Comedy Saved Me-Greg Fitzsimmons, Punchlines, Pain and the Power of Laughter

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Comedy Saved Me – Greg Fitzsimmons: Punchlines, Pain and the Power of Laughter"

Podcast: takin' a walk
Host: Lynn Hoffman (iHeartPodcasts)
Guest: Greg Fitzsimmons
Date: September 15, 2025
Episode Theme:
This episode explores how comedy can serve as a lifeline during life’s hardest moments. Emmy-winning comedian, writer, and veteran podcaster Greg Fitzsimmons opens up about childhood, sobriety, loss, family, and the healing power of laughter, especially for those navigating pain or grief.

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Main Topics & Key Moments

1. Introduction and Greg’s Background

Timestamps: 00:02 – 01:12

• Lynn introduces Greg as a pioneering comedian and podcaster, noting his “sharp wit and honest, self-deprecating storytelling” and his Boston roots.
• Greg playfully responds:

  “I do have to correct one thing you said, self deprecating, but I would also throw in like a lot of other people deprecate me as well. So it's not just me. I take my cue from them.” (01:12, Greg Fitzsimmons)

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2. Sobriety and Family Legacy

Timestamps: 01:32 – 03:42

• Lynn congratulates Greg for more than 35 years of sobriety, calling it “a massive feat.”
• Greg candidly shares his family’s struggles with alcoholism, the normalization of heavy drinking in his youth, and how attending an Adult Children of Alcoholics meeting was pivotal:

  “We were broken toys and we find each other...so I never thought it was unusual that there was this much drinking.” (02:26, Greg) “I just burst out crying the first time I was like, oh my God, this is like, I didn't feel alone.” (03:32, Greg)

• He credits quitting drinking with nearly all the positive things in his life.

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3. Comedy as Salvation: The Genesis

Timestamps: 03:42 – 06:21

• Greg’s first standup was in high school, while “all coked up and I'd been drinking,” roasting his teachers until the principal unplugged his mic.
• Comedy initially was an adrenaline rush, but family influence went deeper—Greg’s father, a charismatic radio host and emcee, unwittingly taught him the art of roasting and storytelling:

  “I have old audio tapes of my dad's radio shows...I go back and I go, holy shit, that's me. So much of my voice is influenced by how he did it, you know?” (05:42, Greg)

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4. Growing Up Fitzsimmons: Humor, Heritage, and Hecks

Timestamps: 06:21 – 12:09

• Greg recalls his family’s Irish tradition of storytelling, dinner-table roasts, and striving for his father’s approval through humor.

  “Making him laugh was a big deal...the dinner table felt like the first stage for me, I think, that I performed at, and I kind of shined.” (09:42–10:09, Greg)

• He found his mother’s collection of school "trouble" letters, inspiring his memoir "Dear Mrs.” about Irish irreverence and bucking authority.
• Notable classroom mischief quote:

  "Greg then yelled out, are there any other positions? Is there a 69 position? ...and my parents were dead, dying." (12:05, Greg)

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5. Comedy as Healing in the Face of Loss

Timestamps: 12:09 – 18:24

• Greg explains the transformative nature of Irish wakes, using laughter to process grief:

  “The Irish wake was always something that put things in perspective and made you think about how life shouldn't be defined by your death. It should be defined by the people you touched and the laughter you gave.” (12:40, Greg)

• Tells story of his friend and comic Jerry Red Wilson’s death and how he turned grief into a recurring comedy fundraiser, raising hundreds of thousands for charity in Wilson’s name.
• Now, Greg is often asked to “roast” at funerals, collecting stories from loved ones:

  “I told my own stories that I had about them...people just give you this 60 second hug, like, thank you for doing that for all of us.” (17:26, Greg)

• He jokes about starting a business as a “funeral roaster”:

  “But that's the best angle of all.” (17:52, Greg)

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6. The Performer’s Paradox: Fame, Family, and Authenticity

Timestamps: 22:03 – 30:26

• On social anxiety and the contradiction of feeling empowered on stage but awkward with friends or family in the audience:

  “I think a lot of comedians have social anxiety...sometimes you take your worst fear and you throw yourself straight at it to prove that you can conquer it.” (22:28, Greg)

• Recalls the bittersweet moment when his son views him differently after seeing a show:

  “There’s a power dynamic when somebody sees you do stand up comedy at a high level and they suddenly...I never wanted that dynamic in my relationship with my son.” (25:18, Greg)

• Why keeping fame “in the middle” is a conscious choice:

  “I crawled my way to the middle and I'm staying right there. And this is the sweet spot.” (28:46, Greg) “I've been lucky enough that it's all worked out.” (30:26, Greg)

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7. Craft, Comedy, and Self-Reflection

Timestamps: 33:55 – 37:40

• On therapy and when humor masks deeper emotion:

  “Sometimes I would come in with a full head of steam...she would go, you're performing right now. And I knew that meant that I wasn't...I was controlling my emotions and our interaction by being funny.” (33:55, Greg)

• Greg describes his writing process, using vulnerability onstage to craft new jokes from real-life discomfort:

  “Sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to say next, but I know that if I say it on stage...I'm going to come up with something that's going to relieve the tension and then I do...” (36:15, Greg)

• This is rooted in the creative pressure of his childhood dinner table.

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8. High Stakes & Radical Honesty

Timestamps: 38:03 – 41:19

• Facing high-profile appearances (Howard Stern, Joe Rogan) triggers anxiety—but he faces it head-on.

  “It's always like, jumping out of a plane. It's like, you show up sometimes, you get really nervous.” (38:23, Greg)

• Shares a story about revealing a deeply personal story for the first time on Howard Stern, about questioning his sexuality in college. Howard’s team would jokingly bring it up on future shows.

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9. Laughter as Medicine: Advice for Coping

Timestamps: 41:35 – 44:02

• Greg’s advice for anyone struggling:

  “Listening to Stand up is incredibly therapeutic. Watching funny movies, you know, reading a funny book...Things that are going to make you laugh and take your mind out of it are...very healing.” (41:49, Greg)

• Notes that not everyone laughs outwardly—comedy’s healing can be subtle or internal, but still meaningful.

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10. Where to Find Greg Fitzsimmons

Timestamps: 44:43 – 45:33

• Lynn asks about Greg’s tour and podcast:

  “If you go to Fitzdog.com, you can see my dates...and then the podcast is called Fitz Dog Radio.” (44:43, Greg)

• Lynn commends Greg for being a podcasting pioneer since 2009, and he reflects on the value of leaving recordings behind for his kids:

  “I like to think the way I listen to my dad's tapes, someday my kids will be able to listen to me again.” (45:33, Greg)

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Notable Quotes

• “Our dinner table was a lot of that. It was a lot of...we just roasted each other and we told stories from our day...making him [my dad] laugh was a big deal.” – Greg Fitzsimmons (09:01-10:09)
• “The Irish wake is just your close friends and family getting up and regaling everybody with the great stories...and including roasting you...life shouldn't be defined by your death.” – Greg Fitzsimmons (12:40–13:10)
• “I'm no longer, like, the funny guy offstage. I'm kind of serious, and that's the place where I can control my situation.” – Greg Fitzsimmons (24:24)
• “I crawled my way to the middle and I'm staying right there. And this is the sweet spot.” – Greg Fitzsimmons (28:46)
• “Sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to say next, but I know that if I say it on stage and all these people are looking at me, I'm going to come up with something that’s going to relieve the tension and then I do...” – Greg Fitzsimmons (36:15)
• “Listening to Stand up is incredibly therapeutic...Things that are going to make you laugh and take your mind out of it are...very healing.” – Greg Fitzsimmons (41:49)

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Episode Takeaways

• Comedy is both defense and salvation, especially for those who process pain through laughter.
• Honesty, connection, and vulnerability are central to Greg’s comedy—and offer models for using humor as healthy coping, rather than just escape.
• Celebrity and comedy can complicate personal relationships, but Greg purposefully keeps things grounded and prioritizes authenticity over ego or fame.
• Using humor respectfully in times of grief (Irish wake style) can transform a funeral into a celebration and be genuinely healing.
• Anyone—audience or performer—can find solace in comedy, even if the healing is quiet or invisible.

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Finding Greg Fitzsimmons

• Tour Dates & Info: fitzdog.com
• Podcast: Fitz Dog Radio

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For those seeking inspiration or comfort, Greg Fitzsimmons’ journey is a testament to resilience, community, and the ongoing power of punchlines in the face of pain.

Transcript

[Lynn Hoffman]

Comedy Saved Me welcome to Comedy Saved Me, a podcast where comedians and entertainers reveal how humor carried them through life's toughest moments and also share profound ways that they've even witnessed comedy bringing healing to others. I'm your host, Lynn Hoffman and today's guest needs little introduction, but I'm going to give him one anyway because you've worked hard.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Greg Fitzsimmons is a beloved Emmy award winning comedian, writer, actor, podcast host and prolific guest on shows like Howard Stern, Joe Rogan, Adam Carolla. The list just is almost too long to mention. And his sharp wit and honest self deprecating storytelling has earned him a huge devoted following. He's also a cool, I didn't know this, A pioneer in comedy podcasting, launching Fitz Dog Radio way back in 2009. So beyond the laughs, Greg's journey is one of resilience, using comedy not just as a career, but as a lifeline during. During his darkest moments. And lucky me, he is here to talk to us all about it. Greg Fitzsimmons, welcome to Comedy Saved Me. It's such a pleasure to have you here and a fellow Boston native too, so that makes me happy.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, thank you for the warm intro. I do have to correct one thing you said, self deprecating, but I would also throw in like a lot of other people deprecate me as well. So it's not just me. I take my cue from them. When you've been deprecated by enough people, you go like, all right, I guess I'll jump in. I guess I'll join in on it.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I love it. And also I want to start off by congratulating you on something that maybe people probably know who have seen you, but if they're just tuning in now and meeting you for the first time, something that blew me away was that you have been sober for, I want to say, more than three decades, 35 years. Sarah, that's huge. That's. I learned this early on with my dad that most people don't make it past five years without going back and relapsing. And so that's like a massive feat in and of itself.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, thank you. Yeah. It was a decision that I made. Well, first of all, though, I, I slipped once in 35 years for one night. And it was the night, it was Kevin Meaney's funeral, who I'm sure you knew he was around Boston when you were there.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I think I've interviewed him. One of my all time favorite comedians of all time.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Just a lovely.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Just one of the greatest. So that was. But I quit. My father, it's funny, my father was an alcoholic, but I grew up in New York in an area where all my friends, parents were alcoholics. It's like, it's almost like you find each other like adult children or children of alcoholics, I should say. We were broken toys and we find each other, like through the anger, through the. Maybe there's something in your eyes. And so I never thought it was unusual that there was this much drinking. All my. Not all my relatives, a lot of my relatives also were alcoholics. And so when I got to Boston, somebody brought me to an adult child of alcoholics meeting. And I sat there and I heard people qualify about their lives and the dynamics of what it's like to be codependent and the guilt and the shame and the control. And I just burst out crying the first time I was like, oh my God, this is like, I didn't feel alone. And that led me to quit drinking probably about a year later. And I feel like I owe a lot of the positive things in my life to stopping.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I bet. Well, can you take us back a little bit? Sort of paint a picture around the first time you realized that comedy would be more than just something that you consumed and more something that you could use to navigate the world. Did that come into play?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, the first time I did it, I was actually. It was my senior year of high school and I was all coked up and I'd been drinking, so that kind of didn't count. That was just pure euphoria. I got off stage, I was chopping up lines on the slide at the playground at the school.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Oh my God.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And. And I went up on stage and I started roasting the teachers. And so the principal unplugged my microphone. Cause I was talking about how the Western civ teacher was having an affair with the art teacher. And. And they unplugged my mic and so I just yelled out the rest of my act without a microphone to the auditorium because it was like, it was like a talent night. Everybody else was singing songs and whatever and I got up and did stand up comedy, which, you know, in 1984, it wasn't that much stand up around.

[Lynn Hoffman]

No. What did you decide to do to roast them? Was it a last minute decision or did you know what you were going to do?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I think it's what my father was in radio as Buzz was just talking about, which is very thrilling to hear that. I love when anybody knew my dad because it's. He Died so young that I just. I miss him, and I. I love connections to him. He was. He was only 53 when he died, and I know, and I'm 59, so it's weird. It's weird to live past your parents, that's for sure. And so he was a master of ceremonies for a lot of benefits. He would do beauty contests, award shows, and so he put on his tuxedo, and he'd bring me with him when I was like. You know, I'd be, like 10 years old, and I would watch him go up there, and he had joke jokes, you know, like, street jokes. He had. He would roast, you know, whoever was running the event. He went right after them because he knew that that was going to get the biggest laughs. And. And he told stories about his life a little bit, but it was like, essentially he was doing standup comedy. I mean, you wouldn't have called it that then. You would have called it emceeing a dinner. Yeah, but I think I learned a lot of my style. I have old audio tapes of my dad's radio shows, and I have a video of him hosting one of these dinners, and I go back and I go, holy shit, that's me. That's my. So much of my voice is influenced by how he did it, you know?

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah, yeah. Certainly lead by example. He probably didn't even realize he was leading you by example at that point.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I don't. I don't think so. But we went to the clubs in New York City. My. My whole teen years, we used to sneak into the clubs when I was, like, 16, 17, I'd be at the Comedy Cellar watching Seinfeld and Paul Reiser and Richard Belzer, and we, you know, we used to heckle them. We were like little drunk teenagers heckling the comedians. I'm like, I'm embarrassed when I think back that we were those guys. And what would you do to heckle them? Like, we wouldn't heckle them, but, like, if they did a joke, we would add, like, a tagline to their joke.

[Lynn Hoffman]

That was nice.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, we. That's what we thought. We thought we were helping them, and we thought we were part of the show, and. And then they'd make fun of us, and they'd get big laughs. We felt we were helping them there, too, and. But I realized, looking back that we were probably just really annoying to them.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wow, that's amazing. And your dad also was the host of, I believe, Good Day New York for a while.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, he was the first host of Good Day New York. And he was there for not very long because there was, there was some politics involved. And I, I, I. My mom will tell me a lot of stories about it, but my mom is a storyteller, and I never know what's true and what'. But, but, yeah, he launched it and then. But he mostly did radio. And then he hosted the Jerry Lewis Telethon for, like, 15 years.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I remember.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

That was your dad. That's amazing. Yeah. So people don't always realize that, like, Jerry Lewis would host 45 minutes, and then 15 minutes would be the local stations, whether it was Chicago or Boston. And so he was the New York guy. And he did it with Tony Orlando for years.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wow.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And then he did it with Patty Duke Astin for a long time. And we used to go down every year and we'd volunteer, we'd help out, and it was 36 hours long, and he would go straight through. It was crazy.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I bet. Yeah. From my kid childhood, I would just remember the yelling. Like, Tim Bunny.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

He would scream and they would do the big rollout.

[Lynn Hoffman]

It was amazing.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Yeah. And then Jerry would always sing you'll never walk alone again at the end, which was always funny because these kids couldn't walk.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I know. Everyone's crying, like, does he that. Oh, my God.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right, right.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Well, growing up in Tarry Town, did humor play a role in your family dynamics? Like, was comedy sort of like a shield or maybe a bonding tool or maybe a little bit of both for you?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I mean, it's very much part of the Irish culture is the storytelling. We famously, are just great storytellers. And there's also this. We keep each other in check. If somebody starts to get any kind of an ego, you immediately rip them down again. So our dinner table was a lot of that. It was a lot of. Yeah, we just roasted each other and we told stories from our day. And my father was this bigger than life guy. You know, he really had more charisma, I think, than anybody I've ever met in my life. He was just phenomenal guy. And, you know, he had issues, but at the end of the day, like, we wanted his approval. Making him laugh was a big deal. And my mom had a great sense of humor. So the dinner table felt like the first stage for me, I think, that I performed at, and I kind of shined. I was kind of the funny one at the table. It was like me and my dad kind of. And then my sister was the great laugher of all time, and my brother just kind of listened and Smiled. And he didn't usually add that much.

[Lynn Hoffman]

He just took it all. Was he the youngest?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, he was a year older.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Older, wow. What's your earliest memory of maybe using humor to get out of trouble? Did you ever do that?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, I wrote a book called Dear Mrs. Tales of Redemption from an Irish Mailbox. And it's. I found this box in my. We were going through my aunt's basement in the Bronx, and we found this box that my mom had saved. And it was a collection of all the letters that got sent home from school when I was in trouble. The funniest stories. Like each one of them, you read it and you can be like, I can't believe a teacher would write this and then send it home. It would be telling stories about, you know, how I jumped out of the window of the classroom wearing a cape during French class. And. And so it was kind of showing how the Irish will always buck up against authority. And it was this whole pattern of me acting up in school. And so I. And I would get away with it because my parents would sit at the dinner table and they'd read the letter, and I would sit there not going. Cause I could get hit. I could get slapped for it, or I would get a huge laugh out of it, and it would become like a legendary story they would tell over and over again because they thought it was funny if you got in trouble, but it was funny, then they were behind it.

[Lynn Hoffman]

So it. No, it was. So if it was a good story at Thanksgiving, you were redeemed.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yes. That's hilarious. Yes. Yeah, it was. You know, one of them was about. Greg was in geometry class, and we were teaching positions on fractions. Greg then yelled out, are there any other positions? Is there a 69 position? She literally wrote that out and sent it home. And my parents were dead, dying.

[Lynn Hoffman]

That's awesome.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Well, the premise of this show is called Comedy Saved Me.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Here we go. Now we're gonna get all serious.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I'm gonna get a little serious. Can you. Is there a moment in your life where you can truly say, you know, that without comedy, you might have been stuck in a darker place in life? I mean, that's not too serious, but just sort of in retrospect.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I remember. I mean, I've had a lot of friends die. I've had an unbelievably, like, death filled life. And the Irish wake was always something that put things in perspective and made you think about how life shouldn't be defined by your death. It should Be defined by the people you touched and the laughter that you gave. And so the Irish wake is just your close friends and family getting up and regaling everybody with the great stories of your life and including roasting you, you know, making fun of you and the things that were ridiculous about you. You know, I don't remember that with my father very much, because he was. It was so tragic. But, like, my friend Jerry Red Wilson died, and he was a fellow comic, and we were probably about 29 or something, and he was a school teacher from Queens, grew up poor and stumbled into standup, and he was just like Jackie Gleason. He was just like this presence in the room, and he just immediately had star power. And he got signed to a deal, and he had his own sitcom on cbs, and he flew over to Hawaii to do an episode of Hawaii Five. O had just been brought back, and he was doing an episode, and he caught spinal meningitis and went into a coma and died. And my wife and I were like, you know, closest friends with him and his wife. It was awful. And we had the funeral, and then we were out in Queens at a restaurant, and Jerry's father said to me, would you mind getting up and saying a few words? And he goes and invite any of the other comedians to get up to speak. So I got up and I did 10 or 15 minutes of great Jerry Rudd stories. And the whole everybody at the gathering was Irish, Catholic, New Yorkers, and I'm Talons, and I am. People are just exploding. They needed to laugh so bad. He had just gotten engaged on the Tonight Show. He asked Kathleen to marry him on the Tonight show like, a month before. And so. And then I brought up. I brought up Dave Attell. I brought up Colin Quinn. I brought up. I want to say Jeff Ross was there, and everybody. Everybody just told funny stories. And it went on for, like, an hour, over an hour. And at the end of it, people are wiping tears, and the father said, we need to do this every year. So I started a foundation called the Jerry Red Wilson foundation with his fiance. And we held a show a year later at Caroline's Comedy Club, and all the family, all the friends came out. It sold out so fast that the next year we did it at Town hall, which holds, like, 1600 people. And we invited all his friends and family, and then we had some of the biggest comedians around. Jon Stewart did it, and Jay Leno did it, and everybody knew Jerry and loved him, so they were willing to come on and do the show. And we did it for like 10 years, every year at Town Hall. And we raised hundreds of thousands of dollars that we gave to the Meningitis Foundation. And it was just a way we put together a video compilation reel that we would show at the beginning of the show because some people there didn't know who Jerry was and wanted to keep that. Keep his spirit alive. And, yeah, that was. That was something where laughter did a lot of healing.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah. And I have been to a few Irish wakes, so I know exactly what you're talking about. And I think all funerals should be like that. Celebrations of life.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Yeah. I think you should videotape them. And then you have that to look back on for years. That, to me, is the ultimate scrapbook. And now that's my thing, is that no matter what funeral I go to, people ask me to get up and speak. Like my friend Dave. How. And like, I play poker with a bunch of guys here. I live in Venice beach, and we played for 20 years. And there was one guy in the group, Dave Halanan, who died tragically young as well. He was probably not much older than my dad and with two young kids. And it was the kind of thing where we went to the funeral. And Dave was not one of my best friends. He was like a guy that I knew from poker night. But the wife came up and said, we want you to speak at the funeral. And I was like, what?

[Lynn Hoffman]

No way.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So I had like a couple days. So what I always do is I just talk to the loved ones and the family. I go, what was your favorite Dave story? And I just collect them and I tell them for them because they don't. They are afraid to get up and do it.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And so I told my own stories that I had about them, and then. And then I told other people's. And then afterwards, people just give you this 60 second hug, like, thank you for doing that for all of us.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Greg Fitzsimmons, FUNERAL ROASTER I could see it's a whole business now. You could, you could.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I could see that. I could see that. You know, you're always looking for an angle in this world.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

But that's the best angle of all.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right. And when people have just lost somebody. I've seen this from funeral homes, you can gouge them on the money. I could. I could charge a tremendous amount.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah. Oh, I wasn't even thinking of the money part of it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, no, I'll do. I'll have a website you can book me, give me a couple details, and I'll fly into St. Louis some bullet.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Points of your loved one and I am there. Why you know I'm not.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Unless they were shot. Then don't send bullet points. That would be too dark. Yeah.

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[Lynn Hoffman]

Did to getting laughs throughout your career sort of give you a sense of control or empowerment maybe when things felt overwhelming? What did that feel like to you when you sort of really were winning them over like that? Outside of the funerals, of course. I mean on the, in the comedy.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Shows, like on stage?

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah. Like what, what was it that kept you going back to doing it? That feeling?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I think it is. It is. I think a lot of comedians have social anxiety and I think it's one of those things where you sometimes you take your worst fear and you throw yourself straight at it to prove that you can conquer it. And I mean I don't think many people would think of me as having social anxiety, but I really do. And when I get up on stage I can, I can conquer that. And it makes me feel more in control of my life. And it's very funny because I like this past weekend I was in San Diego and my friend text me, he's like, hey, can you get my friends on the guest list? And I said I don't really do that. I said I don't like people coming to my shows that I know or even know because I just Like a crowd of people that are strangers. And if there's somebody out there that I know, it makes me very uncomfortable. I mean, I can do it, but what I'll do is I'll do, like, two shows a year in LA where I invite all my friends and family to come out, get it over with, and I get it out of the way, get it over with. They're all there at once, and I can deal with it, but I don't like it trickling in constantly because I'm really nervous before I go on. And when I get off, I don't want to talk to anybody. Like, I want to talk to the other comedians because, like, they're my brethren and they're like, they know what I just went through on stage, and I'm not. I don't want my friends. Oh, you know me, my friend, he's a great guy. You'll love. I won't love him. I will not love somebody that just came out of the crowd, because it's not like what I just did with them is a trick. And now they think I'm that guy. They think I'm the guy that's. Hey, you know, like. And I'm not that guy at all. And I never want to be that guy when I'm not on stage. Like, I've grown past that. I'm no longer, like, the funny guy off stage.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Understood.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I'm kind of serious, and that's the place where I can control my. My situation. I don't want to control my life. Like, standard comedy is a very alpha kind of experience, and it forces you to wear a mask as much as you don't want to. I mean, I think the journey of doing standup is to not wear a mask. But you always are, you know, anybody is. I don't. Like, like, like. One of the kind of oddest, sad moments in my life is my son came and saw me for the first time when he was probably about maybe 16 or so. And we were in Denver, and they came out because we're gonna go skiing after my show. So I said to my son, why don't you come see me do a show? Finally, it's time. So my daughter took my wife out to dinner, and my son came to the show and. And I went up and it's one of my favorite clubs, and it was sold out, and I just crushed. You know, he was out there and I wanted to do well. And, I mean, it was just applause breaks throughout and standing ovation. And then we walked out and we Went to get a slice of pizza and he's like, he's looking at me and he's like, dad, that's the hardest I've ever laughed in my life. He's like, that was amazing. Like, how do you think of that stuff? And all of a sudden he was asking me questions the way a fan would after a show. It made me feel like it was corrupting my relationship with him. Because there's a power dynamic when somebody sees you do stand up comedy at a high level and they suddenly put you up on a pedestal and they suddenly don't really understand you. And I never wanted that dynamic in my relationship with my son. I wanted it to be. I'm the guy that played catch with you. I'm the guy that made go karts with you. I'm the guy that you come to and tell me when you're sad, if. If you're looking up to me. It's creating a real distance between us. So what did you tell him? I just was weirded out, you know, I, I answered the questions, but there was nothing I could do. It was like we'd shattered something.

[Lynn Hoffman]

You really.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

That I didn't want shattered. Little bit.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I mean, that just. First of all, the fact that you felt that way is amazing. Most people would say, don't, don't. Don't give away the secret that you're not on this pedestal. But it's such a smart thing to want to instill in your kid that, you know, dad's dad. That's what I do for work.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, yeah, because how could you not.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Fail a little bit? That he laughed so hard, Never laughed so hard in his life. And you're his dad.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Because he already loves me. He already loves me. I don't, I don't want to be that controlling guy when I'm on stage. I'm controlling the crowd. I'm. I'm establishing a power relationship between us that I don't want with him and I don't like it with my friends. I hate when my friends comes to me, do stand up.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Give me one reason for that. Same reason.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Just that I don't want to feel better than them. And when I come off stage, I feel better than every single person in the audience because they did not speak one word for an hour and I talked nonstop and they did nothing but give me adulation and acceptance. And I then walk out. And now I'm going to talk to one of these people like we're equals. And so I don't like that feeling because It's, It's. It's not unique to me. I'm just saying that's the experience of being a standup comic, if being any kind of a celebrity, you know, Like, I always feel for big celebrities because they don't ever know who wants something from them or who is just so blown away that they're famous that they're never going to have an equal kind of an exchange anymore. I have friends that get famous, and I feel it go away. I feel myself getting a little bit different around them than I was before. So I have friends that I grew up with that don't think of me that way at all, because they just don't. The ones that stay, my friends are the ones that don't think of me different. Not that I'm a celebrity, but, like.

[Lynn Hoffman]

They keep you grounded. They, they, they. They're. Yeah, they treat you like a normal human being, not some famous person. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And I do think that's kind of people will say, like, I always make a joke, like, I crawled my way to the middle and I'm staying right there. And this is the sweet spot. And I really do feel like that. I feel like, like my father said to me when I was young, we were talking about, why are some people garbage men and some people are heads of company. He goes, everybody ends up where they want to be. And I think that's a truism. I think that I got to a certain level in this business, and I kind of went. I'm comfortable. You know, I've got a wife who I am not away from 52 weeks a year, which I would be if I was going after this more. I'm not overly obsessed. I've gone to therapy and worked on any narcissistic impulses I have, and it's a battle to not make it all about myself, but it's a battle that I show up for, you know, and I don't. I don't want to be. I go on the road sometimes, and I'll open for Bert Kreischer in an arena with 15,000 people, and he's got a staff of 50 people on the road with him. And, like, that's a nightmare to me. I. I go down to La Jolla with my wife, and we stay in a hotel, and, you know, we go to the beach during the day. And, you know, I show up to the show with no baggage, no assistant, and, you know, and I make a very nice living. And I. I don't really want for anything. I'm able to Be creative without having to deal with being on social media seven hours a day, building up my following. And, like, I kind of ignore social media, and I just do the things that I enjoy doing, and I've been lucky enough that it's all worked out.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah, you are. And it's amazing to me because, first of all, the fact that you suffer from anxiety just blows me away. But yet I understand it because every time I'm about to talk to somebody new, I have a little bit of anxiety as well. I also totally relate to you when you're talking about your friends and people that you know because you don't want to seem like you're better than them just because you're doing something that you love and you're getting the adoration of other people. I totally get where you're coming from.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. I think respect is something that you earn through your character and your loyalty and your generosity and not through how a bunch of other people are seeing me. And you go like. And you see that dynamic, and somehow it affects how you respect that. That's not respect. That's just, like, a curiosity. Yeah. Greg.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I wanted to take everybody with me when I moved to New York to work in television. I wanted to take everybody with me when I got to the radio station. When celebrities would come in or we'd go to concerts, I'd, you know, oh, Lynn needs 16 tickets for all of her friends and their husbands and kids, because I didn't want to experience it alone. I wanted them to have that same experience. But it got old fast, though, because I couldn't take everyone with me.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, well, yeah, I know. And it's. It's hard, too, because, like, if you really want to do your best, you know, I'll get a text if I. If somebody's on my guest list, I'll get a text 10 minutes before I'm about to go on, hey, my name's not on the list, or, hey, I bought somebody extra can. You know, that's. That's not where my head is at right now. I'm trying to get focused. I'm nervous. And, you know, it's just you trying to be a pro, and you're trying to do, you know, the world that you're in. And the world I'm in is extremely competitive.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And if you're not giving it 100%, you're not going to make it. You're not going to keep going. And I see comics that always have friends at their shows and they're drinking during the show. And they. They don't progress. I see a lot of comics that get high before they go on stage, and they just flatline. They never get better. And you guys that show up late for auditions, and they decide. So you. You just didn't get it because you didn't show up on time. Yeah, And I think I learned that from my dad, who was in radio was like, show up on time, be a pro. You know, remember people's names. Just basics that you would need in any business, just because it's show business, especially in standup, where my workplace is a bar where everybody's drinking at night. So it's very easy to slip into being a part of that instead of realizing, no, I'm an employee at this place.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah, so true. And a lot of people would never know that. And it's so nice to hear you say it because, you know, it's important. I don't know. I think, in general, for just understanding people, and especially people who've been through therapy, which you've been open about, and you've talked about mental health, as you've done, even on this podcast. And I'm curious how humor intersects with that journey of yours. I mean, do you. Do you ever use comedy as therapy in and of itself, or do you keep the two of them completely separate?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So, yeah, so I had this amazing therapist, and sometimes I would come in with a full head of steam, and I would have my anecdotes from the week that I wanted to talk about, like, something that happened, and she would go, you're performing right now. And I knew that meant that I wasn't. I had the mask on a little bit. You know, I was. I was controlling my emotions and our interaction by being funny. So not that there's not a place for humor in therapy, but it was a little too pat. She'd call me when it was a little too pat, like, too tied down. And so that was very helpful.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Was it. Was it nerves, too?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I think it was nerves. And, yeah, the fear of having to go to the actual emotions. I mean, I think that my best friend is a guy who is very Irish Catholic. His father and my father grew up in the Bronx together, and our daughters are best friends. So it's three generations of dysfunction, and he. He laughs through. He's. He's a huge comedy writer. We. We're best friends since college, and we both went in different directions, and now we're both, like. We end up working on TV shows together. So we've written on TV shows together, and we didn't help each other get the job. We just ended up on them after 35 years of knowing each other.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wow.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And he can mask anything with comedy. And I have to call him on it sometimes. I think there is a way to use it productively. If it's organic and if it's a moment of discovery and you laugh, that's great. But if it's a moment of presentation, then that's like. I think that a lot of my jokes start with something like I had erectile dysfunction. I did. And I went on stage to laugh right off the. Oh, yeah. I walked on stage and I said I was the middle sex and I had my first bout of erectile dysfunction. And there's nervous laughter. And sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to say next, but I know that if I say it on stage and all these people are looking at me, I'm going to come up with something that's going to relieve the tension and then I do get out of here.

[Lynn Hoffman]

You don't even know what you're going to say next.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Nope. Whoa.

[Lynn Hoffman]

That is risky.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yep. But it brings me back to the kitchen table as a kid where in the moment I have to think of something funny. And if I do, I get a reward, I get my parents acceptance. And so I create that dynamic on stage and then the joke will kind of build from there. And then I'll start writing out the joke once I'm off stage, and then I'll. It's kind of like you. You germinate off stage, you know, writing, and then you bring it on stage and it's sort of like you cook it and it goes back and forth, that process. And so a lot of my jokes are very personal and a lot of them do make people uncomfortable when I first talk about them. I'll talk about abortion or, you know, a racist thought that I had. I'll say it out loud, but then I'll make a joke about it in a way that makes people realize I'm not a racist, but that I had a racist thought. You know, things like that.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So as. But as far as, like therapy, I think that that can be a place that jokes start because it's a place where you are maybe having epiphanies about yourself you wouldn't have had in an. In a place that's not as vulnerable.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah. And vulnerable is definitely the word, and that is dangerous. Like, I give you so much credit that you would actually start a joke on stage that you didn't even Work out and that you would remember it after the show to go back and make it even and, like, massage it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, I videotape everything. I audiotape everything. And I listen to every day. I listen to my show the next day, and I. I. I write down notes on what I did.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wow, that's helpful. I keep going back to the anxiety part, because how many times did you do Joe Rogan? How many times were you on Howard Stern? Like, it's like you're a glutton for punishment then if you have such anxiety. But yet you keep going back to all of these incredibly huge shows with massive audiences and put yourself out there.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Which is amazing to me.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I did. I did Stern like, 50 times, and I've been on Rogan like, 25 times, and it's always like, jumping out of a plane. Wow. It's like, you show up sometimes, you get really nervous. Like Stern. I could never sleep the night before. And I would stay up with all the news biz before the Internet when I started, and I would just get the New York Post in USA Today, and the Daily News, and I would just sit there, and I would write jokes out of the news. I would show. I write out stories from my life, stuff that I talked. I went on Howard Stern one time. I. Literally, for the first time in my life, I shared something with my wife and our good friends at a dinner that I. That I had kept inside that I was embarrassed about and couldn't talk about, and I shared it with them. And then five days later, I was on Howard Stern, and I said it to the world, and it was that when I was in college, I thought about being gay. And so I went into this area of Boston that's. It's the woods, and it's a gay woods. And I went in there to. I don't know how dirty your show is, but.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wait, wait. First of all, I'm from Boston, so I'm trying to figure out where this was.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

The Fenway.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm thinking woods. Like, you went into the forest.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, every city has a small wooded area that they grow just for gay guys to have anonymous sex in.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Okay.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And that's the Fenway right behind Fenway Park. And my apartment was across the street from there.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And. And I told that story about going in there, and I ended up not doing it, but that I went in to do it just to see. And then just to see. And then I met a guy, and he pulled his penis out, and I looked at it. And I was like, nope, not interested. And I knew I wasn't gay.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Check, please.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I just came out of the woods. Yeah. Hey.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Well, you tested it out. That's awesome. I think that is. That was pretty smart, actually.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. It's the thing that I was most remembered for from the Stern show. Every time I went on the show after that, they would tease me about it, and they would bring it up.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wow. You were on Howard 101 as well. I do recall. I was there for two weeks. They put me with Scott Farrell for two weeks.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

And I need a defibrillator in the room. I said, you don't need me. You are like a show on to yourself. Another funny thing that you mentioned, Rogan. I would never be nervous with Rogan because I went to high school with him.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You did? In Newton.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I did. And I worked with his sister. She. She and I were waitresses at Super Salad in Newton.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No way. Yes. Really?

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yes. I watched him flip his car in the front of the high school with my friends in it, and everyone survived. Like, that's how.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

What? Yeah, he flipped his car? Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

He had a really bad accident, and, like, all four wheels were on front of different houses, and the engine came out of the car.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Ye.

[Lynn Hoffman]

And they. Everyone was fine.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, yeah. Really? Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Isn't that crazy?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, my God. That's crazy.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah. I'm so happy for his. All of his incredible success.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

It's pretty amazing stuff. Every time I hear people talk about him, I always get like, this goofy smile, like, I know him.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, that's crazy.

[Lynn Hoffman]

If. Let me ask you, if someone is listening right now that's going through, like, sort of a different tough time. What is one piece of advice that you would give them about using humor as sort of a coping tool that you would want them to know?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, I used to, like, I've had friends going through cancer and, you know, before there was Spotify, I would burn CDs. I collect comedy albums. I've collected them since I was a kid. And I would always put together based on who they were and what their sense of humor was. I would put a playlist together on a CD and burn it to them and send it to them. I think that listening to Stand up is incredibly therapeutic. Watching funny movies, you know, reading a funny book. Read something by Carl Hiason or Kurt Vonnegut and read Confederacy Dunces again. Things that just are going to make you laugh and take your mind out of it are. It's very healing.

[Lynn Hoffman]

It certainly is. Do you remember Bob and Doug McKenzie, of course.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

That was my album that I. In junior high school, I could not get enough of that. And I think.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, the Great White North, I think, was their. Their big album. Yeah. Teach and Chong. I have. I still have their album up in Smoke that has this. The rolling papers on the front of the.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I wasn't even allowed to listen to that. I got caught listening to that album, and I got in trouble.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Yeah, of course. We've come a long way.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Do you think that comedy has the power to heal just as anyone? Or is it more sort of a personal thing? Or does something have to be wired properly to connect with comedy?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I mean, I think, you know, sometimes I see people at comedy shows and I'll stand in the back when the opener is on, and the opener might be killing, and there's still going to be maybe a third of the room is not laughing and a tent of the room isn't even smiling. And you just realize that people process comedy on different ways physically. They just don't have it in them to laugh out loud and. But that doesn't mean, like, those same people will walk out. I was making fun of a lady because I was like, you really don't like me, do you? Because she was sitting right up front. I go, you're just nodding. And I'm thinking in my head, maybe she's, like, uber Catholic or whatever. And then she came out after the show and she goes, I'm so sorry. She goes, I love the show. I have resting bitch face.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I was just gonna ask you. Y was either constipated or had resting face.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And so I think that, like, people can ingest comedy and just not have the same physiological reaction, but it still does something. It still reframes things and sad things in a way that can relieve some pressure from it.

[Lynn Hoffman]

That's for sure. Can you please tell our audience, our amazing audience, where people can find you, where you're going to be, your online presence? Like you. I'm not on social media really at all, but is there a place that people can find Greg Fitzsimmons?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Yeah. If you go to Fitz Dog. Fitz Dog dot com. I've got dates coming up in Denver, Colorado, and Connecticut and Alaska, Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco. That's all before the end of the year.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Wow.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So come on out, Say hi.

[Lynn Hoffman]

All right. And.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And then the podcast is called Fitz Dog Radio.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Yeah. Congratulations on that. You have, like, 2009. Like, you were definitely a pioneer in podcasting.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I mean, because radio. I come from radio and nobody in radio wanted to believe podcasting was going to be anything.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Lynn Hoffman]

And you saw the future of it. And so congratulations on that. That's like what, over a thousand people you've interviewed so far. Which blows me away.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I know.

[Lynn Hoffman]

And all the biggest and best. And they live forever so you can check them out anytime.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. No, it's nice that I have that behind me. And I like to think the way I listen to my dad's tapes, someday my kids will be able to listen to me again.

[Lynn Hoffman]

I hope so. I definitely hope. And you won't. And you won't be upset about it if they laugh?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No. By then I'm gone. They can do whatever they want.

[Lynn Hoffman]

Greg Fitzsimmons, thank you so much for coming on comedy. Save me and keep killing it on stage and making people people laughing and doing what you're doing and enjoy your life. And I'm so happy to have had the chance to talk to you.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

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[Greg Fitzsimmons]

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[Lynn Hoffman]

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[Greg Fitzsimmons]

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[Lynn Hoffman]

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[Greg Fitzsimmons]

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[Lynn Hoffman]

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