Paul Mecurio

0:00So you're here in town at your first time in Edmonton or no no, I've been here a few times. I welcome back here I don't know this is like my I don't know fifth time back. I was here in April when it was You know it was like a little nicer out. Yeah, I was like this is I gotta be a man I gotta come back when it's like 30 below and you know wear a dress and show everybody what a man I am Well New York's not much better right now. I heard they just got hit with something crazy. Yeah, we got like yeah But you guys you know we're compared to you guys like no because like we got like eight inches of snow and they canceled my flight I had to come in a day late with eight inches you people get eight inches in an hour You laugh at it and then roll around naked it We're not tough like you. We don't work in oil fields and play hockey. We play soccer, you know

0:47You know I son wanted to play soccer for a little while by the way and not anymore well, you know We went we went to see his cousins play my nephew's there at eight nine years old and it was like I Don't know for gypsy eight year old kids play soccer. They suck They like a bunch of drunk midgets out there The ball seriously think of look it watch closely the ball hits them everywhere except in the foot every other part of the body and The kids don't even care about winning or losing they just want ice cream after the game The parents do the ones that are freaked out about it Like there's always that one guy on the sideline who's like totally fine and it's like come on Billy kick kick kick the damn ball You're an idiot kick and then he starts dragging family history onto the field. You're just like your brother Johnny Smokes pot and all mobile lawn kick the ball. You're moving sleeping with a mailman kick the ball my nephew's team lost

1:38I saw the court poor kid said it in the parking lot watching his father drive away with a kid from the winning team. I really like So I said no soccer. He's he's doing baseball and hockey and stuff, but but yeah I like coming up here man. Everybody's really cool. The audience is a great so well, so you're at the comic strip all We can what is your act like? I mean, I know you're married you have kids. I mean you just did a minute on soccer and had me in stitches You know, it's kind of we're gonna deal with show to you know, so it's like a mix of like kind of autobiographical You know topical, you know, you know stuff. I talk about my my previous life Which was what for people who don't know because this is very interesting to me. Yeah, I I always laugh at it because when I say it out loud It just sounds so ridiculous that I even did this

2:24I was a lawyer and a banker on Wall Street and I left and gave it all up to be a comedian You know, it's funny a lot of people would say that that might not have been the smart career choice back then But after everything that just happened a few years ago probably the wise move well exactly I actually saw all of this coming this big bubble burst Way ahead of the curtain years ago. I saw man. Just follow my lead. I'll make you riches Yeah, I was doing these like huge merger deals, you know, and you know and Then I started writing jokes as a hobby and I went to a private function one night and Jay Leno was the private Entertainment and I went up to him with all these jokes I had written I don't know what I was gonna do with the jokes. I was just like oh So nervous like hey, would you like some jokes? You know anything any takes the jokes and I get like 50 feet away goes Hey come back here. I go what he was you might want to put your name in your phone. I'm running here

3:11So I had to reach you right I was like so nervous and then he called me the next day And he said I'd like your stuff And he hired me to be a writer for the show like to send just not to have to move to LA Yeah, just send stuff in and whatever he uses and he did one of my jokes on the tonight showing it totally Blooming away and the first joke he paid me 50 bucks and I became obsessed with writing jokes I was going to deal meetings with two notebooks one was for the deal the other was for the jokes And I wasn't taking deal notes. I was just taking joke notes You know and I and then he said go try the jokes out So I started to live the secret double life where I was a lawyer by day in a comic by night What's your family think of that? Well, it was it was they couldn't figure it out You know I didn't tell anybody in the beginning and I was having a nervous breakdown because I was trying to hide it from everybody

3:57So I'd sneak to these bars like one of the places I work these were dive bars It was called downtown Beirut to oh that sounds classy. Yeah, well They were franchising these hell holes around the city. I guess right or Israeli fighters took out one I'm not sure and you had to have come back lines for drunk hecklers because that's the only thing that was in the audience We're like there was a pimp that worked out of there. There's a pusher that worked out of there There's a hooker that worked out of there and there were people on the streets bar money for you to go drinking This is where they go to drink. Okay, and so I would have these comeback lines for drunk hecklers and I got really good at it The problem was that my night job started spilling over into my day job and this is a true story I'm in a conference room with like 20 other lawyers and this one lawyer stands up and in front of everybody starts Criticizing me and then he said I could have drafted a better doc given my sleep in front of everybody

4:45And I literally like went into anti heckle mode. I'm like oh yeah well I could have been your father, but the dog BB over the fence That'd be the catalyst for switching careers. I think I left shortly there after yeah and my family didn't really like Understand because like I'm from Rhode Island New England and like a real Italian blue collar family You know you know when you move away and then you go Anyway moves away from their family and then goes back and visit them you realize you've become different from your family Oh, yeah, sure so would hit me. It's like 1979 just time warp in Rhode Island like people still dressed like John Travolta and died night even including my cousin Bobby So I have two cousins that live up there and they're both kind of uh, yeah You know they like to skirt the law a little bit if you know what I mean, right my cousin Bobby my cousin Jimmy

5:33Like you know he'll do a little drugs. He'll deal a little bit He'd deal some cocaine whatever, you know and my cousin Bobby is a small time hood for the mob in Rhode Island So I went home to Rhode Island when my father passed away a number of years ago for the funeral and I run into Bobby Now Bobby is a small time book He runs numbers for the mob in Rhode Island like out of a front is a woman shoe store and he sells car alarms Out of the trunk of his car, but it gets better car alarms. He stole out of other people's car And this is how we came dressed to my father's funeral and every word of this my hand to God a fluorescent orange silk shirt Unbuttoned gold chains White pant leather belt white slacks you get in the picture. Oh, yeah, he's a creamsicle with chest hair

6:19White mesh loafers no socks because it's the summer of course, right? But you got a pauter on your feet to keep him dry But Bobby be in the guido that he was for too much powder So every time he'd step toward the casket puffs of white smoke coming out of the shoes Lighting up the mood. I'm sure a little bit exactly and I'm standing at the casket laughing my butt off and people can't understand Well, I'm laughing at my father's funeral, right? So so then my family didn't really because they had in their mind, you know, I had made it, you know It was like you you know You had the money and the thing and I just was like well, but I really I really got to get a charge out of Creating something and then people reacting to it, you know, it's like it's mine It's like there's ownership to it, you know, and so, you know, so it was a tough transition in the beginning It was like first year or so I was doing a full time like what have I done?

7:07What have I done, you know, you know, maybe I made a mistake You know all that stuff and then you kind of start to ease into your new life, you know and Got got on a daily show and then that definitely was a catalyst, you know for me So what are you doing on the daily show now cuz I know you used to write you won a lot of awards for writing for the daily show But you're right around the show for oh god, I don't know eight ten years I still occasionally do some writing consulting and that capacity I do the audience warm up on the show and on the show and one capacity another for a long time and Performing on the show as well occasionally do segments on the show and it's great, you know, I mean the beginning we nobody knew us You know was just I took the job figure the last three months and then to get canceled At least I have a credit on my resume and And then it kind of slowly took hold and the critics kind of liked this early on

7:57They took a wire for the audience to find this which tends to be the case with shows anyway And Craig Kilborn was the host then he came from Sports Center. Oh, so you were working on the kill was the host? Yeah Yeah, and then and then John came over after kill born It's funny cuz John was up to do the spot after letter minute 12 30 and then his deal his deal expired And they found kill born and so they literally like switched seat It was really it was really pretty wild because we didn't know when killborn announced He was leaving we didn't have a new house lined up and then they started they started looking at different hosts including like Mike rogue the guy who does dirty jobs now he did he did a really good job in his audition and so And so they were looking at all sorts of different people and then they started to talk to John and You know it was great, you know cuz it's cool having John as a boss. He's extremely tiny. He's about three and a half feet

8:47That's it. Yeah, and a huge coke head so of course in the morning we get in and we do some lines get some hookers We're not working till like noon or one. It's the best gig ever Sure and then yeah, and then we kind of write for about an hour then we do the show and then we go to an after hours club And just and there's cock fighting We bet on cock fighting all night. So that's pretty much what we do and It's a pretty involved process. It's a pretty intense Day of like coming in in the morning and figuring out The the material you're gonna do that day looking at footage that you get in from we get like an associated press news feed and looking at newspapers And saying okay, these are the four or five stories and then kind of like taking a final every day Like you just jamming from like 10 to 1 just writing jokes And then jokes get picked and then they have to be produced in the afternoon

9:35Which means they have to get graphics and all this other stuff more and and then she rehearsed the show at five and shoot it It's six it's a it's a process and John's amazing it kind of you know He's kind of the editorial voice of the show and just really making it move in the right direction and everything being in sync You know, do you think your schooling helped you in that the fact that you are so caught up in politics every day I mean being being in law and Wall Street and all that well. I am a very intelligent man I'm glad you pointed that out. I do have a I'm actually wearing an ascot right now Smoking a pipe nothing else. I'm naked ladies. Just that's got my naked from the waist down with a very flat rear end and huge lips but and I Really do have you thanks for that image. I appreciate it Well, I just wanted to let you know have something you could think about all day

10:22And I have lower back here just so you know, which is actually growing down and not up all right all right today So yeah, I think it does. I mean, I think I definitely think you know You need to think in like layers almost like, you know, like if you're gonna do the kind of stuff I think you're trying to do on the daily show It's like you can't do the first most obvious joke and I think anybody that's you know kind of you got to think through things a little bit You know because we're trying to put a different spin on the stuff that you might hear Jokes about done in other places, you know, so I definitely think you know having kind of you know the legal training has always been great like sometimes people say to me always it a waste that you went to law school and whatever I'm like now because You know getting a law degree to change you to think a certain way like in a more analytical way

11:10There may be any other grad degree might and so you can take that in any part of your life And I think it's definitely helped me as a comic to write better stronger jokes and stuff like that and The whole just the fun of being able to do stuff on a dime That's topical like that's something that's that's sort of in the zeitgeist and In sort of everybody's mind that day and be able to comment on it that night is really like a really great like a great opportunity You know that takes me to two questions one. Where do you write best? I find I get inversion boots And if I hang myself again make it over a vat of jello Not completely firm jello just semi firm that's still kind of warm And then I slowly get dipped into the gel and taken out. It's unbelievable what I can write

11:59You're very quick. I'll give you that I was looking for a serious answer and that came out of nowhere. I'll tell you you know Sometimes it's you know You're talking about for my own act for the well for everything I mean, you know sitting in a writer's room. Maybe that helps too, but I mean, you know I find for my own act I write best all the time by that I mean I always carry something around with me because I find like I what I I tend to be emotionally reactive to To the world around me so like something will happen, right? And then I'll be like I'll have an emotional response to that thing and that's gonna be the best basis for joke For example, I'm actually working on this joke as we speak and I'm gonna work on it this week Can I tell you quickly what it is? Yeah for sure? So I'm at a I'm at a Nick's game an NBA game in the Madison Square Garden in New York and it's half time

12:46And I go to the men's room and this isn't dirty or anything So don't worry about it and there's a bunch of guy You know how it isn't there's a lot of guys There's like a bunch of guys at the year on then there's another line of guys behind them waiting for their turn, right? so the guy in front of me and I get annoyed by people easily because I think people you know that's which is ironic that I'm in a Human interaction business that I mean but like guy in front of me go to the bathroom and he thinks going to the bathroom Instead of just walking away from the urinal he starts to redress himself in front of the urinal like and I'm waiting Like I've been drinking all day, right? Right and he's and I don't mean just a little bit of dressing I mean like he takes pants all the way down to his knees you fix this underwear puts his t-shirt that that is then his His button-down shirt tucks in and then he cuts everything in puts his belt and then he starts blasting his shirt You don't blouse in front of the urinal when I'm waiting to go you step to the side do whatever you want have a sex

13:35Grat act I don't kick so that kind of thing right that moment I can write that in that moment because I know that I get aggravated by that so that's that's usually the process that I use and then You know for the daily show you're in the room and it's like boom. This is what we got to write So you just have to sit in front of the computer and some days is better than others and that's why they have a staff because You know on any given day you might be on and I might be often vice-versa So they'll be assured if they've got eight or ten or twelve people that they're going to get a decent amount of stuff to pick from because they They're in your variety So that it's sort of two different process for me if it's a if I'm on deadline with something Then I got to just sit and do it and if my own act It's a little bit more organic to being what's going on around me the other thing I was gonna ask we spoke with this earlier is the daily shows become more of a and I spoke to awesome a few weeks ago

14:23With this too, it's become more of a less comedy and more news. I've noticed recently It's it's it's almost taken on a whole new feel over the past six months Yeah, you know, I think we tend to You know, I think maybe you know There are times when John might get bored with certain things and wants to shake things up You know as a creative person, which is good, you know, and I Think that the last six months have been a pretty heavy six months in the US in terms of our politics You know, there's midterm elections in the House changed over from Democrats Republican and There's been like there was that one year love affair with Obama and then this then it they started their criticism really started to kick in From the left and the right so I think that the show probably if it reflects a kind of a little bit more of a serious

15:15mood in the country and so I Think that's you're probably spot on about that like it It you know, if you tracked it, you're probably right. It's probably because Maybe there's a little bit more of an agenda with a message that the show has right now to like kind of Have you know, we had this rally for insanity. I don't know if you're from right? Yeah, of course DC and well not and that's what I mean things like that that are popping up now It's it's more of I don't want to say it's a religion But it almost because I hate that word, but it I feel like it's become more of a you know what I mean I can't think of the word. I'm looking at it. No, you're actually right And I think the reason is is because I think we tend to be just like some of the other press even though You know technically we're not right aim and show what we're kind of you know

16:03We're kind of straddling that line. Yeah, you or if you agree with that, but I know I totally agree with that I think what happens is like if you break it down analytically It's like you look at how the Republicans have like leveled the shock on it Obama the last six months and then Beck Beck has that big rally in DC, right? And so like the right just you know the right the right had there You know they got spanked in the in the presidential election So the first six months or a year they can't say a whole heck of a lot because Obama hasn't done much Then they start to latch on to a few things. Oh the health care thing isn't as good as it was gonna be He hasn't gotten us out of the recession blah blah blah blah blah So their voice becomes bigger and larger and then they win them in term elections And so what you find with our show then is we're gonna be more reactive to the Republicans sort of Ragging on the Democrats and so it'll seem like we're more serious than we normally would be so I

16:53Think we're we're kind of caught up even though we kind of make the news cycle We're part of the news cycle, you know and we're part of that conversation And I think that's why it seems like and we are probably more serious lately because The conversation has gotten more serious, you know and so we tend to react to that and you've gotten more Look at that. I got a whole two minutes out of you of serious talking jokes. I hope that was okay. That was great Back to jokes, so you've got to yeah, no, we don't have to go back to joke. No, no cuz I want to talk about the maximum thing I like okay. It's funny. Tell people because you're gonna be maximum next month. Yes. I am. I'm doing a full spread I just got waxed for it. There you go. See I knew the jokes are coming there you go Yeah, we've got we've got we're just a little piece on me sort of highlighting kind of what I'm up to the

17:44These days and I mean I answered some funny questions that they asked and and I've been going on You know, it's been really a good year for me. I've been going on a lot of these political chat shows You know, I go on Fox news believe it or not. Yeah, what was I saw a clip of you on Hannity? What was that experience like yeah? Well, I go on there's a couple shows on Fox I go on that's one I go on an old call red eye with Greg Guffell and you know what I mean But I first start going on Fox I go on MSNBC and CNN too and because I can't not go on CNN Anderson Cooper is so dreamy I know When he wears just those t-shirts We ever went first to go on a fox you like oh fox, you know, you know, like is it gonna

18:29You know first of all, they don't say you you can say whatever you want and I you know I tend to you know, you know kind of lean left So it's like I go in and do my sense yourself a little bit though No, I don't what I am is I'm not here's the thing that I've gotten upset about and I think the show the Daily Show has And I know John has is I Think the problem with all political discourse whether it's Canada Switzerland or the US or whatever or England is that there are too many people who are firmly entrenched on one side of line of the other and won't hear the other point of view and won't let Themselves have a point of view that doesn't sort of veer from that group that they're part of right so you'll go on these political chat shows and There'll be somebody from the left and somebody from the right and it's like it's what I call the Westworld syndrome

19:19It's like kind of you know that movie was you know, you know, they're all these robots that look like human beings all right Yeah, it's like it's like some there's a warehouse somewhere Label Democrats in a warehouse and they will Republicans are left and right and they wind them up and they hand them a script and they march out And they're all reading the same five bullet points and they're all saying the same thing on these shows You know and there's no real sort of there's no real discourse It's just people sort of spewing their points of view and no one will move like like I tend to there might be something where I might Fall a little to the right of center on something every once in a while You know more often than not I'm left to center, but like I I Tend to not be told oh no you can't say this you have to say it this way So because I told him straight up I won't come on any show if I've got to start to carry pales of water for the right

20:07Or you know, I mean, that's just not what I'm gonna do So what I try to do when I go on those shows I'm the person sort of in the middle who I'm trying to be funny and make a point at the same time, you know what I mean and So like on Hannity, you know, we they were he was great, you know They want told me to do anything they just I could do say whatever I wanted and I got into a conversation with him about this whole TSA thing and I guess you have it up here, too Like they up not as bad as you guys do yeah Well this whole you know kind of pat down and everything else now my attitude and a lot of comedians like to sort of Rag on this but my attitude is that I'm happy for them to take an extra few minutes and grow me if that doesn't mean I mean I'm not gonna get blown up in midair You know better than having me checking lotion as part of the war on terror really Yeah, is that the problem? Yeah, they sent somebody back the other day in front of me who had too much conditioner

20:56And she had an extra ounce of conditioner like I guess all hell's gonna break loose on the plane of course All of a sudden you're gonna hear the pilot. Yeah control. We got a man repairing my split ends. Oh my god And and so that material that sounds like material See I got you can't tell what I'm serious Serious Okay, here comes a joke now two guys walk into a bar But I did say so he Sean and Haney and I got in on air a little bit cuz he's like all this TSA thing It's so terrible and blah blah blah and I'm like it's not that bad He goes why get wanted every time I go and I was like well Maybe you want to get wanted Maybe you're sending a message out that you like the wand you know and he got a kick out of that like he started to laugh

21:43And then we got and so you know he has a sense of humor about himself and and then we got into this thing because they showed a clip of a Khloe Kardashian Right who went on Lopez and was like oh I was so offended I went through TSA and they had their hands all over me and she said I felt like I was being raped in public I'm like really you you have no discernible talent your whole your whole existence is your body That's what you're making your money off of and you're a fan of that a guy with gloves touched you on the outside of you shirt really she was all you know they were looking down the crack of my butt I'm like yeah for talent that's all you know So you know like Khloe Kardashian is the is the voice of reason now in the conversation Like that's the part of this so so that's kind of the conversation

22:30I got into with Hannity and and and he respected it like I didn't agree with him But he was fine with that and I'm gonna be going back on again in a couple weeks And and so I find you can go on these shows and have an opinion because if I go on and I'm just another guy from the Right saying what they want me to say or another person from the left saying what they want me to say Which I tend to be more often than not on the left anyway It doesn't serve anybody any good I got to have my own point of view and people can agree or disagree with me. Does the politics come out in your act as well? Yeah, yeah, I'll definitely talk about you know a Lot of this stuff. I'll talk about the right I'll talk about the left to talk about that you know You know global warming you know like I actually You know like I actually think global warming is a it's great that we want to fight global warming I don't know what the I know what the attitude here is in Canada is that people tend to be very green

23:17I guess I'm not sure how concerned yeah for the most part I mean I think it's a little different here because we do have the oil sands in Alberta It's a little more oil based. Yeah, exactly so you know ruin the putt ruin the environment with difference of it make I understand that It's a very conservative government here. No, I am and I kind of think that it's futile that the world is burning up And there's not a lot we're gonna do about it like my wife makes me put those energy efficient bulbs in our house Which is great because those bulbs are are are are more efficient than my life because I you walk into a room Yeah, I can't do anything in a room for three minutes until the damn bulb lights up, right? So you just stand there with nothing to do going okay This is three minutes of my life. I'm never gonna get back right and then people like oh this global warming There's an upside to global warming, you know like turkeys will base in their own juices, you know

24:05Apples will bake on the trees. You'll be able to grill right on George Foreman. It'll be great Okay, that was a bit from my act Oh the one I love the best was that when Cheryl Crow came out and said that we're using too much paper and to use one of the toilet paper Think remember that yeah And I got so incense because that's like an odd a touch like I'm tired of these rich people telling us to be green And they're flying around in private jets like I am so against being green right now I break in the people's houses turn no lights on and leave That's all I saw you go home and the iron is on it wasn't you I turned it on put it up to cotton Which is the highest number and walked out you know your irons So Cheryl Crow says I do iron iron before every show iron my clothes there you go because my public needs to see me neat Of course the show crows is too much

24:52To its toilet paper and I got so incense because again it's a rich person But then I thought you know what it makes sense because if anybody should know what it's like to get a lot of crap on a small piece of paper it's her I've read her lyrics and There you go But now you know so yeah, I'll mix it up You know I find that I could go you know There's just so much I want to talk about you know so anything from my background to my life to What I'm doing in a daily show and you know kind of just what's going on in the world I try to get people good mix I don't yeah I don't want to come off preachy my act you know because people coming out to have a good time and escape a little bit from life Right try to find a good balance, you know before I let you go five quick questions one more answers Carlin or prior

25:40Prior stewart or cold air Wait, how about this cold stewart cold can I say both you can say cold wort that'd be Cold what cold cold cold there you go. What's more important comedy punchline or timing timing the bit you've written your most proud of Reverse racism that that is a white man I can't say anything about race without being criticized in that minorities can say stuff about whites and its reverse racism Hmm in one word Paul mercurio feminine I like it and on a joke. It's perfect