Part 16 (1/2)

Judd: And you think it ended there?

Jeff: I do.

Judd: The other day, my daughter said that in the second or third grade, she was so into American Girl dolls that she decided that she wanted to see what an American Boy doll looked like. And googled ”American Boy doll.” And saw- Jeff: A p.e.n.i.s?

Judd: Graphic s.e.x.

Jeff: Graphic s.e.x under ”American Boy doll”? I'm just trying to think how that goes together. By the way, you can google the word candle and the first thing that pops is- Judd: A candle in someone's a.s.s, yeah.

Jeff: So I'm thinking, American Boy doll...I guess there's a boy, he's a doll?

Judd: You think your eleven-year-old can't handle Susie Essman cursing?

Jeff: I don't know if it's Susie Essman's cursing as much as ”I'm going to f.u.c.k the Jew out of you, Larry.”

Judd: Why is that hurtful?

Jeff: When did hurtful pop up? Did I say I want my children to avoid all hurtful things? No. It's inappropriate because he's not quite going to get ”I'm going to f.u.c.k the Jew out of you.” There's certain- Judd: Why are you underestimating him?

Jeff: I don't know. I just, I just tend to- Judd: Does he beg you to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm? Does he say, ”Can I please watch it, Dad?”

Jeff: The truth is, he doesn't even want to watch it.

Judd: Yeah, or he's seen every episode at his friend's house. My kids would be like, ”No, I don't want to see 40-Year-Old Virgin. I don't want to see Knocked Up.” And then it just, like, hit me: Oh, they've already seen it.

Jeff: You worked with one of my heroes, Albert Brooks.

Judd: Yes, I did.

Jeff: So on the first day of shooting, he's doing a scene and you're directing, and you've got to give him a note.

Judd: Yes.

Jeff: What are you thinking? Because I know you love Albert like I love Albert.

Judd: Well, it's scary. But the process actually starts much earlier than that. You know, I wrote the part with him in mind and then gave it to him hoping he would do it. It would have been bad if he said no because I put in a lot of time thinking about him in the part, and then a lot of rehearsals so by the shoot, we're comfortable. I mean, I was still nervous. But it's not like I'm sweating it out.

Jeff: Well, if I'm suddenly directing Albert Brooks, it's going to be a bit freaky in my head.

Judd: Yeah, well, that is why I do a lot of rehearsals.

Jeff: Did you do rehearsals just to be calm with Albert?

Judd: Well, I actually did a lot of rehearsals with Albert because I wanted him to rewrite all of his scenes. We would improvise. I would say throw out the script but get to the same information and then we would play and I would chuck out more ideas.

Jeff: Did you videotape it?

Judd: I did. And then he would email me better jokes at night. He'd start thinking about it, like, What I can say is this. And so there was a great six-month period of getting pitches from Albert-all of which were great.

Jeff: So, let me see something here. Oh, you know what? We're almost at an hour.

Judd: How long are we supposed to talk?

Jeff: There's no ”supposed to,” but you know.

Judd: Like two?

Jeff: By the way, that's a question I want to ask you. What do you think about when you hear that Dane Cook or Dave Chappelle do like twelve-hour shows or whatever the h.e.l.l it is? Have you heard about that?

Judd: I have, yeah. Never seen it, though.

Jeff: I haven't seen it, either. You couldn't pay-I mean, G.o.d bless both of them, but I don't want to see- Judd: Actually, I saw Jim Carrey do that in like '89 or '88.

Jeff: What did he do?

Judd: We were at the Comedy Store. He's not megastar Jim Carrey yet, but he's solidly in the Living Color career Jim Carrey, and Sam Kinison comes in and does thirty or forty minutes-you know, an unannounced b.u.mp of Jim. ”Jim, you have to go on later, Sam Kinison's here.” And then Andrew Dice Clay comes in and does forty-five minutes and Jim is so mad that he keeps getting b.u.mped and now it's eleven, eleven-thirty at night and he was supposed to go on at like nine forty-five. So he decides that he is going to go onstage until they have to close the club. And so he does two hours straight, and the comedians are screaming because there are people who were supposed to go on after him.

Jeff: That's awesome.

Judd: It was awesome. I think that was the night he came up with Fire Marshal Bill.

Jeff: Yeah, because in those moments is where he'd come up with stuff.

Judd: He started just doing the burnt-guy face and complaining about how all of the electrical outlets weren't safe and he did that for thirty-five minutes to kill time. It was a great thing to witness.

Jeff: You came over to my apartment one day, when I was living on Genesee, and you said, ”You have to come down to Comedy Magic Club with me tonight, to see Jim Carrey.” And I go, ”The guy who does Sammy Davis and stuff like that?” And you're like, ”Yes, but he's changed everything. He's going to blow your mind.” You were adamant and so I went and it was ridiculous how great it was and-what was the opening that he did? He did some sort of thing where he pretended to be opening and then kept going and going until-he was Andy Kaufmanlike in what he was doing back then.

Judd: Well, you know, he had done impressions for a long time and then decided that he didn't want to be an impressionist-but he had no act. So he would go onstage with nothing, and do a set every night. After a year or two, he developed an act. But for a while, you would see Jim Carrey with nothing go onstage, searching. They were the best shows I've ever seen. He was just so interesting.

Jeff: Okay, here's the reason I said earlier, ”We've been here for an hour,” was not to stop things but- Judd: I have nowhere to go.

Jeff: You're committed.

Judd: I like to be here until people really want to leave. But that's kind of how I am as a person. That's why my movies are too long. That's why I eat too much.

Jeff: Where would you find that your movies are too long?

Judd: Where would you find out?

Jeff: Do your friends tell you, ”Your movie was too long”?

Judd: Oh yeah, everybody.

Jeff: Well, a couple of things on that. First off, I remember going to see a screening, an early screening, of Talladega Nights. You were there, I think.

Judd: Yes.

Jeff: Okay. You were there. It was at Sony. Did you produce that movie?

Judd: Yes.