My Evening With Joe Buck and Friends

Yes, “Joe Buck Live” is still on the air. I got to witness the show in person Tuesday. The biggest surprise? That  it was actually kind of good!

Buck, the FOX MLB and NFL broadcaster, hosted the third episode of his infamous HBO talk show Tuesday night at NYU’s Skillman Center. This time around, Howard Stern Show comedian Artie Lange wasn’t there to wreck the proceedings, although his name was  brought up repeatedly – and to great comic effect – during the night. (More on that later.)

When I saw last week that Pedro Martinez and Michael Strahan were going to be guests on “Joe Buck Live,” I figured I had to attend the taping, given how  quotable those two are. At best, they would both  be entertaining – and I’d hear some baseball tidbits from Pedro I could write about. At worst, the program would be a train wreck, but that would still amuse me, given my affinity for bad TV, like “Jersey Shore.”

So I took along my friend Sarah, who shares my taste in such things. We once went to a “Maury” show taping, where a woman who was confronted with her husband’s infidelity with her own sister got so angry that she took her shoes off and banged them on the floor. Good times!

Nobody took off their shoes – or any other clothing item – at “Joe Buck Live.” But parts of the show were still actually pretty fun, although others dragged.

First, Buck. I’m not a big fan of his announcing – his unenthusiastic “Yankees are back on top” call at the end of this year’s World Series was a real snoozer. But I will give Buck a little credit for showing some self-deprecation. Before the show started, he brought up his most infamous guest and said that no matter what stadium he’s in, he hears fans yell “Artie Lange” at him. Buck also joked that he was “so excited” about the night’s show that he “just pulled a groin.”

He is extremely thin in real life – he reminded me of Marc Anthony, he looked so gaunt. They’re not kidding when they say the camera adds ten pounds. Eat a sandwich, Joe!

And the show started out slow. Buck spent 15-20 minutes on the serious problem of concussions in football. Two well-spoken NFL players – Brian Westbrook and Brian Urlacher – guested. It’s a serious, important issue, but it’s one more suited for HBO’s “Real Sports” than for a live talk show.

Fortunately, the pace picked up after that segment, thanks to the personality of Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez. He received a mixture of cheers and boos from the New York audience – and he heard some “Who’s your daddy” chants, of course.

But Martinez, who smiled through his whole interview, won the crowd over with his ebullience and his sense of humor. When Buck showed the infamous “Spank Him, Yanks” New York Post cover of him as a baby, the crowd roared as Pedro joked that the person who would feel the most uncomfortable about it would be  whoever had to change his diaper!

Martinez also said he worked very hard to get in shape quickly last year, but that he wanted to play all season so that he didn’t have to work that hard again, drawing some more laughter from the audience. And by the time he left the stage, doing his double finger point move, he had won the crowd over, getting only cheers on his exit. You couldn’t help but find him amusing.

He was a hard act to follow, but having Michael Strahan and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on the same stage was even more entertaining. It was comic gold.

I wasn’t very familiar with Mayweather before, but he was so over-the-top ridiculous that I became an instant fan. Like when he talked about losing some money on NFL games. The little money turned out to be in the six figures!

But it all evens out, I guess – he said he won over a million on NFL betting a few weeks before. Buck’s reaction to this was priceless.

Strahan and Mayweather had terrific chemistry together. When Buck asked the boxer about a possible upcoming match with Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather said some careful words about how he thought his opponent would give him a “good fight.” Strahan responded, “Translation – To hell with Pacquiao, I’ll whip his ***.”

Strahan was the star of the night, having something compelling to say about everything, and even going toe to toe with Buck. When the broadcaster mocked Strahan’s show “Brothers,” the football player turned actor brought up Artie Lange and asked the FOX broadcaster why he would rip a show on his own network.

I agree. Besides, I tape “Brothers”  every week (seriously, I do – I think Strahan and Daryl “Chill” Mitchell are hilarious together. I told you I liked bad TV!)

Strahan and Mayweather were so entertaining that it was almost overkill when Mark Wahlberg came out as a surpise guest. He’s one of my favorite actors, and it was fun to see him, especially given that he’s a Patriots fan who talked trash about how his team would beat the Giants in the Super Bowl.

Buck asked them all about the Tiger Woods scandal. Wahlberg said that after the Tiger Woods scandal, wives are all checking their husband’s cell phones. Strahan, who made tabloid headlines a few years ago with his divorce, got maybe the biggest laughs of the night then. He said if it were him, he’d be getting out of the house playing in every little golf tournament, including “The Ritz Cracker Open”!

The hour-long show spilled over online onto HBO.com, with Strahan and Mayweather holding court for another 20 minutes in a web-only exclusive.

So, what did I think of Buck’s interviewing skills? He’s not terrible, but he does something that’s very distracting when talking to his guests – curse. Remember those old blooper tapes back in the day, when you’d hear Casey Kasem unleash an stream of obscenities? It was a little like that. I guess Buck is trying to show that he’s doing a grownup show by swearing, but instead, it’s just really distracting.

He also missed an obvious interview question for  Wahlberg – about Derek Jeter.  “The Other Guys,”  the Boston star’s upcoming movie, features Jeter in a cameo. Why not ask about how the Red Sox fan actor liked working with a Yankee?

But despite that, “Joe Buck Live” still proved to be compelling entertainment, thanks to such great choices in guests. This episode will be on HBO multiple times this month. Check  it out.

Photo by Sarah Feinsmith