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- [00:04]
Jim Florentine
This summer, serve up the cookout classics craft mayo and dressing. Toss green salads with delicious ranch dressing or zesty Italian. Serve smooth, craveably creamy potato salads with mayo. We all know it's not a cookout without craft. I was a dj, like, at weddings and stuff. One time I was doing a wedding. I'm in there and I hear people coming in, where's that dj? He's ruining their song. How could he do that?
- [00:28]
Tyrus
You gotta have that risk, you know, and that's part of it. In an environment where risk can get
- [00:33]
Jim Florentine
you unemployed, you have the right to be offended. But that doesn't mean I can't do the joke.
- [00:44]
Tyrus
You know, I always like the fact you. Your resume is like, unbelievable. Obviously, before I even met you, I was a fan. Crank Gankers was amazing. You know, you got some of the. And you did most of the voices, or pretty much large sum of them.
- [00:57]
Jim Florentine
I did, too. Special ed the guy. Yeah, yeah. He was a breakout character. And Bobby Fletcher. Yeah. Was just my regular. Regular voice with a different name.
- [01:06]
Tyrus
When you. Obviously. I hate when you say, oh, you couldn't do that today. But, like, that was one of, like, the trend setting things. Everybody. And her mom was crank calling people.
- [01:16]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [01:18]
Tyrus
How did that come about? Was that just.
- [01:20]
Jim Florentine
It was just amazing at that point. Like, I was. I made up a. A prank CD just to. Telemarketers mess with telemarketers.
- [01:27]
Tyrus
Right.
- [01:27]
Jim Florentine
I was home during the day doing comedy sets at night. So I was just trying to keep on the phone as long as possible. I make up the CD myself. I got to produce myself. I send it in the Howard Stern show. And I knew Gary, the producer there, and he goes, all right. I went to his office. He goes, all right, if it's funny, we'll play it. And I'm like, yeah, okay. I saw 75 CDs stacked on his desk. I'm like, yeah, whatever. The next morning, I wake up at like, 10, I got all these voicemails. Dude, he's playing your stuff. He's playing. The next day, he started playing. I was doing that special, like, character on my CDs before crank anchors, Right? Yeah. So he's like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And then Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla, they were Stern fans. They were out in LA listening, and they came up with a crank anchor show. And they go, who is this guy? We don't. We want to get in touch with him. We want him on a show with those characters. He does. So it just happened just like that.
- [02:12]
Tyrus
Like it was about as grassroots, generic as possible.
- [02:14]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, There was never been a prank call show in the history of TV. And he starts playing it when he had like 20 million people listening. Huge. Back in 2001. And next thing I know, I'm on a show and I was the only unknown on the show. It was all Tracy Morgan, Dave Chappelle, Kim Oklah, Adam Silverman, so Sarah Silver, Silverman or whatever. So I was like the only on Tracy Morgan. I was the only unknown on the show. Was awesome.
- [02:39]
Tyrus
Now, were you always into comedy? I mean, you, you kind of were born. Either you're a smart ass or you're not, you know, but like, was that, was that always kind of the direction or was there something else and it just kind of fell into it?
- [02:49]
Jim Florentine
Well, I wanted to be a band because I was like in the rock and, and metal and stuff like that. All my friends were in bands growing up, but I just didn't have the talent for it. I was a lefty, so I was like, I want to play guitar. My friends like, well, can you play righty? I go, no. I tried singing lessons. I couldn't do that. I saw all the women that guys in bands were getting.
- [03:06]
Tyrus
Yeah, well, and growing up, all the, the bands were hot too. You didn't like. I remember Poison and stuff when I was like, wait a minute, those are dudes.
- [03:15]
Jim Florentine
I know. You know, if you look like them, that's.
- [03:17]
Tyrus
Yeah, you had to look like them to get girls.
- [03:19]
Jim Florentine
To get girls.
- [03:20]
Tyrus
Yeah, it wasn't happening for me, unfortunately.
- [03:22]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, no, I know. I had long hair at that time. And then when I cut it, all of a sudden those girls weren't into me. Like those girls, you know, strippers and hairdressers.
- [03:32]
Tyrus
The top of the line when it comes to women in terms of what you want to have interest in you.
- [03:36]
Jim Florentine
Phenomenal. And then all of a sudden I'm getting a woman that works in a bank that, you know, is quiet and conservative. Yeah, I'll go on a date and I'm like, this sucks. As soon as I cut my hair.
- [03:45]
Tyrus
That's all it was never in it for substance lady. So now you do. Now you have been in the, in the comic world for a long time and, and you were one of the guys who I think caught some heat during the pandemic and during the cancel culture, but it didn't really stop you. You didn't change your style, you know, And a lot of guys, 90% of most, and I'm not throwing shade at anyone but people a lot of times to keep the paychecks coming. They went with the time, you know, they, they folded and went with the time. You've never been one of those guys, like, you're, they call it a dry humor, but it's like self deprecating, which is hilarious. But you kind of look at life, you call it as you see it.
- [04:26]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, I was always like, sarcastic, dry sense of humor. But I never, you know, I remember years ago, my, this one guy's like, man, my agent told me, don't be edgy anymore. They're not looking for that. The industry. I'm like, why would you listen to him do what you do? And he's like, no, I'm going to change. Meanwhile, the guy never happened. I always did the same thing from day one. I'm like, I'm not going to go out to Hollywood and kiss anybody's ass. I'm not an ass kisser.
- [04:49]
Tyrus
Right.
- [04:49]
Jim Florentine
I'm going to do what I think is funny on stage and hopefully somebody's going to like it at some point. If they don't, I can always do the clubs. I almost should have, like, I was in like a little rock band that did like rock clubs and stuff.
- [05:00]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [05:00]
Jim Florentine
Build up my own audience and just build, build, build like that go around the industry.
- [05:05]
Tyrus
Well, and that's kind of what happened during the pandemic. Like, I remember I started first getting invited to, to do comedy clubs. And of course the goal is, hey, I want to do Laugh Factory, you know, in la. Like I want to do, you know, because you see all the stuff on the, you see all the names and stuff. And then I started getting opportunities on Gutfeld to do my thing. And. And then it was literally like, oh, man, sorry, man. It's just our audience wouldn't appreciate a guy coming over from Fox News. And I was like, what? You know, and I didn't understand it at first. And then it was like I had five or six different movies going on and. And all of a sudden there was no TV shows, there was no callbacks. I'll just keep pressing that. Sorry, son. Oh, I took a picture. Love modern technology. Oh, it's a stupid watch. The phone's silent for a reason. Watch those smart watches. Dumb as. But my point is, is like there was such a backlash to where there was like no opportunities other than Gutfeld. And I was like, this is so to your point. I started just doing small, booking small events myself. Like, I'll just book this and that. And then all of a sudden it grows and a lot of the comedians like yourself, that. That stayed the course, that stayed true to themselves, are in a better spot now than they were when it started.
- [06:26]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, well, look, a lot of people, once Trump got in the office in 2016, all the comics didn't want to go on Fox anymore.
- [06:32]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [06:32]
Jim Florentine
They were like, you can't go on. It's gonna kill your career. And I'm like, meanwhile, Greg helped my career by having me on Red Eye. All the comics would do Red Eye. Cause they would tape it at 7pm here in New York and then we go do our sets after that. So everybody did it. And then once 2016 came along, you know, Greg, I think, just had the show on Saturday nights or whatever. Like, we can't go on Fox, man. You're gonna ruin your career. I go, the guy help my career. I'm not going to turn my back on him, you know, because all of a sudden the industry says, you can't go on Fox. So there was, you know, maybe three or four of us were the only ones that still went on Greg's show. When that came about in 2016, it was a handful.
- [07:06]
Tyrus
Less than a handful.
- [07:07]
Jim Florentine
Yes.
- [07:08]
Tyrus
You know, and where does that come from, though, that loyalty? Is that something you grew up with in your family or.
- [07:13]
Jim Florentine
I've always been loyal. I'll go back and do gigs. Like the first guy to ever give me a gig at a firehouse years ago. I'll still do a show for him. I go, I want to do another show for you. I. That still has that firehouse or whatever. It's just like, I'm not going to turn my back on a guy that helped my career out just because the industry says, don't go on there. You know, I've never been like that, you know, so if. If Greg was. Went to MSNBC and he wanted me on the show, I would have went on.
- [07:36]
Tyrus
Because it really shouldn't matter.
- [07:37]
Jim Florentine
It doesn't.
- [07:38]
Tyrus
Jokes are jokes.
- [07:39]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, exactly. It's like, so what? So meanwhile, they don't even watch Fox News. Like back then, nobody even watched. I never got shit from any other comics or anything because nobody ever watched it. Right, Gutfeld. Now they do. Now it's on everybody's radar and stuff. But I don't care. I'm like, so what? The guy's my friend and he has me on the show and it's a big show. Of course I'm going to go on.
- [07:59]
Tyrus
And I think that's one of the end. You're like, I said, your comedy has never changed. And I Think of guys like Jim Norton and, and it's weird because there was guys that used to be like, I would say Jimmy Kimmel's comedy at first was, was more like, hey, everyday guy stuff. And obviously it changed. And I'm not throwing, hey, he did what he had to do. But like Amy Schumer, all these different comedians, that it was their brashness and their unafraidness to go up and just make a joke changed, you know, and they all went the way of the, of the woke. And then long term, all of them eventually get cannibalized by, by folding. So I think it's. You think it's better if you're going to go down with this ship, at least it's your ship.
- [08:44]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, exactly. And if you started doing that stuff, you're not, you know, no one's going to give you shit for still doing it. Still being edgy. Yeah, like, that's just the way you've always been like that. So the people that change because of the times, you know, all of a sudden they got so much backlash. Like, I listen to your old stuff and you weren't, you're not doing any of that stuff anymore to really compromise you on being funny. Like, if you take the edginess out of your act, like, where's the funny, the funniness going to come from when you were always so edgy? You took those chances.
- [09:11]
Tyrus
Yeah. And then the other thing is, like, you're also, you're, you're shorting yourself. Like, some of the best ideas come from good jokes. You know what I'm saying? Like, you inspire people. I can remember jokes that stuck in my head forever. Like when Richard Pryor was talking about going to Africa. I think I told that joke 50 times at school. Of course, I was the only kid who was able to stay up late because my mom worked nights. And so I'm watching all the edgy stuff on HBO and stuff and then going to school in the seventh grade and I'm basically just killing it, you know, and it wasn't until I got like, they didn't. Eventually they figured it out. And ninth grade, everyone was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know that one. Nice, nice try, bro. But I had kids convinced that I was going on trips to Africa in the summertime, you know, but, but it was like, but it's inspirational and you laugh and you. In timing and things like that. It just seems like the one thing that should have always been off limits is stand up comedy, because in its purest form, it is the best form of the freedom of speech. I mean, it is exactly what the Constitution was for. And it's the dissent and uncomfortable jokes that we remember and also hit close to home. So to take that away, I thought was just not just a disservice to comedians, but to the audience.
- [10:23]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, no, I mean, that's. That's just what it went through, that phase, you know, 2016 to 2022, somewhere around that or six years, where, you know, there was. There was the club in Seattle that I got canceled for that was all over the news, is they would shut the mic off if you said a certain word, like you've made a transgender joke. They would just shut the owner, be in the back, and just cut your mic off on the stage like it was crazy. So every and all the comics, I. I talked to some guys, like, yeah, man, we just can't say that stuff in these clubs. We got to watch it. They won't let us, you know, if we do any kind of edgy stuff, I'm like, what kind of comedy scene is that? Right.
- [10:57]
Tyrus
And. And. But again, a lot of people kind of change now when you look. And one of the things I like about you because you kind of mix real life in with your jokes, and, you know, you always talk about the single life.
- [11:10]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [11:10]
Tyrus
And, you know, and then you also talk about being a parent. So what is. It has changed so much. I mean, because I feel like there's more material now in the dating scene, like, just looking. And again, from a married perspective, you kind of look at the landscape, and you see. All you see is what you see on TV and stuff. And I was like, there's no way. That's. That's really how it is. I mean, I remember the worst thing a woman would ask you on the first date is if she could see your bank statement. You know, like, you actually have a job.
- [11:39]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [11:39]
Tyrus
Like, you know, you can afford this dinner, and you're being put out. But now that. What are your. What are your pronouns? How do you feel about this? How do you vote? You know, like, all these things that, like, the precursors that were never there before are now there before. Do you experience a lot of that when you.
- [11:53]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, a little bit, definitely. You know, when I first got divorced, I went on those dating sites, and it was always like, you know, if you're a Trumper or a Republican, swipe left. I want nothing to do with you. You know, stuff like that. Which is good, because if you're gonna hold that against me, I don't care. All my 90% of my friends are liberals, especially in this business. I don't care. Like that wouldn't bother me. It just.
- [12:14]
Tyrus
Why does that matter?
- [12:14]
Jim Florentine
We're not going to fight about it. And if whatever you believe in, you believe in what I believe. It's almost like trying to change somebody. Like a sports team. Like, you know, I'm a Miami Dolphin.
- [12:24]
Tyrus
It's like your religion. I'm a, I'm a Patriot fan.
- [12:26]
Jim Florentine
Right. And I'm a Dolphin fan. Are you going to, am I going to convince you to be a Dolphin fan? Never.
- [12:30]
Tyrus
And you're actually not just based off championships alone. That's a horrible decision. My brother, My brother was a die hard Dolphin fan. Like when I was a kid, he, he wore the Damarino jersey every day. Greatest quarterback. And I couldn't say much because I had Eason and Gogan, so I really couldn't.
- [12:44]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [12:44]
Tyrus
Yeah. And then there was the whole Bears debacle. So I really needed to. I really wasn't in a position. But as the years went on, you know, lightning in the bottle, New England, because we were the bottom of the barrel and I know. And all of a sudden, you know, lightning in a bottle, the Dolphins. He's still waiting. And I remember the best thing I ever said. We had an argument. I said, you will never in your lifetime see the Dolphins win a championship. Will never happen. And, and every year I, I watch the season. I watch the season and I'm like, yeah, happening. It ain't happening. But, but those. You guys are the best fans to be a. My to come on this podcast and openly come out of the, the football closet and say you support the Dolphins. I mean, even when they have it, they never seem to have it.
- [13:29]
Jim Florentine
It's amazing though, because I was living down in Florida at the time of the Marino years. I was at the championship game in 84 when they went to the Super bowl. They lost it up 49ers. I saw Marino's year. I was there. I was like, man, this is going to be on this for the next 20 years is going to be like it. And it never got back to one other time. They got to the championship in New England. I was at that game.
- [13:48]
Tyrus
Yeah, we had played the greatest game ever in the rain and then just got Molly whopped and murdered. That was a tough bus ride for me because I went into the weekend, you know, with. I had one page, I had a John Hannah shirt and I was. John Hannah shirt. And I was sitting in there and I was on the School bus going because they had the music videos and the pagers had a video that nobody watched. I think I was. And there was no. It was like I could queue it up on the old phone. I was like, we don't make videos. We win championships. And I was betting everybody lunch money and lunch tickets, you know, because you get. Well, used to get. We used to get the little. Your month worth of tickets and you'd take one ticket and you. It was like you had to pay attention. Well, that became currency. So I got, you know, I'm getting ready to collect stacks of tickets on Monday. It was a rough. I lost a little bit of weight that. That spring because I had pretty much bet all my lunch tickets on the Super Bowl.
- [14:36]
Jim Florentine
That was in the 85 Bears defense, who's legend. Probably the best defense of all time.
- [14:40]
Tyrus
Of all time. The only saving grace was. I remember the only thing I could come up with that and was that, well, Walter Payton didn't score. That was the only argument.
- [14:47]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. And sacked the refrigerator. Perry scored.
- [14:49]
Tyrus
Yeah. That was the only argument I could hold on to. Oh, and we did have a lead. We were up three nothing.
- [14:54]
Jim Florentine
Oh, that's right. And it was like 45 unanswered.
- [14:57]
Tyrus
45 unanswered. And then of course, the. I should have known something was wrong because you always remember the bad stuff when you, when you love your. Your teams. But Irving Fryer, the best receiver in football at the time, got stabbed in the hand by his wife by steak knife. The night before. The super, like, what were you doing? It's the night before.
- [15:16]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, what are you doing?
- [15:17]
Tyrus
Like, I just couldn't. Not that he would have made a bit of difference. He could have had 400 catches in that game. It would not have mattered. But as a fan, you always try to find stuff. And then I think, man, if I was a Dolphin fan, I have to do that all the time. Like, it's just. Tua. You thought you had it.
- [15:34]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, I gave it a shot. I said, look, the guy's going to be either amazing or a bus.
- [15:40]
Tyrus
But we got to see him throw that bomb against Alabama. And I was like, this dude is. I mean, he knocked a guy, an MVP of the super bowl out of a starting job.
- [15:46]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, I know. And then just. It completely, you know, went to shit. The whole team, the coach, you know, and everything. So you took a chance with them. You know, they were saying Justin Herbert was going to be another Ryan Tannehill. So I was like, you know what? I don't need another Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill, solid, but he's never going to win your super bowl, so let's take a chance on Tua. He's either going to be a superstar or a bust. So now we're back to square one once again.
- [16:13]
Tyrus
Now. Now, I know you love football. What about baseball?
- [16:16]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, I like the San Francisco Giants of baseball.
- [16:18]
Tyrus
No argument there. Although. Well, you're welcome. The Devers trade was horrible.
- [16:24]
Jim Florentine
He's doing terrible for the Giants. I mean, he's batting.210. He's got three homers. They're like, what are we going to do with this guy? Like, we can't not have him in the lineup.
- [16:33]
Tyrus
He was good last year.
- [16:34]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, he came along.
- [16:36]
Tyrus
He's notoriously out of shape. Just to let you know, is. Is. Is his former home. He's. He's one of those guys where the season. Everyone tells him the season starts when. But really the season doesn't start to him. He starts getting going in June.
- [16:50]
Jim Florentine
Okay, that's good to know because.
- [16:51]
Tyrus
So he'll rattle off, like, 11, bat.400 in June. Like, he's one of those guys that, like, being in shape to training camp is an insult. Yeah, he does the work on the job. He's the on the job guy. Like, he. He comes in, you know, 15 pounds overweight, and it's like, well, I want to give the other guys a chance. You know, I always would make that argument.
- [17:10]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [17:10]
Tyrus
But we got nothing back for him.
- [17:12]
Jim Florentine
No. And the guy you got, the one pitcher, Kyle Harrison, is doing great for the brewers now. He's a number three starter. Yeah.
- [17:18]
Tyrus
He's the reason why we also let Hamilton go, who also murdered us. They let the two guys go because the. Our. We have the greatest chant in baseball right now. Sell the team. That's what echoes through Fenway. Sell the team. That's all they chant. It's the greatest. Most with the owner. And they always find. Here's the thing I love about Boston sports and is that there is no given. Like, you know, announcers aren't worried about their job, you know, because most announcers are not. If you're doing the local broadcast, right, you got the local typical. They're chanting to the owner of the team, sell the team. And it's echoing through the stadium. They'll say, like, oh, boisterous crowds. They'll acknowledge it, but they won't. Okay, acknowledge it. Whereas the Boston guys are, like, hearing that. Well, I think that's a unanimous. You know, they're almost encouraging it. And then they pan to the owner of the box. And they had this great thing where he was like, you guys. You can just see him say it under his breath. But like they just have absolutely. They cannot stand any idea of losing. But we made so many bad trades last season, like, and we made the playoffs and the expectations were through the roof. And we're. Although we just beat Detroit, I think we swept Detroit, which. Which means we're going to get murdered by the Rays this weekend. But how much do you use sports in your. In your comedy?
- [18:29]
Jim Florentine
Not too much. A little, you know, a little with baseball and stuff like that. Some football. But I do a lot of shows in New York City in front of like 24 year old kids. Girls.
- [18:39]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [18:39]
Jim Florentine
You know, and they have no idea what I'm talking about. If I get too much into the weeds. That's why I don't really talk about heavy metal on stage, which I know a ton about. I can't do any Judas Priest jokes, which, you know, and stuff like that.
- [18:50]
Tyrus
I had a Judas Priest wallet. Did you Velcro Checkered. I didn't even know what he was yet. But I remember I got the wallet and I was like, yeah, Judas Priest, yeah. No idea. And then my mom's like, have you ever heard it? Cause she listened to it. My mom was into all that stuff. And then what has happened? Why do we not have rock and roll bands? Where are they? I mean, it's the purest form of music. I mean, and it's usually grassroots based. Usually a bunch of kids get together in a garage and they start. But we just don't. I'm not like the rock band is gone. I don't even want to talk about rap. Rap is not rap anymore. It's. It's a computer based singing thing. But like the songwriters and the, like the actual music, I feel like the only place you can see it is America's Got Talent. I'm sorry, it's all ballads. I'm not in it. I didn't mind it, you know. But some of my favorite groups were treated unfairly. Like I think the Scorpions had. He had better hair would have been. I think that's all he was missing because those. Rock youk Like a Hurricane is a great song.
- [19:48]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [19:49]
Tyrus
And if you had like, if you had MLE Crew doing that song, I. I think it's an American classic. But it was just. He had the. He had the Egghead, he had the. He had the Simon and Gar Funkle thing. But it doesn't work in rock and
- [20:02]
Jim Florentine
roll, especially during the MTV days, the video was all about the video, if you would look good.
- [20:07]
Tyrus
And it was awesome. They had girls outside of a cage. They had women who were frothing, trying to get to them. And you're watching them and you see the guitar guy, like, I get it. Drummer. Yeah. And then the lead singer, you're like, no. Yeah.
- [20:18]
Jim Florentine
He looked like my dad's accountant.
- [20:19]
Tyrus
Yeah. You know, even with the long hair, it didn't make a bit of difference.
- [20:22]
Jim Florentine
No, it didn't make.
- [20:22]
Tyrus
It was like Larry from the Three Stooges.
- [20:25]
Jim Florentine
Exactly. That's what he looked like. I know those fans really suffered because if you were pretty boy that were gonna.
- [20:31]
Tyrus
The girls Poison had an unlock.
- [20:33]
Jim Florentine
It was unbelievable.
- [20:34]
Tyrus
I remember the album cover, looking at my friends, because this. We didn't have the Internet, so we weren't all desensitized over sexed teenagers. Like, it was a JCPenney catalog, if you were lucky. And then there was always the one guy who had a divorced dad who. He had visits on the weekend, and his dad had a stash.
- [20:52]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. Yeah.
- [20:53]
Tyrus
Those magazines were worth their weight. I also traded a few lunch tickets for those, but that was, like. That was it. So when they came out and the thing. And the thing. Heavy metal, there was like, a couple bands that were like. Women were hot. I'm trying to think, like, who was. I guess, Joan Jett. But, you know, she didn't.
- [21:09]
Jim Florentine
Lita Ford.
- [21:10]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [21:10]
Jim Florentine
Was okay. You know, from the Runaways. There wasn't a lot Heart. Well, Nancy was hot.
- [21:16]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [21:16]
Jim Florentine
And then Pat Benatar wasn't bad.
- [21:19]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [21:19]
Jim Florentine
But that was basically it.
- [21:21]
Tyrus
Yeah. And it was like, Voices Carry. I think that I was.
- [21:23]
Jim Florentine
I was till Tuesday.
- [21:25]
Tyrus
Yeah. But I was just one song.
- [21:26]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [21:26]
Tyrus
That wasn't. That wasn't rock and roll. That was.
- [21:28]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [21:29]
Tyrus
Hop.
- [21:29]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [21:29]
Tyrus
Yeah. New wave or what? Did you get caught up in the new wave at all? Did you stay? You did?
- [21:33]
Jim Florentine
I did. Because I couldn't. I couldn't meet any girls. Listen to heavy metal early on. Like, I go to parties. I'm like, you believe Judas Priest is gonna put their album out? They're gonna wait to put their album out. They're gonna tour first. And girl's like, away from me.
- [21:48]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [21:48]
Jim Florentine
And I was like. I was young, in my early 20s. I'm like, I need to get laid. That's all I care about. So my friend's like, miss, you got to get in this new wave. So I started going to clubs and dancing and cut my hair and all that stuff.
- [21:58]
Tyrus
Flock of Seagulls.
- [21:59]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, Flock of Seagulls, all of that stuff.
- [22:01]
Tyrus
Did you do the.
- [22:02]
Jim Florentine
No, I didn't do that, but I just, I had that, you know, what was it?
- [22:04]
Tyrus
The wave? The Not. It was like a thing.
- [22:06]
Jim Florentine
He had it like combed over like this way. But I knew all that stuff. Plus I was a DJ. I was DJ, I had my own DJ business. I was DJing weddings and in rock clubs and stuff like that.
- [22:16]
Tyrus
So wait, you're 20 years old and you have your own business?
- [22:18]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [22:19]
Tyrus
What the hell was that about?
- [22:20]
Jim Florentine
I. When I was going to college, I went for communications and I was on the radio station at the local station at the college and I started my own DJ business on the side doing weddings. I started.
- [22:30]
Tyrus
So you always were a hustler?
- [22:32]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, always. I've been working full time, so I was 14 when.
- [22:35]
Tyrus
Where did that come from, that work ethic?
- [22:37]
Jim Florentine
Probably my dad, you know, working nine to five, then, you know, take the bus, commute back and forth, Jersey, get home at 7 o', clock, get back on a bus in the morning. Plus he coached all little league teams at football and all that stuff too. But just to work, you know, basically working. And I just, I love it. When the pandemic hit. That was the first time that I didn't do anything for like a month. I was out of my mind more than a month. But yeah, I didn't know what to
- [23:00]
Tyrus
do with myself because, you know, and I'll be honest with you, I always think the movie stir crazy because I went. I don't know what was worse. It was, you know, because I'm on the road my entire career and you. And then all of a sudden I'm home.
- [23:12]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [23:13]
Tyrus
And we're locked in together and there's no friends. No. And then the TV is just non stop death toll on the corner of the thing and you know, and I was, I was expendable. That's when I realized that my position in the house was expendable because the only one ever got sent out for shit was me. It was never an argument where like I was like, no, honey, let me go on this one. You know, it was always like, well, go. And it was to the supermarket. And it wasn't the trip that I was worried about. It was the constant aerosol spray in the face when I came home. And that I was afraid that I was end up going to be the one guy who. It wasn't Covid that got him, it was aerosol Lysol poisoning. Because I would come home. First of all, I had to strip down in the garage, put everything into a trash bag. Then the hand would come out and spray it. Spray me down. Spray the stuff down. Spray the food down. And I get in there and I. I hate the smell of it anyways. And I'm sitting there, like, when you can taste it, you can just taste the worst thing in the world. And they're going through. And she's going through the bag, and she goes, you didn't get hot dog buns. And I'm like, it's a pandemic. Maybe we just don't. We just use regular bread. And it's like. And then the silence. And I'm like, there's a turnaround. Go back out. Don't put the old clothes on there could be contaminated. Put new ones on. So I could go to the store to get. And while you're there, get more toilet paper. Because we hadn't had to have enough toilet paper. I still understand what that was about. Did you get caught up in the hoarding of toilet paper during.
- [24:45]
Jim Florentine
No, I didn't. I didn't understand what that was either. I just. I had enough. I just live by myself, my kids there half the week, so it's not like I got a big family there, so I knew I had enough and I could always use paper towels.
- [24:55]
Tyrus
Yeah. I was like. I didn't understand the outcry.
- [24:58]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [24:58]
Tyrus
It wasn't food or Similac. It was. Do you realize that this continues. We're going to be out of toilet paper. And I'm like, well, yeah, because you keep buying all the. Like, we had a closet just for Charmin. It was just stuck. I think we're still using it. I don't think we ever depleted it, you know, And I was like, are we going on a teepee spread? You know, like. And it was. It was that. And we. Did you order any of the. Like, we got gas masks and military food and, like, all this we're planning for. Even. We were planning for Armageddon. Did you get caught up in any of that stuff during the pandemic?
- [25:31]
Jim Florentine
Not really, because, you know, the store was open. Sometimes you'd have to wait to go in the supermarket. There was only a certain amount of people that could go in. I think I got a bunch of canned goods, basically, and that was it.
- [25:40]
Tyrus
Which you probably already had.
- [25:42]
Jim Florentine
I know I did, you know, but I just. Yeah, I got stocked up on, like, peanut butter and beans and stuff like that, you know, Campbell soup and all that stuff. But I did more like the Home Depot, right Down the street from me was open those lines of 40 people in there, like that. The second day we got locked down, I was like, I'm just gonna do stuff around the house that I've been wanting to do.
- [26:00]
Tyrus
So you made the best of it.
- [26:01]
Jim Florentine
I made the best of it because it was. I always put that stuff off. I go, I might as well do it now. So I was back and forth to Home Depot every day. You know, six feet apart, of course, whatever. But meanwhile, I'm like, wait, there's all these lines in here. This is okay to be in here. Look, I knew when you went on a plane and, you know, you could sit next to somebody this close and, you know, if you take your mask off, you can eat and drink that. Come on.
- [26:24]
Tyrus
That's when you spread the most, by the way.
- [26:26]
Jim Florentine
But it's like, okay, so this thing is so contagious that, you know. Yep. You could sit next to someone and they could take their mask off and you'll be fine.
- [26:33]
Tyrus
So that's why you blow it and recirculating air.
- [26:36]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [26:36]
Tyrus
On an airplane, it was basically a pressure cooker. It was an incubator, right. For passengers.
- [26:41]
Jim Florentine
All of a sudden, it was fresh air on the planes. Remember, it was always like, all the germs on a plane, you get sick
- [26:46]
Tyrus
because the plane just told me, never take your shoes off in a plane, because if you walk into the bathroom in your socks, you're gonna get sick, because that's where all the germs and bacteria are that's passed through people.
- [26:56]
Jim Florentine
Okay.
- [26:57]
Tyrus
It was like, I was. And this was the rule up until that I always lived by. It was like, hey, the worst place for you is the airplane bathroom if you cannot avoid it at all costs. And when you're flying to Europe and stuff, you know, you want that need to set you up where they give you slippers and.
- [27:11]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [27:11]
Tyrus
You know, And I'm like, was that the pharmaceutical. And I'm into conspiracy theories now. Was the pharmaceutical company handing out slippers?
- [27:16]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [27:16]
Tyrus
So get everybody sick. But, like. And then all of a sudden, in Covet, it was the exact opposite. And I. There was so many. The sad part is we didn't get a lot of good jokes out of it because it was just too tragic.
- [27:28]
Jim Florentine
It was. And I. I remember, like, for, like, four months, I didn't come up with one joke. And I remember talking to my comic friend. I go, dude, I. My career might be over. I can't come up. Or anything goes. Good, because you're not doing anything right. You're not experiencing life. So I really thought, I'm like, I was sitting there with a pen and paper. I never did that before. I'm like, I got to come up with something. I couldn't come up with anything.
- [27:47]
Tyrus
And you would think being stuck at home, the crank call stuff would have been on fire. You know, like, that would have been a good time to hindsight's 20 20.
- [27:55]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [27:56]
Tyrus
You know, but then again, that humor during that time, because not only we were locked inside, we also had to deal with like, pick a pronoun. Like, you know, some of the most ridiculous. You look back on and you're like, how did this even happen? And even that there was no real jokes about it. Because the best thing about telling jokes is when you hear it and it's about you is that you laugh about yourself.
- [28:22]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [28:23]
Tyrus
But to your, I'm not gonna say it. I hate that. That's one of the, that's one of the worst things invented during the pandemic was to your point, when someone's, oh, to your point. To your point, I, I, I hate it. I hear it on TV all the time and I'm just like, not to your point. But you couldn't say those things because if you made fun of someone about themselves, they were instant victim, instantly offended. And you had to be, they had to turn, they turned the mic off because you might offend someone. But it is the, the best jokes to me. Or when you go, oh, yeah, that's me. You know, like, that to me is part of, one of the biggest parts of comedy is being able to look at parts of yourself and laugh about it. And I think that was one of the biggest casualties, but not just for just everyday people. You go into work and say an off color thing. Just joking around with guys you've been joking. All of a sudden, someone who wasn't even part of the conversation, you know, be like, oh, like I'm wearing the flannel. Like, Joe, I got your flannel. Sounds like I was offended by, yeah, you know, him, him shaming him for wearing flannel, even though it was, it was in his joke. And by the way, you do have the starter kit for what you wear a flannel over. So it's like, I'm not off brand with the flannel thing, but like everyone, if you watch the Gut Feel show, he always has a flannel on. Yeah.
- [29:32]
Jim Florentine
And I only own one suit, so I'm like, I'm not going to wear a suit.
- [29:35]
Tyrus
I'm not A suit guy either. Man, I can't do it. I can't do it.
- [29:38]
Jim Florentine
I remember I said, look, I went in the, like, menswear. I was like, give me a suit that I can wear in August and in February. I don't want to hear that this is a summer suit, this is a winter suit or fall. Just give me one wedding. I'm good all year round. That's the suit I want.
- [29:50]
Tyrus
Do you rotate ties or same tie?
- [29:53]
Jim Florentine
Same tie. And it's tied because I don't know how to tie.
- [29:55]
Tyrus
I don't know how to tie a tie either.
- [29:56]
Jim Florentine
I said to myself, I never want a job where I have to wear a tie. So I don't want to learn. My dad's like, just this how you do it. I don't want to know because I don't want a job that I have to wear a tie. So I'm never going to learn.
- [30:05]
Tyrus
See, I was dyslexic and there was no dad in the house. So me trying to tie the tie was tied was lethal because you're looking in the mirror.
- [30:12]
Jim Florentine
So you didn't have a clip on.
- [30:14]
Tyrus
I. We found. My mother found clip ons and I've been known to have a clip on here a few times. I was my. I recently went with my wife to Mar a Lago for some dinner thing. And she belongs to like the. These little women groups or whatever. And every once in a while the husbands get dragged in and I'm sitting there and. And I had to wear a tie, so, you know, I got a clip on. No one's gonna. No one's gonna know us. And I was just sitting in the corner, didn't think much about anything. And the president and surprised everyone and showed up at this event and he starts talking about big dumb guys. And I'm sitting here in my food and I'm like, you think he met me? And I was like, a thousand percent. He's talking about big dumb guy, like, laughing and he's like, I heard Tyrus here, come on up here, say a few words. And I was like, oh, I went up with my tie and stuff, did the thing. And then we go sit back down and then we get a message like, hey, the president and his wife are having dinner up. They want to say hi. So you get to go up to the members thing and walking up there and. And we meet the president and the first. I had never met the first lady before and I'm introducing my wife and stuff and she's like the first thing she Says to me, she's like, is that a clip on tie? Is that a tie? And I was like, why are you wearing a tie? And I was like, I was trying to be an adult, you know? And she just laughed like, don't do it. It's not you. It's always nice. It was nice to know she actually watches the Gutfill show.
- [31:33]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [31:34]
Tyrus
But at the same time, it was like, if she knew, everybody knew. And I didn't realize it was astigmatism. Apparently a clip on tie is, Is. Is. Is a sham. You're a fraud.
- [31:44]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, well, because I used. I went to Catholic school pretty much my whole life, so we always had to wear a tie. So we just go around pulling everyone's tie to see if it was a clip on. If it was, we just run with it.
- [31:53]
Tyrus
So it was.
- [31:53]
Jim Florentine
So it was always a clip. Pull it just in case we. You couldn't tell they were good. But if you pulled into somewhere to clip on, you just run and then take his tie. So that's why I always remember the clip I got. Can never wear a no.
- [32:06]
Tyrus
And once you know that, everyone knows it's different. Oh, yeah, it's different. But then I don't want to do the serious journalist look or the politician. Like, I'm here to do work because I have a suit on with two buttons open and no tie. That's always the biggest you. Whenever I see a. Like when the house, like we're having meetings today because none of us are wearing ties. You know, like they have the open shirts. And I'm like, who you kidding, man? Like, you just open up your shirt and everyone thinks you're doing work.
- [32:33]
Jim Florentine
You know that if Trump knew you had a clip on, he would have made fun of you.
- [32:36]
Tyrus
Oh, yeah.
- [32:37]
Jim Florentine
He would have been all over it because he's all about the tie. Yeah. So he would have been all over you with the clip on.
- [32:42]
Tyrus
I think, luckily, I've been around him enough to know if he starts picking on the tie, we'll talk about hair.
- [32:47]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [32:48]
Tyrus
Just because it changes color doesn't mean the grow. But that's the one nice thing about having a president that's not. That actually has a sense of humor.
- [32:57]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, I know.
- [32:58]
Tyrus
You know, and it makes life a lot easier because you can make. You can make fun of him. He makes fun of himself. I think the funniest thing he said lately was they asked him about a bulletproof vest, and he said, I don't want to look fat.
- [33:07]
Jim Florentine
I know. I don't want to look any heavy. I was so great.
- [33:11]
Tyrus
And, you know. And then half the world is like, how can you say that? How dare he? You know, and it's just like, lighten up, America. Like, how do we get our sense of humor back across the board? Is it going to take one. Is it going to be that one comic that just brings everybody in? You know, I kind of felt like Chappelle had gotten to that point, or maybe even Kevin Hart, but then they kind of get dealt with in a way. Is it. Is it going to be just because Netflix is starting to. You're starting to see a comeback where people starting to support. Fox nations is doing specials now and.
- [33:41]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [33:41]
Tyrus
And Netflix is starting to open up the gates a little bit more. For a while, it was very, like, specific. Unless you were like, someone like, when I. We cancel Dave. You can't cancel Dave Chappelle. It's impossible, because he can literally do his own special, and no network in their right mind wouldn't take it.
- [33:56]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [33:57]
Tyrus
You know, so that's a little. When they went after him. Same thing with Kevin Hart. But a lot of the young. We're starting to see a lot of guys come up with that more rough side. Real. And they're. They're no longer being in the shadows. They're allowed to come out.
- [34:09]
Jim Florentine
I think the Netflix, with all the competition with the streaming platforms, when they all started getting big, they couldn't just, okay, we're only going to have a. A lesbian Chinese woman on a transgender. We'll have, you know, six black guys. Well, one white male. We need a gay guy. They had to stop that because there was too much competition.
- [34:27]
Tyrus
Doesn't work in comedy.
- [34:28]
Jim Florentine
No. And a lot of comics went over to Hulu because Netflix was messing with them with that stuff.
- [34:33]
Tyrus
Well, and the pay.
- [34:34]
Jim Florentine
The Pay. And also Hulu is like, we're going to compete with Netflix. So now Netflix has to go. We got to give anyone that's really funny. Like, they're not. They're not holding that because there's always a quota. You would see it. There'd be, like, three white guys. Tom Segura, Burt Kreischer, you know, and a couple others, whatever. Get a special. And then it was. The rest was, you know, it would
- [34:52]
Tyrus
just basically go through the list. Do you have an Indian comic here? Boom, you're in.
- [34:57]
Jim Florentine
Right?
- [34:57]
Tyrus
Do we have a biracial, transgender straight man? Where's he at? Oh, he. He's in. And people don't watch the. The comic for his appearance. They watch for the story.
- [35:11]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. They don't care.
- [35:12]
Tyrus
They don't care. I mean, in the. Back in the day, who was the. There wasn't a sexy comedian. You know, they were all kind of Carlin was weird looking.
- [35:21]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [35:21]
Tyrus
Prior was weird looking. Rickles look like an egg. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, Robin Williams was 9,000 miles. Like, it was. They were funny. They were animated. Nobody. Yeah. Kenison even more. I mean. Yeah. No one ever was like, well, you know, he's just not.
- [35:37]
Jim Florentine
I think that hurt Dane Cook when he was coming up.
- [35:39]
Tyrus
Yeah, he was too good looking.
- [35:40]
Jim Florentine
He was too good looking. So what happened was all the. All the women loved them and then the boyfriends and husbands got jealous.
- [35:46]
Tyrus
Right.
- [35:47]
Jim Florentine
Why are you laughing at him? Yeah, you don't laugh at me, but you're laughing at him. Oh, let's go see Dane Cook. Oh, my God, he's so hot. He's funny.
- [35:54]
Tyrus
Then it became like a yuppie thing, because I remember in stepbrothers, Dane Cook, 20 minutes, let's go. You know, and it's like, it was almost like that's the type of guy who watches him. I'm not that guy.
- [36:03]
Podcast Host
Right.
- [36:04]
Tyrus
You know, and it's like. And he was a funny. He had some good movies, too. Employee of the month. Like.
- [36:08]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. No, Dame was a good comic too. It's just like he got caught up in that. He blew up doing arenas. You know, he's the first guy since Dice to do arenas. But he had that backlash from all the men. All of a sudden, the men were like, this guy, he's good looking. And, you know, my girlfriend thinks he's hot. You know, it's almost like the woman that. When, you know, there's a hot female comic.
- [36:27]
Tyrus
Yeah. No one wants to see her.
- [36:29]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. So they get mad. She's up there doing like anal jokes and they're laughing and they're like, what are you laughing at? What do you. You want her? You know, all that shit. So you get that tension, right? So you're getting it from the other side.
- [36:39]
Tyrus
Isn't that funny how they can do that all day? Like, you'll be at the dinner. Oh, man, that guy's really handsome. And you're like, oh, okay, yeah. You're not like, what do you mean, handsome? How is he better looking than me? Is that. Is that what you really want?
- [36:52]
Jim Florentine
Is that.
- [36:52]
Tyrus
You know, could you, as a man, you just wouldn't talk that way. But if somebody walked by and you just look, I'm like, oh, what a nice lady. What's Nice about her? Is she nicer than me? What's nice? Physically, mentally? I mean, how do you know her? And you're just like, I know. I. Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly. There's no way. There's no way out.
- [37:11]
Jim Florentine
There's no way out. I remember my girlfriend, a couple years ago when I was with her, we're hanging out with this girl, wanted to wait at the comedy club, and we laughed, and she's like, she's really cute. I go, yeah, she is. Like, really?
- [37:22]
Tyrus
Exactly.
- [37:23]
Jim Florentine
Really? I go, really? Watch. Like, so you. You're just gonna say that right in front of me? I go, you said it. And I was just go, yeah. Just, you know, agreeing.
- [37:32]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [37:32]
Jim Florentine
And she's like, oh, so you like her? So that's why I saw you talking to her before. Did you get her number? I'm like, how did this blow up?
- [37:39]
Tyrus
And then it's my fault. I just walked in the room. I recently got in trouble for TSA not updating my wife's last name. And apparently I should have known. And I. How would I. I'm. You know, it's completely. I don't get the same. So we're sitting there, and I could tell she's frustrated, and there's so many landmines for us because they don't want solutions. Because the solution would have been, well, I mean, you had, you know, three years to change it. You know, maybe could, you know. You know, and you can't say that. So. So then the next move is, all right, completely bash the system. Like, oh, you know, this TSA guys, they, you know, this t. This, you know, maiden name last. It's on the damn ID cards. The least they can do, you know, fight the power. But that. That wasn't going to fly either. So I went with the best response I could possibly come up with. I didn't say anything.
- [38:44]
Jim Florentine
Didn't say anything.
- [38:44]
Tyrus
I just looked off. Looked off. And then I was banished. You know, it was like, hey, look. Because they were taking different flights, and, you know, I was sitting with them till they left, and I go to mine to go to work. And it was. You know, I saw another 30 minutes, and it was like, you know what? You can just go to your gate. And I remember getting up under my breast going, thank you. Like, I just, you know, say. Because there was no. I knew that no matter what happens, I'm done. It's. It's on me, no matter what. And I. And I try to tell myself that's because I'M the safe place. Like, that's what you tell yourself is. But walking away, it's like, oh, it's cool now. I can get a breakfast sandwich now without hearing about carbs. You know, like, you try to think of it, but it's like I call them like, they're bear traps. Like, you can never. But we men, we don't have bear traps. We. We'll never. Only time I could ever think about it is if. If you did something that you weren't good at, like, like if I tried to build shelves or whatever, and she's watching Bob the Builder and she's talking about how awesome he is as an architect, I might be like, well, I mean, if that's all you can do all day, I guess, you know, but even then, it's like you still acknowledge his accomplishment as a man. Like, yeah, but, you know, well, you know, I, I just do this for fun, you know, If I was, if I was dedicating my life to building shelves, I probably would be like that. But. But I'll figure it out. But then I will get determined, and I will spend four days and four nights trying to figure out why there's that extra screw when it's all over. Was there something. You know, that's the.
- [40:10]
Jim Florentine
I won't go.
- [40:11]
Tyrus
I won't. They just. You're not allowed to have solutions, but then you're supposed to have solutions. It's the craziest thing.
- [40:18]
Jim Florentine
It is the craziest thing where you can't just. Yeah. Just have to listen and not fix it, which is.
- [40:24]
Tyrus
Goes against everything, that my genetic fabric is a fixer. That's what men do. We provide and we fix.
- [40:30]
Jim Florentine
Exact. I see something, I go, okay, what, what's the scenario? Let me, Let me. How can I figure this out? And let's. Let's move on, get it done and move on. But no, you can't. And you have to have that patience.
- [40:40]
Tyrus
And then you got to hear about it. Even after it's over, it's like it's. It's over. Like, it's, it's done. You. You got through. We're sitting here. So you. Mission accomplished. You're not. Not being allowed.
- [40:51]
Jim Florentine
You're.
- [40:52]
Tyrus
You're at your gate like it's crazy. And, and, and you want to. And I used to say that because. But now I won't. Now I, it's better to be banished. I, I, it's better to be banished, sent to your room, or sent to you. If you can have a man cave without them knowing. It's a man cave because you have to act like you don't want to go there.
- [41:08]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [41:08]
Tyrus
And, like, whenever I be kicked out on the couch, I was never upset about that because I knew I got to watch what I wanted to watch. It was no longer a bedtime. That's another thing. In your relationships, do you have a bedtime? Like, it is a certain. Like, I don't have. I don't want a bedtime. I'll go to sleep when I want to go to sleep. I feel like at 53 years old, I've earned the right. But literally, It'll be, oops, 10 o', clock, lights out.
- [41:30]
Jim Florentine
I remember. What? Well, yeah, I would go to bed usually at the same time with a. With a girlfriend. But I remember one time, like, I'm gonna go, yeah, I'm just gonna stay up, like, an extra hour and watch this thing on Netflix. And she's like, what's going on with our relationship? And I'm like, what do you mean you're not going to bed with me at the same time? We do it all the time. I go, I know, but I just want to see this, and I'm not gonna have time, and I want to check it out. So I just figured, I'll. I'll. I'll go to bed. About an hour later, it's gonna be, now, there's obviously something else going on that you don't want to go to bed at the same time with me, because this is weird. I'm like, that's not weird. I just want to. You don't want to see this thing. I do. So you're going to bed. So that's when I watch it.
- [42:06]
Tyrus
Because I get that with movies, like, I love movies. Like, and even when they're. I will sit through a bad movie just to say I sat through a bad movie. Because I always try to find. There's only been a couple.
- [42:15]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [42:16]
Tyrus
Recently. Where I was like, I can't believe I'm tapping out. But I've had to tap out of two of them. That primate movie was my. Maybe the worst movie I've ever seen. And that's hard for a horror movie. Be bad.
- [42:24]
Jim Florentine
I don't know that one.
- [42:25]
Tyrus
Yeah, you don't want to know it.
- [42:26]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [42:27]
Tyrus
Sorry, guys, but a chimp with rabies should be. Should be a lot easier to do than what you guys did. At one point, the costume look like a leprechaun. Well, in this day, it was like, they took the leprechaun outfit from the old movies and Spray painted it.
- [42:38]
Jim Florentine
Really? Yeah.
- [42:39]
Tyrus
And it was, it was just, it was like, wait a minute. But all this high tech stuff for the pool in the background. But you have a. It was just a horrible, horrible premises. And the best part was they had a guy who was supposed to be deaf. Right. The. The father. Here, here's the scenario. You're a single dad, you're deaf, you have a pet chimp, and you're a scientist, so you know what chimps are capable of. And you have three young girls in the house. You leave alone so you can go to a book signing event. Why would you leave ever? What a science is. Just because he's deaf doesn't mean he doesn't know what can happen. If you have a chimp, you know, that wasn't feeling well, apparently. And then he goes off to do this. And the best part is because we're the, the writers that, that are writing don't have life experience in the movies. So every time someone said something, he'd lean forward. And I kept laughing because I was like, he's deaf.
- [43:28]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [43:29]
Tyrus
He's not gonna lean closer. Because I'd be like, sir. He wouldn't, he'd be like, he wouldn't change.
- [43:35]
Jim Florentine
Right? Yeah.
- [43:36]
Tyrus
Because he can't hear you.
- [43:37]
Jim Florentine
That's bad direction.
- [43:38]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [43:38]
Jim Florentine
Like a director should be like when he's filming, like, you don't need to move your head.
- [43:42]
Tyrus
Yeah. But instead it was right. And I was like, no, no. You know, like. And then he goes into one thing and the chip and him are having a showdown and he turns the light off and I'm like, wait, wait, you just eliminated the one sense you had.
- [43:55]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [43:56]
Tyrus
He could still see it here. Like, it was just. And you, you look at that stuff and like, this should have been a comedy. Like, if they would have went the other way with it, it had been hilarious. But this was a serious, serious movie with some serious dialogue. It was absolutely batshit crazy. But like, when they just haven't. We haven't had a good comedy. Now, I'll be honest. One of my favorite comedies of all time is Beer League. I. I am furious that we didn't have Beer League two and three. I mean, Maggiano, did he ever come back? What's the deal? You know that cat, you guys, that was one of the best hilarious. Macchio was reborn from that.
- [44:35]
Jim Florentine
Yep.
- [44:36]
Tyrus
You know, but it was such a. It was hilarious. And even though if you weren't from New Jersey, Long Island, New York area, the, the characters are. You won't be very relatable. In California, but it was so funny. It didn't matter.
- [44:51]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. I mean, I. You know, I grew up. You know, I was friends with Artie Lang, and I grew up in Germany. I still play softball to this day, you know, and, you know, he knew. We did. And that's what you do. You play. So your girlfriends hang out with stats.
- [45:01]
Tyrus
The stats are phenomenal.
- [45:02]
Jim Florentine
The stats, you know, calling his own stuff. Yeah.
- [45:05]
Tyrus
Batting his.
- [45:05]
Jim Florentine
Dude, I was just my. The guy who owns my gym is the manager of my team. And just today, he comes out of the office. I'm batting.692. Yeah,692. He says it's still, to this day, 60 years old. He's going back 692.
- [45:17]
Tyrus
Coming up, being his own announcer. It was just one of the. It was just hilarious, man. You know, it was just. It was so awesome. It was just. And Artie, who gets. He gets a lot of. But, man, he was absolutely. Couldn't have been a better character in that movie. It was just.
- [45:31]
Jim Florentine
There's so many good lines in that
- [45:32]
Tyrus
movie across the board.
- [45:34]
Jim Florentine
It's so, like, so underrated, that movie. As far as.
- [45:37]
Tyrus
If you have not seen Beer League Fellas, it is.
- [45:40]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [45:40]
Tyrus
I don't know where it's at. I bought it on Apple when it came out, so I still have it in my library. But it is one of the most hilarious. His mom just randomly showing up all the time was just. Was phenomenal. Especially in the car. You want some, Mom? No, I know. It's just one of the hilarious. I was just dying laughing, you know, and the. The girl who can't dance. You know, atrocious. You know, just saying real, real stuff. The.
- [46:06]
Jim Florentine
And then the best is the bachelor party.
- [46:08]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [46:08]
Jim Florentine
When, you know, they had strippers and all this crazy stuff going on. And then, you know, everyone's like, don't say anything. Whatever happened. And then what happened at the bachelor party? Nothing. Nothing. And then one guy gives it up.
- [46:21]
Tyrus
My favorite is the old guy painting. He's painting like a Picasso, like, after 40. Off.
- [46:28]
Jim Florentine
And blow smoke at her face.
- [46:30]
Tyrus
It's one of the greatest.
- [46:31]
Jim Florentine
It's one of the greatest scenes ever. What happened at the bachelor party? We've been together 49 years.
- [46:35]
Tyrus
Yes.
- [46:36]
Jim Florentine
Off.
- [46:36]
Tyrus
Yeah. Another guy.
- [46:41]
Jim Florentine
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- [47:12]
Tyrus
She punched. I'm just. I don't. It's one of the funniest.
- [47:18]
Jim Florentine
When his mom's listening, punch me in the balls. He's on the other side.
- [47:21]
Tyrus
That one's good, too. But, like, he left with a different prostitute. The other stripper got mad and punched her while she was giving him a J. Oh, yeah.
- [47:29]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [47:30]
Tyrus
That's why he told his wife. But that dude was just a character. The fight. He just got. He's the only guy got pummeled in the fight.
- [47:39]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [47:39]
Tyrus
He still won a fight. It was just. There were so many one liners in that. And it was. It was one of those things where I thought it was going to be a franchise. I was just. And it was. Yeah, it was. It was. I wouldn't let my kids watch it, but nor should you.
- [47:50]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [47:50]
Tyrus
Like, it was. It was. I put it up there with Caddyshack. It was a lot of great humor. And everybody was the butt of their own jokes. It was great. Even Maggio got when he was ordering his fancy. His fancy vegan omelette, like, egg white.
- [48:03]
Jim Florentine
That was great. Yeah.
- [48:04]
Tyrus
And she was h. She didn't get enough credit. Man. Her. Dry. She was one of the funniest people I.
- [48:08]
Jim Florentine
And that's. That's a typical Jersey diner waitress that will just give it right back to you. Yeah. And we'll say something like, you want to side a cock with that when he's, you know, egg whites, no butter.
- [48:21]
Tyrus
It was such a fun movie. And I was like, I'm gonna watch. Because every time I watch it again, I always figured out I always find something funnier.
- [48:27]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [48:27]
Tyrus
You know, and every one of you got in that movie. Everybody in there is a legit guy. I mean, and they're seasoned. And you think that's the difference because they want to push a lot. And again, no shade to anybody who's young and they're making movies. Hey, my hat off to you.
- [48:41]
Jim Florentine
Like.
- [48:41]
Tyrus
But there. There is that sense of. When you think about some of the great comedies like Cannonball Run, Blazing Saddles, Beer League, I. I put it up there because it was so memorable. Whether you. But the guy. Everybody there was a seasoned veteran who knew their craft at a high level. So the script was really just kind of there.
- [49:01]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [49:01]
Tyrus
You know, because you guys would just create. And that's kind of what it is to Be a comic is you can create until. Why are we not seeing more collaborations like that? It used to be guys from across would all come together and make these amazing movies and stuff and you have special like Smokey and the Bandit. But I always think Cannibal Run, that was an all star cast. Every one of those guys in there was a star, you know. And why are we not seeing more stuff like that? Because you would think some of these other companies, conservative companies that are trying to come along and they want to. We want. We don't want the woke stuff. There's a whole library of just talent of guys like yourself that could put together hilarious movies.
- [49:38]
Jim Florentine
No, I know. I mean, it's. I. When me and my kid are looking for a movie and we look at the year, I go, it's 20, 21. It's not going to be good.
- [49:47]
Tyrus
Comedy, sad.
- [49:48]
Jim Florentine
I know you see a comedy 222. It's not going to be good. And he always like, dad, there's never any comedies. But my son's 15. Him and his friends, all they do is watch, like YouTube videos of kids pulling pranks on each other. Love the edgy humor. They love, like, old clips of Kinnison, stuff like that. That generation coming up is, I think, going to set the tone for what's coming ahead in like the next 10 years. As far as comedy. They're not offended. They make fun of the pronouns. They make fun of all that stuff. They, they'll respect. They're not going to make fun of a gay person or transgender, but they're going to. They're going to understand the humor in it.
- [50:20]
Tyrus
They're not. There's a difference between making a joke and attacking someone.
- [50:24]
Jim Florentine
Right. And they're not attacking them. There's no bullying going on in school, but they have a good sense of humor and they understand the butt of a joke and edgy stuff. So I think it's coming. It's just not there yet.
- [50:33]
Tyrus
But it's also how you build your own thick skin.
- [50:36]
Jim Florentine
Exactly.
- [50:36]
Tyrus
You can't walk through life where everyone says you can't have a safe space. You got. Look, no one likes being the butt of a joke. And I've been on. I've been on a lot. I've been on that day on the bus ride where it just wouldn't stop.
- [50:45]
Jim Florentine
Stop. Yeah. Yeah.
- [50:46]
Tyrus
You know, a lot of times, some of my fashion choices in high school and junior high, it looked good on tv, but, you know, parachute pants were not my thing. I didn't know that when I went to JCPenney, I asked for. All I want is parachute pants. My mom's like, okay. And then, first day, I get on the bus, and as soon as I step, the crotch rips out, so. And the underlying is white, so you can't hide it. And they're like, you know, let the games begin. They're like, hey, take some of those zippers off so your crotch won't. You know, it's just. And then you're wearing the mesh shirt from the. And the heavy metal spike and a beret, and you think you look awesome. But they're not singing She's My Cherry Pie. When you're walking out, the whole group's like, what the do you have on, man? You know, I know.
- [51:23]
Jim Florentine
It was like, you know, the comedy Cellar. You walk in with a bad T shirt or shirt on. The whole comedy Cellar table. Rich Foss, you know, Jim Norton, Keith Robinson, Colin Quinn, Bill Bart. Just going to attack you, Patrice. When he was alive. You just got to sit there and take it.
- [51:38]
Tyrus
Colin Quinn is one. Is one of my favorite just dry guys. But I always thought he was phenomenal with the news because he just. He was just. He used to come on the gut for. We used to have him on a lot. I got a chance to do a few shows with him, and he was one of the guys who's like, hey, man. Yeah, don't be afraid to take this show on the road, man. You got some good stuff. And it was kind of cool coming from someone like him, because he has seen it all.
- [51:57]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. Yep.
- [51:58]
Tyrus
You know, and I think he kind of flies under the radar because it was just. He was so dry. I don't think I ever seen him crack a smile. But that was just. It was just great. He was just the. He was doomsday before. It was cool, like, but he was never the victim. I think that's what I liked about him was like. He was kind of like, it's just like, doesn't matter what. Hey, it's a beautiful day out. Yeah, here, you know, but. And I just love that. That style. And then that style just kind of like, you're one of the last few guys standing with that. That very dry, real. Like, it makes you think. But at the same time, you know, you laugh your ass off.
- [52:31]
Jim Florentine
I just try to throw jokes out there, and if they see if they hit. If they don't, I move on to the next one. Like, I don't take a. Like, especially when I'm on stage.
- [52:38]
Tyrus
You're never afraid to fail. You cannot.
- [52:40]
Jim Florentine
No, you can't. You just got to throw it out there and just like, all right, well, whatever. I just went to an open. Not an open mic, but my friend was doing a comedy show in Jersey, and I went down there, just work on stuff. I did 10 minutes. I got, like, one laugh in 10 minutes, and this woman that knows me sent me a message like, wow, was that new stuff? I go, yeah. She's like, is that how it works? I go, yeah, I'm working it out. I go, I don't know if it's funny or not, but I'll. I'll keep working it. I'll try it three or four times to see, but I can't be afraid of trying it and throwing it out there.
- [53:09]
Tyrus
And when. Very few times when it happened, because usually at Gutfield, usually rattle off like three, like, bam, bam, bam.
- [53:14]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [53:15]
Tyrus
And I always love if you'll say one that's a little edgy in the crowd. Our crowd is not indicative of the joke. And I say that a lot because they. Sometimes they're too scared to laugh.
- [53:24]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [53:24]
Tyrus
You know, and I'll be like. And I will always immediately jump in and laugh. I'll be like, man, that's it. Because I know on TV that night that joke's gonna kill.
- [53:31]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [53:32]
Tyrus
Because sometimes the fans are still afraid, especially anything white. Like, they're still afraid to be like, oh, I can't laugh at that. Like, no, you should be laughing more than anybody, you know, and that's something that I always like when you come on, because I know, like, I gotta bring my A game up, because you're not. You're not phoning it in, you know, and. But you gotta have that. That risk, you know, and that's part of it. And in an environment where risk can get you unemployed, how did you. You still maintain that? And do you. If someone was coming to you now, if a young guy was coming to you now, that was a little bit on the edgy side. Maybe we have another young dice coming up. Would you warn him or would you say just. Just take the road. Regardless of the bumps.
- [54:15]
Jim Florentine
Take the road. It's exactly. Especially the industry's change where you could just. You could, you know, sell out theaters by not even anyone in the industry even knowing you. You don't have to move to Hollywood anymore.
- [54:25]
Tyrus
You.
- [54:25]
Jim Florentine
You build up your own. Look what Shane Gillis did. Shane was. You know, Shane came. You know, he was opening for me in. In Pennsylvania. He lived in, like, Harrisburg. Whenever I was doing a show, he'd Always be on a show. I recommend that. There were a club in Jersey. They didn't like him. I'm like, you sure he's good? This is before he hit. Yeah. I'm like, he's solid now. And then, you know, he gets the thing on Saturday Night Live gets canceled. He just got bigger from that. Just being an everyday guy that tells jokes that people can relate to him, makes fun of himself and super edgy and takes a lot of chances. And it's like, even if you take a chance, you don't like it. So those people are never going to like you to begin with. That's the thing.
- [55:00]
Tyrus
Like, yeah, it doesn't matter.
- [55:01]
Jim Florentine
You post a video online. If the people that don't like it, they were never coming to see you at a club.
- [55:05]
Tyrus
They were coming just to say they didn't like it.
- [55:07]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. So it doesn't matter. You play to your audience.
- [55:11]
Tyrus
Because I was. Something just popped in my head and I was thinking about it. And when you. When you build something. And I kind of had the same experience where I would. I couldn't get, like. I remember the Laugh Factory. I got booked and I was so excited about it, and then I wasn't anymore.
- [55:28]
Jim Florentine
Oh, that's. That's a tough room. Yeah. If you're from the east coast and
- [55:32]
Tyrus
growing up in California and stuff. I had seen there a lot. And then it was like, it was all these little clubs in New York at first, like, hey, you want to come in? And then Kat and I even did one at Claire's. I think we did a little. And. And we. So we sold out. It was pretty cool to do it. And then it was just done. So I started just renting empty venues. My wife was, like, emptying venues for like four or five grand in these small haunted theaters all over the country.
- [55:53]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [55:54]
Tyrus
And then next thing you know, we have this whole route. And then now the. We have to do shows two and three times a day. And one of the things that sucked about not having a small place and open mic to try the new stuff. So now when I'm doing these shows, like, people like, man, your stand up's like an hour and a half. Well, at least 20 minutes a night as me trying new.
- [56:12]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [56:12]
Tyrus
Because you never know what's going to stick. And what happens is, you know, and sometimes one of the nice things about being Gutfeld so much is we have three segments to try new stuff sometimes. Or four sometimes, depending if he does an interview. So how many times have you being on the Gutfeld show As a comedian where you'll find something new for your act just based off just a. A show.
- [56:31]
Jim Florentine
Definitely. Like there was something a few weeks last time I thought thing goes on about Ozempic.
- [56:36]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [56:37]
Jim Florentine
And I just started writing all his Ozempic jokes and the side effects to it. Scurvy and all this stuff. And so I got a whole routine about it now because I just really focus on that. That's not how I. Exactly how I write for my comedy for the stage. But just from that idea there was something else. I forget the show before that I'm doing a bit on stage about it now, which is great. But you know, I always look like I perform at the stand in New York City. They're all like 22 to 30 year old kids. They have no idea who I am. It's mostly women. It's like 70% women for some reason. And they. And if my joke gets a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, I know it will get at least an 8 on the road in front of my crowd.
- [57:15]
Tyrus
That's a tough crowd especially. But I always. You, that is the best crowd to work in front of is a crowd that maybe doesn't know who you are, isn't in favor of you. Because if you make them laugh, they
- [57:24]
Jim Florentine
have no clue who I am. And I like that. I want to go in when I'm to see if these jokes work. So that's.
- [57:29]
Tyrus
There's a comedian out there has a similar voice to you. Because I remember watching the Joker, Sam Morrell. Yeah. And he. And I, I, I walked up to you. Hey, man, you were in the Joker and you were like, what?
- [57:41]
Jim Florentine
I think I've lied to a few women on the Roga. Yeah.
- [57:43]
Tyrus
And I listen.
- [57:44]
Jim Florentine
It's.
- [57:44]
Tyrus
It's uncanny. Gutfeld has become a place for comedians to, to showcase their town. Why did that change with other late nights? I don't understand. Because that was the staple for a while like Kimmel and, and all these other guys that, that now they kind of. You don't see the standup comedians anymore in late night television. And I think that's a disservice because that was kind of the fabric that made staying up late was you got to see a new comedian or hear some new edgy stuff that you normally wouldn't hear during the day. Why do you think late night television has got away from the comic?
- [58:19]
Jim Florentine
I don't know. I think they're just afraid to. I don't know. I think Jimmy, Jimmy Fallon still has a couple on here and there Kimmel, you know, it never really. I did, I've done Kimmel a bunch of times before. And I remember they were saying like, do you want to do stand up or you just want to do panel? I go, I want to do panel. I don't want to do standup. Because the crowd was really far from you, like in the court, you were in the corner. And it's a crowd they pull off the street on Hollywood Boulevard. A lot of them to just come in, tourists and stuff like that. So they're not necessarily really good crowd. But I just think because they all took the same tone with the jokes and it just doesn't mean anything anymore to do this to. You know, when you did Conan back in the day and obviously even Letterman, Leno, whatever, you, you build a nice audience from that. You know, on the road you would take that, that was a big credit to have. And you would actually draw from, from doing those, those late night sets. Now people aren't watching late night, they're not watching as much. And it's like, I think the, I think the, the talent coordinators are afraid to take a chance with these comics. Like, you know what, these segments don't work anymore. So I'm thinking that's what it is. But I mean if Gutfeld, the ratings he gets is that, that was like, you know, Leno in his prime because Leno was beating Letterman. He's got probably a bigger audience than Leno had and it's huge. And you're, you're not on there just for five minutes. You know, they would come. If leno show is 11:35, the comic will come on at 12:25 and do five minutes. They would go to commercial and say goodnight, right? So you weren't going on till 12:30 at night. You know, Greg's on at 10 o', clock, so you're 10 to 11 and most people record it and watch it the next morning.
- [59:50]
Tyrus
So you. And yeah, and sometimes we've done it where we've, we've actually had the last segment where someone does a traditional, you know, five to seven minute standup. But for the most part, and I think it guys are being able to build audiences off Gutfeld old school wise, where people watch you on Gutfeld and then they see your tour dates come up, then they want to go see you. So I think it, it still works. I know for a fact that it works, you know, because they'll see you and they want to come see you and you're building and it's. And then you get with social media. Then you get people who don't even watch Fox who see your stuff pop up. And then you have all these people coming in from different walks and different. Because they're just there to laugh. Yeah. You know, and, and I always, other than I make fun of like my interactions with the president, I really don't talk about politics at all because it's boring to me.
- [60:36]
Jim Florentine
I don't either.
- [60:37]
Tyrus
You know, it's like I rather me making my fun of myself getting chewed out at an airport for not doing anything. And then, then hearing all. It's been two days, I'm still waiting for your apology.
- [60:47]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [60:48]
Tyrus
And you're like, I for. Oh yeah, I should have been aware of the TSA thing. I'll. Damn it, man.
- [61:01]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [61:01]
Tyrus
Take my eyes. But not your points. So you know, it's. But that to me is more funny laughing at. Because I've had. And one thing about the. And yourself, we've had a lot of failures and firings because this type of behavior and mindset isn't always conducive in a 9 to 5 work setting. You know what I'm saying? Making a joke at the, when the, when the manager tells you something he doesn't have a sense of humor doesn't go well. Also, wrestling agents in Boston do not like jokes made at them either. I found that out the hard way.
- [61:29]
Jim Florentine
Oh yeah, yeah.
- [61:30]
Tyrus
But it's like when you're a commuter, you're your own boss.
- [61:33]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [61:33]
Tyrus
You're also your own policeman to a certain degree. You know, like, it's kind of like the ultimate self made job because you are the product. Whatever you put into it is what you get out of it. Obviously you need breaks here and there, but word of mouth still is powerful.
- [61:47]
Jim Florentine
Oh, huge. I mean, and the Guffell crowd, they'll, they'll drive like three hours to come see you.
- [61:52]
Tyrus
Yeah, I know.
- [61:53]
Jim Florentine
Like, just say you go on that show, you're a comic. Not to be afraid to go on that show. We want to support. And they will come. They will drive. I can't believe some of them will come. Yeah. You don't come to Kentucky. So we came to St. Louis to see.
- [62:03]
Tyrus
Yeah, I get that a lot. I think.
- [62:04]
Jim Florentine
Crazy.
- [62:04]
Tyrus
Yeah. One lady drove like six hours and.
- [62:07]
Jim Florentine
And I'm like, I got to give you these gas money.
- [62:09]
Tyrus
Yeah. Well. And we're doing the meet and greet and stuff. And she was like, yeah, I drove six hours all the way from here. I said, you know, we're here there next.
- [62:16]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [62:16]
Tyrus
But I, I Didn't have the heart. You know, again, that was my problem. Trying to solve a problem. She didn't want a solution. She just wanted praise.
- [62:22]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [62:22]
Tyrus
You know, and then I remember she was. We took the picture and stuff, and I think it was the manager, Kevin, who was like, ma', am, just so you know, we're in that town next week. And she was. And she went from smiling as she walked down the stairs, like, don't you think I knew that? You know, it's like, yeah, you know, because. But it was like, people drive and they make it a vacation. And I'm. When I see that, it makes you. It makes you feel good. And at the same time, you're like, man, but this should be everywhere. It shouldn't just. You shouldn't have to go. You have to go search to find a comic that's not going to get up there and tell you I'm. You know, we're all oppressed on stolen land. Knock, knock. Who's their oppressor? You know what I'm saying? It's like, yeah. And. Or going to things to say. Well, I was there that virtuous and comedy is. There's no place for virtue and victimhood in comedy. I think I just. It doesn't work like, you need to be a lovable dope or say the wrong thing or. Dice was over because he said things we thought. Yeah, but Dare wouldn't say it, you know, and he would say it. And I remember a lot of people would be like, wait a minute, you got this Jewish guy's making these kind of jokes. I never gave a shit what is. What his ethnicity was. He was just funny as hell. Yeah, I know. Because I was a huge investor. I bought his tape probably 20 times because every time I would have it, my mother would find it, break it in half, and throw it out. You know, it was like that. And rap music. Oh, and. And Motley Crue, because they were. They had that song Shout out the Devil.
- [63:49]
Jim Florentine
Shout out of the Devil. Yeah. And that was a pentagram on the.
- [63:51]
Tyrus
On the COVID Yeah, yeah. Didn't fly.
- [63:54]
Jim Florentine
That was a problem.
- [63:54]
Tyrus
Yeah, that was a problem. And then I figured out mixtapes, but all my. Did you do the mixtape thing?
- [63:59]
Jim Florentine
Oh, yeah.
- [64:00]
Tyrus
Where you record off the radio.
- [64:01]
Jim Florentine
You record off the radio. Or I'd have albums. So I. I was always the first one to get the new music. And then I recorded it for my friends.
- [64:08]
Tyrus
And then you sell it.
- [64:09]
Jim Florentine
So I go to album. I wouldn't even sell them. I just make them up for free.
- [64:11]
Tyrus
You make mixtapes for girls that you like?
- [64:13]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. You know, I had this one girlfriend. She hated Dice. And Dice has one of the greatest two albums ever, the Day to Laugh to Die, where he completely bombs and he just says the most awful things and nobody's laughing and people are walking out. It's the best. So I would always put that on the car. She hated it. She's like, oh, turn him off. So she wanted to make a mixtape like Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Raging as a Machine. So between each song, I put a little clip of Dice going. You know. So this chick was sucking my dick the other day, and I ba, ba, ba, ba between every song just to annoy.
- [64:44]
Tyrus
Oh, so you were good at it?
- [64:45]
Jim Florentine
Oh, yeah, Yeah.
- [64:46]
Tyrus
I had the problem with. I was recording songs off the radio and the tape would stop. So they would get half a tape. Cause I'd have the recording that would flip over.
- [64:53]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [64:54]
Tyrus
And you'd be sitting there waiting for that top 10. And it was always your favorite song. You always caught it halfway through. So she would get the first half of the song, and then it would flip, come over, and the second half would come on. And radio commercials. I was not. I didn't have the skill set that you had to. Where you could put things in there.
- [65:09]
Jim Florentine
I remember. Oh, yeah. I was. I was a master. I was always doing. I got two turntables.
- [65:13]
Tyrus
Oh, okay. You didn't mess around.
- [65:15]
Jim Florentine
Hooked up. I got this connected so I can make. Yeah, I could make two tape. Two cassettes at one time off of one album. So I had the whole thing going on.
- [65:22]
Tyrus
Oh, so you had. Yeah, you. Okay.
- [65:23]
Jim Florentine
But all my. All my stuff from. Come Come. Columbia House of bmg.
- [65:27]
Tyrus
Yeah. I wonder if. Yeah, you know what was that? Not the greatest underground crime ever. I remember I was like, mom, I just bought 100 CDs for one penny or whatever it was. And she was like, you have to pay for that. And then we were at school, and it was. Our history teacher was like, you know, he was in. We were talking about Constitution and signing stuff and contracts and all this. And I asked him a question about. Well, I. You know, because I was terrified because I'm. Apparently they're $11.99 a piece, and I just got 100 of them. And I remember asking my brother, like, hey, pick five. Like, pick this. You know, and he was like, well, you're a minor, so if your parents didn't sign it, all your parents have to do is write a letter saying you didn't have permission. And you get to keep that spread like wildfire.
- [66:07]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [66:07]
Tyrus
Every kid in my classroom was getting CDs and then asking. They weren't even having their parents. They were just writing, like. And they were signing. And the record industry would just be like, that's it. Yeah. You know, you didn't get all. You didn't get all your installments of the CDs, but you. Whatever. First ones, those first top ones you
- [66:20]
Jim Florentine
wanted, you got 11 for, like, a penny.
- [66:22]
Tyrus
Yeah.
- [66:22]
Jim Florentine
And then you had to buy one. One. One a month for, like, three or four. Four more.
- [66:26]
Tyrus
Yeah. It was some crazy thing. And my allowance at that time was not. I couldn't afford. You know, I was still hanging on to my GI Joe and Transformer stuff. My budget was not able to. To pay full price for a cd. I had to make a choice. I had allowance. Growing up, we didn't. We didn't just get to go in the store and be like, I'd like that.
- [66:43]
Jim Florentine
I want that.
- [66:44]
Tyrus
I want that. Like, I didn't even. I didn't start asking for Until I was grown, like, hey, mom, can I get this? And even then, it was like, no, you'll have the cereal that we always have.
- [66:53]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [66:53]
Tyrus
Yeah. But Captain Barry gets. Thank you. And I'm a foot taller than her, you know, but it just. I never question it. But all that stuff's gone now.
- [67:01]
Jim Florentine
Well, I did it because they. You know, it was an album. Then they went to cassettes, and then they went to CDs. Oh, CDs. The best sound last that long. I know. And. But so I was like, albums are back, so now I got to buy it again. So I bought the album, then I bought the cassette. Now I got to buy the cd. It's the same album with the same songs, and it sounds the same. I said, now I'm gonna go. And I tried. I put my real name one time, and they denied me Columbia House. Meanwhile, my brother was putting all these fake names, his friends. And I go, now, I'm just gonna be honest. I'll pay. They denied me. So then I put, like, Jim Marino, because I was a damn Reno fan. Next I know, 11 CDs are at my door. I'm like, okay. And then I just put up 50 different names and just got all CDs. And there was DVDs at the time. You got the DVD. You know, I had the VHS movies, and they moved in DVDs.
- [67:45]
Tyrus
You know, I'm starting to see, like, albums are back and they're here to stay. Yeah, the cd. I Don't think is coming back for whatever reason. But the album, I always hear it sounds better. It's. That's always the argument I hear. It's.
- [67:56]
Jim Florentine
It does. But you know, it's a kind of a pain in the ass because you have to flip the side over I.
- [68:01]
Tyrus
Or listen to the whole album.
- [68:03]
Jim Florentine
Well, you still have to flip the side over after like four songs.
- [68:07]
Tyrus
Oh, they used to have the automatic flipper. Remember that?
- [68:09]
Jim Florentine
I don't remember that.
- [68:10]
Tyrus
Came out. Boom. And then be like pass it over and flip. Yeah. My mom had like one of those high tech old ones that were.
- [68:16]
Jim Florentine
Oh, really? I never flipped it. That would have been good. But no, I saw my albums from. I saw probably seven.
- [68:20]
Tyrus
I was a big 45 guy. I had all the 40 special piece.
- [68:24]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, you had a little thing in there. Because I was a dj, like at weddings and stuff. So I'd have to buy the wedding song at a 45. One time I was doing a wedding, it was like 400 people and I bought their. Their wedding song on a 45. They put the little piece in there. And I go, here, you know, Dana and Artie, here's their first wedding song. And I put it on. I had to take a shit. And I had it on the wrong speed. I had it on 33 and I ran in the bathroom. I was in the stall and I couldn't hear it. And I'm in there and I hear people coming in. Where's that dj? He's ruining their song. How could he do that? I'm sitting on the bowl like, what the is going on? I go out there. Here. It had to be off for three minutes. I. I had to run out of the bathroom.
- [69:07]
Tyrus
That's not a bad sign at all. The devil singing our. Because we used to do that. Play it backwards. Play it backwards. Yeah. Eye of the Tiger was supposedly a devil message or whatever. I never. I mean my brother, like. And then we realized we're scratching our records.
- [69:24]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [69:24]
Tyrus
And that was another thing too. I never got into. Everyone was DJ and mixing and stuff. And I was like, nah, man. I paid too much money for my records.
- [69:30]
Jim Florentine
Oh yeah, no, definitely not.
- [69:31]
Tyrus
I'm not doing that at all. And kind of. I was more into the sports and stuff. But you look back at those fun. Everything was hands on. You had to do everything hands on. You had to know how to do everything from scratch. It's not like today. Is that. Is that something you've instilled in your son? The hands on approach or. Because everything today is like Instant gratification. Like, even if you wanted something when you were a kid, even if you wanted something that you had to send away for it, you had to wait for it. Or now everything's so like, boom, boom, boom. Do you. Do you ever butt heads with your. Your son's a little bit older now, but, like, does. Did you instill that same work ethic that was passed down to you?
- [70:05]
Jim Florentine
Not yet.
- [70:05]
Tyrus
Or is it harder because some. Being a dad out in the home is hard sometimes because it's like you're everything you do, you're trumped. Like, you're always the anything you say, you question anything. You're the automatic bad guy. You're the villain. If you say anything to the mom, though, hey, you know, you're being a little too. You need to be a little harder on him. Like, hey, go.
- [70:21]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [70:22]
Tyrus
Got a bad grade. Hey, he shouldn't be going out with his friends. Oh, that's just you. You're a bull. You know, it's like I always experienced that. I'm always there, like, oh, well, I don't here all the day. You're like, well, that's because that's the way you wanted it.
- [70:31]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [70:32]
Tyrus
You know, and so it was hard. Sometimes it's hard to instill some work ethic things because. And also having a successful life, sometimes your kids can be the. Have the negative impact where they don't have that fire that you had because everything's been handed to them. And so you have to. It's like a fine line because you don't want to. To have it to where your kids depended on you their whole life because you never actually forced them to like, earn anything.
- [70:54]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, well, he's got a job. Like he works Saturdays like a bagel store. So I want him to start working. He'll start cutting the lawn this year at 15, you know, and stuff. So I'm going to make him start doing physical labor.
- [71:04]
Tyrus
Yeah, Our son's right around the same age. My son will be 15 in August and he's. Yeah, he's got his chores and stuff.
- [71:08]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. So I have him do that, you
- [71:09]
Tyrus
know, switched into allowance on a merit basis.
- [71:12]
Jim Florentine
I just want to make sure, like that I put money away for his college. So when he gets out of college, he's not $200,000 in debt and starting his life off in debt. That I want to make sure that's paid off so then he could just. So he doesn't have to get in the wrong job because he's got bills. Yeah, he's got a degree, wrong woman, wrong everything. Shitty apartment because he's got to pay his Twitter, you know, his college tuition. So just to have all that done for him and then, you know, find the right person and find the right job. So, you know, just take some shitty insurance job because I got a bunch of bills, right?
- [71:43]
Tyrus
Yeah, because that's. Well, that's kind of been the blue part I've had. I've worked everywhere for. From Arby's to. I was filling in water pipes at a Walmart, was gluing. That's always fun. Sitting up there all day, making sure the stuff does. And it's like the Stooges, because you'll do it. And on the water run, you got to stay there and look at it and it blows in your face. And it was like thinking, like, there's gotta be a better way. Stacking cans at 2 o' clock in the morning at Walmart while everyone, everyone else has given up.
- [72:11]
Jim Florentine
I always tell people, like, if you're chasing your dream, whatever it is, work the shittiest job. Have nothing to fall back on and work that shitty job because I'll motivate you to get out of that job.
- [72:21]
Tyrus
And it did. I'm telling you right now. If I ever think about, oh, man, my life's so hard, I'll think about staring at stacks of cans of Chef Boyardee taller than me, that I got a stack and have somebody then go, well, this one's a little. You need to move this one over here. And. And I always got stuck with having put everything up on the top shelf, you know, and it was just. And you're working with a guy who's completely given up, you know, like, he's just putting his cans and he's just waiting for the Grim Reaper, you know, like, like, hey, how was your day? I'm here. Yeah, you know, it's contagious too, because, you know.
- [72:48]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, I know.
- [72:49]
Tyrus
And he said, oh, man, I think I'm going to. I'm going to become personal wrestling.
- [72:52]
Jim Florentine
They're like, yeah, right.
- [72:53]
Tyrus
Yeah, just stack your cans like the rest of us, bro. Like, you know, and before I let you go, I completely. You had your special. You Can't Please Them All. What a great title.
- [73:03]
Jim Florentine
Because, you know, when I had people walk out of my show and it happened a few times in the tour, I'm like, look, yeah, you can't please them all. I just came up with it on stage. I'm like, that's a great title for. It is for, For a Special because there'd be. Yeah, there'd be a few people that would walk out, you know, didn't like it, whatever. He was too much. Whatever it was. And I don't even get offended by that. But I just. I remember saying, yeah, you can't please them all, Micah. After the show, I go, that's a. That's a great title.
- [73:28]
Tyrus
It is. It is. I'm mad I didn't think of it because it's. But it's so true to form. And you go. And I always thought when somebody walks out now, for me to walk out of something, that means that had to be life changing. I mean, I sat through some movies that.
- [73:41]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [73:41]
Tyrus
You know, I remember Independence Day 2 and 1. I remember sitting through that, going, okay, I'm. No. And it's a movie. Not like the actors are gonna stop. But I was like, no, no, no, I'm gonna see it through. I'm gonna see it through. And it wasn't easy. It was. Some of them were just. You're just like, huh. You know, I think some of the movies that my kids like to watch,
- [74:03]
Jim Florentine
I remember sitting there going, oh, those kids movies. Like, you go, I would just fall asleep.
- [74:07]
Tyrus
Yeah, I used to do that. I used to do that. And you can't do that with daughters.
- [74:11]
Jim Florentine
No, no. They get mad. My son was like, dad, you were snoring. I go, did I fall asleep? Yeah. I'm like, all right, good. I'll take a nap.
- [74:16]
Tyrus
My son actually got me. He. I took him to see Rogue. Right. I was trying to get my son into Star wars. And we saw Rogue One.
- [74:21]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [74:21]
Tyrus
He slept all the way. And I let him. Right. I gotta be honest, it was a little boring. I hate saying it. Except the Darth Vader. But then there was that scene at the end. And I. When I heard the breathing, I was like, oh, like you're gonna. And he's like, the Darth Vader scene, when he came through and just lit everybody up like a Christmas tree.
- [74:36]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [74:37]
Tyrus
And my son was like, oh, my God. I was like, he's like, what's the whole movie? Like that? And I was like, no, but this is why. And after that, he was. He was watching all the old ones. It was one moment, you know.
- [74:47]
Jim Florentine
Okay, good.
- [74:47]
Tyrus
Yeah. Because if I would have woke him up, I would have lost him.
- [74:50]
Jim Florentine
Right?
- [74:50]
Tyrus
Because even I was like, okay. Like, this is. This is brutal. This is brutal. But it was that one iconic moment. And I. And. And now he's hooked. Now we. Like, right now we're doing we're watching. We face FaceTime. Movie share thing is awesome. Screen share thing is phenomenal. So right now we're. I'm. He's gone down the Three Stooges rabbit hole with me.
- [75:10]
Jim Florentine
Ah.
- [75:10]
Tyrus
And I'm just, you know, and I try not to get upset because when he. I said, who's your favorite guy? And he's like, shemp. And I was like, what? He's like, no, he's. He does that makes that sound. And I'm like, no, it's Curly or Larry. Mo. No, Shemp. Huh? He picked the Shemp episodes. And I was like, ah, kid. But then I was like, I realized that I never watched the Shemps. I just immediately, oh, it's Shemp. I didn't want to watch it. No, it wasn't bad.
- [75:37]
Jim Florentine
It wasn't bad.
- [75:38]
Tyrus
But Curly was Picasso. I mean, it was just, you know, and then you realize how much they're. They look alike. Like him and Mo, you know, they were brothers. They're all brothers. Curly was brother. But apparently Curly was too good looking. So they made him shave his head.
- [75:50]
Jim Florentine
Right? Yeah, right? Yeah, yeah.
- [75:51]
Tyrus
But it was like. And he was like, hey, dad, how come they don't make movies like that anymore? I said, no one ever perfected their timing.
- [75:59]
Jim Florentine
It's amazing that that stuff was like in the late 30s, early 40s, that, that comedy, and it still holds today.
- [76:06]
Tyrus
I was laughing even, because Mo always. Whenever he plays Hitler. I know, I'm sorry. But it's fun. I'm sorry. It's fun. I laughed my ass off.
- [76:15]
Jim Florentine
There's a lot of it in there.
- [76:16]
Tyrus
Yeah, there's a lot of it.
- [76:17]
Jim Florentine
Because that's what was happening at that time.
- [76:19]
Tyrus
At that time. And, and. But he would do his speech or whatever, and I'm like laughing my ass off. And I remember my son was like, dude, can we laugh at that? I said, you can laugh because he's making fun of it.
- [76:29]
Jim Florentine
Yes. Yeah.
- [76:30]
Tyrus
In a time. This was before World War II. They didn't really. But I said, even so, you know, because he hear. They unfortunately they hear it so much now. So where they're like, that's who Hitler was.
- [76:40]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [76:41]
Tyrus
Because they don't even know who he is. Because history classes aren't what they used to be. So when they hear that, you know, they hear presidents, you know, he's this, he's this, he's this, and then he's Hitler. He's Hitler. So their idea of what he is, they really don't know who he is or what he is. He's not feared because it's been so watered down.
- [77:00]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [77:01]
Tyrus
So then when my son's seeing it and he's like, oh, this Hitler guy wasn't half bad. Like, no, no, no. Nope. We got to pause the breaks here. This is. And then I had to go back and I explained to him who he really was and what he was about. And they were like. And even a 14 year old is like, how could you compare him to anybody, dad? I'm like, yeah, you get it. You know? But like, it was just funny because he was like, this Hitler is hilarious. I'm like, no, no, son.
- [77:27]
Jim Florentine
The little muscles.
- [77:28]
Tyrus
Yeah, he'd do the thing and had a full gear on and he'd do the. And then Curly would have, like, every metal known to man on him or whatever.
- [77:34]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [77:34]
Tyrus
You know, and. But the comedy. Hearing my kid just undying laughter at Curly Macon. And I'm like, man. I was like. I had very few things that I shared with, like, my. My biological grandfather was around him a few times. But the one thing. It didn't matter what was going on, if the Three Stooges was on, we had common ground, right? And we would laugh at the same shit. Now, after that, it was all downhill, but if that was on, you know, and it was kind of nice, I was like, hey, I did this with my grandfather, and. And now I'm doing it with my son. And now he's like, hey, which one you want to watch tonight, dad? I'm like, hey, you just pick it, son. You just pick. And then. Then it spilled into like, hey, what's this droopy cartoon about? Like, oh, son, Tex Avery, you have no idea. Like, the old Looney Tunes stuff, right? Because the stuff they do is watch is completely watered down.
- [78:17]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [78:17]
Tyrus
And he was like. And he asked a really good question. He was sitting there and he goes, hey, dad, you know how they say, like, you can't play games with guns and stuff? And I was like, well, yeah, some people say that.
- [78:27]
Jim Florentine
Why?
- [78:28]
Tyrus
He's like, well, how come you guys didn't throw dynamite sticks at each other? And apparently you guys all dressed like women back then because Bugs Bunny was trans before trans was like every. I didn't realize how often Elmer Yosemite and Porky Pig fell in love with random Bugs Bunny. And like, it's like it was in every other scene and everybody was okay with it. There wasn't a huge out. Like, it.
- [78:50]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. Like, right.
- [78:51]
Tyrus
You know, the only times, like, duck, I think Daffy Duck. Like, really? You? Seriously, you're falling for this. Like, that was the only time. And I was. I was just. I was sitting there laughing, and I'm watching my son laughing, and at no point did he stop laughing or go like, oh, God, no, I can't. I can't believe no one was offended because everybody got it. The hunter was an idiot. The rabbit was a smart. Like, it was just. It was. It was just funny. It was just. There was no. But it was what it was, you know, it just. It was there to laugh. It wasn't to change the world.
- [79:24]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [79:24]
Tyrus
It wasn't to words to live by. You know, all the bad guys always ended up the ones going. Yosemite Sam. No matter what it was, his resume was. He always was the. He was always the butt of the jokes, and it was just simple. And I love the fact that my. My kids are into that because that we're relatable when I watch their stuff, and I'm like, I don't get the point. You're watching somebody watch tv, telling you about what they're watching. Can you just split the diff and watch the show?
- [79:50]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, yeah. It's. It's crazy. You know, someone open up a box of baseball cards. Yeah. You're watching someone open a pack.
- [79:58]
Tyrus
Yeah. And. Oh, this is a winner.
- [80:00]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. You're unboxing an album. It's like, yeah. Watching that for.
- [80:04]
Tyrus
And they're. They're not missing it. Like, oh, this is the best part. What is it? What's the. I. I don't want to watch. Go get the album yourself. At least you get to play it and enjoy it.
- [80:15]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [80:16]
Tyrus
You know, and speaking of playing enjoy it. I know, you know, this guy Ryan is part of. I have a B team because I don't like doing a lot of content, you know, saying. So I let the young guys do it.
- [80:25]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [80:25]
Tyrus
And he. I like to ask our guests if the B team can ask a couple questions.
- [80:30]
Jim Florentine
Of course. Yeah.
- [80:34]
Tyrus
This is what everyone's talking about. Everything's on the table. This is what champions come to take.
- [80:42]
Jim Florentine
This is what everyone came to see. No do overs, no second chances. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
- [80:52]
Tyrus
This is winner take all. And it's all happening now on the
- [80:57]
Jim Florentine
home of the NBA Finals.
- [80:58]
Tyrus
Don't miss it.
- [80:59]
Jim Florentine
June 3rd on ABC and the ESPN app.
- [81:03]
Podcast Host
Jim, pleasure. I've known you for a few years now.
- [81:06]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [81:07]
Podcast Host
And I love what you do. But I wanted to ask you some questions about comedy.
- [81:10]
Jim Florentine
All right.
- [81:11]
Podcast Host
Is that all right? You like comedy?
- [81:12]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [81:13]
Podcast Host
I mean, yeah, I guess.
- [81:14]
Tyrus
A little bit.
- [81:14]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. When I'M in the mood. You know, sometimes people like, oh, tell me a joke. You're a comedian.
- [81:18]
Tyrus
And I'm like, yeah, you know, here you go.
- [81:20]
Podcast Host
Yeah, you can't do it on the spot. So with the rise of cancel culture that's been hitting past 5, 10 years, do you think that's impacted how free you are when you tell your jokes or you do your routines or just how you carry yourself?
- [81:36]
Jim Florentine
I. I never. I just kind of ignore it. I still do what I do. I don't go, oh, the media says I can't say these words anymore. These topics that I can't do. I never listen to that. I just don't. I just. When I feel. If I feel like not talking about it anymore, then I won't. So it's never really affected me. And also in the comedy clubs, like, you think it was all out there, and it kind of was, but it's in the comedy clubs, people aren't coming and leaving. Usually they're not like half the rooms walking out because you made a transgender joke. So those people that were offended by that stuff weren't coming to the comedy clubs. It's the stuff you post online that just goes viral and gets to places where it wasn't supposed to go. People don't know you.
- [82:15]
Podcast Host
They take that platform and they take that clip out of context.
- [82:19]
Jim Florentine
Out of context, and then they run with it, and then they show it to people that aren't into comedy or don't know who you are, your style, or whatever, and it gets on the
- [82:27]
Podcast Host
wrong radar, which kind of segues into my next question, because it's like comedy, at least used to be all free speech. Everyone was on the table. You used to be able to say anything as long as it was a joke. And now I feel like it's being so censored because people are getting so offended by jokes, and they're reading into it too much. What do you say to the people that are always offended or that maybe you have offended? What do you say to those people?
- [82:56]
Jim Florentine
Well, first of all, when I got in the business, all the comics stuck up for each other. We all had each other's backs. And then in the last, like, 10 years or so, with this canceled stuff, all the comics throw each other under the bus. No one has each other's backs. So everyone's going, yeah, I can't believe another comic, I can't believe he said that he should be blackballed when everybody's gunning for us. So you think in this business, we'd all stick together and say, he's allowed to say that, but no. So it just fractured the whole industry. But as far as it, like, you know, look, if you don't, you have the right to be offended, but that doesn't mean I can't do a joke. Yeah, I don't know what's gonna offend you. I remember I was going through my divorce years ago and I was talking about it on stage and this woman came out there after the show and started crying. She's like, you ruined my night. I go, how? She goes, I'm going to a divorce. And I came out for laughs. And you brought it up. And now you brought now and reminded her remind me of my divorce. I go, well, how am I supposed to do? I go, what am I supposed to do? You know, have everyone at the comedy club come tonight, hey, send an email about what topic is I could talk about and whatnot. So I never worry about that stuff. You don't know what's going to set somebody off.
- [83:59]
Podcast Host
It doesn't matter. You might think a joke that might not offend someone actually ends up being the thing that offends someone.
- [84:04]
Jim Florentine
Right.
- [84:05]
Podcast Host
You know what I mean? It's crazy. And I feel like politics has been doing a lot of damage to comedy. I feel like politics has kind of put some kind of lens on comedy where it's like, ooh, you can't say that cuz it's politically incorrect. But then you have guys like Trump who come out here, he says some of the most hysterical things you might find. His timing is great. You might say that Trump, in essence, is a better comedian than a lot of these new comedians that you see today. So you think that Trump is showing that politics doesn't need to ruin comedy and instead you need to just embrace how things are. Would you agree that he's shifted the way that politics should be in comedy? He makes things light. He knows how to joke. It's too serious, right?
- [84:58]
Jim Florentine
Yeah. Well, I just think that the people that are offended by Trump, whatever he does, it's like, all right, so what? Yeah, he's the president, maybe he shouldn't be cracking jokes like that. But get over it already. It doesn't have to be a white guy reading from a teleprompter with no jokes. What serious. 100% of the time they're allowed to have a sense of humor. But George Bush never really showed a sense of humor. Obama really didn't either. So people just used to somebody in there not never showing a sense of humor. So that's what we get. And then Trump comes along, he's kind of like a guy's guy, ball buster, making jokes, making fun of people.
- [85:34]
Podcast Host
It's almost like he humanizes politicians.
- [85:37]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [85:37]
Podcast Host
You know what I mean?
- [85:38]
Jim Florentine
And, you know, everybody's so like, he's presidential. He shouldn't be talking like that.
- [85:42]
Podcast Host
Yeah.
- [85:42]
Jim Florentine
Does sometimes he go over the line with something?
- [85:44]
Tyrus
Something?
- [85:44]
Jim Florentine
Yeah, but that's what, that's what a comic does.
- [85:47]
Podcast Host
Yeah. You're supposed to gauge your audience. And I love what he does because it's like when you're in the Oval Office and he has all these people, it doesn't matter if it's kids, reporters, health officials. It's almost like it's an open mic and he's on stage and he's now doing crowd work. And it's hilarious. I mean, he'll go over a kid. You're too short for volleyball. He did that the other day. So it's hilarious that he's now incorporated this loose energy. I guess the last question is a lot of people.
- [86:14]
Jim Florentine
Well, look, we went from the last president, Joe Biden, going, listen, I only have my set of questions here. I'm gonna get in trouble. What's that? I'm gonna get in trouble if I answer this. But what's your question? We went from that to Trump just riffing.
- [86:27]
Podcast Host
Yeah, it's hilarious. And then you come up with the garbage truck. It's almost like he. And he loves watching all the late night stuff. Whether he likes it or not, he still watches it. And it's funny to just see how he knows. He's very quick with it. He's got great timing, he's quick, he's on his feet. So all these ideas are genius. So I think Trump is arguably one of the most entertaining presidents, whether you like him or not, that we've seen. Lastly, there's a lot of people that are aspiring to be comedians. A lot of young people, especially on social media now, they use social media more as a crutch to try to boost their. Their popularity. A lot of these people, though, are afraid of telling the wrong joke or offending a group or, you know, getting canceled. What advice would you give to, let's say, somebody watching this podcast right now? They love Jim Florentine, they love what he does, but they're afraid to be completely organic and themselves. What advice would you give them?
- [87:28]
Jim Florentine
Well, look, if you're a comic and you're upcoming, you don't have. You're not on a TV show, you're not On a hit TV show. You're not in the Marvel movies, the franchise or anything, so you have nothing to lose. So what could they take from you? Yeah, it was like when Adam Carolla made a transgender joke, like, 10 years ago. They were trying to come after because. What are you going to do? I. I have my own podcast. I own my own business. What are you going to take from me? I have dot coms on the. On the Internet, you know, recruiter.com. so there's nothing you could take away. So as a comic coming up, just go for it. Like, who are you? No one's going to take anything away from you, 100%. You know, look, at some point, maybe five years from now, you might get into a big movie with Kevin Hart, be a sidekick, and they go, hey, look, he made this gay joke five years ago. I don't think anyone's going to care. I think that time's over with that stuff. It might come back, who knows, in a few years, that stuff. But people aren't really getting canceled for something they did five, 10 years ago. I think that's. We had that phrase, like, four or five years where it was crazy.
- [88:26]
Podcast Host
Yeah, you look at, oh, here's an old joke I made, or here's a bit I did on stage, or here's something I posted, and it was funny at the time. Ten years go by, and all of a sudden now it's not acceptable. So it's like punishing people for the past.
- [88:38]
Jim Florentine
Yeah.
- [88:39]
Podcast Host
You know, listen, everybody posts stuff that's bad out there. Some things should be, you know, wow, you really shouldn't have said that. But for jokes and comedians, I feel like you're almost taking away from what comedy is, and that's to be free. That's to express and to, in essence, just bring everyone together and have a good time.
- [88:58]
Jim Florentine
Well, the one good thing is, you know, you don't have to rely on the industry anymore. You could build up your own crowd, your own following on social media and go sell out clubs. There's so many comics out there I never even heard of that are selling out comedy clubs and arenas, adding shows that I've never heard of, that built their own, you know, thing on social media so you don't have to go through Comedy Central, the Letterman show, all this other stuff, the hbo, and due to censorship and all that stuff. So it's a great time for comedy to build and stuff. You'll get in trouble, but it almost makes you bigger when you get in trouble.
- [89:28]
Podcast Host
Yeah, it's almost like the people that they try to cancel or to censor, it's almost like they have a rounded support behind them.
- [89:36]
Jim Florentine
After those moments, people like that, like, I want to come see that person now that he got in trouble over a stupid joke.
- [89:41]
Podcast Host
All right, well, Jim, I appreciate you taking the time. It's always good to see you. Hope you had fun on Planet Tires. And hopefully I clicked closed. Day one, two, three, bottom of the ninth. I think I did a good job.
- [89:51]
Tyrus
All right, take care, guys.