Neil Hassman "Manager to the Stars" Interview Show #151

I finally was able to do a "one-on-one" interview with Neil Hassman, "Manager to the Stars". We met while working on a Comedy Round table and he had such a successful history managing comics through their careers, I just had to do a full interview. He has been successful and shares stories about Seinfelds Kramer, Ryan O'Neil, Farrah Fawcett, and many other non-celebrity talents whose work we have all heard on TV and in Movies.

Hosted by: R. Scott Edwards

Transcript

Announcer: 0:04

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 MC. Scott at words.

Scott Edwards: 0:22

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting show. And I've got a real treat for you. I had a chance to meet this gentleman. When I was doing a comedy roundtable he Bob Dewback and Jamie l Croft, all good comedy people met with me, we had a fun comedy roundtable where we shared some information. But it was at that time I met this guy. He is the manager to the comedy stars. He has his own company Hassman entertainment. And I love the intro of his company. It's called a personal management joint. So he takes himself very seriously, ladies and gentlemen, nice. House man. I'm so glad we can finally get together and do this. You were so interesting on the roundtable, and you bring a whole different dynamic to the conversation about being a comic and in the nuances of show business. Thank you so much for being here today.

Neil Hassman: 1:22

My pleasure.

Scott Edwards: 1:24

We

Neil Hassman: 1:24

got very different for it's different for it's really funny, because my business has evolved from just comedians to actors or writers and blah, blah, blah. But there's no question comics are really representing comics as a unique skill set, believe me.

Scott Edwards: 1:44

It is really, I've done a lot of discussion about even all the variety arts, but even talking about musicians and actors, stand up comics really have a whole different challenge. Not only each and every show, because the audience has changed, the Situation's changed the settings change, you know, a lot of actors or musicians, it's the same thing. Or they get a chance to rehearse over and over and over. And comics are just kind of thrown up in front of the, the beast the audience in in our you know, it's okay, you know, dance it it dance, you know,

Neil Hassman: 2:20

it's the road warriors that learn how to do it, right. The guys who really go out and work the road at the beginning and understand that not every crowd is going to be the same. Not every crowd is going to laugh at the same joke. Every city you go to is going to react to you differently. And the guys who survived that, they tend to have long careers.

Scott Edwards: 2:40

Yeah, and we found that true in so many situations and getting a chance to interview. A lot of professional entertainers through this podcast has brought that up. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Neal, if you don't mind, being a manager. In fact, we joked about it during the roundtable versus an agent, but I don't know how somebody ends up being an entertainment manager. How did that progress for you when you were younger? You know, last year?

Neil Hassman: 3:10

Yeah, last year, right? In my youth. In my youth, I was actually a working musician until I was 30. And I toured, I think backup played bass played keyboards and a bunch of pretty well known bands. And just by the time I was in my late 20s, I didn't want to be on the road anymore. It was really bad news. And I been at that was that error when everybody was high all the time. And Coke was the biggest thing going and I just didn't like it. It just changed everybody's perception of the music business. And the music business got really slimy. And I had been really good friends through the 70s through my 20s with a very well known guy in New York named Kenny Kramer, who was a friend of mine from New York. And the original Kramer who became Cosmo Kramer in Seinfeld and Kenny actually still lives in that hallway. Same apartment. But and through Kenny I met a whole lot of comedians, the funny boys, Jim Balsillie, John Schmuck, Mendoza, Larry, David, Jerry, all those guys. So I kind of knew them all through candy, but I'd never really thought about doing anything in any business other than music. And by the time I was in my late 20s, I realized I wasn't going to be the star, I was always going to be the backup guy. And music just did not hit it for me anymore. My older daughter had been born I hadn't seen her very much. And I mentioned Kenny, one day that, you know, I was looking to find something else to do, hopefully stay in the entertainment industry, blah, blah, blah. And he said, Well, you know, the funny boys are out in California now. And I'd spent some time in California working with a couple of different musicians. And I really liked la great place to live at the time early. You know, late 70s, early 80s, everything was happening here. And Kenny said, Look, you know, you know these guys want to you give so and so call and see if they're looking for help. And the funny boys were working with a management company at the time called F BMI, which was, it depends on who you asked if you asked either John or Jim SPMI was funny boy management Incorporated. But if you ask the four girls who owned the company, it was for blonde management and corporate. But they basically had the funny boys rich Scheibner, Carol leaper, a whole bunch of really, really great, incredible people who I won't I again, I knew most of them from New York and had seen them all perform, they'd either open for bands I was working with or whatever. And so I contacted the girls who were running at BMI and I told them, Look, I'm set, I can afford to be an intern for a few months to learn the business. But it sounds like something I'd really like to get into. And within a week, I was literally off the road as a musician, and living in California, interning at SPMI. And I learned early on that the difference in California at the time, I should start by saying at the time in California in the 80s, there was a law on the books called the talent management, talent agency act, Taa. And that regulated how managers, our agents could work. And it basically kind of almost outlawed management, something that was not sanctioned by the state, something where the state couldn't come in and grab some of your money. And the rules and regulations on agency were quite different from the rules of management. And these girls, and a few other people were bucking the trend because comedians needed more than what the TA was, was giving them in in protection, I guess is the best way to put it. So again, I went to work for at BMI and I realized management was where I wanted to be because as a manager, I could produce I could call right, I could pour I could book tours, I could do things the agents were not allowed to do. And managers made 5% more standard money for managers 15 and for agents 10. And when you ask that question at the roundtable that we did the first time, I think you said to me, what's the difference between management and agency and I said 5%.

Scott Edwards: 7:33

And that was a nice response. And

Unknown: 7:36

it appealed to that 5% appealed to me because agents do a ridiculous amount of work and lived under these incredible there is no talent agency act anymore that went by the wayside 810 years ago. And there was no no balls in LA to bring it back. Agents liked being able to do more things than they'd be been restricted to a lot of agents. And a lot of agencies CAA went into producing, for instance, CAA signed a contract with Coca Cola, five minutes after the talent agency act went under expired. Ca obits had signed a contract with Coca Cola to produce their commercials to represent them in the market to place their product on TV shows, they basically see a broke the floodgates wide open when the TA went under, and kind of made it so that agencies now could do a lot of things that they couldn't do, and a lot of things that managers could do. And in the eight to 10 years, since that's gone south, a lot of agencies have merged. The agency business in LA especially has gotten very, very small and very, you know, I'd say it's boutique. But some of the agencies are huge. But it's a very small business, because a great number of agents are now managers. They took a lot of their clients then went off and they said, look, it's much easier to work as a manager. And now managers are recognized because again, there is no ta anymore restricting studios and casting companies from saying, Oh, no, I'm sorry, this deal has to go through a licensed agent. That's not the case anymore. So it changed a lot of things. And I just kind of it was dumb luck that I found management instead of agency.

Scott Edwards: 9:23

Wow. You created your own success by really doing what I've told a lot of other entrepreneurs, if there's something you're interested in doing, go talk to the people doing it, ask about it, learn from them. You created that opportunity for you to get into the career

Unknown: 9:42

that three or four months and at BMI. The girls were smart, but it was new. comedy was new at the time getting people shows and sitcoms and stuff. It had always come from the writers room or from the producers idea or from the studios idea for somebody that they had under contract. And then when the improv and Comedy Store and laugh factory and all these clubs all over the country, were making money doing great had all these headliners that were making a name for themselves. The network said, Wow, what an opportunity this is for us. And in the late 70s, started signing comics to deals for shows built around what their comedy was. And that was new, they'd never done that before. The only thing that had ever been even close to that was the Lucy show, believe it or not, you know, the original Lucy show with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, was the first real situation comedy. And they built that around their strengths. And then that didn't happen for years and years and years. And then all these comics who were making names for themselves, and had actually really great routine that shows could be built around, started getting deals. And so management and agency for comedians became a very big field in LA in the early 80s. And again, for me, it was just dumb luck that I walked into a company that had 10 people that went on to huge writing and acting and sitcom success. And so that was a perfect place to intern. And it was the perfect opportunity for me. And I only did it for three or four months. Because I took right to it. It was something that felt my entire time as a musician, I'd been writing my own contracts. In fact, for a lot of the other guys who I worked regular backup gigs with I was doing their contracts to just because I grew up in a business environment and learn how to read a contract from my father. So it was a natural progression for me and I loved it. And within six months, I had 1015 clients of my own. And most of them were stand ups based at either the improv or laugh factory or the Comedy Store. So it was great. It was local. For me it was, you know, it was great.

Scott Edwards: 12:01

It was really an exciting time I was on the other end of the show business spectrum is a producer of local clubs here in Sacramento far out of LA what I always called the fringe of show business. But the early 80s were really an exciting time to give the audience an idea of what you were talking about. When comics material were easily turned into sitcoms, the two biggest I think of is Jerry Seinfeld with the Seinfeld show. And of course, Ray Romano with Everybody Loves Raymond, were two shows, really based on those guys material and who they were, as opposed to somebody hiring an actor and fitting them into a story. The story came from the comics, would you agree?

Unknown: 12:51

Yeah, that's exactly. And it took off. And you know, it's funny, the turnaround for it was the first time a complicated fall show was Ellen. And that caused blowback, believe it or not, you know, Ellen got signed to do a show, everybody in the industry knew Ellen was gay, everybody in the comedy industry, everybody at the clubs. When she did stand up, she never hid the fact that she was gay. But the network made her straight when they gave her a show. And it backfired, it backfired badly, because for a few years after she came out, and the advertisers and a lot of people that the network turned against her. It made it really difficult for other comics who had really great show based comedy to get a gig. And it did, it took a little bit more five years for people to start coming back into that kind of thing. And we're seeing it again. Now. There's some there just has been in the last few months, I guarantee next year at this time, you're going to see a ton of commercials for shows built around comedians and their personas. They're doing it again, right now there has been a big signing spree.

Scott Edwards: 14:06

Well, that'll be exciting to see because I think comedy has been affected by both COVID in the shutdown, but also this new woke society that where everyone's being ultra sensitive and judgy. It is a difficult time for stand up comedy, kind of the last bastion of free speech. So I hope you're right, and we get a chance to see that. Let's go back a little bit. You're sharing some amazing information. Neil, thank you so much. At what point do you feel a stand up comic or any entertainer needs to consider getting a manager? You know, I worked a lot with people that were doing open mics and would start emceeing and maybe get an opening spot as a professional. When did you go to a comic and say, look, it's too early for you or hey, you need a manager.

Neil Hassman: 14:56

A lot of it depends on the person There are a lot of people who are back at the beginning back in the early lit, I'll take it back in the early 80s. Everybody needed a place to go because there there had been no place for them to go before. So everybody needed some direction. I got very lucky again, I got in with a management company, my first few months of learning how to do it, and and beefing up my rolodex. Here's a flashback with names of people that I was dealing with because at that time, everybody in the world was after the funny boys to do a show in the early 80s Jim Balsillie and John smock, the funny boys were the hottest comedy team going, they were still are in Mira for our generation. They worked everywhere they headline clubs across the country. And Brandon Tartikoff, had seen them early on at the Improv, and wanted to do business with them. And so the girl that that was what made SPMI funny boys, and then they had a lineup. I mean, Kara Leaper is still one of the greatest comedians writers in the business to this day, she's on hack. She's on hacks this season, Carol was married to rich Scheider in those days. And both of them shiner and leaf are both still big name working comedies and comedy writers now. So you know, it's dependent on the person, a lot of the people with that BMI back then they needed the guidance, they needed to be told all you need a couple more months on the road or this or that. It depends on how driven they are, how smart they are. Everybody needs. Especially if you're going to base yourself out of LA slash Hollywood. I hate to use the word Hollywood, because it's really a misnomer. But if you're based in LA, everybody needs the guidance from the first open mic night where somebody sees you, if they think you're good. And I did this, I did this a lot. And from 80 to 85, I went to every open mic I could. I went up and judged comedy competitions at the holy city zoo, you know, in the name of the you know, I was up there as the improv manager guy. And I discovered discovered two people up at a holy city zoo performing, one of them went on to be phenomenally successful at something that wasn't necessarily stand up comedy. Everybody needs guidance. And now, it's just as important because every agency now every management company now has people watching you to tick tock. They have people whose sole job all day long, is to watch all the new stuff that's on YouTube Tiktok all the other little streaming services to quote unquote, discover people. Wow. And that's, to me, that's the new open mic.

Scott Edwards: 17:56

Right, right. That's so great that you mentioned that because I'm an older guy, and been in the business a long time, and I come from the, hey, you know, go up and do a showcase, you know, give me your best, three minutes, five minutes. And then we'll talk because I can I did this so long, I could see somebody for as few as three to five minutes, and know what they had, what they were missing, or if they even had a shot. And that's the way it was done back in the 80s and 90s. But now, social media has become, as you said, such powerful platforms, that talent is being discovered all the time. It's a changing world, but the job is still the same, you still have to have

Neil Hassman: 18:42

the job is exactly the same. And if you again, you hit something perfect. I got after about six to get out. Let's be generous and say after a year of going to open mics. And I knew when in the first minute. If somebody had the material to backup that three minutes, had the potential to have the material to backup that three minutes. And I was right a lot. It was dumb luck. But I was right a lot. And a lot of the guys like, for instance, I was I went up to the holy city zoo to judge a competition in I think it was late at early 81 and saw a guy named Joe Alaskey. And Joe went on to be the greatest voice dubber in the business. He died a few years ago unfortunately, very sadly. But Joe, I saw Joe do a routine at the holy city zoo. And knew in the first three minutes this guy was going to be humongous. Because he did his his routine back then was he his first bid was he would do Barney, you know he would do imitations of people have him in other people's jobs. And you got to know Joe was six to couple of 100 pounds at least 70 pounds overweight at the early part of this career. And when he got up on stage, and silently is first 20 seconds was an impression of Barney price. And you knew he was doing Barney five. It was unbelievable. Yeah, that's what he would do. And he would just do you do this whole routine as, as like weird character actors as Frankenstein and, and, and strict, you know, just the juxtaposition of the wrong person in the Arnold Schwarzenegger is Tweety Bird, just stuff like that. And you just knew that the guy could he could do it for hours, you could throw a name at him, and he put it in somewhere. But what I saw in the guy was a voice talent that was beyond reproach. He could do somebody's voice after hearing it for five minutes, and you couldn't tell the difference. And I'll give you you know, one of the best stories about Joe was we finally started getting people to see him and recognize what his talents really were. And Roger Rabbit was casting and Mel was sick. And they knew that they could go to Mills son, no, no with a very moderate, I'm gonna be very generous. No was moderately good at doing his father's voices. No did a Oldsmobile commercial, sitting in the back of an Oldsmobile with all of his father's characters sitting around him in the backseat. And that was supposed to be no sought that normal had his people seek out a commercial like that, so that he could be put into position to take over for his father who was sick and on his way out and couldn't do voice work anymore. Well, when they got to casting Roger Rabbit, we petitioned gene McCurdy was the voice person at Warner Brothers that time and we said, Look, you can't just hire the guy's son. That's absolutely not right. There are other guys out there. Jeff Burton in New York, a phenomenal Mel Blanc and, you know, to do bugs perfectly. In fact, Jeff wound up getting bugs. But Joe could do all of Mel's voices. And so I convinced gene McCurdy to do a blind and they had 16 people submit number reels to them blind. And they had a panel of people at Warner Brothers who judged it Joe got every Joe was number one on everyone's list. It was number 13. I still remember that Joe was number 13. And he was number one on everyone's list. And so he got the gig doing most of Mel's voices in Roger Rabbit. And from that point on, he got taken a lot more seriously, he got Casper after that he did the voices, a bunch of voices in Casper for Spielberg. Then Spielberg put up Tiny Toon Adventures and Joe wound up doing all of Mel's voices, as the younger characters in tiny tunes, or most of them. Jeff Bergen did a couple of you did bugs and a few of the other ones. But that that was part of it. Knowing what a guy had the potential to do or seeing it like you say if you see enough people after a few minutes, you know if the guy's got it or not. Joe was one of those guys. John Rourke was another one of those guys also a voice guy and I wound up putting John and Joe together on the croc brothers first political show DC Follies. John and Joe to my my two clients wound up doing all the voices on DC Follies. But, but when you see somebody you're you know if they're going to have the potential to go out there and do an hour set. I mean, that's that's the manna from heaven is the getting booked to do an hour set, getting an HBO special or even at the time a young comedian special. And a lot of those guys could do three to five minutes and couldn't do anything more than that. And they made it very fast. Yeah. So, you know, that was the job. The job was knowing who could fulfill the need of a comedy club to put somebody up for 45 minutes who could then get Carson or get the nighttime bookings. And the you know, Jim McCauley who booked Carson at the time, he had that same kind of job. He had to see that somebody could deliver in three minutes what they could then go out and build on because Carson didn't put one one time wonders on his show very often.

Scott Edwards: 24:23

No, they all I'm sorry. I rambled. No, no, no, no, I'm gonna go back and kind of clean up some of it. It's great information, though and great vision of what was going on in sharing that with my audience. So thank you, Neil. And know you're you're welcome to ramble on. I want to go back and touch on a couple things for the audience edification, first off the funny boys were a terrific act. And I think unbeknownst to you and I we crossed paths a few times because I had the funny boys in concert opening up for Jay Leno once and there was a lot of the acts that you were working with at the time. That weren't my club, including Carol Lee. For an Elon and a number of others, but also I want to do educate some of the younger listeners, go to the Googler look up Mel Blanc, in the 60s and 70s. Especially, he was the voice that did everything on Warner Brothers cartoons and a lot of other stuff. And Mel Blanc is a legend in voiceover work. And his son was filling in and doing some of that stuff after the fact. But I think it's great that as a manager, you made the case to the studio, that you can't just assume someone's going to be good because of their heredity, you know, or whatever their lifeline and giving these other people that had talents and opportunity to fill in the amazing large shoes of Mel Blanc. And that's a great story in I'm so glad you did that. As a talent manager, what would you say was kind of the greatest joy. I mean, to give you an example, as a club producer, if I spotted a talent, the most recent might have been I gave Brian post saying some early stage time worked with him a lot when he was young and just getting started. And of course, in being a great success is one of the semi regular characters on Big Bang Theory. So that was gave me a lot of joy that I was able to spot that talent help nurture that talent and ended up going somewhere for you as a manager and working with so many amazing talents. What What brought you joy as a manager? Well, part of the job really, you know, was fun for you. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hey, regular listeners to this podcast. Before we start this week's special show, I wanted to let you know on a new program. It's a subscription service that allows you access to all the early episodes, the first 100 shows, along with all the bonus shows. It'll be lots of fun. Seriously, it's just a way to help support the show and help me cover the cost of this entertainment format. I hope you're enjoying listening to it as much as I am enjoying creating it. Of course if you have any comments or questions, be sure to email me direct at Scotts comedy stuff@gmail.com Scott's comedy stuff@gmail.com But in the meantime, if you enjoy a lot of the quality content interviews and stand up comedy sets, become a subscriber and we'll make sure to have some extra fun stuff for you. All right, here comes this week show

Neil Hassman: 27:54

20 I love Brian posting he's just so awful. I mean, he just He's perfect character actor, which is if you know a lot of comedians make great character actors. You know it's one thing about comedy you don't have to be pretty and so a lot of these a lot of guys Brian's a perfect example of it. He did he started getting breaks on on Big Bang and he works all the time. My greatest joy God there were there's a lot of them, you know with divan McDonald I don't know if you know who divan is divan was my client until three years ago for about 10 years. And divan is the big black guy who was the bartender in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. That's probably how most people know divan because that movie is still on the at least once a day on some network. But divan extremely funny guy not as they didn't start as a stand up. He just had this innate sense of funny. Plus he was huge. He's 66768 300 plus pounds. Just a huge guy and the sweetest nicest guy in the world. And getting him a string of movies from my bodyguard through Forgetting Sarah Marshall through having people see him. I saw divan, divan always wanted that for himself, but never really believed that he could achieve that. And I saw him in a little showcase. And he had been with an agent who I had been I chaired a couple of clients with and I knew that the agent he told me in advance he had about three months left this company was going to go under and a couple of the agents were going to go with other places and he was going to leave the business he'd had it so I signed up on knowing that I'd wind up having him solo and I wouldn't have to share him with an agency. And once I got that I got auditions for him just by working the phone calling people and going look this guy is people sell them short. yatta yatta. Anyway, Sarah Marshall, bro came out. And I fought to get him that movie that three other people in mind for that. And finally, the third or fourth time he went back in, I got a call from the casting director saying, Okay, you guys got a pin in him. He's got a couple of days work, he wound up working the whole movie. They liked him so much. They wrote scenes for a while he was in Hawaii. So that was one of my big things. My other one is not a comedy thing. But it's it was a really great moment for me personally. Ryan O'Neill had gone for quite a few years without getting work. I had coffee every morning with this regular group of guys at a little coffee shop in Brentwood. I dropped my kid off at school. I go have coffee Ryan was one of the guys in the group. Never really thought about even talking to him about representation. One day, I happened to hear that they were looking for bones father on bone. And I thought Ryan would be perfect. So I mentioned something to him at breakfast. So he said, Okay, look, I have a reputation. You know, my reputation, you're in the business. I'm been having a lot of problems getting to work. My agent hasn't been able to do shit for me. You want to make a couple of phone calls. We had a handshake agreement. It happened to coincide with when Farah got her terminal diagnosis. So the whole thing took about six weeks to do but making Ryan his deal to be bones father on Bones was to me my one of my grip. First of all, I got a guy who couldn't get work because his reputation was really brutally bad. When he was young. He was real difficult. He was mellowing tremendously. He was perfect for the role. And I set a record because it was right. This is really funny, too. I don't know if I shouldn't say this publicly. But in the middle of negotiating, I suggested him I went through the casting directors, I went through talent at Fox, I went through the whole thing. They made an offer. And that afternoon that they made the offer. Farrah got her terminal diagnosis. And Ryan called me and Ryan called me and said I can't work. I can't take any work. I can't do this. You have to pass. So I called him I passed. The next morning, I got a call from Farah. What the fuck are you doing? Excuse me.

Scott Edwards: 32:26

A couple of our faucet everybody. Famous.

Unknown: 32:29

Okay, leading up to that we'd had a couple of lunches as I got. As I got to know Brian and stuff, Ryan and his his best friend Charlie, who was also one of my best friends who I got invited into this coffee group with. We had a couple of lunches. And I got to know Farah a little bit too. She was one of the nicest people I've ever met. But Eric calls me the next morning and goes, What the fuck are you doing? That's what I want him to work. I don't want it to be when I die. He regrets not taking what might be the best job of his later life. Well, you got to talk him into that fair, I tried yesterday, I told him this, I told him, you're going to miss out on a great job. I don't think fair would want you to do it. Blah, blah, blah. Couple hours later, I got a call from Ryan, I got read the riot act make the deal?

Scott Edwards: 33:18

Well, I'm gonna bring that that great story down to the synopsis that your greatest joy is taking on a project, kind of a personal project in seeing it through to its success.

Neil Hassman: 33:33

Right, my favorite thing in the world to do is, you know, it's not getting credit for myself, I don't care if I get called the comedy manager to the stars, or if nobody knows my name. In fact, most people don't know my name. And I'm thrilled with that. That may change after this podcast. But the fact that I can take a guy who's either new in the business or struggling or whatever, go in and make a deal for somebody that I would be happy making. For one of my I've always considered my management clients family. I would never ever represent anyone who I wouldn't have over to Sunday dinner at my house. That's honestly the way I've always decided on taking clients. And so when I make a deal for somebody like the deal for Ryan at Fox or the deal for Joe on Tiny Toons, or the first deal, the Roger Rabbit deal, we celebrated for two weeks after I passed. That's my favorite thing in the world is taking somebody who really didn't think they could achieve what they dreamed of, and making it happen. I love that I get the biggest charge out of doing it for other people. I don't give a damn because the rewards come from me after I do that, right? So I don't go into it. I don't go into it looking at what the reward for me is going to be because to me that's really genuinely secondary. And one of the things we talked about last time too. was one of the reasons I really love this business as I have never had two days the same. I've been doing this since January 2 1980. That's the day I officially left music and went into management. And I've never had two days that were the same. I don't know anybody with a job they can say that about and most, I'd say 80 to 85% of it's been fun.

Scott Edwards: 35:22

I think both those points are so important for a successful life. We're both older gentleman and looking back and feeling that sense of success and taking some project and following that all the way through. And they don't always succeed. But that's part of the excitement, I think. But also the fact that you looked at people as family, and were personally engaged is one of the reasons you've been so successful, because a lot of people see talent, whether it's musicians, actors, or comics is just this week's meat, right? But you people like you and I build relationships, we care about what happens. And I think that helps turn into success. Now, those are great examples of the good times. But I as an entrepreneur and a producer, know that there's lots of things that kind of blow up in my face. As a manager of talent, what what are some of the difficult aspects of the job?

Unknown: 36:27

Having to cover your clients asks as to when they do something wrong? That's something I do. Listen, I'll give you the best one. And again, I mean, it's really it's a tough one. But it's, it's the most difficult week of my life bar. None of my professional life, I should say. I forgot the year. But it was the year that Prince was playing the Super Bowl. I planned the Super Bowl party at my house. I had 35 people invited to come over. I had RSVPs from 30. Which if you know the comedy people, you know that that's rare that people will say yes, I'll be there. Had that all planned out? Four o'clock in the morning. 415. I get a call from a newspaper, The Guardian in England. We'd like to comment on what happened with your client this morning. Excuse me. Oh, I'm sorry. Have you not heard? Ryan that was the morning that Ryan took a shot at his kid in his beach house.

Scott Edwards: 37:27

Oh, gee.

Neil Hassman: 37:31

Remember that? Yeah. You remember that? But let me tell you. Three days. 72 hours. I did not sleep by my phone rang. I didn't get needless to say I didn't have my Super Bowl party. I didn't even get to watch it. Thank God. I had a VHS back in those days, so I rewatch it myself. Like a week later, but I had for a week. My phone rang 24/7 My I had I did Good Morning America that today's show. I did Entertainment Tonight. I did. They were literally waiting outside my front door for me. I couldn't leave the house without giving a comment. Ryan was huge at the time. And he had just gotten this incredible gig back on bones and everybody wanted a story about Ryan O'Neal. And here he was reverting to some of his old behavior patterns.

Scott Edwards: 38:30

Yeah, drinking kind of bad. Well,

Unknown: 38:34

listen, I'm not going to comment on what was behind it. I know that

Scott Edwards: 38:37

story. What was booming? Yes. Okay. Well, and it

Unknown: 38:40

was a it might be a correct assumption and you wouldn't be 100% Wrong. But look, the whole thing that went down was you know, according even according to Redman, his son the whole thing was was blown way out of proportion by the sheriff's one of the neighbors heard the shot called the police. And Ryan got arrested that morning and for a week. That's all I could deal with. That was the probably the worst business week of my life. It was brutal. And I took a hit. I took a hit for that.

Scott Edwards: 39:11

But I think what's interesting though, about the background of this story is and I want to share it with the audience is that when you take on the role as a manager of a talent, which is far more personal than an agent, you are in essence, their babysitter, their guide their mentor, you take when you're a manager of any type of talent, you become an important part of their life and are attached. So when Ryan O'Neal gets caught up in this overdramatize situation, it falls on the manager to deal with what comes out of that right.

Neil Hassman: 39:54

Yeah, I had to basically run interference look, you know, most celebrities don't Keep their numbers listed, I kind of had to because I wanted people to be able to contact me about my lesser known clients just by Googling my name, or not even googling back in those days, looking me up in the phonebook. And so my number was available, my address was available. And honestly, that was part of the job, I saw it as part of the job, I still see it as part of the job to this day, if a client has an issue, I prefer that if they get a phone call directly referred to me, I'll handle it for you don't worry about it. It's, it's part of it. And look, it's like I said, I considered all my clients family, I like to make things as easy as I can for the people around me. And if that means taking the heat off us, so you don't have a million, you know, unfortunately, everybody knew where Ryan lived because he had a house on Coast Highway in Malibu, and it was a he wasn't secret about it, he would come and go from the house waves to people and yada, yada. So he had a lot of people outside across the Pacific Coast Highway from his house was a little strip mall, that strip mall was filled with satellite trucks and stuff for weeks. For two weeks after that they were literally directing traffic on Coast Highway because of it. So and he couldn't leave the house. I mean, we had to have food delivered and tossed over the wall. And it was it was pretty brutal. So that was about the worst thing that's happened to me in the in the industry. And then I've had a lot of contracts that got right to the day, we were supposed to go in to sign them a couple of really big ones, actually. And then we'd get a phone call as we were going out to the car. Hey, this has been put on hold. No explanation. No nothing. Yeah, that's the bad moment. Yeah, as bad moments do when you don't know why. That's what makes it bad. Yeah, I

Scott Edwards: 41:48

can relate to that as a producer, where you've worked on something for weeks or months, and it comes down to finally sealing the deal. Or as a salesman, you work on a contract. And then at the last minute, it blows up. And you have no idea why it is so frustrating, and depressing, because you put all this energy into it. But those are things that are balanced by the successes you've had, of course, and you've already shared, how the joy of your job was taking on a project or an individual and taking their life and their career in the right direction. So the situation with Ryan O'Neal is not a one off but but anything in life is a balance. That's the whole ying yang thing. And so you have had that opportunity to deal with some tragic situations manage them. That's where the term comes from. And you take that responsibility to help your friend, your talent, your client, through the difficult times just as you help them through the good times, and help create the good times. I think that's really nailed down the job of a manager and what you've accomplished in your career. And I know later on, you branched off, you started doing a little producer work. You were doing other things. Was that an easy transition, something that you aspired to do or just kind of fell in your lap?

Unknown: 43:16

Yeah, just kind of I produced a couple of actually, when my two daughters, my two older kids, my daughters were still kind of young. I had an opportunity to produce some Mother Goose videos with a bunch of Hollywood celebrities. Doing kind of Yeah, doing Shelley. Shelley Duvall wound up being the whole we filmed a whole bunch of them before they had a concept or or, you know, it was one of the first cable. I think it was HBO. And it was one of the first cable shows that actually got made specifically for cable. However, it wound up being released because they made no money off it on HBO. It didn't attract a lot of viewers or anything. So it wound up getting packaged as a bunch of VHS tapes. But yeah, we brought in unbelievable amount of people. Because of my comedy contacts. I was able to get a lot of talent to come in and do these incredible, satirical, half satirical, we had to keep them close to the story so that kids could actually watch them, but so that the adults could watch them too and get a good chuckle out of everything. That's how they were done. fell in my lap only because of what my experience was. I had been literally living comedy 24/7 for about 1213 years at that point.

Scott Edwards: 44:36

Yeah, I remember those and they were a lot of fun and people have to remember this is going back 30 years or so. HBO was new. It was really adult oriented. It wasn't where you would send your children to sit down and watch. And so coming out with a children's series it's no surprise it ended up on video and back then VHS but it will was a terrifically creative project. And the fact that you were behind that, as with dealing with other talent, you took on a project and you took something from nothing to a successful project. And then again, your that's where your joy of your career comes in. So not just as a manager or mentor to a talent. Now, as a producer, you had an idea, and you were able to take it to fruition. I mean, that's exciting.

Neil Hassman: 45:31

Yeah, the other thing I really liked because of, again, because of all my context and stuff, about 15 years ago, I did a series of shows fundraisers, basically here in and around LA. For an anti domestic violence group, we raised a lot of money. Mo Collins, the Deb, the girls from Mad TV, headlined a few of them for me. It was a it was really a good thing I enjoyed producing the live shows a lot, too. That was a lot of fun, and enormous. I admire you guys that do it on a regular basis. Because so much work goes into putting up one night of good comedy, I can't imagine doing it full time.

Scott Edwards: 46:15

Well, I think that a lot of people, much like other aspects of show business, don't really know what a director or producer does. It's not just sitting in the fancy chair and pointing things out, it's being able to think about everything, every big or small aspect of a production that's going to happen in the audience is unaware, I saw a show just Saturday night where immediately I spotted 10 or 15 things that the producers of that show didn't have set correctly, the audience still had a great time, I just think their experience would have been enhanced if a experienced producer had been behind it. But you're right. It's the nuances of that type of work. Much like being a manager, I mean, I I've not managed talent, and I'm sure there's aspects to that job that I would not be aware of, because they haven't done it. You've kind of done it all. That's made a very fulfilled career. Congratulations.

Unknown: 47:22

You know, it, a lot of it comes from the fact that I started as a musician when I was 12. And so basically, even though I had a bunch of side jobs and stuff when I wasn't making money as a musician during my teens and 20s, I basically made my living in the arts and my family was supportive of it. You know, most of my brothers have talents musical or one of my brothers, Andy Wayne was a sandy Wayne actually was his name was a stand up for about 1012 years did extremely well, is retired and living in Boston. But he actually lived in Sacramento for years. I have family in Sacramento for years and years and years, I think now is the first this is the first year I don't have one relative in Sacramento.

Scott Edwards: 48:14

Well, I heard the other party going on downtown. Maybe that was why

Unknown: 48:18

that's probably is curious. I have three brothers and a couple of in laws and a niece and nephew. And oh, actually, I take that back. My nephew lives close. My nephew works for Intel and works outside Sacramento.

Scott Edwards: 48:30

Oh, just east of Well, that's a great connection to Northern California. And I think it's fascinating that you're able to share with the audience, that as a young child or as a young adult, you had aspirations you brought you were brought up in a creative environment, and family that supported that which can be so important. And music is what was your original hook to get into show business. And through the story you've already shared with the audience. And thank you for that. That morphed into so much success and so much diversity. In this business, we call show that you've really had such a full career in giving back in so many ways. I'm sure many of your clients are appreciative that you were there to guide them

Neil Hassman: 49:30

to know about actors,

Scott Edwards: 49:32

okay, so there may be not all as appreciative as you said, no,

Unknown: 49:35

no, no, no, no. I'm joking around. Listen, it's it's always, even in even as a manager, I asked this question sometimes what are you going to do for me next? I mean, that is kind of typically most actors, most comedians, they can only think as far as the job they're working. Now they, you know, even the successful actors that I know, they're, they finish a job and they think, oh my god, I'm unemployed. It's just mentality of it. And so dealing with that neuroses has become second nature to me. I never really thought of it like that, but that's really what it is. Well, and I'm still, I'm still at it. I still have caught like one of my, I have a partner actually, my my company is now called Hassman, polston, og entertainment. Fran polston. Og was an agent with the two of the biggest agencies around for years and years and years and years. And when all the agency started, and we had a couple of mutual clients for over 20 years, we were friends, she was their agent. I was their manager, and we work together perfectly. She about eight years ago, when all the agencies started merging. I said to her, you've always acted like a manager, you don't act like an agent, your clients think of you that when they call you on the weekend to ask you personal advice. That's not what people do with their agents, mostly, what did you come throw in with me, and one of the people she brought over was Christopher Knight, the oldest Brady brother, right? And, and four or five years ago, the year before the pandemic, Home and Garden did that project where they got all the Brady's back to the house that was used as the facade when you drove up to the Brady house on the TV show, that house was up for sale. Now, the inside of the house didn't look anything like the Brady house. But the outside of the house was the house you saw at the opening and closing of every show. So Home and Garden TV had this amazing idea. Let's get all the Brady's together, and let's buy that house and redo the inside of the house to look like the TV, Joe. And the HGTV special of the Brady renovation is still the number one basic cable show ever. Wow. And so. So for the four years since then, we've been getting crazy calls. You know, can we get the Brady's back together? Can we do this? And I can't say a whole lot about it, because it's mostly still secretive. But it's not secret that yes, the Brady's are getting back together. And yes, there will be a new Brady show coming up. And this is all thanks to the amazing work of my partner, Fran. And it is it's a it's a go. There's a network involved. They're waiting for approved scripts right now. They've hired a showrunner. This is there will be another Brady show coming up.

Scott Edwards: 52:25

Everybody. You heard it there. It's a show business scoop. Well,

Neil Hassman: 52:29

you got a scoop. You got I got to pay to doing this this morning. But I put a note down at the bottom. If this goes we'll talk about Brady. So that's all I'm going to talk about. Well, that's a we got a deal. There's something going on. I'm also doing something with Jamie. Jamie and I are out shopping a show a concept of Jamie's and we're getting unbelievable feedback right now on it because it's a unique idea. So I'm I got my I'm not completely retired. I don't know what I would do if I was retired. Well, that job is always the job has always been a pleasure for me. I don't go to a club or something to see comics. And think of it as work.

Scott Edwards: 53:08

Right. Right. Right. And we want to explain to the audience when you mentioned Jamie, you're talking about a good mutual friend Jamie al Croft, who was part of the comedy team, very successful comedy TMac. And Jamie and Jamie has gone on to be a silversmith and a writer. He has a book out the Tin Man and the diaries of a tin man and a very talented guy very naturally funny. And it is so funny that you went into that aspect, Neil, because when we met last time, you made it clear that you were retired, you were done with the business you'd you'd had a long full life with a lot of success and diversity. And you had you hit every, you know, goal that you had wanted. And one of my questions is, what's next is any creative idea going to tap you on the shoulder and pull you back in? And hear you've already answered that. Your

Unknown: 54:03

Yeah, and leave it there. I think after that, that day, both Jamie and Bob both approached me with things.

Scott Edwards: 54:11

Oh, funny. Well,

Unknown: 54:13

which is great, because I can't think of anything I'd rather do right now than work with my friends.

Scott Edwards: 54:19

Exactly. And it's it's similar to why I do this podcast, Neil, is that I really appreciated and enjoyed my years on the fringe of show business and producing shows and working with the comics in

Neil Hassman: 54:35

the print you were not on the fringe of show business man, you were deep in the chest of it. I said this right at the beginning the comics who were the road warriors who were successful at doing shows in places like yours on the road are the guys that lasted and that was because of people like you. So

Scott Edwards: 54:56

well. Thank you for saying that. And what I was going to share Was that my wife and I always talk about as we reminisce about the past is what we miss, were the interactions with the talent, the people, we missed the people, the industry. And what's great about this podcast is I've been able to bring it all back around. And in reshare moments with these old friends to me, they were friends, and do this podcast. So getting a chance to meet you, Neil through Jamie and Bob Dewback was a real treat for the roundtable we did in the fact that you have taken time out of your valuable day to share with my audience, this amazing set of stories, in information about what it's like to be a manager and show business is I'm just so appreciative. Thank you so much. And meeting and getting a chance to talk to you has been such a joy.

Unknown: 55:52

I thought I was gonna hate this. I enjoyed this very much. I don't like talking about myself. I honestly, I really don't like talking about myself, but I was able to make this more about my business than about myself. So this was really good. And honest to God. If if one guy who's just starting out heard one thing from this, that he thinks we'll help him. I'm thrilled that I did it.

Scott Edwards: 56:16

Well, I'm sure there's many tidbits of information in this interview. You've been very open and sharing and thank you so much for that. Ladies and gentlemen, Neil has not retired Hassman entertainment. I have trouble with your partner's name. Would you share the name?

Unknown: 56:36

Yeah, Halfmann Tolson org entertainment, and it's let's see, h a s t o l e n t.com. So you can do submissions or you can do Neal at HHS to L E. N t.com.

Scott Edwards: 56:52

And don't forget ladies and gentlemen, he takes himself very serious because the name of his company is a personal management joint going

Unknown: 57:03

well, that's, it's funny. I got that firsthand from spike. Spikes. I met Spike Lee once and we were talking about hey, what's the name of your company and said has been entertained. Asmin polston OG entertainment or Hassman? Whatever it was entertainment at the time. He goes, Oh, man, don't you know is hip to call your company to join. So from that day on, it was always has been Tolson. A personnel management joint. I never thought about it again. Oh, this tells you to do something. You do it.

Scott Edwards: 57:35

Well, that's great. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Ladies and gentlemen, get a chance if you have any interest in show business and have some talent. Don't be shy, reach out to Neil Hassman. He is the manager to the comedy stars. And we were just so blessed to have him on the show today, Neil. Continued success. We'll be looking for the Brady project. That's a little hush hush right now. And we will hopefully stay connected and stay friends. Thank you so much for your time today.

Neil Hassman: 58:07

We will Scott and you're more than welcome. This was a pleasure. Ladies and

Scott Edwards: 58:11

gentlemen. Stay tuned next week another great show of stand up comedy and hosted emcee. Have a great day.

Announcer: 58:19

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