You have done both TV and film work in addition to your stand-up. It seems like a lot of people quit stand-up when they begin acting. Why do you continue to do it?
It’s one of the few things you can control. I get to write it. If you’re doing a television show, you’re doing stuff that somebody else wrote. I would never stop doing stand-up.
Do you like doing road work?
Yeah, sure. That’s how you build material. You gotta go out and do your 50 minutes, not just the 15 you might get in Los Angeles. I’m working on another hour [special] now. It’s the only way to do it.
I saw a short clip on YouTube from an early morning show appearance you did here in KC. It was funny — the host was incredibly awkward, and you seemed pretty happy that it was over after about two minutes. How do you survive those morning zoo appearances?
I don’t! I just behave. I do the best I can to be polite and still maintain my own perspective. I won’t sit there and smile or anything, I just can’t. But I’ll be polite.
Forgive the stupid question, but I read that you grew up in a junkyard — is that true?
Yeah, it was the family business. It was weird growing up. My mother was in a cult, and she was in India most of the time. I would go in between India and the junkyard in North Jersey.
Wait, what is the cult stuff?
It was a hippie commune, basically.
What did your dad do?
He was a sort of uneducated Jewish businessman from the Bronx. Ran the junkyard, mostly. It was a weird childhood.
How did they get together?
It was an aberration that they ever were together. It probably should never have happened.
You have a pretty frenetic onstage persona. Is it an exaggerated version of your actual personality or is it a character?
Yeah, it’s an exaggerated version. I can get hot pretty fast. I’m not gonna just start yelling at the waiter or anything, you know, but I can get pretty passionate.
Who are your favorite working comics?
I like a lot of guys out there … but Richard Pryor. He’s not working obviously, but he’s the guy.
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