Do What You Love

[Music]

[Applause]

at the end of our first season of

everybody loves raymond i asked raymond

where he was going on his hiatus the

little vacation that you get between

seasons one and two if you’re lucky

enough to have a season two

and i said where you going and he said

i’m going to the jersey shore

and i said oh that that’s nice uh have

you ever been to europe and he said nah

i said why not and he goes uh i’m not

really interested in

other cultures even his own even his own

culture italy

and then a light bulb went off and i

thought we got to do that episode

we gotta send him over there with that

attitude

and send him back with mine someone

who’s excited about travel in italy the

food in italy and the scenery and the

people

and the experience of travel

and i wanted him to have

that feeling that i had when i was 23

years old

i i had never been anywhere until that

point where our family didn’t have a lot

of money i think we went to atlanta for

a bar mitzvah

once when i was nine and maybe went into

a condo in miami from a relative when i

was 12.

that was it and those were great

uh but when i was 23 i got a cheap

flight

to paris a courier flight and uh

i had a few magical days there it blew

my mind

and then i took an overnight train to

florence and in that

train ride overnight was this young

italian couple about my age also about

23

they were dating this young couple and

they worked in the bakery

in florence and they gave me places to

go when i would

when i would come to florence we stayed

up all night in that train car and we

were

drinking and having fun and they said

visit the bakery so of course the very

next day i didn’t know anybody in

florence except them

my new friends and so i went and i’ll

never forget

danya her that was the the girl’s name

her

dad ran the bakery and he looked at me

and he said america john wayne

1983 uh he then sat me down and

proceeded to feed me

he gave me every pastry in the shop and

because i was american imagine this

everyone else on the block the lady with

the sandwiches

the lady who had the the

the pizza place a chocolatier came they

sat me outside the shop

and they started bringing pasta and

stuff it was mind-blowing

dania and daario and i became

friends and then later i brought monica

to italy and introduced her and then

later

they came to new york with their whole

family the parents and their little new

baby because they had been married

her name was geneva they all stayed in

my one bedroom apartment

it was crowded but we’re friends for

life

so that’s what can happen

i wanted raymond to understand just a

little of that

because i think the world would be

better if we all could experience a

little bit of someone else’s

experience it took about five years to

convince him

to get on a plane but when we did it

what i saw happen to the character that

i wrote you know

ray gets woke in the show

happened to the person i saw it happen

to him

he was ricocheting around piazza’s going

phil did you try this pizza it’s

unbelievable oh look at this gelato have

you had the

lemon it’s unbelievable yes yes grave

had it

and that got in very deep to see your

friend

get turned on to this great part of

life i think we all do what we do

because we like turning people on to the

stuff we like

that’s how you know that’s what friends

are right so

that got in very deep now i didn’t know

that a show for me could come out of

that

we had another four years to run on

raymond lasted nine years

and after that i thought well everybody

else wants me

to do another sitcom because that’s

where the money is so

i tried to do another sitcom uh but the

business had changed in the nine-year

bubble i was in

doing raymond and it wasn’t so welcome

anymore this type of show meaning a

family show

with uh jokes that were not so

blunt or uh rough

uh but it turned out that people now

wanted

the hip and edgy type of shows and

that’s not really my wheelhouse as i

guess you could tell

by looking at me and to be fair

i didn’t really want the kind of shows

that they were doing either so

i kept striking out and it wasn’t for

lack of trying i

kept trying but in the back of my head

was this

was this idea what if i could do the

travel show what if i could do the

travel show

now i wrote a book in the meanwhile

about how to make a sitcom

i wrote about my travels in that book

because

everything in raymond came from

something that happened to us in real

life

and i also made a movie during that time

i made a movie because the

russians called this is true they asked

me if i wanted to turn my sitcom

into everybody loves custa

yes and so i agreed to do this if i

could film the whole thing

and now this would be the first time

that i personally would be

on camera and i enjoyed it

i wasn’t acting or anything i just

enjoyed editing it

i enjoyed the story of what was

happening to that guy who i understood

to be a character

a kind of schlemiel that stuff happens

to and

people noticed and uh i started to get a

little traction from my other idea which

was this food and travel show with maybe

me as the host because it had worked

in russia and i even skyped with my

parents

from russia which would become a big

part of the

travel show as well now the agents when

you come to them after having

created and run a sitcom that was

successful

you come to them and say i would now

like to host a

travel show they’re not jumping up and

down they’re not excited

there’s no real money in that but they

said if you’re gonna do it let’s go

first to the travel channel that’s that

they have the most money so let’s go

so we have a meeting with the head of

the travel channel at this time

and he says to me i gotta be honest with

you uh we’ve done some research and we

found that our audience really

isn’t into travel

i said oh my what are you going to do

he said well we’re going to do shows

that are travel adjacent

i said well what the hell does that mean

and

they said well an example would be a

show like

pimp my rv meaning we take an rv

and we pimp it out meaning decorated

inside

and we don’t we don’t go anywhere

so it’s travel adjacent i said ha okay

well thanks anyway

and he said oh and we’ve done some

research and the only food that

people are interested in is barbecue

good to know thank you uh can i go now

to pbs maybe because i think they might

be interested in this type of show i’d

like to do the

travel show with a food focus because

that’s my main interest when i travel

and i’d love to do it

uh no first you’re gonna go to the food

network then if you’re interested in

food

oh okay i go to the food network meet

with the head of the food network i am

not making any of this up

and the head of the food network says

we’re kind of getting away from the food

thing

really yeah we’re doing shows that are

more food adjacent

yes everybody’s doing things that are

next to something they’re not actually

doing anything

uh they do competition shows now they’re

not really

interested in the food and by the way if

the if they are interested in food the

only

food that americans are interested in

said don’t tell me barbecue they said

that’s right how did you know

because i met with the travel channel

which is the same owners

as the food channel now can i go to pbs

yes i can go to pbs i go to pbs

i tell them my idea they say well what

would the show be like

and i said well it would be me going

around

trying to get people to travel by

showing them the best places in the

world to

eat and and you what do you bring to it

i said well

i would say i’m exactly like anthony

bourdain if he was afraid of everything

and that worked they got it they

understood

they said they’ve been looking for a

show a food and travel show with humor

for years so after 10 years of trying to

do this

of banging my head against this

particular spot in the show business

wall

you know i just picked the spot that i

really really liked after

striking out with sitcoms

i got through and i called my brother

why my brother because he was already a

producer

for facebook videos so he had some

experience producing

things he also was a producer on the

network side of of comedy central

and he his his shows had already won

some emmys

so he was qualified and i wanted to work

with him

and i said quit your job and come to

this show with me because what show

they’re gonna see

pbs is gonna be six episodes on the air

of going around the world and eating

he said really you got that show i said

yes he goes what are they gonna call

this show the lucky bastard

i said quit your job and come with me

and produce the show with me

and we’ll call our production company

lucky bastards

and that’s what we did and we did i’ll

have what phil’s having

for pbs we went to paris and barcelona

and

italy and tokyo and hong kong i

considered it

you know earth’s greatest hits i was

trying to get

mr and mrs america two-thirds of the of

us

don’t even have a passport so i wanted

to start with popular tourist

attractions tourist site

and it seemed to go very well and then

guess what pbs didn’t pick up the show

even though it had worked very well and

was a hit for them

i think they couldn’t raise the money i

don’t know why

but here comes netflix and then i got to

do

somebody feed phil and it’s been the joy

of my life

to work with my brother to travel around

to meet these people

to meet new friends and to make new

friends over

the internet and over social media right

and

and just have the the time of my life

i really think there’s no more mind

expanding thing

we can do in life than travel and

the reason i use food is because food

is the great connector and for me laughs

are the cement and i’m using food and

hopefully my stupid sense of humor

just to get you to think about traveling

you know take that little baby step off

the couch

and go it’s going to make your life

better listen if somebody gave you a

house

would you spend your whole life in one

room of the house

no you’d want to check it out so

we only go through once people i want

you to see the whole house

i’m taking everything i learned about

how to make a show and it’s in the

service

of everything i love in life

family friends food

travel and laughs these are the values

this is what i like now i wish for you

what i had

doing something you love with people you

love

and i’m gonna leave you with this little

bit of advice

the best advice i ever got it was from a

showrunner named ed weinberger

and when i was writing the pilot for

raymond he told me this

do the show you want to do because in

the end they’re going to cancel you

anyway

this is a very good philosophy of life

do the show you want to do because we

all get canceled

one day so live your life now i know

it’s a crazy time full of

uncertainty and maybe we’re not

traveling

so soon but i’m very confident that we

will

i think as soon as there’s a vaccine

that we trust

we’re going to be out there again and

the world’s going to be waiting

so if it’s all a crap shoot anyway

live your life

you