Eddie Brill
speaker
90 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Feb 2025
Eddie Brill’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Who's your favorite comic of all time?
Ah, yes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Their values are low and their greediness or, again, lack of integrity is more powerful.
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.
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?
Yeah.
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?
Showing 61–80 of 90 · page 4 of 5
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