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Backstage Memories: 40 Years in Show Business- "Laughs Unlimited" Story Part ll- Show 289

• Scott Edwards • Season 7 • Episode 289

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We dive into a treasure trove of nostalgic stories from the early days of running comedy clubs in the 1980s, sharing personal encounters with now-famous comedians before they achieved stardom.

• Tom Hanks learning stand-up comedy at our club for his role in Bosom Buddies, with Bob Saget helping write his material
• Dana Carvey sharing the moment he got called to audition for Saturday Night Live while sitting in a hot tub after a show
• A questionable encounter with Tommy Smothers that reflects how entertainment standards have changed since the 1980s
• Organizing a mock political campaign for Pat Paulson at the California State Capitol complete with fake Secret Service and press coverage
• Jay Johnson from the TV show "Soap" delighting audiences with his ventriloquism and spending quality time with Lynn's mother
• Harry Anderson's con-artist personality extending to real life when he sold Scott a "winning" punch board but never paid out
• The special connections formed with comics through bowling nights, boat trips, and after-hours gatherings that made Sacramento clubs unique

Join us next week for the final part of this nostalgic journey through comedy history.


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Bob Stobener:

This is another episode of Stand-Up Comedy, your host and emcee celebrating 40-plus years on the fringe of show business Stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not-so-famous. Here's your host and emcee, scott Edwards hey everybody, welcome to the show.

R. Scott Edwards:

Hey, we're in the middle of kind of a special podcast series. My ex-partner, bob Stobiner, his little sister Lynn Stobiner, who was also one of my key employees back in the 80s with my chain of comedy clubs, and I had gotten together with a box of nostalgia and we were sharing stories and going through stuff, and last week we heard the first 45 minutes or so of the conversation. Again, it's a little self-serving and nostalgic, lots of memories, but I think it's also interesting. So bear with us, enjoy it. And here we go. Oh, and, by the way, bob's supposed to be the host of the show. So here's your host, Bob Stobiner.

Bob Stobener:

How about Tom Hanks? Can we talk about the Tom Hanks story?

R. Scott Edwards:

Oh, that's one of my favorites.

Lynn Stobener:

I really love that story because when you told him he should start thinking of acting.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, well, yeah, there's that. Everybody knows that story.

R. Scott Edwards:

So I'll lay the groundwork and then you can tell your side. So, ladies and gentlemen, picture again real, early 1980. 1980. Bob Saget was the headliner.

Lynn Stobener:

Everything goes back to Bob Saget.

R. Scott Edwards:

He was really a great connection for us, a special man, and he was so helpful in helping me get the club going and teaching me everything I needed to do Him Dave Coulier.

Lynn Stobener:

And what did you do? You walked on stage during a set and said we have someone much funnier.

Bob Stobener:

That's right, that's the thanks I get All right.

R. Scott Edwards:

So Saget's working and he's booked as a headliner and he calls me up and he goes hey, I've got this young actor that has to do some comedy on a show. Can I bring them up to the club for the weekend? I was like, well, sure, anything for you, bob. You know, bob and I were very tight back then. I said anything you want. So I didn't know who it was and I wasn't even that aware of the show at the time. But he shows up on like a Thursday night with Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks was on the TV show bosom buddies which had just started, and Tom explains that he has to do a comedy set on the show.

Bob Stobener:

I thought it was for the movie no it's actually an episode of the series and I think in their first season.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, it's very early on.

Bob Stobener:

And Bob is in the in the episode.

Lynn Stobener:

I remember Bob being on this.

Bob Stobener:

And that's the connection. Bob was actually a warm-up comic for the show. Obviously not in the show, but he's a warm-up comic for the studio audience, for Bosom Buddies, yeah.

R. Scott Edwards:

Well, anyway, everybody go to the Googler. Bosom Buddies was Tom Hanks' first appearance in TV and movies and it was his sitcom. He was co-starring with a couple other people and it was a fairly popular show. I wouldn't say two seasons, it wasn't huge, but still it wasn't the tom hanks we all know and respect now. It was this young actor and it happened to have a sitcom. It was still very cool. So I'm showing tom how to use the mic, where to look so he didn't get blinded by the lights. Just some of the technical stuff. But bob was actually writing material for him and helping him put together this like three minute set for the TV show and Tom worked for free, by the way, that whole weekend it went on stage like one of the acts and it was a really interesting and special moment looking back at the time.

Lynn Stobener:

I wonder how many people audience members remembered that as they saw him.

Bob Stobener:

I think it was just another comic to them, Right? You know those people that didn't know the show.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, well, I would introduce him. As you know, one of the stars of Buzz and Buddies, but as again, the show wasn't you know huge. It wasn't like Seinfeld or Big Bang.

Bob Stobener:

Theory, it was just a sitcom. We didn felt her big bang theory was just a sitcom.

R. Scott Edwards:

we didn't advertise it or anything, it was just an extra. Oh yeah, we didn't know.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, yeah, he wasn't in any of the advertising or promotion, but he and saget did some great improv yeah, they did some great improv and we remember I do remember that we have some pictures of that actually we do yeah we found some pictures.

R. Scott Edwards:

I would like to say somewhere they found a dummy and they were, yeah, the three of uh, tom bob and this dummy were did this whole skit. It was weird.

Lynn Stobener:

You shouldn't talk about yourself that way. Be more positive, Scott.

Bob Stobener:

So Tom went to college up in Sac State.

Lynn Stobener:

Yeah, not in Davis.

Bob Stobener:

And his wife I think at the time his first wife is from the area. I remember going back to the Comedy Condo that weekend as well. We had an after-hours gathering and his baby I think it was Colin.

Lynn Stobener:

Colin. Hanks was his son and he's just crawling around. And Tom was Sacramento and Tower Records was born in Sacramento and Colin Hanks did the documentary.

Bob Stobener:

Isn't that weird? Oh, it's a small world people it is a small world. Well, anyway, that was a fun weekend, though.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, and to be able to say that Tom Hanks worked our stage and actually learned about stand-up comedy with Bob Saget on our little club. And this was the very first room. It was a banquet room at the Delta Queen restaurant that we had converted into a comedy club. It only sat maybe a hundred people, something like that, and and, of course, when he was there we were still brand brand new, so it was rarely a sold out audience and in those days it was all a learning experience.

R. Scott Edwards:

But speaking of those after hour parties which you've alluded to a couple of times, which was really one of the great things we want to share with the audience is that it was so much fun owning a chain of comedy clubs and working with these people. But remember, it was a job, so a lot of what we were doing was business, but then we would be able to have fun, and a lot of that was the after-hour events, and one of the ones I love to share. It was like a Thursday night. You guys may have a different memory, but this is the way I tell the story. Like a Thursday night. You guys may have a different memory, but this is the way I tell the story. It was after the show and we're all having cocktails in a hot tub at the condo with Dana Carvey.

Lynn Stobener:

See, I swear that that was at Jill and myself our apartment In the Thomas.

R. Scott Edwards:

So, as it's my podcast, lynn could tell her side, but I tell the story that we're sitting having drinks in this hot tub this is the way I remember it and Dana's kind of excited and nervous at the same time and says, uh, you know Scott, and he was real new. I mean, he'd been working for us for a couple of years, but he wasn't known. And he goes. I just had a call from Lorne Michaels and they want me in New York on Monday to try out for the Saturday Night Live. And I go, wow, that's exciting. And he goes, yeah, but you know, am I ready? And I don't know what I'm going to do, you know. So it was kind of one of those moments to share with who ended up being a huge star doing the Church Lady.

Lynn Stobener:

So I remember he discussed that in the thinking of doing the Church, lady.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, and so I remember he discussed that. Yeah, and and and his. He shared his conversation with Lauren Michaels and it was just a cool moment at one of those post-show deals. Now, for me it's always been a apartment hot tub, having cocktails. How do you remember it, Lynn?

Lynn Stobener:

Exactly the same, except for it was at Jill and my Jill and my apartment.

Bob Stobener:

That's not Grimloid Other than the rest of this. But you know, the cool thing about that story is oh, and I slept with him. Oh, left that part out. It's a great story because you get to see the actual moment when they go to the next level and Because, Dana had everything he needed. He was already very skilled. He had a lot of great routines. He had the mind for comedy. He's a great performer.

R. Scott Edwards:

Oh, impressions, music stand-up. He did it all.

Bob Stobener:

Dana didn't really even need Saturday Night Live to make him a better comic than what he was.

R. Scott Edwards:

But yes, I mean just getting that, but it did make him a star. Yeah, it made him a star. It did. Yeah, it made him a star which led to Wayne's World and so many other things. Oh, so many other things.

Bob Stobener:

I had a similar not similar story with Dana, but I do remember you slept with him.

Bob Stobener:

No, I don't, let me get back to you on that. Okay, you just cuddled Spoon. I remember I think I picked him up from, or I brought him from the condo to the club or something, and it was a Sunday night or it was a closing night or something like that, and we were just talking and he said, he said, bob, I didn't tell you. I knew I know you're going to appreciate this, but I got a chance to hang out with Paul.

Lynn Stobener:

McCartney.

Bob Stobener:

Oh, paul McCartney. You say Dana, yes, I mean he, he was. Uh, I got to go to his, to his place or wherever he was staying and stuff. And you know, and Paul's Paul McCartney. And he said hello, dana, how you doing, dana, let me play this song for you, I'll tell you. And he said Dana said that Paul asked him what he thought of the song he was writing. Asked him what he thought of the song he was writing. It's like, okay, I'm a Beatles fan number one, anyway. But you know to hear, here's me talking to a friend of mine, dana Carvey, who's a performer who had a dinner or something with Paul McCartney, who's talking to him about, you know, a song he's writing.

Lynn Stobener:

It's like wow, this is cool, but didn't he say that? Dana said that when he was there he thought of you he.

Bob Stobener:

Dana said that when he was there, he thought of you. He did say that. He said I thought of Bob. That was so cool. So for the audience.

R. Scott Edwards:

we should explain that Bob Stobiner has to be one of the biggest Beatles fans ever. He has a huge collection and some great memorabilia, but Dana and Bob often talked about the. Beatles and Dana was a lot of people don't know was a terrific musician. Got started off doing music with his brother's band and branched into comedy and then had comedy music and then impressions and then a stand-up. Very, very talented guy. But we were just talking about seven stages of separation. That's like two from Pullman.

Lynn Stobener:

It's six and it's bacon.

R. Scott Edwards:

Sorry, audience. Six stages of bacon, and in this case you were just two bacons away from Paul McCartney.

Bob Stobener:

I guess you could put it that way, that's true.

Lynn Stobener:

Anyway, that was more of a pork sausage, yeah.

R. Scott Edwards:

Well, but that's still exciting, that we've had a chance to interact with those people, in fact, speaking of knowing somebody that knows somebody and having a special moment. So we had. One of my father's favorite comics was Pat Paulson.

Lynn Stobener:

Can I say something real quick, because I'm going to lose it? And this is nothing. This is just nothing. But I think you should write a book and the title should be Everything Happens on Sundays, because all our stories, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first.

Bob Stobener:

Be on Amazon's number one list before you know it. So, back to the story. Chat GPT.

R. Scott Edwards:

Write me a book. So my father's favorite comic was Pat Paulson, who was a regular on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and he always ran for president, was in movies, a really talented stand-up comic. He was older at this point and really, for my father, I booked Pat Paulson, got a chance to introduce him and they got to hang out, which was really special for me to see. But Pat and I somehow connected and became very good friends. I spent time at his ranch and he was a regular at the club.

R. Scott Edwards:

Good friends, I spent time at his ranch and he was a regular at the club, and one of these times he was actually opening for the Smothers Brothers up in Tahoe or Reno I think it was Reno and he invited us up and so we loaded up the car and Lynn was there, joe was there and we went to see the show. We were guests at the show and then we were invited backstage. And so this is this is kind of the sidebar of being comedy club producers and owners is that we got a few perks and this would be one of those perks that you just can't ever count on. It just happened. And so we're backstage with Pat Paulson and a famous pianist was at the piano.

Lynn Stobener:

The classical gas guy. Yeah, oh, mason.

R. Scott Edwards:

Williams. Mason Williams was in their room so he was already famous and kind of cool. So Mason Williams, Pat Paulson.

Bob Stobener:

And a writer on the Smothers Brothers show too.

R. Scott Edwards:

Oh was he.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, him and Steve Martin and a bunch of other guys.

Lynn Stobener:

Oh, I didn't know that. I thought he was just a musician, not just.

Bob Stobener:

Multi-talented.

R. Scott Edwards:

Interesting. So you're learning something here. Folks, you don't even have to go to the Googler, so we're just hanging out, we're talking with Pat and being introduced to Mason Williams, who was a famous pianist, and in walks, tommy Smothers and Lynn was sitting on the couch, and now Tommy had to have been in his 50s or 60s and lynn, you were probably 20 something 23 at the time maybe 22 tommy sits right next to lynn, starts telling jokes, starts laughing.

R. Scott Edwards:

We're all introducing to him and he's a celebrity. So we're, we're kind of in awe, we're, we're invited back. All of a sudden he grabs Lynn's shoulders, pushes her down on the couch and gets on top of her and starts yelling. You know he was making some rude comments.

Lynn Stobener:

And we're all getting sexually assaulted.

R. Scott Edwards:

I'm like nervous going, this is like my little sister she's being sexually assaulted and yet it's Tommy smothers. I'm like.

Lynn Stobener:

I'm like hesitating, you didn't know what was pat paulson doing uh, tommy's got a boner, tommy's got a boner pat paulson was no help at all.

R. Scott Edwards:

He's loving it, and so I finally. I mean, it took me longer than it should have. So I apologize, lynn, but seconds later I went over and I said hey, hey, tommy, you know, that's enough of that, get off of her.

Lynn Stobener:

Put that roll of quarters away.

R. Scott Edwards:

It was an awkward moment, but now, instead of just hearing the story for me, lynn is here. Lynn, what was that like for you?

Lynn Stobener:

Oh gee, that was just the best. No, it was uncomfortable, but for some reason I don't know why I was thinking.

Bob Stobener:

You thought it was Dickie?

Lynn Stobener:

No, Too many jokes with that one. Yeah, no, for some reason I thought God my dad liked this guy which is so wrong on so many levels.

R. Scott Edwards:

My dad would not have liked him, and no and my dad would have been long time past so at the moment you didn't actually feel sexually assaulted it would seem like a joke. No right, it was just like he's trying and, by the way, everybody was fully clothed and he was trying to be funny.

Bob Stobener:

It was more just clowning around, but you had no idea, it was no big deal, I mean it I'm not.

Lynn Stobener:

It was not a remotely a sexual right, but it was more icky. But um you know, it was not remotely a sexual thing. Right, but it was more icky, but you know it was.

R. Scott Edwards:

But it was one of those moments where you're like in awe of somebody that you look up to as an entertainer and at the same time a little repulsed by the crudeness.

Lynn Stobener:

Right.

R. Scott Edwards:

Even though it was meant to be funny and he was not doing. He didn't try to grab your breast or anything, it was just him thinking he was being funny. But at the same time, there's always that kind of underlining crudeness that this old man basically was hopping on top of this young woman, and it's something I'll never forget because it was so awkward for all of us. Because it was so awkward for all of us, right, it's like if this happened with and it wasn't a celebrity and it wasn't a guy three times your age, you know, I would have reacted immediately and maybe beat the shit out of him, but under the circumstances it was cool.

R. Scott Edwards:

Even you weren't really sure how to react.

Lynn Stobener:

I just wanted to hear classical gas.

R. Scott Edwards:

Well, and then Tommy yelling you know, I mean Pat Paulson yelling, tommy's got a boner. I mean it was such a surreal moment, right, but anyway. So that's the Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers comedy fame.

Lynn Stobener:

I was smothered by Tommy Smothers Smothered.

Bob Stobener:

Certainly a story from its time.

R. Scott Edwards:

Oh yeah, you wouldn't get away with that shit these days. Remember folks this is like in the early 80s.

Lynn Stobener:

This was back in the other century.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, well, I'm glad we're not doing those things anymore. Anyway, let's see what else we got in here.

Lynn Stobener:

Yeah, what other that?

R. Scott Edwards:

magic hat is deep.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, it is deep, and we've got to probably close this out because we have other episodes too. Let me just keep it rolling.

Lynn Stobener:

No, keep going, Forget it no whatever this is just.

R. Scott Edwards:

It's just fun conversation and it's only If they're still listening.

Lynn Stobener:

It's on them.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, that's right, that's your. Hopefully the audience is having as much fun as we are. It's just memories and sharing stories of a really special fun time that we had, but all the weird things that you just don't expect what?

Bob Stobener:

does the?

R. Scott Edwards:

hat have.

Bob Stobener:

Well, I was just going to drop one more thing about Pat Paulson, and I know that nobody knows who Drop it.

Lynn Stobener:

Drop it like it's hot.

Bob Stobener:

I know nobody certainly no contemporary people, know who Pat Paulson was, is was he's passed In the late 60s on the Smuzik Brothers show, which was in and of itself a huge. It was like a Saturday Night Live combined with whatever Laugh-in, laugh-in.

Lynn Stobener:

But it was also very edgy.

R. Scott Edwards:

It was very edgygy and a huge show at the time for its time, more edgy than saturday night live yeah um, because it was the first real uh show that took on cultural and political subjects, and tommy was always throwing out stuff, anti kind of government, political stuff that you know normally you wouldn't get away with. And because it was a comedy variety show, they pushed that envelope and got away with stuff. They got censored a lot.

Lynn Stobener:

I just realized that I was two degrees of bacon away from John Lennon.

Bob Stobener:

That's right, because Tommy Smothers played on Give Peace a Chance. Play guitar Wow, that's a lot of bacon, oh boy.

Bob Stobener:

Others played on give piece of chance play guitar, but my point that's a lot of bacon Boy. Anyway, it's a. It was a big show. To watch those shows Now it seems what was all the fuss about, but yeah, I mean it was a big deal. And and Pat, they ran him for president on the show, which was hilarious and you can see a lot of great stuff on youtube from the day. But pat became a real cultural icon. He was absolutely huge at that era and then by the time he was working for us, the pet, he had been knocked down the pedestal a lot by the time he got to us, but a lot of people still knew him. We did a.

Lynn Stobener:

He ran for a governor what was the thing that, like you guys, went and acted like?

Bob Stobener:

Well, we would go as security people.

Lynn Stobener:

But didn't you guys go to the capital of Sacramento?

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

R. Scott Edwards:

So I was pretty good at marketing and we did a big press promotion kind of there's a title for it press event and told all the press that Pat Paulson was going to run for governor and he'd be at the capital at a certain time.

Bob Stobener:

The steps of the.

R. Scott Edwards:

Capitol and what happened.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, well, not so much that it happened, but the fact that it happened at all, and it was just such a fun memory.

R. Scott Edwards:

We got limousines, we got you know, mac and I, I believe we had got in our suits as Secret Service and there's a we even had placards made up and given out in the audience. We had an audience of state workers came out to watch. There's maybe a couple hundred of them. We gave out placards that said why not Paulson?

Bob Stobener:

Why not Pat or something? Yeah, you're right. You're right, and it was a very successful event. It made the news.

R. Scott Edwards:

It was a lot of fun. Huge press event.

Bob Stobener:

But anyway, Pat, 20 years after his big heyday, was still drawing a good crowd and that was good to see, because you know he was a good guy. He was a nice guy.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah. So we set up the podium on the steps of the state of California's capital and he did this whole political speech because he was supposed to be running for governor but he kind of slipped into, you know, back to the 60s running for president thing. It was really hilarious. The audience loved it, the press loved it. We had so much fun and you got a picture of people that were. You know, we had it all staged but we pull it in limousines.

R. Scott Edwards:

You have these guys dressed up like secret service and they rush them to the podium and he does this big political speech and people are rallying and holding placards. I mean, just envision that moment. It was so amazing. And then we rushed him away in the limos. Like you know, the press couldn't talk to him. He was way too important and it was all a facade. And it was so much fun, it was so successful as a press junket thing. Fun, it was so successful as a press junket thing. And I know Pat really, really had fun doing that because for just that moment he was reliving what he went through in the sixties. No, that's funny.

Lynn Stobener:

This is kind of off topic a little bit, but like how, what was the relationship between him and the Smothers brothers that they decided to have him run?

Bob Stobener:

Well, they had. You know, Pat Paulson started out in the Bay Area nightclubs. Hungry Eye was a very famous nightclub in the Bay Area and the Smothers Brothers started there, or was it the Purple Onion, I don't know. It's not like these all are coming back to me, but they all started from the same. You know geographical entertainment center, and so you know they just called him up when they had got the show going, I believe.

Lynn Stobener:

Was he a regular on the show? Oh yeah, he was.

R. Scott Edwards:

they were both comics but they were comic musicians and they had their buddy. You know they were brothers, they had their kind of buddy act and Pat was the one of the many writers slash performers. That was a regular on the show and I don't know why they picked him to run for president but it was perfect.

Bob Stobener:

Oh, he definitely has the look. He has the look, and you know.

R. Scott Edwards:

Everybody go to the Googler.

Bob Stobener:

The double speak.

Lynn Stobener:

Are those shows on YouTube?

Bob Stobener:

Oh yeah, I've got a few too, Anyway.

R. Scott Edwards:

So great story.

Bob Stobener:

Thanks for bringing that up. I've got another thing. You might have to edit this out because I'm not sure 100% on the memory, but I think you brought it up to me recently. It was a comic had a memory of being on our stage and was recording it and heard some sort of negative criticisms on the. He heard us say Is this recalling anything? Is this?

Lynn Stobener:

the joke that you guys were.

Bob Stobener:

Yeah.

R. Scott Edwards:

Do you remember? I have a blank look on my face.

Lynn Stobener:

Yeah, I do remember it, but I can't think of the comic.

Bob Stobener:

Shit. Okay, but you do remember part of it. Yeah, so there was a comic on stage. This is at the Birdcage Room.

Bob Stobener:

So like Andy Kindler, it might have been Kindler, but he's on the stage. He was relatively new. I think it was Andy Might have been Kindler. He was relatively new to us. It was like his first night. And Richie, our partner, rich Giannichini, and I are at the back of the room and he's recording his set. He's got his little Walkman recorder and he's recording the set and Richie and I kind of wink at each other and we start going boy, this guy isn't going to make it. This guy.

Bob Stobener:

Into his recorder, right Into his recorder and he knows our voices so he knows we're saying it. This guy just sucks. Oh, that was a terrible joke we're going to have to tell Scott. And I'd forgotten about it. And then, four decades later, you brought it up and you said something about Andy I guess let's call it Andy because I'm not 100% who it was. But you said Andy always got a bad vibe about our club because of that tape?

Lynn Stobener:

Oh no, that's not.

Bob Stobener:

No, he loves us. I know he loves us, but you do love us, right, Andy?

Lynn Stobener:

I think you guys told him Not that bad.

R. Scott Edwards:

Wouldn't he have known. It was a joke.

Bob Stobener:

I thought we told him it was a joke that same week, the memory I have is that very recently, like within the last couple years, that one of you two mentioned to me that he had, he had, that bad feeling about us did you?

Lynn Stobener:

okay, I told you, he might have to edit it out when you interviewed him, did he bring that up?

R. Scott Edwards:

he may have and I mentioned it, but I've never. We should let the audience know. Andy kindler, uh, was a comic that worked for us a lot. He went on to some fame and fortune. He was a regular on the Letterman Show some 45 times. He was a regular extra act on Everybody Loves Raymond. He's done a lot of stuff and he has been interviewed on this podcast, so go look for it. And thanks for bringing up such a vague story.

Bob Stobener:

That's a very vague story, but maybe that's where I heard it on this fabulous podcast, I think that I mean I'm pretty sure, by the way it was all a gag. We were just of course it was, and we would mess with the comics.

R. Scott Edwards:

It's so funny because we're paying them. They're all professionals. We didn't use hacks and yet we messed with them a lot. We like like the magician, where we would tape down his like his closing bit. And we'd tape the tablecloth, so everything went flying.

Lynn Stobener:

I mean that's mean Everything happens on Sundays. Well, I remember Dave Collier used to do the thing where he'd drink a big, giant glass of water and make like a sprinkler thing, and the one time we filled it up with vodka.

Bob Stobener:

And he still did it.

R. Scott Edwards:

I think he's yeah big, but we had fun.

Bob Stobener:

We did have fun and you brought up. Nobody got hurt. You brought up the after hours things, bob got hurt the finger in the fan.

R. Scott Edwards:

No, we won't go there, so the after hour parties.

Bob Stobener:

We had a lot of after-hour parties.

R. Scott Edwards:

We took comics bowling.

Bob Stobener:

That's what I was going to say. The comics loved to come to the club because they could actually be normal people and we did normal people things. So we weren't the Hollywood circle or anything.

Lynn Stobener:

I think it might have been Bob Worley, but I remember it was Thanksgiving week and of course we were closing on Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure he came to mom, he did.

Bob Stobener:

We have pictures coming to mom's Thanksgiving, but bowling was a lot of fun. I mean some of the comics that went bowling with Dave. Clearly I went bowling with us, all of them.

R. Scott Edwards:

I know a lot of them did. We also took people in the boat on the river at night. We took a few people skiing. Paula Poundstone went out once with us on the boat.

Lynn Stobener:

I almost killed Dana Carvey on that.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, I mean it was a fun interaction with the entertainers. Yeah, we're all working for a few hours each night, but you got all that daytime or after the show. We're all hyped up after a show. We don't go home and go to bed. We would go to Denny's.

Lynn Stobener:

We were partiers.

Bob Stobener:

We were young and speaking of Jerry Seinfeld, yeah, first of all, a couple things with Jerry, and if he happens to be listening to this, I have to apologize to him, because the very first flyer that I did and we have one here in the box I spelled his last name as impossibly bad as you could get. And I only say this because I think it's your fault, because you wrote it on the note you gave me. I'm a horrible speller.

Lynn Stobener:

You also spelled Gary Shandling wrong?

Bob Stobener:

Yeah, I think I did, but Seinfeld was S-C-I-E-N-2-S. She flips them fast. Yeah, it was crazy bad. And I remember when he saw the flyer you know, that's not how I spell my name. Those letters are not even in there, but I'm sure that anyway, that's a memory. The other memories talk about bowling is. I have this memory of it's a Sunday night I think it was Jerry, and oh shoot, now there's a little comic, daily Pike.

R. Scott Edwards:

He worked a lot with Jerry.

Bob Stobener:

It was Jerry and Daily Pike and I said hey, Jerry, we're going bowling, you want to go? And Daily's in Jerry says no, I'm going back to the condo. I got to write some material, that's so Jerry, so that is so, jerry, so you didn't go bowling with us that day.

R. Scott Edwards:

Well, I think the after-hour parties were something that were extra special. We want to make it clear to my podcast listeners that this wasn't like a Hollywood. You know there was naked women and drugs and binge drinking. We were Sacramento, pretty innocent people it was bowling and going to Denny's.

R. Scott Edwards:

We were, you know, or we'd just hang out in the bar or hang out in the condo, and you know, yeah, there was a bit of drugs going on at the time, but I had a rule that couldn't be done in front of me and I didn't want it in the club, and most people respected that. I mean, there was the time John Fox chased me around the green room with a spoonful of Coke. Come on, you can do it, dude, don't be a wuss, you know, but those were rare. But so the after hours parties were some of the most fun. But even for the club and the employees, uh, when we had a good uh weekend like jazz festival, I would rent some charter, some buses and take everybody to.

R. Scott Edwards:

Uh. We had in Tika. We took everybody to pour reds a couple times. We used to have a lot of fun with not just the comics but also our staff. I always felt we treated them well, and one of the ways that that's proven is we had very low turnover. We had some employees stayed with us 10, 15 years. It was incredible.

Bob Stobener:

And we don't. You know, we tend to only talk about the dozen or so really famous people that came out of the circuit that we were on and we have great stories about them, like we've been talking about today, but we we literally worked with, I'm going to say, thousands of comics I would like to put them professional in your uh podcast connections and comedy comic connections.

Lynn Stobener:

I would like frank princy. I don't even know if he's still doing. Good old frank. I used to love frank.

R. Scott Edwards:

I've been I've been searching for frank and I've not been able to connect with him. I hear he's still alive and well long out of the comedy business he got in the music he got very bitter about comedy in one of the ways, but he's still funny.

Lynn Stobener:

He was very cute and I always loved his joke about the seeing the big trucks that have the four by four and he would spray equal 16. Oh, yeah.

R. Scott Edwards:

So there's well, there's gotta be something else in the hat.

Bob Stobener:

Yep, we only have a few more things in the hat, so go. Oh, something else in the hat.

Lynn Stobener:

Yep, we only have a few more things in the hat, so go, oh, but we've got extra hats, oh yeah, but stick around folks.

Bob Stobener:

Ah, jay Johnson. Now Jay Johnson is one of the best ventriloquists in the business and. I would love to see his current set, because I just love his stuff and for those of you that are in the listening audience go to the Googler.

R. Scott Edwards:

Jay Johnson was a regular on an early, early TV, very popular TV show called Soap, where he and his ventriloquial figure, chuck, were the co-stars of the show. And then we were able to meet him through Harry Anderson and he worked our club, including Laughs in the Park and a lot of things. But that's just to give a basis to the audience. So what did you want to share about Jay Johnson?

Bob Stobener:

I have, and we brought up Laughs in the Park. He was our headliner, I think, at our first one, and I think we probably had 5,000 people in the audience and I just had this memory of here's a guy with a dummy on stage and he's's don't talk about scott like that again.

Bob Stobener:

Oh, that's chuck. He's with chuck on stage and he is just slaying the audience. They're he's just killing and they're, you know, they could be like quarter mile away. He's just killing and with the dummy, you know, it's like you gotta. It kind of helps to see the dummy, but this is like he's just absolutely destroying with these people, five thousand, you know, five thousand people a quarter mile away anyway. Uh, great act, great club comic, a lot of great memories of and you brought up a great thing when we're preparing for this well, there's two things.

Lynn Stobener:

There's one, um, where he was very, very much interested in, like the JFK, the assassination, the conspiracies and all that, and he got me really interested in it. And then again it always happens on Sundays we were sitting around the bar talking and the staff we had decided to do this earlier in the week and so we presented him with a new puppet, decided to do this earlier in the week, and so we presented him with a new, a new puppet which consisted of a Rayleigh's brown paper bag and JFK's big face stuck, stuck to it.

Bob Stobener:

So I don't.

Lynn Stobener:

I'm not sure if he used it but one of the coolest behind the scenes doing stuff with the comics kind of thing, was when my mom was a huge lover of soap and really liked Jay Johnson and she came to the show, which uh was. She came to see Jay Johnson twice, which was the exact amount she came to see me Seriously.

R. Scott Edwards:

It was rare for her to go out Right and she was elderly. Well no, that's right.

Lynn Stobener:

No, no, no, no well, no, that's right, you know. But uh and again, um, I love the story telling about mom. When I she saw me do comedy for the first time and I came off stage and she said you look pretty up there well, she must have had an interesting interaction with jay well, yes, so she saw the show.

Lynn Stobener:

but then we went after the show to the magic no, to the pasta place you guys own. And we sat there and mom was just turned towards Jay and was just asking him all these questions and Jay was just paying her all the attention in the world. And it was just like the coolest.

R. Scott Edwards:

That was one of my favorite, you know. Yeah, that's like my dad with Pat Paulson, when you get to the ability to bring their heroes to them. I didn't see that moment. I'm sorry I missed it. I loved your mom and Jay was such a good guy I don't even remember that story, Lynn.

Bob Stobener:

That's wonderful.

R. Scott Edwards:

And what? A great moment for your mom.

Lynn Stobener:

Yes, no, it was great because she was a little starstruck and it was, I think, you know. Just yeah, it was very cool, it was great. And my mom, your mom as well funny thing about that, when we opened up the kitchen and she jumped in and wanted to help. That's when she basically accused me of trying to kill someone because I put I was putting mustard on a turkey sandwich.

Bob Stobener:

Oh, she, literally she said it.

Lynn Stobener:

She said it so passionately. It was I put cyan, I like this, you.

Bob Stobener:

You never put mustard on a turkey, I mean, I literally for years I thought you can't, because you will die.

R. Scott Edwards:

It's a law. I mean she was for years. I thought you can't because you will die. It's a law.

Lynn Stobener:

I mean she was very passionate about real mustard.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah Well, I think it's great that you were able to share that moment with your mom and we want to say that give credit the reason we met Jay and we did some TV pilots with him and we did laughs in the park. I mean he worked for us a lot. But we met him through Harry Anderson and for those that don't remember Harry, he was the star of Night Court. He was in Cheers as a regular hundreds of times on Letterman and the Tonight Show and all the other talk shows and just a terrific magician that always played that kind of circus kind of con artist was his kind of claim to fame con artist, harry the Hat. Yeah, harry the Hat con artist magician.

R. Scott Edwards:

And we became very good friends. He invited us up to see him at Tahoe and I got to take my dad up and spend some time with him after a show and my dad was just over the moon about it. But my favorite memory of Harry was he liked to antique and so during the weekend before the show I would take him out antiquing and he found these old punch boards, which was a 20s 30s kind of con man thing where the stores would sell these punch boards for like a nickel or a dime, a punch, and if you got the right one, you got a pack of cigarettes or something.

Lynn Stobener:

What do you mean? What do you punch?

R. Scott Edwards:

I'll show you when we're done. I have them right up there. But anyway, he bought a couple for himself and then I bought one, and then he bought one, a little one, and he goes Scott, scott, you got to do this. You know you get five punches for a dollar. I said okay, and he goes no, where's the dollar? And he took the money from me. I gave him a dollar and I punched it and on my third punch, just miracles and miracles, I got the winning prize, which was, I think, $5 or something on this punch board. And I go, oh wow. And he goes man, you're lucky, and started to walk away. And I go Harry, you took my money, where's my $5? And he grabs a pen and he autographs the back to the luckiest man I know, harry Anderson, and gave me that and he goes that's worth five bucks.

R. Scott Edwards:

He never would give me the money back.

Bob Stobener:

Oh, that's funny, that is hilarious.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, he was a good guy he was a funny guy, he was great.

Bob Stobener:

We had that one show, one of our Desperation concerts. We put together. Every our desperation concerts we put together. We would have, we would. Every once in a while we'd come up a little short, you know, and you know it's. It's not an easy business. Let me just say that.

R. Scott Edwards:

Well, you're running a bar, a restaurant and a club.

Bob Stobener:

And Scott, you're, you're, this is your entire life and you're just trying to make hold everything together. But it happened to be one of those times let's, let's have a concert, let's, let's get a big, let's get. Harry will come up and he'll do it as a favor to us and and it'll help us keep things in order. So he came up and did a show, and I think that was one of the last times he worked for us, because he was already on night court and I know my in-laws, cassie's, my lovely wife's parents were very big Harry Anderson fans too, and they rode up on their bicycle and they got to meet him and hang out after the show.

R. Scott Edwards:

Oh cool, who rode?

Bob Stobener:

up on their bicycle. Cassie's parents, bill and Lynn. Mom and dad Stay with the group. Anyway, yes, I was at the same experience. It was very fun to be able to share that moment and that was a fun night.

R. Scott Edwards:

Yeah, and it's been said a couple times If you get a chance, go to the Googler. Look Harry Anderson. You'll recognize him from all his TV specials. He was hawking TVs on commercials. He was on Cheers Night Court. There's a new.

Bob Stobener:

Night Court out. There's a new Night Court we can drop it and they reference Harry all the time. Well, the daughter is the new judge, not his real daughter, not his real Melissa Rich, but anyway, yeah, so you can check that out too.

R. Scott Edwards:

Oh man, we're just having so much fun. Hey, uh, this is uh Scott, the normal host of this podcast, along with, uh, lynn Stobiner and Bob Stobiner, who's acting as the host, and, uh, we've just been going through and sharing stories and going through a box of uh memorabilia and kind of sharing with the audience. Uh, please bear with us. Uh, we think it's fun, we're having a blast and we're you're joining in. There may be one more segment, but we'll try to keep it fun for you and thanks for putting up with this one, but I'm cutting off the show here and we'll be back next week with the last part of this crazy time. But anyway, we're having fun and we hope you are too. Thanks for listening and hope you're enjoying the podcast. If you have any questions, comments, you can email me at scottscomedystuff at gmailcom. Scottscomedystuff at gmailcom. All right, we'll see you next week for the balance of this strange podcast. Bye.

Bob Stobener:

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy your host and emcee. For information on the show, merchandise and our sponsors, or to send comments to Scott, visit our website at wwwstandupyourhostandemceecom. Look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of stand-up comedy. Visit a comedy showroom near you.

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