J: How has doing this whole film changed your comedy or changed your act – your material or performances?
JB: It’s changed my life as far as just really staying truthful to anything, whether it be stand-up or my career, the films I want to do, books and everything. It just made me say, in the past I’ve chased ‘leather pants and kangaroo’ I call it, where now I think, ‘You can still be funny, but as long as you have a humble life, that’s what it really boils down to.’  

J: What other things are you working on? A book?
JB: A book – the deal’s not done but it should be sold fairly soon, I’d say in the next two to three weeks, you’ll hear about a deal that’s done. There’s TV in the works about my family, and then I’d like to do films, maybe a film about him, maybe a little piece of that film and put it as a script.  

J: What would the book be?
JB: The book would be more like autobiography, how I started off, how I dealt with show business and my real life at the same time, and try to keep those morals and stay grounded.

J: How extensively do you tour and did you take a number of years off?
JB: I took years off because I really felt the need to stay home. I had three daughters I want to watch, raise and I don’t want to be away from them, and then spend some years with my dad. I saw my dad and mom start to deteriorate so I wanted to be around for them. So I started doing a radio show, which I got to do out of their house. I found a way to get paid, entertain, while I’m still with them, so it’s great.  

J: Was your mom in the film, because I thought I saw her in there for a little bit?
JB: No – wait, at the end she was, at the very end she was.  

J: What’s she like, because you don’t focus on her much in the film?
JB: She’s … gosh, she’s a whole movie waiting to happen – she’s feisty, animated, funny and she can be nasty [laughs] … all in one. I guess that’s how you would describe her: strong, funny, animated. I get my animation from her and my lunacy from her, that side. Playful, but she can be nasty.  

J: You also have ‘Clearing The Air.’
JB: It’s all good. You may know me as … this movie and everything else coming up … but this is the special, coincides with everything else I’m putting out now. You know me as the guy from ‘Half Baked,’ and you know me from Saturday Night Live, but from now on you’re going to know me as a real life guy who’s a father, a son, a married guy and this is who I am. This is where I’m going to find my humor. Hence, let’s clear the air.  

J: One last thing – just reaction – I know that stuff, but the last thing I remember seeing, was your previous special was you had a lot of rock in it.
JB: Yea, there’s some in this one too. It’s in here too.  

J: You’re not going to lose that for the family stuff?
JB: No, never, never, never. My newer family stuff is similar to it’s … the modern-day Bill Cosby, with a Metallica shirt on. [laughs]. That’s how I would describe me.

Just For Laughs -- Montreal Comedy Festival coverage sponsored by Eric & LaNita Hazard; Irving & Sonya Rozansky.