Tom Arnold

0:03What was the last time you did stand like a long time ago? Yeah, I mean I it's been 20 years before you know nine months ago I started doing took a night at a place called the Laugh Factory where they make the comedy the laugh shop is where we sell it I'm here and so I took a night and I've unemployed people get it free and It was scary and I thought you know Can I do it again? And what does the audience know about me? You know they remember my first marriage? Do you remember you know and it was a very good testing ground and I really got into it And I have been like to say 20 years since I've been in the clubs I mean I've always said corporate things and you know emcee did a host and stuff But to really work and act as a it's a completely different thing and I never done a sober for sure

0:49So you know it was it was really fun and what was really fun was Discovering all the young people you know my assistant when on the internet went to some underground clubs and You know seeing all these different kinds of comedians and comedians that that I hadn't seen before was really Inspiring in fact I wrote a show of sold to NBC about them And so out of doing something that I did not want to do that was I was uncomfortable doing stand up because you always think Well, you do stand up that you do TV they do movies, you know and I've done 70 movies and and you know It's you know, you know, yeah, I know three good ones and But I think that you know, it really is you know, there's something really special

1:37I love the performing part, you know, the other stuff Around it, you know like this interviews nice and once I get to the interviews That's how I get to them, but I do more interviews than any comic ever Talk show so you're because because yeah because I could do because I can yeah, you know I must own the stand-back pretty well because I mean it's not you but I've only said I always said sort of you know What I do that stuff on the you know, I prepare You know, they're just stories right and so that's similar to my act obviously You know, I can't do jokes about stuff because people know too much about me so I can't lie to them and say yeah I'm happily buried got far kids or I can't say, you know, I live in a shack although, you know As rich as I used to be able to tell you that so

2:24You know, I can't you know that my old act was about live with six guys And you know everybody had their own couch and their own bong and you know can't really do that anymore So well, I thought and I know my ex-wife Which you my first met her was 23 the comedian But when I first met her I was 23 and before she's famous and her act was so killer I mean, I saw her stage, you know, like I couldn't be you couldn't be friends too much with some bit a woman That wasn't super funny, you know, some weird guy, you know comic thing you date any waitress, you know Any waitress, you know, they could be the dumbest person in the world that any waitress, but she just killed it And then she thought I was funny which really is like a sexy thing if a woman thinks you're funny You know, especially if it's a talented woman that you know sound like you're like wow

3:11That's amazing So we became really good friends for six years and then I moved to LA to write her show She became famous a couple years later. I always knew she would like her act was so good and she was so talented I knew that she would be a huge star but you know that ever six great years and I I'm very grateful to have that time and you know It's so funny to come from work at a Hormel and then do stand up and then you know Which I thought was just awesome awesome life, you know, live with six guys having no money, you know, you using coffee fillers for toilet paper You know that life You know, I remember those days. Yeah, exactly and then and then to go come out to LA and then be a writer on A show that was like the number one show and you're working with John Goodman and Lori Metcalf and Estelle Parsons

4:00Sarah Gilbert always great people and then all these great writers You know that you know and you're in charge of hiring them and you know the writers and and you're learning to act by watching John Goodman and watching these great people and you know the show is a success So I don't know if I appreciated how amazing that was and then my first scene in a movie was with Dustin Hoffman You know I had five scenes this movie called hero little thing and then my first yeah But I mean it was like you know and then my first real movie was true lies So, you know, I was spoiled and I Didn't even realize how You know because I always assume it's gonna be over tomorrow and that it's the joke's gonna be I'll be here They're gonna you know cut me they're gonna be on to me. They're gonna realize I stuck and you know

4:46I'm sure they still will but um, you know, I'm playing this thing out as long as I can and you should I don't think they'll Hard be back at Hormel. They just I made I but I got fired it was too ugly and you don't need to well No, but it's always it back your mind, you know, I think if you start everyone's mind Well, I talked to Aussie Osbourne about this a lot because he he came from a poor family that He has a picture of the house he grew up in on his wall and and he's always he has nightmares still about being back at that factory And you know, he's okay now. Yeah, I do but but you know his wife's a shopper and And he's got her own gig. Yeah, but she's still a shopper. He still has a tour and You know, which he always has a new house that I love her But she always has a new house and he's always of it fear, you know

5:34The back was blind that he's gonna, you know lose it all mentioned a couple things that I want to touch on briefly one being the NBC sitcom Yeah, so what's going on with that writers room kind of yeah? Yeah, what I did well what I did was I got a blind series commitment to write producers show Because they wanted to go back to you know, so four camera types it comes Okay, and you know, which I like because You'll have it done that a long time and Yeah, and they were thinking you know When they heard me they said, you know, I had a show called the Jackie Thomas show that I did Right after or during Roseanne and that was my one good really good sitcom and that lasted a year It would have lasted longer But I didn't want to change and get rid of some of the people and I probably you know

6:22There's a lot of things in fact it was on ABC and Fox said they'll take it as is that I at that time I said Fox isn't a real network and you know, so but but the the the tone of that the tone of Roseanne You know, I want to do something real and so and it's funny because the guide that would they they're like This is a show for you to write and produce. I mean you could be at it, but it's not you know the Tom Arnold show You know, no offense, but we'd rather you just focus on the writing and I go I get that I consider that a compliment. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I so I did this through the stand-up comedy I started seeing these young people and they I'd hear about their lives and they moved to LA thinking Oh my god, it's gonna be great It's going like American Idol and they leave some crappy place and they realize la is just as crappy

7:08Except they made such a big stink about leaving that they have to stay there They have jobs as waitresses waiters and at night if they're lucky they get $15 to do a spot on My show or some show and they really appreciate it and they hang out together and they have this like a support group Like a second great 12-step meeting, you know, and so I I said, you know I don't want to write a show about Hollywood But I want to write the anti-adroj what it's really like about six people that end up here in the end up in one place together for various reasons and for you know And in what the life is really like and how they you know how they survive together from different worlds, you know, and That's really what the show's about and then I'm the jerk. I'll be there once in a while

7:56Cool bad guy that pulls up all together, but it's a it's not friends, but it's a great year 30 rock kind of yeah Yeah, yeah, cool. Yeah, it's they have much greater here. It's a 30 rock beats sort of rose ad type You know yeah, whatever well, I'm hearing rumors of true lies too that you're throwing out there and everything I mean I said to the New York Times We're doing Arnold and I Jim Cameron Jamie. We're doing an action comedy It's not gonna be called true lies to Jim's he always says you know Tom You know, but it's just gonna be just like true lies too. So I can say well that you call everyone Yeah, I and it'll be nice. It'll be fun to work with those guys again Yeah, we've done one little thing since true lies together a little movie I wrote called the kid and I about my next door neighbor

8:44Several Paul's he was true story who always wanted to be in a movie like true lies and so you could rent that in the meantime And see a little surprise of Jamie Lee and Arnold and and but you know yeah We're gonna do something together because you know we have we have good chemistry Arnold knife So it's it's real, you know, we ride bikes every weekend They still do that and I think I think people would probably watch that Yeah, you know and I think it'd be good for all of us especially be To be a big blockbuster Yeah, that would be great that might be in 3d who knows that would be well. Yeah, I saw avatar Oh, yeah, and it is the most unbelievable film. I've ever seen my life. I'm nursing like it I'm not everyone says I was not a fan of like I wasn't a crazy 3d You know guy and a but this film and this story is

9:32Amazing. I mean I was just I felt chills and my heart was Racing and and I I didn't want to like it because I wasn't in but I loved it and It's gonna be like Titanic successful because you know I know they released a trailer, but that trailer shows nothing. It is Unfreaking believable. I am just very proud of Jube Cameron and you know, you know I just that's why it takes up 10 years to make a movie