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Comedy Saved Me with a Boston Comedy Legend-Tony V
00:21:12
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- [00:00]
Lynn Hoffman
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
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- [01:07]
Lynn Hoffman
Comedy Saved Me.
- [01:08]
Tony V
So I met a lot of these people and, you know, we just accepted each other for the. For the idiots that we were. And it just. I can't tell you. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but it. It really did feel like. Like I was hit by a lightning bolt.
- [01:25]
Lynn Hoffman
I'm Lynn Hoffman, and welcome to another edition of Comedy Saved Me. Now, you may or may not know, but I host another podcast called Music Saved Me, where we uncover the powers of music with artists and musicians. Well, Comedy Saved Me shines a light on the powerful forces behind laughter and comedy. I should also say the healing forces of laughter and comedy. Today, I'm so lucky to be joined by Boston's own comedy legend. Not just Boston, though, nationally. Tony V. Now, Tony started his standup career in the early 80s, and ultimately he would become a veteran of the national comedy circuit. Along with becoming a fixture on network television, spending time in Los Angeles and New York led to appearances on hbo, Showtime, also stints on sitcoms like a little show called Seinfeld and Boston Common. Tony's not just hysterically funny, he's also big on giving back. And he's appeared in countless benefits and fundraisers, giving his time for the American Cancer Society, Children's Hospital, the Boston Food bank, and countless other great organizations. Tony V. Welcome to Comedy Saved Me. It's so great to have you here.
- [02:40]
Tony V
Sweet Lord, I heard that intro. I forgot it was me.
- [02:44]
Lynn Hoffman
Did you like that? It was pretty.
- [02:45]
Tony V
Yeah, that was fantastic. I was thinking as you were saying that I gotta go see this guy. He sounds great.
- [02:52]
Lynn Hoffman
You're so humble. You really are, but that's what makes you so awesome. And again, thank you for doing this with us today, because I know you're a busy guy.
- [03:01]
Tony V
Yes. With no pants on.
- [03:05]
Lynn Hoffman
If people could only see right now, Tony, what was the first moment that you knew you had a deep connection with comedy? I mean, is this going way back now?
- [03:15]
Tony V
Oh, this goes. Yeah, this goes back. You know, I was, you know, part of what you said about the giving back and doing the. The fundraisers and. And. And raising money for charities and stuff goes back to. I started out as a social worker. I was working in the mental health field. And then one night I. I had always enjoyed comedy. And then I went into the old comedy connection back in the day, and I. You know how something hits you and you just go, oh, my God. My home's been here the whole time. This. You know, and I found this. This other group of lunatics who thought, like, I did. You know, I. In my family, I was like, you know, I would. They used to say they found me in the trash because I was not like anybody that they had. I have three siblings, and I was not like any one of them, you know, and then I found this. This motley crew of comedians. I don't know if Star wars is too old of a reference for people, but I don't know if, you know, the cantinas. The cantina scene.
- [04:24]
Lynn Hoffman
Yeah.
- [04:24]
Tony V
And I think the quote is a more wretched hive of villainous scum you'll find nowhere in the universe. And I looked around and I went, oh, my God, this is my tribe. I'm home.
- [04:38]
Lynn Hoffman
You're at the cantina?
- [04:39]
Tony V
Yeah, I'm at the cantina. And everything seems like it's gonna be all right. Yeah.
- [04:45]
Lynn Hoffman
Can you tell us some of those early influences and maybe some of the people who were with you at the cantina that may have helped bring this out within you?
- [04:54]
Tony V
I mean, locally, there was Lenny Clark, and if there was no. If there was no Lenny Clark, there would be no Boston Connor. And then there was a fellow named Barry Crimmins, and then Stephen Wright came from that. From that group. And then I became very good friends with Bobcat Gold Plate, who went on to, you know, great famous, now a director and stuff like that. So I met a lot of these people, and, you know, we just accepted each other for the. For the idiots that we were. And it just. I can't tell you. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but it. It really did feel like. Like I was Hit by a lightning bolt.
- [05:35]
Lynn Hoffman
Really?
- [05:35]
Tony V
You know? Yeah. And. And I. I don't know that I was any good at first. I mean, I. I sucked for a long time finding my void, and these guys stuck with me, and then it all just sort of. It just sort of happened.
- [05:52]
Lynn Hoffman
How did you stay going forward, if you felt like you had a particularly bad night or a bad show?
- [06:00]
Tony V
Every bad show, I would say, if I ever meet any one of the audience members again in my life, I don't want them to just to be their only memory of me, you know, I didn't want to. I didn't want them to go, hey, that's the guy who saw that night. He was all. He. You know, So I just. I just kept at it and, you know, I found a way to make it work. And I. And back then, you could do open mic nights, five, six, eight a week sometime, because it was. It was new and it was fresh Boston. So I would go. I would do multiple shows a night, work and work at my crap, you know, and my comedy is a little bit different. It's not quite as fighting as some of my contemporaries, you know, So I had to find my own. My own way.
- [06:47]
Lynn Hoffman
How would you describe your comedy?
- [06:49]
Tony V
It's, you know, a little slice of life. It's. It, you know, periodically during my show, I'll stop and go, geez, I wish these were jokes.
- [06:58]
Lynn Hoffman
Do you get this reaction?
- [07:00]
Tony V
Yeah, like recently I was just. This is just recent. And just sort of offhandedly I said to somebody, you know, just once in my life, just once, I want my GPS when I arrive somewhere to go, you know, Tony, you were right. And I said it, just not thinking it was funny. And then I was with a couple of people and they started howling, and I go, oh, I guess that's a joke. And that's how I approached it.
- [07:30]
Lynn Hoffman
Do you like making people laugh?
- [07:32]
Tony V
I do. I mean, you know, it's a little bit corny to say it at this point, but, you know, when you hear people laugh, when you can. When you could touch a chord in somebody and hit the note, that's a common. A common experience.
- [07:46]
Lynn Hoffman
Can you expand on that?
- [07:47]
Tony V
Yeah. I can only explain it this way. As my wife, sometimes, you know, when I'm in the doldrums, my wife will. Will look at me and she'll go, you know, there's not many people who get applause at their jobs. Nobody ever comes over to your cubicle and goes, oh, that was a fantastic email. You're killing it. You know, so that immediate gratification for something, for your work means a lot to me.
- [08:18]
Lynn Hoffman
You know, it's interesting that you say that, Tony, that when you're having. You said. When you're sort of in the doldrums or when you're having a down day. Because when you think about comedians, the last thing you think about is that they have a bad day because you think that they're constantly at work trying to find ways to make you laugh. And how would. How could that affect them? So you're real.
- [08:40]
Tony V
Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, we are humans despite it. You know, I get, you know, I'm here in Aruba or I'm getting calls from back home. You know, one of the burners on the stove went out. I got a broken toilet. There's a leak over here, you know, so you still got to live. And every once in a while it hit you like, okay.
- [08:59]
Lynn Hoffman
Medians get aggravated, too.
- [09:01]
Tony V
Yes. It's not all. And it's nothing big. This. This is my lot. Why? I think I'm just going to be annoyed to death. You know what I mean? It's just going to be little things that. That just pick away at me. And they go, what finally. What finally killed Tony? And they'll go die. He couldn't find an elastic band.
- [09:22]
Lynn Hoffman
I'm curious, Tony. We were just talking about a bad day, and you were saying that it brings you a lot of joy to make people laugh. What a lot of comedians have told me through the years, and I've never done an interview show like this with them, but just in passing, running into them through television and jobs that a lot of times there was some kind of really horrible moments in their life that pushed them into comedy or made them see. Like this epiphany you spoke of when you just knew when it hit you. Did anything like that happen to you as a kid or growing up or at any point in your life?
- [10:01]
Tony V
Yeah, I was a middle child.
- [10:03]
Lynn Hoffman
Oh, well, that explains everything.
- [10:04]
Tony V
Yeah, nobody. Nobody paid attention to me at all, you know, and I sought attention. And I had two older siblings and then a younger sibling that was, you know, like five or six years on either side of me, you know, so I was the mistake. And then my sister was the. The try for the girl, which they got thrilled about. I was just sort of, you know, running around going, hey, hey, I'm over here. You know, that kind of thing. So, you know, my parents are great. They had good, long life. My mother lived to be 94.
- [10:37]
Lynn Hoffman
Good for her.
- [10:38]
Tony V
Yeah, obviously. She died in a skateboard accident. She was 94. She'd never been on a skateboard. I guess we could have said something.
- [10:46]
Lynn Hoffman
Oh, my goodness. Well, I don't know if you know, but I do host another podcast called Music Saved Me. Who are some of your favorite artists musically, like comedy that has impacted you during difficult times?
- [10:58]
Tony V
Well, let me say this, and I think this is true for a lot of comedians. If I could have done music, I would abuse it. You know, there was something about me that wanted to perform. I have no musical ability whatsoever. Interesting that being said, you know, music became my religion and then by extension, comedy after that. The first time I, you know, I'm a guy, I rock guy. And Bruce Springsteen is, is responsible for the way I approach my work. I, I, I continue to, to listen to him and be inspired by his work ethic. And that's the kind of thing, the approach I like to take in my world in comedy, you know, that's fascinating.
- [11:47]
Lynn Hoffman
So, so really was music that initially.
- [11:49]
Tony V
Got you, that initially gave me that spark, you know, seeing him, you know, I saw Springsteen perform in Boston to 19 people, and you would have thought he was in an arena.
- [12:03]
Lynn Hoffman
He reads it all on the stage.
- [12:05]
Tony V
Yeah. You know, 219 people at the Cask and Flagon, you know, 16ft from Fenway Park. And I go, oh, my God, this guy, you know, and that stuck me forever.
- [12:17]
Lynn Hoffman
Wow. That's.
- [12:19]
Tony V
Musically, if the young people are listening or whoever's listening in modern age music, there's the Beatles and everyone else. That's just the way life is. You gotta accept that. That. And I hate Billy Joel. Oh, I dislike Billy Joel.
- [12:41]
Lynn Hoffman
Do I dare ask why?
- [12:43]
Tony V
With the. It's a passion that teeters on psychotic. I've never met the man. I just hate. I. His music is insipid. How about that? Okay.
- [12:55]
Lynn Hoffman
The views that are expressed on this show are specifically by the guest.
- [12:59]
Tony V
Yes. You, you. I take nothing away from these. A very famous man. If people seem to. I just do not, that's all.
- [13:08]
Lynn Hoffman
Well, at least you're honest. And that's, that's, you get points for honesty.
- [13:11]
Tony V
Yeah, yeah.
- [13:13]
Lynn Hoffman
Hey, before we move on, I just, for my, my producer Bob, who edits all this together, I wanted to get that question out right for him so that it doesn't go too far. Is laughter the best medicine?
- [13:25]
Tony V
It seems like those epics right up there right now, Pennischilden, I think was pretty good. Listen, without getting too into the weeds here, you know, the world is a bizarre place, and if you don't laugh at it, you. It's gonna suck in. It's gonna. It's gonna eat you up. So I don't think there's anything sacred. There should be nothing that can't be joked about. I'm one of those guys. My influences, comedy, go back to fella by the name of Lenny Bruce and then. I don't know if that will ring, but you should look. Yeah, he basically died so we could do what we're doing. Then George Carlin took up that mantle and then Richard Fryer and it goes that way. And then I give a lot of props to Robert Klein. Bill Burr currently is a big. Is a friend of mine. I actually opened for him at Fenway Park a couple years ago. There's a through line there that, you know, that's my sensibility.
- [14:26]
Lynn Hoffman
Yeah, they broke all the barriers. Well, it's interesting you say that. Do you think because one of my best friends is like that his comedy is like. Everything's funny. There is nothing that can't be funny. You know, even if you do something and then at the bottom, what, Too soon, you know?
- [14:42]
Tony V
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [14:42]
Lynn Hoffman
But do you think that if, if more people had the ability to laugh at themselves that the world would be a better place? I know it's an odd question.
- [14:53]
Tony V
No, no, clearly it's. I mean, listen, none of us asked to be here. It's an absurd. It's an absurd place. You know what I mean? If, if you stop to think about all the tragedy and, and, and bad things in the world, they would just consume you. And you would. You would sit, you know, with just like, you know, like a going through your head. You wouldn't be able to think. Right. So if you don't laugh at it, you know, we get called out a lot from, you know, being morbid about stuff. Listen, when you make fun of someone who died, say, right, and they'll go, oh, too soon as you pointed out, you know, they're no more dead today than they are going to be a hundred years from now. Listen, there's no degrees of death. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Not going to change anything now. I'm not reverence that Reverend about my. My own demise. I. I have one last request and I want my entire funeral procession to drive through a car wash. Are you serious? Yeah. Yes. Why that's funny. You. We've all been in funeral processions, right?
- [16:03]
Lynn Hoffman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [16:04]
Tony V
Every car has to follow the one in front of it, no questions asked.
- [16:09]
Lynn Hoffman
True.
- [16:09]
Tony V
So that by the time car 8 of 10 gets up to the front of the line the hearse will be coming out in summer, grieving. We'll have to look at someone else in a car and go, are we going through a car wash? And then I know one of my friends, though I hope. I hope he pay for the undercarriage treatment.
- [16:27]
Lynn Hoffman
Don't forget the tires. The wheel.
- [16:29]
Tony V
Brake the wheel. Yeah, you got to get some wheel bright on there. Yeah.
- [16:32]
Lynn Hoffman
Tony, what do we do? We have a specific car wash in mind, just in case, you know.
- [16:36]
Tony V
Well, you know, I. I'm. I'm. I'm a monthly member of the executive car wash in and around Boston.
- [16:46]
Lynn Hoffman
Okay.
- [16:47]
Tony V
So they get. If someone's in my car, they can get the wash for free.
- [16:50]
Lynn Hoffman
Oh, my God. Why so prepay?
- [16:52]
Tony V
I'll prepay.
- [16:53]
Lynn Hoffman
Good for you that you do that, though. I do have some friends that do that. I always wondered. I don't. You don't know a lot of people that prepay for car washes?
- [17:00]
Tony V
Yeah, I do. I go. I can go get my car washed four or five times a month if I want.
- [17:06]
Lynn Hoffman
That's great. Do you do it?
- [17:08]
Tony V
20 bucks.
- [17:09]
Lynn Hoffman
Do you. Does it bother you when people try to be funny when they talk to you just because you're a comedian?
- [17:14]
Tony V
No. You know, funny's funny. When people try too hard, I go like, all right, all right, let's fake. Let's dial it back. Let's leave it to the profession. It's simmer down.
- [17:25]
Lynn Hoffman
So you mentioned something, Tony, up in front, that you were a social worker, which I find fascinating because I've met a lot of people who want to give back in society that didn't always start out in the jobs they have. Like, you are a comedian. In 1982, you. Your high pressure job was a caseworker for the Somerville Health Center.
- [17:46]
Tony V
Yeah, I work for the Somerville Cambridge Mental Health Center.
- [17:49]
Lynn Hoffman
There's nothing more giving of yourself in your job.
- [17:53]
Tony V
Especially, you know, it was very stressful because I worked with families and, you know, they were often abused children, and, you know, we had to make decisions to keep kids safe and take them out of the environment we was in. I dealt with some really damaged people, and, you know, that's how it started. I would go to comedy club, you know, when I say it was news, like, six months, the comedy scene when I started. So I would go to relieve that thinking. And as I said, I always enjoyed comedy, you know, and then one day, an NC didn't show up. They asked me to introduce people, and I was hooked.
- [18:29]
Lynn Hoffman
Now, since then, obviously, you were helping people before when you make people left you're helping them whether you did it for that reason or not. Have you always wanted to make people happy or entertain or help people?
- [18:42]
Tony V
Yeah, I think I've always seen the, you know, the downside of the world and if you can, you know, make somebody's way a little bit easier, anyway, I think it's useful and has a purpose. And there's also the dark side of me. I had my moments with partying and, you know, some questionable ways of bribing. So, you know, if I get hit by a truck, I want them to be coming out of Children's hospital benefit. You know, maybe I get some points for that pattern.
- [19:13]
Lynn Hoffman
You've got a lot of points in my book, but not just because you're from Boston. And I'm from Boston, too.
- [19:19]
Tony V
Where did you grow up?
- [19:21]
Lynn Hoffman
My first 10 years was Waltham, Massachusetts, and then Newton until I left town. Newton. And I did a little in Boston because my boyfriend at the time lived right downtown. So I got a little taste of living in the city.
- [19:37]
Tony V
You know, listen, Boston, when you travel, you find this out. Boston goes from Boston into Vermont in the north, and then as far as Rhode island south. So anywhere people gone from Boston, you go, oh, you're from Boston. They go, oh, yeah, Chelmsby. I go, okay, Close enough.
- [19:56]
Lynn Hoffman
Close enough, yeah.
- [19:58]
Tony V
Awesome. Yeah.
- [19:59]
Lynn Hoffman
Well, yeah, you're right. You could be from Springfield and you're still from Boston.
- [20:03]
Tony V
From Boston, yeah. Yeah. What people know.
- [20:06]
Lynn Hoffman
Do you believe comedy has healing powers?
- [20:09]
Tony V
You know, it might be a little bit of a stretch in general, but I also have had people come up to me after shows and go, you know, I was in a really bad mood. For some reason, I decided to come to a comedy show, and I feel much better now. So I think there is something cathartic about comedy. You know, that abandonment of your mental faculties is gotta be good for something else. It's a 45 minute distraction from your terrible life.
- [20:42]
Lynn Hoffman
No. And, you know, it's funny you say that. We just had a neuroscientist on the Music Saved Me podcast, and he literally said that something does happen in your brain with the vibration and rhythm of music. And so all I can think of was maybe comedy and laughter, that. That vibration of laughter or the exhalation of the air. And that may actually be therapeutic.
- [21:09]
Tony V
I mean, it. You know, when you can get somebody to laugh uncontrollably, that's. That's as good as it gets to me. If I can get somebody to. To pass beer to their nose, I think that it's the best thing that can ever happen.
- [21:24]
Lynn Hoffman
Well, Tony, you're really just amazing. And I'm so grateful that I got a chance to take some of your time away from your vacation. Although it's a working vacation because in Aruba they have a club that you perform at. Is that right?
- [21:35]
Tony V
Yes, Aruba Rays Comedy Club. Awesome beach resort. It's a great club and even when I'm not here, it's worth going to. And, you know, I have to get back to smoking a cigar, sitting in the sun.
- [21:50]
Lynn Hoffman
That's right. Can you do a little more of that for me too?
- [21:53]
Tony V
I will do as much of it as needed.
- [21:56]
Lynn Hoffman
Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that.
- [21:57]
Tony V
100%.
- [21:58]
Lynn Hoffman
Work on that tan. Don't forget to flip in 30 minutes. Thanks so much for coming on Comedy. Save me, Tony V. Check him out. He's amazing. And even if you're not in Aruba, because he'll be back up in Boston before you know it. And around the world.
- [22:17]
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- [23:17]
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- [23:46]
Lynn Hoffman
This is an iHeart podcast.