To get ready for the new football season, NBC fantasy football expert Matthew Berry was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. And the highlight wasn’t any start or sit advice, it was a story about Berry’s first job in the media industry with George Carlin.
Berry shared a photo of himself as a young man (with hair!) working as a production assistant on Carlin’s show. Who would have known at the time that he would go on to make a name for himself, not in the entertainment realm, but in a little thing called fantasy football.
Fantasy football didn’t begin booming in popularity until well after The George Carlin Show was off the air in 1995, but it was the advice that Carlin gave to Berry after meeting some of his friends backstage that has stayed with him till this day.
“I loved, loved working for him. He’s the sweetest guy. I’m actually his assistant on The George Carlin Show, which was a sitcom a while back,” Berry said.
He then relayed a story to Jimmy Fallon about Carlin entertaining Berry’s friends on the set showing them around that showed a completely different side to the famously acerbic comedian. He said that Carlin showered Berry with praise, saying that he was an integral part of the show and that Carlin consulted with him, even though in actuality he was a lowly production assistant.
“He goes, ‘You know, I consult with Matthew every single day,” Berry relayed. “I get his laundry Jimmy. I’m the gruntiest of grunts, I’m the lowest of the low on this show. But George gives me the big sell. ‘I consult with him every day, he’s a key cog, I couldn’t do the show without him, he’s going to be a big star.'”
The comments blew both Matthew Berry and his friends away. But what came the next day was a lesson that George Carlin taught him that he continues to put into practice himself.
“Listen, Matthew. You’re a nice kid, you work your ass off. I’m happy to do it. But honestly, for the rest of your friends’ life, the next time my name comes up, they will be like, ‘You know I met Carlin once he’s actually kind of a nice guy as opposed to, ‘I ran into Carlin once and he didn’t even sign an autograph for me.’ 30 seconds of my life for a lifetime fan, I will make that trade every single day,” Berry relayed.
It’s an unbelievable story about a comedy legend like George Carlin and Matthew Berry said that his advice is why he is always generous with a photo request, fantasy advice, or even trash talk for someone’s fantasy league. So while he may not have followed his footsteps into comedy, Berry is living out his former mentor’s advice in even more important ways.
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