The Great Comedian Paul Mecurio

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Great Comedian Paul Mercurio" Taking a Walk with Buzz Knight – iHeartPodcasts

Episode Information:

• Title: The Great Comedian Paul Mercurio
• Host: Buzz Knight
• Guest: Paul Mercurio
• Release Date: February 21, 2025

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of the "Taking a Walk" podcast, host Buzz Knight delves into a conversation with the acclaimed comedian Paul Mercurio. Known for his Emmy and Peabody awards, Mercurio brings a wealth of experience from his work on prominent shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. Additionally, Mercurio is set to premiere his new Broadway play, Permission to Speak, promising audiences a night of authentic storytelling and humor.

Background on Paul Mercurio

Paul Mercurio is a celebrated figure in the comedy world, recognized for his sharp wit and ability to connect with diverse audiences. His versatility spans various platforms, including television appearances on HBO and Comedy Central specials. Beyond the screen, Mercurio has made significant strides in theater with his upcoming Broadway play, Permission to Speak, showcasing his talent for blending humor with poignant human experiences.

Permission to Speak: From Stand-Up to Broadway

Mercurio discusses the evolution of Permission to Speak, which originated from his stand-up routines. Unlike traditional crowd work—which often relies on superficial interactions about trivial topics like hats—Mercurio sought to create deeper, more meaningful conversations during his performances. This approach allowed him to unearth compelling stories from audience members, transforming these interactions into the foundation of his theater show.

Key Highlights:

• Authentic Conversations: Mercurio emphasizes the importance of genuine dialogue over scripted comedy. "I just started to get these crazy stories from people because I would ask that, you know, you interview people. It's not that first question or the second one, it’s the third, the fourth, the fifth one, where you peel back the onion and you get gold."

• Collaborative Production: The transition to a theater show was a collaborative effort, involving notable contributors like set designer J.J. Settlemeyer and director Frank Oz. Mercurio humorously remarks on working with the legendary director: "He's the original Yoda. Like, he's Yoda. Try being directed by Yoda. He's never wrong."

• Unique Storytelling: Each performance of Permission to Speak is unique, reflecting the diverse stories shared by the audience. Mercurio highlights the spontaneity and unrehearsed nature of each show, ensuring that no two performances are alike.

Engaging Stories and Audience Interaction

Throughout the episode, Buzz and Paul share several memorable anecdotes from Permission to Speak, illustrating the show's dynamic and interactive format.

Notable Stories:

1. Travis and Polio: Mercurio recounts a heartwarming and humorous story of a guest named Travis, who confidently addresses his experience with polio. "I said to him, so if you have polio, can you get aroused? He goes, 'You're damn straight.'" This interaction showcases Mercurio's ability to navigate sensitive topics with grace and humor.

2. Owning a Bowling Alley: Another highlight involves Paul himself sharing his unconventional career path from banking to owning a bowling alley. "I was controller of a bank investment software company. Left that job to buy the bowling alley for $2 with my friend Gary." This story not only adds a personal touch but also underscores the unpredictable nature of life’s journeys.

3. Coming Out Story: A poignant moment features a young gentleman sharing his experience of coming out to his mother. Mercurio juxtaposes fictional dramatizations with real conversations: "He was like, so. So, like, they know. They know that this is a place where you could say what you want."

Impact and Community Reception

Mercurio discusses the positive reception of Permission to Speak, noting support from various communities including the LGBTQ+ and transgender groups. Mental health professionals have also lauded the show for its cathartic value, highlighting its role as a form of group therapy intertwined with comedy.

Key Insights:

• Inclusive Environment: "We're just inclusive. Whatever. We're not forcing it down your throat, but we're not going to, like, shun you."

• Therapeutic Benefits: The show provides a safe space for attendees to share their stories, fostering connections and understanding. "It's supposed to be funny first, and it is, but there's all this other cool stuff coming out of it from it that's like, I'm pretty proud of."

• Community Connection: Mercurio emphasizes the importance of bringing the show to different communities to capture diverse flavors and stories. "Instead of them coming to my show in New York, I'm bringing my show to your house, so to speak."

Notable Quotes

• Paul Mercurio on Authentic Storytelling:
  "[...] it's just having a real conversation. If you say something crazy, I'm going to say, that's crazy."
  [13:41]

• Mercurio on Audience Diversity:
  "We're nameless and faceless and disconnected and divisive, especially now. But if we get together and share stories, we realize we're all in this boat together."
  [07:40]

• Maria Tremarke on Audience Reactions:
  "They really dig that. They really. It's like, it makes it a really personal experience."
  [11:08]

• Mercurio on Community Support:
  "People are connecting with each other in a way that we maybe normally wouldn't."
  [17:09]

Conclusion

The episode "The Great Comedian Paul Mercurio" offers listeners an insightful look into the intersection of comedy, storytelling, and community engagement. Through Permission to Speak, Paul Mercurio not only entertains but also fosters meaningful connections, proving that humor can be a powerful tool for healing and understanding. Whether you're a fan of comedy or simply interested in authentic human stories, this episode provides a rich and engaging listening experience.

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Listen to the Episode: The Great Comedian Paul Mercurio is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss out on this compelling conversation that bridges the worlds of music history and comedy.

Transcript

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke. And I'm Holly Fry. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season, we explore a new theme. From poisoners to art thieves, we uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching. And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Story. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Minnie Driver]

What if you ask two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast. And now Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Listen to Mini questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.

[Paola Pedrosa]

Welcome. My name is Paola Pedrosa, a medium and the host of the Ghost Therapy podcast, where it's not just about connecting with deceased loved ones. It's about learning through them and their new perspective. I think God sent me this gift so I can show it to the world. And most of all, I help people every single day. Listen to the Ghost Therapy podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jess Hilarious]

Yo, what up? It's your girl Jess. Hilarious. And I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian. It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials, because each and every Wednesday, I'm fixing your mess on Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Got problems in your relationship? Come to me. Your best friend acting shady? Come to me. Thought you was the father, but you not come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you. Listen to carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Buzz Knight]

Taking a walk.

[Maria Tremarke]

I, I, I remember saying to somebody, like, in the moment, I was like, you know, when you have a kid, you're supposed to say, it's the best thing that ever happened to you. And I'm like, there are some days you wish your kid would walk into the woods and never come back.

[Buzz Knight]

Welcome to another episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. The podcast where Buzz Knight Speaks to musicians, insiders. And today, a slight detour with a great comedian on the podcast. Because if you love music, there's a good chance you love comedy as well. Today, our returning guest to the show, comedian Paul Mercurio. Paul is an Emmy and Peabody award winning comedian who currently works on the Late show with Stephen Colbert and appears regularly on that show. He's worked on the Daily show and the Colbert Report and has been seen in his series on HBO and Comedy Central specials. He also has a new Broadway play called Permission to Speak and he's going to talk about that at a theater near you soon. Here's Buzz and Paul Mercurio on the Taking a Walk podcast, welcoming a returning.

[Paul Mercurio]

Guest to the Take Out a Walk podcast. Hello, Paul Mercurio.

[Maria Tremarke]

Hey, Buzz Knight. How are you, buddy? Good to see you again.

[Paul Mercurio]

It's great to see you again. Last time I saw you, we were, I think, huddled in a corner, looking like maybe a couple of winos around the corner from the Colbert Theater.

[Maria Tremarke]

Yeah, yeah, we picked up a few shekels from that. People were throwing, throwing money into our hat. We weren't even asking. It was just, we looked, we were like, yeah, we were huddled together. Yeah. No, it was a lot of fun. That was a great. It's a great time walking around and talking. It was great.

[Paul Mercurio]

I loved every bit of it. So I did want to ask you. So since the podcast is called Taking, if you, Paul Mercurio could take a walk with anybody, living or dead, who would it be and where would you take a walk with him?

[Maria Tremarke]

I think Winston Churchill and I probably take a walk with him through London and ask him to explain to me, like, what it was like at the height of the bombing and then how much he liked to drink. What, he liked to drink his cigars, get drunk with him, have him tell really great Hitler stories. I think it would be hilarious. Come on. Who doesn't like a good Hitler joke? Right? And come on. Always funny. Anything about the mustache, the whole, like, whatever. Because there was like the very important, like, Hitler, but then there was like, Daisy was tired. It was just like the lazy thing. Like, yeah, whatever. It was sort of like the, yeah, whatever salute, like, where it's like, ah, you know, like, so you could tell, like, he wasn't dialed in on those days. And I always thought the troops saw that and they go like, well, if Hitler can't do Hitler, why would I do the Hitler? Then they all just laid back and that's how they lost the war. They lost the war because of that if he had just kept it strong, they would have won. Anyway, I'm rambling. I would say Winston Churchill would be awesome. And because, God, like, you know, that guy's got stories, you know? Yeah. Come on. He had to go here and there. Just a couple. He's with the Churchill. He's a man. He has needs, you know. Oh, man, I love it.

[Paul Mercurio]

Now, I have a deeper question. Knowing your 96 year old mom as you do.

[Maria Tremarke]

Yeah.

[Paul Mercurio]

And thinking about Winston Churchill as you've just described, how do you think those two would get along?

[Maria Tremarke]

Oh, my God. Churchill would rather hang out with Hitler than my mother. It's like brutal. She can't. She would just totally dominate the conversation. She just. She's like. She's nine. She's 96. She won't stop. We trying to get. We just got her to retire. She's mad. She's retired. She had furniture business she started in 1960 on her own with my father in a tenement house in Providence, Rhode Island. And. And I said, ma, you retired. I don't want to retire. What am I going to do? I'm like, take trips. We'll go to the senior center. She goes, I'm not going to go there. Those people are old. I'm like, you're old. You're 96. What, are you gonna go scuba diving with Matthew McConaughey? You're old, okay? You start stripping at a club like you're old. And so she won't, you know, she won't, like, she just won't stop. She's like, insane. See? And so, you know, I had to have her car fumigated because she went shopping for food. She was having some of her friends over, and then she bought some cheese. Then she was on the way home from the market. She stops at Target. It was in the summer. And then the car just stunk. I go, what happened? She goes, well, I went into the store, so I locked the car and I hid the cheese under the front seat of the car. And she forgot the cheese was there. And it sat there for two days. And so when I said to her, why did you put the cheese under the front seat of the car? And I'm quoting now, she said, oh, I didn't want people to steal the cheese. I'm like, okay, what. What are we doing here? What, is there a Gouda thief running around New England that I'm not aware of? Like, so I think he would. He would literally go like, can I go back to the war? Wisconsin should be like, talk to my mother. I'd like to go back to the war. Can I go back?

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah. Give. Give our love to your mom, would you, please?

[Maria Tremarke]

I will. I will. She's. She's all right. She's hanging in there.

[Paul Mercurio]

Good, good, good. Well, I think when I saw you and we recorded the previous episode, you. You were in the beginning stages, if I'm not mistaken, of the creation of permission to speak.

[Maria Tremarke]

Am I right about that? Yeah. It was a show we ended up doing off Broadway and Broadway, and it was born out of my standup, where I like to talk to audiences. And some people call it crowd work, but it became more than that. Like, crowd work is like, I'm gonna talk to you about your hat. I don't really care about your hat. I'm just gonna talk to you about your hat because. Have a joke about a hat. And I want to make it look like I did it off the top of my head. So I create this artifice, but it's not a real conversation that the comic really cares about. This is not that. This is, like. I just started to get these crazy stories from people because I would ask that, you know, you interview people. It's not that first question or the second one. It's the third, the fourth, the fifth one, where you peel back the onion and you get gold. And that's what started happening. And then some producers saw me doing it. We turned it into a. A theater show with a set designed by the set designer for the Late Show, Stephen Colbert, where I work. And we have animation in a. In a screen that we're projecting into by J.J. settlemeyer, who did Beavis and Butthead and all the SNL TV finance videos. And my director is the great Frank Oz, who created the Muppets and is the director of Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, was Bow Finger. And then he's also the original Yoda. Like, he's Yoda. Try being directed by Yoda. He's never wrong. And he never stops. He never stops with the backwards talking. Like, you go out to dinner with him. Steak, I will have. I get it, Frank. You're Yoda. Take your hand out of my ass and let's eat. Okay? I'm not a puppet. Can we focus? Please focus. So we. And it just became, you know, you're a creative person. The best stuff happens when you don't plan it. And what happened was it just organically started to take on a life of its own where I would talk to more and more People and the producers saw me doing this and they said, we think there's a show in this. And so the premise of the show is we're nameless and faceless and disconnected and divisive, especially now. But if we get together and share stories, we realize we're all in this boat together. We're all living screwed up lives. We have more in common than we think. And maybe we don't have to be so divisive and have to beat each other's throat. And maybe we make connections with each other that we wouldn't ordinarily make through comedy and these stories. And I'm doing a lot of my standup and my own stories, but then I'm just bringing audience members into these conversations and it's been absolutely hilarious and crazy and like, just lots of like, I can't believe I just heard that moments and stuff. It's really been great.

[Paul Mercurio]

And it's coming to the United theater in Westerly, Rhode island on March 8th. So folks can get tickets, I'm sure, at the theater, but also I'm sure through the other ticket services and everything.

[Maria Tremarke]

Yeah, through UnitedTheater.org or my website, PaulMeCurio.com but, but yeah, it's. It's literally stories where you go, if we were writers in a writer's room, people, we'd be like, tear it up. Because people wouldn't believe that story. And they're, they're all real. And that's what's really interesting. We, we live fascinating lives. This is a place for people to kind of say what they want to say. Don't worry about political correctness. Nobody's judging you. And I find that one of the things I say in the show is some people, everybody has a story. Some people want to tell their story, and some people need to tell their story. I think a lot of people feel unheard. Not a political show, but like just a place for people to hang out and have some laughs and share some stories, you know?

[Paul Mercurio]

And the cool thing about it is no two of these shows that you do are alike.

[Maria Tremarke]

Exactly. Yeah. There'll be like, I'm always doing different material. And the audience, I say to the audience, this is our show. No one else will have this show because we're never going to be together again. And they really dig that. They really. It's like, it makes it a really personal experience. And then, you know, we get some real characters in the show, too. It's been incredible.

[Paul Mercurio]

Well, here's what I love about this moment. So I'm Going to act like, you know, some big shot that's hosting something on, you know, cable. And I'm going to be able to say, well, Paul, do you have a clip that you can maybe share with us?

[Maria Tremarke]

Let's pretend you're Johnny Carson and we're setting up a clip, and then I'll. I'll be the guest. So go ahead. Okay, go ahead.

[Paul Mercurio]

So, Paul, what's the show like?

[Maria Tremarke]

Do you.

[Paul Mercurio]

Can you share maybe a clip with us? That was terrible. Oh, yeah, that was really horrible.

[Maria Tremarke]

No, and then. And I'm the guess. And I go, I don't know if I don't think we have a clip. Do we have a clip? Oh, that's that. And then you see Johnny, like, eyes burnt like they want it. Like, like. No, like the guy does that. The actor doesn't know or doesn't know what the clip's about. Yes, we. We got a really cool clip here of this guy's name is Travis, but Travis has polio. Now, I like to talk to people who I think a lot of people don't talk to. I saw this guy with these crutches. You could tell it was a condition. He wasn't. He didn't, like, break his ankle. It wasn't those kind of crutches. So I. I like to talk to those people because a lot of people don't because they're worried about they're going to say something wrong, so they don't talk to them at all. And they marginalize them, and that's worse. So I just talk to them like they're regular people. So I bring him on stage and you'll see he's like a real strapping guy. And. And he's young and he's got a kid and he has polio. And I never remember with polio. And I said to him, you didn't see this in the clip, but I did say to him, so if you have polio, can you get aroused? He goes, you're damn straight. So he's very proud of that. And then the other one was, how do you explain polio to your kid? And that's what he tells us in this clip, how he did it. Travis, how are you? What do we got here? What's the issue?

[Jess Hilarious]

Polio?

[Maria Tremarke]

Oh, yeah, My kids are younger. I would go to the school plays.

[Jess Hilarious]

Obviously kids would be like, hey, is that your dad? Is he RoboCop?

[Maria Tremarke]

Blah, blah, blah.

[Jess Hilarious]

I would tell the kids, hey, I'm from Vietnam.

[Maria Tremarke]

That's how I got hurt. They were like, really? You were In Vietnam.

[Jess Hilarious]

And I was like, yeah, it was a joke.

[Maria Tremarke]

But my daughter's 18 now, and a.

[Jess Hilarious]

Few months ago, she was like, daddy, were you really in Vietnam?

[Maria Tremarke]

I was like, oh, I forgot.

[Jess Hilarious]

I told that.

[Maria Tremarke]

Like, I told everybody that you were like six. I just never. I never fixed it.

[Paul Mercurio]

So how do you get this out of people, Paul?

[Maria Tremarke]

You know, people have asked me that. I think. I don't know. It's not. I'm. I'm just asking questions. I think, you know, for Frank, like in that clip, what Frank Oz likes about it is I'm very direct, but being offensive, like, because Frank always lasts, because I say to the guy, what's the issue here? Like, well, I don't know. What? Like, I don't know. You got crutches and there's something going on. I don't know how to say it. I do think that they know that I'm not going to make fun of them. I do think that they instinctively, intuitively, audiences are very smart and they can pick up on and smell like, a mile away if somebody's a good person or not. I think they know that I just. I'm not. Not going to make fun of. I'm not going to be a Kumbaya guy either. It's just like we're just having a real conversation. If you say something crazy, I'm going to say, that's crazy. But I. I would never think to say that I got injured in Vietnam and then forget to tell your kid. And he was the star of the night. So this is the other thing that's happening is people are connecting with each other. So they're going up to these strangers and saying, oh, I love that story. And I never met anybody with polio. I'm good for you. And, you know, and so a cool thing is happening where we're getting out of our own shell and we're connecting with each other in a way that we maybe normally wouldn't, you know. And he was the star of the night. He was so funny. He was. He was the best.

[Paul Mercurio]

So is there a star every night? Like, for example, the. The bowling alley guy? I mean, that. That guy's a star.

[Maria Tremarke]

This guy, absolutely. So this guy. The other thing, the reason we take it around the country, this show that you're seeing this clip from, is in Chicago. So we want to take it around the country to get a flavor of communities. Instead of them coming to my show in New York, I'm bringing my show to your house, so to speak. So it is a perfect example you'll hear when I say to this guy, what do you do? He mentions he owns a bowling alley. And the place goes crazy. And you can see I'm like a deer in the headlights because I have never heard of this bowling alley before. But it's like the coolest, most popular bowling alley in Chicago. And then it goes from there. Check it out.

[Paul Mercurio]

I own Diversity Rock and Bowl. I was controller of a bank investment software company. Left that job to buy the bowling knife for $2 with my friend Gary.

[Maria Tremarke]

Well, you needed a friend. Cause you didn't have $2. Well, he still owes.

[Paul Mercurio]

He still owes me a buck, though.

[Maria Tremarke]

Gary. He still owes you a buck? Gary, I got a great deal, but I only have a dollar on me. Come on, man. I can't. All right, okay, let me call somebody else. Wait.

[Paul Mercurio]

Incredible. My God. Did you go to the bowling alley?

[Maria Tremarke]

I got to think, you know, he did. I went and I had drinks. And then. And then a follow up to that. I just love that he needed a friend to help him with $2 to buy the bowl. Like, it's like, really? You can't. So what I'm doing is I'm. I'm doing my own comedy and stuff in it, but I'm also just grabbing what people say and then making comedy out of it in the moment. I'm just improvising with it. And then a follow up to that with him was like, so what's the craziest? Because I've been to Bowling alley, especially, like, younger, and I've gotten drunk, gotten thrown out, done stupid things, thrown bottles, whatever. So I knew that. I go, what's the craziest thing that's happened to bowling? He goes, oh. He goes, oh. Oh. We had these Northwestern grads. They're all so smart, right? Yeah. I caught two of them. They were screwing on lane 36. I go, right there. Goes, yeah, right on the table. And I go, what did you do? He goes, I threw him out. I go, did you clean the table with that shoe disinfectant? He goes, hell no. I just rented the room to another. The voice is going crazy, like, oh, my God. So.

[Paul Mercurio]

And that disinfectant is the worst smelling disinfectant.

[Maria Tremarke]

I said to him, you guys, you don't even try with that disinfectant. You kind of spray it. It doesn't do anything. I said, I've got eight layers of athletes foot from your bowling alley industry. I'm suing you. Oh, man. But what ends up happening is it ends up very quickly feeling like you're hanging out in somebody's big basement, having drinks and telling stories, because then they'll start yelling out to each other and saying stuff. And like. And so, you know, it just becomes like a thing of its own. Like, you know, like, I. A lot of times we'll talk about kids. And like, I. I remember saying to somebody, like, in the moment, I was like, you know, when you have a kid, you're supposed to say, it's the best thing that ever happened to you. And I'm like, there are some days you wish your kid would walk into the woods and never come back. You really, like, you know, because you. Right. Anybody listening? Anybody watching? You love your kids. But. Yeah, you know, so. So, like, my son had a baseball tournament, and it was three days, father son bonding weekend. My wife's like, you should go, just the two of you. And at the end of the weekend, it hit me. I don't really care for the kid. I got to be honest with you, as a very. Well, they're very needy. And it's there. It's all about them. Like, it's. We work hard. It's our weekend too, right? And first of all, you put them in it. You put a kid like 7, 8 years old in a hotel, he wants a grilled cheese sandwich. It's $17 for a grilled cheese sandwich with a shriveled up pickle and no French fries. Then they burn, like, one corner of it and a little baby can't eat it. So you get another thing. I'm like $34 into bread and cheese. I got nothing to show for it. And then I want to go to a strip club. And he starts complaining, daddy, the lady on the pole scares me. This Jack Daniels is burning my throat. Come on. Really? Really? I kind of get to say what I want to say in my show. And people go, yeah, I kind of feel that way too. And I'm glad you're saying it, so.

[Paul Mercurio]

Oh, it's brilliant. You can't make this stuff up. And. And that's what I love about the show. Permission to speak. It's not. All of this is real authentic. I mean, you really run the gamut. Just like the last clip. Would you set up the last clip?

[Maria Tremarke]

Yeah. So this last one, somebody who is gay, young gentleman. And, you know, I just asked him what it was like to come out. What does it come out? And because I'm not gay, I don't have a lot of friends in that. In that world, but whatever, I don't know. I just ask Questions like, what is it? Like, what is it like to keep that a secret, you know, and not come. So I just simply asked him, like, how was it coming out to your mom? And what did she say? And this is what happened. I was a pretty gay little boy. How did you react when he told you? The first thing she said was, why.

[Paul Mercurio]

Are you telling me at 10:30 at night? Man, you have an incredible. You have an incredible knack. You really do. You make everyone feel comfortable, yet you're there, ready to pounce.

[Maria Tremarke]

I think so, yeah. I mean, I have been getting that, and it's nice for people to say, but that clip I like, because if we were writers on a movie or in a TV show, we had to write a scene about a kid coming out to his mom. We'd write it like, he's got angst. And then she says it and she cries, and they hug each other, and I understand, and I love you, but that's a lot of time. Not how real people talk, because they don't have the time. She basically was saying to him, I've known you since you came out of my womb. I knew you were gay before you knew you were gay. I'm your mother. Can we move on? I have a big meeting. I don't give a crap if you're gay or not. I got to do well in this meeting. Like, that's how real people talk.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah.

[Maria Tremarke]

And some. And I work in this. Worked in this business as a writer. Sometimes I think in writing fiction, you lose sight of how real people talk. And that's why I really love the clip. Plus, it's hilarious. And plus, for him to say, I was always a pretty gay little boy was like, so. So, like, they know. They know that this is. This is a place where you could say what you want. And our. Our show has been getting, like, a lot of support from the gay community, transgender community, because, like, we're just inclusive. Whatever. We're not forcing it down your throat, but we're not going to, like, shun you. And. And people are also saying it's like a big group therapy session. That's fine. And so there's some mental health professionals that have kind of caught wind of the show and. And are driving people to come to the show because they feel like it's cathartic for people. So it's kind of. It's supposed to be funny first, and it is, but there's all this other cool stuff coming out of it from it that's like, I'm pretty proud of and we didn't expect and and Frank Oz is really feel strongly we need a show like this now given how crazy things are in the world.

[Paul Mercurio]

So you're putting good energy into the world always. Paul Mercurio.

[Maria Tremarke]

Really appreciate it.

[Paul Mercurio]

Check out Permission to Speak. It's going to be March 8th, the United Theater, Westerly, Rhode Island. And then in addition, it'll be out in many places. Go to paulmicurio.com to keep up on that.

[Maria Tremarke]

Yeah, March 29th we're going to be at City Winery in Philadelphia and we have other dates. So if you go to paulmicurio.com, you can see where it's going to be. And follow me at Paul Mercurio 1R and my last name if you do 2 is an Australian actor who's annoying and has the same spelling. I had to change the spelling of my name because of him. So it's Paul Mercurio whenever my last name. But it's on my website so I'd love people to come see it sometime.

[Paul Mercurio]

You're the best. Thanks for being a returning guest on Taking a walk. Paul McCarthy Mercurio.

[Maria Tremarke]

Hey, buddy. Good to be with you again. We gotta hang out like panhandlers again in the city. That'll be fun. I'll do it in Boston with you this time.

[Paul Mercurio]

Let's do it.

[Buzz Knight]

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke. And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season we explore a new theme. From poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching. And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Paola Pedrosa]

Welcome. My name is Paola Pedrosa, a medium and the host of the Ghost Therapy podcast, where it's not just about connecting with deceased loved ones. It's about learning through them and their new perspective. I think God sent me this gift so I can show it to the world. And most of all, I help people every single day. Listen to the Ghost Therapy podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jess Hilarious]

Yo, what up? It's your girl Jess. Hilarious. And I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian. It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials. Because each and every Wednesday, I'm fixing your mess on Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Got problems in your relationship? Come to me. Your best friend acting shady? Come to me. Thought you was the father but you not come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you. Listen to carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Minnie Driver]

What if you ask two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, and now Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Listen to mini questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.