o." here is what is coming up. the province in syria was destined for a blood bath. can one woman change history? the incredible story of how a syrian-american doctor lobbied president trump. plus -- >> what can i play? oh, dear. >> his acting career already has a cult following. now, jeff goldblum hits the keys for his debut jazz album. and -- >> i was clear i would never change. >> the comedian settles in for an honest conversation about fatherhood.

welcome to the program, everyone. i'm kprour kprour in london. half a mill dead.

12 million who fled their homes. lives, cities, history destroyed. it is hard to get a grasp, when facing the war in syria, for nearly eight long years. dr. ream albazam never set out to be an activist. she left syria long ago to pursue a medical degree from the united states. and even from afar, she knew she had to get involved. first, as a doctor, she traveled to bring humanitarian aid to refugees on the turkish border. but this summer when it looked like another blood bath was imminent, perhaps bigger than any before, as the assad regime and his allies were poised to launch an offensive on a province, the last rebel stronghold, doctor albazam and her friends launched in action with the most classic of democratic play book, they lob yid their elected leaders, right up to the president of the united states. we first learned about it from the president himself at the

united nations in new york. and that's where i recently met the doctor, to discuss her highly unusual, highly personal, foreign policy intervention with president trump. >> dr. maream albazam, welcome to the program. >> thank you for having me. >> so tell me how it happened. how did you one day think i've got to be able to get my plea for syria to the highest levels of power in this country? and how did you get to meet president trump? >> well, it started with the few syrian american doctors thinking that you cannot just continue to transfuse blood to the patients who are bleeding, you have to take care of the source of bleeding, and we live in a democratic country where people are heard, and we decide, okay, we must become active, politically active, and maybe we can bring foreign policy into the united states, and make it

local. so we got engaged with the congress, and the senate, and we grew the syria caucus in congress, from zero members, to 52 members, bipartisan, who are friends of free and democratic syria. for reasons that nobody read, except syrian-american, who are member of congress, who are writing up ads works are going on mainstream media, who are writing letters to the president and advocating for syria. that is how it all started. and we dreamed big. and we tried to do some work with the media. and also with lobbying company, as well as we tried to reach the president, and that's how i actually met with the president. >> what did they advise you then about how to get to the president? >> well, the advice was based on

substance, that you cannot, you know, ask the president, or the administration, to be engaged in another war in the middle east. and you cannot ask for nation building. however, we have leverage, as the mightiest nation in the world that we can use to effect political transition in syria. >> and did they tell you that you -- >> -- supporting a republican senator candidate, mike brown, in indiana, members of our group, supported him, and hosted him in one of our friend's house, in a syrian-american house in indiana. a few months earlier before i met the president. and they kept a good relationship with his campaign. so the campaign e-mailed my friend and asked him if you are

interested -- >> with the candidate and the president, and rally in support of the president, and my friend, of course, grasped the opportunity, and said sure, we are very interested. and he asked, he called and he asked me, would you come to indiana, and meet the president and meet mike brown, and make you will have a chance to speak to the president. >> so you thought this is my chance, this is a chance in a lifetime. >> yes. >> i mean the fundraiser, you just don't get in the door for free, right? >> no, you don't. you were asked to attend a round table, and we, the community, we have large group, and the community, we decided that let's go there, and let's see if we can, you know, speak to the president. >> and let's raise the money to get in. >> right. >> can i ask you how much it was? >> actually, you can ask, it was less than $10,000. >> really? >> yes. >> it is not like what everybody is saying, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

>> so here you are, you've got this opportunity, you get in the room, and then what happens? because i must view this, based on the following sound bite that the president uttered during his september u.n. press conference. >> i will dell you what happened, when i was at a meeting with a lot of supporters and a woman stood up and she said, there is a province in syria with 3 million people, right now the iranian, the russian, and the syrians are surrounding that province, and they are going to kill my sister, and they are going to kill millions of people in order to get rid of 25,000 or 35,000 terrorists. >> so he stood up and said that. and we all went whoa, who is this woman, what happened, and then he went on to say that he had instructed his secretary of state and others to make sure that they rallied the international community against any attack. >> and i put out on social media and elsewhere, i gave mike pompeo, john bolton, everybody,

these orders. don't let it happen. >> that is pretty amazing. >> it is. >> how did the discussion go in that room? what were you able to say that clearly affected the president? >> before the president arrived, i asked if there was a moderator, and they said no, it is a free-flowing discussion there is no moderator and i asked and there were like 16, 17 people in the room and i told them, if you wouldn't mind, guys, i would like to start that free-flowing conversation. and he shared feelings with us. and then he said if anybody has any comment, please feel free. so all of the eyes, you know, looked at me. towards me. because i have taken their permission to start that free-flowing discussion. so i broke to the president's attention the impending human disaster that was going to unfold over the next 24 to 48

hours. and i asked him to give me a few minutes to explain how it all happened. and i explained low it all happened, seven years ago, when a group of school boys painted on the wall that the regime should fall. >> this of course was at the beginning of the arab spring. >> 2011. >> yes. and all of these movements had moved across tunisia and egypt and finally they came to syria. >> yes. and that arab spring landed with the school boys who were painting on the walls. they did not really realize at that time that this will, you know, be the catalyst for what happened in syria. so in response to that, the secret police threw them in jail, and pulled out their finger nail, and the mayor of the city, who is the cousin of the president bashar al assad, told their parents, forget about your children, go have new children. and if you can do it, if you cannot make your wife pregnant, we can send our own men, they can make children for you.

as a result, the administration erupted all over syria. people were championing for freedom and dignity and the regime responded violently. and the plan was to unleash industrial scale killing to force people either to surrender or displaced. and i explained to the president, i am not making things up. this is not a humpty-dumpty story from a syrian woman. this is what really happened. we watched in horror how the regime systematically targeted bread lines, residential neighborhoods, marketplaces, i mean of course, he unleashed a chemical weapon against his own people, he declared war against his own people. >> you were saying all of this to the president. >> and the president of the united states graciously was listening attentively to all this, and even some more. and then i explained how the people who survived the massacre

were given a choice. either surrender, submission, or force displacement. the plan is clear, the writing is on the wall, idlib province is marked for death. assad is going to have his, if you will, final solution, and the largest massacre is going to happen within the next 24 to 48 hours. >> you said it like that. >> i said it like that. >> and how did i respond to that? >> he said that can't happen. the world is watching. that can't happen. we will not have this happen. and i said it is happening. they are ready to launch a massive strike, and probably chemical attack, against the 3 million in idlib. under the context of 10,20,000 mussra fighters. >> the terrorist group. >> the terrorist group. and wiping out the whole city. and this is the final solution. assad will then declare victory and that's what is going to happen. >> so when you finished making

this presentation, then what happened? >> well, he said, he did not really believe it, maybe that much, i don't know, because i heard him in the news conference -- >> that's right. >> he went back to the white house, and he picked up "the new york times," and he read about the same subject. >> let me tell you what he actually said. >> i came back to new york and i picked up the failing "new york times," i hate to admit it was "the new york times," but it was, and i opened it up, not on the front page but there is a very big story, and i said wo that is the same story the woman told me that i found hard to believe because how would anyone do that with 3 million people and it said that they were being surrounded and they were going in and starting literally the next day, they were going to drop bombs all over the place and perhaps kill millions of people in order to get 35,000 terrorists.

>> the president had listened. he had said that can't happen. and then the meeting ended? what did you think it was going to happen next? >> i didn't really know. but i knew he listened attentively to all what i had to say, but then i watched president trump, talking about it, and 24 hours, or 48 hours later, you know, i read the tweet, and then subsequently, i watched the news conference, in the united nations, about syria. >> and the tweet of course was -- >> president bashar al assad of syria must not continue the attack in the province. the russians and iranians would be making a great humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. don't let that happen. and it hasn't happened. >> correct. >> how do you feel about that? >> i am ecstatic. i am very happy. i think he literally saved the life of hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. >> and what do you think will

happen? i mean is it a temporary pause, do you fear, in the attack on idlib? >> well, i think the tweet had significant impact in holding the mass atrocity in idlib. i think it was the right time. and i think putin and russia did not want to confront the president head-on. >> so you must have pretty complicated, or maybe uncomplicated views of the united states with regard to the syrian tragedy. i mean how were you all feeling during the obama years, particularly when the red line was crossed and there was no reaction here? >> i think syria will sustain president obama's legacy forever. i think future generations will judge him harshly because of his in effectuality and stand by during the slaughter. and this red turned pink line was a bright green line to kill with infinity.

>> so when you saw, within the first few months of president trump's inauguration, that he did respond to that first use under his watch of chemical weapons, what did you think, after all these years of waiting for something to happen? >> i mean the whole syrian-american company were rejoicing. we were trying so much, with president trump, to bring the humanitarian light with what is happening with syrians, and we were, you know, getting nowhere. >> one question a lot of people have, when we read "the wall street journal," your success in influencing mr. trump's foreign policy offers a road map for advocacy groups in the trump era. but people are asking, what happens if advocates for putin, or i don't know, kim jong-un, or i don't know, any names, come and try to influence the president, who is clearly influenced by passionate articulate story-telling on this kind of humanitarian, human

level. >> i don't worry, because the president did not just heard my story and tweet it. he heard my story, he give me the time, he was gracious enough to listen to the whole thing, he went back, he read it in "new york times," he spoke to pompeo, he spoke to john bolton, he spoke to all of his advisers, he verified the fact, and they discussed it. so was i the one who effected or changed policy? i don't think so. i think the president just heard my story, verified it, discussed it with his adviser, and tweeted and people listened. because he already had established his own credibility on the world stage, and that he means what he says, and that he delivers his promises. and putin blinked and president erdogan was empowered by the new position of the united states and they both reached a z--

diplomatic alternative to the war. >> you realize how extraordinary it is, right? this is not usual. >> i do. i do. but it is hard work of the whole group of people who are burdened by all of the atrocities that they have watched, and felt it is time to do something. >> thank you very much for joining me. >> thank you very much for having me. she may be modest, but if that assault is held off, it is not a modest accomplishment. now, for some solace, where better to turn than to culture, from the fly and jurassic park, independence day, to thor, jeff goldblum is a familiar face to movie lovers but his latest project may come as a surprise. a jazz album with goldblum at the keyboard, since playing local jazz clubs at the age of 15, he has always had a love of music. and now, that passion has transformed into a new album. i sat down with him in london's

famous ronnie scott's jazz club to discuss music, movies, and to get a little private performance. >> jeff goldblum, welcome to the program. >> thank you, very, very much. it is thrilling to be here. >> it is great to see you here. because i see you on the silver screen and i had no idea, actually, my ignorance, did not know you were a jazz impreario, and tell me how long you have been doing jazz music? >> i grew up in pittsburgh, i bet you've been there. >> i have. >> so my parents, my dad was a doctor, and my parents gave us music lessons, us four kids, and me, the piano, around ten years old, and that was the story, you know, around the same time he would get, we bring home, my dad, errol garner records who is also from pittsburgh, some people know, wonderful jazz pianist and he kind of liked jazz, my dad, so i was exposed to it. then i had lessons.

and i was kind of a poor student. and wouldn't really, i had a facilitate -- facility for it. >> i can tell you want to do something here. >> no. >> you're itching. >> i've never been at this piano before, except now in the last three minutes since we've been setting up and we're going to play here in about a week. how about that? >> is it intimidating? >> well, i'm too stupid to be intimidated. and piano and music, i never had, like acting was, i wanted to be an actor in the worst way when i was a kid and i knew i had to make my way and make a living but it was a passionate odyssey romantic adventure, wild adventure, to me. and at the same time, piano was this thing that i was doing that i just loved doing. and it has remained kind of that. so i'm a little, i'm still a humble student of it.

but it is all fun. than record that we did, just kind of happened accidentally, for the great people of decca and i will tell you all about that. >> give me a little riff. >> what would you like? >> sing to yourself. >> i will sing to you. ♪ i fall in love too easily i fall in love too fast ♪ i do ♪ >> that's a little riff. >> that's a little riff. >> so you said you wanted to be an actor. >> yes. >> but you, from what i read, were afraid of that ambition. you thought perhaps your parents or people wouldn't approve of it. i read that you wrote, dear god, where did you write it? >> on my shower door. i kept it as a secret. not that they would be disapproving, although my dad was a doctor, but he had flirted with the idea of being an actor himself, but no, it was so, he had said to us, that if you find

something you love doing, that may be a lighthouse, and a compass for your vocational choice, around ten years old, i also, not only did i start piano, but i did this part in a camp thing, went to camp, and they were there, and they said, did you like doing that. i did. and i got the seed of the idea. but kept it secret. because i think i was kind of embarrassed about it. nobody i knew was an actor. and then it sort of developed into this obsession by the time this shower business started around ninth, tenth grade. i went to carndy melon university. and around that time, i really wanted to be an actor and every time i would take a shower and it would steam up and i would write please god let me be an actor and then i would wipe it off and i didn't tell them. >> and you didn't want anybody to see it. and you started getting lessons. and didn't you make your own band when you were about 15 or

something? >> here is what happened. i didn't make my own band. well, it was, i was playing, at home, i had gotten on to jazz a little bit and could play a thing or two. and misty was something that i learned. it was my dad's favorite song. and i started, i got the idea that i wanted to call cocktail lounges around pittsburgh, and i, did and i got a couple of gigs. so it really wasn't a band. no, it was just me. going to some cocktail lounge when i was 156789 my parents drove my -- when i was 15, my parents drove me and there would be a piano in kind of a cheesy place in pittsburgh, there are other good places in pittsburgh, i think, but this was a cheesy place and there was a bar built around the thing and patrons would suggest things, request things and anyway, i played and met a couple of lady singers around that time, and they drove me to a gig or two. so i played. it is kind of like the seeds of what i'm doing now. just kind of happened into it. >> you actually now do have a band and it is called the mildred snitzer orchestra.

i mean it is a strange name for a band. >> it is a funny name. we started to play, so i played, i started my acting career in new york, and i kept a piano around, kept playing all the time, every day, snuck in a movie or two, and then about 30 years ago, started to play out and about with some real great musicians. and whenever i wasn't working, started to do that. oh, and then, we did it under the radar. i was just doing it for fun. i showed up and i would play. and then a few years after that, we were invited to be a part of the playboy jazz festival in hollywood bowl, believe it or not, and they said, you know, we're going to put your name in the program. and i said, well, there was this lady in pittsburgh, a friend of the family's, mildred snitzer who is a wonderful woman, lived to be 103 years old, and i said it is a funny name, i like that

name and maybe we're the mildred submitzer orchestra and it stuck and that's our name. >> and we found a clip clip from 2001 in fact, of mildred talking about it. and i will play it. >> oh, really? here is so funny. here is mildred snitzer, that's so funny. >> i knew him when he was 12. in those days, he played the piano and even had a little orchestra going. that is another person, you know, jeff would never think of me. well, then there was a little blurb in the mercury news, there was the mildred snitzer and she lived in pittsburgh, and she said my god that must be me. >> funny. >> that must have given her a huge amount of pleasure. >> i wonder. i was not in touch with her, i left pittsburgh when i was 17, until i did see her, we were playing at different places around los angeles, we were playing at a place one night, and they said hey, guess who is here, mildred snitzer is here.

and you got to be kidding and she had moved from pittsburgh to northern california and found out where we were playing and showed up. and came. and we were in the middle of the song and she came kind of gdanski -- dancing and around 90 at that point and a sequence kind of dress and hey, this is my band. we were designing band merchandise recently and they said what if we put a picture of mildred snitzer drawing on it. and there are shirts with mildred band on the back and her face on the front. >> it sounds completely mad but it works. >> it is mad. and let's go back to the plain thing that you are known for, which is obviously film. it is 25 years since jurassic park. what does that mean to you? >> well, i'm about my whole acting endeavor, i'm wildly grateful. it is uncommon that a guy like me can work over the course of time like this, and i've tried

to get better, i had a great teacher, sandy micener and i'm kind of a late bloomer and a humble student i like to say which it is true and i feel i'm on the brink of my better stuff and i wanted to do it in the worst way and i was thrilled to break into it quickly, slowly get things that i could get better at, and then worked with great people over the years, and was in some things that were, you know, that pleased people. >> and steven spielberg was the creator -- you had to persuade him not to cut your part. >> there is that story. when i met him for the meeting, they had said hey, he wants to meet you for this part in the book that they're making into a movie. i read the michael creighton book, read the character ian malcolm and i didn't want to cancel the meeting because i like you in this but there is a move afoot to excise that part out of the screen play. kind of make it part of this

other character. and i was, you know, i remember, if i think i did, i said, well, mr., steven, i don't know, i think, don't you like that, that could be a good character. and i'm sure i didn't persuade him. but anyway, it came around that i got back in the movie. >> do you recognize this? what? i like this. >> do you recognize this inflatable picture of you? not a picture, a statue, it is a thing, it is a reclining you. >> it wasn't inflatable. people said afterwards, i knew nothing about it, people sent it to me on the day it appeared, what? it took me by surprise. i think they were promoting their showing of the movie after 25 years. and then i must say, then i read the ption of it, it wasn't a balloon, it was a big and heavy -- >> it was huge. >> and the first time i saw. it they had decapitated it and they brought the head. >> he is really good, isn't he,

graham norton. >> he is good. and he is the reason we have this album and i'm here talking to you right now, because a year ago, gregory porter, if you know him, a wonderful singer, i had run into at an airport, loved his music, a musical guest, a great singer, he was the musical guest when i was promoting thor ragnarok, and hey, do you want to accompany him on the piano singing mona lisa. he has this nat king cole record. and we did. and his label was decca. rebecca lewis and tom allen and maybe we should do something with jeff and that's how the whole thing came about. >> so this big statue suddenly became apparently the most popular, most important, most, whatever they call it, used meme on the internet. and you have become a major millennial star. you are a happening for the millennials. >> i will tell you, really. >> yes. >> of a certain age. >> yeah. well, how about that? >> how does it feel? >> well, it is lovely. you know -- >> because i ask you, because,

you know, you sort of are young in that you're 66, you started to have kids for the first time at 62. >> that's right. i have a three and some month old boy charlie and a 19-month-old river jo. you know how it works. the traditional way. >> i know how it works but how does it work for you as a dad? >> i mean you never wanted to have kids. how has it changed your life? >> that is a good question. that is a big question. do you have kids? >> i have a kid, yes, a son. 18. >> well, it is life changing. everybody says. and as i sit here and think about it right now, a tremendously changing, it is lovely, i have a wonderful wife, emily. >> who used to be a gymnast is that right? >> she was for the canadian olympic team. >> yup. >> she was in the olympics for rhythm rhythmic gymnastics and went on to do aerial work, and contortion, and this and that. she doubled emma stone in la la land. >> so i read. >> yes, yes, yes. >> it is pretty amazing.

>> we were together a couple of years and she said this is so lovely, what if we had a baby. and i said, we thought about it for a year, and talked about it, and we got married, and had these two babies, and in fact, the first one, once we decided, hey, let's start to try to have a baby and we did for the first time, i had never done that before, i was 61, 62, like you say, and the day before our wedding, i haven't told anybody this, the day before our wedding, she said, you know, a couple of days ago, i found out something. i'm pregnant. >> and she showed you the stick? >> she showed me the stick, she had a little box wrapped up and the stick was in it, and a little picture, a little picture, she said, that little thing, sonogram, that little thing is -- >> ultrasound. >> that is the beginning of our baby. >> you haven't told this story before? >> no not really. maybe peripherally, and not to

somebody important like you. and the wedding the next day, you can imagine? >> it had to be seriously fantastic. >> seriously fantastic. kind of magical. and now, they're together. two boys. >> fantastic. >> oh, boy. it is life changing. they're here. they saw me off from the hotel coming to do today's work. >> and thor, you have done thor which is the marvel, based on the marvel comic. >> we shot that in australia. and the kids came, just like they're here on this tour with me now. i don't want to be separated from them at all and they came to australia. it was the first time charlie went in the ocean. >> how about that? >> that that is cool. >> and here is the question. stan lee just died, the wonderful old age of 90-plus. tell me about stan lee. >> well you know, marvel, i had a great time with that movie, and the director, brilliant director, and we improvised a lot of that, and kevin feig. y and luis esposito, the people

at marvel have a great way of making these wonderful movies creatively and adventuresomely and deliciously. but that was my brush with the marvel universe. so stan lee, i did meet once, we took a class picture, you could look it up, see it, so-called, we all went to atlanta, one of the compounds of the marvel people, and all of the casts of the last ten years were gathered, you can imagine, sam jackson, with whom i've done some things, robert downey early on, scarlet joe hanson, we were all there, and we took a class picture. and he was there. already very old. but you know -- >> he really changed, right? he changed contemporary culture. he put his stamp on it. >> i guess he did. did you read a lot of comic books. >> i did. >> you did? i'm surprised. >> i didn't read comic books that much. >> i read a lot of archie and all of those things.

>> you know what comics i got into, i was not into super hero comics, i got into, in the 60s, i got into art crum comics. you don't know them? >> no. >> that is so interesting and revealing. >> you've had a long career in all of this. particularly in the movies and i just want to know what you make of the kind of the whole me too movement, the idea of working with women, who you know, you know, have had an unequal playing field, an unlevel playing field, subjected to all sorts of harassment, and abuse often. and also, unequal pay. tell me where you stand on this issue right now, and how you feel, you know, the culture is shifting or not? thank you for asking me that. well, of course, i'm ferociously in favor of equal treatment, equal pay, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. there is so much to be said about this, cof of course, not authority tatively from me, but

in my experience, i'm interest, engaged in, it and would do anything that i could, to move the ball forward, so that women, i'm not being, i'm not trying to insinuate myself, panderingly, but anyway, i feel sincere about, and i'm glad that huge wrong, many wrongs, over a long period of time, maybe, hopefully will be, transforming itself. the world cannot succeed, america cannot succeed, when we, as a globe, cannot succeed without the potential being realized of all of us, particularly women. >> half the population. how do you feel about the political climate we live in

right now? and it is not just in america, it is here in brexit, britain, it is across europe, it is in many parts of the world. i wonder whether it preys upon you, and whether perhaps your art, your music particularly, a way out of what some people feel is a pretty dark moment in history right now. not everybody by the way. some people are thrilled about what is going on. >> not me. although, are you familiar with, you know, here again, what do i know, but i was exposed to a book whereby over the long arc, things are getting better in many ways. on the planet. but certainly, we're in a period now where it is no secret where i stand, i campaigned fully, as i could, for hillary clinton. i'm, i would be excited about progress, and the progressive

way and sensibility that is in my bones really, toward global family connection, and the success of all in the human race, and all creatures on the planet. and i abhor ugliness, bigotry, stupidity, coarseness, of all kinds. especially other-ing, all manner of underdogs. beyond that, there is much to say in detail and i would love to talk to you about it particularly, but i'm engaged, what did you say vexed, or -- >> yes. >> yes. and now with two children, becoming, the world that we're leaving them, and you know, it interests me greatly. and some of the big questions that we can only tackle as a

global family. climb change. there are no borders to the challenges that the planets faces. and also nuclear weapons and nuclear war. we must tackle those all together. and with the openness of hearts and smartest of approaches. and music, yes, does ease me here and there, when i get too overly stimulated, and disturbed. but also, not that it is anything i claim as anything important, but i do, my life has been devoted to musical stories, human stories, that may provide some kind of mysterious tonic. there you go. >> give us a little tonic. play us out. >> well, i will. i will. let me see. what can i -- oh, what can i play? oh, here.

♪ ♪ >> et cetera. et cetera, et cetera. >> wonderful. >> thank you so much. >> jeff goldblum, thank you so much. thank you very much. >> i can't tell you how wonderful it is to talk to you. genre bending virt os ty there. jeff goldblum is not the only one. the comedian mike birbiglia has

helped define the boundaries of professional comedy, with the brutally honest style whether on stage or in print or the radio hit show this american life. you may recognize him from hun of his many jobs, in orange is the new black, show time, billions ort movie train wreck. he is now debuting on broadway, with the new one, which is a one man show. and the star elisa menendez discovered, the exact topic, it is hard to pin down. >> thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> one of your rare moments off. >> it seems like that. i'm doing a lot of shows right now. >> i would call the new one a show about fatherhood. do you feel like that is a fair description? >> i think, yes, and it is a show about fatherhood and change. i think one of the things that when i was developing the show is i want to make sure that it wasn't just about being a parent, but rather, it was about

how all of us, regardless of our age, have things that we're hostile to doing, we're are hostile to changing in our lives, and for me, it just so happened, i never wanted to have a kid, and then i flipped. >> your wife was a big part of that flip. let's take a listen to this clip. >> she said i was clear i didn't want to have a baby at the time but that i might change and i said i was clear i would never change. she said if you don't want to have a baby, maybe i will have one on my own and we can stay married and i said oh, that will be a good look. just you. you. and some grad student. you can't have a kid on the side. like keep him in the shed. i mean people do it. i've seen the documentaries. it is just not what i aspire to. and then people will be like,

you guys have kids, i will be like, she does. >> in the show, you tick through your various reasons for not wanting to have a child. including your various physical maladies. >> oh, yes, yes, that is a big part of it. i have a sleepwalking disorder. where i jump through a window. people haven't seen my movie sleepwalk with me or read the book. i had cancer when i was 20. i was very lucky. they took it out. it didn't come back. and then there is just, yeah, lime disease, diabetes. i just have a lot of stuff. >> one of the things i felt, as relatively new mom, watching the show, was i wonder what will happen, when one day your daughter, una, either reads, or sees this show. >> is she going to have access? >> yes. >> i know. that's why it is sort of, i always think of it as sort of a magic trick of sorts. because the first half of the show is this argument for why one would never want, why one should never want to have a

child. and the second half is i had a child, and i was right, but here is how it turns on itself. and if it doesn't turn on itself, truly, and authenticcally, in an emotional way, the magic doesn't work. and she will see the show some day and it will have to be convincing thatdy change, and jenna always laughs, my wife always laughs because people ask jen about that a lot and she is like if you saw the two of them together, you would realize that, una would never believe that i wrote this show. >> there is really, i would say dark, but certainly a provocative moment in the show -- >> i would say dark and provocative, both of those i think are true. >> you say, i understand why dads leave. >> yes. that is a hard one out of context. i mean people really have to see the show to understand that, because it is, it is an expression of a very low point

for my character in this journey of just, and of course, i say, i'm comfortable saying that, because i'm not going to leave, i am never going to leave, but there are these low points, i think, in parenting, and i get all of these e-mails from moms and dads, saying wow, like thanks for writing this thing, it made me understand my husband more, it made me understand my wife more, where i want to write a show where people, where someone says all of the things that people won't admit to saying when they're parents. because i think, you know, the sort of, the old idiom of we're only as sick as our secrets, i think with parenting, there is a lot of secrets. there is a lot of things you can't say. >> what has been the most surprising response to the show? >> there is this really brilliant set designer who came to the show, who, when it was off broadway, and she said, she

had read this one review that was so like personal and sort of hurt by the show, and, in a certain way, and she said it is because you're, i think it is because you're being so vulnerable, that she feels like she can be vulnerable in her response to it. and that makes a lot of sense. but my feeling about the show is that the goal of it is precisely that, it is opening up, so that the audience can open up about their own lives. >> and it is not just that you're sharing, it is that you're sharing personal fall failures. i think sleepwalking is an emotional -- >> successes. >> most of us are spending their lives trying to cover up our failures and here you are on stage reliving this em. >> my take on it is we're all naked all the time whether we realize it or not. >> what does that mean?

>> like in other words, if you think you're keeping a secret, you're not. and so owning your own is, can be, a really carthartic experience. and then it is really carthartic, particularly carthartic when people experience that in the audience. it is by far, of any of my shows, it is the most that the audience has ever literally thanked me. like i get e-mails all the time. which is, as a performer, just like the greatest thing i could ever experience, ever. >> one of the running jokes of the show is how people with kids try to convince other people to have kids and i walked away from the show wondering, now that you have a daughter, and you love her so much, how do you become one of those monsters? >> yea, you're the first person who has asked me that question. i have become one of those monsters. my best friend from childhood, michael cavanaugh, came to be the other night and i was like,

you have to, yeah, you have to do it now. you know. >> and not in the misery loves company way. >> no it is not misery loves company. it is, i mean i say, i joke about it on the show, but it is, people say to you, it is the most wonderful experience you will ever experience, and it just is. and there is no way to describe it, because it is like the equivalent of describing like, you know, when your aperture just opens and you just go oh, i didn't know it could be like that. and then it is, and it is my brother, my brother joe who contributed writing to the show, and his own lines, his character says in the show, he says, you know, i go, what is it like to be a parent, and he said it is relentless and i said what do you mean, and he says, you know, how you go to the gym and you push and you sweat and it sucks, and i go yeah and then you have a kid and you can't even go to the gym and he says, but, he goes the thing you should know

it, is not going to be better or worse, it is just going to be new. >> you get in the play with a riff about your couch and why your couch is so important to you. let's take a look. >> i think the reason a couch is so expensive is that it is a deceptively sophisticated piece of technology. it is a bed that hugs you. it is like do you want to watch tv? you want to eat pizza? you sure do like eating. but i like that about you. and beds are comfy but they know it. they're like, i would like to be called a king. i'm going to need a box spring. i'm like for what? they're like i don't touch the floor.

get your hands off that tag. i would like this room named after me. couches are humble. they're like this is about you. you want to take a nap, be my guest. you want to have sex with my arm, don't think about it. >> last night the crowd was in stitches over this. but the couch ends up being a really critical part of the show. what is the take-away? >> well, i don't want to tell people what they're take-away should be, but i will tell you the reason why the couch entered into the show, was, and the show is a lot about becoming a parent, and i was doing some college shows, a year ago, and in the development of this show, and i found the college students weren't connecting to that. the couch, you know.

and i was like oh, it occurred to me, they don't even know anyone with kids. >> they're closer to being a child. >> they're closer to being a child. they don't even know. not only do they not have kids, most of them, they don't plan to have kids, most of them. and they don't know anyone with kids, most of them. and i was like wow, that's a quandary with the show. and so i started to think about like what, when i was their age, what was my relationship with being an adult? and i thought about my couch. and how like, when i was in college, you just get a couch on the street. you know, and it built from there. and then what i i swear to god, the couch becomes a metaphor in the show, once i put the couch metaphor in the show, it kills the college kids. like they totally get it. like if you start with the metaphor that is in their universe, they will go anywhere.

it is just getting them in. >> it would have been very easy arguably to do the new one, as a standsup routine. >> sure. >> why did it need to be a play? >> sleepwalk with me, was a play, that i did ten years ago. >> it transposed, right? >> yes. i made it into a film and a book, actually. after that, and that was my first solo offbroadway play that nathan lane presented in 2008 and thendy my girlfriend's boyfriend at the barrow street theater in 2011, and then thank god for jokes in 2016. so this is my fourth one. >> you know, women can be cops. sort of part of the whole thing. >> what is interesting to me, when i worked with my director, seth baris, is what we like to, we like to think of it as an experience. i love standup, certainly.

and i started out as a door person at a comic club in western dc. and i really admire standups. what i'm interested in is that you can tell stories and ultimately have an arc and have staging and lighting, that creates a full experience. i don't know it, is just what i love, it is what i love, you know what i mean, like at a certain point, i decided in my life that i was going to try to do things i love, instead of doing things i like. >> when did you make that decision? >> three months ago. no. like about ten years ago. about ten years ago, i was, i did like a sitcom pilot for cbs, and it was one of those like a dream come true for a comedian, they get their own sit com. and it was, it felt actually sort of bad, because it felt like this were so many shafts, and so many people are at the end of the process, and it

doesn't go to air and by the end of the process, it didn't feel like me and it didn't feel like what i did best. >> you must have been relieved that it didn't go to air. >> i was so relieved. it is like the biggest bullet i dodged in my career. after that, we moved back to new york, and we just said let's just take this show, sleepwalk with me, and let's just put all of the bells and whistles on it and produce it with the same vigor that they produce network television. >> one of the most memorable parts of sleepwalk with me, you, given your sleep challenges, actually walk through a window. >> jump through a window, yes. >> and when did you realize that could be funny? >> that's a good question. i feel like, as a comedian, i sort of knew right away. look, this is nuts. >> i'm staying at the hotel. i had an incident wherein, i

jumped out my window, and i'm bleeding. and i need to go to the hospital. >> it did take me about eight or ten months to come to grips with talki talking about it on stage because there was some degree that i thought, well, if i tell people that, they just might lock me up against my will. they just might, i might end up in the hospital and this might really -- what is so crazy looking back on it, is i thought this might slow down my career. i mean that is, yeah, that's where the head space was i was in at that moment in time, because a lot of ways sleepwalk with me is about this young guy at the time, who is trying to achieve his dreams, and he was, you know, in denial about this seriously walking disorder i had, behavior disorder and i would think, a line in the show,

i would think maybe i should see a doctor, and then i thought maybe i would eat dinner, and i went with dinner for years and i never dealt with it until i jumped through a window and finally went to a doctor and i was diagnosed. and yes, i mean what is wild about the sleepwalking disorder is that there is no cure for it. and so it is, it is just some thing, you know, i sleep in a sleeping bag, and i don't do this anymore, but i used to wear mittens so i couldn't open the sleeping bag, and lately because i have a daughter and i bring it up in the show, i created a fitted sleep sheet, it is totally real, a fitted sleep sheet that has a hole for my head, and the joke is, and one for my wife although she never uses it, and i secure the sheet on the mattress with a rope and a catching clasp, like a real hannibal lecter. >> that is extreme.

to have a sleep sheet. and the hole. and your head is in the hole. but what is interesting is, and this harkens back to what we were saying earlier, people relate to it. there is a recognition factor. and the reason is not because they sleep in a sheet that has holes in it, but because everybody has their thing. everybody has their thing they're embarrassed about, and they don't want to talk about it, and then they see you talk about, it and they go oh, oh, i guess i could talk about that. >> thanks so much. >> thank you. >> yes, indeed, everyone has their thing. some refreshing honesty to end this week. and that is it for our program tonight. thanks for watching "amanpour and co." i'm christianne amanpour. e you again next time.

. this is "nightly business report" with bill griffeth and sue herera. on wall street. stocks suffer a punishing pull back as investors grow concerned about the once red hot tech sector. arrested development. a legend in the global automotive industry is taken into custody slamming the brakes on a once powerful executive. opioid lawsuit. florida sues the nation's largest two drugstore chains alleging they played a big role in the drug epidemic. those stories and more tonight on "nightly business report" for monday, november 19th. and we do bid you good evening, everybody. welcome. the titans of tech are tanking. the sector that led the stock market higher for