1153: Drew Carey | The Price Is Right, But These Stories Are Priceless

23:00And when I'm doing improv or stand-up, I'm going to look you right in the eye because you're friendly to me. I don't fear you. I don't have to worry about your judgment. We're all pals, and that's how I treat it. It puts me in a really comfortable place. I noticed that you do have really good rapport with the people on The Price is Right, the contestants. And it seems very natural. Is it something you think about or had to think about consciously? Or is it just from comedy you kind of already had it in the bag? Both. So I had it in the bag from comedy. People were asking me, I always get asked, what was it like to take over from Bob?

23:33Bob Barker, yeah. 18 years later, I still get asked that question. but I realize now you know when you're a comic anywhere they had somebody really good there the week before or two weeks before oh last week Gary Shanley was here boy he really killed the place you should have seen him or they'll be talking about something great the other comic did or they'll have stories about at the club like famous moments or you should have seen them like guys will tell stories after the show about this happened that happened like Bill Hicks story you would hear about some club that he walked out one time. I was just telling a friend of mine the other day, Bill Hicks, he's dead now, but he was a legendary icon when I was doing club comedy.

24:15He was so looked up to and so funny. And he would talk about anything, like there was no limit to this guy. The edgiest of edgy comics. Like a Bill Burr situation? Bill Burr is walking in his shadow, honestly. Bill Burr would recognize Bill Hicks and go, yeah, that guy. Right up there with Lenny Bruce, as far as I'm concerned, as far as like freedom on stage to do whatever you want. But funny, no offense to Lenny Bruce. When Lenny Bruce was going through his trials, like he would get up on stage and read his transcript for his trials and complain. Like he wasn't telling jokes. He was just ranting.

24:47And it was interesting, but it wasn't like, here's my act. It's a ballsy move though. Yeah, but like he didn't give a fuck. Yeah, clearly. Which was great. But when he was funny, like a groundbreaker, no doubt about it. But then he just was like angry man. And no kidding, They were trying to put him in jail and putting him on trial. And I'd be pissed too if I got arrested after my act, like what happened to him. And I was like afraid nobody would book me because you didn't want the police raiding the place because you're saying the word fuck on stage. Oh, God. Like crazy. So Bill Hicks was like, he had the freedom and the rights that people like Lenny Bruce earned for him.

25:22And then he was able to just talk about anything. So the story I heard, which is a true story, was the club owners were like, hey, Bill, welcome to the club. when they picked him up at the airport. Glad to have you here. And we know what your act is, but we're Christians, and we'd really appreciate it if he didn't say the word fuck. That's really our only rule. Right.

25:47And he went, all right. And first of all, Christians made them an enemy because he came up with Sam Kinison and the same club in Texas. And they were like part of these Texas outlaw comics. that was Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, and a couple other guys, but those were the two main ones. So that was his attitude. Fuck you, I'm going to get up here and do whatever I want, and I'm going to do a bump before I come on stage and tell you what I did, and everybody knows I'm on cocaine right now. Go fuck yourself if you don't like what I'm saying, leave. And that was his attitude, and he got up on stage, and for as long as he could, talked about fucking a child.

26:21Oh, my God. Until everybody left, and he walked the whole audience. It's like one by one, people are like upset. They didn't want to hear it. He just stood there and looked him in the eye, and the graphic is horrible as he could make it. And they all paid their checks and walked out until the very last couple got up and left. And then he was like, great, there you go. I didn't say the word fuck. Oh, no, he did. He never said the word fuck. You know, there, you want me to not wait to say the word fuck? This is what's going to happen. Oh, man. You give me complete freedom, or I'll tank my career.

26:54It's like a political statement almost, yeah. And he never got as famous here as in England. Like wildly popular in England. But here he was popular with comics and people in the know and people that were hip to him. Yeah, it was like a comics comic. Yeah. Yeah. There was no Bill Hicks sitcom because people were like, what do we do with you? Yeah. The networks are probably like, yeah, just make sure he doesn't say, oh, wait a minute. No, not that guy. He would just be arguing all the time with the writers about how he can't talk about what he wants to talk about. Yikes. Yeah, no. How can I talk about drugs and how they should be legal?

27:29You do that now? Yeah. He had a great bit about how great drugs were. He goes, you never hear that from people, do you? Jeez. Drugs are great. Yeah. They make you feel good. Why can't you take drugs? That was his attitude. You've said as comedians make more money, they get less funny, and you've got to guard against that. Why is that? I learned this from Steve Martin. I never met Steve Martin, believe it or not. One of my idols, grown up. You might take your call at this point. I don't know. You've got to learn how to play the banjo. He's still Steve Martin, and I'm still Drew Carey. You know, he's legend.

27:59He's like Mount Rushmore. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. He's like untouchable to me in my head. That's God. You're going to meet him and he's going to be like, oh, I saw every episode of your show. Knowing what I know, he's not a Drew Carey show. Too smart. Too above it. But his first album that came out, I read every interview, and he said in an interview, that's 10 years of comedy there. That's my best stuff from 10 years. and now my next album it's like what do I do now? I don't have 10 years they want me to do another album in a year and I know if I do it I'm going to get this extra money and it's almost like you're putting out B material if an author had one big novel that they've been burning inside and they write it that was great now follow it up with another one a band has their big hit breakout album and the next album is it was pretty good yeah but that happens to comics you don't have five hours four hours Nobody puts eight.

28:53Jerry Seinfeld said he did. I believe Jerry Seinfeld wrote eight hours a day, treated it like a job. But he might have been using eight hours a day. It could have been six hours and two hours of having coffee and fucking around until he got back in the mood, like how writers do. Yeah, that's what everybody does at work, I think. Yeah, I knew he took it seriously enough to go like, okay, this is my job and this is part of my day. I'm telling you, from being on the road, comics didn't do. Most comics did not treat it that seriously. And if they wrote, they did it a couple times a week and go, I think I'm going to write for an hour.

29:22All right. Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah.

29:29So all of a sudden, then you're famous, and now you've got meetings to go to. You've got other projects to do. When I was on the Drew Carey show, I didn't have time to write. Any writing I did, all the jokes went to the Drew Carey show. I wasn't writing jokes for my act. And I was famous enough as a stand-up then. If they wanted a stand-up special, I could have done one. But if they wanted me to do a second one, when am I going to write it? When am I going to have time to go on stage? How do you guard against that? You said you have to guard against that, so I assume you came up with a way to guard against that?

29:57Yeah, plus another thing is you don't live a normal life anymore. When you're rich, your assistant's doing things for you. You're getting dropped off at the VIP to go into the club. You're not dealing with the everyday frustrations that people deal with. Are you stuck in traffic like everybody else, in your shitty car like everybody else? In L.A., yes, but everywhere else, maybe not. Yeah. When you're a good stand-up comic, it's every man against the world. You're speaking up to power. Why are these people doing it? Why is this technology doing this to us? Why are we living in this system that's so frustrating?

30:30This is hypocritical. This is stupid. This is wrong. And you make a joke of it. That's how every successful comic works. I see. So when you're richer, you're just insulated for more and more of this. You're in that world now. What are you going to make fun of if you're the guy next door because you're rich too? It really hurts you. So you have to be in a mindset of drive yourself, do your own fucking shopping if you can, try to be as normal thinking as you can. Because the more you insulate yourself from the world, the less you have to joke. Like, what are you going to joke around? There was a guy named Martin Mull, a really famous guy from Cleveland Comic.

31:04I used to watch him on The Tonight Show because it would be Martin Mull or Steve Martin when I would look at comics on The Tonight Show. Sometimes I got mixed up when I was first following them. Like, oh, Martin. Oh, yeah. One of the Martins. yeah martin mullet had his albums really famous really good funny songwriter so he'd be on the tonight show with a couch and a guitar to do funny songs he wasn't like a stand up but he had a pattern in between on one of his albums he has a song called rich person's blues and it was i woke up this morning i saw both cars were gone i felt so low down deep inside i threw my drink upon a lawn

31:47i remember i was like broke when i heard that i was just a fan i thought it was the funniest thing to me yeah i listened to it over and over on an album rich man's blues so what are you gonna joke about what frustrates you my jet was late yeah go fuck yourself so the key is the more successful you get live it or live that mindset of that mindset be aware of it it's tough to recognize that you're in a private jet because you're famous and rich. Yeah. And Disney got you a private jet that time, which they did to me, or somebody's flying you somewhere because you have to get somewhere, or make a joke about how rich you are.

32:17Like, you got to do something to humanize yourself for everybody. And now take your fat, drunk ass to the Gap and or Disneyland. We'll be right back. If you're wondering how I managed to book all these great folks every single week, it is because of my network, the circle of people I know, like, and trust. I'm teaching you how to build your network for free over at 6minutenetworking.com. The course is all about improving your relationship building skills. A lot of people who are trying to make it in comedy, I realize, are using this. Make it in any industry, frankly, because it's about relationships.

32:46And this course is down to earth, not awkward, not cheesy, just practical exercises that will make you a better connector, a better colleague, a better friend. In six minutes a day is all it takes. And many of the guests on the show subscribe and contribute to this course. Come on and join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. You can find the course. Again, it's free. There's no weird tricks. I don't want your credit card number or anything. sixminutenetworking.com. All right, now back to Drew Carey. You do see when really popular comedians lose touch and they lose the plot a little bit, and people really hate that, even more than an unfunny set.

33:18Oh, he went a little too far with the trans stuff. It's like the worst thing a comic can do is just appear out of touch. It's like career suicide in some ways. You got to find a way to ground your... That's why I love being about the price of the right, because everybody there is normal. Yeah, it looks like Like you're having a fun time every day. So many average Americans in there. Like you want to know what America is like? Go to a Price is Right taping. That's how Americans dress. That's what they look like. This is what they believe. Just being a guy and loving sports. I would think that everybody loved football.

33:49Because everywhere I go, I could start a conversation about how the football team was doing. And I would watch ESPN. And I'd watch it so I knew some stats. Because when I started a conversation, I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of my friends. and I would catch them and me repeating stats I heard on ESPN or talking points I heard on ESPN or sports radio. I really had to know that because I didn't want to look like a fool when I talked to my friends. I see. You know what I mean? I go to the Price is Right audience and I'm like, boy, did everybody see that game? And blanks. Really? No.

34:20Middle of America, not watching football? Nobody gives a fuck. That's funny. There's guys there that do. There'll be a few guys that'll raise their hand, but the average person, if you look at the ratings, The Rams or whoever, they get a percentage, just like everybody else, of the ratings. I guess being from Detroit, it was like, oh, we're playing Green Bay. And it was like... You think everybody knows. I was the only kid who didn't really care about any of that stuff. I was an outcast for that reason. You weren't the only kid. So when I was doing stand-up, they would have you do radio shows on Friday morning, because there was always a local rock and roll station or country station, depending on where you were, that would sponsor the club.

34:55Oh, I see. Yeah, so you're on K-Rock or whatever. or you'd be in the morning zoo show somewhere their version of the morning zoo and they would oh this guy's great he gets a eight share what does that mean so eight percent of the people listening listen to him which would like in this market if you get a two share three share in la you're a god but then it's like in indianapolis or someplace you get a chair like forget it and then i would think to myself man i'm getting up at fucking six in the morning i worked last night i got to do two shows tonight so we're all getting up early to do radio and then we're going to take a nap and fucking figure out, go to Applebee's or whatever, so we can get our shit together, take another nap, all because we can do this.

35:33It was every week. This guy's really big, gets an eight-chair into my head. I would think, oh, so you mean 92 % of the people in the city aren't listening to this guy? And that's only the people they're measuring who are listening to the radio? That doesn't count people who are just driving in their car in silence or have a cassette tape in. Psychopaths driving in your car without a music. Or aren't driving anywhere and just sleep in and don't listen to them. I'm supposed to be kowtowing and all of this eight dude. No, not going to do it. And on the Drew Carey show, if they were like, Oh, you know, like 15 share watched the Drew Carey show.

36:05So 85 % of the people watching TV don't give a fuck about me. What was your competing show at the time? Do you remember? Like what was on at the same time? Oh, for a while it was West wing. Oh, that was huge. Also. Yeah. I remember talking to Dietrich Bader like, Hey man, have you seen West wing? I go, no. He goes, Oh, it's so good. You really need to watch it. And I go, it's the fuck. It's at 8 p.m. I would be like, hey, any chance we can move to 730 before people tune into West Wing, for God's sake? You're killing me here. You're killing me. I could buy my own jet. I wouldn't need Disney. But that was my attitude just from doing those radio shows.

36:37It was my strength, too, because I knew I just needed a sliver of the pie. The Lamb of God doesn't need to be a household name like Kiss or Taylor Swift. And even Taylor Swift, I'll argue, artists like her have a sliver of the pie. and you hear a lot about them, but as much as you hear it doesn't match the record sales in the big market because people buy country music, classical music. They go to jazz clubs. They go to no clubs. They know the song because it's played in the mall. They know the song because it's on the radio and they're maybe listening to the radio or people reference her when you're watching the game, but average person doesn't know every song on a Taylor Swift album.

37:17That's true. And that's just how it is in show business. you can be famous but everybody only has their own little sliver of the pie and you have to service your audience you have to service your sliver of the pie and really make sure they're happy seattle sounders we have a sliver of the pie in the soccer world a small sliver in seattle it seems like huge but it's really a small sliver of the pie and we go out of our way to service those people so we don't lose their business and that's how every business works you don't have to appeal to everybody. The analogy I would make with people, they'll go, well, you know, this is the most popular thing.

37:53You've heard that argument. Sure. It's good because it's popular. I go, really? You think McDonald's has the best hamburger in the world? You think that's the best restaurant in the country? You think McDonald's is the best place to go eat? They're the most popular. Sure. That's not the best. They're good. I enjoy McDonald's every once in a while. This podcast sponsored by McDonald's and the Gap. Sausage McMuffin with egg. I was making a joke to myself in the car, like all the things I would eat and consume. And like pretty much if you advertise in the Superbowl, I'm in. Yeah. I drank Budweiser because they advertise in the Superbowl.

38:24I bought this because they advertise in the Superbowl. It's got to be the best one. They advertise on the Superbowl. I get hooked in by marketing so easily by everybody. That's funny. You marketed me the right way. And ad comes up when I'm scrolling the news. Also, somebody came up with a place that was selling bed tents, a place called Timu. I got... oh timu that's one of those chinese like it's only three dollars yeah and then you click on it it's like everything they just knock off products sell you the crappiest but i clicked on i was like oh man that's really cool don't buy anything from timu yeah i was this close to buying it just because i saw it while i was reading a news article and i'm like what the fuck i had to snap out of it yeah no that stuff's made by like child slave labor i want my children who manufacture things to be compensated fairly yeah so the price is right which is aired the 10 ,000th episode on my birthday.

39:12Thanks for doing that. I appreciate that. It was just for you. Yeah, I know. That was the pitch for bringing you on. When the Drew Carey show ended, did you have any sort of identity crisis at all? Because this is aimed after you, for God's sake. Huge. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Tell me about that. Rug pull, you know. Because you're losing a part of yourself when the thing ends. I would feel so personally attacked if somebody wrote something bad about the Drew Carey show. Oh, that's not going to happen in the comments of this episode at all, then yeah well i don't care anymore okay good and i would just take it i took everything so personally because first of all my name's on it and i knew that this was my only one chance to not ever have to work again but it ran for nine ten years right nine years save your money you'll be fine yeah yeah but your fourth year fifth year nine years you want a tenth year well yeah tenth year you want an eleventh year like you don't want it to end some things are so good but you don't want it to end.

40:03Do you want the party to end when you're at a party and it's raging and you're in the midst of the peak of it? When it's over, you're like... I just walked out of the bathroom. Yeah. Keep this thing going. Rubbing your nose. I don't do coke, but I know the feeling. And you and I are contractually prohibited from doing drugs, so we don't do drugs. When I go to EDC, I'm sad when the night's over. Yeah. I'm like, ah, man. I love that you love EDC. Love it. Electronic Daisy Carnival. Electric Daisy Carnival, yeah. It's basically a rave. It's a rave. Exactly what it is. Yeah. in the middle of the desert, on a racetrack in the middle of the desert.

40:32Yeah, Las Vegas Motor Speedway every May 17th, 18th, 18th, and 20th, I think, this year. Do you have to be careful about things you do in public? You can't go to EDC and go, you know what, I'm going to do Molly with my friends. Let's say you don't do drugs. All right, I'm going to drink. But then it's like, you can't just be like stumbling drunk because someone could video that and it's not a good look for Drew Carey. I have been. It's happened, I'm sure. Yeah. I was at Disneyland when I was on the Drew Carey show. Every year we would take the writers and the cast to Disney World. That was our thing.

41:00The guy that created the show, Chris Helford and I, would drive across country. We would rent a car. He didn't fly. And we would drive from LA to Orlando. And we would meet the cast. Drive from LA to Orlando? How long does that take? Like a week? Four days? A few days. You take turns driving, listen to rock and roll. Talk about the show. What went wrong? What didn't? What we liked? What we didn't? What we want to do next year? What about this? Brainstorm. Shoot the shit. Eat at diners. Joke around. Okay, we get a motel. This looks like good Holiday Inn Express. Let's stay here. What are you doing here?

41:34Well, the Celebrity Holiday Express is closed. We get to Orlando. And ABC is owned by Disney. So ABC would get the rooms and make sure we pay for our guides. And we basically get a semi-free trip to Disney World for everybody. And be all the writers and all the cast. We did it every year. So one year, I wanted to have everybody drink the world at Epcot Center. I see. Which is a thing to do. You can eat the world or drink the world. And we were going to drink the world. So there's 10 countries in the Epcot Center. Starts out with Canada. United States is in the middle, of course. And then Mexico is on the other side.

42:11So you start with Canada, work your way through Japan, China, England, Norway, all the other countries, Germany, Italy. And you end up in Mexico at the end of the night. And the idea was to get to Mexico right before 10 o 'clock, because that's when the fireworks went off. So we're like, yeah, we got to get an early start because 10 drinks that's a lot of drinks and you had to have a drink in each country so we were supposed to start in canada and everybody was late and i was like where the fuck is everybody and everybody didn't get there like 132 or something like that and i was like okay let's go now we got to make up some time so we chugged a beer in canada and we got to walk everywhere so we walked to the next one walked to the next one and by the time i got in the united states i'm having a beer and then in japan i'd have a sake china i'd have something else and Germany I'd have another beer Italy I didn't have a glass of wine it wasn't yeah it wasn't I was mixing and just fucking stumbling and by the time I got to Mexico I'd have been quarter to ten it was nighttime out I was like running around and like giggling and like tagging people and I had mouse ears on and people were worried about how I was acting and like we gotta do something about Drew.

43:23This is also before smartphones. So it wasn't like, yeah, thank God. But it wasn't before cameras or instant cameras that you would buy at Disney World to take around all day. Oh, wow. Or like throwaway cameras. Disposable cameras, yeah. Everybody had something. They didn't have a phone, but they had something. And I'm acting like an idiot, just like drunk out of my mind. Fucked up drunk, but in a really good, happy way. Like we gotta do something with Drew. And somebody had the idea, Let's put Drew in a wheelchair and wheel him out of here. Oh, my God. So they got the guide, Disney guide, to get a wheelchair, the red vest guy.

43:58Yeah. Got me a wheelchair, plaid vest guy. Put me in the wheelchair, and they're going to wheel me out of there, which they do. And I'm in the chair just like fireworks going off. A month later, whenever we're back and we're starting in the writer's room, was it Weekly World News or Weekly World? Some tabloid. Tabloid, double page, Drew Carey drunk at Disney World. Oh, no. The picture that made everybody laugh so much is me in the chair with my mouse ears askew on my head. They weren't even straight. I have a red Solo cup in my hand. What's in there? Yeah. That's my face. I got beer spilled all over the front of my shirt.

44:31There's a beer stain in the front of my shirt. I'm in a wheelchair with a dizzy guy behind me. Keeping the place classy. I picture that framed in my house. Oh, you do. That's what you put on the t-shirts for the Price is Right. Well, after I did the fish thing, when I went to the fish concert and sent out those tweets about how I would stick my dick in a blender, I also said, by the way, that I would give you all my money and give up pussy for the rest of my life. Nobody mentions that part. All they bring up is the dick in the blender part. Like, I offered, like, three big things. Yeah, I'll take the cash.

45:06You know, you can have all of it, but why are you concentrating only that? Yeah. Because for a guy, that's, like, the worst thing. Like, you can have everything, just don't do that. It's a visceral feeling. Yeah. But after that, I remember talking to an executive at CBS, and that Diddy thing just came out where he dragged her through the hallway. Like, that video had just come out. He was like, you're just having fun. It's not like you're dragging her in your way through the hallway and beating him. I'm like, exactly. Like, who cares? If you're honest with everybody about how you live and if you're not hypocritical, you can pretty much live your life.

45:33In my book, I wrote about me going to strip clubs and all that stuff, fighting with the censor. It wasn't shocking because I'm open about it, and I was open about it. I would go into a strip club as Drew Carey and go, hey, man, VIP's here. Where's my table? If everybody knew, hey, Drew, hey. Yeah, you're not pretending to be like a religious influence or something like that. Never do such a thing. Remember the guy that was the president of the American Evangelical Association? He was a TV preacher, and he got caught with iron gay hookers. And then he went to a Christian conversion thing for like two weeks and came back and he said, I'm healed.

46:06I'm not getting any. And I gave this joke to Greg Proops. He would do like a nightly thing at a club like it was like a chat show but it was live at a club in la i went every week it was so good and i gave him that i got a great joke but i don't do stand up so here's this joke for you because it was just in the news he goes yeah greg proofs like killed it he goes yeah so this guy i can't remember his name got caught with gay hookers and he went to a christian diversion thing for a week now he's not gay anymore and what they did was they took him out behind the barn and made him smoke a pack of dicks till his tummy hurt.

47:06oh my god people were like pounding the table i was so proud of myself and i wouldn't have given it to anybody else because greg proofs can tell a joke like nobody oh man but yeah you get caught doing that then you're in trouble yeah but if i'm like yeah i go to edc what do you fucking think i do at edc not drugs because you're the host of the prize is right i was on another tv show telling a story a drug story it was the show called this is not happening and that was my joke yeah i'm at ADC, my friend's doing mushrooms. I'm not, because I'm the host of Price is Right. I'd be an idiot to do mushrooms and then talk about it in public.

47:39So just, he was, not me though. That was the joke. It's funny because I have a morality clause in my contract and it's like a whole page. Everybody does. And my lawyer's like, we got to argue this. You might want to read that. It might be in the fine print. And my lawyer's like, we got to argue this because this can be construed in so many different ways. And you're in this weird position where you have to be like, I would never do that, except there are these things that I do do that I wouldn't necessarily say in public, and that's going to fall under this thing if somebody doesn't like you suddenly.

48:08I'm always never hurting anybody, just having fun. No, of course, but there's things where these things can be construed so loosely, but if I say, oh yeah, you know, weed should be legal federally, because one time I mailed weed to my friend, I didn't realize it was a felony, and then it's, oh, you admitted to that on a podcast, and since we're trying to get rid of you because you did some other thing, we're going to use this as an excuse to get rid of you. Now, if you're crushing it, you got that eight share or whatever, then they're like, he's joking. Howard Stern could talk about anything he wanted, admit to anything he wanted.

48:38Nobody fucking touch him. No. It'll be like, oh, he's a comedian. It's just a joke, right, Howard? And he goes, no, I really did that. And they're like, shh. But that's why people listen to Howard Stern, because he's truthful and he's honest and he's saying exactly what he did and he's not trying to bullshit his way through. And, you know, you're on the Howard Stern show. That's what he was like off mic, on mic. You can't fake it. I'm meeting you. You can't be on the show and fake it for this long. Impossible. Your show would suck. It would be terrible, yeah. That's why people listen. That's why people listen to podcasts, because they're getting a real thing and have a real conversation with people.

49:10If I do a nighttime talk show, I talk to a segment producer and we talk about what we're going to talk about. What if we have a story? It's all pre-planned. That makes complete sense. The host has cards. So I heard you did this. I got a great story. I was on Letterman. and I did the pre-interview. There's always a pre-interview, which I hate because I can talk for 10 minutes. Like, what are you fucking doing to me? Maybe somebody else can't, but I can. It's insulting almost that they give me a pre-interview. I wonder if it's because they think, oh, we don't want you to be boring or talk about something somebody else already talked about.

49:42What's the point? Plus, they want to know what's happening because it's a seven-minute segment. I see. We got to hit, bam. We don't need dead air. Can't afford it. So they're like, hey, this isn't going to be a whole show. So that segment, if you just talk about golf. Let's hit it. And then these are great stories. Those will be viral. Whatever they do. They want to be your most interesting things. I get that. Thank God. Yeah, I get it. So Letterman, it was going okay, the interview. And then towards the end, he set me up with a story. He changed the wording in it. I didn't hear the keywords I was expecting.

50:12So I didn't tell the right story. Oh, no. I just was like fumbling. It was interesting. You told a different story. It wasn't funny, but I was like, yeah, blah, blah, blah. And then I got trailed off. And then he goes, okay, well, we're going to go to commercial. And he goes to commercial. and it was in December around Christmas time and he leans over at me and he goes, hey man, I'm really sorry about this crowd. This is such a nowhere crowd. It's the holidays. This crowd's nowhere. They bring his cigar out. He's smoking his cigar. In studio. Yes. Smoking his cigar during the commercials. And I go, I'm really sorry.

50:40I just didn't hear the cue right and it's different than what I suspect. And he looks straight out above the audience that's had with his cigar and he goes, fuck it. Just fuck it.

50:54tell us what you really think the good news is i'll be here next week i don't know about you puffing a cigar just not a care in the world thinking about his flight to the bahamas in five hours the next time that i was on letterman i was doing a show and i forget the name of the actress she was a child actor then she was in all the pretty horses and then she's a famous adult but i can't blank it on her name but she's like 14, 13, something like that. I was the lead guest. She was on and Warner Brothers had given me a Porsche to renegotiate my contract. They just gave me a car. Tax is paid for and everything.

51:29Here's your car. And that was one of their common negotiating tactics because I remember driving on the lot one time and in front of set, there was like 10 Porsches lined up. You're like, oh, there's the entire cast's cars. Yeah. They must've just signed their deals. Yeah, that's what they did. Smart. But all the talent wanted Porsches. That's a talent car. You don't want a Mercedes or a Jaguar. That's the executive car. Yeah. We had a whole discussion about what car to ask for over this one. It's funny. So this one, I'm open to this idea, by the way. Yeah. I just got this Porsche and I had three weeks to get to New York and all the time in the world.

52:02So I just, it was one of the best vacations I ever had. I want to get away from everybody. I don't want to talk to anybody. You probably value your alone time. Yeah. Time with my kids now, especially. Or even without the kids, you're like, can I have an hour just for me? That's my workout in the gym. Now, I don't want to take a phone call when I'm in there. It's church time. Don't fucking bother me. Everybody has that, including me. So I was doing a driving trip all by myself, and I left LA. I went to 29 Palms to get massages for a couple days. Cut that short because I over-massaged. I was like, I can't get three massages.

52:31I'm bruised. I'm going out of my mind. Then I drove up, and I went to Vegas. I kept going north through Idaho, got to Montana, made a right. I just wasn't even looking at a map. I just knew generally where I had to go. All my clothes weren't even in a suitcase. They were in my trunk. I would grab a shirt, underwear, socks for the next day, and I'd grab my toiletry kit, my computer bag, go into my room. That's what I had. I'd put the dirty clothes in a bag, and I would mail dirty clothes home. Mail them home. Oh, wow. And if I needed new clothes, I would stop at a Gap outlet store or a Gap, and I would just buy new clothes and just put on a T-shirt.

53:03I was just driving. Three weeks. Wow. Nobody bugging me. And when I got to Montana and made a right, I just knew the road was going east, and it was one of these like two blacktop roads wasn't the main freeway i didn't want to go on those and the speed limit then was you had to drive judiciously i forget what the sign said no actual speed limit yeah so i was like fuck nobody's around i'm in a porsche and go 110 top down got it up to 110 120 with the top down then i pulled over and i'm getting dragged from the having the top down let me put the top up see what this thing can do got it up to 160 i don't know three minutes that's scary it was yeah but there was literally not another car in sight this whole time i could have been dead could have hit a pebble and flown 30 feet in oh yeah it would have been an hour yeah somebody found it was one of those roads in a noir movie where they leave the body and i was just like bam then i slowed down i was like wow that was i was like shaking i was like wow that was really cool i ended up driving to new york city when i got the letterman i told that story i was in montana and i got to go 160 because they don't have a speed limit and he had owned like four Porsches.

54:08He was like, really? Huh, that's pretty funny. And everybody was laughing because they knew Letterman had a Porsche and we were laughing about guys talking about speeding and getting away with it. And then the actress came on and talked about filming all the pretty horses in Montana, how beautiful it was and how gorgeous Montana was. And I remember backstage, Letterman saw me backstage at the theater. He goes, hey, great job tonight. I go, yeah, thanks for having me, man. And he goes, Montana, huh? And I go, yeah, it was great. No speed limit. All right, take care. I leave the next day. I start driving down to Orlando because I'm going to meet all the cast.

54:39Sure. And on Monday, I forget what little town I'm in, but I stop for breakfast. I buy a USA Today. I open it up. It's a little article that David Letterman over the weekend had gotten a ticket in Butte, Montana for going 40 in a 25.

54:58Fucking guy flew to Montana. Oh my God. Probably in a private jet. Yeah. Shipped his Porsche over. Or rented some kind of car because he was going to go on the freeway and just gun it. And he got a 40 and a 25 and beat Montana. Yeah, and he's that Drew Carey. Never book that guy again. If he booked that guy again, send him the bill for this ticket. And the next time I was on the show, I was telling that story. Okay. I've heard this before somewhere. That's so funny. Drew and I are going to take a quick break from laughing at our own jokes. We'll be right back. If you like this episode of the show, I invite you to do what other smart and considerate listeners do, which is take a moment and support our amazing sponsors, those who make the show possible.

55:33All of the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the show are searchable and clickable on the website at jordanharbinger.com slash deals. If you can't remember the name of a sponsor, you can't find the code, you're not sure if it even exists, email us. I'm jordan at jordanharbinger.com. We are happy to surface codes for you because it is that important that you support those who support the show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Drew Carey. Why jump into hosting The Price is Right after a successful TV run on The Drew Carey Show? Howie Mandel was on the show a zillion years ago, and he said when he was looking at Deal or No Deal, he told his wife, he goes, is this going to be good for my career?

56:09And she said, what career? So he was like, well, I guess that answers that question. Wife will always tell you, right? It's been a long time since Bobby's world, Howie. You might want to get a paycheck. You got to keep people like that around you. That'll just tell you the truth all the time in Hollywood. If you don't have those kind of people around you, I pity you, honestly. If you don't have a ball buster next to you, that'll tell you. My comic friends keep me humble. Don't tell a comic your weakness. so that's all you'll hear about the rest of your life. I wanted to get into the soccer business, and I wanted money to buy into a soccer team or purchase my own team.

56:38I didn't know how it was going to go, but I needed some soccer money, and I did it because of the money. Yeah, but it's fun, though. Because it wouldn't be full-time. It's not full-time? Well, I work like 25 hours a week. I guess I just assumed it took the whole day to tape each one of those. It does, but it's three days a week, four days a week. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then I get a week off every month. I got 10 days off, 11 days off every month because it's three weeks on, one week off. Oh, okay. It's a great schedule. I remember when they went from two shows to three and I was working eight hours instead of six.

57:10And I'm thinking to myself, like, fuck, I've been here all day. Then I go like, oh no, it was eight hours. Normal people do this five days a week. I remember thinking to myself, like, just shut the fuck up. Just shut up. Nobody's going to be pitting you to be working eight hours. Yeah. Working on TV. Let me walk backstage and get a steak cooked just the way I like it. And a peanut butter cookie that they bought just for me because they know I like these. Yeah. Yeah, it's like being a celebrity. I tell people all the time it's like being an infant. It's like being a toddler. They bring you water.

57:35You okay? I see you look a little sad. No, I'm fine. It's a little hot in here. Make everyone else uncomfortable because he's - Yeah, they lay my clothes out for me like animals before I go on stage. I don't have to think about a thing. Someone comes and does your hair when it's a little out of place. I just show up. All I have to do is show up in a good mood. Or by the time that door opens, be in a good mood. Be in a good mood, yeah. Yeah, that's my only job. This show has lasted 50 years with 10 ,000 episodes, which is what, 5 ,000 hours of middle-aged women screaming? And even the crew seems to be having a good time.

58:07Is that real? As fun as you can have at work. Yeah, I suppose. There's worse places to work, man. Probably you heard yourself horror stories about working on one set or another set where it's tense and nobody likes each other. And they're like, another 16-hour day with this motherfucker. Talk shows where you're not like, I won't mention the name, don't look her in the eyes. Stuff like that. She'll get psycho on you. Yeah, that price is right. It's super chill, super cool. I mean, everybody's hustling. They work really hard. Everybody hustles. Everybody does their job. It's hard work, like all the grips and stuff.

58:35They're really working. But there's worse places to work. Like as far as showbiz, we all have it pretty good at the prices, right? People are so excited to be there, too. That's got to be fun. They run up. They hug you. I saw you get taken to the ground, actually, at least once by one gal in a clip. Doesn't bother me. And is it true someone kicked you in the nuts? I assume that was an accident. Yeah. She jumped up on me and when her leg was coming up, she kicked me in the nuts. Nice. So do they run that or is it like, okay, give him five minutes. Let's retake him. I doubt it. I don't watch it.

59:06Yeah, that makes sense. I don't see why you would necessarily. I don't like watching myself. I never watched the Drew Carey show. I just don't like watching myself on TV. Yeah, I can relate. I only listen to this occasionally to make sure that everything sounds right. But I also rely on my team and I go, hey, how did this bit come across or how did this little segment come across? And if my producers don't say anything, I'm not going to download the show and listen to it myself. I was already there. Yeah, I was there. It's not cringy or anything. It's just I was there. I've heard it already, right?

59:34That's how I am. Unless the final production got screwed up, which that's not going to be on me 100 % that there's nothing for me to say other than what am I going to do? Chastise my producer for not cutting something. I'm not going to tell them how to do their job. So is there anything that annoys you on The Price is Right besides getting kicked in the nuts by a contestant? No. I always wonder, sometimes you look off camera, and I guess you don't know if you're looking off camera. I'm looking at Chris, the game guy. The announcer? He's the game producer. I see. I'm usually looking at him. If you see me look off camera, I'm looking at Chris.

1:00:03I see. Chris Donnan. His official title is game producer, so he's the guy that picks the grocery items. I see. Okay. And puts in the fake numbers on all the games, and it's you against Chris when you're on The Price is Right. and he knows where to put the X on Secret X, where to hide the$25 ,000 card on Punch-A-Bunch, all that stuff. When we're doing the dice game where all the numbers for the card, one through six, it's like on these dice, no zeros, no number higher than a six. And they roll the dice and if they get the right number, it dings. If they don't, they have to tell me whether the actual number is higher or lower.

1:00:37So if they roll a two, they'll go higher. If they roll a five, they'll go lower. But then they'll reveal the thing and they've rolled a five, but the actual number's a six. They've rolled a two, or the actual number's a one. And the first thing I do is I look at Chris. I go like, really? There's a six and a one? Dice game? He looks at me and goes like, yikes. Hey, man, can't give it all away. Yeah, can't give it all away. Whatever look on his face is, what's a game? Win some, lose some. Whatever is look on his face. Or I'll say something to the audience about odds or something, and he'll go, that's not really how we do it.

1:01:14Like, we can change it anytime we want. We have a game called Flip Flop that we play all the time. We have a lot of either or games that are quick games that we need for time. Not all games are a long game. Flip Flop's one or the other, but it's presented as three choices. We show you the wrong price, and you can flip the first two numbers, so in 7 ,800, it's 8 ,700. Or you can flop the last two numbers, so instead of 34, it's 43. Or you can flip and flop. Do both numbers. But one out of 100 is a Flip Flop. You go a whole season without a Flip Flop. It's really only flip or flop if you watch the show and play the game.

1:01:48Like a super fan would never flip and flop. I see. Okay. But we're well within our rights to make it a flip and flop. Sure. Because that's how we present it. If we did it, in their head, people would be right to go like, fuck, why did I come on the unlucky day or the one day? And our argument would be like, we have to do it. It's just like TSA. Are you in TSA pre? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Once in a while, you don't get it. Right. Or they're like, you've been randomly selected. and I'm like, this seems to happen almost every other time I fly. What is it about me that looks scary? So they have to do that.

1:02:18Sure. So the terrorists, whoever, don't think that you just get away with it, there's always a chance. Sure. So they have to know there's always a chance that it'll be a flip-flop to make it even more exciting or playable, but practically never is, to be honest. Don't ever flip-flop. That's the moral of the story. How heavy is that wheel that you spin? It looks like it's got a way... Heavier than people think it is. Yeah. I don't know if people were in better shape in 75 and late 70s when they first started it, because it started at 75 and it was a different wheel and then they changed it to what it is now but yeah it's all plywood huh i've seen all the wheel spins since i've been there every single spin and so if somebody's like a older or not they don't seem as strong and they can only get it exactly one time around and they're first i think oh they're gonna hit a dollar or five or 15 a good chance they're gonna hit a dollar if they can eke it out one spin around because that's all they can manage that's actually it's better to be not super strong.

1:03:09Big guy will get up there and just pow and give it a spin, which it spins like four times because I can count the rotations in my head while I'm watching it three times. We're going to be here all day watching the spin. And then that's too random to me. And some people will try to finesse it. Like in my head, if I ever was a contestant, I would try to finesse it one around or one and a half, but I know how much it weighs. If you bowled with a rental ball, you wouldn't know how to throw it the first time. And that's what's happening to them. They're throwing a rental ball for the first time down a lane where they don't know that it's oiled or even the oil pattern is.

1:03:42They have no clue. That's our advantage. So it really is random that way. But if I give you that rental ball and let you play a couple games and then said, okay, now we're going to make it real, you'd have a really big advantage over us. Interesting. Yeah. So some guys at home building one of those in his basement and trying to get the weight right. That's how people beat roulette wheels. There's famous stories on the internet you can find about a guy beating a roulette wheel. And what they've done is they bought that brand of a roulette wheel and put it in their house. And they did it 10 ,000 times.

1:04:10And they figured out the pattern and they figured out the speed and they figured out the sounds. And they know when they go, they have a way better chance of winning than somebody else. There's a guy named Darren Brown. Oh, yeah. He's been on the show. Oh, right. It's a friend of mine, actually. That guy's bananas, right? Yeah. So I saw his special where he would bet 5 ,000 pounds on the roulette wheel and he was only one number off. But he trained himself. The whole special was about him training himself to listen to the sounds. and learn all those things. So he was going to be able to go in and beat that one particular roulette wheel at that one particular place.

1:04:38And he was only off by one number. He's a very interesting and cool guy. A guy wakes up in the morning and hears a voice in his head. Wakes up in Ohio, quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, go to Las Vegas. He doesn't believe the voice. Takes a shower, goes to work, quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, go to Las Vegas. Finally, he hears it every five minutes. Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, go to Las Vegas. He believes the voice. He gets home, sells his house for cash to the very first buyer. quits his job, takes all the cash, everything he owns in one bag, flies to Las Vegas, gets off the plane.

1:05:09The voice says, go to Caesar's Palace. He listens to the voice. He goes to Caesar's Palace. The voice says, go to the third doulette table on the left. He goes to the third doulette table on the left. The voice says, put it all on Black 17. He puts it all on Black 17. The guy spins the wheel, comes up Red 16. The voice goes, fuck.

1:05:35when that happened to Darren Brown, that's the first joke I thought of. That's so, I heard that was one of my favorite jokes. He was off by one. He built up that whole hour. He was off by one. Still impressive somehow. Yeah. Still impressive. Man. How does the producer or whoever pick who goes on the show? Yeah. I know you pick someone to say, come on down, but then it has to be, it's whoever shows up. Nobody sends in tapes or anything we did during COVID, but not a normal show. It's just whoever shows up and we've got to get lucky. Do they get interviewed in line like oh she's so animated and fun very briefly okay what's your name where you from what do you do oh great nice talking to you boom on to the next one you get a few seconds five seconds we gotta interview like 200 some people there'll be a person interviewing another person with a clipboard and they'll have a code they don't do it now when i first started his code he'd be like oh that's really interesting and if he said that mark that contestant's number down or if he said nice talking to you or something else don't they come back to this room and they up 20 people who knows how many pictures of everybody and that they print up right away on a printer and they'll have the number and they'll just hold them up this guy's really interesting he's a professor and you see he's here on an anniversary with his wife and this woman is just recovering from cancer this girl's college and she's really energetic we could use her and then they narrow him down who they want to bring up the first four who's going to be last they want somebody energetic to come up last.

1:06:58They want a demo of who's watching the show. So it's not going to be all white people. It's not going to be all black people. It's not going to be all old people. It's not going to be college kids. So if you're in the military and you're a vet and you're retired and there's three of you and you see another military vet retired, just got picked, you're not getting picked. If you're a college kid and they got their college kid, if they got their old married lady. Whatever the demographics of the show is, we want that to be on the show. Yeah, that makes sense. We want it to be representative of who's watching.

1:07:31Not necessarily of who's in the audience, not random, but who's watching. Because we want the experience of people watching themselves and rooting for themselves and empathizing with whoever's on the show, because those people are the stars of the show, not me. It's those people and the prizes. It's an aspirational prize. I I need a new washer and dryer. Even a bedroom set, fuck, that looks great. I would wish I had a new bed. Like things you don't even think of, if somebody offered you like, hey, you want to get rid of this old washer and dryer you've been using for three years and get a brand new one that does steam?

1:08:06Yes, I'll take it. I know maybe you can't use this game room, but look, it's a pool table, a dartboard, a video player. You weren't thinking of it, but wouldn't it be cool? Yeah. It's something like that. All aspirational. Or even if you didn't think it'd be, oh, that'd be fun to have. And then the small items, grocery items, we had a butter churn on the show. That's not a pride. That's a thing you have to price to win the bigger prize. We're not offering a butter churn. We're seeing if you know the price of a butter churn to win the better thing. It's all gamed out. And so that's how we do it.

1:08:36Are there any tips for people who want to get selected? Or is it just, hey, come in and be a delightful personality? So a common thing that happens is somebody will come up on stage and they'll have a shirt on that says, pick my friend. It's her birthday. Oh, that's funny. And I'll talk to him in between. I'll go, who's the friend with the birthday over there? And what happens is when they're in line, the friends of the birthday girl, birthday guy will go, no, my God, you got to pick my friend. It's his day. We're bringing him here. Pick my friend. And the friend is like, oh, come on. Don't make a big deal out of it.

1:09:03Yeah, it's my birthday. So we pick the energetic person who's all hyped up. Happens all the time. Pick him. It's his birthday. And that guy's like, yeah, it's my birthday. You want to turn it up to 11. Right. Yeah, that makes sense. We pick nine people. if there's 15 people up to 11, somebody's going to get left out. A lot of times you have to come back like five, six times or more and then finally get your turn. But it's a fun taping to come to anyway and it's free. Yeah. Can't beat it. Bob Barker, the previous host, for those who don't know, used to have this awkwardly long microphone that was like thin and you have a very similar, it's an updated tech.

1:09:39Mine's wireless. They tried to go wireless with him once and it didn't work because it was brand new. It pooped out on him. Yeah. And he didn't trust it after that, they told me. That's interesting. I always wondered because I was like, hey, it's 1995 and he's still using it. People that are watching this instead of listening, you'd see our microphones are pretty big. And if you're not used to be on TV, you get this big microphone stuck in your face. It's off-putting. But if I have this little tiny thing that I can just flip out and put it right here and you barely notice it and flip it back. But they're mic'd up themselves.

1:10:04They got a lavalier. Now they are. Okay. Because, you know, it's something about entertaining a crowd while you're holding a microphone in your hand is different than being mic'd up with booms on a stage. When I first got on stage. What do they think of my body? Do I look ugly today? How's my hair? Oh my God, I'm fat. Look at these jeans. Everybody goes through that when they're, the first time they're ever on a camera. Yeah. And honestly, in acting classes and stuff, biggest thing an actor can learn is to say fuck it to all that. It's the fear of judgment that makes people a good actor or not a good actor.

1:10:36Jack Black has no fear of judgment. He doesn't care. He doesn't give a fuck. I saw him, we did a charity thing. He walked out, he stripped down to his little tiny underwear and walked out all fat bouncing around you see his whole packet and he was just like dancing around and laughing yeah didn't give a fuck didn't give a flying fuck and everybody was like wow jack doesn't give a fuck that's what you aspire to if you can do that when people are doing a scene where they're sobbing and crying and just a complete wreck they have to not give a fuck about looking weak they have to not give a fuck whatever scene that they have you in you're playing a character and you need to be as real as possible, you cannot think, oh, what if my wife sees me with this chick?

1:11:17What if my friends see me groveling to this guy in a scene because I want something for him? I'm going to look weak. Yeah, your character's weak. So when you're talking to this guy and he's a mob boss and you want something, fucking grovel. Fucking cry like your life depends on it. You would never do that in real life, but you have to be able to do that. And some people can't let that go. They're not as good an actor. And people that can not give a fuck for that moment and just go, you know, I'm just going to grovel. Like there's no camera around. You have to not be in that kind of mindset. If you can do that, you'll be the greatest actor in the world.

1:11:46That's the difference. All that acting technique stuff is bullshit. Yeah, interesting. Or that's just technique. That's just craft. But to be a really good actor, you have to not give a flying fuck. What has been the craziest fan encounter on The Price is Right? Name a day. Oh, God, really? There's always something. It was a woman who, I think you'd said this in another show, she peed her pants. Peed her pants. But she'd already been picked. She was going to play Plinko. and she is wearing white pants and she got up the stage and she was like prancing and she's oh my god i'm gonna pee i said but first wait hang on before you do that you're gonna play plinko and she went oh my god she peed herself and then she had to walk up those stairs wow a stain on her pants she got on the local news so they ran it we couldn't help but run it she got on her local news oh my god and laughed about it that good for her speaking of not what are you gonna do yeah geez has anyone ever tried to cheat on the prices right surely there's been some attempt at something no but the guy that had the perfect bid we didn't know what the fuck was happening they had just changed producers and the old producer had been at the show for 35 years and it was the first year without that guy and there was a big huge fan group online that were really upset the only fan presence we have online is this big forum where everybody They keep track of every show, every game, every price, every contestant.

1:13:04They have a database like you wouldn't believe of everything, super fans. That was our website, this third-party-run group of super fans. And I remember the producer telling me, like, if those guys like you, then you're good because they're the super fans. So this guy gets a perfect bid. I don't know the prices ahead of time. Nobody does on stage. Nobody has any way of knowing any single price who's on the stage or interchanging with the contestants. It's only Chris, the game producer, and the people in the booth are the only ones that know the prices. And I go backstage to find out who's going first and who won the showcase, and the producer goes, she's like in shock.

1:13:45Yeah. She goes, he got a perfect bid. I go, what do you mean? She's right on the nose. $117.85, and he just said that. It was exactly to the dollar. And I was like, does that ever happen? And she went, no. We were like, what the fuck happened? Because this would never happen. And in my head, I was like, did somebody leak information to fuck us because they're mad that the old producer is in here now? Did somebody fuck us because they're mad we got a new guy and things are changing? It's my second year, so I'm going to be the guy that ruined Price is Right? Am I going to be in the middle of a scandal?

1:14:17Like, I was really like, I was like, what the fuck? And everybody backstage was like, what the fuck? And there was like a good 15-minute stop down. Just seems like forever. 20 minutes something like that they made a documentary about it that i didn't watch because i was there because you were there and we have cameras all over the fucking place running all the time and just at rest they're somewhere in the audience and during the show we're like filming the audience i thought the guy cheated yeah and so when i read the thing i was like all right you got an exact price good for you i wasn't going to give him the satisfaction in my head i was like fuck this guy and i got all kinds of shit online oh this guy got a perfect bid and Drew Carey wasn't even happy for him.

1:14:54But I was like, I'm not gonna be happy for this cocksucker. Cheater, yeah. In my head, that's why I was like, fuck this guy. I'll go through the motions and that's all you're gonna get. Then we had all kinds of meetings and I remember being in one meeting and one of the lawyers said, what if you don't allow the audience to allow prices anymore? And we were like, what? That's the whole show. Shut up, go. Get out of here. What exactly do you do here anyway, buddy? A lawyer. Okay. And then we found out that everybody was getting their prices from one guy in the audience was like in the second, third row towards the middle.

1:15:25And he was from that website. He was from that forum group. And at the time, everything was, if it ain't broke, don't fix it attitude. Like this is traditional. This is what we do. And everything was fine. Bob was there. And all of a sudden, Bob wasn't there. Hope we just wasn't there. Now it can't be traditional anymore. It's all got to shake it up. There was a woman playing a game called One Away. And I remember her looking on the audience and she got all her numbers from that guy. got them all right the first time which rarely happens once in a hundred that happened and the guy that got the perfect bid i think he won his bid i don't know if he got a perfect bid and got the extra 500 but he might have and then he was on door two which is the farthest away and the camera's in the middle so he couldn't see the guy and he lost his game but then he won on the wheel and got to the showcase then he's able to see the guy and he gets his numbers from the guy we got it all on camera this is like a savant at the time we only changed like six prizes a week So if we had a couch that was$800, we'd have that same couch on another show, an$800 couch.

1:16:26When we had a can of soup, it was only Campbell's Creme of Mushroom Soup because Bob was vegan and it was a vegan show. And Campbell's Creme of Mushroom doesn't have beef stock or chicken stock. And it was$1.29, then it was$1.30, then it was$1.31. That was the soup you just knew. If you watched the show enough, and if you were that big of a fan, you would just know what the prizes were. you would just know like any gamer. So this guy was there. They used to come to every show. Looking back, I shouldn't have been mad. It was all fair game. All these people had every right to do what they did. And I'm glad they did it.

1:17:01And I'm glad he won. But I didn't know that at the time. And he was just like yelling out because he wanted people to win. And he knew all the prices because he'd watched the show and they never changed the prizes. And it was early enough in the season. The new guy was just learning the show before we changed everything over. We were changing things on the fly. And that's how it happened. Interesting. Yeah, but that was one thing where I thought it was cheating, but it wasn't. It was just people finding a weakness in how we presented the show. We could have the same car in every act, and you would never know the price.

1:17:32You said something interesting that almost is a throwaway line in the book. You don't celebrate your birthday because you'd sit around and think that you could have or should have made different choices in your life. now that you've made some money, you've had some success, this process happens a little bit less. This is something you wrote in the 90s. What advice do you have for people who also ruminate? Because it seems like the message is that it ain't over until the fat lady sings, essentially, and you don't know the impact of your choices, potentially, until long after you've made them. Because a lot of the things that you beat yourself up for in this book in the 90s are probably the reason that you're so successful now.

1:18:07Yeah. You're always trying to heal your inner child some way. something's happened to you that you want to make up for get over with then there's tons of psychologists that based their whole career on that kind of and your neurons get wired a certain way where you make the same choices just because those that's the pattern in your head and until somebody shows that to you i thought it was normal to eat pasta every night and drink pepsis all day if you quit all this and only eat fat go on a keto diet you'll have a lot more energy no that makes sense gotta have sugar right sure don't talk nonsense to me remember when atkins first came out yeah what yeah the fuck out of here you're crazy like it seemed insane yeah one of our rarities friends was uh smoking in her she was went home and she was hacking going down the stairs and her mom said oh honey you want a menthol people don't see beyond the horizon so yeah every birthday every new year's i look back on the year or i look back on recently i do that all the time anyway like every weekend like how was the week that I do what I wanted to do?

1:19:11Am I on the right track to what I want to do? Is it okay for me not to have a goal? Can I just exist this week and not have to worry about anything? I've hit everything. Why can't I just like chill and relax? I do that all the time, just with different things. I'm constantly self-searching. I'm constantly looking to grow. I'm constantly looking to learn. What can I do that's fun, improve myself? What can I do that would keep me young, keep me in a young attitude? I go to EDC. I don't want to get old and set my ways. I want to know all the new songs, all the new fads. I want to know what Riz means.

1:19:45Yeah. Skibbity. All that stuff. Yeah. Oh, you're so Ohio. I want to know what that is. You got Riz? What does so Ohio mean? That doesn't sound like a compliment. It's not. It's like you're so meh. Ugh, mid. Yeah, just mid. You're so Ohio. Midwest. Quit being so Ohio. Yeah. Live a little. So I'm constantly looking to grow. And once you stop growing, that's the end of you. Yeah. I got to ask, who's your favorite DJ right now? If you're going to EDC and listening to all this stuff. Diplo, Cascade, Afrojack, all the usual suspects. That's a great selection. Yeah, because all the best guys are there.

1:20:17I remember seeing Cascade once on the main stage, and it was so good. I looked at my friend, and I said, this sounds like when James Brown came on the Tammy show. Just changed everything. It was great. Everybody's great. But then Cascade had such a good set, people were just like up. And everybody was dancing, not just a few people. Bottle service girls were dancing, like everybody. And we were like, man, this guy's killing it. We were fist bumping each other and just like, what in the fuck is happening? And once in a while, a guy gets a dream set. I went to the sphere in Vegas and we saw Marshmallow at a club.

1:20:48He had a great set. When I was there, I was like, man, this must feel good. Because I know what it's like to go on stage and have a magical set. That was Johnny Carson, 1991. Or even in a club. All week, I've been doing the same act. But then Saturday, second show, for some reason, it just hit better. Every laugh was better. and if there's no better feeling like however many times you have sex with your wife one day you'll have that night we're like whoa are we dating again this is like i can't believe we just had that it happens and that's what happens when you're seeing a dj set somebody will have their night at edc where it's because they want to bring their a game and it'll just be like i stood behind diplo once when he did a set i'll never forget it i thought i was watching beethoven play piano or something so he was hitting the boards and working the board so well i was like what the fuck is this?

1:21:32When you see Liberace play piano and like, how is fingers moving so fast? That's what it looked like to me. So that's a pretty cool perk. You go in and they're like, oh, Drew Carey's here. Yeah. You want to go up, hang out on stage? Yeah. You're a national treasure at this point on The Price is Right. Thanks for coming on and being so open and candid, man. Oh, it was really fun talking to you. Anytime you want me back, let me. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I'd hope I see you at some of those shows, EDC or something like that. It would be really fun to run into you in the wild. Coming up in May. Yeah, man.

1:21:56I'll be there. Thanks, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. If you're looking for another episode of the Jordan Harbinger show to sink your teeth into, here's a trailer for another episode that I think you might enjoy. So what happened was we were doing, not unlike we're doing now, we were doing an interview and he says, thank you. And we'll probably go to a commercial and thank you, Howie. And I got up and I started walking to the door and I thought he was like wrapping it up and going to commercial. and then I just said to somebody really quietly, can you grab the door? And he's going, what are you afraid of the door?

1:22:29And then he goes, just open the door. And I got, can't open the door. He goes, just open the door. And then what happened is I started getting a panic attack and I started breathing heavy and I just turned to him and thinking that he had already thrown the commercial because he was just talking to me. Howard, please, this is really serious. I go to therapy for this. I have something called obsessive compulsive disorder. I'm about to pass out. If you don't open the door for me now, you'll be calling 911 and taking me to the hospital this whole thing was on national radio i thought oh my god that was probably the darkest space i've ever been and i'm walking through the lobby toward the door out into the steaming streets of manhattan i might as well just continue walking and walk right into traffic and i stopped just outside the door and you know millions of people are on the street but i felt very alone and some guy came into my periphery and said to me are you Howie Mandel.

1:23:19And I, you know, I just nodded affirmatively. And he said, just heard you on Stern. And my heart dropped him in my stomach. And right before I could take off in the traffic, he said two words, which means something very different today. But they changed my life. And he went, me too. For more with Howie Mandel, including some pretty awkward moments of my own making, check out episode 210 here on The Jordan Harbinger Show. All things Drew Carey will be in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com. Advertisers, deals, discount codes, ways to support the show, all at jordanharbinger.com slash deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show.

1:23:55Also, our newsletter, We Bit Wiser. You guys are fans of this. I love writing it. You love responding to it, and that makes me feel great about it. The idea is to give you something specific and practical, something that'll have an immediate impact on your decisions, on your psychology, on your relationships in under two minutes a week. And if you haven't signed up yet, I invite you to come check it out. It is a great companion to the show. As voiced by you, the listeners and readers, jordanharbinger.com slash news is where you can find it. Don't forget about 6 Minute Networking as well over at 6minutenetworking.com.

1:24:25I'm at jordanharbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. This show is created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Ian Baird, Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for the show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. the greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. If you know somebody who's interested in showbiz, game shows, Drew Carey, comedy, you share this episode with them. You do that right now. In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn.

1:24:55And we'll see you next time.