- I didn't use to get heckled a ton,
and that kindness of them yelling, "I love you!",
but during the middle of a punchline.
- Right. - and then of course,
I'd be like, "Shut up, cunt!"
And then I'm like, "Oh, wait a minute.
Wait a minute! I just yelled
at you for saying, 'I love you',
So clearly I have fear of intimacy."
- [Announcer] This is What a Joke.
- [Announcer] With Tom Papa and Fortune Feimster.
- [Announcer] On Netflix is a Joke Radio.
- Lisa.
- Oh my God!
Literally, I have not seen Tom, in person,
in probably 30 years.
- No way! - Then here's Fortune,
who I met once, because I stalked you.
I'm at Elvis Duran's wedding, and my manager goes,
"Oh my God, Fortune Feimster was on the plane,
and we're obsessed with her,"
and I'm like, "We're going and we're stalking them."
- Y'all were so sweet to come.
Yeah, your manager was on my shuttle bus at the rental car,
and she was like, "Do you have a show?",
and I was like, "Yeah".
She's like, "Oh my God, Lisa and I are coming!",
and I'm like, "No way!"
It was so cool. - See, Tom,
that's how freaking basic I am,
that my manager doesn't take a car,
she takes the shuttle bus.
Okay. - Yes, I love hearing that.
I love hearing that Fortune- - I, too,
am on the shuttle bus.
- Yeah, Fortune and your manager, both on the shuttle bus.
There's no getting around it. - I know.
- It was right before I taped my special, and you had some
lovely advice. - Oh, wow.
- It was such good timing.
- Isn't it funny, though?
How, like you bump into people that you really
hope are nice, - Yeah.
- and you're like, please let this Fortune
not be a total bitch, and I-
(group laughing)
But you know, I was pleasantly unsurprised,
how amazing you are. - Aw.
- And Tom, it's really been probably 30 years
or 20 at least.
- Well, yeah, it's probably been like 20,
15 to 20. - Yeah.
- And this is a great way
to kind of tell your story
to our listeners. - Yeah.
- Lisa made such an impact, in New York, in the early days.
She just showed up,
and at first you were kind of like finding your way,
and then you got clicked in - Yeah.
- to exactly what you were doing,
and you were so dominant, - Yeah.
- and then you had this very
successful run, and then decided,
"Nope, I'm done with this." (Lisa chuckling)
- I know!
- Dude, I literally have never been happier,
but it took three years to be able to say that.
- Yeah. - Right.
- 'Cause when you retire, you guys get prepared,
if you ever decide to get out. - Yeah.
- I had saved money.
That's not the problem. - Mm-hmm.
- The problem is, you have
no identity. - Right.
- You have no idea who you are.
- Yeah. - So for three years,
I'm floundering, and my parents are dying,
and when they die, I'm like,
"What do I even have left?" - Right.
- And I'm like, "Oh my God,
I just need to be at peace with the fact
that there might not be a next thing,
and that I just have to be Lisa".
- Right. - Uh-huh.
- That's probably what led me to the podcast
being so open and vulnerable, - Right.
- because I was just open and broken open,
that I could do kind of nothing or anything.
- Mm-hmm. - What made you say,
"I'm outta here"?
Like what was the big impact that made you retire?
'Cause you were
killin' it at the time. - I know.
- There was no reason, - Yeah.
- Professionally, to do it. - Well I'll tell you a story.
I'll tell you a story
that I think both of you will
relate to on a spiritual level.
I did Radio City and Carnegie Hall
within like two months of each other,
'cause there were a lot of, it was a really cool run.
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
- So, I remember walking backstage,
and the head of Live Nation Comedy,
after these two sold-out shows,
and again, he meant it nicely.
We all know Jeff Wills.
He goes, "Oh my God, next, Madison Square Garden",
and this little thing in my head just clicked,
and I go, "I'll never be enough.
It's never gonna be over. I'm never enough."
And whereas he meant it as a compliment.
So I should've started noticing then, that this
isn't fulfilling me. - Mm-hmm.
- So I did it about five more years.
I start to notice, I don't have joy in my life,
other than onstage, and I go,
"Whoa, if my lifestyle is this ritzy,
and this big, there's something going on internally
that I need to connect with,
and that's when I started working on the spirituality,
and working on more bigger connections
with friends and family,
and then when Howard Stern said I could
come on the show and retire publicly, with honor,
I was like, "Wow, that's really cool".
By the way, a nice byproduct is it was before
cancel culture, so I got to cancel myself,
instead of somebody else doing it.
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
What's interesting about it is after I retired,
they did this documentary,
and at the point which I retire and I say it,
they did the clip from Stern.
Nikki Glaser literally goes,
"Oh my God, she got out. I'm so jealous".
And part of me is like,
"Oh my God, a lot of us don't love it anymore."
But we're scared,
and what I loved about her was she was so open about it,
and I told her in person.
When I met her again, I said,
"Dude, set yourself up better than I did,
and actually have something you like to do
that isn't just comedy."
(dogs barking) Oh gosh! Sorry.
It's my dogs, and the leaf blowers outside.
So I'm moving to another room. Parker get over here.
That's all I have now. I have two rotten dogs and a podcast.
So my life is very full.
- Are you feeling the joy,
now that you're focusing more on yourself?
- Anyone who says they're feeling the joy all the time,
is a freaking liar, because no one is.
- Right. - There isn't even a monk.
The Dalai Lama doesn't feel freaking joy.
By the way, I know I said it wrong.
I don't even know how to say his name.
I think I feel everything more.
I have such sadness, and I have such anger,
and I have such joy, and such happiness,
and a little bit of purpose,
and I'm like, "Oh, isn't that like life?"
Before with comedy, I had said
to the two guys on my podcast,
I was like, "Dudes, standup comedy
is literally the worst profession for us
self-centered narcissist, because we get
that instant hit of addiction all the time.
- Uh-huh - I know.
So taking that out,
I was able to feel all the emotions.
So for instance, like yesterday,
I just finished that Beatles documentary.
I just watched the whole eight hours.
I am sobbing, and I'm like,
"oh, if I was still doing comedy,
I would have made jokes about it."
- Right. - I would have kind of been
disassociated from my feelings.
I'm like, "Oh, it's good to feel sad.
It's good to feel touched."
Don't you guys also love too, doing a podcast like this,
or excuse me, a show like this,
where you guys get to be fully your yourselves.
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
- You don't have to sit there,
and like put on this - Yeah.
- face and this persona.
I loved the queen of mean stuff.
It was great, and I honestly, sometimes those roasts,
if they come on, I crack up going, "Boy, I was insane".
Like I literally was insane,
the shit I would say.
It's embarrassing almost,
but that's why I stand behind it,
and I like it, - Yeah.
- but I'm glad I'm not doing it anymore,
'cause it was just a little side of me that I showed,
and that was it.
- Right, right.
- Are you mean ever, anymore?
- Oh my God.
Fortune, let me tell you,
I'm going now in the other room
so I'm not mean to my leaf blowers.
Let me tell you what happens. - Yeah.
- I work on anger, literally every day.
I am a nice person with big feelings,
but every feeling is big. - Right.
- So I'm never gonna be that chick who's calm.
I'm never gonna be all,
"Oh let me just be spiritual and stay at home."
Fuck that.
I am a mental case, first and foremost.
But I'm a mental case - You were
the toughest one in the room.
I remember at one point at the Comedy Cellar,
I looked over, and this was right when you were
starting to pop, and I looked over,
and she was sitting in this booth with some other comics,
and you had like a hockey jersey on,
(Lisa laughing) you had like a big gold chain,
and a cigar hanging
- Cigar! Oh, my god! - out of your mouth.
- Oh, my god! Dude! - A cigar.
- A cigar, Fortune. - You wanna know something?
- I was like, "She is the toughest
person in the Comedy Cellar."
- But, Fortune, let me tell you something.
I still enjoy
the occasional cigar. - Okay.
- I will tell you that.
I got engaged at a cigar club.
My engagement party was at a cigar club.
I do enjoy that.
So that's my one little vice,
now that I'm physically and emotionally perfect.
(group laughing)
- I wish I had a gold chain and a cigar.
- What was I thinking?
It's like, "Okay, Lisa,
stop co-opting everyone's culture, and accept your own".
Like now. (group laughing)
- Let me ask you this.
You're at your show tonight at the Stress Factory,
you're up there with your cohorts,
doing your podcast thing and gettin' into some deep talks.
Something happens, if someone in the audience,
says something or does something,
(Fortune chuckling)
You know you're sitting on a superpower.
You know - Yes!
- That's true. - You can level the room
in two sentences.
Do you break it out at all?
- I think a heckler just needs to be told.
There's many clips of me online,
completely snapping at people on the internet.
They're really funny and stupid,
but I think like when you misbehave,
you have to be told, but I think Tom,
I go in a little different direction now.
- Right. - I think I've,
in the past few years,
I've discovered that boy,
us snapping is really just out of fear or sadness.
It's usually someone just trying to get attention.
It's like almost sad for them that they're doing that.
So I think it might go in a different direction
than just like, "Hey, you C-word, whatever."
- Right, right, right. - Although,
I must tell you, the old Lisa never dies,
because the C-word is still my favorite word on the planet.
It's the best. I love it.
I love when people call it to me.
So you never know if that happens, I'll love it too.
(wind blowing)
- What a Joke, with Papa and Fortune.
The 2022 version.
New Year, New Year's resolutions.
Do you have any resolutions?
- Jax and I, always make vision boards.
- All right! - We take magazines,
and we cut stuff out, and we tape it to a paper,
and then at the end, when we're both done,
we tell each other what is on the board.
- I like this idea.
Am I part of your vision board for this year?
- It's broader.
It's not like specific. - Uh-huh.
It's not like a picture of you and me,
holding hands in a park?
- No.
(Auld Lang Syne playing)
It's not like a genie.
It's not like you just get wishes granted.
It's more of just like,
they call it setting your intention.
What goals you have, and what you wanna work towards.
It doesn't necessarily mean like,
all of a sudden, you're gonna get like a yacht.
(Both laughing)
- Oh.
(smooth music)