Comedian Craig Gass joined The Drive with Clint Stoerner and Ron Hughley from Radio Row in New Orleans.
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00:00Flight by Yngling presents Sports Radio 610 on Radio Row.
00:12Alright, welcome back as we are live here at Radio Row here in New Orleans.
00:16And we have another member sitting in the exclusive furniture hot seat right here.
00:23We got you there.
00:25Got you in the lazy boy in the hot seat to do his thing, joining the drive.
00:30Craig, Craig Gass who joins us and you know him, stand up comic.
00:36Also does work on, did work on King of Queens.
00:40Family guy, American dad, great voice work.
00:43And I'm telling you this, I don't, like I'm going to make you all wait through this because I need to hear this myself.
00:49Everybody I keep hearing says he does a serious Tracy Morgan.
00:55You talked to me about it, I told you don't do it.
00:57Before we get on, I want to wait, make people listen to this.
01:00And while you're at it, if you don't know what Craig looks like, look him up.
01:04And tell me if that guy right there says he's about to crush, he's about to crush.
01:09And if you're watching him on YouTube, which some people aren't watching,
01:12if this guy's about to crush a Tracy Morgan impression.
01:16I can't wait, I can't wait to hear this man.
01:18So, I'm known as a comedian who does voices.
01:21I've always been able to do any voice that I hear because of how I grew up.
01:24My whole family's deaf.
01:25My mom, my dad, and my sister are all, which sounds like a joke, but it's not.
01:29My mom, my dad, and my sister are all completely deaf.
01:31And growing up in a deaf family, I couldn't learn how to talk from my family.
01:35I learned how to talk by watching TV and I copied all the voices I heard on TV.
01:39And I always talk about the fact that I never got an accent from the Bronx, which is where I grew up.
01:47And in the Bronx sounds like Tracy Morgan.
01:49Everybody in the Bronx talk like this.
01:53Whether you black or white, male or female, that's crazy.
01:58Hey, this is the voice of your next door neighbor and I'm a Vietnamese girl.
02:03That's crazy.
02:04Like, everybody sounded like that.
02:06So, yeah.
02:07Yeah, that's Tracy.
02:08And dude, I remember the first time I met Tracy was at Saturday Night Live.
02:12I wrote for Weekend Update from 1998 to 2000.
02:15I wrote for Colin Quinn.
02:17I remember walking up to Tracy and I go,
02:19Hey, man, Tracy, I just want to say hello, man.
02:22My name is Craig Gass.
02:23I'm a comedian.
02:24I write for Colin.
02:25And, dude, you're my favorite cast member on the show.
02:28And he goes, Yeah?
02:30That's crazy.
02:31You a stand-up comedian?
02:33And I go, Yeah.
02:34And he goes, What you doing next Friday?
02:35And I go, Next Friday?
02:37He goes, Next Friday!
02:38And I go, I don't know.
02:39What am I doing next Friday?
02:40He goes, You open up for me at the New York Comedy Club.
02:42And I was like, Really?
02:44Yeah, I would love to.
02:46So that I had nothing going on in my life back then.
02:48My whole week was like, I'm opening up for Tracy Morgan.
02:51I'm opening up for Tracy Morgan.
02:52And then I go to the show.
02:53And this is the first time I realized how unusual Tracy Morgan is.
02:57Because I did the show.
02:58Tracy comes up to me.
03:00And he says, Craig, what you drinking?
03:03And I go, Oh.
03:04Come on, man.
03:05You've got to stop.
03:06I go, Can I get a Corona?
03:09And he goes, Yeah, you get a Corona.
03:11So how do you like this?
03:13And I go, How do I like this club?
03:15And he goes, No, how do you like stand-up comedy?
03:17A ghost just walked into the room.
03:19Yeah, I think Tracy just knocked the door.
03:21He said, How do you like stand-up comedy?
03:24And I said, Oh, man, I'm head over heels in love with stand-up comedy.
03:29He goes, You've got to be like Bruce Lee and the six-foot kick.
03:32And I go, The what?
03:34And he goes, You don't know about Bruce Lee and the six-foot kick?
03:37They say when Bruce Lee kick you, you go back six feet.
03:41That's why when people ask me, How you living?
03:43I'm like, I'm six-foot kicking it.
03:46You've got a six-foot kick your way through life.
03:49That's the way you've got to approach your life.
03:51And he got nose-to-nose with me.
03:54And spit was flying out of his mouth into my eyeball.
03:57And I go, What are you talking about?
04:00I had no idea what he was talking about.
04:02A week later, I'm telling other comedian friends of mine.
04:05I'm like, Man, that Tracy Morton guy is kind of weird, man.
04:08And one of the guys in that group was a guy named Kurt Metzger.
04:12Kurt was writing for the Chappelle Show.
04:14And he goes, Dude, I was in a car with that guy on the West Side Highway.
04:19And Chappelle Show had only done one season.
04:22And he goes, I looked at Tracy and I said, Oh, I don't know if I told you.
04:26Chappelle Show got picked up for a second season.
04:28So that's cool, right?
04:30I can make some more money.
04:31And he said, Tracy just went, Damn, Kurt.
04:33And he slammed the brakes on.
04:35Pulled the car over on the side of the West Side Highway.
04:37And he goes, What are we in, Kurt?
04:39Right now, what are we in?
04:40Me and you.
04:41And he goes, In a car?
04:42And he goes, No, we in show business, Kurt.
04:44We in show business.
04:46How many letters in the word show?
04:48And he goes, Four.
04:50And he goes, How many letters in the word business?
04:52And he goes, Eight.
04:55And he goes, Don't you forget that, Kurt.
04:57And he goes, What?
04:58That's not even a lesson.
05:00We're counting letters?
05:02Yeah, all the Tracy Morgan stories are just.
05:06I just love that guy, man.
05:09He's one of the funniest dudes on the planet.
05:11But just loves stand-up comedy.
05:15And we were talking about the anniversary of SNL coming up.
05:18And how Tracy's been doing a lot of interviews.
05:21He's just one of the most raw, funny people I've ever met.
05:25But he's always talking in euphemisms.
05:28There's an urban legend, Tina Fey, pitched the idea to Tracy like this.
05:35She goes, Hey, Tracy, I got this idea for a show.
05:39I'm pitching an idea to NBC for a show about a show at 30 Rock.
05:45And one of the characters on the show is a guy named Tracy.
05:48What's his last name on the show, 30 Rock?
05:50I can't remember.
05:51Tracy something.
05:53And she goes, I got this idea for this guy.
05:55He's a comedian on a show at 30 Rock.
05:57His name's Tracy.
05:58That's him.
05:59It's him.
06:00But she goes, so the idea is the character is this comedian named Tracy.
06:04And the country loves Tracy.
06:06Everybody in America loves Tracy.
06:08But what the country doesn't know is that Tracy's crazy.
06:13He's certifiably insane.
06:15Do you think you could play that?
06:17And Tracy, the urban legend is that he was like, Yeah, I could do that.
06:21I used to live on Dagger Bar.
06:24I used to mess around with Yoda's cousin.
06:26I could do anything.
06:28Okay.
06:29I hear him.
06:30I can't never believe that he's being serious.
06:33Yeah.
06:34Dude, one of the great.
06:35Oh, man.
06:36I can't tell you the story.
06:37But I don't know.
06:39I already passed one story.
06:41All right.
06:43All right.
06:44So if you dump this.
06:49Watch.
06:50It's at Caroline's Comedy Club.
06:51It's a Monday night.
06:52This agent comes up to me and says, Did you hear about that party last week?
06:55I go, Did you hear about what?
06:56He goes, Did you hear about that party last week?
06:58Tracy Morgan had a party.
07:00Everybody took their clothes off, and they all started jumping in this.
07:03And I was like, What?
07:04He goes, We're standing around with suits on, and there's naked people.
07:08And I went, Wait, like that?
07:10And he's like, No, just all right.
07:12And then at that moment, Tracy Morgan walks around the corner.
07:15I haven't seen Tracy in probably a year at this point.
07:17And I go, Tracy, I heard your party was messed up.
07:21I heard your party was messed up, man.
07:23Tracy rolled over and just eyeballed me, and he just went, It was crazy.
07:30It was crazy.
07:31You know what's crazy about it, Craig?
07:33When you get off on my floor, you don't even hear nothing.
07:36You don't hear nothing at all.
07:38Then you start walking towards my apartment, but you still don't hear nothing.
07:42Then you knock on my door, but you still don't hear nothing, right?
07:46And when I open the door, there's buttholes and toes everywhere.
07:50And I went, What the hell?
07:52And just because I've never heard that phrase before, I said,
07:54Did you just say buttholes and toes?
07:58And Tracy Morgan said, Yeah, before he added some of them toes in the buttholes.
08:03And he walked out of the room.
08:04That's the most magical story I've ever heard in my life.
08:07But, yeah, man, that guy, Tracy, I still see him around in the city,
08:12and he's just one of the nicest guys, one of the most likable guys.
08:17He will talk to anybody, but he's always talking in euphemisms.
08:21And it's just, you know.
08:23But, yes, so I'm a comedian who does voices.
08:27And I talked to the Chiefs and the Eagles yesterday,
08:30and I'm getting help from a friend of mine by the name of Steve Gleason.
08:34Steve Gleason is a legend in the town of New Orleans.
08:38He was just recognized on the ESPYs for his courage, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
08:44Steve Gleason played for the New Orleans Saints, was a stud.
08:48They actually have a statue of him in front of the Superdome.
08:51But he was diagnosed in the middle of his NFL career with ALS.
08:55He now is only capable of communicating through a machine like a laptop.
09:02I don't know what you call that device.
09:04And he uses his eyes to form sentences.
09:06And he's one of the funniest dudes I've ever met.
09:09I met him through a guy.
09:10A friend of mine plays guitar in the band Pearl Jam.
09:12And Steve's a huge Pearl Jam fan.
09:14So I've been running into him over the years.
09:17And he's just, like, he's so quick.
09:20I remember he said, I saw him backstage at a Pearl Jam show,
09:24and he goes, like, through his machine and said,
09:26Hey, Craig, come over here and entertain my friends.
09:29And I walked over.
09:30I was like, hey, what's up?
09:31You guys here with Steve?
09:32I'm a comedian.
09:33You guys want to hear some impressions?
09:35Name a celebrity.
09:36I start doing impressions for them.
09:37And then Steve, on his machine, said, Craig's family is deaf.
09:41That's probably how he learned how to talk.
09:44And I said, that's what he just said is true.
09:47That's because my family's deaf.
09:48I couldn't learn how to talk from my family.
09:50I learned how to talk by watching TV.
09:51I copied all the voices.
09:52That's accurate, Steve.
09:54And Steve goes, my kids will probably end up sounding like robots.
09:58And I was like, wow, damn, wow.
10:02Like, I saw he came at the Super Bowl in Houston to the show I did in Houston.
10:09And after the show, he said so many nice things about my stand-up.
10:13And I was like, oh, my God, can I hug you?
10:15Can I give you a hug?
10:16And he said, of course.
10:18I love hugs.
10:19And I went to hug him.
10:20He said, not as much as I love BJ's.
10:23And I went, what?
10:25You can't.
10:26Come on, man.
10:27But you just gave him the hug, right?
10:29Yeah.
10:30And he just, I pitched an idea.
10:36I said, Steve, I think it would be great if you help me interview the Chiefs
10:40and the Eagles.
10:41And this is the angle I want to go with.
10:42And he said, I love it.
10:44Let's do it.
10:45So, he's totally into it.
10:46He's very self-effacing.
10:47He's one of the funniest dudes I've ever met.
10:49So, we're putting together this incredible package with the Chiefs
10:52and the Eagles this week with the team.
10:54Real quick, before we go, you gave us Tracy Morgan.
10:58You got a couple more in your belt real quick?
11:01Yeah, man, I've always been able to do any voices I hear.
11:04Because I grew up in a deaf family, the weirder the voice,
11:07the easier it is for me to do it.
11:08Like Christopher Walken has a real stop and go kind of voice
11:15where he'll talk every once in a while.
11:18He'll stop.
11:20And then he'll keep going.
11:22Or Adam Sandler, who is really silly.
11:24And that's a shimmy-do.
11:27And then my first episode of Family Guy that I ever worked on,
11:31they asked me to do Al Pacino.
11:32It was just me and Seth MacFarlane in the studio,
11:34and Seth kept doing one line as Peter Griffin where he kept saying,
11:37This is crazier than when Al Pacino was a slumlord laundromat tenant.
11:42And then they cut to me as Al Pacino surrounded by a bunch of broken down
11:48You're out of order.
11:51And you're out of order.
11:53And you're all out of order.
11:56And we did that three times, and Seth MacFarlane goes,
11:58All right, man, I think we're good.
12:01And this is embarrassing.
12:04I got nervous because I thought we're going to be friends now
12:06because we're working together.
12:08And I stood up and I went, All right, so you want to hang out?
12:11And he goes, What do you mean hang out?
12:14And I go, You want to grab a coffee or something?
12:17And he goes, I got to work.
12:19And I said, All right, you want me to leave?
12:20And he goes, Yeah, get the hell out of here.
12:21And I was like, Oh, my God.
12:22I grabbed my paperwork and I walked out.
12:23They didn't call me again for like six months.
12:25Then they started calling me and saying, Hey, can you do this voice
12:27or this voice?
12:28And everything they gave me, I was like, I can do any voice you need.
12:30I'll do any voice.
12:31I can do any voice.
12:32And every time I come back in, Seth MacFarlane's never around.
12:36It's always Mike Henry, who does the voice of Cleveland
12:39and the creepy old guy.
12:40And every time I see Mike Henry, I go, Hey, Mike, is Seth around?
12:43Every time I see him, he goes, Don't worry about Seth.
12:45We'll get you out of here real quick.
12:47Like, Oh, man, we'll get you out of here really quick.
12:50So, yeah, man, I'm going to be in Houston later this year.
12:53And when I do, I'll come by and visit.
12:55I got many more Tracy Morgan stories for you.
12:58And there's a couple comedy specials that will be out between now
13:02and the next time I see you.
13:03I'm putting out two comedy specials.
13:05So, yeah, I'm looking forward to coming in and talking more sports with you guys
13:09and sharing this thing I'm about to do with Steve Gleason.
13:12At some point we'll get to sports.
13:13But, yeah.
13:14Craig, we appreciate you joining us, man.
13:17I know you got a lot of spots to be in.
13:19I want to say that I'm a bit disappointed because I feel like you didn't think
13:23I had Pearl Jam.
13:24Because the way that you explained it, and it was like,
13:28Hey, you probably don't know who Pearl Jam is.
13:30So let me explain.
13:31They're like, I don't know who Eddie Vedder is.
13:33I don't know who Pearl Jam is.
13:34The way you just came, because you didn't do it that way.
13:36You came this way.
13:37You came this way.
13:40I don't know if you know who Pearl Jam is.
13:42My friend plays in a band called The Rolling Stones.
13:48People always give me crap for that.
13:49They always are like, Yeah, my buddy plays in this band, Pearl Jam.
13:52People are like, Yeah, I know Pearl Jam.
13:53It's just a habit that I have of my musician friends.
13:57Sometimes people don't know what band.
13:59But, yeah.
14:00Mike's band is a big band.
14:01All right, Craig.
14:02We don't need you anymore.
14:03All right.
14:04Thank you for having me on, man.
14:05Thank you, guys.
14:06Craig, that was fun.
14:08That was a lot of fun.
14:09That's crazy.
14:11Hey, man.
14:12I can't even.
14:13That broke me down right there.
14:15That one I thought you was going to slide into detail next.
14:18But that broke me down.
14:20Coming up.