Joe Rogan Experience #2557 - Yakov Smirnoff

Key Takeaway

When your old identity, market, or plan stops working, do not wait for permission to start over. Yakov Smirnoff responded to career loss by testing a new audience in Branson, adding a simple differentiator—breakfast with his shows—and improving through repetition until 17 attendees became hundreds. Today, identify one underserved audience, run one small experiment for them, and use their response to refine your offer rather than treating an early weak result as a verdict.

Episode Overview

Joe Rogan talks with comedian Yakov Smirnoff about emigrating from the Soviet Union, building a comedy career in America, losing much of that career after the Soviet Union collapsed, and rebuilding in Branson, Missouri. Smirnoff also discusses his study of psychology and relationships, his belief that laughter helps meet emotional needs, and his return to club comedy after decades as a theater headliner.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Joe Rogan Experience #2557 - Yakov Smirnoff from Joe Rogan Experience. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. TRAIN BY DAY. JOE ROGAN PODCAST BY NIGHT. All day. Let's go, Yakov. What's happening, baby? How are you? I'm good. Good to see you. Nice to see you. I know. Jamie snucking up on us. Bam. Just turn it on. Bam. That way you don't have a chance to freak out. Um, thank you. What's in the bag? What you got in there? Okay, so there are a couple of things. Uh, oh, a couple things. One, yeah, one is, uh, it's a mir mural piece of the mural that I painted at the ground zero, and I thought it would be interesting for you to have You painted a mural at ground zero.

Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, that that was something. And I actually sent them Paul Harvey did a um the rest of the story about that and I I sent them a video if they wanted to. Yeah. Don't know if we could play that unfortunately. I think it's got like a copyright to it. Actually, I was We were told Jamie, that's Isn't that what they said? It would be tough. Yeah. Right. And so there's the mural. There's a photo of the mural. Right. Right. And uh it was I was in touch with Paul Harvey Jr.

asking if that would be okay and they said it's fine and they'll send Yeah. But I don't think they own it. You know what I'm saying? They own his voice. So, right. But it's probably if it's on Paul Harvey's television show, right? No, no, no. Radio. Yeah. Right. If it's on Paul Harvey's radio show, it's probably copyritten. Did we have a problem when we played the Taylor Sheridan one? Remember we played that whole thing? It's just I would It's just an issue. It's an issue. Don't sweat it.

We don't want So anyway, you had a mural. Yeah, that's that's And there was a couple of other little bur. You got to talk into the microphone. Sorry. That's all right. Yeah. You wear headphones if you want. That way you can hear yourself. Yes. You don't have to. This is this is real. This this is real. What do you mean? No. Like I watch you and I'm in such an awe of what you were able to your your career, your trajectory, how you were able to sustain that longevity and then transition to this amazing voice.

Um, it's just it's been an honor to know you and be here. So, I'm I'm a little nervous. Well, don't be nervous. Uh, cuz listen, it's all just dumb luck. There's a a giant percentage of it that's dumb luck. That's a fact. I mean, I'm very persistent. That helps. But, uh, this thing, this the podcast is a lot of it is luck. You know how people like talk about like having a vision board. Oh, I had a vision board. I imagined. And people say that to me all the time.

Like, I'm sure you did that with this show. I'm like, I didn't do anything of the sort. I just kept doing it and it got big. But it's uh just people talking. Simple. Just like you and I talk in the green room. Yes. We're talking here. It's no big deal. It's just a bunch of people get to listen to it. Yes. Yes. It's nothing that spectacular. The spectacular thing is my guests. That's the fortunate thing. I'm the fortunate one cuz I get to talk to so many cool people.

Look at you with your [ __ ] American flag on your on your uh phone cover. Look at that. Yeah. Don't get fooled by the accent, ladies and gentlemen. Um, you know, we were talking about your story in the green room and I was like, we have to do a podcast because your your story is so crazy how when the wall fell, so did your career. Yes. Like you had this massive career. I remember you from the Tonight Show. I I remember you all the time, you know, in Russia.

You always had these jokes about Russia and it was great because like you were a Russian comedian doing standup in the United States. Yes. And then once once the Soviet Union fell. Yes. The Leatherman uh David Letterman had a top 10 list of things that will now change that the Soviet Union is no longer there. And I made number one on the list. Yakov Smeirnov will be out of work. And I thought it was humorous because I was living in Pacific Palisades next to Tom Hanks and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I mean I thought American dream will never end. And all the sudden it six months later none of my contracts in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Tahoe, none of them were renewed. And I could not find work. Literally I mean I tried back to clubs and they wouldn't have me either. What? Yeah, it was um the comparison uh there was uh Van Meter uh that was impersonator of John F. Kennedy um he was um um an an impersonator. It was very popular at that time and then after the assassin assassination his career went nowhere right away.

And so somewhat in in some ways it was similar to that that uh I was associated with the Soviet Union and my humor was associated with that and it was helping I was helping um President Reagan write jokes for his speeches for when he would go to Moscow. Um, you have a picture somewhere, Jamie, of I mean, it was amazing. All of the sudden I was like a joke supplier for the White House and it was my career was just growing higher and higher and all of the sudden it was gone and I It doesn't make any sense.

I mean, you still had great jokes. Yeah. And I'm sure people still wanted to see you. That's what didn't make any sense. It wasn't I guess I wasn't relevant because they associated me so much with that. And so I started after not having work uh and not be able to pay mortgage. I start looking for a place where they did not know that the Soviet Union collapsed and I ended up in Branson, Missouri. I joke about this in my show, but it's was a blessing in disguise because I was all of a sudden my f uh my humor was family friendly and this town is very much like that and they embraced me and I I mean it wasn't right away but it grew and grew and grew.

Wow. And what what is Branson like? cuz I would always hear about it like it was always like we we would hear about it in LA that it was this like freaky Bible town that it's like creationist museums and stuff like that like here's a reconstruction of the ark like that's what the kind of stuff that you would hear. I obviously I never went so I don't know. Yeah. Um I didn't want to go to Branson. Okay. I was living in LA. I didn't I mean I Did you move to Missouri?

Eventually I had to. Yeah. Because I I had to sell my house. I mean, the whole thing went Yeah. So, uh, what happened is I didn't have I didn't know where to go. I mean, it literally was scary. I have two little kids at that time and I can't find work. So, my agent calls me and he said, "Uh, Willie Nelson is doing this, uh, farm aid concert and um, would you like to co-host with him?" And I didn't have it, you know, I said, "Sure." But I don't think farmers would know who I am.

And I got there 50,000 people. I did my SAT and they gave me a standing ovation and I went like, "Wow, this is I didn't expect that." So I go to say goodbye and say thank you to Willie and I open the door and the smoke comes out and will and I was proud to say that I you know I I I didn't do drugs but after I opened that door I couldn't say that anymore. So I through this through the smoke he goes Yakob you should go to Branson they'll love you there.

And I was like, "Okay, I heard about it, but I was not sure." So, I go to Branson just to check it out. And it's um March of 2000, it's 1993. Um, and I've been struggling now for two years after the Soviet Union collapsed. And I go in and and I walk into one of the shows and it was Soji Tabuchi show. It was a a Japanese fiddle player uh that was just playing uh country music. I didn't know about him. And I walk in and it's a matinea and there are 2,000 people in that room.

Whoa. And I'm going, what is going on? And right, this is crazy. I was in Vegas at university. Right. So then I go Andy Williams uh show and it's the same thing. 2,000 people full. And I'm going, well, if if they can do this, I can do it as well. And so I in May I rented the small theater and I just set my shop there, put my name on the wall, and I got first show 17 people came in. And I'm going, "Oh boy, I I I don't have a place to go, but this is not gonna work." But then I start doing I I was pretty creative.

I started I said, "I'm going to serve breakfast in this in the showroom. I I I I'll call it yak in a box. And I'm just going to make my mother recipe of breakfast and people will pass it eat and hopefully more people will come. Wow. So I would do two shows a day uh um on on in the morning and in in the evening, dinner and breakfast. And little by little it grew, it grew, it grew and then a year later my average was like 400 people a show.

And then the buses that's the big business there is the the people come by bus in those days a lot of them and they would just um f discovered me and I started to become more and more popular and then I bought 2000 seat theater and now I entertain over six million people there and it became yeah this is uh this is kind of it's that's your theater. Yeah. Look at you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's been uh a very successful uh journey overall. I'm, you know, I'm kind of the the the only celebration known person there now.

Wow. And so, how often you do shows there? Now, I got down to like 30 shows a year towards uh the fall. Uh but I used to do 400 uh a year just to make more money and people were coming and I it it worked out for me. Well, good for you for adapting. I'm sure that must have been very nerve-wracking though. It was especially with young children big time. And you're, you know, from another country. You come to America, you're killing it. You think, "Oh my god, I'm the American dream.

This is incredible." And then it's nightmare all of the sudden and you don't know what to do. Yeah. That's the problem with the world before social media, right? Because before social media like you you couldn't just put some clips out there and show that you're still performing and still going places. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz back then there was like a narrative and if that narrative got out, you were done, you know? So the narrative was so Yeah. It was cancelled and I didn't have anything to do with it.

It's not like I had a scandal or something. It just I was helping Reagan to chisel the wall down, but there was a writing on the wall that I didn't see. It says get a get a day job, you know, and I didn't see it, right? So that's how it happened. It's amazing that you found Branson and it's what would happen if you didn't. That's what's really crazy. Like what do you think you would have been able to figure out a way to tour? And was it that clubs wouldn't book you or people wouldn't come?

uh both at some some because people were not buying tickets, the clubs didn't book me and the whole effect is just you know so it was just the fall of the Soviet Union that people got in their mind oh Yakava is done. Yeah. It was that quick. That's what's [ __ ] up about it is cuz like you have very funny jokes like you're a good comic. It's like the the idea that you can't be a great comic and talk about other stuff is so stupid.

But but what happened it was an evolution for me. I I think that I look back and I'm going thank you for this because it was kind of a a one note um tune and and then it made me forced me to go okay that topic is not necessarily the right thing uh right now. It's not nobody cares because Soviet Union not there and nobody's scared of it because I was kind of like a you know it was a headache from the you know or the pain in the butt Soviet Union and I'm preparation H and I they used me and then after swelling and itching went away you don't need it anymore right so that's how it happened so so I went into That also coincided with my divorce and um and I was struggling trying to figure out what's what direction do I go and I realized that this I was helping the cold war to end in some ways by being in involved with Reagan and and helping with that.

And um when when that happened, I figured, you know, my divorce is happening, I know laughter helped the world become a better place. Why is there laughter in the beginning of the relationship with men and women? And then when there's divorce, the only people laughing are attorneys. And I put that question to my audience. So it became kind of like my laboratory of laughter. I just start asking people. I said, "How many of you remember laughter being part of that honeymoon stage of your relationship?" And they all applaud.

And I go, "How many of you go on the second date if you didn't have laughter on the first date?" And no one applauded. So I became like this is kind of a universal thing that I was my dad was an engineer and inventor. So my brain is kind of constantly I I'm looking for reverse engineering. Why is it that laughter goes away in a relationship? So as comedians we gauge our relationship with the audience with laughter every time. Did the relationship fall apart because you had to move to Missouri?

or was it just challenges? Yeah, it it added to this. But I think I was looking for the root of this more uh like what is that that I am uh missing that I didn't do because you know I was you had a gimmick, huh? I had a gimmick. Yeah. But but that was with my audience. What was happening with my wife? Why was that falling apart? So I start seeing the parallel and the kids were little at that time and I um was trying to explain to them uh what was going on and I can show you what I did.

I brought this with me. It's uh I I showed this to I know show and tell. I I I bruh for my I started I I took magnets and I was showing my kids. I said, "Look, mommy and daddy, and we um we attracted one another and we had you and we had love and laughter and what was happening and then something happened and I don't know if you can show it, Jamie. Uh there's people listening as well." Okay. Oh, okay. So, the magnets, the magnets, they attract, but then when things don't go well, they repel, right?

So I was going what is it that attracting us and what is it that's repelling us and then after doing this and I I went to University of Pennsylvania got my um master's degree in psychology got my doctorate degree at Pepperdine I mean I was digging in I was you did all this while you were doing performing Branson. Yeah. How were you doing that? I would travel. I would just go do a weekend uh just I would take my schedule, make it the way I wanted and whatever I had to do, I would just travel to uh Pennsylvania to uh and and do that.

And you were taking in-person classes. Yeah. Yeah. But how were you doing that weekend for you were on the weekends? You can do that. There were classes. Yes, there was. Wow. You would work all week and then fly in the weekends to Why were you doing that? Well, that sounds exhausting. It's interesting. I was searching for a purpose. I think that was I I noticed something that was universal. Um, and I wanted to prove that scientifically to myself and to um and I and I did because it was important to me.

And what I figured out and as a comedian you'll understand that every time we tell a joke uh we're uh this setup is we're meeting their needs. They're interested in that topic. you and I talked in the green room like you need more topics for example for your one hour more uh to to add and so the topics that you're looking for are the the uh you're meeting the needs of people they want they don't curious and then your humor is the punchline and that creates laughter.

If you don't meet their needs, if they're not interested, then your humor doesn't matter much. So, in a relationship, the same thing happens. So, if I put this, and I know people are listening, but they they can maybe picture that. If you put needs in the middle, then you you're talking about magnets. You got to remember a lot of these people are not listening. Okay. So, I'm going to abandon that. Yeah, it's abandon. Um, this episode is brought to you by Squarespace. There's no excuse for a bad website anymore.

Squarespace makes sure of that. Squarespace's AI website builder gets you something that looks genuinely professional in just a few clicks. No design skills required. You can lock down your domain, build something that actually looks like you, and keep it all protected in one place. Head to squarespace.com/roganogen for a free trial. And when you are ready to launch, use the offer code Rogan to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So, I get what you're saying. Yeah, the the needs is uh the flexible thing in our humor stays the same, but the needs or the setup is different.

So if every business uh is successful when they figure out what is the need of people like Apple for example they say we de we develop product that you don't know you need but then you can't live without it. That's their motto. So the same thing a restaurant if they figured out what need is that community has they're successful. you figured out what is the need that people have and they're listening to you and they love it. I don't Is it a need? Like we're talking the word need is a weird one because for me need is like food and shelter and community.

That's the real needs. Everything else is desires. Well, in or interests in the hierarchy of needs was Muslow, they just go higher and higher. I see what you're saying. So when when you find he called them needs. I couldn't find a better No, it's that makes more sense now. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. Um it's uh I I feel like the most important thing about comedy is you have to be actually excuse me, you have to actually be interested in what you're talking about. Obviously, it has to be funny.

That's the most important thing. But other than that, the second most important thing or the thing that like really resonates with people is uh when someone's on stage and they're talking about something that means something to them, I get invested. Yeah. Exactly. I'm invested in people that are fascinated with stuff. I'm invested with people that are that have like hobbies that they love. Even if I'm I have no interest in it at all, I want to hear them talk about it. Exactly. Exactly. And I I totally that's you found that whatever you want to call it desire need whatever you want to call it but whoever zooms in on that and understands it they're they're successful in what they do.

So in marriage um my focus switched from us the cold war between countries to cold war between couples and understanding that men and women are different is uh very important because they have different needs and so part of my dissertation was to um to give that understanding so then the person's is not like searching. It doesn't know what he's looking for there. I'm I'm married and I'm happily married now. And my main goal is to figure out what does my wife need and if I can anticipate it then we have love and laughter and it's living there.

But if I don't or if she doesn't then we start arguing and that happens in every family. M so I'm easier. So there's a book by Dr. Willard Harley called his needs her needs. And what he did um he was dealing with a lot of couples that was getting a divorce and he was trying to help them in marriage counseling and he asked um uh he identified like 10 emotional needs and he asked um these uh people to prioritize men and women and it was interesting that he said I was shocked that five top needs for men were totally different from five top needs for women.

So if we don't know that so the the needs for women were affection, conversation, openness and honesty, family commitment and financial support. Not for every woman but that's was majority. And then for men it was sexual fulfillment, it was admiration. um sexual fulfillment again um but it was admiration um attractive spouse recreational companion and domestic support makes men f seem really base they are base and stupid we are sexual attraction is number uno and then it's in there how's it in there twice that doesn't make sense [ __ ] it up yeah I was joking around yeah that's funny like admiration's a funny one.

That's funny. Admiration is huge. That's hilarious. I ask you need admiration from your wife. That's hilarious. Well, but it's not because if you if you think that uh I ask the audience, so here is what I do in my show. Uhhuh. Uh and it's they're laughing, but they're also learning something. I say, how many of you gentlemen here at least once in a while would like to hear your wife said, "You're such a good man. thanks for um doing things for us. Applaud. And few people applaud.

And I go, "Well, not every man is applauding because they're scared." And they laugh. And then I go, "So, let me ask you the same question from an opposite point of view. Any of you gentlemen disagree with that silence?" Then I go, "You see ladies, you used to do it. You You don't do it now, but you used to do it in the beginning. That's what that attraction was is was the man needed that. And women don't. They don't want to be acknowledged or uh admired for what they do.

They want to be loved for who they are. Kind, beautiful, smart, selfless. And I I ask women, is that true? And they applaud. So it so and it it's subconscious but I know for me that's a very important thing that if I'm doing something all I need is like thank you and sometimes it's overlooked and that doesn't feel right. That's interesting. It it definitely resonates that men don't necessarily care if a woman does a thing. Like if she's really good at a thing, right? Like men I mean I mean this is obviously a great generalization because they're probably some men that one of the things that they love is the talent that a woman possesses or the drive and absolutely but for the most part what men want is someone to be nice.

Be nice to be pretty. Like my friends have joked around about this before, my single friends, about like I don't give a [ __ ] if a girl works at McDonald's. Is she nice? Is she pretty? And is she nice? You know, and is she not like completely annoying to talk to? Is she fun to talk to? Like, you don't care what her job is. If she's cool and she's fun, but a woman meeting a cool, good-looking guy that's nice that works at McDonald's, like you [ __ ] loser, you know?

Unfort no shame to the people work at McDonald's. I worked fast food when I was younger, too. I did uh I worked at a couple The first place I worked at was a burger place called Newport Crearyy. I worked at a place called uh Papaginos. It was like Italian fast food place. Nothing wrong with working at McDonald's. Point is, women don't respect it for whatever reason. Especially women that want to have a family and settle down and all that jazz, they look at a guy working at McDonald's like, "You don't have any ambition." And that's the thing that women uh want from men that men don't seem to really care that much from women.

Women want a guy that has ambition and men do not care, right? Generally, although I got to say, Phil Hartman when he obviously did not have a good marriage because his wife killed him and then killed herself. Obviously didn't have a good marriage, right? um when he had almost got divorced a few times and one I remember one one time he and I were having a conversation about it and he said he goes he goes if I [ __ ] get divorced he goes my next wife she has to like something he goes I don't give a [ __ ] what it is I don't care it's rock climbing you have to be into something so that was his thing was like that he was really into things like he uh got his pilot's license like the place that I actually bought in California I found out about that part of California because of him cuz he took me up on a plane and he was explaining to me like there's other counties that you could live in and these counties like they have land that's like you're yeah it's a drive but it's like more peaceful and relaxed.

You don't have to be like in the heart of everything. Um so he was he was into being a pilot. He he had like he played music. He he always had a bunch of different interests that he was pursuing on top of being an actor and being a comedic actor. And so he was very frustrated. One of the things he was frustrated is that his wife didn't have any ambition. She didn't have any interests. Well, but she also probably didn't admire him for what his uh accomplishments were.

I think she wanted to be famous as well. I probably shouldn't talk about this too much, but uh and I think there was probably some resentment at his success. I think she was trying to be famous as well. Well, that's like those magnets repel. Yeah. Well, it's like sometimes when a couple I've seen it the opposite. Like a friend of mine, she was dating this guy who was a comedian and when she started doing well, he started getting really shitty with her. He uh he started getting very resentful and he would be insulting and she could tell that there was she was he was not happy that she was doing well.

Yeah. Cuz she started to take off and he wasn't. Yeah. And it was like he was very frustrated and they broke up and she was like that always really hurt cuz I really felt like if I was doing well, if he loved me, he was he was going to be happy, too. and he wasn't happy. It It's nice if this was discussed in the beginning of the relationship. It's like, well, sometimes the man doesn't know and the woman doesn't know how they're going to behave. You don't know what your character flaws are until you're presented by something that tests you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, my my goal was to understand it better. And um there's a painting I sent Jamie if you I painted this painting uh that kind of helped me uh if you can find it. It's a tree of love and it helped me to understand m better what my role is because my first marriage I did not know um what my role was. I was I I met a woman American girl beautiful everything was great. Uh when I shook her hand or shook she shook my hand.

She almost broke my hand and my my subconscious was like my mother was very strong in my parents' relationship. Mom was the leader and dad was creative wonderful man but he would follow her. And I subconsciously went with that um that script the manuscript of my life. And so this helped me uh to see something that I wanted who do I want to be? I wanted to be that strong man who is able to give life to a woman that she can be free, creative, uh bring um our um you know fruit uh children so she doesn't have to worry about that.

In my previous marriage I didn't understand that. So on stage I came across like I was this you know strong guy who was invited to the White House to perform. Um I was you know I was commanding a big group of 2,000 3,000 people and she saw that and then in a relationship I became like now she knows what to do. I don't have to do anything. So I said I do and I didn't do it. I didn't know what it was, what my role was.

So, it took me 20 years and all of that education to get to that place that who do I want to become to attract a woman that wants to be in that role. Damn, dude. You thought about this [ __ ] deep. I did. Going through it, man. I got you going through it cuz you're going through that, which is always a bummer for people, especially with children when you're getting divorced. But then on top of that, your career goes away cuz the Soviet Union collapsed.

Yes. And then you said, "Fuck it." That's very admirable that you said, "Fuck it. I'm going to get educated and figure out what's wrong with me and what's what's you know." Yes. Yeah. And I don't know if you have a picture of my my wife and and the kids and the kid. Now I'm 75 and I have a one-year-old. What? Yes. I am to I know. When did you get married? How long did you Seven Seven years ago. So this So you spent like 20 years single?

Yeah. just trying to figure yourself out. Damn, man. You went on a walk. I went all Tony Robbins. Uh, what? Yeah. All of his trainings. I mean, I needed to become I wasn't that strong person. I was more like my dad and I needed to become who I wanted to be. I wanted a woman to trust me that I can sustain no matter what. Um, and I have a feeling there's my wife. And did you meet your wife in Missouri? No, she is from Ukraine. Uh, that's an interesting You have a one-year-old, dude.

It's time to get you on some peptides. All right, we got That's crazy. You're 75. You have a one-year-old. We got to go to work on you. We got to keep you alive. That's That's nuts. Uh, it's it's wonderful. You're almost 20 years older than me and you have a one-year-old. That's crazy. Well, I'm I'm I'm excited. I'm excited because I figured that I figured out something. So the way So I was you'll you'll get a kick out of it. So I was married to an American woman.

Then I was dating other women. Wasn't it wasn't happening. So I took my kids uh grown kids to uh Ukraine and I wanted them to show I'm from Odessa. All right. So went there uh with them. They were like probably in their 20s and so and on the way back I forgot my uh passport on the plane from Odessa to Kiev and I had to stay behind for a day to get a temporary passport. So, I went to a a park and I was waiting for this and um and I see this lunchtime and this gorgeous women are going to lunch and back and and and they're like I feel like I'm in Paris watching a runway show.

I mean, it's like beautiful women and and I'm going I I'm can relate to that. I would like one of those women. Wait a minute. How? But how old are you at this time? That was 10 years ago, so 65. And how old are these ladies? Uh, well, my wife is 42, so but in in their in their 20s, 30s. 42 and 75 doesn't seem offensive for whatever reason. You know what I mean? Like 20 and what would be the equivalent? Well, I wasn't looking. I wasn't a playboy.

I was looking for a wife. I had a But women don't care about that. If they find out that a man is like that much older than a woman, they kind of get upset. Well, it probably in that culture is a little bit different than American culture. Um, and so what I did, I said, "Okay, how do I do that?" So I went to Ukraine and I tried to meet women through like agencies that introduce people. It wasn't working a couple of times. Then I decide I'm going to just hire three different agencies at the same time and I'm just going to go for two weeks.

And I had 51 dates. So you went to Ukraine just to meet a woman. I went to look for a wife. It wasn't a woman. It was just But I mean it has to be a woman, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so uh Yes. So that's what happened. And I would just have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with different ladies. And it didn't take me very long because I had all that training and education. I was new and I was looking for a woman who um has um a a father that um is really good for her.

I mean, I I knew that if the father if they're afraid of masculine energy, if they're being with the abusive dad or something is not right, they will not trust my energy. And that was with a handshake. I could tell pretty much if that woman and and all 51 dates were I it didn't work. I mean I just knew in couple of seconds that it wasn't right but then I have to eat you know so I gained weight just because I I had to eat all this time three meals a day and anyway you were going out with three different girls a day to try to find a wife.

Yeah, that sounds kind of crazy. Well, it so then a little crazy. So then so then I go it didn't work right. So what do I do? So now I I decide I'm going to do a seminar in Kiev uh on relationships because I was teaching at Missouri State University at that time. So a professor from America is going to teach this course on relationships and laughter. Right. That was my hook. And I But you did this all just to meet women. Yeah. Yes, I did.

Well, I'm I'm not I'm I I'm not ashamed of it because I was I was very It's pragmatic. A good strategy. Very focused. It seems like the same strategy that led you to like serve breakfast in Branson. You're an industrial get out of the Soviet Union. You find solutions. Exactly. Exactly. So then so then I uh I need somebody to promote this uh and to find the venue and uh bring women. But the the logic was that the women who will come uh to uh a seminar are different kind of women that go to those agencies.

Those agencies they're hunting for somebody from outside the country. They're looking for somebody. These women were just wanted to know more about relationship. And so what do you mean they're hunting for someone outside the country? So they're trying to escape Ukraine. That's what they're doing. So they're trying to find a husband that's going to take them out. Exactly. Exactly. So they're more in a masculine energy. They're more like I'm going to get somebody. And I wasn't into that. I wasn't interested. So someone recommended uh this lady who can do this, promote this.

And it was my uh future wife. It was my uh Olivia who I'm now married to. And when I met her and she promoted this, I already knew that I didn't need the seminar. I just I met somebody that I really um wanted to to be with. And uh it didn't it wasn't immediate because we're age different. So at first I was like, "What? What are you talking about?" And I wasn't I was just professional and doing this professionally. But little by little we started learning about each other.

And then I I invited her to America, proposed to her on her uh birthday and I had her balloon ride. I mean I was you know very romantic. Yeah. Yeah. That way she could not get out. That way I could keep her there. Wow. Yeah, that is a creepy place to propose. Propose like you're already scared. You're going to take care of me, please. But I get this thing down on the ground. I put a big big banner on the ground. Will you marry me? A uh and and she didn't know how to read English, so she she did not say yes.

Uh and then then I opened the ring and you know and then she said yes. So, um, does she speak Russian? Is that what they speak in Ukraine? Yeah, primarily. Is there a Ukrainian language? Yeah, there is. There is. That's the tension between two sides of Ukraine. One is very western, very Ukrainian. The other one is Russian speaking and they uh Russian speaking don't mind the the other side. The other side doesn't mind. So, yes. Got it. Got it. Got it. Well, it's like what was it like starting out doing standup in the Soviet Union?

That's where you started, right? Yeah. How old were you? I was 15. And what is it like over there when you were 15? Is there like a a version of the Tonight Show in Russia? Well, no, it's a lot at those days, you know, uh it was very structured, very communist party controlled. So there was only like two comedians in the whole country that were government approved. So they they would be on the radio and television and nobody else was really doing comedy. So what were the comedians like?

Do more like Vladville. What were the names? Uh Arcadi Reichen. You could probably Google him. Arcadi Reichen. He was the main guy that I would listen to and in each each um apartment there would be a little speaker that would be on all the time so they could brainwash you. You had a speaker in your apartment all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So, so but then on Sunday mornings uh this is what 66. Uh yeah. Yeah. I'm 51. So, yeah. Yeah, that's about that time.

Yeah, that was the guy. Yeah. Wow. Very that was the guy. Very famous. Uh the only people from America that we saw were Charlie Chaplain and that's it. So, just Charlie Chap. So, you thought America was just silent movies? Well, they they they portrayed it. Oh, he even had a he did a Charlie Chapman impersonation. Yeah. Wow. Oh yeah. So, uh, he's got wacky wigs and [ __ ] I would listen to his So, every other Sunday or every once a month, he would have a different monologue that was written and approved by the Communist Party.

Yeah. So, I was really into it. So I would record it and we had a big tape recorder like this and I would record it and I would memorize it and because there was nothing to be approved because it's already been approved then I would go to like a club in my um uh school and I would tell jokes his jokes and people knew that it was his jokes but they would they would laugh and that's how I got my understanding that I really wanted to do that.

Wow. Yeah. And and little by little then I went to military and I did that there kind of as an amateur and then uh So you did you did stand up for the military? Yeah. Yeah. But it would be just like holidays like if it was Mayday or event Octo Yeah. October Revolution, they would look to me to to entertain. So I would do that and then I went to came out of the military, went to college for art degree. My parents didn't think that I could do anything.

Comedy would not be like nobody even thought that that's even a possibility. And so um I kept doing it and then start working on the uh Soviet cruise ships um and they they had in the Black Sea Soviet cruise ships. So I went uh they asked me to go and perform there on the cruise ship. Yeah. You're you're like really they have Yeah. Yeah. So it was How old were you at the time? I was 20 21. Okay. Yeah. Um, now I'm getting paid and I'm getting um a cabin.

And now prior to that I lived in a communal apartment with my parents in the same room till I was 26 years old. Whoa. So yeah. So no phone. Uh nine families. What if your parents wanted to get frisky? They tell you to go phone. Go look out the window. Well, I I joke about this and then Okay. Yeah. And then and then they say, "What do you see? What do you see in the window?" I might jump out that [ __ ] window. Yeah. And they say, "What do you [snorts] see in the window?" I said, "Our neighbors being frisky." And and they say, "How can you tell?" I said, "Because their son is looking at me." So that's that's a joke I tell.

But um but uh that was my my life. And here all of the sudden I'm introduced to this uh so tourists from other countries would take those cruises around Black Sea and all of the sudden I'm introduced to this group of people that I was not allowed to talk to foreigners. We were not allowed to even What countries were they from? uh Germany, uh Britain, some Americans, some Australians, uh Yugoslavians, whatever from uh Soviet block and and was who was the president of or the Brvn was the president that time.

Yeah. And so I started so I did one week of performances and um and then they said, "Would you like to stay on board?" And I said, "Um I I I said, "Can can I bring my parents with me? Can can we give another cabin for them?" And they said, "No, you don't get any special privileges. We have hundreds of people like you. Get out." And I I was like, "Okay." So I left and um uh a couple of hours later a messenger comes. We have no phone.

So it's like messenger comes and brings two sets of um sets of tickets for me and my parents. And I never heard that it's even possible like that they would go back and they're worried. So I go on the cruise and um and the uh I go to a cruise director. I said, "What happened?" and he said, "Well, here's what happened. These ships normally are rented to European companies for like nine months out of the year, and we learned from them that if somebody is valuable, we give them more uh perks." Um, the captain liked your performance and he told them, the company that even if you have to give him my own cabin, I want him on the ship.

And the light bulb went in my head. I said, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you saying that in capitalistic world if you're more talented, you get more things?" and they go, "Yeah, that was It's hard to imagine. That was like changed my life." It was Well, it's hard to imagine for people that didn't grow up in the environment that you grew up with a speaker in your apartment. Yeah. Like just you saying that to me, my mind is rattled. I was like, "Oh my god." Like they could just broadcast in your apartment anytime they wanted.

Yeah. And what a great way to brainwash people. And uh they would jam like uh because we had a big radio and they would jam Voice of America. Uh but my dad would wake up like in the middle of the night he was wanted to know what's happening out there and he would sit there and listen to that quietly. And I remember as a kid I asked dad, "What are you listening to in the middle of the night?" And he goes, "Shh, don't let neighbors hear us.

This is Voice of America. We're not allowed to listen to it. Wow. So, you had to keep it secret. Yeah. But at night time, how did he listen to it? Just quiet. It just sat there. Right. But if they jammed it, how did he listen? No. Uh, they would jam it during the day. But at night time, they didn't think anybody would wake up at 3:00 in the morning and sit there and listen to it. How do they jam it? Just I don't know. Sometimes Say that again.

Yeah. I don't know. So they had some way to jam that signal, whatever signal was on. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's shortwave, so it goes in and out. Anyway, what did he get out of listening to Voice of America? Like what what was he does he did he talk about it? Yeah. Yeah. I would then start also waking up and listening and and it would be just standard American thing. Give me you're tired, you're hungry, you're poor. Uh something like that. and you know and they would that there's a Statue of Liberty waiting to greet you uh if you come to the United States and he would always say you know this this would be something that I would love you to experience and um and my mom was she hated that because she was afraid that we'll get in trouble and so she didn't want to even talk about this.

So, if I drew a picture as a kid, I would draw a picture of Statue of Liberty. Uh, and she would like, "Don't do that. Don't let anybody see this. We'll get in trouble." And, um, when after I experienced the cruises and got to know this different environment, I came home and I go, "Mom, dad, I think we should consider try to get out of." And mom was like mad at my dad. And my dad stood up, which was good for him at that time. Normally, he would just be quiet, but he said to my mom, Clara, don't you would you like your son when he is my age sit there by the radio and listen uh to Voice of America hoping wishing that he would be doing something like that or would you like him to be in America doing this?

And my mom kind of went, you know what's going to happen when we apply for a visa? People who are consider your friends, they will cross the street and they will not want to talk to you and be seen with you and you're going to go through hell and and and and my dad said, "Yeah, we will." and she said, "Well, if you're willing to do it, so so am I." And that's all you had to do is apply for a visa. Well, what was happening at that time, Jimmy Carter was the president here, and he wanted to uh see some human rights in the Soviet Union and and the Soviet leadership was they were starving.

They didn't have food. Uh so they needed food from America. So Jimmy Carter made a deal that we're we're going to give you grain and you allow people to get out and that's how we we were kind of exchanged for some wheat, you know. That's how we got out. Wow. Holy [ __ ] man. Yeah. Yeah. Just you um sometimes need to be reminded how fortunate you are. You know, Americans in particular, we're very uh you know, it's not our fault. You know, people become accustomed to where they live.

Yeah. And they think this is normal, which is one of the reasons why this uh push towards communism amongst young people is so infuriating to me. It's like I I understand that it comes from this desire for empathy and kindness. I get that the idea of socialism comes from an idea of empathy and kindness that you want you think the world would be better if we all shared and that why are there's people that are so rich and people that are so poor and you're right.

Uh but the solution is not to make the government decide who gets what because they never decide the right way. They they do what people do. What people do when they have power is they enact total control over the population so that they can maintain power and then they live in luxury and then you wait in line for bread and that's how it is all over the [ __ ] world and if you step out of line they shoot you. That's where communism goes. So what we need is like a more a more moral and ethical version of capitalism.

So we need capitalism but with empathy. capitalism, but with philanthropy, like real philanthropy, not like scams where you you find out that 90% of the money is actually going to all the people that work there and small. We need to figure out a way to be more empathetic as a culture, but recognize that the pursuit of freedom and the ability to have freedom is so huge and it's such a great gift. We're so lucky that we have this experiment in self-government that is the United States of America and that we were that at least I was born here.

Yeah, we're we're lucky as [ __ ] you know, and you don't throw that away because it's not good enough. Don't throw that away because it's not it's not perfect. You're not going to get perfect with human beings, but this is the best system. Is it corrupt? 100%. Yeah, that should be fixed. The corruption should be fixed and guard rail should be put in place and maybe more regulations in regard to some things should be put in place. But the purpose of this whole thing is to allow people to have freedom to do whatever they want and that's not ubiquitous in the world.

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Yeah. In Branson, that's that's not that that flag to me doesn't represent whoever is in it didn't represent Biden when he was in office. It didn't represent Obama. It didn't represent Trump. It that represents all of us, right and left, independent, black, white, Asian, Russian, fill in the blanks, Filipino, everybody from everywhere. Who cares? It's America. This is the great melting pot. And that's that's how we really should be. And that flag shouldn't represent Some people think the flag represents racism or colonialism. Like, come on, stop.

That flag represents hope. And if you were a kid like Yakov Smeirnoff, Is that your real name? No. No. What's the real name? Pocus. Say that again. That's why. Pocus. P O K H I S is my real name. But uh I was a a bartender, a bar boy at first when I came here and I my first job was a bar boy in Ginger's Hotel uh in the Catskills. Oh wow. Yeah. And what year was this? 77. Who did you get to see perform there?

Oh, Freddy Roman. Wow. Eddie Fisher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Freddy Roman. Old school, baby. Old school. I was learning Red Skeleton. Did you see those guys? Uhhuh. I did uh later later in in Atlantic City, but yeah. Yeah. I I was learning English. Uh I was um learning about Chapa Quitic or stuff like that. I was like, "What is that?" You know, so I was I was definitely learning English uh there. Have you ever seen the television show on Amazon, The Marvelous Mrs. Masel? It's [clears throat] really good, man.

Yeah. The first scene, uh, the first season rather, is incredible. It's about a a young woman who's married and decides to become a stand-up comedian. Like she's married with kids, the whole deal, and she decides to do standup. And part of what she does, she does some standup like in the Catkills. Interesting. And like that is for people that don't know, standup, there's like standup comedy as an art form is a very new art form. Yeah. very new in terms of human history. Yes. It's only existed like in this form that we call standup where you have comedy clubs and stuff like that.

It's only existed like that since the 60s. That's true. It's it's Vivville pretty much started that, right? Yeah. Uh it's a different form. Uh but that was I was learning from those. But a big part of it was the cat skills. a big part of it because people from New York and Pennsylvania, they would they go into the Poconos or the Catskills and they would do that on summer vacation and people would get jobs there and comedians would go and book themselves at these places. It was a big deal.

It was it was and I I didn't know um about that. Uh I So you just got a job there to how it happened. I I decided I need to learn English. I didn't speak English, right? So to to start with, so how do I learn English? And I I thought maybe if I can be a bartender because in the cruise ships bar was in the same uh proximity as the stage was. So I figure it's the same people coming to enjoy evening and I can talk to them individually and learn English.

That was my clever idea, right? And so I went and got uh a a bartending, it's called degree of mixology. Uh in New York there was a uh makeshift school on Fifth Avenue. Uh two weeks uh $200 and you get a degree of of being a mixologist. And I don't speak English, but I collected that's $200. Got the degree. So, and they promised you to get a job, right? So, first job they get got me uh there was a restaurant in Lincoln Center called Monks in and it was uh you you dress as a monk and it's a French restaurant and you don't have to speak.

You're a waiter but you don't have to speak. Was perfect. Um, and then uh I at the same school said they're requesting some uh bar boy in uh the Catskills at the Gingers Hotel. And I didn't know anything about it. And I uh on my day off I went upstate New York and went walked into this place and it was gorgeous. It was a beautiful bar like an 18 bartenders or whatever. huge and then 2,000 seat uh uh theater and when I saw it at my in my brain I said I don't care what they pay me I want to work here and so I um I took that job and uh actually I I was I was nervous because I didn't know that I can quit the other job because they just gave it to me like a week ago and right and So, I go back and I'm so nervous.

I go to the manager. I go, "Um, I know this is you gave me a break, but there is an opportunity here." And and he said, "Yakov, um, it's America. You should take the opportunity." And if you ever need the job, you get it here. And I was like Rocky. I was like, "Was he calling you Rock? Yakov or was he calling you?" You'd already used that name. Oh, yeah. Yakov is my real name. But you said it wasn't your real name. Pocus. Poke is my last name.

Oh, yeah. Yakov is my real name. So I took Yakov Pocus would poke. Yeah. Do Spirnoff. And I and I people could not pronounce my name. So in a bar they would I would see that they can say I'll have some spirnov and I'm going h maybe that's a good name and I and it stuck and yakov became my name that makes sense but when you think about how many different people in show business changed their names back then that was a super common thing like you didn't keep the name that you were if you had a goofy name like Arnold Schwarzenegger was a groundbreaker cuz he was like one of the first guys to say regardless whether or not you could spell my name or even say that's my name.

I'm going to keep that name. So many people changed their names and made them their name sound more appealing. Well, mine mine kind of worked because Yaks is like jokes. Yaks and Smeirnov kind of makes people happy, right? So, it kind of worked. Oh, it works great. It's a great idea. So, you're a young kid and you're at these Catskill shows. How long did you work there? Uh not very long about eight maybe seven eight months. And did you slowly learn English when you were? I was learning English and I was translating jokes and I would try them on the audience or my my customers and I would just tell a joke and if they laugh then I knew that I I I'm understood and if they didn't laugh or I didn't get a tip then it wasn't working.

So, so that was my gauge. And you were a bus boy when you I was a bar boy bar boy bringing ice and mixing pinina coladas whatever and then became automat and then then became a bartender and then I would ask the guy I asked the guy who was uh uh the manager of the main room uh Barry Wise his name and he I asked him uh if I could try my comedy and and he said, "No, you can't do it in this room, but in the lobby, uh, in afternoons, they have a game with older people." Simon says, and, uh, the the guy who master of ceremonies there, uh, will probably let you do a couple of minutes of standup.

So, I did. I I walked on stage and I it's a little stage in the lobby and I'm I'm telling a couple of jokes and some woman on the back started I thought she was laughing. It was like she had seizures and and I didn't know and I'm thinking I'm doing well and they're getting her on a [snorts] herni out of there and people coming over and saying you were killing you were killing. I'm going no no no I wasn't killing the whole thing was but at least I told couple of jokes and that gave me some confidence and then I uh did couple of shows in uh catcher rising star which wasn't very good uh for me in New York.

Yeah. And then and then I was working as a shipping manager in a company called Greeting Bells and just to make some money and the lady said I know somebody in Hollywood um uh his name is Ted Bergman. He is the producer executive producer of Threes Company which was a huge show at that time. Sure. said, "If you go to Hollywood, I can arrange a meeting." And I I I I said, "Okay, I'll go." So, I had a plan. I I bought a ticket uh for 10 days to go to Hollywood uh become a star and then come back to New York and buy Fifth Avenue apartment for my parents.

That was my desire. It's crazy, right? But I go, "Okay, he's an executive producer of Tre's company. He'll put me in the show. I'll become a star right away." It I know it's it's crazy, right? But I I really was that naive, right? So I go there and Ted Bergman says, "I would like to see you perform, so I need to find a spot." and I go to the comedy store and I get on the uh open mic list and uh and then the message comes uh that he is not going to make it but I'm already committed.

So, I'm doing my five minutes and and I'm bummed because now it's day four and I'm not even close to getting a a a television show. So, I'm walking away and I'm on on sunset and this uh girl Chrissy, her name was Mitsy's secretary at that time and she runs after me and she goes, "Yakob, Yakov, congratulations." And I go, "Why? I mean, the guy didn't show up." And she goes, "No, no, no, no, no. Mity liked you." And I go, "Who who is Mity?" I know.

I know. It's silly to see in front of her portrait. And she goes, "She owns the comedy store. Go talk to her." So, I go sit down uh next to her in that booth that is next to uh Yeah, sure. Uh original room, and I have no idea who I'm talking to, but And she says, "You're very funny. Stay in Los Angeles. There is always place for good and different. And I'm again I'm like, okay, I said I I I'm sorry, but I, you know, I have parents in in LA in in uh uh uh New York, and I need to go back because I they rely on me.

And she goes, "So, what does your dad do?" And I go, "He's a building construction engineer." And she goes, "Can he be a carpenter?" And I go, "I think so." And she goes, "Okay, why don't you bring him here? I'll give him a job." I like your Mity impression. It's pretty close. And and she she goes, "And where do you live?" I go, I I am staying with some friends. She goes, I have a house up the hill and you can rent a room for $120 a month if you want to.

That was a Crest Hill. Crest Hill. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I I still don't know again who I'm talking to. Uh and she goes, "And and come back tomorrow and watch a regular show." So I come back. How old are you at this time? I'm 2 26 27 now. Yeah. So I go in next day and I sit in the back and first person uh that Harris Pete, you probably remember. Yeah. Harris Pete introduces Robin Williams first on stage and he was he just hit number one uh show on Morgan Mindy.

Yeah. Yeah. And after him is Billy Crystal. After him is David Leatherman. After him is uh Richard Prior. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lined up like and I'm sitting back there and I'm going this is day five. I'm ahead of schedule. If she likes them and she likes me, I'm staying. I don't care. And that's how it started and she gave me a job. So basically I was helping my dad uh as a carpenter because she wasn't I wasn't ready to perform there really but Well, she believed in you.

Yeah. And she gave me a break and little by little once a month she would say why don't you go up and do what you you know and I was practicing. I would do other clubs meantime just to get better and better and better and and then you know she been an amazing supporter you know and I continue I built the a lot in the bell room. I built a lot of things in in in she my my my main job was to go to her house and uh Paulie was a young kid who was smoking pot and to pre prevent Mits from walking into on him.

He would take off the doorork knobs of the door and he would throw them away. And my job was to go and buy door new doorork knobs and put them in. It was like a full-time job, you know. And so, yeah, I she been a blessing. A blessing for me. Pauliey's at the club this weekend. Oh, is that right? Oh, cool. Yeah, he's on the 25th weekend. That's crazy. That and and so how good was your English back then? It was getting better, you Were you were you taking courses or Yeah, I was I was relentless.

I would I would do whatever it takes uh to learn. Uh I was I mean I isolated myself totally from uh Russian speaking except my parents. I was speaking to them in Russian but everybody else I spoke in English. So it got was getting better and better and then little by little I got you know u kind of Robin got me a part at Moscow on a Hudson movie. Uh that was the first um this is all in the 70s, right? So this is probably like you got arrived there like what 78 78.

Yeah. And then the movie was 80 started in 82 came out in ' 84. Uh so at that point I was doing night court a lot. Um did like seven episodes. Um I could not get on the Tonight Show. Uh uh there was a producer Jim Macaulay who didn't think that Carson's gonna like me, right? And so I became and he would come every day. Mity was very supportive of this. She would have like a showcase once a year of people for uh him to look at and he would come and he would say Carson's not going to like he's not going to like and on on year six he came and he said YaKob let's save time for one another uh you'll get on that show when the hell freezes over I swear and I so I start watching weather channel just well I I didn't have a shot.

I mean, and and I just kind of moved on. And then I got uh Miller Light commercial uh which uh became very popular. I don't know if you can show that, Jamie. You could probably see it. It became really big. All of the sudden I was uh during Super Bowl shown and all of a sudden people kind of got got to know me and um I um and and and then Carson saw this commercial and he told Maui he said uh this guy is funny how come we don't have him on and Maui said oh yeah we were just about to get him and so Mitzy calls me I'm in uh Raleigh, North Carolina in the club and she calls me and um and I remember on the pay phone I call her back and I go, "What's going on?" She goes, "Guess who?" Hall I go, "Who?" "Maui, he's an a he's such an ass.

He now wants you on the show right away." And my gut reaction was like, uh, I want to tell him to go shove it. And then I go, "No, no, no. I got to." So I I I did the Tonight Show and Carson liked me and called me over to the couch, which was Uhhuh. Yeah. which was kind of a um a big deal at that time. And I and I sat down and I said, "Johnny, you know, in America you have things we never had in Russia like policeman's have warning shots." And he almost fell off the chair.

And we went to a commercial and Maui comes over. It gets between me and Carson. He goes, "Can you do can you do another shot like this like couple of months from now?" I go, "When the hell freeze is over?" He goes, "Touche. Touche and I did six, seven, seven episodes of Carson. And people today, young people especially listening, don't understand what a big deal it was to be on Carson. And I think the only thing that's close today is Kill Tony. Yes. Kill Tony is uh a place where people's careers are actually really legitimately launched.

And there's a bunch of people like Cam Patterson's on SNL now. You know, there's guys like when when I did a show uh a podcast with the Black Keys, they were asking for William Montgomery to perform. Like, can we go see William Montgomery? Like there's people that are stars from that show now. Amazing. Well, that's pretty cool. I'm here with you because I did that show and here I saw you and you invited me. So, I'm very grateful to Tony that kind of got us. So, Tony has done that for a lot of people.

I mean, he he's blown up Adam Ray. He's blown so many so many of these guys. Yeah. Kyle Dunigan. So many of these guys have taken off because of Tony. It's a really amazing platform because it's just it's just comedy. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Totally. Totally. Love it. It's like a more important uh platform for comedians than a regular podcast like this one because this podcast is not always comedy. Like sometimes I'm talking to scientists, sometimes I'm talking, you know, talk to a lot of weird different people.

Yeah. Absolutely. That show is just funny. And there was nothing like that back then. So the closest thing to it was the Tonight Show. And if you got on the Tonight Show and you did stand up, I mean that was the first time uh I remember watching Richard Jenny was on the Tonight Show and uh there was a bunch of other people that I saw on the Tonight Show too, but everybody would stay up late at night and when there was a comedian on the Tonight Show, you get excited like, "Oh, I was a comedian.

Let's see if they're funny." And um if you were good and you were on the Tonight Show, then you could perform at clubs all over the country and they would say as seen on the Tonight Show. Oh, the Tonight Show. It was a huge deal. And if you had that credit and people had seen you also back then like what were the numbers? The numbers were crazy. 30 million. Yeah. Because there was only four channel three at the time, not even four. Fox didn't even exist yet.

So there was three channels and a huge percentage of the country was watching this one thing. Yes. Yeah. I I was very blessed. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. And 30 million. Yeah. And I one time I offered them He loved to do impressions of Reagan uh Carson. He was and I uh I offered them to do a skit of me as an interpreter. He is Reagan and then had a Gorbachev lookalike. And it was a huge hit. it was really uh very very wellreceived. So, uh, and and that's another interesting thing that, you know, like when I met the Reagan, uh, I was still fairly unknown and and I was playing a club in Washington DC and it was called Comedy Cafe and u, and somebody came over to me after the show and a guy, I didn't know who he was, and he said, "I'm having President Reagan and um Nancy Reagan as my guests, dinner guests at my home in the two weeks.

Uh I would like to invite you to be one of the guests and I'm thinking this guy is nuts. Who is this? You know, and he was chief editor of Washington Times newspaper. and he um the reason I brought this up because so he sent me tickets, we I come back and then this is like a scene from like a die hard or something. We're pulling into his uh house towards his house. There's helicop two helicopters are hanging over the neighborhood. There's FBI everywhere and I'm going this is going to be a mess.

you know, they're going to they won't let me in. I I just didn't think it's possible. So, they get him out of the car, they frisk him, they ask for his IDs, and he said, "I'm the owner of the place where the president is going to dinner, and they said, "We don't care." So, they get him and then they shine the light. I'm sitting in in the uh uh in the passenger seat and they shine the light on me and the guy goes, "Miller light commercial, right?

Go in." Wow. That's how I met the president. And then it was uh he the moment we met each other, it's like locked in like the same wavelength. And all of a sudden he was like, "Have you heard this joke?" And he starts telling me Russian jokes. And then it was back and forth and suddenly 18 people in the room and everybody's laughing. And that's how it started that relationship. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. And then and then I get a call from his uh Dana Orbacher who is his head speech writer and he calls me a couple of weeks later and he said Reagan is going to go to Russia to meet with Gorbachev.

He is going to do a speech in front of all the Russian politicians in University of Moscow. Uh he would like you to write some jokes for his speech. And this is like insane for me to hear this. I'm going if something go doesn't go right, I don't have any countries to go to. This is like where am I going? Right. So, and so I I write some jokes, they put them in the speech, and then uh Dana goes, "Do you mind looking over the speech because we want to make sure that the tone of the speech is right." I'm going, this is too much.

This is too much responsibility. But I was honored. I I read it and I said, I personally don't think that the tone is correct. I think you're kind of talking down to them and they're not going to like it. And he goes, he goes, "Then rewrite the speech." I'm going, "Okay." So, I just changed I I didn't rewrite the speech. I just changed some tone of kind of putting them on the equal level as opposed to being talking down to the Soviet leaders. They didn't appreciate that.

Can you explain how he was talking down? Uh just teaching them that capitalism is so much better than what they got and they should switch to that form of politics as opposed to kind of appreciate what they and their you know their empire at that time that is still very big. So I didn't I I just felt that I would be just nicer and and they liked it. They they changed some of the things that and they kept it that way. And um so I don't know how Mitsy used to tell me you and Reagan changed the world.

I go, "Yeah, Mity, you're right. I'm just telling jokes." He goes, "No, it was his secret weapon that he used to get to Gorbachev." Well, maybe there's some truth to that. Well, certainly truth in that you kind of understood how they would receive, right, what he was saying that he was saying something that would they would become defensive and they would be offended by it. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That that was my concern that but you know I well you know that culture way better than and that's what he was he was asking me I mean at at some point he goes how would you deal with Gorbachev he was literally it's like and I'm like going am I the most qualified person to answer this question and he goes you are because you you lived there 26 years none of us politicians have so he was really very receptive to my suggestions, whatever they, you know.

Wow, that had to be weird. I mean, you're talking to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Yeah. Well, Mr. Gorbachov, tear down that wall. I didn't write that joke. I did not. It wasn't a joke. It was a joke. Yeah. But crazy that changed the world. Yeah. Changed the world. Literally changed the world. Changed my my world for sure. Unfortunately, that's what's crazy. What's crazy is it's like But that was the problem with the world back then with only a few channels. They could just decide you were done and you were done.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean that that happened to a lot of like if actors ran a foul of per certain people, right? You got cast out, you got black ballalled and that was it. You never worked again. Yeah. Yeah. And that happened to a lot of people. Yeah. you know, well, I I'm I'm happy that I found Branson. I'm happy that I was able to adjust, you know, and it just like when when you look at trajectory of my life, uh I I realized that that's one of my strong skills to be able to adjust.

uh coming uh just having the idea that I will be able to do comedy in America was insane for most people. Well, just adjusting from the culture of living in Russia to living in America is insane too. You you made a lot of adjustments. A lot. And uh when we were came because we were coming through Italy uh to come to America and they would in Italy they kept us 3 months to check all the documents and make sure that we're not like communist party or uh don't have a a record spy.

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. And we had to survive. That was another interesting moment of our life because we're going and they're uh they they wanted they didn't want people to leave because that looked bad for the Soviet Union. So they uh they would do all the they would only like change you $100 per person and you supposed to survive like three months of living in a foreign country. And so, but they would give you a list of things that you could take with you. So, like a a photo camera, hat, something you could sell there to live on.

And yeah, and two suitcases for each person and very strict list of things. What was an interesting kind of loophole, we found out through the grapevine that um um condoms was a very um um expensive item in Italy for some reason. In the Soviet Union, you could buy them for a penny and in Italy you could sell them for a dollar. M and so my quest was like when I learned that and there was no restriction how many you can take with you. So I would go to each pharmacy, whatever whatever I could get and just I was, you know, I we got like half of the suitcase of condoms and we put it in my mother's suitcase.

So that way hopefully nobody's going to ask her what what why, you know, they would be embarrassed or whatever. So they didn't ask and we got through. And so my job and my parents' job was to go on the open market every Saturday and Sunday and try to sell those condoms so we can pay rent and food and whatever else. So my parents, it was so funny how they transition. They were this uh two very conservative people and they're embarrassed, but then they realize we need money to eat.

So they would mom became pretty smart. She translated from Russian into uh uh Italian. Um um if you don't want to have a kid like this and would point at me and would hold that card and said, "Then buy a condom." And people would laugh. They would laugh and they would buy two or three. It was just more of a joke, but we were we were, you know, surviving on that for a long time. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So, it was kind of bang for the buck kind of a, you know, uh it it was not expected, but we survived.

So, a lot of those moments in life when you I I look at my life and I go, that was a survival. than coming to America and getting a job and getting to uh God is that helped you and me to become who we are. Uh that's just God's hand on that. That's amazing. Yeah. You adapted, man. You adapted multiple times. That's so crazy. God. Yeah. Just trying to survive in Italy. You didn't speak Italian. No. Did you guys speak anything other than Russian? No, we just But there was immigration.

There was other Russian people that you could kind of communicate with. And I uh I would go even in Italy. I would go to a movie theater and I was so determined. There was a one movie theater in Rome that would for a dollar you can sit and watch English uh speaking movies and you can sit there all day for a dollar. And so I would go, it was like my I was learning English, listening to listening and and and then one time I remember a a couple I I needed to practice and there was a couple I asked them uh speak English and they said yes.

And the guy, the girl was from Belgium, the guy was from Washington DC. And uh they said, "Uh, we'll help you and we'll just come every week like on Monday or some whatever it was, and we'll just go to a coffee shop and we'll talk to you so you can practice English." And I remember they asked me um like, "What what did you do in Russia?" I said I was a comedian somehow through dictionary whatever I could to make that and and uh and they said what what do you want to accomplish uh when you're in uh in America and again I don't know anything about America and I have this I asked him I said where is the most successful people comedians perform form and they said Las Vegas and I said in five years somehow I deliver I'll be in Las Vegas and it's exactly what happened.

Five years later I was at the Tropicana Hotel with Murray Lanston the unknown comic doing a show in Las Vegas. I remember that guy with the paper bag over his head. Yeah. From the Gong Show. Yep. Yeah. Which was a great show. Yeah. It was kind of an early version of Kill Tony in a lot of ways. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Cuz some of the people were just like unbelievably untalented and then you would hit the gong. Exactly. That show was great. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Didn't they try to bring that back? Didn't they try to bring the Gong Show back at one point in time with someone else? I think they did. Who did they bring it back with? Do you remember, Jamie? But do you remember? You don't remember? Don't off top my head. No, it was someone that you're like, "Huh, I wonder why they chose that person." Actually, Oh, yeah. 200 Oh, David Tell. Oh, it was That's right. Who was it? It was David Tell. Oh, that's right. It was 2012.

Well, it says briefly in 2008 and then again in 2017 and then I don't think he was involved in that one. Oh, two 2008. Is that what you said? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, he's perfect for that. The problem is once a show's been done, you try to redo it, it's like it's always going to be Yeah. There's been the three different versions of Fear Factor now, you know? There's like now they're doing it with Johnny Knoxville. Uh it's uh kind of crazy like the amount of different things that have happened in your life, you know, and then now to find yourself with another revival because of Kill Tony.

Yes. Like Yes. and and going back on tour. I have a poster. I don't know if people on the radio can't see it, but I have a poster of of my tour. Well, what we'll send them to the website so you have to look at I am I'm excited. And where are you going? Comedy clubs. Yeah. All over the place. Yeah. Atlanta is the next one. No one can read that. Oh, okay. Yeah. Put that down. Go to the website. Jamie will pull up the website.

Yeah. Brought It's on yakov.com. Yeah. Yeah, God brought a sign. That's hilarious, man. So, what was the Kill Tony experience like? It was great. I mean, I am um obviously my my show is kind of a G-rated and so uh Kilton is not and uh so but yet it was it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He he was so respectful of of this uh uh Tony and set me up, you know. I mean, I I felt like my head was this big and um he was seeing me as a super legend and and I am I'm very grateful.

It's hard for me sometimes to accept that that people see me because I've been doing this for 60 years. 60 years comedy. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, I remember the first time we met. We met at the comedy store I want to say was that like 15 years ago or something like that. You dropped in and I had never seen and I was like, "Oh, like what is he doing in town?" Yeah. And you just decided you wanted to come by the store and see what was going on with the young guys and do some standup and we hung out for a little bit in the in the green room.

I'm like and I remember telling everybody, "You mirn's really funny, man. He's [ __ ] cool." Thank you. Thank you. It was fun. It was fun to hang out with you, you know. It was like it was fun to see you hanging out with all these weirdo young pot smoking [laughter and clears throat] [ __ ] animals coming from Branson, right? Yeah. You were coming from Branson. You're hanging out with Joey Diaz and we were laughing though. We had a good time, man. It was a really good time.

It was fun. It's fun. And I go back uh to clubs and I my goal was really to uh last year I would go to small clubs and develop an hour of material that is totally current. I talk about relationships. I talk about uh having a one-year-old in my life. I talk and and it's an interesting I was doing it at uh at uh uh your club and it it's great to watch um the the reaction of the audience how they have a lot of respect but they're also laughing and they're seeing it.

It's fun because I talk about relationships. So they might come in disconnected, but then all of a sudden you see how they put their hands next to each other and then they put Yeah. Yeah. But I like it. I look at you. You're a uniter. You're bringing couples closer together with your comedy. I I That's really my goal. I like that you like that. I enjoy I enjoy seeing families like Nate Burgetti is really the one who kind of got me out of Branson because he um shown that that there's a need for that um humor.

Yes. And families come and when you go to his show it's like looking around grandma and and and grandchildren and parents but everyone's laughing. The thing about Nate that's so unique is Nate is hilarious to me. Nate is hilarious to a 20-year-old kid in college. [clears throat] Nate is hilarious to their grandmother, right? Nate is hilarious to your children. You could bring your 10-year-old kids to see Nate. Nate is a genius. And he's got and that is who he is all the time. He's like a really funny, very smart guy.

Yes. Who's got a perfect style. It's like he's I mean he's Didn't he make like the most money ever or something like that last year doing stand up? He sold the most tickets ever. Made a million dollars. Something crazy. But it's like he's doing this like selling out stadiums two times in a night. Exactly. Yeah. And [snorts] he does like 3 p.m. shows. It's nuts. It's It's incredible. But it shows that there is a need for that. Well, it shows that it doesn't matter. It's just funny.

Like Brian Rean's another great example. Brian Regan, squeaky clean. Unfucking believably funny. So talented, so funny. And it's just funny. It doesn't have to be clean or dirty or And we have that at the club, too. I mean, this is like the club gets labeled as some like kind of extreme anti-woke thing. It's nonsense. Like I played I performed there at your club a couple of weeks ago. They totally loved it. Nobody expected anything and they just enjoyed. They laughed all the way through. I love doing that.

So to me, I see young people who don't know me and they're totally relating and I'm relating to them, which is great. That's what I want to do. We're human beings telling jokes, that's it. That's all it is. And and if comedy done correctly is done from your perspective, whether your perspective is Nate Barazi or your perspective is [ __ ] you know, fill in the blank, David Tal, whoever it is, right? Joey Diaz, Brian Holtzman, like whatever it is. It doesn't it doesn't matter. It's like it's what's funny is funny.

And it might not be your thing. Like that's the thing, too. The one of the problems with comedy is that there's only one there's like one label and you might go see like Brian Holtzman is like death metal comedy or you might see Nate Batsi who's like, you know, I don't know what's the, you know, what's equivalent. Well, uh, Leanne Morgan is another one that was kind of out of nowhere, uh, became very successful because she has that, uh, clean southern humor and, um, the Netflix embraced her and all of the sudden she is touring and doing concerts.

Yeah. All you have to do is be funny. It's like funny from whatever perspective you're coming from. And again, it's not going to be for everybody. That's just how it is, right? There's a lot of people that aren't going to like A or B. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. It's just But the thing about comedy is like when you go to a comedy club, you don't know what you're going to get. You might get Run DMC or you might get AC/DC. You have no idea. Right.

Right. It's just it's all just comedy. But I think that's one of the cool things about it. Right. And I um I totally agree with you and I want to uh be able to do that one hour straight comedy. No. Uh there was an interesting thing that happened about a a year ago or so. Um I a young comedian uh um he he said, you know, I was writing some jokes and he was helping me and he said, "Yakob, you know that you're not a stand-up comedian.

You're a one-man show." And I go at first I was like kind of what what are you talking about and because I tell I tell in France it's like more storytelling and not just punchline punchline punchline and and he was he was correct. So I at first I got kind of like what do you mean who are you to tell me I'm not a stand-up comedian? And then I go uh Chad JPT uh is Yakov a stand-up comedian or is he one-man show? And Chad GPT said Yakov Smeirnov used to be a stand-up comedian and now he is a one-man show and now coming from Chad GPT I'm going dang that's that's now official.

Wait a minute. So, [snorts] it took me a whole year to rewrite everything that I needed to rewrite to say it's punchline, punchline. It's just straight comedy. So, I became a stand-up comedian again. Well, there's nothing wrong with one man show standup comedy either cuz some people do their comedy like a one-man show and some of the best comics like Colin Quinn. Colin Quinn does a series of oneman shows, but if you ask Chat GPT, who is Colin Quinn? He'll say he's a stand-up comedian, right?

But Chad GPT got me wrong. Whatever it was, it doesn't matter. It's not even a person, right? [ __ ] But but [snorts] it's actually helped me to um tune in uh my comedy and because I was maybe a little bit more relaxed being in my own theater with all people coming to see me. So it's not like you're in a club when you're like with other comedians when you have to be really really sharp. And that's what I think it did for me. So I spent a year doing that.

Now I have that hour and I'm ready to go and that's why I went on the tour. That's awesome. I love I love when comics are still interested in it and still writing and still love it after all these years. Absolutely. You know who I I draw some inspiration from as well as Argus Hamilton. Yeah. Argus is still killing it. Still killing it in LA. Keeps going. And every time there's something new in the news, he's got always got a great [ __ ] line about it.

He's a funny dude. He is and he's still getting after. He still loves it. And you know, Argus used to like famously be into the substances. And uh now all he does is run. And I remember one time we were uh at the comedy store and we were in the parking lot and it was uh after the show and Argus showed up with [ __ ] running shoes on. Just ran in and I'm like, "What are you doing, man?" And he's like, "I I have to run every day and do a set." Because to him that's his motivation.

Yeah. He does like I think he runs like 10 miles a day. Yeah, he's in his 70s. And interesting that, you know, when I was so naive because uh Argus was uh very friendly with Mitsy um and I I would go to their house and I would see Argus there in the morning and I was like why is you know and I I couldn't connect those two things. I mean I I could not I I mean honestly it was it [snorts] was I'll tell you how naive I was.

Uh so Mitzy gives me that work right up um and I live in that house and Andrew Dice Clay moves into that house right and Andrew teaches me English. Okay, can you imagine that? Rob and so but but that was a party house. I mean, this was a house where uh was Kenisonson living there then? Kenisonson would just hang out there all the time. And uh they would scream at each other, Andrew and uh and Kenisonson. And and that was just kind of a joke between those two and they go and I would have to go to bed because I got to get up early in the morning to go work and those guys are screaming at each other.

uh just for fun. And I go downstairs and I go, "Hey guys, your friends, stop." So I'm we're playing this joke and they're Yeah. screaming. And I go, "You know what? Why don't you you're close to the comedy store. Why don't you go downstairs and scream there?" And they looked at each other and go, "Okay, let's go." So, it's midnight and we're all going whoever lived there going to the comedy store and Sam gets on stage and start screaming. This is the first time that he ever got on stage and he went to the and there very few people in the audience and he went into their face.

Ah, you No way. That's where it came from. And then after that it just became like his his thing and the rest is history. That's crazy. Yeah, that was that was happening there. A lot of stuff was happening there. They would come and do drugs, you know, like uh Robin and Richard Richard Prior, they would do. And I tells you this is silly, but I would wake up in the morning and I would see a mirror on the table, right? Okay. So, bear with me. So, and there's like white powder on the table.

So, you'd clean it up. I was thinking they're eating donuts off the mirror. So I would clean whatever it was, hang it up. And next morning I go, Argus, why don't you guys use plates? You have a dishwasher. What? And they would laugh at me and they wouldn't tell me what's going on. Well, weren't they mad that you threw away their No, no, there was not much. I mean, it was just Yeah. Well, there residue. I I [snorts] had no idea. I wasn't testing. That's how much coke they had that they left some of it on the mirror.

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. It it was and but I didn't know. So I kind of lived in that wholesome kind of a world in that So you were there while Kenisonson was developing? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Did he arrive at the store around the same time that you did? A little bit later. A little later. Yeah. A little later. Well, like what year did he arrive? Probably 79, I would say. And he really around like what? 85. 86. Yes. Yes. I think 85 he did Letterman.

Yes. Yes. And then 86 he had that HBO special that blew him up. Probably. Yeah. Probably. But you know how I found out about Kenisonson? It's a funny story. I've told it before. I apologize if the audience has heard it. I was working at a health club at a a gym called the Boston Athletic Club in South Boston. And I was a trainer. I teach people how to lift weights. And there was this girl who was a volleyball player. She was hilarious. She was this big girl, big athletic girl.

She was very funny. She was just like boisterous, like a really loud, funny lady. And she was like my age. And um she told me about Kenisonson. And then she told me about his bit. She's like, "Oh my god, I saw this guy on HBO." She had a like heavy Boston accent. This guy on HBO. He was so [ __ ] hilarious. And he did this bit about uh people having sex with corpses. So she does this bit. She laid down in the parking lot of the Boston Athletic Club and did that bit.

So Kenisonson had a very famous bit about homosexual necriliacs who were paying money to spend moments alone with the freshest male corpses. So she is lying down on the parking lot in on the ground in the parking lot. She's and she's like in like, "Oh, I'm going to lie down." She's she did the whole thing. I'm going to be with Jesus and now I'm dead. OH, WHAT IS THIS? FEELS LIKE SOMEONE'S [ __ ] ME in the ass. YOU MEAN LIFE KEEPS [ __ ] you in the ass?

EVEN AFTER YOU'RE DEAD, IT NEVER ENDS. SO, SHE was doing his bit and I was laughing at her doing his bit. I'm like, I got to see this guy. This is crazy. So, that was my introduction to Sam Kenisonson, my friend, lying on her stomach doing an impression. I'll never forget that, man. Because I was 19 years old. I remember that and I remember think so it was 86. So, I remember thinking, "This is crazy. Unbelievable. That's it was so I had no desire to do comedy back then.

I wasn't even thinking about it. It wasn't even on my radar. It was never even a thought. I loved comedy. I loved watching it, but I never thought about that. So, what made you What was the the transition when you started? Well, I was uh heavily invested in martial arts. That's all I wanted to do. All I wanted was I was my my goal was to compete and that's all I was doing. It's the reason why I got the job at the gym so that I could have a place that I could work out and also I could make money there.

And um my friends that I used to train with, they're the ones who told me to do comedy. But I was like, "Listen, you laugh at me because you're also psychos. Like the things I'm saying are [ __ ] crazy. [clears throat] Like you're we're all fighters. We're all traveling around the country fighting. Like this is not a normal activity. You're these This is not normal humor." But my good friend Steve Graham, who I'm still friends with to this day, he's the one who talked me into doing it.

And then I went to an open mic night and I realized, oh, everybody sucks in the beginning. Like it's just like martial arts. You start off, you suck and then you get better at it. But my introduction to comedy was that lady really my introduction to Kenisonson rather. The idea cuz I when I saw Kenisonson, I was like, "Oh, comedy is a lot of different things. It's different. There's a lot of different forms to it." Yeah. cuz I always saw guys like Jerry Seinfeld who were very funny and they tell these jokes but I never thought that was me.

I couldn't do that. But I saw Kenisonson I was like, "Oh, this a bunch of different kinds of comedy. This is very interesting." And then when I started out in 88, boy, the guys in Boston used to talk about the comedy store like it was mecca. Like you had to go there. You had to go to the store. The store was where Richard Prior started and Sam Kenisonson and all the all these comics and David Letterman, they all made they all came out of the store.

Bill Hicks, he was a door man at the store and everybody talked about the store. It was one of those things where it was like, you know, you had to go there. And then uh when I first made uh got on a television show, I flew out to LA to do a pilot and that was the first time I ever went to the store. And I remember being so weirded out just being in the building like, "Wow, I can't believe I'm at the comedy store." Now, when you when did you meet Mity?

I met Mitsy in 94. So, I did the pilot. The pilot wound up getting picked up. Then I came out and I was on a TV show that it was it only lasted like six episodes. It was called Hard Ball. It was a sitcom about a baseball team and I played the star player. I played this crazy dude who's always crashing his Lamborghini and that that kind of [ __ ] you know, and so um I would spend my nights every night at the store. I didn't have any friends and I didn't know anybody there.

So I just would just go to the set and then after the set I'd go hang out at the store and then I eventually uh Mitsy uh showcased me. I got uh became a non-paid regular so I got to go on after the comedians performed. So, the way it worked at the comedy store, they'd have a show that was scheduled from like 8:00 p.m. to like 1:00 a.m. or close to it. And then after it was probably like really midnight, but it always was like 1:00 a.m.

by the time I got up. And then I would go on after everybody else. And I did that for a few months. And then she passed me. And I remember thinking like when when she passed me, like I was like, "Oh, no. I I think I can be a comedian now." Like this is I actually can make a living doing this. Because before then I wasn't sure, right? Even though I was getting paid and I would do comedy, I'd get paid to do comedy. It was still like very iffy.

I'd bomb a lot. It was like it wasn't right. Also, it was like in the middle of this sitcom, so I was was working all day and I I didn't want to do that anymore. I mean, I I liked it because it paid a lot of money, but it wasn't really my thing. I wasn't into acting that much. It was to me it was like comedy was more exciting. It was live live audiences. The sitcom thing was fun because you got to use like your skills and in telling jokes as a comedian, but it wasn't the same thing.

And then I got news radio, which was a much more uh much better show. And then then I was like, well, this is different. This is there's other levels to this. And that's how I met Hartman and all those other people. But it was to me the most important thing was getting passed at the store. I was like, wow, that was more important to me than getting a sitcom or anything. I was like, I can't believe it. I got past my name's on the wall of the [ __ ] comedy store.

Like, wow. It was so exciting. In lights, too, now, right? Do you have it? Is it in the neon inside? Yeah, I'm on the wall inside. It's just like this lady, Mity Shore, like people don't understand. She was the most important figure outside of all the comedians, the most important figure of in comedy. Yeah. By far. There was no one like her. She was and she was a mentor. She was like a she was a curator of a mental health asylum. And she would joke around about it.

She was like, "The inmates are running the asylum." And that was originally when we came to uh Texas, I was going to call it the asylum. Really? Yeah. Cuz I thought as a nod to Mitsy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It turned out. But as a nod to Mitsy, the idea was that like cuz she was always saying the inmates are running the assai. She would say that all the time while we were there, like she encouraged it. She liked when comedians were out of their [ __ ] minds.

She she loved it. She loved that environment. And so as a nod to her, we were going to call it the asylum. But then I was like, one of the things that someone said, because you know, Ron White was the first guy to move here. He was really like patient zero in the Austin comedy experience. the new version of the Austin Comedy Experience. And he was like, "It's in the center of the country. I love it cuz I could fly to New York. I go to Florida.

I go everywhere. It's in the middle. You know, it's like the flights aren't as long. People are nice. I love it here." And I was like, "Oh, well, it's like the mother ship." And then all the other places like Lynch launch out. And also, I'm obsessed with UFOs. Obviously. I can see. Right. Yeah. Obviously, I have a bit of a UFO problem. Yeah. So that's why we called it the mothership. But I mean the bar is named Mitsy's. Yes. Yes. And it was I, you know, losing her that early.

I still think she went too early, you know, in Well, for me it was like she suffered for so long. It was really hard to see her. Uh, you know, she had a neurological condition later in her life. It was very hard to see her. She would come around a store. Yeah. But you know, she nurtured so many comedians and and helped us Oh, and not always. Like sometimes she had terrible advice. She would change your whole act, make you have a fake name. She tried to turn Joey Diaz into Fat Baby.

Is that right? That was his nickname or his name. So on the lineup, instead of Joey Diaz, it would say Fat Baby. She did that for like a couple years. Wow. Yeah, it was nuts. Yeah, you can find some of the old lineups. Uh Jamie's found them before online. It'll still like line up from like 2001 or something like that. It says fat baby. That's what she was calling them. Yeah. And uh she was a special person. Such a special person. And just that lady loved having that place.

She was she knew that there was something going on there and there had been something going on there that was very unique in the world of comedy and it was necessary, you know, to have a place like that where the comics all felt at home. Yeah. Like we would perform in other places like we would do sets at the improv. We would do sets at the I remember one time I did New Year's at the improv and I came back to the club and Harris Pete says, "I love it.

You go over there, you do your shows, but you come back home." I was like, "Yeah, we're all this is our home. This is our our weird [ __ ] home." Yeah. You know, the home for lost children. Like Mitzy would call it the the home for the island of broken toys. Yeah. just a bunch of weirdos, you know, and but all like like feeding off of each other. But to be able to see somebody who is barely speaks English and does five minutes and spot him somehow.

Well, she loves developing comics. She loved finding a comic and and and getting them, which is one of the problems like she didn't It's really interesting like Jerry Seinfeld went and she didn't pass him because he was already developed, right? Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Like she didn't like that. She She was already He's done. He's done. She liked taking people when they were really raw. That's true. And shaping them. Rosanne was her big project. Sure. She came a lot of big projects. Denver. Yeah. and uh and and so is um uh Jim Carrey uh and many many others.

She also had like very specific like techniques she would use to test you like she would always take comics and put them on like especially the Young New ones after all the the really good comics like she did with you when you're talking about like doing that set Richard Prior going up and Robin Williams and that's what she would do. She would take young comics that she thought had potential and she would shove them after the biggest names, people that were killing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She was a such a unique person and such an important person in comedy and and Peter um that was a big moment of my life.

I went to her funeral and Peter her son asked me to be one of the polebears in her um funeral and I felt like full circle you know she gave me my life you know to in a totally different way if I didn't meet her god knows what what I would be doing. No, I mean she she helped all of us and I think uh it's one of the reasons why we talk about her so much and it's the reason why we named the bar after her.

Yeah. Just to and the spirit of what she was trying to do at the store we try to do at the mothership. It's all the weirdos. Welcome weirdos. Welcome weirdos. I'm in. Let's have fun. Let's go. Yeah. How many times have you uh performed at the club now? Just do regular sets. Twice. Yeah. Yeah. It it it's feels like the the original room uh the little room, the little boy's room. Well, you know what I say? It's like the little room is like if the original room and the belly room had a baby and then the [clears throat] big room is like the original room and the main room had a baby.

Right. Right. It's true. Very close. It's true. But you've done a great job. It feels It feels like home when you walk in there. Well, I basically copied everything that I learned from her. Yeah. And added more Yes. stuff that the comedians requested. And it's interesting that I was helping to build that belly room and then Kill Tony started in the belly room. Yeah. You might have been the last person to work on that belly room, too, because that that [ __ ] room scares the [ __ ] out of me.

I' I've been in the bottom like in the the uh bar area ordering [snorts] a drink and like roast battle will be on stage and you see the ceiling move. You're like Jesus y off get back up there with a [ __ ] hammer and add some support. I'm not taking the responsibility. I was just doing booths and go structure. That's good. Somebody was somebody. I just think sometime [clears throat] like especially there is no Rose Battle when when you have Rose Battle up there like they would get so wild and rowdy and it would be packed.

It would be packed and it's only supposed to seat like what 70 people or 80 people, right? It would be a lot more than that. The [ __ ] ceiling would move a little when you were in the bar. You're like, "Bro, I hope this doesn't cave in. That would suck." Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. That place is a magic place. And it's also a magic place because it was like a a magnet for crazy people. You'd have the weirdest, nuttiest people that would just come there.

Like that one guy. There's one guy that we used to come there. He was a really nice guy. And he would always dress as Jesus. Yes, I remember that. Yeah. Do you do you remember his name, J? Heavenly Light. That's right. And uh he wind up dying and everybody was so sad. They were really sad because this guy was it seems like a gimmick, but it we got used to it and he was really nice and he was just like this nice guy that dressed like Jesus all the time.

There he is. But it was part of the [ __ ] cool, crazy, weirdness of the comedy store is that we had a guy that [clears throat] dressed as Jesus that was there all the time. Yeah. You know, and like I don't know if he ever did standup. Did he ever do standup? I never saw him on stage, but he would be in the room sometimes and he definitely had timing to, you know, give a joke, but like I don't remember ever seeing him like with a mic in his hand.

Isn't that crazy though? Like he was just always there hanging out and he was like, but that was the part of how nutty that place was, right? The place was just strange. Yeah. We ran into so many like completely schizophrenic people in the parking lot. Not like they would they would just wander their way back there and start talking to us and explain to us about the voices there on Brody's show with Zach. Oh wow. Wow. Yeah. I mean Brody had him on his show was just that's how weird that place was.

It was just such a [ __ ] just an unusual spot. Yeah. And so we've done our best to make our own version of that here. and and the uh uh that Crest House was also a crazy place, you know. Yeah, I'm not doing that. I think that was a terrible idea. I'm not going to buy a house and have a bunch of comedians live in it. That sounds like a recipe for [ __ ] disaster. I just can't manage all that. You know, I almost bought Crest Hill at one point in time.

Really? Yeah. They were selling it and I was really thinking about buying it, but I had a dog at the time. His name is Frank Sinatra and Frank Sinatra was an escape artist and that was not a big enough I you know if you I'm a firm believer that if you have a dog you really have to have a big yard I think otherwise it's cruel. I think the dog dogs need exercise. They need they need something. If you don't have a big yard you got to be able to take that dog out every day and exercise and bring them around.

Otherwise it's rude. And Crest Hill had that little tiny backyard remember? And it was on the hill. I'm like, "He's getting over this fence like he was a pitbull." I'm like, "He's getting over that fence like that. That dog could get out of anything." I was like, "That poor guy. I'm not doing that to him." So, I never bought it because of my dog. Like, literally, I was thinking about buying that house and she was selling it and but it was I went to look at it.

I went to look at it to see if I could buy it. I think some comics might have been even living there at the time. So, this was like they sold it several times since then. I was just there not too long ago and there it's all kind of destroyed because the guy is kind of wacky and he's remodeling it. But but it was a a big part of my life. Um as I was living there in the little room, Andrew Dlay downstairs and he's teaching me how to date women.

I know. I know it's it's crazy but I was so naive and he was clean at that time you know his act was very clean he would tell you know he would do impressions of uh Elvis and John Travolta and Sylvester Stallone. So he's and um and and he would be very funny. We were pretty good friends. He would just but he would play with me. He would say, uh, he would play that, you know, I would have a girlfriend come and he would say, "So now you want me to go downstairs?

Can you imagine Andrew being this, you know, crazy?" Said, "Now I got to go downstairs and I'll be all by myself and you're going to be with this girl and you're my best friend and how is that going?" I go, "Get the hell out of here. She's going to be here." And then she would come and he would do it in front of her. Well, you guys are going to have fun now and I'm going to have to go downstairs. There's nothing there. And you just play and play along, you know.

And then uh uh Tom Wilson was living there, too. Uh Tom is the guy who did um Biff in Back to the Future. He was the the the bad guy, right? And so Tom was kind of a cleancut guy and Andrew was, you know, um, not. So, so, uh, so one time I was supposed to break up with this girl. I wanted to break up with her. And he goes, Andrew goes, "I I have an idea for you. We're going to go to a jewelry store.

We're going to get a a gift for her so it will be easy to break up." So, we go, we buy a ring and I'll bring it I brought it back and I go, "Uh, Tom, um, Andrew told me to buy this ring to give it to this girl so it would be an easy breakup." And he looks and he goes, "It's an engagement ring. You know that, right?" And I go, "But Andrew told me to buy it." Hungry. He goes, uh, uh, Tom goes, Andrew is not a representative of a human race, so don't listen to what he's saying.

So that's how it was kind of a fun relationship, but it was interesting because I was very enterprising and I'm working for Mity, you know, she's paying me whatever minimum wage um and but I'm saving money and we live with those guys and to have a twocar garage but no cars in it. So, a friend of mine says to me, "Why don't we go to Germany together? We borrow some money. We buy two Mercedes and we'll sell one and we'll get one for free." It was kind of a interesting idea.

So, we went with some complications. I was able to bring two cars and sold one. So, so here's these guys are sleeping till like noon and they don't have a car and they don't they're just bombing and I have two Mercedes in the garage. I sell one and then I go to Europe. They hired me to do a Bob Monhouse show which was a kind of a Johnny Carson show for um England. and I fly there and they give me a bag of money, 10,000 euros, not eos, pounds, uh, in a bag to do their show.

So, I buy a Rolls-Royce and ship it to America. So, now I have a Mercedes 450 SL and a Rolls-Royce, but I live in a room for $120 a month, right? And so, um, this is how weird it is. And, and this, and I want to buy a house, but I don't have enough money. So, this realtor passes by one day, and I'm polishing a Rolls-Royce. And she goes, "Can I borrow like a hammer to put the sign in?" I go, "You know what? You're a realtor.

Maybe you can help me. I'm looking for a house." um on and I liked when Mity had that big house, 5,000 square feet overlooking LA. I'm like, I want something like that. And I I said I tell her, I want a 5,000 square foot house um with an an acre of land and I want to buy it for uh with the view of LA and I want to buy it for $150,000. And I'm thinking she's going to hit me with a hammer. She goes, "I may have something for you." And I go, "Really?" And she goes, "Yeah." And she There was a house uh literally like a block away from where Mits was.

Similar structure, only it was destroyed. It was a house that Laney Bruce used to live in years ago. uh was um the Seymour Cassell who is a he is a character actor. I don't know if he's still around. Maybe Jamie can find it of him. Uh he was a character actor and he got into drugs and lost that house to his attorney who and and so um so I go look at the house. It's totally destroyed. But my parents needed a project. They were and I needed them to have a project.

So I said, "How much would he?" And he said, "He'll take $150,000 because it's totally destroyed. There's stuff swimming, but like there is a stuff in the basement like flooded. The the windows are broken, destroyed. So, I buy that house and uh but I want to buy it, but I have to get all the paperwork and I I go um I need this. There's some kind of discrepancy that a sliver of the land belongs to a neighbor or something like that. So, I need to sign that guy Seymour Cassell supposed to sign something off.

And I go, "Where am I going to find him?" I go, the attorney goes, I know where he is. He's in jail. So, I go to jail and I figure I'm going to offer him money to sign this paper. And uh I I go in, I have like $500 in my pocket. And I go, "Uh, I need you to sign this paper." And he goes, I said, "How much?" And he goes, "50." I go, "$50,000?" He said, 'N no $50. I go, "Why $50?" He said, "They won't allow us more than $50 in jail." So now I'm in jail with a $100 bill trying to get change, which is not a good place to do it.

I got it and now I own that that beautiful home. You still have it? No, I sold it. uh and uh moved to Pacific Palisades that time and when my kids were my daughter was born and then had to sell that house and lose a lot of money to move to Branson. So, and are you in Branson still? I do. Yeah. I own Yeah, I owned a theater there. And so, how did you start coming out here? It was a desire to kind of um do what I I felt compelled that I can still offer something valuable to the audience out there watching Nate Burgazi uh doing that.

and he had me actually I was in Florida and uh I I wanted to go see his show and he's in a um uh this uh Herz arena 12,000 something people and I I um I asked if I could just go come see the show and he said why don't you go on stage and do a set and that was like I walked out there And I felt like I was back in the 80s. You know, the audience just the moment they said my name, they knew who I was.

That audience knows who I am. So they just went crazy and I felt like Rocky standing there bowing and then I did like eight minutes and um so he's very respectful and very he feels like I one of the people that kind of paved the way for comedy to be what it is today. That's awesome. So I've been very blessed that you know. And so how did you wind up in Austin? Um I came here uh for the festival that was that um Moon Tower. Moon Tower.

And then I had Adam your Adam got me a spot. Uh and that's when I met Tony and Tony said why don't you be a guest judge on my show? And I was going with my family to Europe. um uh because my family's from Ukraine. So my wife's family from Ukraine. So they moved to Europe and so we went there for two months and I said, "Tony, I can't do it right now, but end of August, I would love to do it." And that's how it all kind of came together.

Wow. Yeah. Small world, but What are you doing tonight? I don't have any plans. I was just was hoping to get through through this, but because you never know. I I'm hoping that, you know, I I'll be happy to do whatever is out there. You know, you were hoping to get through the show. You Well, you have to know. I mean, you your show I don't think you can phantom how big your show. I mean, I know you know the numbers and you know, uh, but to to get to to have the conversation for three hours and not really knowing where it's going to go, what's going to happen, how it's going to be, you you get nervous, you know, and I feel uh like I was uh going to uh Nashville and there was Nashville comedy festival Well, a year and a half ago and I went there and um I walked into Ryman's auditorium and um Brian Dorfman, you probably know he's a promoter, he remembered me from the years in the past and there was a show that uh uh all the Nate Betts protes were doing uh and and I walked in.

I didn't know what was going on. And he said, "You want to go up?" And I go, "Okay, I'll I'll go up." And I I went in the middle of the show and I did 15 minutes and the crowd gave me a standing ovation in the middle of the show. And I I know it's I get emotional because I feel like an ugly duckling that goes in and doesn't know if this young people going to accept you or not. And can you still do it? I was I'm in Branson for 33 years.

I'm very comfortable in that environment. But going into with the young comedians, it's like a boxer who hasn't been out there. And there is um there is respect, but also respect only last 30 seconds uh after they introduce you, but then you have to prove that you got what it takes. And that's what I feel like I uh I want to continue to do this because I believe I can still offer something valuable uh to the audience that that family audience that uh could learn something from me, could laugh with me, whatever it is.

That's very wholesome, Yakov. You're a wholesome guy. Well, thank you. I mean that with all sincerity. Well, I'll tell you, it's interesting. I was when I graduated from my um uh from Pepperdine and I came to comedy and magic club in my beach. I love that place. Yeah, me too. Shout out to Mike Lacy. Yes. Yes. He's the best. And I I showed up in my uh cap and gown kind of proud. And Jay Jay Leno is there all the time every Sunday. And Jay goes, "So, what's up?

What's up? What's up with that? What's up with that?" And I go, "Well, I decide to get a a doctorate degree because I really think that there is a research on laughter that you could really help people understand it better." And he goes, "Yakob, you're a comedian. You write a joke, you tell a joke, you pick up a check, and you go and and and that's it. And I go, "But what about like humanity?" And no, no. He goes, "No, no, you don't get it. You write a joke, you tell a joke, and you pick up a check, and that's it.

I I feel like there is more that I can do." Well, you know, that's Jay's perspective, right? My perspective is much more aligned with yours. I think there's a lot more going on. And I think comedy is very valuable to people, including me. If I don't feel good, then I can go watch people tell great jokes and laugh. I feel better. I like it. People keep coming to see it. There's a reason why people come. It's It's medicine. It really is. I know that's like very cliche.

Say laughter is medicine, but it is. There's something to it. It's a lubricant. It's like engine without if you don't have oil in the engine, it will not go. And I think laughter in the relationship is that lubricant. Well, and with friends, it's just a fun thing to do. Absolutely. That's one of the reasons why I like going there is like we get to hang out together and laugh. Yes. Speaking of which, do you want to do a set tonight? Sure. You know anybody? Yeah. I got I know a guy.

It's It'd be my show on my short. Yeah. Okay. I'd love it. Oh my goodness. Wow. We'll have some fun. What a gift. And if people want to see you other than that, you're on tour. Um what is the website? Is it yakov.com? Yeah. My next show is in Atlanta this weekend. Well, people can go to it. It's up on the screen. There it is. Yeah. Standup podcast host legend. You have your own podcast? I I did for about a year. What happened? Uh uh the baby was born.

Oh, you you're doing a lot of good spots. You're doing the Punchline. You're doing Punch Line in Sacramento. You're doing Cobbs in San Francisco. Comedy Works in in Greenville with uh Greenwood, rather. That's the other comedy works. There's two comedy works. Nice. Sid spplitters. Great spots. Beautiful. Yeah. People will come see you, man. And you're very funny. So, it's good. It's good to see you out there still. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. I really enjoyed talking to you in the green room. I'm glad we did this cuz that's a crazy ass story.

Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. You're a good dude, Yakov. I love you. Thank you. All right. I love you, too. Bye, everybody.