0:00

You made it here.

0:03

Finally, checked out of office

0:05

to check into the sweet views of

0:07

that place you've always wanted to go.

0:10

You know the one? It's nice.

0:12

Even the kids like it. This place is

0:14

so cool. And they never

0:16

like it. Mom, can we go to the pool?

0:19

Look at that. Not even asking for the

0:21

WiFi. When you're with Amex,

0:23

it's not if it's going to happen, but when

0:26

American Express don't live life without

0:28

it.

0:30

Today on

0:32

basic, Adam Devine.

0:34

I think

0:35

when people are sort of surprised

0:37

when they need us that we're not just total

0:40

bumbling idiots. But, you

0:42

know, every all of our characters are based

0:44

on, like, a kernel of who we are, like,

0:46

the comedic essence of who we are, like,

0:48

Duris doesn't really have a stick that far

0:50

up his ass. Blake isn't

0:53

that much of a a space cadet

0:55

where he never knows what he's doing, and

0:57

I'm not that big of a of

0:59

narcissist psychopath. I am

1:01

a little bit of a ny Nurses' psychopath.

1:05

But, you know, obviously not that much. We've

1:07

lived in the house that we actually shot

1:09

the show in. So that first season,

1:12

there was no escaping it because we still

1:14

lived in the house. We were like hey,

1:16

if it gets canceled, we at least got our

1:18

rent paid for for a year. It was weird

1:21

way to live when you would wake up and

1:23

there'd just be like, men running cables

1:25

outside your bedroom door, and you'd walk out

1:27

and you're like, teach shirt

1:29

and boxer shorts to go to craft services,

1:32

to eat breakfast. Hello, everyone, and

1:34

welcome to Basic, the official podcast of the unofficial

1:36

history of cable television. I'm Doug

1:38

Herzog, a former TV executive, and

1:40

I'm ready to get weird.

1:42

And

1:42

I'm Jen Cheney, TV critic for Vulture

1:45

and New York Magazine, and I promise you

1:47

this podcast is going to be a tight butthole.

1:49

Our guest today Jen is one of the stars

1:51

of HBO's righteous gemstones, and

1:53

you may also know him from the pitch perfect

1:55

movies, but he gotta start on basic

1:58

cable. He

1:58

certainly did. Adam Devine was one

2:00

third of the workaholics. Comedy Central's

2:03

hilarious hit show about trio of post grads

2:05

segwaying into the workplace. And he's gone

2:07

on to appear in many, many shows and movies

2:09

since then, including the pitch perfect films,

2:11

which Doug mentioned, and also a new peacock

2:14

series that is based on Adam's character from those

2:16

movies, club bumper in Berlin.

2:17

So let's get right to our conversation with Adam

2:20

followed by a possibly musical recap

2:22

from the engine.

2:26

Alright, Adam Devine. Welcome to basic.

2:28

We're gonna start off with the question we

2:30

ask everybody, which is, do

2:32

you remember the first time you saw cable TV?

2:35

You probably grew up with it because you had it because you're

2:37

a lot younger than us. But What do you remember about

2:39

that? Yeah. I'm super youthful, Doug.

2:41

Mhmm. I No. I

2:43

I remember being like, we didn't grow up with

2:45

any amount of money. So it was crazy

2:48

that my family had

2:50

cable because I remember it being like a luxury

2:53

when it first came out. And but

2:55

that was something my always just

2:58

we had to have cable no matter what.

3:00

So speaking of your childhood,

3:02

I hope you don't mind by asking this question, but you've talked

3:04

about this in other interviews that you

3:06

were in a pretty rough accident when you were

3:08

a kid and you've talked about how that

3:11

recovering from that kind of shaped

3:13

your attitude as a person and maybe

3:15

I don't know as an actor. Can you talk a little

3:17

bit about that if you feel comfortable?

3:19

Yeah. Totally. I yeah.

3:22

It was hit by a cement truck. It sounds like

3:24

a fake story. It sounds like an origin story

3:26

that, like 1 when they're

3:28

moving to Hollywood, you're like, I have to come with

3:30

with a tall tail, so people will take me seriously.

3:33

But, no, for real, I was. I was hit by

3:35

a thirty two ton cement truck.

3:37

When I was eleven years old and

3:39

it broke every bone

3:41

in my body from the waist down except

3:44

my right femur. So everything else

3:47

was shattered, and then they fully had

3:49

to rebuild me, which now, like, I

3:51

understand when, like, old you know, how, like,

3:53

when old men will be, like, oh, the wet weather

3:55

is there must be a storm coming my knees accident

3:57

after what nope. My whole body is like

3:59

that. So when storms coming, I'm like,

4:01

it's coming. It's good. So

4:05

I yeah. I was hit by this

4:08

the truck as a kid. And then that that like,

4:10

to your point, or to your

4:12

question rather, it really it

4:14

kinda pushed me into comedy and

4:16

wanting to be an actor because I always liked that

4:18

stuff. But at eleven, you don't really know. I was

4:21

I was like, I'm either gonna be an astronaut,

4:23

horrible at science, or professional baseball

4:26

player, not very good at that either. So

4:28

I'm glad that the symmetric pushed

4:30

me into comedy because I'm I'm definitely

4:32

my skill sets are are much sharper

4:35

there.

4:35

I mean,

4:37

did they expect you to be able to recover

4:39

to the full extent that you obviously

4:41

were? You

4:42

know, I think

4:45

doctors

4:47

are born liars. So I think

4:49

that they they kept telling us

4:51

that, oh, no. We think it'll

4:53

who'll come back. But, you know, they didn't

4:55

really know, I don't think. And they were telling my

4:57

parents different things than they were telling me.

4:59

I only got the positive stuff.

5:01

And my parents got a lot of there was a

5:04

point that they thought I was gonna lose both legs.

5:06

And I'd be in a wheelchair or

5:09

get fake legs. And then it was one

5:11

leg, and then it was my

5:13

right foot. And then it was it

5:15

seems like he will be able to keep

5:17

both legs.

5:19

And

5:19

and yeah, so obviously that was pretty traumatic

5:21

for my parents. But as a kid, I I think

5:23

I was just you take everything

5:26

in stride because you don't know any better. So

5:28

I was like, okay, this is just my life now.

5:30

And I got deep into I watched

5:32

so much TV, I watched

5:35

so many, like, just just

5:37

bad movies and good movies, all movies, and

5:40

really got into writing. I would sit

5:43

in in my wheelchair and just write possible

5:46

bits in for possible

5:48

situations. I didn't know what I was writing

5:50

for, but it would be like if someone

5:52

made fun of me, I just had, like, bits ready

5:55

to go, retorts, ready to throw

5:57

back in their face. And then I

5:59

ended up calling the radio

6:01

station and doing different bits from

6:03

my my hospital bed in

6:05

from my wheelchair -- Wow. -- and I'd call in

6:07

every day to the point that I became

6:09

like a little fixture on the afternoon

6:12

drive time hour and they

6:14

invited me. They're like, hey, you know what? You're

6:16

always calling in doing all these different characters.

6:19

We'll make you part of the show. Come down

6:21

here. And you could call in every

6:23

day and you'll get paid. It'll be like

6:25

a job for you. But they

6:27

didn't know I was at this point, I think I was it

6:29

was a couple years afterwards in

6:31

in my healing process when I was like

6:33

thirteen or fourteen. And I

6:36

showed up and I was

6:38

in a wheelchair and my legs

6:40

were completely straight out because

6:42

my knees couldn't bend at that point. And

6:44

my mom wheels me into the

6:47

the radio station and they were

6:49

like, oh, we

6:50

didn't know you were a crippled child. No.

6:53

We thought you were and we you're an

6:55

adult person, because I only talk to

6:57

them, like, within character because I was afraid

6:59

of my my normal voice. They wouldn't let

7:01

me do it anymore. And so it actually

7:03

worked worked out because they ended up giving me,

7:06

like, so many they they're like, well, we can't

7:08

pay you, but we could pay you in CDs

7:11

and we could pay you in concert tickets.

7:13

And at thirteen or fourteen, that's way

7:15

cooler than having money in your pocket anyways. So

7:17

-- Right. -- wow,

7:18

that's incredible. That is a incredible story.

7:20

As incredible story. And then so if you need

7:22

any wallflower CDs or

7:24

cranberry CDs, I I have those

7:26

ready to go. Some gym blossoms in

7:28

there. I already have them myself, but thank

7:30

you. Hold on. I'm sitting

7:32

in my CD closet, actually, as it turns

7:34

out Yeah. Look at that. Yeah.

7:36

Sure. School. And then you

7:38

hold school. So then you you

7:41

headed out to school in California. And

7:43

was that with the idea that you wanted

7:45

to sorta head out west and get into showbiz.

7:47

Was that the idea? Yeah.

7:49

When you say it like that, it sounds absolutely

7:51

insane, Doug, but that was the idea.

7:54

I'm heading out west and getting into

7:56

showbiz. But,

7:58

no, that was that was

7:59

with the plan and I I moved out with

8:02

my good friend, Austin Anderson. And

8:04

he would he wanted to get in to stand up,

8:06

and I wanted to do I kinda everything.

8:08

I was like, I'll I'll do stand up. I'll do

8:10

sketch. I wanna act. I just

8:12

kinda wanted to do it all, and we moved to

8:15

Orange County, California. And with

8:17

the goal of I was gonna transfer

8:19

for the UCLA after I got my residency

8:22

and and got some community

8:24

college credits under my belt and then just

8:26

took two years of creative writing and

8:28

improv class and

8:31

had no transferable credits after those two years. So

8:33

they were, like, I have, like, four transferable credits

8:36

They were like, you can't go to UCLA

8:38

with just taking creative writing

8:40

and improv classes. But

8:42

it was it was the smartest decision I ever

8:44

made because I met Blake Anderson

8:46

and Kyle Newachek, day

8:49

one of my community

8:51

college, Orange Coast Community College, ImPROP

8:53

class. And obviously, I went on

8:55

to create not

8:57

obviously, but I went on to

8:59

create workaholics with those guys. And it

9:01

was just

9:02

whenever I whenever, like, young people

9:04

ask me for advice and, like, well,

9:06

you just went to community college. Maybe I don't go

9:08

to college. I'm, like,

9:09

Sure. I mean, it's You don't have

9:12

to nowadays, but I've

9:13

I met so many like minded

9:16

people there and it it sort of

9:18

fed my creativity. And without

9:20

going to community college and

9:22

meeting on those two guys, I

9:24

I don't know where my career would be right

9:26

now. Or if I would even have

9:28

one? Yeah.

9:28

Talk about I mean, you said you met them on

9:31

day one. What sort of drew you to

9:33

each other? I I assume a similar comic

9:35

sensibility, obviously. Well,

9:36

community college is hilarious because

9:39

there's obviously a lot of people

9:41

that are your age, like just

9:43

went from high school. But then there's people that are,

9:45

like, in their sixties that are, like, I just

9:47

wanted to take an improv

9:49

class and then there's just some moms that are, like,

9:51

this will be fun. So it was like a

9:53

real hilarious mix of people.

9:55

And Blake was

9:57

just he had this tight little afro

9:59

he, like, is known as, like, a cool guy now because he's

10:01

got cool guy hair and he wears tight pants.

10:04

But but

10:07

he just had he just looked like such a

10:09

little dork, but had this tight,

10:11

cute ass little arrow, and he was just so

10:13

funny and so sharp And

10:16

I've

10:16

always been one to be like,

10:18

I gotta find I gotta surround myself with

10:20

people that are better than me. So

10:22

they'll rub off on me, and

10:24

I'll get better from doing that.

10:26

And that was sort of the thinking with Blake.

10:29

And then Kyle was Blake's one of

10:31

Blake's very best friends and we

10:33

sort of had a video off where

10:35

we showed each other, like, we

10:37

both made like funny videos in

10:39

high school. we went over to their

10:41

house later that night after,

10:43

like, the first day, and we had a

10:45

little video off that I saw that their

10:47

production was so much better than

10:49

our production because Kyle knew a check directed

10:51

all their stuff and he went on to,

10:53

you know, do a lot of really great stuff in

10:55

the directing space. So I I

10:57

was like, what if we join forces and this

10:59

is before YouTube?

11:01

When did

11:02

and then when did

11:04

Anders or as he's

11:06

known, Durs enter the scene.

11:08

The Durs effect came into the

11:10

scene. Anders,

11:13

who's our fourth member of the group who we all so

11:15

created workaholics with. Who

11:17

really is our is the sort of brain

11:20

trust of workaholics. He was the

11:22

one that had written anything

11:24

besides sketch He wrote a bunch

11:26

of specs and he

11:28

he was the one that actually was putting

11:31

fingers to keyboard and

11:33

and punching scripts out. So

11:35

we met him when I moved

11:37

up me and Kyle moved up to to

11:39

Los Angeles from Orange County.

11:42

When I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go

11:44

full steam ahead. I can't transfer to

11:46

UCLA. That was a pipe dream. I'm

11:48

just gonna go and

11:50

I give it a shot, try to get a commercial agent, try

11:52

to get a regular agent, try to see what I can

11:54

do. And we moved up together, and

11:56

I started to take

11:58

classes at the second city. Which

12:00

is an improv school. And

12:03

it's known for being in Chicago, but they have

12:05

outposts all over. And so I went to the LA

12:07

outpost and I I got

12:09

a job work in the door of the Hollywood

12:11

improv. So at that time that they

12:13

were right next door to each other. And if you

12:15

worked at the improv, you got half off classes.

12:17

So that was an that was an easy my

12:20

parents were born that I couldn't go to college,

12:22

but I told them that my

12:24

improv training will be way less expensive

12:26

than me going to college, and they were they were on board

12:28

for that. So I met him.

12:32

It was he was

12:33

in a different class, but he couldn't

12:36

make his class so he came into mind and

12:38

then liked our

12:40

class so much better with me in

12:42

it that he transferred over to Devine. And

12:44

I remember Kyle and I had a a

12:46

female roommate and we didn't know each

12:48

other that well. And she saw

12:50

my car had broken down, and she had to come pick

12:52

me up. And she saw me

12:55

standing on the corner. She thought it was flirting with

12:57

theirs. And

12:59

essentially, I kind of was, but but it was a

13:01

challenge flirt. Right. I'm like, I think you're

13:03

really funny. I would love to

13:05

write with you. And he was

13:07

like, yeah. No. For sure, I would love

13:09

to also write with you. You're very

13:11

funny. And, you know, it's like this

13:13

weird weird bro off. And

13:15

so, essentially, she thought I was gay for,

13:17

like, two months after that, where she was,

13:19

like, she was, like, no. I saw you

13:21

flirting with that guy after and I'm, like, that's a

13:23

friend of mine. That's it.

13:26

That's it's so funny. A a professional

13:28

a professional flirt. Yeah. It was a professional

13:30

flirt on. You guys are on the corner falling in love with

13:32

each other. Yeah. We really were. And he

13:34

endorsed us one of the first people that he

13:36

truly knew his comedic,

13:37

I guess,

13:39

brand for lack a better term

13:42

before anyone else did, before any of

13:44

us really did, we're still trying to find ourselves

13:46

and what we can bring to the table and what we

13:48

think is the funniest and how we

13:50

can be the funniest, but he knew exactly

13:52

he goes. He handed

13:55

me a

13:57

Jamie Fox DVD that was

13:59

like, welcome to

13:59

the foxhole or something like that.

14:02

And then American Psycho,

14:04

the book.

14:07

And he goes, these two things combined,

14:09

that's who I am.

14:11

That's pretty good. Yeah. That's that's

14:13

my yeah. That and and after knowing

14:15

Durs years and years now. Like, twenty

14:17

years later, I'm like, yeah, he was right on

14:19

the money with -- Wow. -- with, like,

14:21

a goofy psychopath

14:29

Your

14:30

plans? Today, it's dinner

14:32

with the parents at your spot.

14:35

Gotta come back here. Now,

14:37

their spot. Or you're on the edge of

14:39

your seat at the game. Come on

14:41

just one time. And it's

14:43

the Walmart. Or

14:45

maybe you're catching the next flight

14:47

to Now boarding flight eighteen

14:49

fifty.

14:49

Oh, that's you. The choice

14:52

is yours. And when you're with

14:54

AmEx, It's not if it's going to

14:56

happen, but 1, American

14:58

Express. Don't live life without it.

15:00

And

15:04

then you

15:06

you guys kind of started your own?

15:09

Sketch troop. Right? Yeah.

15:10

It was it was kind of on the early days

15:12

of YouTube, and we

15:13

started to make videos altogether,

15:17

me, Blake. Onders and Kyle and some

15:19

other friends of ours, and we

15:21

call ourselves mail order comedy.

15:24

we started just putting out a ton of

15:26

stuff, but we didn't know. We were just sort of

15:28

sending quick time files and then YouTube

15:30

came around. Someone showed us

15:32

YouTube, and then we just started pushing stuff

15:34

there. And and we ended up doing seventy

15:37

or eighty videos in the course of, like,

15:39

two years. So we were just sort of

15:41

churning stuff out. And at

15:44

that same time, I was doing standup, and

15:46

I got live at

15:48

Gotham, which was comedy

15:50

central stand up showcase -- Right. -- for up and

15:52

coming stand ups. And I got

15:54

booked on that And so we

15:56

were sort of in the was that John

15:58

Oliver? No. That wasn't John Oliver. John

15:59

Oliver had, like, hit the John Oliver. Oh, he

16:02

hit another one. Right? Yeah. He hit another

16:04

one. Yeah. But I

16:06

I did live at Gotham. And then from then

16:08

on we're sort of on the Comedy

16:10

Central Radar and then

16:12

two executives, Seth Cohen

16:15

and Walter Newman.

16:17

Yeah.

16:17

They they Walter Newman who went on to

16:19

a a great current adult swim. Yeah.

16:21

That's right. Walter brought us in

16:23

and we we had

16:25

made a a group of videos called the fifth

16:27

year, which essentially was sort of

16:29

workaholic's e. Of us in an

16:31

office. And to their

16:34

credit, they they knew that this was a

16:36

show, and we had just come

16:38

out with concept album of

16:40

us as gangster rapping wizards

16:42

from another realm. And

16:44

we were like, no. But we think this

16:46

is the show, and they're like, That's definitely not

16:48

the show. The shows you guys

16:50

living together and working together. That's the show.

16:52

I'm like, agree to

16:54

disagree. It's us as

16:56

these wizards. But to

16:58

their their credit, they they knew what they were

17:00

doing.

17:00

I mean, did you initially think it was

17:02

going to be more of like a sketch type of show?

17:04

Or did you see it as, you

17:07

know, ongoing storytelling? Yeah.

17:09

I mean, that was

17:09

a real conversation that we had internally

17:12

as a group of, like, whether

17:14

we wanted it to be a sketch, but we just saw more longevity

17:18

as

17:19

a sitcom. But

17:21

it was it was a a real steep learning

17:23

curve for Blake, Kyle,

17:25

and myself

17:26

because we never had written

17:28

a sitcom before. Durs

17:30

would give us homework where he would give

17:32

us books that said like how

17:35

to write for TV and we'd go home at

17:37

night and read books on how to write

17:39

for television and then the next morning be

17:41

like, okay. So

17:43

we feel there should be an exciting incident,

17:47

you know. And meanwhile, we

17:49

had all these, like, smart harbor writers

17:51

that were working for us and were, like,

17:53

okay. Good. Yes. Very

17:56

good. That was a that was a

17:58

tremendous transition for all you guys

17:59

to step, you know, from, like,

18:02

your, you know, a notch above

18:04

being in your dorm rooms to just kind of making

18:06

things and putting them on, you know, the very

18:08

earliest days of YouTube and

18:10

and MySpace. And now you have a

18:12

comedy central show with a

18:14

budget, and writers, and a staff, and

18:16

you have to kind of figure the whole thing out.

18:18

Was there, like, a moment like, were you guys

18:20

all looked at each other? You go, can

18:23

we do this? I mean,

18:25

there was never

18:27

that could can we do this? I

18:29

think we all were delusional

18:31

in in the same way that

18:33

we were all delusional and going, I'm gonna

18:35

move out west and break it

18:37

into showbiz. You know, it's it

18:39

just was like, we can do it

18:42

and we thought we could, but it it was there was a

18:44

lot of pinch b moments. And

18:46

especially that first season when I

18:49

remember that when we wrapped

18:51

season one, I laid in the grass of the

18:53

front yard of the house, and

18:55

I just I cried. I was so happy.

18:57

I was like and I've never I mean, you know, I'm not one to

18:59

have happy cries ever.

19:01

I'm a sad cryer.

19:04

But I was just so relieved and

19:06

happy that we've I felt like we pulled it off

19:08

and in a real way, I was so proud

19:11

of that Well, all the seasons, but especially that

19:13

first season when I felt like

19:15

we pulled the rabbit out of the hat and actually

19:17

pulled off something pretty incredible.

19:19

Bleed it. Okay. And we we worked or

19:22

we lived in the house that we actually

19:24

shot the show in. I mean, so that

19:26

first season there was no escaping it

19:28

because we still lived in the house. We

19:30

were like, hey, if it gets canceled, we at

19:32

least got our rent paid for for

19:34

a year. You know? Right. And

19:36

so we all just kept living in the house. So

19:38

it was a weird way

19:40

to live when you would wake up and there'd

19:42

just be like, men running cables

19:44

outside your bedroom door or they would

19:46

slip your sides underneath your bedroom door

19:48

and you'd walk out and you're like,

19:50

teach shirt and boxer shorts to go to craft services

19:52

to eat breakfast. It was it

19:54

was definitely a weird way. You

19:57

you were you guys are, like, almost breaking up. You were trendsetters. That was,

19:59

like, pre pandemic. It's, like, you know, you were

20:01

you were doing it all from home. Yeah.

20:03

That's right. We Look at you look at you

20:05

guys. Yeah. Yeah. We are we are big preppers.

20:07

Yeah. So so we're

20:09

ready for this pandemic when it

20:11

hit. So

20:12

that that actually segue

20:14

into what something I wanted to ask you, which is, you know, like you

20:16

said, you're living in the house, you're playing characters that

20:19

have your same names. Like, how

20:21

much of what you were bringing to the

20:23

show was coming from your own

20:25

experiences? You know

20:26

quite a lot. I

20:29

think I think

20:29

people are sort of surprised when

20:32

they meet us that we're not just

20:34

total bumbling idiots. But,

20:36

you know, every all of our characters are

20:38

based on, like, a kernel of who we are, like the

20:40

comedic essence of who we are. Like, Durs

20:42

doesn't really have a stick that far

20:44

up his ass. Blake isn't that

20:47

much of a a space cadet where

20:49

he never knows what he's doing. And I'm

20:51

not that big of a a

20:53

narcissist psychopath. I

20:55

am a little bit of a nigh narcissist

20:58

psychopath. But, you know,

21:00

obviously, not that much. So everything

21:02

was just heightened to

21:04

one hundred. But, yeah, that that those

21:06

first few seasons were really fun finding

21:08

those characters and then and

21:10

then

21:11

keeping that train moving.

21:13

Is

21:13

there a do you have a favorite episode? We had

21:15

Mark Summers from Double

21:17

Bear -- Oh, sure. -- has been

21:19

a guest of pod as we like system.

21:22

But and he, of course, famously appeared

21:24

on workaholics, but I know that's his

21:26

favorite episode. But Weirdly

21:28

enough. Weirdly enough. Who who in

21:30

a funk? You have a favorite episode or it's

21:32

something that sticks out as God,

21:35

can't believe we're able to

21:37

do that? Yeah.

21:37

It's the first couple

21:40

seasons that I I just think

21:41

I think I

21:44

think the episode where we go and

21:47

we take

21:47

mushrooms and I I think it's called office camp

21:50

out. Right. And that's one of the

21:52

first I think that's the third or fourth episode

21:54

of the first season. And

21:57

that's where we did something stylistically.

21:59

That was a little different. That where it

22:01

didn't just feel like an office comedy.

22:04

And that's where I was the show really

22:06

clicked in a place for me where I'm like, oh,

22:08

we can turn

22:10

a regular office comedy and put it on its head

22:12

a little bit. Right. But to to remind viewers,

22:14

that's the Nipso where you guys all take mushrooms, you decide

22:16

to spend the night at the is a low. Right? The three

22:18

Yeah. We're gonna and you're all tripping at the office

22:20

overnight. Yeah. We're we're tripping balls at

22:22

the office, and then we're convinced

22:25

that the office is under attack, and

22:28

we must protect the office. And

22:30

then the twist at the end is that these are

22:32

just the IT guys working at night. Trying

22:34

to get stuff done. And and then in our our

22:37

high minds, we think that it's it's

22:39

fully under attack. And that was actually

22:42

the Genesis the

22:44

little kernel of the idea for our

22:46

movie game overman because we had so much

22:48

fun acting like we were

22:51

under attack that we decided

22:53

to write a whole dang movie about

22:54

it. So I wanna ask the flip side of

22:57

the question that Doug just asked,

22:59

which is Were there any jokes or

23:01

storylines that you really wanted to get on the AR, but

23:03

for whatever reason just never made it?

23:05

Yeah. I mean, there

23:05

was a a handful that

23:09

I'm glad didn't make the error. Just

23:11

with because, you know, now

23:13

you still have a career. Yeah. No. I'm like,

23:15

oh, that's that's it would be cancel

23:18

ball offense now. Yeah. Did you even think of it

23:20

like that back then? But, you

23:22

know, we did seven seasons and

23:24

there and I felt

23:25

we could have kept going and going, but we we felt it was

23:27

a good time to to put it to bed just

23:30

career wise for each each of

23:32

us. But there was I mean, yeah, there

23:34

was definitely a handful of things that we thought

23:36

we we could have kept

23:38

the show going with with different

23:41

storylines. But nothing in particular that

23:43

I was dying to do. I feel like we

23:45

did everything that we were super,

23:47

super excited. I actually don't remember from the

23:49

Comedy Central standpoint, they're being too

23:51

much of a we were always

23:52

pretty much I felt like we were always pretty much in sync

23:54

with the workaholics and what they wanted to do and how they did

23:56

it. And Yeah. Yeah. You guys

23:58

were there

23:58

weren't a lot of battles

23:59

or fights over over jokes or

24:02

content. At least I don't remember. I I wasn't on the

24:04

front lines, but I don't remember much of that. No. There really

24:06

was it. And it was we when people

24:08

were like, how did you get away with that? We're like,

24:10

it's because we're on Comedy Central. Like, they you

24:12

guys really let us do whatever

24:14

we you guys trusted in us to

24:16

do what we wanted to do. And I

24:18

think that goes to show, like,

24:20

during that time period of comedy central,

24:23

why that that was such

24:25

a good run for Comedy Central. It

24:27

was us and Crole

24:29

show Amy Schumer. Yeah.

24:32

Amy Schumer. And then a

24:34

little bit later, it was Broad City --

24:36

Right. -- and Tash. And Tash.

24:38

Yeah. So there was a lot of good things on the

24:40

network at that time. And they say, look,

24:42

we gave people a lot of room and

24:44

it was a different era. And

24:47

but things have changed since then.

24:49

I'm not sure you know,

24:53

that people can do the kinds of shows

24:55

they were doing, you know,

24:57

back in in the mid-2000s. We're

24:59

writing the workaholic movie right now, actually.

25:02

And with the with the hope of

25:04

shooting it in the spring, And

25:07

we are running up to I

25:09

mean, Paramount. It's Paramount

25:11

Plus, and they're being very good to us,

25:13

but we have run into a few things that

25:15

we were like, oh, we would never get this note eight

25:18

years ago, you know, doing

25:20

or ten years ago, doing workaholics,

25:22

but you you see it now. You're like, oh,

25:24

you can't you can't say those

25:26

things anymore. We're like, yeah. But we're idiots.

25:28

That's why we're doing the joke.

25:31

The running bid is just I mean, whatever else,

25:33

Biola. It's is that we're

25:35

we're we all got the facts,

25:37

but then now absolutely anything

25:39

that happens to us. We

25:41

blame it on the facts. We're like, you know, it's

25:43

probably the facts. You know, I

25:45

I used to be an athlete before the

25:48

facts. And then I get the facts, and I can't make that jump. I don't

25:50

know. I don't know. You know? And they're like, so

25:52

are these guys anti vectors? And we're like,

25:54

no. These guys are just idiots.

25:57

You know what I mean? By the way, by the way, there's stillity.

25:59

It's eight years

25:59

later. Yeah. There Nothing's changed.

26:02

Yeah. Once it 1, always it

26:04

dummy dummy? If

26:04

they were manufacturers, they wouldn't have gotten it.

26:07

Right?

26:07

Exactly. Yeah.

26:10

Exactly. I

26:10

mean, in a similar vein, I guess,

26:12

like, This is an issue that I feel like

26:14

a lot of comedies from that same era

26:16

have come up against where there was a lot of

26:18

comedy in the in the two thousands where

26:20

you know, you were making fun of the people for being dumb,

26:23

but if you didn't pick up on the nuance

26:25

of the joke, then some people would just take it at

26:27

face value. Like, thirty Rock had a lot of

26:29

instances of that. The office certainly

26:31

did. And some of those,

26:33

you know,

26:33

more sensitive episodes

26:34

have been pulled off of streaming.

26:36

And you guys even had an episode pulled off because

26:39

of of Kristalia, the the

26:41

predator episode

26:41

from season one, which

26:43

is an episode that I see on

26:46

every list of one of the best episodes of

26:48

of workaholic. So I'm just wondering, like,

26:50

how do you feel about that when your stuff has

26:52

to be pulled because

26:54

it's, you know, I understand the reason for doing it,

26:56

but it's also kind of a shame you can't watch the

26:58

episode anymore. I

26:59

mean, I do. It it it

27:01

gets that's why you gotta buy the DVDs,

27:03

guys. Go out and buy the DVD.

27:06

I think I get half of

27:08

a nickel every time It's two

27:10

hundred thousand DVDs or so. But,

27:13

yeah, I I you know, it is

27:16

frustrating that because our show is

27:18

definitely like that where we are poking

27:20

fauna at that culture at, like,

27:22

the brody type culture. Right.

27:24

Even though we are sort of

27:26

in it ourselves, but we

27:29

at least, or far enough outside of it that we can make

27:31

fun of it. But it is you you

27:33

meet some people that come up to you and they

27:35

totally get what you're doing and

27:37

they understand the satire. And then other

27:40

people that are to that come on, like,

27:42

oh, you should bro. Oh, my god.

27:44

That episode, you're like, you don't

27:46

really get it, do you. Yeah.

27:49

You also run that risk. Right? I mean,

27:51

it's it's a it's a dying art from right

27:53

now, you know. It's it's hard.

27:58

You

28:00

made it here.

28:03

Finally, Check out of office to check

28:05

into the sweet views of

28:07

that place you've always wanted to go.

28:09

You know the one? 1 nice.

28:12

Even the kids like it. This place

28:14

is so cool. And they

28:16

never like it. Mom, can we go to the

28:18

pool? Look at that. Not

28:20

even asking for the WiFi. When you're with

28:23

Amex, it's not if it's going to happen, but

28:25

when American Express

28:27

don't live life without it.

28:29

Well,

28:35

the workaholics clearly got

28:38

you out there in front of a large

28:40

audience and all of a sudden you

28:42

were everywhere. Right? You were

28:44

doing modern family, you're doing arrested development,

28:46

and then, of course, pitch perfect. So

28:48

talk a little bit about how, you know, your well,

28:50

tell us a little bit about pitch perfect, which, you

28:52

know, is obviously a huge size

28:54

than something you're closely associated with? Yeah. I

28:56

mean, it's so as I'm

28:58

so associated with it that I'm doing a spin off

29:01

show about character

29:03

from Pitch Perfect for Peacock. I I

29:05

just filmed it. It comes out

29:07

around Thanksgiving. So bumper in

29:09

Berlin, check it out.

29:12

Yeah. That was one of the things I never would've

29:15

you just sort of put yourself out there and hope

29:17

for the best and and

29:19

I was very fortunate that at the very

29:21

beginning of my career, I had work colleagues,

29:23

Modern Family, and Pitch Perfect as the three things

29:25

that it did kind of out the gate because

29:28

that really set me up for success. But

29:30

pitch perfect.

29:30

I did not I I read

29:32

the script. I thought it was very funny. They had

29:34

me come in in audition. But

29:36

it was during a lunch break from workaholics. So

29:38

I did have a lot of time. And

29:41

I didn't even wanna go to the audition. I was

29:43

telling them, hey, look,

29:45

I this is what's most important to

29:47

me. Workaholic's being good is what's most important

29:49

to me. I don't wanna just

29:52

fast do an audition just to say I

29:54

did it. And they're like, please, the producers like

29:56

you go in to do it. And so I went

29:59

there, not really looking at the sides,

30:01

just seeing it says pitch perfect. I

30:03

think it's a baseball movie. I get

30:05

there. I see all these people

30:07

sing and, like, truthfully, I see all these

30:09

people, like singing and, like, it,

30:11

like, practicing. All this, like, good looking. How long

30:13

it's a weird place because you'll show up somewhere, and there's

30:15

just a lot of people that kind of look like

30:17

the better looking version of

30:19

you. And that's what I walked in on, like, all these

30:21

people that just look like the better looking version

30:23

of me singing. And I'm like, that's not help

30:25

you with the baseball movie, Posey, you know.

30:28

And and then I

30:30

looked at the sides, obviously, it wasn't a baseball

30:32

movie, but I didn't prepare a song

30:34

even a little bit. I had no

30:36

idea. I should have read the email,

30:38

Doug. But

30:41

But I I went in and the one song that I 1, like,

30:43

just sing a song from your childhood, something

30:45

that you know so we could tell that you could

30:47

carry a tune. the one song that

30:49

I just for whatever reason had

30:52

at the ready to go

30:55

was the full

30:55

house theme song or

30:58

maybe the family matters, I think his full house,

31:00

where I so whatever

31:02

happened to predictability man,

31:05

a bit boring, evening,

31:07

evening, evening, and

31:10

I mean, I don't know why

31:12

I was hired. Honestly because I think you just illustrated.

31:15

Very well. Why why? Well, they you

31:17

know, like, I sing, like, Rihanna and

31:19

pop songs in the movie. Not I'm not,

31:21

like, a eighty year old black

31:23

jazz singer. But

31:25

but here we are. So so wait. So tell

31:27

us a little bit about tell the audience a little

31:29

bit about bumper in Berlin. Yeah.

31:31

So it was it was

31:33

it was during

31:34

the middle of the pandemic and trying to

31:36

figure out what I'm gonna do once

31:38

this thing lifts. And

31:40

I a call from Elizabeth

31:43

Banks and her husband

31:45

producing partner Max Handelmann, and they

31:47

were producing they were the

31:49

producers on the first pitch perfect movie. They

31:51

call me up and were like, hey,

31:53

would you ever think about doing a spin off show?

31:55

And I was like, man, I don't know. And then they felt

31:57

like, well, she said she was

31:59

watching Loki. And

32:01

was, like, how funny

32:03

that was to do a spin off of

32:05

the villain of of

32:07

the Marvel Universe. And she was like,

32:09

we think it'd be funny to do a spin off of

32:12

the villain of the pitch perfect

32:14

universe. And that's me. And I'm

32:16

like, hilarious. So

32:19

essentially, my character, he's still

32:21

at Barding University, he's working as a

32:23

security guard. He has a pretty sad

32:25

pathetic life. And He

32:28

gets a call from Fluleborg who

32:30

in the second movie

32:33

was the leader of Dasehn Machine,

32:35

the German group, that that

32:37

that we sort of battle. And then

32:39

he says that I have a TikTok

32:41

that has gone viral

32:43

in Germany, and then I have to move

32:46

over there and that will manager, and I'll become a

32:48

star. And I have nothing. Like

32:50

David Hasselhoff? Exactly like David

32:52

Hasselhoff. So I do too. I'm

32:54

taking I'm ripping all the pages out of David

32:57

Hasselhaal's playbook, Doug.

32:59

And then I moved there, and then it's I'm

33:02

not really It's not as viral as I thought it was gonna be.

33:04

Now I don't have I spent all my money on the plane

33:06

ticket over here. Now I don't have money to get

33:08

back, and I'm kinda stuck in Berlin

33:10

trying to make a 1 name

33:12

myself out there. It's a really, really funny

33:13

show. I love it. It's it's it's part of the part of

33:15

the, you know, as they I I think they refer with the

33:17

PPU Yeah. It's the PPU

33:19

of the generic universe.

33:21

That's right. I would

33:21

I would imagine when you went in for that pitch

33:24

perfect audition and maybe even when you were shooting the

33:26

first movie, you did not think to

33:28

yourself franchise. But

33:29

No. I really did. I

33:32

remember reading the

33:34

script. And, you know, I

33:36

was hesitant because workaholics was

33:39

considered like a cool show. It had like cool

33:41

street cred. You know, Pitch Perfect.

33:43

Definitely on paper didn't seem like the coolest

33:45

thing to do. It's about a

33:48

group of like, Corniak Capella singers. And,

33:50

you know, it it was very funny.

33:52

KKinnon wrote it, and she was

33:54

one of the main writers for

33:57

thirty rock and she's super funny

33:59

woman.

33:59

And I just

34:01

I really like the script, and I gave it to my guys.

34:03

I gave it to Andres and Blake.

34:05

As

34:05

sort of like, hey, would you mind reading this to tell me a thought? What would

34:07

you think about it? And Durs is like, dude, I think

34:09

you would be very funny

34:11

in this role. I think, yeah, do

34:13

it. Oh, yeah. And then

34:16

Blake was like, yeah. Me too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And

34:18

then we were working late that night, and he comes

34:20

into my office, and he goes, dude, you can't

34:22

do this. You cannot do this movie. And I'm like,

34:24

what? And he goes, it will ruin

34:26

everything. Don't do it. Please don't

34:28

do it. And now I'm like have the weight

34:30

of, like,

34:32

You're gonna

34:32

destroy the brand. I'm gonna destroy the workaholic

34:35

if I do this. But

34:38

then I just told him to

34:39

f off and I

34:41

did it anyways. Sucker. I'm

34:46

curious,

34:46

i'm curious you

34:48

know as we're talking about Page Perfect, obviously, that's

34:51

just one of many examples of shows that are

34:53

being made that are, you know, inspired by

34:55

or based on existing movies

34:57

or older TV shows.

34:59

Given that, do you think it would be possible

35:01

to even if you were to go out and try

35:03

to pitch workaholics now as an unknown

35:06

commodity, do you think it would get picked up?

35:08

Or would

35:08

it be harder than it was when you guys actually

35:10

did it? I think if

35:11

yeah. I don't know if it would get

35:13

picked up nowadays. We're

35:16

just three unknown white guys. Yeah. I don't I don't know if it

35:18

would, you know, to be perfectly

35:20

honest. I think it was

35:22

just the We were kind of last

35:24

show of its kind, really. And

35:26

I I don't know if that that

35:28

show would get made now. Now

35:31

that being said, we we right before the door

35:33

slammed in in our faces,

35:35

and and now we're we're on the inside, so

35:37

we can we can do

35:40

it again. So thank thank God. I I'd like to think that, you

35:42

know, if and I again, I don't run

35:44

any of these places anymore. But,

35:45

you know, funny is funny and

35:47

hopefully, you know, something

35:50

comes through. And it's hard enough to find something funny, particularly these days.

35:52

Yeah. Something funny comes through the door. You figure

35:54

out a way to make it. But like I said,

35:57

I'm not I'm not making those those decisions anymore.

35:59

Yeah. I

35:59

mean Dang.

36:00

I I'm back in there. Yeah.

36:02

Really. You know, I'd like to think

36:04

that too. I just everything I keep hearing from

36:06

people is that it's really hard to pitch original

36:08

stuff, more hard than it But

36:10

forget about whether it's funny or not. Just just if it

36:12

doesn't have any kind of an original idea If it doesn't

36:14

have any sort of marquee IP value. Right? Yeah. I think it's it's impression

36:16

from just talking to different writers and people in

36:18

the business that that's it's so

36:21

much more challenge just breaking in and, like,

36:23

I don't even know I guess, I do

36:25

know. You would

36:26

need to

36:28

do TikTok

36:29

videos. And you would need to,

36:32

like, do characters and stuff

36:34

in in that world.

36:36

But I I'm just very fortunate that when

36:38

we sort

36:39

of came up. We were doing

36:41

Internet

36:41

videos, but we were

36:44

actively trying to tell little stories

36:46

within those videos. And it wasn't

36:48

just like you

36:50

know, girls

36:50

be walking like this. Right.

36:52

And then they do a funny walk. You

36:54

know? But but but but that's right.

36:56

You got right. The the this generation didn't,

36:58

like, you were discovered, you know, on myspace

37:00

in YouTube. This generation is being discovered

37:03

on Instagram and TikTok. And -- Yeah. -- and

37:05

they're and they're doing it in much

37:06

shorter you

37:07

know, versions and not really telling

37:10

stories. But But I

37:10

also think the difference is that and you can correct

37:12

me if I'm wrong, Adam, by all means. But,

37:14

like, back then, I don't think

37:17

people thought that, oh, if I put this on the Internet,

37:19

I'm gonna become a star. Like, it was still something that

37:21

was a new concept. So you were making

37:23

things that you enjoyed.

37:25

We were just excited that people were

37:27

watching it. Like, just we would, like, literally refresh and look

37:29

at view counts. And it wasn't, we

37:31

it was not viral even

37:33

a little bit. But

37:35

like the fact that you'd be like, oh my god, thirty

37:38

eight people have watched it since we

37:40

uploaded it. Now it's a hundred

37:42

and six. Oh my gosh. It's going

37:44

through the roof. Right.

37:46

But that is right, Chen. The

37:48

expectations of the generation on TikTok is they're

37:50

going to be famous, and that's why

37:52

they're there. Whereas Adam and the guys were probably just trying to get

37:54

somebody to notice them and make

37:56

stuff But just make the same life. Yeah. Say make something

37:58

like that. They like to see that

37:59

float it. Right? And see if they get

38:02

anybody's attention. So, yeah, different. I think that's a good point. I think that's a really good point. Yeah. I think

38:04

it's just generationally it

38:06

was never any of our

38:10

goals

38:10

wasn't like to be

38:11

famous. You know, the fame was a

38:14

byproduct of getting

38:16

to be actors and getting to be comedians.

38:20

And getting good at the skill set. And then

38:22

fame was like another sort

38:24

of a perk, sort of a hassle

38:27

that came with being good at something.

38:30

Right. And now I think

38:32

with with the rise of like

38:34

reality television stars and

38:36

like YouTube's stars where

38:38

they're they're famous for

38:41

opening presence, you know, or just, you

38:43

know, whatever thing that they

38:45

do, I think it's a it's a little bit different of the thing and

38:47

it's it's people want the

38:50

the goal is to get famous, not necessarily to

38:52

be great at

38:54

storytelling or Right.

38:55

For comedy. Right. We have

38:57

to ask you our our traditional

38:59

last question of the podcast, which is -- Right.

39:01

-- aside from shows that you have

39:04

been in, What is your favorite basic cable TV of

39:06

all time? Of

39:08

all time,

39:11

the basic. You

39:13

know, I think, weirdly, I don't

39:14

watch a lot of comedy, and I never IIII

39:19

did a lot more when I was

39:21

younger, I think, because it's what I wanted to do,

39:23

but now that I do it and it

39:26

is my life and

39:28

my job, I watch so much less of it, and it's almost embarrassing

39:30

how people would be like, have you seen that? I'm

39:32

like, no.

39:35

So I think the

39:38

shield might be right off. They loved I

39:40

just thought it was so good, and

39:43

Walton Goggins is on brightest

39:45

gemstones with me now. And I I'm sure

39:47

I bother him by how much I talk to him about

39:49

the shield. It's like, yeah. Yeah. That show I did twenty

39:52

years ago. I've done other things. can me but

39:54

like, what was it like?

39:56

Was Vic Mackie

39:58

really scary?

39:59

But that's a that's a that's a great choice. And

40:02

that's a you know, that's one that hasn't come up yet, but

40:04

the shield was really the

40:06

very first, I think,

40:08

sort of premium drama on cable. Very

40:10

dark. Right? Very then violent and

40:12

edgy. But that was, you know,

40:14

that was And

40:16

just how they left you, they they they use the the

40:18

medium so well with every

40:21

act

40:21

out to go into

40:24

commercial break. Was the most intense

40:26

thing, like, you're on the edge of your seat, and

40:28

then it's a commercial break, and then you have to

40:30

wait all

40:32

commercial long until it

40:34

jumps you back into the the scene.

40:36

And just having that built

40:38

in, like nowadays

40:40

that you don't really have that

40:42

because there's no commercials. Right.

40:44

So that was an art. It

40:46

was an art form to really nail

40:49

nail the the out for

40:51

the commercial break, and and they did it better

40:53

than anyone. It had that moment like Game of Thrones

40:55

when they kicked the kid, you know, out he's

40:57

outside the castle window. And then I think the episode of of the

41:00

shield, I think he comes in and he puts some

41:02

guy's face onto a burner on the stove. Yeah. And

41:04

it's like,

41:06

oh, This is gonna be

41:08

different. I was like, uh-oh, my new favorite show.

41:13

I I remember Kyle and I got all the

41:15

DVDs because I think he hadn't I

41:18

I hadn't seen all of it because it used to be, you

41:20

know, I mean, you guys know you'd miss some

41:22

episodes And then you just kinda

41:24

missed it unless you saw reruns, you know.

41:26

So so we got all the DVDs

41:28

and it was right

41:31

after I had quit my job working at the

41:34

improv because I'm gonna do comedy full

41:36

time and I can't have a regular

41:38

job anymore, which just meant I sat at

41:40

my house until I went to go

41:42

do this to stand up at

41:44

night. So Kyle

41:46

and I, we would act we would say we're

41:48

going to work and we would clock in at

41:50

ten AM and just watch eight hours

41:52

of of the shield until I

41:54

had to go do stand up at night.

41:58

Well, I'm

41:58

I'm a TV critic for a living, so you've just described my

42:01

job. Hey.

42:02

Cool. Cool job. Well, then you

42:04

have you have to pick up a pen and then write

42:06

about or go to your

42:08

go to your keyboard. Yeah. I use

42:10

a quill and I write to my boss.

42:12

A sky rider, let let the

42:14

whole city know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Adam,

42:16

it was great to see you. We really appreciate

42:18

you coming on. We're looking forward to bumper

42:21

in Berlin, and it was was

42:23

a pleasure having you. Thanks so much.

42:25

Thank you guys so much. Great to see

42:27

you.

42:31

Okay. So Adam

42:34

to Vine, thought he was really great guest and always

42:36

funny and personable. But wow, that

42:38

story about what happened to him as a

42:40

kid is

42:42

is really kind of incredible and and incredible to think anybody could overcome

42:44

that. Howard Bauchner: Yeah, I mean,

42:46

I until we started doing research

42:48

for this podcast, I did not know

42:50

that story about him getting

42:52

hit by that cement truck and he's he's

42:54

right that it does sound fake but like

42:56

incredible that he could

42:58

recover from that because it sounds like it took a few years

43:01

to to do that and that it sort

43:03

of kind of gave birth to

43:04

his comedic mind. It sounds like just from

43:06

writing sketch and like he said, calling into the radio station, which I

43:09

love that. Yeah. I love that he was just

43:11

doing voices. It's hilarious. And and that's

43:13

it's really inspiring, you know? Like, really,

43:15

it's a it's it's a lot to overcome. But, you know,

43:17

it's funny. He's he's a very upbeat guy.

43:19

And, I mean, that's clearly part

43:22

of what got him through, what he was going

43:24

through. And to do it. It's such

43:26

a young age. I mean, I can't even imagine honestly. Yeah. But, you know, there's a lot of

43:28

people

43:28

who who get into adverse

43:32

situations like that and

43:34

maybe aren't able for good

43:35

reason to use it to kind of discover

43:38

a new side of themselves. So the fact that he was able to

43:40

do that and it's ended up being what

43:42

his whole kind of life and career

43:44

is about is incredible to me. Howard

43:46

Bauchner: Yeah, and III

43:46

do love the workaholic story. I

43:49

mean, it's got a great arc with

43:52

starting these guys just kind of getting

43:54

together post college.

43:56

As you pointed out, there's a lot of similarities

43:58

between their real life and what they were doing on the show and and

44:00

just throwing stuff up onto YouTube

44:03

and and myspace in

44:05

the early days and finding their way

44:07

to the comedy central offices and all of a sudden somebody gives them a TV show and and they

44:10

figure it out. Mhmm. Do you think

44:12

that kind of thing would happen today? I know I

44:13

asked him that

44:16

question more from me, like, would somebody want to take an original

44:18

show, but just to have these guys

44:20

who really,

44:20

as he said, had no

44:22

experience for

44:24

the most part writing TV. And we're, like, going home at night and reading

44:26

a How to Write TV book, and then coming on the

44:28

next syllabus.

44:29

By the way. You

44:31

know, III

44:34

think

44:34

and because I'm not in these these conversations, these

44:36

these offices anymore. You know, we talked about it a

44:38

little bit in in with Adam in the podcast, but

44:42

I think you

44:42

would find somebody on

44:44

TikTok. And

44:45

it might

44:46

be a little less

44:48

about what they're doing,

44:50

but how popular it

44:51

is. Mhmm. You know, and

44:53

how many likes or followers or,

44:55

you know, whatever it is they

44:57

measure. You know, those things by. I think that I think that holds a lot

44:59

of weight out there. And it's just, yeah, it's

45:01

a different it's a it's a different landscape.

45:03

And look, I think he I

45:05

I think the the world has

45:08

changed, the landscape has changed, and the

45:10

way people are buying shows

45:12

has changed. And so I think your question about

45:14

whether or not could work a whole

45:16

excel today is a really good one.

45:18

And I I I'm

45:20

not sure the answer I said during the podcast. I

45:22

think funny is funny, but There's a lot of things

45:24

to play today. So Yeah. I

45:25

mean, I feel like, you know, somebody that's, let's

45:28

say, an

45:30

influencer who is really

45:32

popular in TikTok and and somebody comes to them and says, hey,

45:34

we should make a show around you. I

45:36

feel like a lot of those kinds of shows would be more

45:38

reality show type

45:38

of things. That's right.

45:40

And know, the kinds of people that

45:42

are doing things online and then going on

45:44

to make full fledged shows somebody

45:46

like Issa Rae with Insecure, for example, what

45:48

she was making is kind of like what Adam was talking about. Her insecure

45:51

was initially like little

45:53

web episodes, but they were

45:55

telling a story. I feel like

45:57

it is important to be able to see that capacity, which I think those

45:59

guys probably had even

46:00

though they hadn't worked in a,

46:04

you know, television environment before No. But but they

46:05

did have something crazy organic. Right? They were literally living

46:08

in that house. They were living together. They were

46:10

all friends. They

46:12

all clearly had talent to act, to write,

46:14

a sense of what their character should

46:16

be, a guy who was part of

46:18

the team who could direct it.

46:21

And and and bring it to life.

46:23

And so many of those moons have to

46:25

line up for anything to, you know,

46:27

to just get to air someplace much

46:29

less you know, succeed. So but there is

46:31

something kind of just crazy organic

46:34

about it, and it's hard to

46:36

it's hard to reproduce.

46:38

And so in that regard, and he said this, you know, they're they were lucky to have

46:40

the opportunity. They and they they really

46:42

did help a lot with it. I mean, what? Six, seven

46:44

seasons. great

46:46

careers for all of them and and and and now movie

46:48

that the Yeah. I'm excited

46:50

to hear about that

46:51

and excited to to see it when it finally comes

46:53

out. Sounds like either

46:55

COVID era or post COVID one or the other. Yeah. 1 thing I think

46:57

we

46:57

didn't get to talk to them about, which I'm really curious about is,

46:59

you know, what are those guys like? What I don't know.

47:02

It's it's what do we we must

47:04

be six, seven years out, right, at this point from

47:06

the last work of Haulks episode. And, you

47:08

know, like, you know, like, maybe more, like, where are they?

47:10

And they're, you know, they're not post you know, Brad's I wonder

47:12

whether how they will pick up the story, I guess,

47:14

is what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. And where those guys are

47:16

in their life? That'll be that'll be interesting. We'll

47:18

have to wait and find out. We will. And hopefully, you'll

47:20

come back and find out about our next

47:22

guest next week and join us

47:25

on basic. Thanks for

47:26

coming. Basic is

47:27

a Pantheon media production in partnership

47:29

with SiriusXM. Hosted by Jen Cheney

47:31

and Doug Herzog. Produced

47:33

by Christian Swain

47:36

and Peter Ferrioli. Lindley Ehrlich is our assistant producer. Sound

47:38

design and music by Jerry Daniels.

47:41

Mixed and mastered by Brian

47:43

Slusher. Recording and edited by

47:46

Zack Schweser. You can find basic on Apple Podcasts,

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