I mean, you look at a movie now, they say, if it lists 18 producers, that's not

out of the ordinary.

I've been in the business 50 years.

I have no idea what a producer does.

So here we are on the Sunday special with David Mamet, America's Greatest Living Playwright and Screenwriter and the author of a brand new book called Chicago. We'll get right into it with Mr. Mamet in just one second. First, let's talk about your impending death. So you're going to die soon. We all know it. You know it. Hopefully not that soon enough that you probably want life insurance. 71% of people say they need life insurance. Only 59% actually have coverage, which means 12% of you are

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no sales, pressure, zero hassle, and it's too confusing or you don't have the time. Check out PolicyGenius. It's the easy way to compare top insurers find the best value for you. No sales, pressure, zero hassle, and it's free. PolicyGenius.com. Go check it out right now. Okay, David Mamet, thanks so much for stopping by. Really appreciate it. You're welcome. So for folks who don't know David's Matt's work because they've been hiding under a rock for the last, oh, 40 years of American screenwriting and playwriting. David Mamet is America's foremost living American playwright and screenwriter. He's the, if you've ever seen The Untouchables, he's the guy who did it. If you ever seen Glenn Gary Glenn Ross, he's the guy who did it. And he has a brand new book out called Chicago, which is a gangster novel, and it really is fantastic. You're going to want to check it out. So, David, let's start from the very beginning. How did you get into playwriting, screenwriting? How did you get into writing from the very start? Well, I was a near-do-well kid, and I used to teach a lot of colleges, and I'd say, we want to have a special group of kids who just want to talk to us, how would you like us to pick them? So I'd always say,

well, just give me the nerd-do-wells, because they're the only people ever going to mount to anything. But the college was never capable of doing that because, of course, they're set up to put the imprimatur on people who can tell them on Wednesday what the teachers told them on Monday. But I was a class clown and never opened a school book.

And people used to tell me nobody likes the smart ass,

but that was the first encounter with authority where I knew they're just dead wrong.

Right? And didn't make any difference if nobody liked the smart ass at all,

because that was the only choice I had. So that's how I started on. Okay, and where did you grow up? I mean, how did you, what were your parents like? I grew up on the south side of Chicago, and my parents were first generation Americans. Their grandparents were still alive. They were all Ashkenazi immigrants. They all spoke with a wonderful, thick accent.

And I guess you don't hear it anymore.

And my grandmother, who raised my dad as a single mom, didn't speak very good English.

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