Guests this week: Chris Riggins, Johnny Steele & Don Reed
This week's edition of Copeland's Corner, with featured Headliners Chris Riggins, Johnny Steele & Don Reed.
Tune is as Brian and his guests talk about the latest hot talk topics, current events, and life in general.
Topics on tap include Brian heading to New Orleans to film This Is Spinal Tap 2, ageism in comedy, and the California Exodus phenomenon.
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Visit his website: www.BrianCopeland.com
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Email: BrianCopelandShow@Gmail.com
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Copeland's Corner is Created, Hosted, & Executive Produced by Brian Copeland.
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EP179 - Copeland's Corner (Riggins, Steele & Reed)
Host Brian Copeland: [00:00:00] Hello again. This is Brian Copeland talking. Welcome to another edition of Copeland's Quarter. This is episode number 179. Um, I can't believe we have done this many, uh, additions of this podcast. 1 79. Um, all 179 uh, have been. Available, uh, through audio and about the last, I'm going to say maybe the last 20 to 25, we've been doing, uh, uh, simultaneously on, uh, on YouTube.
So you can watch us as well as, uh, as well as listen to us. So, uh, we had last week off because, uh, I was out of town. You noticed something different about me and that's my goatee is gone. Uh, I had a part in, uh, in Rob Reiner's sequel to Spinal Tap. Spinal tap to, and, uh, when I came in for makeup on Tuesday, when we shot, and we [00:01:00] shot Louisiana in New Orleans, uh, the first thing they said is you've had a shave.
I was like, well, wait, I thought I didn't have to shave, I auditioned and I didn't have to shave. Nope. Nope. Your character hasn't shaved. So there, there it goes. They shaved it off and I'm leaving it off, I guess for a while, for a while. It takes a while to get used. To shave it off your goatee, you're shaving off your mustache.
Cause in the beginning, it feels like there's a foot between your nose and between your upper lip. So, um, anyway, but, uh, just, just to fill you in a couple of things before, uh, you know, I bring the comics on and we talk about some of the news of the week, uh, was a great shoe. It was just really, um, I've done a couple of parts in movies that was in Rob Reiner's other film, The Bucket List, and I had a small part.
I had a part in Venom where I played a reporter in Venom, Let There Be Carnage and a couple other things, but I've never had a part like this, which was, and I can't go into detail about what the part is, um, because, you know, everything's kind of hush hush until the movie comes out when I'm not sure exactly when that is, because I think they're still shooting in Louisiana.[00:02:00]
Um, but I will tell you this, uh, my scene is, um, a scene in an office that is my office, uh, and I am visited by the three members of Spinal Tap, uh, by, uh, Michael McKeon and Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer in character. And, uh, we have an exchange and that's, that's all I can tell you about it. And the way that these Spinal Tap films work is like, um, Like some of those others, like a mighty wind and best in show where there's not really a script.
Um, you get a description of what the scene is and what the scene is supposed to be about, but there's no dialogue. And so you just know that at some point in the scene, you've got to, you know, talk about how you've got, uh, a big dog at home, you know, and hopefully you get around to that, you know, before, before cut is yelled.
So, uh, so we shot it. And it went great. And, um, I was scared to death because, uh, the three of those guys have been, I did some little research [00:03:00] before, uh, before going down there and found out that the three of those guys have been in an improv group or several improv groups together since 1966. So when you are regularly doing improvisation with another actor, you know what the rhythms are.
You know, and you know, um, exactly how it is they work and when they're setting you up. And, you know, you kind of get into a groove and here I am coming out of nowhere. I've just met these guys, you know, I mean, I auditioned with him. It was over, uh, it was over zoom. It was the audition. I auditioned with the men, um, but to actually be in a room with them and, you know, and knowing that they have, you know, rapport and everything, but it worked.
It worked great. You know, Cruz laughing, Cass was laughing. Um, Rob Reiner was laughing. And they came in and said, I got exactly what it is that I need, but I liked it so much. I want you to do it again. Cause I want to see what's going to come out of your mouth. Cause when you're at Adlibbing, you don't know what's going to come out of your mouth.
You're lucky it's gold. And a lot of times it's gold. And a lot of times it's [00:04:00] crap. So I lucked out. I had one of those gold days. So I shot it twice and, um, and that was it. So we'll, we'll see what gets used. You know, I hope a lot of it gets used because I was reading that in the first final tap. Uh, he shot a hundred hours of footage and the movie is an hour and like 38 minutes or something, which means that the overwhelming majority of that footage that got shot.
Did not get used. So I'm hoping that, uh, 'cause this went so well that, uh, this gets used and that it gets used, uh, prominently, even if it doesn't, it was still like the experience of a lifetime. It was just an absolute blast being in New Orleans and hanging on the set and hanging out with these guys. So it was, it was a lot of fun.
I will tell you more about the, uh, the, the film as I am allowed to. I will tell you this, uh, on the day before I came in, um, I flew in on Sunday, I flew in on Easter and, uh, they had [00:05:00] shot a concert scene, um, at LSU from what I understand, I guess they've got an arena and they packed it. And, uh, the guys played and, you know, when you see them in the film playing and singing, that's really them.
I mean, they really do play. And, um, so they packed it and, and over the years, between the 1st film and, and between this film, they have gone on tour 3 or 4 times. And I think they've even released a couple of albums. So, um, LSU apparently was packed, uh, while they performed a concert. And, uh, the footage in that concert is, uh, apparently going to be in the film.
And, uh, Leslie Stahl from 60 minutes was there. So, uh, apparently 60 minutes is doing a big piece on the film. So the film should be huge. And if it's anything like the first one was, and by all indications, it is, you know, based on what it is I saw based on, on, um, what it is that I read in the synopsis about how, um, how the story is laid out, [00:06:00] it should be pretty good.
It should be pretty good. So, uh, anyway, so that's where I was last week. And that's why I am, I'm clean. I have a baby's butt for a face right now. All right. With that, let's get on with more. So I was going to say more serious things, but yeah, there's serious topics. But if you, if you've watched or listened to this podcast, you know, sometimes we're funny, sometimes we're heavy, but we're always talking about something where we can give you some information or give you some food for thought.
All that coming up right now.
This podcast that we call Headliners on the Headlines. Heavy hitters joining us this week. Johnny Steele is with us. Don Reed and Chris Riggins is here. Welcome guys. Good to have you. [00:07:00] So let's just jump right into it. I read an article today and it's like the second article that I read about how people are fleeing California and like every year since California has joined the union, um, California has grown in population and last year for the first time, California lost something like 75, 000 people.
And they interviewed these people and they say they're leaving because cost of living is too high. Can't afford a house. I can work remotely so I can go live in Nebraska or somewhere like that. And still, you know, make Silicon Valley money. That'll go a heck of a lot faster. Yeah. I got a lot faster.
Farther if I'm, if I'm far away, well, this year they say so far in this first quarter, this year, we're on track to lose more people than we lost last year. And I say, part of it too, is that people are dying and millennials and, uh, and Gen Z ers are not having kids. They're just not having kids. So they say that that's part of it.
So my question is, I've been, I've been here in California since I was [00:08:00] six. So I've been here for, for most of my life and I've traveled the country like you guys have doing comedy. And there is no place that I found that I would rather live than here. Uh, and so I'm curious as to whether or not there's anything that could make you leave California.
I know a lot of comics who've left for Nevada because of the fact they don't have state income tax and that kind of stuff, but there's nothing I can think of that, that would make me, unless, you know, I lost my house or something, I had nowhere else to go. I, I wouldn't want to leave California.
Johnny Steele: A rich woman would make me leave Johnny.
You never have to work again. And I got a nice house to the swimming pool. Don't worry about the summer heat. We got pools and air condition. Don't worry about the winter. We're going to go down to Arizona to my other house. Okay.
Chris Riggins: California because if she's rich, I'm like, baby, we need some land here, maybe get a duplex to rent it [00:09:00] out. We could get us an apartment building. Like, I don't see anything that could drive me out of California. Like I do love New York and I will live in New York, but when that winter hits, I'm ready to come back to 60, 70 degree weather.
Um, I don't, I, you know, I get it, but I think it's one of those things where people always looking at the grass is greener on the other side. Not realizing that you're probably on some of the greenest grass on earth. Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. . Simple fact that the opportunities here are way better than other places.
Like I was looking at this thing the other day and people are, are comparing, uh, prices in Memphis. To prices in the Bay Area. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. But what you're trading is you're trading culture, you're trading, uh, op job opportunities. The amount of job opportunities. 'cause I've been to places like Memphis, and Memphis is a great city.
If you have a very small, uh, uh, uh, need of things, like if you just wanna work your regular nine to five job and come home and go get you some drinks on the weekend and not really do anything, Memphis is [00:10:00] great, but that's fine. If you want opportunity to grow and do things you've never done before, you got to stay in California.
If you
Host Brian Copeland: want a bigger life, if you want to live a bigger life, you know, only in a place I've ever known. Go
Don Reed: ahead, Doug. The thing, the other thing about California, it's a number, I think it's number five economy in the world compared to even other countries. So it's, how are you going to really beat that?
You know, now I tried to live in with a, a wealthy woman where her father was the one with the money. And then he met me and then it was over. Exactly. I don't know if I'll ever leave again.
Johnny Steele: These things are very cyclical too, right? Everyone's going crazy. Oh my God, this happened. This reminds of this happened.
You know, look at the demise. The end of the Democratic Party was called probably 10 times in my lifetime. Half as many times for the Republicans. I mean, you know, things ebb and flow. Everything ebb and flows. And, um, And you know, yeah, people don't have as many kids. [00:11:00] I got plenty of friends who retired with their, you know, pension from a school district or a city or whatnot, and that'll buy them anything they want in these other states, right?
So they just said, Hey, we'll sell our house in the East Bay for 800, 000. We're going to walk with 600. We could buy a house and have 300, 000 land over. We got 150, 000 a year coming in and pension. So, you know why? I mean, that certainly would be an incentive. It is an incentive for some people, but all this blows over.
I mean, I highly You know, when you think about, I used to go to cities, we all did, right? You go to one town or another and say, where's the cool neighborhood, but the used bookstore and the coffee houses and they'd scratched their heads and whatnot, even places, I don't know, back 20 years ago, like Dallas, like Denver, I mean, Dallas had one or two.
Here, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, there's literally about 40 neighborhoods, you know, I bring friends over to Berkeley, and I take him up to these, and they're like, well, right in the middle of, you know, a residential area, boom, there's a coffee house, a grocery store, six shops, a beer garden, you know, I think that's [00:12:00] happening more and more out there, but it's It's been here for decades and it's, it's much more, uh, abundant here.
So I don't know. I mean, the thing here
Host Brian Copeland: is the one thing here is though, you know, you talk about being cyclical is it's never happened before California joined the union in like 1850 and the population has, until last year, The population has never decreased in all of those years. And we actually lost a representative, you know, the representatives in the, in, in the house is based upon population at your state.
And we, for the first time ever, we lost a representative, you know, so, so, well, you know, it's not really cyclical because this is
Johnny Steele: the first time. But that's perfect storm stuff. I mean, it's cyclical that, you know, more people move out, uh, you know, one year than, than the next year. But it's sort of a perfect storm.
First, there was COVID. Then there was, you know, then the sort of crime thing is sort of tearing people away. Cost of the number of percentage of people who can afford us, you know, average mid class family house is lowest it's [00:13:00] ever been. Uh, forest fires are, people are not getting insured. I've had friends burn out.
I burned out twice. They lost their houses twice up in the sort of, you know, St. Helena, Napa Valley, beyond there, you know, so this, this, these kinds of forest fires, which also decrease the number of available housing, raise the price of new materials, because now you've got to build more houses, right? So that there's, you know, it's kind of a perfect stormy thing, I think, more than anything.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah, well, I will tell you, I read it. I read a piece, uh, last week about you because the number one place, believe it or not, the number of the top 2 places that people are fleeing California for our Texas and Florida, and I read, yeah, that's just. Texas also in particular, but Texas and Florida. So they interviewed some people in Texas and Florida and they're having buyer's remorse and trying to get the hell out of there as fast as they can because they said that they had their vacation goggles on and, and that it's not, they weren't prepared for the weather being as extreme as it was.
They [00:14:00] weren't prepared for DeSantis and banning books. And, you know, now, now they, they've made it a question. Crime to use the internet if you're under 14 and all of this other ridiculous nonsense, how much money
Chris Riggins: they're going to make at their job now. Um, and the cost of living is changed. Well, you know, it's like I was in Austin performing and I said, Hey, I'm from the Bay area and I got booed.
And I would tell you why I got booed because these people are tired of these Californians from the Bay Area moving down there with their tech money up stuff and then not do anything. And that's, and I also think the reason why California is losing so many people is because we've had so many people that aren't from California.
Move to California for that, but they're, they're a vacation goggles because when the tech companies were recruiting, they were going to Nebraska, uh, Tennessee, they were going to these middle flyover states and bringing these people to our culture. And they were like, oh, we don't like all this culture. We don't like all this.
So we're leaving. We're taking our [00:15:00] California money now, and we're going back to where we're from because. It's say it's comfortable there. And then the big fear, Oh, the crime wave, the crime wave. And it's like, yeah, there's crime everywhere. Fam Oakland has always been known for its crime. Matter of fact, that was something we, we prided ourselves on the fact that we were this revolutionary crime filled city.
You don't have a number one Panthers and we're home of the highest crime rate. And we accepted that. But also I think that was when Oakland was just a small city next to San Francisco. Now, Oakland has become a destination city. So now all those things that we knew were there years before are being highlighted to a point where people think that that's all it is.
That's all there is. There's nothing but crime in Oakland. And then I'm in Oakland and I'm seeing the very difference of what it is, is that we're dealing with people who aren't from here who don't understand here and they're leaving in numbers. And I say, good riddance. Bye bye. That's exactly
Don Reed: how I feel.
[00:16:00] Um, you know, I have a, um, a friend who lives, uh, Well, he worked at East Tennessee State University and seeing the house he got for 500, 000 bucks is mind blowing. It's absolutely mind blowing. And if you get enough of that, if you say, say you have some family that lives in the Midwest area and you visit them at Christmas, whatever, and you start getting up in age and you, you've got a sizeable amount of money, you have a house as Johnny mentioned, that's worth X.
And you go there and visit your family and say, you're going to tell me I can live up the hill for my parents in this spot for a fraction of what I'm living in California. I'm sure that's going to drive a number of people, you know,
Host Brian Copeland: well, I'll tell you, I have a relative who, who recently left California for North Carolina, um, Charlotte, the Charlotte area and, and she, uh, and her boyfriend built a house.
They actually built a house and it's a four bedroom, a four and two. I think it is a [00:17:00] gorgeous, all new appliances, new everything. And they built it for about 15 percent of what it would cost me to buy my house right now. 15 percent they were able to buy this for, and it's just, it's crazy. I mean, it's like, it's like, it's like you could buy or build a house there for what the down payment is on a house in California, literally what the down payment is.
Um,
Don Reed: 1 of the thought that I recognize there was a young woman. I know friend of mine. She moved here to California. In fact, to Los Angeles to act right? And because the coven, they started doing a massive amount of zoom. As you did, so also the number of people aspiring to be involved in entertainment. Can now audition from afar and live.
At a distant spot that is far more cost effective than flying for the job and then leave. 'cause she moved here before Covid and then got trapped here with Covid. She didn't leave and then she left and now [00:18:00] she's just flying. When she gets a gig,
Host Brian Copeland: when she
Don Reed: gets, she
Host Brian Copeland: flies in. I will tell you outta all the years there have been two places that that, that I have found that I would live.
And, and now even that's changed I, I, the two places I liked the most, I liked the Phoenix, Scottsdale area. And I liked Seattle, but then I was at Phoenix. I have a friend in Scottsdale who I visit a couple of times a year and I went in July and in July, it was 108 degrees at midnight at midnight through that.
And, and, and Seattle, the rain, I just, I just can't take it's beautiful when it's not raining.
Chris Riggins: These people in Seattle, like I literally took how for granted how much sun we get because my homies from Seattle came down and we were all in the house watching the game. And I'm like, why are you guys outside?
And they're like, we don't see the sun that much. We're staying out in the sun until it goes down. It will come inside and it didn't hit me. And that's in that. And that's why Seattle has such a high depression rate. And then it
Host Brian Copeland: does the highest in the country. I think.
Chris Riggins: The Phoenix area, it's a million degrees.
Then you got to deal with maggots and then [00:19:00] you got to, you know what I mean? I deal with the, the MAGA crew, you got to deal with the border patrol people. And then you've got to think about all the aspects of your living before you decide where they want to go. The only place I've been to, the only two places I've been to that I really will consider moving to, and that is New York city.
And that's because it has everything I need there. Plus entertainment and all that in Berlin. And Berlin, because it's affordable, it's still got all the opportunities and still a nice culture. It's health care, uh, weed and do everything I do here in Berlin. Mine is having a beach.
Host Brian Copeland: You know, you just explained something because, because I invited and guy will be, you guys all know, and guy was a regular on the show to come on today.
And he says, I can't, I'm in Berlin. I'm thinking, what's he doing in Berlin now? I get it. There's weed. Yeah.
Chris Riggins: In Berlin, you could work at a coffee house and still make enough money to live comfortably, go on a [00:20:00] vacation for two weeks and possibly buy a home in the future. It's, it's literally set up for you to win. And you know, I know Berlin has its downfalls. I'm not going to say it's perfect, but if I'm looking at things, this is what I look at and people leave in California for.
Texas and Florida, they really do have their vacation goggles on. Cause when you go to Texas, if you're not in Austin, you're in Texas. No, you're in Texas, Florida. If you're not in Miami, you're in Florida. So people forget that like this, this is between Austin, Texas and Texas
Host Brian Copeland: and the rest of Texas, you had something you were going to show us.
You
Johnny Steele: were a couple of things. You know, uh, certainly gasoline is cheaper in houses and everything like that. But I have friends who are spending 1, 000 in winter months on heating and 800 here. I don't know if you can see the, where is that? That's my electricity bill. Can you see it? Are you kidding me? 60 for March.
60. I don't know if you can see it. Okay. Okay. But what's your gas? That's the whole thing. That's the, that's the [00:21:00] whole boot. That's gas and
Host Brian Copeland: electric. Cause I'm by myself in my house and my, and I have not been using the heat very much. I've got a gas burning, uh, stove and a gas burning stove and a gas burning fireplace.
And my PG and E bill has been 500 a month for more. The over the course of the last three months, and it was the same thing last winter, and they say it's because the price of gas, because when I call them bits, they see the price of gas has gone up and all my neighbors are saying the same thing, 500 bucks a month in the PG and E bill.
Johnny Steele: That's my whole nut. Let me see. Uh, What my gas is. My gas is half that. So I don't know what you're doing. I'm not going to make any jokes about black people being cold, but I'm just going to say, I'm just going to look at my bill. Yeah. My gas bill is like 30 of that. You want to move in with me? I
Host Brian Copeland: will move in with you.
Yeah. 500 bucks. I mean, that's just ridiculous.
Chris Riggins: I'm going to be honest with you, Brian. I've had a extension cord running from your house to my house.
Host Brian Copeland: I
Chris Riggins: didn't think you noticed it, but okay. [00:22:00]
Host Brian Copeland: My cable bill is higher too. Is that you? I just got cable by the way. Yeah, cause my kids keep trying to get me to cut.
I got direct TV now, but I'm, it's like, I'm looking at it and go, why am I paying all this money? No, that's a waste of money.
Don Reed: Now,
Host Brian Copeland: so do you have cable anymore?
Don Reed: I have absolutely no cable whatsoever. No, I just use, um, streaming and the internet. You don't need to.
Chris Riggins: Yeah, I don't, I don't, I do all the Netflix Hulu that, I mean, the best part is having all those streaming services together ends up costing about as much as cable because you get
Don Reed: that
Chris Riggins: many.
Who needs that many though? Yeah. See, that's what you're saying now, but then lies that them, them last few episodes of this is us is on Hulu and you can't get it any other way. And you got to catch up. Don, you're going to spend that 8. 99 just to watch that. Like I, what I do is I, I I'll, I'll subscribe just to watch something.
And as soon as I'm done, cancel that and wait,
Don Reed: I do that. But I forget to unsubscribe and [00:23:00] then, then that's where they get me. Oh yeah.
Chris Riggins: The bundle thing. Cause like, I want
Don Reed: to watch that, that, um, that tennis match on CBS. And I forget, and I'm not even watching Paramount plus at all, but they get me. Yeah, that's how to get you,
Johnny Steele: you know, Brian, I also, I know there's something might sound crazy, but I put a set of rabbit ears on the TV.
I put them away when I'm not using them. I'm not. I'm mostly a football guy. As you probably know. Yeah. Football starts at 9 o'clock in the morning. You know, East Coast football, your Alabamas and whatnot. And it goes till nine o'clock at night with what used to be the Pac 12. There's a, there are two games on every network channel, football.
And I assume the same is similar with basketball and other sports all day, Saturday and pros all day, Sunday. You can't always watch exactly the match you want, but
Host Brian Copeland: you know. But still, yeah, I've got to look into it. Cause that's just, yeah, it's killing me. It's, it's absolutely killing me. You know what, what I'm paying for it.
I'm thinking about, you know, it's just, it's local channels. And I like to watch cable news and all that. And there's a, and there must be a way to do it without. No wonder.
Johnny Steele: [00:24:00] Nope. No wonder you got to get all these movie roles. You got a thousand dollars in cable and electricity every month. Yeah, basically.
And that's, I wish it was an
Host Brian Copeland: exaggeration. Let me, let me ask you this. We, we, we were talking about, uh, uh, we were talking about, Uh, about Florida and, uh, there is a case in Florida right now, actress by the name of Gina Carano. And she, you know, she is, you familiar with her? Okay. I'd never heard of her before.
I, she,
Chris Riggins: she
Host Brian Copeland: played a bounty hunter on Disney's, uh, the Mandalorian, which I've never seen, I guess that's a Star Wars show, right? Okay, so the deal was is that she posted, she's posted a lot of crazy shit on on an X slash Twitter over the years of denying the 2020 election. Um, you know, uh, objecting to COVID restrictions.
Um, she refused to ship to show support for trans rights. So, uh, they, so Disney had [00:25:00] her, uh, do some kind of a zoom meeting with a LGBTQ organization and she pissed them off. And the final straw came, uh, when she posted that the way that. Um, conservatives are treated on social media is, is comparable to how Jews were treated during the Holocaust.
And she said there were thousands of thousands of Jews killed, not millions, thousands, and, and, and she, and it was comparable to how conservatives are being treated on social media. So Disney said, that's the last straw you're out. So she's suing him and and Disney's trying to get it dropped saying that they have a First Amendment right to determine, you know, who it is that represents their company, but Elon Musk is paying her legal bills and Elon Musk says he'll pay the legal bills of anybody who gets fired for anything that they posted on on his platform.
He'll pay the bill.
Don Reed: Pardon? People [00:26:00] keep forgetting. She's an MMA fighter. She's been hitting the head. Well,
Chris Riggins: the funny thing is Disney even gave her an opportunity to cool it. Disney said, look, fam, we get it. You don't have to believe everything we believe, but as long as you work for us. You can't say these things like, just, just be cool.
Like you can have your beliefs. You can believe you can be anti vax. You can be all that. But if we require Vax for you to work here, you got to get Vax. You can believe whatever you want about trans people, but if you're going to work here, you better keep that to yourself. And she didn't and she got fired and it's just like any job, any job that has, uh, uh, uh, uh, was a conduct clause that says you can't be saying these things because your work, you're representing us.
People don't know her from MMA. People know her from working for Disney. So now it's kind of like, Yeah, you got fired for, for, for doing what they asked you not to do and you can't sit here. Now, the whole, the thing that's funny is that you're getting treated like Jews. [00:27:00] Okay,
honestly, and this may get us all canceled. I kind of feel like maybe we should start treating like that. Maybe if we really do them in an oven, they'd understand. This is what really happened. You not being able to post them is not the same as life being taken. Somebody
Host Brian Copeland: rounding up your family and putting them in a gas chamber.
I mean, how, how can you make, I mean, cause you see, uh, just some of, of, of the, the, the irrational comparisons that the far right makes, you know, I mean, everything is compared to slavery or everything's compared to Jim Crow. And it's like, you don't know what in the hell you're talking about.
Chris Riggins: Yeah, they do that to make us feel like, 'cause that's their way of trying to get us to say, oh, well then we relate, then we should, we should get along.
Okay, well if, if you're being treated like slaves and my people are treated like slaves, we're friends now. And, and it's just literally the, the most virtue signaling it is just, it's pathetic. And even, and let's not even say [00:28:00] that, it's just. The right side, because there are a lot of people on the left side who over embellish things, who, oh, I'm being attacked.
It's like, no, you're being disagreed with. And that's okay. Like, I don't
Johnny Steele: know. Everybody's a Nazi who is to the right of you. If you're a Bay area, far left for everyone's a Nazi. So it's just, you know, it's a similar thing. You're right. And don't forget, this is not new. You can go back to Jimmy, the Greek member of him got lost, uh, Gilbert Godfrey, remember him, uh, black duck or something.
And remember what happened, Brian?
Host Brian Copeland: He got fired. I had Gilbert did headliners on the headlines for me once. Um, and he, and I was really surprised because I had never, I'd never met him before and he was so soft spoken and he talked about all his controversies about, well, the first one was the, the, the nine 11 controversy where he was doing a roast of somebody.
I can't remember who was being roasted. I want to say it was like John Stamos or somebody, and he comes up to the desk and this is like, you know, September 13th, [00:29:00] you know, uh, and he said, Uh, I was a little late getting here because my plane took a detour to the empire state building. And so people booed and he goes too soon.
And that's where too soon came from, by the way, was, was that. So then he, so then since he's lost them already, he starts telling the aristocrats joke.
But so, so he got fired from that gig. He got fired from the Aflac gig. I can't remember what, what did he do with the Aflac gig that he got fired for?
Johnny Steele: Wasn't it? Wasn't it a Asian voice of some sort? Isn't that what he was? I forget exactly. Yeah, something
Host Brian Copeland: like that. And it was a third thing that he got in trouble for.
I don't know if he really did this or if this was just a joke that he told and, and got in trouble because he told the joke. But what the joke was, was he said it like it was like at a dinner. It was like a black tie thing. He goes, yeah. He goes, I met Jackie. Um, [00:30:00] Onassis. Uh, last week for the first time. And I didn't know, what do you say to Jackie Onassis?
So I said, uh, so where were you when Kennedy got shot?
Johnny Steele: No, I know, I know we're all biased here a little bit, but I think comics a little bit of free reign and here's why we trade in exaggeration. I mean, I can take any act. I think I have a joke about my sister and the joke is that she holds a Western States Uh, regional record for going the longest without picking up a bill after a fucking family dinner.
You know, it's an exaggeration. There's no such record. There's no seven stage regional classification. She's a grifter in my opinion, maybe not hers or her neighbors. But so it's an exaggeration. She's probably paid some point somewhere. So, you know, I don't want someone coming after me from the American Grifters Association trying to cancel me because, you know, it's a, I've got jokes I make about myself, you know, uh, I've been trying to [00:31:00] lose, uh, I recently realized I've been trying to lose 10 pounds for 10 years, you know, and you just exaggerate.
And, you know, so I think we get a little bit of freedom. I mean, you know, I don't know, there are things that are too sensitive and here's another thing, let's face it. And I think you guys are probably in there too, a little bit, maybe done less, but we like to go up. It's my, my manager used to call it cookie jar humor.
You know, your mom says don't go in that cookie jar until dinner. Soon as she turns her back, what are you doing? Yeah, in the cookie jar. It's not even the cookie. It's taking a risk, taking a chance, pushing the envelope a little bit, you know? So, uh, yeah. So it was Japan tweets. Uh, I looked it up. Gilbert Gottfried.
Remember it was after the tsunami and he said, Oh, here comes my house or something like that or something.
Host Brian Copeland: I'm laughing at it because I've got a six century Uber.
Johnny Steele: These things that people recoil at when the four of us are behind closed doors in a green room having a beer or something and someone says something we all howl. If you did that thing, you know, on your [00:32:00] appearance on the CBS nightly news or something. Yeah.
Host Brian Copeland: Or on stage or let me, let me ask you guys this.
I saw something on, uh, uh, on my Facebook feed in the last week that just really bothered me. Uh, there's a comic and you guys may know him. I'm not going to mention him by name. He's based in the Midwest. And, um, you know, back in the day, I used to work with him a lot and just funnier than hell. And he posted about how.
He's, he's, he's having trouble getting booked because, and he finally asked the club owner, what's the problem? And the club owner said to him, he's in the sixties club owner said to him, you're too old. You don't have anything to say to, uh, to the audiences who are coming in now. They just, what are you talking about?
The first 25 minutes of my act is stuff that's in the news. You know, well, they don't wanna hear an old guy talking about the news. You're, you're too, uh, you're too old for, uh, you know, for, for our audiences. And that's why we're not giving you dates. And first of all, it's unbelievable that you would say that because it's age discrimination.
[00:33:00] However, I think you get a pass in show business on age discrimination. I think that's one of the few, few, uh, uh, uh, occupations where you, you, you can't sue based upon that, that they, that they are allowed.
Chris Riggins: One thing I will say in this situation is it's only okay. If the club has a gun complaints. Be their demographic is so young that they know it's just not going to be a good connect because there's clubs that I don't do and I've gone to the club and I realized why I don't do the club.
Okay. Yeah. You guys, you guys don't want to hear my black tank. You want to hear angry white guys talk. That's your client. Okay. Didn't you say like the mothership. And in Austin, that is a safe space for those type of comics to go there, be on the edge, be, be, be, be crass, all that. And that's their space. And I probably will never get booked to do that.
And I'm okay with that. Um, I think, you know, in my mind, and I'm not saying he's wrong for feeling how he feels. I always feel that when [00:34:00] these types of things happen, you have to really do a self evaluation. You gotta really say, how did I get to a point where these people see that? As opposed to what I see, because it could be very simple that he went up there one night in that venue and they were like, no, no, because I've seen I've seen funny comics go up to a show at a certain venue and they try something new or they do a set that isn't the best set or it isn't really they're working stuff out in the clubs.
Like, well, you, you wasted your opportunity to get in here by doing a set that doesn't fit here. And we can't, we can't do it now. I don't think the age thing should be an issue. I don't think any clubs would say you're too old because I think it's important for young people to hear old people's views. I think that's it.
Host Brian Copeland: Here's my argument. My argument is that would be all right. So let me get this straight. If, if Jerry Seinfeld came in here. And said he wanted to, wanted to headline. You're gonna tell him he is too old. You know, he, he's, he's older than this comic is. You know, if somebody like that came in, here's the
Johnny Steele: difference, here's [00:35:00] the difference.
Common is like the mob. Once you're made in the mob, no one can touch you and you're in forever and you're protected forever. Once you're famous, it's very hard to unfamous somebody. I mean, every time I turn around, uh, Jimmy Walker is playing somewhere around the neighborhood still. When was, when was, when was, when was the last time Good Times was on the air?
I didn't even know he was still working. Oh, yeah. I see casinos and everything. You can't unfamous people. And he actually
Don Reed: packs it out. He was at, um, uh, club out in Novato and Novato. Novato, California. Okay. Who goes there? Bay jam packed out the door.
Johnny Steele: So Wow. So now if you're famous, you can't unfamous somebody and he might be 70.
Well, you can Bill Cosby. Don't you can. It's hard to,
Chris Riggins: Bob
Don Reed: Coby famous now. He's infamous.
Chris Riggins: Exactly. He's still famous. He's just a different kind of famous now unpopular, not a famous, I think that's what it's, it's infamous and famous and infa. Can, can still be good too, depending on what [00:36:00] you're infamous for.
Like the fact that people still care what OJ thinks, the fact that people, I mean, like that type of behavior, Diddy is on the way to being infamous. There's so don't want to go too far,
Johnny Steele: but here's, here's how, here's how Gilbert Gottfried got infamous or unfamous or whatever, here's the Japan joke after the tsunami washed ashore and wiped everything away.
He says, uh, I just split up with my girlfriend, but like they, the Japanese say, don't worry, there'll be another one floating by any minute now.
He said that like days after the tsunami had destroyed. Look at Brian,
Host Brian Copeland: how hard
Johnny Steele: he's laughing.
Host Brian Copeland: Would've killed. See, I've got a six. I've got a six sense of humor. I've got a comic sense of humor. And see, these are things that I'm gonna get emails. I know I'm gonna get emails. That wasn't funny. Why were you letting that people die?
I know. I'm gonna get that. I know I will get that from listeners and from viewers, but it, it is. Funny. And that's, and when comics get behind closed doors, we tell those [00:37:00] jokes that we usually can't tell or a Friday night late show. When you got a couple of cocktails in you, you might say, you might say, you know, the behind doors, green room jokes that you wouldn't tell otherwise.
Johnny Steele: Um, just one other note about, um, all this. Because I sort of studied this as I got older and we're all getting to a certain age, I sort of figured am I relevant still? And the way, when you look at comics who are relevant, yeah, they might have been famous before, but they also, my man, did you ever hear this term five ticket comic?
So my manager said, Johnny, you sell tickets to a couple of guys who want to hear your smart ass offhand irreverent and take no prisoners, but you sell one or two tickets. Five ticket. Here's how a five ticket guy works. He sells a ticket to the 13 year old boy, the 15 year old daughter, the son, the daughter, the 38 year old mom, the 42 year old dad, and the 65 year old grandpa.
The act is accessible and relevant to all of them. There's no politics, no sex, no religion, no anti patriotism, no Camus references. Uh, no, my [00:38:00] aging back is killing me. Everybody gets the premise. Everybody gets the punchline. The setup is easy. Gaffigan, um, you know, Brian Regan. And you probably know some of your own comics.
Well,
Host Brian Copeland: it's a dirty word to say it now is the truth. And, you know, and that's caused me. You know, I worked with Cosby for 10 years when he came, would come to the Bay area and stuff. And, you know, regardless of all of the other things, and I don't mean to diminish that at all, or what's happened to him, so I'm gonna make sure I'm clear about that, but it was interesting to watch his act because you would see people in the audience and I'm not exaggerating from eight to 80.
You know, people would bring their, their, their kids and the kids would laugh. Sure. They were actually getting, you know, he would do the dentist routine and stuff. And the, and the kids were laughing and the 80 year olds were laughing. But that's a rare breed. I mean, how do you do
Johnny Steele: that? I, well, I, I had to pull stuff outta my own act.
You know, I have jokes about having played football for 10 years and my body's mangled, and you guys are all the same. Make sure you love this. I said when I was high [00:39:00] school, all I wanted to, when I was in high school, all I wanted to do was play at Stanford. Now all I wanna do is not walk like Fred Sanford, , hold the car.
Ah, I'm walking. Get you. Exactly. Mm-Hmm, . And, you know, that worked 20 years ago. I worked 15 years ago. It just doesn't work. So I pull, you know, I comb through and pull those things out so I can. Well, you know, I'll pull that out if I'm doing a 55 and up community, but I'll pull it out for, you know, I'll be at the punchline next week, two weeks from now.
And I'm going to not do
Host Brian Copeland: that in general. All right. Let me ask you this question too, because you, you, you, um, are you do these shows at the punchline in San Francisco on occasion where I guess it's comics from the eighties and the nineties, where like you and Larry bubbles Brown and some of the really hysterical guys, you guys get together.
And you, you, you do, you know, you're, you're, you're doing a show that, and, and, and please don't take this the wrong way. It's an oldies show. Basically, because we call it the old school comedy blowout and you're getting you're probably getting the people who came and saw you [00:40:00] back in the day. Right? And see to me and no offense.
I won't do a show like that. And the reason being is because to me, it's like, it's like seeing my favorite band that I loved in high school. Who's now playing at the Alameda County fair.
Don Reed: Yeah, no, no, no books that I highly disagree. I disagree because I know I could do that show and I could do open as a warm up for a Disney kids show.
If you got the scope, you've got the scope. You have the capability to do a dirty wild room or do a another room. If you got that capability to shift your material, you've done it long enough. You can do that. I could do the old school show and go do a show at a college. Yeah. It's still grab.
Johnny Steele: So John is absolutely right.
So Brian, we felt like you felt at first, and we were even looking to go out and do 55 and up communities and golf country clubs and all that. And I'm telling you, ask Michael as Michael Meehan is on the show. Ask any of the staff members who come up to me after I come up [00:41:00] after the kid, the people who come up after the show and talk to us are under 30.
The people who are screaming in the front row are under 30 because Two things. One, I made my act accessible to everyone. And then number two, in some cases where Michael Meehan has a reference, he does a, he does what if Charles Bronson, 70s action, uh, revenge film star had a cooking show. Well, these kids don't know Charles Bronson, but the bit is so ridiculous.
Hey, knock, knock. Who's there? Could be some punks. I'll put my 45 in this turkey. You know, no one will think I'm pecking heat in a flightless bird. You know, it's crazy. And I went, I saw a comic years ago, real quickly, Leland Brown. Do you remember him? The guitar? Yeah. And he was doing a Tom wait, singing the Flintstone song.
So after I saw a guy howling and a guy, and I went to the guy, I knew he wasn't a Tom Waits fan. I went there and said, you like Tom Waits? And he said, no, who's Tom Waits. And I said, that's who Leland was singing. The Flintstone song is. I don't know who the hell it was, but it was [00:42:00] funny as heck, man. I logged that in my brain, the delivery.
It wasn't a set up in a punchline syllogism joke. He acted out the bit as does Michael mean in a way that you don't necessarily have to remember or know all the variables. You get the idea. Some guy who hates punks, who was a thug, you know, a kick ass in, in, in, in revenge movies now has a cooking show and he thinks there's punks everywhere.
And he's hiding a gun in a Turkey. Yeah. You know, it's funny. So, so make the bit so outlandish and so ridiculous and do characters don't always speak in the, in the narrative right at them, you know, so there are ways, you know, to get around all this. So believe it or not, you come on down where they're made first, come on down, do a set if you want.
Um, I guarantee you. Half the crowd will be under 30 or 35 and the people knocking on our door after they came up and said, we go to a lot of comedy shows. It's vagina. This, you know, blah, blah, blah. This is the funniest, most clever show we've done. Yeah. We've all been doing it for 40 years. And the guys are usually watching, they've been doing it for six or eight years.
So we're better comics. And so if you just come through your act a little bit and figure out [00:43:00] what might Confus or alienate them and, and, and get rid of it or tweak it, you'd be okay without pandering. That, that, that's the hard part is, is you can't pandering. No, I'm not pandering. I don't pand at anybody.
You know, ? No, I'm not
Host Brian Copeland: accusing, I'm not accusing you of pandering. I'm saying I'm, lemme tell this, lemme
Johnny Steele: tell you. Brian Copeland joke. Uh, you can't spank your kids. And what city was it? Uh, Berkeley. I
Host Brian Copeland: don't know. Right. You remember? I forgot Joseph. Most guys. Right. Yeah.
Chris Riggins: You definitely spank your kids in Berkeley.
I like to present my mother as evidence of that.
Johnny Steele: You couldn't spank your kids in one town, so the kids are getting unruly in the car and the driver turns back and says, you just wait until we get to Albany, you know, that'll work for any audience age, any political persuasion, any, anything, a joke like that will work for everybody. I remember you're doing that bit every night.
It worked every time. And I would look at the audience. And everybody got it. Dumb guys, smart guys, conservatives, [00:44:00] liberals, young people, old people.
Host Brian Copeland: And I'm trying to think where was I do now? I vaguely remember the joke, but it was of wherever it was. It was illegal to spank your kids. And the joke was I'm driving and I go soon as soon as we get to Albany, your ass is mine.
Do I have to help you with your own act? So much stuff you forget. I mean, there's so much stuff that you forget. You remember other people's acts because you watch them.
Don Reed: You had a good inappropriate joke, something about a, uh, uh, uh, a amusement ride. That was a Martin Luther King ride. Did you have? Oh, yeah,
Host Brian Copeland: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, here's what that joke was. And that joke I still will do on occasion. And that was that, um, is that the King estate, uh, which was run by Dexter, his son, Dexter, Um, he had four kids and his son, Dexter, the second kid, one was Martin Luther King, third became a preacher and Dexter became a businessman.
And so he went to Graceland and met with Priscilla Presley to try to figure [00:45:00] out how to market his father the way she marketed Elvis. Cause you know, Elvis was only worth 2 million when he died. And now Graceland's worth 2 billion. And so he came up with this idea for, and I have a dream theme park. Yeah, and I have a dream of theme park and no, when I was called it, yeah, it was, yeah, it was the, the, I have a dream theme park and they would, they would have the, I have a dream ride and I think, what was the joke?
I did. The joke I did was like, you know, how they're going to market it for your last for your last by one at the regular price of the second ticket will be free. It was something like that. But yeah, so there's, there's stuff like that, that, that, you know, you can do that. Anybody will get, and by the way, I'm not slamming that show.
I want to be real clear with what I said, Johnny. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I didn't take that at all. I just was thinking about, you know, as I said, it's like, I went and saw, you know, I, I mentioned this before in embarrassingly that I went and saw Aureal's feedback and said
Don Reed: [00:46:00] that you should not have mentioned that.
Host Brian Copeland: Oh, I got one. I got a better one for you than that. Speaking of County Fair acts. Um, guess who they're making a biopic. See musical biopics are, are, are huge now because of the Bob Marley biopic did so well that now they're doing everybody's an Amy Winehouse one coming out. And there's all these people that make movies.
They're making an air supply biopic. Cause there was so many questions about Arizona that I wanted to know, you know, about, about the bread of the eighties. There's so many, there's so many questions about airs, so many questions, you know, where you really all out of love, you know,
Chris Riggins: what, what biography I want.
I want cameo. I want know Larry Blackman's need for this cod piece. Wow. Oh, I wanna all
Don Reed: you know, just
Chris Riggins: like Candy was a song about drugs. Oh, I just found that out. I just
Don Reed: found that out just
Chris Riggins: now. Just like candy.
Johnny Steele: Oh, they talking about
Chris Riggins: cocaine. [00:47:00]
Johnny Steele: You guys, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, alright. Disclosure Brian nine 2017.
I know if you guys can see that. I opened for air supply, sold out crowd, Dean Lesher, Walnut Creek, 600 people in there. And ladies, they went down the aisles with the remote on their guitars and ladies were coming. They had security guards. Women were jumping up at them and everything. I'm just crazy.
Host Brian Copeland: I can beat that.
I can beat that. I opened for Air Supply, believe it. Or what, where, where I opened for air supply at the Circle Star Theater. Oh, there you go. Uh, towards the end of the Circle Star Theater. Circle Star Theater was a, if you're listening from out outside the Bay Area, the Circle Star Theater was a very, very famous, uh, uh, theater in, where was it San Carlos?
Is that where it was? Yeah. Yeah. Bay Area and what the deal was. And they had every Kin Cole played his last concert there before he died. I saw Sinatra [00:48:00] there, people like that. Yeah. And what the deal was. Was that the stage spun on a stage and the stage rotated slowly, you know, uh, you know, uh, 360 degrees.
So the whole time you're doing your set, the, the, the stage is spinning. So you start telling the joke to, you know, you look at a one person in the audience and you look up and it's somebody else because they're behind you. And that was the weird, I only played it once. That was the weirdest experience, but it worked.
And they were, you know, they were, and I will tell you, I, I, you know, When I was, was in college, girls love their supply. And so I went to a number of air supply concerts and I go pay, I'm not paying 20 bucks to go see, you know, the behind the scenes, I mean, I'm not that interested.
Johnny Steele: Talk. So my camera will come on, but read it and we've signed.
It's signed a sign by God.
Host Brian Copeland: And here's the thing that I don't get is why do you have it accessible that you can grab it [00:49:00] just in case someone brings up air supply. I want
Johnny Steele: to be ready. I have 18 guitars and 40 picks within reach of me right now. I'm all out
Chris Riggins: of
Host Brian Copeland: love. Oh, they had a lot of heads that they did have a lot of heads, girl.
You're every woman in the world to me. So maybe I will go see it.
Uh, let's see. I take, um, serious. What I wanted to get to. Uh, before we get out of here and, um, that is the, um, the Kremlin. I don't know if you've been following the Kremlin family case. Uh, Ethan Kremlin was a 15 year old kid who in 2021, um, shot up his school and he killed four of his classmates and wounded several others, and he pled guilty was sentenced to life without parole.
Then they find out the backstory. And the back story is, is that he had serious mental problems [00:50:00] and his parents gave him a gun. They bought him the gun as a, an early Christmas present after Thanksgiving. And it's between Thanksgiving and Christmas break that he shot all these people. So they found his journals and texts and things where he said he's hearing voices.
He's asked his parents to get him help. He asked his father, please get me a therapist. And his father said, suck it up. His father told him to suck it up. So for the first time ever, the parents of a school shooter were charged with manslaughter and in separate trials, they were both convicted of manslaughter.
And today it was today, today, yesterday, they were sentenced to 10 to 15 years. Good 10 to 15 years. So I'm asking, you know, you're saying good. Do you think that they should be charged? Their argument was they didn't pull the trigger, but the prosecution was like, you know, you had multiple warnings the day that he shot the kid.
Here's the biggest thing the day that their son killed these kids. They were called to the counselor's office. Because he turned in his math [00:51:00] homework and on his math homework, he had drawings of some of somebody holding a gun and, and people laying on the ground, having been shot. And they called the parents in from work, said, this is it.
And the parents kind of blew it off and didn't even take him out of school that day. And then later on that day, uh, before the school was old school day was over, he shot all these people. So. You know, so do you, do you think that this was the right call and do you think that any parents whose kids, you know, uh, get hold of their gun or they buy him a gun and they, they, they shoot up to school should be held responsible.
Chris Riggins: Parenting is not a precise. Nobody has ever figured it completely out. No parents are perfect. And I know kids are not easy to raise. It's just, it's a, it's a, I hate to say like, this is a crap sheet. Like you, you just got to realize that you're raising a human that may have mental issues that you don't understand.
Um, but in this circumstance, this child knew he needed help. [00:52:00] He knew what was best for him. He knew he wasn't feeling right. And he went to these adults and said, mom, dad, I need help. I'm hearing, I mean, I'm hurting and they ignored him. And I know it's not easy. Like I said, it's not easy being a parent. I'm not saying that I know these people struggle, but I don't know as a father.
If my daughters came to me in any inkling and said, dad, I'm in pain, I'm dropping everything to figure out how to get my baby's help, make sure that they are safe and happy and healthy. And these parents ignored their child. Why? Because they felt it was like, suck it up. Well, now you suck it up. I hope you get, I hope you have to suck it up for 15 because there's, like I said, There's no, there's no manual to raising kids, Brian, you know, I
Host Brian Copeland: raised three of a single dad and raised three of them.
Chris Riggins: We're all sitting here as fathers. We know there is no guidebook to how you do this, but you have to [00:53:00] listen to these, these humans you made them. You have to watch them. Like, I saw my daughter looking sad and I was like, baby, what's wrong? I picked up on it and she was upset because she was having trouble with her math homework.
So we got her a tutor and we sat there with her for hours trying to figure this out. And that's how you do it. And those parents, I, they deserve, I felt they should get life too. That's just me. But
Don Reed: I think if you can, if, if the court of law can establish you are exposed to or had knowledge of the. Help that was needed, like the calls for help, the journals, things of that nature, establish that the parent was exposed to that information, then they should.
Be liable as well. That's what I think.
Johnny Steele: You know what? Those parents should have told that kid, Brian, when we get to Albany, you are going to get[00:54:00]
young man, all this shooting and whatnot.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, see, let's see, I go farther than the parents knowing because there are cases where the parents should know. Like, for example, if you look at Columbine, these kids were building pipe bombs in their bedrooms. Now, I didn't, you know, unless I was given a reason, I, you know, I tried to respect my children's privacy, but I still went in their rooms.
I didn't go through journals or stuff like that, but if you got pipe bombs sitting on your desk and gunpowder, I mean, how the hell do you not know your kids building pipe bombs?
Chris Riggins: Yeah,
Don Reed: the 1st thing is the distance. Um, I would, I think I would have picked up on if 1 of my sons is not at the table anymore.
He's not at the dinner table very much. He's in the back room. I don't feel like eating. That would be the 1st sign. A lot of solitary behavior would trigger questions. Like, what's going on here? What's up with you? I think all these people have shown that kind of a solitary dynamic in their life, you know, [00:55:00]
Johnny Steele: our parents got on us when we were in the garage making pipes and bongs.
What are you making out there? Oh,
Chris Riggins: nothing. I'm sitting here thinking like, yeah, I did hate that. My parents were, were always in my business. I hated that my mom would go in my room, but I'm so glad she did as an apparent now, because I understand what she was doing. She wasn't Trying to control me. She was just trying to be aware of what is going on.
Like, Oh my God, my son has hypodermic needles all over his room. Let me figure out if he's on drugs. You know what I mean? That that's the thing. Or
Host Brian Copeland: if he's diabetic.
Chris Riggins: Yeah, exactly. And, and, and I hate to say this, I'm not going to even, I hate to be like this, but I have this, this inkling that black parents are a little bit more intrusive into their kids lives to the point that we learned how to, we, we have to maneuver around it.
Don't close that door. Don't you close that door to my house. You don't pay no business. You can't have nobody up in your room. Yeah. I'm I'm pick up the phone. Why are [00:56:00] you on the phone? Why? Because you want my fault. Like that's right. Oh yeah. But in a way I'm, I'm glad it happened. You know what I mean? I think there's limits to it.
Yes, you do have to give your kids a certain amount of privacy because they are developing humans. They need to learn how to do these things on their own, but you need to be in their life to the point where you can tell if something's wrong. Like my mom to this day can hear it in my voice. If I, if I call her and she hears it in my voice, she'll stop.
Hey, what's wrong? You're not sounding like yourself.
Host Brian Copeland: That's how my mother was. My mother always knew, always knew, no matter how much I tried to cover it.
Chris Riggins: And for these parents to sit here and not even think that anything was wrong. Cause kids don't often go to their parents and say, Hey mom, dad, this ain't working, right?
Well,
Host Brian Copeland: he said to him, I'm hearing voices. I'm hearing voices. Well, let me buy you a gun. Maybe the gunshots can drown out the voices.
Chris Riggins: I'm sorry. I just, this would have been a lot different if he just shot them.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. Well, I [00:57:00] mean now the three three of us have, have, have, have raised children. Johnny Ha has, has not.
So I'm gonna give Johnny the flip side of it. And, and what were your, were, were your parents the kind of parents that would have had, could you have been, been comfortable going to your parents saying, look, you know, I'm struggling, or I'm hearing voices, or I need a therapist, or, or would you have been told to suck it up because you come, you know, you come from a jock family.
Johnny Steele: I do come from my dad's in our high school hall of fame half back undefeated three years in the late forties. My uncle went off to, was drafted by the Dodgers. So I come from a suck it up jock family, but you know, my mother was also, you know, my steel is not a real name. I came from Pittsburgh, California.
So steel town was a name. A coach called me in college, Johnny steel town, Pittsburgh. So I'm, my mother's Italian, Sicilian, you know, and I was the baby. So she was there for me. Yeah, she was, she was there and it was, My siblings are seven and 10 years older, so I was sort of like an older child. Yeah, I was, I, I had a good relationship with them and I was a decent, I don't know.
It's hard to say because I didn't go down that path. You know, I was a jock and a pretty decent [00:58:00] kid. If you consider like 2. 5 GPA decent.
Host Brian Copeland: And I'm going to mention, and I hope that it's okay that I mentioned this. Your, your, your brother, Steve Lopez was a columnist for the, for the Los Angeles times. who
Johnny Steele: also wrote the book, the soloist about finding a homeless, um, musician on the street playing Beethoven.
And then the movie, as I say, in the film and my, and my standup act, my brothers played by Robert Downey Jr. Jamie Foxx plays a homeless musician and being in the screen actors guild for. 30 years having done a couple of network show roles, some advertising roles. Did you see the role that my brother got me in his movie?
Watch the movie. There's a hunt. The movie's 10 years old. There's a hundred roles for like a 48 year old construction worker and, you know, pushing the gurney blood pressure 40 or, you know, whatever, a hundred roles in that movie for me.
Host Brian Copeland: Oh, I'm really going to rub salt in it. I met your brother once and I [00:59:00] got called to, uh, I was, uh, was called on the MC.
Uh, a big, um, awards dinner for people who had done things to erase the stigma of mental illness. It was at the Beverly Hilton and, uh, and your, your brother was one of the, was the main honoree because of that.
Johnny Steele: And that's, he's never been, he's never been at such an event. He's, he's never been at such an event for guys who got their brother a role in his movies.
Host Brian Copeland: And I'll tell you what else I introduced myself and I said, I'm a friend of your brothers. And he was like,
I'm going to kid. I mean, he was, it was like, Oh, you know, excuse me. There's some people say it's your brother. So is there something I need? There's some Cain and Abel crap going on between
Johnny Steele: you guys. I need Doba. Well, I say joke sometimes. He is got, uh, three novels, book of essays, the soloist, a movie made about him, colonist with the LA Times.
And um, uh, he also does commentary on public radio in la. But, um, [01:00:00] I'm at the sports bar in Turlock on Tuesday. . So
how many, how many years between you guys? Six and a half. So he was, he was off to college when I was 11, you know, okay. So he was pretty supportive. He came to my college football games and we were pals, but he's always been unlike me. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm a little more of a screw off. He was always very career driven.
Oakland Tribune, youngest column, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury, which is people don't know is a really good top 10 papers in the country. Yeah. And then off to time magazine and such as that. very much. But I'll be playing in Gilroy at Daryl's Country Western Bar on Tuesday. All Budweiser half off till six.
Host Brian Copeland: And Uncle Sammy's Chuckle Hut. I'll be there. I'll be playing at Uncle Sammy's Chuckle Hut in Petaluma.
Johnny Steele: It's one of those deals where we came outta the same gene pool and out of the same wound, but he was always career driven. And I was sort of, you know, like you, I had local radio and TV shows. I had a couple of development deals.
I was with all [01:01:00] the same agencies. We've all been with your Brustein or your, you know, your, uh, William Morris and all. William Morris. William Morris. I was always dogging when they wouldn't call me for a week and I, I redid their letterhead on her. Uh, on my graphic arts to, to, to write the will ignore us agency.
Host Brian Copeland: Well, that was the joke. And that's it is that they would only come to find out. And that's widespread throughout Hollywood. That was the William Morris. I was with William Morris for like 15 years and that William Morris will only call you back. If you've already got a gig, if you guys, and so that was the, the joke was, um, at the Superbowl, how come nobody saw Janet Jackson's other breast, uh, because it was represented by that was, that was the joke I was with them for about 15 years.
That was great for my year.
Chris Riggins: William Morris endeavor now.
Host Brian Copeland: Yeah. William Morris endeavor. They have, they have merged. Where are you guys playing? Who's playing where?
Chris Riggins: Um, I'm not, you know, I got a bunch of shows, uh, uh, [01:02:00] I got the Netflix is a joke festival coming up next month that I'll be on, uh, the 4th, 7th and 9th.
You can catch my shows where,
Host Brian Copeland: where
Chris Riggins: I'll be at the hotel cafe on the 4th and 9th and at the
Host Brian Copeland: cafe where in what city,
Chris Riggins: LA and Hollywood. Uh, in Hollywood in the bourbon room in Hollywood on May 7th on July 20th, though, the big, the big day. Um, I'll be getting my name put on the outside of the comedy store, uh, awesome this year.
So if you guys want to come see that come, come through, it'd be great to have a whole Bay area contingent there for that. So it's awesome.
Host Brian Copeland: That's it. That's a huge deal. Congratulations, man. Thanks. Brilliant.
Don Reed: Um, April 25th, Redwood Nights. It's the Usually the last Thursday of every month Redwood night storytelling under the stars at Deer Park Villa and Fairfax very, very special setting.
Uh, the thing that night is, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but [01:03:00] so that's great for that. And then, um, speakeasy comedy nights, every Tuesday night, the 23rd. In fact, Johnny still will be. Hosting and throwing down that evening speakeasy comedy night is in Fairfax as well. And, um, we had Mark Curry recently.
We got, um, just super strong people, uh, bringing it on a regular basis. And then, uh, next month I'll be in LA, um, doing the Never Too Late show at the Curtis Theater. Um, that's my play about my, um, never giving up and my interaction with Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show as part of a deal I got with their, um, their library.
Host Brian Copeland: Awesome.
Johnny Steele: And, and Johnny, you're at what fair? I just want to know. It's wonderful for Chris, but my name is outside the old Tommy T's building in San Leandro. They didn't put it up. I just spray painted it on the wall. I'm pretty good at graffiti. Um, well, as Don said, uh, Max on Broadway, 23rd, uh, 28th, we're doing a fundraiser for Will Durst, uh, a bunch of us Bay Area [01:04:00] comics at the Sebastiani Theater.
Host Brian Copeland: By the way, um, I, I saw that and I didn't get called on that. And I'd like to be a part of that. So let me know if they can use
Johnny Steele: me. There's only about a few of us. Me, uh, I don't know who, uh, Jeff bolt, um, come on up. Uh, Will
Host Brian Copeland: Durst is, is comedy royalty in the Bay area. And he's one of, he's considered America's premier political comic.
And he had a stroke about how long, how long has it been now? Four years, more than three years, three over three years. Getting ready for a show backstage, getting ready for a show and had a stroke. And so, um, you know, and insurance runs out, you know, when you need long term care, insurance runs out. So, um, I'll talk to you off the air and find out what the specifics are, but I would, you know, I love Will.
I will come after
Johnny Steele: that. May 1st, Wednesday punchline with the old school guys. Always come, come to that and either do a set or hang out. You'd be amazed to see how many younger people we get that really liked the show. And then, uh, uh, Empress Theater with Diane Amos and maybe Derek Leonard. Cinco de Mayo, it's a fundraiser for a guy from [01:05:00] the North Bay.
A personal friend of mine for 40 years gave me my first gig, Richard Friedman. He was a manager
Host Brian Copeland: of mine when I was first
Johnny Steele: starting
Host Brian Copeland: out, Richard
Johnny Steele: Friedman. Sweet guy, a brutal carpe diem, my friends, because he was healthy and because could be a brutal form of rare aggressive. Cancer, three months, he was completely gone.
He's written over a hundred articles about comedy for various newspapers. If you had a gig in the area, he would run out and do a story with you. I mean, top notch guys all the way down to local chaps. And so, we're doing a fundraiser, you know, funeral bills are mounting. So, we're just going to help the family.
It's more of a gathering. It's comics and musicians. May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, in the afternoon. So, everybody can come. And it's a beautiful theater. If you've never been to the Empress, Brian, you want to pop into beautiful.
Host Brian Copeland: Uh, and I've got a couple of, actually a couple of big things, uh, that are coming up, uh, my solo show, not a genuine black man, uh, which is the, was my first one.
And it's the longest running solo show in Bay area theater history. Um, I, you know, I stopped doing it and [01:06:00] I did five other shows and now I have brought it back because April 20th marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of that show, as well as, as well as the 1000th performance and my birthday.
They're all, they all fall on the same day. So, uh, so we're, we're doing a special show on April 20th at the Marsh in San Francisco. If you want tickets, uh, go to, again, get them quickly, go to the marsh. org or you can go to Brian Copeland. com and, uh, and there's a link, uh, I'm doing a four shows. I've done one so far and the others, uh, I'm going to be there on Saturday, Saturday nights through, uh, through May the 4th.
Through May 4th, but the big one, the thousandth show on the big anniversary show will be on, uh, on the 4th, uh, I'm sorry, beyond the 20th, uh, other than what I mentioned, and I kind of mentioned it briefly, uh, on an earlier podcast, but didn't go into any detail during the pandemic, um, I [01:07:00] was bored as hell, like everybody else was under, under lockdown and I wrote a comp, I wrote a, a crime thriller, uh, a crime thriller called outrage and, uh, and it sold.
And, um, and it is, uh, being released internationally, uh, on the 23rd of April, I Googled it to kind of see where it was going to be and, uh, it's at Walmart, it's at Target, it's an Amazon, Barnes and Noble, it's in the UK, it's in Japan, it's in, you know, I said, Canada. It's like, Whoa. So it's being published on the 23rd and if you're in the Bay Area on the 28th, we're having a very big launch party at, uh, at book passage, which is the biggest, uh, independent bookstore in, uh, in the region, if you're here in Northern California.
So my friend, Michael Krasny, who was the host of a forum on NPR for a number of years is going to interview me. There'll be food and, uh, and there'll be a food and drink and, uh, and we'll, we'll, we'll talk about, uh, about the book. Yeah. And it's, it's a, it's a rip from the [01:08:00] headlines topic. And what it's about is, uh, the, the theme of it is, is that, uh, you, somebody, it's a Bay area story.
Somebody is killing cops who have shot unarmed black people and not been punished for. And, and my investigators are trying to find out who's doing it. And so, uh, so far the, the advanced reviews have been really, really good. And, uh, Uh, and, uh, in fact, the publisher was so happy. They asked for a second book on the series and I wrote that book.
And that book will be released in April of next year. Are
Johnny Steele: you, are you, are you sure you're not Steve Lopez's brother? Switched at birth, man. Yeah, I don't know who you are either. Who are you? Who
Host Brian Copeland: are you again? That was so weird. That was so weird because I was just, I expect, because I expected to go, Oh, you know, you know, cause when I run to people who are friends or brother, you know, they'll hug you.
Cause you know, the bro, you know, he was like, huh?
Johnny Steele: It was like that when he was 12, for Christ's sake, I'm, by the way, I'm working on [01:09:00] my solo show. I'm not a genuine hack man.
If I could make a living ad libbing, I'd be killing it.
Host Brian Copeland: Johnny Steele, Chris Ricketts, Don Reed. Thanks guys. Always a pleasure to have you. All right. That's going to do it for us, uh, this week. We'll be back next week with a whole new panel. Uh, if you want to support the show, there are a number of ways that you can do it.
If you're listening to us, uh, on, uh, on audio, go to the, whatever platform you're using. And give us a five star review that helps people to find the show. If you are watching us over YouTube, do me a favor and subscribe, didn't cost you anything. And we're, we're trying to get a thousand subscribers so that we can do the show live right now.
We pre pre recorded on Wednesdays, drop it on Thursdays. I want to start doing a live so you guys can chime in, you know, while, uh, while we're doing this. So, uh, so, and also tell your friends, you know, if you like the show, tell your friends, send them the link so they can listen to it. And, uh, we've got a lot, [01:10:00] I get, it's interesting.
We got a lot of listeners in Norway. How the hell do we have, who do I know in Norway? That's like Trump's, that's where Trump wants, wants immigrants from is from Norway. And for some reason, we got a lot of listeners in Norway. Um, and I'm not dogging your country. Thank you for listening in Norway. We appreciate it very much.
And they're coming out to see you with the mudslide, Johnny, from Norway. They're going to fly out. Yeah. Yeah. Is it better? Is it in there? And there was that wooden shoes. And is that Norway or where is that? I think that's the Netherlands. I think the Netherlands with the wooden shoes and the cloth and nose.
So I will check out next week. So then be kind to your neighbor. He knows where you live.