Eddie Pepitone

Explicit content warning

10/17/14 • 69 min

Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

This episode was recorded in Los Angeles.

Eddie Pepitone is the darling of the underground comedy scene of Los Angeles. For an older man without a full head of hair to kick so much ass in the city where youth and beauty reigns eternal he must be respected for what he has accomplished.

His comedy style is the man yelling to the people who are in the house that is one fire but they cannot see that the house is on fire. He is the angry heckler in the crowd in the crowd who makes perfect sense. He comes from an emotional place as a comedian, he attacks the stage with how he feels. What fuels him now is what is happening in the United States with corporations destroying people.

Anyone who thinks American comedians never talk about anything substantial have never seen Eddie perform. In this conversation Eddie and I talk about how you stay aware of what is happening in the world while remaining sane. Like George Carlin, Eddie Pepitone is an example of how an older man can do his best work in comedy and continue as he ages because he has experienced more in life.

The documentary 'Bitter Buddha' that was about Eddie's life was a huge success. Acting roles continue to role in because he is such a unique funny character who brings his soul and experience to every project he takes part in. A veteran of two Edinburgh Fringe festivals, who I caught up with in Los Angeles just a few weeks after this year's festival. The show he performed this year was entitled 'Rest In Peace America' in which he celebrates the downfall of America and gives him a vent to steam about life in America today.

He loves the modern comfort's of today's technology but thinks it is an exercise in futility with us amusing ourselves to death. He believes entertainers live for fame and affirmation but says if you are not centered at your core the entertainment business will crush you like a bug.

We talk about Hollywood conspiracies, Obama's ineffectual presidency, the lack of gun control in the United States, best New York City film achievements, the collapse of the world economy and the best sources of information. He tells me his best ideas come to him when his brain calms down and he has personal break throughs.

In this chat we talk about digesting information and ideas in order to spit out everlasting gobstobbers of thoughts. He is a man that I adore, respect and he makes me laugh out loud very hard.

It is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Eddie Pepitone!

Intro song: Cutting Room (Hot Pants) – Oceanliners

Stand-up clip from YouTube: Dealing With Hard Times - Eddie Pepitone

Stand-up clip from YouTube: Eddie Pepitone "Let's Order In"

Audio cameo: Eddie's dog Charlotte

End song: Randy Newman – Let’s Drop The Big One Now

Recorded at Eddie’s apartment in Los Angeles, September 2014

This episode was recorded in Los Angeles.

In this chat we talk about digesting information and ideas in order to spit out everlasting gobstobbers of thoughts. He is a man that I adore, respect and he makes me laugh out loud very hard.

It is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Eddie Pepitone!

Intro song: Cutting Room (Hot Pants) – Oceanliners

Stand-up clip from YouTube: Dealing With Hard Times - Eddie Pepitone

Stand-up clip from YouTube: Eddie Pepitone "Let's Order In"

Audio cameo: Eddie's dog Charlotte

End song: Randy Newman – Let’s Drop The Big One Now

Recorded at Eddie’s apartment in Los Angeles, September 2014

Previous Episode

Mark Farrelly

This episode was recorded in London.

Let it be known to the the universe that Tom Rhodes Radio gives Mark Farrelly's one man show 'Quentin Crisp' a 5 star review.

This show invites libation imbibement and encourages you to be yourself whatever you wish that self to be. Being exactly what you are even if that is a bore.

Mark was doing his Quentin Crisp solo show at the Gilded Balloon for the Edinburgh Fringe festival and I met him about half way through the festival's run at the Loft bar, the private bar for the entertainers and artists doing shows there. I had so many deep conversations with him over the last 2 weeks of the festival and I liked his show much I thought it an imperative that he be a guest on my show. After our Edinburgh run we both went to London, me to do my show at the Soho theater and Mark to do his at the St. James theater.

My wife Ashna and I went to see his show again in London and then we invited Mark over to have a few bottles of wine and record this conversation in our rented flat.

His show at the St. James theater was brilliant with the verve and excitement of live performance that Mark brought to his character and since it was in the evening with alcoholic beverages flowing each of the excellently written lines of dialogue hit their targets making the room explode with laughter. Mark told me he loved the message of Quentin Crisp because it wasn't about being gay it was about being yourself.

In this conversation we talk about the harshness of criticism, the meaning of life and the most interesting people who ever lived. "Writing 87,000 reviews would never feel as good as giving one performance." In today's narcissistic society no one knows who they are and what to believe in. Quentin Crisp's life told by Mark Farrelly is one to gain inspiration from and peppered with Quentin's sharp quotes on life we are reminded of why Quentin Crisp is worth remembering.

"We live in a pretty dreary world were most people don't even have the decency to be themselves." In this episode you will learn why it is our excessive freedom is what makes us miserable and why having personal style will cure you of your excessive freedom. He is one of the people who I enjoyed speaking with the most on my most recent visit to the Queen's British Isles. It is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Mark Farrelly!

Intro song: Cutting Room (Hot Pants) – Oceanliners

End song: Sting – Englishman In New York

Recorded in London, September 2014

Next Episode

Amazing Johnathan

This episode was recorded in Las Vegas.

I want to pay tribute to the Amazing Johnathan before he drops dead.

We all avoid the thought of death and superstitiously try to avoid the topic but that dirty whore will strike each of us. The Amazing Johnathan has a heart ailment and his doctors have told him that if his medicine doesn't work he only has one year to live.

Imagine what you would do if you were told you only had one year to live.

After years of touring relentlessly he wants to stay at home, maybe buy a new big screen TV, maybe do heroin, maybe a demolition derby in his back yard?

I drove into his swank neighborhood, gated community with plush lawns and green trees in Las Vegas. Rich people can make it green anywhere. His house is a large sparkling palace with classic cars parked all over the front yard and back.

The 17 year old boy in me can't help but smile to see sitting in his drive way a 1967 midnight blue convertible GTO. His tasteful home has been modified to his specifications and every painting in his house has a trick or joke function hidden that can spring forth at his command. His opulent home is exactly the way you would dream Amazing Johnathan's house would be or a mad scientist with a wicked sense of humor. I'm impressed to see the life that he made for himself and I'm proud of him for being one of the few comedians who was smart with his money.

He earned it! Going from comedy club headliner to doing countless television appearances he opened up The Amazing Johnathan Theater in Las Vegas and his ominous presence could be felt advertised everywhere in the city during his decades run. I would credit Amazing Johnathan with being right at that turning point in Las Vegas history where it went from being a sad joke to the cool upgraded spot it is today. George Carlin was a fan of his and once left him a long complimentary message on his answering machine. He listens to it when he gets depressed he tells me. He attributes everything he has to drugs. He tells me the best and worst times he had on drugs. He is open with me and honest about his lunatic partying days. He tells me that dying is a lazy way to get compliments.

I met the Amazing Johnathan doing comedy festival and television tapings and we have been friends from sharing those experiences. Our mad men party periods never met and I only knew him in a professional way that I respected. His comedy for lack of a better description I would call rock & roll comedy magician but whatever you would call it the man always hit the stage like a hurricane with jokes coming at you from everywhere. For me personally the reason I love the Amazing Johnathan is because when I was a young comedian watching every stand up comedy show on television while dreaming of getting there myself that is when I saw him for the first time. Destroying the audience on television and me at home.

He was unlike all the other stiff, cookie cutter style comedians, he had his own style and his magic tricks involved fake blood and his eye popping out. Crazy shit! I loved him for his wildness and I respected him before I ever even met him.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet holds the skull of a comedian and he laments the fact that such a magic human who had made him laugh so hard is no longer of this earth. I ain't Hamlet and I ain't waiting until the man is dead to say how much I appreciate him. This tribute episode is not meant to be sad, it is meant to be alive and celebratory. For this reason I end the episode with a song I love instead of some sad sappy shit. The man left his mark on American entertainment and world wide comedy. I'm grateful that I know him and that he invited me over to his house to have this conversation with him.

It is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Amazing Johnathan!

Intro song: Cutting Room (Hot Pants) – Oceanliners

End song: The Shouting Matches – Gallup, NM

Recorded at Johnathan’s house in Las Vegas, September 2014