Chuck Shute Podcast
In depth interviews with musicians, comedians, authors, actors, and more! Guests on the show include David Duchovny, Billy Bob Thornton, Mark Normand, Dee Snider, Ann Wilson, Tony Horton, Don Dokken, Jack Carr and many more.
Chuck Shute Podcast
Fritz Coleman (comedian, weatherman)
Fritz Coleman is a comedian, podcaster and retired weatherman. He worked at The Comedy Store for many years and made eight appearances on The Tonight Show. He has a new stand up special called “Unassisted Living” available for free on Tubi. We discuss the new special, The Comedy Store, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, his years in the Navy and so much more!
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - Right Place, Right Time
03:46 - Joining the Navy & Path
06:10 - Seeing George Carlin
08:10 - Doing Radio & Weather In The Navy
10:55 - Advantages of Military Service
15:00 - Comedy Store, Tonight Show & Strike
19:30 - Clean Comedy
21:30 - Kids & Social Media
23:40 - Def Jam Comedy & Dry Bar Comedy
26:30 - Comedy Clubs & Getting Older
27:55 - Comedian Friends & Comedy Store
31:18 - Robin Williams
33:41 - Jim Carrey
36:05 - Fahim Anwar & Comedy Boom
37:14 - Competition Among Comedians
38:50 - Show "It's Fritz"
42:45 - Anchorman Consultant
45:35 - Promotion
46:10 - Charities
Fritz Coleman website:
https://www.fritzcolemancomedy.com/
Children's Burn Foundation website:
https://www.childburn.org/
Shelter Partnership website:
https://www.shelterpartnership.org/
Chuck Shute website:
https://www.chuckshute.com/
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
All right, this was another really fun interview, Fritz Coleman is my guest. He was the former weatherman for the NBC affiliate in LA from 1982 to 2020. And if you didn't know, he's also been a comedian since before he was a weatherman he's been on this night show eight times, is a new comedy special out now free on TV. It's called unassisted living. We're gonna talk about the new special performing at the Comedy Store, this time in the Navy and so much more stay tuned. Usually, it's most of this will be you talking and listening. But I did want to start off and just talk about your story about what I've learned. And what I find so interesting, because I'm really obsessed with like, lately, I've been obsessed with people's stories and like how they became successful. And I think for years, it was like, the theme that I'm picking up is that you were in the right place at the right time. And
Fritz Coleman:I am the world's greatest example of that, my friend. You're exactly right.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. But also, it's like you, you put yourself there wasn't like, you know what I mean? Like you were in LA doing comedy. And that led to the weatherman thing. Like if you were trying to do stand up in like Cleveland or something, it might not have worked out that way.
Fritz Coleman:No, it was the confluence of preparation and timing. It's that's exactly what it was. I came out to LA in 1980, to do stand up. I was working at the Comedy Store. I did open mics for a couple of years and finally got the position as a paid regular at the Comedy Store, which is the, you know, the value thing. And then in 1982, my friend that worked at NBC brought his boss and his boss's wife to see my show on a Friday night at the Comedy Store. And I my background in broadcasting was armed forces, radio and television. I was in the Navy for four years. And I did all kinds of things. And I told a couple of anecdotes on stage about being forced to do the weather in the Navy, but not knowing anything about it. But the Navy didn't seem to care as long as I filled the appropriate time, and didn't use profanity, you know. So after that my show was over at The Comedy Store. My friend bought his boss and his boss's wife up, they introduced me and he said, I really loved your stories about doing the weather, but not knowing anything about it. Do you have any desire to come to NVC for Los Angeles, and do some vacation relief fill in for me, I need a guy to help me on weekends with weather. I need a guy to fill in for the main weather guy on during the week because he needs a vacation. And I was making $25 A Night at the Comedy Store. So after I caught my breath, I said, Oh my God, when do you want me to start? And can I please carry your wife back to the car anything? He said well, and before we finish our conversation, I see you did catch in the thing that I don't know anything about weather. We said perfect. There's no weather in California. This will work out great. So I auditioned. The following week, I got the job. I did the fill in position, weekends and vacation relief for two years. Then my predecessor left the main weather guy, Kevin O'Connell, who is the guy that took over Pat sage X job when Pat went to Wheel of Fortune. And I retired two weeks shy of my 40th anniversary. So I always say it's the greatest stroke of showbusiness luck, other than that woman monitor who was discovered Schwab's pharmacy in the 40s. I mean, the older I get, the more I realize how lucky I've been. So you're again,
Chuck Shute:yeah, I feel like you kind of put yourself in those situations like even joining the Navy and getting that experience like your stance on the Navy, like you it wasn't like it was a lifelong dream or something that you
Fritz Coleman:didn't take it, I didn't take a chance on the Navy, here's what happened. You know, I'm an old guy. And when I was going to college, they still had to draft right. And if you were failing miserably in college, and I pass that threshold, by a mile. If you dropped below a C average in college, you got a notification from the Defense Department that we would like to chat with you maybe for some future employment. So I had to go down and get a physical and anybody during that time. This is in the late 60s. Anybody at that time that got called up for the physical, you knew you were going to Vietnam. And so when I went down for my physical, I had a sense that I was headed for the Pacific. So I picked up my clothes. I went down the line of recruiters and immediately enlisted in the Navy for four years, because I didn't mind serving my country. I just thought I could do it in a non gun oriented way and be more productive if you know what I mean. So I signed up for the Navy, then Navy gave me an opportunity to go to armed forces television. Then I was in the radio business for 15 years, I was out of work one day after the Navy when I got a job at a radio station. I did that for 15 years. While I was in Buffalo, New York, I, as a DJ was getting jobs hosting at various clubs around town. And I had an ongoing gig as an emcee at a jazz club in Buffalo. And purely as my introductory remarks to begin, every show began to write material for myself. And I got pretty good at it and got known for around town, and then got smitten by the whole stand up comedy career, and came out here in 1980. To try it. There's in those days, with Letterman and Jay Leno and Freddie Prinze and all those guys. The mecca for comedy was the Comedy Store, you had to come to the Comedy Store to be discovered. So I came out here, and that's the whole thing started. So you're right, there's a lie, I can easily trace the line now, back through that series of decisions that I made unconscious decisions. You know, maybe there really is divine intervention. I don't know. But
Chuck Shute:so when did you because you're talking about at you, you started kind of doing material then decided you wanted to try stand up. But when did you see George Carlin because you said that was like a religious experience. And that was a thing that said, Oh, wow, this is amazing.
Fritz Coleman:I had seen many stand ups on television in short bursts, you know, the five minute Carson, Merv Griffin performances or talk show performances. And so I was big fans of the event, but I never saw somebody do a full on stage show. So when I was a junior in high school, my uncle gave me tickets to see George Carlin at an outdoor venue called the Valley Forge music fair, which was in suburban Philadelphia, East Coast cities in the summer, we do these things called Music fairs, where they put up a tent, like a circus Vargas or a Cirque du Soleil a tent. And they were beautiful, tricked out venues that had like 3000 seats in a rotating stage. That was beautiful. So I went to see George Carlin. And I didn't understand the mechanics of standup that you're writing an hour of standup takes a year, two years, three years. And you work it out in a modular fashion, a chunk at a time, and then you all put it together. But I didn't know how they did this. So George Carlin gets up on this stage. And for an hour and a half. Talk what seemed to be extemporaneously like he never thought of these words before. And convulsed this audience till they were in tears. And I it was, as you say, a religious experience. I thought it was the greatest amount of power that another human being could have over a group of people other than a TV evangelist, who knows how to whip these people in, you know, giving large amounts of money. But I was smitten by I never thought I could do it professionally. But it was a life changing experience for me. And I think subconsciously, that's what drove me to do it in my own career later.
Chuck Shute:Okay, interesting. So when you sign up for the Navy, you didn't want to fight? Do you have to tell them that? Like, how does that work? You just say,
Fritz Coleman:they were happy to have me I just went down to sign up for the Navy. I didn't care why I was there. I didn't I get a choice. That's not like they say, Well, you know, what would happen is you'd get a physical, and then you sit around your house and wait to get that draft notice, please report on November 30, you're gonna go to basic training. And then probably at that time in history, from 1968, through 1972, was the peak of the draft and the peak of drawing kids into the Vietnam War. And I just knew I was gonna do it. I didn't believe in the Vietnam War. And I also knew that I just knew me, I would not be a good guy in the foxhole. I'm not the guy who went cover your ass. When you were in the foxhole. I just I love to serve my country. I love my country, but I think I could do it in a more productive way. And it was the best decision I ever made.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, so they're okay. If you tell them that's what you want to do. Then they
Fritz Coleman:I didn't tell them. I just went down. I literally went down the hall and signed up for the Navy. I'm here to sign up. That's all they didn't care why.
Chuck Shute:Okay, and then you saw and you just sit there happened to be an opening in the in the broadcast stuff or whatever?
Fritz Coleman:Yes, they I was I went to they, the recruiter asked you for your three top choices of what you'd like to do. Okay, so and they do that for everybody. So my top choice was something in radio, I something I always wanted to try. So and then in the Defense Department's infinite wisdom. They sent me to radio repair school at Great Lakes. So I go to Great Lakes. I go to eight weeks of radio school. And at the end of that experience, I was assigned to a ship. The USS John F. Kennedy, which was a brand new ship in Norfolk, Virginia was an aircraft carrier. Its responsibility was what they call the Sixth Fleet, which was the Mediterranean, Europe and all that stuff. And when I got on the ship, they were looking for volunteers. For the Public Affairs Department to run this television based radio and TV station. In those days, they didn't have microwave they had only had videotape. And so we would do radio shows and record newscasts, and then helicopters would take them to the other, the tapes of those to the other ships in the flotilla. So you're learning broadcasting just in a real sort of primitive way. Yeah. So that's how I learned. And the beauty of that was that regardless of how bad you suck, you would never get fired. It was brilliant. It's, you know, in most commercial radio jobs or elsewhere, you know, you get a pass for six months. But if you're bad, you're out the door. In the Navy, you stay unless you literally violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice, you're in that job until you get out. So that was great freedom and allowing being allowed to find myself and make mistakes. And all that stuff was cool.
Chuck Shute:That's true. So it's interest. So basically, you play your top choice, but they could have said, Sorry, we're not doing that. You're in foxhole.
Fritz Coleman:No. Well, in the Navy, you wouldn't get fossil duty. But you could have been what's called a boson mate, which is the guy that like greases the gears and paints, the walls and all that kind of stuff. It was a great stroke of luck.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, that's true. Yeah, cuz the Navy. Yeah, cuz that'd be army. So yeah, that's right. Well, my dad was in the Air Force. So he was like a metal. He was a police guy in the Air Force. Good for him. So yeah, yeah. Interesting.
Fritz Coleman:He served our factory might not say to my children, I have grandchildren. Now. I say to my kids, you know that my or my kids say to their friends. Yeah. My dad was in the Navy for four years. And they go, why, you know, they didn't have any idea that there was no choice back then. And there's no sense of duty to the United States anymore. So you know, it's different now.
Chuck Shute:It's definitely yeah. I mean, I was lucky. I grew up in the 90s. I mean, I think you had Iraq War and stuff, but
Fritz Coleman:Well, that was great. God bless the people that signed up to go to that. Yeah. But we don't
Chuck Shute:think they drafted. It was I mean, I know I had to do the draft card, but I don't think they ever drafted anybody.
Fritz Coleman:No, now we're sort of volunteer, military. And the pros, the professionals in the military say it's better, because you're not you have you don't have somebody there against their will. And there's always going to be pushed back and trying to teach somebody something. They don't want to be there. Now, people want to do it. Because they can get out of their circumstances. The problem is, there is a social and a racial component now, because a lot of people that sign up are people that are trying to get out of their bad economic circumstances at home, so that they the military gets waited with with a different, you know, people that are in there for a different reason. But they want to be there, which is, you know, that's a step in the right direction.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, it's definitely my dad, I think, helped him. I hear a lot of stories like yours where it's wherever your dad
Fritz Coleman:huh, where was your dad from?
Chuck Shute:Initially? Were all from Washington State he, Tacoma, Washington. Was
Fritz Coleman:he a career military guy? Did he do a career in the Air
Chuck Shute:Force? No, he just did for years. And then he got I think they I think they still had the GI bill back then. So Oh, yeah.
Fritz Coleman:That was the that was the blowing of the whole experience. I went to college for $3,000 a year because of the GI Bill. And I had a GI How
Chuck Shute:do you you dropped out, then you went to Navy. Then you went back
Fritz Coleman:when I finished I dropped out of school finish the Navy when I got out. I went to Temple University afterwards for two additional years. The GI Bill was $3,000 a year. Whereas now college can be $70,000 a year. And it's just insane. And I also had the ability. Maybe your dad did this to get a GI home loan, which is like our very low interest home loan. I never did. Because honestly, I wasn't in a position to buy a house at that point. So sure, but I could have it was it was a wonderful thing. And now if you do I think if you do for six years now they'll pay for college. It's a great experience for people who have no other means.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, well, yours was like great, because I heard you talk about how you got to travel the world and man to fight and you got to see,
Fritz Coleman:oh my god. I had survivor's guilt at the end of the Vietnam War. Because I did two six fleet cruises, which are Mediterranean cruises, meaning when I went to Europe twice for 10 months at a time. And we went to Palma, Majorca, Barcelona, Spain, Malta, Athens, Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, all these a star I learned to ski in the Alps for free because I was in the Navy. I got to cover the Grand Prix at Monaco for armed forces television for free. I had the most amazing experience in the meantime on the other side of the world, the war was going on. So I mean, seriously, I it would be it would be impossible for me to calculate the amount of good luck I've had my life. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:well, so when you move to La and you you said you worked at The Comedy Store open mic. How long did it take you to become a paid regular years,
Fritz Coleman:two years, three years. And I worked there and I worked at the Improv and, and other small, you know, bring a room, awful circumstances until you get good enough to be passed. And then I auditioned for Mitzi a couple of times. And the second time I did it, she passed me and gave me paid spots to get two or three paid spots a week.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, so did you was Carlin ever there? Do you ever get to meet him
Fritz Coleman:once in a while I met you I was on a couple of occasions, because when I worked at NBC, our news stage was right next to the Tonight Show, the Johnny Carson stage was saying when Arzo stage 10 a smaller stage right next door. So when Georgia go on there, I get out and shake his hand and, you know, drool all over him like an idiot. And, and so I got to meet lots of people. You know, Jay was there I got there right at the end of the strike, there was a bad strike. Because up until about 1979. And comedians were not paid to perform in clubs in LA, the club owners were becoming millionaires. But their feeling was we're giving you a stage and a spotlight in the entertainment capital of the world. This is like comedy College. We shouldn't pay. We're paying you in stage time so that the industry can recognize you and make you famous, which is BS. Yeah, that's good. They're charging, you know, a cover charge and a two drink minimum making a fortune and not paying their entertainment. And so these guys had to go on strike. And it got really ugly. I don't know if you've heard the stories about that strike was very nasty.
Chuck Shute:No, it's actually nice. I had on this comedian, Ted Alexandro. He opens up for Jim Gaffigan. And he's your guy. But he he talked about how he got them to raise the pay at the comedy cellar? Because it was they're paying him like 15 or 20 bucks. It's
Fritz Coleman:terrible. I can't even call it a tip. Yeah. And so
Chuck Shute:and he said it was like that for like, they hadn't raised the rate for like, 20 years. And so yeah, we so we got him to raise it like, I don't know, five or 10 bucks. I was like, that's really cool that you're drinking and helping out your fellow comedians, I didn't know in LA that it was zero. That's crazy.
Fritz Coleman:I'll tell you a great story about that. So anyway, just to put a cap on what I was telling you. So these guys had to go on strike, they finally struck. It finally got to the point where the club owners were paying the comedians 20 $25 a set. So you have four or five comics in the showroom a night and they're being paid $20 a set. The owner is becoming a millionaire. And his entertainment costs for one night are like $300. It still was ridiculous. But it was the point. And the strike in LA culminated with with a suicide. A the building next to the Comedy Store was the Hyatt House, and a comedian by the name of Steve Lubetkin. He did have emotional problems. But he was so distraught because he couldn't work because the strike, he jumped off the top of this
Chuck Shute:building. And I think I saw that in the Comedy Store documentary. Yeah, absolutely.
Fritz Coleman:And, and there's a great book about that time called, I'm dying up here, which the which that series was based on, it's really fascinating. It's not happy. But it's, it's interesting if you're interested in the comedy world. So anyway, finally, the club owner started paying the comics, paying for lack of a better term. And if the improv, you would go down once a week or once every two weeks and pick up your checks at the box office, they would have him in a alphabetically sorted box in there. And I went down one time, at the same time, J was Jay Leno was picking up his checks. And I hadn't been down there in three or four weeks, because I was doing the weather and I had to do the 11 o'clock news. And I didn't have time to drive down to Hollywood from Burbank and pick up my checks. So she's watching me, I got a whole stack of checks. And he goes, What are you not picking your checks up? And I said, I just I can't get down here and he got right up in my face. He said, you pick those checks up, because our comics had to go on strike. And there was a lot of heartache and pain and loss work because of that strike. You need to show them that this money is important, even if the $25 check is not important. And I he was right. He was 1,000% Correct. And I never didn't pick up my check after that was really interesting.
Chuck Shute:Well, didn't Jay also tell you not to be a weatherman that?
Fritz Coleman:I was very honored because he said the same thing to Seinfeld. He said, Look, you're either a sitcom guy or you're a standard. You can't be both. You're either a weatherman or a standard. We can't be both but I was both. I was five, six and 11 o'clock news at NBC and LA and doing three sets a week at the Comedy Store and the improv. They didn't the only thing you did was keep me off the road and I hated the road anyway.
Chuck Shute:Ah, and so you had to work clean. Is that partly because of that or that just kind of the style you did? Well,
Fritz Coleman:it's truthfully my style. I'm not out to Test the First Amendment, you know, like some of these guys, but also in the, in those days, when you had the talent coordinators from all the various talk shows Carson, Merv Griffin, even Dinesh shore some of these shows, just showing up in clubs and checking comics out. If they saw you working blue, you would drop way down their list of potentials. They wanted people who could work clean because they wanted to trust that they would be clean when they weren't on the air. So comics in my era, J and, and Letterman and those guys all discipline themselves to work clean, and I just never got over it. Now I'm in an age where with this new comedy special I have unassisted living on to be my audience was his baby boomers and older, won't put up with really raw material, you know, and I don't want to do that. I honestly, I think we're in such a dark place in the world. Now, I don't do any. I don't do any current events, material, you know, pandemic stuff. But I don't mean political material. Because I think people don't want to be reminded of how dark the world is just for an hour, lift them out of that space. Give them some laughs make them feel slightly better give them a communal experience. And it doesn't have to require a lot of profanity or raw material. I just comment on stuff that, you know, common experience. And that's it. And I've always disciplined myself to do that.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Well, you did talk about your special not how the kids you know, things are a little too safe. Like the ground is rubber and stuff
Fritz Coleman:like that. Like it's it's it's crazy.
Chuck Shute:It is interesting how things have changed even since my time in the 80s and 90s. I feel like we've gotten a little more I mean, we were able to run around. And I don't think our parents would there's no cell phones. Our parents had no idea where we were.
Fritz Coleman:No, it was, I feel so bad. I have children and grant this is a real children by any chance. No, no, yeah, you it is such a hard time for kids to grow up now. Because threats are all right here. i This sermon I preached to both my children and my grandchildren, you know, we would go to school and there were always bullies. And there were always beefs with kids in school. But when you got to Friday, you went home for the weekend. And that was a cooling off period. And by the time you came back to school on Monday, you forgotten what the beef was. And you know, you'd be friends again or not. But now threats and bullying and, and, you know, people's bad comments can come at you 24/7 All weekend through social media, and there's no chance to kind of escape that. And it's just a really hard time. And you see the way that you know too much Tik Tok and too much social media is affecting kids. I'm not trying to be the old curmudgeon, I use social media too. But it's just a really hard time to teach kids how to sort the threats. And it's it's, you know,
Chuck Shute:I posted an article the other day I read that kids are getting the depression rates and kids because of social media has skyrocketed.
Fritz Coleman:Yes, tear rise heart. So yes, I and you people have all those nostalgic things like the playground piece I did there. It's just all stuff that makes people smile about their own youth. And at the end of the thing, it's like I have a breath of fresh air. That's all I want to do. I just honestly, I just want to entertain people for an hour. I don't want to test the First Amendment. I'm not trying to turn over some rock of some dark area that nobody ever thought of before. That's not what I do. But, but I think it's a great service, especially now, people just need the release. And talking about working clean. And other thing that changed that. And this is after, I was already sort of established in LA as a common thing cable came along. And the rules loosened up. And you had Def Comedy Jam. And this isn't racist at all. But Def Comedy Jam really pushed the envelope with language and material and stuff. And then over time, when people would come to clubs, they would expect that kind of material, because that's what they thought stand up comedy was even when he would see specials on Comedy Central or Showtime or HBO. stuff was a little racy or so people would come to clubs. Those of us that were clean had a more difficult time unless we went up at the beginning of the show. To to get people's attention because stuff that course you know what I mean? It's an interesting time.
Chuck Shute:Oh, definitely. No, it's interesting now is that okay, I'm trying to think of it what is the service? I forget there's some service that has comedians that were clean. And it's like, specials Yeah, dry bar. Yeah, that's, that's
Fritz Coleman:very successful. It's a great way to get your name out there.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I've had because I've had a couple comedians that they got, you know, this one guy Andrew rivers, he was a Seattle comedian. And he said he you know, I worked pretty clean. I guess that you know, he's not religious, but he's like, I'll work clean and do the special and it helped him a lot. I think
Fritz Coleman:Now it really did they shoot that in Utah and a Mormon base. They want you to work clean. And listen, you will always make more money in the long run in the marathon, that is showbusiness by working clean, because you can get corporate work, which is always the highest paying work, you know, you're not going to make a lot of money working in a club, unless you're a major star and you demand a certain pay base, right? If you work clean, you'll get corporate work because they can trust you. I mean, I have so many friends that I don't know if you've ever interviewed Don McMillan, who was recently a finalist burned me on America's Got Talent. Squeaky clean, that guy is has nothing but huge corporate paychecks coming in. Because they can trust, you know, when a corporate company invites you to their convention, they want you to not embarrass the company. So working clean always works in your favor.
Chuck Shute:And don't do anything to it's like, it's not you have to kind of be yourself. And for some people, like you said, maybe for you that that's just kind of who you are, but other people
Fritz Coleman:1,000% You have to be who you are. And if that's being a little edgier, I didn't grow up in an urban environment, you know, on the streets of 164th Street in Harlem, so I can't do that Poverty Point of View. I'm just a basically a boring white middle class, man. And that's where I come in you.
Unknown:I can relate to your comedy, I
Fritz Coleman:guess I'm a huge hip with glasses, man. And I, I, I, I know you're 100% right? You have to be real to who you are. Because people can smell phony, you know, points of view a mile away.
Chuck Shute:Absolutely. Well, you've probably seen so I mean, from the Comedy Store. You've been there since eighth 1980. Do you still work at the Comedy Store now
Fritz Coleman:sometimes, sort of while not often I've gotten to the point now, because I've been in this marketplace for a long time where I get invited to do after dinner speaking which is basically my stand up for an hour or 45 minutes. I do luncheons, I do some clubs. I during the pandemic, I did a lot of work in Orange County, California, which is south of here. They weren't as restrictive about live audience venues during the pageant tour, especially toward the end of the pandemic. So I've been working a lot down there. And so I just because I've been doing it for so many years, get word of mouth invitation and stuff. So I don't do the clubs that often. If I have something I have to try out and want to hone it. Before I go. I'll go to flappers, which is right down the street, and stuff like that. But not not that often. When I go I'm so old that when I go to a club, I feel like a chaperone anymore. Or somebody young, really funny people. And, and you know, so
Chuck Shute:it's not cool to be kind of the wiser, older guy that can give advice and kind of men now that's not
Fritz Coleman:you don't feel wiser you just feel older when you go in. That's all been killed. Oh, look. My friend is doing an event. Sometimes like a fundraiser, and they'll invite me to come and I'll perform in a fundraiser, but just not that much.
Chuck Shute:Are you friends with a lot of big comedians?
Fritz Coleman:Oh, a certain number. I had an odd I had an odd combination of employment. I was doing the weather full time, right. So I wasn't going on the road. Which didn't make me sad at all. You know, I was a middle act, I didn't have national fame. So as a middle or what they call a feature act, you would be between the MC opener and the headliner. For 20 minutes, you'd make five or $600 a week sometimes have to pay your own transportation and come home with $100 in your wallet. I couldn't do that. I had two children. I couldn't so I had my job but I was a weather guy I stayed off the road so I didn't have the bonding experience with all the circuit comics that many guys have. i All the guys that work in town, I became good friends with you know Bob Saget and Louie Anderson rest their souls. Were friends because we all worked around town. But you know, it's I have a moderate amount of you know, Jay Leno. I opened for him twice at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles. And so you know,
Chuck Shute:yeah, so because you did my friend deacons podcast and he Andrew Dice Clay called you guys guys. I know.
Fritz Coleman:Dice was one of the guys that worked with us matter of fact before Sam Kinison passed away. I had a TV show that aired after Saturday night live in LA for a
Chuck Shute:couple of years. Not the one it's Fritz or whatever. Yeah, man. Really?
Fritz Coleman:I'm impressed. You've really done your homework, man.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, do you? I think your stuff is fascinating. Your story is fascinating to me.
Fritz Coleman:And so before he passed away, Mitzi shore who was the owner of the Comedy Store, and this was kind of an iconic tradition. She would write the list of performers out in longhand on a piece of paper and tape it to the door of the Comedy Store. So when customers came in, they would know who was working that night. And so Sam Kinison couple of months before he was killed in a car crash, came on my show and brought me a gift of one of these lists. Where it was Andrew Dice Clay Howie Mandel, Fritz Coleman, closing That was Sam Kinison. Those are the days when they would have to close with Sam because nobody could follow him. And he would clear the room out people were so frightened of what they were seeing on stage, you know, he would go out, but one of the great gifts and so that was a great time and dice. The dice character was really just one of the characters he did on stage. You know, he did Al Pacino and he did Robert De Niro and all these kind of quasi Italian Jewish characters. And the dice was like the last one because it was the dirtiest one. And that was the one that got him the most amount of success. So somebody gave him the great advice. Just blow it up and make the character the dice, man, and the rest is history.
Chuck Shute:Now that's a great way there's so many stories that were started at the Comedy Store. I think one of my favorite comedians, it's still just hate that these comedians die but nor McDonald stories of him I just I find it. I think his humor is so unique. I think people that love him or hate him. I think everything he does, every interview he does is so funny.
Fritz Coleman:Oh yeah, he's very brave and very subtly doesn't slam it in your face. And it's like he's letting his subconscious speak for him. I love norm and, and heroism of Norm Macdonald was nobody knew how sick he was. He just kind of kept it to himself, which is really sad.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. What about Robin Williams was Did you see him perform like I opened
Fritz Coleman:for Robin one time by accident. They have a Comedy Store in La Jolla, California, which is south of LA was kind of their satellite club. And it was run by Sandy who has Mitzi, his daughter. And I was down there. And at the beginning of my career when you when when you do these road gigs, and that was a road gig really. You are the emcee and you're the opening act. So I was down there and the headliner that night was Bruce baby man bomb. Who had Do you know, I don't know if you know, Bruce, he had props. And yeah,
Chuck Shute:I do because I just mentioned him. Somebody mentioned him on a YouTube comment. I had to google it. And he has a mustache, right
Fritz Coleman:mustache. He wore a diaper on stage. He was just a heavy
Chuck Shute:kind of look like. What's that guy with the guy? That's Matt Gallagher.
Fritz Coleman:Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, he didn't have quite the he didn't have quite the fame that Gallagher had. But anywhere. So we're starting the show. And Sandy calls me over to the to the booth and says, Please don't announce this from the stage. That Robin's down here doing a concert at UC San Diego. And what he's done during his concert is going to come up into a guest set. After Bruce is done. Bruce was the headliner. I said, Cool. So I got to, you know, essentially open for Robin and then announced that he was here. And the brilliance of Robin Williams was you know, Bruce Bohm is a prop comic. He's got a case full of props, you know, and he's got bowling pins and masks and all kinds of crap. And then Robin comes up after Bruce's hour set and improvisers another hour with Bruce's props that were as funny or funnier than what Bruce had just done. It was sad for Bruce but it showed Robins brilliance. He was really there was a an electrical charge in the room and he was performing.
Chuck Shute:It's yeah, it was so amazing. I mean, every time I'd see him in an interview or stand up, I mean, he would just like when he's just referred, you know, I mean, you can tell like it was
Fritz Coleman:always on he never He never shut the brain down, which was part of his problem.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, because I know he did cocaine, but then he stopped doing cocaine. And I don't think he lost the step at all. He was just as funny.
Fritz Coleman:He just did it faster when he was on cocaine.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, that's crazy. There must have been a lot of people like that that you saw. Is there a lot of comedians you saw before they made it? And did you predict like, Oh, this guy's gonna be a star?
Fritz Coleman:Yes. Jim Carrey? Yeah. His first performance when he was 16. He was 16. And he was, I think, next to Mike binder, who was from Detroit, who did that documentary about the Comedy Store that you referenced earlier in that documentary? Yeah. I think was the youngest guy ever to perform the comedy. So actually, Byron Allen was young. They were all 16. But 16 is young. You have no life experience and to have the hutzpah to do it at that age. So he was down. He hadn't moved here yet. Jim Carrey and he was down from Canada. He was working in clubs like Yuk Yuks in Toronto and all these various clubs and came down and he was working at a Comedy Store for like a week. And he would, he would, he was like an athlete, stretching and warming up to go on stage backstage. You'd see him just going up and down the hall burning off his nerves and when he went onstage, he was so mesmerizing, that everybody in the room stopped. I mean, when you get the busboys, and the waitresses, and And the you know, the security staff to stop and pay attention to the stage. And you could hear a pin drop in that place when he would perform. And it wasn't always funny. Sometimes it was just a lovely touching impersonation when he did that. I don't know if you know the pieces. He did it On Golden Pond where he puts the glasses on petencies Henry Fonda, Erie tears to your eyes. You knew he was so talented as an actor, and as a comic that somehow the world's going to make him a big star you just knew immediately when I was at the Comedy Store the night that Whoopi Goldberg was auditioning for Steven Spielberg and Mike Nichols to do the color purple. So they got her in the main room. Her opening act was Bobcat Goldthwait, who I'd never seen before. So one night, I got to see bobcat and see what we do our one person show with like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Mike Nichols, in the audience. It was crazy. You were just plastered up against the wall hoping to not move and call attention yourself watching this transpire in the main room at the Comedy Store. It's pretty cool.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I don't know if you know, a comedian. But back in Seattle used to see this guy for him. For him Anwar. And he, he moved to LA he was like, so young. He was like, 19 when we'd see him, and he moved to LA, and he's a paid regular The Comedy Store now. But I mean, it's just crazy how long it took him to get to be a paid regular. And then like, he's just now like getting recognition. Now. He's been on Joe Rogan and stuff. But it's like it. That's
Fritz Coleman:why there's so many comics. And part of that is was born out of the period of time when I got out here, late 70s, early 80s Was this comedy club, boom, there was many comedy clubs in Tanzania. There were Starbucks, everybody was doing comedy, because it's a relatively cheap form of entertainment. And so there were lots of them. And that bred a lot of town, a lot of comics in the local areas. And then they get they were they did what I did. They they they grew 10 minutes of material, they got a big head on their shoulders. And they came out here way before they should, and the towns filled with comics of all levels out here. So that's what happened. And it took them a long time. But you know, what, if he's on Rogen, he's getting a lot of good exposure. Good for him. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:I mean, well, I don't if you listen to the dice interview on Rogen, but that was so fascinating me and dice talked about how back in the day that comedians were very competitive with each other. He said, Now, it's not like that everybody does everybody's podcast and all this. Did you? What do you what was your take on that? Do you agree with that was were comedians very competitive back?
Fritz Coleman:Yeah. Because of their basic, deep seated black hole of emotional despair that they work from? Not all of them. But what if a comic is on stage? And does really well? You won't see the other comics laughing really hard, they'll be going. That's funny, though. They'll they look on, sort of with a combination of awe and jealousy. Because it's so hard, and we're sort of lonely, meeting people. And it's not like, Hey, we're all a team here. Let's go away. If I if you make it, I'll make it. That's not what happens. But I, I felt like people were very competitive. They always wanted to be the closer and but they were friends. Because I mean, there were guys, I never had this experience. Guys like Leno and Tom Driessen that slept in their car when they moved out here. So their camaraderie that they they're their group of friends, and they would all go to Canter's deli at night and buy one or another meals because that was survival for them. I never had to go through that. But you know, they are a jealous group.
Chuck Shute:That's interesting. I love hearing those stories of people like you know, sleeping in their car and stuff. And then you make it it's just like such an ending. It's great.
Fritz Coleman:Yeah. And then you're working for survival. And survival is a great energy to get good as fast as you can.
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Well, you mentioned Byron Allen explained this whole thing. So you had that show. It's Fritz, and was going well, and then they they used Byron Allen because he syndicated right. So it's cheap.
Fritz Coleman:It was the start. I don't even know who else in the business does it. But we did a show a late night show. They came on for an hour after Saturday Night Live on Saturday night. And it killed in the ratings. I mean, it's sometimes got greater ratings in our 11 o'clock news. And it was it was just it was just a kind of a real primitive talk show. I come out and do a monologue and we'd have guests and we gave lots of comedians their first appearance on television, Adam Sandler's first appearance on television was on our show, we had this cool thing that we did where we would have a comedian Come on, and if he had a great piece of material, we would have him flesh that out into a skit using three or four actors. And we gave him the brilliance of that was we knew the big killed because the punch line always worked and we let him flesh it out into a five or eight minute piece of material. Also, we're in LA, where a lot of the recording into Three years now before it moved to Nashville, and there were record companies like Warner Brothers and Elektra and all these right across the street from NBC that wanted to get some of their young bands TV exposure, and they could have tape on them to get them to the next level of fame and television. So they would book these bands on there we had amazing bands. You know, these these, some of the first alternative bands, drama Rama Mary's Danish. Our band was made at a that we had every week was made up of session players that were in town just on breaks from gigs. We had Phil Chan, who was Rod Stewart's bassist, we had Bruce Gary, who was the drummer for the neck my Sharona. Our keyboardist was Bonnie rates keyboardist, our the leader of our band, the lead guitarist was Laurence Juber, who is the guitarist for Paul McCartney and Wings. This was our band. And they only came on because it was cool. And it was in town, it wasn't about the money for them. So we had this show. And about two years in, my boss came to me and said, I gotta draw your show to a close. I mean, this show in TV turns cost nothing. It was like 30 or $40,000 a week, which was not hard to make back. In advertising. He said, The Byron Allen Kane Byron Allen bought the rights to Late Night of the Apollo or something, and said, he's going to offer me his show for free. As long as we will put to 32nd Ford spots, one of the first half hour one in the second half hour. And it's an offer I can't refuse. I'm sorry, it's business. It has nothing to do with you. And it broke my heart. But I thought, What a smart guy. And that's what, that's how he's got this comics unleashed thing. And funny, you should ask, these are all shows that are done sort of on a barter basis like that. Interesting, man. And then, but I don't know if you remember when Letterman was still following the Tonight Show and Channel Four. They syndicated his show on iOS or on a&e, you know, that channel a&e channel, right. And they would play his old ones during the day. And he approached us about doing the same thing. The problem is we didn't have enough shows to syndicate, we only had like 35 shows. And you had to have 60 shows to syndicate. So we missed an opportunity to do that. But so Byron, Erin's business model is what blew us out of business. Yeah, I
Chuck Shute:think cuz Seattle had a similar thing. We had a show called almost live. That was right before sending it live. It was like a half an hour. sketch comedy show like Saturday. It was super popular in Seattle. And then one day just went off the air. I bet it was a similar kind of thing. I bet it was easy.
Fritz Coleman:Yeah. I mean, the business has changed so much. Yeah.
Chuck Shute:Well tell me I know you gotta get going here. But I, I wanted to ask you about the, the anchorman, you're kind of like a consultant on that. And you had this lunch with the director of the writer and he said that there was some stuff you told the stories about was a Paul Moyer is that the LA Anchorman.
Fritz Coleman:Yeah, it was a couple of people, but okay.
Chuck Shute:But he they said that there was so much stuff that some of the stuff they that you told them they couldn't use. It was so bad.
Fritz Coleman:You've really, you've really done your own work. Yeah, I Judd Apatow, I've known for years. Yeah, he used to be an emcee at the Improv before he went and wrote for The Larry Sanders Show. And, and Adam McKay, who directed that movie, and I went to the same high school. So these guys invited me out to lunch at a Italian restaurant right down the street. They said, We just want to ask you a question about anchor people you've worked with. And it turned out to be like a three hour lunch. And they were in tears. I told him some stuff. You know, anchors are are quirky people. And, and they're as egotistical or more than Tom Cruise than any any business person you can meet. Because the system creates that mythology. Well, I always say egos expand to the space they're given. And they're either kowtow to and I mean, there's stuff you know, the the some of these guys have worked with somebody for 20 years and didn't know their name, like anchor people in the below the line people. And they had terrible table manners and stuff. And I just rolled off the stories. And at the end of the day, they said, Well, we're we appreciate your time. These things are so ridiculous, that if we put these in a movie, nobody's gonna believe they're true. And, and the thing about Ron Burgundy was it was just enough of this quirky guy, where he was like one step removed from Ted night where you could believe that that guy would be a schlub, exactly like that. But they gave me a credit at the end of the movie, which was nice.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, so when you saw that movie, you're like, Oh, this is funny. You can relate to that.
Fritz Coleman:Oh, yeah, no, that movie made me laugh really hard. The gang fight between all the anchor teams, including in the public television guys show up for their pipes. I was on the floor. It was a
Chuck Shute:What was it like that in the business? What are you competitive with? No, I mean,
Fritz Coleman:the economy always comes from truth plus multiple exaggerations, and it but it was very competitive. Oh, yeah, the ratings is the ratings battle is a real deal.
Chuck Shute:Did you ever see the other stations and given you I mean, you must well not because you're like, you know, that's
Fritz Coleman:that's the odd thing about LA the market is so big that people say, Hey, do you weathermen get together and have beers and stuff? Say, No, we see each other once a year, the Emmy awards or something, but it's so spread out. It's a horizontal city, that you don't get to know that you just go in the air and do it. And thank God you're employed. That's all you care about?
Chuck Shute:Absolutely. Well, I know you gotta get going. Do you want to give a mention to your podcast, the media path, podcast, we have maybe a
Fritz Coleman:path podcast, you can go to media path podcast.com. It's our website, we have all of our previous episodes there. I have a new comedy special one hour on Tubi toobeez, of free streaming service advertisers support it. We just dropped it. We're having a lot of fun with it. And I appreciate the chance to talk about was great conversation, you really have done your homework better than anybody ever or a bit odd with.
Chuck Shute:Okay, well, thank you. That's good to hear. And then I always end promoting a charity. I think you've worked with some charities in the past. So I'm
Fritz Coleman:on the part of my retirement is I'm on the board of three nonprofit organizations. One is the children's burn foundation, that pays for the treatment, and the transportation of families for burn young burn victims all over the world. We even have kids coming from the Ukraine war, from the war in Syria, from Afghanistan, Iraq, kids, even with minor burn victims in the United States come here. But many times these burns require 15 or 20 surgeries. So to bring a family from a foreign country, to, to the United States to stay a couple of years to put their child through this. Hell is expensive. So we raise money to help them with that. And I'm on the board of a group called Shelter Partnership, which fights homelessness. It's a great part of my life.
Chuck Shute:Now, that's great. I'll put those links in the show notes. Do you have a website? You have a website?
Fritz Coleman:I do Fritz Coleman comedy.com. Okay, perfect. We'll
Chuck Shute:put that in the show notes as well. Yeah, your specials out the podcast. Anything else?
Fritz Coleman:Now? I really appreciate the chance to talk about it. Thank
Chuck Shute:you so much. Hey, thank you. It was a lot of fun. We'll talk to you later. All right, my friend. All right. Bye, friends. Brett's Coleman, what a legend. Make sure to check out his comedy special again, it's on to be called unassisted living and it's totally free. Check out his podcast called the media path podcast. It's also free. And you can follow Fritz on social media to keep up with what he's doing. And I'm on there too. If anyone cares. It sure seems like social media is dead lately, but maybe I'm just not posting any good content. So anyways, I'm on everything. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, all that stuff, and I know Fritz's on a couple of those as well. So follow both of us if you want. I've got some really exciting guests lined up and I hope to have more scheduled soon. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great rest of your day and shoot for the moon.
