Bob Saget

The success of both shows, which regularly landed in the Top Ten Ratings, has continued in worldwide syndication. In other words, instead of entertaining viewers only twice a week, Saget is on the small screen at least twice each day.

Both series have completed their long runs, but that doesn’t mean Saget has lessened his work load. His career includes acting, writing, directing, producing and a return to his first love, stand-up comedy.

In addition to “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Saget has hosted “Saturday Night Live” and has countless appearances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Johnny Carson,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” His film credits include scene-stealing cameos in “Dumb and Dumber” and the cult favorite, “Half Baked.” Most recently he appeared on HBO's hit series “Entourage” and in what is fast becoming another cult classic film, "The Aristocrats.”

In between earning rave reviews starring Off-Broadway last spring in “Privilege” and a possible sitcom for HBO, Saget has been touring theaters and selected clubs performing stand-up comedy. But a word of warning about his live show: It ain’t “Full House.” His appearances are billed as being recommended for adults.

“I was just paying my credit card bills when you called,” I said, thankful when the phone rang.

“Ah, let me get that for you,” he offered. “Just tell me how much and I’ll write the check.”

“Wish I could!”

“I’m here to help,” he assured me.

“Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

“Absolutely,” he replied, making me feel like I suddenly wanted Danny Tanner as my dad.

“We’ve met, you know.”

“How?”

“I used to be Budd Friedman’s assistant at The Improv…”

“Oh my god!” he laughed. “That’s hilarious!”

“Yeah, and it gets even funnier. I was the Talent Coordinator for the TV show ‘An Evening At The Improv.”

“Holy crap! I was on that thing 20 years ago. Whatever it was…”

“You also did a benefit show we hosted after the LA Riots,” I continued. “You and I were hanging around the stairs at the Melrose Improv and talking…”

“That’s hilarious. And what brought you back to Cleveland ?” he asked.

“Family. I’m a ‘Full House’ kind’a guy,” I said.

“Right,” he laughed. “I just took my kids to school. I’m divorced, but I’m family. It’s a busy life. And then I’m going to go and do work on the shows I’m doing. So it’s like, a crazy life. But it’s good though. I started in Cleveland . One of the places.”

“Really? The old Cleveland Comedy Club?”

“Yeah. It was a chicken slaughter house. It really was,” he said. “And then they turned it into a comedy club.”

“I was living in New York City and running the Improv there,” I said. “So I was never at that Cleveland club. But I’ve heard about it through the comics, like Drew Carey…”

“Right! Drew used to open for me. Dennis Miller used to open for me. I was on ‘Make Me Laugh’ at the time. The people who did the circuit were Gary Shandling, Bruce Baum, Dave Coulier… We used to all go there. I ended up going… I was so popular there, I’d go three times a year sometimes. Twice a year, three times a year – which is too much to go to the same market,” he laughed. “But I loved doing it. It was the place where I really learned.”

“Where did you actually start doing comedy? You didn’t start in Cleveland.”

“I started in Philadelphia ,” he replied. “I used to take the train when I was 17 to The Improv in New York and wait in line ten hours on showcase night. It was really lame.”

“That was before my time at the club,” I said.

“Right. And Robert Wuhl was working the door and MC’ing and Chris Albrecht was the manager!” he laughed. “Yeah, it’s a crazy thing that’s happened with everybody.”

“Did you ever share the train with Dom Irrera?” I asked. “He’s from Philadelphia .”

“He wasn’t doing it when I started. I was 17 and… not that I’m older. I think I might be. I’m 49 and I don’t know how old Dom is.”

“I don’t know either…”

“You can’t tell cuz he’s so bloated!” Saget laughed. “He looks like he’s a drowning victim!”

“I love Dom!” I protested.

“I love him so much…!” he continued. “He’s the one who told me ‘The Aristocrats’ joke 20 years ago.”

“He’s the one who told it to me!”

“Yep. In front of The Improv,” he said. “And he told me the joke and I said, ‘That’s pretty funny. Terrible – but it’s funny.”

“You’re in the movie…” I began.

“Right.”

“I talked with Bobby Slayton and he can’t believe he’s the cleanest comic in it!”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “It’s hilarious that he’s so clean in it. I know, of all people. It was opposite day. But that movie was interesting. Last night I did a thing for The Creative Coalition and talked on a panel. Lawrence O’Donnell hosted it and moderated it. And it was Paul Provenza, who directed ‘The Aristocrats,’ Matt Zone of ‘ South Park ,’ Richard Kind, the actor, and Harry Shearer, who is incredibly smart and funny. And we held a panel about censorship. And we did it in New York too, at the 92^nd St. Y last month. But they asked me to do it and I said absolutely. It was an interesting discussion. It was really interesting. It was about… What do you do… Allowing the FCC to put the kibosh on your projects and how we’re all to the right now. Which is why comedy seems to be more subversive. It’s starting to come out. I mean, my stand-up was…”

“You can’t believe it,” he continued. “It was a very slow press week when I was on the front of USA Today and saying that I have R-rated comedy. You know? You know it’s a slow press time if THAT’s the story!”

“Were you always an R-rated comic?” I asked.

“I was PG… 19? But I did an HBO special 15 years ago and I dropped the ‘F-Bomb’ a lot. You know? And that would be R-rated.”

“But you wound up starring in two of the most family-oriented television shows,” I noted.

“Right.”

“Full House’ and ‘ America ’s Funniest Home Videos,” I said. “And when I talk to some comics who do R or X-rated acts, they get mad that no casting directors will look at them to star in a family sitcom.”

“They could. You see, that’s the thing. We all have different paths. You know, we all go in different directions. Because, like Jay Leno is an incredibly brilliant stand-up comedian when you see him doing his stand-up. And on the show, he’s reaching more people so there’s an adjustment that takes place.”

“But how would you even be considered for the Danny Tanner role?” I asked.

“Well, I was more like that then,” he said. “I wasn’t ‘that’ guy ever, but when I took the part… It’s funny, but I hung out with (John) Stamos last night. He did a benefit for Hurricane Relief with The Beach Boys. And Jeff Franklin, our executive producer was there. Now Jeff wanted me to be in ‘Full House’ originally. I had been in a Richard Pryor movie called, ‘Critical Condition,’ and I said ‘fuck’ in that a bunch! It’s an R-rated movie!”

“One of the other producers of ‘Full House’ wanted me, but they hired another guy. And then I was working at CBS on ‘The Morning Program,’ and I did that for about five months. Then they fired me, because they said I was too ‘hot’ for morning television,” he laughed. “And my manager, Brad Grey, said, ‘Bob’s available now.’ And they said, ‘Oh really? Okay.’ So they screen tested me, which was an exercise, and then they re-cast the show with me.”

“And I wanted to play it straight and be an actor,” Saget continued. “I wanted to be funny. I didn’t want to be the straight man on the show, but I was the father. So we had a comedy guy living in house – Dave, who I have known since he was 17. I knew him in Detroit , doing comedy. And Stamos and I had just met. And I was the guy… I said I wanted to be Felix Unger and hug everybody, so that’s how they wrote the character.”

“But I wanted to be a little bit more neurotic and spin out of control more, but they picked their spots because the show was made for 14-year olds. You know? 12-year olds. It was a heightened reality sitcom. Like ‘Leave It To Beaver’ was. It wasn’t ‘real’ people talking. And yet it had moments of it sometimes. But it was a morality play.”

“You know, it’s funny because I’ve been doing so many interviews because of all the different things that are going on with me now,” he continued. “And doing stand-up in different places where I go promote it. And I’m only doing a few clubs now. I’ve only got about three clubs left and The Improv’s are the ones that I like. I'm doing more theaters. I’m going to Washington next week, then I’m doing Berkley … I’m doing more colleges. It’s a couple thousand people and it’s just hilarious.”

“You also did an Off-Broadway play,” I said.

“I did that in March. I did the play ‘Privilege,’ which Paul Weiss wrote. He wrote, ‘About A Boy’ and ‘Good Company.’ And that was at the Second Stage Theater. That was an opportunity. They offered it to me and I said yes. And you don’t get paid, basically. You know, it’s Off-Broadway. Broadway doesn’t even pay that much, unless you’re a draw. And it was one of the best experiences of my life. It kind of changed me a lot.”

“I read about it in New York Magazine,” I said.

“It was in everything. I got the nicest press on that thing… so much that I stopped reading. I didn’t read it because it messed me up to read it because then I’d go, ‘Oh, I’m great…’ he laughed. “A couple times they slapped me on the back of the head, but your best bet is to either get hated by people or loved by people. In the middle means you’re not having an effect on anybody.”

“The great thing about your career is that I see you moving between all these projects,” I noted. “Stand-up, acting… and here’s something else I was surprised about. You directed one of my favorite movies, ‘Dirty Work.”

“Ah, I’m in love with you,” he laughed. “I want to marry you now.”

“My wife had to buy me a copy!” I exclaimed.

“Now I’m paying your charge card bills. I’m tellin’ you, that is a big compliment. Because I loved doing that movie. And it was a hard movie to make. Comedy is not easy. And we had an R-rated movie and they made me take the balls out it. They didn’t know what they were doing. And it was right before ‘Something About Mary.’ Like a month before. And we should’ve had an R-rating and we would have just blown the roof off. We had a really killer movie and they made me take four minutes out of it. They killed it.”

“I always mention the scene where Artie is mooning the line in front of the theater,” I laughed. “And Norm parks the car right there…”

“It was done really well too,” he said. “They did a great job. It was shot… And that was the day, actually, they thought I wasn’t shooting it right. The producer was all paranoid. But it was one of those things that really worked in the movie.”

“It was great,” I agreed. “But I’m basically talking about all the different things you’ve been doing.”

“Well, I just sold a script. I had a script deal at HBO. They liked the idea for a show that I have – and it was in ‘Variety,’ so I can talk about it. It’s a half hour, R-rated sitcom. It’s based on ‘The Courtship of Eddie’s Father’ kind of premise, which is a single dad with a 14-year old son. And we’re both going through the same thing, which is adolescence and wanting to hook up with women and… It’s hard for me because he’s living with me full time. Because he didn’t want to be with his mom. And I’m a gynecologist in Phoenix .”

“And there’s the joke, you know?” he laughed. “I’m a gynecologist, for God’s sake! So it’s kind of like my life. Which is like last night. I’m doing one thing… And I’m out with John Stamos and all these models are around. And then I come home and kiss my daughters goodnight and go to bed. You know? And then I take them to school in the morning.”

“What a life…”

“It’s fun!” he laughed. “I’m really having a good time now because I have all these projects going on. I’ve got a movie thing as a director – but that’s not locked and loaded yet. Close, but not there.”

“What interests you the most?” I asked. “Acting, directing, stand-up…?”

“I don’t know! Because I thought directing movies was my favorite thing. I was doing stand-up before I did the play, which I enjoyed. But after doing that play something happened in my performance chops – or whatever you want to call it. After doing 70 performances and I didn’t talk to the audience. And then when I finished the play I went and headlined the House Of Blues in Las Vegas and started doing some colleges and realized, ‘Wow. There’s a thousand people in here and they’re going crazy.’ And I’m loving it, because my comedy was always really ‘fast.’ I was like… I don’t want to say like Rodney (Dangerfield), I should be so lucky. But I mean joke after joke. You know, I just keep going. Never stopping. Never… You know, Rodney always told me… He was a good friend. He was saying, ‘Just keep going. It’s like working out in the gym. Just keep going. It’s like punching a body bag, you know?”

“Your stand-up is getting great reviews,” I said. “Are there still people coming to see you who expect the ‘Full House’ guy, but instead they’re getting an R-rated act?”

“Yeah. A couple people… And they look at me like, ‘How could you talk like that?’ Usually it’s only a couple. Most people know, because I make them advertise for mature audiences. There was one that said I was X-rated! I made them change their ad. I was like, ‘Are you nuts?! I’m not X-rated!’ X-rated, you bring a goat up on stage! You know? I’m R-rated. I say the F-word and do some dick jokes. But most of it’s not… You know, it’s 17 and up, who can really see it. And with a good fake ID they can come to The Improv.”

“You have to be 21 or older to get in anyway,” I said.

“But there are people who are young anyway. My daughter’s in New York and they all go… If you’re a cute girl, you can get in anywhere you want.”

“Yeah, that’s true…”

“Except a comedy club,” he laughed. “Maybe. But if you have a good fake I.D., you have a good shot.”

“Here’s a story,” I said. “Rodney (Dangerfield) used to come in to the New York Improv quite a bit. I’d always ask him if he wanted to say hello to the audience. If there were cute girls in front, he would. If not, then he’d go check out what was going on at Caroline’s or somewhere else.”

“Right. He was a… I officiated his funeral,” replied Saget. “Three hours of comics getting up and eulogizing Rodney Dangerfield.”

“I saw him dozens of times when I was working at the New York and Los Angeles Improvs,” I said. “And I always felt bad because each time I’d have to introduce myself to him. He never seemed to remember me. But then one of the comics who opened for him on the road – for six months – told me the same thing. He also had to introduce himself to Rodney all the time.”

“That’s hilarious. I believe that.”

“Yeah.”

“We had a little service for him. There were only a few of us there. Rosanne, Dom, Harry Basil and Louie Anderson. And we just talked about Rodney a little. Actually, we went out afterwards and sat there talking about him at a Hamburger Hamlet.”

“He’s a legend.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And he was not a regular person. You know? Comics, as you know… To answer a question from before, I mean when I started doing stand-up again… And I just love stand-up. You know – that’s why you wrote two books on it. I mean for an hour, nobody can control that hour. Not even me. I don’t even know what I’m going to do. And the audience is digging it because they’re hearing… Any disclaimer that they need, anything they ever wanted to hear about ‘Full House’ or the video show or any of that crap, I take care of. You know, I hit everything as dead on and true as I can come up with what happened and what is. Because they grew up watching the damn shows.”

“But Robin Williams does ‘One Hour Photo’ and does ‘Flubber,” he continued, “but that’s a movie and ‘another’ movie and they’re two totally different types of things. I did two series that lasted eight years apiece, so whatever image people have of me, it’s because I did them for so damn long. You don’t walk away from a hit sitcom.”

“Both were on prime time at the same time,” I reminded him.

“Right. And if ‘Mork & Mindy’ had lasted eight years, people would go, ‘Oh my God, how can he do that? He’s Mork from Ork!’ But he only lasted two. You know, if you get cancelled, if you’re lucky enough to have a short-lived TV series, you’ll be a movie star. And that’s what happens!” he laughed.

“My character from ‘Full House’ and the video show guy wasn’t going to catapult me into movie stardom. Those are shows that were… In some ways, the video show was the lowest common denominator comedy. You know, the jokes were lame for what they were, but that’s the kind of joke that travels the world in a blooper show. A blooper show!”

“That’s right,” I agreed. “And some of the comics who would come in to The Improv, like Rosanne and Jerry Seinfeld – I never got to watch their shows in prime time, because I was at the club on those nights. I only got to see them as late night reruns. And really, with two kids, your shows have been on in my house nightly for I don’t know how many years now.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sitting there with the kids and we’re watching your shows,” I continued. “And I’m seeing them for the first time.”

“Full House’ is stronger now than it ever was when it was on the air,” he said.

“I was going to say that,” I replied. “At least to me anyway.”

“No, it is! It’s much more popular now. It is all they watch. So I’m on a show that… It’s a very interesting cross section of people that I have. I’ve got these, you know, eight year olds that stare and gawk at me when they see me – because they can’t believe it’s me. And then their dad is there and says, ‘I loved’ya in ‘Entourage.’ And the eight year olds are thinking about ‘Full House.’ And then the grandmother comes over and says, (imitating a granny), ‘You’re a ‘nasty’ boy!’ You know? So I get her number.”

“I asked my son what I should ask you,” I said. “And he wanted to know if you’re going to do anymore ‘Full House’ shows.”

“No.”

“Any reunion shows or anything like that planned?”

“No. We go to dinner. The cast goes to dinner. We’re very good friends. Twelve of us will go to dinner.”

“The people in the restaurants must go nuts when you walk in,” I said.

“Well, in LA they don’t care that much. And it’s kind of loud and they all think they’re cool. But they can’t believe we’re together. We walked into this restaurant and Tony Danza was there with his wife and he goes, ‘You guys go out together?” Saget laughed. “You don’t see the cast of ‘Taxi’ here.”

“For example,” he continued, “Ashley and Mary Kate… my daughter goes to school in New York , and a couple weeks ago they took her to dinner. I mean, we’re like family. You know? It’s like cousins. It’s not like regular people.”

“That’s a great relationship to have from working in this business,” I said. “You could be in that cast where you do a show for eight years and everyone leaves hating each other.”

“Oh no, I love them so much it’s not even funny. I mean, I’m so close with them… I went and saw John last night. He was on stage with The Beach Boys! It’s just like things haven’t changed! And I walked over and… I mean, I love him. And Dave is ‘Dave’ and he cracks me up. A lot of people look at… ‘Oh, his career… his career… her career… her career… how come they’re not, how come he is…’ It doesn’t matter when you’re close with people. You know? I’m just very thankful that it wasn’t a superficial time we spent together.”

“And then you ended up being the director of ‘Dirty Work’…”

“There you go!” he laughed.

“You’re my hero now!” I gushed. “This is IT!”

“Now I just want to get this HBO show on, because this will hopefully help. Louie CK is doing a half hour sitcom. They’re buying sitcoms to put them on.

“Louie CD used to do a porpoise impression when I ran the New York Improv,” I said, thankful for change to ‘name-drop.’ “That used to drive us nuts! We’d have to run in and turn down the microphone.”

“He’s been around awhile,” Saget laughed.

“Anything else you want me to put in this article?” I asked.

“Just say I’m really loving my stand-up. We’ve added a third show for this Saturday night, (at The Cleveland Improv). We’ll do three, because my other option is to go out and look for girls. And, you know, I can’t do that. I’m too… I’m Bob Saget. I gotta just relax.”

“Some of the other comics I know get out of that third show so they can just hang out,” I said.

“I like a third show because if I’m there and I’m selling tickets and more people want to see it, then, you know… Because I’m doing more theaters, because it seems to be what’s happening. You know – filling places. So it’s really a nice thing to be able to come in and keep going. Because I’m on so much adrenaline anyway after two of them. It’s like an easy thing to finish it off. But I just love it. That’s the other thing. I’m doing stand-up and I’m just loving it. And people come away going, ‘You know, I didn’t think you were funny, but wow… that was…’ They insult me, but they don’t mean to. ‘I always hated you – but now I like you!” he laughed. “My god, thanks so much…”

“Seems like you’re getting everyone on your side now,” I noted.

“We’ll see.”

“I’ll have to tell everyone to see you on this tour.”

“Yeah. You’ll definitely be surprised, because I’m really kind of... I’m ‘in’ it right now, you know? I’m like ‘in gear.’ My show just kind of blows up. I can’t help it – I just go.”

“I’ll have to get a baby-sitter and take my wife to this one,” I said.

“It is a little… You know what it is. R-rated. So she might stare for second.”

“She loves dirty jokes.”

“Then we’re in good shape!” he laughed. “This is all good.”

“Dom Irrera’s her God!” I admitted.

“Ah, this is easy then,” he said. “My work is done.”