Mark Schiff Book Release Promo Bonus Show #58

Comic Mark Schiff who has been interviewed previously, has just come outn with a new book that is getting rave reviews. hear about his years with Seinfeld, Paul Riser, Carol Liefer, Larry David, and more! Along with his podcast "You Don't Know Schiff", Mark has been busy and on this special episode he shares how it all came about. Book is called
"Why Note..Lessons on Comedy, Courage, and Chutzpah" and available at Barnes & Nobel and Amazon.

Hosted by: R. Scott Edwards

Transcript

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Announcer 0:04

This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC, 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 Edwards.

Scott Edwards 0:22

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special bonus show. We have a good friend of mine. He is uh already an author. He just he did a book called I Kill The Two Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics. He was also got a great podcast called You Don't Know Schiff. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the funniest men in the universe, it's Mark Schiff. Oh yeah. Mark, so good to have you back on the show. You've been so busy uh during and post-COVID. You've got this great podcast. Um I want to talk about that, but you've got an exciting new book coming out.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

I do. And by the way, that applause that you had in the beginning, even though it's fake, I I I it it picks me up. You know, when a comedian hears applause, even if it's fake, we get excited. But as Newton Burrow used to say, when he opens the refrigerator, he does five minutes. Just we see the light go on, we go right into it, we hear the applause. So thanks for having me, Scott. I know you for I know you were longer than I know my wife, my kids. I I I know you since we were kids almost in our 20s.

Scott Edwards 1:40

We were we were young and dumb back in the day, but we did a lot of great work and uh shared a lot of great comedy with people. I should explain for those that don't know, Mark Schiff is one of uh, as I said, the funniest men in the universe, which was a club started in New York with uh people like Paul Reiser and Jerry Seinfeld and Larry Miller, good friend of mine, and uh been a terrifically successful comic, lots of TV, uh very, very funny guy. And a few years ago, you came out with a book called I Killed The Two Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics, which was very entertaining, very funny. I enjoyed it. But uh you've been doing some more writing. What what uh topic have we taken on this time?

SPEAKER_02 2:25

So I have a new book coming out November the 8th, and uh find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Books a Million. It's called Why Not Question mark. Rest is on comedy, courage, and Christmas. Clickbur, if you don't know, it's like uh Gall, courage, you know. This I wrote this book on my COVID vacation.

Scott Edwards 2:47

You know, I I don't COVID vacation, that's a great way to look at it.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Yeah, I took a two and a half uh two and a half year vacation. Could not do stand-up, it w it was decimated. I was on the road at Seinfeld for the last twenty years. I get a phone call one day, all our gigs are off, it's over. And by the way, this week I go back on the road with Jerry. We do four shows in San Diego and four shows in Riverside, California. I just got uh a a little thing. He he he he asked me to meet him in Van Nice to fly up on his plane with him.

Scott Edwards 3:19

Oh, that'd be fun. But getting back to the book, it's called Why Not Lessons of Comedy Lessons on Comedy, Courage, and Schutzbach.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Comedy, courage, and schutzbach.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Got it. No, not not not sure. You you you just proved to us how non-Jewish you are.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

It's Schutzbach, like like you didn't. There you go. Now you'll remember the tribe. Welcome aboard. So it's 50 essays, some funny, some very moving on subjects like age, community, dieting, helping others, friends, love, marriage, self-help. I cover all these topics. It's a very moving and and really it is I think three quarters of it is a a memoir about my life with famous people, raising my kids, my marriage, growing up in New York and the Bronx, my parents, and how I became a comedian. And the reviews are coming in, we just gotta publish this weekly review, which is uh generally they're very difficult to please. They gave me a a stand-up review of the book. The guy said the last one was you came to the comedy and you stayed for the heart. Oh yeah, yeah, it it was really uh something, and um the book's coming out November the eighth. It took me the entire COVID, the two and a half years to write this book. You know, one day Scott, I realized I had no more work. I wasn't gonna make any money, and I refused to just sit down and watch TV for two and a half years. I didn't have long, you know, none of us knew how long it's gonna be. We thought maybe a couple of months. So I said, you know, you better get busy. You're a writer, you've been writing your stand-up comedy for the last forty years, write a book. And I write I wrote a book and I started a podcast. Kept me very busy. And and because of uh something like Zoom, and you have a podcast, you know you don't have to actually get in the same room with people. Yeah.

Scott Edwards 5:19

So I started interviewing people on my podcast, and uh we want to let the audience know you've got a terrific podcast called You Don't Know Shift. You've had some terrific guests. Uh Paul Reiser was the last one I heard, uh, another terrific comic in in uh TV and movie star. And you have really had some fun with the podcast, but I think it's interesting that uh the podcast and the book is what really kept your creative juices going for the COVID break.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah, I would have gone crazy. I would have, you know, listen, I I'm I'm not I I like watching TV, I like, you know, exercising, but you know, I I made a decision. I didn't get muscular during COVID. I I I got artistic. Um yeah. If I didn't do this, I don't know, and and not being able to do stand-up, I would actually just stand up in my room sometimes just by myself, just to stay sharp. But writing this book has been one of the greatest uh blessings for me. I've been writing for the Jewish Journal, a newspaper here, has a very big circulation of a hundred thousand people. And when I write for them, people write me back telling me how much they love my work. And it's they tell me that it's the first thing they turn to in the journal when they get it. It's it's a newspaper that comes to them every week. That that encouragement says, you know, something, Mark, you're onto something, continue on. Sometimes you just gotta follow the path that's being laid out in front of you and do the work. You know what I mean?

Scott Edwards 6:46

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, that's exactly what happened when COVID hit is that some people just shut down, but creative people, uh uh for me example, for you example, and and many other of our friends in the entertainment business, we tried to find other outlets for our creative juices. Uh, doing a podcast, writing a book. I just talked to a gentleman that uh is a playwright, he wrote a play. There's um Ed Solomon was working on a new movie project. There's different ways to stay busy and keep those creative juices going, but you have to have the discipline uh and the work ethic to get it done. And I'm this book sounds amazing. Why not the lessons of comedy, courage, and hoot spa? And it uh it sounds like something that's gonna be kind of a compilation of your life, uh, which has been very successful and very funny. I think it sounds like a great read.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah, people are are are enjoying it. This it's some sample copies have been out there. You know, you hit it uh about discipline. Writing a book, and the the great writers will tell you this. I'm not including myself in that, I'm I'm quoting other people, but they'll tell you the the hardest thing is is to sit down and stay seated when you're writing. Um I've never had a problem, Scott, uh, with with uh writer's block, but I had a problem with ask clock. You know, I can't uh sit down and and just uh but I've gotten good at it. I've learned how to do it. You shut the internet down, you shut your phone down, and and you do and you just do it. And I was blessed. I have an agent, his name is Murray Weiss. He's a guy in New York who uh I sent him the book.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

You know, it's interesting, we call it why not. Can I give you the rule why this uh came about? What did Murray think of your idea? Well, you know, he said you know, he said I said to Murray, I think I I wrote a book here.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

You want to read it? He said, Why not? Right? So I said, Oh, okay. And I sent I sent it to him and he read it, and then he said, Listen, if we do some work on the book, he says, if you if you're willing to do some work, I think maybe then we can send it out to some publishers. So I said, Why not? So he sent me all this stuff to do, and I did it. And then he calls me a couple months later and he says, Listen, I think we got in shape. Are you okay that I start sending out the publishers?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

What do you think I said to him, Scott? Why not? Why not?

Scott Edwards 9:15

So, ladies and gentlemen, that's the name of the book. Why not? Lessons of Comedy, Courage, and Hootzpa. It'll be available on Amazon and Barnes Noble, Books of Millions, and the Bookshop.org. You're getting it out there, and it releases November 8th. But it sounds like uh a great book, a good read, and a perfect gift for the holidays.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

It is a perfect gift for the holidays. It's it's it's a warm, friendly, funny, moving book. Nobody gets hurt in it. I'm I'm not saying nasty things about anybody. And I I really want to thank my publisher, Apollo Publisher. A lot of people rejected this book, but then it got into the hands of a lady named Julia Abernoff, an Apollo Apollo Publisher. She's a young lady, you know, she's I think in her early 30s and stuff like that. And she read it, she got it, she understood it, and they called me up and they said, We like the publish. You know what I said there?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Why not?

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Why not?

Scott Edwards 10:13

Well you go, Scott. You know, what's great is not only in the book, uh, you'll be referencing some of your good friends in the business, Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Riesel, Carol Leefer, and Larry David, but also the uh podcast, You Don't Know Shift. It sounds like you've had some fun with that as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

It's been unbelievable. We we've had we we we opened with uh Kevin Nealin, we just did Tom Dreeson, we did uh Kathy Ladman, we got John Apato coming up, Jay Leno's gonna be coming on, Seinfeld Saves coming on, we have Paul Reiser, uh Brian Kiley. It's been uh George Wallace, we did two episodes with, and we're not just doing comedy stuff, we're really digging into their lives a little and their process. It's it's been it's been so exciting. You know, these are friends of mine. I I know a lot of these people, and you really get a chance to have a two-hour conversation with with with your friends like that. And and we did it, and my co-host Will Benjamin has been wonderful. He's a young guy in his early 30s. So he's bringing in the young people, and I'm bringing in uh the old parts. And it's it's been it's been exciting start doing this podcast. It really has. I didn't think I I didn't know if I'd like it. I I'm actually loving it.

Scott Edwards 11:29

Well, that's great. Well, ladies and gentlemen, uh, we so appreciate having a chance to have uh the famous Mark Schiff on our podcast again. And if you get a chance, check out his podcast. You don't know Schiff, but more importantly, mark your calendars on November 8th. This new book coming out, why not? Lessons on comedy, courage, and hootzpah. Hey Mark, thanks for uh joining us today and sharing uh this exciting new book with my audience.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

You know, you know why I did this talk to you?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Why not? Why not? I'm sorry. That's a callback. That's a callback. That's what I did.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Can I do the callback?

Scott Edwards 12:12

I stole your line. Well, it's gonna be uh uh uh the all the reviews say it's a great book. Uh I think it'll make a great gift for the holidays. Mark, thanks for uh joining us. You have a great time touring with Jerry and have some great shows. Ladies and gentlemen, his podcast, You Don't Know Shift in his new book, Why Not? Lessons on Comedy, Courage, and Hootzpah. Mark, thanks for joining us today.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Thank you, Scott.

Scott Edwards 12:39

All right, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Well, thanks for having me.

Scott Edwards 12:42

We'll be back with another great show this weekend. Bye.

Announcer 12:47

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