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.
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.