Original subtitles

Ready? One, two and three.

Yes!

( THEME MUSIC PLAYING )

He used to be funny and kind of strange.

And it was always just funny.

Then it just became strange without the funny part.

He started cursing a bunch.

He was always kind of against that.

Because he used to say, instead of [BLEEP] he used to say fudge.

And that was the funny thing is that he would--

A grown man substituting these things an 11-year-old would do.

And he was tweeting a lot.

So then he went and started acting out.

He was cutting off relationships with Zach and with CAA, his agency.

Could see him saying these people are dead to me, or--

and there were violent tones to it.

The concern started to happen when really a few weeks later...

we were all at Sarah Silverman's party.

And I mean, it's a huge party, it's on the rooftop.

There's more than 100 people there.

The big night where he ran into a lot of celebrities...

and a lot of people, and a lot of his friends.

I was the host, so I was either welcoming people...

or saying goodbye to people.

People kept coming up to me and saying, "Brody is acting crazy."

And I was like, "Yeah."

No, no, no, he's cornering people, and just like talking at them.

And I go, "Yeah, you know Brody, don't you?"

You know, Brody isn't scary, he's like intense and he yells.

But it's never scary, this was scary.

It was frightening at that party, how kind of manic he was.

Gone, there was nothing behind his eyes.

It was like he was saying, "The world is gonna end.

"We need to get batteries, water."

But instead, he was going, "I am a star, I have this.

"I've done HBO, I have Harvey Levin."

"And I have a million dollar deal, a million dollar deal, I'm gonna be rich Monday."

Do you have a deal that's going through?

"That doesn't mat-- Howard Stern wants me, everybody wants me."

And-- and then TMZ--

TMZ. TMZ.

TMZ. I host TMZ.

He kept saying TMZ, because I guess he guest hosted it and he was very excited about that.

We met in Seattle, probably 1994, doing stand-up.

Brody had a show first, and asked me to come on and do the show with him.

Brody's excited, and he gives me a call and he's like...

"We're gonna do the show and really want your help."

I begin preparing to go to LA...

and I'm like-- have my own business.

I'm like doing all this custom construction art.

Yes, yes...

And so I start preparing to do all this at the same time that...

Brody is starting to go a little bit manic.

I couldn't figure it out the first couple of days...

and then I think I ask him, "Are you on your medication?" and he said, "No."

There are a number of case reports that sudden withdrawal of an anti-depressant...

can cause so-called "withdrawal mania".

My name is Dr. David Fogelson...

I'm a clinical professor at UCLA.

There are a number of things that can precipitate mania.

And sometimes you get a perfect storm in vulnerable individual...

so that you have somebody who's going through time zone changes...

they're sleep deprived, some sort of sinus infection from traveling.

So they get put on something like a Cipro antibiotic...

and... it just lights them on fire.

There's a new sheriff in Hollywood...

and his name is Brody Stevens! Yes!

The cardinal symptom of mania is increased energy.

I'm here out at Sunset Boulevard doing Kettle bells in the middle of the night.

And what goes along with increased energy is decreased need for sleep.

Somebody who's manic fills the room, their voice gets louder.

They'll become agitated and irritable.

You were wrong, anything you said, you were wrong.

No combination of words you could say...

that would sober him from it.

Mania, especially for a comedian, could be so desirable...

that they wouldn't want to listen to friends saying to them...

"You know what? You're over the top right now."

Hey, Brody, maybe you should get some sleep, buddy.

His reply was just something like, "[BLEEP] you, Agee."

I was like, "Whoa, man!" He's never said that to me.

He started giving me like command.

And he was saying, "Well, my friend is in town for this baseball game.

"Go down there, find his hotel room, I don't care what the security says.

"Get past the security." It was just wild.

And that's when I knew like he was off, like something was wrong.

Zach sent emails out just to like a group of people...

he deemed should kind of be kept abreast.

And it basically was, "Hey, Brody might be having a little bit of a meltdown."

Don't feed the fire.

Don't engage.

Don't contact him.

Don't tweet about it.

Twitter seemed to be driving it a little.

The fact that he now had an audience that he was kind of playing to...

was really making it worse.

And at the same time, I knew that the show was going on...

and there was this suspicion from me and from other people I knew in comedy...

were, "Are we a part of some kind of joke?"

And I was like, "Oh, Brody's going off...

"oh, this is hilarious."

I started getting emails from people telling me that it was a real issue.

He said it was a bit...

but you could see it, you could see it in his eyes and stuff.

To me it was a bit...

in the sense that he was also getting comedy out of it.

I call my manager and I was like...

"What-- have you heard anything?"

He's like, "Yeah, it's probably just all promotion for the show."

And I was like, "I don't know, man.

"If this is a promotion...

"I'm not happy with the direction of this marketing plan."

If I can illustrate it for you, normal mood, hypomania, that's pretty good.

But a little bit more than hypomania and your functioning actually deteriorates.

All the time, every ten minutes, not going to sleep, not eating.

But he said he was gonna push, "I'm just gonna push it for like one more day."

He was filming himself threatening people...

in parking lots and putting it online.

You understand me? I'm gonna beat your [BLEEP] with a bat!

You're a punk, man!

We didn't know what to do.

I'm watching, [BLEEP] you! I'll beat the [BLEEP] out of you.

Give me this [BLEEP] thing.

I had a camera guy who I gave the opportunity to help me...

but he didn't believe in me, he didn't get it.

I couldn't watch anymore.

It was really just like disturbing to me.

But I believe so much in what I'm doing right now...

that this has to be done.

I'm a comedian and I'm respected, ask anyone.

New York, LA, Seattle, Calgary.

I did an open mic in Bangkok, [BLEEP] you.

I'm in control, you're looking at the hottest video right now.

I run Hollywood.

You know, we talked and we said, "What, do we just bum rush him?

"Throw him in a car and take him to a hospital?

That's not gonna work, he's just gonna walk out.

Because when you tried to reason with him--

His reasoning faculties were completely gone.

In touch with his mom, as well, to monitor this...

and get her support for whatever was gonna happen.

I got a call from his manager, somebody that knew him well...

and said that he had been acting sort of strange.

They said they were gonna try and get him in to see somebody.

I called a doctor who I'd never met.

She said you have to call the cops.

I was going to that Starbucks...

and I was like that looks like Brody...

and then I saw two guys with cell phones?

I was like this is a joke, right?

And then I looked down and his handcuffs were on.

But again, he likes to take it to the limit...

so I'm like maybe he had them put the handcuffs on him as a joke...

and then I was like this-- no, something's wrong.

He charmed the cops out of not arresting him.

By talking about his credits.

Hangover 1, Hangover 2, Due Date, and Zach Galifianakis.

Does that make sense? I don't know. Good!

The freakin' cop told him who called, that I'm the one that called...

and that switched it for me...

and I was now on the complete [BLEEP] list and he was tweeting about it.

We did some research and we realized there was a procedure for this.

A state organization called the PET Teams...

the Psychiatric Extraction Teams.

So we rolled over to the next day, and that whole day...

the story of that day is crazy, it's like a movie.

I live in Hollywood, he said come meet me at McDonalds.

We got some food, he yelled at me inside McDonalds...

and he was just like stopping cars that were driving by...

and talking to people and telling them, "I'm Brody, and I was just on TMZ."

Howard, do I host TMZ?

Yes, you hosted it on Thursday night.

I hosted TMZ on Thursday.

It was just like a woman who's leaving the shoe store, you know?

Howard, upload this, is it still recording?

-Yes! -Upload it!

I will.

I want it on YouTube now!

You know, I realized then that he was like further gone then he had been before...

and he started like yelling at me, and going, "Kremer, you've gotta be ready for this [BLEEP]"

Don't be a [BLEEP]!

I didn't make the car go--

Yes, you are! No, you [BLEEP] moved, it always stays on.

We finished that video and that's when he said...

that he thought he saw Rath-- Dave Rath driving by.

And I just thought he's crazy, like why would Rath be out here?

And all of a sudden, we hear Brody, we hear him talking.

And the first thing I did was, I just slinked down.

And so we called the PET Team...

and they said okay, they're on their way.

And then we also need to, when they get there, the cops have to escort them...

and the cops also need proof...

so we were at the same time scrambling to try to get someone to download and print out...

or send us the tweets of him when he said he had a gun.

So what do we do now, the guys-- their team's gonna be here and they're gonna be gone.

It so happened at that moment, he called me and I go, "Hello."

And it was Brody going, "Rath, it's Brody, are you in a white Volvo?"

And I go, "No, what are you talking about? I'm on my way to a meeting, what do you want?"

He goes, "Well, if you're tracking me, you better be careful.

"I have a gun again right now, I have a gun in my mouth."

I was frightened at that moment, like did he really, finally, actually get a gun?

The PET Team shows up, cops showed up.

The PET Team was like, "Yeah, this guy said this, it's right here."

And the cops were like, "All right, I guess we have to go in."

So, they finally got him on a gurney and told us he was subdued.

And they were gonna put him in the ambulance and they made the determination...

to get him evaluated at the hospital.

So apparently they took him out, it was very difficult...

he was screaming and ranting.

He was half-naked and his towel was falling off.

It was incredibly embarrassing.

Well, I don't think I ever listened to them fully.

Maybe once...

I mean, it's like, it's too much.

And you can't let those things that someone like that is saying...

you can't let it affect you, because if you take it personally...

then you're not gonna be able to help them.

He started leaving voicemails.

N-words, all kinds of racial-ness.

All the things you swear, "If I ever heard somebody say this to me about me, my wife...

"my mother, whatever, we have to go at it."

And then right after that, sobbing, crying, "I'm so sorry."

These messages are like real Jekyll and Hyde.

And I finally went to go visit him...

and it didn't go over so well.

He repeated the whole story that he would be leaving on my machine every day...

about what happened, and I said, "Well, I understand that you don't think...

"there's anything wrong with you, but if everyone's telling you there is...

"then maybe you should just go and check it out."

That just set him off, and then he started screaming at me.

I went to leave and he like jumped out at the chair.

I've never seen him like that.

Well, he didn't think he was sick.

They don't get it, they don't get me.

Well, I would visit him, uh, often.

He was upset, he was angry, that he was there.

At everybody.

He didn't have any of his stuff with him.

He didn't have his phone, he didn't have any books...

so he only had a couple numbers memorized.

He had my number, and he was calling me and berating me...

pretty much hourly at that point, blaming me for all of this.

As he had made it very clear in the few tweets he was able to get out.

He was at the UCLA Medical Center, but he somehow tweeted a few things from inside.

Then he remembered the Comedy Store number, so he called the Comedy Store...

and got some young comic on the phone.

He left me a two-minute voicemail...

about how he's in a mental institution...

and everyone abandoned him and he has nobody to trust and stuff like that.

I need you to tweet for me, and then he would dictate tweets to me.

We couldn't [BLEEP] figure it out, we were like...

"How the hell is he tweeting from inside?"

And he was like, "This is a secret, you can't tell anybody.

"Don't give anybody my password, I'm trusting you."

He had pitched it to me as if, "I didn't lose my mind.

"Everyone's freaking out. I'm doing fine."

Yeah, that first time was a little strange.

I'm glad Zach came in, he got smoothies...

and he handed Brody a smoothie and he was like...

"Um, I had to tip the guy $40 to get a Lexipro boost in this one."

I was like, "Oh, my god, this is gonna be okay."

Took a long time and even when he got out, he has a lot of anger issues about what we did.

My [BLEEP] best friend called the cops on me...

like that must be a very alone feeling.

I felt like my friends could have handled it a little differently.

At that time, I felt like, "Look, I'm here because I stopped taking my meds.

"Don't treat me like some crazy guy."

But as a comedian who's pretty real onstage, I have to talk about it.

Yes, I said I had a gun on Twitter.

Never had a gun, never thought about getting a gun.

It gets weird, doesn't it?

Well, put yourself in my situation with the LAPD.

No head's up, no warning.

They excavated me from my shower, throwing me down on my right testicle.

Would they give me a towel and underwear? F-no...

a Sham Wow they threw at my crotch.

I punched two holes into it and turned it into a Snuggie.

It took a few weeks for the medication to really kind of take hold.

You know, the reports we're getting from Zach that he was willing to be talking...

to a doctor now and try to get better.

The best way to try to begin to rebuild is one, to make sure the illness is properly treated.

And then two, to try to salvage relationships that had been long-standing.

They diagnosed me here at the UCLA Psych Ward with a bipolar disorder.

I'll stay on this med, I'll try that med.

I'll do talk therapy.

Feel like I need to go a little bit further...

in my personal life.

Zach and Dave Rath and people I lashed out against, they've been great.

But I don't like that, I don't want to scare people.

He took me aside and he started to apologize...

and he started like tearing up and I just like--

You know, I just told him, like you don't have to apologize for anything, you know?

We love you and we just want you to be better.

He actually apologized and we talked about some of the things that happened...

but it was still sensing it wasn't completely back.

Yeah, I lost some close friends.

Teina, my comedy partner from Seattle, will not talk to me.

I don't have the life that I can bounce in and out of episodes like this.

My money's in trouble, my work is in trouble.

I've cut off clients, sending them to other people.

These kind of things...

they ripple through lives.

It's not as easy as saying...

"I'm sorry I yelled at you, accept my apology." and like that.

There's still the damage that has to be repaired.

All right, anybody have any questions at this point?

Anybody? Go ahead, Tom.

Who what?

Uh, Nick Kroll.

MAN IN AUDIENCE (O.S.): Yeah, there you go.

Um, Jesus of LA...

who's just a real guy who dresses up as Jesus.

Yeah, some people don't like it.

I don't want to hear about some guy going to the UCLA Psych Ward.

He was still kind of not all the way back.

But I told Brody, after the fact, of all professions, this fits being a comedian.

I think a lot of comics are wired differently...

maybe chemically or from their background, or a combination of the both.

And I think Brody is a classic example of being wired to be that way.

I was going through a bit of a depression years ago...

and Brody knew it and he just showed up at my house every day.

Just-- he didn't say, "Hey, I'm here to help," I just knew what he was doing.

BRODY (O.S.): Where was I?

I was gonna ask you about your daily routine when you were at the psych ward.

Well, I got 15-minute breaks out on the rooftop.

You would-- and I would soak in some sun...

I would bring my transistor radio.

I would play ping pong.

This sounds like a... Courtyard by Marriott.

A girl jumped over the table at me, because I made fun of chocolate milk.

First of all, how do you make fun of chocolate milk? Like it--

She went after me, she threw her chair, jumped over the table.

She looked like maybe somebody who would jump over a table if somebody...

I met her, remember? insulted chocolate milk.

Yeah.

And then the next day, she was like, "I want to have your baby."

She wanted to have my baby.

Yeah, why was she in there? What was her diagnosis, do you remember?

Insanity.

My manager, she wanted me to leave, just because of the spectacle.

We're not gonna evict you...

but if you could move out by the end of the month...

that would be appreciated.

Well, I'm here in my apartment, the apartment I got right away...

when I was forced out of the Valley.

Didn't have many choices, jumped on this one.

Do I like my apartment in Hollywood?

I'm being punished, this is Siberia.

Not really, and I'm not into the energy, I'm not into the desperation.

I'm not into the seediness.

Why am I-- I'm 818 until I die.

Why am I sleeping on an air mattress on Hollywood Boulevard?

It goes against everything that I'm about.

The breakdown was embarrassing...

and the fact that I had a breakdown was embarrassing.

Hash tag #HURT

I don't want it to make who I am, I'm the guy who had this breakdown.

But I'll talk about it and be real and learn from it...

help others learn from it and then move on, that's all.

I just sit here, staring at the ceiling...

wondering, "When will it get better?"

But that's what happens when you say you have a gun on Twitter.

I was hanging out with Marilyn Manson.

I was hanging out with Ludacris... in Anaheim.

I was going to parties. I was hosting TMZ.