AND HERE’S MODI
AND HERE’S MODI is an inside look at the man behind the microphone. Hosted by comedian, Modi (@modi_live), AHM features a raw and unfiltered side of the comedian rarely seen on stage. He always finds the funny as he navigates the worlds of comedy, trending topics, his personal life and spirituality. AHM is co-hosted by Periel Aschenbrand (@perielaschenbrand) and Leo Veiga (@leo_veiga_).
AND HERE’S MODI
Arthur Luxenberg (Returns)
Episode 145: Modi's close friend (and podcast sponsor) Arthur Luxenberg returns for another episode on chesed, stuttering, and their mutual obsession with pretzels. Arthur was also featured on episode 106, which you can listen to here.
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Hi listeners and welcome to episode 145. This week Arthur Luxemburg, king Arthur, came to the studio. It was just me and him. We had a powwow two friends chatting. It was so much fun. If you get a chance, also look at the video. He wore this insane blue checkerboard blazer.
Speaker 1:We had deep conversations about Passover programs and this will be airing during Passover. I hope everybody's having an amazing Passover program and the entertainment where you are is good. I will be in Mexico for two shows those that will see me. I cannot wait. I love Passover shows Arthur and I spoke about.
Speaker 1:Of course we always have the stuttering in common. Of course we always have the stuttering in common. We spoke about why people who went to law school and don't practice law always introduce themselves as lawyer but not practicing. We had an emotional conversation, absolutely emotional, heartwarming, really a connection, a bond over pretzels, just discussing how important pretzels are and how delicious they are and all kinds of textures. Just discussing how important pretzels are and how delicious they are and all kinds of textures. And we really it was. If you catch anything of this episode, make sure it's the pretzel conversation. Periel was on the sideline giving us talking points. We had a great time. Thank you very much for listening and don't forget I'm on tour. There are shows everywhere, america and Europe. We are in Warsaw, manchester, we are in Frankfurt, munich, we are in Geneva and in Antwerp. Wow, it's an amazing tour. It's going to be two weeks of those shows, unbelievable. And then we have the Summer Laugh the Laugh-Away Camp Instead of Sleepaway Camp, laugh-away Camp instead of Sleep-Away Camp, laugh-away Camp, with shows in Omaha, nebraska, in Indianapolis, in Columbus, ohio, hampton Bays, which is in the Hamptons, right between both West and regular Hampton. Everything's available on modilivecom. Enjoy the episode.
Speaker 1:Welcome to, and here's Modi. Welcome to and here's Modi. We are here today. It's me and my guest and it's Arthur Luxemburg. Welcome back. I can't tell you how many people loved the episodes you were on and everywhere we go, people know you say when is Arthur coming back? One guy I'm horrible with names, you know that, but in the meet and greet set I went to law school with him and I heard his voice. I felt like I was in law school again. I felt like I was 23 years old in law school and just so. I'm so happy. So I recently began to learn how to use chat GPT, so I put in this is what I put in for an introduction and questions with you. This is what I wrote today. This is my first time really using ChatGPT. Okay, I wrote.
Speaker 1:I'm the number one Jewish comedian in the world. I have a podcast called, and here's Modi. Today, our guest is a friend that I have met later in life, which I always think is a special thing to meet friends later in life. His name is Arthur Luxemburg. He is a partner at Weitz and Luxemburg Law Firm, which also is a sponsor of our podcast. Arthur and I share a miraculous journey because we are both stutterers and work in a field that would never think stutterers would work in. I'm a comedian and he's a court attorney and a law attorney. I don't know how to say what you do exactly. This episode will be airing during Passover. Arthur will be at a Passover program in Florida and I'll be doing two shows in Mexico. The Passover programs are special, unique, niche events that happen in the Jewish world. Please give me five questions to ask him. I don't like any of the questions, by the way, but that was it. That's a good introduction. No, no, periel just gave me a eh.
Speaker 2:That was pretty good information that you fed into there. You'd think they would come up with five good questions. Give me one, one of the questions that they gave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give me just one. They went for the stuttering stuff. I don't have it. I don't have it. So much for that. So much I'm learning. I'm learning how to use GPT Really. How are you?
Speaker 2:Great, I'm great, really good to be here again.
Speaker 1:This is going to air Passover Nice Next Wednesday. Beautiful yeah, in the middle of all the Pesach programs, those of you who don't know what that is.
Speaker 2:How do you even begin to describe a Passover program? By the way, is that going to get the full impact? Airing this over Passover.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it will be. The fans know Wednesday this comes out. Fans come on, they listen to it. They plan like a walk around it. They plan cooking around it. The people tell us when they listen to this it they plan cooking around it. The people tell us, when they listen to this, it's like when they drive they put this on. It helps them just relax. It gives them a pause from life. Listening to our shtos, our nourish kite, makes them happy, which.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:And yeah.
Speaker 2:How do you prepare? I'll tell you how we prepare. We have a moving company come, they pick up everything in the house and they move it into a couple of hotel rooms, either upstate New York or Miami or, in our case, in Palm Beach. You're going to be in Palm Beach. Be in Palm Beach. Yeah, it's where we've been for many, many years. Our entire family is there. We're over 40 people now and it's really an incredible time.
Speaker 1:So 40 people are at this Passover program. I've been to his table so two or three years ago I performed at this event. And we get there and Arthur's like you're eating with us, you're staying with us, the whole thing with us, 40 people. Leo's still new to Passover programs. We show up and it's just Jews and food and it's so unhinged and people who don't understand how crazy Passover programs are. You can't explain it to them. We get to your table. Randy shows up in pink pajamas and fluffy shoes All like Chanel. Everything is like thousands of dollars and her own water bottle and her own Snapple Kosher for Passover Snapple Things that they don't have in the program.
Speaker 2:I hope it was Kosher for Passover.
Speaker 1:Whatever it was, she came with it and she's like hi Leo, hi Moni, we're right here and we go, we sit down with her and we just and yeah, it's nice for me when I have family at like a program like this, and you were there, it was like having family there.
Speaker 1:It was a little bit different than the first time we met at a Passover program which was at the hotel upstate, the Rye Town Hilton. So during Passover, people who are well-to-do go to nice hotels and destinations, all kinds of places in Mexico and all of that. And then there's people who go to the Rye Hotel in upstate and that's because they really it's. Either it's less expensive but more it's like either they have a parent that's too old to travel or their daughter-in-law is like in her nine and a half month.
Speaker 2:That's typically what it is. It really wasn't the money, because the price was almost the same. I mean, you had to pay for airfare. You know, when you went to Florida. But going to Westchester, where the program at the Hilton was, it was really because there was a reason that you had to be there. And one of the fun things was is you'd see people either in the dining room or at the Minion and so why are you here? So why are you here? And someone would say, oh, my mother couldn't travel, or my daughter was pregnant Exactly what you said or you had to be. You know, during the intermediate days, during Cholamoi, yeah, somewhere you had to be at work. There was always a reason you were there. It couldn't just be because it was a great program, Right?
Speaker 1:Which also, by the way, one of the talking points we have for today. Since the last time we spoke, I told you that I've realized people that have law degrees and don't practice law talk about like they always introduce whatever they do. Like I'm an interior director, but I went to law school. I have a law degree. They tell you that. Have you noticed that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of that. I mean, the whole practicing of law is an anomaly in and of itself. Practicing law when do you ever get it right? But yeah, I mean that's what happens. A lot of people have law degrees but never do end up going in and working in the law for various reasons. You know there's a family business, you know they can't get a good enough job, and that's something else that we should really be talking about. But that's a very common thing that people go to law school.
Speaker 1:I don't walk around saying, hi, I'm a comedian, but I have a degree in uh, psychology from BU. I don't say that people with the law degree like put that I have a law degree, I have a law. Recently this happened to me too. Um, I went to get my orthotics and the doctor is a great doctor, dr Cement, and his husband. Husband runs the practice, because I guess he was a lawyer quit. Now he runs this practice.
Speaker 1:And within the first two interactions we had, he was telling me I'm a lawyer too. I was a lawyer, but now I run this practice. It was funny. I called him up. I said I need to make an appointment for this. I go. My name is Mody Rosenfeld, he goes. We just saw you at the Beacon. My parents are seeing you in Florida, so that was right away. It was already family. Okay, it's already family. And I get there and we start talking right away. I was a law degree, he goes. I was the attorney for Enron. Luckily I'm old enough to know what the hell he's talking about. But that was like. But that's a thing. Lawyers always talk about being lawyers, like you know. They don't just like it's. It's a thing. I don't know it's a thing. I don't know it's a thing, but what's the?
Speaker 2:typical reason that a person goes to law school, spends three years and then doesn't go into law, and I think that the answer is when you go to medical school, you learn how to be a doctor and typically you become a doctor and you're working in that profession for the rest of your life. When you go to law school, a lot of people don't know what they want to go into. They know they want some kind of professional degree, or their parents want them to have some kind of advanced degree, or their grandparents want them to, which was my case. They wanted me to be a doctor, but that didn't work out.
Speaker 2:So you go to law school because you don't know what you want to do. You waste a bunch of money and you waste time and then you decide what kind of job can I get? And if you don't get a good enough job or it's not something that really appealed to you, because you don't learn in law school how to be a lawyer, you learn how to approach things, but you don't learn the practical kind of things that you actually do once you become a lawyer and once you're working in a law firm, whereas in medical school and in those kind of other things. You actually learn how to be a doctor and do those kind of things in your residency, in your internship, whereas in law you don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you and I recently had dinner together and we were driving home and we passed by the building where you used to work, so you and I were chatting. You didn't really see where we were and I turned off the highway. What's that building? Woolworth building, woolworth building, yeah.
Speaker 2:Woolworth building. It's a good memory.
Speaker 1:And I saw you had an amazing memory. So we're driving by, I'm giving him a ride home and we drive by the I just by chance that's where Waze took me and we pass by the building. All of a sudden you look up and you see this building and you just had a moment and you go. I worked so hard in that building.
Speaker 2:You're like what, what was what? What came over you when you we drove by that building? You know, mody, honestly I don't know exactly if you remember what we did before that building was. Before we passed by that building, you went on for about 15 minutes in one of your underground locations to material.
Speaker 1:He came to the comedy cellar. He came to the comedy cellar.
Speaker 2:And what wasn't lost on me was being with one of my best friends who we're going to get a bite to eat after, right, he must have done three or four shows that week, flying all over the country and yet he's taken 10 minutes to practice new material. And yet he's taken 10 minutes to practice new material. And you never that's never something that you ever lose working hard, putting in that kind of energy. So it was really fortuitous that we then pass the building that I first learned that I first became a lawyer in in the Woolworth building and I spent so much time and made so little money but put in such an enormous effort when it first began my career and it honestly had a lot of good memories and you know that's really what launched that conversation about.
Speaker 2:You know people think like you're just successful. You know that Modi just is a talented guy that one day just got on a stage and just became enormously successful. It doesn't happen that way. It doesn't happen that way for anybody. An enormous amount of training, of time, of effort, of failures, many failures go into the magic of what ultimately becomes success. If you measure success in that way and my kids always needle me, you know, dad, success is not financial success. It could be success in so many different ways, and they're right. Success could take on many different forms. If you're successful in a community and you're doing charity work, or you're successful with a family, or you're successful in anything that brings you tremendous joy, that measures success, not just financial success. So passing the Woolworth building that night was really, you know, just a moment for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw it. I saw it in your eyes. You're like you literally stopped and go. I was in there till one in the morning every, every one in the morning, every day.
Speaker 2:Very often later than one. I would take a subway.
Speaker 1:So when did you move to the, to the building you're in now? Those of you who don't know, Arthur is Arthur. Luxemburg is a part of Weitz and Luxemburg. He's the Luxemburg of Weitz and Luxemburg and an unbelievable law firm in New York City. And when did you move to the building? The building you have now is insane, so that building, modi, we continued to work downtown.
Speaker 2:It was a building that was originally called the Continental Building. It was a building that was originally called the Continental Building, which was on Maiden Lane. Yes, and we were in that building for about 20 years. Twice, we started out in that building. We left. We were working for another firm when we were in the Woolworth Building, but when we moved, we moved to a little tiny office in the Continental Building, 2,000 square feet. Oh my God Right, we now have 100. But we were in 2,000 square feet. Oh my God Right, we now have 100. But we were in 2,000 square feet, oh my God.
Speaker 2:We were in basically what kind of law were you doing? We were doing the same thing Personal injury type of law, which is where the asbestos litigation really began and where we began doing the kind of mass torts that we did. But we only had 2,000 square feet. It was a tiny little space and we grew from there and we left that building shortly thereafter and we went to a different building downtown always downtown in the Wall Street area, Right Until the rents really went up very, very high and we decided many years later to buy a building. So it was really only 20 years, 20 years, Only 20, only 20 years, only 20 years.
Speaker 1:Now you're saying only 20 years. Right Back then, those 20 years seemed like a lifetime. 20 years is a lifetime.
Speaker 2:20 years is a lifetime Right, and we're in the current building that we're in also for about 20 years, so I knew so before I met you, I knew who you were and I knew you were the asbestos guy.
Speaker 1:So I get on stage and I took a drink of water because it was a little drama before I got on stage with the microphone and there wasn't good sound and Randy popped out of her chair. Little Randy comes running out to the guy who's running the event. He needs good sound, he can't just go on stage. And they brought me this gold microphone Remember the gold microphone, of course and I start the show and I go Right. I go oh, mezzofilioma, arthur, I think we have a case. Right, that's how I started the show, right that's how I started the show.
Speaker 2:I remember it and you just bought it. I remember I remember.
Speaker 1:Very funny, it was good, right, but 20 years free advertising. Free advertising, yes, that's great, it's so good, it's great I was thinking about during this. This thing is airing during the passover program season and I want to tell you, I think there's nobody in the world that's been to more passover programs than me. I've been to my different ones different ones, of course.
Speaker 1:There's years I remember I flew to four different ones. I would do a show in Florida, go to Arizona, from Arizona to Aspen, and one year it was Florida, arizona, aspen and then Vieques. Remember there was a program in Vieques it's like an island that's off of Puerto Rico oh, I don't know, it was an island off of Puerto Rico or somewhere like that. You had to get on a prop plane to get on there, right, and they had to get all the Jews out there with their luggage. Each one was on his own plane and they got there and the guy that ran the program didn't do a good job and there was no food. They were abandoned on the island and I showed up like on day seven, you know, showed up like on day seven, you know. Then, before they go back into the other, and there was a lot of people showed up there, a lot the big rabbis we had there, but it was supposed to be a big deal, but it ended up a big bomb on this island, um, and you couldn't get food. It's not like you're in puerto rico, it's, it's, it's a mess. And then the microphone they had for me it was a six, six foot to a wall. That's why I was performing. But it was a great show and they loved it because they were dying over there.
Speaker 1:It was a big, big Anybody that was on the Vieques Passover program. We should have a support group meeting. People were traumatized. People were traumatized by this Passover program. They thought, oh, this is it, this is the next level of Passover program. It's Vieques, this is the next level of Passover programs V'ekes, the Tuchus, it's the middle of nowhere. We know it was a disaster, a disaster. But I've been to every program big, small, large, far away in travel Mexico, aruba. Every year I would do two or three programs.
Speaker 2:But now you're stationed in one place the whole time.
Speaker 1:No, we're doing two shows in Mexico, right, and this was next to each other. Right, I wasn't going to do it this year. Leo said he'll do it. He was going to go and do the show, no, but just to come with me. Oh, I can't go into this thing now. And so Leo said, okay, we'll do this our last year. We'll do these and I love them. It's so free, you understand, to perform at these programs. It's like being in the Catskills again.
Speaker 2:No, Depends on the program, but I can see how that could be. You know you're waiting all day for your next meal. All day, the omelet stations. You know the tea rooms, right? Don't you judge every program. All day, the omelet stations. You know the tea rooms, right? Right, don't you judge every program by how long you have to wait online for your omelet and what kind of tea room they have?
Speaker 1:That's the soul of Passover. The omelet stations or the tea rooms? No, what Passover is all about. Is it the tea room? No, it's really not. It's about changing your ego. But yeah, everybody's there. It's the opposite of what you should be doing on. Passover is going to these Passover programs, right.
Speaker 2:I haven't stayed home in a long time, so I think the last time.
Speaker 1:Spiritually. Spiritually, yeah, passover, there's nothing going on there. No, spiritually at the programs, yeah, you're all day long busy with the food Whether you're going to feed us. There's not a lot of spirituality. Okay, so that's what I was getting at. Definitely true.
Speaker 1:You have a few of the kids that became extra religious, like more religious than family, and they're walking around with a white shirt and a Gamora in their hands with the Talmud. They're walking around. They're looking to see that they're carrying a Talmud. Everybody else is in bathing suits, butt naked, running around to the pool, but he's walking around with a Talmud because he was a year in Israel and became really religious and now he's walking around with a Talmud for this year. By the next year he's not maybe. But you're right, every family has a couple. Yeah, that became.
Speaker 1:Is it your mom or was it your mom? No, it wasn't your mom, it was somebody else's mom at the table, came over to me and goes I'm a big fan of yours. Maybe my sister-in-law's mother. She came over. Very lovely lady, lovely lovely lady. She lives in New Jersey, she's great, she's great. And she said to me I'm a big fan of your work and this and that, and it's been very nice to meet you and I'm glad to see you're here with Arthur and Randy, and I said this is my husband. She goes. Oh oh, I didn't know you were such a metropolitan person, that's what she said Is that what she said?
Speaker 1:Yeah. She said, yeah, metropolitan. I remember I was dying from that. That's a shout out to Bubz Bubz, yeah. And you guys didn't let her come to the show because of COVID. Maybe she didn't want to go to the show, she wanted. Her family didn't let her go because they were scared. Everybody was still in the room. It was a tight room. It was a feeder. It was a feeder. Yeah, it was a feeder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a feeder. It still is Any of those after a wedding or after you're not only. You know, somebody gets sick and spreads it around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know spreader. So still, you know it's still. It was still fresh back then, the COVID. Now I don't think anybody cares, right, yeah, stuttering, stuttering. Oh, whoa, whoa, it's heavy, whoa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could fill up a whole.
Speaker 1:We did. We do a series on stuff we did and the episodes we did. People loved them and called and they got help and every time everybody called that institution. I sent you all the information, just so you know that people were getting help and people were enjoying the episodes.
Speaker 2:So you know the difference between you and me. Yeah, okay. So, and I said it, you know, during our last, during our last podcast, I had a lot of therapy. Yeah, meaning I went through years of therapy, really formalized type of therapy. You never did. You know, your stuttering was different and I think it depends on you know the quality of how you stutter, meaning I blocked, I listened to tapes of myself going back 40 years not 40, 50 years when I was 10 years old and I didn't remember how difficult it was, but I couldn't speak and I don't think you were ever in. How was your stuttering when you were growing up?
Speaker 1:It was, it was it was a thing it was about. I knew how to not speak or to prepare my line before before hitting them with it. That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we all have our tricks. Yeah, we all have our ways of of getting around things, but I learned it in a more formalized way. But, you know, learned it in a more formalized way. But you know, I just want to say that you know there's two different ways that people view stutterers, or people view the whole stuttering community. There's and it probably comes from the point of view of parents. You know they want to shelter their kids. They don't want their kids to be exposed to any ridicule or any people who don't understand it, or can't you get your words out or people being made fun of or bullying, so they insulate them in a way that they're never exposed. Or in their younger years and when they get a little bit older, even during high school, they go to stuttering camps like we spoke about. There's a very good camp that kids go to, or there's stuttering support groups. Whereas my view was get as much help as you can. There's help out there and it's very important.
Speaker 2:You're not always going to be able to go to a camp for stutterers. You're not always going to be able to go to a camp for stutterers. You're not always going to be able to be in an environment where all your friends are only going to be stutterers, right, and if that's the only place that you're exposed to through high school and you go to college, you're going to be in a very, very difficult environment that you're emotionally not going to be able to handle. So I advocate, advocate and I might take criticism for this, and we'll see the comments from your people that are watching this, but I'm of the opinion that do whatever you can to get the therapy that you can to get to a point where you're more fluent. I don't want to say where you get better or you get well. We never. As I'm sitting here, as you're sitting here, I could have blocked and stuttered on 50 different words. Yeah, but I know what I'm going to block on, I know what I'm going to stutter on, and it's through my training that I got around it.
Speaker 1:So you come to see me at the Comedy Cellar working on the new material and you see how I get stuck, I go with it, I go with it. But you see, compared to the show I'm doing now, pause for Laughter we're on tour with Pause for Laughter and you saw it in Fort Lauderdale, right, and it was like I got to tell a story. Arthur came to see me at the Beacon and went into a coma. Oh God, arthur went into a coma. What the hell did you have that night? Vertigo, I had vertigo, you had vertigo.
Speaker 1:So, randy, didn't come backstage and there's nobody backstage from his party, and that's usually where he is. So I go Randy, everything. Okay, he goes. Arthur's in a coma, have fun tonight, literally. And Arthur was like this he was having vertigo and you didn't catch any of the show.
Speaker 2:No, I was really. I took a pill. I took meclizine. Okay, it's like something that you take to and it makes you very tired, but I guess I wasn't eating, I was tired from this meclizine. Yeah, I was probably dehydrated. I literally passed out. I know I sat in the show completely, you know, completely out of it and, by the way, you know you think, like someone says, oh he passed out, like no, you don't understand. I, like someone says, oh, he passed out, like no, you don't understand, I was passed out. I know the people I was with a very dear friend literally had to carry me out. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:It was insane that I was so affected by this vertigo and you know, but it's Mashiach energy because you came and you saw the show fresh in Fort Lauderdale and by then I already done four or five shows. So the show really like tightened and got better and I moved things around and we had the pretzels in the back of the wow, by the way, you ever want to get me, you ever want to get me a hot pretzel.
Speaker 2:That's it, a fresh hot pretzel, not one of those you know. There's like a chain of like hot pretzel places. I don't like those, me neither. Okay, I don't like the chain of hot pretzel places. I don't want to mention the names of the chain. It's in the airport.
Speaker 1:It stinks the whole place up it starts with an A.
Speaker 2:It starts with an A A. I don't want to mention the name A. Okay, it starts with an A. Yeah, it starts with an A. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I don't know the name of it. I hate those pretzels. I hate those pretzels. I like the ones we had at the At the Parker Playhouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whose pretzels were those? Whosever it was no, was that theirs? I thought, maybe you brought them for me.
Speaker 1:No, I walked into the theater. I walk into the theater. You throw your eyes in the what's going on there? It's a beautiful theater. It's gorgeous. It's redone Parker Playhouse in Fort L'Oreal and they had, like the whether you buy food and drinks and all that. What's it called Concession? Concession, the concession Password, password. So I see these pretzels dingling around. I was mesmerized for me when I said a pretzel going like that, that dingling, that's like that's like when they do that, that's that hypnosis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I said to leo, we're walking in. I go, leo, leo, make sure they get the pretzels back, make sure we get the pretzels back on stage. But they bring us their pretzels and I said, bring one for my. He was coming to the show too and my father didn't even get through the lobby. He bought it himself he wasn't going to walk by those pretzels. He comes back eating one. I had one waiting for him. Pretzel with Diet Coke is next level of my favorite food A pretzel and Diet.
Speaker 2:Coke. Do you know it's like a dying thing, the pretzel right? Not know it's like a dying thing, the pretzel right? Not like bar mitzvahs and the Parker Playhouse, by the way insane, hot, beautiful, fresh pretzels. But somehow today I love buying a pretzel on the street with a Diet Coke. Okay, like after a game, or you're walking around, it's 11 o'clock at night. You get a hot pretzel. There's nothing greater If it's hot are those carts?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, but you gotta talk to the guy. Okay, but they're not.
Speaker 2:that's what I'm trying to say they used to have them, like on, they don't have them anymore. That's what.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to say it's wet and just come out of the frozen.
Speaker 2:Right, and even when they have them, they'll take it from like underneath. They'll throw it on some hot plate or something horrible with his hands that he has nowhere to wash.
Speaker 1:Horrible, horrible, horrible. No, but these pretzels. This is a crazy. No, let's get into. This pretzel is really what is it? A bagel from the old days, from like poland and all that. It's a bagel. You like it with salt? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, a little bit lightly salted.
Speaker 2:sometimes I get it with a lot of salt. I shake it off, you know, just like I give it like a shake, like that, right, and some salt falls off and that's positive. And, by the way, it's the best, like when you have a couple of people, all right, and they want like a section of it. A pretzel is like perfectly sharing. You can just pick it up off it's not like a piece of cake or something you have to. No, you rip off a section of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Leo realized that I have this thing for pretzels and we were in the house in Connecticut and he loves to go shopping in the big. There's a big supermarket there so he buys everything and he knows what those pretzels are and for him I'm like but he makes, he can make you know the ones in a box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're great, they're amazing. By the way, there's salt in there also.
Speaker 1:So Leo walks by Like he didn't tell me he bought them, and he just hands me this pretzel and a Diet Coke and walks into the bedroom. I'm like I'm in heaven. I'm in heaven. Oh my God, right, is this happening? Right? I'm in a house in Connecticut orgasm, the pretzel with a diet coke is is wow, it's next level.
Speaker 2:It's just so good it just mushes in your mouth. So good. By the way, you got to be careful with those. You got to set the microwave for the right amount of time.
Speaker 1:Who microwaves that? He puts that in that little oven. He has that little little oven he has. Oh yes, leo, takes care of me. You crazy, I never even thought of that. There's no microwave, oh no, it's too moist, it loses the hard shell. It loses the hard shell. The person has to have a little bit of a crunch to the shell. I'm learning something here. You know that. You know if it's mushy, oh, Modi yeah, the little.
Speaker 2:No, I take the thing, I stick it in the microwave, I put it on 12 seconds, I get that salt out, I put it in and that's it. It's what, guyam, do You're saying? Put it in the oven, In the oven? Oh my God, it's a game changer.
Speaker 1:It's a game changer. It's a complete game changer. It's so good. It's like the one in the Parker Playhouse. It's like it's those. It's that because it's on that heat and that heat is coming from those lights. They have those little, those light bulbs in the little thing that's spinning around In the hypnosis In the hypnosis, pretzel hypnosis, pretzel hypnosis. And there's your title for the episode Pretzel hypnosis, it, pretzel hypnosis. It's great, it's what it was. No, this is what people listen to this podcast for Exactly what we just talked about.
Speaker 2:Because it's all about nostalgia.
Speaker 1:It's nostalgia, but it's also like there's no politics in a pretzel. Everybody loves a pretzel, that's right, right, right right.
Speaker 2:You know how many people are going to comment. Yeah, how did Luxembourg not know that you put this in an oven? Well, you put it in a microwave because you can't wait your daughter who is a bakery chef doesn't she do that for you? I call her out on it. I call her out. I call her out. Jack, jack snacks. My daughter shout out to her. Yeah, she doesn't make me any fresh pretzels. No, and she also never corrected the microwave routine.
Speaker 1:It's not even an issue in the microwave. It's too moist. No, it has to be in a little bit of an oven. Yeah, jack Snacks. She sent a beautiful Purim. I saw you posted, we posted it was delicious and it came right on time. I love that when the package comes and you already have a coffee in your hand, I these beautiful cookies. You just dink right in and you eat it. It's so good. Shout out to her. Shout out to her Also. Shout out to your other daughter.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, right See, there's a perfect example Speaking of lawyers. Speaking of lawyers. Yes, speaking of lawyers.
Speaker 1:She wants to be a lawyer, like she wants to be an orthodontist Okay. So she's got a law degree, right, yeah, she's got a law degree. She killed it. She killed it with the law degree, yeah. And now she's doing stand-up. She did, and you went. She did an open mic yesterday. You went to her first stand-up show.
Speaker 2:Of course I did, and, by the way she calls me, last night I didn't. I did an open mic Told me Four o'clock in the afternoon. That's what I mean by just doing it. You know, working hard, nobody to really watch you.
Speaker 1:You texted me after you saw her first show. Yeah, what did I say? I remember I go, it was good. Two different shows, she did different performances. You said I don't know if she'll do it again. I said, wow, is he delusional? She caught the bug caught the bug.
Speaker 2:She does it. Any place, she'll get a mic. Yeah, we were in vegas.
Speaker 1:She was looking for open mic places just so we understand that her material is not for a passover program. Just so that is on the line, those of of you looking for this, although she told me for anybody interested.
Speaker 2:She told me that she's going to be hosting a little side corner in the tea room at the hotel for anybody that needs advice on anything that thinks that she could be relevant in their life. Good for her. Good for her. Good for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's going to and watch her act's going to clean up Because the cleaner she gets, the more people she can get in front. Life Good for her. Good for her. Good for her. Yeah, she's going to and watch. She's going to. Her act's going to clean up because the cleaner she gets, the more people she can get in front of. So she'll be, she'll, yeah, it's going to be the next time you and I sitting here again, you'll see there'll be a different, by the way, and Randy's the brunt of all of it.
Speaker 2:You know most of the good jokes are about Randy. Yeah, Of course me too, she loves it too.
Speaker 1:She loves it too, she loves it. She claims she doesn't. Yeah, no, she loves it. The more attention, yeah, yeah, yeah, my mom also I've been talking about her a lot Very low key person. Yeah, yeah, it's good. Thank God we have them to talk about. Yeah, oh, my God.
Speaker 2:But, in any event, we were talking about stuttering and I said and we were talking about how I feel about it and about helping people who want help, who want to be able to become more fluent. You never get well, you never get cured to become more fluent. You never get well, you never get cured. Modi and I are not cured, or we're not. We're never going to be. It'll be something that we always have.
Speaker 1:And it attacks you out of nowhere. It attacks you out of nowhere, out of nowhere. Sometimes Leo catches it, like he sees I'm dealing with maybe somebody behind the reception or something, and I get caught and he knows how to finish the sentence.
Speaker 2:And there are some letters and there were some words and there were some some phrases, even if it starts with the wrong letter. You know I have issues with certain blended letters. Modi has his own issues. We laugh about what. What he started on and what I started on are two different things.
Speaker 2:But anyway, I said that I met a guy, I met a general manager at a great restaurant in Aruba where we had dinner, and the general manager was what appeared to me to be a very chronic stutterer, where he wasn't controlled, he wasn't fluent at all and he was a stutterer. And after dinner I spoke to him and I asked him a few questions. I told him that I was also a stutterer and at the end of the conversation I asked him if he had gotten any help and he said no and he just wasn't in that position. I offered to pay for, I offered to pay for therapy for him if that's something that he wanted to do. Yeah, he never did get back to me. He never did get back to me and you know we started talking about about chesed with Periel and I said that for me the best kind of chesed is chesed, that I could feel where I'm so connected to it that the concept of giving feels so much better.
Speaker 2:Sure, we want to give to FIDF, we want to give to these incredible charities that came out of October 7th.
Speaker 2:But if I know that there's a family three miles away from me and there are three miles away from where I live in Great Neck, or a mile away I know because we're involved in organizations that deliver food to people and we're actually delivering food to people that live less than a mile from where we live If I know that there are people that need help whether it's stuttering, whether it's food, whether it's any kind of help that it's so important to be able to challenge that need. That's so close to you, where you could really be impactful and see the benefit of what you're doing and what you're giving. And Perrielle told me about you know her charity and what's important to her, and I know Modi, you know your charity and that's the best way. There are a lot of people that could build buildings and we've built buildings. There are a lot of people that could have their names up on things, but the most important and the most impactful things that we could ever do are the things that we could feel and touch and impact directly.
Speaker 1:So chesed is those who don't know the meaning of it is to give, but it's to give with love. Yeah, it's one of the Sfirot A Nadiv.
Speaker 2:Lev A Nadiv Lev. It's not something that's made up or you know, rabbis told us no, it's directly in the text.
Speaker 1:Look up Chesed, see what it says.
Speaker 2:But it's right in the text that give it with love. If you're not giving it, if you're not giving it, if you're not giving it, and on the Rambam's eight levels of charity, it's the way you give, that's everything. Of course, anyone could write a check, but if you give it with an open heart and an open hand, that's the most important way.
Speaker 1:And giving without, without, without anybody knowing too, that's the most, that's the most, that's the most, that's the most, that's the highest level, that's the highest level.
Speaker 2:Yes, you don't know who you're giving it to. They don't know who's giving it to them. Right, and it's an unbelievable.
Speaker 1:It's an unbelievable way, and this is Passover. This is, this is airing Passover. This is a definite time to hit the charities up and give it to them. Passover is such a big opening for receiving amazing energy. Right, you open the.
Speaker 2:Seder. You open the Seder. One of the first things. One of the first things you say Kol Dechvin, you know everybody who's needy, everybody who's hungry. By the way, needy is not only hungry, is not poor. Needy takes on meaning in a lot of different ways. A person could be needy and could be rich. Very rich, but he doesn't have a place to go.
Speaker 1:And doesn't have a friend and doesn't have a compassion from a wife or doesn't have any laughter in his life, he's needy for that. Just because he has billions of dollars and a big house and fancy cars, it doesn't mean he's not needy. And the biggest question that I ask and we're all needy for something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the biggest question that I ask every single year is right, we're saying this. We're home from shul. Any opportunity that we could have invited someone over is gone. We're sitting at a seder in a hotel where we're spending thousands of dollars. You're saying how, how, how are you doing that? Where are you inviting?
Speaker 1:them. Arthur, that's the easiest question you've ever asked and you're in a Passover program. You sit next to some kid who's in law school. They're asking you information. Give him some time, talk to him, encourage him. That's the same thing.
Speaker 2:But that's unbelievable. What a chidush. What an incredible piece of information. Yeah, you're saying it's got nothing to do with food.
Speaker 1:Nothing to do with food or money. It's giving of yourself. Yeah, giving, giving, giving In a Passover program with rich people?
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, find something you could do it. You could do it, you could find something.
Speaker 1:Of course Always find, do it, you could find something. Of course, always find something. Create Moshiach energy, that's.
Speaker 2:Moshiach energy, by the way. What an unbelievable concept for us to hammer in. But for me, my answer always was I prepared for this Kaldichfin Halachma. I prepared for it, I gave it before. So when it comes time for it, if there's nobody around the Passover program for me to invite in there's nobody happens to be there passing through. I did it already. I paid. I paid for people. I paid for matzah. I paid for people to have meals and seders. I did it already.
Speaker 1:So money is energy. You gave here's some energy to these people, but your time speaking to them. Call my secretary, she'll help you with this, and that that's also giving. That's a different giving.
Speaker 2:I don't want that concept to be lost on this group that we're going to be talking to over Passover and you don't have to be in a Passover program, you could be anywhere. We're all going to say that halachma, and we're all going to say that halachma, and we're all going to wonder well, where are these poor people that I'm inviting in? You hear what he said? Guys, it's not about the food or inviting someone in, it's you're sitting next to someone. You get a call, you have an opportunity to help somebody. Use it. If you're lucky enough and I saw this in a situation which I'm going to talk about If you're lucky enough, right, and I saw this in a situation which I'm going to talk about If you're lucky enough that you could help somebody. Help, wow, yeah, right, because that won't always be there.
Speaker 1:I have a friend that lives in Great Neck and he tells me people come asking for money. So I said to him, when they do that, the first thing you do is say thank you God, thank you God, thank you God. That's the opportunity. But it's also thank God that I'm the one that people are coming to ask money. I'm not the one asking for money. I say thank God right away and then deal with the problem, whatever the situation is in, whatever you think is the right way, but always be thankful that you're the one.
Speaker 2:People are coming to ask for money and I think that I think I said it I don't know if it was here or in some other context, but when I pray, make me a giver today. Make me a giver, make me find important things to give. Make me a giver and you know what? That's what makes it better for us. So I was at a baseball game, okay, and I was sitting in very good seats, I'm sure, and a very famous player was a few seats down in a row in front of me and a little kid comes to him for an autograph and the baseball player blows him off, oh, wow. And then the father of the baseball player even comes over and says you know, could you sign this for this kid? And little tiny kid, the cutest thing in the world. This is a I'm not saying it's a has-been player, but he's a has-been player. Okay, okay, it's past him. Okay, won't sign it, won't sign it, won't sign it and in fact really is dismissive of the father and the kid. Okay, I lean over after this whole thing is over and I don't care, that guy wants to listen.
Speaker 2:I said you did something really wrong. I said let me tell you something. If you were fortunate enough in your life that somebody wants your autograph. They want that. That's important to them. You are the luckiest man in the world, and the fact that you blew that kid off and then you blew the father off shame on you Right. One day, no one's going to want to know about you. No one's going to want an autograph If you're lucky enough that you're able to do it now and somebody feels that that's impactful you do it Absolutely Wait, just to finish up on the Passover.
Speaker 1:I know you don't listen to the podcast, but in the middle of the podcast we thank you. We say our sponsors are Weitz and Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well, they do good, they're very philanthropic. I love that. We came up with that. Who came up with that? The guy you work with? No, the guy you work with. Okay, we came up with that.
Speaker 2:I love that, and with A&H.
Speaker 1:I love that. A&h provisions A lot of kosher food that is so delicious. Even Goyim are going to buy it. They realize it's that good, especially their hot dogs. Hot dogs yeah, insane hot dogs. We haven't even touched on that. Kosherdogsnet Nice 30% off on your first order when you use promo code Mody. How insane is that? You're so famous. You have a promo code. Okay, so hold on, I'll wrap this up. Oh, wow, whoa. Oh, wow, whoa, wow, okay. So I mean I can't thank you for being what that's it.
Speaker 1:Well, don't forget, you went into a tizzy On what, before the podcast began, you called your friend who, by the way, I'm not going to mention who he is. It's a guy that's very well off. Can we cover that? No, no, no, he's very well off off. But well, here's money. Yeah, he's a business, he's a family, he's good.
Speaker 1:But you gave him yiddish kite. You gave him. You gave him. The chesed you gave him was not in money. Yeah, you gave him. You told him here's you. You can put on tefillin if you want, and he puts on tefillin. You can make the blessing friday night and you gave that to him. You gave him the, the menu. He's exceptional. He's exceptional, but he doesn't need money, but he doesn't, he's needy for something for Yiddishkeit, and you sparked his soul.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, wow, passover. Those of you on your programs, you're still in the eight days. You can grasp that energy that you get on Passover, passover, you get the energy on Passover and then you work it off in the 40 days after with the Omer On Rosh Hashanah. You work up an Elul the month before and you get that energy and boom, you get that on Rosh Hashanah. So that's where you are now. Besides that Chesed, oh my God, buy your friends tickets to see comedy shows, especially mine. I'm on tour with Pause for Laughter. We are going to be in Warsaw Poland. Can you believe that? In Warsaw Poland? Can you believe that? Warsaw Poland? And then Manchester, and then Frankfurt and Munich because why not? And then Geneva and Antwerp Reparations, reparations, tour Right Reparations tour.
Speaker 1:Manchester. It's going to be an insane show. Huge theater Destination. Make a weekend of it. See you guys there. Get your tickets. Modilivecom Be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show, and it can't be this long again before you come back on.
Speaker 2:No, this is epic every time I'm here.
Speaker 1:I love you, I absolutely love you. Okay, we're out. Thank you everybody.