Hey, guys.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for joining us here tonigh at Potomac Station Coffee House, where the coffee has standards and the cinnamon rolls have no regrets.

We have a great show for you.

Coming up.

I'm trying to be funny.

Im Valerie, thats David, and this is our Gen X Pittsburgh podcast.

Tonight's guest truly needs no introduction.

At some point of your life you probably woke up with him.

Okay?

He's the Pittsburgh comedian with a heart of gold, and he's the only person we know who can string together as Stellar Los, a smiley cooki and a Pittsburgh parking chair.

We got Jim Krenn in the hous tonight.

Woo!

Pittsburgh royalty Sure is.

I'm super excited about this I am so excited.

You know I, I worked in radio for about 20 years.

And when I was in college I didn't want to date Jim because, you know, my back hurts when I wake up in the morning and my knees ache when it rains, right?

But when I was in college, Ji was sort of the big name, right?

It was what everyone wanted to.

Everyone who was working in radio was aspiring to be host of the DVE morning show.

Right?

It was a big deal.

It was huge deal.

Yeah.

All right, all right all right, take a quick break.

Short break.

Be right back with Jim Krenn.

All right welcome back to GXP.

We got Jim Krenn here.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thanks for having me I love this coffee shop.

Im a new fan.

It's like a jewel jewel jewelry or something.

Yeah I know.

Pastry it's amazing back there.

Right.

Smells so good.

I could just sit here and smell in the bakery, right?

Good.

Yes.

Back in the day.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I remember it.

Yeah.

So, you know, I first of all, thank you so much for being here.

Thanks.

I wasn't kidding.

Valerie and I were very excited, but.

My honor.

I called her, and I was like, you're never going to believ who just said yes, right?

Like.

And I'll tell you, I booked Mayor Peduto, right?

And I was like, I didn't call her to.

I talk about Jim Krenn.

So thank you so much.

Yeah.

But I would love if you would start just by telling us your background because you're so associated with Pittsburgh.

Did you grow up here?

I mean, what was it?

I grew up in the Strip District, 12th Street.

Really?

Yeah.

Right behind the Heinz History Center in a little dive apartment.

You know, we lived above American equipment in those days.

The wholesalers rented out to different people.

You know some of these little apartments.

My grandmother and great grandmother lived there.

My aunts, uncles, there were row houses where they're parking lots.

Now, you know, in the Strip on 13th, 14th Street, and the church owned them, the church would rent them out to people.

So I grew up the first 15 years of my life, family was all around me, just blocks within blocks.

I thought everybody had like that.

I was fortunate as I grew up, I was like, no, I was rea blessed to to have it that way.

And then of course, time changed things.

And, you know, we moved out there from places and we stayed there while my mom, dad, the Brookline, I went off to college and on a road and wouldn't stand u and but my the epicenter myself where I grew up or, you know, learned to be me.

I guess my family is in the Strip.

Wow.

All the way.

And so Valerie said to me, you know, h grew up in the Strip district, and I said he most certainly did not mean I was wrong.

Right.

So.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it was cool.

Yeah.

You went to IUP.

I went to IUP.

I studied business, of all things.

Wow.

I was I had, like, a GPA of, like, 2.1 or something like that.

They had me up there about seven years ago for distinguished alumni or something.

I'm like, di they even look at my transcript?

Right?

They mustve saw I graduated that was it.

I barely made it graduated, but I wanted to be a comedian since I was a kid, since I was in high school.

And that's what you wanted.

I just knew it.

And I was funny.

Were you funny?

Quietly funny.

Amongst friends, a small group.

And I was able to do impressions.

Yeah.

You know, I was young, and I probably shouldn't have seen it, but I was.

I was like, my first impression was Jack Nicholson.

And I saw Cuckoo's Nest, like, 13 years old.

And after I watched it, I just walked around talking like Jack Nicholson.

I couldn't stop talking like Jack.

And I realized I had something here.

So I started to do impressions and it went.

It grew from there.

And I developed an act and won my talent show in high school somehow, and went and took off from there.

And I said, how do I make a living?

Then how do you do this?

Right?

Making a living.

And God blessed me, because it was an era where the comedy clubs boomed and they weren't.

They were new, new concept the same concept in structure.

That's now you have an emcee of the middle act.

You have a headliner.

Same thing as the improv now or wherever.

So they had these clubs all over the country, three, four clubs and every city, and you could make a living as a as a comedian, which was crazy.

So I got out of college and I went on the road and became a comedian.

I started as an emcee and worked my way up the headliner about two years.

I was driving around the country doing one nighters.

About two years went by and I didn't care.

I wouldve did it forever as an emcee.

But two years later, I remember I'm flying around the country headlining, and and this is what I'm going to do.

I'm thinking, you know, and so I started to become a regular at Dangerfield' in New York, lived in New York for a while, but in Pittsburgh, go back and forth.

But a lot of my work was East Coast in New York City, had an uncle lived up there.

I stayed with him, and so I, I was ready to move to LA with a couple managers.

They were going to manage me an Jim Carrey and Tim Allen.

Wow.

They were all in the comedy club circuit like me.

So they Allen was known a little bit from Showtime.

Carey was a headliner and all the comedy clubs from Canada.

Really great act, obviously unique and myself.

And these two guys who are going to manage us from Dangerfield's.

And they moved to L and I said, I'm going to go home for a few months, Pittsburgh and and I'll meet you.

I'll go to LA, you know, say it was like September, I'll be out in January.

So I get home and I start working aroun Pittsburgh and I go to Graffiti.

Remember?

Graffiti?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I had a gig at graffiti.

They were tied into WDVE to promote the show.

And I'm like, okay, so you go on a morning show.

I didn't realize this, but DVE was 17th in the marke out of 20 stations at that time.

Their morning show left Jimmy and Steve's right.

So I was like, okay, this is kind of cool.

I go on a morning sho and Scott Paulson is there and they're trying to hang on or going to, I guess, change or whatever it's going to happe when youre 17th in the market.

I didnt know any of this at all So I hit it off with Scott and I enjoyed it.

It was different than stand up as like combat, you know, you have to get for laughs a minute, for an hour.

And this was like, you know, talking like, this is nice and sass is fun and did a few impressions and whatever.

And it just took off from there.

And they asked me at the end of three months.

I'd go back.

They said, come back every Friday.

So I did, and at the end of three month they said, do you want to stay?

Do you want to go on to to do this for a while?

And I didn't.

I said, okay.

And they said, okay well we'll pay a lot of money.

And I said, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So I thought it would las six months and it went 24 years.

So yeah.

Glad I did Glad I stayed in Pittsburgh too.

Well, it seems like, tell me if I'm wrong, but you were actually working a lot more than if you were doing comedy.

I mean, the routine of it, right?

Like there were so many skits and so much, so many remotes and and so many live appearances.

It just seems like you were always working.

I don't know how you know, on a Monday.

Yeah.

It seemed like you guys spent hours in the production studio coming up with gig or skits, right?

Am I right about that or how did that work?

I loved to write.

I wrote on and off for a couple of years for Jerry Seinfeld and Dennis Miller and a few other comedians and I loved writing for others.

I love writing my act in There was so much freedom with DVE at the time.

You know, like I said, th ratings weren't big yet, right?

So we had 8 to 10 minute windows that I could talk about anything I wanted.

And I always thought I always wanted.

I thought, what would Saturday Night Live on radio be like to do characters?

And I did characters.

Yeah.

And some I did on stage for not many.

And I had developed them for what?

I don't know what for, bu here it was, you know, for this.

And so I developed these, you know, characters and skit and, and that's how it started.

I started filling them u with writing and waited to see which ones caught on and ended with at the end.

It was a 24 separate characters I did in skits that I just kept, you know, would redo, retool, and we started getting into CDs, which was fun.

At the end of the first year, we had all these skits, you know, these characters, and what do we do with them?

So we Scott and I said well, let's do a CD, a comedy CD we put in cassette.

That's how long that was.

And we did that.

And remember National Record Market.

Yeah, yeah, we sold like I don't, we sold like enough to make like like three $400,000 right.

Oh my god I'm like 25 or something 26 now I gave 100% of its charity.

Not a dime.

Right.

And that was fun because I wa able to cut checks for 50 grand to charities.

Wow.

Like Animal Friends and all these charities I get to bond with.

And it was real cool being able to help them out like that.

And I didn't realize it until it was happening.

Yeah.

And I said, this is fantastic.

You know, it feels so good.

And my grandmother was right.

What happene was when I first started on DVE, I, you know, had this billboard campaign, there's a $300,000 billboard campaign.

So I'm all over the city plastered my face.

And I remember I'd pic my grandmother up on Wednesdays.

We go to the bingo.

She lived in Shaler, so I drive her down the south side to the bingo, and I'm all over the place in billboards.

I'm on DVE now, maybe six, eight months, and we're pulling o the north side of it was there's one of those billboards like huge.

And I say what do you think, grandma?

She goes, she goes.

Great.

You know what, Jimmy?

You're only going to be remembere for who you help in life.

Wow.

She said use that.

Yeah, she was right.

Wow.

That' where the charity thing came in.

It was right.

She was right.

That's where the joy came.

And helping these groups you know, charity organizations.

And we did like 18 through my career CDs and and it's helped me a lot because it those bits ended up emblazoned and a lot of people's minds until this day, which I love.

People come up and quote them to me which is so fun.

I had a guy, like a guy whos a heart surgeon at UPMC, he's like doing, okay, this is what you did here.

Pants Nat.

You know, like, wow, how do you know that?

I want to, I want to I just want to kind of throw something out there real quick.

Sure.

Multiple times you top entertainer and favorite radio personal personality in Pittsburgh.

Multiple.

Multiple times.

In 2008, the mayor declared Jim Krenn Day, February 22nd.

Yeah, for all your charity work, Animal Friends Lifetime Achievement Award becaus you were helping abused animals, the FBI gave them him award, which is pretty cool.

The the Director's Community Service Award for your leadership and charitable outreach.

2012 Pittsburgh City Council named you and honorary ambassador of the City of Pittsburgh.

You've used your platform to help animals and children and families.

This is just absolutely incredible.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank my grandma.

Right.

Grandma was right.

Grandma was right.

And I' so glad I stayed in Pittsburgh my entire career and didn't move out.

I had a few opportunities and I just didn't want to.

And I can tell you it's the most unique city in the world, right?

Right.

People don't know we have a subwa that goes a block long, I know.

That's ours.

We like that, right.

We have an incline we don't us except when people come in from out of town.

We like.

It's us.

our thing, but.

But the people and I not just saying it mean it like for instance, when I got let go on radio after 24 years and I was ready to go.

Believe me, it was time healthwise.

But.

But when I got let go, man Pittsburgh, I'd see someone in Giant Eagle.

Hey, Jimmy.

Yeah, okay.

You can live in my attic if you want until things pick up.

Thats Pittsburgh man, you know, worried about me.

And I love that ma about the city and the people.

And we talked about when you when you left DVE, people were protesting.

And if you guys remembe that, like, people were pissed and they wanted you back, they were amazing.

Yeah.

I was real touched by that.

And, I mean, I just can't thank the people enough for what they've done for m and, you know, making my career.

I had my buddies in Lawrenceville, I had to talk them out of it they wanted to burn the building down.

Well, like, no, guys, that's not a good idea.

I'll tell you that how cool Pittsburgh is to anybody out there is not from here.

And we're talking about saying get it.

In 2008, I lost my dog Gizmo He was walking in Banksville Par A friend of mine was walking.

He gets off leash, gets lost.

Its December 18th, 17th, December 17th, ten degrees like snow everywhere.

Banksville Park.

I run up there and I'm looking for him for hours and hours and it goes through the night and he's a little like 12 pound mix mutt from Animal Friends.

And I'm worried.

Yeah.

It's freezing.

Yeah.

And the next morning I look, it's five in the morning.

And I called DVE and said, I can't make it.

It's all they said on the radio.

Said Jim Krenns not coming in today.

He lost his dog in Banksville Pa He's looking for.

It's all they said.

About an hour and a half later, this guy has a dog.

Hey, man, did you find him yet?

What?

Did you find Gizmo?

I'm like how do you know he lost Gizmo?

They said on the radio you're looking for him.

I took a vacation day to come out.

Oh.

Oh, my God, that's Pittsburgh baby.

Yeah.

So I don't know this, bu the media is picking up on it.

It ends up my mom saw it.

She wasn't watching Oprah.

Unbelievable.

She saw it on a crawl.

Jim Crane's the dog Gizmo lost.

Only Pittsburgh Yeah, Gizmos got an Amber alert I don't notice, I'm looking around for Gizmo and the media is following me.

And so I looked up at one point I found him in day three.

I found him.

But anyway, day tw I looked up in this parking lot.

There has to be 700 people there.

Like, yeah, it was like ground zero.

Or I had guys.

I had guys from Marines wit night vision goggles that came by.

We found him day three.

He was fine, just dehydrated, the whole thing, and I was at my house and everyone was celebrating.

He found him and people were so kind right.

Theyre passing him around like a trophy.

Yeah.

So I'm sitting there.

It's like 11:00 at night now.

I'm just, you know, I can't believe he's alive and just dehydrated.

So I get a call from Andrew Stocky.

He says, hey, man, could you come on the air talk and talk on the phone?

I said, sure.

So Im talking.

And I go, I wonder what they're putting on TV.

I don't know how they got it till this day.

Gizmo got a headshot.

Like it looked professional.

I don't know where he got it.

It was over Stockys head and it said Gizmo found underneath.

Where'd the picture?

Unbelievable.

Gizmo found.

Only in Pittsburgh, right?

It's.

But that's the community, man, right?

Everybody came together.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

Was on DVE or any of that.

Know that you would.

We would come out for anyone that we knew that was in need like that.

We would come out for any neighbor that was hurting like that to help them.

And that to me is epitomizes Pittsburgh.

Why I love this city, the people right there.

It's one story of many, but I love that one.

Gizmo found.

One of the thing that I was always impressed with and continue to be when were talking about Pittsburgh and the community, is that you had this unique gif to bring out the Yinzer, right?

But but not.

And everyone loved it.

Right.

But but never to talk down.

Right.

It was like you were one of the peopl and they appreciated that where, you know, if it was somebody else from out of town, what you were saying they might have been irritated with.

Yeah.

Well, you know, when I was on the road, don't stand up, okay, I got this.

You build these instincts comedically from doing six shows a week, every week for years, for six years at that point.

And I grew up in Pittsburgh, obviously.

And so I'm back here and living and after about three beers in me, I start talking like this.

I gotta reign in my Pittsburghese.

That's all it takes is three beers.

Three beers, all it takes.

Give me another round.

And it's one of those things or language.

And I noticed at that time people that was kind of was seen as derogatory for some reason.

And I'm like, why is that?

And I thought I created thi character, Stanley P. Kachowski.

I have no idea where I named him.

Stanley P. Kachowski and I decided, okay, he's going to just be proud of who he is and screw everybody.

If you don't like it you know, kind of thing, right?

He's proud of it, man.

He loves Pittsburgh.

Its the town.

You don't get it.

Too bad.

It's just going to be honest.

You kno going to try and make it honest this character and make commentaries and and and he just he took off all the sudden it took off.

And the Yinzer thing just started building with it and I didn't you know, start it or anything or create it Yinzers been around a long time, but it was I had a small part in it with that character.

I was doodling, listening to Lou Reed Take a Walk on the Wild Side, and I don't know why I'm saying talk, walk, take a walk on the Southside.

And the Polish girl saying.

So I go and record it.

And again, we raised for charity.

I think I sold 100,000 units in two weeks or something like that, but one song and that kind of like broke open that character, Stanley P, to become the foundatio of all the characters that I do.

He became, because it is derivative of myself, really.

And, and my relatives, friend hes a little bit of everybody.

So the characters that.

So I did sing a commentaries on what was going on, and it's really fun having people come up and remind me of commentaries I don't remember, you know, whatever its been 20 years.

Yeah.

You talk about this, you talk about that.

The heart surgeon guy I told you comes up to me and says, hey, remember Stanley?

You did where you're in JoJo's diner, and I don't remember the story telling me in small history.

And he said, he said, your belly's hanging over on your shirt, and you feel tickle.

You turn it around.

Its Sharon Stone, and you looked over and he goes close your legs.

And he was like, I forgot that whole bit.

But that would be epitome of what Stanley was.

He's like that weird, you know, our cousin, our neighbor, our friend Pittsburgh guy.

And he's proud to be Pittsburgh.

So it's kind of cool to be reminded of that.

You had you had so many characters, did you come up with the character first or the voice first, or like, how did you build those characters?

Sometimes a little bit of both.

Ralph the Cat.

I had the character.

I love that, right.

Hes my burnout cat.

Yeah, he was based off a friend in college, at IUP he's my burnout friend.

Bullwinkle is his nickname.

And he had his voice, man.

You know, that burnout cat kind of nervous a little bit, you know, just like everything's the world's getting I need my weed.

I need my weed.

Everythings good man.

And I would do the character and on open stage I do you know club Pittsburgh comedy club, whatever.

And people would laugh at th character, the voice and I go, I gotta do something with that voice.

I don't kno what I can do with that voice.

This went on for months.

Hey man.

So months go by.

Now I have a million dog and cats, and this was my first one.

Was Ralph Cat.

Real cat.

I go to Animal Friends and they were on they were o Penn Avenue at the time, Strip, and they go in and a lady, it was a real small place, lady in front, Judy.

She worked there she goes.

I said, I'd like to get a cat.

She goes, go back, look.

Look, should I go back and look?

There's Ralph, mangy.

You look and had, like, round eyes.

Hair sticking up everywhere, its real thin, craz looking in the back.

Who's that?

Ralph.

He's a lifer.

What's that?

It's a no kill shelter.

He's gonna live her forever.

He got taken back four times.

He got sent back.

He's.

Yeah.

So I go, I'll take him.

She goes are you sure?

I go yeah.

How many of you have cats here, cat people?

Okay I didn't know what catnip was.

If you never had a cat.

Yeah, catnip looks like weed.

And I go to the counte and Judy says this is for Ralph.

Hands me a big bag.

I'm like, Judy I'm going to adopt him.

You don't give me anything.

Like, is that, like, such a thing adopt an animal, get a bag of weed?

Like, are you allowed to do this?

And she goes, no, it's his.

And Im like.

Is there like a little kitty bong?

How do you do it?

Do you blow it in his face?

I've no idea.

Yeah.

She goes, no you put it in a sock and he'll he'll love it.

He needs it.

It relaxes him.

Like, okay, so I'm driving home these little box, this little hand trying to get the catnip, hes crazy, nuts.

I let him out in my house.

It's a big living room, long wooden floor.

He comes out, is shaking.

He's freaking out.

He's rolling around like, what's going on?

So I remember the catnip, and I get the cat and put it in a sock, throw it.

He starts making love to the sock like Barry White.

Making love.

Hey baby, you keep on doing it.

And all of a sudden he start rolling and runs into the wall like he wanted to.

And I look at his his littl eyes like this, look up at me.

And that's when the character voice could look like he wanted to talk to me.

Yeah.

And he had a look like I'm gonna like it here, man.

Thanks for the sock, dude.

You got two feet.

That means you got another sock, man.

I'm like, Ralph, that's you, man.

You're that character.

You're that voice.

And that's how it was born.

I went on the went to work and said, hey, I got a character.

Wow.

They thought it was nuts.

I said, no, I' telling you, it's going to work.

I'm going to call in his Ralph the Cat.

And it took off the catnip thing.

And guess everyone associated with, you know, that kind of thing.

And it's just innocent, funny, burnout character, you know, who was having to be a cat?

Well, it's amazing to me that you had not only did you have so many Pittsburghers as part of the skits, you know, the mayors and and things like that.

But you had so many of them as guests in the skits.

Sophie Maslov right.

Edgar Schneider I mean, how did that happen?

So I start, I don't realize you can get sued.

I didn't know.

I wasn't thinking.

27 years old, just on the radio having fun.

And I started doing a skit called Edgar Shyster.

And I'm doing Edgar doing a skit, and I do it recurring until I get a phone call.

Secretary goes, Edgar Schneider.

Mr.

Schneider, I'm so sorry, I apologize, I was just joking around.

He goes, no, I love it.

What?

I love it.

Can I do it live?

Yeah.

And I realized that's why this guys so successful.

He gets it, man.

He came out and did it live with me and the crowd went out of their minds.

They loved him.

They loved him for doing that.

So yeah, it was really cool.

Sophie was the same way.

You know, I would do, you know, thank you very much.

Right?

I was supposed to interview her when the Smithfield Street bridges open.

She was late, so I did a bit of her bungee jumping.

It made no sense.

People, you know.

So I do this bit.

And I was relentless on Sophie and it was so funny.

And then fast forwar about 15 years later, whatever, they're roasting me, there's a roast and they are killing me.

It's like Comedy Central times two.

Rated X, killing me.

Sophie gets up.

Rose to me, that's a nice it's almost complimentary.

She was worried as she's leaving, producer said.

She kept saying to him I hope Jim is not mad at me.

Okay but yeah, it was interesting.

Great people.

My one of my favorites is I did Joe DeNardo.

Yes.

Right.

And I made fun of the schools, business, whatever.

You know, partly cloudy skies.

Every forecast was the same.

And I'd make up these weird, like, you know, degenerate grade schools or something.

You know, they'd go to this, like a brothel or whatever.

And I'm doing this for a while, and I get asked to do the Saint Patrick's Day parade, and that's cool from Pittsburgh.

Yeah, I want to do that.

All my buddies were drunk handing me Beers.

It's going to be fun.

So they said, you got to go up to the arena at whatever time it was 7:00 You get to get a car, whatever.

I'm up there waiting and a guy jumps on my back, gets me in a headlock.

It's Joe Denardo.

He starts MFing me.

Every other words is F. You bleep you bleep I'm gonna sue your bleeping [bleep] I'm going to bleeping sue yo I'm going to sue.

Im so sorry.

He goes I'm just messing with you.

Yeah yeah I loved it.

It was fun.

Everybody I met was yeah they all got it.

They all understood and played it along.

And it was just wonderful.

I actually have a nobody's here to hear me, but I have a pretty funny Joe Denardo story.

Okay.

You know when I. So when you're not successful in radio, you know, you work at a million different stations, right?

Until they find out you're no good at your job and they shift you to the next one.

And so I was working at WTAE when it was AM and but at the same place, a TV station.

Right.

And so the first day there's like, they hired three guys, we're all sitting there in the break room and there's a huge they just started a new promotion.

Right.

So there's Joe's face and i said Joe said it would, right?

He was like a God back then.

He was the man.

Well so Joe walked into the cafeteria and he walks up to us and he said, hi, I'm Joe Denardo.

And I said, no, I, I know.

And he said, well, if you need anything, be sure to let me know.

And I said, I will.

And he went, an this was the funny part, right?

He went, you know I'm kind of a big deal around here?

And he said it in such a way I couldn't tell if he was being earnest or kidding or.

He's the sweetest guy.

I got to know him, man.

Not a nicer guy.

Yeah, really good man.

So many of those people were like the first, second generation of broadcasters.

They all had great sense of humor.

They did.

They were as funny as could be.

Yeah, yeah.

Real, you know, X-rated, funny stuff.

Right?

Right.

Can we go back to characters?

I want to talk about Action League now.

Wow.

How do you have your own Nickelodeon?

Yeah, I had a there was a hit sho on Nickelodeon for five seasons, and I did five voice on this show, and it was weird how and ended up doing a Burger King international commercial for two of the characters as a giveaway for kids meal.

It's how big these two characters, Stinky Diver and The Flesh got, and it got so big after five seasons that I still get emails today that kids six seven years ol watched it back then in the 90s.

And how it started was a buddy of mine.

He was doing, Rick Wakowski his name was, great guy, ver talented, had a production house in West Virginia in Weirton, and he was at the station.

He was doing soundtrack for a TV show for Nickelodeon.

It was Action League Now!

the show.

He said, hey, would you lay down some, do the voices, make up some voices just for me to time the soundtrack?

Sure.

I said, okay.

So I did about five voice in about a month later he said, hey man, you got a gig?

I go, what?

He goes, they loved all five voices.

They want you to be the main characters on this show.

I said what and he said yeah.

So I would go down to the the hall in the studio and they'd be in New York because, guys, I'd have a script, theyd fax, I'd record episodes like 15 a year or season and got paid nothing, didn't know what I was doing.

I got paid a little bit, but but it was just amazing how powerful that show was.

I didn't realize that.

And, you know, you really realize why you're why you're you want to be an entertainer in a way, from something that happened to me because of that show and happening once a couple times on DVE, just people connecting on what it meant to them, how it healed them.

I got a letter, an old school letter about eight years ago in.

This kid was in his 30s.

He lived somewhere in Indianapolis.

He's writing this letter and he said about Action League Now, and he said his his mom and dad died in a car wreck when he was six years old.

He said, my characters, Stinky Diver and The Flesh were the only thin that got him through that.

Wow, wow.

I was like, man, yeah, that's wow.

That's a that's a powerful thing.

When you think about if you do nothing else in your life.

I thought that was enough right there.

Yeah.

And I get that sometime on DVE where people would say, hey, when I remember one woman sai she had dialysis on Thursdays.

You got to be funny.

You get me through.

It just reminds you, how powerful, what an honor it is and what you're, you know, it's the duty it is and the privilege it is to have that position to be able to do that.

So it was so actually it was pretty nice to me.

I enjoyed that having that show for five seasons.

So going from comedy to Pittsburgh radio and becoming Jim Krenn, what what's that like?

I mean, being because you're sort of the Donnie Iris of comedy right here in Pittsburgh.

What's tha like being so Pittsburgh famous?

It is really cool.

Yeah, yeah.

I haven't bought a drink in 20 years.

No, it is, it's fun and it's fun for my friends.

And, you know, because, you know, Pittsburghers are you know, they appreciate you know, they appreciate.

And so yeah it's been I just look at it as a real blessing and a real it's been a blast.

As fun as you would think.

You know what I mean.

It's people.

But people I don't know if it's this area again or it's like that everywhere, but they don't bother you or anything, but it will be like, I'll be like a week later.

You're like hey, Jimmy, I saw you, TJ Maxx.

I didn't want to bother you.

Just want you to know I saw you.

Okay, thanks.

Thats pretty funny But yeah, it's it's really fun.

It was really an instant kind of cool thing that happened.

But after the first year, I guess it was when it starte to get recognized stuff, right?

Yeah.

Well, so, I mean, you and Scott, were really responsibl for the success of DVE, right?

You talked about it was one of the lowest ranked stations and then it was a powerhouse.

You were commanding the number one ad rates.

You had the highest ratings for a long time.

The Steelers moved to DVE, I think, at one point.

Right?

I mean, it was a big deal when you guys were there.

Yeah, I mean, I was part of it.

I mean, it was a real team effort to get to that kind of thing.

It would programmers.

This guy, Gene Ramona, was instrumenta in my career and believing in me and backing me when I was a kid, you know, because what I did was unorthodox.

It wasn't really radio, radio.

It was, you know it's different then, you know?

And he backed me and was a creative genius in his own right.

We had great general managers and good, you know, like I said, program directors throughout my career.

And I had great people around me, just you.

Everyone worked hard.

We all wanted to win and have fun to ratings were fun and to win.

And we saw the results and and with with the live shows and people coming out.

That was a lot of fun.

Yeah, it was wild going the live shows sometimes, like I would do a show in Sarver, PA.

I'm not kidding, had to be like a thousand people camped out waiting to get in.

So fun.

And I thought, this is something I got to really appreciate.

And it's not I don't want to take anything for granted, I never did.

So have you thought about going back into radio?

Is that something you would do again?

I like podcasting more now.

I did, I when I first got out of it, I wasn't sure what to do.

I loved doing standup, but I loved radio it was natural for me, and I went back for like ten month with some friends and I didn't.

I just didn't wan I just didn't want to do that.

Wondered something different, you know, after 25 years of doing it.

So I'd say as far as morning radio, I don't think so.

I think I did everything I could do right.

It was becoming repetitive in the last few years for me in a way, you know, and I was ready to do something different and try new, new avenues with comedy.

Like I said, podcasting is great.

I do love stand up and and with the internet and social media and changing things, you can build your own a new following, you know, which is cool.

You know, I'm lucky.

My fan page on Facebook, it's like a million views a month.

Wow.

And so that that keeps things fueled and some evolution stand up.

And you don't have to run the country and corporate shows and doing my own podcast called Jim Krenn No Restrictions.

And so yeah, it's it's fun keeping busy with it.

You never stop, never retire, when you love what you do.

Right.

I don't think I ever coul retire.

What is the Gen X Pittsburgh Podcast?

Let me take you back.

Remember when coffee was king and pizza bagels ruled on the corner of 14th and Carson at the beehive?

But how about that tim you stumbled upon art all night?

How cool was that?

Or when your evening started instead of at 10 p.m.?

Yeah, we miss those days too.

So we're bringing them back.

One Gen-X story at a time.

Joining David Rullo and I, Valerie Christofel, as we sit down with the movers and shakers, the artists and the voices who helped shape Pittsburgh back in the early 90s.

Subscribe to the Gen X Pittsburgh podcast.

Welcome bac to the Gen X Pittsburgh podcast.

We are here with Jim Krenn.

Valerie, I think you have a, I think you have a. It's been a lot of fun.

I think you have a crowd question correct?

I do.

Our first I think by the way.

Yes.

Cool.

How did your Pittsburgh characters travel outside of the city?

Did people understand them?

They do understand them to a degree.

When I go to Los Angeles, my buddy Mark will put together shows.

We'll do maybe three weeks of shows, different clubs, you know, do showcase rooms, bu we also do these little clubs.

And what happens at the end of the show?

Mark will bring me up and say, Jimmy's from Pittsburgh.

You know, he's Mark's from Youngstown area and and he's going to tell you some Pittsburgh stories.

And I would get up and I would describe Pittsburgh at first.

And it's just like any other neighborhood, you know, just and really it's my act is storytelling.

So I just say, you know, like, I'll say my mom is a Pittsburgh mom, which means her idea of breakfast is a cigarette and doctor pepper, things like that.

Give them an image.

And then I'll go into the stor so it travels well as a story.

You know, stories are just stories.

People are just people.

The act travels.

When I do my stand up, Id say maybe ten minutes of it is Pittsburgh.

The rest is all stor that can be interchanged, you know, into the story and impressions and whatever.

But but they yeah.

Travels well though because it's no different than you know, us watching Fargo or things like that or new Jersey whatever.

It's just their own little world, but commonality being just people.

Sure.

Just try and do our best.

So yeah.

Travels.

What makes you laugh these days?

Oh, man, that's a great question actually.

I like, I'm a TV, I grew up in a TV generation, and I guess certain shows make me laugh, like, you know, Seinfeld.

Some of the offbeat shows.

Man, Man Seeks Woman is one of the funniest shows I've seen in a while, so mainly some offbeat comedy shows like that, I guess that I enjoy.

You know, it's weird.

I don't know, maybe because I'm a comedian.

I like the weird, like gory stuff.

Dexter, stuff like that.

My girlfriend's like, you're so with your stuff.

My TV.

See my Netflix.

See all this like, horror, it's like, yeah, so.

But yeah, I try to laugh at everything, actually.

It's like everyone, you know.

Clever jokes make me laugh You know, clever jokes.

Im not your person for that.

Youre funny.

Youre good.

Yeah, I yeah, I love watching really good comics that can tell a story.

You know, Ron White's one of my favorite.

Believe it or not, he can tell, you know, just tells a good story.

Chappelle.

I love watching him.

Yeah.

It's my favorite thing is guys like that and women like that can tell.

You know.

Yeah.

Well, so you're so goo at what you do, but I'm curious, you know, when you hear Seinfeld talk about his jokes, he talks about years of of of, you know, honing these jokes and really getting his act where he wants it to be.

Do you d you don't seem to be that style.

I don't mean that in a bad way.

I just mean that you are muc more natural as a storyteller.

It seems like much more comfortable telling stories.

Is that true?

Well, yes and no.

Actually, Seinfeld was a big influence on me in the late 80s before I got on the DVE.

I was writing with him and he taught me a lot.

Hes not much older, you know, but but I'm just saying he was ahead of the game, obviously, and we were working on a joke.

We were at this club in Rochester and he was doing The Tonight Show, and we're working on a joke.

And I like this one line I had in it.

It was good.

And he kept he did it once.

Didn't do it after that.

Why dont you do my line?

He goes Jimmy, it's got to be better than good.

I say what do you mean?

Jerry goes everybody ha somebody in their family who is funny.

He said everybody ha someone at work that is funny.

And they really are funny.

He goes if you want to get if you want to charge money, you're going to have to be funnier than them.

Well, so you got to push it.

Yeah, you got to hone it.

And he taught me to structure my day, to work certain hours to write.

Till this day, you know, you pick out four hours a day and you're going to write those hours and take it really serious.

It's business.

And he taught me that.

And and as far as honing a joke, he, he, youve noticed he works very clean.

Right.

And one of the things he told me under forget he said Jim, if you, if you can make a joke clean and it could work from an eight year old to an 80 year old, the it becomes a piece of artwork.

Yeah.

So write artwork.

And I love that.

So I try to use that to challenge myself.

So the stories are loose, but they're actually orchestrated a bit.

They're honed in and done over and over trying to edit and different because everything has to be honed and segues.

So there's a little bit o but you don't want to show that because it's, you know, the work side.

You want to be, you know, Jimmy Buffett where it's no work, right?

Right Isn't really work will not work.

I wouldn't call that work.

But there's a certain time you put into it in certain disciplines.

Just like everything.

Sure.

Yeah.

What do you want to be remembered for?

Just what my grandmother said.

Just.

She's right.

You'll be remembered for the people you helped giving.

You know, like Saint Paul said, I'll show you a happy person.

If you show your perso giving to somebody or something.

And I want to be remembered as somebody who gave a lot and appreciated what he was given.

That's what Id like to be remembered for.

That's.

That'd be great.

Yeah.

You know, well you certainly given us your time and we appreciate that.

We really do.

Yeah.

But we're not done yet.

No, no, I want to ask you about Yinzer Dogs.

Oh.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I was hoping you were going to bring something.

Maybe next time, I promise.

We found the recipe of the Dirty O, the original hot dog, and we claimed it.

They didn't have a copyright We got it.

The dirty O. Yeah.

Wow.

Original hot dog.

Pittsburgh, right?

So we got the original Yinzer Dog and myself and Dan Marino and Larry Richert partnered, and we have this company called Yinzer Dogs, and it's the Dirty O Dog.

So fortunate and honored to be in Giant Eagle.

So you can get in Giant Eagle.

And we have a brick and mortar in Cranberry.

Yinzer Dog and one coming hopefully soon in the my home Strip District.

So we're looking for that.

But that's you know, the new thing we're into and not a food guy all of a sudden.

But I, I'm kind of like I'm a hot dog guy.

I love hot dogs and I love the Dirty O. Didnt we all, right?

Back in the day, Pittsburghs a hot dog town.

Yeah.

Hamburgers and hot dogs.

Right.

Right.

That's our thing.

Right.

And so we want to have the best hot dogs.

So we're going to work at that.

And so hopefully we will have that for you.

You must be pretty sure of yourself because I have to say that the only thing less stable than radio is the food business, right?

Yeah, I like to gamble.

Im gambler, arent I?

You sure are.

Yeah, definitely.

Enjoy it.

Taking a shot.

Taking a chance.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

For sure.

Yeah Thanks for having me on.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

So we got one more little thing for you.

Yeah.

Please.

We're going to ask you a question.

You just have to answer it.

These are quick.

They come fast.

All right.

Okay.

All right.

Rapid fire.

Three Rivers or Heinz Field?

Heinz Field.

Iron City or Rolling Rock?

Iron City.

No.

Do you see that?

No hesitation.

Turner's or Schneider's?

Turner's.

Favorite Gen X band?

Clarks.

We got a yes from the audience.

Yes.

Scott Blasey.

Donzis and Chaunceys or Rosebud and Metropol?

I really can't wait to hear this answer.

Donzis and Chaunceys.

All the way.

What about your favorite Gen X movie?

Oh, God.

That's I don't know.

That's a hard one.

I don't have to think about that for a while.

What's yours?

Probably.

Singles.

Do you remember singles?

Yeah.

Yeah, it was good.

Yeah.

Clerks.

Clerks?

Yeah, I like Clerks a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That whole, you know, style.

Nirvana or Pearl Jam?

Nirvana.

Okay.

Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

Christmas movie?

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Holiday.

Right.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Southside Beehive or Oakland Beehive?

Southside Beehive.

I used to work there, actually.

It's the coolest.

It was cool, right?

Yeah, it was very cool.

Which character are you from the Breakfast Club?

If you have one.

What was Molly Ringwalds character?

With the hat, right?

Yeah.

All right.

That's what we'll say.

Yeah.

We're actually addin one more question today.

Right.

So Paulsen and Krenn or Baumann and Krenn?

Paulsen and Krenn.

I love them both but we had such freedom back then, right?

I mean, not w couldn't get away with anything now we did back then So it was more of the Wild West.

But I love working with Randy also.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for being here.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you everybody that came out.

The Gen X Pittsburgh Podcast hosts are David Rullo and Valerie Christofel.

Executive producer, David Rullo.

Producer and graphic designer, Kim Rullo.

Producer, Valerie Christoffel.

Video production and editor, Brent Isaac.

Music by Neostem.