Films To Be Buried With with Brett GoldsteinSam Morril • Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein #308
LOOK OUT! It’s only Films To Be Buried With!
Join your host Brett Goldstein as he talks life, death, love and the universe with the very funny comic SAM MORRIL!
Sam's new special 'You've Changed' is up and around as you read this (links below!) and you'd be well advised to check that out at your next convenience. You may have heard him on a multitude of podcasts (including his own of course), or seen his standup already or if you're lucky, peeped his morning radio/tv spots (where he has a wonderful time, often to the chagrine of the hosts), and on this episode here you'll be treated to some proper goodness and fun including film noir love, in depth comedy process chat, acting, the bank heist analogy of the morning radio bits, and so much more. Go in!
Look out.
It's only films to be buried with. Hello, and welcome to films to be buried with. My name is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian and actor, a writer, a director, a wire and I love films.
As C. S.
Lewis once said, friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another, what you too? I thought that no one but myself loved the film Old Wow, that's so cool. Every week I'm a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films that meant that most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Amber Ruffin, Mark Frost, Sharon Stone, and even Bed Ambles. But this week it is the excellent New York comic mister Sam Merrill. Head over to the Patreon at patroon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get an extra fifteen to twenty minutes of extra stuff with Sam, including a secret. You also get the whole episode uncut Adfrey and does a video. Check it out over at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein. So Sammaril. Samaril is a brilliant comic and his new special Samaril You've Changed is now available on Amazon Prime and you can see him on tour and get tickets at Sammuril dot com. He's so great and we recorded this on Zoom a few weeks ago. It was lovely to hang out with him, and I really think you're gonna love this one. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy episode three hundred and eight of Films to be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein, and I am joined today by an actor.
A writer, a joker, a on the roof of a stra a four time special if not five, a hero six, a hero, a leed, a podcaster, a drinker, a therapist, and one of the all time great stand ups working today.
He's here. I can't believe it, can you? Well he is.
He's also the very best at doing morning shows. Please welcome. He's alive and well.
It's a thank you man. Good to see you.
Oh, nice to see you. How are you?
I'm good man? How you doing?
I'm all right. This is the second time we've met in real life?
Is it I met you in California, I think once. So we're both far away from home. Yeah, the improv. The improv in LA and you're in New Yorker til you die. Oh yeah, you don't live in LA. I have to Oh no, they got you. Yeah, they got to me. They got to me. But everyone knows New York's better.
Oh I love it. I love it.
Everyone knows that.
You guys about saying, yeah, my mom's happy. I'm on this part. My mom.
I told her, She's like, what are you doing for press for the special? And I said, I said, I'm doing Brette. She's like from ted Lasso, And I said, yeah, she goes. I love Roy Kent, He's my favorite.
Well do, said my love. Wow, I've seen your special. Do you know that I've seen a sneak preview?
I didn't know. I assume whenever they send it that no one watches it.
Oh no, I wish I'm a fan.
Man.
I loved it.
It was really great, and I also thought it looked really cool, like some specialist look ship. You as looked really cool. I thought everything like. I liked the vibe of it. It was yeah, like Peace put a.
Lot of work and the making it look right. Because uh, yeah, this set. The set designers incredible. I just said, make it look like a forties film in the war, and he sent me a picture of Maltese falcon.
I was like, boom, got it. One one, one take. We got it. So he's good.
It's so great.
And uh and I've been touring with Brian who you tour with, and there's a story about Brian and your specialists, not just a story.
He's my closer, so he's our he's our body Brian, he tour managers, both of us. We have the same tour manager. And I feel now like I don't want to lose him because I like him so much, and I know he goes out with you and Anthony Jesselnick.
So I sent him. I'm like, I sent him a text other day.
I said, hey, man, can I reserve you away from Bread and Anthony for like January February next year And he's like, we'll make it work.
I need that guy.
I need that guy.
We all need that guy. I have a theory that that guy is Batman because he's sneaky. He's sneaky and he can do anything, but he's.
Also sneaky kind of ripped like we played basketball together and I'm like, damn, he's kind of aggressive on defense.
I could see him being a sneaky, like tough guy.
I think, yeah, he'd kill you.
I think he fights crime when he's not on tour, and sometimes I think he only agrees to do certain cities because he's like, yeah, here, there's in trouble in Minnesota.
Yeah you know what I mean, Yes, he comes and takes care of it.
Now you tell for the people in England that listen to this, who might not know you, and they'd be fools, but they might not. You're a proper, proper stand and what I liked when I met you, you were like, yeah, that's my thing. Like it didn't seem like you're doing this to do other things. It's like you've just fucking loved stand up.
Yeah, I mean this is I didn't start this to be like an actor or you know, I would really only want to act and stuff that I wrote. I had no interest in auditioning and ever it was. It was something that was just tedious to me. I didn't I didn't enjoy the process of it. I think you got to learn to love that if you're an actor. So no, stand up was what was what I liked, Like, I didn't mind that type of humiliation. You need some type of humiliation if you're going to pursue this right and the bombing didn't you just learn and not let it bother you. And if you keep writing a new hour every couple of years, you're gonna bomb. It's just part of what this is. You have to So I was okay with that type of humiliation.
What happens in your head when you're when you're dying on the stage, Like are you just thinking you guys are idiots?
Where you're like, oh, fuck, this is really bad?
Like no, I don't.
I guess it depends where I'm at with the hour of material, Like if it's honed to the point that I feel like it's pretty much ready, I'm like, what the hell not you guys are idiots, But like, what the hell is wrong? It's almost like I have a healthy enough self esteem. It's like you're on a date and you just have nothing in common with the person. I'm not like she's an idiot. I'm just kind of like, well, why isn't this working? You know, like what's going on? I think she's cool. I think I'm cool, it's not. I don't have as low as self esteem. But then when you're doing the new material, Yeah, I do think it's all me for sure, because if it's not working, it's not working. And you know how it goes. Working on new stuff. Sometimes you'll get it to kill in one room. I'll be the comedy sell. There's three different rooms. Maybe I'm doing three sets in the night and upstairs it kills, and I take it downstairs and I have the confidence of knowing it just worked. I take it literally forty feet downstairs. There shouldn't be a big difference. I'm like, this fucking killed on the second floor. This is bombing in the basement, you know what I mean? Like, what the hell?
What's different? What happened?
It's just different people attitude that something else.
It's true, though, there's something about like maybe then the third set, it kills my confidence because it doesn't work. Confidence is if you don't believe in it, they can smell it. And how are you going to believe in something you've never said before? Really it's bullshit and stand ups need to be kind of honest, and they can smell bullshit on you.
Yeah, and there's also, I don't know if you have this. When I have new material, gigs like my favorite gig to do because it's exciting, But when it's bad, I feel like, oh, yeah, I'm a terrible person because that thought I had that you didn't like must mean I'm scum.
I felt that way a lot early on because I would be doing jokes that I you know, when you're an open mic or you're you're saying provocative stuff to get a reaction because they're not listening to you, And then you're doing those jokes for non comics, just normal regular people, and not only are they not laughing, but they're like, this guy's a jerk, this guy sucks. So they not only aren't laughing, but they think you're a bad human. So the new material ones don't. They don't bother me as much because if I get anything, I'm happy. I'm like, all right, if I got one line I didn't have before, I really look at it like lane bricks, Like I'll have a joke that's a chunk, that's you know, maybe six seven minutes sometimes, but I got it often one line at a time. That means each show, if I had a line, I'm like Okay, that's another line.
Yeah, that's good.
And so when you have your new show and you tour it, are you building the other show in the background, the next show, or do you start from zero at the end of the tour.
I try, but it's it's really hard to not put everything into the current hour. You feel like you're a fraud, Like you feel like you're cheating the current hour if you're working.
On the new one. You know.
So I try, and I would do like ten minutes a new but all the new stuff that's killing I end up working into his story.
Ors. I'm terrible at it. And I do love the process. I really love it.
But in like some sick way, I do love the process of just having nothing. And it's like you feel like you're going into a bar fight and everyone's got a weapon and you've just got your bare hands and you're.
Going to get the crap kicked at of you.
But but if you put up a fight, you're like, all right, I'm surviving.
I built it from scratch.
There's something weirdly noble about it, even though it makes no sense why I feel that way.
Do you have any idea?
I mean, I totally obviously I get all of this and sometimes someone someone said to me that they are doing that. You know, some people say on stand up so brain and I was like, well, I think you probably have to be. There's probably some level of being a masochist about it because it is awful.
It's bad, yeah, truly horrendous.
Yeah, I guess, but everyone has that, as I said earlier, like that form of humiliation you're comfortable with. And if you're an actor, I think you have it. If you're a musician, you think you have it. Like everyone has their version of a bomb. I guess a stand up bomb is just the silence feels a bit louder because because a musician, they can be talking to you said exactly, because if you don't get every line you want, you're like, what the hell's wrong with them? And a musician can perform and maybe they're talking a bit during your set.
You're not.
And I'm sure they're aware of it as well. But that's why comedians are so annoying. I mean, we're so like, wait, wait, they didn't fucking laugh at that one line. It was one line, but we're like, what the hell's wrong with them? And you see it in conversation, like comedians can be the neediest people because.
And it's weird.
There's a combination of like comedians being needy but also socially awkward, you know, but also like there's just like a lot of Communians I know who are very autistic, and so there's this.
So I have comedian friends.
One of my good friends is very autistic, and I'll tell them a joke and he'll just stare at me. And it doesn't mean that he doesn't think it's funny, but that's how he processes stuff. But oh my god, I never run jokes by him ever anymore. It's brutal. I don't need to feel this. I don't need to feel this bomb. But then that's me being needy. So I think you see all these it's a blend of these weird personalities I think in common and uh, you got to find the you.
Know, the ones that you match with, the ones you work with.
Stand up unlike drama, unlike even doing sitcoms, like stand up is literally feedback. It's constant feedback. It's like the sound they are making is like a beat, big, good, good, good, good good. And if it's a heartbeat, yeah, and if the sound guy's away. It's like bad, bad, bad like it is. So I wonder if getting used to that is what makes comedians needy and like life is like.
Is this good? Is this? Is this interaction good?
Is this exactly? That's a that's a great point.
And also the fact that we never feel fully accepted, Like I feel like the dramatic actors in a way look down upon us. I heard Jim Jefferies once say this, he says to me once, he said that comedians like there's no comedy Award the Oscars.
They get us to host it. It's like we're constantly.
And then half the time they bomb, so we're like we get no validation.
Yeah, and then up.
You're up there kind of trying to prove yourself to the dramatic people.
So it's a great point.
And I do feel like they get to kind of be the cool kids, and there's something about comedians that's like that is a little more.
I did it.
I did a bit part in The Joker, and I remember I remember walking Phoenix was talking to me in between sets. He was very nice and he's obviously incredible in that movie. But he made a comment about my stand up because I'm doing stand up and I was doing a different set every take, you know, every every take it was you know, extra, So I'm like, I want these laughs to be genuine.
I don't want to be just so I would.
Do a different thing off.
Yeah, So in that role.
Todd Phillips was like, by the way, I said, in that role, like I have a lot of.
Range, Hey, can you play comedian? I was like, yeah, that's I think that's all I can play.
So he said, uh, you're playing open mic comedian And I said, well, do you want me to bomb? Because I'm an open micro Maybe I'm not good yet. He goes, well you could do that, and I said, oh am I doing my material. I said, well, I'm not going to bomb in your movie with my material. I didn't even know if it was it was going to be that big at the time, but in my mind it was be a big movie. So I'm doing jokes and I was killing like every take except for one. I was killing because the extras and they had no expectation that I would be decent, and I was like, this is my whole life.
I'm gonna I'm gonna bring it.
So one take I did the wrong, jokers too dirty, and Todd came in between.
He was like, nothing like that. Again. I was like, all right, I got it.
But then after a series of takes where I was really doing well, Joaquin Phoenix was like, man, I like your style.
It's not desperate, and it's to me.
I think it's so funny that he shows the word desperate, because he said, yeah, a lot of comedians they come off very needy and desperate, and I was like, well, I mean, you know, very needy and desperate. On my mind, I'm like, well, you do crazy stuff as an actor, you know, Like actors are needy and desperate too, but for some reason we don't think of them that way, Like, you know, you're the ones who need all the awards, by the way, actors, Yeah, but comedians are the needy ones. But maybe actors are slightly more validated.
I don't know.
The thing I'm always interested in why some dickheads, no, not all. I have a sort of theory that comedians generally as a whole. My experience of the community of comedians is ninety percent of them are pretty great people, like because part of the job is fucking thinking all the time and sort of philosophy, you know, I mean, like as in they tend to be. And also because you can fucking die every night, so you even if you're even if you're an arrogant comedian, you will be humbled by the gig. Like there is no you're never safe, you know what I mean. You have to have some level of humidity because you don't fucking know. You're never safe whoever you are. Whereas with actors, there are some actors that might be bad, but because for whatever reason, they make their films, they're in make good box office. They keep working, so the business is telling them you're good, you're good, and they're not. They might not be, but there's no feedback, there's no honest feedback because the machine is kind of accepting them, and so they can be dickheads.
They also, I think, are like pampered in a way because like a lot of great actors are vessels. You'll see them in an interview and you're like, holy shit, that's this guy's personality.
He sucks. But then you see him in a movie and you're like, he's brilliant.
Yeah, but it must be something weird about being like when they get praised, it's them being someone entirely different. Yeah, you know, that's that's when people are worshiping you when you're not you. But you know, I always thought it was cool when actors had a mystique and didn't do talk shows, Like you'd have those random ones and you'd be like, well, you're never going to see this guy on Letterman or something.
You can't. No one can do that anymore. No one can be off the grid and be successful.
There's there's a couple, but their grandfathered in.
I think they still have Instagrams, that's true.
How about Jack Nicholson though he doesn't have to.
Jack, he's the last one. Yeah, it doesn't work anymore.
Fuck, so there you go. So so maybe right.
Can you tell us if again, this is for anyone here who has not seen some the thing I would recommend you do is, yes, see all his pecials. They're amazing, but also go on his Instagram and look at all his morning show appearances because it is fucking brilliant what you do on morning shows. I love it so but tell the people that you don't know what you're up to.
Well it all it all started like back in the day when I would do morning show things i'd be doing, like you know, any road gig random.
To promote your shows, right, promote your gigs, you have to go. And in the UK it would be like this morning or whatever you're on, like local shows where it's like coming up in Florida, this is happening that sort of thing.
Yeah, And I'd be forced to do those when I was a young comic, and I really resented it because we were getting paid just terrible money to do the club. I wasn't I had no incentive to sell out the club. This is how short short term I thinking was short sided. My thinking was I was like, oh, I don't care if I sell out. I don't get any extra money. In my mind, I should have been trying to, you know, get more fans. But I but I just I was just annoyed because I was always having a do this and I would have to wake up at like six am going to do it, sometimes after performing the night before and traveling in the day, so you're just beat up and tired, so you'd be in a cranky mood. And I did a gig on Good Morning I think it's called Pittsburgh Today Live, and this is kind of what started I'd always misbehaved on these, but this is the one that really took off on the internet. Is they were just asking me questions like they didn't know who I was, they didn't care, And in my head, I'm like, oh, you don't want to be here either, you know. So I was kind of like, why are we doing this? So I was on like two hours sleep in a crappy hotel and they said, so, did you always have the funny bug? Were you always funny? And I just said no, I wasn't always funny. When I was young, I was molested by my uncle and he was funny. So it gave me powers like in Spider Man. And they just paused and the woman goes, well, I don't know what to do with that, and it just was the most uncomfortable thing. And I remember leaving the station. In my head, I knew I did something bad, but I didn't know how far it was going to go. I asked the producer, Hey, can I get a copy of that footage?
And she just looked at me and goes, get out.
So yeah, so they were pissed. And I've compared this since to like doing a bank robbery. I need a car waiting for me outside the studio. I need to make a getaway because they are not happy when I do this. And you know, since I started doing this, you know it got I did more and more. This one went completely viral on social media, so but not enough so that anyone knew that I would do this. So I just kept doing stuff like this. The reason what I did was in Columbus, Ohio. I just kept pretending they have a human trafficking problem, and the anchor got so mad. He's like, we don't what are you talking about human trafficking? And I just wouldn't let it go and he just spiraled. I just watched the guy. I just annoyed him. I usually feel what's going to annoy them out, and I just keep doing it. And in my head, I'm like, well, these this is the only way I'm going to sell tickets to this audience.
Like if I just play it straight, none of these people are gonna come see me. But if I do something.
Ridiculous and awful, they're gonna be like, that was hilarious.
We should go see this guy.
So it stems from that, and then I just kept doing it, and then somehow I keep getting booked on these. I don't know how some of them are aware of what I do. I did one recently in Utah where a guy was like, we see what you do.
You're gonna mess with me, and he.
Was trying to like alpha me right, And I looked at Gary Veeder, who tours with me, and I go, yeah, I'm gonna mess with this guy.
I'm gonna really mess with him. He's a prick.
So I went on there and I just I started talking about p ditty and he was like, let's not talk about that. I go okay, and then I just kept doing it and I just kept bringing it up and he the female host was laughing. The guy was was like, well, you won't be allowed back here, like he was really like a petulant child about it. And I remember getting offset and all the cameramen wanted pictures with me because like, we hate that guy. So it's like, I do feel like I'm going in.
It's like similar to the rise in Heckler videos.
I feel like I'm going in and being a jerk to their boss and.
They like it.
Yeah, it's like a corporate gig.
Yeah, it's like a corporate gig.
And somehow I was on Morning Joe on Friday and The Funniest Thing, which is a big show in a Marria, and they keep setting me up for jokes, and every time I tell a joke, they just stare at me, and I'm like.
You invited me on. I don't know, like I'm not even doing anything other than my act right now, but they're still furious. It's it's it's a weird.
I see a lot of people comment from other countries like, wow, morning TV in America is so fake, and I guess that's what I'm making fun of.
I guess on some level, I didn't even think about it too much.
I was just like, well, this isn't how anyone speaks, so I'm just gonna make it. I'm the only one who can speak honestly in this situation, so I'm gonna use it to my advantage.
I guess it's great stuff. It's really great stuff. Well done, Well done, thanks man, Sam. Ah fuck I forgot I forgot tell you. I should have told you at the beginning, and I've forgotten. Hold on, Oh shit, I did. I thought i'd know you. Don this recuts me. Uh fuck, I'll just say you died. Uh h you're dead. No, uh spaghetti eyes you dead, bomber? You sad about that?
Yeah? It was things were going all right. I got a special coming.
Out, But I guess I don't have to do I don't have to do any more morning shows to promote this special.
Now, how did you die?
I'm pretty young, I'm in decent health. I'm going to guess autootic asphyxiation.
And I mean the tragedy of that is unfortunately, that is what you're going to be remembered for, even though great, damn it, that's the thing. You go that way, that's it, that's your legacy.
Oh man, so shame.
You didn't mean to though, did you?
He just went too No, No, it was I was just trying to chase that high.
You know.
Yeah. Were you on tour?
We were like, now it's getting ceta, et cetera. I was.
I was on tour. I got to pick a sad state now too, Damn. I was in the Midwest, but a bad Midwest. There's some good states. I was in a bad one. I won't say which, but that way you want to die?
Okay? Wow? And you're just in the hog Tower room in the in the in the closet.
May have found me.
I hadn't even left the tip yet, so she thinks I'm stingy and she found my body.
Like I know anything, I was gonna die.
Yeah, that's fair well, tragic tragic death and a tragic legacy for your family.
But here we are. Do you worry about death?
Yeah?
Sure, it depends. It depends, but yeah, I get anxiety for sure. Like I'll sometimes if I'm not exercising enough. Exercise definitely distracts me from death. Sometimes I'll have too much a drink on the road and I'll be like what am I doing? Like you're laying in bed, you can't fall asleep, and you're like, what am I doing with my life?
You have those? Yeah?
Do you think anything happens when you die?
Oh jeez, people show up to a funeral. I think that's about it.
But what happens to you? Do you think nothing?
No? I don't think anything happens.
Well, young man, I have good news. You're incorrect. There is a heaven. Oh, there's a heaven. You'll go into it mostly from all your hard work and your basketball skills. They're very excited to have you in heaven, and it film with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing?
I do love watching the Knicks, so basketball is up there for me.
Oh yeah, there's courts everywhere.
I love that.
I love playing basketball, I love doing stand up, and I love watching movies.
Those are probably my three favorites.
God, you're gonna have a fucking great time in Heaven. It's there's basketball courts, so you can play with the Knicks. You can also play with your friends that are there. There's also a room where the Knicks.
What you do stand up? That's what you want. That sounds quite Now, I'm.
Gonna blow it. I've done it before. You're not wearing audience, No, you're not.
Yeah, I've had a couple of good ones, and I've had a couple. I'm like, woof Jesus, I took it too far. You're like, you're walking that line. And then you're like, all right, let me see if I can how far I can take And then you're like, a shit, was too far?
I ruined the whole gig. Oh God, learning disaster.
Well, everyone is very excited to see you and they want to talk. You can watch all the films you want, and they want to talk to you about your life. But they want to know about your life through film. She's weird, isn't it. And the first thing they ask you is, what's the first film you remember seeing?
Samurial too.
Now, my mom is an artist.
My mom has got great taste and a lot of different types of things.
But for one film, and she showed me the movie The Red Balloon, the French film. Fuck wow, that's the first movie I remember.
And the second one I remember she showed me is Laura and Hardy, The March of the Wooden Soldiers, the comedy Whoa. So my mom really, I think, was like I'm like, wow, what a combination that is. It's like you've got this like really simple French film about a boy with a balloon that's very artistic and beautifully shot, and then you've got this like pure comedy that's like fantasy and silly.
So I think that explains a lot.
Are you a ninety child?
No?
I have a stepbrother and a stepsister, but at this point they weren't around, So I was my mom's only child.
Yeah wow, And what kind of out she man?
Abstract?
Cool?
Yeah, really good?
That's cool.
Did you remember thinking I want to get in on this comedy. Shit, then what did you think? I want a balloon?
I think at that point I just didn't even think about what I was going to be, I think. I mean, I just remember so probably three or four, I don't know, I was so young, but I remember. I remember the images of the movies. That's kind of it. And I remember that I kept watching March of the Wooden Soldiers or something about it.
I just want I kept wanting to see them nice.
What about crying? Do you cry? What's the fel that made you cry? My?
Yes, there's a few, there's one. Some of them don't make sense why I cry that much? But like certain movies just hate you, like for some reason. The last scene in Kramer Versus Kramer always gets me, where Dustin Hoffman and the son, like, you know, they had all this difficulty together they fight the mother Meryl Streep is you know, in the midst of an ugly divorce. And there's that scene earlier where they're trying to make the French toast and it's a disaster, and you see just kind of a time lapse where they're making the French toast together again, and this time they're doing it perfectly, like they've got the routine down and he's going to lose his son, and that's like that got me every time I've seen that movie. That scene just fucks me up.
And you're a child of divorce.
No, my biological father wasn't around, so there was no divorce, so that scene is more just like I think it's just I don't know if it's connected to me as much as I just think the movie builds to it perfectly, like it's just really good acting. But then because you know, life is beautiful gets me every time. But I wasn't the Holocaust.
I don't think it's.
Always I don't think it's always you know, about me. I think it's about the movie.
You know.
Oh you know what else gets me? Two more that get me bad as boys in the Hood. The ending just killed me, I mean, and of course he passes the sat like that Moy's chestnut.
That was brutal. That ending. I can't watch that movie again because it just messed me up so much.
And then there's like cries that are a little different, like one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest gets me because in two scenes, the first one is when she won't let him watch the baseball game and Nicholson just narrates it. I was like, god, damn, that's beautiful, like such an obvious anti authority movie.
But the way he.
Fights back, I'm like, oh so good. And of course the ending of that movie gets you too.
Right, right? Do you cry in real life? But just in movies?
Not really much in real life.
It's movies. Usually I'm bottling it all up. For the movies, I'm saving it.
Yeah, me, push you down, push it down. What is the film that scared you the most? Do you like being scared?
Samurial, No, I'm not a big horror fan.
Interesting, I understand why that horror movies are still big in the movie theater because you're scared together. It's like a ride, it's fun. I don't like amusement parks for that reason. And guess what they're called amusement, and it's you're just scared. There's no amusement. I'm terrified. I don't like it, So not a fan of that. I like horror movies more that are more psychological. A movie that I actually watched later in life that haunted me, that made me feel scared, was I was on the road and for some reason. I just I'd never seen The Holland Drive and I threw it on and holy shit, that movie haunted me.
I was scared after because it's not like a slasher that's cheap, and.
It felt like it felt like it was in my skin. It was to go that deep about a person. It felt like something about David Lynch movies where I feel like half the time he's just messing with you and you're like, what is every character? Just like she was like oh, I thought, and You're like, are you fucking with me?
Dude?
Like what is this movie?
And then by the end, of course, you're like, damn, he just like distracted you for what he did, and he just you felt like they pulled the rug out from under you. And that ending like it's about someone's like hopes and dreams and how how ugly they become because of them, and like, yeah, that was scary to me.
It was because it was so psychological.
I love David Lynch so much. I love him always and forever, and I do think it's a great question is he fucking with us? Sometimes I think he isn't at too, and sometimes I'm like, maybe it is. I think he's funny, Like sometimes I think, yeah, he's pushing it to sort of go like I dare you to stick with this.
Yeah, I think it's almost like an arrogance when people are that talented that they feel like they're like, let me, let me mess with them and see how what I can get away with And then oh shit, I still I still stuck the landing, Like, yeah, that's probably to me the one I think of that like Scared It that made me feel like But I love like a classic. I love like horror, like Carrie. I thought it was a great horror movie too.
That's a great movie. Yeah, that's a great movie.
There's a bit in muhund Drive it's one of my all time favorite sigmaces, where they gous Club Cilencio and they watch a lip sync performance and the guy they sort of mc keeps saying, this is a recording. What you are seeing as a recording, these are not words coming out of my mouth. And he keeps saying that, and you keep forgetting it because it's so good, and then it becomes really moving and the woman sings crying a Spanish version of crying. It's really beautiful, and the man keeps saying this is a recording, so you're not singing this, and then you don't believe it. And then the woman collapses and the voice keeps going and it will make you cry. It's a very strange sequence. But the whole thing I always like he's telling us, He's sort of going, why are you getting caught up in this? It's not real? I keep telling you it's not real, and then you but you can't help yourself. I love that.
Yeah, And that's like, I mean, that's like dreaming and stuff like that. Right, even though it's not real, you still wake up, like you know, there's there's still a party that gets you.
God, he's good. He's very good.
He's sounded, he's very salient.
What is the film that you love?
Critics don't like it, it is not acclaimed, but you love it.
It's a hard question. I feel like there's a lot of comedies that critics don't like. As I said, you know, they would have to be because I think I have like pretty I think my taste is like not particularly unique.
I just like what's usually pretty good.
But with comedies, there's definitely stuff that makes me laugh that you look up and run tomatoes and you're like, this got this. So there was a movie growing up called Opportunity Knocks with Dana Carvey. Yeah, and I watched it probably twenty five times growing up, like I love. My brother owned it on VHS, so we watched it all the time. And yeah, I just I loved it. And then it's of course with like terrible ratings online and.
Dana was the premise of it.
He's a con man, Dana Carvey, you know, and he robs one house and a voicemail comes on basically saying like, oh, I wish I could take you up on this offer to house sit, but unfortunately I'm not gonna make it and I won't get to meet you. So in his head he's like, oh, he doesn't know what he looks like, I can just house it in this amazing house.
And he just pretends to be the.
Guy, and Robert Logia plays like the friend and he's great in it, and of course he falls in love with Robert Logi's daughter as the con man, and I loved it. I thought it was like, there's definitely a couple of gags of him doing ethnic voices that probably wouldn't fly today, but like I thought, Dana Carvey was like I thought he deserved more or like dramedy type roles because he has such range.
I love that guy. I'm a big fan.
Yeah, he's great. That's nice. That's made me want to say it.
Tell me this on the other end of this, guy, What is a film that you used to love? You loved it very much, but you have watched it recently and you've thought, I don't like this anymore.
I don't know if I don't like it.
But a movie that doesn't really hold up to me is American Beauty.
Go on.
I just think it's a little some of the weird stuff doesn't really like it's a bag is beautiful. I'm like, I thought this was like, I thought this was moving and interesting. I watched him like a bag. Who gives this shit? It's a plastic bag. I still think space is amazing, and I still think that Net Betting is hot and and awesome in it too.
I just like, I don't think it's It's not what I thought it was.
I think you grow older and you're like, oh, that's a little cornier than I thought it was. Still, there's still parts of the movie I like, Yeah, but I don't think I do.
What do you feel the same way or do you still love it?
No, I haven't rewatched it in a long time, but I think it is the type of film that was very good but then was like copied a million times in the million ways, and so now when you watch it it feels cliche and rope, when in fact it was quite an early version of even the bag being the most beautiful thing.
Now is embarrassing, but at the time.
It's embarrassed felt new.
I guess also the roses that I mean, it's just it's a lot of stuff that I think, like, look, beauty.
I think he's a great director, Sam Meander.
So but I think, yeah, not all movies age well either.
That's the thing, like just because it was great at a moment. So you ever listened to.
A comedy album from like the seventies and people were like this was this changed the game? And you listen, You're like, what the fuck is this? So people laughed at this, and no, I think, I think, yeah, that's like, not everything is going to age perfectly.
What is the film that means the most to you? Not necessarily the film itself is any good, but you had around seeing it will always make it special to you.
Accept Well, I got a hand job doing Saving Silverman.
That definitely was pretty big for me. I was fifteen.
I think, oh, fast one.
No, I don't think it was my first one.
New York kids we grew up quickly, but but yeah, I definitely was like wow.
But also I was like, this was actually was pretty cool. Empty movie theater.
You got to pick a movie, you know, like you're like, oh, if we hook up, maybe I take it to Freddy got fingered.
You're like, no one's going to be there.
This is gonna be big, but we So that was I mean, obviously I'm kidding.
I think a movie that looks that like was for me any Hall.
Like I can't any the impact that movie had to me as a kid because Woody Allen, I know he's got a completely you know, tarnished reputation in a lot of ways, but for me as a New York kid, he did so many things that just blew my mind as a filmmaker, not only being that prolific, but like in any Hall, he's a comedian who first off falls in love when it doesn't work out. So that to me was like Okay, well, this is cynical in a way that I find to be honest, Like it's going against the Hollywood.
They have to kiss and end up together. So that was kind of like, Wow, this feels honest about life. I relate to that.
He's also a stand up comedian. He's also a New York Jew. He also is attracted to like non to gentiles, like, holy shit, was this written about me? What the hell is going on? And then he chooses New York over LA. It felt very much like, Wow, this feels a lot like someone like if I could have made a movie, this would have been it. And I think it's a beautiful movie. Still, I saw a film form nearby me recently and it holds up for sure.
It means it's a great It's a fucking great film. It really is a great film. But my next question is what is the film you most relate to?
Is it?
Oh? I think so? Yeah?
I think I definitely relate to that character. I mean relate to now or relate to as as a child that was. I thought you meant like a formative one, But yeah, no, what do I relate to now?
It can be however you interpret the outset.
Damn, I mean, sometimes you relate to a movie that has nothing to do with who you are. You're just like, well, I just this movie just connects with me. And that's like any film noir. That's probably why it shows like a film noir.
Backup.
I just love detective movies, and I love the speech pattern.
Feels very much like a comic and there's you know.
They have their own language, they have witty retorts, which we hope to have.
They have a nocturnal profession.
I mean there's so many, but yeah, I mean obviously I was kind of going for like an Elliott Gould long Goodbye look.
In the special with that backdrop.
So I mean those movies I relate to very much if we're not doing like comedy movies like oh Man, Like I love those old film noirs from like the forties and the fifties.
I'm obsessed with them.
Yeah, in a Lightning Place, you've seen that which in a Lonely Place?
Oh, with Bogart. I love that movie. Oh it's beautiful. That's my favorite performance he ever gave me too. He's amazing in it. Yeah, it's like and I love Gloria Graham. I mean she by the way she fucked her step son.
Did you know that one?
I did that.
It was a big scandal her ex husband.
She was caught having sex with the step son and it wound her career because they got married, I think. And she's another one of my favorite ones called The Big Heat with Glenn Ford. Oh, that's a cool movie. That one's one of my favorite. We watched that on the tour bus last year. It's so funny that people think we're living this like rock and roll lifestyle and I'm like, we're literally drinking wine watching a nineteen fifties film noir. They think we're blowing lines and like with prostitutes. I'm like, no, we're gonna here's one from the Criterion collection tonight.
Boys.
You know, we're so I'm so boring on the road these days. I wasn't always, but these days, to keep it going, I have to be.
Well, just say that you didn't die.
I think just you just are like, oh, man, I got to take care of myself. If I'm going to keep touring like this, you just have to. I have to make time for exercise, I have to make time.
For you know, writing. I have to be disciplined if I'm going to keep it up.
Yeah, what is objectively the greatest film of all time might not be your favorite?
Yeah, I think it's between two for me.
I think it's unfortunately pretty obvious for a reason because you said objectively, not subjectively. So I think one is definitely Citizen Kane, because you have to say, okay, Orson Wells changed movies.
He was twenty five years old when he made it.
He changed the form of how we consume movies, how films are shot. And I think you have to pay respects to people like that Bill Russell in basketball, Like would he be good enough today to compete? I don't know, but in the sixties he won like ten rings, So I think you have to pay respects to the greats.
Respects. I just said respect And so Citizen Kane.
I rewatched it the other night because I am obsessed with Orson Wells. I find it would be like the most interesting talk show guest ever. I think he's so funny and witty, and there's a book I love about him called Lunches with Orson I think is the funniest book. I think he's phenomenal. So yes, it's not even my probably not my favorite. Orson Welles movie. I think I might like The Third Man better, but I love Citizen Kane and I think it's like one of those movies that you, even if you don't.
Love, you have to like say, Okay, this.
Is incredible, respects you could.
And the other one is Godfather because Godfather is it's relatable to look at how much of the world loves Godfather. You're like, this is a movie that's that people relate to because of what Coppola made it about family.
It's not just about it's not another mob movie.
This is family, yeah, and about respect and family, and these are things everyone relates to. And then he made, you know, one of the best movies of all time. So those are two that are like, to me, objective, they're not. I don't think either in my top five, but I still I still love them.
You you understood this question, I'm gonna I'm gonna choose Citizen Kain for you.
Okay, that works.
What's the sexiest family you've ever say? Summary?
I mean unf Faithful with Diane Lane, but I've never seen the entire movie.
I've only seen parts.
And the other one is Wild Things because of when I saw it with Denise Richards.
I was like, oh my god, this girl is so hot, and Nev.
Campbell too, I mean, but Unfaithful probably like she's so hot in that movie.
It's very very very very peaceful, like my goodness.
But basic instinct too, Like I mean, that's like, that's like the corniest answer ever. But I'm not even talking about like the famous scene with her legs.
That's like whatever I'm talking about, Like Sharon Stone, that whole movie.
Yeah, and she and Triple Horn they're both so she gets left in the dust because everyone talks about Sharon Stone.
She was hot too, Sammy, so good to do this with you.
I've had a runner of this podcast for people that pretended that film's out sexy.
Oh my god. I could go on, but those are like those are like the first three to hit me.
Unfaithful was like maybe that was like when I came into my own as an adolescent, and I'm like, I've got a lot of energy to keep me watching this to catch my drift. I think any any Linda Fiorentino movie in the nineties too, like Last Seduction, she was she was so.
That movie lost a movie too. Yeah, Oh I love I love John Dahl man. Yeah, amazing, amazing.
I mean, noir is my favorite type of movie, so I think the nineties has a lot of undergrad ones.
Yeah.
Defininely Dress one of my favorite films.
One of my favorite films, and one of my favorite books.
I love the Waltim There's a line I quote from it all the time because I think about it. It's one of the most applicable lines from Just Life is I think at the end of the I'm paraphrasing the books, I'm fucking it up, but it's like something along the lines of Easy Rollins is telling the bartender like, man, would you stand by your friend if you knew he did some really really bad stuff? And the bartender just basically says, ship man, friends is all we got.
And I just think about that line, like.
That's perfect, that's that's that says so much about just you know, everything about everyone.
Well the end, definitely, Dress has my top five favorite last line to film.
What's I remember He's like in the suburbs kind of right.
Yeah, there is.
He's sat on the porch and it's like voiceover, and he's been through all this stuff and he says, and I sat on my poach with my friend and we laughed a long time and that's the end.
Like that's a fucking beauty.
Damn. Yeah, he's he's.
It's almost a shame Denzel to get to play like a classic p I more because he's perfect for it. That got great director to Carl Franklin and a lot of great stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, one FoST move he did one move, Yeah, great, maybe.
And he's directed a bunch of this new series. I love calling Manhunt the Lincoln.
Yeah good, that sounds great.
Yeah, I liked it a lot. It's another one that didn't get good reviews.
On ron Tomatoes. I was like, I'm gonna give it a shot. I thought it was really good.
Great sub category. Yeah, troubling. Banner is worrying. Why don't film you found a rousing you weren't sure you should?
Jeez, that's tough. It's hard to because like, I don't not in a way that I'm embarrassed. I just don't really operate that way. But it turns me on, it turns me on. I'm not you know, It's like, I'm not I'm not getting turned on by anything illegal, So I'm not like panicking.
Geez, this is a weird one. I guess Booty Call is pretty hot. I mean, Vivi Gay.
Fox is just so attractive in that movie. But it's like not, It's like they're doing it as like comedy. But I'm like, so, I don't have like a great answer. I was never like but she was just so hot in that movie. And of course, you know, while while Jamie Fox is hooking up with her, he's doing like Mike Tyson impressions and stuff, and she's turned on by it, and I'm like, this is like Rooney, what should be a hot scene.
That's like, that's a good outset, that's fair. What is the film that you could or have watched? The mice diver and iver again.
I've watched Dumb and Dumbers so many times that I can just like I can quote it inside out like that.
That's one that we quote a lot.
I'm trying to think what else I've watched so many It's probably a comedy, because comedies are just easier to rewatch.
I think than that I've watched a million times.
I mean Dan Billy Madison as a kid alone, I must have watched probably like forty times because I just I couldn't get enough of it.
Back to School was up there, Dangerfield.
That's I mean that that movie makes me laugh so hard because like every character just serves to set up his jokes.
Like even first seeing his wife's like.
Oh you're impossible. Oh yeah, and you're easy. Like it's just every line is rodney. So that movie, like, yeah, back it might be back to school. Honestly that that are dumb and dumber. Probably those three, those three I said, what was the third one Bill Madison? And two of them about an older guy going back to school. I just now realized. But but that's you're setting it up for comedy. They get to be completely inappropriate. I watched the South Park movie a lot too.
That was another one, great great film.
I'm watching so many times. Music. I know all the music.
I mean, it's like it's an incredible music and it's a really really good angry film, Like it's appropriately angry.
Smile. It's great film.
That always feels well with anything that makes like a strong social statement without hammering it. They just do it through jokes, which I really appreciate. It never feels at a place in time.
It's very good. It's very good.
What is on the other end, of this guy, which I like to be too negative, Sam, So we'll do this quickly.
What's the worst film you've ever seen?
I don't know, because I don't. I don't finish a movie if I don't like it.
If i'm because I just think, like, if it's that bad. Maybe it was something I saw as a kid that I wasn't able to walk out of because my parents.
My parents wouldn't let me walk out.
I remember hating the movie Home for the Holidays, which I don't even think is a bad movie, but I was too young to see it, and I was really annoyed that we couldn't walk out on it.
So that was one. But I bet it's not that bad. I think I was just too young for it. You know.
It's usually a movie a girlfriend of mine loves that, like like I hated Naughty Hill.
I me and my.
Girlfriend's like like this is the best, and I'm like, I like rom coms. It's just got to be a good Like I'm like, this is just like so stupid, Like who cares she's a famous actress or it's all for to fine love.
I don't give a shit. It was out of the gatos, like I don't even care.
And I just wasn't that charmed by I think Hugh Grant can be really good, but I just wasn't that charmed.
But oh, I'm so I'm bumbling, I'm so charming, you know, I just don't give a shit. So I thought that sucked.
Man, there's a lot I can tell you that I think kind of sucked. But I don't finish them.
That's the thing. So I don't know if maybe it gets better.
What is hearing comedy? You're very funny? What's the film that made you laugh the most as a kid?
The ones that the three I mentioned for the ones I've watched, or the four I mentioned the ones that I watched? I think those four like killed me. Mcgruber makes me laugh my ass off. You know what killed me as a kid. I don't think it's one of his best movies, but damn it made me laugh. The Nutty Professor, Like I love the Professor. It blew my I mean, I think Coming to America, Beverlyo's Got those are all like way better movies.
But for some reason, Nutty Professor like I saw in the theater with my.
Dad and I was just watching my dad lose it during the farts scene, and I was like, I've never seen him laugh like that. My dad's a really intelligent guy. I to see him lose it during farts was like kind of a beautiful moment for me. So yeah, that one got me for sure, dumb and dumber, just like it's crazy how many times I've watched.
It and it's still hits, but there were a lot.
First time I saw Billy Madison, I was kind of like, I didn't know you were able to just do this.
I didn't know you were able to just be this ridiculous.
It was one of the things I did like when you see something, Oh, I didn't know that that was allowed that you could. You didn't have to say lines, you could just make weird noises and stuff.
I lost it. Are you going to make a film when you got back to school? Plus no?
No, because it's been done so well.
I hate when they remake stuff like I'm not going to make a better back to School movie than Back to School or Billy Madison. But you know, yeah, I do want to write a movie or make a movie, and they've written a movie, so maybe one day we'll make it.
But I love those too much to ever, you know, take a stab at Sam.
You've been excellent, You've been a wonderful guest, as expected. However, when you were on tour and you went to the Midwest, not you lovely pass in the Midwest, of which there are so many, but one of the bad bus that you you've chosen not to name for legal reasons. And you did your show and it went well, but you were tired, and you'd run out of films to watch on the bus, and you said to the guys, you know what, I'm going to stay in a nice treat myself. And you're in like a four seasons and wow, yeah, you really went away.
You're like, you know what, I got.
Really way nicer than I pictured it, by the way.
Yeah, and you ordered some dinner into your room. You sort of romance to yourself. You were like, you know what I'm gonna you have the little candles and you took you even tired, but you're like, I've been working out, I deserve a little treat. And you you took off your belt and you looked at it and you thought, well, I guess, well, wow, my will it's here, I may as well use it. I suppose and you you put your belt around your neck and you threaded it through, and then you you thought, well, where else am I going to put it? I guess, well, I guess, well do you put clothes? You put them in the in the in the in the closet. So you you head over to the closet, put this belt away, I suppose, and you you tie it around the rail, and you be like, oh, it's still on my neck. That's awkward. I guess, ah, well, why not treat myself? You know, I'm tired, but I deserve a little break. And so you start, you start to play with yourself little treat. You've been working hard on this.
And I earned it. I did pretty well, and.
You did really well.
And it's not your favorite venue, and you you really manage to make it. Way you deserve this, and so you're you're playing away with yourself, playing away and really romance. You have had a lovely dinner beforehand, and and you you sort of lean forward and all the excitement and and your footslips and you choke yourself to death. But as to try and sort of keep your balance, you squeeze your hand around your dick, so you die quite slowly choking, but you're because of the way that you died. Your dick remains hard, and you'll be pleased. It looks great on the outside, looks great, but the rest of you does not look good.
I'll be honest.
Yeah.
So, anyway, in the morning, the cleaner comes not not has keeping.
She comes in.
Oh, Jesus Christ looks away. I shouldn't be seeing that. Oh Jesus looks back. Oh his head's purple and not and not.
The other one.
Oh that's bad. I'm walking around with a coffee, you know what. I'm like, and I hear this woman shouting and I go okay, and she goes, yeah, I just came in to clean and this has happened. And I go, what She's just come in and I come in. I see you there bloated. Your head is a big, like purple sort of watermelon, and you did it's hardest, but you had this grip gripped it.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, I'm like, I'm so sorry you had to see that, and she goes, why did you have to see it?
And I don't know.
Neither of us should have had to see this, but I said, I said, listen, don't be sad that he's going to be happy that he seems to have romanced to himself on his last night.
And he does.
Look he does have a slight slight grid on his and so I say, help me out, and we cut down your thing because of all the bloat in your head's much bigger than we were expecting. Some I'm like, can you get the fire acts from the hole? She gets the fire acts. We start chopping up, chopping you up, chopping out, chopping out a bit. She's like, what do we do with the dick. I'm like, I guess we chop that tears. She chops it up, chops it, chops it, chops it. We put all the bits of your into the coffin. There's more of you than I was expecting in large head. There's no room in this coffin. There's only enough room for me to slip one DVD into the side for you to take across to the other side. On the other side, it's movie night every night. What film are you taking to show the people of heaven where the knicks are? When it's your movie night, Samaria, I.
Get one movie. It's going to be like a silly one. It's because it's gonna be one.
I'm gonna keep rewatching, so it's probably gonna be like it's going to be back to school, maybe a dumb and dumber one.
Of those, which one the coffin's closing back to school.
He's going back to school, Samaril, Yeah, what a pleasure. I'm sorry about your death. That was one of the most upsetting ones we've ever had.
Yeah, it was rough, but you know what, sometimes going to live on the edge.
Yeah, the Four Seasons lovely.
Yeah, I wouldn't. It's almost like it's almost like I knew.
What what would you like to tell people to look out for?
Starting Sambaro?
The new special on Amazon or Prime Video whatever they're calling up these days. What's cool. It's called you've changed. I was I literally got a couch for this. I got this terrorist here. I was gonna I got a couch for it off Amazon. It's a piece of junk. I'm literally complaining that Amazon customer service while promoting an Amazon special right now.
But you know that that one's out. I got my pod. We might be drunk.
If you're ever in New York, you got to come through with my boy Mark Norman and yeah, I got a ton of specials on YouTube. I got one on Netflix, so so check it out. And I'm actually coming to London. I'm coming to your neck of the woods in September, September eighteenth. I'm doing shows London, Dublin, Belfast, I'm coming all over.
Where are you one in London?
Shepherd's Bush Empire.
That's that good? Yeah, that's good. That's pretty good.
Yeah, I'm doing that September eighteenth, Shepherd's Bush Empire. And then yeah, I'm doing Belfast, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm.
Holy shit, ar took us still available in those two.
But it's gonna be fun to go there. The fun thing about this life, if you don't sell well, you get a little trip.
So it's Brian to them.
Not those No, But I'm going to do it next year. I'm bringing back. I would do like a proper.
Theater tour again next year. But I just I need to write a new act. Dude, I need new jokes.
I hear that.
That's like we were saying, comics were humble because we got to you gotta eat it. You gotta eat it for a while to you figure it out, you know.
Anyway, a pleasure.
Thank you for a pleasure, man, great talking to you, man.
I have a wonderful dad. I see you soon. I'm going to stop the recording now, all right, goodbye. So that was episode three hundred and eight. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward slash breat goals theme for the Express Secret chat and video with Sam. Go to Apple Podcasts.
Give us a five style rating, but don't talk about the podcast, right about the film that means the most to you and why it's a lovely thing to read. It helps with numbers, et cetera, et cetera. It's very appreciated. Thank you so much to Sam for giving me his time. Thanks to Screwby's Pip and the Distracting Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. There's the iHeartMedia and Milf Ferrell's Big Money Players Network for hosting it. They starting ridges and for the graphics and needs to Lading for the photography. Come and join me next week for another brilliant episode with a very special guest. But that is it for now. I hope you're all well and in the meantime, have a good week. And please be excellent to each other.
Last back back by the bat backs, a sack bys and contact by the back backs as backs back back back backs, an sat by back back back back
