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  • You know what?

  • It was like the perfect storm.

  • I answered the call.

  • I played around, I had fun.

  • I didn't take life too serious.

  • And it turned into this really fun joke that touches

  • with a lot of people

  • because everyone's gotten a wrong number.

  • And so I'm yes, I'm always flattered.

  • Do I think I'm the greatest community in the world?

  • Hell no, but do I love that it's a really solid joke

  • and could be one of the greatest jokes ever told?

  • Yeah, bro.

  • (upbeat music)

  • [Buck] A lot of work goes into a short,

  • late night stand up set.

  • Join me, JP Buck as I spotlight the comedians who came

  • up with some of my favorite Conan sets.

  • This is The Setup.

  • [Conan] Please welcome back to the show.

  • The very funny Jay Larson.

  • (upbeat music)

  • You know, I've worked with late-night bookers

  • on Craig Ferguson and on Carson Daily.

  • And the whole thing has always been

  • it has to be quick jokes

  • in case someone tunes in and they see the set.

  • You could never do a long story.

  • Do you remember how long we tried to get this set

  • to a time that worked

  • you were going to take a chance and we couldn't do it?

  • And then finally you were like, "Let's do it."

  • And every comedian comes to me all the time and they're

  • like, "One of the greatest sets of all time on late night."

  • And I'm like, "I know" and doing a story,

  • remember we tried it the second time it didn't go as well.

  • For an audience that's in the room,

  • if they don't get on board right away

  • you're not going to get them later.

  • And I hadn't even thought of that.

  • Never once did that cross my mind, you know

  • the first time it crossed my mind, Kumail said to me,

  • he goes, "Man, that Conan said", and I'm like,

  • "Oh thanks man."

  • He goes, "Did you, what would you have done

  • if two minutes in they hadn't like got on board?"

  • And I was like, "Dude, I never even thought of it."

  • Like I just never thought of it

  • because I love that story so much that like

  • I'm not saying it's never not worked,

  • but like it's never not worked.

  • When you sent it to me,

  • it was timing out at about six and a half minutes.

  • Maybe longer at that early stage.

  • I mean, every late nights that I did

  • before this one was like 4:20, 4:30.

  • And for your audience, like

  • you gotta be exactly... We're on TV.

  • This isn't like at a club where they're like

  • "let's go" and they're flashing the light.

  • It's like, you got to get off.

  • If you go long, we're going to have to cut

  • something out and they're going to watch this

  • set finish and it's not going to make any sense.

  • Yeah or you're going to have to ask Conan

  • to cut from his monologue and plots.

  • (upbeat music)

  • I have a question.

  • Your cell phone rings and you don't recognize the number.

  • What do you do?

  • [Man] Ignore it.

  • Ignore it.

  • Don't answer it.

  • Not me.

  • I like life.

  • (audience laughing)

  • The other day.

  • My cell phone rang 917.

  • That's in New York number.

  • I didn't know it who it was.

  • I messed up my words there.

  • You can tell I'm a little nervous.

  • I say, all right, nine one seven.

  • I'm basically I'm saying, I didn't know who it was.

  • So right then and there, like I'm like ,

  • "Just get past it," just cause if you know JP

  • as a booker and as a standup, you can stand

  • in the back of the room, watch a comic, do a joke, you know.

  • And you can see the tiniest miss

  • just the tiniest little word

  • that no one in the room will notice

  • but you will see the laugh at the end of that joke.

  • Not hit as hard.

  • This is the story.

  • So I can recover.

  • But that was like, I was a little nervous, you know?

  • I picked it up anyway, hit talk.

  • I said, "Hello", guy in line goes,

  • "Hey Bruce, what's going on?"

  • My name's Jay, not Bruce.

  • So I said, nothing much, man.

  • What's going on with you?

  • (audience laughing)

  • And he said, "I'll tell you what's going on.

  • I just got an email about the budget it's supposed to

  • be 15,000.

  • Now it's 10,000.

  • And I'd like to know what's up."

  • (audience laughing)

  • I got excited in my chest.

  • (audience laughing)

  • I grabbed the steering wheel.

  • I was like, okay, focus, your name is Bruce.

  • There's a budget, it was 15,000.

  • Now it's 10,000.

  • No, one's happy about it.

  • That's all we know.

  • That's all we know.

  • When I go, "My name's Jay, not Bruce", is like

  • the audience is a little bit like, "All right

  • what's going to happen."

  • Like what's, I can feel it.

  • And I always know where they are.

  • And that's what I love

  • about stand up is you're like, "Just hold, I got you."

  • You know what I mean?

  • And like right here at this moment

  • everyone swarms in when you grab the steering wheel.

  • So I just repeated back to him what he said

  • to me and I go, "10,000 is supposed to be 15,000."

  • He goes, "Yeah, I know.

  • Well, I just got an email and now it's 10."

  • I go, "Listen, man.

  • I don't know what to tell you.

  • I've been on the road all day.

  • You know, I haven't even seen it."

  • And he goes, "Did you send this out?"

  • (audience laughing)

  • Give him some attitude you're Bruce.

  • I didn't like it.

  • (audience laughing)

  • That's like my favorite thing in the whole joke.

  • It's like I didn't even like the way he talks to Bruce.

  • Like I'm stepping up for Bruce.

  • I said, "Listen, man, the budget was 15,000.

  • We had a couple extra expenditures.

  • It went up to 16,2 I reworked it

  • got it down to 14,7 I had 300 to play with.

  • So I called it 15 and I sent it out."

  • And he goes, "Yeah, well now it's 10 man."

  • (audience laughing)

  • And I was like, "Oh my God, that worked,

  • that worked phase one, complete phase one complete."

  • like now I'm in the door.

  • I have a 401k.

  • I was at the Christmas party, okay?

  • That's one of my favorite lines.

  • Which one?

  • I've been at the Christmas party.

  • That's a Sickler, that's Sickler.

  • Yeah.

  • Standup is such an individual thing.

  • It's you alone.

  • But in comedy clubs, when you get off stage

  • it's hanging out with other comics and you're getting ideas.

  • And that was one of them.

  • It used to be like,

  • "I had a 401k", 'cause this didn't happen in the call.

  • This is everything afterwards.

  • You know what I mean?

  • I think in the longer version I go

  • like, "I was at the Christmas party", like,

  • "Yeah I got a little tipsy and stole a toy for Todd."

  • You know, something like along those lines

  • that just was like, it doesn't matter.

  • But it's fun, yeah.

  • So he goes, "Did Larry, okay, this?"

  • I go, "Listen, man, I took the budget to Larry.

  • Larry said it looked fine, but I knew it was my ass

  • on the line.

  • So I ran it by Jennifer, just in case just to double check.

  • Jennifer said it looked good.

  • I sent it out."

  • He goes, "Yeah, well now it's 10 man."

  • And I realized this guy has no idea what's going

  • on over there.

  • He hasn't talked to Larry.

  • I know he hasn't talked to Bruce.

  • He doesn't even recognize my voice.

  • (audience laughing)

  • I know he didn't talk to Jennifer.

  • I just made her up.

  • (audience laughing)

  • So that's the only thing that's not real.

  • [Buck] Okay.

  • Jennifer, I literally made her up and made her up.

  • My guy is so thorough that he didn't just run it by Larry.

  • He ran over to Jennifer too, just to,

  • you know see how it went

  • So he goes, "Listen, man, what are we going to do

  • about this?"

  • And I go, "Listen, I'm on the road right now.

  • I haven't even seen the email.

  • Why don't you give Larry a call, check in with him.

  • See what he says, call me back."

  • Just praying he will.

  • Because that returned phone call was going to be amazing.

  • (audience laughing)

  • That's when I thought this whole thing would end.

  • He would hang up, call the guy

  • call me back and be like, "Who is this dude?"

  • You know, that's when I thought it was going to end.

  • I get home I'm so excited.

  • I take out my cell phone.

  • I'm like, you know what?

  • I'm going to save that guy's number.

  • Give him a call in a couple of days, touch base.

  • You know what I mean?

  • Check in.

  • (audience laughing)

  • See where we're at you know?

  • So I save it in my phone under random guy.

  • It's what he is, he's a random guy.

  • Four or five days passed I forget about it.

  • Laying on my couch, watching the ball game, phone rings

  • in the dining room table.

  • I get up watching the game, grab the phone

  • watching the game, looked down, random guy.

  • (audience laughing)

  • But it's been a couple of days.

  • You know what I mean?

  • So I'm like random guy, who's random guy?

  • Like who would even have random guy

  • as their name that comes up?

  • And then I was like, random guy.

  • (audience laughing)

  • Like now I'm panicked, you know what I mean?

  • People's lives have been affected.

  • It's only five grand, but I don't know how big

  • that company is, but I'm addicted to it.

  • You know what I mean?

  • I started this thing I need to see it through.

  • This physicality of you going back to the phone,

  • like I love this miming.

  • It's 100% literal.

  • I'm so careless with people's worlds

  • that I just even forgot it was happening.

  • And now I'm like, "Oh my God, before it was, you know

  • just the call before it was a number.

  • Now it's a name, its personal like this,

  • something has happened

  • and now I'm going to have to face the music."

  • I don't know who they are, but I was still scared.

  • You know what I mean?

  • And I do remember, I like put my earbuds in

  • because I just needed to like move around.

  • You know what I mean?

  • I didn't want it here it was too close.

  • So I put my ear buds in, just get a little distance

  • you know, just see a little space and I hit talk.

  • Same guy goes, "Hey Larry, what's going on?"

  • Yeah, now he's calling me Larry.

  • He knows something's up, but I'm not about to back down.

  • I go, "Nothing much, man.

  • What's going on with you?"

  • (audience laughing)

  • And he goes, "Well, I got us on conference call

  • with Janell and Marie."

  • And I was like, "Okay, here we go.

  • Here we go."

  • (audience laughing)

  • This is why we play the game you guys,

  • this is why we play the game.

  • (audience laughing)

  • So I go, "Welcome to the call ladies",

  • as if to say, "Welcome to the show", you know what I mean?

  • Here we go.

  • Marie takes the lead.

  • She goes, "Hey Larry, what time is it where you are?"

  • I live in LA, they're in New York.

  • It's 5:30 so I go "8:30 it's 8:30."

  • She was, "Really what's the weather like?"

  • And I was like, "Oh, weather's nice weather's nice."

  • She goes, "You know, this doesn't sound like Larry."

  • And I go, "Oh yeah, who's it sound like?"

  • And random guy chirps him from the back.

  • And he goes, "Sounds like, Bruce! Sounds like Bruce!"

  • (audience laughing)

  • Like he's going to blow this case wide open.

  • That was Sickler too.

  • I used to say, and that guy chirps him from the back.

  • And Ry was like, "Why don't you say random guy?"

  • So like you can, cause it's like

  • he is in the back, like in the conversation.

  • And he did like chirp in.

  • And now if there's any videos online of me

  • there's always a comment somewhere that says

  • this sounds like Bruce.

  • And I go, listen guys this isn't Larry

  • and it isn't Bruce and Marie goes,

  • " Who is this?"

  • (audience laughing)

  • I said, "I'm just some guy who had nothing better to do

  • than to mess with you guys."

  • (audience laughing)

  • And Marie got pissed she was not happy.

  • She goes, "You want to stay with trying to run

  • a business over here?"

  • And I was like, "Yeah, well I got that from the budget.

  • I just figured it was a business and..."

  • (audience laughing)

  • She goes, "What do you think this is some kind of joke?"

  • And I was like, "Oh a little bit that it's pretty funny."

  • (audience laughing)

  • And she goes, "Let me ask you something," and I go,

  • "No you let me ask you something."

  • And she goes, "What?"

  • And I go, "Where are we at with the budget?"

  • (audience laughing)

  • (audience applauding)

  • I'm Jay Larson thank you guys.

  • The number, the Larry guy, the guy who,

  • the guy, random guy.

  • Yeah.

  • He owns a scrap metal yard in New Jersey okay?

  • And he volunteers his accounting knowledge

  • to a foundation in Los Angeles

  • that sends Jewish people to Cuba.

  • This was before you could go to Cuba and he volunteers

  • his time to help them with like budgets or like whatever.

  • And he dialed one number wrong somewhere

  • in my number and their number and got me.

  • And then that's just all that happened.

  • So I asked them like, "Would you do it?"

  • Like, I wanted to do a mini documentary, like with him

  • with the two women, you know what I mean?

  • With Larry, with Bruce like get everyone together

  • and like find out what happened.

  • And he was like, "Nah man, no."

  • (air whooshing)

  • (upbeat music)

  • You were accused of stealing this bid.

  • Yeah.

  • Would you care to address those accusations?

  • So I did this video with these glasses on

  • and a little beard on Laugh Factory.

  • I mean, I just looked different.

  • I have a beard and glasses and I'm thinner.

  • And then in that I'm clean shaven.

  • And when I did it

  • they used to like pull clips and post them right?

  • So when I did it, I said, "Hey, please

  • don't post this I want to do it on late night."

  • And they were like, "Okay."

  • And then after like eight months or 10 months

  • one day I'm driving.

  • And my phone starts like getting, its like buzzing you know.

  • I'm seeing like all these like YouTube

  • like subscribers popping up, bah bah bah bah.

  • I'm like, "What is going on?"

  • And then someone's like,

  • "Just saw your thing on Laugh Factory."

  • And I was like, "What?"

  • And I called the booker at laugh factory.

  • I'm like, "Hey, I do not want that.

  • What is going on?", Like, "I don't want that video up.

  • I'm going to use that on late night."

  • And she's like, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry.

  • We just put it up, blah, blah, blah."

  • I'm like, "Alright yeah, can you please take it down?"

  • And she goes, "Yeah, but it has 120,000 views.

  • And it's only been up for like 12 minutes."

  • And I was like, "Oh", I'm like, "Yeah you can leave it up."

  • You know?

  • (Buck laughing)

  • Can we, by the way can we note or do we know,

  • does anyone have the stats?

  • Is this not the most viewed

  • ever Conan in the history of Conan?

  • I'd have to talk to my digital team.

  • I just want to know.

  • (graphic thuds)

  • (upbeat music)

  • You'll be very happy to hear

  • that Tanner Rosenberry says, "That was like

  • a Seinfeld episode."

  • This is my life in a nutshell.

  • I did an episode of Curb last year, okay?

  • January of 2020 the year was looking good.

  • And in between takes all is I wanted to do was get friends

  • with Larry so we could talk about this

  • so I could find a way that he would see this

  • and be like, "Oh, that's a good joke."

  • But me being me and I can't back away

  • from something that I think is funny,

  • in between takes we're hanging out

  • and he's practicing his golf swing with no club right?

  • And I can't help myself dude.

  • I go up, I put my hands on his hips.

  • I'm like, "Larry, you gotta power these hips

  • through the zone, man you gotta turn..."

  • And he, he did not like that.

  • He did not like me touching him.

  • And he just went and walked all the way back

  • to video village and, and didn't come back

  • till we shot again.

  • And I was just like, "Oh!"

  • for like 10 minutes, I was like, "What'd you do?

  • You're going to get fired today."

  • And then I was like, "You know what?(beep) that,

  • This is going to be an episode of Curb in like two years."

  • You know what I mean?

  • And so I was like, "this is why I do live,

  • to see what'll happen."

  • And I took a swing and he didn't love it.

  • But I did.

  • (air whooshing)

  • (upbeat music)

  • I was like "Special Guests Feature"

  • for Bobcat at Cops in San Francisco.

  • Saturday night, Bobcat's sitting there on his phone

  • and he just goes, before the early show,

  • and he goes, "Rob Williams' come to the show tonight.

  • He also said, he Googled you today

  • and watched your wrong number story five times said,

  • it's one of the best jokes he's ever heard."

  • And I go, "Shut your goddamned mouth dude."

  • 'Cause Robin Williams is my idol dude.

  • Show ends.

  • I'm going to go out and shake hands, say goodbye to people.

  • And as I'm sitting there, someone comes up

  • and puts their hands on my shoulders.

  • And I look right here and it's Robin Williams and he goes

  • "That wrong number joke, my wife and I watched it

  • five times, one of the best jokes I've ever seen."

  • I almost cried I was like, "Oh my God, thank you.

  • Thanks so much, man."

  • And I just went and said goodbye

  • to people and then went up in the green room.

  • Of course, Robin Williams is in the green room

  • and there'd be a joke floating around.

  • Before you even, when you thought of it

  • he was saying it, he was grabbing everything

  • and all the, you could feel the attention go

  • right to him at any time it fell on him,

  • he would go, "Hey Bobcat, remember?"

  • And he'd throw it to Bobcat.

  • Like this is your green room.

  • This is your show, it was unreal dude.

  • I'd never seen anything like that.

  • It was so unselfish.

  • Like he couldn't help get the attention.

  • And then he just made it about Bobcat.

  • And then we get ready for the second show.

  • And you know, I'm like, "Alright,

  • I'm going to go down there."

  • Bobcat comes over and he goes,

  • "Hey, do you want to get a picture with Robin?"

  • And I was like, "Oh my, yes, dude."

  • I'd never asked for a picture.

  • I'm like, "Please."

  • And I give my phone to Bobcat and he goes

  • "I'm going to be in it too man."

  • (Jay laughing)

  • Yeah, dude, yeah, for sure.

  • And it's like me in the middle of Bobcat and Robin Williams

  • it was the greatest, greatest.

You know what?

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