Tony Camin Standup Comedy Interview & Set Show #115

Tony Camin was not only a huge success on comedy stages all over the country, and the Writer & Star of the "Marijuana Monologues"; but he was also a favorite regular at Laughs Unlimited for over 20 years. Great guy who always entertained the audiences. "The Marijuana Monologues" was a hit just off Broadway in New York for 2 years, traveled the world and where he shared the stage with Arj Barker & Doug Benson. Tony also did comedy writing for video games, Comedy Central, and a few sitcoms. Regularly seen on TV, Tony Camin is still touring and enjoying the life of a standup comic!

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 emcee Scott and words.

Scott Edwards: 0:22

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of stand up comedy, your hosted emcee. I am very excited to be talking to a very good friend one of my favorite comics ever to come through the club. He's out of the Bay Area originally. You've seen him on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He's one of the stars, writers and entertainers of the marijuana logs. Ladies and gentlemen. It's Tony coming, Tony. Wow. A lot of fans. Yeah, this is a very popular podcast. "El Grande Bandaho". Whoa, you know, very, very Mr. Big popular. Hey, yeah, it's so great to reconnect, we had a chance to chat for the comedy roundtable. So I have seen you fairly recently. But before that had been at least 2030 years. So appreciate you making time to do this.

Tony Camin: 1:18

Thank you. I'm doing it for Jill, really.

Scott Edwards: 1:23

I will tell her that that'll make her very happy. And she did say to send hugs and loves you are definitely in our top five favorite people to work the club. You know, I was, we should talk about it in a minute. But you were really not only great with the audience's but you had a way with the staff in myself. I think that's part of why you're so successful. You're a really easygoing, nice guy. And I think that that has value when you're out in the nightclub world. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's explain to the audience How did you kind of end up being a comic? What year was it and how did you start?

Tony Camin: 2:05

But I was at a radio of college radio station which had a actually a lot of listeners because it had like punk rock before that was kind of caught on to commercial stations. And Kevin Potter OCO, also was there and he said, Hey, you're pretty funny. There's this club called the holy city zoo. And, you know, you could sign up for five minutes. And, you know, give it a try sometime. So eventually I did after a while. So I so Kevin Patoka is the one who dragged me into this. Wow. Well, you know, I only I'm already a big fan of Kevin's and that just adds on to why I like the guy. That's interesting. And the holy city zoo the audience has heard about many times, was such a crucible for young comics. So many big name and unknown, but very funny. Name comics came out of the zoo, where you considered a regular Oh, yeah, that was my home club, because I didn't get to the other two big clubs and tower clubs and the punch line. And I didn't work out so much later, like, maybe even two years, you know, because I just kept it was closed, I moved close to the zoo. And I would just you could do the zoo a couple times a week, you know?

Scott Edwards: 3:11

Right, right. And it really just for people may not have heard previously, the zoos famous because add maybe 24 seats that had a balcony that held like three people in the stage was maybe, you know, three feet by four feet. I mean, it was really small. And it was crazy.

Tony Camin: 3:28

It's bigger than like, it was little it's smaller than some walk in closets I've seen in these mansions. You know, it really was I think max capacity it said 60 But I don't think you could fit 60 in there and you know you Yeah, maybe this 40 It was some crazy low number, you know, well, you had to walk by this right in front of the stage to get to most of the seats, too. So awkward.

Scott Edwards: 3:51

Oh, yeah. No, it was not a well set up club. In fact, that's what's incredible about people like you and Paula Poundstone Robin Williams, Dana Carvey and go on and on with people that cut their teeth at the zoo. But the club despite not being set up you know when I design Laughs Unlimited, you know, low ceiling brick background, three levels in the club. I mean, it was set up for comedy

Tony Camin: 4:20

The Zoo first yet that Laughs club I still to this day, it hasn't been beat for a setup with like I said the audience was the crowd was raked downwards towards the stage at a great angle I just said read maybe three layers low ceiling and you know it's still new before people knew better so that's why I got in no room Yeah. Do you have that even the upstairs was nice. You can meet the people from the you know, the Magic Hat was nice. You can meet it. It was a great Auntie area after the after the show, you know, right. It's a good setup. Bar. Yeah, it was great.

Scott Edwards: 5:00

But I'm only brought it up and thank you for saying you enjoyed it. I think it was one of the best rooms ever. But compared to the zoo. I mean, like you said the zoo was like, a large closet with a stage.

Tony Camin: 5:14

I think the zoo is about as big as the hat. Really? You know? Yeah, that's probably about right. But you got your start there. You You spent a couple years kind of building your set and working on your comedy. Do you remember any of your first jokes? Yeah. You know, they're, they're just the first sort of joke, you think of your day job. Like, I'll add that to my list as I as I tried to put this five minutes together. So I remember some of them be like, my girlfriend is such a vegetarian. He doesn't even like to meet people. That was an early one. That's actually kind of a funny play on words. Yeah, there's so they were kind of like that level. My name is something about Tony with Sony coming, which to mean is, is Spanish for King or road or whatever. And then Sony is American for dumb guys fix the car, you know, just simple joke structure joke, a lot of self deprecation. I was a heavy guy. That's those are your first jokes. You know, I think it's like some self deprecation make, you know, a little, little easy, Joe. Well, it is so true that in the early days, and not just you, Tony, but everybody has to find a way to introduce themselves to the audience. That's where the self deprecation comes in. You're not doing generally genius writing, there's a lot of puns and wordplay.

Scott Edwards: 6:40

But that is really encapsulates how so many professional entertainers got started. Now you are a tremendous and very successful, we'll talk about it later on comedy writer. So I imagine that early on, you started to develop those tools in that work ethic to write on a regular basis.

Tony Camin: 7:02

Yeah, I did, but not nearly as enough like say, like, Arj Barker. That's why he probably got more work, you know, more success and say, like, I got to a certain level. And then I started getting into writing, I didn't work on my stand up as much, which I should have done both. But like the, you know, you get to a new city, you want to do your best. So I would play it safe. But oh, I got my 50 I got my good 30 down. And I think, you know, obviously now everybody's trying to write so much because there's new people put out albums, you want more material. And that's the way to go. So I think I was good at I was I did have a workout that I try to write a couple hours a day. But I said I had a better one, you know, like even?

Scott Edwards: 7:41

Well, yeah, you're mentioning to the audience. Arj Barker, who's a very funny guy. And he found huge success in Australia, which ended up translating back to the US. But he's he's like, the Johnny Carson know most of Australia and gets recognized everywhere. But that work ethic that you developed early on in writing, even though you kind of switched over to straight comedy writing, you still had to develop that skill, that creativeness to be able to sit down and write funny stuff. I mean, that's not something everybody can do.

Tony Camin: 8:20

No, and these and you go through, I think you go through stages, like when you're in the Bay Area, right stuff, you're like, you know, first first you want to get laughed at whatever you can get, you know, you just want to get that fear of not getting laughed out of the way. And then you then you get a lot more picky. But I want this kind of laugh. I don't want to I don't want to get these cheap laughs anymore, or whatever I want this, I want to get your writing gets more sophisticated, gets more first. So then you started, then I found out you go on the road. Oh, people in Texas don't care that much about my San Francisco style. So then you realize, oh, I'm not I'm kind of writing for this niche. I'm not really running universally, and they're both good. You just have to realize what I had planned for. So I think there's a lot you're always learning like, you know, you're never like I'm done learning about writing, you know, oh, yeah, it's one of those art forms that just continues to grow and develop.

Scott Edwards: 9:09

And it's funny that you mentioned the difficulty of being a San Francisco type or style act and then going out in the world. We've had it come up in a couple other interviews. I've heard from other comics that they could be rocking it as a headliner in the Bay Area, and they go down to LA or they go to Boston or something where they have a whole different kind of take on comedy. And it's a huge adjustment. In fact, many of them complained kind of that they had to kind of start over.

Tony Camin: 9:43

Yeah, it's you know, it's certainly different everywhere. You know, you're like, I remember my first time in Texas, in Houston before I go to San Antonio before i Please welcome Tony from San Francisco Tony. I mean, I had like a Buddy Holly glasses and you know, like a cheat code on it. Before I even got to the mic, I heard someone yell faggot before even before I even did my first joke. You know, so it's like, you're like, Okay, I gotta, you know, whatever I got to tip this little harder and, and, and even either express my personality stronger and bolder over these people, or I gotta make them a jet, you know, this is gonna be a different thing, you know, right, you gotta find your voice and in how you're going to come by and your own take on comedy,

Scott Edwards: 10:29

what you've learned, getting a start in comedy, but as you mentioned a few minutes ago, you also have to kind of be able to relate to any audience any time. You know, a Friday night late show in New York is different than a Wednesday, you know, small show in Minneapolis or something.

Tony Camin: 10:49

Yeah, but I think I think that's a certain type of a certain type of comic now that doesn't want to like I don't think Bill Burr, or David tell character relate the audience. They just have great jokes, and they're so powerful the audience comes to them. I think that's a newer thing. You know, I don't think like Carlisle thinks he was bending. I think they were the audience that if you get to a certain level, they've been toward you. You know, I mean, if that makes any sense. No, it does. If if you're a name act, and they're there to see you, you you have to earn that way you have earned that you have to earn that status. But I know sometimes just dig in harder with your personality and it pays off for them. If they're skilled, and they put the work in other comics, I probably tended to do this. I just played it safer. Some places and then I got back home and wrote differently, you know, like, I just won't do that joke. I'll write more stuff for this market. You know, well, I didn't really dig in to my first night. I just tried to whatever do a good job that we Yeah. And you're right about people that some just power through with their personality. I'm thinking of Sam Kennison. And Bobby Slayton and a few of those guys that kind of, yeah, they're not gonna Bobby Slayton is not going to change up his act for someone in like San Francisco PC place versus someone in Dallas, he's gonna He's gonna do the same great act. But you know, both is going to kill both places. Because they know Bobby, they know what they're, you know what they're getting, you know? Right, right. But not by now. But I'm agreeing with you that most comics don't have that luxury. I think that you have to, as you said, start writing to the moment as opposed to leaning on your early San Francisco stuff you have to grow and develop. But I think that's all part of the process, where you did it very well. And then it had been very successful. You've played clubs and in events all over the country. How did you end up working at laughs unlimited. You came down to the San Francisco improv, like on the head of Monday Night showcase. Monday's were the hot night in San Francisco where the cops and the SFM product the time at a Monday night showcase and you came and you said, Hey, I have this club. You gave me your number your card. And then even before I got hired, I did your contest. And they came in second, I think,

Scott Edwards: 13:04

Oh, the Great Northern California comedy competition. Yeah.

Tony Camin: 13:07

I did back in a second or third. So and by then you're in like, he taught me minds and said, Hey, I haven't. I like you know, so I think between that and he just put me to it was great, because you know, you get the two rooms at the time. This is after birdcage. It was just vicious and old sack. But you know, and it was fun. I went. And that's again, that's when I started working with these guys was my first time out of San Francisco. He still had great audiences and started working with guys from the from the road, maybe didn't come to San Francisco. And they were great. You know, like, you know, like, like, like Peter gawky guys like that, you know, so many great guys.

Scott Edwards: 13:44

You got exposed to different styles of comedy from different parts of the country by getting out of the city. I did not know I was your first out of town gig. But it just goes to show why I remember enjoying your company and your comedy. So well. Because if I came and saw you at a showcase, and pulled you aside and invited you up, that's way more personal than getting some VHS tape in the mail.

Tony Camin: 14:13

Yeah, I don't know, if people even watched those things.

Scott Edwards: 14:18

I used to watch them and then tell me what to watch. You know, I'd get so many. You know, give when you're

Tony Camin: 14:23

at a screener, screener. Yeah.

Scott Edwards: 14:27

Well, you worked at Laughs quite a bit. As I said, you're very popular with the audience's in the staff. Do you have any memories good or bad of laughs?

Tony Camin: 14:37

Oh, yeah. I mean, I probably worked there for probably about 20 years, you know, from whatever, I don't know. 20 But it just seems to sometimes you work there four times a year, you know, four weeks a year, which is a lot for so you know, I had friend Chris Hobbs was my roommate and he he was already regular with you. Or he was already working for you. And I met Jim Farrell through Chris and all these You already knew all these guys. And it was just a fun two weeks, you know, you know, you had two weeks of good of good work with and you always work with great friendly people like, mostly I didn't work with. I never had to work with John Fox. So I don't know, I never. I never had to taste the mayonnaise after John Fox.

Scott Edwards: 15:17

There's a little inside story. Yeah, there's people that were more difficult to work with. And Fox being a road warrior that had a whole different take on life. But in general, you got to work with good people. If you mentioned Peter. Okay.

Tony Camin: 15:33

Oh, yeah. And I displayed I had an even, you know, who is the Jeff demo was so funny. He didn't have tons of dirty guys. But Jeff demo, I had a fun week with Robert Schimmel at Def Jam about Robert Schimmel. His brother writer.

Scott Edwards: 15:52

Yeah, but I think it's, it's nice. I think you're one of the first comics I've interviewed that pointed out the value of interacting with comics from other parts of the country, in what in my book that just came out. I mentioned that it's important to watch other people's acts because you learn from watching others, it's like anything, it's it's so much easier to garner some information or ideas, while watching the comics, I'm not talking about

Tony Camin: 16:26

the best as the best way to steal jokes, just watching other comments.

Scott Edwards: 16:30

I was just gonna I was just gonna say you don't take the material, but you could learn from the style of presentation, the type.

Tony Camin: 16:40

Also like, they may have a joke that's very similar to yours. So it's, it's, I like to watch the whole show. And also sometimes you go crazy backstage waiting, waiting for your spot, you're, you know, you're looking at about your act. So sometimes I like to do that before that stuff before the show, prepare 100% And then just watch the show until about a little bit before you go on, we go backstage because you really enjoy the show and then see what's working, what's not working. And like being in the crowd and going on stage. You get I think like inside vibe a little bit from being in the crowd. I know comic takes go in the crowd, but I like to sit in the back and watch the show. It's like if I have that luxury, you know?

Scott Edwards: 17:18

Well, I think from a producer's point of view, I would recommend that to anybody because it gives you a feel of the room because audiences are different. I mentioned it earlier. There's a huge difference between a Friday night late show and a Wednesday evening. I mean, every audience has its own personality. Oh, and if you go up on stage, totally cold. You're just making your job harder.

Tony Camin: 17:41

Yeah, and then every every slot is different audiences in a different mood, almost wherever he says, you know, as the night goes on, they get better they get worse. So there's so there's a lot of as you know, there's there's a lot of factors that go into mixing a perfect Comedy Night Martini. It's not just good audience good. There's the lights is a sound like he said, The ceilings were low and good. You know, the stage we had it was this whole, the focus of that room was the same, you know, there was no other. It wasn't any signs LED lighted sign. Sometimes you see these stages, they got lighted signs on the side, it's like, comic has to compete with all this stuff. You know.

Scott Edwards: 18:19

I've noticed that at other clubs, I never realized that it could be that big a distraction, but it makes sense. But I also agree that connecting with the audience by having some idea of what you're going to do before you go up, and I also I think it's just smart to watch the other acts, as you pointed out, you want to make sure that you're not stepping on each other's material accidentally.

Tony Camin: 18:44

Yeah, and you have, you know, if you have Tommy obvious, but if you have this, you have what you're gonna say first, first down a couple, you know, something, I don't know, I would say Well, that makes your job easier. You know, and if if that if that doesn't work habits habit, you know, shift around a little bit or, you know, but definitely walking the show is a good a good tip. Like I said, every crowd is different. They all have a personality, some crowd you fall in love with you get these crushes on the whole crowd, we just love the whole crowd, you know, and some you just have a bad relationship. But you got to do your job to change it, you know,

Scott Edwards: 19:17

right. And sometimes that's on the comic, but I mean, I as a producer, understood, there were times that it was just the club, it was just the audience. You know, there was a something, let's say there's a bachelorette party or some other celebration that might have been taking the focus away from the stage. There's, there's, I think one of the interesting and most difficult parts, being a stand up comic and one of the reasons I so value, people like you that have this kind of talent is it's not like you you're a carpenter and you go and you know that this board is nailed to that board and you cut it to this length and it's all pretty laid out for you with stand up comedy. Each and every time you go on stage doesn't matter if it's the same club or the same x in front of you or not. Every time it's a different feeling is a different interaction. And you and comics have to be talented enough to react in adjust to that. I mean, I just I'm always so impressed with your talent that way.

Tony Camin: 20:26

Yeah, that's just reading the room, I guess, you know. And it's funny because, like, my wife says, Oh, you're like, you could see it. And even you notice that when people are bad at even in conversations when someone says, bla bla bla bla, like, oh, I don't know that guy. And they still keep talking about, you know, just I think just reading, reading your audience that it's one on one, or you get that you get good at like, oh, you need feedback as a comment. So you don't get it. You're like, what's going on here? I guess, like the truth of mouth.

Scott Edwards: 20:55

Right? Right. Right. And it's also being able to react like it's, in fact, I was just did an interview with Tom Driessen. And he was saying that it's a conversation, not a presentation, you have to be able to connect and react to the audience. Like it's almost like it's one other person.

Tony Camin: 21:18

Tom Driessen. You have a good Frank Sinatra story.

Scott Edwards: 21:21

Oh, yeah, that was an amazing interview. But I can't listen to that one. Definitely. You'll listen to that one. Okay.

Tony Camin: 21:29

Yeah, I can't. I can't listen to my own. My voice is too high and shrill. I can't hear it. Well, you do it.

Scott Edwards: 21:37

Yeah, I just, I wasn't trying to sidetrack us. But it is true. What he was trying to make the point that each and every audience is different. And if you have a conversation with them, and introduce yourself comedically, are however, and you know, you have to build that up. But every night, every show is so different. It's amazing. And we've talked probably too much on this. But so you work the club laughs unlimited. For many years, as I've already pointed out what my personal favorites, one of the staff favorites, my wife would put you in the top five in the history of the club, which is a huge honor, because she's a smart, smart person.

Tony Camin: 22:18

But well, your staff was always so wonderful to me, because I made fun of you on stage. And that's why they liked me.

Scott Edwards: 22:26

Well, that was it. Well, that's one way to endear yourself, go ahead and pick on the boss.

Tony Camin: 22:31

But also, you had a pretty good sense of humor about a lot of club owners didn't have a good sense. You took it pretty well, that was the saving was one a good one of your good traits is you really, you really would laugh, laugh it off, you know, and then you could give it back pretty good too.

Scott Edwards: 22:46

Well, I will point that out to Jill and see if that was one of the reasons. But that is so funny. So after, you know, I had the club in the 90s and into 2000. You've done a lot of successful things. after that. I know you continued working clubs around the country, you started having regular appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. How often did you get a chance to do that show? I only did that one. Only once? Well, you must have been a hit because I hear about it all the time.

Tony Camin: 23:20

I didn't want yeah, it went well. And then I did like Jimmy Kimmel three times. Okay, that that was good. And then I did all the you know, all the MTV and comedy. I did all the Comedy Central ones for a while, you know, the half hour all those things, you know?

Scott Edwards: 23:37

So you you got a share amount of TV exposure. Did you find that helped your career was it? Did it pay? Well, was it just something? That was a good experience?

Tony Camin: 23:48

I don't I don't think it ever. I think it paid scales. So you know, maybe 1000 bucks, but travel but you know, like, you got to go to New York and whatnot. But it was, you know, it was a credit and when and that was sort of it during the mid boom where all the credits help you know now people now it's like how many Twitter followers you have. But then those times changed? Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, it's fun. It's just what it is. But that's that's at the time it was that those things were real helpful to get work and also in San Francisco, there was a radio show I did called the Alex Bennett show and that really, that really helped me in San Francisco market get get booked as I did get on that because I make fun of Alex, then.

Scott Edwards: 24:29

Alex Bennett show for everybody listening in the podcast audience was a huge, huge show in the Bay Area. And what was great about Alex is that he loved having having stand up comics on the show. And if you were a regular on the Alex Bennett show that really made you in the Bay Area.

Tony Camin: 24:50

Yeah, that really that was my first thing where I started like this really helped my career you know, you got to bump up like okay now but now the city clubs are working me because of this. I Alex Bennett so you know like I was doing the Alex Bennett show so

Scott Edwards: 25:04

but but you also go from maybe a feature to a headliner because you're starting to get credits right or more money is

Tony Camin: 25:11

that was that was still just opening that was early on that was like year two. I know during after Conan then it was I was still house MC echo and then hit me bump me up to middle after after tone again to bump me up after I did. I was still opening. I got Tony kind of early, you know?

Scott Edwards: 25:28

Uh huh. And and who was this? The Booker? Tom Sawyer. Okay. You didn't reference that?

Tony Camin: 25:35

Because I think I moved you up pretty quick. Yeah, you were very great to me. But I and again, it was the clubs were great. They were, you know, I thought to some of the San Francisco clubs were really good Proving Grounds. So you're proud at the time and I think, like we talked about these rowdy bachelorettes, everybody had him but I think they were way better than than they are now. Now, it just seems like once a week there's a there's an issue with the crowd or someone complains. It just the amount of phones a lot. It seems I remember pretty good crowds. And yeah, I did. I did. Well, I like I think I did some crowd work. It wasn't your favorite. But like it went over? Well, I mixed. It always was a great that the crowd was so perfect for a crowd. Because they were, like you said stepped up. So you could see everybody you know, and they were right there at your feet. So I would have a good week. So you did? Yeah, it was. So you got you bumped me up? I think yeah, you bumped me up before the city club did even? Yeah,

Scott Edwards: 26:30

well, I think that it is true that compared to the Bay Area, and even Los Angeles, that the audiences in Sacramento, were a little bit more, you know, Mid America, middle class, you know, kind of your average Joe's, you can pay less,

Tony Camin: 26:48

they love to laugh, they'll tell you that they really were great, great crowds, some of the best crowds in my, in my history. I think of those last early last, you know,

Scott Edwards: 26:56

yeah, I'd like I would agree, I think that they are very appreciative of the art form. And you mentioned a little earlier that I might have you up four times a year, well, I would do that on purpose, because I wanted certain entertainers, I didn't do that with everybody. But I wanted certain entertainers to build a connection with my audience so that people would, oh, man, I've seen that guy, we got to go, you know, and they bring their friends and their family. If you brought back somebody enough, the audience remembered in it helped build the reputation of the entertainer, which helped build the reputation of the club. That was my theory.

Tony Camin: 27:36

And that was, that was something that kind of made you stuck, you know, pull up your butt to write more, because you're like, Oh, I was just there. Four months ago, five months ago, I gotta I gotta have at least this much different jokes. Because this, you know, sometimes you get the same, some of the people would like you and like, let us know when you come back. So you know, you get some of the same people back, you know?

Scott Edwards: 27:59

To write some new material, I

Tony Camin: 28:01

know you're like, oh, yeah, I have to keep writing because I have I gotta get a new 30 minutes for Sacto, you know, I gotta get a new, whatever amount of minutes to my act? Well, I

Scott Edwards: 28:10

don't want to seven. Yeah. And Tony, as a producer, I appreciated that you tried to always grow and up and change your act. But there were some people Denny Johnston, that in the history of his stage. Act never changed a word

Tony Camin: 28:27

or some people, but some people like that. Is this a different? Is this a different philosophy? You know,

Scott Edwards: 28:33

that's a whole different style. No, it worked for him. I mean, he's still doing.

Tony Camin: 28:38

Yeah, and he wrote it like in one night. Right? Isn't that isn't that the legend is he wrote it in the night.

Scott Edwards: 28:44

The legend, I don't know. I think he worked on a little more than that. But he, I mean, everybody in their brother tried to give him suggestions for callbacks or taglines or, you know, punch up something. And they'd always be very gracious and say, Thank you, thank you. And then he would never change a word. It was hilarious, right?

Tony Camin: 29:05

I'm sure he got so comfortable. And like you said, I never worked with the vise on it always work. You know, I don't know about now again, Marine. I don't know if that's still a thing. I remember that was a real standout. But But like, you know, it works. It works. So if something's work, you don't want to change it up. You know, I get I get his I get his thinking behind it.

Scott Edwards: 29:25

Right, right. Well, you were talking about your success in the clubs. But you did convert kind of into more of a comedy writer. At what point did you start focusing on that? What What was the driving force for everybody in the audience? Tony is the one of the main actors and writers for the very famous marijuana logs, which was a huge hit around the country. Was that the transition or did you start before that?

Tony Camin: 29:57

I started before that that was that came and that kind of came Side door thing where I was in the Bay Area, I come up to the barrier a lot. That's how Cynthia cobs, and there was all this CD ROM writing, you know where the CD ROM video games, right, and I got a gig writing the CD ROMs and Murrin with Deb ders and Vernon Chapman who's, you know, huge now. It's like the biggest damage buyer in the world, Matt Weinhold. And we would talk to Moran and work on this video game. And it was, I think we were getting like $300 a day. And I was like, that's, that's like a week, some weeks of my work. Not you know, a little bit more than that. But like, I was making that day, so I'm just writing it's pretty good deal. You know?

Scott Edwards: 30:40

No, it compile if you if you get the right gig. Yeah.

Tony Camin: 30:43

Yeah. And then I did another one. In here in LA, there's another company got recommended to do the better video game and it was with the other guys were TV writers I didn't know, and also patent oddballs. And Brian was saying we're writing on it too. And Patton had written some things he's like, Yeah, you should just be you should look into writing if you want if you don't have to travel and you're good at it. So our my manager, Dave Rath, hooked me up with this writer, who was a writer's assistant on King of the Hill. And we just started working together. So yeah, we wrote for a couple years on TV shows, you know,

Scott Edwards: 31:16

you wrote for sitcoms and TV.

Tony Camin: 31:19

Yeah, nothing that you know, but like, Yeah, we were for Comedy Central show, we worked for an NBC show. And then, as a performer side thing, Arjun I just had the fun of marijuana. And so we were developing that as a just a fun thing. We never thought it was gonna blow up. And we just like, hey, let's do this crazy show. He brought Doug in. Cuz he was a stoner, he had, he was a good joke writer of Benson. And so then that thing, that's that that was not on my horizon at all. And that's, you know, to New York, and blah, blah, blah. And

Scott Edwards: 31:50

so, before we jump forward to that, how did you did you enjoy focusing on writing? And in was it financially? Is the guy promise less travel more money than doing road gigs?

Tony Camin: 32:05

Yeah, I mean, you know, it was a, it was an investment for a year writing the spec scripts, because we were both slow. My partner and I are a little bit less than that. And then we got recommended by my friend Alex Green, who's, who's a Bay Area comic, now he's a director and writer, he got, you know, for his agents. So they looked as they, you know, they, they rep this. So we got, we got staff, pretty pretty quickly. So we were luckily, but it was a lot of work. I like the money. But the money is great. And I liked writing a joke in the room. And there's, you know, there's an autonomy room, there's days where you kind of craft a story. And those are frustrating, because you're trying to solve this puzzle. And then there's days where you're just kind of adding the jokes. And those are my favorite, obviously, make bunch, make a bunch of people laugh, it was almost like you're in a club, you know, you could, you had a lot of great, you had some fun days. But it wasn't nearly as fun as stand up, because it can just be so grueling and stand up, you're going to different cities, you know, and you're traveling, here, you're in the same room, sometimes, you know, 14 hours a day. And all you think about is how important you got to come in with new ideas in the morning, and bla bla bla, it was, it was a really, they're all They're all demanding jobs, at least the mind where they were very, I'm not that smart in that flow writer. So I'd be like, up lay thinking about what I had to do for tomorrow to look to keep up with everybody was. So it was it was just the opposite thing of stand up, which is you could say whatever you want, you know, you have all this freedom and stuff. And then here you work with 14 other people. And, you know, you got to have you have this whole story, story power, you have emotions you're dealing with when you don't really need it's not as as necessary as Joe when it's, you know, some sometimes it is you know, and then so it's it's such a different someone's exact opposite in some ways. You know, though, the only good thing though, is and I worked on my first show was with, with Dana Gould, the great Simpsons writers after he, this was before the Simpsons, great comments. He was like, the good thing about this is you write a joke, 3 million people are gonna hear it, you write a joke for your stand up, you know, how many people are gonna hear it? Even the course of your whole career. So that that is interesting is like, when you got jokes on the air, like, oh, at the time, this isn't when network was still bigger, you know, millions of people would hear your job. And that was that was rewarding, too. Yeah.

Scott Edwards: 34:17

Yeah, that's interesting. I've talked to a few other comics that became writers. And in every case, they what they didn't like it was long, grueling hours, and there was always a deadline. But they also said the trade off was they were making not necessarily a lot better money, but they were making decent money and they didn't have to leave home. You know, they could Yeah, go home to their own bed every night.

Tony Camin: 34:43

Yeah, like people start you know, they're at the age where they're getting families and stuff. You don't want to you don't want to be in you know, Nebraska when you got a little baby home. So this is a way just to be funny and stay at home now. Now, there's so many different avenues to you know, there's podcasts and webcams you know all this Thanks so much so, and network TV, not even as big a deal now at all.

Scott Edwards: 35:06

Right, right. And actually one of the people I'm thinking of, you know very well, Karen Anderson, who went from stand up comedy to comedy writer was saying exactly that, that she wanted to be home. She was having kids and building a family. And even though there was long, grueling hours, and some the trade off for stability, and decent income, made it worthwhile. But, again, I didn't put you in the same bucket as somebody like Karen Anderson, or Ed Solomon that all they did was right, you were still performing and writing, right?

Tony Camin: 35:47

Yeah. And Karen, Karen sort of stopped that she came back and did a show with me in our couple years ago, when the punch line was maybe getting close. And that was just roll time six, he sort of didn't want to do it as much as he does it once in a while to go the Ice House is like, the writers of Ellen or something like that. But like, yeah, she sort of didn't have it. I've always liked doing it. I always think it's to be the bottom line. It's still really fun to go up. You know, I like to do

Scott Edwards: 36:12

it. There's something about stand up comedy and getting that reaction from a roomful of strangers that's very compelling. And in somewhat addictive.

Tony Camin: 36:21

I mean, you liked it. Or you could tell you You always were in a you got up on stage, and you were smiling and beaming. You enjoyed that too, I think, didn't you?

Scott Edwards: 36:29

Yeah. And it's been pointed out I sometimes it's up there too long. But

Tony Camin: 36:34

mine, one time. I love this. Sometimes is every time and yet sometimes.

Scott Edwards: 36:42

Well, how did this writing for TV and in games? Excuse me? Video games and stuff transition to the marijuana logs? Because you and Arj had huge success with that maybe tell the audience a little bit about that process?

Tony Camin: 36:58

Well, we just like he just said the pond to the Vagina Monologues was was hitting them was a big play at the time a reading. And then we were in Washington doing some shows together and I just hit. He said something about marijuana law. And I'm like, Hey, we should that's a great idea of Marijuana Louques. You could do a parody of The Vagina Monologues. And we're like, yeah, that's a pretty good idea, because we both had some pot jokes interact. So I would just have to sort of watch, watch the Vagina Monologues and get the template of the form of it. And then just write a bunch of stuff. And we're, you know, he's a good joke writer. And he wrote he wrote the probably the most creative stuff. He has the sweet stuff about Bach and the inhale and the crazy does a good job writer and you know, and I adaptable. So we have these personalities and not just potshots at the end. It's like three different personalities up there. And it just worked. The best thing about it is it was the vagina monologue reads from the reading. So they read from a script, so we couldn't forget it. It's right in front of us. We couldn't it was foolproof, we still messed up quite a bit.

Scott Edwards: 38:03

But or or you improved?

Tony Camin: 38:07

Yeah, but we had to get exceeded by our stone. That's what you know, and it's the audience was very forgiving of it. They're often a similar disposition as we were. So it was just got that.

Scott Edwards: 38:21

Yeah, well, the I did not obviously I got the connection to the vagina monologue in the marijuana logs. I did not realize that you actually borrowed the template and we're trying to oh, you know, a mocking matter.

Tony Camin: 38:37

We had to go watch that. That we argued I went to Beverly Hills and watch three actresses. Teri Hatcher, I forget who would maybe hotness librettist with me? I don't know. It was like three Sally Kellerman one of these three, you know, actresses in their 50s Doing this marijuana, The Vagina Monologues so we could know what how to do it you know, and some people would seen both we did a really good job it's very very slim crossover audience but we did get a month and a lot so we you know, they were barefoot we weren't socks we thought that was more stone or they were an all black we were in all black. You know we had the bad three schools similar we try to as very solemn opening because it's like we're trying to like a faux serious moment. Classical music you know?

Scott Edwards: 39:25

Like, marijuana audience I think that's hilarious.

Tony Camin: 39:28

Yeah, it was getting laughs We come out to this class. I mean, the people were laughing already you know and then I don't know if you know Bruce Smith, he was Andy Kindler's manager. When I know you were early Andy Kindler fan. Bruce Smith was Doug manager. So he we did this early workshop that they called the HBO workspace where we maybe had about 25 minutes of show as we were adding to it, you workshop it, you know, and he just he taped any sensor to Montreal. So we got the Montreal comedy festival. We got that six months ago. had to write an hour show. But we got the show before we finished the shoot we got to get before we finished the show, we had to write a lot more of it before Montreal so that that made it faster. But then we got to Montreal and it was a hit there. And a lot of clubs thought so then we toured then we got TV shows and stuff, you know, did did Bill Maher show and we did Jimmy Kimmel. So that that it was like instantly. We got to be instant headliner, you know?

Scott Edwards: 40:24

Well, now this was before our Arj was a huge hit in Australia, right?

Tony Camin: 40:31

He was already pretty big in Australia. Like, he was big enough. Once it got going. He just automatically got us into the festivals I was. We were shocked how big and he had posters all over. He's not like he is now and now he's like the second or third highest paid comic there. But then he was just he was he was well known but not like he is now but like, yeah, he was he was the draw. But when we when we went there and like, oh, three or something?

Scott Edwards: 40:55

Wow. Well, I did not realize that. That's how it got started. It's it's a famous thing. Sadly, I never got a chance to see it. Mostly because I was already working nights, but

Tony Camin: 41:08

I don't I don't remember it either. So we're in the same boat.

Scott Edwards: 41:13

Well, you know, when you're when you're actually participating in the marijuana log, you have an up you I mean, you have an obligation to partake of what you're talking about. So there I'm assuming there was some interaction between you and RJ in what's Doug's last name. I think I know who it is. But I've done Benson. Doug Benson. Okay. No, that's not who I was.

Tony Camin: 41:38

That interaction got into trouble because after New York, we toured theaters with Tommy Tong after his prison release. And people with real marijuana on stage to the point where he had to stop doing the show because he was around marijuana too much.

Scott Edwards: 41:54

Right. It's against his probation, right?

Tony Camin: 41:57

We did. Yeah, we did Vancouver, his hometown. And people threw so much pot on stage that he called the our producers that I have to back out of this. But just I'm you know, and we had a we, we had to, it was so dumb. We had a stretch SUV, and we went to border, the border. And the dogs were going crazy. And they couldn't find anything. But later, I did have a big cute thing. My backpack I forgot about and he's just like, because if I got caught it, I go back to jail. So so it's kind of my, but it was just it was just around it too much.

Scott Edwards: 42:29

Yeah, right story, though. I mean, that's one of those things, that the regular audience because even I, you know, with all the 20 plus years of having a club, I've never had the audience throw drugs up on stage. And I think that that's a great story. And I totally understand Tommy Chong, being careful now. I had a chance to work with him twice at my club. And he was a offstage, you know, very, genuine, easy to talk to. And drugs were not part of it. Course, I never liked having drugs on The Club. But still, I could totally see his apprehension to having too much marijuana around because it would break his probation, he could end up back in jail. That's kind of scary and funny.

Tony Camin: 43:21

Yeah, yeah. So you know that the interaction was actually a detriment. Yeah,

Scott Edwards: 43:30

how long did you Doug and Arj Barker tour with that?

Tony Camin: 43:35

I have no, I wrote it, right. Like I remember we're doing a show. And that was right before 911. So it was 2000 that got going again. 2002 to about 2000. We were on off Broadway for between 2004 and five or three and four. I don't know. It's a blur. We did ask we did. Montreal, went to Australia. Then we did New York, I think 2004 And five. And then we had some fill in people once left, then Doug left. And I did it with some people. Other people rob Cantrell, and bunch of other guys. And

Scott Edwards: 44:08

you had amazing success with that, Tony, and not only that, writing it and acting in it, but I am assuming that financially it was rewarding for all three of you.

Tony Camin: 44:20

Oh, yeah, I remember like having, you know, argued I were like, because they were also the experience of like our they were paying for our New York apartments too. So we got a chance to live in New York for free and do this thing. And you know, it was just like you said like, it was just like a writing job where we didn't have to travel and we were getting headliner money every week, you know, and all this book book deals and video, you know, we had booked and record and stuff so it was for a while it just, it was great. You know, it was something we love to do. So it was it was worked out great, you know,

Scott Edwards: 44:51

will congratulate success on that, Tony? Yeah, it was again

Tony Camin: 44:55

it was like I've worked hard on so many things that come nothing come of it and that was just a fluke that took off But you never know you know?

Scott Edwards: 45:01

Well you're talking to an entrepreneur who started over 12 companies and several of them failed miserably but luckily with the comedy clubs and a few other I did quite well so it that's just know that was one of my big downfalls I have for the audience. I own a submarine and Monterey Bay for about a year and a half ended up selling it to the Wrigley family. It's still running and Catalina but I took a huge financial bath in that but I could say I own the submarine.

Tony Camin: 45:35

I'm gonna tell you guys that was so impressive when you like it you know cuz you're famous nickel and dime are like

Scott Edwards: 45:44

famous nickel and dime are

Tony Camin: 45:46

you and I thought I'd have to show you know you said you said 615. Not not. You'd be good about you're like, all right. All right. Yeah. I just remember talking to Laurie Kilmartin. I'm like this MF robot a submarine. And he's trying to tell me at 20 bucks. It sounded it sounded like you're in James Bond world or some buying a submarine. You know? That's so funny. I can't imagine. That must have seemed a little strange. But of course, is the producer. I wasn't thinking about one in connection to the other. But yes, no. And we were we were saying it laughingly. You know, we've,

Scott Edwards: 46:26

well, I've been mocked openly about my amount of time on stage and how I was considered cheap as a club owner. However, I always treated everybody well. And everybody that was good. Got a lot of work out of it.

Steve Bruner: 46:40

Yeah. And also, you use a lot of women. I thought pretty early. Like we always had a good rotation of women, which, you know, a lot of club owners had something against women, but you had women all the time on your shows. And I thought that was a nice thing. Work with a lot of great women at your club.

Scott Edwards: 46:57

Yeah, we really lucked out. But I was open to all that well, and also like other club owners, and this we're getting away from the topic, which is you, Tony, but I also like, Oh, you didn't hear showcasing other art forms. You know, juggling ventriloquist magic. I mean, I tried to have them all. I even had a professional tap dancer once.

Tony Camin: 47:20

Yeah, I worked. I'm not gonna say his name. But I was a very odd guy. That Oh, only the only odd week was with this odd guy. And you know, I'll just say he worked with birds, so you know who I'm talking about. But that guy is real unusual update guy.

Scott Edwards: 47:37

I know exactly what you mean. And I didn't know that he was strange offstage

Tony Camin: 47:40

real. I didn't like to talk about anything. And then, yeah, we're just odd, odd bird. You know, no, no pun intended.

Scott Edwards: 47:49

Well, you've had all kinds of success. We've kind of gotten you up to, let's say, 2008 or so the last 10 years. What do you been doing to keep your creative juices going, Tony to share with the audience, anything we can plug?

Tony Camin: 48:02

No, I did a couple things. I was a correspondent on this HBO show for I did a lot of little things. I'm just during the pandemic, I didn't do anything. I worked on my house, playing guitar, a lot of guitar lessons and Led Zeppelin songs and some Jimi Hendrix. Didn't do much zoom. And then I'm just getting back into it. Now. July, I did a bunch of stand up all over the country, open the punch line back up. I'm gonna go to salby and Sacramento if this airs before on New Year's Eve, closing the punch line, Sacramento.

Scott Edwards: 48:32

Oh, that's awesome. We come out and see you. That would be great. I'd love to

Tony Camin: 48:37

see it. And then San Francisco shows and stuff. And then the budget.

Scott Edwards: 48:42

You're doing your first love, which is you're back out on the road.

Tony Camin: 48:46

Yeah, thank God, my wife makes enough money. I could go back on the road. Yeah, whose money?

Scott Edwards: 48:53

Well, I don't think you'll lose money on the road. But the point is, is that your your basic start and comedy was as a stand up. And even though you've had success with this, the monologue log marijuana logs, which is like a play. And you've had success writing for TV, and video games and all this stuff, all the experiences you've had, I think it's really cool that it all comes back down to getting onstage in front of a room of strangers. I think that there's something about stand up comedy that just keeps bringing you back. I mean, it's being proved every day by Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno. They're all out working as much as they can.

Tony Camin: 49:35

Oh, yeah. And you really nailed it when you said being in the room because I get some stuff is not the same as that tension of having people look you in the face and you're looking at right at them being in the same room and making these people laugh. That's the That's the magic of it right there. You know, you can't eat that's that's the thing you can't replace with being a writer on a sitcom or is that moment, that little Sparky moment? You have with an audience where you make them laugh. That's, you can't beat it.

Scott Edwards: 50:03

Yeah, I was just talking to a mutual friend of ours, Steve Bruner who has done a fair amount of the Zoom stuff. And I said, you know, stand up is so about timing and interaction with an audience. And he goes, Yeah, he goes, that's the hardest part is that you have to pause hoping they're laughing. And then you and you know, there's that delay and the lack of interaction. I mean, he had to do it to keep money coming in. But he is so happy to be back doing live stage work. I think that's really the way to go.

Steve Bruner: 50:36

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like I said, it's a different thing. And I'm, there's, there's people in zoom comedy are real good at it. And that that's just I think it's just a different, slightly different nuance skill. You know, I need that crowd for my timing and that pacing, and I can't just like wanted the same thing for me. That's the part of one of the parts of time it took me is that in room tension with another person, I call it tension, but just whatever it is, you know,

Scott Edwards: 51:00

right. That connection? Well, Tony, I appreciate your time today, we've had a chance to learn about you and your career. You've been very successful. And as I mentioned, right in the start, and I'm going to repeat it now, one of my favorite acts to have come through the club not only always terrific with the audience's but very important to me, as a club owner, you were great with the staff. And just thank you for all the laughs and comedy and just who you are and what you brought to laughs Unlimited, man. Thank you.

Tony Camin: 51:30

Thank you for getting my start in comedy, man. I really appreciate that.

Scott Edwards: 51:37

Well, I'm glad that it turned out so well. And it was my honor to have you on stage. Ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned. Tony, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day. We'll keep an eye out for future work on your part. Ladies and gentlemen, he's still touring and still performing. So be sure to catch Tony comeon live on stage.

Tony Camin: 51:59

Thank you.

Scott Edwards: 52:01

Alright, talk to you soon, buddy. Bye. Bye bye. Ladies and gentlemen, that was Tony Comey. And I'm so appreciative is taking the time to do the interview. But just like all my shows, I like to have a few minutes of material to tie it all in. So ladies and gentlemen, here's some live stand up comedy by Tony Kameen.

Tony Camin: 52:20

So my name is Tony. Hi. I'm from Mountain View, California. If you don't know Mountain View, that's where Google is. If you don't know what Google is, being it fills in Seattle like not really just the same anyway. So I was hanging out my mom borrowed some money and in her town there I met she still lives in Mountain View. And Google is testing out all these little spittle self driving cars will go way Mo's bus around town there and they still have a human in there you're taking the data just in case for safety. I'm crossing El Camino Riel okay and once screams to a halt fucking barely misses me and the guy the human and the girls Yeah, what the fuck to the car there's always like, the usefulness of self driving cars and you have to have to go on multiple drive right? If you can and then I realized oh yeah, road rage is gonna be so awkward the dissipated Oh, yeah, talk to the car I'm the man. We see don't care. I love this technology crossing the line here. True story and a couple of months. They're going to be rolling out pizza delivery robots in Los Angeles around Australia. And I'm like, No, that's a bad idea for LA it's a little robot within this tummies well piece of warming area they stick the pieces and then they lock you up close it up. It gets to the house you get an app or something I feel bad for this robot already. It's not like this poor thing. You know your rate. You're gonna get tagged probably have to join a gang. gang member robot they're gonna be cute for a bit to take the pieces out sticking like dead raccoon Does he still start his little robot, you know, he gets out a robot College. The bright future you know, he's new technology. What's my assignment space? Medicine. Well, I got your robot college grades here and then it's like dominoes. But me Come on Roomba. Let's get out of here. Let's go watch Westworld. I don't get it either.

Scott Edwards: 55:10

Ha ha ha. Well, you could see why Tony is one of our favorite acts a very funny guy. It was really an honor to reconnect with him have him on the comedy roundtable and to do this interview. I hope you enjoyed the interview and is a little bit of stand up comedy. Hey, thanks for listening. Please tell your family and friends about our little podcast, and we'll see you next week. Bye.

Announcer: 55:33

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