bar crowds and standing out of a fucking milk crate doing stand up into a shitty microphone all those gigs and once I get into it full time that encompassed that was your whole life and you were working six nights maybe seven nights a week and probably five or six different venues sometimes three or four venues in the same evening you get in the car and go over here and go over there go over there I mean I don't know how many years it was before I realized you could date someone that was not a waitress I wasn't even aware of that Yeah that was a weird ecosystem right It was like comics and waitresses Hand in hand Yeah You know we're just so fortunate That we were from That we started our comedy in Boston Because it was It was a magic time And when I would talk to people That are from like Arizona Like how did you start out Like well I had to drive two hours to Tucson And like fuck Yeah Like there was nothing I was told that when I moved out here For a brief period of time I lived in Studio City.

[468] I was told that I would be driving sometimes two hours to make $100.

[469] I go, yeah, right, right.

[470] And four months later, I'm driving two and a half hours to make $75.

[471] I'm going, wow, somebody knew what was going on here.

[472] When I thought it was coming out and signed with the agency Spotlight, was the name of the agency, everybody was supposed to be.

[473] They're the people that ripped everybody off, right?

[474] Yes, they promised everything and never delivered on the word.

[475] And so I was one of the few that owe them money because I heard something was going south.

[476] So when they finally called me in and looked to get lawyers involved, and I sent them a note back saying, dear so -and -so, I know that I owe you $35 ,000.

[477] Just take it off what you owe $1 ,000 and we'll be all set.

[478] They owed him like $80 ,000 or $100 ,000.

[479] They owed him a lot more than that, didn't he?

[480] But I said, just take it off from that.

[481] Never heard from again.

[482] And I think they beat Milano for over a million dollars.

[483] Yes.

[484] They beat Seinfeld.

[485] They beat everybody.

[486] They beat everybody.

[487] Yeah, there was one agent that was a dirty agent.

[488] There was pocketing all the money.

[489] Yeah.

[490] There was a bunch of those situations like that, though, right?

[491] Bob Williams was the name.

[492] Who's still in the business.

[493] No. Yeah, out of Branson.

[494] Oh, Branson, that's right.

[495] Lenny told me about this.

[496] That's right.

[497] Yeah, fucking Jesus Christ.

[498] I don't know if he changed his name or whatever.

[499] He changed the industry, but he's in Branson, apparently, he's doing quite well.

[500] They never paid everybody back?

[501] No, no, no. Wow.

[502] How is that?

[503] Just clean.

[504] See it.

[505] Oh, my God.

[506] If somebody owed me a million dollars, ooh.

[507] Yeah, but they used to have this thing.

[508] You know, do you like money?

[509] You want the same with this.

[510] We'll give you, if you make this and this, and it was contractually written.

[511] How old did you back then?

[512] Oh, I didn't start coming until I was 33.

[513] Wow.

[514] So that was much late.

[515] I had been a teacher and a coach, and I had two kids, and so I got into this much later than most people.

[516] What brought you into it?

[517] I think probably because I was usually reasonably funny in life and then as a bartender I was a wise guy bartender you know and like for instance people would sit I only had 22 seats four guys would sit and say what's your cheapest beer?

[518] I said root beer get the fuck up screw you know I said those seats I said if you tip me $20 before you order then you can sit there and that people would do it and so that kind of mushroomed that way there but yeah it was again the same aggressive bull shit thing.

[519] So it was easy to carry that on into the on a stage.

[520] But I had never been on a stage.

[521] I thought it was kind of, like you were the Fibish type people, you know, doing stage stuff.

[522] Yeah, I like how you danced around the words there.

[523] Fibish, I think I made a word up even.

[524] Yes.

[525] It was effeminate.

[526] Yes, it was not for manly men.

[527] Yes, not at all.

[528] I was playing basketball and college, and I was waiting, either to get picked up go to the dorm or whatever.

[529] And there was a play going on in rehearsals at this college.

[530] And I'm watching them going.

[531] And it really pissed me off that two of the actors didn't really seem to be put in there.

[532] I fit into it.

[533] And I don't know why, but I'm going, I can do it better than that.

[534] So that was one of the things in the back of my head about being in the stage.

[535] But I had never been, I never had a mic in my hand.

[536] And I used to wear loose pants because I could see my leg shaking.

[537] And that's why, you know, my act, I sit on the stool most of the time.

[538] so that way they wouldn't see me in effect being you know for the first year or so being so you shook that much I think so yeah they were not in the drugs and but the and Tate they would take in the mic out of the mic stand I thought they there's nothing worse than seeing in a community enough they're doing you know this thing bang bang bang with the Were the drugs there from the beginning?

[539] Let me think pretty much yeah yeah pretty much it's like in the old It's like in the old day, it's, you know, the study about your mother says, don't, you know, if somebody offers you a drug, don't take them.

[540] I said, well, they don't offer you.

[541] You have to buy them.

[542] But initially, you didn't have to buy them.

[543] That was the thing.

[544] Everybody was doing it, you know.

[545] It's like smoking.

[546] When I was growing up with a kid, 95 % of people smoked.

[547] And why?

[548] Because everybody ever smoked.

[549] You know, I stopped smoking.

[550] He had 2 ,000.

[551] My clock and I had a bet.

[552] And none of us, we were having had a cigarette since.

[553] So apparently it wasn't addicted, but everybody smoked.

[554] So the same thing in those days, everybody was either a drinker or doing the blow or smoking the bones.

[555] You had at least two or three vices.

[556] A lot of deck chairs to throw off, you know.

[557] Did you have any of those vices before you got in to stand -up?

[558] No, I think it grew, it pretty much blossomed once I get in it.

[559] Now they think of it.

[560] Yeah, I used to smoke, there was about it, but nothing else.

[561] Drinking?

[562] Not heavily at all, hardly.

[563] Not heavily.

[564] And I covered up for it.

[565] I made up a lot of ground.

[566] I mean, now all the guys are, hey, I'm like the only one left drinking.

[567] And I notice it's much more liquor everywhere I go.

[568] There's always liquor now.

[569] Yeah, everybody cleaned up.

[570] Yeah, yeah.

[571] Yeah, they're looking at you.

[572] You're the last Mohican.

[573] Yeah, it's like Bobby Nickman, a comedian, and the writer, and he said that he first got into AA because he needed the stage time, you know, take it up and talk in front of a crowd.

[574] But he was one of the first guys that kind of cleaned up.

[575] and then this guy, and then this guy, and there's very few now.

[576] Well, a lot of guys came from AA, and that's how they got their start.

[577] You remember Dave Fitzgerald?

[578] Oh, sure.

[579] Funny guy.

[580] Yeah, yeah.

[581] He got into comedy from Alcoholics and Honorable.

[582] Because he would go up and stage and tell these crazy old drinking stories, and people would laugh, and then he polished those stories up.

[583] Sure.

[584] Made him tighter, and then started doing stand -up.

[585] But when you, we'll say in the mid -80s, the early 80s, If you weren't a drinker, you were the exception of the rule, again.

[586] Wow.

[587] So you weren't a drinker before.

[588] Not really.

[589] You just started hanging out with these guys.

[590] I'm not blaming any of them on it.

[591] No, hey, look, I'm not even.

[592] But was it right away?

[593] Like, just you walked into this lion's den of people doing drugs?

[594] Who is the fucking, who's patient zero?

[595] Like who?

[596] Because it wasn't that many of you, right?

[597] Well, I think that it came to a culmination at the dinghole.

[598] We basically ran and owned the place And we'd stay there until I can remember walking on there many times Going, oh, beautiful It's not even light out yet It'd be 6 .30 in the morning Right But we were serving drinks And half the people They'd be 10, 12 comedians sitting around And 4 or 5 of other guys And the other guys are cops They're in there drinking with us too So we weren't going to get bus through anything I mean Kenny Rodin first got there He walked in the door there I don't know how But he got there around 2 in the morning And there's six or seven of us, you know, they're either smoking joints, doing some wine, drinking, and we're up on the stage playing cards, you know, for money.

[599] And he goes, he goes, what is this place?

[600] Paradise.

[601] Yeah, he had no idea.

[602] He goes, someone said, well, who are the tequila drink this?

[603] And everybody goes, nobody was else, though.

[604] So then he's getting into other stuff.

[605] And he made up for a lost time, too.

[606] That was what we'd always heard about the dingho, like it was like some legendary place.

[607] You know, when we were starting out, it closed in like 84 or something?

[608] I don't know about the, maybe, yeah, right around that.

[609] I started in 88, and we had heard about the dingho.

[610] It was like, it was spoken and hushed tones.

[611] It was like, you know, that's where it started.

[612] Well, it closed in a heartbeat because the owner lost the club and playing Chinese Domino's.

[613] No, he lost $240 ,000 of one night.

[614] And it was my night.

[615] Then I had my show there on Fridays.

[616] I come in and I never saw chains of padlocks bigger than that in the front and back door.

[617] Never to be reopened as a comedy club.

[618] It became an Indian restaurant or something else, but it just went, phew, gone.

[619] Playing Chinese, I don't even know what Chinese dominoes are.

[620] That's good, probably.

[621] God, I mean, it's crazy how something like that can happen where there is just this one place and one core group of people and then the comedy club scene branches out from that.

[622] Like, Houston used to have this place called The Laugh Stop.

[623] Did you ever work there?

[624] That was the same thing for Houston.

[625] Houston had a great scene.

[626] Houston was a little crazy with people too.

[627] Yeah.

[628] It was wild.

[629] Yeah.

[630] And when I first went there, it was when it was at its wildest.

[631] It was after Kinnison had gone.

[632] Yeah.

[633] Bill Hicks had left and all those guys were gone.

[634] Yeah.

[635] Yeah.

[636] Jimmy Pineapple.

[637] Jimmy worked with me the first time I ever did a weekend there.

[638] And the first time I was ever there, I was like, wow, this place is like a lot like Boston.

[639] Like early, like these are a bunch of wild fucks.

[640] They had an open, they had a show going on in the main room.

[641] And then in the bar area, they had another stage.

[642] And the open mic night started at 8, went until 2 o 'clock in the morning.

[643] So you get done with your show, the show would be over at 10, and you go out to the bar, and you'd be fucking hanging out there for another four hours because the show's still going on.

[644] Yeah.

[645] It was crazy.

[646] It wasn't because I remember a good story there.

[647] I used to walk from the hotel to the venue.

[648] And it was all the, you know, cowboys basically down there.

[649] And so I get, I'm walking.

[650] and I get hit in the back with the water balloon, but you would have thought I was shot by a rhino gun, you know, bang, the thing.

[651] I was soaking wet.

[652] When I get there, I had to put on one of their t -shirts, and I'm going, I can't believe how this guy hit me that could.

[653] But when I get to the club, I see the car.

[654] It was recognizable.

[655] I go, oh, they're coming to see me. So I went inside, got a hammer, and went out during the show and the opening I went out, broke every window in their car, including the directional, the side thing, And I climbed and I understand you.

[656] I got hit by the wallroom.

[657] I said, whoever did it.

[658] Nobody took climbing.

[659] I said, what a great aim you had.

[660] But I didn't mention about their car.

[661] That's hilarious.

[662] Did you go out and watch?

[663] Oh, yeah.

[664] Check to their window.

[665] What they do?

[666] They were not.

[667] I mean, I wrote those little tiny, you know, directions on the side of the car.

[668] I mean, every window.

[669] Because anybody can flatten it.

[670] If you break every single window, that's an accomplishment.

[671] That is an accomplishment, and that's a lot of work to get that thick.

[672] Yeah, it was, especially with no lookouts.

[673] You could change a tire pretty quickly.

[674] Yeah, you had no lookouts, right?

[675] But that scene, the Houston scene was similar in that there was a lot of drugs involved and a lot of really funny comics.

[676] And aggressive too.

[677] Yeah, very aggressive.

[678] Yeah, well, Texas, you know, wild fuckers down there.

[679] But when that club closed, that scene died out for a long time.

[680] It's apparently, it's got a resurgence now.

[681] The scene's coming back.

[682] There's some real good comics coming out of there right now.

[683] but that scene was dead for a long time.

[684] It wasn't much going on down there.

[685] And I was like, that's interesting how a scene, like a place as good as Houston, could close down with one club.

[686] One club goes under and the whole thing just throws water in the fire.

[687] I believe that happened in Chicago.

[688] Chicago used to be a terrific city.

[689] It was my favorite city to travel.

[690] It's a fall comedy.

[691] They had an improv.

[692] They had a catch.

[693] They had the Laugh Factory.

[694] They had, you know, not just Second City, because that's the fall comedy.

[695] different but and that was in the same thing saying these is I think is the only one that's still in existence yeah and and that went off the cliff right away too and again I blame owners you know greed and not paying people and things of that too well they start treating it like any other business comedy clubs are became that business it's an asylum that needs to be run by the inmates yeah yeah that's exactly and when we ran it when I booked all these shows that stuff like yeah there didn't seem be any problem we aren't making much money but we didn't seem to care you know Whatever you made, you're spent.

[696] So if you had $800 in your pocket, wow, I got $8 .00, you know, not thinking about, you know, I guess I might want to eat next week, too.

[697] Next week is next week.

[698] Yeah, that's way in the future.

[699] The way the comedy store works is essentially that way.

[700] I mean, Mitsy obviously ran it, but she let the comedians run it for the most part.

[701] Right.

[702] You know, she let everybody work out their own issues and solve their own problems, and she just book you.

[703] Right.

[704] She just tell you when it go up, and there was just a manhouse.

[705] And to this day, still very similar.

[706] Is it still the same?

[707] Oh, it's packed every fucking night now.

[708] Now it's crazy.

[709] Because the internet, now people hear about it and they know about it.

[710] And you've got people flying in from Australia and England and Ireland just to come down and see comedy all the time, all the time.

[711] Always meeting people there that are, they basically have comedy tourism from Europe.

[712] They fly in to the comedy store like any night of the week because the comedy store on Monday, they'll post the schedule for the week.

[713] Sure.

[714] And so people read the schedule and they go, all right, let's fly in on Tuesday.

[715] So they'll fly from fucking England, 11 -hour flight, and come and see comedy.

[716] Wow.

[717] Because there's no comedy club.

[718] They have a comedy store over there in London, but it's not affiliated.

[719] They just stole the name, and they skirted into international law by, you know, it's like they made their own 7 -Eleven.

[720] We're 7 -Eleven, too.

[721] It's not the same thing.

[722] I don't know what the comedy's like over there in terms of the comedy store, but, you know, when they want to come here, they fly.

[723] And so on any given night, you run into people that are from all over the world.

[724] Wow.

[725] It's crazy.

[726] You should come.

[727] It's nuts.

[728] You should come just to see it.

[729] You know, years ago, way back.

[730] But I haven't been around these.

[731] It's different now.

[732] It's fucking madness.

[733] Yeah.

[734] Lines around the block.

[735] I mean, it's like in a lot of ways.

[736] It's like Nick's in the heyday.

[737] Three rooms.

[738] There's the original room, the belly room and the main room.

[739] All three of them are going at the same time.

[740] Multiple shows a night.

[741] Fucking madness.

[742] Wow.

[743] Yeah, it's nuts.

[744] But without the Coke.

[745] There's no Coke.

[746] No fights.

[747] Really?

[748] Yeah, it's pretty tame.

[749] Yeah, it used to be a pretty scary.

[750] I had Denison out in the back there.

[751] Yes.

[752] It used to be.

[753] Yeah, it's much more calm.

[754] There's a lot of marijuana.

[755] That's about it.

[756] A lot of weed.

[757] Sometimes mushrooms, but that's about it.

[758] Yeah.

[759] So, nothing too crazy.

[760] But it's funny when we were doing it, even though we were doing for a living, it seemed like it wasn't a business.

[761] Yeah.

[762] Like that's I'm promoting this album that I have.

[763] And I had this album done before, and it was great, but I never had anybody produced it, you know, just made some copies of it.

[764] And it's called Don Gavin Live with the Manhattan, live with the Manhattan.

[765] And I was almost like a bootleg.

[766] I sell them, you know, maybe you have a few after a show at the back of my trunk.

[767] But finally, we're releasing it.

[768] That's one of the reasons about it now.

[769] When did you record it?

[770] I recorded it in 2011.

[771] Whoa.

[772] But my material, hopefully, doesn't get stale.

[773] Because I don't do a lot of current events and I don't do politics.

[774] it's still, I mean, I have some jokes that are old or some of the people that come to see me. Now, did you, like, when you put that out, is that the first thing that you've ever put out?

[775] Yeah, that's the only thing.

[776] And I owned it, but I didn't do anything with it.

[777] So now when I get to a virtual comedy network with Joe Serpoch, excuse me, with Jimmy Serpochon, we did another album, a compilation of guys in Boston.

[778] and he saw someone says about me my album he goes I know he had an album and he got a copy of a part he says oh my god this is something like discovering something so he kind of came into my life to help out see if we can produce this thing and now it's on Sirius XM now and Pandore and then it's going on all the streaming devices starting next week but right now it's a I think they have the what do you call the rights just for those two stations so if somebody wants to get it how do they get it Right now, they can get on a Sirius XM or Pandora.

[779] And as if I think next Thursday, it's on streaming live.

[780] Okay, because if it's on Sirius, you have to wait for it to air, right?

[781] You can't just, it's, Sirius doesn't stream, right?

[782] I've got to be honest.

[783] I'm not good about any of this stuff.

[784] I don't think so.

[785] Do they stream, Jamie?

[786] You can probably search it.

[787] Yeah, yeah.

[788] Do they have downloadable stuff and whatnot?

[789] Oh, okay.

[790] So on the app as opposed to on the actual thing in your car?

[791] Okay.

[792] Yeah, I am so anything mechanical.

[793] Well, I'm proud that I think you sent me. your first text ever?

[794] Oh, yeah, which took me almost an hour and a half to do, because I go, okay, here's the T, there's an H over here, you know, I mean, that's how slow I was in doing that.

[795] But you used to teach, you don't know how to type?

[796] No, no, I had girlfriends.

[797] And I went through a bunch of them because I had to write a lot of papers, and so, you know, yeah.

[798] No, I never typed one letter ever.

[799] So that's legitimately the first text message you ever sent?

[800] And you thought it was a joke that it was, oh, thanks.

[801] No, Mike Clark was telling me. Yeah, it was my first.

[802] Yeah.

[803] And then I sent the next one.

[804] I realized you could use the microphone thing and it came out in some phoneling and from lots being or something that I sent to you.

[805] Well, it's because of your fucking accent.

[806] No, but this was, yeah.

[807] I know, but the iPhone's probably like, what the fuck is he saying?

[808] That's probably it, yeah.

[809] And they said, well, eventually they'll get used to your voice.

[810] Apparently not.

[811] No, it's never going to figure out your voice.

[812] No. That's for regular voices.

[813] Oh, shit.

[814] The accent's just too crazy.

[815] I still have an accent.

[816] Oh, yeah.

[817] I didn't know.

[818] A little bit.

[819] Yeah.

[820] But the thing about like all the, those guys from that day is very few guys put things out.

[821] You know, Barry put out a couple specials and Louis C .K. produced one of Barry specials.

[822] Lanny, of course, had a few things.

[823] He was on the Dangerfield special.

[824] He did some stuff.

[825] But a lot of, like, Donovan, like, how do you go find Donovan's best stuff?

[826] You got to go see him.

[827] Yes.

[828] Yes.

[829] That's the craziest thing about Boston.

[830] It's like, these guys are world -class stand -ups, some of the best that have ever done it.

[831] And there's no recordings.

[832] There's no specials.

[833] I think I was not unique in the fact that I was not a businessman.

[834] Yeah.

[835] We did it for the, not just for the love.

[836] We enjoyed the money and spending money.

[837] But it really never answered my mind.

[838] Like Jimmy was asking about, you know, how did I release this thing?

[839] I never, I don't know, didn't even released it.

[840] I just made a thousand copies and I saw a few after a show and never did anything with it, you know.

[841] You never thought once.

[842] No, I'm an idiot.

[843] But you must have seen all these HBO specials and all these different things.

[844] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, eventually.

[845] You never like, yeah, I should do one of those.

[846] Yeah, yeah, maybe I'll get discovered, so at the age of 106.

[847] So now that you've done this and now that you're releasing this, do you think you'll put out more?

[848] Oh, I plan on this opening, hoping this is going to make a difference, you know, because for years I was called the best kept secret in Boston and in comedy.

[849] And I'm going, you know what, I'm kind of tired of that.

[850] I'd rather not have a secret anymore.

[851] I'd like to maybe get up to you.

[852] Well, you can still get out there.

[853] I plan on it.

[854] The whole thing about the internet is just content.

[855] Just keep putting content out.

[856] You're a hilarious comic.

[857] So I'm sure your album's awesome.

[858] People get a hold of it.

[859] And then they'll go, hey, where's the next one?

[860] Put out another one.

[861] Next thing you know, you could tour nationally.

[862] I really firmly believe that.

[863] I hope you're right.

[864] Oh, I guarantee you I'm right.

[865] It's just a crazy thing about that scene is that no one did that.

[866] Everybody stayed in...

[867] Because the money was so good.

[868] There was so much work.

[869] And you didn't have to...

[870] Yeah, you basically didn't have to go to here because you had worked there.

[871] Yeah.

[872] So in a way it spoiled you, but in a way it spoiled you've brought in, you know, the other way.

[873] You never really attempted to make it and do it.

[874] Some guys did get the gumption to go up to New York and some came out to L .A. But as a rule, a lot of us just stayed in Boston.

[875] How long did you stay out here when you came out here?

[876] Oh, just a About nine months.

[877] And people said, what do you like about?

[878] I said, the weather.

[879] And that was about, oh, that was my only answer.

[880] What was it like going back?

[881] Did it feel like home?

[882] I felt like I really hadn't left, you know.

[883] I just moved to Florida a couple weeks ago.

[884] Did you?

[885] That's the first time I've ever.

[886] What are you doing in Florida?

[887] Getting warm.

[888] It's a good time to move to Florida, middle of January.

[889] Yeah, well, it's going to be, hopefully once I get things unpacked, I'll enjoy it there.

[890] But there, you know, there's a lot of clubs down there, and there's a lot of corporate stuff.

[891] And I do a lot of the golf things and that kind of stuff.

[892] And I do a lot of cruise ships, and then most of them go out of this.

[893] So it's about time I moved.

[894] And the weather primary.

[895] That's the primary way.

[896] The weather, yeah, it's a big difference.

[897] But I would think that after all these years, you're going to miss headlining the Boston clubs.

[898] I will.

[899] I will, yeah.

[900] But I've been working less and less in the Boston area because I do a whole lot of these cruise ships things, you know.

[901] And the cruise ships, that industry has become bigger and bigger and bigger.

[902] I mean, I just got off a ship, the World Caribbean, 6 ,000.

[903] 100 passengers on it.

[904] That's a big boat.

[905] I live in a town in the Haunt, and I remember that, near Marblehead.

[906] Yeah.

[907] 3 ,000 people live in the whole town.

[908] There's double that on the ship, you know.

[909] That's insane.

[910] Yeah.

[911] Do you like doing those cruise ships?

[912] I enjoy it.

[913] A lot of downtime you can read and write, and like you said, maybe a second of them.

[914] Yeah, I've got material, hopefully, so we'll see if we can get the first one up and running.

[915] How do you write?

[916] Do you just sit down?

[917] With a pan mostly.

[918] Yeah.

[919] Do you just sit down with a?

[920] an idea or do you have an idea ahead of time you jot them down like in little notes and then try to flesh it out?

[921] Like this, you know, just this thing.

[922] Oh, like right, you got right there.

[923] Yeah, whatever, you know, that type of thing.

[924] I, like, I'm simple, this is not a whole joke, but just the other day I'm thinking about Stone is, you know, and it says, why can't we, what kind of, why can't we just all get a bomb?

[925] So I thought that was fun.

[926] Not that good.

[927] I didn't say it was good.

[928] You write stuff, you throw it away.

[929] I get it.

[930] way right so these ideas pop in your head and you write them down and then do you flesh them out on stage or do you flesh them out on paper on stage you know but you know that if some new thing you know have to figure where am i going to incorporate you're not going to put it first you're not going to close with it right you're going to weave it in somehow sometimes i'll open with the thing really yeah you never know because i want to dig a hole i want to see yeah because i sometimes i feel like i know i got some good jokes that i could do after this let me just see but you've got the notoriety in fame, so do you feel that that is a strike against you, that they're going to be acceptable to everything?

[931] Is that why you've...

[932] It's a strike against you if you eat shit.

[933] Yeah, yeah.

[934] But if you open with something that you're not sure of, yeah.

[935] Well, I've got to know there's something there before I do that.

[936] But I like to do that sometimes because maybe four out of ten times a punch line will fucking pop into my head out of nowhere and it'll be good.

[937] I got to One of my best bets from my last special about Harvey Weinstein came the day he got arrested.

[938] The day of the shit went down.

[939] I went on stage that day.

[940] And I had a couple drinks in me. I was feeling good.

[941] And I just went on this rant about it.

[942] And this is not something you had already written out?

[943] No, no. I had a couple sort of ideas about where I was going to take it.

[944] And basically the gist of it was that if like all of you, if Harvey, Weinstein did this to my daughter, I'd want to fuck him up, like all of you.

[945] I go, but if Harvey Weinstein was a woman, if Harvina Weinstein came to my son with a solid contract, I'd be like, dude, you're going to be Batman.

[946] And this is the gist of the bit.

[947] And I'm telling you that, dude, you're going to be Batman, came out, just came out on stage.

[948] And the day he was arrested, everybody's going fucking crazy.

[949] And then I was saying, like, nobody gives a fuck.

[950] It was an ugly old lady that was fucking handsome young men nobody would be mad right nobody would be mad right and it just became this giant chunk of bed I'm like I'm mad that guy he's disgusting fuck him lock him up forever but if harvina Weinstein did the audience believe that you just didn't know or did they know that you just came up at that point well they knew that it couldn't be old because the thing it just happened yeah but sometimes like four out of ten times that'll work and then the other six out of ten times you go well so much for that Yeah, move on.

[951] But it's like the only way new jokes get made is chances get taken.

[952] And the biggest chance is to go up first with it.

[953] Wow.

[954] Just open with it.

[955] I got to have to attempt that then.

[956] I don't do it all the time.

[957] But I feel like the first couple of lines anywhere more like just saying hi and getting to know everybody.

[958] And every now and then you throw one out there and it sticks.

[959] And you got, go, ooh, I got something there.

[960] I record all my sets.

[961] I'll listen to it.

[962] Would you have trouble remembering if you did a particular thing?

[963] Yeah, because especially if you have a couple drinks in you and you just riffing.

[964] You don't remember exactly what you said because you're in the moment.

[965] You can't go, oh, I got to remember that because then you'll break the spell.

[966] My son, Chris, does that to me all the time saying, Dad, is that something new?

[967] I go, no, I just said it.

[968] He goes, well, you've got to write this shit down.

[969] Well, Donovan is the guy who convinced me to record all my sets.

[970] Dunovan told me, get a tape recorder.

[971] He had this fucking, this brick that he would bring on stage with him.

[972] He goes, you never know.

[973] He goes, you'll have a line, just one line, and that line will make your bit ten times better.

[974] And if you fucking forget it, it's gone.

[975] forever.

[976] It's like quick you have one when you're in bed and you think of something.

[977] If you don't get up and write it down or if you don't sort of record it that next morning, you try to remember that.

[978] Good luck to you.

[979] When I'm with my family, if I got an idea in my head, I just say to my wife, I've got an idea and I just run away.

[980] I run away.

[981] I'll run like a block away and just start talking into my phone because if I don't, it'll go away.

[982] Because I've had so many times like, oh, that's a good idea.

[983] And then my dog was like, Dad can stop touching me. Stop touching me. They'll fight with each other and my wife was there.

[984] What are we doing?

[985] And I'm like, hold on, I got an idea.

[986] Stop, stop, stop.

[987] So now when I get this idea, I just go, I've got an idea.

[988] I just go.

[989] And then I come back, I got a good idea.

[990] This is a good idea.

[991] This is a solid.

[992] Okay, I'm back.

[993] I like that.

[994] And then I'll put my phone in my pocket.

[995] But having a phone is the best because you got a notebook.

[996] You got a fucking recording device.

[997] It's all that.

[998] I used to keep a real notebook.

[999] But it takes too long to write shit down.

[1000] You lose it sometimes.

[1001] But if you were say it into the voice notes, you actually say the idea.

[1002] Then you can keep it.

[1003] But that means you have to carry a phone with it.

[1004] Yes, you don't carry a phone?

[1005] I'm an idiot, again.

[1006] You don't carry a phone at all?

[1007] I do now, but now that I'm trying to be aware of what's going on.

[1008] I mean, up until like two years ago, I had a real deluxe flip phone, you know?

[1009] There's something to be said for those, too, though.

[1010] Yeah.

[1011] The flip foam's nice.

[1012] Yeah, you can certainly avoid people.

[1013] Yes.

[1014] That's one.

[1015] Yeah, avoid text message.

[1016] Ari, Arifere, he has a flip phone.

[1017] He doesn't, well, actually, he doesn't now.

[1018] He actually went back to an iPhone, but he put a timer on it, so he could only use his phone for an hour.

[1019] Wow.

[1020] Yeah.

[1021] Yeah, because otherwise he starts playing with his phone and going on the Internet and going on social media apps.

[1022] You don't have any social media, do you?

[1023] We will soon.

[1024] Oh, we're in the process now.

[1025] That's it.

[1026] That's the deal.

[1027] 2020.

[1028] Yeah, yeah.

[1029] Make moves.

[1030] I'm kind of a slow mover.

[1031] Like a turd racist by me. Are you going to do it all yourself?

[1032] Are you going to post tweets and all that shit yourself?

[1033] Oh, shit.

[1034] I don't know about that.

[1035] I just found about Instagram today.

[1036] I thought there was a pill that you took.

[1037] But, so, I'm on Instagram now as of, like, yesterday.

[1038] Oh, what is it?

[1039] Just Don Gavin?

[1040] Comedian Don Gavin.

[1041] How many pictures you got up there?

[1042] Oh, at least four now.

[1043] Is there a regular Don Gavin other than comedian, Don Gavin?

[1044] Mean to reach me?

[1045] No, a different person that has the regular Don Gavin.

[1046] Jamie says, yes, a different guy.

[1047] Well, somebody, yeah, somebody, in the old days, people buy your names.

[1048] And I contacted the guy, he wanted $7 ,500 for my name.

[1049] Really?

[1050] And I'm going, my name's not worth that.

[1051] So I never paid him.

[1052] So is that how that works?

[1053] Yeah, yeah, I had to pay for mine.

[1054] I bought mine.

[1055] Somebody had mine.

[1056] I bet you make money.

[1057] It's the whole thing about the Instagram is like everything else on the internet.

[1058] It's just continual content.

[1059] Keep putting out content.

[1060] Keep putting things out.

[1061] That's the whole thing.

[1062] It's just you got to just be consistent.

[1063] Then it'll build.

[1064] I hope.

[1065] Listen, coming off this podcast, I guarantee it'll help.

[1066] I know you want Fitzsimmons show earlier today, right?

[1067] Right.

[1068] And I did a couple of, uh, Who was a Mac Marin's another one.

[1069] Oh, okay, right.

[1070] And Billy, Billy Burr.

[1071] Oh, nice.

[1072] Beautiful.

[1073] You did the trifecta plus one.

[1074] There it is.

[1075] Look at you.

[1076] Don Gavin Comedy.

[1077] That's what it is, folks.

[1078] Godfather of Boston Comedy.

[1079] Don't tell out to Dick Dardy.

[1080] He'll get mad at you.

[1081] He did try to keep that title back, and I said, I actually helped people.

[1082] You tell me one time that you actually, a godfather, when someone came to you and said, can you give me advice, can you help me write?

[1083] Can you help me work out this material?

[1084] I spent time doing that.

[1085] I said, you never did in your life.

[1086] Don't ever call yourself the Godfather again, and he hasn't.

[1087] Whoa.

[1088] He stopped calling himself that?

[1089] Yeah, well, yeah.

[1090] To you?

[1091] I don't think he caused him up to anywhere.

[1092] Really?

[1093] Yeah, not anymore.

[1094] But that was always his thing.

[1095] Well, this thing is gone.

[1096] He gave me a lot of gigs.

[1097] I have nothing but love for that guy.

[1098] Really?

[1099] Yeah, he gave me a lot of gigs.

[1100] He paid my rent many times.

[1101] Well, he had a lot of little club.

[1102] Yeah.

[1103] Look like your satellite clubs.

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] Yeah, the huts, comedy huts, the Aku -A -Kos.

[1106] He had one time was, when he was, he was a musician, way back.

[1107] It was already the majority.

[1108] Yeah.

[1109] And he was like the highest paid entertainer on Cape Cod that Crystal Palace he had in it.

[1110] I mean, he was big.

[1111] Yeah.

[1112] And then things oneself.

[1113] And now he's big, but physically.

[1114] He's still alive?

[1115] Everything's good?

[1116] Yeah, he's a big fat.

[1117] Yeah.

[1118] Yeah, kind of white.

[1119] Got, like, how you push your arms out like that?

[1120] Yeah, I have, what, 36 inch sleeve, but I can't.

[1121] get it out that far i did all of his gigs i did all those comedy huts he had the dick dardy comedy huts the dick dardy comedy vault remember the vault yes yes that was another one the vault was right down the street from warrenton street right right right across the street there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah he had a ton of rooms yes he did yeah yeah and and uh yeah he oh yeah that's true i mean he would he did work a lot more comedians than than it because other places didn't have that many avenues yeah well he would headline you early too like where i really probably shouldn't have been line and really didn't really have a solid 45 was we patched up but uh fitzimmins and i started out together we were like a week apart we started a week apart from each other open mic nights yeah he mentioned that yeah we did and you didn't know each other previous no no no no we met each other like at open might night that's funny yeah both the same age it was it was fun times but we both have the same feeling like we were talk about you guys you know like you and all all the guys that or from that era it's just like it was a we were very very fortunate to be able to because there was no hacks like hacks were not tolerated in boston no yeah but even the audience i always thought the ones were great but they weren't patient either no you had to produce and produced quickly they had high standards too yeah because you guys were so good like the standards of comedy the level of comedy was very high in the town yeah i remember i had a friend of mine who came to visit me from new york uh and uh he was shocked he was like, there's so many good comics here that nobody knows.

[1122] And I was like, dude, they know him in town, they know him in Boston.

[1123] These guys are selling out every fucking night.

[1124] He's like, this is crazy.

[1125] And I was like, yeah, these are like the best comics in the world, and people don't know who they are.

[1126] It's funny.

[1127] Colin Quinn was one guy that came into Boston.

[1128] And the people, but when they introduced him, he's from New York.

[1129] I mean, he was getting booed before he said a word.

[1130] And then he's gone, oh my God.

[1131] But the crowds did eventually like him.

[1132] Yeah.

[1133] But when he first worked there, there was a sound booth inside of Nix.

[1134] And he hid He got off stage and hit in the Sambles until the show was over because he didn't want to have to walk through the crowd.

[1135] He was in there for over two hours.

[1136] I'm not making stuff.

[1137] That's hilarious.

[1138] Well, the first time I saw Domarera was at Nick's Comedy Stop, and he went through the gauntlet and survived.

[1139] Oh, the people loved them.

[1140] They loved them.

[1141] Well, he's lovable.

[1142] Yeah.

[1143] Well, he's a great guy.

[1144] But he was the only, like, national headliner that I ever saw that went through there and made it through.

[1145] Yeah, yeah.

[1146] And with flying colors Yeah, so he killed And even at the end of it He was, you know, like he said He goes, ladies and gentlemen Thank you for coming tonight I was amazing You guys are pretty good And like he just The sarcastic, silly way of doing comedy He was the best He fits in anywhere Oh yeah Yeah But he fit in Boston like a glove I mean that's where I first saw Oh he's a Philly guy And the same kind of thing He was a pretty good job He went there He was a pretty good basketball player Yeah Yeah So he had kind of the same type of mentality Some of the people He's still fucking great He's still fucking great He still kills the comedy store all the time And he's always on the road too He's fantastic He's a real comic You know There's a few of those guys It doesn't matter where you put him You could put a show on the moon And he was up there and kill Like rocking the pool Sure Yeah That just just hey how you're doing And he gets a laugh You're kidding You get a laugh for that And it's a good laugh Yeah Yeah It's um I mean When you think back on your life Could you imagine yourself have ever, I mean, I know you were a teacher at one point in time, but can you imagine never having found comedy?

[1147] I'm very grateful that he did find it.

[1148] I think if I was teaching in a different venue where I was teaching more advanced kids, I was in a vocational school where they didn't want to do, you know, one week they'd be in shop, the next week they'd be with me, and they didn't want to be with me, you know.

[1149] Coaching was different.

[1150] I coached basketball on track, and that was terrific, and I spent most of my energy in that.

[1151] but so I think if I was in the right surroundings as a teacher I would have stayed in teaching you know and probably have done a lot less of the evil things to my body and but maybe I wouldn't have found comedy but you've held up well you intellectually you're still there I mean I haven't seen you do stand up in a long time but I know everybody says you're still fucking kill him well it's still working yeah and you're the one guy that's still drinking that I'm aware of yeah but I don't really look around that much but there are many of Did you ever think about quitting?

[1152] No, not really.

[1153] No, no, no. Oh, when I was in the hospital, I had a hernia operation, but then Roger didn't smuggled some booze into the hospital, so that was like, yeah, yeah.

[1154] He brought in a thing of a varker and a claw and a magnet, so he was going to, he was going to pull up the staples that I have.

[1155] You know, the steel staples you put in when you get stitched up?

[1156] He thought that was funny.

[1157] He went and stole a big magnet.

[1158] That was his idea being funny, but he did bring booze into the hospital, though.

[1159] How long were you in the hospital for?

[1160] Oh, just, you know, whatever, four or five days.

[1161] So you almost quit for four or five days?

[1162] Oh, yeah, almost.

[1163] Almost.

[1164] Do you never, like, when you see all these guys going into AA and cleaning up, you never went, huh, maybe that's for me?

[1165] No, no, never, never did.

[1166] I mean, we stopped the blow and all that stuff, you know.

[1167] But I remember as much of a smoke up the grass, but the drinking, you know, that's pretty consistent with that.

[1168] You find something your leg's stick?

[1169] When did you stop the blow?

[1170] Oh, a long, long time ago.

[1171] Yeah, yeah.

[1172] But I don't even remember where exactly went.

[1173] 80s, 90s?

[1174] But you don't see any people doing that.

[1175] I don't know.

[1176] I don't even know.

[1177] Is there still a scene where people do?

[1178] Not comedy, no. No, not a comedy scene with blow.

[1179] Not that I know.

[1180] I remember, like, we talked to the comedy stuff.

[1181] You know, you could, Oh, don't, don't sit there.

[1182] You know, because somebody had lines under this thing.

[1183] Don't, no, no, no, go over there.

[1184] And wherever you went, you know.

[1185] Well, they would offer to pay you and blow.

[1186] Yeah, and get the giggles in, Tampa, Florida.

[1187] They honestly said, do you want all your money in blow, or do you want some cash?

[1188] I go, I'd want it all in cash.

[1189] And then if I wanted to get, oh, I could do that.

[1190] I mean, you can't go into a grocery store and say, you know, I got these three items.

[1191] Is this line big enough?

[1192] That doesn't work.

[1193] Is that place still around?

[1194] That giggles?

[1195] I don't know.

[1196] I know, Mike, that's where you got the name from it.

[1197] You know, my clouds by giggles and sagas.

[1198] But I don't know.

[1199] But that was another one.

[1200] real successful clubs at one time as you know there were great clubs in a lot of places and sadly most of them have gone down I mentioned the comedy works in Denver it's a still one is still great oh it's still great that was such a successful and still is such as well I always thought that was one of the best run clubs in the hollow of the United States well Wendy the lady who owns it runs it she's fucking awesome she's been around from way back I go to see her every time I'm in town and sometimes I still even work that club really yeah I work that club too I'll alternate between big theaters, then I'll go back and do her club.

[1201] That place was electric.

[1202] Yes.

[1203] And she's got another one.

[1204] She's got a...

[1205] Yeah, she's rebuilt another one.

[1206] Yeah, she's got a second one.

[1207] But yeah, there's, you know, the Zanies in Nashville, still really good.

[1208] There's a bunch of real good clubs still on the road.

[1209] Well, maybe I'll rediscover these.

[1210] I'll stop going out on the ships.

[1211] I've been out floating too much.

[1212] Maybe I'll come back.

[1213] Yeah, you'd enjoy it.

[1214] Now, if you did do that, would you take someone on the road with you?

[1215] Like, how do you do it?

[1216] When you do the ships, is it just you?

[1217] Bring somebody with you.

[1218] Just me. How much time do you do?

[1219] Varies.

[1220] You know, usually you do like a headline spot.

[1221] You do like a 50, 55, you know, and do two of those.

[1222] But you can do the same story, you know, that type of thing.

[1223] So you only need, you need like an hour and a half stuff total, I guess is what it was.

[1224] But it is kind of a lazy -sman job.

[1225] You can do the same sets, you know.

[1226] Right.

[1227] I just found an interest in talking to you about incorporating something new at the beginning.

[1228] That's going to be challenging.

[1229] I'm going to try that.

[1230] It's not the best.

[1231] idea the best idea i think is probably to sandwich it in between established jokes like you have a joke that you know it's going to work you get their confidence and then you slip in a new one yeah yeah and then but every now and then i'd like to open with a new one just to see what the fuck is up i like it just to fucking test it take that little colt and see how it can run on those legs giddy up yeah you never know no fear no fear joe i like it i got some fear believe me but sometimes that fear is what makes the punchline comes out yeah you know the punchlines that come out You know how it is.

[1232] Like, sometimes you ad lib and it'll just come out of nowhere.

[1233] You're like, where is that?

[1234] What is that coming from?

[1235] When you have an idea and it just pops into your head and makes its way on to stay.

[1236] And then it gets a big laugh.

[1237] And then you know it's the right thing to say right there.

[1238] Right.

[1239] You know it and just out of nowhere.

[1240] Now, and you know, your thing, you travel everywhere, is there one particular area that doesn't seem to click as much?

[1241] Connecticut.

[1242] Connecticut can eat plates.

[1243] Just that one state you mean?

[1244] All of Connecticut can go fuck off.

[1245] Really?

[1246] Yeah.

[1247] Yeah.

[1248] My friend Chappelle Lacey, I told him how bad Connecticut sucks, and he was just there this weekend, and he sent me a text message.

[1249] She goes, you weren't fucking kidding.

[1250] Connecticut.

[1251] This place is terrible.

[1252] I wasn't expecting that one place from New England.

[1253] There's something about it.

[1254] Rhode Island, great.

[1255] Rhode Island's fantastic.

[1256] New Jersey, awesome.

[1257] Love it.

[1258] New York, love it.

[1259] Connecticut, eat shit.

[1260] Wow.

[1261] Wow.

[1262] When I was doing the travel, the only place, I had one that they positively hated me, Memphis.

[1263] Oh, Memphis?

[1264] They hated you?

[1265] Well, I talked way too fast.

[1266] and I also speak English and they boy they hated me Yankee Yankee No I said no the Red Sox You know they had the wrong team And they They booed me again like Like we're calling Quinn Before we even going to on stage And they had one of those clocks Like the ones they have That was in Back to the Future That pink tree clock And you could see it And you had to do 45 minutes And I'm going Shit I gotta be close to done I look up I had done 11 minutes I'm like God I got off stage and went table to table and heckled people with the stage.

[1267] And then I went back on stage and realized I still had 15 minutes more to go.

[1268] Oh, my God.

[1269] They hated me. What year was this?

[1270] It seemed like it was a whole year when I was there just during the one week.

[1271] That was so quite a while ago.

[1272] But they, I mean, and I was there for the week.

[1273] That's the point.

[1274] So it wasn't like anybody was saying, hey, you got to see this guy.

[1275] People were saying, you shouldn't see this guy.

[1276] And it was horrible.

[1277] Does it suck every night?

[1278] Yeah.

[1279] Yes, yes, yes, it did.

[1280] Yes, it did.

[1281] Yeah.

[1282] It was so bad.

[1283] And it was, we had a ho -boiled.

[1284] There was like a thunderstorm, and, you know, the ones that there's only 20 people going to be there.

[1285] If it's not 20 people, we don't do a show.

[1286] Right.

[1287] So we had 16 people.

[1288] And I'm going, oh, beautiful.

[1289] We're going to get paid, don't have to do a show.

[1290] And two cars come up.

[1291] I went out and knocked in the windows.

[1292] He said, oh, again, we got terrible plumbing problems.

[1293] See you guys later.

[1294] Come back.

[1295] See you later.

[1296] And I forced and believe, so I wouldn't have to do the show.

[1297] Oh, my God.

[1298] That's hilarious.

[1299] Boston Comics, one of the things about guys that would go on the road, they had so much regional material.

[1300] Boston comics had so much Boston comedy, right?

[1301] Yeah, I don't.

[1302] Yeah, you don't.

[1303] I was going to say that.

[1304] Like, Sweeney has a lot.

[1305] Yes, yes.

[1306] Like, Sweeney in Boston is a goddamn murderer.

[1307] Sure, sure.

[1308] But some of that stuff he can't do in other places, he has to kind of rearrange his acts.

[1309] Yes, yeah.

[1310] Yeah, mine is more, it's always been more universal.

[1311] Yeah.

[1312] More observational than, yeah.

[1313] And I don't really have many Boston, per se Boston jokes.

[1314] Yeah, other than something about the accent, but that's about it.

[1315] but now i just ask you one end of the other end where's the other end where's like a favorite um i love texas texas is probably one of my favorite places to go yeah i love austin i love i love dallas i love houston i love going there really yeah they're wild fucking people i mean they're the remnants of the wild west right that's what it's like i mean they're the wagon trains that made it all the way to california and a bunch of people made it to texed and they went we're good right just gonna stop right here and they're just wild it's just a different kind of They're real friendly, real nice folks.

[1316] It's one of my favorite places to go.

[1317] Cool.

[1318] I love it.

[1319] Now, what about foreign country, England?

[1320] When you mentioned England?

[1321] I love England.

[1322] I've been to England a bunch of times doing stand -up.

[1323] That's great.

[1324] They're fun.

[1325] They like to drink.

[1326] Woo.

[1327] Yeah, I did a tour.

[1328] Yeah, they did like me, especially the drinking part.

[1329] Oh, the rowdy people.

[1330] I met a bar.

[1331] I was doing the shot.

[1332] I said, and I wanted some ice.

[1333] And the guy said, oh, and everybody drinking just shots and beer.

[1334] And I'm drinking liquor.

[1335] And I said, I wanted some ice.

[1336] And the guy goes, oh, the ice machine is broken.

[1337] I said, well, and I was a bartender.

[1338] I went back, I said, well, a lot of ten, if you hit it, some ice will fall out.

[1339] You could go, well, it broke over a year ago.

[1340] I said, oh, okay, no mind, forget it.

[1341] They're just not interested in ice.

[1342] Yeah, if you buy a soda over there sometimes, like, you get a glass of soda, it comes with no ice.

[1343] Like, what is this?

[1344] Where is the?

[1345] And then when I did Australia, Australia was, that's kind of a rowdy place, too.

[1346] Oh, I love it over there.

[1347] Australia's amazing.

[1348] And they get into just willing to just show stuff out to you.

[1349] Yeah.

[1350] Not necessarily heckling, but just show them to those things and things.

[1351] What do you mean by that?

[1352] I can explain the shit.

[1353] They like to drink there too.

[1354] Yeah.

[1355] I did a whole sit over there about Halloween.

[1356] And it went absolutely nowhere.

[1357] And I kind of rewrote the next night, nowhere.

[1358] And I'm saying, why is this thing not working?

[1359] And a guy says to me, what is this Halloween?

[1360] They didn't, in those days, didn't celebrate Halloween there.

[1361] What?

[1362] He said, you send your kids to strangers' houses to beg for candy?

[1363] Why not for food?

[1364] When they go get food or money, I go, it's Halloween.

[1365] He didn't know what it was.

[1366] Now they have Halloween, but as at least 20 years ago, they didn't have Halloween.

[1367] Halloween is only 20 years old in Australia?

[1368] Yes.

[1369] That's hilarious.

[1370] And you would think that would be a universal thing, but it was not.

[1371] They have a lot of comedy over there now.

[1372] Yeah.

[1373] I mean, they have really funny comics now, especially in Melbourne.

[1374] Yeah, I loved Melbourne.

[1375] That was a good place.

[1376] Melbourne's great.

[1377] They have the comics lounge.

[1378] I performed with Tony Hinchcliff there when I was there back.

[1379] A lot of comics from L .A., flyover.

[1380] there and do that place?

[1381] Yeah, you mentioned Richard Jenny.

[1382] I work with him over there at the Hilton, which is right across from the tennis center where they play the big Australian.

[1383] In Australia?

[1384] Yeah.

[1385] Richard Jenney was one of my favorites.

[1386] God damn he was good.

[1387] Terrific.

[1388] He was so good.

[1389] He's like probably, in my opinion, one of the most underrated guys ever.

[1390] Yeah.

[1391] Yeah.

[1392] You know, where to this day, like people forget how goddamn good he was.

[1393] And he's prolific, too.

[1394] Oh, so prolific.

[1395] Yeah.

[1396] You know, you remember Eastside Comedy Club in Long Island?

[1397] Yes.

[1398] Yes.

[1399] He worked at Eastside Comedy Club in Long Island.

[1400] I remember It was me and a couple of the other guys that were there were stunned because the host said, I go, hey, how was Jenny this weekend?

[1401] He goes, not only did he murder.

[1402] Was it?

[1403] He not only did Jenny murder, every show, but he did four different hours.

[1404] Wow.

[1405] He did a different hour, two shows, two different hours Friday, two different hours on Saturday.

[1406] He goes, he did four different hours.

[1407] He goes, he didn't repeat a joke.

[1408] And he goes, and he was on top of his fucking game, on fire.

[1409] And we're, and like, that was like 80, I guess it was 91, 92.

[1410] He was, if he wasn't the best in the world, he was right up there.

[1411] But he was so honest about that, I said, you know, you're something about your life.

[1412] He said, there's two things in my life, comedy and porn.

[1413] And he said, he spent a lot of time on both of them.

[1414] That was a quote.

[1415] Well, that's why he was so good.

[1416] He was, he was obsessed.

[1417] Yeah, I mean, he was an interesting cat.

[1418] It was a real bummer when he killed himself.

[1419] Yeah.

[1420] He was, for sure, one of my favorites.

[1421] I got to see him live a bunch of times.

[1422] And what I loved about that guy is he would take a subject, like Save the Subject with Cigarettes.

[1423] Yeah.

[1424] He would beat that subject into the ground.

[1425] He would find every fucking angle.

[1426] He would cover every piece of, every possible way you could talk about that bit.

[1427] Kind of like when George Collin would take a bit that I would have, you know, an idea, a premise, we'll say.

[1428] Right.

[1429] I could get three and a half minutes.

[1430] He'd get 15 minutes of gold.

[1431] Yeah.

[1432] Yeah.

[1433] Yeah.

[1434] But Jenny would be like punchline, punchline, punchline.

[1435] God damn he was good Yeah We've seen a lot of great comics in our day Yes we have And hopefully a few more Hopefully there'll be more people We've seen me now than I'm back out For sure So you said it's available now On Pandora and on Sirius That's correct And next week It's going to be available On Spotify and all those guys Beautiful beautiful beautiful And it's Don Gavin Comedy Don Gavin What is it?

[1436] Don Gavin comedy Don Gavin comedy on Instagram.

[1437] And the name of the album is John Gavin Live with the Manhattan.

[1438] There it is.

[1439] Look at you.

[1440] T -da -da.

[1441] B -ding.

[1442] Handsome pastor.

[1443] All right, listen, it's been an honor.

[1444] It's been an honor.

[1445] I really appreciate you.

[1446] And thanks for all the inspiration over the years.

[1447] And from the bottom of my heart, seeing you and seeing those guys from Boston when I was starting out, man, everything for me. Hey, you, it complements me and a lot to me. Thank you.

[1448] My friend.

[1449] Don Gavin, everybody.

[1450] Bye.

[1451] Thank you, sir.

[1452] Thank you very much.