If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked comedian and actor Murray Hill — who stars in Somebody Somewhere — about the no-fail hair pomade, cold-brew concentrate, and seltzer he can’t live without.
I have about six pairs of Caddis glasses. I have a pretty strong prescription, and I get them tinted. So I get the frames, and then I go get ’em done at my local Brooklyn place. A lot of the glasses that I have and the tints on them are literally inspired by me watching The Love Boat again. I take pictures of the screen, and I bring them in and I say, “We’ve got to have this one.” I have a lot of blue lenses, I’ve got a lot of brown lenses, so my look as I’m getting older is like a 1970s comedian. They look like your normal kind of reader glasses, but when you put a tint on ’em, showbiz!
Grady’s Cold Brew started in Brooklyn, so it’s a local brand from this guy who literally drove around Williamsburg, and now it’s everywhere. It’s pure rocket fuel. Actually, I’m drinking it right now. It’s concentrated, and you put a little bit of water and some ice in it and a little bit of milk, and that stuff will kick your ass. And when I’m writing at night, I have that without any water. I have it straight up with ice and milk. And that gets me to write till about 2 a.m.
I wear suits all the time when I’m out doing stuff as Murray. Suits, suits, suits. When I’m not in a custom three-piece suit, I have another suit, and that’s an Adidas tracksuit. I probably have 20 tracksuits, and they all match. They’re all from Adidas Originals, and I got ’em in all the colors. And any time a new color comes out, I grab it. So I’ve got my fall colors, I’ve got my Christmas colors, I’ve got my summer colors, I’ve got a nice light blue, and I’ve got green and red. I have to wear Adidas slides with the tracksuits, so it’s full-on Italian-older-man comfort. And I am half Italian, and I’m short. So people often say I look like a little Italian guy from Brooklyn. The one that, as a New Yorker, I really wear a lot is the all black with the white stripes. And then next is the royal blue, the color of the Mets and the Knicks.
I have a Mets official jersey, which you can buy online. Steve Cohen and his wife, Alex Cohen, own the Mets. She made me a shirt when I threw out the first pitch in June. And it says “Mr. Showbiz” on it on the back.
Pomade is essential to the look of Murray Hill, and I’m a showbiz guy where I perform in all types of environments — so many different kinds of venues that don’t have air conditioning. Or outside marching in a parade where it’s 100 degrees and it’s humid. So the pomade has to work in every single scenario, and working means that it doesn’t move. Everything is locked into place, and it’s perfect. And if there’s heat and humidity, it doesn’t curl out or do any of that stuff. I use the stiff one that holds it, and then there’s a little shine on there. So every time you see me, except for the morning, I’ll have that pomade in.
Every night, me and my lady, we watch Love Boat on Paramount Plus. It’s pure showbiz entertainment — it’s high camp. There’s a lot of old vaudeville stars and old Hollywood silent-film stars. Every big, big, big star from the old days. So we look up the episode on IMDb and we see who these old-school people are, and then we see their pictures from then. I cannot live without my Love Boat, and I’m screwed when we get to the end because it is my warm blanket. Everything’s fine in the world.
Bridget knows I have a sweet spot and a weakness. So she has waiting for me — she gets to set before I do — bags and bags of Swedish Fish. That is my kryptonite. I should go to a 12-step program for Swedish Fish. She’ll give me the family pack with the Ziploc, and she has to put it on a high shelf so I don’t eat the entire family-size bag.
I do a lot of improv, but I actually do have a script, and I print it out and then I mark it up with Blackwing pencils, and I’ve got the sharpeners, the whole thing. And when I was working on a one-man show at Joe’s Pub with Scott Wittman, he always had Blackwings. They’re very smooth. They’re beautiful pencils. So he uses Blackwings because him and Marc Shaiman collaborated a lot with Bette Midler, and Bette Midler only uses Blackwing pencils. I’m a huge Bette Midler fan, similar to why I love Bridget — a real big personality, a broad multi-talented triple threat. So it’s like, Well, if Bette uses Blackwing pencils, then I’ve got to use Blackwing pencils when I’m working on my script.
Plain seltzer is actually the main thing I can’t live without. I need to have my seltzer on set all day long, and I bring my own seltzer in this adorable little cooler.
I have all showbiz memoirs. That’s all I read, pretty much. I’m surrounded by books here. There’s some that I’ve been reading recently to get more inspired because I’m writing a book. Kathleen Hanna’s book, her memoir that just came out — this one’s killing me. And The Friday Afternoon Club, that one’s really good. That’s Griffin Dunne. I love showbiz memoirs.
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