0:02

Hey folks, today's episode is

0:04

sponsored by Squarespace. It's

0:06

the best way for you to stand

0:08

out online using the Squarespace tools to

0:11

build your own website and enhance all

0:13

aspects of your digital presence. We use

0:15

Squarespace to run wtfpod.com, but you can

0:17

use it for practically any online reason

0:19

you can think of. Use

0:22

it for selling things, use it

0:24

for making and displaying videos, use

0:26

it to stay connected to your

0:28

fans, users, and customers. Go to

0:30

squarespace.com/WTF for a free trial and

0:32

when you're ready to launch, use offer code

0:34

WTF to save 10% off your

0:36

first purchase of a website or domain.

0:39

That's squarespace.com/WTF.

0:42

Offer code WTF. Yes!

0:46

Lock the gates!

0:55

Alright, let's do this. How are

0:57

you? What the fuckers? What

1:00

the fuck buddies? What the fuckniks? What's

1:02

happening? I'm Mark Maron. This is my

1:04

podcast. Welcome to it. I

1:06

am traveling a

1:09

lot. Today

1:12

on the show I talked to Chris

1:14

Pine. I

1:17

don't know. It's just every time I see him. Like

1:19

I like that guy. You

1:21

know, especially in that Hell or High Water

1:23

movie. I think

1:25

he's good. He's got something, that guy

1:28

Pine. And sometimes I just have

1:30

to like a guy and then I'll have him

1:32

on the show. And it turns

1:34

out he's a pretty likable guy. He's

1:37

been in those new Star Trek movies, Wonder

1:40

Woman, Unstoppable. His

1:42

new movie, which he co-wrote, directed, and

1:44

stars in is called Pool Man, which

1:47

is a weird little movie. A

1:49

weird little comedy with some big

1:51

stars. He plays a guy that you wouldn't expect him

1:53

to play. It was pretty good. But he's here. I

1:56

talked to him. But let's talk

1:58

about other things. How's it going? going with you? What

2:01

are you doing? What are you obsessed with? What

2:04

are you obsessed with? I

2:07

go through these things where it could be

2:09

anything. It doesn't have to be, I've

2:11

gone through it with music, I've gone through

2:13

it with guitars, I've gone through it with

2:16

pieces of wood. I don't

2:18

know. I've gone through it with lavender

2:20

plants, which are beginning to disappoint me out

2:23

front. I don't think I

2:25

got the right kind of lavender. That's

2:27

how I ground

2:29

myself, folks. That is what I do. I get

2:32

obsessed with something seemingly

2:35

ridiculous for as long as

2:37

it takes me to calm down, whether that be

2:39

days, weeks, or months or years. Some

2:42

obsessions last longer than

2:44

others. Usually, when

2:46

you're done with the obsession, you

2:48

have a lot of whatever it is you

2:50

were obsessed with around, and

2:52

then you start saying things like, man, I got to

2:54

get rid of some stuff. But you

2:56

don't. You don't do it. Lately,

3:00

the obsession has been these,

3:02

I don't even

3:04

know who told me about it, but this East

3:06

Fork pottery. East

3:08

Fork mugs. Like I'm a

3:10

mug guy, and you spend a lifetime. You

3:12

spend a lifetime trying to

3:15

find a mug. Sometimes you get

3:17

very committed to a mug. I

3:19

got the Brian Jones mugs, but

3:21

they're fancy. The East Fork pottery

3:23

stuff, I think it's out of

3:26

maybe North Carolina. They

3:28

are in Asheville, North

3:31

Carolina, which is

3:33

Pottery Haven. But somebody

3:35

hit me to the East Fork mugs, and

3:38

then I just had to have all

3:40

the other East Fork stuff. That's been the

3:43

obsession. I got the mugs

3:46

in every different color. They've got all these

3:48

tiny little bowls that you can use while

3:50

you're cooking for putting spices in. They've got

3:52

big bowls. They've got plates. They've

3:54

got serving bowls. And they've got all these colors.

3:56

When I first started living like an animal, I

3:58

started living in the West Fork. adult I

4:01

was kind of obsessed with heath pottery

4:04

but you all know I'm a pottery guy but this

4:06

is stuff you can you know you buy plates and

4:08

stuff it's not just pieces of vase or something like

4:10

that or something fancy it's like practical

4:12

stuff so I had all this heath

4:14

stuff the basic blue heath stuff and

4:17

then like somebody told me about these

4:19

East Fork mugs and

4:21

they're like the best and they're

4:23

weighted properly they look cool I don't I

4:25

don't know so that's what's happening I think

4:28

I'm gonna end up with

4:30

several houses worth

4:32

of East Fork pottery

4:35

I think go look at it go it's at

4:37

East fork.com I'm not trying to get

4:39

a deal here I'm just telling you what

4:42

what I'm working on obsession wise and

4:45

that seems to be it my

4:48

dates I've got a few dates coming up and by

4:50

the way I am sorry

4:53

about the cancellations or

4:55

the reschedules of many of

4:57

the dates later in the summer and early fall

5:01

if it happened to you I will come back

5:03

I am rescheduling those I hope you can make

5:05

it but I'm doing a TV thing and

5:08

I had to do the TV thing I want

5:10

to do the TV thing it may be the

5:12

last TV thing I do this

5:14

week I'll be in Munhall Pennsylvania outside

5:16

Pittsburgh on May 9th at the Carnegie

5:18

Library Music Hall Cleveland Ohio on May

5:20

10th at Playhouse Square

5:23

in Detroit Michigan on May 11th

5:25

at the Royal Oak Music Theatre

5:27

I'm back at Largo in

5:29

LA on Tuesday May 14th here

5:32

are the rescheduled dates and again

5:34

I'm sorry Santa Barbara California at

5:36

the Lobero Theatre that will now

5:38

be on January 30th 2025 San

5:41

Luis Obispo California at the Fremont Theatre

5:43

that's now January 31st Monterey

5:45

California at the Golden State Theatre

5:48

February 1st Iowa City at

5:50

the Inglert Theatre on

5:52

February 13th Des

5:55

Moines at Hoyt Sherman Place that's Des

5:57

Moines Iowa February 14th for Kansas City,

5:59

Missouri at the Midland Theater, February

6:01

15th, Asheville, North Carolina, at the Orange

6:03

Peel, February 20th, Nashville,

6:06

Tennessee, at the Polk Theater, February 21st,

6:08

Louisville, Kentucky, at the Kentucky Center for

6:10

the Performing Arts, February 2nd,

6:12

Lexington, Kentucky, at the Lexington Opera

6:15

House, February 23rd, Durham, North Carolina,

6:17

at the Carolina Theater, March 21st,

6:20

Charlotte, North Carolina, at the Knight Theater,

6:23

March 22nd, Charleston, South Carolina, at the

6:25

Charleston Music Hall, March 23rd. For

6:28

all ticket links, go to wtfpod.com

6:30

so I'll just tour. I'm sorry I had to reschedule, but

6:33

I had to do it, and who knows what's going to happen

6:35

in November. I hope I can make all these

6:37

dates, and we're not a divided

6:39

country to the point where I have to,

6:42

there are border crossings from

6:44

state to state. We'll see. I guess

6:47

we'll adapt or we'll run or

6:49

we'll fight, but that

6:52

one seems to

6:54

be the least possible. So

6:57

what's happening? So I did some shows. I

7:00

flew into New York. I did

7:02

three shows. Montclair, New Jersey, Philly,

7:05

outside of Philly, Glenside, is that what

7:07

it's called, the Keswick, and then DC

7:10

at the Warner, which was spectacular. I

7:12

had this amazing comic

7:14

open for me, Maddie

7:17

Weiner, who I'd never worked

7:19

with before, and all I'm hoping is that I

7:21

get along with the opener so we can drive

7:23

for hours and

7:25

chit-chat and not be weird

7:27

or awkward. And it was great. It

7:30

was great to talk about comedy,

7:32

and it's weird. I don't

7:34

know where I stand with anybody

7:36

with comics. My

7:39

inner dialogue is not great, but it was kind

7:41

of nice. She and some other

7:43

comics of her generation seemed to have me

7:45

in pretty high esteem. She knew a lot

7:47

of my old bits. And

7:50

it was nice. I think that's one of the

7:53

great honors and rewards of this business. It's

7:55

not so much that I... Well,

7:57

it is also. I'm very happy I have an

8:00

audience. and grateful that you come out and you're

8:02

all decent, grown-up people. But you know, in other

8:04

comics, respect ya, they kind of know what you

8:06

do and you're one of their

8:08

guys. It

8:10

feels like the best. And

8:14

she was amazing. I kind of had a minor

8:18

meltdown in New York and it all kind

8:20

of brought some things

8:23

into clarity for me. As

8:25

you know, because you listen to this show and you

8:27

know what I'm thinking and where I'm at, there was

8:29

a period there where I was going to move to

8:31

New York. I was very close to moving to New

8:33

York. And I thought like New

8:36

York, in my mind, was a

8:38

place where I could get old. I

8:40

thought, wouldn't it be great to be an

8:42

old New York guy? I could be an

8:45

old guy living in New York, doing things,

8:47

engaged in the world, feeding on the electricity

8:49

that is that city, and doing

8:52

high-culture things. Even

8:54

though I didn't do that stuff when I was younger living in New

8:57

York, I thought like I will be

8:59

an engaged New York

9:01

old man. And

9:03

then like I kind of pulled back from that for

9:06

reasons that are supported by this experience, but

9:08

I kind of pulled back from that because

9:10

I realized it's a young man's game. Maybe

9:12

if I was in my 30s or 40s and I was

9:15

bicoastal, that was sort of the dream, but now I'm 60

9:17

and I started to rethink it and I thought maybe I wanted

9:20

something different for my life. I wanted

9:23

something more peaceful, maybe New Mexico. But

9:26

I'll tell you, man, I was in New York and I

9:28

just had an embarrassing experience

9:31

where I realized I made the

9:33

right decision because I saw clearly

9:36

what kind of New York old man I would be. And

9:40

it wasn't pretty and I wasn't proud and

9:43

I had to

9:45

apologize twice, twice. And

9:47

I just had not seen this part of myself in

9:49

a while. And I flew into

9:51

New York. I was staying at the Ludlow,

9:53

which is where I usually stay. And

9:57

they put me, my manager

9:59

got upgraded. a suite and this exact thing

10:01

happened to me the last time I

10:03

went to the Ludlow. You know the suite is

10:05

no it's not good. It's on the fourth floor

10:08

facing the street. It's got a room up in

10:10

the front which is not

10:13

good for much. You know

10:15

unless I'm maybe I was recording an interview

10:17

but even then the other rooms are better.

10:19

So I tried to go

10:21

to sleep and there was construction at 1.30

10:23

in the morning. 1.30

10:26

in the morning there was construction. Now look

10:28

I know New York. What am I complaining

10:30

about? It's what happens but it felt like

10:32

it was in my room and then the

10:35

next morning I woke up and to the

10:37

sound of this like loud ass

10:39

truck across the street. It was a

10:41

truck that had a tank on it

10:43

that was running a tube a

10:45

hose into catses. I don't know if it

10:48

was if it was draining or filling up

10:50

grease. I don't know what it was

10:52

doing but it was 6.30 in the morning. So now

10:54

I'm on five hours of sleep. I go down to

10:56

the counter. I'm like I can't what is with that

10:58

room? How is that room a good room? How is

11:01

that a suite that anybody would want? I

11:03

couldn't sleep at all the fucking

11:05

noise. And I'm at

11:07

this pitch and I'm upset and

11:10

I knew what I was doing. That guy inside of

11:12

me was like dude keep it together but I'm like

11:14

I'm at the

11:17

end of my rope here. I need

11:19

another room and they're like okay

11:21

fine we'll find you another room and then the

11:23

next day you know I was gonna

11:25

get another room and they

11:28

said all right we'll put you in another room but we don't

11:30

know when it's gonna be done. So I had

11:32

to check out of the suite at noon and then

11:35

like I go up and they said well the room's clean. I'm

11:37

like great can I go in? No we got to get it

11:39

inspected. I'm like well how long is that gonna take? Well we

11:41

put you on cue. I mean how many times do I got

11:43

to stay here before you can just call somebody who has to

11:46

inspect the room and say go have a look we got this

11:48

guy stays here alive. So I was pulling rank. I was being

11:50

a bit of a diva and I was

11:52

being difficult and I was mad and

11:55

I felt bad about it because I was

11:57

mad and it was visible and there are

11:59

strangers there. I don't think anyone had

12:01

a phone out. It wasn't that bad.

12:04

But so I sat there in the

12:06

fucking lobby in the bar area, kind

12:08

of angry, pouty, making plans, ready to

12:10

switch hotels, you know, dramatic.

12:15

And then the manager, this nice young woman comes up to

12:17

me and she goes, we have your room, Mr.

12:19

Marin. I'm like, okay, great. And then

12:22

she said, can I talk to

12:24

you privately for a minute? And

12:26

I'm like, okay. And we

12:28

walk into the back patio area and she goes, I

12:31

can't have you yelling

12:33

at the counter. Okay.

12:35

I'm glad we can help you out, but I just

12:37

can't have that. And

12:39

I said, okay, I'm

12:42

sorry. And she was right. And

12:46

I respected

12:49

her boundaries and her decision to talk

12:51

to me as customer

12:53

service to say, you

12:56

can't do that. You

12:59

just like, what are you doing? You're a

13:01

grown fucking man. I'm reading into it now. But

13:04

I felt bad and I was embarrassed and I said I

13:06

was sorry. And she gave me the

13:08

key to my new room and I went up to

13:10

it. It was on the 11th floor, still facing the

13:12

street, but apparently there was construction behind it. And

13:15

I walk into this room, still kind of

13:17

steamed, but embarrassed

13:19

and contrite. And there's

13:21

a fucking, there was a baby playpen in

13:23

the room. And I

13:25

laughed out loud. I

13:28

laughed out loud in my room at the

13:31

little baby playpen that was in my room.

13:34

And I just hoped in my heart that

13:36

they had done that on purpose. I

13:40

went down because I was leaving and I

13:42

apologized again and it's fucked up. Look, if

13:44

you generate shame from within

13:47

based on things that your brain's putting you

13:49

through, that's one thing. But when

13:51

you put something out in the world that is

13:53

embarrassing and you feel ashamed of and you can't

13:55

put it back in, you know, you've released it.

13:58

You've released it into the world. So then

14:00

I get into this sort of like, I'm sorry,

14:02

you know, any time I walk by the people

14:04

I was angry, you know, in front of, I

14:06

was like, you know, guys, you

14:08

need coffee? You know? But

14:11

I had to go down there, you know, and I had

14:13

to tell them, look, there's a

14:15

playpen in my room for a baby. And

14:18

I said, you don't have to

14:20

tell me, but I really hope you guys do

14:22

that on purpose. I really hope that was a

14:25

message, because you're right. I was

14:27

being a fucking baby. And they're like, no, of

14:29

course we wouldn't do that. But I still hope,

14:32

I still hope they did that on purpose. This

14:34

show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Do

14:37

you have something you really need to get off your

14:39

chest? Or if you're like me, do you need to

14:41

get everything off your chest all the time? Clearly.

14:45

We all carry a lot of things around, big

14:47

and small. And when some of those things weigh

14:49

on us, it causes stress, especially when we keep

14:51

things bottled up. Therapy is a

14:53

safe space to get things off your chest and to

14:55

figure out how to work through whatever is weighing you

14:57

down. I've gone to therapy

14:59

in the past because I didn't do a great

15:02

job of getting things off my chest. It usually

15:04

happens suddenly with a lot of intensity and usually

15:06

in the face of someone who had nothing to

15:08

do with it. Yes, I just cited an example

15:10

of that. But when you

15:13

talk with somebody and learn positive coping skills, you

15:15

can learn not to blow your top or at

15:17

least say sorry right after you do, which I

15:19

did. If you're thinking of

15:21

starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's

15:23

entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible,

15:26

and suited to your schedule. Get

15:28

it off your chest with BetterHelp. Visit

15:31

betterhelp.com/WTF today to get

15:33

10% off your

15:35

first month. That's

15:37

BetterHelp, help.com/WTF. Yes,

15:40

yes, do that before

15:43

you make a fool out of yourself. All

15:46

right? But that story

15:48

about losing my shit at the hotel was

15:50

not even the story that landed

15:52

the reality of who I'd be

15:54

in New York in my

15:56

guts. I

15:59

had a day in New York. York. I got a little exercise

16:01

in and then I thought I'd stop at the Whole Foods to

16:04

put together some sort of healthy

16:06

breakfast snack for myself. So

16:08

I bought some yogurt, I bought some blueberries, bought

16:11

a few walnuts and I was gonna, it was early, and

16:14

I was gonna like steal a little bowl from the

16:16

Salabard Whole Foods but they hadn't got it set up

16:19

yet. So I went into the coffee shop that's

16:21

connected to the Whole Foods there in New York. I bought a cup

16:23

of coffee. It's like four bucks. Tip

16:27

the woman, the

16:29

barista, a dollar. And

16:32

then, you know, I had a plan. I was

16:34

gonna mix my yogurt with my nuts and my

16:36

berries and I had a plan, man. It was

16:38

in my head. I visualized

16:41

it. I was trying to manifest it. So

16:43

I said, do you have a cup? Can

16:45

I get an extra cup? And

16:48

the barista said, yeah, that'll be

16:50

50 cents if you pay cash and a dollar if

16:53

you charge it. And I'm like, I just want

16:55

an extra cup. And

16:57

she's like, yeah, it's a dollar. And

17:01

I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? I mean,

17:03

I just tipped you a dollar. I mean, what the fuck?

17:05

I mean, for a cup, you're gonna charge me for a

17:07

cup? I'm having coffee here. I tipped you.

17:09

It was, and then I just kind of like,

17:12

I was flying off the handle again. This is

17:14

fucking ridiculous. Fucking ridiculous. And

17:17

I can afford 50 cents or a dollar

17:19

for a cup. What was I even doing? I was

17:22

just like losing it all over

17:24

the place. And then I

17:26

just sat there like a fucking

17:28

baby and was like facing them

17:30

at the counter, like eating my

17:32

yogurt and nuts and berries separately.

17:35

Like, look what you made me do. And

17:37

I thought I was winning. I thought that

17:40

I was making a statement. And

17:42

then I was like, my God, man, what

17:45

the fuck is wrong with you? What

17:47

is wrong with you? And

17:49

then it was, I realized that I had hit a wall.

17:51

I had hit a wall with what not

17:53

just lack of sleep, but with New York in a way

17:56

there was it was just too much.

17:58

And then I realized it was very clear to me, if

18:01

I lived in New York, I'd just be one of

18:03

those weird old men that you

18:05

see kind of hunched over and grumbling and

18:08

kind of like stumbly walking down

18:10

the street with a Strand book

18:13

bag and like two plastic Duane

18:15

Reed bags filled with more plastic

18:17

Duane Reed bags and orthopedic shoes

18:21

talking to myself. You

18:23

know, that's who I'd be. One of those people

18:25

that kind of falls through the cracks in here. Like you see

18:27

them and you're like, how long have they been here? But

18:30

that's who I would be wandering around. You

18:34

know, I don't know, man,

18:38

but those are the embarrassing stories. I

18:41

guess they could be worse. I

18:43

did apologize. I

18:45

don't know that I apologize at the coffee shop. I'll

18:48

have to make an amends when I go back. Warmer

18:51

sunnier days are calling people fuel up for

18:53

them with factors. No prep, no mess meals.

18:55

If you have wellness goals, you want to

18:58

meet in time for summer factor, make chef

19:00

crafted meals that are ready in two minutes.

19:02

No shopping, prepping, cooking or cleaning up. And

19:05

for folks like me who maintain

19:07

a strict diet, you can get

19:09

plant-based meals or menu options like

19:11

protein plus calorie smart and keto

19:13

factors, fresh, never frozen meals are

19:15

dietician approved and ready to eat

19:17

in just two minutes. So

19:19

no matter how busy you are, you'll always have

19:21

time to enjoy nutritious, great tasting

19:23

meals. If you have five different meals and

19:25

more than 60 add-ons to choose from

19:28

every week, you'll always have new flavors

19:30

to explore. Make today

19:32

the day you kickstart a new

19:34

healthy routine. What are you waiting

19:37

for? Head to factormeals.com/Marin50 and use

19:39

code MARIN50. That's M-A-R-O-N-5-0

19:41

to get 50% off your first box

19:43

plus 20% off your next month. Again,

19:48

that's code MARIN50

19:50

at factormeals.com/Marin50. Remember

19:53

50% off your first box and 20%

19:55

off your next month while your subscription

19:58

is active. Okay,

20:01

look, time for Chris

20:03

Pine. His new movie Pool

20:05

Man comes out in theaters this

20:07

Friday, May 10th. It's an odd,

20:09

quirky movie. I talked to him

20:12

about it and other things, so this is me

20:14

and Chris Pine. What

20:24

do you got? Envaguely Jr. Yeah,

20:27

he wrote a book. What a fucking... You

20:29

know that guy? What a stud. Well,

20:32

I mean, as an LAite, he's an

20:34

OG LAite who's been doing the thing.

20:39

Well, no, specifically the environmental thing for

20:41

a minute. Like before it was ever really cool.

20:44

Yeah, he's been doing that, but he's also been around

20:47

since the beginning of Cool Hollywood, and his

20:49

dad's in Old Hollywood. Oh, 100%. And

20:52

he's got stories, I mean... Great stories.

20:54

Well, yeah, because it was such a

20:56

smaller town then. Yeah. You

20:59

know, and it was a community. So like when

21:01

he was running around in the 70s, you know,

21:03

he's at Dantanas, he's out at the Manson Ranch.

21:05

He's just... How old is he? My

21:09

father was here in LA at the same time.

21:11

He came out in 64. I

21:14

think Begley's in his 70s, so he's... Yeah,

21:16

he's around that same time. Your dad came out in

21:18

64? He came out in 64. From where? From

21:21

Scarsdale, New York. Oh, no,

21:23

no. Well, he grew up in

21:25

Scarsdale, went to this college called

21:28

Ohio Westland, basically in, and

21:30

then did summer stock out in Nantucket

21:32

or something, and then

21:35

came out to LA in 64 and was under contract. At

21:38

Universal, which I think had the last

21:40

contract system in the town. Was

21:43

he with Cranston's dad? You

21:45

know, Brian Cranston's dad was... I had no idea.

21:48

Was a, like, kind of a studio actor. I

21:50

don't know where he was. I have to ask

21:52

my dad about it. Yeah, I wonder, man. I

21:55

wonder. I mean, Cranston is... in

21:57

his 60s? Right.

22:00

His father probably well, I don't know could have been

22:02

I know my father's 83 now.

22:04

Oh really? How's he doing? He

22:06

is fucking doing Fantastically

22:09

he's got his he's got all his wits

22:11

about him. He does he has his wits

22:14

about him and God

22:16

knock on wood. He's healthy and and

22:18

spry and Yeah,

22:20

cute as can be here. We go Joseph

22:22

Cranston Joseph Cranston

22:25

career Television actor on

22:27

several programs including Space Patrol and dragnet so it

22:29

doesn't sound like he was a studio guy How

22:31

old how when was he born? 1924

22:34

age 90 Yeah,

22:37

I mean he 24 34. He's like 15 right right my pop But

22:42

it's weird because you know Cranston and I

22:45

don't know if you're the same way because how

22:47

you grew up like he Cranston's got this very

22:49

kind of working class a hundred percent idea of

22:51

what acting is a hundred percent. I like that

22:53

the Get

22:55

such a kick out of the nepo baby thing.

22:57

Yeah, well that my family my family

22:59

has such a laugh about it is that

23:03

That's a lot. You gotta you guys have to

23:05

hire Robert Pine Sun I Mean

23:09

that's enough. I'm sure you know Robert

23:12

Pine from chips. It's got it coming.

23:14

I'm sure if that happens Maybe it's

23:16

in some oh my god. That

23:18

poster is gonna drive me nuts. It's you're like an

23:20

8 centimeter off What do you mean? Oh?

23:24

On in the angle yeah, we'll fix it later. Okay,

23:26

do I need to fix it now? What time is

23:28

the eclipse? It's the eclipse

23:30

is now. It's now the The

23:34

eclipse starts at 11 okay peaks

23:36

at 11 12 apparently it will still

23:38

be going at 12 something But we're we're in the boot.

23:40

I think this is just a middle. Do you have do

23:43

you have your glasses? No? I left them inside. What

23:45

do you mean we should go let's pause this and

23:47

just go look at it real quick Don't you think

23:49

I mean I would like to yeah, okay Well

23:52

that was an exciting super fun. Well we

23:54

gathered from that is that it's not not

23:57

a particularly You have

23:59

to Shuffed a linger.

24:02

It's one and done with the eclipse. They're

24:04

doing their thing. It's cool. I'm

24:07

glad I had these glasses. Somebody who worked for, what's

24:10

that guy's name? Nye? You know

24:12

the science guy? Yeah, Bill Nye. Bill Nye's, one

24:14

of his people gave me those glasses. I think

24:16

we should also tell the audience that you have

24:18

looked at an eclipse from full of aqua. Just

24:20

for a second. I

24:22

didn't trump it. And a quote unquote, fuck

24:24

me up. Yeah, it fucked me up. Well,

24:26

if you look at the sun without sunglasses

24:29

or projection, that probably isn't going to happen.

24:31

Yeah, I don't know. I

24:34

guess it's an innate stubbornness where you're just sort of

24:36

like, how bad could it be? Bad.

24:39

Yeah. You're going to burn a hole

24:41

in your fucking eyeball. Fuck me up. So

24:44

we're talking about your dad. Well, the Nepo

24:46

baby thing for me has always been like,

24:48

why do people get upset? There's like a

24:50

million sort of plumbers and sons, Bill and

24:52

Sons plumbers, Bill and Sons contractors. It's like

24:54

nepotism is just sort of like, why wouldn't

24:56

you step into the thing you grew up

24:58

with in the house? No, I don't think

25:00

it's that. Of course. Well,

25:03

that makes a lot of sense because it's like, you know,

25:05

what you talked about at the dinner table. I

25:07

think it's this idea that people are going to give you jobs because you're...

25:10

But the agents that were around that knew your

25:12

dad or probably worked with your dad. This is

25:15

what I will say. It definitely gave, like, I

25:17

got an audition very, very early on for the

25:19

Gilmore Girls. The Gilmore Girls, my father was in

25:21

an audition that he didn't book, but the casting

25:23

director loved him and they loved the castor. He

25:26

said, my son's an actor and he just is coming

25:29

back from Williamstown, this theater festival back East. Well, you

25:31

see him and they said, sure, I came in auditioned.

25:33

I didn't get the part. So I got a leg

25:35

in like, yeah, I got an audition, but you got

25:37

to show your chops. But what,

25:40

no, you were saying about the blue collar acting thing, which

25:42

I think is totally true. Yeah.

25:44

You know, my father has had great success and

25:47

he's had periods where he hasn't worked. He's

25:49

had money. He hasn't had money. He's

25:51

an auditioning actor. He's out on a, you

25:54

know, he's and he's been doing it

25:56

since 64. So yeah. Wow.

25:59

Yeah. I would definitely say I

26:01

hold that probably in common with Brian. I

26:03

never locked in to the, yeah,

26:10

I did comedy all my life and the idea was maybe

26:12

I'd act, but every time I did an audition, I'm like,

26:14

I can't. I'm not

26:16

this guy. I can't do it. You're

26:18

not the audition guy? No, a lot of times, like,

26:21

I don't love the material necessarily. When you write

26:23

your own material, now you know that because you wrote

26:25

a movie, which I watched last

26:28

night. It was a fun, odd movie.

26:30

I appreciate, and maybe that's the best

26:32

compliment I'll be able to get from

26:34

that, but I appreciate

26:36

it. I appreciate it. I mean, it's not what it

26:39

was supposed to be? No,

26:41

I appreciate that. Yeah,

26:43

it's, you know, it's interesting.

26:45

I was listening last night to the, you're

26:47

really, really, you're moving interview

26:51

with your girlfriend,

26:55

who passed. Oh yeah, yeah, Lin, yeah. And Lin

26:57

said something like, you know, this first movie of

26:59

mine, I gave myself permission to make something that

27:02

was wholly my own, and that didn't

27:04

need to like, please

27:06

anyone. And that, I would

27:08

say, definitely holds true to it

27:10

for a lot of my film. Right, but when you

27:12

write your own shit, I mean, you kind of have

27:15

this control that when you audition for, like, especially TV,

27:17

and I imagine early on, you're like, oh my God.

27:19

Then you just joke to

27:21

joke weird dumb things. Yeah,

27:23

but I actually, there was a part,

27:26

when I was auditioning, I

27:29

liked the competitive aspect of it. Like,

27:31

I like going into an audition room.

27:33

Oh my God. And getting into full

27:35

gladiator mode, like, I'm gonna go in

27:37

and I'm gonna fucking, I'm

27:39

gonna get this part. Oh yeah. So

27:41

even trying to make sense out of shitty material,

27:43

it's like, you still have a job to do

27:45

to try to make something worse. I actually liked

27:47

the, and I really liked the flow

27:50

state of it. Like, I'm very focused

27:52

on one thing, no matter the level

27:54

of the material or not. It's like,

27:56

you gotta win the room. How are you gonna win the room? Oh really?

27:59

So I actually. kind of in general. Oh,

28:01

so that's like diametrically opposite to

28:03

me. I walk in, I see guys I've seen

28:05

on television, I'm like, I'm gonna go. There's

28:08

no fucking way. That guy is

28:10

the right guy. I... But

28:12

this is, you know, it's funny speaking about my father

28:14

is because I went on an

28:16

audition with my father and he's been

28:19

seeing the same guy, he's 83, he's been

28:21

seeing the same guys in audition rooms for

28:23

50 plus years. They

28:26

know, and they only know each other really

28:28

from the audition room. So he's seen

28:30

kids grow up, marriages, grandkids, the

28:32

whole shebang. Just from talking

28:34

when you go in. And it's the same thing. They go

28:36

in there like, ah, Peter, you're gonna get this. God

28:39

damn it. And there's

28:41

kind of a joy in the camaraderie of

28:43

the brotherhood of actors. Yeah, I guess I

28:45

don't have a healthy sense of competition. Even

28:48

when I did that role in 2 Leslie,

28:50

that guy pestered me for months to do

28:52

that role. And I'm thinking like, get John

28:54

Hawk. Get Chris Pine. Guys, you

28:57

could do this. You

28:59

enjoy acting? I think I do. I

29:02

mean, I keep wanting to. You

29:05

prefer stand-up. Well, I like stand-up because

29:07

it's all you and you go out there and it's just

29:10

you and a theater. How often

29:12

are you doing stand-up? I'm out pretty heavy.

29:14

I just got back yesterday from 4 Days

29:16

Midwest. I did Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago,

29:18

Minneapolis, theaters. So you're going out there, you

29:20

have an opener, they do the 20 minutes,

29:22

15 up front. And I go out there

29:24

and do an hour and a half and

29:26

get into that flow. It's very immediate. So

29:29

are you working on material all the time?

29:31

Totally. For most of my life. And

29:34

then the thing with acting, and I talk about

29:36

this a lot, is just that you do your three

29:39

minutes and then, okay, we're

29:41

going to reset. And then

29:43

you go to the trailer for an hour, hour

29:45

and a half, three hours, four hours.

29:47

That's what's fun about directing and acting at the

29:50

same time. No spare time. There's no downtime.

29:53

Yeah. I mean, you know, Chaplin or Buster

29:55

Keaton or one of those guys back in the day that's

29:57

just moving all the time. Right, right. Make,

29:59

make, make, make, make. And you don't you don't

30:01

have that thing where you sitting in the trailer

30:03

which are never that nice even the nice

30:05

No, you're or your and your angst thing over

30:07

something you're like, oh fuck that I fucked that

30:10

scene up Yeah, there's no time

30:12

for that. But but for you those

30:15

times on camera Are

30:17

you got dipping? But

30:19

I did see dip over there. It's a

30:21

it's a zen's. Yeah. Oh the old zen's.

30:23

No. Yeah, they're not nothing news It's non-tobacco

30:26

dip The fuck I

30:28

don't know what it is. It's just I

30:30

just nicotine. It's just nicotine. I think it's

30:32

it's it's very powdered glass great

30:39

Yeah, no tobacco though, so it's great

30:42

damn it. Yeah, I got two

30:44

in right now I got this for you. Fuck how

30:46

your gums doing don't I don't want to talk about

30:48

it I think they're all right. They

30:51

were already receding but but what the question is

30:53

so The five minutes

30:55

at a time. Yeah that you're on set

30:57

doing the thing. Yeah, you know putting together

30:59

this massive movie It justifies

31:01

the eight hours in the trailer

31:05

It's a very good question man. It's It

31:09

is an incredible way to make a living.

31:11

That's yeah sure in the moments where you're

31:13

rocking and rolling and you get into flow

31:15

State, you know, it's it's

31:17

would be like anything. It's you

31:19

know, my version of you being on

31:21

stage or whatever Shorter though,

31:24

but it is it's these micro bursts,

31:26

you know And

31:28

I you know I often like think about why I

31:31

think the reason why people get paid big money for

31:33

it is because after let's say a 15 Hour day

31:35

and they're like, hey Julia Roberts It's

31:37

time to go to your close-up or you're madly

31:39

in love with so-and-so and your wife your mother's

31:41

also died and yeah You got

31:43

to perform. There's just like there's no asterisk on the

31:45

bottom of the screen That's saying that you've had a

31:47

really hard fucking day. You got to go show up

31:49

and fucking do the thing no to audience So that's

31:51

I you know, I thought yeah, that's the job. There's

31:54

I think but it's fucking it's

31:56

hard There's a lot of yeah. Yeah a

32:00

lot of downtime. Well, I mean, when did you like,

32:02

what was the deal? You grew up all your life

32:04

here. Oh yeah, I grew up here in

32:06

Glendale. I grew up 10 minutes

32:08

away in North Hollywood and I

32:10

played sports and wanted to

32:12

be a baseball player and that's really all I

32:14

thought about all of the time. But even in

32:16

the house, like your dad, you weren't hanging out

32:19

with Eric Estrada or anything. Well,

32:21

the show, the

32:24

show was on from 76 or 77 to 81. Yeah.

32:28

So I was born in 80, so I

32:31

don't really remember much of any of

32:34

that really. Yeah. By the time

32:36

I was five or six, I think my dad was on

32:38

Bold and the Beautiful for a couple of years and then.

32:40

Yeah. But you didn't

32:42

go to sets, you didn't see on my TV. The

32:44

one set that I remember going to is Quantum

32:46

Leap. Oh yeah. And

32:50

I remember seeing Scott Bakula

32:52

and that thing and Dean

32:55

Stockwell. Oh yeah. And

32:57

that was a big deal. But no, we talked

32:59

about it and we talked about, I

33:02

love my father never calls them

33:04

auditions, he calls them interviews, which

33:06

I love. I

33:08

fucking love it. I've never ever heard him

33:10

call it an audition. Yeah. Going

33:12

on an interview. Yeah. I think it's so

33:14

cool. But yeah, it was something

33:16

I grew up around and a lot of

33:18

my friends, parents were in the business, around

33:20

the business and yeah. Like

33:23

who? When I was

33:26

in grammar school, it was Zoe Winkler,

33:29

who's father was Henry Winkler. Yeah. Sweetie Pie.

33:31

Yeah. I actually just ran into her the other day.

33:33

Annie Meyershire, whose mom

33:37

is Nancy Meyers. Yeah. So

33:40

I was around a bunch of those kinds of

33:42

folks. But so you're playing sports? No

33:45

idea you're gonna act? No,

33:50

no. I really wanted to be

33:52

Don Mattingly. Baseball?

33:55

Yeah, baseball. Yeah.

33:57

So you were serious. I was

33:59

serious in so far as. I had a deep passion for it. I

34:01

mean I had skill probably up until I was about, I

34:04

don't know, 13. What position? I

34:06

played everything but I ended up at first base. Yeah, and

34:08

you could hit? I

34:10

played in Little League and it wasn't a great

34:12

experience. No. No, my parents did what

34:15

they could to try to get me

34:17

involved. No,

34:19

not a lot of interest there. I was just

34:21

on the equivalent of the Bad News Bears. It

34:23

just was a fucking joke. Great fucking movie. It

34:25

was a great movie. God damn

34:27

it. Walter Mathau. Great fucking movie. So funny.

34:30

I was a center fielder and I famously got, somehow

34:33

was under a pop fly and got

34:35

hit in the face and broke my nose and that

34:37

kind of ended the dream if I ever had

34:39

it. I got hit in the face when I was 17 by

34:43

an 80 mile an hour fastball. A

34:46

pitch? Pitch, right in the face.

34:48

Oh my God. Didn't break anything, thank

34:50

God. But anyway, so I was playing

34:52

baseball. In my senior year of high

34:55

school, I studied a

34:57

class on Waiting for

35:00

Godot on Samuel Beckett and

35:02

did the first act of Waiting for Godot

35:06

in my senior year and I enjoy it. But again, really

35:08

didn't think anything of it and then I went to college

35:11

and made my way to the theater

35:13

department because I went to Berkeley. Oh

35:15

really, so you're up there? I was up there for

35:18

three years and then a year of that I did

35:20

in England a year abroad.

35:22

That's an interesting city to

35:24

hang out in. Berkeley? Berkeley's

35:27

interesting, Oakland's interesting. San Francisco, I didn't spend

35:29

much time in and

35:32

it's certainly, God, it's changed quite a bit since

35:34

I was there. You spent

35:36

much time up there? Yeah, I was there for a couple

35:38

years and I've worked up there. I

35:40

lived in San Francisco for just

35:42

a couple years and I was going back

35:44

and forth to New York to do a

35:46

TV gig that was a hosting gig. But

35:50

yeah, I got a sense of it. It's a

35:52

beautiful city. Beautiful city. It seems like not

35:54

unlike a lot of cities, it

35:56

got fucked. I think

35:58

it's... It seems

36:01

like where we're going as a country

36:03

is the ... just

36:05

because it's so small, it's the

36:07

microcosm of the death

36:09

of the middle class. It's like really rich,

36:12

really poor. But

36:14

also just the sort

36:16

of no support system

36:18

that works for the disenfranchised

36:20

and the mentally ill and

36:23

the drug addicted. And then

36:25

once these downtowns, once

36:28

people realize they don't have to leave their house

36:30

to go to work, which I think the pandemic

36:32

taught everybody, it just guts everything. And

36:35

it becomes a little weird. But I go

36:37

to these smaller cities like Milwaukee even where

36:39

there's definitely an effort to kind

36:41

of revive downtown and sometimes it works and sometimes

36:43

it doesn't take. Where are you from? I

36:46

grew up in Albuquerque. Oh fuck,

36:48

wow. But genetically New Jersey.

36:51

But you grew up in ... Folks are from Jersey. You grew up

36:53

in Albuquerque. I did, yeah. Did you

36:55

like it? Yeah, I mean you like where you grow

36:58

up generally. Yeah, I loved it. It

37:00

was a different town. You

37:03

go to their shoot at all? Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah?

37:05

What'd you shoot out there? I shot a film

37:07

years and years ago called Carriers and then I

37:09

shot a film called Hell or High Water there

37:11

maybe seven years ago. You and Ben shot that

37:14

whole movie there? Yep. Really?

37:17

Up in the mountains and around? Yep, exactly

37:20

right. I think people's ... What

37:24

they experience when they go to Albuquerque, they're like, holy

37:26

shit, it's beat up. What the fuck is this town?

37:29

When you grow up there and there's a nuance

37:31

to it and you grew up when there was

37:33

sort of a middle class there and it was

37:35

always sort of a high crime rate-y kind of

37:37

place and it was always primarily Latino. How'd

37:40

your parents end up there? I don't know, man. My

37:42

dad was in the service for two years in

37:44

Alaska and he had a buddy who ... My

37:47

dad was a doc and his buddy

37:49

went down to Albuquerque because it was

37:51

sort of a booming, a growing city,

37:53

set up his practice there, said it was good. My dad

37:55

went down there and did it. Wow. I

37:57

went to second grade. I went to second grade too.

38:00

school Alaska to New

38:02

Mexico yeah I have some memories

38:04

of Alaska not great not

38:07

great one no I can remember

38:09

the terrain and a

38:11

couple of weird babysitters but

38:13

this stuff I

38:16

have been on stage it's been pretty pretty

38:18

fucking weird really yeah yeah

38:20

I've worked out this a bit about trauma

38:22

that's kind of it's

38:24

it's growing into something kind

38:26

of amazing and disturbing are you

38:29

working on it right now yeah oh great

38:31

fun yeah yeah it's pretty fun but it's

38:33

a hard it's a it's kind of a

38:35

heavy lift comedically so then with a bit

38:37

like that how long have you been working

38:39

on it I don't

38:41

know this it seems to be it's probably going on

38:43

four or five months you know and it's sort of

38:45

unfolding into something you know as it goes and so

38:47

when you see you're working on a bit like is

38:49

there a point in time where

38:51

that bit gets like

38:54

the Eddie Izzard Star

38:56

Wars just the first

38:59

thing that came to mind yeah anyway is

39:01

there a time when that bit is done kind of

39:03

I mean yeah you get the

39:05

first axe I can act third of it I

39:08

think so yeah yeah if you write like I

39:10

do which is on stage you know you talk

39:12

through it and wait for things to be delivered

39:14

to you you know in the moment and then

39:16

and then it's a surprise I've become very addicted

39:18

to that where you have something that's funny enough

39:20

and then you keep bringing it out and in

39:22

moments of flow as you would say you know

39:24

new things kind of come in the moment you're

39:27

like wow and then will you go back after

39:29

a show and then write it down you're just

39:31

you read I'll make note of it I'll record

39:33

it I don't usually listen to it but usually

39:35

they just the ones that stick stick and I

39:37

keep going with it and so you're saying you're

39:39

in this four or five month process of working

39:42

out this bit of trauma every time you go

39:44

on stage there's a little nuance change here actually

39:46

there's a context with the audience at that given

39:48

time we're giving you right and also like how

39:50

I'm setting it up yeah first I was over

39:52

setting it up because I was I got you

39:54

it was a fragile bit so I would have to

39:56

say like I just want you to know Before I

39:58

start talking about this that I. Can handle it. I

40:01

would cut was really yes and way what

40:03

have you guys do it is on you've

40:05

I think we're going to get a we're

40:07

gonna lifted it's going to be our rights

40:09

and in the right on out ssssss sodomy

40:11

and I am I I think what you

40:14

guys do is so. Ah,

40:16

admirable. I mean that the the my

40:18

version of it again as like co

40:20

writing and directing and starring in Assaults.

40:22

I know the vulnerability of that, but.

40:26

To. Have the. Lifelong.

40:29

Practice of being able to get up on

40:31

stage right? oh matter what's given to you,

40:33

right? Handle it. Yet? And

40:36

and it's crazy when you put it like

40:38

that's yeah yeah my been doing it since

40:40

as twenty two years. And years

40:42

is nuts. Oh yeah, when you really think

40:44

that are thick skin you're just like fuckin'

40:46

whatever man yeah and then like how do

40:48

you evolve with you know whether you know.

40:51

How like how are you changing with it? Yeah, I

40:53

did. The difference we meme me when I started in

40:56

who make your heroes where and when I was trying

40:58

to do and how much control I had over it

41:00

and what I can do. Now it's kind of amazing

41:02

who your heroes. My. Heroes with

41:04

a regular Heroes you know prior and know

41:06

in I were I was out here. When.

41:09

I was twenty two as a doormat.

41:11

The comedy store for sure. I got

41:13

taken in by Tennyson and that crew

41:15

and I was it. I got my

41:17

my gosh I'm a massive that drug

41:19

use and now doesn't Yeah of course

41:21

it as I am. I know it's

41:23

everyone says at not aca exactly the

41:25

bed at but you know all that

41:27

stuff can adds up. You. Know loud

41:29

but ultimately get to point where you're a

41:32

certain or sunset sunset strip. What your. ah

41:35

i'm eighty seven oh five say like

41:37

that's the roxy rhyme time zones and

41:39

roses yes me off ah dude and

41:41

they were all coming down the store

41:43

ah and was like no cover night

41:45

on monday is fucking know what a

41:47

time and it was no was of

41:49

fact and size and co sam was

41:51

such a rock and roll freak you

41:53

know he'd go to the roxy and

41:55

hold cord know my dad and i

41:57

also ah the rainbow room the other

41:59

mean yes Yeah, that's right. He used to

42:01

go up in there and eat that the Rainbow

42:03

Room had the restaurant, right? Wow. Yeah And

42:06

then the porn, you know that was your

42:08

high time for porn. So they were all

42:10

around it was crazy What a trip and

42:12

I was just just coked up angry Jewish

42:14

kid God, you must have

42:17

great fucking stories. Oh, yeah. I mean

42:19

they're they're great. I they're not

42:21

hero stories But

42:24

they're Campfire stories. Go

42:26

for sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's some

42:28

there's definitely a pretty a Prime

42:31

kennison story when when it was

42:33

right before I lost my mind

42:35

because eventually I coax myself into

42:37

a psychotic state I had to get out. Yeah

42:40

But you were too young weren't you? How old

42:42

are you 87 was seven years old? Yeah. No

42:44

you missed it I know I know I

42:46

missed that. Yeah, you missed it I missed

42:49

the one from the 70s when the Sun said

42:51

strip that the early 70s in Hollywood that must

42:53

have been crazy Oh, yeah. I mean I

42:55

was just listening to the the Zeppelin

43:00

Bio, yeah on tape and yeah that

43:02

time sounds crazy

43:05

fucking gnarly. So okay, so you

43:07

give up sports. Yeah Nice

43:10

that hard that good segue Yeah,

43:14

I guess it was kind of difficult and it's

43:16

hard to be mediocre,

43:18

it's something that you love Yeah,

43:22

my brother had to deal with that my brother was a

43:24

tennis guy really wanted to go pro and it's just like

43:27

at some point If you know, was he good

43:29

enough to actually touch pro he was

43:31

on a for his age group He was

43:33

on a pro double thing. He was home,

43:35

right? I mean he can play. Yeah, that's

43:37

way far past work Yeah, but he like

43:39

ultimately you got to be sort of genetically.

43:41

It's like You

43:44

can work as hard as you want to

43:46

work, but ultimately the thing that's gonna cross

43:48

you over is kind of intangible Yeah, I mean

43:50

a lot of it is yeah, whatever you want

43:52

to call it luck or faded or yeah I

43:54

don't know and genetics for the same with acting

43:56

in a certain degree. Yeah, some guys just fit

43:59

on screen It's a very bizarre

44:01

thing, isn't it? Yeah, I don't understand it. I don't understand

44:03

it better than I do That's right.

44:05

That's all I know. It's like I

44:07

got a big head. So, you know, it's a great

44:09

name for a memoir Yeah, I should have fit on

44:11

screen. No, I should fit better than I do But

44:15

that's me looking at myself, what do I know? Yeah,

44:17

I'm you got a great big head Yeah, I should

44:19

it should work out but but there's

44:22

something about I don't know man Like

44:24

I'm take I'm taking an acting gig and I'm like,

44:26

I'm just like alright So like what work are you

44:28

gonna do to make you feel like

44:30

you're really doing this? Because I get

44:32

this thing where I'm like I make all these choices,

44:34

you know I do some character work and then three

44:36

days in I'm like, I'm just being me. I get

44:38

it. What happened? I'm just Yeah,

44:41

but don't you think that's ultimately? I

44:45

think There's

44:48

definitely character work in that regard and we

44:50

have it is the fucking accent. Yeah. Yeah.

44:52

Yeah Whatever a twitch.

44:54

Yeah the I

44:57

think really what people pay to see is the Your

45:00

thing deal. Yeah, I think so.

45:02

There's nothing more unique than your

45:04

precise deal Yeah, you don't

45:07

have to dress it up with really much of

45:09

anything. Well, it's like but character actors do a

45:11

different thing, right? They do

45:13

there, you know, I remember I

45:16

would did a film called Shadow

45:19

recruit this Jack Ryan film and I was

45:21

working with Kevin Costner. Yeah And

45:24

Kevin said something to me They're

45:26

always stuck with me is that you know, the hardest

45:28

work of a leading man so

45:31

to speak is just Holding

45:34

it's like a ballast in a ship No

45:37

one's ever really all you're not always gonna

45:39

talk about the ballast of the ship But we have to bow

45:41

to the ship nothing else gets done, right? Is

45:44

that you have to like occupy space enough

45:46

to be kind of winning? Yeah, but not

45:48

so much space that you take away from

45:50

the story Your job is pretty much to

45:53

be service the story service the story in

45:55

the in some ways the audience you're get

45:57

And I always thought that was really interesting is that because

46:00

I think growing up as a younger actor, you

46:02

get turned on, or at least I did, a

46:04

lot by the character actors, the guys that are

46:06

doing all the fun shit, the

46:08

bad guys, Lee Marvin's or whatever.

46:10

Lee Marvin. But the leading men, it's

46:13

a difficult and tricky gig because

46:17

you have to know how to be, it's

46:21

not blank, but you have to be, that's

46:24

exactly what I said, enough in the

46:26

space of the film and enough away from the

46:28

film so people can occupy space with you and

46:30

kind of go on the journey with you and

46:32

they can become you. Right. Yeah,

46:35

also though, some of that is just like through self-awareness

46:38

that you are that guy that

46:41

you're gonna- You can get out of your own way. And

46:44

that's 100%, that is

46:47

such a huge learning lesson, at least was

46:49

for me. It's

46:53

a version of stop trying so hard. Yeah.

46:58

Because the camera is

47:01

so intelligent that it'll

47:03

just pick up. Right. As

47:06

long as you have enough going on. Right. And

47:08

it's really true. And I

47:11

remember, you kind

47:13

of take a tally as you're working, you're

47:16

like, ah, that fucking thing, I kind of definitely pushed you

47:18

hard there. And I can track in a movie where I'm

47:20

like, I could have taken that back 115%, it's

47:24

still been totally fine. Right. And

47:26

those are the learning moments. Yeah,

47:28

I mean, my God. Right now, I'm in the, try

47:31

to breathe with your mouth closed. While

47:34

you're sleeping? No, on camera. Oh,

47:36

yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'm a mouth breather

47:39

guy. And I've noticed when I'm not talking,

47:41

I'm like, dude, you shut your fucking mouth.

47:43

I know. I mean,

47:45

I'm just thinking about a page of dialogue. Yeah. Page

47:48

of dialogue, you just make it sound like-

47:51

You're talking. You're in market, you're not talking, right?

47:54

Yeah. And there's certain things, it's like, if I'm talking, I'm

47:56

doing a lot of this. I'm like, but don't you fucking

47:58

see, man? It's like, whatever, whatever, whatever. and you're like

48:00

in a tight, maybe you don't do

48:02

that. But for the majority of it

48:04

to maintain authenticity, you're doing the same

48:07

fucking thing. Now they're also like the

48:09

great Michael Caine how to act on

48:11

film stuff, which is don't blink, look

48:13

at one eye, look at the corner of the eye

48:16

that's closest to the camera, all these little tricks that

48:18

you definitely can employ, but the majority of

48:21

it. You just gotta do it,

48:23

you gotta be in it. I think you have to, yeah,

48:25

just make it a thing. Yeah, yeah. I love that you

48:27

feel like you're still trying to figure it out. Are there

48:29

things in comedy you feel like you're still trying to figure

48:31

out or you feel like you've been

48:34

camera-ized at us? No,

48:36

no, there are things I wanna do. There

48:39

are things like later in my career

48:42

I started employing callbacks during

48:44

the show. And then also

48:46

physical comedy, for me, I

48:49

have a subtle physical comedy that's natural, but

48:51

if I wanna do a bigger, broader bit,

48:53

I gotta figure out the beats and

48:55

I figure out the action and start repeating

48:58

it. At the

49:00

end of my last special, I did a big physical bit

49:03

and timing out the physicality, so I wanna

49:05

get a laugh on that. And you'd never

49:07

done that earlier in your career? No, no,

49:09

no, I just kinda got by with talking

49:11

and impulse and then eventually

49:14

sitting, but I've become aware that

49:16

if I wanna do these bigger bits, especially

49:19

if they need physicality, I gotta work

49:21

them. I gotta make physical

49:23

choices, yeah. I

49:26

was watching a lot of, before

49:30

I made my film, a lot

49:32

of the silence, Buster Keaton especially,

49:34

and Charlie and Harold

49:36

Lloyd. It's

49:39

an amazing, especially

49:42

thinking about comedy. I'm

49:44

reading this book that you may find it

49:47

fascinating. I certainly do, it's called The Oral

49:49

History of Hollywood and these guys took all

49:51

these conversations that they had, AFI

49:54

had had people in the industry, starting in

49:56

the 70s with people that went all the

49:58

way back. of film. But

50:01

you know comedians coming from vaudeville,

50:03

coming from the stage circuit, coming from

50:05

where things were really big, coming from

50:07

the silence where there's no

50:09

words to speak of. So it's all in the face,

50:12

it's all right with the physical

50:14

comedy. What they were able to do,

50:16

like the breadth of how they

50:18

were able to use their body for comedy,

50:21

is just mind-blowing and over

50:23

and over and over

50:25

and over again. I think

50:28

it's kind of like a lost art. I

50:31

mean it is a lost art. Yeah, unless you're a clown.

50:34

I guess unless you're a clown, but I mean... Some

50:36

guys are really good at it and I, you know,

50:38

if I'm jealous... Are there guys on the

50:41

circuit that are more physical? Yeah,

50:43

I guess so, but there are guys in

50:46

movies that I can tell are naturally gifted

50:48

physical comedians and I'm always sort of a

50:51

little jealous of it. You know, like back

50:53

in the day, like when Stiller sets his

50:55

mind to it, I mean he's funny as

50:57

fuck. Oh, forget about that. And same with

50:59

the, what's his name, you know, the Canadian

51:01

who's... Carrie. Jim Carrey,

51:03

no, the other one, the guy who... He's

51:05

a big guy. Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds, great

51:07

physical comedian. Great physical comedian. You know, and

51:09

I don't know how much thought he puts

51:11

into it, but he can fucking do

51:14

it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

51:16

It's a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are guys,

51:18

Kevin James, you know, is like just

51:20

naturally, there are those guys that get on stage

51:22

and they're just like, they're so uncomfortable or they're

51:24

just so, you know, naturally

51:27

expressive. Yeah, but that's a

51:29

different thing. I mean, I think that's more of

51:31

like your natural... Yeah, you're just like that. Yeah,

51:33

you look at someone like it, there's something naturally

51:35

funny happening with this human in his physical body

51:37

that is fun to watch. I'm talking about like

51:40

the art of whatever... Some

51:42

guys do it. Double take or whatever the

51:44

fuck it would be. Right, but if you

51:46

watch like Stiller and the thing about Mary,

51:48

it's fucking nuts. Yeah. I mean, it's like,

51:51

it's almost silent movie slapstick status. What comedians

51:53

are you following now that you like? Well,

51:56

I... Of the younger generation. I

51:58

know, there's so many though. You know, uh, Bar-gazi

52:02

is great, Nate, you know, and now I'm

52:04

at that age where it's like, he used

52:06

to open for me, you know? I remember

52:08

that kid. You know, there's some

52:10

guys that, you know, can kind of do voices and like,

52:12

kind of tell a story with all the characters. I'm always

52:15

sort of envious of that. Yeah. Maria

52:17

Bamford's a genius. I don't know if I know Maria. Yeah,

52:19

she's something. I

52:21

like Taylor Tomlinson, you know, she's

52:23

a real deal. Uh... So

52:26

you follow... Well, I

52:28

see them when I go to work. Oh, yeah. So if I go

52:30

to the comedy store, which if I'm in town, I'm there a

52:32

couple nights a week, Fajim Anwar is great.

52:34

So do you... He's

52:37

very physical. He's funny. He can do all the voices. But you're

52:39

not... Because you're

52:41

around it so much in your life. Yeah. It's

52:44

not like you're... Are you watching Netflix specials and... I do

52:46

more now because if I talk to my peers, I want

52:48

to, you know, know where they're at. Dave Vettel was just

52:50

here. He's very funny. Yeah. So I

52:53

watch them more now. Roy Scoville is... He

52:55

is a new Netflix... HBO special. Roy

52:58

Scoville, great. Like

53:01

very kind of disarming and kind

53:03

of, you know, does

53:05

a lot of physical stuff. But deep, deep stuff.

53:08

Like I was sort of surprised because I always thought...

53:10

And I've known him for years. I thought he was

53:12

a goofball and I watched his special. I'm like, man,

53:14

he's really doing the thing. What about you, actor-wise? Are

53:17

there guys... Like you worked with Denzel. What

53:20

was... I mean, that must have been... Oh,

53:22

Denzel's a... He's a master. I mean,

53:24

it's... That was so funny. What

53:27

was that show? The Runaway Train one. What

53:29

was that called? Unstoppable. I mean, I grew

53:31

up watching his stuff. Yeah. I

53:34

think I... Most of the time, you know, I

53:36

was working with Tony Scott, who directed Top Gun,

53:38

which is one of my favorite movies growing up,

53:40

and I was working with Denzel. You

53:43

know, the amount of the awe factor that was kind of

53:45

just taking over... That was in a different place in his

53:47

career. I mean, I had made... I

53:51

think you could count the number of films I made on one hand when

53:54

I worked with Denzel. Well,

53:57

you've done a lot, but maybe not that big a deal.

53:59

No, no, no. Not at all. You've

54:01

already done Captain Kirk to a

54:04

degree, right? I had done

54:06

one. A movie. One

54:08

Star Trek. Yeah. It's

54:10

incredible. He's an incredible... His command

54:13

of... I

54:15

mean, I saw it all the way from the

54:17

development of the script through him working with Tony,

54:19

obviously shooting. It was essentially a two-hander because it

54:21

was me and him in the train. Yeah. So

54:24

it was just me and him in a... In the

54:26

space. Literally this big. Yeah.

54:29

It was like... You

54:32

know, it was an acting class. I learned what he

54:34

was able to nix out of a backstory. There was

54:37

a whole backstory that he had that had gotten a

54:39

lot of airtime on screen that he had no use

54:41

for. Really? What do you mean?

54:44

He just knew that what he could deliver

54:46

in terms of emotional... The

54:48

bang for buck of having Denzel on screen. Yeah.

54:51

He was able to achieve just by virtue of him

54:54

showing up. Yeah. He

54:56

ended having to have explicating

54:59

the relationship he had with his wife or whatever. Right.

55:02

And as a younger actor, I was concerned very much

55:04

with having a moment to be able to talk about

55:07

my wife or whatever. But I

55:09

learned a lot from his just

55:12

confidence and knowing... Which is what we were talking

55:14

about before. What he was able to bring just

55:16

by virtue of having a camera on his face.

55:19

Well, how much of your education with the

55:21

thing has just been on the job? I

55:23

mean, did you study acting after

55:25

college? I was all... I

55:29

did plays and I went to a

55:31

college, Berkeley, that didn't have a conservatory

55:33

program. Okay. I did a

55:35

theater program, but I could have majored in theater. I

55:37

didn't have majored in English. A

55:41

lot of it, I think, was... Not

55:44

I think. I learned most of my

55:46

stuff just working. But you did

55:49

theater before? I did a lot of theater

55:51

in college and then after college. What did

55:53

you do after college? I think my producer

55:55

kind of knew of you when you were

55:57

up in Massachusetts. I did two seasons... at

56:00

a place called the Williamstown Theatre Festival, which

56:02

is a great kind of summer rep

56:05

place in Williams. Before

56:07

you did any TV or movies. Yeah.

56:10

And then I did a one-man

56:12

show in New York when I was about 25 called

56:15

The Atheist. I did Neil

56:17

Abbout's Fat Pig in LA at the Gaffin, and

56:19

then I did Lieutenant

56:21

Inish Moore at the Gaffin at

56:23

the Mark Taper. Yeah. And

56:26

then, yeah. So is that the thing? Do you think you

56:28

were going to be a theater guy? I

56:31

definitely wanted to make it a large part

56:33

of my career, and I was going to actually move to

56:35

New York before I

56:38

got my first gig and was

56:40

dead set on pursuing it. And

56:45

I would imagine it's just like it's

56:47

the closest I can get to what

56:49

you get is that energy of like

56:51

there's very little of that aliveness when

56:53

you're performing for a bunch of grips

56:55

and gaffers. Yeah. Yeah.

56:58

I have so much stage fright. I have

57:00

recurring anxiety dreams that it's always the same thing.

57:02

I'm about to go on stage. I've completely forgotten

57:04

my lines and I'm supposed to like sing a

57:06

song that I have to make up on the

57:08

spot. It's fucking

57:11

terrifying. Terrifying. Yeah.

57:13

But so the acting role started to come like you did

57:15

some TV? Yeah, I did some TV, and

57:18

then I got a film. Did you do

57:20

like CSI? I did CSI with Caruso? With

57:22

Caruso. How was that? I was wondering what

57:24

happened to that guy because I

57:26

saw him in a bit part in an old movie and I was

57:28

just sort of like, oh, that's, there he is.

57:30

It was, oh, I remember what it was. I

57:33

watched Friedkin's Cruising the

57:35

other night. Holy shit. Yeah. That's

57:38

funny. I was on Criterion or something. Yeah. I

57:41

was going to watch that too. It popped up on the, on that

57:43

thing. It's a lot. Yeah. Is it

57:45

good? I think it is. There is a

57:47

sense that he's cramming as much gay in there as he can.

57:50

There's a... And they get gay in it. Real

57:53

gay. You

57:55

know, Pacino's undercover in the meat

57:57

packing district in the 80s. Every

58:00

bar like every bar there's like some guy blowing

58:02

a guy There's a guy fucking a guy and

58:04

yes And there's like some guy in the harness

58:06

and another dude greasing up his hand just this

58:08

is all in one bar You know and I'm

58:10

like wow in one hit it's in a water.

58:13

Yeah. Yeah, it's just a He's

58:16

getting it all in literally But

58:19

it does have an interesting twist and I do think that

58:21

Cruz does in it for a second as a cop And

58:24

I always wonder what happened that guy did you have a good experience He

58:26

did whatever 12 seasons of

58:28

that I know yeah enough. Yeah, yeah, I just

58:32

It was why you know it was That

58:35

I played the bad guy. I raped

58:37

my girlfriend something awful. Yeah, and How

58:40

old are you then? I was 20 24.

58:42

Yeah, and then I

58:47

killed my girlfriend with On

58:50

the show. Yeah with Saran rap

58:53

and in one take I remember Cruz

58:55

coming behind me and wrapping my face

58:57

with the Saran rap which was not

58:59

scripted right which was terrifying yeah And

59:02

the producers go okay, God cuckoo.

59:04

Let's take let's take five yeah,

59:06

you know yeah Worry

59:08

that I was gonna call human resource right

59:10

thing Why do you do

59:12

that? Do you want you to feel it? I don't know Maybe

59:15

he's making a choice So

59:17

wait how is this so Star Trek that changed your whole

59:20

life right? Yeah, and you're happy about it

59:22

I Mean yeah,

59:24

absolutely how are the do the Trekkies

59:26

like you I have no idea wow

59:29

I think it's you know I think it's as it goes

59:31

some do some yeah, I don't sure there's really any way

59:33

to to fully win in

59:35

that scenario But

59:37

I had a great time, and I mean I

59:39

really lucked out in terms of it was

59:41

a great script It was a great foam.

59:44

Yeah, and it was great people to work

59:46

with yeah, it completely changed the Course

59:49

and how do you study for Kirk

59:51

an established character I? Was

59:55

I was lucky in one regards. I hadn't seen

59:57

a lot of the show so I mean I

59:59

knew Shatner more as like a cultural icon I

1:00:01

did as an actor playing a character. Yeah,

1:00:03

I was never a fantasy guy either. So

1:00:06

I had an idea and I watched the first season of

1:00:08

the show and I got a sense of like what he

1:00:11

was all about and JJ never

1:00:13

wanted me to do anything other

1:00:15

than just do me. But

1:00:19

it's inevitable when

1:00:21

you're playing someone who's

1:00:24

that fun to watch. You

1:00:27

cannot want to

1:00:29

do Shatner at some point in

1:00:31

the process. Here

1:00:33

and there I'd thrown a little

1:00:37

Shat just to make the day go by.

1:00:39

You do a little Shat flourish? Yeah,

1:00:42

and a Shat flourish is anything from how you

1:00:44

sit in a chair to cross your legs or

1:00:47

how he does a

1:00:49

thing with his jaw that's

1:00:51

very particular. So you

1:00:53

flavor it like you're making a soup. Not

1:00:56

too much. So you didn't get locked into

1:00:58

a TV Star Trek. You just did the movie. I

1:01:01

did three movies. Three. I

1:01:03

did one in 2007 and one in 2002. Oh

1:01:08

yeah, Into the Darkness. And

1:01:10

then one in 2015. Now

1:01:15

the Jack Ryan thing, it

1:01:18

wasn't quite a franchise when you did it, was it?

1:01:21

I mean it was a franchise insofar as they'd done a

1:01:25

bunch of different ones with Harrison Ford and

1:01:27

Alec Baldwin. Mostly Harrison and

1:01:29

then they hadn't done a film.

1:01:33

No, that's not true. Ben Affleck did a

1:01:35

film and then I did a film. My

1:01:37

film flopped and then they did the show

1:01:39

with Krasinski. And that kind of, oh

1:01:42

so that was just a TV show not the movies? Yeah.

1:01:45

Oh okay. So that's how he locked into

1:01:47

it. Yours flopped? Didn't do well. Didn't

1:01:49

do well. What do you think, what happened? Really

1:01:52

one of the big regrets. I love that character

1:01:54

so much. I mean I grew up watching all

1:01:57

of those films. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You

1:02:00

know, it just

1:02:05

didn't connect. Yeah. Do

1:02:08

you, when you watch movies that don't connect that

1:02:10

you're in, do you see it... How

1:02:13

often have you thought it was your fault? Um...

1:02:20

Hmm... Never.

1:02:23

Good. I think it's, you know,

1:02:25

film is

1:02:28

the most collaborative art, maybe more collaborative

1:02:31

than anything else. Yeah. There's

1:02:33

so many cooks in the kitchen. Sure, sure. Um,

1:02:35

no, I would never, I'd never say that about

1:02:38

myself. I think I showed

1:02:40

up to work. I know I show up to work all the time.

1:02:42

Yeah, yeah. There's never one time that I'm like, you

1:02:44

know. I tell you though, man,

1:02:46

that hell or high water, I watched that a

1:02:48

few times. Thanks, man. I fucking

1:02:50

love that movie. It's a great film. It's

1:02:53

great. It's a really good, just

1:02:55

good western man. Yeah, and

1:02:57

you guys acted the fuck out of that thing. We had

1:03:00

a blast. I bet. He's an intense

1:03:02

fucker, that foster. Wow, he's the best. I mean,

1:03:04

I interviewed... Do you know him? I interviewed him.

1:03:07

Oh yeah? Yeah, and I was nervous. Were

1:03:09

you really? Yeah, yeah, because I,

1:03:11

you know, he's one of those guys that's

1:03:13

like, what is this guy really like? I

1:03:15

mean, what am I going to be dealing

1:03:17

with, you know? Because he's one of those

1:03:19

transformational actors. I

1:03:22

think the thing about Ben is

1:03:25

that underneath

1:03:27

all of the intensity is

1:03:29

a really sweet, he's

1:03:32

just a sweetie pie. Yeah.

1:03:35

You know, like he's a

1:03:37

sweetie pie and he's tremendously

1:03:39

gifted and he's able

1:03:42

to channel, you know,

1:03:44

his beautiful, complicated spirit

1:03:47

into his work. But really, at the end of

1:03:49

the day, he's a simple

1:03:51

teddy bear. It's interesting because you've got to be

1:03:53

like the kind of the grounded dude.

1:03:56

Yeah, it was really fun. And did

1:03:58

you know, like, I mean, I guess it's just... in the script

1:04:00

that you had this brother who was a

1:04:03

little... Yeah, I had... Because

1:04:06

the script that Taylor

1:04:08

had written was so... It

1:04:11

was like cowboy poetry. So I knew that

1:04:13

the character I was playing was of a

1:04:15

certain breed of kind of... Yeah. I

1:04:18

don't know, Gary Cooper or... Right. Just

1:04:21

the silent stoic type. Yeah. I

1:04:23

was really excited to... I had never

1:04:25

gotten a chance to do something like that.

1:04:27

I had such an image in my mind

1:04:29

of this guy... Yeah.

1:04:32

...and how I was gonna play him. And yeah, it

1:04:34

was great. It was very simple. I was

1:04:36

the quiet stoic type, Ben was the fucking insane

1:04:39

brother. Yeah. And it's like, that's how the two

1:04:41

fit together. And

1:04:44

we immediately... We had just done a film

1:04:46

together, Ben and I. Which one?

1:04:49

So we had spent a lot of time together. A film

1:04:51

called Finest Hours. Okay. So

1:04:53

you knew how each other worked. Yeah. That's

1:04:56

good. Easy as not... Yeah,

1:04:58

it was just relatively seamless. It was like an

1:05:01

easy camaraderie. Right. But it's interesting when you know

1:05:03

it's a genre film that's honoring the genre. And

1:05:06

so you're like... Well, yeah. I mean, it's

1:05:08

one of the very few scripts I've read in my career

1:05:10

and I've read, I don't know, a handful where you finish

1:05:12

it. You're like, that is a perfect fucking... You could shoot

1:05:14

that right now. Yeah. And not change

1:05:16

a word and it isn't so long as no one fucks

1:05:18

up and gets in its way. It's

1:05:20

great. And that was one of them. Yeah. It

1:05:24

read like... It was... I

1:05:27

call them like music boxes. You

1:05:29

open it and it plays just the right

1:05:32

notes. Right. Like what that is. It's

1:05:34

rare, right? Yeah. I

1:05:36

mean, rare. It's one in a blue moon.

1:05:39

I just read one and they attached me to

1:05:42

it and I was excited about it. It was a dark comedy

1:05:44

and now it's a little stalled and I don't know if it's gonna

1:05:46

happen. But I don't get offered a

1:05:48

ton of stuff, but this one, they had

1:05:50

me in mind and it was like, God,

1:05:53

this is the fucking greatest script. This is like,

1:05:55

just because it's tight. You know, like at no

1:05:57

point are you like, what's happening now? Or

1:06:00

you're like, God, the first act needs some help.

1:06:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that scene, they could like,

1:06:04

we probably should rework that. It's so nice to

1:06:06

be like, no, that just is. It's just all

1:06:08

there. What's happening with this thing? I

1:06:10

don't know. I think that they're looking

1:06:12

for maybe bigger talent, so maybe I won't

1:06:15

be attached. I don't know how

1:06:17

it's gonna happen, but. Is there

1:06:19

money behind it? Yeah, there's some, but they kinda

1:06:21

got stalled on getting all of it. Oh,

1:06:24

yeah. How much is it? It's

1:06:26

not a lot. Small movie, you know?

1:06:28

Shoots here? I

1:06:31

know, it would be great. I was ready to spend my

1:06:33

summer doing that, and then it just went away. And then

1:06:35

I got offered this other thing where I actually have to

1:06:37

go out of town, and it was like just, you know,

1:06:39

at this point in my life where I don't need to

1:06:42

do anything really, it's a tough

1:06:44

decision. And I don't even have a

1:06:46

family. It's not even really a tough decision. What a great

1:06:48

thing. You don't have to fucking work if you don't wanna

1:06:50

work. It's gotta be that right

1:06:52

thing. Right, but there's also the thing that is

1:06:54

like, well, if you wanna act and

1:06:57

you turn this down. But I asked

1:07:00

you in the beginning of this, do you like acting?

1:07:02

You're like, I think I do. Well, that's enough. There's

1:07:05

a part of me, look, man, I'm fucking

1:07:07

60, and certain things,

1:07:09

everything that I've wanted to do has happened,

1:07:11

but nothing's ever really blown up. You

1:07:14

know, I'm a- You're waiting for the blown

1:07:16

up thing. Well, I mean, look, I did

1:07:19

glow on Netflix. Yeah. And

1:07:21

that was good. Yeah. And I liked doing

1:07:23

that. I liked the character. I liked the way it came out.

1:07:25

It was a unique, interesting thing. But it's not like I had

1:07:27

60 all of a sudden. I'm gonna be like, thank God we

1:07:29

have a new leading man. It's not gonna

1:07:31

happen. And that's- But

1:07:33

do you want that? I don't know, it's a childhood fantasy. Whether

1:07:37

I want it or not, it doesn't matter

1:07:39

is what I'm telling you. That's very true.

1:07:41

You know, so like, I'm gonna be like

1:07:43

the cranky sidekick. Well, what are you- What

1:07:45

version of that? But this is a very,

1:07:47

this is a meaty conversation, starting point. You

1:07:51

just said, most things that you

1:07:53

wanted in your career have happened. Yes. But

1:07:56

yet you still have that- A little off to the side. Okay,

1:07:59

whatever. All intents and purposes, they both work

1:08:01

out. But you still

1:08:03

have that little bit of static energy of the frustration

1:08:06

of something that hasn't quite clicked yet. If

1:08:09

you were to articulate that, it's childish. No,

1:08:11

but what is it? I'm curious. Well, you want to be like

1:08:13

a, like a, like, you know,

1:08:16

hey, there's that guy. You want to

1:08:18

be loved more. I guess. Yeah,

1:08:20

it makes all the sense in the world.

1:08:23

Just so I can, you know, push it

1:08:25

away. I mean, I don't want it. I

1:08:27

know exactly what that's all about. Yeah. Oh,

1:08:30

yeah. And how have you dealt with it? You

1:08:34

know, 25 years of therapy and, and,

1:08:37

um, uh,

1:08:39

I think, you know, this film is a

1:08:41

great for someone like me

1:08:44

that has the same thing that you,

1:08:46

that you, The new movie, Pullman. Pullman.

1:08:49

Yeah. Um, it

1:08:51

premiered in Toronto, got absolutely

1:08:54

annihilated critically. And,

1:08:57

uh, The loved income.

1:08:59

The loved income. Yeah. So

1:09:02

for someone who's a needy artist, Yeah.

1:09:05

To really get very real with

1:09:08

what it is I'm like, you

1:09:11

know, what, what, what that static energy. Yeah. That's what,

1:09:13

I mean, that's all about. Um, that's where I'm at.

1:09:15

Like, What is it all about?

1:09:17

Am I going to get it? Do I need it? Is

1:09:19

it worth it? Is there, is

1:09:22

there, uh, sustenance

1:09:24

there? Is

1:09:26

it a viable, and it's

1:09:29

just not quite honestly. It's just not because

1:09:31

it's never gonna be enough. The hole's

1:09:33

never going to get filled. That's right. Yeah. You mean

1:09:35

the God shaped hole? The God shaped

1:09:37

hole. Yeah. Fucker. That

1:09:40

fucking fucker. Yeah. I,

1:09:42

I fill it a lot. I fill it with a lot of coffee and, uh, Coffee

1:09:45

and nicotine. Coffee and nicotine, dude. No, no, it is.

1:09:48

You know, it's, yeah, I can't do any other

1:09:50

shit. I've been sober for 25 years. That didn't

1:09:52

work out. God damn it.

1:09:54

But like, but this is one of those things where, like

1:09:57

I was pushing back on it, even though I know like, I

1:10:00

could do it. It's kind of a role I could do.

1:10:03

And there's still that part of me where the

1:10:05

last movie I did, I engaged

1:10:08

some craft, I did an accent. The last

1:10:10

two roles, they weren't me. I was able

1:10:12

to shut off. I find that in terms

1:10:15

of acting, a lot of what

1:10:17

you do is like, well, the parts that aren't me, I

1:10:19

just shut off. Like, you know,

1:10:21

this guy- Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? I mean, like,

1:10:23

if the character I'm playing is not neurotic,

1:10:26

then I'm not. And I can turn that

1:10:28

part of me off and still show up as the

1:10:30

guy. So the craft in place

1:10:32

is like, you know, don't be self-reflective. Got you.

1:10:36

Right? Those are choices. Right.

1:10:38

Continue. So the point

1:10:40

is, is that this one, there's still a couple of

1:10:43

things that I've learned since the

1:10:45

last acting I've done that I'd like to

1:10:47

try to employ and see if I can

1:10:49

show up for it. I've been

1:10:51

told, emotionally I can do it. I can listen.

1:10:53

I can be present. Yeah. I

1:10:56

can make it not so three days

1:10:58

in, I'm like, no, I'm not doing anything. No,

1:11:00

no one's going to be notes. And they're signing

1:11:02

off on this shit. And so I guess I'm just going to

1:11:05

do this. So it

1:11:07

sounds, okay. So it sounds like for what I'm

1:11:09

hearing from you, good therapy talk. Yeah. What

1:11:12

I hear you saying, Mark, is that you want

1:11:14

to disappear into something and kind of forget about

1:11:16

Mark for a second. That'd be, wow. Is

1:11:18

that possible? I mean- I don't know. Can

1:11:21

you do it? No.

1:11:24

Okay. No hope there. No.

1:11:30

All right, but let's talk about

1:11:32

like before we just talk

1:11:35

about Pool Man with

1:11:37

these Marvel movies like I, you know, you

1:11:40

did Wonder Woman. I did Wonder Woman,

1:11:42

yeah. That's a DC film, Mark. Oh, I was

1:11:44

in a DC movie. I prefer the DC movies.

1:11:46

Good man. I had one scene in Joker with

1:11:48

De Niro. That was a big day. Oh,

1:11:51

yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

1:11:53

I'm his producer. Fuck. That

1:11:56

was kind of funny. You weren't there for

1:11:58

the bloodletting or no? I had

1:12:00

to be I was when he gets shot. Yeah. Yeah.

1:12:02

Yeah because you know, I was on set I was

1:12:04

the producer of the TV show so I had to

1:12:06

stand there, you know for a week

1:12:08

without doing anything but standing there Oh my god. Oh,

1:12:10

that's great fun. I've done that before. Yeah, but the

1:12:13

but the bloodletting is all was all done after So

1:12:16

it was interesting to watch DeNiro work Oh, yeah,

1:12:18

I was gonna say shit because it's

1:12:20

like, you know You're watching him and you're just

1:12:22

looking at him as a person on a set

1:12:25

doing this thing and part of me was like

1:12:27

Oh god, how they gonna make this work but

1:12:29

he He

1:12:31

knows about Robert DeNiro, right? Because

1:12:34

his process, you know as he gets older is that

1:12:36

you know, he You know,

1:12:39

he likes to load up the lines It seems it with

1:12:41

that role like, you know almost on set with some of

1:12:43

them, you know, he's playing the TV guy He's

1:12:45

made a choice about the guy, you know, which

1:12:47

is fine, you know, and it was good But

1:12:50

the way it cut together I was like, holy

1:12:52

shit He knew the whole time because he's such

1:12:54

a pro that you know Whatever

1:12:56

he was working with in the moment that

1:12:58

wasn't locking in it didn't matter Hmm because

1:13:01

they'd find the ones that did and you'd

1:13:03

get your money's worth well, that is definitely

1:13:05

a big learning process with film

1:13:07

it took me forever to remember

1:13:09

is like it is There

1:13:12

it film is an art form made in

1:13:14

the edit. Yeah, totally So it's like

1:13:16

you don't there's no you don't have to be on stage

1:13:18

and get the whole scene, right? Were you offered Marvel shit?

1:13:22

No No

1:13:26

No, was that something like like Wonder

1:13:29

Woman is a big movie Yeah for the

1:13:31

DC I mean by during the time that

1:13:33

I get sick I would have I I

1:13:35

was doing those the two Wonder Woman films

1:13:37

and Happy as a clam. Yeah,

1:13:40

it's a good gig. It's a great gig and

1:13:42

I love working with Patty and gal and yeah My

1:13:45

character is not a superhero, which I

1:13:47

really liked playing just a normal guy

1:13:49

the pilot guy Yeah, it

1:13:51

was great fun. So this like the

1:13:53

movie that I watched last night It's

1:13:56

weird. I and I didn't mention it before with hell or high

1:13:58

water. It's like that was the first time I was like,

1:14:00

who the fuck's this guy? That's

1:14:03

cool. All right, you know what I mean? I'll take it.

1:14:05

Yeah, I was like this is a movie star here Does

1:14:07

everyone know about this guy? You're

1:14:09

going read it guys. Yeah. Yeah, I

1:14:12

don't know if you know this but this guy

1:14:14

behind a movie star So

1:14:18

how does because I get like, you know all

1:14:20

the references or most of them there's probably Layers

1:14:23

of them in pool men because I just

1:14:25

watched China. I watched Chinatown like three times

1:14:27

a year It's the best right is totally

1:14:30

the best. Oh my god. I just saw it at At

1:14:32

the Los Feliz 3. Oh my god Curly

1:14:35

when you're right, you're right and you're right

1:14:40

Her young for next grand clamping

1:14:42

onto the blinds. Oh But

1:14:46

but it's a it's a deep reference for this

1:14:48

movie. I mean, you know even on the plot

1:14:50

line I

1:14:53

think it is in some ways. I mean It's

1:14:56

about water I mean it's about

1:14:58

water and it's about LA and he watches

1:15:01

Chinatown I think and then this

1:15:03

whole Insane

1:15:06

plot it happens to lead to the end

1:15:08

with a moment with the femme fatale, but

1:15:11

I Guess I never really thought

1:15:14

about it It's

1:15:16

there's noir elements to it. It's

1:15:19

essentially every film I've ever watched seemingly

1:15:21

put through my brain Yeah, come out

1:15:23

the other the other end it's

1:15:27

like There's

1:15:29

there's elements of You

1:15:33

know like screwball comedy I was

1:15:35

I'd watched Bogdanovich I'd seen the

1:15:37

what's up doc and yeah really

1:15:39

loved that yeah, and and David

1:15:41

or Russell certainly with with how

1:15:44

families talk and how the overlapping

1:15:46

erotic chaos of families He

1:15:49

got great cast got Benning you got DeVito.

1:15:51

Yeah, I mean I was Jason Lee I

1:15:53

lucked out Yeah, DeWanda wise and who's the

1:15:55

guy playing a velocity who I love who

1:15:57

I haven't seen him in a while He's

1:16:00

great. And the guy who played

1:16:02

your buddy? Oh,

1:16:04

John Ortiz, yeah. He's great. I've been seeing

1:16:07

him a lot lately. He's in American fiction

1:16:09

recently. Yeah, I saw him in that. He

1:16:11

was like, there's some amazing stuff in Silver

1:16:13

Linings playbook with him. Amazing. Amazing. That's right.

1:16:15

I'd seen that right before I, and I

1:16:18

was like, oh, John Ortiz is it. John

1:16:20

Ortiz is it. And he was excited to

1:16:22

do it? Yeah, he was great. Everybody had

1:16:24

a blast. It was a lot

1:16:26

of fun. So your character though, the pool guy, to

1:16:30

me, there's a little Lebowski to it. Yeah,

1:16:34

there's Lebowski to it in

1:16:36

some regard. I mean, Darren,

1:16:38

my character doesn't, there's no drinking, there's no

1:16:40

pot smoking. And I think instead of- But

1:16:42

they're meditating. There's meditating, but I

1:16:44

think instead of like a

1:16:47

Lebowski who's, I characterize as

1:16:49

like deep

1:16:51

passivity and by virtue

1:16:54

of this story happening to him has

1:16:56

to become accurate. Right. I

1:16:58

think my character's way more- It's

1:17:00

like the opposite. Yeah, he's

1:17:03

like a big beating heart, a puppy dog.

1:17:05

But also I think what I liked about

1:17:07

it is that it is a specifically California

1:17:09

character. Like that guy, like

1:17:12

if you live here long enough, Oh, 100% Like

1:17:15

that guy's- You guys that you've seen on,

1:17:18

getting back to like growing up in the

1:17:21

industry, there's

1:17:23

an LA that's really

1:17:25

romantic. There's like a P.T. Anderson

1:17:28

LA that's like

1:17:30

kind of deep valley. The

1:17:32

one I was exploring was definitely the

1:17:34

kind of outcasts of the Hollywood dream

1:17:36

that like had touched the Hollywood dream

1:17:39

and had been actors or acted before

1:17:42

or had been a director, but

1:17:45

had never really made it and end up living in

1:17:49

this rundown motel. And that

1:17:52

was kind of my ode to, this

1:17:56

is a fucking hard town. I've

1:18:00

been very lucky, my parents have been

1:18:02

very lucky, but I know the other

1:18:04

side of people scratch, clawing,

1:18:06

trying to get in. And

1:18:09

there's this crew, this group

1:18:11

of people is definitely in that world,

1:18:13

I think. Yeah, and when you wrote

1:18:15

this thing, you

1:18:18

had decided that you wanted to write and direct. Not

1:18:22

really, man, this began because

1:18:24

I had this title, Pullman, and this guy's

1:18:27

name, Darren Behrman, and

1:18:29

it just really made me laugh. Yeah.

1:18:32

And I kept on thinking about it, and it rolled around in my head,

1:18:34

and the year went by, and it was like,

1:18:36

still rolling around in my head. Yeah.

1:18:40

And then I tried to hire a screenwriter, and met

1:18:42

the screenwriter a couple times, but then he was off

1:18:44

busy doing something, and then COVID

1:18:47

hit, and going through some personal stuff, and

1:18:50

I was like, fuck it. So

1:18:54

I sat down with my writing

1:18:56

partner, my producing partner, and we

1:18:58

spent a lot of time,

1:19:01

we wrote it, and then it

1:19:04

just seemed at that point, because as I was writing

1:19:06

it, I saw the whole thing, and this began as

1:19:09

a much

1:19:12

bigger kind of conception of

1:19:15

a story that was much more fantasy,

1:19:18

I would say. Yeah. And

1:19:20

then I just ended up directing it. It just

1:19:22

seemed inevitable, basically. Yeah,

1:19:24

there's still a lot of fantasy to it. Oh

1:19:27

yeah, there is... Certainly

1:19:35

something I thought about before, but it has really

1:19:37

become concrete, and watching it again, it's like, this

1:19:39

is a film as if it were made by

1:19:42

a guy named Darren Behrman, as if Darren Behrman,

1:19:44

this pullman, had got the

1:19:46

dream of his life to make a

1:19:48

film. There's a DIY quality to it.

1:19:50

Yeah. I

1:19:53

don't know, it makes me fucking... It just makes

1:19:55

me laugh. And it's completely... thing

1:20:00

at the end that's like not really totally

1:20:02

sure if they're really cops or not. Right.

1:20:04

Yeah. It's just like what dare not to

1:20:06

happen. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. Oh yeah.

1:20:09

And how much of it in

1:20:11

terms of your relationship with DeVito and Benning's

1:20:14

characters was you know kind of based on

1:20:17

your life? A lot

1:20:19

of it. I mean my mother was an

1:20:21

actress who became a psychotherapist. She's

1:20:23

not a young Indian analyst but she's a

1:20:26

psychotherapist. Jack

1:20:28

Denisoff who is DeVito.

1:20:32

He's a former B-movie director. Yeah. They

1:20:34

had horror films in the 80s and

1:20:36

hasn't gotten anything going on for a

1:20:38

long time. Yeah. Has a very questionable

1:20:42

relationship with his agent who

1:20:45

may not be returning his calls or has ever

1:20:47

returned his calls. So I

1:20:49

you know again it's like growing up in my household

1:20:51

that was there was work there was

1:20:53

no work there were periods of like pretty

1:20:57

financially desperate times and you

1:20:59

know rolling around in that world of what's

1:21:03

my next shot like you know

1:21:06

yeah put me in coach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1:21:08

Definitely you know. I also like that

1:21:10

the pool man does not do one job. No. His

1:21:13

job is taking

1:21:15

care of the pool at this apartment complex

1:21:17

and that seems to be the

1:21:20

only pool he takes care of. Yeah. Yeah.

1:21:23

And like well

1:21:25

Jennifer Jason was great but DeVito so

1:21:27

like to see Benning and DeVito and

1:21:29

you like there that guy can

1:21:31

just show up it seems and be DeVito

1:21:34

and just nail it. Danny

1:21:36

DeVito is the happiest actor

1:21:39

I've ever met in my entire life. He

1:21:41

loves doing it. He is happy doing press.

1:21:44

He is happy doing a bit with

1:21:46

craft service. Yeah. He's happy watching

1:21:49

monitor. Yeah. Happy watching the fucking

1:21:51

premiere. He loves every

1:21:53

part of our job and it was

1:21:55

so joyful to be around

1:21:57

someone who's been in it and has done it.

1:22:00

And if you look

1:22:02

at his fucking career, it's

1:22:04

mind boggling. As he

1:22:07

begins one floor of the cook who's next, then he

1:22:09

gets taxi, then his career,

1:22:12

then he directs, then

1:22:15

he does fucking Hoffa amongst many other

1:22:17

things, then he does Jersey films, he

1:22:19

produces Pulp Fiction. I mean

1:22:21

his career spans a hell of a lot of

1:22:24

filmmaking. So, and

1:22:26

to have the two of them together, and that

1:22:28

works from one stylistically,

1:22:31

in one different way, and Danny

1:22:33

works in a whole different way,

1:22:35

and they love one another, and to

1:22:39

direct both of them was a dream. And

1:22:41

what was your first decisions, because I want to direct a

1:22:43

movie, I'm trying to put one together with my buddy's book.

1:22:46

What was your first, like when you knew you were going to

1:22:48

do it, what'd you put in place first? Like a DP, like

1:22:50

what was your thoughts? I

1:22:53

got a DP and a costume designer. I

1:22:56

got a DP, I got my costume designer,

1:22:59

then I got my production designer. Locations

1:23:02

was kind of a nightmare,

1:23:04

just because everybody was booked, and we

1:23:07

had no money ever. Locations

1:23:12

was tricky, much trickier than I thought, much

1:23:14

more expensive than I thought. Could you shot

1:23:16

it all here? Yeah. No

1:23:18

tax breaks? I shot here on film,

1:23:21

with tax breaks, 21 days. Oh

1:23:24

wow, so you knocked it out. So

1:23:27

yeah, it was a lot. And

1:23:29

no, no, and then I got my sound guy,

1:23:31

because the sound guy, Peter Devlin, I'd worked with

1:23:34

since I was like, I don't know, 25

1:23:36

or something, and he just won an Academy Award and it

1:23:39

was a big deal, and really

1:23:41

saved me. And

1:23:43

who was that actress who played the femme

1:23:45

fatale? DeWanda Wise. She's great. Great,

1:23:48

isn't she? Yeah, where's she from? I mean,

1:23:50

what's she been in? Jurassic

1:23:53

Park was the last big film she was in

1:23:55

right now. She's in a new film, a horror

1:23:57

film called, Imagine.

1:24:00

I think for Jason Blum. She's

1:24:03

lovely and came in.

1:24:07

I lost my actress very

1:24:09

close to shooting and it just

1:24:12

so happened she lived down the street from where we

1:24:14

were shooting at the Tiki T, the motel, and was

1:24:17

easy as pie and just a joy to work

1:24:19

with. Wow. So that worked out.

1:24:21

Yeah, totally. Now, after all is said and

1:24:23

done here and it's out in the world, I mean, I'm going to do another.

1:24:29

It's such a high I can't even tell you. I've been in

1:24:31

a state of, I think, profound

1:24:34

grief for a year

1:24:36

because exactly what you're talking about. I've

1:24:38

always wanted to make a film. Speed

1:24:42

is not something that has ever

1:24:44

been a part of the filmmaking process that

1:24:47

I've been a part of and because

1:24:49

the acting, directing component of it is

1:24:51

that there's no downtime, it always feels

1:24:53

like you're creating. And

1:24:56

it's like a high. I

1:25:02

can't imagine not doing it again and I have some

1:25:05

ideas that are totally different than

1:25:07

Pullman that have kind of turned me

1:25:09

on. But then you

1:25:11

also see like my God, and if you're

1:25:13

about to get into the process, it's just

1:25:17

the incredible amount of time. As an actor, as a

1:25:19

comic, it's like you show up, do your bit, you're

1:25:21

going. Yeah. And

1:25:23

then you show up to the fucking premiere a year later. And

1:25:25

these poor motherfuckers, it's years, it's

1:25:27

been four years of my life, more or less.

1:25:29

Right, that's what's always kind of. It's like, unfuckable.

1:25:32

Because then not only you finish the edit, then

1:25:34

you're waiting for the thing to come out. Then

1:25:37

you have to work on the marketing

1:25:39

process. Yeah,

1:25:41

that's always why I've been turned not wanting to

1:25:43

do it. I talk to guys who are like,

1:25:45

yeah, this took five years to make. I'm like,

1:25:47

I'm out. Yeah, I get it.

1:25:49

I'm with you, man. But are

1:25:52

you going to be in the thing that you want to direct? Just

1:25:54

for a smaller part. Because I've directed, when I

1:25:56

did my TV show, I've directed episodes of it

1:25:58

and I didn't the feeling that I was

1:26:01

really directing. It was just like I do a shot

1:26:03

and we didn't have money or time to really play

1:26:05

back as much as I wanted so I just had

1:26:07

to rely on the DP to be like yeah we

1:26:09

got it. Am I sure? Yeah. I think also too

1:26:11

because you get you already get that high from being

1:26:14

on stage. Like I was

1:26:16

I'm chasing that. I'm chasing the it

1:26:19

could all collapse at any moment. Yeah

1:26:21

right yeah yeah and I

1:26:23

uh yeah but I mean I

1:26:25

don't want to be in the movie. I do want

1:26:27

to produce it and I'm working with my friend to

1:26:29

you know kind of put the script together

1:26:32

and it's like and I don't know

1:26:34

who's it's it's a young people's movie so I don't even

1:26:36

know those actors. So

1:26:38

it'll be interesting if we get it over you know

1:26:40

get it into shape and make it happen. Are you

1:26:42

excited about it? Very I mean to the point where

1:26:44

I never really wanted to direct because having it just

1:26:46

takes so much time. But

1:26:49

is your experience because it's mine's like you just

1:26:51

can't it seems like it's

1:26:53

inevitable and will happen. Well yeah that's

1:26:55

how certain things in my life have happened. That like

1:26:57

you know for you know for no

1:27:00

matter how it's received or whatever it's like I

1:27:02

want to try and you get to a point where

1:27:04

you put that in your heart and your mind and

1:27:06

then you know all of a sudden it's like

1:27:08

I'm ready to try. That's exactly right. That's exactly

1:27:10

what happened to me. Yeah and I

1:27:13

can't imagine this process happening any other

1:27:15

way. Right. Especially I also you're

1:27:18

dreaming about it and you're like daydreaming you're

1:27:20

thinking about shots and you're like oh that

1:27:22

would be cool. Yeah I mean that's yeah

1:27:24

the process happening. Yeah and also like going

1:27:26

into something for the first time there's that

1:27:28

other part from having experience in show business

1:27:30

where you're like it might not be perfect.

1:27:32

It might not be whatever but I'm going

1:27:34

to do it. Yeah. You know what I

1:27:36

mean and in having been in things that

1:27:39

you know were never seen or I

1:27:41

knew when I did my series on IFC that

1:27:43

like I don't know how to do this acting thing

1:27:45

really. So for two seasons I'm going to not know

1:27:47

what to do with my hands or

1:27:50

whatever. Like I'm going to notice that I don't know how to

1:27:52

do this but there's no other way. I'm going to have to

1:27:54

take the hit. And

1:27:56

it's fucking thrilling. What's really thrilling about it too is

1:27:58

and I'm sure you've heard it. feel out about your

1:28:00

shows, like, you know, at the end of the day, from

1:28:03

A to Z, from the moment

1:28:05

of the first fucking pebble in

1:28:08

my brain to the moment where the

1:28:10

last piece of marketing goes out before the

1:28:12

premiere, I have ownership of that whole thing.

1:28:14

For better or for worse. You

1:28:16

may not like it or whatever, but it's mine. And

1:28:19

that is rad. It is rad.

1:28:21

You know, and in the sort

1:28:23

of media climate where like

1:28:26

there's just, you know, so much shit

1:28:28

out there, you don't even have to

1:28:30

judge it in relation to anything. You

1:28:32

just sort of like, if this gets seen anywhere, we've

1:28:36

delivered the goods. God, isn't that the truth?

1:28:38

Yeah. Good talking to you, man. You too.

1:28:41

There you go. What a good guy. Swell

1:28:45

guy. Enjoy talking to him. Pool

1:28:47

Man. His new movie is in theaters

1:28:49

Friday, May 10th. Hang out for a minute, people.

1:28:52

On Thursday's show, comedian Joe Mandy is back. And if

1:28:54

you're a WTF plus subscriber, you can go listen to

1:28:56

episode 142, which was

1:28:59

Joe's first episode where he told

1:29:01

some pretty great stories. In ninth grade, I took Spanish in high

1:29:03

school. It

1:29:06

was the only non honors class I ever took.

1:29:08

And it, I showed up the first day of my career.

1:29:12

And I was like, I'm going to do this. I'm

1:29:14

going to do this. I'm going

1:29:16

to do this. And

1:29:20

it, I showed

1:29:22

up the first day, ninth grade, so I was

1:29:24

very short and braces and sweater vest.

1:29:26

I don't know why I wore sweater vest. What

1:29:28

did you do today? What? I

1:29:30

thought it was cool. And I

1:29:33

got into Spanish the first day of class

1:29:35

and it was just me and it was like

1:29:37

me and like the JV basketball team. That

1:29:39

was the class, basically. Right.

1:29:42

And I was like, it'll be fine.

1:29:44

I listened to Outcast or whatever. And I

1:29:46

sit down and they were just ruthless.

1:29:49

They would make fun of me. They would

1:29:52

call me names. They would choke me. I got choked

1:29:54

a lot, but it was never violent. They

1:29:56

just would come up from behind when I wasn't

1:29:58

expecting it and like rapped. Sometimes

1:30:00

it was like piano wire. I don't like they had piano wire

1:30:02

They would like wrap wire around my neck and I would freak

1:30:04

out Obviously, and then they would

1:30:07

let go and just crack up. They'd be

1:30:09

like ahaha you stupid. Yeah, you know He's

1:30:13

writing for the right reason right what an idiot right

1:30:15

what an idiot. I was like how stupid of me

1:30:17

to freak out Yeah, so

1:30:19

it was just was bad and they would throw

1:30:21

like empty, Kansas soda at my head and stuff

1:30:23

It was just it sucked and

1:30:25

then you're just what this happened Yeah, our tea.

1:30:27

Yeah our teacher is that Spanish teacher was so

1:30:30

broken You know she was so done

1:30:32

with life that she like it was it was chaos

1:30:34

like one issues an older public Yeah, I'll teach you.

1:30:36

Yeah, she looked like Newman for Seinfeld so ever everyone

1:30:38

called her Newman I thought she'd be able to call

1:30:40

her miss Newman and she would respond it. I mean

1:30:42

it was bad and And

1:30:45

then that December our our

1:30:47

principal made this big announcement that

1:30:49

there no more gambling was allowed in the

1:30:51

hallways I didn't was her gambling. Yeah people

1:30:53

like played dice in the hallways and stuff

1:30:57

and It

1:30:59

was crazy And we

1:31:01

are active dice games their active dice

1:31:03

games They were like the Asian Asian

1:31:05

kids would have breakdance Competitions in between

1:31:07

classes like the hallway in the hallway,

1:31:09

and I actually started doing this thing

1:31:11

It's like it's I do it on

1:31:13

stage sometimes, too I got really good

1:31:15

at making it look like I was

1:31:17

about to start breakdancing Because actually

1:31:19

I was just trying to get through the hallway right but I

1:31:21

would get in the middle of this like big circle And it

1:31:23

would be like my turn and I would start like moving around

1:31:26

to the to the music and like you know Yeah pumping my

1:31:28

shirt and making it look like I was about and I would

1:31:30

just do it until they realized I was never Gonna start bray

1:31:32

Anyway, I would go for like two minutes without actually doing any

1:31:34

dance before they like pushed me out of the circle

1:31:37

But anyway, but I back to the story

1:31:39

so our principal She

1:31:42

instituted this no gambling policy And

1:31:45

I I saw an opportunity and I went

1:31:47

up to these kids in the back of my class

1:31:49

And I was like you know I can

1:31:52

teach you a gambling game that you'll never get

1:31:54

in trouble for playing if you just Stop

1:31:57

choking me right and that clear there was

1:31:59

a good Yeah, it was a clear

1:32:01

negotiation and they thought about it and the

1:32:03

next day I brought I taught them how

1:32:05

to play dreidel for money Stop it I

1:32:07

swear and so for like a good month

1:32:09

outside my Spanish class you would walk by

1:32:11

and just see these black kids and Like

1:32:14

Averex jackets huddled over a top Yeah,

1:32:16

just like yo, that's a W motherfucker pay

1:32:19

up That's

1:32:22

episode 142 and it's available

1:32:24

without ads if you have any WTF plus

1:32:26

subscription Go to the link in the episode

1:32:28

description to sign up or go to

1:32:30

WTF podcom and click on WTF

1:32:33

plus Before we go this

1:32:35

episode is sponsored by better help online

1:32:37

therapy have something to get off your

1:32:39

chest like work stress or relationship Issues

1:32:42

whatever it is therapy is a safe space

1:32:44

to work through what's weighing you down So

1:32:47

you're free to focus on other things better

1:32:50

help offers professional affordable online therapy on

1:32:52

a flexible schedule Start the

1:32:54

process in minutes and switch therapists

1:32:56

any time Let it

1:32:58

out with better help learn more at

1:33:01

better help calm. That's better Help

1:33:04

calm and just a reminder before

1:33:06

we go. This podcast is hosted by a

1:33:08

cast You

1:33:53

You Boomer

1:34:46

lives, Monkey and La Fonda,

1:34:49

Cat Angels everywhere.