Name: Bill Burr - FMTV | Judd Apatow on Garry Shandling's Memorial Service
Uploaded: 2020-12-12T12:00:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr - FMTV | Judd Apatow on Garry Shandling's Memorial Service' from Bill Burr Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr - FMTV | Judd Apatow on Garry Shandling's Memorial Service' from Bill Burr Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-12. Transcript available.

i just remember you know i watched you know you know this is the theme the gary
show i watched
this first one i watched everything i used to watch this tonight show sets i
just always just
thought the guy he just always it was funny when even like when i was in junior
high i was like in
seventh grade i knew that his stuff was just funnier yeah that it was this is
like a different
level like this guy is better than all of these other guys and i was wondering
like what was that
like you know because i i really i sent an email about that like i thought the
gary shandling
documentary that you do was that's my favorite thing you've done and i have
thank you 40 year old
virgin all this stuff but um what was that like because you were friends with
somebody sure like
that um you know myself i've lost a couple of friends and i know that certain
things it just
gets like really emotional what was it but i never delved into their life to
the level that that you
did with with gary who was like a friend and a mentor to you like what was that
process like like
how long did it take you to to you know because that was on par with like did
you see that eagles
documentary oh i love that it was like three hours long and it felt he was 20
minutes yeah and it's
like i got through like a cross-country flight watching that i felt like the gary
shandling duck
was like that what was that like it was like the eagles dock if if gary uh wasn't
on coke yeah
well you know it's funny because now that it's over and i've been you know i
finished it six or
eight months ago something like that looking back it's almost like a fever
dream that i even did it
right because he died i was really depressed and it threw me more than i
thought because he was a
constant presence of support and i didn't realize what an important beam he was
in everything and
and uh and i thought i think there's just a lesson that he wants to teach
everybody and i'll tell you a
story that it kind of launched the documentary is that i went to gary's cremation
and so gary's
cremation was very christ i mean people don't go to cremations you're not
supposed to go
yeah it's a cremation no wait you saw him like sliding the body in well kind of
it's jesus judd
basically you know what the fuck basically uh how did you get tickets to that i
mean and i only tell
i only tell this story because i think it's it's it's helpful to people in
their own lives is that
you know a friend put together a very small service so if you can imagine there's
only like
eight people there and you know and an oven basically and and like four uh buddhist
monks
right so that takes the edge off a little bit they're like they're here they're
not freaking out
yeah they were fine with it that's their whole religion okay so we go to this
place and it's in
the valley and it's not that far from these offices and it's you know a crematorium
is it part of a
strip mall there's like ramen noodles get your tax done watch your friend get
burned even worse
it's deeper in the valley where it's just next to a place that like you know
makes glass bowls or
something it's in an industrial area so we go there it's clear no one's ever
had a service in this space
this isn't what people do so there's no like room to do it we're literally in
like the lobby
of a place that looks like a sham business of some someplace right and like
what they're selling in
the lobby there's literally just like one desk an empty space and did you make
sure it was gary
underneath the sheets like a fucking crash test dummy that'll be 50 grand like
what they were selling
there they had these little uh they had these little pamphlets where you could
take some of the ashes
of your beloved and have them put into like a little glass figurine you could
put on your table or like
something you would wear oh god let it go it's over they're gone they're gone
so we go we go to this
this place and uh we go into this little room and again it's like it couldn't
be rattier really and
they have a a service uh which is very sweet and and it's beautiful and and
moving and all of the
ideas of of buddhism and and uh and then they take us in this room now the room
with the crematorium
it's like the kitchen to a restaurant it's just like a big room with the cement
floor
and like four or five ovens they did a little service they hit some little
fucking gongs or
something like what happened yeah they're just they did buddhist prayers and
they talked about
gary's life and uh and and what life is about you know you you know you live
you die you you learn the
lessons that you can you try to be as loving and kind as you can hopefully you
uh you know you grew
and it was very sweet that actually sounds cool now do they believe in a heaven
and hell buddhist
people here's my issue with buddhism is that you get deeper and deeper into it
it heads to
reincarnation i i believe and i always get lost when things get too magical i
like something that's
clear like life is about being kind and that's it like that's that's as far as
i usually can get i
can't that's the script writer in you you need it to land i need it to land as
soon as it becomes
magical in any way as soon as someone's reborn or goes to heaven or hell i'm i'm
lost i have trouble
now i'm not 100 closed but i'm pretty close uh but i do i can get interested in
ideas that are about
how can we you know let go of our egos and be kind that that's all i need okay
so we have the service
and it's and it's so they bring into the other room moving and then we go in
the other room
and it's literally you know a table with a a cardboard coffin and then they say
some more prayers
and then at some point they open up an oven which looks like almost like a
dishwasher in a restaurant
and they roll it in the flames already going or do they turn it on after they
close the door there's
a pilot light and uh and then and then the viking stove like what do they stick
it it's literally not
that far from a pizza oven okay okay and you know they put uh the cardboard
coffin in then they close
close it almost like if a dishwasher in a restaurant and then they ask who
wants to push the button
oh jesus and you know they're saying do they have a bunch of fake buttons like
a firing squad like
somebody gets blanks and one guy really blows his brains out yeah no one wants
to know who pushed
the button you don't want to carry that and then a friend of gary's you know
push the button and then
suddenly you hear it fire up you know it's getting hotter than your normal
pizza oven and
the room gets hot and then it's like you smell something burning like it's like
you know if it
was like a fire at your neighbor's house and suddenly like your chest hurts a
little bit then you realize
it's gary that there's no there's no vent i guess i guess it maybe was a place
that needed more
ventilation no i mean there is a vent it's not like overpowering like the room
is all filled with smoke but
so do you realize like someday if you go on a fast to get rid of toxins in your
body part of that is
gary shandling exactly and that would sadden me but but that's what was crazy
about it so now i love
gary so much i will never go on a fast after i breathe it wow and so so i'm you
know watching this
crying my eyes out just bawling it's as intense as anything i've ever
experienced yeah this is pretty
heavy and i'm feeling it in my chest and i'm aware like that's gary we're
breathing in gary and at
first it you know part of me it made me laugh like yeah because this is super
creepy dude you know it's
it's creepy it's kind of weirdly uh like like gary always would make the joke
like i'm inside you you
know like there's like a sexual joke to be made there right and then i just
thought god gary would find
this so funny all of us sitting here crying watching them cremate his body he
would think
that this was fantastic like me here bawling my eyes out gary would look and
just go like
that's right that's what it is that's what it is and and i thought in that
moment
this is a lesson like having to look at that will change your life having to
be at the crematorium about you know what's important what do we care about how
do we treat
people what do you want to do with your life and i thought gary wanted me here
he wanted me to go
through this hell in this freaking you know oh is this part of his like no he
didn't ask for it but i
just on like a spiritual level i thought this is it gary wants me to learn
every freaking lesson
to the point of his incineration he wants me to look it in the eye and take
from it whatever
i can take to be a better person and i think in that moment was you know the
seed of how do i
tell other people this lesson because i think in gary's life he was trying to
figure out how to talk
about this stuff and you know it's very hard in comedy to do it without seeming
really corny or weird
you know as soon as people start talking about their spirituality in a sincere
way we're all
like shut the fuck up and it feels you got to be like interviewed by oprah and
she has to bring it
out of you and act like well she asked me exactly that's the only way to that's
the only cool way to
do it i mean and i had so many friends that tried to and they always seemed odd
and i think gary when
he did comedians in cars uh getting coffee was the first time he found a way to
be really funny
but talk about some things that he believed in and i think that was his goal
near the end of his life
he was trying to figure out how to reinvent how he did stand up and get some of
these ideas in and he
hadn't quite cracked it he was really into silence he loved not getting a laugh
he loved putting people
through weird silences and he would say to the crowd that that's where it all
is it's all in that
silence right and he didn't have a joke he didn't even know what to do with it
he just knew when the
room went dead contemplating is what they're doing they're contemplating what
was just said
and so when i was uh working on his memorial service i cut together four or
five little
mini docs about gary and when i was making them i thought oh yeah there's a
whole movie about gary
about what he believed in and and that's how it started