Man I love this job! After three long years of wooing I finally got a chance to talk with the legendary comedian Al Franken. After many successful years as a standup comedian and Saturday Night Live writer, Franken has released a number of hysterical and popular books such as Why Not Me? and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. When Franken released Lies and the Lying Liars in 2004, esteemed filmmakers Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus followed and him and documented the experience. Now its all been put together in the film Al Franken: God Spoke.
Check out the official website for Al Franken: God Spoke
Daniel Robert Epstein: What did you think when such prestigious documentary filmmakers wanted to do a film on you?
Al Franken: I was very excited because I liked their work.
DRE: Did you ever feel pressure to be on for the camera?
Al: No, I thought that would be a bad idea. There were certain things I know I did that I wish were in the movie but its their movie [laughs]. You know that party where the Republicans all are?
DRE: Yeah, the Newsweek party.
Al: Yeah, I saw Charlie Rose at the party and Charlie sees the camera and he goes, How long have they been following you? I said, Like a year. He goes, well, how are you going to end it? We didnt know at the time and I said, you know what, if we cant find an ending I may have to murder someone and Charlie, it could be you. Then a couple months later, were in Minneapolis and I was saying something like, Why dont we just end the movie by including that clip in earlier and then have me murder Charlie Rose. They would follow me as I go into his apartment building, go up the elevator, knock on his door, Charlie answers and then you cut to me pistol whipping Charlie while he is on his hands and knees begging for his life. Charlie is doing a terrible job of acting and then we cut to Kevin Spacey as Charlie Rose and me pistol whipping him and killing him. Then we cut to The Charlie Rose show with Charlie, [director] Nick [Doob] and me asking why we put Kevin Spacey in. Now I knew they werent going to end the movie like that but I thought it would be very funny to put that in. But they decided otherwise.
DRE: Is this the closest well get to an HBO type special from you?
Al: Im not ruling out an HBO special for me in the future.
DRE: It was a lot of fun for me to see you interacting with all your enemies. Is it difficult for them to attack you because you have years of comedy experience so you could snap back at them?
Al: They can certainly attack me when Im not there. They do that all the time. I was with Mark Luther who is our resident dittohead [a fan of The Rush Limbaugh Show] on my Air America show. Hes the guy we have on like once a week and we play Rush Limbaugh and Mark has to try to defend him. Mark has known me for 39 years. He said he was listening to some right wing show and this guy said he was at a hot dog stand with me at the Republican convention in San Diego and this guy tried to say hi to me and I was really rude. I said to Mark, Does that sound like me? Mark says, you know that doesnt. I got to put up with that crap.
DRE: How important is it for you to never lie?
Al: Its really important to me not to lie. Its real important not to make mistakes. But you make mistakes. Theres a difference between making a mistake and lying. We had one mistake in [the book] Lies and the Lying Liars. We included a preliminary report on the damage that was done when the Clintons left the White House. The report said there was no damage done, [laughs] but remember Arie Fleischer [George W. Bushs press secretary at the time] and all these guys were saying there was all this huge vandalism that was done by the Clintons as they left but that was just a big myth. The second report came out and said that there were some W keys removed from the computers. There was also some incredibly minor stuff that might have occurred when a rug came up or a phone line got ripped out. But that was a mistake because we used a preliminary report but that happens. Theres a big difference between that and then doing the painstaking lying that Ann Coulter does, where you just have to labor and labor just to make a lie.
DRE: In the movie you say shes a smart lady. Is she smart enough to delude herself or does she know shes lying?
Al: I think she is deluding herself some of the time and she knows shes lying some of the time and justifying it. I did a debate with her which I will not do anymore because it is not any fun. I repeated a litany of lies that shes done and she just wouldnt respond. Shed go, This cant be about Ann Coulter. Ok, Im a flawed person. I think theres something desperately wrong with her and I think that theres a self-esteem issue there. Most of us try to do our best work and see our work as an extension of ourselves and try to do something that is good.
DRE: Are you serious about running for senate in Minnesota?
Al: Im serious about it but I dont know if Im going to do it. Obviously its a big personal decision and also I dont know what the rest of the DFL thinks. Im getting an idea that a lot of people want me to do it [laughs]. I told myself I dont have to decide until next year.
DRE: Whats it take to get young people involved in politics today?
Al: They just got to feel that it means something, that it means something to their lives. Our politics has to be more about the future than it is now. Look at these huge deficits and look at the investments in prisons and weapons as opposed to investments in education.
DRE: Its all short term.
Al: Very short term thinking. But we also have to convince kids that it is worth the work and it is actually a lot of fun and also real important at the same time. How many things are fun and important at the same time? [laughs]
DRE: Just to talk about comedy, Harry Shearer said that everyone whos ever worked on SNL secretly hated it.
Al: No, there were times when I hated it. There were times when it drove me nuts, especially toward the end where it was getting unwieldy with all the cast members. There was just a tendency to start getting too many people. It started to get frustrating to me because we would produce too much and I had kids and we were staying there way too late at night. But mainly I loved being there. The best memories of my life are always going to be rolling on the floor laughing up on the 17th floor on a Tuesday night and writing with incredible writers and cast members. Thats the quintessential memory of Saturday Night is Live.
DRE: Robert Smigel told me you brought him to Saturday Night Live.
Al: Yeah and it was a very interesting thing. He was in this review in Chicago and there was really funny stuff in it and there was stuff that wasnt really funny. I said Somebody in this group is really good. [laughs] They had the right ethic of every one of them writes everything and none of them writes anything kind of thing. Thats all fine and dandy except I couldnt hire everybody and somebody there was the guy. So I kept coming back to the show and figuring out by who was in what sketch and talking with them and it was Smigel. I really saw a talent there.
DRE: As a comedy fan I must ask, would you and Tom [Davis] ever do something together again?
Al: We actually just did. We did a fundraiser in Minneapolis on June 8th and we did a half hour together.
DRE: Old stuff?
Al: Some old, some new. It was great.
DRE: Is it wrong for me to want Joe Lieberman to become president just because hes Jewish?
Al: Wesley Clark is half Jewish.
DRE: Oh good! Great Im in!
If you had a tattoo, what would it be?
Al: Oh, it would be a dot on my ankle [laughs].
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official website for Al Franken: God Spoke
Daniel Robert Epstein: What did you think when such prestigious documentary filmmakers wanted to do a film on you?
Al Franken: I was very excited because I liked their work.
DRE: Did you ever feel pressure to be on for the camera?
Al: No, I thought that would be a bad idea. There were certain things I know I did that I wish were in the movie but its their movie [laughs]. You know that party where the Republicans all are?
DRE: Yeah, the Newsweek party.
Al: Yeah, I saw Charlie Rose at the party and Charlie sees the camera and he goes, How long have they been following you? I said, Like a year. He goes, well, how are you going to end it? We didnt know at the time and I said, you know what, if we cant find an ending I may have to murder someone and Charlie, it could be you. Then a couple months later, were in Minneapolis and I was saying something like, Why dont we just end the movie by including that clip in earlier and then have me murder Charlie Rose. They would follow me as I go into his apartment building, go up the elevator, knock on his door, Charlie answers and then you cut to me pistol whipping Charlie while he is on his hands and knees begging for his life. Charlie is doing a terrible job of acting and then we cut to Kevin Spacey as Charlie Rose and me pistol whipping him and killing him. Then we cut to The Charlie Rose show with Charlie, [director] Nick [Doob] and me asking why we put Kevin Spacey in. Now I knew they werent going to end the movie like that but I thought it would be very funny to put that in. But they decided otherwise.
DRE: Is this the closest well get to an HBO type special from you?
Al: Im not ruling out an HBO special for me in the future.
DRE: It was a lot of fun for me to see you interacting with all your enemies. Is it difficult for them to attack you because you have years of comedy experience so you could snap back at them?
Al: They can certainly attack me when Im not there. They do that all the time. I was with Mark Luther who is our resident dittohead [a fan of The Rush Limbaugh Show] on my Air America show. Hes the guy we have on like once a week and we play Rush Limbaugh and Mark has to try to defend him. Mark has known me for 39 years. He said he was listening to some right wing show and this guy said he was at a hot dog stand with me at the Republican convention in San Diego and this guy tried to say hi to me and I was really rude. I said to Mark, Does that sound like me? Mark says, you know that doesnt. I got to put up with that crap.
DRE: How important is it for you to never lie?
Al: Its really important to me not to lie. Its real important not to make mistakes. But you make mistakes. Theres a difference between making a mistake and lying. We had one mistake in [the book] Lies and the Lying Liars. We included a preliminary report on the damage that was done when the Clintons left the White House. The report said there was no damage done, [laughs] but remember Arie Fleischer [George W. Bushs press secretary at the time] and all these guys were saying there was all this huge vandalism that was done by the Clintons as they left but that was just a big myth. The second report came out and said that there were some W keys removed from the computers. There was also some incredibly minor stuff that might have occurred when a rug came up or a phone line got ripped out. But that was a mistake because we used a preliminary report but that happens. Theres a big difference between that and then doing the painstaking lying that Ann Coulter does, where you just have to labor and labor just to make a lie.
DRE: In the movie you say shes a smart lady. Is she smart enough to delude herself or does she know shes lying?
Al: I think she is deluding herself some of the time and she knows shes lying some of the time and justifying it. I did a debate with her which I will not do anymore because it is not any fun. I repeated a litany of lies that shes done and she just wouldnt respond. Shed go, This cant be about Ann Coulter. Ok, Im a flawed person. I think theres something desperately wrong with her and I think that theres a self-esteem issue there. Most of us try to do our best work and see our work as an extension of ourselves and try to do something that is good.
DRE: Are you serious about running for senate in Minnesota?
Al: Im serious about it but I dont know if Im going to do it. Obviously its a big personal decision and also I dont know what the rest of the DFL thinks. Im getting an idea that a lot of people want me to do it [laughs]. I told myself I dont have to decide until next year.
DRE: Whats it take to get young people involved in politics today?
Al: They just got to feel that it means something, that it means something to their lives. Our politics has to be more about the future than it is now. Look at these huge deficits and look at the investments in prisons and weapons as opposed to investments in education.
DRE: Its all short term.
Al: Very short term thinking. But we also have to convince kids that it is worth the work and it is actually a lot of fun and also real important at the same time. How many things are fun and important at the same time? [laughs]
DRE: Just to talk about comedy, Harry Shearer said that everyone whos ever worked on SNL secretly hated it.
Al: No, there were times when I hated it. There were times when it drove me nuts, especially toward the end where it was getting unwieldy with all the cast members. There was just a tendency to start getting too many people. It started to get frustrating to me because we would produce too much and I had kids and we were staying there way too late at night. But mainly I loved being there. The best memories of my life are always going to be rolling on the floor laughing up on the 17th floor on a Tuesday night and writing with incredible writers and cast members. Thats the quintessential memory of Saturday Night is Live.
DRE: Robert Smigel told me you brought him to Saturday Night Live.
Al: Yeah and it was a very interesting thing. He was in this review in Chicago and there was really funny stuff in it and there was stuff that wasnt really funny. I said Somebody in this group is really good. [laughs] They had the right ethic of every one of them writes everything and none of them writes anything kind of thing. Thats all fine and dandy except I couldnt hire everybody and somebody there was the guy. So I kept coming back to the show and figuring out by who was in what sketch and talking with them and it was Smigel. I really saw a talent there.
DRE: As a comedy fan I must ask, would you and Tom [Davis] ever do something together again?
Al: We actually just did. We did a fundraiser in Minneapolis on June 8th and we did a half hour together.
DRE: Old stuff?
Al: Some old, some new. It was great.
DRE: Is it wrong for me to want Joe Lieberman to become president just because hes Jewish?
Al: Wesley Clark is half Jewish.
DRE: Oh good! Great Im in!
If you had a tattoo, what would it be?
Al: Oh, it would be a dot on my ankle [laughs].
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 24 of 24 COMMENTS
thinprince1977:
FUCK Al Franken. Unfunny bastard of a comedian...and lying sack of shit politician.
datsun:
A year and a half after this thread has had activity, this is what you bump it for? 