How Gary Gulman Turned Depression Into Comedy Gold | Better in Person
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This episode of Better in Person is presented by ChatGPT. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Download the new ChatGPT desktop app today. Hey there, Stephen Dubner. This is the third episode of a new video interview show we're making called Better in Person. Today's guest is the comedian Gary Gullman. You are going to love him, I guarantee. If you want the full video experience, go to the Freakonomics YouTube channel. It looks good on your phone, but it looks great on a bigger screen. You can also watch it on Apple Podcasts. Just search for Better in Person. But we also made this audio version for the Freakonomics feed in case you don't want to be distracted by it. The video, we aim to please.
As always, thanks for listening. And now, thanks for watching too.
What do you have to understand about show business is the hyperbole is at such a high level that if they love you, it means they don't want to work with you, but they think you're pretty good. If they're obsessed with you, they'd like to work with you. But if this fails, it's all over. You'll never hear from them again. And then I don't know what the next level will be. I want to chop you up in a Cuisinart and drink you like a smoothie. And that will mean that they would like to make your project.
This is Better in Person with Stephen Dubner and Gary Goleman.
If you had to choose one word to describe the comedian Gary Gullman, it might be kind, which is not a word you associate with comedians very often. He's also tall, 6'6", which helps make him good at basketball. He's also smart. He enunciates beautifully. He's got an amazing vocabulary. And he wrote a really nice memoir called Misfit, Growing Up Awkward in the 80s. And yes, he is wickedly funny.
Consider his first HBO special, The Great Depresh. I still see a therapist. I believe I broke him on Monday. Yeah, I was leaving his office and I was shutting the door and I heard him go...
A show about one man's depression should not be funny, but this one is, and it's also deeply human. Goldman's honesty makes his fans love him even more, and now I also love Gary Goldman. I mean it. That's not hyperbole. So I make this podcast, Freakonomics Radio, which is very research-intensive. And my producers for this show have been telling me that I need to back off, that I get overprepared and I get a little paralyzed. So for you, I've done zero. Okay. I know your first name is Gary. That's all I got. You're an accountant, I understand.
I was an accountant. That was what I studied in college. So my profession is accountant. But then I've taken this side... starting in 1993 where I tell jokes and I wrote a book and I act occasionally, but it's just something, if the accounting doesn't pay off.
Did you ever do any accounting?
Yes, yes. I worked for two and a half years for what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers. And I was fired for saying... what are they gonna do, fire me? You did not. I really said that, and it's the, it's the, it's the only time that somebody has read back to me a quote, and it didn't make me happy. Usually when somebody, you said this, oh, that's really great, but this was like, and I will say this, I just said yes, I absolutely said that, and, and, And that was that. They said, okay, well.
I'm glad. I mean, I'm glad.
Years later, the woman from HR and her husband came to my show. So all was forgiven, but it was.
Was all forgiven? Are you a grievance holder or a grievance flusher?
I've been grinding certain axes with people over the years, and it's really something. I'm reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela right now. One reason, because I admire him, but also, this has to be one of the most- Such a great comic. Funny man.
But he's got to be like the most forgiving man in history.
And you're thinking, what am I doing with my taxes?
Yeah, what am I doing with my stupid things? Do you punish yourself? Period. Question mark. Do I punish myself? No, but I have a lot of guilt over... For instance, my wife would love a bigger apartment than we have, but I see how certain people are living and I think, well, it's not right that I should have so much more than the average person.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:13
2
Who is Gary Gulman and why did he make The Great Depresh?
6:13–12:16
3
How did Gary’s career shift from accounting to stand-up comedy?
12:16–36:50
4
What triggered Gary’s prolonged depressive episode and how did it affect his work?
36:50–47:05
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Freakonomics Radio
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