OK, this post hereby wraps up the Ray Romano-adjacent content in 2025.

Somewhat surprising how often I’ve come back to him either with his show, or through Phil Rosenthal’s show and book, and now his book. (And we’re going to talk his show here too just to make sure we cover it all.)

But it’s not totally out of the blue.

As I was re-reading this book I realized it’s kind of appropriate that we spend this amount of time on him because it is Ray Romano that has certainly had the most influence on my comedy life.

OK, let’s start from the beginning. I decided I’d re-read this book next because after reading Phil Rosenthal’s book I thought it was only fair.

I probably hadn’t read this book in at least 25 years - it’s just been sitting on my shelf since I first read it way back in the late ‘90s. It’s moved with me from New York to many places in the Boston area and then here in Framingham…but I haven’t picked it off the shelf to read.

You know, it’s not exactly a piece of literature you have to keep coming back to.

But it is very funny - I enjoyed the re-read.

I have to believe this had an impact on my humor writing and certainly my on-stage writing when I was focusing on comedy for a while.

Unlike the Rosenthal book, this one is not about the show at all, other than the fact that it’s the comedy that inspired the show.

And while we’re on the topic of Everybody Loves Raymond, I’d like to comment on the 30th anniversary special that aired back in November, the week of Thanksgiving.

It was a nice little show, I’m glad I found out about it and was able to watch it.

I thought it felt weirdly edited. I think it was 90 minutes? I bet the studio audience version was closer to a few hours and they maybe cut out a lot of the banter. (Certainly that Q and A part they had there which felt like an add-on to the TV part.)

So it wasn’t the best thing I ever watched in my life but it was a nice cup of nostalgia on Thanksgiving week and it felt like smart programming by CBS.

But the thing I really liked about that special (which after watching I didn’t feel the urge to make its own post about but I did want to address it in some way and luckily I was reading this book and could mention it here like I just did….although man am I really scrambling for content here these last 15 days of the month so maybe I should have given it its own post) was the clip they showed of the stand-up set Ray Romano did on Letterman back in 1995 or 1996 that led to the sitcom.

I remember that stand-up set so well. I am pretty sure either just me or me and one of my siblings or maybe even my parents were up watching that episode for whatever reason. I think we used to do that every once in a while. Maybe it was a repeat over the summer. Now that I think about it that would make more sense.

Anyway, in the book there are certain bits from his act that Romano includes - some of it from that very set. (Not the key jangling part.)

I was really inspired by Ray Romano for a good part of my life. One of the reliefs reading the book was I didn’t accidentally lift any of my content from it. Imagine? I hadn’t read this book in 20 years - imagine if the stuff was all wedged in the back of my brain and I was on stage telling Ray Romano jokes all these years without even knowing it? I was glad to see that was not the case.

I think I still am inspired by Ray Romano. Who knows? I had similar feelings re-reading this book that I did all those years ago. Not jealousy - I enjoy and respect Romano’s work. But a part of me has an “I can do that” feel.

I mean, not the sitcom. But the writing part? Sure.

And maybe someday I’ll get back on stage to tell some jokes.