“I feel the Giants are mirroring the collapse of our society”: Catching Up With American Standard-Bearer Eddie Pepitone

Eddie Pepitone, American Truth Teller, is one of my closest friends. The celebrated stand-up comedian behind 2012’s incendiary, indispensable special In Ruins as well as an accomplished character actor who has appeared in everything from The Muppets to Maron to Community to Old School, has been a crucial voice in comedy for more than three decades. A deeply empathetic humanist with a withering eye towards the hypocrisies of our broken system and the ruling elite who enable it, Pepitone’s comedy adroitly balances rage and absurdity, suggesting something like Mark Twain fronting The Clash. As he prepares the release of his latest filmed hour For The Masses, I caught up with him to discuss his early days in comedy, his take on the current election cycle, and the status of the NFC East. For those not yet familiar with the work of The Bitter Buddha, the investment of time will more than pay off in wisdom gained. He is a gentleman who knows that gentle measures are sometimes not enough. Anger can be power. Eddie Pepitone knows how to use it.

EN: I know who you are and you know me, but it is entirely possible our readership doesn’t know who either of us are. Can you give folks a bit of background about how you got started in comedy and what it was like in that era? What were your first gigs and who were your major inspirations?

EP: I got started in Manhattan. It was about 1978, I just dropped out of Fordham University and started taking acting classes. My stand-up always reflected my theatre training. I was very drawn to Jackie Gleason, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin and Richard Pryor. Don’t ask me how that foursome came to be, I think I loved Gleason for comic acting and Tomlin. Carlin and Pryor for stand-up. Pryor is my all-time fave! New York was a comedy hotbed. Richard Belzer was the House emcee for Catch a Rising Star at the time and I loved him. The Improv in Hell’s Kitchen was also happening but I was just starting and I became the Alt King. I always gravitated to an anti-stand-up or theatrical format. I would go to some great experimental places on the Lower East Side such as Collective Unconscious and Surf Reality. It was a performance reality vibe and I loved it. It took me many years to gain confidence in performing solo and it was always a combination of one-man show, performance art and stand-up.

EN: You possess a well-deserved status as one of the finest political satirists currently working. I’m curious to know if your act always revolved around politics? Was there ever a period where you simply did jokes about the mundane peculiarities of modern life?

EP: I have become more and more political as I’ve gotten older. When I first started stand-up I would do a lot of stuff about my crazy family, particularly my dad. I was way too frightened and tentative to talk about society at large. So I worked from the inside out. I would explore my own neurosis and  psychosis and eventually realized that it was part of a larger whole. My dad was a union leader and gave me a big political bent to the left. I became far more left than he ever was. I became enraged pretty early on in my career at the corporate plantation we live in. I always try to incorporate my rage against the machine into my comedy.

EN: You’ve been a Bernie guy from the jump and I’ve always been more center-left. Ten thousand hours of texting later please re-explain to me your support for Bernie and tell me why I am so scared no matter who is the nominee?

EP: Well yeah, I’m a Bernie guy as he seems to be the only candidate, even though I now dig Tulsi Gabbard and to a lesser extent Elizabeth Warren. Bernie is the real deal and he has pushed the pathetic Democratic Party to the left, at least in the debates. He advocates for national health care, free college education and workers’ rights in general. Unfortunately the Democratic Party is bought and paid for by the same corporate money that has turned the Republicans into the party of Satan.

EN: What is happening with your upcoming special? Are there plans to apply its cauterizing impact to the open wounds of our hemorrhaging world?

EP: I’m very excited about my special! It’s entitled For The Masses and it’s being shopped to networks as we speak. I’m really proud of it. I think it is the culmination of the work I’ve been doing my entire life. I hope it has some galvanizing, healing effect on all the tortured souls who are living in the last stages of capitalism, and probably the last stages of the human race.

EN: You officiated the wedding of some of your ardent fans recently. What was that experience like? I have to say that it’s touching to know that within all of your dire prognostications for the future of the world, there still exists the possibility for true love and honest hope. Did you make any jokes in your remarks?

EP: Yes, I officiated a wedding of a big fan and it was truly amazing. I love love. It was also such a thrill to do a new format. I was worried about offending some more formal people but they were great. I’m known for just going off on weird, tangential inner monologues as I try to work out my demons that have been tormenting me for my entire life, but I had to be cognizant of the many children there and the sacredness of the event. Actually this great couple wanted to explode the sanctimony of a wedding and how stuffy and fake they can be. So I danced on the line of decorum and irreverence.

EN: We both love football, and root for the suckiest teams in the NFC East – you the Giants, and me, Washington. Let’s predict who is going to have the worse record this year, even though I know the answer is the Redskins. Are you looking forward to yet another run up the mountain with Eli?

EP: Oh god, the Giants actually gave the Redskins Landon Collins, who was probably our best defensive player. I’m always hopeful that the Giants will channel Lawrence Taylor, Phil Simms and Bill Parcells but it has been quite bleak lately. I feel the Giants are mirroring the collapse of our society. Instead of drafting a defensive stud with our high pick we went the QB route and with a player who wasn’t that well-touted and well… we shall see. I’m such a die-hard fan that I’m having trouble accepting how bad we have been. I always think the Giants will have a better record than the Redskins! Ha. Also I think Eli is great but he needs to be replaced if we start going down the drain again. I’m in love with Saquon Barkley!

EN: We’re both native New Yorkers, so I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on AOC. I think she’s truly inspiring and exciting. It’s hilarious to me that the right find her so irritating – I mean, they scrutinize everything she does like they’re a gossip rag and she’s a Kardashian – when she’s really just a junior congressperson in her first term. I hope she can hang in amidst all that constant critique.

EP: I love AOC! She is terribly awesome. She brings a New York street toughness along with her passionate intellect. The Democratic Party needs a hundred of her. Yes, the way she is  demonized by the right is par for the course. Unfortunately our political discourse has turned into a reality show. The debates are a perfect example of that. It’s sound bites and spectacle. No real serious debating is done in that format. It’s another tv presentation going for ratings. It truly is reality show TV and the comparison to the Kardashians is perfect.

EN: You seem to work constantly – often performing 2 shows a night for several nights in a row. While I know you need to make money to pay for your “indulgences,” what are the other reasons you do this to yourself?

EP: I perform as much as I can because I have realized that it is truly a cathartic, connecting experience for me. I consider myself very lucky to be in a profession where I can still speak my mind – we shall see how long that lasts – and connect with so many people I don’t know. It’s truly amazing to feel a sense of community with the audience:  the shared fears and collective anger.

EN: Speaking of the hardest working men in showbiz, what did you think of the Rolling Thunder documentary?

EP: Well Bob Dylan is a passion that we both share. I think what was so great about Rolling Thunder was seeing Dylan in his prime, not that he still isn’t in his evolved prime. What a true artist. I always love the moments of Dylan captured offstage. There doesn’t seem to be a false bone in his body. He represents such a deep truth. Also he has an amazing sense of humor.

EN: To sum up, what do you do on the days when everything feels so awful outside the best option seems to be to just give up completely?

EP: On those days I play with my two rescue dogs in the grass. Nothing is as healing as a dog.