Eddie Brill
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And you bragged to me about your career. And I went, I wasn't bragging about my career. I was giving you my intro. He said, intro. Why would you do an intro? If you're funny, the audience will laugh. And, you know, you could give have all the credits in the world.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And because you got to love it, you got to marry it, you got to love it and you got to hold it and you got to squeeze it and you got to nurture it. And that's what I did. And I still love it. I love it more. I'm now doing it 40 plus years and I just I can't get enough of that funky stuff.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I had to get that off my chest. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. And it's understandable. The comics, we talk about it all the time. You know, the whole idea of writing comedy and performing it and trying it out You know, there was very few people who are amazing at it. You know, like Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Lily Tomlin, Jonathan Winters from that era. And then before them, Jack Benny.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And then before that, Charlie Chaplin. And it's Mark Twain before that. And comedy consistently goes through time. What's happening now, the pandemic hit and you're at home and you can't really do stand up in front of a crowd, which is the way it's supposed to be done. So what someone does is they they use their brains to create this Internet comedy.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And, you know, he said, you know, just as well as I, there are a lot of people who are not that talented, who get big TV shows or work in theaters. So your intro doesn't mean anything. It's who you are on stage that really makes the difference. And I really like that a lot.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And it's different from standup comedy because you're just using the internet. So it's nothing for me to be jealous of, but what a smart person would do who has popularity, who has 2 million followers or whatever, they take five of their friends who are good standups and go on the road. And the MC who's popular and brings in the crowd goes up on stage and just chats.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And it's not that funny, might be a funny person, Might might have jokes, but mostly they don't. They're mostly like, hey, I'm the clown, clown, clown. And that's OK. Nothing wrong with being a clown. Well, you know, many comics are clowns and and many clowns are comics. And then they'll bring on like their friends who are talented. So the audience gets a show.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
That's the smartest way to use the Internet. But, you know, but I think that I want to stay away from being the comic or like when I was a kid, you know, there are comics we used to go off and we didn't have two legs. You know, we would go out there, you know. So I don't appreciate the I appreciate the art of stand up.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And I love the writing the joke and, you know, trying it out and then rewriting the joke and then trying it out and getting it to a place and then writing a new joke and then trying that out. That part to me is the art form. But it doesn't mean that these people who are playing on the Internet are, you know, are that talented at stand up. They're talented at creating a phenomenon.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
There are comics who work the Madison Square Garden who are not funny to me. It doesn't mean I don't like them or hate them or, you know, wish them poorly. It's just that, you know, they've learned to use the Internet. And I think it's a very smart ploy on their part. It doesn't mean I have to enjoy it or love it or, you know,
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
But I respect the people who said, you know, like, for instance, when you had TV shows like The Lucy Show or Mr. Ed or Green Acres and you had these sitcom shows, they were written by some of the greatest writers in the business. Right. You never saw them. You only saw the names on the credits and they never got the exposure. But you watch Mr. Ed now. It's still hilarious. You watch Lucy.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
It is a great, well-written show. So nowadays you have, you know, just a really good performer at the head of the show. And then you have a bunch of comics in there. So I don't hate it. At the beginning, I was like, darn those kids. But I actually respect a lot of them.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Yeah. If you work hard, I respect it. You know, I you know, you can you know, I work with a bunch of younger comics and you can't I don't believe you could teach someone to be funny. You either have it or you don't. And I tell that to the people I work with. But you can workshop it. You can say, OK, here's a joke and I don't know how to finish it or the middle is a little bit weak or whatever.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And you can actually workshop it and get the joke to be the way it is. But but and the process of working out a joke or working out a scene or working out a movie that's funny is that's really an incredible process that. You know, like you watch a famous comedy movie like Being There. It might not be like laugh out loud like if you watch Blazing Saddles.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
But they're both brilliantly great comedy films written by two, you know, like Jersey Kosinski is one and then Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor is the other one. And they're completely different writers, but they have created, you know, really brilliant comedy. And I that's what I respect. The people who put the work in, you know, shortcuts, it's eventually going to burn you out.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Yeah, I I've been doing it for like 25 years around the world. And what it really is, is bringing a whole bunch of people together and working out your material and hearing the other people's perceptions. Like if I go on stage, I do my set and then I have the whole group sort of give me their perceptions. I don't have to agree with any of it.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
The person that might be have never had done stand up or the person has been doing it for 20 years. But it's great to hear their perception because we don't know what we're like as much as other people.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So if someone says, hey, you're always touching your chin or when you say you say, you know, all the time and when a lot of we're afraid of the silence and the silence is one of our most cherished partners in comedy. Jack Benny got all his laughs on pauses. So in the workshop, a lot of workshops I'll do, you'll hear people say, you know, and I used to say that all the time.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
But now I've learned to just use, because words are only one form of communication. You use your body. Like if I said to you, I was walking down the street and I saw this beautiful car, you got it. But if I said I was walking down the street and I saw this beautiful car, that little face that I made is just as much writing as the words that I wrote. And it's all it's all part of it.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So the more I do it, the better I enjoy it. And I've learned and have grown myself from doing these. Like I recently got a really great compliment. There was that movie everywhere, everything, every place. I forgot the name of the film. And there are two guys who had written it named Daniel, the two Daniels. And they they were being interviewed and they said, yeah, we took Eddie Brill's workshop.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
A million years ago, they won the Academy Award and they said, you know, he did this thing where he made us listen. And I learned a lot about pausing and listening and how powerful that is. You know, pretty good. I first time I did Letterman as a guest, Joan Rivers, and I was on the plane that I was coming back home on.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And I introduced myself at the gate and she came and switched places with the woman next to me. And I told her I was doing Letterman as a guest for the very first time. And she had me go over my set with her on the plane and then gave me great advice, including the pausing and using the silence as your friend. And when I was on stage that night doing the Letterman show, Joan Rivers was right here.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And it doesn't mean you didn't do it. Like, you know, people will say to have said to me, hey, you know, I have this comedian. It's another Chris Rock. And I said, well, you know what you're saying? I should book Chris Rock. Because why would I want another Chris Rock? I want each person to be their authentic self. It's interesting.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
She was right in the, you know. She was right there the whole time. And I'll never forget what she did. And then years later, I was doing this thing at the studio 6B, which is where they film Saturday Night Live. I think it's 6B. And I was hosting an event and it was all celebrities. And a lot of them are coming in late and doing, why are you late? What, did you forget your watch?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You know, stupid, you know, little... There was laughing at all of it. And then Joan Rivers walked in and the audience was like, all right, here we go. And I said, I'm not going to make fun of her. And I explained to her how good she was to me. And they gave her a standing ovation. And she like, you know, had tears and, you know, comics will help comics. You know, I got help from David Brenner.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I got help from Joan Rivers. I got help from, you know, just people, you know, so many wonderful people took very good care of me. And I vowed to do the same for young comics along the way.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I would mix, I would say there's one in 1A, 1A, 1B is Carlin and Pryor. Yeah. And I would say that Jonathan Winters is right up there too, but it was different. He did, you know, there's a clip of him on the Jack Parr show and it's called The Stick. And he just takes a stick and for six minutes, he just, it's just brilliant genius. Yeah. I love it. How about you?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Who's your favorite comic of all time?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
It's the same thing. It's the same thing. You know, jazz and comedy, they're very mathematical records. Yeah. Red Fox. Red Fox was very good to comedians. One of my heroes is Flip Wilson and Philip Wilson had Red Fox on the show the night before Sanford and Son was going to air and he was plugging the show. And it was one of the funniest episodes ever.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Flip Wilson was doing stand up and Red Fox was heckling him from the audience. It was just brilliant. I went to Viva Las Vegas once with my friend Robert Schimmel, and Robert Schimmel was a brilliant comic who helped me a lot. And Redd Foxx loved him and put him on all these things. And he was playing poker at the tables.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And so I joined the table, Robert and I, and I got in a hand with me and Redd Foxx. And we're the only two people left. I have a queen's boat and I'm ready to kick his ass. And we're laughing and we're taunting and we're having fun.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And all of a sudden I lay down my queen's boat and he has a king's boat and wins and goes, kid, you got to be doing comedy a lot longer than that for me to beat me in poker. You know, it was such a thrill.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I'll tell you a great George Carlin story. Let's go again. At the beginning of my career, I was acting like George Carlin and my jokes are very word play ish and still are. And I wrote a joke that I liked that was, you know, how can you have a word like nonchalant when there's no such word as chalant? And then I'd act it out. Oh, my God, I'm late for work. I can't find a thing to wear.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And one of the things I realized at the time also was how much we pander to the crowds in America. Like, hey, give yourselves a round of applause for coming out tonight. And why would I applaud going out tonight? I've done it before. I'm very good at it. It's just you're BSing the audience into making noise for you instead of creating it yourself with your talent. It's very interesting.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
God, am I chalant today? And I was like, calm down, Ray. Be like me, non-chalant. Right. And it would always get big laughs. So I did the joke on Star Search in October of 86. It aired in January of 87. And I got a call from a comedian friend who said, you know, why did you do George Carlin's joke on TV? And I went, he's my hero. I know all his material. I would not never...
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
do george carlin's joke i wouldn't do anybody's joke not on purpose so i took the joke out of my act because i don't want people thinking i stole the thing and it was a shame because i loved the joke and it was crushing with the audiences so years later i was at the ballets in las vegas and working with robert chimmel in this um the comedy room catch rising star and carlin was in the big room
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I'm in the lobby. I see Carlin. I go up to him and I introduced myself. He couldn't have been nicer. And I told him the story. And he goes, well, first of all, you're smart to get rid of the joke because people are going to think you stole it and they're going to not think well of you. But secondly, someone told me that joke and I thought it was so funny. I didn't know it belonged to a comedian.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So it turns out I'm the son of a bitch who took your joke. which was such a thrill, which started our friendship and my relationship with his daughter and his brother and family. And then when George had passed away in 2008, his daughter called me up and said, You know, now that my dad has passed away, I'd love you to do that joke again to keep that joke alive. And it was like, OK.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
But I said to myself, I would never do it like the joke. I would explain it so that people understand if they remembered Carlin doing it, they wouldn't think I that I took it because that's the worst thing you could do.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You saw some viral moments last year. It does happen because there's a lot of insecurity and people can't write and they need material and people will do what it takes, whatever it takes, not always with integrity to get far. And I know very good friends of mine who've stolen material a lot and they don't care because they've had wild success because they were noticed.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
To us, to most comedians, it's like stealing your baby. No one is allowed to steal your baby. But a lot of people don't care because there's one life they live and they don't live in integrity. And they, you know, they'll steal material. And I, you know, like I've been in shows where friends of mine have done material. I've had friends do it on The Tonight Show.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I've seen some of my jokes and they did very well. They did, but not with me saying it. And I've had a few people admit over the years later, I took your joke. I'm sorry. You know, this and it's just it's really evil. It's an evil thing to do. But a lot of people don't care because they'll do what it takes to be famous or to have money or whatever.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Their values are low and their greediness or, again, lack of integrity is more powerful.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Now, a situation might come up where something happens. You're chatting with the audience and someone goes, you know, it's funny. I you said that. And my friend John Mendoza has this great joke. He doesn't exact. Not that I've ever done that. And John and I are friends. But I was, you know, you could say that and it's still some audience member might go, hey, I heard it.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Here's an Eddie Brill joke. So you don't do that. But if you're going to ever do it, there's a that's the situation you do it in. What kind of leadership stuff do you do?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Yeah, I think that there's a you know, the gut is the brain of the body. And the gut never lies. Now, you can rationalize anything in your head, but your gut, if you trust it and learn to trust it, you will know the truth and you will know your truth and you will be able to do that. And I think it's important. A lot of people, you know, it's funny. I use, you know, Nina Simone and what's her face?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Celine Dion is an example. Celine Dion gets all the notes right. She has an incredible voice, but she's in her head. She's painting by numbers. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm doing an A and then a G and then a C and all this kind of stuff. And Nina sings from the gut. She's the camera is not low enough, but from the gut. And she might make a mistake.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
It might not be perfect, but it's real and it's human and it's soulful. So people say to me when you I want to book a comedian, what do you do? And I say, I look for Nina Simone. Nothing wrong with Celine Dion. You know, she has her she has a beautiful voice. It is. But there's the soul that's missing for me. Is is so important.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So when I when I look at people, I look at them from the gut and I realize, you know, this is this is, again, the brain of the body. We should we should do something together.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
where we do a leadership program and we talk about how people laugh and teach them why comedy is so important and inherent in the history of our world and how you can laugh at the most horrible things and just to have a relief or a release.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
There's so many things. There's a club that I don't know if it's going to happen, but they want to change their, what they've been doing. And they've asked me to help them kind of,
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
uh do that that's kind of the newest project you know i'm doing stand-up all the time i'm you know uh you can find me on instagram at eddie comic it's very easy the um you know i produced 12 comedy videos last year uh you know it's non-stop i whatever i can do i do you know you can uh you know but my favorite thing of all of them is doing stand-up
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
When you do a five minute set for television, you need to get a laugh in the first five, 10 seconds. So the audience, you know, if you're famous, it's different. You're going to get a laugh even if you suck, you know, because the audience is already there. based on what you've done before, but a comic who's not well-known, you know, needs to get a lap in the first five, 10 seconds.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
That's I, the other night I was supposed to do 45 minutes. I looked at my watch figuring I'd done about 25 and I had done an hour and five. It's just, I can't get enough of that. You know, it's so good.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So we're going to do it. OK, wonderful. It was such a pleasure. I had no idea what to expect. I like to go in without an idea and I'm richer for it.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Be well, have a beautiful day and be in touch. You have my info.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So the joke was, you know, my grandmother told me the truth will set you free. And then she went to prison for perjury. And then I said, oh, I lied. You know, it's just, it's taking it to that level.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You know, there's so many ways to answer that. I remember the first laugh I got in the comedy workshop on stage. And it feels so good that there's very few things like getting a laugh. And when you get a laugh, because you can write Patch Adams and make people cry. There's nothing wrong with the movie. It's just, you know, a formulaic crying. But laughter is a very difficult art form to create.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So when I got that very first laugh and the very first Emerson Comedy Workshop bit, it's like heroin. You chase it for the rest of your life. It's really great. But your question was more about how did I know? How did I feel? I grew up in a house where my mom was very funny. We had comedy albums around the house. For Christmas, I would get a... I remember I got a comedy book.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And the great thing about the comedy book, there's a joke in it, and it said, what did Tennessee... And the answer was the same thing Arkansas. And I'm five, and it's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life. And, you know, then I saw George Carlin on television, and he did wordplay. And so in between that birthday book and Carlin, I was doing my own wordplay. Like, I'd draw a picture of...
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
like a salt shaker and a knife, a salt with a deadly weapon, and I would just love wordplay. So I was a very shy kid growing up, and when I'd get laughs, it was my way of letting go, and it felt really great. So the more I would make people laugh, the more I felt strong about who I was. And then the biggest change was finding out that the bottom line is the foundation for all comedy is the truth.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So, I mean, you could be silly and you could be and do comedy whatever you want. But the kind of comedy that I've always loved is the foundation is the truth. And once I connected to that. I'll give you another example. Not long ago, Rick Rubin, I heard him talking, the producer, music producer. And he said, you know, I don't write my music for the audience.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I write it for myself and I do what I love. And I went to college with Stephen Wright, the comedian, and he started back then with us. And he said, yeah, I don't write my jokes personally. you know, for the audience. I mean, I want them to enjoy themselves. I have, I love when they love it, but I write what makes me laugh. And that was another step for me to tell my truth.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Like there's, when you start out as a comedian, you act like another comedian because you don't know yourself. Plus we can go deeper. Society says that we're pieces. I don't know. What's the language on this podcast?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Oh, OK. I was going to say advertising, politics and many forms of religion teach us that we're sinners and pieces of shit. And the only way we could be good is if we're consumers. And it's a very smart way to, you know, it's a very smart way to make money. If you're a smart business person, that's how you make money. So when you start out as a human being in society, you go on a date.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You don't feel comfortable to be yourself. You have to create a character you think the other person wants. And what I've learned is to, you know, like people like all the like when I was starting out, I sounded like George Carlin, my rhythms. When Jerry Seinfeld started out, he sounded like Robert Klein because we're acting like comedians.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Once I, you know, I found out who I was or at least had some idea, that's when things, the burst, the damn burst open, you know. So in reality, it was a very long-winded answer. You know what's interesting about that? When I was like one and a half, two, I didn't talk. Really? They took me to the doctor and figuring out what was wrong. And they said, nothing's wrong.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Some kids, now I don't shut up. You were a big thinker at two, huh?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
When I was very little, we didn't have any money. And parents eventually got divorced. And we were living very poorly. But love, love, love all through the house. Love, laughter, a lot of laughter. And that really carried us. Once a week, we'd get ice cream. And it was the greatest night of our lives. And my stepfather, who was incredibly great, Got very sick and died of cancer.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
Eddie, how are you doing today, brother? All right. You know, long intros are fun because you have to get through them. You know what I mean? They're lovely. You know, I'll tell you an interesting story right off the bat. In America, we do intros, and it's very important. When I first went to London the very first time to do stand-up, I think it was 1989, Um, that era.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You know, I was 15 and we were five of us and I raised the kids and I got such a joy in being, you know, the like the leader, the teacher, the. It just gave me such a joy. And I think I've carried that all the way through in my life. Not to everyone's happiness, but I love doing that.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
That's why, like, if you book comedians for television or you book comedians for anything, you have to say no to 99% of the people who audition. And you're not loved because of it, because people want you think you're a jerk for not doing that. But you learn to live with what you can do. And my purpose has been just be the best. There's a great book called The Four Agreements.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
I don't know if you're familiar with it. my Bible. And one of the things is to just, you know, be impeccable with your word. Don't make assumptions. Don't take things personally and do the best you possibly can. And that's how I live my life. I follow that pattern. I don't know if I answered the question or just, you know.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
That's happened to me. You know, I've gone just before I went on stage, you know, I get some really horrible news. It was one of the biggest comedy nights of my life where I ended up performing at Carnegie Hall and Caroline's and at the Letterman Show and one other venue. And I it was a misdiagnosis. But I heard that my one of my brothers had pancreatic cancer.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And knowing that Bill Hicks, the great genius comedian, had just recently died of that very quickly. I had to go on stage and do these shows and I took all the energy that I had and put it together and had some of the best shows of my life and then collapsed when it was over only to find out a couple of days later it was pancreatitis and it was misdiagnosed and he lived and
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
But, you know, you find out this news, you got to go, you got to do the work. And it's actually beautiful. My sister had a lot of loss and, and I'm gulping because I have, you know, my sister died in 1997 and it just hurt so bad that she did. And it was, it was very interesting because when she had, you know, when she had passed away and, It's it, you know, took a lot out of me.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And, uh, I told the MC, my intro gave it to him and they looked at me like really not very happy over it. And he, when they brought me up without saying anything, you know, just Eddie Brill. And luckily the, it went well, you know, it was good. And I got to be friendly with him. And I said, why were you so mean to me that first night? He said, because you were, came up to me. I never met you.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So I learned after a while to celebrate the life as instead of mourning the loss. I, you know, it's it's funny because in this conversation about this, I was actually going somewhere else, but my brain took me over here. Yeah, it's an interesting life because you never know what's around the corner. You can't really plan. I mean, you can, but it's not always going to work out.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So to be able to ad-lib, to be able to play in the moment, and to never take things so seriously... You know, like some jokes that I write are not politically correct, not mean, not mean spirited. It's just funny. And I can't spend my life trying to please everybody. Like people say to me, hey, you know, I saw Chappelle's special and I didn't like it.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And I say to them, he's not here to please you. If you don't like Chappelle, who is one of the most talented comedians on the planet, if you don't like him, change the channel or go watch somebody else or complain about something else. Life's too short. Right. Boy, did I go all over the place on that one. I'll watch this later and go, what did I mean? Why did I bring my sister up to you?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You know, it's the, weirdly enough, it's as simple as it's who you know. When I was in, I lived in LA and New York for a while, and one of the guys I went to college with contacted me out there. I was broke. And he said, I'm working at this show called Saved by the Bell, and they need a warm-up comedian. And you'll make a thousand bucks or something. And I had like 35 cents in my pocket.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
And I said, yes, I'm a warm-up comedian. I never had done it before. And I had done it, and it was babysitting. It was just babysitting. The only the great thing about it was the money, of course, but so I can afford to live. But across the hall, literally, you know, a couple of feet across all was The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That was great.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
But anyway, I did the warm up and it was a very hard job to do, but I did it and it was OK. And then I moved to New York and I got an offer to work at the Dana Carvey show to warm up the audience. Now, the Dana Carvey show was a really smart and funny show. And the it was too smart for American television. It was taken off after only a couple episodes.
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
You know, Steve Carell and Robert Smigel and Louis C.K. And, you know, it was just all the best of the best. And the show only lasted a few episodes. So now Louis C.K. went over to the Letterman show to do some writing. Everyone dispersed into different shows. And Letterman approached the writers and said, do you know a comedian who we need a warm up comic?
Mick Unplugged
From Emerson to Letterman: Eddie Brill's Insights on Comedy
So Louis said, yeah, I worked with Eddie Brill at the Dana Carvey show. And and so I met Letterman at a six week trial period and it lasted 17 years. You know, you have to be able to do the job when you get there and you have to work hard. Like I would average between five and six hundred stand up shows a year just running around working sets.