0:00

Real Blond with Mario

0:03

Mario Courtney Lopez joining me now in studio

0:06

the Taco from the Mass Singer

0:08

Dancing with the Star. Welcome

0:11

back to the show, my friend. Are you I'm

0:13

well, I'm well Now I love that you were

0:15

the Taco. Okay, so let's talk

0:18

about it. Uh. Did you

0:20

have a personal connection to the taco costume?

0:22

What was the significance of that? None? Uh

0:25

to tacos, I consumed

0:27

them regularly, But I was the last

0:29

person cast. Uh? Is

0:32

he was executive producing when you did dancing

0:34

right? Yes? Yes, well she's executive producing.

0:37

Mass singer Rob Wade is over. Rob

0:39

is the head over. He

0:42

knew them when Mario did when so

0:45

is? He saw that I had sung a tune

0:47

for a Mr. Rogers tribute album,

0:49

and she called me and said, look, I

0:51

saw you sang this song. This might

0:54

be daft, but would you be

0:56

interested in Mass Singer? I said, Hey, if I

0:58

could reunite with all you guys, sure, She

1:00

said, we only have two costumes left because you're

1:02

the last person for grouping. Well,

1:05

they had cast everybody else for that group. The

1:07

only two left were the Taco

1:10

and a jellyfish.

1:15

They do and they just looked. You know, it looked weird,

1:17

and not that this didn't look weird, but it was

1:20

more adorably weird. Everybody

1:22

loves it time. Sure, um

1:25

here, I thought this was really cool. Some of the guesses

1:27

were Alec Baldwin and Regis

1:29

filled In. Yes, two very cool people.

1:32

Right? Did anyone come close to guess?

1:34

The most flattering guesses were, especially

1:36

after the Sonatra tune, Harry

1:39

Connick Jr. Um Michael

1:41

boublaying like that. The

1:44

closest was Robin in that

1:46

first show I did when he guessed sag It sag

1:49

it, although he didn't take the height

1:51

differential into account, right, right, But

1:53

I thought they were getting so close then

1:56

they would nail it, and nobody did even

1:58

I mean, you know, I know Robert, I know Nicole, you

2:01

know Jenny from years ago, and yeah

2:03

I didn't get it. Wow? Uh did?

2:06

What song would you have saying? Next? Well? Had

2:08

I gone on, I would have gone back to the

2:10

boubleticonic Sinatra

2:13

songbook. That's sort of where I'm more comfortable.

2:16

Yeah, well I don't. I've

2:18

got some range, but it's you know, Selene

2:21

Dion isn't threatened. How

2:24

hard was it to keep the secret. It's

2:27

not that hard. Well from from

2:29

people outside the show. To

2:31

give you a little backstory, we have two daughters.

2:34

When my wife was pregnant with our first daughter,

2:36

I wanted to find out the sex and she

2:38

didn't. So the ultrasound

2:41

towards the end of the first term, the doctor pulled

2:43

me aside told me you're having a girl.

2:46

Lois at that point wanted to be surprised,

2:48

so for six months kept I

2:50

kept the secret from my own wife

2:53

what sex she was carrying. Never slipped.

2:56

Never, well, no, there

2:58

was one time that I sedentally put

3:00

a female pronoun out there, and I

3:03

engineered a call to a friend. We were living in the

3:05

Boston area, engineered to call to a friend out

3:07

here and wove the conversation, which

3:09

I knew she was listening to, to that

3:11

very question. And I lied and I said, well,

3:13

you know, Chuck, I interchanged male

3:15

and female pronouns all the time. So

3:18

she that thought, oh, I guess he does.

3:20

I never had, but she bought

3:22

into that revisionist history. That's funny.

3:25

All three of our kids we waited to find

3:27

out, did you. We did wait to find out so

3:29

convincing at first, because I wanted to know. I didn't

3:31

want to know, and that you did want to know. Correct. The first

3:33

one, yes, you think you want to prepare and

3:35

there's so many things that you need to do, but after

3:38

it was so much fun. Yeah, it was so much

3:40

fun. So the other two we were just like, yeah, whatever,

3:42

and we just waited. So were you surprised

3:45

in any of those three cases? I thought

3:47

the first one was a boy. I was convinced

3:50

it was a boy and she was a girl.

3:52

You know how I convinced Lois Uh

3:55

deviously that it was a boy. I

3:57

was hosting a daily live talk show in Boss

4:00

and at the time it was like Oprah kind of

4:02

filled Donahue, different topic every day.

4:04

One of the shows was circumcision pro

4:07

or con and I brought

4:09

home. I brought home the material and

4:11

happens to be a subject convert. What

4:15

was what was

4:20

put your pants back on? Show?

4:24

So I other than Jewish

4:26

Jewish faith and I

4:28

made I made out that I was even more uncomfortable

4:31

with the whole conversation. So she presumed

4:33

we must be having a boy and he's wrestling with

4:35

whether we do this or not, which was perfect.

4:37

So she thought it was going to be a boy. That's

4:40

funny. You did a whole subject. I

4:43

was Machiavelli in with it right

4:45

and you actually have sang before you

4:47

were on the Mr. Rogers tribute album right

4:50

right together. That was you know, it was

4:52

funny. I was asked first if I

4:54

would do a companion video

4:57

to kind of host the behind the scenes like you know,

4:59

you see and the extras when you get a movie on Apple

5:01

TV or something, and I agreed to do that,

5:04

and then out of the blue, I got an email

5:06

from the producer, Dennis Scott, asking

5:08

if I sang. And I

5:10

was sitting I just had a training session. I was

5:12

sitting at in the parking lot of the Whole Foods

5:15

eating a gluten free pizza, and

5:18

I say, well, you know I can't. I So I brought up

5:20

my voice memo on my iPhone and

5:23

googled some Mr. Rogers lyrics and acapella

5:25

sang into the voice memo send

5:27

it to him. About an hour later, he gave me

5:29

three song choices. Yeah,

5:32

and so that you know, that turned out to be

5:34

a lot of fun, and it led to this yeah,

5:37

exactly exactly. So Group C kicks

5:39

off this week. Do you know anything about what's

5:41

in store now? No, I don't, nor do I know who

5:44

my companions in Group B were.

5:46

They They're amazing with the security.

5:49

I'm really isolated.

5:51

So when you get there, do they cover

5:54

you immediately in your car even before

5:56

you it's in the car before you drive

5:58

on the lot. I had the driver shows

6:00

up, I had a mirrore advisor

6:03

mask, a hoodie, gloves

6:06

like it really was, and they and they follow

6:08

you all the time. And the irony

6:11

for me is they shoot mass singer

6:13

where we did we do nexts with Stars?

6:15

So I was home, but you

6:18

couldn't be. I was like hitting

6:20

homecoming. That's funny. So well, speaking

6:22

of let's talk a little dancing. What do we know

6:24

so far about this coming season? Nothing

6:27

has no official pick up yet I

6:30

have. I even reached

6:33

out to one of the exacts saying, hey, I'm gonna be doing

6:35

press this week? Should I what should I say? I

6:37

didn't hear it, didn't hear back, So

6:40

I don't know. I mean, my assumption is it'll

6:42

be back in the fall, but it's not real

6:45

till it's real. And it seems

6:47

that for a few seasons, some of the some of

6:49

the fan favorites or best dancers were

6:51

leaving. Um earlier, we just weren't

6:53

getting the post. Did the show Does the

6:55

show try to address that? Or is it is just

6:57

one of those things like it is what it is. No. I think they did

7:00

try to address it. Uh. Last

7:02

season they gave the judges that um,

7:05

that extra little power at the end of the show

7:07

to pick from the bottom two. UM.

7:10

I don't know that it. The downside

7:13

of of the new approach was that the West

7:15

Coast I couldn't vote

7:18

UM. So I think I would presume anyway,

7:21

if we come back, that they're still looking at

7:23

ways to make that a little bit more palatable

7:26

for everybody. Right, what a run?

7:28

Huh? Fifteen years

7:31

you were? Season or two three? Season

7:33

three? Very good season. Funny because we

7:35

were talking about the producers that worked on the show.

7:37

So Rob Wade, where the producers is now running

7:39

Fox? Paul Telegdi, all

7:42

right, is it running NBC? Boss

7:45

running NBC. But it's so funny that they all came

7:47

from that show, and it's like the Brits sort

7:49

of just took over the Beatles the invaded

7:51

well exactly in the show itself is

7:54

a transplant from England from strictly

7:56

come dancing, which still

7:59

every year Brune was still doing that. Lens stopped

8:01

flies like every week. Can you imagine

8:04

he does our show on a Monday during

8:07

the fall, and then he flies to England

8:09

neither Tuesday or Wednesday, does their show

8:11

on Saturday, gets back on a plane

8:14

Sunday and does our show on Mond. Oh my gosh, you must

8:16

be exhausted. He is, he is, but he still

8:18

has that energy Mario. And

8:20

then let me tell you what, he's

8:22

just like a cartoon characters. He's

8:24

exhausted, but he's rich. Do

8:28

you believe Mario should have won his season? Way

8:30

to put him on the way to put I'll

8:33

tell you.

8:36

I'll say season three was my favorite

8:38

season. I'll take that. And

8:41

what was unique about that season at

8:43

that stage was watching an

8:46

NFL guy suddenly

8:48

become a dancer. And as

8:51

we were getting closer, because it's you

8:53

must have at some point thought I got this locked. Well

8:56

I mean yeah, no, no,

8:58

no, but I mean if we're going and my pure ability,

9:02

right yeah, And and and

9:04

my perception was that

9:06

that Emmett was like, you know, the

9:10

tortoise and the hair kind of thing. He was suddenly

9:12

gaining and gaining and we were in

9:15

the elevator at CBS

9:18

where we shot the show, and uh, I said, Emmett,

9:20

you just seemed to be getting more relaxed as

9:22

we get closer to the finale, and he just

9:24

kind of held up his super Bowl ring and said, I've

9:27

dealt with stress. That was

9:29

the thing. Tom. I just needed one super Bowl, right, Yeah,

9:32

super Bowl. I think I would have been

9:34

in there. That's great to hear about season

9:37

three. Thank you. Um,

9:40

this is a fun fact. This is kind of cool. Your first interview

9:42

back in the day was with Mo Howard of the

9:44

Three Stooges. Yeah, I love the Three

9:46

Stooges. How did that come about? Well,

9:48

I was and by the way, to link

9:51

it to the mass singer, there was a clue of a hairpiece.

9:54

If you look at that clue, that's Mo's hair, That's

9:57

the haircut Mo had. So I was

9:59

sixteen year years old at my

10:01

parents home, my childhood home, and

10:04

I cold called l A. Now this

10:06

is harl Massachusetts, like cold called

10:08

l A. My folks were out and I knew

10:10

two of the three Stooges were alive, and

10:13

this is early seventies and I

10:16

was looking for either one Larry or Mo called

10:18

information. I got a number for a Larry fine

10:22

that it can't be that easy. Called

10:24

that number. A woman answered the phone, say,

10:26

oh, we get these calls every so often. It's

10:28

not him, but you know where he is. He's

10:30

at the Motion Picture home in Woodland Hills. So

10:32

I called there. The switchboard

10:35

answered, I'll get him.

10:38

My heart's beating like a jackhammer. Guy comes

10:40

back on the phone, says, Larry's playing poker

10:42

right now. He's got a good hand. Can you

10:44

call in half an hour? And

10:46

you just said who you were, Yeah,

10:48

I'm a fan, and I had my cassette

10:50

tape recorder and all this now they would go, yeah,

10:53

yeah, exactly. So I called back.

10:55

Larry comes on. He's recovering

10:57

from a stroke. You can hear a little bit of that issue,

10:59

but very clearly himself. About ten

11:02

minutes in he goes, swear

11:04

to God, you want Ma's number. Really.

11:07

He gave me Mo's home phone

11:09

number,

11:11

and I ended up recording interviews

11:14

with both of them if on Howard's

11:17

Sirius XM channel Howard Stern. We turned

11:19

those interviews into a special called

11:21

The Lost Stooges. So you can hear

11:23

me at sixteen sounding like I'm forty

11:26

interviewing Mo and Larry. That's incredible.

11:28

I would like to check that out. Yeah, it's really

11:31

cool. It was such a treat and and

11:33

uh we we transferred

11:35

the quarter inch tapes which I had

11:37

transferred from cassettes to

11:40

digital for the special, and

11:42

the Mo thing held up pretty well, but the

11:44

real to real on the Larry interview was actually

11:47

falling apart as we made the transference.

11:49

Really only had one pass at that but

11:52

the Mom interview sounds like he just walked off the sound

11:54

stage. That's incredible. Yeah, that's such a cool

11:56

story. Thanks for sharing that. All

11:58

right, Tom, before we let you, am gonna put you on the spot.

12:01

Quick questions. Okay, go

12:03

to karaoke song, don't

12:05

do karaoke, Never do karaoke.

12:07

No, no, although now I might I

12:10

might bring I

12:12

might bring a taco karaoke

12:15

bar. See the move I like, Tom is. I

12:17

don't like the the public karaokes

12:19

somebody can records in the whole deal. I like

12:21

the Korean karaoke style. I do

12:23

karaoke. You're like James

12:26

Cordon. Yeah, I'm good with that too. That

12:28

or the private rooms with friends. That's

12:30

the move. There movie. You can quote

12:32

the most uh star Trek

12:34

to the Wrath of Con. Oh you're a start

12:37

your enterprise to episodes?

12:39

Oh wow, that's another fun fat

12:42

out enterprise. Season one.

12:44

The episode is called Oasis. The

12:46

very opening scene is this alien

12:49

trader of exotic goods having

12:51

dinner with the captain, the engineer, and the

12:54

Vulcan science officer. That's me. Is that you

12:56

four and a half hours of makeup? Wrath Con?

12:58

Wow? Yeah, Ratha Con. That

13:00

was with recorded montal one, right, yes,

13:03

I remember that was the was a

13:05

good one. That was a good one. Celebrity

13:08

crush growing up, Um,

13:11

Sally Field, that's a good

13:14

one. Yeah, is it? Yeah? Remember

13:17

I'm almost sixty. No, no, I didn't just don't

13:19

get Sally would you would just from getting

13:21

cute? He was super cut. I'm smoking

13:24

the bandit. No, I know she was cute, She's

13:26

cute. I wouldn't say it crush. I'd say more like Raquel

13:28

Welsh So Phil Laurel.

13:30

I had to think, I like more, do you like more more

13:32

like Maryanne than Ginger? I didn't. Yeah,

13:35

oh yeah

13:37

I get your style. Okay, we got along

13:39

great. I would feel like I'm punching about

13:41

my weight. You know, you

13:43

don't want to find it out of your Okay,

13:46

go to cocktail. Well,

13:49

I'm not as much of a drinker, and I'm more into

13:51

I p a s now. My niece

13:53

is my professor of beer, who's sitting over there.

13:56

But if I got hard alcohol,

13:58

it's usually a vodka's sodas

14:01

and clubs. Dreamcasting

14:04

for Dancing with the stars, I've

14:07

often said this, I would like uh,

14:10

Tom Hanks, um

14:13

uh and and that retired pope. That's

14:18

what's he doing? That's right? Is that a lot of time? What's

14:20

he doing? He's got a lot of time. He's

14:23

still around. You know, he's probably

14:25

just hanging out at the Vatican looking

14:27

like he's well arrested, looking like a fifth wheel?

14:30

Right? I like

14:32

that? Yeah? Um, who would you

14:34

cast to play you in the Tom burg John

14:36

story? You know who I would

14:38

love to see plays Steve Coogan. Steve

14:41

Coogan is a British comedian. Uh

14:44

and is brilliant and

14:46

he recently did a Laurel

14:48

and Hardy film and stand

14:51

Laurel. Yes, yes, yes, I would just

14:53

I would just love to show up on set and hang out with Steve

14:55

Coogan. Okay, you never know we

14:57

might see that. Thank you so much for taking the time.

15:00

It's nice to catch up. Really,

15:04

the Mass Singer, he punched above his weight. I

15:06

did, I did. I outkicked the coverage

15:09

right there. Mass Singer airs

15:11

tonight on Fox. Big Things to Tom,

15:13

Thank you again. So On with

15:16

Mario Lopez