Name: Alan Zweibel Talks About His 50 Year Long Comedy Writing Career: From Selling $7 Jokes To SNL
Uploaded: 2021-07-19T17:00:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Alan Zweibel Talks About His 50 Year Long Comedy Writing Career: From Selling $7 Jokes To SNL' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-07-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Alan Zweibel Talks About His 50 Year Long Comedy Writing Career: From Selling $7 Jokes To SNL' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-07-19. Transcript available.

Alan Zweibel Talks About His 50 Year Long Comedy Writing Career: From Selling $7 Jokes To SNL

Hey, it's me. It's Bob Saget, right? And this is Bob Saget's here for you. This
is a podcast
that I've been doing for over a year and over a hundred episodes and really
just starting to
figure it out. So I hope you're doing good. It's been a crazy world. My friend
George Wallace,
that was his slogan. I have a great guest today. It's Alan Zweibel. I love Alan
Zweibel. If you
don't know who Alan Zweibel is, you will because we're going to have a nice
long conversation.
Because that's what we do. He's a brilliant writer. He was working on the first
five years
of Saturday Night Live from its very inception. He wrote things for Gilda Radner,
Roseanne Rosanna
Dana, a lot of her stuff, a dear friend of hers, and wrote a book, Bunny Bunny,
which became a play.
And his love and friendship with her is just, he's a man with compassion and
with comedy and with soul.
He also wrote the samurai sketches on Saturday Night Live with John Belushi,
just to star
comedy man. And he also has done so many films. I love the story of us. He has
a new film that's
coming out. It's been in theaters and now it's going to be online in all of
your favorite streamers.
And it's called Here Today. And it's starring Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish.
And it's just a lovely,
lovely film. And Billy Crystal directed it. So it's called Here Today. And it
should be here today by
the time you're listening to this. And I'm also wanting you to know that he did
700 Sundays. He wrote
that with Billy Crystal. It's Billy Crystal's amazing Tony winning show. It is
one of the best things I've ever
seen, stand up or otherwise. You want to rate, review and subscribe. That's
nice. Trying to sell a can
opener in between my intro. And you know, we do that subscribe and follow this
podcast immediately
hit the follow button. Or you can download it and keep it forever. Or decide
that after you listen to
this episode, you want to send it to a relative. So here comes one of the
funniest, sweetest people
that has graced my life through show business, but also as a friend, Alan Zweipel.
Alan, you've been on everything, by the way. A lot of women have filed
complaints.
You want to know something? It's something I'm going to have to deal with. Okay.
I keep making
it a back burner thing, but sooner or later, I'm going to have to deal with it.
Yeah.
You look really good, by the way.
As to you, I mean, you're just lucky that there's this screen between us
because
every muscle in my body has now been summoned to my hands on my chair over here
for me not to
leap forward and try to, I think you know what I want to do.
Yeah. And I'm not against it because I'm happily married. You've been with
Robin forever.
Yeah. And I'm, I'm, and my wife is amazing. Did you meet her, Kelly?
No, I have not. And I can't wait for the four of us to go out and frolic.
Me either. We're going to frolic. We're going to eat chicken fat and grevenous
and vodka.
And then we're going to go, let's say, to some park bench, undo the buckles of
our belts
and just try to pass gas for all night.
I thought you were going to say they take them out, take out our, our penises,
but instead you just
want to pass gas.
Oh no, I went around the corner this time. Well, look, I'm 71 now. So I got to
be careful.
You know, I got to space out the penis.
That's what I do. If you laid every penis on the earth end to end, you wouldn't
smoke.
Okay. This is why, this is why you're a comedy writer and I just work here.
Where are you geographically? Are you here?
I'm in LA. I'm in my office right now.
Wow. Well, it's a very nice office. I see the word believe behind you.
Yeah, that's from Ted Lasso. I'm a fan of the show. So they sent me a bunch of
merch.
Oh, look at that.
Yeah, that's great.
It's a lovely show. Don't you agree?
Oh, I really like it. I really like it. I like Hacks.
There are, you know, that the star, one of the stars of Hacks is Lorraine
Newman's daughter.
I know that. I read that.
Okay. So now, okay. So what's going to happen is I know you most of my adult
life, which started about a month ago.
But you and I have known each other. We've had mutual friends. We always had
affection for each other.
I'm not just leading the witness, right?
No, no, no. I would agree.
Okay, shoo.
I didn't know it was my turn to talk.
But absolutely. And I think I remember when we met each other, as a matter of
fact, I think.
Brad Gray had a house on, I want to say Woodruff, off of Mulholland. A little
house before he moved into those huge...
Woodcliffe, I think.
Woodcliffe. That's what it was. And Robin and I came over, and you were there,
and Sherry was there.
Yes, my ex-wife, Sherry.
And I believe that's the first time. If not, maybe you have a recollection of a
time before. But I think Gary was basically the link, right?
That was the main... That was... Well, Brad... I was Brad Gray's first client.
And then I introduced him to the first person I became friends with in Los
Angeles, Gary Shandling.
And then, yeah, Gary was at that party. And I think...
Was Mark Gurvitz there, too? Because that later became Mark's house for a
little while.
It's a lot of weird stuff, because a lot of things happened. A lot of comedic,
Machiavellian stuff happened.
It's... I think about it often, especially when I was writing this most recent
book. So you go back in your memory.
Oh, who was in that room? Who was at that party? When did I meet so-and-so?
And with the benefit of retrospect, it's sort of fascinating how we met people,
who we met people as a result of it, you know, by way of that person.
Right.
But also, what happened? You know, what started out so much fun and so innocent,
and all of a sudden became complicated.
And I think it became complicated because of feelings of... on both sides of
betrayal from people, and success does that sometimes.
Let's finish this one topic that I went kind of blue on, because we get blue
meaning the old school blue, meaning sad.
Because we both... You brought it up, and you're right. What happened to the
purity of the love of, oh, you're a funny person. I'm a funny person. Where are
you from? You're from Brooklyn. Oh, really? What was your childhood like? That's
what mine was like.
Yeah. Are we brothers? Are we next door neighbors? Wow, you're the same dented
can that I am. You know, there's nothing wrong with both of us. Let's be
friends.
And the excitement of what lied ahead, the adventure of what was in front of us,
did have a purity to it. And then that excitement waned, sometimes earlier,
many times later.
Like you said, with success, all of a sudden, ego came into play. What's
business? What kind of business? Wait a second. What if? Why this? Why that?
I thought we were brothers. That whole thing.
Yeah. Wait a second. Wasn't that supposed to be... A word was good. What are
you saying?
All of those things. And I know it sounds... It could sound trite, but it
really isn't if you've lived through it and have experienced the hurt and the
feelings of betrayal from somebody that you love and considered a brother that
came with it.
So it was... There is a profound thing that happens. And you and I have spoken
about it a lot, you know?
We... What happened for us once, which meant so much to me, is we hadn't really
seen each other in several years. I mean, I saw you briefly in New York, but
not really seen each other.
And then we ended up on a plane together and we were in first class because,
you know, I've never been to coach. Have you?
I heard that there's seats back there, but I haven't seen them.
Bill Burr has the funniest bit that he started out, as I did, as you did, where
you're... You know, he was literally, like, next to the bathroom with a piece
of plywood.
All the way in the back there, sure.
Yeah. The seat where there's a piece of plywood, he would say, between the guy
taking a shit while you're sitting there.
And that, yes, I could not... I couldn't even upgrade forward. I didn't know
what was going on.
But the truth of it is we talked for the entire... And it was one of those long
flights, New York to L.A.
And we... It was like, oh, my God, I just relished every minute with you.
I remember it as well, very... With fondness.
And we were dealing with Gary's death and Brad was still alive.
Were we... I'm trying to remember.
Were they both alive? And were we trying to make sense out of what the hell
life has been?
I see... My memory is of that.
My memory also is me calling you once and saying, "Boy, Gary really hurt my
feelings."
And he had sent me either an email or a text or something.
And he accused me of lying, my inability to handle the truth properly.
However, he worded it.
And, you know, I knew that whatever the issue was, and I can't remember, it was
so long ago.
And the feeling that... The hurt that... You mean, he thinks that? How could he
think that?
I would never do that.
Right.
If I had to get to that place to think that and accuse me of it to my face, wow,
have we really left each other to a great extent?
And I remember calling you, telling you about it, and you talked me down.
You talked me down, and it's...
You know, look, like you said at the beginning, we've always, and I use this
word literally, been attracted to each other.
I mean that in every sense of the word.
Me too. I put physical first, and then...
Oh, physical, then all the other stuff, yeah.
Then comedy, and then as a person, it's nice to talk.
Yeah, it's nice to talk.
Yeah, but physical, that's the thing.
And I felt, when I got off the phone with you, I remember saying to my wife,
Robin, I said, "Bob and I really became friends just now."
Really, you know, in a different kind of a way, because you were there for me,
you were empathetic, you would have had your own issues with Gary and...
And I'm still coming to terms with them, and I kind of resolved them near the
end of his life.
And we were going to see each other, and then he just declined more health-wise,
but he had evolved to realize, I think, from what I could tell, because Gary
was all about evolving, and about betrayal, and his spider senses were always
up.
Right.
That someone was going to screw him over, because he felt so betrayed, and I
told him, "I have a problem, Gary. Brad Gray and I were friends my whole career."
I introduced them, and I also introduced Gary to Harvey Weinstein, who Brad
worked for as a runner.
So, I'm just glad Harvey never did anything to him, because then I would have
really been... I would have never been able to make up with Gary.
But the love that I have... I will always love Brad, and I will always love
Gary.
So, I said that in Judd Apatow's documentary on Gary, and Judd got it, and so
many people love Gary, and I'm part of Brad's family.
You know, his kids are my kids, and Jill is my friend, and he's got a...
It's complicated. It's very complicated.
You know, I met Brad through Gary, so Gary was...
When I met Gary, and we hit it off immediately, we created that show, and it
was, you know, shortly afterwards, because Brad managed him, then I met Brad.
Always liked Brad.
He was always good to me, but I was glad he was on my team, okay?
Because I saw how he was elsewhere.
I saw there was a Michael Corleone thing there, for lack of a comparison,
whereas Bernie was Vito, and Sandy Wernick was Fredo, okay?
Yeah, Fredo, that's why they have to put him in the boat.
Meanwhile, Sandy is one of the funniest, sweetest guys.
I love Sandy Wernick.
He's been, you know, you cannot, you can go a few years and not speak to Sandy,
but you can call him out of the blue, and he's there for you, and he's a very
loyal man.
So let me tell the listeners real quick, just so they have an idea of the
people we're talking about.
Sandy Wernick is a manager and an executive at Brillstein Grey, sorry, Brillstein
Entertainment Partners.
There you go.
It used to be the Brillstein Company, Bernie Brillstein.
Bernie Brillstein was old school showbiz, who everybody would know because he
was an exec producer of movies like Ghostbuster