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Speaker 1: If you were to google these words Christopher Walking impersonation,

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Speaker 1: search answers will come up. I drumroll, please a number

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Speaker 1: one on that Google search. There you go. Now that

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Speaker 1: in six dollars will buy me a coffee at Starbucks.

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Speaker 1: So it's a it's an absolute worthless brag. It's just

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Speaker 1: a fact. Hello there, Kevin Pollock here, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Don't get up? I am so very excited to be

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Speaker 1: here with you and Brian right now. Hello friends, it

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Speaker 1: is me Brian Baumgartner, back with another episode of Off

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Speaker 1: the Beat. Thank you for joining me. My guest today.

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Speaker 1: As you just heard he is, well, he's a legend,

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Speaker 1: Kevin Paula. You might know him as Hockney in The

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Speaker 1: Iconic and one of my favorites The Usual Suspects or

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Speaker 1: most recently Moista Maizel in The Marvelous Mrs Mazel. But

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Speaker 1: today we're gonna go way back to Kevin's comedy roots

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Speaker 1: in the great city of San Francisco. Are you aware

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Speaker 1: that Kevin is one of the greatest improvisers and stand

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Speaker 1: up comedians of all time? He started stand up at

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Speaker 1: the age of ten, if you could believe that, and

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Speaker 1: he kept working on his craft until he started his

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Speaker 1: professional comedy career just right out of high school. And

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Speaker 1: boy was it a career. Back in the seventies before

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Speaker 1: many of you were alive, including myself obviously, Kevin worked

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Speaker 1: alongside Robin Williams Dana Carvey, together becoming the kings of

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Speaker 1: the Bay Area comedy scene. This led him to Hollywood

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Speaker 1: and to talk about a career roles in Willow Casino,

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Speaker 1: A few good men, grumpy old men, many many more.

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Speaker 1: Today we're gonna get into Kevin's full story, from his

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Speaker 1: best jokes as a child comedian to what the marvelous

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Speaker 1: Mrs Mazel means to him as a stand up icon himself.

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Speaker 1: This is a great episode for all you comedy nerds

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Speaker 1: out there, myself included. So please, with my greatest of

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Speaker 1: all pleasures, welcome Kevin Pollock. Bubble and Squeak. I love it,

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Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every month left

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Speaker 1: over from the night before. What's up, Kevin? How are you? I?

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Speaker 1: You know, it's it's funny in going back and re

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Speaker 1: studying your amazing career. Uh. The thing that that popped

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Speaker 1: out first, of course, was your love for poker, and

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yes, we have met at a

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Speaker 1: couple poker tournaments back in the olden days, and I

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Speaker 1: and I specifically remember this is gonna come up a

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Speaker 1: few times. I just moved, okay, And so I found

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Speaker 1: a gigantic crystal trophy at a poker tournament that you

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Speaker 1: were at. So really, I'm leading off this conversation by

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Speaker 1: saying I kicked your ass once. Did we ever play

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Speaker 1: a hand together? No, I don't think I let somebody

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Speaker 1: else take you out, So yeah, yeah, someone else did

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Speaker 1: take me out. Um yeah, the charity, um, I assume

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Speaker 1: that's what it was. Poker tournament, Those are um um,

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Speaker 1: always fun to to give to a worthy cause and

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Speaker 1: their horrible old poker. Yes, if you're a you know,

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Speaker 1: serious poker player, just because there's wonderful, wonderful, generous people

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Speaker 1: donating to the cause who invariably will say I don't

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Speaker 1: really know how to play poker. I just wanted. And

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Speaker 1: then that person is the most dangerous person, I would say,

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Speaker 1: because they'll play every hand and you have no way

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Speaker 1: to gauge whether it's a good or bad. How many

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Speaker 1: times have you played the World Series of Poker seven

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Speaker 1: and I've cashed twice? Which is not quite Hall of

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Speaker 1: Fame batting average inductee, but close. Yeah. So that event

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Speaker 1: that was for a seed at the World Series of Poker,

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Speaker 1: which is what you won along with your Crystal trophy,

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Speaker 1: which is what I want along with my Crystal trophy.

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Speaker 1: And then of course I was I was shooting a

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Speaker 1: television show and had to take a cash buy out,

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Speaker 1: so I didn't I didn't actually make it, but my

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Speaker 1: bucket list for sure. Um, well, I want to go

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Speaker 1: back to your early days. First, you grew up in

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Speaker 1: San Francisco, born into San Francisco, raised in an hour

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Speaker 1: south in San Jose, and you started doing stand up

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Speaker 1: at age ten? Well, sure, um, first for family and

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Speaker 1: then eventually at school. Yeah, it was just lip syncing

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Speaker 1: a comedy album at ten, that was the act. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it was lips What what comedy album? Well, if only

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Speaker 1: he had put in the liner notes of his comedy

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Speaker 1: album that he would go on to be the most

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Speaker 1: prolific serial rapist from show business in history, maybe I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't have chosen that one. But that wasn't in the

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Speaker 1: liner notes. So it was Bill Cosby's first album. Interesting, Yeah, yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: fair enough. What was it that attracted you to it.

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Speaker 1: Performing in that way. Oh um, my mom brought home

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Speaker 1: his first album, and I watched my parents laugh uncontrollably

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Speaker 1: listening to the stories coming from the stereo Hi Fi,

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Speaker 1: which back then was a seven ft wide piece of furniture.

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Speaker 1: Compared that to the tiny devices we used now you

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Speaker 1: hold in your pocket, right, yeah, or just shoven your ears.

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Speaker 1: But watching my folks laughing uncontrollably like that, it was

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Speaker 1: the first and it was as off putting or awkward

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Speaker 1: as watching them openly weep. I mean, it really was strange.

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Speaker 1: Not that they never laughed, it just they never laughed

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Speaker 1: at someone talking from the stereo. So when no one

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Speaker 1: was around, I just listened to it a lot more

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Speaker 1: because I wanted to be that person telling the stories

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Speaker 1: making my parents laugh, right, I think that was the obsession.

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Speaker 1: And then I would race home after school and listen

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Speaker 1: to it, and eventually standing in front of the stereo

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Speaker 1: pretending I was the one telling the stories. Not knowing

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Speaker 1: that a lip sinking was a thing, so I wasn't

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Speaker 1: trying the lip sing, uh, Nor did I think I

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Speaker 1: was inventing lip sinking. I didn't even know the term.

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Speaker 1: I was just playing. I was. There was no interactive games.

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Speaker 1: We had just invented fire. This was a while ago, Brian.

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Speaker 1: So there I was, and my mother came home and

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Speaker 1: quote unquote caught me. And I used that term because

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Speaker 1: it was as if I was as embarrassed as if

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Speaker 1: she caught me doing something else. So then she laughed,

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Speaker 1: pointed at me and said, you're doing that for the

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Speaker 1: zookers that pass over. So my first live show was

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Speaker 1: on the white painted out fireplace shelving in front of

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Speaker 1: the fireplace, stood on that and performed for twenty relatives

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Speaker 1: that pass over and crushed Brian. I just killed well,

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Speaker 1: and I went on to do it at school and

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Speaker 1: other functions. But you know, it was a ten year old,

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Speaker 1: precocious Jewish kid lip syncing this hilarious comedy bed. I

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Speaker 1: didn't write the material. I didn't even perform it, really

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Speaker 1: I but you know I cleared my throat at the

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Speaker 1: same moment he does on the album, and those little

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Speaker 1: things from a ten year old forget it. So I

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Speaker 1: just killed. I killed constantly, and I did that act,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, for another five years at every function

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Speaker 1: at school, be at a folk festival of father daughter dinner, dance,

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Speaker 1: you know, whatever the events were, There's Kevin and the

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Speaker 1: no and the arc routine. I mean, I was mesmerized

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Speaker 1: by all the comedy albums of the day, and when

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Speaker 1: friends would gather, I would be quoting the album. And

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Speaker 1: then I realized, I guess I need my own material.

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Speaker 1: And uh, but I was. I was a natural and

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Speaker 1: doing impersonations. And then that became the cornerstone of what

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Speaker 1: I would call an act. At seven sevause, when I

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Speaker 1: performed professionally in a nightclub, did you did you inherently

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Speaker 1: feel the comedy in the rhythms or in the you

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Speaker 1: felt it? Yeah? And you? And then no, any arcr

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Speaker 1: tune in particular is just Noah talking to God because

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Speaker 1: Noah's confused about how to build the art and it's

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Speaker 1: as g rated as comedy gets. And then once I

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Speaker 1: I think, dialed into the story, I organically or involuntarily

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Speaker 1: picked up the comedy rhythms. So I learned timing timing

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Speaker 1: from this Jedi master through osmosis, and then I think

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Speaker 1: the impersonations was just a natural thing, but also it

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Speaker 1: taught me how to act. I learned acting nuances from

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Speaker 1: the nuances that I went on to create while doing

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Speaker 1: an impersonation. We talked to me a little bit about that,

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Speaker 1: meaning different people's timing depending on who you were imitating.

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Speaker 1: You started to assimilate all of that. Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: I I learned from from watching actors and then impersonating them.

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Speaker 1: So I would implement what I thought were gestures and

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Speaker 1: nuance and line readings because I was speaking. Finally, then

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Speaker 1: I learned to act the set of movies. I never

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Speaker 1: attended an acting class. I'm not proud of that. I

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Speaker 1: never studied at university. In fact, I graduated from San

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Speaker 1: Jose State University in nine months. My friends called a

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Speaker 1: dropping out, but I was done. I was done, and

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Speaker 1: you finished. There was no ceremony. I didn't need a

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Speaker 1: little hat with a tassel. I was done. Also, I

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Speaker 1: had started performing fairly regularly in in as a comedian.

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Speaker 1: There were no comedy clubs in San Jose at that point,

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Speaker 1: and I was only eighteen. At that point, I didn't

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Speaker 1: have quite the courage to drive up to San Francisco,

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Speaker 1: the hotbed of stand up comedy, and so I would

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Speaker 1: open up for music acts in bars. And it might

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Speaker 1: have been the toughest forging steel through fire. I could

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Speaker 1: have chosen because these are little ship kicker bars and

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Speaker 1: and the band. The bands are all doing cover music,

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Speaker 1: and it's feel good music and hooting and holler and

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Speaker 1: and when the band takes a break, that's the first

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Speaker 1: opportunity that guys have to to buy drinks for women.

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Speaker 1: Was the experience in the mid seventies, anyways. And the

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Speaker 1: last thing they want is to look at the stage

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Speaker 1: and see some little puts. Think who thinks he can

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Speaker 1: do Peter Folks, Lieutenant Columbo, you know. And it was

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Speaker 1: I Sometimes I would get the bartenders looking and laughing,

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Speaker 1: but none of the audience. You know, it's a long

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Speaker 1: time before I don't know. I don't even remember the

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Speaker 1: moment when someone decided to listen and it turned everything around.

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Speaker 1: But I do remember one arc of success within this

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Speaker 1: myopic world. I was performing standard. This was in a

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Speaker 1: restaurant where in the corner they would move a foretop

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Speaker 1: and put up a microphone and the band would play,

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Speaker 1: and then I would go on during their break and

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Speaker 1: how people are eating. So that's a little better than

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Speaker 1: guys trying to pick up. So I had their attention

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Speaker 1: at least, and I did so well at that restaurant

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Speaker 1: the Addict, Addict Attic above your House, not the Addict.

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Speaker 1: Uh I did so well the Addict that eventually the

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Speaker 1: band was playing during my break. Oh I know, right,

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Speaker 1: So that was the arc of the and I could have,

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Speaker 1: by the way, I could have just tapped out and said,

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Speaker 1: this is it, this is what I'm a star here

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Speaker 1: in Las Cattis, California. And then I eventually went up

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Speaker 1: to San Jose, San Francisco, rather from Santose when I

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Speaker 1: was twenty for the San Francisco International Stand Up Comedy Competition.

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Speaker 1: When you were you did that. Yeah, I'm still living

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Speaker 1: down at San Jose till I think I was twenty

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Speaker 1: almost twenty two. Uh So I would go up to

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Speaker 1: San Franco, do some shows and come back down. And

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Speaker 1: I was a waiter at the Attic Antique. That's what

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Speaker 1: it was called, the Antique, not the Attic and the

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Speaker 1: Antique Antique in Las Gnas. If anyone wants to do

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Speaker 1: a deep dive, it was the Antique. And so anyways

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Speaker 1: I would go, Yeah, I was. I was a waiter

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Speaker 1: and by the way, I crushed as a waiter, and

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Speaker 1: the reason was I had these impersonations. So most wait

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Speaker 1: staff will panic if they put down the plates, and

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Speaker 1: one of the patrons says, I asked for rice, this

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Speaker 1: is potato, you know, because that just means the cook

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Speaker 1: screwed up, and they you know, you wrote it down correctly, right,

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Speaker 1: And so I would just go right into Columba. Jeez,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry I did I said right, I said it

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Speaker 1: plainly day right. There was face there he put potato

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Speaker 1: on your plate. I'm so sorry. And my tip went

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Speaker 1: through the roof because now I'm doing a table show, right,

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Speaker 1: and no one could figure out why I was getting

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Speaker 1: great tips. Well, what were what were your what were

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Speaker 1: your goal go to impressions, your best impressions, the impressions

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Speaker 1: you liked the most that would kill well, Peter Falk

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Speaker 1: in the seventies because he was the reigning champ on television,

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Speaker 1: you know, Colombo was it was all the rage, and

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Speaker 1: then followed by I guess, you know, William Shatner and

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Speaker 1: whoever the president was at the time, I guess Nixon.

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Speaker 1: But also when I eventually started up in San Francisco,

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Speaker 1: was around the same time as Dana Carvey, and so

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Speaker 1: we you know, we both did voices and impressions, and

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Speaker 1: you know, you you learned that you're not the only

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Speaker 1: one who learned how to do say, in this example,

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Speaker 1: Johnny Carson by watching uh Rich Little you Know someone

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Speaker 1: and Danna became sort of the king of this. Someone

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Speaker 1: has to create the key that opens the lock. And

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Speaker 1: then it's there's a template that anyone who has a

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Speaker 1: knack for this could follow. So we we would learn

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Speaker 1: Nixon from David Fry's comedy album about Nixon. We would

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Speaker 1: learn Douglas and Burt Lancaster from John Biner. So there

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Speaker 1: were other impersonation experts on television. There was a show

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Speaker 1: featuring all impression. It is called the Copycat. Anybody that

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Speaker 1: you feel like you've found the key two, well, listen, Brian,

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Speaker 1: you've claimed to have done research. But if you were

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Speaker 1: to google these words Christopher Walking impersonation, thirty thousand search

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Speaker 1: answers will come up. I drumroll please, and number one

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Speaker 1: on that Google search. There you go. Now that in

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Speaker 1: six dollars will buy me a coffee at Starbucks. So

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Speaker 1: it's a it's an absolute worthless brag. It's just a fact. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't the first. I mean I saw Jay Moore

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Speaker 1: dude on SNL and then he gave somebody else credit

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Speaker 1: when I asked him, and you know, countless people have

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Speaker 1: done it since, and I'm sure that there I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna say better because that's absurd as good, I'm sure,

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Speaker 1: But to me, it was always about finding the nuance.

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Speaker 1: It was never, um, what if Christopher walkin, we're a

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Speaker 1: bus boy? It might go something like this. That felt

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Speaker 1: real hacky to me right from the beginning, you know,

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Speaker 1: so eventually, yeah, I would say Christopher walking. I might

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Speaker 1: also be on the search on doing Jason Statham, Albert Brooks.

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Speaker 1: I had Dave Crea on my live streaming internet video podcasts.

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Speaker 1: I may have been one of the pioneers in the

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Speaker 1: podcast world, you know. And Brian it's not a competition,

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Speaker 1: um but I had Dave Creer on once and he

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Speaker 1: did Bob Einstein, who was Albert Brooks's brother, So we

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Speaker 1: did the two brothers talking to each other, and it's

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Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty great. You're performing in San Francisco at

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Speaker 1: this point, you and Dana Carvey, Robin Williams, to name

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Speaker 1: just three. Were there any Were there any women in

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Speaker 1: San Francisco that you were Paula pound Stone shortly there

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Speaker 1: or after, not at that exact moment maybe, but shortly

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Speaker 1: that Ellen DeGeneres did some time in San Francisco early on. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there are a lot. There were a lot of women

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Speaker 1: actually carry snow good name a lot. Yeah. How often

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Speaker 1: did you work with Robin Well? Um? By the time

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Speaker 1: I moved to San Francisco, I guess would be about

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, he had already I think done morean Mindy,

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Speaker 1: but he was still spending all this time or the

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Speaker 1: majority of it in San Francisco. So at that point

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Speaker 1: he was already famous, and he was just unbelievably supportive

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Speaker 1: to all the local acts who were doing well at

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Speaker 1: the time. I remember years later when I did the

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Speaker 1: movie Willow Willow Yes, Rick Overchon and I were the

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Speaker 1: two Brownies, and we shot our scenes on a giant, big,

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Speaker 1: largest blue screen facility in the world, and it was

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Speaker 1: up by Lucas Ranch. You know. After we got and

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Speaker 1: work and we would contact Robin and say, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be in the city doing a show, and the three

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Speaker 1: of us would do improv together on stage, and which

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Speaker 1: really most times resulted in me being upstage against the

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Speaker 1: wall while the two of them were downstage crushing it,

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Speaker 1: and I was just watching You're crushing the comedy club

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Speaker 1: scene and doing incredibly well. Where was the decision to

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Speaker 1: start auditioning for movies? And you get quite a few

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Speaker 1: in the early eighties before willow Um. But was that

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Speaker 1: wanting to try something different, or that just opportunities that

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Speaker 1: presented itself, or was that a conscious decision to start

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Speaker 1: focusing more on acting and film. Well, I'd always wanted

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Speaker 1: to be an actor, even though I refused to take

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Speaker 1: acting classes. I just had that, you know, I guess

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Speaker 1: from doing the impersonations. I had convinced myself I could

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Speaker 1: do it because to me, while I was doing those impressions,

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Speaker 1: there weren't a lot of punch lines. I was getting

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Speaker 1: jokes from behavioral performance, and so I was quite convinced.

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Speaker 1: So in nineteen two, I had come in second place

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Speaker 1: in the San Francisco International Stand Up Comedy Competition, which

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Speaker 1: was a very big deal in San Francisco, not internationally.

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Speaker 1: It just meant you could come and compete from other countries,

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Speaker 1: which really was Canada. Um, And so coming in second

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Speaker 1: meant I wasn't going to compete again. That was it.

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Speaker 1: And then that's when I decided. Before the next competition,

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Speaker 1: I would move to Los Angeles. And growing up in

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Speaker 1: San Francisco, you know you're really trained to hate Los Angeles. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's in our DNA, not just the sports rivalries. It's

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Speaker 1: really a deep, deep, deep thing. And once I got

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Speaker 1: to l A, I realized they don't even know we're there.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's a one way thing. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: they keep sending out ships, they don't come back. They

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Speaker 1: had no idea we were there. So I had met

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Speaker 1: a few acts like Leno and Seinfeld and Shandling who

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Speaker 1: had come through the punch line at San Francisco, and

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Speaker 1: I had opened up for them, and they had said,

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Speaker 1: when you got to l A, let me know and

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Speaker 1: I'll introduce you to Bud Freeman and get you on

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Speaker 1: at the improv. So when I got to l A

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Speaker 1: and eighty three, I was instantly getting stage time, which

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Speaker 1: was incredible, and I was then once I was there,

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Speaker 1: everyone said you gotta audition, you gotta start audition, and

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Speaker 1: you gotta start auditioning. And I didn't have an agent

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Speaker 1: or manager. You would just hear about auditions and you

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Speaker 1: could somehow sign up or whatever. And I went on

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Speaker 1: a lot of auditions before Willow. Yeah, I didn't get

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Speaker 1: the part. So many times it felt like I would

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Speaker 1: enter the room to audition and they would say, how

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Speaker 1: about anyone but you is going to get this? Well,

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Speaker 1: it's you just said so many things that I well love.

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Speaker 1: We're in a lot of ways, I think the opposite, right,

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Speaker 1: Like for me, I was comedy wasn't even something that

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Speaker 1: I did or focused on early on in my in

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Speaker 1: my career. I mean, I was doing straight theater and

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Speaker 1: most of it wasn't funny at all, right, But for me,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't hold on. The material was not intended to

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Speaker 1: you weren't even allowed to show if you could be funny, right,

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Speaker 1: But it was about creating characters and behavior, and see,

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Speaker 1: to me, I think the best comedy is about that. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: great writers help so if they could write some funny

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Speaker 1: situations or some great joke, that's helpful, But behavior is

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Speaker 1: what really makes people laugh. I think. Yeah, of course

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Speaker 1: I agree, And that's what I had studied in performances

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Speaker 1: on TV and film, which was my school of acting.

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Speaker 1: You know, I would lock onto somebody that I really

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Speaker 1: liked and just study all the characteristics and timing. And

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Speaker 1: for sure, I agree that behavior was was everything Willow.

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Speaker 1: You've called it your your breakthrough role happens in Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, it didn't feel like acting.

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Speaker 1: It felt like clowning, which was fun, and we were

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Speaker 1: allowed to improvise and be silly, and it was incredibly fun.

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Speaker 1: It was incredibly exciting to be in a high profile

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Speaker 1: movie produced by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard.

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Speaker 1: When my dad drove up from San Jose to visit

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Speaker 1: me on the set, when I introduced him with George Lucas,

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Speaker 1: he shook George Lucas his hand and said, I really

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Speaker 1: loved et. And George, who's not necessarily known for his

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Speaker 1: sense of humor or being or being funny, he certainly

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Speaker 1: has a sense of you, but he's rarely the funny one. Um.

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Speaker 1: When my dad said that, George smiled and said me too, um,

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Speaker 1: which a lot him off the hook pretty quick. So

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Speaker 1: it was a big deal in that regard. I don't

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Speaker 1: know that it led a single job, yeah, because again,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't really an acting performance, and we weren't the

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Speaker 1: stars of the movie, and it didn't propel us to

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Speaker 1: anything other than more auditions. But I think everything I

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Speaker 1: did between Willow and a Few Good Men in ninety

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Speaker 1: while we shot at ninety one and came out ninety two.

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Speaker 1: So those four years I did another six movies or so.

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Speaker 1: Those are all auditions, and none of it was because

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Speaker 1: anyone said I saw you and Willow and loved you.

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Speaker 1: It was a great experience. And to this day, you know,

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Speaker 1: people love that film so much that a new TV

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Speaker 1: series has come to Disney plus the end of November. Yes, well,

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Speaker 1: you do do a number of movies during that time.

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Speaker 1: After Willow, you get a Few good Men, then grumpy

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Speaker 1: old Men. It's all about men. I guess with you,

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Speaker 1: and then one of my favorite you know you have

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Speaker 1: like what's your favorite movie? I have another category called

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Speaker 1: my favorite underappreciated movies. So right, like True Romance for

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Speaker 1: me is on that list. I love True Romance. I

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Speaker 1: think it's genius. Yeah, Tarantino script The Usual Suspects is

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Speaker 1: also on that list. What it does in that moment

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Speaker 1: is so transcendent and amazing and beautiful, and the movie

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Speaker 1: is filled with beautiful performances. Talk to me a little bit.

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Speaker 1: I hear that you met with singer, so not an

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Speaker 1: audition movie. You met with singer and then you heard

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Speaker 1: two other people were coming in, and you went in

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Speaker 1: an audition. Is that yeah? After a fun Man came

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Speaker 1: out of ninety two, I did across the goal line

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Speaker 1: for every actor, going from auditioning to getting offers. And

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Speaker 1: that was It's why I did forty movies in the nineties,

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Speaker 1: because I came up in stand up comedy and when

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Speaker 1: someone offers you a gig, the answer is yes. So

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Speaker 1: in the nineties I was a girl who couldn't say no,

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Speaker 1: and and six of those forty movies are really good.

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Speaker 1: But so my vetting average is not that great. But

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Speaker 1: uh so I was just getting offers and then you know,

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Speaker 1: I would talk to my agent. He would He kept saying,

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Speaker 1: You've got to read this script called The Usual Suspects.

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Speaker 1: And I said, well, okay, who's directing it? He said,

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Speaker 1: a young guy had never heard of him. Was it

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Speaker 1: all right? Who's in it? Um? Nobody right now other

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Speaker 1: than this other character actor named Kevin Spacey, who no

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Speaker 1: one was green lighting Kevin Spacey movies. So that was

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Speaker 1: a very little interest to me. Because when you have

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Speaker 1: a small or sizeable stack of scripts that you and

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Speaker 1: your agent are deciding which to do, all I care about.

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Speaker 1: Are the components who wrote it, who's directing it, who's

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Speaker 1: in it. You're as good as the company you keep.

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Speaker 1: You want to raise the level of your tennis game,

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Speaker 1: play with a better player all that. So when he

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Speaker 1: says you've never heard of the director or the writer,

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Speaker 1: they're both kids in their early twenties or mid twenties,

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Speaker 1: and it starts Kevin Spacey. My reaction was, who, what

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Speaker 1: are the other scripts that I should be reading? I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's only funny in retrospect. At the time, it was

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Speaker 1: just you know what, you did, what you said, But

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Speaker 1: he just kept hammering me, just read it, just read it.

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Speaker 1: So eventually I said, okay, I'll read it, and only

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Speaker 1: to shut you up. Well am I reading this? And

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Speaker 1: at page five I called him and said I'm in

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Speaker 1: and he said, well, the director wants you. Let me

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Speaker 1: call him and let him know that you're interested to

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Speaker 1: see if there's any parts left, because I don't know

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Speaker 1: where he's in the process. So he talked to the director,

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Speaker 1: Brian Singer, and he called me back and he said,

425
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,920
Speaker 1: there two parts left. Brian would love you to do

426
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 1: whichever one you want. And at the time it was

427
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 1: Todd Hackney the character ended up playing, and it was Fenster,

428
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: the character of the Pinzio del Toro ended up playing.

429
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,400
Speaker 1: And I said to my agent, well, I don't want

430
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: to play Fenster because that character is only the spoiler alert.

431
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 1: That character is only in the script to die so

432
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: to tell the other suspects they can't run from Kaiser.

433
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:27,919
Speaker 1: So he has no moments, he has no scenes, he

434
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: has no he's McManus's sidekick. And then Benetzel steals every

435
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 1: scene he's in because he's brilliant. But so I said,

436
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: I'll do Todd Hackney. And then the agent calls Brian

437
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,719
Speaker 1: calls me back and says what you quoted, which is

438
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,640
Speaker 1: Brian said, there, he has to see these two actors.

439
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 1: He would love you to do Todd Hackney, but he's

440
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: already agreed to see these two actors today and to

441
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 1: not piss off agents and things. He has to see them.

442
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: But the part is yours. That was the conversation. And

443
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,959
Speaker 1: I had finished reading the script by then, and I said, well,

444
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let one of these two actors come

445
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: in and blow his mind and steal the part. Tell

446
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,959
Speaker 1: him I'm coming in today to audition. And my agent

447
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, no, no, no, no no, we

448
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 1: are not breaking the precedent of you getting offers. Only

449
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: you're not auditioning. And we argued around and round and round,

450
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 1: because there's a whole thing about that once you get

451
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:30,840
Speaker 1: to that lofty purch you don't undermine it by auditioning.

452
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 1: So I won the argument. I went in, I auditioned,

453
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: I got the part end of story. What about the

454
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: script did you respond to so so quickly? It's still

455
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 1: the best script I've ever read. Years later. Yeah, So

456
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: as great as the movie is, the script is even better,

457
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: I would say, because you're envisioning in your own mind

458
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: what is happening, and it's great at a job as

459
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 1: Brian did in the movie, that script is just one

460
00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: of the greatest page turners. I mean, it won the

461
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 1: Academy Awards, so I'm not an idiot for saying this.

462
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: Now here's where things get tricky, Brian. The movie is

463
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 1: filled with lines that were not in the screenplay that

464
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:18,479
Speaker 1: I improvised that helped win Chris mcquarie the Oscar and

465
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: I tell that prick to put the trophy on my

466
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: mantle one week out of the year. One he gets

467
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,959
Speaker 1: it fifty one weeks. I get it. One. Do you

468
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: think that's too much to ask? I think that's I

469
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 1: think that's very fair. I think that's very fair. Now

470
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 1: do you want to guess? Or I could just tell

471
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: you something. So there's so many So the police line up. Well,

472
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 1: the very first time you see me in the movie,

473
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 1: there's a montage of each one of us being collected

474
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: by the police. And mine is my garage door opens,

475
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 1: a half dozen cops flood in. I'm working on the

476
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 1: side mirror with the screwdriver. I look at them through

477
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: the side mirror. That's what was in the script, but

478
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 1: in the movie I look at them in the side

479
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: mirror and say, are you sure you're broad enough? Guys? Hilarious,

480
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: hilarious and sets the tone, thank you very much for

481
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: my character, and that the movie is going to have

482
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: some humor. That's right, that's right, and it's in the movie.

483
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: Chris macquarie last week a year Oscar winner at you,

484
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: prick um. Yeah, and there's a bunch of others. I mean, wow,

485
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,959
Speaker 1: so you were you were as great as the script was,

486
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: as page turnery as it was. Brian the director still

487
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: had the wherewithal if we knew what we were doing.

488
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: We because we could improvise. What makes a truly great improviser,

489
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: which I know you are, is the ability to improvise,

490
00:30:54,720 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 1: not for a joke alone, but that stays on story

491
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:05,080
Speaker 1: and on point. And that's where people get in trouble. Right, yes,

492
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:09,360
Speaker 1: are you allowed to swear on this? So Chris wrote

493
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: the great in the Inn the interrogation. The interrogator, who

494
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: is a young Chris mcquarie you never see his face, thankfully,

495
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: says they're trying to figure out who robbed the truck.

496
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 1: And he says, um, you know I can put you

497
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 1: in Queens on the night of the robbery. And he

498
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: wrote the line, oh really, I live in Queens, And

499
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: then I added, you put that together yourself, Einstein, what

500
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 1: you got a team of monkeys working around the clock

501
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: on this. So again he just wrote, I live in Queens.

502
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 1: That's it also funny, but not as funny. So I

503
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: just kept talking in that moment. So it was that

504
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 1: sort of thing where I and that's been true on

505
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 1: everything until Mrs Masiel, where you sort of have to

506
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: say every word exactly as in, which I'm fine with

507
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: and a few good men was also from a place,

508
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: so Rob Ryner was very very strict about not changing

509
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 1: the dialogue. But yeah, I mean I I don't look

510
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 1: to create problems for people by improvising, but if given

511
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 1: the opportunity, you'll take it. Yeah. And also now, I've

512
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: been a member of the Writer's Guild forever and I

513
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 1: kind of know what I'm doing in terms of making

514
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 1: some suggestion, right, But I'm very as a writer all

515
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,080
Speaker 1: these years. I'm also very very respectful to the writer.

516
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: Now that I've directed a few times, I'm also very

517
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 1: respectful to what the director's needs are. And you know,

518
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 1: I use sort of sense. Is this a playground where

519
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: I'm tethered or not? Right? Were you looking at that time?

520
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 1: I mean being at this point, it's fair to say

521
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: a legendary comedian, at least in the San Francisco and

522
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: stand up circuit. Are you looking for something different? Is

523
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: that a part of the conversation you're having with your

524
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 1: agent as you're as you're mulling over offers. No, I

525
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,360
Speaker 1: had a secret notion of doing dramatic work, but because

526
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: I had no training, I was very intimidated by it.

527
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: I mean, I've done a few dramas before that. Ricochet

528
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: with Denzel Washington. But that was an audition. You understand,

529
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you know, when you're first starting out

530
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: your audition for everything that you're remotely right for, you

531
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,880
Speaker 1: don't have the conversation, well, I'm looking to do comedy.

532
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: So after a few good Men, however, people discover you

533
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: is how they know you. I'd been doing stand up

534
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: for fifteen years. My second HBO special came out at

535
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:36,719
Speaker 1: the same time as a Few good Men, and it

536
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: didn't matter. What mattered was that a few good Men

537
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: made half a billion dollars in It was a juggernaut,

538
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 1: and thankfully I was getting all these offers. Some of

539
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 1: them were comedies like Grumpio Men, and some of them

540
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: were were, you know, dramatic. I didn't feel worthy of

541
00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 1: seeking a dramatic career. My my real fantasy was born

542
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: when I saw Michael Keaton in Night Shift. A lot

543
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: of stand up comedians, because he had started as a

544
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:11,640
Speaker 1: stand up also, a lot of stand up comedians saw

545
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,360
Speaker 1: that performance because it was so all over the place

546
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 1: and so great. In fact, I remember when I talked

547
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 1: to Ron Howard, who Drew also directed Night Shift. He

548
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 1: said Michael's performance was so all over the place. The

549
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 1: first couple of weeks, the studio was calling him every

550
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: day after seeing dailies and wanting to fire him because

551
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 1: he was all over the place, and I didn't understand

552
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,120
Speaker 1: what he was doing. But to me, it was comedic gold.

553
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: That's what the plan was. Do that. You know, Tom

554
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:41,919
Speaker 1: Hanks and Splash there were least great comic lead designs,

555
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:46,160
Speaker 1: but then after a few good men, it just shot

556
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,360
Speaker 1: on fifteen years of stand up and I was to

557
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 1: this day having to remind people that I started in

558
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,400
Speaker 1: the stand up comedy. And then by the mid nineties,

559
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,439
Speaker 1: Casino and The Usual Suspects came out in the same year,

560
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,080
Speaker 1: and I was just I was just done being funny,

561
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: to the point where years later when Bruce Willis and

562
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: Matthew Parry we're going to start in this movie called

563
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 1: The Whole nine Yards, and they they had talked over

564
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: me being in it as this character Yanni goglact, this

565
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: hit man, and they mentioned it to the director, Jonathan Lynn,

566
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,760
Speaker 1: British guy done my cousin Vinny and some great comedies,

567
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 1: and and Jonathan Lynn's response was, yeah, well, I mean

568
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 1: he's quite good, isn't He's I've seen a few good

569
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 1: men have seen usual suspects. He's very talented, very diverse.

570
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 1: But you know, Fellas, this is a comedy. That's a quote.

571
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,440
Speaker 1: That's a quote. And as the story goes, Bruce grabbed

572
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:48,400
Speaker 1: him firmly and said sternly, he's a comedian, that's what

573
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 1: he does. Um. So that was an offer, maybe against

574
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: Jonathan's wishes, but um. But then it ended up being

575
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 1: this in incredibly great comedic opportunity within this kind of

576
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: dramatic part that I was playing in that movie, because

577
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 1: the director said, yes, under dress. But then when I

578
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,920
Speaker 1: was talking to him about the character, I had said, well,

579
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:15,880
Speaker 1: in the script, he's it's it makes reference to he

580
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,320
Speaker 1: was born in Hungary, but he was raised in Chicago,

581
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:21,919
Speaker 1: where the story takes place. And so do you want

582
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: a Hungarian accent or do you want a Chicago accent?

583
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: And he said, much to my consternation, do you think

584
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 1: you could do both? And so I did, and uh,

585
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: it was it was cheating because for Hungarian I just

586
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 1: switched the vs and the ws. That was pretty lazy

587
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 1: on the accent, and then that hard Chicago thing. You know,

588
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: it's pretty hard to hit. So Yanni would say, my

589
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:54,240
Speaker 1: father was a great main a man of Wigan. Um, yeah,

590
00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:57,799
Speaker 1: so so. But anyways, by the mid nineties, I was

591
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 1: stamped dramatic actor and I don't know I was next

592
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 1: Harvey Kitel. I wasn't the next Michael Keaton their tomics.

593
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 1: Does that bother you? Well, it was frustrating at the time,

594
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: but I was still getting offer, so it wasn't that frustrating.

595
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:16,399
Speaker 1: You know, don't cry for me, Argentina. Right again, there

596
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 1: was no grand design. When people think any of us

597
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 1: decided this, these extraordinary paths that we've taken, you know,

598
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 1: they need to rethink the question. Yes, I think I

599
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 1: asked because I was I was hopeful. I think in

600
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: a way that that you had devised the plan, because

601
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: I think for me, when I left the office that

602
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: was I had the plan. It just didn't It didn't

603
00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:42,399
Speaker 1: quite happen that way, right, I mean, it was like

604
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:47,280
Speaker 1: I'm going to return back and do you know dramatic roles,

605
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: bad guy, like this is what I'm gonna do. And

606
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: it was like no, no, no, you're not. No, that's

607
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:57,839
Speaker 1: not our plan for you, my friend. And again there's

608
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 1: no it's not really as a way of a plaining

609
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 1: at all, but it's more, just like wondering whether that

610
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,359
Speaker 1: was something that you had devised or thought about, but

611
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,280
Speaker 1: it sounds like it just happened. Well, here's a great

612
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:13,360
Speaker 1: irony and a few good men. I was so intimidated

613
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: by all the great actors, and I remember going to J. T. Walsh,

614
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:23,279
Speaker 1: great character actor who plays Markinson and a few good men.

615
00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: Remember going to his trailer and confessing, I didn't have

616
00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:29,200
Speaker 1: any formal training. I don't know what I'm doing, and

617
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 1: this is the movie I'm found out on what do

618
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,239
Speaker 1: I do? And he basically said, I've been watching you

619
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 1: and you're doing a technique of acting that actually people study.

620
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 1: It's called less is more. And I said, yeah, yeah,

621
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,760
Speaker 1: I'm underplaying everything because I don't want to get caught acting.

622
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: He said, well, that's good. You should just do that,

623
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 1: but you should know also there's a second half to

624
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 1: that technique, less is more. Nothing is best. If you

625
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,800
Speaker 1: can do nothing in a scene, nothing and pull focus,

626
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:02,640
Speaker 1: you win. And so then I devoted my entire career

627
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: to basically doing nothing. I mean, your career. We could

628
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: we could talk all day, but you know, I do

629
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 1: want to touch on Mrs Mazel, returning back clearly to

630
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:37,240
Speaker 1: your comedy roots. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the marvelous Mrs Mazel.

631
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:40,879
Speaker 1: You know, I watched the pilot. Amy Sherman Palladino, Damn

632
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 1: Paldino realized they hadn't cast any in laws in the

633
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 1: pilot and they needed in laws, so they offered me

634
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 1: this thing, and I do the thing and my better

635
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: half together fifteen years now, but she watched my first

636
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:56,279
Speaker 1: performance in it in the first season and said, this

637
00:39:56,360 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 1: was the part you were born to play, allowed, obnoxious jew,

638
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:02,919
Speaker 1: That's the part I was born to play. And how

639
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,720
Speaker 1: the funk? I've been throwing everything away from my entire career,

640
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:11,200
Speaker 1: under playing everything, and I'm finally a blow hard and

641
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 1: everyone thinks this, Wow, this is a return to what

642
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:16,640
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be doing. This is who you are.

643
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: Fuck me, Um, this was an offer. And did you

644
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,240
Speaker 1: read the pilot? Did you or you watch the pilot?

645
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: I watched the pilot. Yeah. The Amazon did a thing then.

646
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:31,759
Speaker 1: I don't know about now, but they did a thing then.

647
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: They just put their pilots up on the streaming platform

648
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 1: and invite people to watch them, and based on the reaction,

649
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 1: they would make their decisions, which is kind of amazing, right,

650
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 1: And you responded to it, and so I responded, Yeah,

651
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, they picked up the pilot to

652
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:53,359
Speaker 1: two seasons. It's a crazy ass great pilot. Yes, and

653
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,120
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's pretty pretty no brainer. Plus they had

654
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: the pedigree of Gilmo Girls and other things, and uh, yeah,

655
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 1: it was a quick and easy yes. Yeah. Is it

656
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 1: fun for you to be able to do more than nothing? Well, unfortunately,

657
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 1: it's been incredible fun. Yeah, it's been extraordinary fun. It's

658
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:16,399
Speaker 1: been the greatest gig ever. I mean, you know, when

659
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: you're in the pocket of a great television show that's

660
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:23,319
Speaker 1: an ensembled cast and you get to do um multitude

661
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 1: of episodes and multitude of seasons and people love you.

662
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 1: I know you guys, like a lot of historically successful sitcoms,

663
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 1: I think, struggled in the first season maybe yeah, to

664
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: find an audience. But in our case, it was insane.

665
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: It was. And also we premiered I think a week

666
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: before they announced the Golden Globes and we were nominated

667
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: within a week and one. But yeah, it was weird

668
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 1: to break through the zeitgeist immediately. And even then, five

669
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:58,920
Speaker 1: years ago there were at least five hundred scripted shows.

670
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 1: Now I think there's seven undred, maybe eight hundred. It's bonkers,

671
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,479
Speaker 1: isn't a great Nellet you pass a billboard that says

672
00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 1: so and so the name of the show, and then

673
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:10,799
Speaker 1: it says season four premiere next week, and you think,

674
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:12,879
Speaker 1: I've never even heard of this fucking show. I never

675
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: heard of this show. But some of them are like,

676
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:19,640
Speaker 1: oh I do. I'll see it. I'll be like, oh,

677
00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:21,839
Speaker 1: that's or I'll see a trailer and I'll be like, oh,

678
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 1: that sounds really interesting, and then I'll see that it's

679
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,359
Speaker 1: season four and I'm like, oh, yeah, I can't I

680
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 1: can't invest I can't go backwards. Yeah, the point being,

681
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:32,680
Speaker 1: there's too much content. So the fact that we broke

682
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 1: through the noise in the conversation to be what the

683
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 1: show was right out of the cannon was historical and

684
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 1: one of the many reasons it's been the greatest gig ever.

685
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 1: And we're in the midst of shooting our fifth and

686
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:47,800
Speaker 1: final season right now. What what do you think the

687
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 1: primary message is from the show? Do you think there's

688
00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:55,720
Speaker 1: anything specific about the fact that the story takes place

689
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 1: as a young woman in a world of stand up

690
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 1: that has typically and very difficult for women. Yeah, I

691
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 1: mean Amy Sherman. Palladino's father was a stand up comedian,

692
00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 1: so she grew up in that world. You know, he

693
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,279
Speaker 1: was on Playboy after Dark and he was he had

694
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,279
Speaker 1: made it to the middle, I think, and um, she

695
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:19,720
Speaker 1: was fascinated by that world her whole life. And also,

696
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 1: you know, one of the greatest compliments I get about

697
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 1: the show, the greatest to me in the sense that

698
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 1: means the most to me, is from other stand up comedians,

699
00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:31,760
Speaker 1: because we sort of hate shows about comedy and movies

700
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 1: about stand up because they never get it right. Like

701
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:37,520
Speaker 1: I'm sure trauma surgeons looked at the are and said,

702
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: this is horseshit, or any other dated reference I could

703
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 1: think of. So, um, what I got calls from comedians saying,

704
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: and to this day, I'll get a text out of

705
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: the blue, like the last season when my character falls

706
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:52,920
Speaker 1: off his stool when his son tells him something. I

707
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 1: used my stunt double actually from Usual Suspects, Max Daniel

708
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:00,200
Speaker 1: has been my stunt double ever since. But I my

709
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,680
Speaker 1: character just takes this dead fall right off of stool

710
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 1: to the ground, And I got a text completely out

711
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 1: of the blue from Paul Left Tompkins that said, and

712
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 1: and it included a gift of me falling off the stool,

713
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 1: and he just wrote how and sure enough they use

714
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: CG I to put my face on Max. That was

715
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,879
Speaker 1: the answer. But anyways, um to hear from comedians who

716
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:26,759
Speaker 1: love this show. But I think it's because Rachel Brosenhan

717
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 1: is just a great dramatic actress, and these great writers

718
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 1: have written, you know, the type of stand up which

719
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 1: is stream of consciousness, which didn't exist then. It barely

720
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,279
Speaker 1: exists now where someone would literally go on stage and

721
00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:44,759
Speaker 1: just speak their mind. It's it's not really a thing.

722
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:47,520
Speaker 1: It's a thing for about five minutes. It's not a

723
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 1: thing for a whole act. I remember Paul if Tompkins

724
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:52,600
Speaker 1: actually for a while would go on stage and improvise

725
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: his entire act. And I think some people try it.

726
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 1: It's just not the way to do stand up. It's

727
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: too hard, especially you have to do an hour, which

728
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 1: is a typical headline at least an hour. So she's

729
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:09,040
Speaker 1: written these great stream of conscious monologues that Rachel has.

730
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: A dramatic actress is able to perform real authentically, not

731
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:19,759
Speaker 1: joking lee or jokey. She's not delivering punch lines very

732
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:24,480
Speaker 1: often Alex Borstein, a great comic who plays Susie has

733
00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:28,600
Speaker 1: all the one liners. Really, so the show is pretty

734
00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 1: behavioral also. But yes, and I think that was one

735
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: of the impactful things about the show is that this

736
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:38,160
Speaker 1: woman falls asked backwards onto a stage because she was

737
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:40,520
Speaker 1: drunk and her husband left her and she had been

738
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 1: to this comedy place earlier, and magic happens. Yeah. From

739
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,120
Speaker 1: the very beginning, I was just always struck by that

740
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:58,520
Speaker 1: you found an environment where mostly no one can shut

741
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:01,840
Speaker 1: you up. You literally have the mic and you have

742
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:07,200
Speaker 1: the voice, and that she uses that to process what's

743
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:10,280
Speaker 1: going on inside of her and at the same time

744
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 1: be funny with behavioral observations. I think that's for me,

745
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:17,759
Speaker 1: the real magic of it. Yeah, and I would add

746
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,320
Speaker 1: to great points, and I would add to your great points.

747
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:23,080
Speaker 1: It allows the writers to let the audience know what

748
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: this central character is going through and thinking without her

749
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 1: having to tell someone in her life. She's telling an

750
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:33,040
Speaker 1: audience that's right, it's exposition, that's right, that's right. We're

751
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 1: getting we're getting to know her, We're getting to know

752
00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:37,240
Speaker 1: how smart she is, We're getting to know how funny

753
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:41,560
Speaker 1: and clever she is without seeing her in quote unquote

754
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:45,839
Speaker 1: real life situation. You probably said it better. It's kind

755
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:47,759
Speaker 1: of genius in that regard, and I don't think I've

756
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:51,600
Speaker 1: thought those specific words before. It is, so thank you,

757
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,279
Speaker 1: You're welcome anything I can do to help um. Do

758
00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 1: you feel like it's time for it to be over? Well,

759
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:02,400
Speaker 1: for the very first day of shooting the series, I

760
00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:05,360
Speaker 1: don't know about the pilot, but the series, so officially

761
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:10,919
Speaker 1: episode two, Amy would casually say, if we're lucky enough

762
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:14,399
Speaker 1: and successful enough to get more than one seed, more

763
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 1: than two, because they picked it up to two seasons,

764
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:18,920
Speaker 1: just so you guys know, we see this as a

765
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 1: five season show. We know where it's going, we know

766
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 1: the arc, we know where we want it to go.

767
00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:28,800
Speaker 1: If we're lucky enough to be allowed to do five,

768
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 1: that'll be it. And she she just kept saying it,

769
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:33,799
Speaker 1: and every you know, we won Emmy's the first year,

770
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 1: and we would check back in with her as we're

771
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:39,520
Speaker 1: shooting season two, so just five seasons, and she'd say, yep,

772
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:41,400
Speaker 1: just five season, and every year we would check in

773
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:45,360
Speaker 1: with her, yep, just five seasons. So it wasn't a surprise.

774
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:48,799
Speaker 1: It's certainly a bitter sweet it's kind of great to

775
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:50,799
Speaker 1: get out when the show is still really good. It

776
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:53,359
Speaker 1: sucks to end the greatest job you ever had, for sure,

777
00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 1: But I guess because she had warned us year after

778
00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:01,160
Speaker 1: year after year. The lack of surprise takes away a

779
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:07,399
Speaker 1: lot of the negative experience. It's all just gratitude. It's

780
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: kind of been gratitude every year. But it's his gratitude tour.

781
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 1: Shooting the fifth season, we're in the last three of

782
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 1: nine episodes. This is the best job you ever had.

783
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it probably just because it's more, you know,

784
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:26,920
Speaker 1: there's a beat working with Casino on Casino, with Martin Scorsese.

785
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I've just been sick lucky in terms of

786
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:35,359
Speaker 1: the great directors, Rob Reiner, I mentioned Ron Howard, Barry Levinson. Yeah,

787
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: extraordinary directors, and those were seminal experiences for sure. But

788
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:46,320
Speaker 1: the fact that this is five seasons over six years,

789
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:49,840
Speaker 1: it's just gone on so long that it just wins. Also,

790
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:53,760
Speaker 1: it's the most challenging and rewarding work I've done, maybe

791
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:56,040
Speaker 1: since a few Good Men, in terms of don't funk

792
00:48:56,120 --> 00:48:59,799
Speaker 1: this up, you know, And also because Amy and Dan

793
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:03,439
Speaker 1: with like to shoot these eight page one ers, and

794
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,360
Speaker 1: you know, when you shoot a master of a page scene.

795
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:10,080
Speaker 1: You just can't wait to get the coverage. And when

796
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:14,880
Speaker 1: you know there's no coverage right and there's fourteen moving parts,

797
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 1: you do not want to be the reason we're going again.

798
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:21,040
Speaker 1: And it creates a work in practice and rituals and

799
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 1: environment for me that I just never had. That's awesome.

800
00:49:25,640 --> 00:49:28,760
Speaker 1: I find that so fun. I love I love those

801
00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 1: and they do now. It's become a signature. So there's

802
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,279
Speaker 1: many of them in every episode. It seems. In fact,

803
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 1: when we do a scene and it's not a wonder,

804
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 1: it feels kind of weird, like we're wait, we're doing coverage?

805
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:47,160
Speaker 1: What the hell? Um? You like being a director? I do?

806
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 1: I do because it it um calls on all the

807
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:53,880
Speaker 1: training from stand up and acting and writing. I was

808
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:57,480
Speaker 1: playing poker for one of these TV shows recently. Sitting

809
00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:01,400
Speaker 1: next to me was Chris you Banks Jr. This brilliant

810
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: British boxer, and we became friendly and we were texting

811
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 1: afterwards and I ended up sharing with him something that

812
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 1: I had thought but never articulated, and it was only

813
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 1: based on his instant positive response that allows me to,

814
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 1: I guess share it with you now, which is a

815
00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: comedian is like a fighter, a boxer, professional boxer. You've

816
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,880
Speaker 1: got people in your corner, you've got training that you

817
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: can do constantly. But when you step in that ring

818
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 1: or on that stage, you're not only by yourself. You

819
00:50:36,640 --> 00:50:40,279
Speaker 1: are living or dying moment by moment based on your

820
00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: instincts and your training and your skills. And uh, that

821
00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 1: is not the case with acting, and that is not

822
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:53,439
Speaker 1: the case with writing. So those instincts are honed a

823
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,120
Speaker 1: piece of metal through fire into a sword. Because on

824
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:59,440
Speaker 1: a set, as the director, you you are in charge

825
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:01,960
Speaker 1: of everything. Everyone comes to you all day long with questions.

826
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 1: In fact, I remember interviewing Jason Jason Rightman on the

827
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 1: Chat show technically still available on YouTube, found episodes ten

828
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:13,640
Speaker 1: years no big deal. I remember interviewing him and he said, uh,

829
00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: he said, well, people are gonna come to you all

830
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:17,359
Speaker 1: day long with questions, whether you have an answer or not.

831
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 1: You need to give an answer. It doesn't even need

832
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:20,719
Speaker 1: to be the right answer. But you could never say

833
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:23,600
Speaker 1: I don't know, what do you think. You can give

834
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 1: your answer and then say what do you think? What

835
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:28,120
Speaker 1: do you think? But you have to have an answer

836
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 1: because it's about leadership first and foremost but then empowering

837
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:34,920
Speaker 1: other people with their opinions is also important. But anyways,

838
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:38,839
Speaker 1: stand up and then writing and acting it all kind

839
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: of fueled this idea and then a scoche of confidence

840
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:46,640
Speaker 1: that I might be able to do it, and then

841
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,359
Speaker 1: once you do it, you're just hooked for life. In

842
00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 1: addition to the the chat show that you have mentioned

843
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:58,319
Speaker 1: four episodes available on YouTube, you also have a very

844
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:05,720
Speaker 1: successful podcast, asked Alchemy this what what was the inspiration there?

845
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: Just to make people laugh? I sunk around with your friends. Yeah.

846
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:10,960
Speaker 1: I live on the West Side of Los Angeles and

847
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 1: there's a little theater in the the entrance to which

848
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:18,200
Speaker 1: is in the urine soaked alleyway between third and fourth

849
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 1: Street in Santa Monica. It's called the West Side Comedy Theater.

850
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:24,279
Speaker 1: And uh, my better f Jamie and I had gone

851
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:27,080
Speaker 1: several times and we'd seen some very very funny improvisers,

852
00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:29,719
Speaker 1: and she was writing for a sketch team there, and

853
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:31,800
Speaker 1: we just became friendly with a bunch of these folks.

854
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:35,600
Speaker 1: And so when I ended the chat show after ten years,

855
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:37,719
Speaker 1: I took some time off, and then I just got

856
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:40,480
Speaker 1: the itch to do another podcast, and so I realized,

857
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:44,240
Speaker 1: I know all these brilliant improvisers. What if I forced

858
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 1: these brilliant improvisers to sit around a table with microphones

859
00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:50,120
Speaker 1: in the studio theater of the mine, and we just

860
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: improvised scenes based on the scene suggestions from the audience.

861
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:57,160
Speaker 1: And then when every time I asked, somebody great like

862
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:03,080
Speaker 1: Craig Gatkowski or Vanessa Raglan, Joe Agreer, Chris Alvarado, James

863
00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:06,719
Speaker 1: Heeney and I think were the initial group and they

864
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:08,840
Speaker 1: leapt at the chance. And then I was ship, what

865
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:11,239
Speaker 1: have I done? Now? Now I got to do this,

866
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:12,960
Speaker 1: and we did. We did it for three years. We

867
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:16,600
Speaker 1: just halted it a few months back, but because it

868
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,799
Speaker 1: went to zoom through the way so many of these

869
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:23,480
Speaker 1: do during the pandemic, and that really lost a lot

870
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:26,000
Speaker 1: of the fun in terms of being live in a

871
00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:31,640
Speaker 1: room improvising. You know, sure, aside from Mrs Maisel, favorite

872
00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:36,920
Speaker 1: film and best film that you've done well, the most

873
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:41,760
Speaker 1: seminole and life changing started with avalon to Barry Levinson

874
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:44,080
Speaker 1: film because that was the first you know, he he

875
00:53:44,120 --> 00:53:46,480
Speaker 1: had just come off all the awards on rain Man

876
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:48,799
Speaker 1: and he was given the Keys to the Kingdom and

877
00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:52,320
Speaker 1: he wanted to do another small Baltimore set film. It

878
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:55,480
Speaker 1: was the third set in his hometown and so to

879
00:53:55,560 --> 00:54:00,239
Speaker 1: be given one of the leads in that by the

880
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 1: genius writer director who who just wanted me to be

881
00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 1: loose and natural, just be you, and I learned so

882
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:11,440
Speaker 1: much from him. And then also while the movie didn't

883
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:14,920
Speaker 1: wasn't a huge box office success, it got everyone's attention

884
00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:17,920
Speaker 1: within the industry and it did bring me to the

885
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:20,040
Speaker 1: attention of a lot of people. So that was the

886
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:21,400
Speaker 1: first one, and then a few Good Men, and then

887
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 1: Usual Suspects and Casinos, so those, you know, those were

888
00:54:24,239 --> 00:54:29,479
Speaker 1: all just bananas, over the top, ridiculous, high profile. Usual

889
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:33,200
Speaker 1: Suspects premiered at the can Film Festival, so having that

890
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:35,719
Speaker 1: experience and also pulp fiction had won the Palm Door

891
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: of the year before, so when we got there as

892
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:40,239
Speaker 1: the next American crime movie, we were it was like

893
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:42,560
Speaker 1: the Beatles landed. No one had even seen the film yet,

894
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 1: but that's just how we were treated. It was really bizarre,

895
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:48,400
Speaker 1: surreal and exceptional and the the grumpio meta movie studying at

896
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:51,040
Speaker 1: the feet of Mount Rushmore, between Math and Lemon and

897
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:55,799
Speaker 1: Margaret and Burgess, Meredith and those people amazing. Yeah, if

898
00:54:55,840 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 1: you can't tell I'm such a huge fan of not

899
00:54:59,200 --> 00:55:01,600
Speaker 1: just the movie and shows you've been in, but of

900
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:06,080
Speaker 1: you great actor and guys. So thanks. I want you

901
00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:08,880
Speaker 1: to know how much I appreciate you coming on today

902
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:12,200
Speaker 1: and and sharing some insight. Oh you're very welcome. Thanks

903
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:14,680
Speaker 1: for the invite, Happy to be here. Listen to the show,

904
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:19,120
Speaker 1: and let's let's play poker. At some point I would

905
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:22,240
Speaker 1: like I would like to are you a regular poker player?

906
00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:25,319
Speaker 1: I am okay, Well, I host a weekly game, so

907
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:29,680
Speaker 1: do you. I'll tell you I used to play a lot,

908
00:55:31,200 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 1: a lot. I got married and I had two habits

909
00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:40,279
Speaker 1: graduate a long time, each poker and golf. So I

910
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:42,960
Speaker 1: sort of I haven't given up poker, but I don't

911
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,360
Speaker 1: play as much as I used to, but I would.

912
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:47,960
Speaker 1: There may be a scene would love to play. It

913
00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:51,440
Speaker 1: may be a seat this week, so get me your information.

914
00:55:51,640 --> 00:56:06,600
Speaker 1: Thank you, Kevin, Thank you so much, Kevin, Thank you

915
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:10,960
Speaker 1: so much for the chat. I loved hearing your story.

916
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 1: By the way, make sure to save a seat for

917
00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:17,480
Speaker 1: me at your next poker event. I will be awaiting

918
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:21,920
Speaker 1: your invitation. Listeners. I'll see you next week for another

919
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: episode of Off the Beat. One of my favorite female

920
00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:32,880
Speaker 1: comedians both she and I I think not. It's going

921
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:35,279
Speaker 1: to be a great one, mark my words. I will

922
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 1: see you next week. Off the Beat is hosted an

923
00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.

924
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:58,400
Speaker 1: Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and

925
00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:03,200
Speaker 1: Emily carr Are. Talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and

926
00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:07,680
Speaker 1: our intern is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,

927
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: performed by my great friend Creed Bratton,