WEBVTT - Kevin Pollak 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:03.600 If you were to google these words Christopher Walking impersonation, 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:11.880 search answers will come up. I drumroll, please a number 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.360 one on that Google search. There you go. Now that 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:17.599 in six dollars will buy me a coffee at Starbucks. 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:21.040 So it's a it's an absolute worthless brag. It's just 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:29.400 a fact. Hello there, Kevin Pollock here, how are you? 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:34.879 Don't get up? I am so very excited to be 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:45.479 here with you and Brian right now. Hello friends, it 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:50.880 is me Brian Baumgartner, back with another episode of Off 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.800 the Beat. Thank you for joining me. My guest today. 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.960 As you just heard he is, well, he's a legend, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.280 Kevin Paula. You might know him as Hockney in The 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.480 Iconic and one of my favorites The Usual Suspects or 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:12.000 most recently Moista Maizel in The Marvelous Mrs Mazel. But 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:16.000 today we're gonna go way back to Kevin's comedy roots 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.360 in the great city of San Francisco. Are you aware 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.559 that Kevin is one of the greatest improvisers and stand 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:29.000 up comedians of all time? He started stand up at 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.480 the age of ten, if you could believe that, and 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.160 he kept working on his craft until he started his 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:39.520 professional comedy career just right out of high school. And 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.400 boy was it a career. Back in the seventies before 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.880 many of you were alive, including myself obviously, Kevin worked 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:55.400 alongside Robin Williams Dana Carvey, together becoming the kings of 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.200 the Bay Area comedy scene. This led him to Hollywood 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.680 and to talk about a career roles in Willow Casino, 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.680 A few good men, grumpy old men, many many more. 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.960 Today we're gonna get into Kevin's full story, from his 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.760 best jokes as a child comedian to what the marvelous 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.840 Mrs Mazel means to him as a stand up icon himself. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.200 This is a great episode for all you comedy nerds 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.960 out there, myself included. So please, with my greatest of 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:37.560 all pleasures, welcome Kevin Pollock. Bubble and Squeak. I love it, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:45.040 Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every month left 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:59.519 over from the night before. What's up, Kevin? How are you? I? 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.520 You know, it's it's funny in going back and re 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:08.400 studying your amazing career. Uh. The thing that that popped 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.280 out first, of course, was your love for poker, and 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:16.760 I was like, oh, yes, we have met at a 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:21.800 couple poker tournaments back in the olden days, and I 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.640 and I specifically remember this is gonna come up a 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.840 few times. I just moved, okay, And so I found 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:34.160 a gigantic crystal trophy at a poker tournament that you 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.560 were at. So really, I'm leading off this conversation by 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.040 saying I kicked your ass once. Did we ever play 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.720 a hand together? No, I don't think I let somebody 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.400 else take you out, So yeah, yeah, someone else did 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.120 take me out. Um yeah, the charity, um, I assume 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.760 that's what it was. Poker tournament, Those are um um, 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.320 always fun to to give to a worthy cause and 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.720 their horrible old poker. Yes, if you're a you know, 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.760 serious poker player, just because there's wonderful, wonderful, generous people 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.480 donating to the cause who invariably will say I don't 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.320 really know how to play poker. I just wanted. And 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.120 then that person is the most dangerous person, I would say, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.720 because they'll play every hand and you have no way 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.000 to gauge whether it's a good or bad. How many 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.040 times have you played the World Series of Poker seven 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.320 and I've cashed twice? Which is not quite Hall of 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.960 Fame batting average inductee, but close. Yeah. So that event 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.960 that was for a seed at the World Series of Poker, 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.560 which is what you won along with your Crystal trophy, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.000 which is what I want along with my Crystal trophy. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:41.760 And then of course I was I was shooting a 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.320 television show and had to take a cash buy out, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.720 so I didn't I didn't actually make it, but my 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.479 bucket list for sure. Um, well, I want to go 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.800 back to your early days. First, you grew up in 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.360 San Francisco, born into San Francisco, raised in an hour 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.880 south in San Jose, and you started doing stand up 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:09.480 at age ten? Well, sure, um, first for family and 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.680 then eventually at school. Yeah, it was just lip syncing 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.520 a comedy album at ten, that was the act. Okay, 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.239 it was lips What what comedy album? Well, if only 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.560 he had put in the liner notes of his comedy 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.719 album that he would go on to be the most 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:30.159 prolific serial rapist from show business in history, maybe I 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.359 wouldn't have chosen that one. But that wasn't in the 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:39.080 liner notes. So it was Bill Cosby's first album. Interesting, Yeah, yeah, okay, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.440 fair enough. What was it that attracted you to it. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:46.520 Performing in that way. Oh um, my mom brought home 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:51.360 his first album, and I watched my parents laugh uncontrollably 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.920 listening to the stories coming from the stereo Hi Fi, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.719 which back then was a seven ft wide piece of furniture. 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.920 Compared that to the tiny devices we used now you 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.719 hold in your pocket, right, yeah, or just shoven your ears. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.520 But watching my folks laughing uncontrollably like that, it was 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.040 the first and it was as off putting or awkward 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.479 as watching them openly weep. I mean, it really was strange. 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:20.679 Not that they never laughed, it just they never laughed 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.960 at someone talking from the stereo. So when no one 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.120 was around, I just listened to it a lot more 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.200 because I wanted to be that person telling the stories 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.240 making my parents laugh, right, I think that was the obsession. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.640 And then I would race home after school and listen 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.080 to it, and eventually standing in front of the stereo 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.119 pretending I was the one telling the stories. Not knowing 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.520 that a lip sinking was a thing, so I wasn't 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.320 trying the lip sing, uh, Nor did I think I 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.080 was inventing lip sinking. I didn't even know the term. 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.679 I was just playing. I was. There was no interactive games. 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.200 We had just invented fire. This was a while ago, Brian. 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.800 So there I was, and my mother came home and 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.839 quote unquote caught me. And I used that term because 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.000 it was as if I was as embarrassed as if 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.760 she caught me doing something else. So then she laughed, 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.080 pointed at me and said, you're doing that for the 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:22.360 zookers that pass over. So my first live show was 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.200 on the white painted out fireplace shelving in front of 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:30.480 the fireplace, stood on that and performed for twenty relatives 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.680 that pass over and crushed Brian. I just killed well, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:36.960 and I went on to do it at school and 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.640 other functions. But you know, it was a ten year old, 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:45.240 precocious Jewish kid lip syncing this hilarious comedy bed. I 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.720 didn't write the material. I didn't even perform it, really 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.840 I but you know I cleared my throat at the 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.280 same moment he does on the album, and those little 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.160 things from a ten year old forget it. So I 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.559 just killed. I killed constantly, and I did that act, 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.080 I'm gonna say, for another five years at every function 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:09.360 at school, be at a folk festival of father daughter dinner, dance, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.240 you know, whatever the events were, There's Kevin and the 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.200 no and the arc routine. I mean, I was mesmerized 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.960 by all the comedy albums of the day, and when 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.120 friends would gather, I would be quoting the album. And 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.200 then I realized, I guess I need my own material. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.560 And uh, but I was. I was a natural and 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.720 doing impersonations. And then that became the cornerstone of what 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.280 I would call an act. At seven sevause, when I 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.920 performed professionally in a nightclub, did you did you inherently 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.800 feel the comedy in the rhythms or in the you 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.320 felt it? Yeah? And you? And then no, any arcr 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.400 tune in particular is just Noah talking to God because 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:54.760 Noah's confused about how to build the art and it's 0:08:55.200 --> 0:09:01.200 as g rated as comedy gets. And then once I 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:06.400 I think, dialed into the story, I organically or involuntarily 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:11.760 picked up the comedy rhythms. So I learned timing timing 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:16.040 from this Jedi master through osmosis, and then I think 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:22.160 the impersonations was just a natural thing, but also it 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:27.920 taught me how to act. I learned acting nuances from 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.520 the nuances that I went on to create while doing 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.240 an impersonation. We talked to me a little bit about that, 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.000 meaning different people's timing depending on who you were imitating. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.400 You started to assimilate all of that. Yeah, I mean 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:47.880 I I learned from from watching actors and then impersonating them. 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:52.520 So I would implement what I thought were gestures and 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:58.640 nuance and line readings because I was speaking. Finally, then 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.120 I learned to act the set of movies. I never 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.199 attended an acting class. I'm not proud of that. I 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.240 never studied at university. In fact, I graduated from San 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.319 Jose State University in nine months. My friends called a 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.160 dropping out, but I was done. I was done, and 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:22.000 you finished. There was no ceremony. I didn't need a 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.679 little hat with a tassel. I was done. Also, I 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.520 had started performing fairly regularly in in as a comedian. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.000 There were no comedy clubs in San Jose at that point, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.280 and I was only eighteen. At that point, I didn't 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.439 have quite the courage to drive up to San Francisco, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.400 the hotbed of stand up comedy, and so I would 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:46.200 open up for music acts in bars. And it might 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:53.560 have been the toughest forging steel through fire. I could 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.600 have chosen because these are little ship kicker bars and 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.839 and the band. The bands are all doing cover music, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.760 and it's feel good music and hooting and holler and 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:07.120 and when the band takes a break, that's the first 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.960 opportunity that guys have to to buy drinks for women. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.679 Was the experience in the mid seventies, anyways. And the 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:17.840 last thing they want is to look at the stage 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.319 and see some little puts. Think who thinks he can 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:27.200 do Peter Folks, Lieutenant Columbo, you know. And it was 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.920 I Sometimes I would get the bartenders looking and laughing, 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.400 but none of the audience. You know, it's a long 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.760 time before I don't know. I don't even remember the 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.640 moment when someone decided to listen and it turned everything around. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.280 But I do remember one arc of success within this 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.320 myopic world. I was performing standard. This was in a 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.080 restaurant where in the corner they would move a foretop 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.520 and put up a microphone and the band would play, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.800 and then I would go on during their break and 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.760 how people are eating. So that's a little better than 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.160 guys trying to pick up. So I had their attention 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.400 at least, and I did so well at that restaurant 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:17.280 the Addict, Addict Attic above your House, not the Addict. 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:22.440 Uh I did so well the Addict that eventually the 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.560 band was playing during my break. Oh I know, right, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.079 So that was the arc of the and I could have, 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.520 by the way, I could have just tapped out and said, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.000 this is it, this is what I'm a star here 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.960 in Las Cattis, California. And then I eventually went up 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.280 to San Jose, San Francisco, rather from Santose when I 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.839 was twenty for the San Francisco International Stand Up Comedy Competition. 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.680 When you were you did that. Yeah, I'm still living 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.640 down at San Jose till I think I was twenty 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.959 almost twenty two. Uh So I would go up to 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:56.840 San Franco, do some shows and come back down. And 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:02.280 I was a waiter at the Attic Antique. That's what 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.000 it was called, the Antique, not the Attic and the 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.240 Antique Antique in Las Gnas. If anyone wants to do 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.480 a deep dive, it was the Antique. And so anyways 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.880 I would go, Yeah, I was. I was a waiter 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.240 and by the way, I crushed as a waiter, and 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:21.320 the reason was I had these impersonations. So most wait 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:25.640 staff will panic if they put down the plates, and 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.719 one of the patrons says, I asked for rice, this 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.960 is potato, you know, because that just means the cook 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.480 screwed up, and they you know, you wrote it down correctly, right, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.440 And so I would just go right into Columba. Jeez, 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.400 I'm sorry I did I said right, I said it 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.319 plainly day right. There was face there he put potato 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.800 on your plate. I'm so sorry. And my tip went 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.600 through the roof because now I'm doing a table show, right, 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:55.839 and no one could figure out why I was getting 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.600 great tips. Well, what were what were your what were 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.119 your goal go to impressions, your best impressions, the impressions 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.160 you liked the most that would kill well, Peter Falk 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.480 in the seventies because he was the reigning champ on television, 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.280 you know, Colombo was it was all the rage, and 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.439 then followed by I guess, you know, William Shatner and 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.640 whoever the president was at the time, I guess Nixon. 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.280 But also when I eventually started up in San Francisco, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.080 was around the same time as Dana Carvey, and so 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.960 we you know, we both did voices and impressions, and 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:33.720 you know, you you learned that you're not the only 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.640 one who learned how to do say, in this example, 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:41.920 Johnny Carson by watching uh Rich Little you Know someone 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.760 and Danna became sort of the king of this. Someone 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.480 has to create the key that opens the lock. And 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.040 then it's there's a template that anyone who has a 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.680 knack for this could follow. So we we would learn 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:59.160 Nixon from David Fry's comedy album about Nixon. We would 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:04.560 learn Douglas and Burt Lancaster from John Biner. So there 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:09.240 were other impersonation experts on television. There was a show 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.200 featuring all impression. It is called the Copycat. Anybody that 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:19.400 you feel like you've found the key two, well, listen, Brian, 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.320 you've claimed to have done research. But if you were 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:27.000 to google these words Christopher Walking impersonation, thirty thousand search 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:34.080 answers will come up. I drumroll please, and number one 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.480 on that Google search. There you go. Now that in 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.600 six dollars will buy me a coffee at Starbucks. So 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:46.560 it's a it's an absolute worthless brag. It's just a fact. Yeah, 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:48.760 I wasn't the first. I mean I saw Jay Moore 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.840 dude on SNL and then he gave somebody else credit 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.760 when I asked him, and you know, countless people have 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.080 done it since, and I'm sure that there I'm not 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.360 gonna say better because that's absurd as good, I'm sure, 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.720 But to me, it was always about finding the nuance. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.920 It was never, um, what if Christopher walkin, we're a 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.800 bus boy? It might go something like this. That felt 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.320 real hacky to me right from the beginning, you know, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:18.080 so eventually, yeah, I would say Christopher walking. I might 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.880 also be on the search on doing Jason Statham, Albert Brooks. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:28.880 I had Dave Crea on my live streaming internet video podcasts. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.760 I may have been one of the pioneers in the 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.119 podcast world, you know. And Brian it's not a competition, 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.040 um but I had Dave Creer on once and he 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.280 did Bob Einstein, who was Albert Brooks's brother, So we 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.320 did the two brothers talking to each other, and it's 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:48.080 it's pretty pretty great. You're performing in San Francisco at 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:53.320 this point, you and Dana Carvey, Robin Williams, to name 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.080 just three. Were there any Were there any women in 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.960 San Francisco that you were Paula pound Stone shortly there 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.360 or after, not at that exact moment maybe, but shortly 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:08.440 that Ellen DeGeneres did some time in San Francisco early on. Um, yeah, 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.760 there are a lot. There were a lot of women 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.760 actually carry snow good name a lot. Yeah. How often 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.640 did you work with Robin Well? Um? By the time 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.400 I moved to San Francisco, I guess would be about 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.960 nineteen seventy nine, he had already I think done morean Mindy, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.400 but he was still spending all this time or the 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.359 majority of it in San Francisco. So at that point 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.600 he was already famous, and he was just unbelievably supportive 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:40.600 to all the local acts who were doing well at 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:46.240 the time. I remember years later when I did the 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.480 movie Willow Willow Yes, Rick Overchon and I were the 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:53.000 two Brownies, and we shot our scenes on a giant, big, 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.480 largest blue screen facility in the world, and it was 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.080 up by Lucas Ranch. You know. After we got and 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.040 work and we would contact Robin and say, we're gonna 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.040 be in the city doing a show, and the three 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.960 of us would do improv together on stage, and which 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:13.480 really most times resulted in me being upstage against the 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.240 wall while the two of them were downstage crushing it, 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:39.439 and I was just watching You're crushing the comedy club 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:44.879 scene and doing incredibly well. Where was the decision to 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.080 start auditioning for movies? And you get quite a few 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.320 in the early eighties before willow Um. But was that 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.920 wanting to try something different, or that just opportunities that 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.440 presented itself, or was that a conscious decision to start 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:03.760 focusing more on acting and film. Well, I'd always wanted 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.400 to be an actor, even though I refused to take 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.080 acting classes. I just had that, you know, I guess 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.840 from doing the impersonations. I had convinced myself I could 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.680 do it because to me, while I was doing those impressions, 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.120 there weren't a lot of punch lines. I was getting 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:25.440 jokes from behavioral performance, and so I was quite convinced. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.800 So in nineteen two, I had come in second place 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.880 in the San Francisco International Stand Up Comedy Competition, which 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.800 was a very big deal in San Francisco, not internationally. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.440 It just meant you could come and compete from other countries, 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:44.280 which really was Canada. Um, And so coming in second 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.760 meant I wasn't going to compete again. That was it. 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.480 And then that's when I decided. Before the next competition, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.280 I would move to Los Angeles. And growing up in 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.840 San Francisco, you know you're really trained to hate Los Angeles. Um, 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.720 it's in our DNA, not just the sports rivalries. It's 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:06.440 really a deep, deep, deep thing. And once I got 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:09.080 to l A, I realized they don't even know we're there. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:15.359 You know, it's a one way thing. Yeah, you know, 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.080 they keep sending out ships, they don't come back. They 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.360 had no idea we were there. So I had met 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:26.240 a few acts like Leno and Seinfeld and Shandling who 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.200 had come through the punch line at San Francisco, and 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:29.560 I had opened up for them, and they had said, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:31.280 when you got to l A, let me know and 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.800 I'll introduce you to Bud Freeman and get you on 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:37.000 at the improv. So when I got to l A 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:40.080 and eighty three, I was instantly getting stage time, which 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.719 was incredible, and I was then once I was there, 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:46.879 everyone said you gotta audition, you gotta start audition, and 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.200 you gotta start auditioning. And I didn't have an agent 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.560 or manager. You would just hear about auditions and you 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.600 could somehow sign up or whatever. And I went on 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.560 a lot of auditions before Willow. Yeah, I didn't get 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:02.560 the part. So many times it felt like I would 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.720 enter the room to audition and they would say, how 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:09.280 about anyone but you is going to get this? Well, 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:14.280 it's you just said so many things that I well love. 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.280 We're in a lot of ways, I think the opposite, right, 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.000 Like for me, I was comedy wasn't even something that 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.040 I did or focused on early on in my in 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.520 my career. I mean, I was doing straight theater and 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.600 most of it wasn't funny at all, right, But for me, 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.840 it wasn't hold on. The material was not intended to 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.880 you weren't even allowed to show if you could be funny, right, 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.560 But it was about creating characters and behavior, and see, 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:53.200 to me, I think the best comedy is about that. Obviously, 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.480 great writers help so if they could write some funny 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:02.840 situations or some great joke, that's helpful, But behavior is 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.400 what really makes people laugh. I think. Yeah, of course 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.760 I agree, And that's what I had studied in performances 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.000 on TV and film, which was my school of acting. 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:16.879 You know, I would lock onto somebody that I really 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:21.800 liked and just study all the characteristics and timing. And 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:28.560 for sure, I agree that behavior was was everything Willow. 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:35.000 You've called it your your breakthrough role happens in Yeah, 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.520 I don't know. I mean, it didn't feel like acting. 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:42.520 It felt like clowning, which was fun, and we were 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.800 allowed to improvise and be silly, and it was incredibly fun. 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.800 It was incredibly exciting to be in a high profile 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.680 movie produced by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard. 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.919 When my dad drove up from San Jose to visit 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.119 me on the set, when I introduced him with George Lucas, 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:00.400 he shook George Lucas his hand and said, I really 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:04.439 loved et. And George, who's not necessarily known for his 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:08.000 sense of humor or being or being funny, he certainly 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:12.400 has a sense of you, but he's rarely the funny one. Um. 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:17.320 When my dad said that, George smiled and said me too, um, 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.000 which a lot him off the hook pretty quick. So 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.879 it was a big deal in that regard. I don't 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:29.080 know that it led a single job, yeah, because again, 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:33.280 it wasn't really an acting performance, and we weren't the 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:36.359 stars of the movie, and it didn't propel us to 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:40.840 anything other than more auditions. But I think everything I 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:43.399 did between Willow and a Few Good Men in ninety 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:45.879 while we shot at ninety one and came out ninety two. 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:49.679 So those four years I did another six movies or so. 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:53.560 Those are all auditions, and none of it was because 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:55.679 anyone said I saw you and Willow and loved you. 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:00.800 It was a great experience. And to this day, you know, 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:03.680 people love that film so much that a new TV 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:08.320 series has come to Disney plus the end of November. Yes, well, 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:11.879 you do do a number of movies during that time. 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:15.960 After Willow, you get a Few good Men, then grumpy 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:18.880 old Men. It's all about men. I guess with you, 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:23.840 and then one of my favorite you know you have 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:29.439 like what's your favorite movie? I have another category called 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:34.240 my favorite underappreciated movies. So right, like True Romance for 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:36.720 me is on that list. I love True Romance. I 0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:42.320 think it's genius. Yeah, Tarantino script The Usual Suspects is 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:45.719 also on that list. What it does in that moment 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:49.560 is so transcendent and amazing and beautiful, and the movie 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:53.520 is filled with beautiful performances. Talk to me a little bit. 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:57.320 I hear that you met with singer, so not an 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:00.280 audition movie. You met with singer and then you heard 0:25:00.280 --> 0:25:02.520 two other people were coming in, and you went in 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:05.639 an audition. Is that yeah? After a fun Man came 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:08.480 out of ninety two, I did across the goal line 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:11.879 for every actor, going from auditioning to getting offers. And 0:25:11.920 --> 0:25:15.360 that was It's why I did forty movies in the nineties, 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:17.320 because I came up in stand up comedy and when 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:20.600 someone offers you a gig, the answer is yes. So 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:22.639 in the nineties I was a girl who couldn't say no, 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:26.359 and and six of those forty movies are really good. 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:29.679 But so my vetting average is not that great. But 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:34.199 uh so I was just getting offers and then you know, 0:25:34.200 --> 0:25:36.639 I would talk to my agent. He would He kept saying, 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:39.600 You've got to read this script called The Usual Suspects. 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:42.720 And I said, well, okay, who's directing it? He said, 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:44.359 a young guy had never heard of him. Was it 0:25:44.400 --> 0:25:48.160 all right? Who's in it? Um? Nobody right now other 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:53.240