Rich At The NFL Combine

This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Suzy Schuster. The best teams in the NFL top to bottom are the Dolphins and the Vikings.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Chiefs were an F minus. The Chiefs got an F minus. The Steelers got an F. Earlier on the show, Chris Mad Dog Russo, longtime NFL writer Peter King. Coming up, actor and Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show underway. Thrilled to be with you, Suzy Schuster here with you, Christopher Brockman, Mike Del Tufo, Jay Felley coming in to sub for Mike Del Tufo who's dumping us to go to Fox. Thanks a lot, Mikey D. The Michigan Rutgers game. Priorities, Mike.

Priorities. God, how many times do I have to tell you that? TJ, how are you? Great to be with you. I'm going to finish the hour, I'm just saying. Thank you for staying. I'm here for you. Yeah, the candle is lit.

It's not going anywhere. It smells incredible over here. It smells really nice in the studio today.

And it wasn't just yesterday's croissants, but that's neither here nor there. This has been a super fun show today, I think anyway, if I must pat myself on the back. Christopher Russo.

That was exhausting and so fun at the same time. I loved having him on. Peter King just joined us.

Jeff Ross ahead as he talks about his movie Ricky's to Nicky. But first, we're going to go to Rich Eisen because it is your show, honey. And we haven't killed it yet, so we want to welcome you in from Indianapolis. How are you? Hello from the field. Hi. Look at you. Great view. I love this. You fancy, huh?

Is this a flex or what? Look at us. Look at that. I'm trying to bring my A game because I've already received texts from your brother that the Mad Dog Russo spot was the best one he's heard in a very, very long time.

So I can't wait to rewatch that back when I'm done with 19 million hours of combine coverage. Well, you'll be happy to know that Chris asked me about Dave Canales because he got a little hot under the collar when he saw a picture of him. And he said, what do you think of that guy? And I said, I like bald guys with beards. Yeah.

She got your back. I was like, where's Canales now on the coaching hotness rankings? Oh, really?

Well, Chris got a little flustered. I didn't expect that. We need to get this out of the way now because guess who's going to be spinning it on this field on Saturday, but none other than Notre Dame heartthrob Sam Hartman.

He will be here, Suze. So I'm glad you're not. It's creepy.

I could be his mom. Not my type. Like I said, I like, I like balding guys with beards. Thank you. Great hair. Great hair. So here's a great story. I got a great story. Chris also said that he wants you to ditch the pinstripes.

He likes the great look today. You do look very handsome. It's great. Thank you. Greatly appreciate it. What's your story on your own show? Great story.

This is this is this is awesome. So there's a hallway that leads to the the field that a lot of prospects have to walk through in order to leave the field and get back to their hotel. And a lot of media folks sit there because they they they have a great access to players and coaches. It's a walkway that everybody's got to walk through. OK, so I'm standing in this walkway yesterday and for the first time because, you know, we had him on this show via Zoom and I have a text relationship with him and a D.M.

relationship with him because he's very special to me. But for the very first time, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, now, listen, what could only be better about this is who was I talking to at the time when J.J. came up to say hello? Who of the media group that is here at the combine would be best for me to be chatting with for J.J. McCarthy to go ahead, go ahead and guess who would that be? T.J., you got it.

Say it. It was Breer. You sir, unlike your time on the Price is Right, win a prize.

You get more than a ping pong table. It was Breer and it was just fantastic. It was great. And I thought to myself, how do I handle this situation with class, with class?

How do I best handle the situation? And Breer just starts laughing and he goes to McCarthy. You have no idea how great a moment this is for Rich. And I said to I said to J.J., J.J., it's so great to see you in person for the first time.

And it's so great for you to meet Albert Breer. And I didn't out him. I didn't out him.

I actually thought to myself, I thought to myself, do I take a selfie with J.J.? No. The answer to that is no, because I will not use J.J. McCarthy as a prop. He is my quarterback. He's not a prop and an inside joke. I did not do it. I did not. He's my quarterback.

And I just gave him a hug and told him what he meant to me and sent him on his way. And I will say this restraint, especially since especially since it was Breer's column where some unnamed executive called McCarthy lanky and that he's a stretched out Bryce Young. I will say this. You know, I'm six flat.

I don't look up. I had to look up. And Breer is like six one. Breer's one of those those those types that he's taller than you think he is. Breer had to look up to him, too. And I almost used the line of, well, Breer's used to looking up at J.J. McCarthy.

But I didn't because I would not go there classy. But I do want to say this, though, for anybody that thinks this kid is lanky, for anybody that thinks that this guy's not going to tip the scales at an impressive weight where you're going to be like, OK, like a little higher register, let's see how he spins it here. He is set up to crush this combine. I'm telling everybody he's taller than you think.

He looked great. I if I had to guess he's going to he's going to tip the scales at over 215, which is great for him. Then he's going to come out here. He's going to spin it.

And everyone's going to look at me one day and go, you know what, Rich? You were right. And you guys know I like being right more than pretty much anything else in this world. And Greer was right there. Greer was right there.

It was fantastic. And I took the high road, which made me feel even better. You know, who else likes being right? That guy over there. That guy over there. Everybody loves being right.

That guy. Rich, I made a great point. These guys laughed at me. And then Peter King came on and said the exact same thing I did. Yeah, he's feeling great. It was great. What do you say?

What did Peter King say? Zach Wilson, Mac Jones, these guys need to rehab. They need to go to San Francisco. They need to go to L.A.

They need to go to these spots where they can sit and learn and take in all the information from these great coaches. I agree. I hear you. And I do believe from everything that I'm hearing around here that New England's going to take a quarterback third overall. It's going to happen, Chris. So get ready. Fantastic.

I'm ready. And they might even just sit them. They might even just take the quarterback and sit him for a year because this is a whole reset and the crafts are all in on Mayo and vice versa. And you know, you might just have to wait another couple of years to start a new documentary.

You know what I mean? Who's going to start then? I don't know. They might get a vet. They might go get a vet.

And you know, Jimmy G, why not? Jacoby reset. Like these guys are... Reset? Seriously.

Like that's... They might go get a veteran in the free agent market and then take whatever slings and arrows and be like, oh, this is really your guy and your reset. And then they're going to draft third overall. Huh. Jimmy G. They're going to take some kid and go to work.

Huh. Sam Darnold. Chris, you were speaking about him earlier. Would you take him? Oh my God.

Wouldn't that be something? He's too young. He doesn't have the experience starting. No, but Jimmy G, I mean, he knows the roots. He knows 128, right? He's been in the uniform.

It makes a lot of sense. Probably got a favorite Duncan order. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. He likes a big one. It's okay.

He likes big ones, TJ. Pause. Yeah. Hey, Rich. Stop it. Hey.

Stop it. I'm sitting here. I can hear you.

I'm sorry. Hey, Rich. What's up? Hey.

I can hear you. Hold on. Hold on.

Let me ask you a question. Poster on your wall, Rich. What poster of a lady on your wall did you have growing up? First poster. Huh. It didn't have to be lady.

I thought it was just like any posters. Well, we ended up going to ladies anyway. I didn't. I did not.

Not with your mother. I slept on NFL logoed sheets, major league baseball logoed sheets. Um, uh, Joel and Eveline Eisen did not, uh, condone that sort of stuff. Um, but if I did, if I did, it would have been that famous Farrah Fawcett one piece. That would have been it. The purple one piece.

I think Scott had that too. No, it was red, Susan. No, I thought Heather Locklear and Heather Thomas were both red. She was red too? No, Farrah was red.

Dark, dark red. And I also, I also had, um, a Jacqueline Smith sticker on my bike. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. You were the angel of all the Charlies?

Oh, Jacqueline Smith was my angel. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. You're just learning about that, huh?

These are the things that you learn when you watch the Rich Eisen Show. I was going to say I had a Jacqueline Smith sticker on my Schwinn, but I'm talking to my wife. Hey now. Hold on a minute. Come on, come on over here. Denise is here. Come on. Denise is here. Hey, Denise. Long time. Rich Eisen Show.

You can hold it up right to that camera right there. Oh, that one. Yeah, I remember that one. That's a casual, casual Farrah.

There you go. Denise is a factor. Why do they always wear a red one? It's just, that's just saucy and sexy. Eye-catching. Baywatch. Yeah, but Elle MacPherson, did she wear red?

She wore all colors. Yeah. She was equal opportunity, DJ. Yeah, that's, this is not the, this is not the scouting I thought we'd be talking about. Isn't this what you expected?

I think it's fantastic. When you hung, when you hung JJ McCarthy, Rich, did you linger a little too long? Uh, no, um, because, uh, there were others around, but when I see him later on, uh, he's slated hopefully to come up to the, uh, the booth.

Same with Blake Coram. Nice. By the way, there's, there's Wolverines everywhere. It's outstanding. I don't know if you could see Jim Harbaugh's name behind me on the ring of honor, but there it is just behind me actually. Um, there's 18 of them here.

It is outstanding. And we're going to see a bunch of them today to start, um, in about, um, 50 minutes from right now, right behind us, right here is the 40 yard dash line. Um, and we're going to see the defensive lineman or as Warren Sapp refers to them, the heavy Chevys will be out here. Um, and then the, then the linebackers will have at it, uh, tomorrow's the defensive backs and tight ends. And then Saturday's the big day with the quarterbacks. Um, and I expect to see some defensive lineman out here that are just going to run four fours and four fives and just blow, blow you away.

Um, and, um, and the linebacker group is not one that a lot of people are talking about very much. Um, and then, you know, the tight end group though, tomorrow night, um, again, after what we saw this year with Sam Laporta, um, just absolutely lighting it up and, um, um, obviously the Buffalo bills went ahead and got themselves Dalton Kincaid in the first round of the draft, uh, Brock Bowers is going to be here tomorrow night. Like that's, that's going to be a nice star studded evening of tight ends.

And then clearly the, the quarterbacks have added out here. Um, and Caleb Williams, so many people are just talking about how, uh, again, he's talking tomorrow, but, um, how, you know, I did a radio hit with a bunch of guys from Chicago before I sat down here and they're, they're ready. I think, um, the, the Chicago fans are reading the writing on the wall that it's, uh, Caleb Williams that's coming.

He's already talking about like deep dish pizza and Jordan and Walter Payton, which means, you know, he's Googled Chicago sports. Um, and, and I, I think, um, he's going to be the guy, I truly believe that that's what what's happening. I don't want to tip my hand to the top five rumors that I'm hearing around here, but I, I would be stunned if we leave here on Sunday and I come back on the air Monday and the conversation is about how, uh, they got turned off by, uh, Caleb Williams and it's Justin Fields, his gig. Uh, I would be stunned if that's the case.

So what are the rumors that you're hearing around there? Well, I don't want to say as soon as that's my top five, I'm, I'm, I'm amassing, I'm amassing right now. I've got some notes. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, Hey, did you see I'm in the Madden game? Did you see that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw the video.

What do you mean? I told, I told you don't know this today, rich. I told Mike and Chris. He's like, yeah, I record them all the time. And I'm like, no, no, Mike, you understand he is in the game.

He's a player. You don't know this. Did you know this is happening? Uh, yeah, I've just, you know, we've been busy with the bar mitzvah and stuff and here it is. Here's the video. Huh? So they made, they, uh, here I am as a jet. You be one. This is the ultimate team version of Madden. There's the, wow.

That six day and workouts really paid off for you. Here you go. So hold on a second.

Excuse me. Um, so you are able to like right now, my speed is 64, which is not very good, but if you score, my overall rating is 88. If you score 20 touchdowns, you could see, look at those numbers on the screen right there. I would have a rating that's even better than, cause again, this is the ultimate team version. So there's hall of famers that are in this game. There are this version of Madden and there are pro bowlers and all pros in this and they made me a jet, but that 94 rating, if you score 20 touchdowns with me, which is going to be very difficult because if, when you start out, if you will, using me playing them, my version of me, um, uh, it's very slow, but if you score 20 touchdowns, I would have a rating higher than Gail Sayers in the game.

You really kept that. Cause I got a text from a buddy of mine at five 40 this morning, sending me the clip going, this is awesome. I'm like, yeah, he didn't tell us anything about this. So we can replace Zach Wilson with you, Rich? No, Rich is a running back, right? I'm a running back, Mike. I run, I run, that's my, that's my gig.

I'm sorry. TJ, Rich doesn't like to self promote, I don't know if you know that about him. I don't know how he held you so close to the vest. Like if I'm, well, I can, because I didn't say anything about Price is Right, so I can understand how Rich kept it quiet. No, I mean, we knew you were on the Price is Right.

You just didn't know I was in Madden, nor did, nor did you, Suze. So here's, run that video one more time, if you don't mind. So you see the video and I'm running towards the end zone, right? With the ball in this video. Yeah. Don't you jump in or something?

And so, yeah, here it is. So you could see it's running to the end zone here. Okay.

And I'm tackled just as I'm about to score because I guess my speed isn't up there. And I guess that's solid. That looks solid. Hitting me an attaboy there. Yep. All right. So, so of course, you know, I'm, I'm seeing the reaction.

There's some people saying this, this is when the game jumped the shark, but most everyone is being very positive. Here's my favorite response. You can put up the, the tweet on the screen right here. Imagine if they... Come on, Madden! Now, Anthony Sanford, that is next level. That's funny. That is amazing. And Anthony's got a dog in his, in his, in his little avatar, so we like Anthony.

I like it. Yeah. But no, I held onto the ball, Chris. Not sure if he gave you an attaboy or if he was like, what the hell do you get tackled for? It looked like he was snatching them off the field. Right? Pulling him.

No, it's, you know, that's, that's my thing here. Dan Zola's right there. Rich, I hope you, uh, took to Twitter today to notice some inspiration for you. Did you see Tom Brady run?

Rich, you can get better with age, my friend. Look at Brady. I know that. I saw this.

Look at this. He beats himself. 46 years. 22 years. He's fast. He beat 12. Come on, let's go.

That's unbelievable. Rich. You got, you got to, you can do it.

Rich. You got to do them. You're working out. You're training.

You can do this. You got it. You got to reach out to Tommy.

You're saying that as if I already haven't, Suze. Come on now. Come on. Tommy. Listen. Tommy.

I'm talking to you right now. Hey, Tommy told me he was going to train me. Tommy. Tommy, do something. Come on. Look at this guy. He's like putty in your hands, Tommy.

Turn him into a runner. Hold on a minute. Let's see.

I mean, I think Reggie Wayne's right here. Oh, hey, Reggie. This is what we got. Hey.

I don't know. We only got a couple minutes left anyway. Now we're going to break. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are you really going to break? Come here real quick, Reggie. I'm on my show live. Yeah. This is one of the all time greats. I mean, he's. This is great radio. Reggie Wayne.

I know this is great for radio. He's strolling over here. He's taking his time.

By the way, he was much, he was much faster when he was, uh, on the cold. We all were. Hey, listen. This is good.

Tell Jeff Ross. They said hi. Okay. It's enjoyable. And I'll be on with Daniel Jeremiah. Fantastic.

We will watch you, um, for hours, for hours and hours. Thanks everybody. Have fun. See you bud. Love you.

Love you. All right. That's Rich Eisen. It's his show. So you know who he is, right?

I mean, do I even say that? Thanks so much, Rich. Let's go to break. Let me come back on your own show. Jeff. Jeff Ross. Just the funniest guy on the planet right after this break. America Starts the Day with America in the Morning. Hi, I'm John Trout, your host for the latest news, politics, entertainment, business, and weather.

Our staff of correspondents provide a fast paced look at the world with specialized reports from where news happens. In New York, I'm Sue Allard. I'm Charles Dilettesma, Sagar, Megani, Washington. I'm Jennifer King. I'm Clayton Ewell. I'm Kevin Carr.

I'm Archie Zaraleta. Concise, accurate, and fresh each day. America in the Morning. The podcast.

Available wherever you listen. On the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, cohost David Green and Rob Abasolo interview real estate investors and entrepreneurs about successes, failures, and hard-earned lessons. Joined by author Dave Meyer. Who wrote a book? I did write a book. It seems like you're coming out with a book every four minutes. You are one to talk. You've released two books this year.

I've done half as many as you. It is more about strategy than it is about just finding whatever the new buzzword happens to be. The BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show, Susie Schuster here with the great Jeffrey Ross, the roast master general. So thrilled to have him here promoting his new movie. I'm sitting at The Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger's got the right product for you.

Call clickrainder.com or just stop by and spend some time with us. Some of the jokes, you alluded to something well happening in the movie and didn't see that coming, by the way. I get roofied. I don't want to give it all away, but I get roofied. You don't see a lot of rabbis get roofied in a mainstream movie.

Also the last time I checked, you don't want your rabbi roofied when they're around some manhood issues. I'm about to perform a circumcision and I accidentally get roofied in the movie and it goes off the rails from there. And man, we laughed a lot on set.

We had a real baby there. We had a so for me, it was a real thrill because I love Pete Farrelly and Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, William H. Macy, John Cena and Zac Efron. So I was just having so much fun just being around at all. And I think my scene, it's an 18 minute scene. It's one of the more wild parts of the movie.

I can't wait to like, you know, roll one up and watch this one with my friends. Jeffrey Ross here on The Rich Eisen Show, Susie Schuster in for Rich Eisen. Hi, Jeffrey. You look like Julia Roberts. I do.

Very movie star today. You're making my day. Yeah.

I mean, you usually see me like with sweatpants on and a ponytail. Feed the dog. But this is good. I know.

We have to have Nipsey over very soon. Yeah. She misses. She asked about you. What'd you say? She said, how's that lady Susie with all the treats and those two crazy dogs? Yes.

She knows me very, very well. Hey, what's more fun for you? Does it feel that much different doing something where you've got scripting and you're following the rules versus when you go out on a stage and anything is impossible or anything's possible in front of you?

That's a good question. I think I like being able to jump around and do both, like stand up being on stage. Obviously, it's my first love. It's my hobby that turned into my life's mission.

But every now and then you get a call going. There's a really funny part. They wrote it just for you or they want you to do it and and I'll do it and not that often.

But when I do it, it's really fun because I don't have to worry about writing it and creating and I can just kind of show up and be funny. And you know, when Peter Farrelly it was interesting, Susie, because I was in I was about to leave for Australia, New Zealand for a month on tour with Dave Chappelle. And when Peter Farrelly texted me, I was looking at the routing in Australia, New Zealand, and I'm reading Pete's text.

And it was a long text in my heart kind of saying because I was like, here I am getting a movie offer from Peter Farrelly to work with John Cena and Zac Efron. And I'm probably not going to be able to do it because then I look a little closer at the offer and it says Melbourne on these dates. And then I look back at the routing for Chappelle's tour and it's in Melbourne.

I'll be in Melbourne on those days. And it was like a one in a billion. I thought I was getting pranked and I wound up working out perfectly where the whole cast and crew came to see me perform in Australia. And then a day later, here I am on set dressed as a rabbi. I mean, that has to be karma because anybody wants to work with Peter, right? He's one of the all time great directors and the funniest. The cast is incredible. And yet you're just casually going to Sydney with Dave Chappelle, arguably one of the most impactful speakers and orders and teachers of our time.

I mean, that's that's crazy good karma for you, Jeffrey. I got to do it all. And yeah, I mean, sometimes sometimes show business can be really hard, but sometimes it just works out. What was the surprise in this movie that you had the most fun doing that? Maybe a person or who was it that surprised you?

Oh, you know what? John Cena steals a lot of the scenes that he's in, and I hadn't met him. I'd met him briefly around wrestling just as a fan, but I hadn't known him as an actor. And he was so prepared.

And then beyond that took the material to another level of just hilarity. He plays a crazy he's dressed like Britney Spears in this movie. He's running around singing Boy George songs in his underwear. He plays this crazy alcoholic trying to straighten his life up. And there's this joke after joke.

I think about JPM is when I watch something like this, the jokes per minute and they're just coming, coming, coming. But then, you know, we had some long days and I got to just sit and eat lunch with William H. Macy, who ends up being like the coolest laid back dude ever, like a real artist. And of course, I got to be friends with Zac Efron, who I'm in love with. And I think that you may have broken the Internet when you were posting a selfie of you and him and people like, what the hell is going on here?

He has no shirt on holding my dog and my Instagram. You know, Zach's a sweetheart. He's you know, he's this beautiful specimen of human being. But on the inside, he's just this little Menchie kind of nerdy kid who just wants to be loved. And he's always caring about his friends. And we since got on vacation together a couple of times.

And he's a wonderful guy. The one fun thing about acting that you don't get in stand up is stand up. You're kind of out there with maybe one other person or by yourself. But when you're on set, suddenly you're surrounded by all these funny people. And chances are you're one of the funnier people because, you know, actors, actors, Ricky Sinicki available for streaming on Prime Video next week on March 7th.

I mean, did they ask you to punch up jokes? I wonder you mentioned that seen it as a lot of weird things. And his music set that he chooses, what he does sounds pretty original in Atlantic City. I don't want to give it away, but let's just say. Yeah, he's like a dirty joke musical. I keep giving stuff away because the movie's so funny, I don't think it matters. It's nice to laugh again. Like, I feel like I don't want to go see a movie about a zombie or something depressing like it.

This was it's like very fairly like and I say this with the ultimate of compliments. Yeah, it's stupid funny because you're laughing because it's so ridiculous, right? It's nice to laugh. I got to watch a prescreening in a room full of comedy fans and the movie just murders.

So people watching at home on Amazon next week are going to really laugh their butts off. And it's fun. It's fun having something new come out that that I don't that that's not stand up. I kind of enjoy being able to talk about a movie. It's exciting. Are we going to see more acting from you?

I hope not. I don't like getting up early in the morning. Comedy is great. I can show up at 10 o'clock at night and rip the roof off the hill once a year to do something like this is really fun. I'm acting in my new one man show, which is more of a dramatic piece. So I guess I'm warmed up for that. So let's talk about that, because I can't wait to go see it in May.

And we're going to share all of the tour dates with you guys, both on our social media. And we'll keep talking about it here on The Rich Eisen Show. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen. Jeffrey Ross joins me here. And the show is called Take a Banana for the Ride. Yes.

What the hell is that? When I was a young comic starting out in New Jersey, I would take care of my grandfather, who had all this old man stuff wrong with him. I lost my parents as a young man, and he lost his wife. And and we were just two single guys living together.

I was starting my comedy career and my grandfather was living with me and I would take him to the doctor all day and then at night I would go in in New York and do open mics. And my grandfather would always give me a few dollars for gas and tolls and a banana. You'd say take a banana for the ride. I'll be fine. No, you never know. You could get stuck in traffic, whatever, you know, in a pinch.

You could use it as a. I don't know. But it was his way of saying, I can't go with you, but I'm there with you on the ride. And the show kind of takes off from there talking about all the people that made me who I am. And I did this show, Suzy. I did the show as a young man in the 90s after my grandfather passed away. I did this show at a bunch of festivals in the comedy world and it was emotional for me.

I couldn't really deal with it. So I put it away for decades and then not too long ago, I lost three great buddies. The comedy world lost three great buddies within eight months. Norm Macdonald, Bob Saget and Gilbert Gottfried, his birthdays this week. And it made me look back at the old show and think about some of the themes of resilience and bouncing back.

And when people mourn and how that how I dealt with that as a young man. And and I kind of tied it all together into a new idea and a new show. And I'm going to be in New Jersey at the Count Basie Performing Arts Center next week. I'll be in Norwalk, Connecticut next week, kind of putting it up for the first time as a full, dramatic musical one man performance. And then you've got Austin, Texas. We're going to do three nights at the Moon Tower Comedy Festival in Austin at Moon Tower, and then I'm going to hit the south. So it's a cathartic experience.

I want people to come. If you're going through something, challenges in your life, this is a show to see. I talk about my dog losing my dog in the show.

None of it gets so sad. There's movies in the show. I tried I tried to make it a cathartic, comedic, communal experience for everybody who comes out. You know, we were together when the world lost Bob Saget.

Yeah. How is losing these three so recently changed you as a comedian? Man, well, I look at the pictures of me and Bob and Norman Gilbert and I go, how am I the one? That sticks around to tell the story, I feel lucky that I got to know those guys. Those three guys were besties.

I would just sit back and watch them make each other laugh. And I wanted to one of the reasons I wanted to do this show, take a banana for the ride is because keeping their names alive is really important to me because I know if I was gone, they would do that for me. And Bob showed love. Bob would always would always tell you he loved you at the end of every conversation. And I wish everyone a friend like Bob in their lives. And these are the guys who made me who I am and the shows about some women who made me who I am in my life and even some of the some of the great stories of resilience and bouncing back that I had to deal with as a young man. And Bob always said, do what's good for you. He always gave you positive advice, positive energy. So losing Bob is something that I still have trouble getting my head around talking about. You know, comics were like a tribe.

When we lose a tribal member, it hurts for a long time. But it's important to keep telling his jokes and keep his memory alive. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show. Jeffrey Ross is my guest. How did you become the roastmaster general? How did it go from just being a comedian out there pushing stand up to realizing that I've got an itch here, this is going to be amazing?

Wow. I got asked to do the roast and being from Jersey, that was kind of in my blood. When you grow up in Jersey, like me, Newark, Union and Springfield back then, everybody thinks they're an expert in busting chops. It's kind of like what we do. It's how we show love. Right.

You guys know any Jersey people here? Oh, my God. I lost my virginity and living Christmas Eve one year. All the Jews got together for Chinese food and we lost our virginities. So, you know, that's how we talk and that's how we develop our thick skin. And I was I was I was there was this one bully that roamed the halls of my high school and he would jump out of lockers and smash people right in the crotch. And he got me one time and I was down on the floor in pain.

And I I go through this entire sequence very dramatically in the take a banana for the ride show. And I realized I couldn't beat this kid up. So I stood up and shook it off and started insulting him. And by demeaning the bully, by taking the bully down with insults, I was able to neutralize him where he was no longer a bully that bothered me by humiliating him. And I think the fun of that and the excitement of being able to defend myself with words, with jokes made me sort of invincible. And I think that's really how I became the roast master.

I don't think many people know this. I mean, the reason why we know you is because you approached Richard, saw him somewhere. I don't remember what exactly what was. OK, tell us exactly. Well, finish your question.

How did I meet Rich? No, it was more like just sharing with the audience. You know, it came because of the Hefner roast post 9-11.

I was I was on the street working on jokes for the roast of Hugh Hefner, which would have been three weeks after 9-11. So, of course, you're in New York, the place everyone's walking around like this, there's ash in the air, there's a feeling of. Desperate desperation. There's a feeling of death.

I mean, what is it? It's the worst tragedy in New York. History is happening all around us. And as a comic, I'm like, we can't cancel.

Then the terrorists win. It didn't it wasn't a cliche back then. You had to. The show must go on.

The roast must go on. So I wrote a letter to Hugh Hefner and let's face it, he was the reason the terrorists hated us, like free speech and sex and all that stuff. And and I wrote a letter to the Friars Club and I said, please, let's keep instead of doing an after party, let's have a big fundraiser afterwards for the Twin Towers Fund and Comedy Central was down. And I was working on my jokes, working on my jokes, just like any other roast, just road testing everything in the clubs. Make sure I had a lot of good jokes about Hugh Hefner. I said, you know why Hugh Hefner has seven girlfriends, one to put it in and the other six to move them around.

Hey, you asked for it. I did. And then outside one of the clubs when I was preparing, I see this guy that I kind of recognize from TV. It's this little cute pudgy, Rich Eisen.

I go, here's a nice, sweet Jewish guy who understands comedy. I said, Rich, nice to meet you. I'm Jeff Ross. I've seen you on Sports Center. You're great. He's like, oh, I know you, Jeff Ross.

I saw you roast Drew Carey and this and that. And we started talking. I go, hey, what are you doing next next next week? Do you have a tuxedo? He goes, yeah, I can find a tuxedo, which is a weird thing to ask somebody in the wake of 9-11.

But I said, you know what? We're going to we're going to get dressed up. We're going to celebrate life. We're going to celebrate free speech. We're going to do something patriotic. We're going to roast this publishing mogul, Hugh Hefner, that we all that we all know that we're going to have lots of great jokes about.

And it'll be a release for New Yorkers, a release and tension in the tension of what's been going on. And he understood that. He said, yeah, I'm coming.

I said, I got your seat on the dais big guy. And Rich and I have been friends ever since he passed out. Yeah, he called me like, you're not going to believe what you boyfriend and girlfriend back then or were you married? We were we were just friends, maybe just friends, just friends. You were still making them chase you at that point.

We were just friends. What? Wait a minute. Hold on. 2001.

When do we get married? Oh, three. You're asking me. Wait a minute.

This is the thing I've ever seen. How do you not know if you were married on 9-11? We weren't married. I was out here. I was out here and he was in New York and he called me and he said, you're not going to believe what just happened. He's like, the craziest thing just happened. I'm going to be on the dais. He's like, you know, because, you know, Rich is a you know, he's a failed stand up comedian. He's all he wanted to do was be a stand up comedian.

And so meeting you is like and being exposed to those people on the dais, it was probably one of the best nights of his life. I'm not joking. I take I take I wouldn't I won't let you call him a he's an evolved, evolved stand up comedian. I have so many more questions for you. OK, failed means he works. It means that he works, you know, a job that he doesn't love. But he's he used comedy to take him to a new place. What do we what do we not know about Dave Chappelle that you know so well? Only because I've been so moved by listening to him in the few times that we've been together.

Well, Dave is. A very empathetic person. He has a tattoo that says human on his arm, and I always think he goes to the human side of himself before anything else. And he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Everybody, you know, his his comedy is thoughtful.

He's not just saying things to say them. And he's a great dad and a great husband and a great friend. You talk about 9-11. We spent 9-11 together. His his wife, Elaine, and their son, Suley and Dave, were outside my apartment in 300 Mercer Street on the day. And I when the first tower fell, I ran out to get sandwiches and cash because I had a feeling people might be evacuating lower Manhattan and coming up towards Greenwich Village.

So I ran out and I got whatever I could get from the grocery stores before they sold out. And I came home in 15 minutes and and I saw Dave with a with Elaine and a baby stroller covered in white ash. I was like, wow, this makes us friends for life. This is a real bonding thing here. And we were friends. We'd already been very good friends.

So Dave is beyond that big celebrity. He's got a mensch of a heart. Nice. Nice. Before we go, the Brady roast is coming up. Yeah, I mean, are you psyched?

That is on May 5th. Yeah. Tom Brady. The groat, the greatest roast of all time.

Can you believe it? Has there ever been a roast that people are more up your craw with than the one with Tom Brady? Tom is a great target. And what it really shows is that if a seven time Super Bowl champ can take a joke, anybody can. So I think it's a great lesson for everyone else in sports, even if you're in high school sport, like anybody should be able to not take themselves so seriously. And the fact that he's doing this, I really admire the fact that he's showing the world that he has thick skin. He can take a joke and he's like, bring it, whatever, whoever. I'm ready.

So to be that made to be that made and be able to take the pads off and the helmet off and just go, what do you guys got to me really, really put some on a level that no one else is on. Fantastic. I think it's going to be great live on Netflix.

May 5th. Netflix is a joke festival. It's going to be one of those. It's called the growth, greatest roast of all time. And I have a feeling it's going to live up to that. Oh, my God. I cannot wait. I'm so excited. Yeah.

All right. You can all sit on the dais. Rich can sit in the audience. Can you imagine?

It would pass out. It'd be so great. I'm sure he's hit you up seven or eight times. All right. Let's let's just promote Ricky Saniki. Hysterical coming out on Prime and Prime. Yep. Can't wait for that.

I think it's March 7th, March 7th. Saw it. It's fantastic. I laughed. Thank you. You steal the movie. Thank you. Wow.

Take a banana for a ride. I didn't understand what it was. And now that I do, I love it even more. You're going to love this show.

I want you to come. I'm doing it in L.A. for the Netflix Comedy Festival. I think that's May 9th. Yeah. At the Masonic Lodge. I'll be there.

Yeah. The Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It's going to be a fun, fun one. And I'm in my old my old stomping grounds of Jersey and Connecticut next week. Then I'm hitting Austin for the Moon Tower Comedy Festival. I'm going to do a three night run of the show there.

The North and South Carolina in June. We'll post all the dates. I really appreciate that. This means so much to me. Thank you for letting me talk about the show. It's so great. Jeffrey Ross joining us here on The Rich Eisen Show. Say hi to the fam, babe. I will.

And to Nipsey. Yeah. Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying the show on Google podcasts? You should know that the Google podcast app is going away this spring.

That's right. Going away. Gone as in no longer available. You can still enjoy the show elsewhere, though. Try out Spotify or Amazon music or maybe tune in is more your style. Whatever app you switch to. Be sure to follow so you never miss the next episode. And thanks for listening.

Wherever you listen. How many planks do you have to break to be a black belt? How many do you have to do that? Is that is an actual metric here?

I don't think there's a number, but I think it's when the pressure is on, when the tournaments happen, when the tests happen. Well, I'll break one right now if you need. Do we have one anywhere? Can we get a plank for this hot take plank?

I mean, why not? It's a two by two by four. That's right. What is it now? You got me. I have no idea. Let me see it. Hold on. Standard.

Why would I'm guessing? Get ready to cancel my show. I have a broken hand.

What's your we haven't taken it off and you should be amazing. You feel that break. Is that proper? I can break this. I haven't done this since I was 12. OK, do you want to give it a try if you think you can do it?

But this is what I learned at the House of Empty Hands in Newark, New Jersey. OK, very good. Did it break? Hold on, hold it down. Is that better?

Yeah, that'd be good. Chris, hold on the other side. The side, Chris. All right, it's going. Hold it.

Pull it out a little bit more for the edges on the box. You don't even have any you don't have any music from Karate Kid. If he gets it, glory. Here we go. Oh, here we go. Forget it. Damn it. I really thought I could do it, Rich.

I really thought I could do it. It's OK, Jeff. We still love you.

Eight, seven. Back to wrap up this edition of The Rich Eisen Show. Full disclosure, we taped our interview with Jeff Ross right before we heard the news of Richard Lewis passing at the age of 76. Yesterday, and his heart was broken and I really didn't want to ask him about it because it was too fresh, so I just wanted to. There's Jeff Ross FaceTiming in right now, and I wanted to share that with you because, you know, we're sensitive to that.

Richard Lewis was a great friend of the show. I'd love to close out the show today by sharing this clip of the last time he was on with Rich. We had dinner once. We went out for dinner. He calls me up and he said, I said, what time? He called me up in the afternoon. He said, let's have dinner. I'll meet you there now. It's always now.

It's like some diva actress. And I said, well, you know, come on now. He says, let's have dinner.

I said, I just had a hero sandwich. He said, all right, I'll meet you at four oh one, four oh one. I said, then we were on the phone for an hour. I said, and we got up to 518. I said, all right. And it was his high profile thing on Rodeo Drive or one of those streets in Beverly Hills that he used to, and he goes to a lot. He's a regular guy, but he's Larry David. You can go wherever you want.

I'd soak an eye for that matter. So I got there an hour early to pay the check. I said to the mate, hey, Mr. Lewis, how are you? Call me Richard, but listen, I'm paying for dinner. And he says, oh no, you can't pay. I went, what do you mean I can't pay?

I can't, what do you mean I can't pay? No, Mr. David would be upset. I don't care about it.

Then I did my Norman. What do you mean I don't care about him? He can't follow me. I can't follow him. He can't follow me. I can catch him. I can. So he said, no, we won't allow it.

I said, what do you mean you won't allow it? It was a screaming match. This sounds like an episode of Curb by the way.

Yes. And I said, take my credit card. So I sit down. Larry comes an hour late after this hour phone call, 416, 503, 518.

He was like a Jewish airport controller out of control. So he gets there and I said, Larry, why don't we make leave? It's 1972 and we're broke and we're all we care about is, is comedy and, and, uh, and you know, and just our passion for our craft and whatever. And he's, and he says, what do you mean?

I don't want to mean what I mean. We used to go to a Chinese restaurant, cheap. I'd get soup. We'd split it. I'd get, what do you want, beef? All right, I'll get the shrimp.

All right, don't take too much of my shrimp. Then we'll split it. It was like five hours.

It was like five hours. Okay. He says, we're not going to split anything here. He goes, why not? You'll hurt the feelings of the chef. I said, I couldn't care less about the chef. I just, I'm hungry. He says, I know him. He's a personal friend. I went, you know, and now I'm worried about the check. Okay.

The chef comes out with 18 entrees on a turntable. Big enough. We should have sent it to the army and to the Navy and to the Marines and all that.

And to a third world country. We don't even have a discussion, Rich. The phone rings. Steve Martin, comedian, of course. And he doesn't say goodbye. He gets up. He goes, I forgot I have poker night. And he leaves. And he leaves me with a hundred thousand dollar bill with this Chinese food that I couldn't even recognize. It looked like a peacock smoking a joint.

I didn't even know what it was. He called himself the Prince of pain, but he brought so much joy to the world. We will really, really miss Richard Lewis. And you know, as guys, we, when we went to the curb premiere a couple of weeks ago, Richard wasn't there. And Larry had said from the stage, you know, Richard couldn't be here tonight. We looked at each other thinking, Ooh, I hope he's okay. But, um, I don't think that anybody was expecting it like this. And we send our condolences and our love to his family.

What an absolute legend. And if you're, if you're caught up on, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, on curb, then, you know, you know, they had a scene together on the golf course. They're joking about putting each other in their will. It's just super funny. And then to have this happen a couple of weeks later, it's just so sad. Oh, it's heartbreaking.

Yeah. Larry's coming in to talk to rich pretty soon. And I know that they will talk at length about his love of football. I mean, he was an Ohio state guy.

I think we should let that slip by. And, uh, but yeah, I, and you know, one thing Jeff said is that his, um, his family were caterers from New Jersey and that Richard Lewis's family were caterers from New Jersey and that they had that in common and that Richard Lewis just made Jeff feel so at home when he entered the comedy world, you know, you just can't discount good people like that who reach out to others and try to include them as opposed to exclude. It's been a really fun show today. Chris Russo, Christopher, we call him Christopher here. Christopher Russo was fantastic. Peter King is a dream as always having Jeffrey Ross over a dear friend of mine was fantastic.

And you know, my husband, pretty cute. He listened to us talk about Jimmy G and he took it all in stride. So that was very good. But I'll be back in the chair tomorrow. Rhett Musburger will be with us. And you know how much I love talking to him.

Let's ask him if he thinks he should be in the hall of fame and I can't wait to hear his answer. A couple other guests ahead. It's been a pleasure being with all of you for all of us here at the Ridge Eyes and show. Thanks so much. Have a great Thursday. Like I'm in a room with all these artists and they all respect each other. I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone music now, wherever you listen.