Radio City Countdown

Episode 179: Modi and Leo discuss Modi's recent Jimmy Fallon appearance, and his upcoming shows at Radio City Music Hall. 

Modi's special "Know Your Audience" is available on YouTube now!
For all upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Follow the AHM podcast on Instagram at @AHM_Podcast.
Leave us a voicemail!

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

420 Banter And Radio City Nerves

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And we are live.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back to and here's Modi. Hi, everybody. Hi. Hi, Leo. Hello. You excited? Well, we come to you. We are recording. It is Monday, April 20th. Happy 420 for all those who celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Oh my God. I didn't exactly.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah, it's 420. Um, not that we I'm partaking, but um neither am I. It's Monday, and this Thursday, this time on Thursday, we will be backstage at Radio City getting ready for you to do the first show.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

And what if you didn't introduce the first show?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I'm so excited. I can't. I'm like, I go through uh like it hits me in waves. I'm about to be in front of 6,000 people doing an act that I know is gonna destroy, but it's still get to do it in front of 6,000 people. I'm gonna look amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

The suits and last week you got to do it in Milwaukee and Cincinnati for a couple hundred people.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I had two shows in I had a show in Milwaukee and Cincinnati at an improv and a funny bone, just to keep, you know keep you on your toes. Keep me on my toes, and it was amazing, and they were great. And the shows in both of them, Milwaukee and Cincinnati, were machiach energy. Cincinnati was really, really great. There was just um so much fun. Such a great Ohio's so good. Ohio is great, and um that it was it was a uh special, it was the first time I went without you. Yeah, I didn't. I stayed home. Yeah. We're trying a new thing. We're trying a new thing that Leo does.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Try a new thing called Leo doesn't get on the airplane.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, it's a good thing. You you stayed home and you worked and you did other things that you yeah, you didn't you'd not need not need to be there. It was like it's always great when you are there, but it's like that I can Do you know what I were I was there for?

How The Fallon Set Got Made

SPEAKER_00 1:52

What your Jimmy Fallon appearance. Oh, we're going right into Jimmy Fallon? Yeah. Well, okay. So the last time since the last time we've been with you, our fans and friends, I've been on the Jimmy Fallon Tonight show.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

How was that?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

It was but you were there, it was amazing. How was it for you? It was it was so smooth. I can't explain to you Michael Cox, who is the booking agent and producer of the segments for the comedy, is so good at his job.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah, he was giving you a little tiny pieces of nuggets of advice that were like good for you.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

But throughout the whole throughout the whole experience, writing the bits, him and JP, who was on works on our management team, and uh they found the right bits for the for the segment, and then they changed whatever words are friendlier for the audience. And then at the event, at the at the taping, Michael just kept giving us all this advice. Here's what's about to happen, Jimmy's gonna come over, and I go, I know Jimmy, and da-da-da, and uh and had a great interaction with Jimmy Fallon. We um well before that, before uh Olivia Mann. Olivia Mann. Mann. Yeah. So Olivia Mann was on the on the on the show. And I I yes, I know her from friends and friends and neighbors and all that, and a big fan of hers, but she's also John Mullaney's wife. Yeah. Which is when I categoric categorize her, it's that's the first thing. So I stuck my head into her into her room. She was she she was she the door was wide open. I just said, Hi, I'm Modi. Uh and a good friend of your uh I'm a friend of your of your husband. And she was like, she didn't know I was on the show. No, you said, I'm a big fan of your husband.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Is that what I said? Yeah. Okay. And I said right away, and we're fans of you. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Because that's not your opening line to anyone, should never be that. Right. But we were walking by, her door was wide open. We popped in and we said, I said, Hi. Uh, and then um, and then the funny thing was I texted John Mullaney and go, I'm with your wife. Yeah. And he wrote, By that's hysterical. And um, and it was just uh, it was uh so that was that. Um, but Jimmy Fallon came over to say hi, and I said to him that the last time he and I met was in a showcase that Danny Robinson, who was both of our agents in 1997 or 98, he put us up for an APA showcase at the improv in Hollywood. And I followed Jimmy. Jimmy went on, and if you think he's cute now, he was beyond cute 30 years ago. And he had a guitar. And so he was doing the guitar, making jokes, the fingers all moving, everybody was mesmerized. He was hysterical. They fell in love with him. And I followed him, and I thought I would be smart and do 10 minutes I've never done before. I didn't do the act that I had. I just thought I would wing this. I went off book and I died. I bombed so hard on that showcase that I knew I would never bomb again. I know you've told me that before. I said, I'm never gonna bomb again. This is my bomb. Keep in mind, this was a lot more than you think, this showcase. But I'm just telling you, from that showcase, Jimmy went and he he did SNL and the Tonight Show, and I went to do Kutchers and the Raleigh and the Neville and the comedy cellar. But but there was a showcase that that was back in comedy where that people were watching your set, and if you had a tight four minutes, they gave you a quarter million dollar deal. Yeah, like this was ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

He whispered to you. What would he say when you finished your set?

SPEAKER_00 5:40

When I finished the set, he said to me, uh, Danny Robinson will be very proud of you.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah. It was great. He was we were both that same. Um we both had two different journeys. Yeah. But it was it was great to to to to realign back like that. It was just amazing.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

So walk us through what it's like to get the material because they only give you four minutes. It's like four and a half minutes, right? Yeah. Or less than four and a half.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

And so to be honest, in the past 32 years, I I've submitted things before for the tonight shows. And you have to submit four minutes that they think would be okay. And I was never they never approved, they never left, and and I I gave up on it. Like I really never like sent in. But we have JP Buck, is it Bucks or Buck? Buck, JP Buck, on our team, and Michael Cox used to work for JP. JP took my hours and just whatever, and says, here's this, this, that, that, and that. That's a that's a set. And he put together the whole set and put that and sent it to Michael. Michael goes, Okay, this is perfect. And then they honed it. I performed it for them at the comedy cellar, and then I just kept repeating.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Little changes, little words, and um you like you couldn't say banging with banging, you had to say sleeping with. Right. Like little tweaks. Little tweaks. It's broadcast TV. Yeah. Then producers don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah. And we cut down a few bits and it changed it and changed some wording. And then once you start to run it, you see what words work b better. Like I was saying, um it's great to be in America. Instead of it's great, it's good to be back in America. Yeah. When you say great to be in America, you're already scaring people with like, oh, this is gonna be a little what what? Even though it is great to be in America, but um, which was the point of that bit. Anyway, um, then you then you then they give you a date, and they gave me the second, well, the second night of Passover for people who celebrate two nights, which I don't. I'm Israeli. We just do one Seder and one night, and that's enough. And the second night, I was on Fallon, and it was amazing. I came there with the club. I bought your matza backstage. I brought my matza backstage. I brought um bought my shirk energy backstage. I'm gonna tell you that right now. No, what did everyone come up and tell you? Well, hold on. So we're backstage, and there's all these producers back there. There's one producer, I'm not gonna say her name, but she's the main producer, and she's been doing this for 30 years, producing not the comedy segments, the like the Brad Pitt and the Tom Cruises and the Nicole Kidmans, when she makes sure she's the producer for their segments, these huge names, and she's been doing it for 30 years. She used to be on the Ellen show, and and she said, Modi, I've been doing this for 30 years. My mom never cared at all about anybody we had on. When she found out you were on, she went crazy. Yeah. There were like a few people, a few people came over and goes, My mother found out you're on the show, and she wants a video and she wants a picture. I'm I'm everybody's mom's favorite. And that's uh that was a great feeling backstage. They all came over, like, oh my mom loves you. Oh my god, we've had the most biggest people in the world, and you're just uh my mom loves you more than anybody. And it's such a great, it was a vibe back there.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

It's fun whenever you get to be in that building in general in New York City. Yes, that Rockefeller complex. Yeah, it's really crazy.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

And we're taking we're taking the entire backside of it now. Yeah, for Radio City. For Radio City, and um no, but back to the the Michael Cox of it all, he was just like he said something like stand here, don't look here, don't like right. He he's so he's seen every mistake that could be made in this situation. Here's you're about to go in front of live television. You weren't scared at all? No, not at all. Really? Not at all. No, because live TV is even different from just like regular stand-ups. If you're like, oh my god, thank god I'm reaching more people. Um, but but he just like he tells you all the things to do that he's seen done wrong. Like when you he said, I didn't even think about it. And then I don't know, I don't know if I would have done it, but he said, when you walk out, don't already hold the mic by your mouth, hold it down. Little I don't know if I would have if I would have walked out with the mic in up already up. Uh we'll never know. We'll never know because he'd made sure that I wouldn't. Yeah, he said, land here, go whatever you want, make sure you land here again. He comes over, he says hello to you. Then you it was great. It was so uh He prepped you well. He prepped me so well. Yeah, he was it was a watching being somebody someone so good at their job is also, by the way, an amazing adventure. Like, wow, he's doing what he's doing. Yeah, like do you know when you go to a good doctor and you think, oh wow, this guy knows what he's doing. Oh thank god, there's one guy that knows what he's doing. Like that was that was him. And who was his mentor? JP Buck, our manager. Yep. That's uh it's it's as amazing. It was an unbelievable experience. I I really want to thank our you haven't seen the the whole clip, it's on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

It's yeah that you can watch the whole thing, not just the small clip that was posted on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

It was so great, it was uh what a fun experience.

Watching A TV Show Get Edited

SPEAKER_00 10:52

I was in the very back of the room. Wait, how crazy was the afterwards when we went to dinner with him?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Oh the editing thing. So we went to dinner with Michael Cox and JP and Kinsey, and uh, you know, we wrapped the show tapes from like, I don't know, four to six or something in the afternoon, and then it airs later that night. So it wrapped at six something, and then we went to dinner, and he's sitting at dinner, and his phone just starts going bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, and it's you see all these emails coming in, and it's the live process of like the process of editing the show down to what it needs to be and making people making decisions and things getting chopped.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

And we saw like so I so I was sitting next to him and I saw his phone, and it's each segment. Yeah, each each person they had on, each they did this thing with a dog, they did this thing with uh Michael Jackson's uh nephew and all these things. And you saw each one of those was blowing up red, changing, they were cutting this words, yeah, little things, but mine wasn't, and he just kept looking at mine, and mine was I guess they cut maybe half of the walk I did or something, but like it was none of the comedy was cut. Yeah, they didn't have and then but it was so crazy to watch that, it's so intense. Yeah, I would be good at that. You'd be very good at that. Yeah, it was great. That was not that was another like a little fun part of it, the whole thing at the end there, and um, and that was it. And uh, and I I could couldn't be happier. And hopefully he's coming to the uh show Thursday. Um and that's it, and we have Radio City, and I'm so excited. The tuxedo.

Tuxedo Fittings And Guest List Stress

SPEAKER_00 12:20

I'm gonna hit that stage with the tuxedo, the people are gonna just be in shock.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Please everyone say you like the tuxedo when you see it. No, it's you've gone to so many fittings. Like a wedding dress, it's like a wedding dress, mom-ish.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yes, with the rabbi Taylor, yeah, yesle, who is amazing. I he has an eye. He has an eye, and you can tell, and it's amazing. And just I I highly suggest getting a really good tuxedo made, not just like a mate to measure. You like the whole process though. You like you like that. Oh, you have to like the guy too. Yeah. Have a chat with him and talk and all of that. Yeah. It was great. It was great. And the let's discuss the uh the the the guest list. What about it? I is is that your is that the main thing that's stressing you out now?

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Um I thought I was handling the stress pretty well, but then I called Kenzie today and she was she said, I I know you're stressed, and I was like, Am I? I don't feel like I was exhibiting signs of stress. I feel like I've been pretty calm, all things considering.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I think you're very calm, but I think you're being calm to make sure that I don't get stressed. Like, I think it's no, I know you don't get stressed. But but yeah, but but seeing you stressed could could stress me, but like you're not, you're like calm for some reason, which is great, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

For some reason, it's good. I'm holding a lot of weight.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

But you've begun to understand that being stressed that does that doesn't help anything. Maybe you've begun to understand that.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Um, no, I don't I don't have that down yet, but yeah. The guest list, I'm just a little bit worried that my phone is gonna be blowing up with people who like don't know where to go or what to do. It's not as hard as you think it's gonna be because that is such a big venue that usually in any other venue I do a good job of standing in the lobby-ish and like keeping eyes on our people and making sure they get to their seats and everyone's taken care of. But there's a whole so many people on this guest list that I don't even know what some of them look like.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

There's a big window that says VIP uh will call, whatever it is. It's gonna be someone has to be really not smart to go you say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you'll see. And um, but I'm not I'm I'm planning on having zero connection to that. I'm gonna go in that room.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, I'm not gonna bother you. No, but the the venue's so big that I can't get back and forth to where we are, to where the guests are. Right. This elevat it's a block.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

It's like a block long, it's a block long and it's and it's deep. It's it's like a half a block in. Yeah, it's so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

It's a labyrinth.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

I'm so glad I got to see other comedians there just so to see what Yeah, you went and did homework.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

You saw it.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

I did a lot of homework for this. I did a lot of homework for this. A lot of writing for this, a lot of homework for this. I'm not I'm not letting this go by like that. And thank God there's two. Oh my god. Could you imagine it was just the one? When when when we did the when we did the beacon. You had three. Three. I can't imagine only doing one and be like, what we're done? Are you clear? Well, when we did town hall, we only did one. Yeah, but that was town hall. That's still that's 1300. It's not like we didn't know that you were gonna have two going into this. No, we didn't. And then we can't thank our guests. We cannot thank our fans enough for for buying out these tickets and for people making a thing of it. And it's gonna be worth every every penny and every effort that you are making to get there. It's gonna be worth

Sponsors Shoutouts And New Sponsorship Idea

SPEAKER_00 15:48

it. And besides thanking you, we also want to thank uh Whites and Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well, they do good, super philanthropic, and our supporters in and friends in this in this podcast. We love them. Thank you, Arthur and Randy. Um and um AH provisions, the most delicious glatt kosher food that there is around. Uh served well, packaged beautifully. Uh, friends, uh, for friends and fans send us pictures of their of their products everywhere. With the promo code Modi, you can get 30% off of your first order. So make it a big one and order a big thing. And the the website is kosher dogs.net. And speaking of hot dogs, they are the best hot dogs in the world. And this is from experience. Okay. That was good. Yeah.

unknown 16:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

I forgot what we were doing. And if anybody else wants to uh sponsor, we are open now. We are we are taking uh anybody else wants to be a part of this podcast, and also something I I saw on the um when I did um uh was Being Jewish. The being the Being Jewish podcast. He has like individual sponsors, like someone for his wife, like someone's wife, huh? And and Bill Schwartz uh wants to say he loves his wife, and uh, and if anybody wants to sponsor uh a shout out to a spouse or something, I'm into that. We'll bring the shirk energy and we'll find out a little bit about them and make something funny with it. I'm I'm open to that careful there. But maybe that. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. Yeah, yeah. Your hair has been serving lately. Okay. Your hair has been serving lately. How does that feel? I mean, it feels good. Every time I watch something on TV and I turn it, I see I see you. We're watching um friends and neighbors, right? And I look at you and like you're John Ham's head. Like it's like his hair, but not white. I watch while we're watching Elvis, which is not a great documentary, by the way. The epic Elvis thing was not good. Um but I saw that and I look at you and I go, Elvis. How do you feel about your sisters coming to these shows?

Family In The Crowd And MSG Talk

SPEAKER_00 18:05

They're gonna see their brother in front of 6,000 people introduce and thank people for coming to a show. Well, I mean, they saw me do that at the beacon. Do you understand that this is 6,000 people?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah, I don't know. And now we're watching hacks and we know that MSG is the goal here. In their in their little uh Oh, but also for us, no? Yes. Otherwise, what do we do in New York now? Like, what do we're the goal?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

MSG's the next the goal is we make people happy, and the more we can, the better. So MSG is great.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

That's what do you think that comedy at MSG in general is good, or are people going there to be like, oh, we saw Dave Chappelle at MSG? But it's just more of like a group experience than real stand-up comedy, because that's so crazy to think about.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Just to be honest with you, I've never really seen stand-up comedy there, but I'm gonna start going to see stand-up comedy there.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I got an email that Kill Tony's doing two nights there.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

But that's not that's a whole thing. Yeah, that's a whole that's a production. It's not uh it's not a um there's not many comedians who have done it. No, Luis CK does it. Um Andrew Schultz did it, uh, Sebastian performs there like it's the seller. Yeah, he's there all the time and he's doing a show. It's the way they see it. No, it's it this it it's it could be done, and it's gonna if I when I do it, I'm gonna do it with full energy and more of a production, and um and it's it's gonna be next level. It's gonna be the next level after this. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah. I have my bedazzled pants ready to go. I know. So you you have a few outfits that have been arriving for the year. Well, yeah, I have I haven't finalized any of them though, and now it's in two days. It's in two days. So um I don't know what I'm gonna do. I might just do a black t-shirt moment for one of them.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

I by the way, that's okay too. Yeah. That's okay too. Yeah. You don't need to to bedazzle them. Your sparkle of light on your own. You don't need to pop out there with a whole although those David Bowie pants you got were really nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

How do you feel about your parents seeing you in front of 6,000 people? They're coming to both. Your mom's coming to both shows.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

My father's like, we're gonna drive in and drive out. He's like, he's like, he's gonna, he's, he's, he's, he's bearing, he's getting ready for my mom. Is just she's just obsessed with her guest list. Yeah, she's her guest list right now, is all she's thinking about. Your mom loves a guest list, loves a guest list. Loves. And then she's got for the second show, all the grandkids are coming in. So that's gonna be, and it's my dad's 90th birthday. Yeah, and it's the day after your birthday. It's a day after my birthday, so it's a big, big big night, big thing. It's uh it's a lot of good simchas. Simchas, but simch is making other people happy. It's not a simcha, we're just our own. It's a part of 12,000 people being being simcha together. So it's I I could not be happier. I cannot thank Hashem enough. Like and you and the team and everybody. I I cannot and the fans, you guys listening and coming to the shows. I cannot thank you enough. It's really I I I'm in awe of it all. I'm in awe of you, I'm in awe of all of this. Yeah, there's no way I could have done you could do this. You can't do anything like this stuff alone. You need a sham and a team. Yeah. No, but you deserve it.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

We deserve it. It's a we. I feel I feel like we're having a wedding. I'm like to the photographer, what time is the photographer getting there? What time is the food getting there? What time is everyone? What time are we showing up? And there's 6,000 people. The guest list alone is like a wedding. The guest list alone is a wedding.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

You're absolutely right. And we are having an Ah, what are we doing? So there's a kiddish. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, Radio City, not Radio City, we are having a kiddish at Radio City Music Hall. Second Avenue Delhi food will be there for the friends and family that are coming to the after party. And it is literally friends and family, friends that have known me from beginning, from uh from watching me at the cellar, at the comedy clubs coming up all the years. They're coming, and people who've hired me, and people who brought me, and and family. And it's just friends and family, and it's just it's gonna be unbelievable. It's gonna be and it's gonna be over 100 people, and it's gonna be a delicious food. Kiddish. Second Avenue Delhi sandwiches and coleslaw and yum and just oh, how great. It's gonna be so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

You just want that pastrami sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

I'm gonna have pastrami and sit there with Arthur Luxembourg and and and destroy a pastrami sandwich. That's that's gonna be the fun. My dad's gonna kill one, also for sure. Yeah. Oh, after a show? Mmm. Yes, yummy yum, yum. Well, anything else you want to ask me?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

No.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

No.

Tour Dates On Sale And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_01 23:16

We are putting London on sale soon. Those are big shows. And we're also working on your summer dates for you to work out new material.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

And some other things in the works. Atlantic City's on sale. That's filling up qua fast if you uh are in Atlantic City this August.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

It's the only it's the only New Jersey show we're doing. Yeah. So make sure you're a part of it. And um London and God willing, Israel.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how things are going over there.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Yes, but we're we're trying to get that going. We are working on getting that going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Yeah.

unknown 23:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for listening. It's a short one. Um but a fun one. Yeah, I had a good time just catching up with you quickly.com. Let us know what you think. Let us know what you um what what you what you wanna hear, and uh and that's it. And good good good stuff. If you're nothing if you have nothing nice to say, just don't say anything. Yeah. Bye everybody. Bye.