TOM: The goal was to make people laugh.
RAY: To entertain, you know, just make something interesting. Even if they don't laugh, maybe it's something that people will want to watch. Hey, I got a question. How are you credited as director? Just because you velcroed a camera to the dashboard, that makes you a director?
TOM: First of all, it's two cameras. And somebody had to yell, "Cut!" when you were walking around in your underwear.
RAY: You should've kept that in. Might've gotten us an actual laugh.
TOM: We have about ten years of footage that I shot of Ray and me on the road, including a lot of funny stuff from this tour that had to be cut for time. Our first cut was four hours long. We really punished our friends who we forced to watch it.
Why choose this style of film as opposed to a traditional concert film?
RAY: Well, we did a combination of it. We mixed it up with stand-up from each venue we went to. I think the interesting stuff for the fans is the behind-the-scenes stuff, you know.
TOM: After each test screening, we took more and more stand-up out because people reacted so well to the behind-the-scenes stuff. You really see what happens in between shows. We're out there driving ourselves around, which is how we always did it before Raymond. As funny as Ray's stand-up is, this feels like you're really seeing a snapshot of what it's like to be a comedian on the road. You're not talking about flying private jets here and there, it's basically two guys in a car driving from city to city.
RAY: It's the road. I guess you have to like each other to be able to do tours together year after year. By "liking each other" I mean you like each other enough to hate certain aspects of each other, you know what I mean? The worst is to be driving with somebody and hate that he's doing something, but not know him well enough to be able to say anything. That wasn't the case with us.
TOM: You'll see. There's no lack of Ray yelling at me.
RAY: No, there's no lack of you doing things that deserve to be yelled at.
TOM: [Laughs] I'm like the abused spouse here. "I hit you because you deserve to be hit, not out of the blue".
RAY: You make me.
TOM: I think that because we had been roommates, there are no formalities or anything. It's, you know, "Stop that. Stop doing that!" Is there anything in the film that you think people will be pleasantly surprised about?
RAY: Some people have said they're just surprised because they associate me with, you know, my salary and the success of the show, that we wouldn't be doing some of the things, driving from gig to gig and not having an entourage, so maybe that's something that gets people by surprise. It's just two stupid guys.
TOM: I think people are suspicious. Like, "Why is Ray doing stand-up? Why isn't he being driven in a limo?"
RAY: But otherwise, it's a little bluer.
TOM: Well, you swear.
RAY: If people just know me from just the TV show, well, they're not going to be shocked but...it's not PG.
TOM: There are a couple of four letter words.
RAY: A couple of four letter words, and once in a while I...I show my heinie.
TOM: Not the whole heinie, just enough to keep them interested. No, but I would say that seeing how accessible Ray is and how normal he is--
RAY: And by normal you mean crazy.
TOM: Yeah. We've screened it many times and people were like, "Why is he staying in those hotels, why is he in a normal room?" And so on. I think people are expecting you to have the whole top floor of a hotel, lounging around in a white robe.
RAY: Yeah, they're thinking of...
TOM: ...P. Diddy or something.
How did you go about shooting the film? What makes it different from other road films?
TOM: When we first shot it, Ray was against it 100 percent. He said he didn't want a big crew, he didn't want a car following us, people in the room with us, whatever. So we compromised. And we got two cameras and velcroed them to the dashboard, and we got a USC film student who had been an intern on the show.
RAY: Roger was a real skinny guy.
TOM: He basically crouched down in the back seat and stayed out of view, and every once in awhile would pop up with a camera.
RAY: Do you remember Topo Gigio?
TOM: Yeah, he was just like that. A little mouse who would pop up with a camera. So what we lost in ten cameras covering the action, we gained in intimacy and that's what you see when Ray and I are fighting. You really forget that the cameras are there. It not like you're playing to the camera. I mean, after the first two hours it's instantly like, "Your fingers can't go in your nose, you understand that?!"
RAY: Yeah, that gave it more of an organic feel not having a big crew around us. But then again, it was kind of lame having to velcro and tape things, because all of a sudden you'd get hit in the head with a camera.
TOM: If you want to make a movie for five hundred bucks or less, watch this movie, 'cuz this is it. Meanwhile, it took us many years and a jillion dollars to edit it.
RAY: Well, we did have 130 hours of footage.
TOM: And we were kinda busy on Raymond. Ray, did you ever think you would finish it?
RAY: After 130 hours I said, "What do we got?" There wasn't a car crash, nothing traumatic happened...
TOM: Or DRA-matic. Nothing happens in this movie.
RAY: I said, "How is this interesting?" Plus, I didn't see how it would even come together. In the car there were tapes from this camera, and tapes from this camera, and tapes from that camera. And I'm like, "How are you going to know which one coincides with that one?" It just looked like a mishmash of tapes and I just thought, "There's no way any of this will ever piece together."
TOM: I think when you watch the movie you're amazed how many little funny things happen. You know? One funny thing after another, after another.
RAY: Yeah, but if you take 130 hours and you find those little funny things and you make them--
TOM: Well, that's what we did. Why are you complaining? That's what the movie is.
RAY: Yeah. I'm not. I'm just surprised.
What else do we see in the film?
RAY: You hear me sing. You'll hear why it's lucky I can do comedy.
TOM: Usually people who can't sing are the people that like to sing the most when they are in the car with you.
RAY: Yeah, I wish I could sing.
TOM: Me, too. You want to sing something now?
RAY: No, no, let's not spoil it for them. And in the film you see, uh, you see a lot of bickering.
TOM: One of our friends saw the movie and said, "I knew it was a comedy, I didn't know it was a love story." [They laugh.]
RAY: It's like an old married couple on the road. If you've ever been on a trip for awhile with a family member or whatever, you realize how even though you like that person or know that person, you can't help but yell and scream at them.
© 2020 95 Miles to Go. All Rights Reserved.