Ted: Welcome to Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show. I'm Ted Bonnitt. And I'm

Phil: Phil Proctor. Hi, Phil. I can't hear myself or you. You can't? Over the earphones. What? No. What? So I'm going to have to just wing it and pretend that we're on the radio. Well, you sound great. Well thank you. And we're in another wonderful fundraiser.

Thank you. What? Yes! Oh, no. I know, I know, we were hardly

Ted: back. You did not tell me this before we drove over here. Well,

Phil: you drove.

Ted: So, you know. But I

Phil: wouldn't have. I didn't want to disturb you. I wanted to just keep your eye on the road.

Ted: Yeah.

Phil: You had valuable cargo. Your dog, Luna. Heh, heh, heh, heh. Alright, so.

My agent. So, listen. Because we are going to be giving things away, uh, for money. Yes. Which I think is called selling things. Yes. In support of our station.

Ted: Yeah.

Phil: Uh, tell us a little bit about it, Ted. About what? Well, this piece of paper.

Ted: Oh, yeah, there's a contract. There's a lot of things you can't. No, not that.

This one here. Oh, this one. Yeah.

Phil: Oh, yeah. Well, hey. No, it's on the first page. Yes. I can't see it. This is the first time

Ted: in all the years I've been on Pacifica. Yeah. Where I've been handed actual copy to read. Well, that's just a, well, let me get a picture. So should I do an announcer voice or should, no. I think you should.

Yes. This Hour of Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer. Wait a minute. Is that your announcer voice? No, I didn't have to do my

Phil: announcer voice. Oh, all right. Well, I was disappointed, but.

Ted: This Hour of Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show. That's better. Is sponsored in part by Caltech's Rambo Auditorium. Rambo. Rambo. Rambo.

Fireside Theater Archives and Robert Dubac. Who's he? Oh, he's this guy sitting over here. Oh, our guest. Our guest today. All of whom have generously donated items at knife point for KPFK's Fall Fun Drive. I mean, Bob had no idea. Jimmy, did you say Fall Fun Drive? Yeah, we're gonna fall and it's gonna be fun.

Rob Dubac: Okay. Ow! Ow!

Ted: In this wonderful hour of radio hijinks that you're about to enjoy, you can pledge your support of Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show. It is important, if our listener's listening, to send whatever he can or she can. I don't know,

Phil: has our listener I have not seen the pronouns, I'm not sure. Your

Ted: listener hasn't changed pronouns?

We don't know if it's a he or a she or an it or what. You can pledge your support, listener, for Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show by donating during our hour. That's the point. Yeah. You know, because, you know, it's a non commercial station, but you know how things work in the real world, right? Yeah. We're making a kind of commercial

Phil: right now.

Yeah.

Ted: So if you have an extra thousand dollars line, it actually says a thousand dollars here, but you can also send 25, 50, 100. You can send 10, whatever you can comfortably afford because we can work in numbers. Yeah. Even with one listener, 10 will go a long way. Bye bye. Long way. Coffee. Cup of coffee. So whatever level you can comfortably afford and withstand, because we're going to be here for an hour.

Yes. So call us at 818 985 5735. And press 2 to talk to our, uh, answering person. Our call center. Our call center. We actually have a call center? Yeah. Wow. That's even better than most of the online services I subscribe to. It's one person with three phones. Ah. And you can also, if you don't want to deal with real people, and I understand that, you can go to kpfk. org online. 24 7 to pledge online, but if you do tell you did it because of the boomers. Yeah, you know, give us a boost Yeah, give us give us a boomer boost and we have made a wide variety of what we call. Thank you gifts So you can be a sustainer by contributing monthly That's another way of doing so, you know, we don't have a sustaining.

Yeah. I mean not only can we harangue you for an hour But then we can bill you once a month to That's two for the price of one. That's five dollars America buddy 15 20 cheaper than a Netflix Subscription and half the entertainment. That's right. So if KPFK enters our 65th year. No. Wow. Wow. Know that your support keeps our airwaves free and independent.

Yes. And that is on all kidding aside. Yeah. And believe me though, I have plenty of time to put the kidding aside today, but yeah, , seriously, we are, uh, the only station of its kind in that we have no. Outside sponsorships, no even, yep, no suits are, no politically charged foundations that, that fund, um, other public radio, no secret

Phil: agendas here,

Ted: no, no, no, we have nothing to hide here.

Um, so it is important that your dollars do go to allowing people like us to come in and talk whatever the hell. about whatever the hell we want. Yeah, but

Phil: today we're actually going to talk with a wonderful friend and talent who is plugging himself in. Can you hear yourself now? I can. Welcome, gentlemen.

I'm not done with

Ted: the copy. We are truly, quote, powered by the people. Unquote. We are. End quote. So, as you listen to your favorite show, and we all know what your favorite show is out there, listener. Yes. The Sexy Boomer Show. Please consider pledging. Once again, that number is 818 985 5735. And it's an easy one to remember, isn't it?

818 985 5735. 985 5735, and then when you do that, press 2, and you will go right down the rabbit hole and speak to somebody. Unless you're calling on a rotary phone, which

Phil: case you have to dial to.

Ted: And if you're really a shut in and don't like to talk to anybody, just go online to kpfk. org, and you can also send money to that.

So we'll go over our fabulous premiums, but our guest is falling asleep, so I think it's time to introduce him. Yes, let's introduce him. This is also some really brilliantly written copy. Well, this is thanks to our, our, our wonderful producer, Donna. Donna Walker wrote this. Phil and Ted, kick offs next week.

Uh, at KPFK's Fall Fun Drive, we do? Yeah, well, aren't we done with this, for God's sake? Okay, our guest is Robert Dubeck. That's better. Whose hit show, The Book of Moron, Yes. Not Mormon, Moron, Duh. Has been described as one of the most hilarious, intelligent, and scorching satirical attacks on idiocracy since Mark Twain.

Who said that? Did you say that, Bob?

Rob Dubac: Oh, I wrote that, yeah. Yeah, that's a hell of a high bar. But I copied it off of a reviewer. Oh, you did? Oh, really? That's great. I figured, hey, you know, he put it better than I could, so.

Ted: Well, critics rage. That's his job. It crashes headfirst into the barriers of sex, race, religion, politics, and the media.

It may be offensive to some. Oh, good. We hope. And there's laughter for all. And, um. And so, having been brainwashed, speak, speak for yourself, Donna, having been brainwashed by a culture that worships the Kardashians. No, she didn't write that. Bob wrote that from a review. No, it's not in quotes. Oh. Having been brainwashed by a culture that worships the Kardashians over character, delusion over truth, and selfies over self effacement, Dubac finds himself stuck in a coma of stupidity, asking himself, quote, Who am I?

What do I believe? What's the point? Good question. Bob, welcome to the show. What's the point?

Rob Dubac: What is the point? Yeah, the point is we're 65 years old here at the radio station. Well, the point

Phil: is you're doing the show tomorrow and Friday. No, I'm doing it Thursday. Thursday and Friday. Thursday and

Rob Dubac: Friday, yes.

At the Laguna Playhouse. Laguna Playhouse. The show starts at 7 p. m. Very nice venue. Great venue. Um, the only time I'm going to be here in Southern California. From here I go to New England. That's to do the shows. But, um, yeah, The Book of Moron, which, as you say, it has nothing to do with the Mormon religion.

It's about stupidity, and what has completely, uh, encompassed us for the past decade. Very timely.

Ted: Very timely. You know, it was timely 15 years ago.

Rob Dubac: 15 years ago you wrote

Ted: this. So, it's a fair question. You're a monologist.

Rob Dubac: Yes, but I, you know, it's, there's, uh, the show, I mean, it's, it's more than just stand up.

Yeah, it's hard to describe what you do, really. It's, it's a bit of theater. I portray a bunch of different characters in this show. Um, the, the conceit is that, um, I'm in a coma. And I've been put there by stupidity and ignorance, which has blossomed all over our culture.

Ted: Or as we call it, cable television.

Rob Dubac: Oh, yeah. Uh, with, uh, so I need to wake up from this, you know, deep sleep of stupidity. Mm hmm. So, within, uh, me trying to wake up, I have five inner voices. We all have our little inner voices that we identify with. I've got my, my, uh, voice of reason, my common sense, my inner child, my inner moron, and of course my inner I guess, how, uh, what's the censorship?

No, my inner A hole.

Ted: Your inner A hole. Can I say that? I guess I can say that. What'd you say is your predominant personality? Voice, I should say. Um,

Rob Dubac: well, here's what's interesting about comedy, what I realize, you know, when you do different characters, there's more that you can say that you can get away with that you can't within your own personal persona.

That's right. So, there are, each one of those five characters have things that resound and, um, um, resonate. Stronger than if I was just doing stand up. So, uh, I particularly do like the inner a hole. But we all do. Right. We all, you know, it's just because we're comfortable. Yeah, we're comfortable with, but he's the guy who can't, you know, Who you're always censoring, but he, in, in the show, he's somebody who doesn't, you know, bite his tongue.

He says whatever he says, like, you know, he'll say, you know, And he's got this, you know, kind of raspy voice, and he'll say, You invite me over to your house, and you say, make yourself at home. I'll say, all right. Get out.

Ted: Yeah. So

Rob Dubac: he will say the things that

Ted: he says. He's on the Bachelorette now, the Golden Bachelorette, I think.

Oh, boy.

Rob Dubac: I think there's a bunch of them.

Ted: Yeah, yeah.

Rob Dubac: So,

Ted: putting on a mask, if you will, frees you a little bit?

Rob Dubac: Right, it does. And it helps drive the story. So the story is, like I said, this guy is in a coma, and he's searching for the truth. Now what we don't realize is there's four levels of truth. There is the illusion of truth, which is what most of us live in.

There is the truth. Level two. Level three is the whole truth, and level four is nothing but the truth. And even though that sounds like a trope, and you know, a cliché, they are very specific. And he has to understand what these are in order to wake up. So it's got this kind of gravitas of depth to it, but it's, it's

Ted: funny.

And as all good entertainment does, it reflects contemporary culture and the situation, which is, um, I imagine, very fertile ground for, for your, for your. Your show these days, given what's going on?

Rob Dubac: It is, I mean, the only problem with the shows that, uh, or not the problem, but the, the difficulty in the shows that I do as opposed to doing, um, you know, late night talk shows, is you can address what happened that day or that week.

Yeah. Make a joke about it and then boom, it's gone. You go onto the next idiotic thing that happens. You know, I can't really do that. So it has to be more, um, what I talk about is more trends than fads. Fads, fads don't last as long. Yeah,

Phil: so, it's uh, But over the years you've found themes that have resonated with the audience.

Rob Dubac: Yeah, I mean this is the, this is the second of the three shows that I do, so.

Phil: Yeah, tell, tell the folks about the other shows you

Rob Dubac: do. Well the first one that I started was, is called The Male Intellect, An Oxymoron.

Phil: I saw that on Broadway.

Rob Dubac: Yes, you did. But it was off Broadway. Thanks, though. Oh, okay. Thanks anyway.

Thanks anyway. I thought it was Broadway quality. It was Broadway quality. Thank you very much. Um, and, uh, that's a show that's about men and women trying to figure out what women want. And it's the same conceit where I take five different guys who think they know what women want. Yeah. And try to teach this younger guy, you know, what to do.

And of course they fail. Oh, man. That sounds like the Four

Ted: Stooges.

Rob Dubac: Yeah. It is. Yeah. Uh, with Chico having a very resounding presence. Um, and then, and then there's the Book of Moron, which I, uh, I wrote after I started seeing this kind of level of people, uh, worshiping ignorance. We talk about this a little at lunch where, you know, people say my ignorance is just, it's an old trope.

My ignorance is just as important as your opinion or your science.

Phil: That's right.

Rob Dubac: Um, but I noticed this happening when I was performing the male intellect around the country. And, and I don't always play in major cities around, you know, there's theaters everywhere. Sure. Um, I noticed how the reaction to some of the jokes had a different, uh, payoff.

I mean, it was still funny, but I could, you know, as, as comedians, we know there's a different laughter. There's a different kind of laughter. That's right. You know, an embracement of it. So I says, well, why, this thing is universal. Why are people not laughing the same way, either laughing more, or they're, they're more engaged, or they're more trying to distance themselves.

Um, and I realized, at that point, I says, you know, I'm getting into these parts of the country where, I mean, I hate to say it, but our ignorance was getting more and more fertile. So I'm trying to realize what that was, and that's what made me start writing the Book of Moron, which is, you know, how did all of us get completely bombarded and think that ignorance is a good thing to manifest and to present to other people?

Um, and then, of course, then the third show is, all these shows that I do have a tendency to kind of push the line at the time I write them, and then it gets, people get used to it.

Phil: You're culturally challenging. Right.

Rob Dubac: When I wrote the book of Moron. originally, this was before the Book of Mormon was on Broadway.

Ah, it was on Broadway. So there was pushback just from the title,

Phil: the book of Mor book Moron, because

Rob Dubac: people thought I was making fun of the Mormon church. But then when the Book of Mormon came out and really made fun of the Mormon church Okay, then it was okay, but I had to call it something else. 'cause theaters wouldn't even book it.

They were afraid. It was like, you know, the Vagina Monologues years ago.

Ted: Yeah. You couldn't, you couldn't say that. Couldn't say. Couldn't print it. Interesting about the Book of Mormon was. All the LDS people I know couldn't wait to see it. And when I saw it here in L. A., it was, you know, riotous laughing. But when I saw it On a Sunday matinee, a block from the main temple in Salt Lake City, the laughter was even more uproarious because they got the inside jokes.

And it was very interesting. I ended up seeing the show about four times and came away realizing every time I saw it, it was less making fun of the church than it was making fun with the church. It was kind of an inside joke. The idiosyncrasies of it. And it was, in a way, it was oddly, especially given those guys, it was kind of loving in a way.

Rob Dubac: I, I get that. I don't fully agree because I think what they've done is skewered it so much that you're, they're even making the believers realize this is bad. B. S. to believe in, in the first place. So, and that's where it leads me to the uh, latest show that I'm doing, which is called Stand Up, Jesus, where Jesus comes back as a stand up comedian, which is completely

Ted: That's not provocative at all.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's,

Rob Dubac: I've got so much pushback from people who are afraid to even advertise that, whereas when people go and see it. I mean, what's interesting is that people who are Uh, I would say Christians, but I need to say that they're, uh, they're non Christian Christians. Uh, they're more like the Christian Taliban of our country, who are going to pass judgment

Ted: The Nationalists.

Which

Rob Dubac: are, yes, which is something, wait a minute, you're not supposed to pass judgment.

Ted: Right.

Rob Dubac: Jesus is the only one who can pass judgment. Yeah. And he's up there on stage, so you can't tell him, and you can't prove that that's not him.

Phil: Yeah, you know that, that show, that show has more of an interactive feel to it than the other shows.

Which I think, I mean, it feeds off of that, and that's, you know, the provocative aspect of it. Well, the

Ted: titles of your shows are obviously provocative.

Rob Dubac: Well, you know, I learned a long time ago, the title is what sells, basically. Okay, so Well, listen, you know Nobody knows who Robert De Niro is. No, right. But

Phil: they want to know if they're going to have a good time.

They will after they see the show. But you know the Vagina Monocle Monocle? Monocle? Interesting. That Vagina Monocle will

Rob Dubac: give you a

Phil: poke in the eye. Originally called the Hoo Ha. The Hoo Ha. yeah, of course. And, uh, I thought that was better, frankly, but, you know, anyway, but you, you, uh, have, uh, put, uh, not only provocative shows together, but you have basically fearlessly gone out and, uh, found places to express yourself.

Yeah, and

Rob Dubac: it's getting less and less because, you know, people are, they're gun shy about everything, and it's, this is what's really depressing about society.

Ted: Are

Rob Dubac: But it's more

Ted: hostile in a way. It's more extreme in a way.

Rob Dubac: It is because the extremity comes from people who know what they believe in is BS.

And they've got such a defense mechanism up when all you've got to do is just relax and take the joke. That's what comedy is all about. Their

Phil: identity is so tied to it. Comedy is about getting people to laugh. Well, but if you,

Rob Dubac: look, you know what, you wanted to say how we, uh, how Mark Twain fits into all this, so.

Yeah. Um, I don't know if Who's that? Yeah, well, at least I don't have to discuss that amongst the three of us. We do know who it is, but there are, you know, a lot of people who have no idea who the man is. But, uh, as his, I think a lot of comedians have followed his path. And this is not something that is, uh, uh, hard to figure out.

I think it's naturally from a, uh, From a performance aspect. When Twain first started, you know, just as an author, the books were about, uh, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, adolescent, you know, basically male, female kind of, you know, here's what a young boy does, how he grows up. And placed in the

Phil: particular society at the time.

Rob Dubac: Then he started, you know, rallying against politics. That's right. You know, Yankee and Connecticut's Court, was that the name of it? And then he really got, when he was damaged so badly by just natural. Terrible events with his family. Well, no, I mean, his wife died, his, you know, offspring had, you know, he lost faith in this BS kind of religion.

So he started writing all of the religious material. Right. And if you see guys, you know, even guys like Carlin, And Pryor followed that. You know, you'll go through and that goes through with our uh, our age. When, look, when I'm in my 20s and I write The Male Intellect, that's about men and women. That's all, that's my bucket list.

That's all I'm gonna do. Then I get a little older and I guess, well, you know, we have to understand something about politics. The Book of Mormon is more about, uh, Not individual politics. It's not Democrats versus Republicans. But it's cultural, you know. And then, of course, Jesus, The Stand of Jesus show is about religion.

So, but as I get older, these are the, and I think all of us go through this.

Ted: Sure, and, but, okay, so you're doing Three Ages of Man. You're doing Book of Moron, which is basically pointing out this inexplicable, well, maybe not entirely inexplicable, but certainly concerning level of willful ignorance where suddenly it has been acceptable.

to, um, uh, equate opinion with science. Mm hmm. By not, because it's an, it's an easy way out of not, you know, uh, accepting laws. My opinion has as much

Phil: value as your opinion. Yeah, yeah. No it doesn't.

Ted: Oh,

Phil: here we go.

Ted: So when you go, so when you're You're supposed to

Rob Dubac: say, no it doesn't to you. See, that's how the fight goes.

No it

Ted: doesn't to me. Yes. Sure, there you go. So, you know, so your, your You're playing these different cities. Uh huh. And we know how polarized culture is right now. Do you feel as though you're being more, uh, your material is being more confrontational? Uh huh. And how does, how do you play off that?

Rob Dubac: Well, it's not as much, um, Because the things that are updated within the show to handle what's going on within the culture, I'm pretty even handed.

Although you can probably tell by listening to me in the station, the radio station, that I do have more progressive tendencies than, you know, trying to take away a woman's right to take care of herself. Um, so, but I do offset. The, um, the jokes, in a political nature, I'll say something like, um, you know, I, uh, I got mugged, which is why I'm in the coma, I got hit in the head, with a golf club or a pipe or something, and knocked, the guy knocked me out cold.

I dropped faster than a Democrat's support for Joe Biden, but not as fast as a Republican's support for Ukraine. So, you know, the joke is for both sides, it's like, okay, you're both kind of buff, you know, both sides have their own, uh, And how do you

Ted: deal with the level of awareness? I mean, if, if things are being dumbed down, progressively.

Rob Dubac: Interesting that you bring that up. Um, I've always been aware of that. The first five and ten minutes of every show I did is basically idiot proof. It's set up, punchline, set up, punchline. To warm them up. And then you finally. You've got them hooked and you finally

Ted: take them down the path a little, you know, so

Rob Dubac: that's I mean in the In the, uh, Male Intellect, I do that.

Very simple jokes about men and women. Uh, in, uh, The Book of Moron, it's, uh, Who am I? What do I believe in? What's the point? Big questions. Where are my keys? What's my password? Who's my daddy? You know, do I believe in heaven and hell or other parallel universes? Well, so So that starts out, it's very simple to laugh at that and not be Yeah, right.

Not to bring any baggage into it. No

Ted: judgment. No judgment. So then that puts the audience at ease, realize, okay, this is not going to be awkward.

Rob Dubac: Yeah, I'm not doing a five minute set.

Ted: I'm doing

Rob Dubac: an hour and 20. So

Ted: obviously, when you wrote the show, you put a lot of thought to the idiocracy, or as we like to call it, the idiocracy.

I mean, when you see, you're doing a show in Laguna, Uh, this week, and it, the backdrop is a presidential election, you're, you know, you're playing Orange County, which is going more purple than it's been red in recent years, but nonetheless Trump country in, in some respects. But you would

Rob Dubac: think in the beach it wouldn't be, but it's maybe not.

No, it kind of

Ted: is more of an arts community. Yeah.

Phil: Yeah, you'll have Well, it

Rob Dubac: has been in the past, but believe me, it's been infiltrated. I was already there in June. They're being overwhelmed

Phil: by tourism right now, really, that's their major

Ted: complaint. But I guess the question is, um, How do you, personally, how do you account for, uh, somebody like Donald Trump, who we know what he does, we know what he's done, and we know what he's saying.

And we know he's a moron. And yet, The polls are telling us, supposedly, that things are still neck and neck, which I think is, is probably Well, neck and redneck. I mean, I think to a point, you know, I think, I think the outcome will be a little different. Yeah. But, um, uh, because it is so absurd. It is so, just so, the contrast is so great.

But the question is, you know, how did, in your opinion, thinking this through, how the hell, excuse me, how the hell did we get to this point? Yeah.

Rob Dubac: I, you know, it's It's tough grappling with because the, the main, uh, Everybody thinks, look, we talked earlier about how, you know, there's an entitlement, the minute you step foot in America, off the boat, you've got a sense of entitlement.

And people try not, they all negate that. They go, oh, I'm not entitled. I mean, you can tell how people are entitled just the way they walk the cross, walk through the crosswalk. They'll take their time when they want to show that they have power, because that's the only power they have, is to slow traffic down.

And the same

Phil: thing when you see somebody go through a stop sign. They're entitled. I'm in a hurry, got important things to do,

Rob Dubac: and I'm more important than you.

Phil: Nobody else is coming this way, we're going.

Rob Dubac: That has not been taught in generations. Look, as much as this religious right wants to say that they're the backbone of the country, they certainly have failed in teaching people that, oh, we're supposed to share, we're supposed to, you know,

It's all gone down the tubes because I'm entitled to make as much money as I want because it's all basic.

Ted: So who's telling them that? Who's telling them? Who's entitling them? Who's

Rob Dubac: rewarding

Ted: them? Yeah, well, who, who, who? How did we arrive at losing the collective good to the individual gain? I mean, it's capitalism.

It's Wall Street.

Rob Dubac: It's what, you know, it's like, I can make this much money lying to you. It's the promise that everybody can do that. Or can make a zillion dollars. Greed. But it doesn't matter if, yes, but it's greed based on lies and falsehoods. It's not greed based on hard work. And, you know, I'm gonna put my, you know, I'm gonna, they'll say that that's what it is.

They'll say that that's what it is. But it's, yes, you know, it's so, I noticed a lot of this happening, you know, after 9 11. Because I think that was a wake up call to everybody realizing, oh, I do have to look out for myself. Anything could, anything could happen at any given time.

Phil: Interesting.

Rob Dubac: But, they did it without any community, so it's Yeah,

Phil: although that, that was the one thing that brought everybody together.

Yeah, for two weeks. Yeah, for two weeks. I mean, I remember, I had a, I had

Rob Dubac: a gig in New, in New England, and I was in California, and the airports and everything shut down, so my wife and I got in the minivan and drove from, with our dogs, from LA all the way to, uh, Springfield, Massachusetts. Sounds like Philoston.

Stopped everywhere along the line, and it was the most Wow. Wow. Gorgeous feeling of community in the country. Oh, wow, that's great. Did the shows, drove back, it's over. Wow, really? And the return trip, it was like, out of my way, up yours. Wow, wow. It was just, uh, so this, uh, uh, ability to continue on. Look, it's a sacrifice.

It's, you know, people don't realize they, you know, It's hard work to be a nice person. It's real easy to be a narcissist. It's real easy to be, you know, like what Trump is unveiling. And everybody that identifies with that, we're not talking about the entire country, they're saying it's 45%, I don't know if it's even that high, but it's just giving these people an easy way out.

Ted: I think there's so many factors, too. I think, uh, Smartphones. That's an oxymoron. Um, Smartphones and Internet connectivity and social media has profoundly altered reality. It's created a second Another dimensional reality.

Rob Dubac: More morons. Well, you just see

Ted: people in these sort of, um, It's fragmented. They're in bubbles.

Like, I'll see somebody walking down the street having a wonderful conversation with somebody. I mean, a genuinely good conversation. She's talking to a device. We're walking by each other, but I'm not even there. And I think that this is sort of an ex This is my own, my own thought. It's like, is this like the notion of never leaving your room even when you go out?

Rob Dubac: Yeah. I mean, well, you know, look, let's go back even just 10, 20 years. When's the last time anybody went across the street to knock on your neighbor's door to say hi, how are

Ted: you? And here's the problem. It's being terribly and successfully exploited by adversaries. This is

Rob Dubac: where we talk about where the greed of lies and deceit can make, you can make money on that.

Ted: Both inside and out. Both on a capitalistic level, but also from a foreign intervention area like Putin, who's a master, and the Chinese, who are masters, even the North Koreans. And so, stuff that we've been doing for decades. Well, we have,

Rob Dubac: but not as much, I don't think, because we we were Taking the plan, the, uh, the idea that human humanity's not that evil.

Yeah. But look, those countries that just mentioned along with some of the Middle East have conned us with their propaganda that there are these super military Yeah. Um, presence. And they're not, they're, fuck. I mean, look at how, you know, Russia has been just crippled by a small country. Yeah. And even now, what Israel's doing to these other, it's, it's.

The firepower, we always thought, well, that's really the main show of strength. Hey, gotta tell you, propaganda's right up in there. Well, the information age. And the information age. Now

Ted: let's talk about the antidote to this bleak landscape that we pointed to. We are suffering from a situational awareness problem in this country, a lack of critical thinking, which some religions actually discourage critical thinking.

Oh, of

Rob Dubac: course. The

Ted: indoctrination. Right. Not all, but most. No, no. You can say

Rob Dubac: all. Really? Yes, you can. Okay. Okay. God knows you're right. God knows. Only, only God and I know.

Ted: From the words of Robert Dubec, his show, Stand Up Jesus. Exactly.

Rob Dubac: Yeah, I wrote this with God's help. And what it means, only God knows. So when

Ted: you do these shows, where you're really pushing the envelope a little bit, I would imagine that you're attempting to not only sell tickets and make a living, but you're also trying to create an aha moment, right?

Yes, and there

Rob Dubac: is, in all of them, and in The Book of Moron, there is an easy answer to who am I. Uh huh. I mean, you've got to pay 75 bucks to come and find out. Yes, and it's such an obvious, um I think everybody's aware of it, but when it is displayed through theater and through the concert, there's a big

Phil: ah ha.

Very satisfying. I think

Ted: the late night shows have done a yeoman's job in keeping people sort of sane. Yeah, and I think that's gonna help. Do you think that we're in a, uh, the late stages of some awful fever in this country?

Rob Dubac: Or a major upheaval or change? Couple of, yes. Um, but, uh, in to kind of, uh, explain it, at least from my perspective, my opinion, my, my opinion of ignorance, uh, is, I think this huge amount of just vomit that's coming out from the misinformation is the sound of a death rattle.

I think it is something dying. And regrettably, it's being warned by the conservative movement, you know. And boomers. Well, yeah, but it's still happening. Not a sexy boomer. No. No. They're just talking about regular horsemen. No, no.

Ted: Sexy and sexy boomers sort of code for relevant.

Rob Dubac: It is. It's also an oxymoron, so.

Um, but this, this whole, something is going to give. Now, granted if it does, if it works, Against or in favor of what the general populace is, because we all know that the general population, you know, in all the elections, most votes don't necessarily make the winner. So,

Phil: I mean, that's our electoral college we have to It just struck me that we've reached a tipping point, but we're not going to tax it.

Rob Dubac: Ah. Sorry. We'll find a way.

It's this, uh, ability or lack of a, whatever happens, I think something, there is going to be a massive

Phil: Do you think something good is going to come out of it?

Rob Dubac: Implosion. It is there. Out of the implosion, something good will come out

Ted: of it. Well that's the big bang theory. Well I think, you know, timing is everything, right?

And if Trump does not succeed, then he's out. He's done.

Rob Dubac: Yeah, he is. But he'll,

Ted: I think that the militia and the extremists behind him understand that too. So I would unfortunately, uh, fear the possibility of disruption again. But

Rob Dubac: look, you're talking about a whole group of people that are, that believe in fantasy.

They believe what they see in movies and television is real. We all, have all seen, many of these guys get exposed to something. They, you know, they bend and cripple and cry like little, you know, little babies. It's there. It may be small little pockets, but it's not going to Trump himself

Ted: is afraid to debate a woman.

Rob Dubac: Yeah,

Ted: that's the way it should be framed. A mentally disabled woman. But as you said earlier, it's classic projection. I mean, I think he's borderline, let alone, uh,

Rob Dubac: I mean, he's, uh, He's like a cornered rat right now, really.

Ted: Well, it's either this or jail.

Rob Dubac: Or convictions. It could be both. So this is, like I say, it's a death rattle.

It is when you corner a rat. The tighter and tighter you can get them, the more they're going to lash out. Now, whether he can convince that 44 percent to go his way, Either way, whoever's in, the entire culture of the world is, has to go through some sort of realignment here. There's going to be a problem with, no matter who's in the White House.

There's going to be a problem with economics.

Phil: There's going to be a problem with war. There's going to be a problem with the war in the Middle East right now, too, yeah. I mean, there's a There are all these opposing

Rob Dubac: There's an interesting theory in economic, uh, understanding, um, written by a guy named R. N.

Elliott. It's called the Elliott Wave, where they study sociology as based to the finance department, finance part of the world. We are in a, and there's been countless other books written on it, but we are in an era where this is going to happen. Crumple.

Phil: Yeah. And

Rob Dubac: you do have to kind of figure out how to take care of yourself.

Phil: Yes.

Rob Dubac: But not to bring a downer to everybody. But I'm saying it's, you know, there, is interesting. Um, it's just as vapid as ignorance because it's not, um, there's nothing concrete about it. You do have this terrible sign of culture that we're talking about that is fueled by fantasy. Look, you have a guy, this was 15 years ago on the, on the, on the, on the floor of Congress, who, when they were talking about, uh, uh, torture.

What was it, Gomper? I think it was from Texas. He got up and said, Well, if it works for Jack Bauer, it's gonna work for our military. And it's like, we're talking about waterboarding. The

Phil: author,

Rob Dubac: right. No, but it's, well, it works on television. Yeah, it works on television. So all these militias, all these people who think that they're living some kind of Rambo life, that, you know, even Rambo isn't Rambo.

And that's a very, very

Ted: demonstrative, loud minority, probably very, you know, fringe. I have great hope because I think, uh, uh, the Harris campaign has, has engaged the youth. And I think, and, and, and other cultures. Yes. And I think that that, and I would, I would. I would argue the point that there are probably a lot of Republican wives.

Oh, yeah. And Republican husbands who have realized that the situation has transcended politics and is now in a much more dangerous area of like, you know what, I just want to calm down. I'm tired of this chaos. And that's what he is. He's a human wrecking ball, always has been. People like to say that this is the most, the greatest threat to democracy in the history of the republic.

Yeah. Um, do you think it is?

Rob Dubac: Um, in, uh, The, I'd say yes, because I've only been alive for, you know, I wasn't alive back in the 18 hundreds. I can read stuff that's happened. Yeah, I can understand. Try to understand it. I was never there, but there was no television. There was never That's right. You know, I mean, you know, you had, and you had a whole different I book going about it.

Look, we were, we had higher newspapers. We had a bigger vocabulary during Twain's time than we have now. Of course. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. look, I, I this show in, in, in the book of more, and I have a thing's, you know, the average. Adult has vocabulary of a ninth grader. Mm hmm. You know what that means if ninth graders listen to us They'll never get into the tenth grade But they will get into Congress Um, so it's, and you know, you had a massive vocabulary from people, uh, in late 1800s, early 1900s.

That's right. That's not, ever since the invention of television, to be honest, our vocabulary's dropped. So yes, I do think that there's more of a damage to democracy. Well,

Ted: I think people are socially stunted because of, uh, these devices and social media. You can't really go into the wilderness anymore. Uh, without, you can take your phone into the wilderness, and that is literally dulling those senses of survival, and Well, it might save your ass if he had lost her.

Well, it is, but

Rob Dubac: you know what really would save your ass? If you had a Boy Scout, uh, Cub Scout, uh, upbringing without being sodomized. If you knew how to be a real survivor without being sodomized. That's dark. That's dark. I know it's dark. I

Phil: gotta ask you this. How did this all start with you? That you, you became engaged in creating these shows?

You know, I, I think

Rob Dubac: it's cause, I don't know, maybe it's ADD, maybe it's OCD, where nobody's doing this, I'm one and I try doing this. I first started when, look. Did you do stand up? Yeah, I did stand up for a long time, and I was on a soap opera, I was an actor. Yeah, what soap? I had this that kind of helped. Oh yeah, what soap did you do?

Um, I was on, um, Loving. And all my children.

Phil: I was on, uh, what was it called? Edge of Night.

Rob Dubac: Oh, God, yeah.

Phil: Early, early on.

Rob Dubac: You know, the studio's in ABC, up on, uh, Yeah, yeah, I worked up

Phil: there in General Hospital.

Rob Dubac: So, but, you know, and that's a good training ground. All right, so you were an actor, a legitimate actor, and I also was a comedian, but the reason why I was more of an actor is because I was, I was a pretty attractive young guy, and that's, there's no way to say that.

You're still a good looking guy.

Ted: Oh yeah, no, you look fabulous.

Rob Dubac: Well, thanks, b'y, thanks very much. Um, but, uh, there was no room for a comedian to be good looking.

Phil: Really? Well, but, I mean. Now? Yeah, now. They come and say, it's great, great for television.

Rob Dubac: Yeah.

Phil: Great for a sitcom, whatever, you know?

Rob Dubac: I was, you know, I mean I had my sitcoms, I had my projects, and you know.

It was, you just was. It took time for it to be recognized. So, that combined with the acting skills. I mean, I studied with Sanford Meisner for years. Oh, wonderful, yes. So I took that. I said, okay, let me take all this funny stuff and make it funny. So it has a little gravitas to it. Okay, well Firesign Theater, that's kind of what motivated me.

Right.

Phil: Okay,

Rob Dubac: alright. So it's that kind of, so that's what pushed it into it. And then, when I started writing these shows, I'm thinking, I'm not going to get up there and talk about myself. Right. Because that's what everybody does. And for some reason they think that that's interesting. Look, if you were to, if you're Billy Crystal, Beck Midler, John Lithgow, yeah, I'll pay money to come listen to your story.

Sure. Phil Proctor, yeah, tell me about yourself. Because, you know, you're, you're, you're an icon.

Ted: Just tune in. Yeah. It's every week.

Rob Dubac: And it's free. Yes. Um, and you don't get paid for this. By the way. No, we don't get paid. Nobody gets paid for this. The money that comes in

Ted: supports this show. Talk about book a moron.

Yeah. The two of us are tithing big time to this show.

Rob Dubac: Um, so I,

Ted: you know, it's. Using

Phil: your acting skills.

Rob Dubac: Yes. So I thought that. To portray your ideas. But not myself. Because nobody. I learned. From a marketing and producing aspect of it, nobody's gonna spend 20, at the time 20, 25 dollars, now it's 50 bucks, to go listen to some guy talk about himself.

Unless they're famous. It's Billy Crystal, yeah, I'll go listen to him.

Phil: Yeah, same with podcasts.

Rob Dubac: Kind of, yeah. I mean, you know, it's, I mean, there is something about fame that drives sales. Very definitely. So, I wanted, I wanted the show to have more of a, you know, Um, uh, to be more interesting, more endemic to the, to the, to society so that everybody goes to your personal, everybody can sit there and look at it and go, yeah, that's me.

Phil: Yeah. I could be that guy. I could

Rob Dubac: do that up there. I, that's, he's talking about me. He's not talking about himself. He's not talking about how he, you know, that's true. Grew up with a drunken stepfather who Right. Used to beat the dog or whatever, you know, kind of.

Ted: Yeah. Do you talk to your audience after the show to find out how to hit 'em?

Rob Dubac: Um, yeah. Some when I go out and, you know.

Ted: On a roll.

Rob Dubac: Petal merch.

Ted: Petal

Rob Dubac: merch, okay. Um, which you can't do anymore because nobody has a DVD player. So I usually just give them away, because there's nobody. Right. That's interesting. I made a great business choice and bought thousands of DVDs. So I've got DVDs.

Physical. That's why I was asking about the little thumb drive. I said, maybe I can put these on a thumb drive and send them to people. Right. Because nobody has a DVD player. But, um, I do, you know, people do come up and they're, um. What's most, I mean, I know what the response is going to be for the male intellect and the Book of Moron.

It's like, I'm glad you're talking about this. This is the way I feel. I don't agree with everything, but I like the way you're putting it. You know, so it's, and it's, and the message of both of those is, is very important. And what's happening with the Jesus show is, they are, regrettably, Endorsing the show because they have been indoctrinated by religion and they're going home, man I don't want to get into my head about questioning these kind of values.

Ted: Because they'll have this existential crisis inside their mind.

Rob Dubac: So, but, you know, I'll let you do it. Thanks a lot.

Ted: So it's cathartic. You can burn in hell.

Rob Dubac: I tell everybody, look, I'm going to go to hell for all of you. I'm going to suffer for all your sins. I'm just like Jesus. That's Jesus.

Ted: Ultimately, you're an optimist spreading optimism.

Yes,

Rob Dubac: it is. It doesn't sound like it sometimes when I go off onto a rabbit hole, but it's only to kind of get out of the other side of it and say, okay, that going through it, it's not Dante's Inferno. It's not, you're not, we're not going through these seven depths of hell and going through all this pain and anguish.

It's just like, let's go through it a little bit here and get to the other end so at least we can just ask the question.

Phil: The values of Jesus that really, you know, the

Rob Dubac: mythology is what matters. It's this taking things, it's, you know, you want to take the. Teachings of Jesus, and, you know, put the Constitution in the same light that all this original, um, uh, originalism.

Yeah. Uh, you know, like the Supreme Court justices who say, oh, it's written in stone, and that's the way it is. I mean, that's exactly what these religious people are talking about. Of course.

Phil: Of course, the Word of God. It's ridiculous. But listen, it's not the word of God, it's the word of man. There's no

Ted: putting words in God's mouth.

Phil: Yeah, that's right, but they say the word of God. How did you get the first show on, and how did that become successful?

Rob Dubac: Well, the first show was, you know, I had done stand up, I had done the soap operas. Was this in New

Phil: York?

Rob Dubac: No, here I was while I was in New York. Oh, that's right, you were in New York for the soaps.

While I was doing the soaps, I was writing. I don't know if you remember what happened within stand up. It got completely flooded. Yeah, it sure did. There's just everybody and anybody can do it. It's doing that same kind of genre. So I was thinking, alright, I'm not going to be doing comedy clubs the rest of my life.

Let me try to figure out how to do this. So that drove writing The Male Intellect. And, ironically, I was still in my, you know, early thirties. So, it was, and I was doing a soap opera, which is nothing but relationships, men and women, you know, all the good.

Phil: Very satisfying, isn't it, for an actor, really.

Rob Dubac: So, I said, okay, well, let me take all this funny stuff that I know and put it into a story about, you know, men and women.

And, ironically, at the time, it kind of predated itself. It's had a big resurrection now. Yeah. Because of the Me Too movement. It's a timeless idea. The show, but the show was about a guy who's getting the wrong information from other men. That's right. He's not thinking the way women should be, the way women think.

He just thinks he can buffalo this way and, you know, and scram this, scram this idea down. Everybody's throat. And it's about a guy trying to find some balance between his masculine and feminine.

Ted: So do you find, uh, I mean, these are really general principles. So do you find some markets where you perform more receptive to this or is it pretty general?

But I still, I'm still

Phil: asking.

Ted: You haven't answered the question.

Phil: How

Ted: did you get that first

Phil: show?

Rob Dubac: Oh, I, uh, I started doing it as, uh, Bud Friedman was a great fan when I was at the improv and he gave me the whole A whole evening to do the show at the Improv. Wow. That's great. So instead of everybody doing 5 10 minutes, Bob gets to go up there and do an hour 20, which pissed everybody off.

Oh, sure. But we do that, and then it started, people started liking it, so then at the time he had a branch down in Santa Monica, and I just did the show as the only thing you would go see there. Wow. And then that developed. And then, um, I, uh, uh, Blake Edwards. So, and he ended up directing it, he was the first director, he was the, the ultimate director for the male intellect.

Oh, I'll be darned. That's wonderful. And at the time he was doing Victor Victoria on Broadway and he's, let's bring this to Broadway, but we had to off Broadway, but all

Phil: right. So Blake, uh, he saw the show and, and, and, and what reached out to you? Wonderful. Yeah, and so that's how that all kind of gets done.

Great success story. And that you're

Ted: still doing it. I mean, that's Yeah. That gives you relevance. It gives you, uh

Phil: Yeah, you got You created a rep Yeah. from doing that show. And, and obviously you then I mean, it must be satisfying had an outlet for other ideas. to have this outlet. It is. And

Rob Dubac: interesting, you know, before we Close up here.

When I was doing The Book of Moron, one of my best friends at the time, and still is, although he's passed away, is Gary Shanley. And Gary had a very heavy hand in directing The Book of Moron.

Phil: Oh,

Rob Dubac: really? Oh, wow. And so, I tell people, I says, you know, every director I've had, the show killed him. So, with Stand Up Jesus, I always say, I want to get Bill Maher to direct this.

Ted: Oh, nice. Nice. You're listening to Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show. Our guest is Robert Duback, who does a number of really great, uh, shows. Shows? Yeah, it's a unique show. You had to categorize this. Yeah, you don't

Rob Dubac: want to say one man show. Not one man show. monologist. Multi personality show. It's a theater show, and I'm doing all of them.

And you're going to be, uh, performing. I've hired myself to do them all.

Ted: You're performing a couple of shows this week, Thursday and Friday at the Laguna Playhouse down at Laguna Beach. Yes. Well, here we are once again, out of time.

Phil: Yes. Yeah, and out of place. Out of place and out of time. Out of place, out of time.

And out of our minds. so much for listening to this

Ted: Phil and Ted Sexy Boomer Show on every Tuesday at 1 o'clock. Thank you Bob for coming in. Thank you. Go see his show. You'll have a good time. We're gonna be there. So all the fans come down. I'll have

Rob Dubac: you in the lobby with me. Oh yeah.

Ted: Wonderful. Bring your books.

We'll demonstrate that male intellect. Yes. Alright everyone, thanks for listening to us. I'm Ted Bonnitt. I'm Phil Proctor. See you later.