Chatting with Tosh.0 writer Eddie Gossling, "number one Spurs fan on the west coast"

If you're a fan of Comedy Central's Tosh.0, as I am, then clearly you've seen Eddie Gosling Jr., even if the name might not automatically ring a bell. He's one of the writers on the show (the older gentleman) and frequently featured on the skits, like the one below.

....  Ha-ha, just kidding. There's no way I can show you anything from Tosh.0 on this site. So instead, here is a clip of Eddie doing stand-up comedy. Perhaps you recognize him. (Note: Adult language)

As it turns out Mr. Gosling is not only a huge Spurs fan but also a fan of the Pounding the Rock. He was gracious enough to take the time to answer a few of my dumb questions. Anything in italics is me, clarifying or being a smart-ass.

Pounding the Rock: How did you become a Spurs fan? And at the risk of getting philosophical, can you talk about what it means to be a fan?

Eddie Gosling: I moved to San Antonio like 5 minutes before [David] Robinson did - and that was enough. It's fun being a Spurs fan in Los Angeles. The streets are full of Lakers, Clippers and now Warriors garbage...and then there's my house with the Spurs flag. I'm like a unicorn out here...everyone wants' my magic horn. Plus I've passed on my passion/sickness/love for the Spurs to my son. His room is littered with Spurs fatheads, statues, rookie cards, hoops. It's basically how I would have decorated my room if my wife wasn't from Cleveland. By the way, I was in "The Land" when we closed the Cavs out in game 4 [in 2007].

PtR: How did you discover Pounding the Rock and how long have you been reading it? What kinds of stories do you enjoy the most?

EG: Hold up, is this an interview or a customer survey? You guys started popping up in my Google Spurs alerts. The important thing is that I've found it and I am sharing the links. I even bought a shirt. My favorite stories are anything involving charts, graphs or gifs. I don't like to read. [Well, I guess I'm out then.] I also get a chuckle when [JRW] records something off of his TV and posts it to Twitter. I do the same thing when Boban knocks down a turnaround jumper. But instead of Twitter, I just text it to all my friends in L.A. that have never partied on Commerce Street.

PtR: You work with Daniel Tosh, who is an avid fan of all the Miami teams, particularly the Heat. I'm guessing that there's plenty of trash talk and pranks in the office, but how much did it get ratcheted up during those two Finals series?

EG: The show was on break so there wasn't much. But when the show is in production there are a lot of sports allegiances in the office so everyone on staff is just waiting for your team to fail. This year the Bulls fans just stopped coming to work. Did you know [Derrick] Rose is made of pretzels?

PtR: Just how brutal was he after Game 6 in 2013 and the Ray Allen shot? Did he tease you about it just once a day for the next year, or like every 15 minutes?

EG: The only thing I remember from that season following Ray Allen's shot was my seven-year-old son consoling me. "It's OK Dad. We're still number two."

PtR: How much did you enjoy giving it back to him after 2014? I'm guessing some cramping jokes involving LeBron James were involved.

EG: No. Do you have a boss?

[Hmm. This might explain my employment history.]

PtR: Getting away from basketball, you're a veteran of the stand-up comedy circuit. What was that journey like, from the decision to be a working stand-up first and then getting into working on Tosh.0? Was television writing something you were always interested in doing?

EG: You know how David West took a pay cut to play with the Spurs? Well I did the opposite. More like Kobe with the Lakers the last two years. Total cash grab. Mamba out.

PtR: Can you explain the transition from writing material with your own voice in mind to someone else's voice and comedic sensibilities?

EG: I'm a role player here...a wizard and dragon joke-writing specialist. If you hear a robot punchline, know that's me from the corner. And if you're a fan of the show you've probably noticed we hit on those three topics quite a bit.

[If you're not a fan of the show, this was total sarcasm. If there was actually any wizard or dragon or robot jokes instead of the things they actually joke about, I could link to them.]

PtR: For a famous comedian, Tosh is notorious for being a relatively private celebrity, like the Tim Duncan of stand-ups. He has hardly done any interviews and seems to have no interest in doing a long introspective podcast like WTF with Marc Maron. Can you share an anecdote or two about him that might surprise fans?

If you've ever seen our show then you know there is not much else he could do that would be surprising. However, here's a little known fact about me: for people who were a fan of the San Antonio Iguanas from the Central Hockey League days, I was the Lounge Lizard.

PtR: How long did it take you to get used to the notion of having a joke idea or a bit premise rejected by Tosh or the other staffers? What's the biggest difference from when a joke isn't working at the club than having a room full of colleagues not like it? Are your own standards harsher or more lenient than the group's?

EG: Daniel is the rim protector so you have to get by him. You can be as crafty as you want but if it's a weak shot, it's going into the stands.

[So more Dwight Howard than Tim Duncan then.]

PtR: Tosh.0 is by and large a clip show, where the premise is making fun of things that already exist online and are usually popular to a degree. There have been many imitators to your show but none of them have been remotely successful. Why do you think Tosh.0 has been so successful for so long, and how surprised are you that it's still going strong, when most shows on Comedy Central last a year or two?

EG: Like Kevin Martin's shot, I'm not sure why the show works...it just does. Maybe because our best writer used to be a swimmer, we have foreign (Alabama) writers in the rotation and me, the number one Spurs fan on the west coast.

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Well, there you have it. Next time you get ticked off at Tosh for making a Spurs joke on the show, just remember that we've got a special agent on our side on his staff. And that the Spurs broke up Tosh's beloved "Heatles."