The Steve Byrne Interview
Here's a good one from the Patreon archives. In this special episode of Movie Wars, Kyle had the privilege of sitting down with the legendary Steve Byrne—comedian, director, writer, and documentarian. Known for his sharp wit and groundbreaking comedy specials like Happy Hour, The Byrne Identity, Champion, Tell the Damn Joke, and The Last Late Night, Steve shares his incredible journey in standup and his successful transition into filmmaking. He also takes us behind the scenes of his acclaimed sitcom Sullivan & Son, where he starred and co-created the show, which ran for three seasons on TBS.
Steve talks about his work writing and directing feature films, including The Opening Act (2020), a comedy that captures the struggles of an up-and-coming comedian, and The Last Late Night (2023), a special that showcases his passion for blending the worlds of stand-up and late-night talk shows. We also discuss the challenges he faced in making the documentary Always Amazing, which chronicles the life of his close friend, The Amazing Johnathan, and the controversy it sparked with a competing filmmaker. Enjoy!
Transcript
[00:00:14] Kyle: what's going on? How
[:[00:00:16] Kyle: Doing
[:[00:00:34] Steve Byrne: So pretty excited about that.
[:[00:00:40] Steve Byrne: Yeah. Yeah. It's coming together. I think, um, you know, it's taken me over 20 plus years to finally like get it right. So I like look back on the other hours, you know, when you're posting clips on social media and there's, you know, definitely like cringy, like, Oh God, that's so bad, but you just post it.
[:[00:01:08] Kyle: Yeah. And it's, you know, considering how long you've been doing it at the level you have been, it's probably weird to see that transition of comedy now clips.
[:[00:01:29] Kyle: It's out of [00:01:30] context, but I got to elicit a response somehow.
[:[00:02:01] Steve Byrne: Yeah. This investing the world, how dare he, you know?
[:[00:02:17] Kyle: And some, like you said, someone's cubicle out there.
[:[00:02:20] Kyle: That,
[:[00:02:31] Kyle: Yeah, I think it's because we're clamoring for humor.
[:[00:02:44] Steve Byrne: Yeah, exactly. Uh, and I think that's why, you know, comedy is as big as it's ever been, certainly my lifetime where, you know, prior to if a comic did Madison Square Garden, it would be a huge feat.
[:[00:03:06] Kyle: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, obviously we're a movie podcast and we can talk about, you know, whatever you want, but we, you know, I was working on the, just my pre recorded intro so people can hear your entire resume.
[:[00:03:35] Kyle: So can you tell a little bit about that story about how you went from, you know, touring and doing specials to also getting into filmmaking and writing?
[:[00:03:57] Steve Byrne: Um, he was one of the first guys I met when I moved to LA. [00:04:00] You know, it was just through osmosis and a channel of friendships that that it all happened. But once, uh, the friendship happened, you know, getting to know him, he's such a, um, a scholar on foundation of storytelling, uh, you know, Joseph Campbell, et cetera, et cetera.
[:[00:04:38] Steve Byrne: I said, well, I don't know. I just write jokes. You know, I barely write jokes. Um, and he's like, you could do it. And I was like, why don't he just kept saying, you can do it. You can do it. So I went ahead and bought some books on foundation, storytelling, and, and basically like taught myself. Yeah. how to write, um, based off of Joseph Campbell, Blake Snyder, uh, you know, uh, [00:05:00] William Goldman and just all these books that I would read on script writing or like William Goldman's books on like, you know, adventures in the screen trade, even though it's not about writing itself, it is because he's dictating stories about, you know, his, his trials and tribulations of the princess bride butchering Sundance and, you know, the plethora of incredible work that he had done.
[:[00:05:46] Steve Byrne: And, So I learned a lot about storytelling in a 30 minute format for a multicam with, with Rob Long and obviously with Vince as well. And then when the show got canceled, I went ahead and just thought, okay, well, [00:06:00] I'm not going to wait for somebody else to give me something because my whole career has been like, I've never gotten cast in anything unless I wrote it for myself.
[:[00:06:30] Steve Byrne: Um, That's the long answer. But yeah,
[:[00:06:48] Kyle: It felt like it was an homage to the process of creative, of creativity behind comedy, but also if you're not someone trying to do standup or haven't done standup at any level, um, Um, it's appealing because it's, you're kind of getting [00:07:00] an outside look and it was, it's, it's almost educational, but super entertaining at the same time.
[:[00:07:08] Steve Byrne: Uh, I, I, I wanted it to, you know, there were other, there were other projects I'd seen or heard about, and it's always from the perspective of. somebody who was coming back to it. And I was like, I don't want to watch a film about a 50 year old driving home from Las Vegas.
[:[00:07:49] Steve Byrne: Uh, a bombing, of course, but there's all the things that go along with. been no comedy club, but a weekend doing the [00:08:00] routi in on thursday, what it m show friday and saturday Um, the relationship with the management's uh, morn understanding the dynamics of, of a disgruntled, road weary veteran headliner. So I just wanted to play all those dynamics into, you know, 72 hours or, you know, four days a weekend.
[:[00:08:44] Steve Byrne: It really is about discovering your voice, but taking those hits along the way and understanding it's not easy. You gotta get beat down. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta fall and you gotta get back up repeatedly and you gotta get your sea legs. And that's what the whole film's about. [00:09:00]
[:[00:09:11] Kyle: Now, not all of us have Bill Burr as a boss. I couldn't help but transcend. I know he's not playing himself, but I was like, wow, what would it be like to work in a cubicle for Bill Burr? But, uh, you know, it's, it's this that resonated so strongly. I was like, how many creatives are out there festering, dreaming of, like you said, that first drive to Vegas or that first gig, or just getting up on stage and doing the [00:09:30] first five minutes.
[:[00:09:33] Steve Byrne: Yeah. I would hope that that's the rocket fuel that somebody would need to be inspired because every comic on the project had dealt with that. Every comic had been there. That's why in the end credits, you know, I thought it'd be fun to do something where comics recollect about that moment in time where they believed in themselves and pushed all in and gambled.
[:[00:10:10] Steve Byrne: So they, we just kept it to, uh, the people within the, uh, the film. But again, the film is just so chock full of all the comics along the way. I mean, you got Alonzo Bowden playing the security guard, Bill Burr playing the boss. And what stunk about having Bill Burr as the boss, I shouldn't say there's anything that stunk about it, but [00:10:30] he was so goddamn funny.
[:[00:10:54] Steve Byrne: Um, humor would suck because when Jimmy leaves, for example, um, he's like, you [00:11:00] know, can I get the day off? Can I get the day off? And Bill's like, no. And then Bill, Jimmy leaves and Bill's like, all right, you can have the day off. Just, just work today till, till four.
[:[00:11:14] Steve Byrne: He just had all these great lines.
[:[00:11:26] Kyle: That's what's amazing about, um, and, and this is kind of an off the [00:11:30] cuff question, but we did an episode, uh, Dumb and Dumber versus Tommy boy.
[:[00:11:51] Kyle: Um, what is it about comedians? You know, you talk about Bill Burr, even though we want him to, you know, he has such a distinct voice, we want him to drop the joke. He's willing to tamper himself and [00:12:00] able to do so. Why do comedians like yourself, like Jim Carrey, potentially Chris Farley, why can they transcend comedy to drama or to acting or to other mediums so well?
[:[00:12:33] Steve Byrne: And so I think, uh, by most standards, I'm a pretty mentally healthy person in my industry. My parents hugged me. I don't have really big issues. Uh, you know, I'm not addicted to anything. I don't have deep seated things that I need to recline and pay somebody a thousand dollars to talk to about. Um, I think there is absolutely a dark side to all this.
[:[00:13:22] Steve Byrne: People would rather, there's like all, there's like all these polls of like, things people would rather do. Public speaking is number one. Um, so I, yeah, I, I think [00:13:30] it, it is something. inherent within comics that want to do that. But because of that, I think that that lends credence to go to the more dramatic places.
[:[00:14:00] Steve Byrne: I think there's the pendulum swing, you know?
[:[00:14:12] Steve Byrne: Well, when Seinfeld does his, uh, any, anything public speak, I'd rather be in the casket than listen to him.
[:[00:14:34] Kyle: Okay. Do
[:[00:14:41] Steve Byrne: Just. person. Okay.
[:[00:14:46] Steve Byrne: I
[:[00:14:47] Steve Byrne: into that. I'm sorry to apologize. He owes me an apology.
[:[00:14:56] Steve Byrne: Well, he should apologize for B movie.
[:[00:15:02] Kyle: Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Um, so let's get into the bulk here. And, uh, and you know, like we discussed earlier, it's, it's, you know, the bulk of this conversation I wanted to talk about, uh, what you and I initially talked about, which is some of the, you know, the issues surrounding the amazing Jonathan and your version, always amazing.
[:[00:15:37] Kyle: I feel like I gotta be an astrophysicist to understand the dynamic because I watched yours first. And then I watched Ben Berman second. And I feel like. And I don't want to, you know, purposely call him out, but I feel like he was intentionally trying to confuse me as to what was going on. And on, on the video, uh, on YouTube, when you posted your film, you posted a very transparent, humble, you know, just a great, you [00:16:00] know, five paragraph thing about what was really happening.
[:[00:16:06] Steve Byrne: Well, I mean, yeah, I broke down exactly what happened because I always felt like, look, we're two guys put in a situation because Jonathan is a wild card. And, um, I know Jonathan, I've known him for all these years, Ben doesn't, right. And so Ben fell for it.
[:[00:16:51] Steve Byrne: We're both going to do this. And I always thought there's enough real estate to do this. I was the first to tell Ben, Hey, look, this is the film I want to make. It's about [00:17:00] Joel and Jonathan. I mean, it's Jonathan's, the face of the, of it. Joel's the heart. Joel's Han Solo. He's going to come in at, uh, at, uh, page 25.
[:[00:17:32] Steve Byrne: He said. I love your film. I don't like the other one. Thank you for doing it. Thanks for keeping my name alive and thanks for, you know, putting out a film. That's a great representation of my work and my relationship with Joel Osborn. Uh, you know, there's a reason that when all this went down, like, You know, Jonathan and I, we still kept calling each other.
[:[00:18:13] Steve Byrne: And, uh, uh, I, I know he was not happy with a lot of things that were in Ben's film. I mean, Ben's film, he Shanghai's Jonathan's mom's birthday at the very end. What you don't see is that Doreen Jonathan's mom said, please leave my [00:18:30] birthday. They kicked him out. Like they kicked him out of his, Who in their right mind would just show up at a woman's like a birthday party in a senior home and just crash it with cameras.
[:[00:19:02] Kyle: That's where the, it took a huge left turn into self gratification to me. It's like, what's the closing scene. It's obviously the, you know, shin, you know, the, the guy, he basically bamboozled into producing it because he basically said, well, the drama's already here. Why don't you just go ahead and sign on?
[:[00:19:37] Kyle: Is that really how you're going to, is this the climax really?
[:[00:19:55] Steve Byrne: He did. Like, I was nothing but cordial to him. Uh, uh, you know, we, we bent [00:20:00] over backwards to, you know, this guy, this is the guy that, that went to film school. This is the guy that, uh, should know you need, you need release forms. Like I never made a film before. I know you need release forms. So when we were filming a casino, I knew you can't just show up at a casino.
[:[00:20:35] Steve Byrne: And I'd set up my three. I didn't know that. I'd gotten permission before, but I, I just like told, okay, I have three positions. And when Ben shows up, they're like, oh, well, he, he already has all three positions. And I didn't know that. I thought Ben maybe has his three or something. I didn't know. So Ben shows up not doing any leg work, not calling ahead or anything.
[:[00:21:16] Steve Byrne: And then stage is like all that shit. It just like, again, it just like those are the lengths he was willing to go to. I was, I would, I would not, I just don't have that moral compass. I couldn't do that to other people. At the behest [00:21:30] of finishing my project, I'd want to do it the right way. And that's with.
[:[00:21:55] Kyle: Of course.
[:[00:22:18] Steve Byrne: fabric. It's edited in a don't see is that at the for Jonathan to die. Jono repeatedly. He's waiting he has an [00:22:30] ending to his f outlive expectations as w Ben gave him a lot of cas and says, I will give you If you throw me out of your house and I can film it, so I have an ending to this film. And that's where Jonathan turns and gets angry.
[:[00:23:10] Steve Byrne: It's nice to see that was received so well by his fans, especially on YouTube. YouTube's a dumpster fire. You post something you could see you people are just waiting to hate. And I'd say it's like 97 percent positive. It's rare. I've I've read something negative about the film. So I'm glad that we got to.[00:23:30]
[:[00:23:47] Steve Byrne: Can't you just narratively construct, come up with something? I think that's, that's a lot more applicable and easy, not easy, but just a creative, I just thought it was low hanging fruit. [00:24:00] I thought it was the the cheapest, easiest thing to do is to do meth with a subject and then film it like I want to film you doing something horrible.
[:[00:24:33] Steve Byrne: Of course he was. I as a friend would feel horribly uncomfortable showing that or exhibiting that the ugliest side. I know that he didn't like it. I know that his mother, Doreen, detested it. And so again, my point is, I'm glad our film was out there because it's like, Ben's was a yard sale. And we were the cleanup crew, we cleaned everything up, we go, no, everything was nice and clean again.[00:25:00]
[:[00:25:03] Kyle: Yeah. And I think what, I think the reason your film has a 97 percent approval is because, you know, and I'd love for you to, to talk about what you, you know, you were so close to Joel and to Jonathan, you know, what inspired that to be The impetus for the film.
[:[00:25:31] Kyle: kind of strange but beautifully organic relationship. Was that the, it's, it's totally opposite, right? Was that, but that was that kind of the driving force for you to make the film was like, wow, that's where it started.
[:[00:25:44] Steve Byrne: I know that Joel's this, he comes over as this 18 year old kid that You know, he's such a pacifist. He, he, he meditates, he doesn't drink. He doesn't do drugs. You know, he, he comes over, it's basically like [00:26:00] an Australian Clark Kent is flying from another continent to take care of a drug addict in Las Vegas.
[:[00:26:32] Steve Byrne: It's fucking, it's, it's unlike any other relationship I've ever come across in my life. And I was like, it's so endearing and heartwarming and fraternal. I was like, this is who Jonathan is. That's the exhibition of him as rough as he is around the edges, as crazy as bombastic, as violent as he is on stage and as entertaining.
[:[00:27:18] Steve Byrne: And that's why I'm, I'm inspired to, uh, spend the time to write this thing. So hopefully knock on wood, we get to make it. Is
[:[00:27:32] Steve Byrne: Yeah, it's basically Joel showing up, uh, first day and like exhibiting all of the things that happened to them.
[:[00:28:07] Steve Byrne: So they, they, they've done the legwork. They have the show sold out, but they have the case to get a residency. So Jonathan doesn't do it himself. Jonathan doesn't have his agent do it because he just fired his agent. Right. Right. He has an 18 year old kid. dress up in a [00:28:30] suit to meet with the president of the of the golden nugget and the entertainment director and jonathan instructs him you go in that room you say jonathan wants billboards he wants to hire per diem and he wants two million dollars a year And if you can't give that to him, you can fuck off.
[:[00:29:11] Steve Byrne: I can't say fuck off to a president of, and Jonathan's like, that's what you have to fucking do. They're rehearsing the fuck
[:[00:29:18] Steve Byrne: He had to tell, and he didn't have to say fuck off. He had to scream it at them. You have to scream, fuck off. So they're like rehearsing this and Joel of course [00:29:30] does it in his own way.
[:[00:29:50] Steve Byrne: And this part is one of my favorite parts. Jonathan had these Halloween parties in Las Vegas. So, so for the time that he was headlining. and synonymous [00:30:00] with Vegas. Everybody in Vegas had to go to this Halloween party because Jonathan likes to shock people as you know. So he said, I want people like when you walk in, there's like people with hooks in their skin hanging from the ceiling, like really kind of like creepy carny shit.
[:[00:30:34] Steve Byrne: So, so he asked Joel call, uh, escort agencies. in Las Vegas to find out the rate to hire a hooker to fuck a donkey. But she also has to be dressed as a nun. So Joel, who's never had, he's a virgin. Now he's got, Joel's got to call escort agencies [00:31:00] and find this out. And then, and then he's got to lower the rate too.
[:[00:31:23] Steve Byrne: He's constantly putting out fires for Jonathan. And that to me is the fun of it all. I mean, this, [00:31:30] you know, uh, hacks or whatever it's that's all fabricated. It's not real. Like this all actually fucking happen. And it's so crazy. And you go, there's no way it's like, ask him. Ask him. He'll tell you right now.
[:[00:31:46] Kyle: That's incredible. Like, just you describing those two things, I would subscribe instantly to that show. That sounds amazing.
[:[00:32:01] Kyle: Yeah. This day and age.
[:[00:32:11] Steve Byrne: I just finished a film on, uh, Caltech's basketball program. Uh, I've been working with the coach, coach Oliver Esslinger. Uh, basically the story is, is that, um, Caltech, MIT, the West coast, they have a basketball program, basketball program.
[:[00:32:47] Steve Byrne: The whole film is getting a bunch of black, brown, white, yellow nerds to literally just win one game. They just have to win one game. It's like the complete opposite of a sports film, but it's [00:33:00] a true lesson in failure. It's very inspiring. It's, it's hilarious. And, um, I just finished it. So, uh, it's going to go to market pretty soon.
[:[00:33:27] Steve Byrne: No, no. That's why I was up at seven this morning [00:33:30] doing radio and, uh, now I'm doing this one and I'm going to take a nice juicy nap after this.
[:[00:33:46] Kyle: How's that going?
[:[00:34:06] Steve Byrne: So I thought that's, that's the podcast. So we sit around in a comedy club, we watch, uh, you stand up comics and we break down those bits. Sometimes we have stories about those people. Um, And that's a lot of fun that I'm doing a podcast with Joe Gatto from Impractical Jokers called Two Cool Moms. It's going to come out in the next two or three weeks and we're very excited about that as well.
[:[00:34:48] Steve Byrne: How's this? And he'd always ask me about Bill Burr. 'cause Burr and I are, are are friends. And he's like, how's Bill doing? And what's bill up to? So when I went to visit Jonathan last week. Um, I [00:35:00] asked Burr, I was like, hey, can you, can you FaceTime us? I know Jonathan would be over the moon, because I don't believe that they ever, they've ever met.
[:[00:35:29] Steve Byrne: It's not the last [00:35:30] thing you're gonna see before you die And Jonathan goes no. No, it's an assisted suicide actually It's like just set up punch set up punch It was it was great to see those guys and I've been laughing about that line ever since and it was a really really cool Moment to witness it was fun being true
[:[00:35:49] Kyle: Well, that's so cool. Steve, I know you got a nap to get to, man. Thank you so much for popping by.
[:
