Name: Brian Regan & Bob Talk Writing Comedy, Being Willing to Fail, & Brian's New Special “On the Rocks”
Uploaded: 2021-02-22T18:00:21.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Brian Regan & Bob Talk Writing Comedy, Being Willing to Fail, & Brian's New Special “On the Rocks”' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-02-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Brian Regan & Bob Talk Writing Comedy, Being Willing to Fail, & Brian's New Special “On the Rocks”' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-02-22. Transcript available.

Brian Regan & Bob Talk Writing Comedy, Being Willing to Fail, & Brian's New Special “On the Rocks”

Hey, it's me, it's Bob, and it's the show that is titled Bob Saget's Here For
You,
talking in third person, which is uncomfortable. I have a guest today who I
just think the world
of, Ryan Regan, one of the best stand-up comics that exists in our world, and
he's just a
universally special guy, and he does what comedians are supposed to do, which
is speak for everybody.
It almost excludes no one, no matter who you are, really. That's my opinion and
a lot of other
people's opinions. He's so great. He's played Radio City and Carnegie Hall and
toured the country and
lots of the world, and he's an actor as well, recently in a Peter Farrelly
series, and he's
just incredibly talented and incredibly prolific. So we're about to admit him
into the Zoom room.
And in the meantime, I must tell you to do what you do with this show. You rate
and review it,
but subscribe. Rate and review it nicely. I'm a very sensitive dude, but I take
notes. I do,
because I'm always trying to better myself, right? No, I'm always trying to
butter myself.
And the other thing you can do is follow this, and you can also call that
number up top, and I'll be
calling people, and I'll let you know on Twitter or Instagram stories when I'll
be calling you guys
and see how you're doing. This is a really incredible craftsman of stand-up
comedy, and just one of the
people that I look to as one of the best. So here we are. I'm welcoming Brian
Regan.
Thanks for doing this.
Of course. Thank you.
You know how I feel about you. It's purely physical.
So where are you? Where are you now?
I'm in my home in Las Vegas.
And that is good, right? You love it there, right?
Yes. I've been here 18 years now, and...
You mean you've been in quarantine that long?
I've been in quarantine for 18 years. I was O.J. Simpson's cellmate for a few
years out here.
Top or bottom bunk?
We'd flip back and forth. Wherever he wanted to be, I would go, yeah, well,
that's fine.
Yeah, I mean, he's got the Heisman.
I've actually seen him a few times out here. He lives here in Las Vegas, and he
hits the nightclubs.
You know me, I'm a big nightclub guy.
Oh, my God. You've been partying forever.
I'm just Mr. Party, and so I was in a club.
It sounds weird. I'm in a bar, you know. A club doesn't... I don't even... I
feel weird saying I was in a club like I'm 25 years old.
Well, it's you just walking around.
And he walked...
Go ahead.
He walked behind me and put his hand on my back, you know, to just scoot by,
and that feeling of, that's O.J.'s hand.
I was in a sushi bar once. It was right after the trial, and he was a free man.
And we were... My three daughters and I, and they'd been watching the news with
me.
We'd all seen a lot, and he was there with a date, and I told them that in this
sushi bar, he had killed all the fish.
And I got a laugh from the oldest.
The other two looked at me like, what are you going to do to me, Dad?
This is really bad.
It's going to mess up my mind.
Brian, you're... I just watched your new special, On the Rocks, and it's out
tomorrow, actually. That's when this is coming out, this pod.
Okay.
So, it is... I don't want to say your best, but... I mean, you're always great,
but it's really great.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Now, you're so voluminous, not in metric weight, but I'm saying how you're prolific.
Was that... How long did you roll that set? Or, I mean, just walk me through it.
Well, I had a two special deal with Netflix. This is the second of the two. The
first special came out, I don't know, three years ago?
Yeah, it was great.
Something like that. Thank you. So, once that comes out, you know, I start the
process of trying to come up with a new hour, you know?
I always say there's three simultaneous goals. There's the individual jokes, a
little bit, and then there's the five-minute spots, you know,
for Letterman or Fallon or something like that. Those are a different animal.
And then there's the hour goal.
So, all of those are happening at the same time, but this hour started about
three years ago.
That makes sense. I'm on, like, a four-hour. I mean, I'm on a four-year... I'm
on a four-hour podcast.
No, I'm on a four-year between specials trajectory. You're, I mean, I know for
a fact that you will do a special and you'll shoot, like, half the material is
different than the other set.
We shoot two in one night is how you do it. But you're pretty prolific. What do
you think you credit that to?
Well, I hate that. That sounded like an interviewer question. Because in your
stand-up, you're constantly talking, and you have the greatest dumb person
character, which you are one of them sometimes.
Right.
But you're learned. You're a learned man.
Thank you.
And you say you love words.
I appreciate that. I like, for me, I like to think that the comedy is coming
from two perspectives. It's from a guy who feels uncomfortable and inadequate
and insecure, but that guy is also aware of the world and can see stupid
behavior.
And, you know, so I like both of those things happening within the comedy. And
I hope it comes across that way. It always bugs me when people think it's just
the dumb side. It's like, well, that's only half the joke.
Unfortunately, we're living in a time where people are exuding quite a bit of
that persona, but you're being self-aware about it. That's what's so brilliant
about it. You've always done that.
Well, that's what a great stand-up is, is they look from the outside so that
you're giving the full view for sure.
Thanks, man. But to answer your earlier question, as far as prolific, which I
appreciate, there was a time when I got lazy and when I first started headlining
and first started getting a little bit of a following, you know, I was in
comedy clubs and I was like, wow, people are coming out to see me, which was
very intriguing.
And then, so the numbers went up, audience numbers, and then they started going
down again, and I remember hearing comments after shows where people go, it's
the same stuff, but it's funny every time.
And like, they think that's a compliment, but to me, I'm like, wow, I don't
want it to be the same stuff.
So I realized that I needed to go back to when I first started doing comedy and
go back to that fear of not knowing if something was going to get a laugh or
not and stop relying on the sure laughs, you know,
throw those sure laughs out and go back to the drawing board.
And that's when I started like really feeling like, okay, now I can come up
with all kinds of stuff if I'm willing to try and willing to experiment,
willing to fail, you know?
And once you get those sea legs, it becomes, I mean, I know that you'll some, I
go to clubs to work out stuff so that when I'm doing hard ticket gigs, I'm not
screwing around.
I'll put new stuff in on, in a theater gig, but you, I understand that you, you
know, you'll put in like 10 minutes, 15 minutes of new stuff in a, in a hard
ticket gig.
Yeah.
And you sneak it in, you know, you bookend it with stuff that hopefully, you
know, will work and then put some other stuff in there that doesn't work.
And I found I, not by design, but I find that if an audience sees a joke, not
work, they're even more appreciative of the ones that do work.
Right.
Then they, you know what I mean? Like they go, Oh, everything isn't a home run.
You know what I mean? And I feel like it, it's a win-win.
Do you do the, I mean, I do the Carson backpedal, Johnny Carson, not Carson Daly.
You know, if something I'm trying doesn't go anywhere, I'll, I'll do the, you
know, what Johnny did so well.
Bill Maher actually does Johnny Carson. He admits it, you know, his stature and
how, if something doesn't work, he'll blame it on the writers or he'll more
than, or, you know, well, maybe it wasn't there.
Do you do that kind of thing sometimes?
Yeah. You know, I mean, like I'll have a, a couple of savers, you know, uh, to
get myself out of a bit that doesn't work. And my stuff is a little, you know,
I'm not doing one liners, you know, like I, I have to commit.
To a bit that's going to last two or three minutes long. And if it doesn't work,
it's glaringly obvious. It isn't like, wow, that was a line and now I can just
move on.
So, you know, as long as I acknowledge it playfully, I, I'm fine. You know what
I mean? Crowds will always give you a foul ball. They're willing to give you a
foul ball.
Right, right. And, and, and I, people ask me and I'm sure they ask you, uh,
when they don't understand what this is, you know, and I heard actually Bill Maher
talk about it the other night.
Do you ever bomb? And I would, I would say, what, what's your answer to that?
Yes. Yes. Of, of, of recent, I mean, let's say pandemic. No, no. I, um, I just
did a private event about a week ago in front of a bunch of high rollers in a
casino.
Uh, I got the feeling within the first 30 seconds, they didn't really know who
I was. And, uh, I mean, they were polite, but there's a difference between
performing in front for me.
If I'm performing in front of people who have an idea of who I am and what I do,
or they've heard, Hey, this guy's pretty funny. That's one kind of audience.
But if I'm performing for a people, for people who are assembled for another
reason, a corporate event or a charity event, or it's a business meeting and
they throw an entertainer on, if they're assembled for another reason, other
than me, it is a complete crap shoot.
How I'm going to do, I would bet against me. I bet against me in those
situations.
I, I always, they always say to me, cause my act evolves. I'm a chameleon. You
know, I could, I could be clean as a whistle. I, and sometimes I just do what I
do.
Um, I've always looked up to you for how amazingly funny you are. And it's not
your voice to curse. Cause I, and I only had a shock value time with one
special.
I had been trying to break out of a box for awhile. And then I just cursed if
it felt like it was there. It's just my vernacular.
Um, but you know, you're one, I'm telling you the truth. You're one of the best
living standups.
Oh man. Thank you.
There's thousands of dead ones that are better than you.
I, I, I concur.
What, what was it like you did for a four episode thing with, with Jerry, Jerry
Seinfeld. Um, right.
Yeah. Well, he was kind enough. It, it, it was on Netflix. It was a four
episode series called Stand Up and Away. And it was a hybrid of my standup.
That would then segue into sketch and, uh, Seinfeld was just kind enough to
spearheaded for me. I mean, he could not have been a, a better executive
producer.
Like he likes my stuff, which is a huge honor in and of itself. He said, he
felt I should have a TV show and he wanted to help me have one.
I mean, what kind of, that's better than gold, frankincense and myrrh. I mean,
what kind of gift is that?
Right. So, so he and I went to Netflix and just used his clout to get me the
four episode series, but he was cool enough to not be over involved.
Like he wanted it to be my vision. He said, I'll weigh in and say certain
things. But at the end of the day, you make, I realize I'm talking with my
hands way too much here.
No, it's perfect for this. Cause some people will look at it on YouTube. It's
like Jeff Dunham to them.
Um, I'm watching myself.
You're a physical comedian.
I can't tell a story with that. Oh really? Um, so anyway, you probably didn't
know, but we'll get back to that.
So anyway, he spearheaded it for me and kind of let me let the vision be mine.
And, uh, it was a huge honor that he helped get that in, help get that going
for me.
You know, it's funny. The meeting it's Jerry Seinfeld and me and Netflix people.
And it was so comforting because no matter what they asked me, you know, like
if they would go, all right, well, how do you see this show progressing?
My answer could always just be, that's Jerry Seinfeld.
I can't get over it. He wants to do this. So that's it. It's the end of the
story, you know?
So what would you like to do? Uh, not say no to Jerry.
Exactly.
Well, he did it with Colin Quinn. He dir