{"id":1997,"date":"2026-03-10T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cornelllunatic.com\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:17:21","slug":"the-cornell-lunatic-interview-with-jay-mohr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornelllunatic.com\/?p=1997","title":{"rendered":"The Cornell Lunatic Interview with Jay Mohr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reprinted from our Spring 2000 issue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>First, will you wear this headset like in Jerry McGuire?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>Maybe if you asked me \ufb01ve years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Forget it… How did you \ufb01rst get interested in standup comedy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>I don\u2019t know. It was just something I was always attracted to when I watched TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Was their any speci\ufb01c comedian that inspired you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>Whenever I watched Star Search <\/em>when it was good, I always really enjoyed when the comics were on. I used to memorize the bits from what they were doing for my friends. And I always like comedies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Did you do the \u201cStar Search <\/em>type thing?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>When I started doing standup comedy as making a living I got offered, you know, well not offered Star Search<\/em>, but you got offered to audition for Star Search<\/em>. And I always said \u201cno\u201d \u2019cause I was already making a good living doing standup and I didn\u2019t want to be on TV as an amateur being judged by people… and I\u2019m already pulling down a living. So I thought was counterproductive to go out \u2019cause what if like Meadowlark Lemon\u2019s manager gives you half a star? I\u2019m already making money. So why go out on a limb as an amateur?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>How did you get discovered for SNL<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>I auditioned at a comedy club where the talent scout that came and they had a special evening where she just came to watch certain people and they liked me enough to have me audition again at a different comedy club in front of Lorne Michaels and the cast… and I found out the next day that I got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Christopher Walken has played a major role in all of our lives, especially yours. What was it like to work with him in Suicide Kings? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>It was like a dream come true, y\u2019know? You joke around with the guy. You do impressions of him and make fun of him and he laughs at it. When you get back to your trailer and you have a couple hours to kill and you realize, here\u2019s the guy who did the Russian roulette scene in Deer Hunter<\/em>. And then you get the chills and you\u2019re like, it\u2019s kind of creepy, y\u2019know? We watch Deer Hunter<\/em>, Henry Thomas and I put Deer Hunter <\/em>on the Russian roulette scene. We were supposed to be afraid of him at some point in the movie, but we became very friendly with him. And you shoot out of order, so then we\u2019re going back in the script to the point where we\u2019re in beginning of the movie when we\u2019re really afraid of him. But we became so friendly with him, so we were able to put on The Deer Hunter <\/em>scene, the Russian roulette scene and we watched it and we were so freaked out that then we saw him we were like \ufb02inching, y\u2019know. \u201cPull an empty chamber of that gun, Mikey?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>The television show Action <\/em>was very hyped, but it didn\u2019t do too well…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t know there were six networks until we came in sixth place in our time slot. I think we got beat by soccer on Telemundo. The guy in the fuckin\u2019 bumblebee suit that \ufb01ghts crime beat us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>It\u2019s ironic how a major theme of that show was \u201cin Hollywood, you\u2019re only as good as your last \ufb01lm.\u201d Has it been at all hard to rebound from Action<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>Television and movies aren\u2019t really applicable towards one another. Unless you leave TV to do movies. If you started in TV and do movies, you\u2019re kind of silly like David Caruso. Like if you do TV all the time and your movie bombs it doesn\u2019t really matter. Like David Duchovony did Playing God <\/em>but that bombed, but he has job so he just went back to his job. You want to rebound, but you want to choose your projects carefully and even if something\u2019s not so great, it\u2019s good to have something that you\u2019re that working on in the meantime, so that people, you know,… America has a short memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>What was your worst experience as a stand-up comedian, aside from tonight\u2019s performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr:<\/strong> <\/strong>[Laughs.]<\/em> I think it was tonight\u2019s performance. I can\u2019t think of a second place. Maybe last night\u2019s performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Where was last night\u2019s performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>It was at Syracuse, and I took a bottle of Ex-Lax. I thought it was… milk. I projectiled shit all over the stage. That was like in the \ufb01rst minute of my act so for the whole hour I just like waddled around in my own…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Adam Sandler interviewed with the Cornell Lunatic <\/em>two years ago…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>I was funnier than him, wasn\u2019t I? C\u2019mon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Oh, you beat him out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>Ah, good. He got paid more than me, I know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>We asked him, \u201cDare, double dare, or physical challenge.\u201d He opted for the physical challenge, which was twenty push-ups. He could only do six. Can you best that? And if not, we do have a giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the other room. If you can \ufb01nd the yellow \ufb02ag in under thirty seconds, you win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>How about I just beat six?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Six? All right, do seven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>All right, here we go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Somebody take a picture of this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr:\u00a0<\/strong>No\u00a0pictures\u00a0of\u00a0me\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0fuckin\u2019\u00a0ground!\u00a0How\u00a0about\u00a0like\u00a0this?\u00a0[Jay\u00a0Mohr\u00a0begins to do\u00a0\u201cclap pushups.\u201d]<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>It\u2019s more than I\u2019ve asked for.Wow! You obviously work out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr:\u00a0<\/strong>Thank\u00a0you!\u00a0[He\u00a0continues\u00a0doing\u00a0\u201cclap\u00a0pushups.\u201d]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>You\u2019re in pretty good shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Have you considered adult \ufb01lms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr: <\/strong>Adult \ufb01lms? [He gets up.]<\/em> Not even winded!* Who wants to feel my muscles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>Can I give you a free copy of our magazine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohr:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0love it.\u00a0Thank you.\u00a0I’d like it to be noted that I am not winded after the pushups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunatic: <\/strong>I\u2019ll make an asterisk at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Jay\u00a0Mohr\u00a0was\u00a0not\u00a0at\u00a0all\u00a0winded\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0pushups.\u00a0However, at one point during the interview, he mistook a bottle\u00a0of\u00a0Ex-Lax\u00a0for his tuna sandwich and proceeded to projectile shite all over Cornell President Hunter Rawlings III and our lack of an endowment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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