Elon Gold 4:17
from Mois
Jeremy Weisz 4:18
Yeah.
Elon Gold 4:19
to care about the important things in life, too. I mean, this is a guy. The cool thing about this, and I don’t want to get too deep into Judaism, but he does this thing in Israel where he takes people into the sea. It’s too It’s too crazy to explain, but it’s about seed seed and then tequila and how you, you know, anyway, I can’t even explain it’s too hard to explain. But the fact that he did that like scuba diving, mixing, like this recreational fun sport of scuba diving with this holy practice of Judaism where there’s certain garments that you have to make holy and and it’s From a die from a fish in the sea that you get in anyway. And the fact that he has so much love, he has so much love for his heritage, culture, rituals, traditions, and he does it with pure joy, a smile on his face, and they’ll take you to the ocean and do this ritual. It’s like, he does things out of love. So I what I learned from him is, do what really focus on what matters and do it with love, whatever it is, whether it’s your religion, or your vocation, or your vacation, just do things and love what you’re doing while you’re doing them is a
Jeremy Weisz 5:37
part of his journey. Also, you know, Jason, and Elon the part of his journey that struck me in the interview was, you know, we hear these ups, right, like, we’ll talk about, you know, your ups, you’ve been on the James Corden show you’ve been on, you know, you’re rolling Curb Your Enthusiasm,
Elon Gold 5:51
mostly canceled sitcoms. But yes,
Jeremy Weisz 5:55
I want to hear the panel, Andersen’s story that also relates to Judaism and some some realm but but what strikes me about in you both will reflect the same as the the challenging the downtimes that people don’t see, they see these high points, and he had to go back and tell his kids and his wife, he had to pull them all out of all extracurriculars, they had to stop eating out because the journey of the business, it was on a downturn and they had to cut that stuff out.
Elon Gold 6:23
And it’s so funny that you say that because it happens to me on a daily basis, because show business is all downtime with a few slight ups. And it’s all rejection with a few every now and then some a nicety or some affirmation that you have any sort of talent or you’re good at what you do. And you know, for me, the way I exist in life is thanks to stand up comedy. You can take all the rejection of showbusiness by day and then you go at night and kill it at the comedy cellar and you got you know 100 people cracking up and you go Oh, they were wrong earlier today these people are right they know what they’re talking about. I am funny because it’s just nothing but rejection but what I experience regularly especially lately is people coming over to me saying you know you’re my favorite comedian or I think you’re really funny or we love you but they always qualify it is always a qualifier and a preface. What’s the preface I don’t want to boost your ego but I don’t want you to get to full yourself and I stopped them and I go, I just want you to know I love this compliment and I appreciate this compliment this will never swell my head it will never get to me what it is is saving me from killing myself. Not that I’m actually suicidal but like what you don’t understand about my life is it’s all downtime it’s all rejection and this compliment is really helpful to me it will not affect my ego in any way and trust me so give it to me and tell me how much you love me because I need it I certainly don’t get it at home
Jeremy Weisz 8:09
it will save your life as opposed to giving a big deal well let’s talk about you know
Elon Gold 8:14
that we didn’t even intro anybody yet I will do an amazing I love this Thank you like forget these intro he’s been on this show and met you and Jason is an entrepreneur was started nobody cares let’s get to the goods
Jeremy Weisz 8:28
yeah and on that you know a lot of times people’s rejections fuel them right and so I want to hear from each of you what are the biggest rejection or biggest you know down that you had in the career and so along the way by
Elon Gold 8:45
the way, how much time do we get the less Bay no
Jeremy Weisz 8:49
time so productions of what you’re gonna say alarm but what what would you say to Jay By
Elon Gold 8:53
the way, you know, we cut you off because you were gonna do these nice intros. It is important for your listeners, though, that they do know that I have a recurring role in the upcoming season, Curb Your Enthusiasm because, you know that just that just validates my existence and why they would continue listening. They owe these uncurbed this seat. I listened to what he has to say, you know, or he was the guy with Pamela Anderson on stack that, you know, Fox show that was canceled after 15 episodes. Nobody cares. So now I have to just give myself an intro. You can see him this season. Okay. Anyway, the I’ll let Jason talk because I’ve already talked too much, but I’ll just say one thing about rejection and it really is too plentiful, too, too. We it’s not ours. It’s months we would have to go into but the biggie that that that always rests with me in an uncomfortable way is the dream since I was 15. And watch Billy Crystal and Martin Short Eddie Murphy on SNL was to be on SNL and I screen tested persona it live and When I say I got close, I mean I was in the final like 10 of which six or seven were chosen. And it was in those 10 were guys like Will Ferrell and it was that season and and I remember I had to go meet Lauren It was a series of it was 35 people got to test and that’s that’s whittled down from hundreds and hundreds that audition to comedy clubs and send tapes or whatever. And then you get 35 that go to studio ah at 30 rock and get to actually sit on the stage, with Lauren there and with and then it gets whittled down to another 10 or 12, like less than a dozen that get a second test. But in between the two tests, you have to meet with Lauren, and it was me and Will Ferrell who I didn’t know at the time, I just you know just waiting to go into Lauren and he went first and then I went in and I just remember looking at will and thinking to myself, this poor guy, he’ll never do anything. You can’t even see his eyes. He’s got these beady little eyes was this big, Goofy, weird looking guy. And I was like, hell never do anything. He’s the biggest comedy movie star in the last two decades. But anyway, so don’t ever listen to me is what I’m trying to say but but not getting coming that close to where literally the New York Post said, still in the running as Elon Gold out of the running as Jim Breuer. And the exact opposite happened, Jim got it. And I was cut. And that having a dream just cut off like that is so painful, like so painful. And then the most recent dream was being in Curb Your Enthusiasm last season one scene and being cut out of that. And Larry, who’s a big match called me, and I’m sorry, zuza. You know, we’ll find something else for you. And I’m like, really? And like, you know, is there going to be how likely is another season likely, likely. And he kept his word, he’s a match. And now I’m in a few episodes. So but at the time, that rejection of getting cut, and he explained to me it wasn’t personal, it doesn’t even have to be personal. Because he said, the episode ran too long. You and I were both really funny in it and great in it. And any scene that doesn’t move the story forward has to go it just has to go when you’re running 10 minutes long. You can’t stop for the doctor waiting room bit. You got to go right into the doctor’s office. And so it’s it’s just daily, it’s daily, but we’ll let Jason
Jeremy Weisz 12:23
Jason, I want to hear your rejection down point. But so I’m going to just brief intro, Jason I we’re talking business. We mentioned Elon, who’s a big fan of and Jason is the Founder and CEO of Get Visible, a digital marketing agency that helps companies their website search engine rankings online ad campaigns, much more and as Elon mentioned, you know, I’ll Elon Gold comedian actor on stack. He’s has a Netflix special one of my favorites chosen. And then, of course,
Elon Gold 12:56
no, that’s so nice. It was in gaming on amazon prime. Yeah. And
Jeremy Weisz 12:59
You took the words out of my mouth. Tonight, he had appearance 10 appearances on The Tonight Show recurring Ron Fox hit show bones. More and more Frasier lavendula Chappelle show. You got to check out his bit on James Corden. adularia. That isn’t on set and amazing sat Yeah.
Elon Gold 13:20
Yeah, you’re you’re too kind. It’s it’s all new. And
Jeremy Weisz 13:23
I’m not even trying to be kind. I just,
Elon Gold 13:25
it’s the true so thank you.
Jeremy Weisz 13:27
I’m Jason, by the
Elon Gold 13:28
way you didn’t qualify it with and I don’t want to fill your head up or I don’t want you didn’t you just said it. That’s how it should be. Mazel Tov. Exactly.
Jeremy Weisz 13:36
Jason your biggest rejection down challenge, oh, it
Jason Ciment 13:42
works differently for me, because I don’t have the recall. And the memory like Elon will have about all these episodes in his life. For me, it’s like a 15 year rejection that keeps going. And so it’s not necessarily the rejection. But when you’re in a sales capacity building a company 99% of what you spend your time on does not materialize into actual business. So if you’re I there’s a guy that I watched some of his videos, I think his name is Bradley, and Bradley TV or something like that. And he talks about a salesperson has to not think about the rejection from a negative standpoint, they just have to think about it as a stepping stone until they get the deal. So you can watch statistics, where they’ll tell you who are the superstar salespeople, those are the ones that call that company, the third, fourth and fifth time. Most people they burn out after the second call, they go they don’t like me, they make up all sorts of excuses. And so granted for what Elon does, and waking up in the daytime to all those people that ignore you and then going to do the show at night. They promise you go back to sleep and you wake up in the morning and it starts that cycle all over again. So you hope that the high you experience at night can carry you through the next day. So in the world of business, it’s really the same thing. It’s almost more difficult than my world because we get commoditized. Elon you either like him or you don’t like I mean personally but in terms of the comedy I one joke. So he’s like you either like the jokes or you don’t like the jokes. It’s there’s no commoditization. But for a business, you are a service business, you often get commoditized, where people say, Well look, I can hire 20, digital marketing agency, what makes you different. So that starts getting at you every day looking for differentiation, and then compounded by dozens of clients who are expecting us to find differentiation for them, because they’re also getting commoditized. Because we do a lot of service businesses. And so
Elon Gold 15:40
by the way off of that the difference between us is, and I know you’re more in the service business, but let’s say any other company that’s selling a product, you know, you could sell a product and oversell it, whether it’s a stupid vacuum cleaner, or a food item. It’s so weird when the product is you, isn’t it or like what your service, what your service provides, we are the product, we are the product, we are the
Jason Ciment 16:05
product. Absolutely, and I’ll tell you something funny. It’s sort of like Ilan was joking about his very handsome shirt before. And I once did a test I put on a suit for six months, I wanted to see if it would make a difference in getting more deals. And it did, but I didn’t want to be the guy wearing a suit. So I took it off anyway, making a sacrifice because I didn’t feel authentic. I know I have a nice shirt on now. But honestly, I thought that nice. It’s okay, you’re right. But I want it to be authentic all the way through to who I am. And so I just didn’t want to play the game. 100% even though sometimes you have to, but it’s it’s getting back to your theme about rejection. It’s a mindset at the end of the day, it’s it’s, if you’re lucky enough to have people that make you feel good. And in your personal inner circle, then Hang the phone up on me 20 times I don’t care because on the 21st I’m getting a deal. So as long as you keep plugging along and Elon you how many years you know how many now,
Elon Gold 17:03
almost 30 but there is something to be said getting back to your suit thing. Yeah, about presentation. And you know, judging a book by its cover, you know, when you present yourself in a suit, it is a whole different perception. And you know, I it always bothered me, when I’d watch a stand up special. And like, for example, you see a stand up special with Jerry, there is suit and tie. Now, I don’t think that comedians need to wear suit and ties necessarily, but an outfit, you know, dress up, like for example, even if it’s Eddie Murphy, in delirious, and it’s a red leather suit. Yeah, you know what I mean? It’s not a suit and tie, but it shows he cares, I care to put on a show and to present myself as a rock star that I am. And then you would see, you know, specials, and that’s the newest wave guys like Louis CK, who show up in a black t shirt. And I’m like, and that’s his style and good for him. And his material is so amazing. It doesn’t even matter what he’s wearing. But I don’t like that I want to see a guy that’s showing us that they care. And whenever I get hired, whenever I get hired for a gig of private gig, a fundraiser, whatever it is, I will always dress up and show them. I’m not just showing up here and I don’t give a crap about this gig. This gig is important to me as as every other gig. I remember speaking of Seinfeld, he made that funny joke about in an interview, what is that part of a stand up like he approaches stand up the way he approaches a first date. He goes, I will, I will take a shower, I will put on a sport jacket, you know, a nice pair of shoes. And it’s it’s funny that like it’s again on a date, you want to present yourself, you want to be presentable. So I disagree. Jason go back to the suit. That shirt is horrible.
Jeremy Weisz 18:52
You know, Jason, you bring up a point, though, you know, there’s parallels, obviously, a lot of parallels between business like pure business pure comedy. And you talk about well, I’m commoditized. Well, there are also a lot of comedians out there. And I think, you know, that you mentioned differentiation. I think there is an evolution in, you know, for you Elon, starting out. I know you did a lot of impressions. Right. And your comedy has probably evolved a lot from the beginning. And and I want to hear, you know, I want to hear a little bit, even going back to the skits you wrote for Purim as a kid. They were impressions and J. So I want to hear Jason your favorite impressions that Elon does. And Elon, you’re your personal favorites. Maybe they’re, you know, underrated. Maybe they’re not. So Jason What are because that’s the evolution of comedy, too. So Jason, what are your favorite impressions?
Jason Ciment 19:51
Oh, clearly Gilbert Gottfried.
Elon Gold 19:54
Oh, stop it. It’s too much. I can’t I can’t, could you could you do a little Gilbert No, no, not even a little bit. Um,
Jason Ciment 20:04
who’s your favorite? Elon
Elon Gold 20:06
I, first of all, I have too many. And also, I noticed that my act this is how old I am. Most of the people that I’ve been doing for decades in my add on, like literally we just lost Jackie Mason, Jackie Mason was like the greatest Jewish comedian ever lived. And I love just going into talking a patient like this. It makes me nauseous to think that a pizzeria by position has to be out a podcast with someone else. I like to be the only guest now I got to share it. I got to kiss. It’s a visible thing. Oh, is this Jason submit? What has he done as he already canceled sick cubs is nauseated, it makes me nauseous. And you know, and then and I just love doing impressions where the character is so big that you get to have fun. Of course, Trump is just so much fun. You know, I mean, you look at you know, you look at this podcast and you see a very bright guy, very intelligent guy, you know, Dr. Jason genius guy. And then you look at Jason. And you know, he’s got this horrible shirt on, and he’s a smart guy, but he doesn’t know how to dress. He doesn’t know how to dress. And he doesn’t know where to put on a suit and tie, you know, and I always wear a suit. And that’s why I closed my deals. I closed deals, I’ve a deal closer. So it’s just fun to rip. But it’s very it’s a great question because the evolution of being a guy who just did impressions to finding my voice which is which takes over or took me over 20 years. So many of my heroes guys like Jim Carrey, Billy Crystal, you know, Jim Carrey used to just go on stage and just do impressions. And, and I think I can relate and I’m not comparing He’s like, probably top 10 talented human beings that ever lived on the planet like along with Eddie Murphy. Richard Pryor, Jamie Foxx, Robin Williams, like there’s certain people Sammy Davis, there’s certain people prince who you could put in the top 10 ever have so much talent. They’re just beyond people. They’re just balls of talents and energy. And they’re almost not human. And, and but Jim Carrey used to used to just do impressions. I think that like him. We were afraid to talk on stage as ourselves. We were afraid to be ourselves. So my entire act as a 16 year old kid. And I think it was, I think, yeah, it was, I think I was 1617 when I first went to the comic strip, and all I did was impressions of other comedians with my own material, I would write material in their voice. And it would be on
Jeremy Weisz 22:42
Jimmy Fallon like that, too. He started off basically Jimmy and preppy actually.
Elon Gold 22:47
And you know, I’m not going to get into the me and Jimmy Fallon riff, but he sort of saw what I was doing and came over to me and said, I’m a huge fan. Oh, man, I’m such a huge fan of yours, Oh, man. And then he started doing a few similar impressions like Gilbert Godfried, and all these other impressions that I was already doing. And, you know, I have no beef with him and I, he’s done. He’s done quite well for himself. So I don’t want to even come off as like the jealous scorned lover who, you know, he went off and I’m still struggling on a podcast with Jason. But the point is he you know, he came over to me one night at Saturday Night Live party and asked me to teach him how to do my Howard Stern impression. And I was like, No, no, I can’t just let you steal my impression. It was like, well, Lauren’s asking me to do I’m going to do it anyway. I’m like, but I don’t want to because when you develop an impression, it is a hook. And it is an observation that you’re making. About the way someone is his aura is his vocal, you know, in the way he speaks, what he would say she would say, so you are making this original observation. Even though impressions are pretty much frowned upon by the purest comedians. It’s like juggling, it’s just a trick. And it really is a magic trick. It’s it’s really just a trick and the audience is going, how does he do that? You know, it’s not pure comedy that, you know, it doesn’t touch your soul. And it doesn’t make you reflect and relate to the comedian, which is really what standups about. It’s just a magic trick. But the point is, it’s there’s still something in there where you have to put the work in and make the observation that once someone does an impression, it’s very easy to do an impression of an impression. And that’s what everybody does with Trump and all the like, big impressions used to be like that Jim from taxi guy, or everyone was doing, who was everyone doing at the time, like in the 80s and 90s? Was it was all the Presidents like Richard Nixon, or Johnny Carson, you know, Johnny Carson is is an impression now nobody knows. Now no one knows what I’m doing right now. But I am doing a guy who hosted the tonight show before Jimmy Fallon and sounded exactly like this. Is that right? Is that true? Is that right? And you know that those are impressions that a lot of people do. So I never wanted to do those. I always prided myself in finding the hook of people that no one’s doing. So no one was doing all these comedians, I was literally doing comedians that didn’t even pop yet, like Gilbert, like Howard Stern, I was the first person ever do Howard Stern, when Howard Stern wasn’t even national. He was in the tri state area, and La it was before the book, the movie, and obviously before he was national, and serious, and all that. And Howard was so impressed by the impression and by the fact that somebody is even doing him and no one knows him, that he invited me on the show. And then I’ve been on the show since a few times and whatever. But well, this is very exciting. Robin, let me tell you something, this Dr. J guy He’s a bright guy. Am I right, Robin? Anyway, but the point is, so you find the hook, and you do the impressions. And when someone asks you to steal that hook, you’re not inclined to just give it away as you wouldn’t be inclined to give away an observation of a joke. You have, Hey, can I do that joke that you’re doing? No, it’s my joke. I thought of that. So everyone’s very protective of that. And every guy that does impressions, I don’t consider myself an impressionist. I consider myself a comedian who does impressions, you know, there’s rich little, there’s all these guys that are really just impressionist. And then there are comedians who do impressions, like the aforementioned Billy Crystal and all these guys that I admired Eddie. So but the point is the progression and the evolution of years and years of getting away from impressions and finding my voice and doing bits and observations in my voice, and what do I care about? What do I like talking about? And what’s my point of view that took years and now I just sort of sprinkle impressions as a little you know, if you saw my our special, I did a few impressions here and there, but mostly it’s me talking as me and that took forever to come out of my shell, to you know, I’ll never forget my, my older brother Steven saw me, like two years into me doing stand up and I was doing a bit as mean, he goes, you were you were talking like you I never seen that. It was incredible to hear you on stage. I’m like, I know, I know. It was rough. But you know, that’s what
Jeremy Weisz 27:20
was your point, you know, and one of my favorites that you do is when you do the potty book, and you do a slew of impressions. So I urge people to check that out.
Elon Gold 27:33
You could see that on YouTube or you could see it on a special on YouTube. It’s just a singular like three minute bit, but that’s fun. And that happened out of a real situation where I’m reading the potty book to my kids, and it’s boring reading the same stupid book, you know, party book every night to your kids, whatever. Not that that’s the book I read every night. But you know, you read it a few times. So I just to entertain myself, not my two year old who doesn’t know what I’m doing. I just started doing did like, imagine if you know, Barack Obama, let me be clear, you have to go to the potty. Now, are you making number one? or number two? You know, or just doing Ray Romano? Oh, and then the the potty the book the book, the baby misses the potty. Oh, and then the duty is on the floor? Bad? No. Why? Anyway, and I just started doing that. For me. I’m reading this book in different voices literally just to entertain myself. And then I went, I should do this. And it was fun. You just take the book out and it’s a little closer and I stopped doing it. I retired it because I did it on a special and you always want to move on and keep writing and
Jeremy Weisz 28:36
grow positioning from doing the impressions the next evolution of yourself. Do you remember a point where those yourself and then there’s actually I don’t know if it was difficult for you or not, but to talk and actually do Jewish related jokes to not a Jewish audience.
Elon Gold 28:55
So that’s another evolution. And that’s, by the way, that’s a whole other podcast. Jason, I’m sorry, we’re out of time. But
Jason Ciment 29:04
that, but I always I was shocked to hear to put you guys together so I’m enjoying it.
Elon Gold 29:08
It was You’re right. It was a combination of, you know, you have to as a writer, write what you know, and write what you care about. And all I know is my very Jewish life. I mean, I’m observant. I keep kosher Shabbat I put on till on all that stuff. So you can’t turn off your observational II when you’re sitting in shool. You have a thought that’s funny. And then you want to go on stage and tell it but you can’t go to the laugh factory or the comedy cellar and be like, Hey, you know that my pizza and what you know, what are you talking about? So I started developing two separate acts. One was a totally Jewish act that I would do for synagogue events or fundraisers or I go to Israel and perform there and then it’s a secular act that you see in my special that I do at clubs or at home. corporate events or whatever and but what I really tried to do is meld the two and that’s what I’ve been working on for a few years and also my manager I mean literally 10 years ago said you you’ve got to lean into the Jewish thing and you’ve got to own it even more because and that’s why I like you know the name of my special is ilango chosen and taken and it’s based on a joke about me being married and Jewish and and you know, just chosen just that is like there it is in the title Oh, here’s a Jewish guy and just leaning into that, because he explained to me goes, you know, you write really good relationship material. But there are comedians that write better you write really good political humor, but they’re comedian Bill Maher that they they’re better because no one is better at the insights into Judaism into our culture and heritage. No one and I go well, I think Jackie Mason’s way because, but even Jackie Mason is brilliant as he was, he would really go surface Judaism, cultural Judaism, he would never go deep. I wish he did. And he would never talk about our rituals, customs holidays that I like to poke fun. I don’t make fun. I poke fun at them as an insider. And you know, he wouldn’t do that. So he said, You gotta if you’re the best at something lean into that just do that. But now I’m trying to and again last few years, really meld and mix and make it where that I, you know, identify always as a Jewish guy. And that my point of view is everything as this Jewish comedian, but also relatable, it has to be relatable. And but I learned a lesson A few years ago, because what I do is I I still shy away from getting to Jewish, as they say, in front of a non Jewish audience, and I learned a lesson not to even do that. I saw. I went to see my old pal Dave Chappelle, at who played Howard Stern, Robin quivers to my Howard Stern and those sketches that Howard saw and loved then invited me on and didn’t even know he’s like, oh, who’s this guy doing Robin? He’s great. And I’m like, Oh, that’s Dave Chappelle is a young comedian. He’s great. No one knew who he was at the time. And but I went to see Chappelle at Radio City and his guest star. He always brings up a few other comedians, where he comes on was Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart, at Radio City Music Hall, predominantly black audience starts doing bits about a Seder plate. And um, and people are laughing, and I’m like, that’s it. I’m never gonna be afraid to get to inside baseball, Judaism, baseball, I’m never gonna be too afraid. If these guys are laughing at a Seder plate, then maybe they have some frame of reference and they have friends who had Seder and they know what a Seder is, they know what Passover is, just just just don’t be afraid Be true to yourself. Right? What you know, right? What you care about, and people will laugh, you know, sometimes, Gary go perfect example. This is Gary Gulman, who’s literally top three most brilliant, I’m
Jason Ciment 33:06
observing what is a great observation as
Elon Gold 33:09
observations, comedians of the day like literally as far as prolific and constantly writing and the greatest material he’s up there with, you know, John Delaney, Dave Attell, Ricky Jovi, like all these top guys that are just so brilliant. So Gary Gulman, I had this conversation he goes, You know, I just saw you’re, like, by accident came over on YouTube. Your bit about the Jewish calendar is the only calendar with minutes on it. You know, every other calendar has months, weeks, days, no minutes, right? You don’t open up like an American calendar, look at an American holiday be like, oh, Martin Luther King Day starts at 548 ends the next day at 652. You don’t have that. But all of our Jewish holidays, literally have a start time and every Shabbat every Friday on the calendar. It has a time it has minutes. It has Shabbat starts at 539. And he says that’s a brilliant bit the Jewish calendar, only calendar minutes on it, why aren’t you doing that and your regular act, and I went taught you have to grow up with that calendar on your fridge with the times with the minutes to really appreciate he goes, No, he goes, all you have to do is explain it. All you have to do is just tell people what the Jewish calendar has, and then they’ll appreciate that it’s the only calendar with minutes on it. I said okay, fine, I agree. But the ones who did have that calendar growing up will relate and connect on such a deeper level and it’ll be so much more powerful to them because they live with that. And otherwise it’s just like what’s he talking about? There’s minutes on what and then they’re laughing because it’s kind of funny but yeah, it’s it’s a tough thing. And it’s it’s so funny that you bring that up. You’re so insightful because I’ve been through two evolutions of impressions to regular media. And also me to Jewish me. That’s good questions. Here’s what you know on this podcast years ago,
Jeremy Weisz 35:07
years ago, I’m not you know, Jason, I know you have to hop off in a bit, but I want to ask a question to you for a second, but I am going to circle back, Elon to because you do talk about the commonalities between blacks and jews, which I want to go deeper in and I’d love to hear your favorite Jewish bits by non Jewish comedians. My personal is Sebastian Maniscalco. I’ve
Elon Gold 35:29
asked Passover Seders, the greatest thing, it’s amazing rate his greatest bit.
Jeremy Weisz 35:34
So we’ll circle back to that. But I want to talk about turning points. And when we talk about the intersection with comedy and business like the hustle, right, the hustle of comedy and business and you mentioned Curb Your Enthusiasm, right? There’s no better story about hustle than then you meeting Larry David, which we’ll go back to, but how do you know that free for you guys? I just do my research. So Jason, for you, you know, a turning point for you and your career. You know, what’s been a big turning point for you.
Jason Ciment 36:16
It’s an interesting story. So I was running a business I graduated law school got sworn in I was realized I don’t want to be a lawyer right now. I started a business when the internet was just kicking off and ran it for a number of years. And people used to come to me all the time. And they’d say, Hey, we you’re the only guy we know who understands internet and e-commerce and stuff like that. Can you help me? Can you help me, and I ended up getting a call from one of my first employees who had left and he we stayed in touch and he says, Listen, I think we should open up an agency together. And that was the big career change was setting aside the e-commerce business that I had, because was sort of running on its own, and launching an agency with the guy who had put himself through college working for me, and starting a business together with them. And we’ve been doing it for 16 years. And that was definitely a big unexpected pivot.
Jeremy Weisz 37:10
I love these turning points. And then Elon for you. You know, people say, Oh, he’s on Curb Your Enthusiasm. They don’t see all the decades of work. They also don’t see what you did to meet Larry David,
Elon Gold 37:26
decades and decades of work. And that Larry David is literally an hour and a half story. And I’m saving it for when I go on Howard and not that you’re not worthy of the story. But literally it’s The Longest Journey just
Jeremy Weisz 37:41
give people a little just a glimpse into
Elon Gold 37:43
the glimpse of it is that I was sick of waiting and asking my manager can you get me an audition for curb, I just want to go in I just want to be a part of this historic, greatest, greatest comedy show in the history of comedy. Like probably he taught himself because Seinfeld was the greatest and now curve is. And I just wanted to be a part of it. Like I wanted to be a part of Seinfeld and I was doing this terrible sitcom. By the way, Jason has to leave he shouldn’t. Yeah, I gotta run. Ask Jason. One more question. Come on. Now.
Jason Ciment 38:19
Honestly, this is about you. It’s all good. I feel great. Being a matchmaker.
Elon Gold 38:24
I love you, Jason, thank you.
Jason Ciment 38:26
Enjoy. And by the way, I’m going to share one thing I will say even if you don’t think impressions matter, I believe impressions from where you have your own observation. And I’m the recipient of it. It’s phenomenal because it takes your observation a step further, because now you’re doing it through a voice that adds texture to it. And that was my feedback. As a fan. I think it’s like I look forward to seeing impressions, especially when they’re your observation, you’re just mimicking them.
Elon Gold 38:53
They are fun. It’s got to be a joke and an observation with the voice of right. It’s
Jason Ciment 38:58
like the Billy Crystal, it’s not fun. It’s not funny, it’s tight. Right? So it’s just not fun. So it’s but it is, I look forward in a big way when I know. I’m gonna get your thoughts because Gary’s not the only really brilliant observation is, it’s about when you give voice and texture to those things. It elevates extra.
Elon Gold 39:17
It’s literally like extra credit on a test. It’s like, well, this is I’m throwing this into at no extra charge. You’re gonna voice an observation,
Jason Ciment 39:27
I suppose. It’s like, smart. Yeah, that’s my observation. So I
Elon Gold 39:31
don’t have much thank you for having an observation on my observations.
Jason Ciment 39:35
bigger guys.
Elon Gold 39:36
Jason, okay. I was doing this sitcom that was produced by Castle Rock. This is going back, I don’t know 20 something years. And it was on the same lot as Jerry was doing his show. And again, produced by the same company, Castle Rock. So my show was terrible. I won’t even say what it is because you won’t ever heard of it it was on the web it was on for two episodes and then cancelled. And I used to run from my soundstage and writers room to Jerry’s where it was a cool place to be it was with the cool kids and the smart kids and just hanging out in that writers room and Jerry you know was kind of a fan he knew I didn’t pay what always asked to do the global of do the global and do this do the questions in front of everybody. And so I got to know the writers and became friendly with them. And but I remember saying to the president of Castle Rock, I need to be a part of this last episode of Seinfeld they’re about to film I got to in some way I don’t care if I say two words, can I get your order I just want to be a part of history. This is the most historic greatest thing that ever happened to television comedy. This is literally it’s Lucy on the family Seinfeld it’s like it’s it’s This is it. And so he said okay, we’ll try to find you something and they said there’s no speaking parts that are available for you to do like everything is just the cast and whatever. And would you want to be an extra in the diner in the opening scene. And I was like, of course he goes and we’re having like a bunch of like, you know, interesting people sitting there like Rob Reiner, who is one of the heads of casts rock as we say in there, the president of NBC is going to be saying, so you can go and be in the diner set like done. And that’s a whole other story where I went to the diner and I messed up and slammed the door by accident. But anyway and ruin the first take of the last episode of Seinfeld But anyway, but I at least got to be there.
Jeremy Weisz 41:35
That’s your new claim to fame. I ruin the
Elon Gold 41:37
ruin the first. But when you watch that last episode, it’s like oh, there I am. I’m a part of in this tiniest way. But it was just so nice to be there really, and to be a part of it in that way of just experiencing it. And it was the same with curb. I wanted to be a part I am in the comedy business. When you’re in the comedy biz. It’s like when you’re a student, you want to go to Harvard. And when you’re in comedy, you want to do the Harvard of comedy. And right now that’s Curb and I just wanted to be a part of it and instead of waiting, you don’t wait for the phone to ring in show business or any business. I literally just barged into Larry’s office on my birthday as a birthday gift to me, which was 10 minutes of Larry and luckily because of my relationship with the Seinfeld writers, the great Jeff Schaffer who runs Curb with Larry spotted me like just as the receptionist was about to look at me and throw me have security literally throw me out or into prison. He went Elon What are you doing here and I go and funny story it’s my birthday oh come on back and then it’s a whole story and it goes on and that I went back the following year and they weren’t there I went back a year later and they were there and that’s all other story and that went great and all of my me both of my meetings with Larry were really great where I was really engaging him and making him laugh and obviously he was making me laugh and we had a rapport and I explained to him and again this is years in the making forget the 20 something years of being a comedy that where you get decent enough in your acting and your act and your writing where you are semi tiny bit worthy to be a part of that show in any small way but the tenacity of years of waiting and then I said to Larry I want to be a part of this and that’s what I said to Jerry I wanted to be and they threw me in that you know as an extra but I’ll do I’ll do anything and he goes okay he goes yeah, and I know what you can do and I know what you can’t do and I’m like what can’t I do that things you can’t do that things you can’t do? And by the way one of the things that can’t do as a good Larry David but anyway so so and then and then they offered me this role and then it gets cut and now I have a bigger role so it was a little thing we call bus shared meant to be it was meant to be that I was caught with all that pain and the year plus of waiting it now paid off from I’m really an integral part of the season where I my character shows up in a few seasons in a few episodes. So it’s exciting.
Jeremy Weisz 44:08
Elon, was it a tough decision for you if someone goes and watches and we’ll put that in the notes where people can watch the James Corden bit but um was it just a decision on gold on James Corden your your opener that you started with on there? Was that a tough decision?
Elon Gold 44:26
Do you mean the first word just being Jews? Exactly. You know just funny when I would work it out on the the hardest thing is that icebreaker that’s the hardest ask any comedian is just starting and I noticed that when I just got on stage and just went Jews and everyone just laugh they just know oh, this is gonna be fun. And and again, talk about leaning into what you are and who you are and all that. So it’s it wasn’t as bold and as daring as you think because it had been worked out for like couple of years. I would open with that, and I loved it and it’s not a joke it’s just a word but it’s just funny. And then it goes into a bit which I’m very proud of which is the sex money and food bit and the reason that I love that bit is because it dispels our negative stereotype all Jews care about is money and I have the whole audience asked what do you think is our number one they all yell money? And I’m like, how dare you and you’re wrong, it’s food and I correct them and I love that bit because it’s not just jokes I’m actually saying something I’m saying no, you’re dumb anti Semites it is food we’re obsessed with we don’t care about money we only need money to buy food and and that’s why I’m like proud of that bit. Because it doesn’t just kill there’s a message behind the jokes. And then the next bit which is the parking bit I just love and I honed that for a whole summer every night doing three sets a night and I finally got that right and and that’s just an analogy
Jeremy Weisz 45:56
that’s an amazing bit. Yeah, people just have to do it justice they have to just go You gotta watch the full and watch the full thing noon. Put on that part, you know, on you know, the anti semitism thing, you know, you’re probably on the road in various cities all over the US and Canada. Are there times are you ever experienced that in your show? Like because you are talking about Judaism or things related or maybe not,
Elon Gold 46:24
I have experienced it, you know, even in different forms, like even at the Montreal Comedy Festival, I did a one man show called Elon Gold Pro Semite, which I think is going to be the title of my next special and, and I was talking about this hate incident that happened to me, and my family. And I was also talking about the Middle East and I was talking about Israel and how basically the message whatever the jokes were, there’s a lot of jokes, but the message was how all I want and all most of us want is peace coexistence. We just want you know, like, for the majority of Israeli society wants nothing, nothing but coexistence. And they’ve proven that with the peace Abraham accords with peace agreements with Egypt and with attempted peace with all the Palestinian leadership and always failed because the Palestinian leadership from arafat to Abbas to now even Hamas are just horrible and don’t want peace. They just want a Jew free Palestine. And and so I was just explaining this in the most sort of loving, like, pro peace, pro coexistence way. And the guy gets up and just starts walking out. And I’m like, Where are you going? It was like in front of this big 400 seat theater and you see him He’s like, towards the front is getting up and leaving. And he goes on Palestinian, I don’t like anything you’re saying. And I’m like, that we should have peace, that we should live together and try to have harmony, and he just stormed out. And that’s just whatever that’s not even anti semitism. There’s been so you know, I’ve luckily been so few incidents on stage or but I remember, even when I was first starting out, and I had a gig in Kentucky, and the guy comes up, we should close with this because it’s a great little story. By the way, yesterday, I did a podcast I was cheating on you. I’m sorry. I know I don’t do a lot. I don’t I don’t know if you know, this is a very special thing. I think I can count on one hand because as I was telling you before we started, I wish I was listening to your podcast because it’s such a bright, insightful guy. And I just don’t listen to anything except an occasional Howard Stern whenever I have four kids, and I’m always running around developing projects and gigs and so just don’t sit and listen to podcasts. I wish I did. I know the whole world does. I’d love to hear yours. I’m definitely gonna listen to this one because God I was good in it anyway. But no, I and I was, what was I saying? Oh, you’re talking? Right? So I’m in Kentucky. Oh, that’s what I’m saying that we should do a part two. So yesterday, I did a podcast. And it was my part two because it went so well. It was like we’re not we haven’t scratched the surface. And so so I will grant you a part to you. I
Jeremy Weisz 49:10
watch the part one of that one. Oh, God. Oh, yeah. I
Elon Gold 49:13
said, Yeah, you’ve earned the porn. You’re so damn good. You may be one of the best podcasts I’ve spoken to. Thank you. And Ari Lamb is also brilliant. You got to hear his faith, podcast. good faith. Anyway. So here’s the point. We should continue this in a part two, but going back to Kentucky, it’s a it’s a story that I turned into a bit that I used to do my act. When I was in Kentucky, and the guy who booked me comes over to me after the show. And he goes, You know, I brought you juice down here. And I was like, Are there I lived in Kentucky,
Jeremy Weisz 49:45
by the way for a year said in Louisville, Kentucky. Yo, wow. Yeah. There’s one JCC I think in all of Kentucky, it’s in Louisville. So amazing. Yeah.
Elon Gold 49:56
No, so he says to me, I gotta hear more about that. By the way, by your experience in Kentucky. He says you know why you know why I brought you Jews down here and I went Are there others What do you mean? I’m looking around like and he goes because you Jews it was just me by the way he goes because you Jews is funny and like oh yeah and he goes yeah you Jews Let me tell you think about all them funny Jews you got you got that Adam Sandler Berg you got Ben Stiller Stein very son and failed and he’s adding Jewishness to already pretty juicy names and he goes all you Jews is funny as hell which by the way is a place you go and burn unless you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and I just immediately like just froze and just turned into Woody Allen I was like, you know, I only accept Visa and MasterCard and it’s like such a shocking thing that he’s telling me I’m gonna burn in hell for being Jewish and Jesus and that’s why he brought me down because you use is funny and it was like Oh my I literally went to my hotel room triple lock the door. I think I like slept in my clothes just woke up the next morning and left. But yeah, you experience it and I had you can google Elon Gold hate incident that happened to me and my family were all fine, but it was just words. Luckily,
Jeremy Weisz 51:15
I didn’t hear that. Yeah, yeah. But
Elon Gold 51:18
listen, unfortunately, it’s rearing its ugly head in a in a much bigger way. Now it’s sort of subsiding a bit where thank God, we’re not feeling threatened. Like we can’t walk out on the street with a yarmulke or go to a kosher restaurant. There were attacks in LA in New York, and you forget Kentucky, the salary on cosmopolitan cities, there have been many, numerous attacks, enough to have us all scared. And, and but I feel like that also coincides with what’s going on in Israel. So when, when Hamas starts up with Israel, and Israel defends itself and has to retaliate, of course, always aiming at targets and missile sites. And never people in fact calling and saying we’re about to hit this building full of missiles. So we don’t have our people killed. We don’t want to kill your people, either. You may want to ask them to evacuate, and then they’ll bomb it, which is like what other moral army does that? And then still, Israel gets blamed. And because no matter what, there’ll be casualties of war, and every death on both sides is a tragedy. So when there are deaths on their side, it emboldens all these people to hate Israel even more, they’re murdering Palestinian kids like no, no, if Hamas didn’t fire a rocket, there wouldn’t be one dead on either side. But either way, they just look at this conflict from this conflict from a lens of total just totally incorrect based on Bella deeds and, you know, false narratives like apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and they just get so angry that it translates into we’re going to attack Jews on the streets the way you know Trump calling it the China virus and then there were attacks on Asian people because people are so angry as they should be at the Chinese government for unleashing this and allowing it and all the lies and misinformation that happened from there as they should be angry at the Chinese government but not at Asian people walking down the street who have nothing to do with Wu Han in the lab and what went on in the cover ups and all that you got to be insane to attack a Chinese person and you have to be insane to attack a Jew for a conflict in the Middle East that is started by a terrorist group and and but again, it doesn’t Bolden them they’re killing them we’re going to kill that we’re going to attack them. So it happens these flare ups happen where it spills out over into the streets and then just your average Jew is getting attacked because of what’s going on 1000s of miles away that you have no nothing to do with so but but it’s calmed down now because the conflict is is is in a bit of a lull now thank god till the next flare up. But yeah, it’s it’s out there, it’s prevalent, and it’s always under the surface. I think a lot of people just need a reason to hate whether it’s racism, whether it’s anti semitism, you know, they just need that that blood libel, they kill Jesus, let’s kill them, you know, they’re killing Palestinians, let’s kill them. It’s just they just need that reason. But this is a longer conversation. We don’t have time to get into this.
Jeremy Weisz 54:12
So I want to know, I really, I want to get deeper into some things maybe in the part two, as far as you know, the commonality in blacks and Jews. I’d love to hear more, kind of extend this conversation on the controversial bits that you’ve had, maybe you don’t even consider them controversial, but once you actually released them into the audience, you know, really edgy, edgy. But I kind of want to end this one in line because I know you have to run in a minute with a couple of lessons you learned from colleagues and mentors, a couple of lessons from Dave Chappelle a couple lessons you’ve learned from Larry David or anyone else that you can think of,
Elon Gold 54:55
you know, it’s so funny because from Chappelle, literally literally from study Seeing him as a kid when nobody knew who he was. And I would just watch him and in awe. And I remember just having the thought, everything that he says is precious. And Seinfeld and rock also taught me this, that the words are precious, I used to just go on stage and again, do impressions or just mess around. But what you’re saying is so precious and important. And obviously, we all need jokes, we all need to get laughs. But again, if you’re saying something that’s bigger than the joke, if there’s meaning and message behind it, you know, obviously with Dave, it’s a lot to do with black culture with fighting against, against racism against police brutality, you know, and it’s, again, talking about what you know, and what you care about, and what you’re mad at, you know, like, he’s mad, rightfully so about the injustice and inequality that we’re still facing, or they are that I just say we, anyway, or many of us groups are facing, and that lesson of like, you know, be careful with Not Be careful, but make sure that you’re not just up there, you know, doing jokes. Now, again, there’s so many comedians that are just silly and Goofy, or just have funny observations about regular daily life or relationships. They’re not necessarily same, but they’re still again, speaking on the human experience, and allowing us all to connect as a human race. And sometimes it’s not about just race, it’s about the human race. And that’s important as well, but just care about the craft work hard at it. I never, in my first few years, it came so easily to me, because impressions are a natural, innate, inborn gift God given me I take no credit for that little talent that I have. And I would just use my little minimal talents and just do them and have fun with them. I never worked hard. I never spent hours a day like I do now. Writing, I never hit the stage every night like I tried to do now. I would do it when I wanted to and write a joke here and there and whatever. And whatever came to me I’d write down but you got it. There’s a work ethic there is I learned so much from Brock, Chappelle Seinfeld about work ethic, and how the precious pneus of every word and every bit, there’s a lot to be learned as far as the edgy stuff. I love talking about a subject matter that, again, bothers me. And with comedy, it’s what but what’s bothering you now, a lot of it. And that’s what my whole thing is, like, you know, I don’t mean to complain, but and then I start complaining about something. And it’s because all of comedy is really complaining, we’re complaining about things we’re complaining about our wives or husbands. We’re complaining about our president, we’re complaining about everything, everyday life. And a lot of what I like to complain about is big topics, like anti semitism, like homophobia, like racism. So if you’re going to go there, it’s going to be edgy. And in my special, I literally use the N word, when I’m telling a story about my experience, you know, with this guy that said it to me and I, and the whole joke is to say the word, you can’t do the job and go and the N word, it ruins the job. So I’m saying the word but I’m not using it. In fact, the opposite I am talking about it in, you know, in a way that to illustrate how It disgusts me how that word is the most dehumanizing despicable word. And I think if you’re on the right side of the thing you’re talking about, it’s okay to use the word we don’t have to be babies and go you know, the N word. You know, if I’m on the right side against the word, I’m going to use the word even if that offends people, and I’m going to use other words and you know, my, you know, I always talk to my gay brother about using the word faggot on stage, as long as I’m against the word and I’m on the right side of it. I’m gonna use it kike I’m allowed to use but still you really shouldn’t say kike a little bit unless you’re against it and showing how terrible the word is. You say the K word. What am I going to say? So yeah, I go to these edgy places. But it’s really comes from such a place of like, love all people, you know, have a line of my echo the only group How do you hate groups of people like the only groups of people I hate or hate groups? I can’t How do you hate groups of people when there’s so many individuals out there to hate? Why would you pick on a group so you know, it, cut it really The whole theme and I hope you picked up on that a little bit in all those bits and chosen and taken where it’s all about just commonalities and we’re all one people and blah blah blah and Can’t we all just get along even though we never can and never will.
Jeremy Weisz 1:00:16
I love it Elon first of all let’s point people towards where they can check out more I know they can go to ElonGold.com where else should point Instagram
Elon Gold 1:00:24
at Elon Gold my special streaming on Amazon Prime you go to YouTube type in my name. A lot of fun clips will show up. I’m all over the place and then I’m on the Dr. J podcast rise up the best. The best. We got to do a part two,
Jeremy Weisz 1:00:39
Part two it is. Elon
Elon Gold 1:00:41
Barely scratched it.
Jeremy Weisz 1:00:42
Thank you. Thanks, everyone. We’ll see you on the other side.
