Speaker 1: Welcome back everybody, Thanks for joining me for another triumphant
Speaker 1: episode of Off the Beat, where I am proud to
Speaker 1: be your host, Brian Bumgartner. You know one thing that
Speaker 1: really characterized twenty twenty three for me and well for
Speaker 1: everyone else who works in entertainment or who simply enjoys
Speaker 1: entertainment was the writers and Actors strike. It was a
Speaker 1: historic moment that changed the landscape of film and television,
Speaker 1: and it also changed this podcast just a little bit
Speaker 1: because we were not allowed to promote or talk about
Speaker 1: our work. Now, this was a curse, and it was
Speaker 1: in fact a blessing for me because one, I couldn't
Speaker 1: get to intervie you as many of my fellow actors,
Speaker 1: which I typically do. But two, I was allowed to
Speaker 1: lean into my love for and my rolodex of great
Speaker 1: athletes and sports figures and learn more about how they
Speaker 1: climbed their own ladder to success. So to get back
Speaker 1: to our best of for this year, let's start with
Speaker 1: well the goat himself here is Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of discussion, I feel like, in football
Speaker 1: about schemes, how an offensive coordinator works, what their plan is,
Speaker 1: defense the same thing having to make that adjustment. Is
Speaker 1: that similar? Do you think in basketball? I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like what people think about in basketball is like
Speaker 1: you got game or you don't, and you can more
Speaker 1: easily walk into another system. But how have you found
Speaker 1: or watched with other guys coming in and trying to
Speaker 1: learn a different offense or a different a different way
Speaker 1: of approaching the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think I think to the untrained eye,
Speaker 2: it looks like basketball is just go out there and
Speaker 2: make more shots or put up the other team right
Speaker 2: than the other team.
Speaker 1: But that's just the All star games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just the pickup at your local lifetime. Like,
Speaker 2: there's so much detail and timing that go into the
Speaker 2: schemes of basketball that that people just they probably don't
Speaker 2: see as much because there's less players, you know, which
Speaker 2: which is kind of a you know, it's kind of
Speaker 2: almost backwards. You think it'd be easier to see with
Speaker 2: less players. But football they have such defined roles too,
Speaker 2: Like you know, the linemen are going to block, and
Speaker 2: there's different schemes for them to move, you know, you
Speaker 2: know with the quarterbacks that they're going to do with
Speaker 2: the timing and the receivers and stuff like that. But
Speaker 2: for basketball, it's just it's so free flowing.
Speaker 1: You have to.
Speaker 2: Understand what you're trying to do to such a such
Speaker 2: a high level that you're not thinking while you're out
Speaker 2: there playing. Because if you're out there thinking while you're
Speaker 2: playing in the NBA, you're you're getting beat because guys
Speaker 2: are too good, they're too fast, they're too athletic, they're
Speaker 2: too smart. It's the peak of professional basketball. It's so
Speaker 2: detailed people don't really understand, and it's probably hard to
Speaker 2: have that conversation unless you have a certain level of
Speaker 2: basketball intelligence because there's just you know, you'd have to
Speaker 2: break down so much and talk about so many things,
Speaker 2: and it just moves so fast.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: People don't realize how fast the NBA game moves. You know,
Speaker 2: it looks slow on TV, and the guys don't look
Speaker 2: that big. They're monsters out here that are moving.
Speaker 1: Oh it's oh yeah, you get in the building and
Speaker 1: you see it instantly. How fast? How physical? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the speed of it is. How fast?
Speaker 4: How physical?
Speaker 2: And people don't realize the size of some of these
Speaker 2: guys that are moving around. That's that's the number one
Speaker 2: thing that people tell me when they see me when
Speaker 2: they've never met me before and they recognize me that
Speaker 2: Oh wow, I didn't know you were that tall. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm six four, six ' five, and I'm the
Speaker 2: small guy.
Speaker 1: That's you look small to me. Yeah, you look small
Speaker 1: to me, So I could take Yeah, I got that guy,
Speaker 1: give him my fade away fade away jumper. When you're
Speaker 1: watching a game on TV, are you breaking it down?
Speaker 1: Are you looking and watching at what they're trying to
Speaker 1: do to the other players? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I can't watch for like pure entertainment anymore. I just
Speaker 2: my brain doesn't work like that. Like I've lost the
Speaker 2: ability to just sit down and watch a basketball game.
Speaker 2: All I do is see the flaws of what they
Speaker 2: should be doing, knowing actually like what teams like to
Speaker 2: run in certain plays and being like defense didn't push
Speaker 2: them to the right spot. It's it's very analytical, but
Speaker 2: that's kind of my job.
Speaker 1: So I do you put yourself there, like, are you like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm him, and imagine yourself moving within either an offense
Speaker 1: or a defensive play. Do you go that far?
Speaker 2: Yeah? For the most part, Yeah, especially defensively, just because
Speaker 2: that's kind of how my brain's wired. I get really
Speaker 2: upset watching certain guys in the league because they do
Speaker 2: their patent move whatever it is. You know, I know
Speaker 2: that if they're in their left hand, they're going to
Speaker 2: go between the legs and step back, or it's in
Speaker 2: their right hand, they're going to go downhill. And I'm
Speaker 2: like calling it out. I'm like, he's gonna go right,
Speaker 2: He's gonna go right, and then the guy gets blown
Speaker 2: by right and it's just it's it's hard to watch,
Speaker 2: but that's that's the perfectionists, and the competitor in me
Speaker 2: is like, I just don't see anything else.
Speaker 1: Uh. By twenty nineteen, you're playing pretty damn well. You
Speaker 1: are the only other Laker besides mister James to get
Speaker 1: a game thirty points, ten rebounds, five assists. Did you
Speaker 1: feel walking into Staples Center how much everybody loved you?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure?
Speaker 1: Why did they? Aside from the fact that you're good.
Speaker 2: Just to start? Staple Centers is like Staple Center and
Speaker 2: in the Garden, those two places, it's it's different than
Speaker 2: everywhere else because they it's almost like the court is
Speaker 2: lit up, you know, like like a like a like
Speaker 2: a performance, you know, like it's a stand up comedy special,
Speaker 2: or it's a it's a concert, like it's dark. It's
Speaker 2: dark in the crowd, all the lights are pointing towards there,
Speaker 2: and there's this atmosphere about it that that just makes
Speaker 2: it special to begin with, So that that already, you know,
Speaker 2: gets the juices flown as a basketball player in general.
Speaker 3: And and then.
Speaker 2: I'm fighting for my life at this point, right I'm on,
Speaker 2: I'm on two way contract. And the way that I
Speaker 2: viewed it, like a lot of guys, you know, they
Speaker 2: might get a two way contract or they might get
Speaker 2: you know, the even the first deal I got in
Speaker 2: LA it was a two year, five and a half
Speaker 2: million dollar deal I had I had the awareness to understand,
Speaker 2: like this isn't a guarantee into the league, Like this
Speaker 2: is still like you get you gotta you gotta prove
Speaker 2: it contra. And so every time I played like I
Speaker 2: already have the mindset of being super competitive just because
Speaker 2: I like to play like that and I just love basketball.
Speaker 2: But now I have like almost a back against the
Speaker 2: wall mentality going into it as well, to where it's like,
Speaker 2: all right, I have to perform or else I'm not
Speaker 2: going to be here, Like I'm not gonna I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna have a job, and you mix those two things
Speaker 2: together and you just had you had me playing at
Speaker 2: a high level that I think a lot of NBA
Speaker 2: players don't play at every night. And I was taking
Speaker 2: advantage of guys taking plays off. And then even once
Speaker 2: you know, I had the reputation, I think it was
Speaker 2: still like a there's a lot of guys in the
Speaker 2: league that didn't believe that I could play a little bit,
Speaker 2: and it was still one of those okay, you got
Speaker 2: to prove it things, And so my motivation just kept
Speaker 2: moving and changing. And I think, you know, Lakers fans
Speaker 2: are one of the more spoiled fan bases in pro
Speaker 2: sports with as much success as they've had, you know,
Speaker 2: but they they have high expectations and they just we
Speaker 2: talk about and them we drink the kool Aid. Lakers
Speaker 2: fans drink the kool Aid hard, and and they are
Speaker 2: they if you go out there and you play to win,
Speaker 2: and you play and you play hard, they just have
Speaker 2: a certain appreciation for it. And this was you got
Speaker 2: to remember the time, this was for the franchise, right,
Speaker 2: this is coming off of after Kobe left. There wasn't
Speaker 2: a lot of success. They had young players and they
Speaker 2: were trying to find teams. It was it was a
Speaker 2: really low period. They're bringing big names Bronze in a, DSN,
Speaker 2: Rondos and Dwight, all these guys, the whole, the whole team,
Speaker 2: and then you had me that was just you know,
Speaker 2: kind of sprinkled in there on top, and it's like,
Speaker 2: who's this. Who's this crazy white guy that's out here
Speaker 2: just running around dunking on people getting steals, like playing
Speaker 2: with this fiery energy. In my opinion, I think I represented,
Speaker 2: you know, what a winning culture and winning is about.
Speaker 2: And I think that they recognize that and appreciated it.
Speaker 1: Well, I know that I appreciate it. I love that
Speaker 1: fiery energy. As much as Korusi loves the game of basketball,
Speaker 1: This next guest loves the game of soccer. Here is
Speaker 1: the US goat of soccer, Landon Donovan, talking about trying
Speaker 1: to get the whole of the United States to care
Speaker 1: about soccer as much as he does. Talk to me
Speaker 1: a little bit about what you just talked about about
Speaker 1: the fans. I mean, we are obviously in close proximity
Speaker 1: to Mexico, but this documentary Good Rivals, now it is
Speaker 1: if you haven't checked it out. Came out last year
Speaker 1: or earlier this year on Netflix. It is about the
Speaker 1: rivalry between Mexico and the United States, greatest soccer rivalry
Speaker 1: in the world, which is incredible because of how new
Speaker 1: or young soccer is in the United States compared to
Speaker 1: so much of the world. A lot is made about
Speaker 1: two thousand, two thousand too, and beginning to change the pendulum,
Speaker 1: beginning to switch from Mexico to the US. But how
Speaker 1: difficult was it at the time to find fans and
Speaker 1: support here that cared about what you guys were doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, incredibly it was. It's it's hard to compare the
Speaker 4: fandom of the Mexican people with the fandom of the
Speaker 4: American people at that time. Now it's it's pretty level now,
Speaker 4: but at that time it just it was non existent.
Speaker 4: And so I think the analogy, I mean, obviously you're
Speaker 4: a baseball fan, is if not all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: but relatively quickly, in the next five years or so,
Speaker 4: Mexican Mexican baseball was way better than Major League Baseball
Speaker 4: and way better than our players, American players. It's our
Speaker 4: national pastime, right, So that would flip things on its
Speaker 4: head and that would cause some problems. So what happened
Speaker 4: in the early two thousands is a rivalry that was
Speaker 4: completely one sided for a long time, with Mexico always
Speaker 4: winning and them just dominating us, started to change and
Speaker 4: we beat them in that game, that two thousand game.
Speaker 4: We beat them a number of times over the next decade,
Speaker 4: and that started to change the mentality of everybody involved.
Speaker 4: Everybody looked at the rivalry differently. And then what's happened
Speaker 4: in the last we'll call it seven years is there
Speaker 4: are a lot of great rivalries around the world. What
Speaker 4: makes this one unique and why good rivals? Is I
Speaker 4: think so important that that film to watch and I'm
Speaker 4: glad you watched it. We didn't even talk about that,
Speaker 4: but I'm glad you watched it. Is there's also the
Speaker 4: political component, right that's been exacerbated over the last seven years.
Speaker 4: And there are so many Mexicans in our country, and
Speaker 4: especially in southern California and where we live in San Diego.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of Mexican Americans, a lot of American Mexicans,
Speaker 4: and we coexist in a really harmonious way. But in
Speaker 4: a lot of places in our country it doesn't happen
Speaker 4: and so it's this rivalry is just it's heat it
Speaker 4: up over the last seven years, and on the soccer field,
Speaker 4: that's been a good thing because it makes it that
Speaker 4: much more interesting for everyone involved.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like there are fans of the American
Speaker 1: team in Mexico or is that one sided?
Speaker 4: That's a good question. I wouldn't say in Mexico. But
Speaker 4: what I saw over and over and over in my
Speaker 4: career is we would go into a stadium against play
Speaker 4: against Mexico. It's called it Soldier Field in Chicago, right
Speaker 4: and by the beginning of the game, it would there'd
Speaker 4: be you would say, like seventy five percent of fans
Speaker 4: were Mexican. And then as we would the end of
Speaker 4: the game we were winning two zero, you'd look around
Speaker 4: and somehow and we figured out later what it was,
Speaker 4: but all of a sudden, it was flipped. There were
Speaker 4: seventy five percent American fans. And what you realize is
Speaker 4: they would walk in with a Mexican jersey.
Speaker 3: Over a USA jersey.
Speaker 4: Once the US started winning, they'd pull off the Mexican
Speaker 4: jersey be American fans. So's the epitome of fairweather fans
Speaker 4: right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do something that takes balls. But you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about England and Europe. Obviously Central America where
Speaker 1: soccer is so big. You're playing in Germany already. You
Speaker 1: get offered a contract at seventeen, But in two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, shortly after you begin playing for the US
Speaker 1: national team, you return to the United States and essentially,
Speaker 1: with some brief exceptions, you play out your entire career
Speaker 1: at in the MLS in the United States. Talk to
Speaker 1: me a little bit about that decision for you. Was
Speaker 1: that difficult for you to make? Okay?
Speaker 4: No, No, So what happens is in our sport, what
Speaker 4: happens a lot is Europe is the holy Grail of
Speaker 4: places to play, right. It's for the longest time, the
Speaker 4: most money, most prestige, best competition, most eyeballs watching, et cetera.
Speaker 4: And so for almost every player, that's where they want
Speaker 4: to play. Whether you come from Argentina or Africa or California,
Speaker 4: everybody wants to be in Europe, somewhere, France, England, Spain, whatever.
Speaker 4: I never subscribe to that theory. I agree with all that,
Speaker 4: but the most important thing to me was playing was
Speaker 4: actually playing games. It'd be like they're like Brian for
Speaker 4: the next decade. You're gonna you know, you're gonna go
Speaker 4: to acting class and you're gonna practice, but you're never
Speaker 4: gonna be on a show. You'd say, well, that's not right,
Speaker 4: that's not why I do it.
Speaker 3: I don't want to do that right.
Speaker 4: And so I always wanted to play. And what the
Speaker 4: mistake a lot of players make is they'll go to
Speaker 4: Europe and I'm using quotes, they go to Europe. So
Speaker 4: you go to a team in Europe and then you
Speaker 4: sit on the bench and you never play a game,
Speaker 4: and then you get three years into your career and
Speaker 4: you go, shoot, what am I really doing here? Like
Speaker 4: the paycheck's great, but this is my this is my life.
Speaker 4: So I always say to people, you're not a soccer practicer,
Speaker 4: You're a soccer player, right. Do you want to play
Speaker 4: or do you want to practice? So my decision was
Speaker 4: I just wanted to play, and we had this young
Speaker 4: league at home that I think needed all of us
Speaker 4: to help lift it, and it was it made sense
Speaker 4: for me. And then I also got to play at
Speaker 4: home in front of my friends and family in LA
Speaker 4: and to me, that was a no brainer. You know,
Speaker 4: a lot of people disagree with that and thought I
Speaker 4: left some stuff on the table and I could have,
Speaker 4: you know, played at a higher level in other places,
Speaker 4: but I wanted to play, and that that's where I got.
Speaker 1: My joint right. The MJ Michael Jordan, the goat of
Speaker 1: US soccer, six time MLS Cup winner, fourteen consecutive All Star.
Speaker 1: I mean, the list goes on and on. Two time
Speaker 1: MLS MVP, two time MLS Cup MVP, Golden Boot, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. Clearly, you had opportunities to go
Speaker 1: other places once you had established yourself. By the way,
Speaker 1: what you say makes so much sense, like go where
Speaker 1: you can play. Clearly you could have played anywhere at
Speaker 1: a certain point. But did you feel a loyalty. Did
Speaker 1: you feel like you were starting something that was important
Speaker 1: with the MLA. I mean not that you started it,
Speaker 1: but you know what, being a part of growing something
Speaker 1: that was important here because you you know, you essentially
Speaker 1: decide never to leave.
Speaker 6: I did.
Speaker 4: I felt like it was I don't know if responsibility
Speaker 4: is the right word, but we grew up in a
Speaker 4: time where we were all ambassadors for the game. So
Speaker 4: it's not like in San Diego when Manny Machado and
Speaker 4: Fernando Tatis show up to the baseball park play, they
Speaker 4: go home, and you know, they do their thing. For us,
Speaker 4: it was like go to practice, go to an appearance afterwards,
Speaker 4: go talk to the media, go meet kids, to help
Speaker 4: sell tickets. I mean, we were constantly my whole career
Speaker 4: trying to sell the sport.
Speaker 1: And it was just part of it.
Speaker 4: Not complaining, It's just that's what it was for us,
Speaker 4: and so I enjoyed that. It was exhausting, but I
Speaker 4: enjoyed that. And when I look at Major League Soccer
Speaker 4: today and the national team today, knowing that I had
Speaker 4: a small part in that, you know, makes me prideful
Speaker 4: because we worked hard to help build that.
Speaker 1: I love that. We'll be right back here we are again.
Speaker 1: And I have just a few more snippets for you,
Speaker 1: and they're really good ones. This first last story is
Speaker 1: from my new bestie, the amazing Eric McCormick, featuring some
Speaker 1: other names that you might know. This is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite stories all year. You talk about your piano.
Speaker 1: You told me an amazing story I have to bring up.
Speaker 1: Before you went to Ryerson Theater School, you went to
Speaker 1: Sir John A. McDonald Collegiate Institute WOW, with a few
Speaker 1: other notable people, Mike Myers being one.
Speaker 3: Mike was there.
Speaker 1: David Furnish.
Speaker 7: David Furnish, Yes, David Furnish and I were in a
Speaker 7: theater class together tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade and part
Speaker 7: of a real little clique of three guys and my
Speaker 7: friend Helga, and we did God's Spell and Pippin.
Speaker 3: And the Fantastics together, and eventually he moved. We kept
Speaker 3: in touch a little bit, then he moved to London,
Speaker 3: we lost touch, and when we finally sort of reconnected again,
Speaker 3: I was just starting to date my wife and he
Speaker 3: was just starting to date Elton John, like mid nineties,
Speaker 3: and then shortly thereafter Will and Grace happened and they
Speaker 3: were the first. Elton and David were the first people,
Speaker 3: I think in the UK to see it because it
Speaker 3: didn't exist there yet, and I'd sent him a bunch
Speaker 3: of videotapes of season one which they quite enjoyed, which
Speaker 3: led eventually to Elton being on the show. My favorite
Speaker 3: story that I'll tell till I die is is just
Speaker 3: that I.
Speaker 8: Elton asked me to host an event for Yamaha and
Speaker 8: Yamaha's some payment to me. They paid me in piano,
Speaker 8: so I was given a baby grand piano that.
Speaker 7: Sits in the center of the living room to this day.
Speaker 7: And shortly thereafter, and we'd only ever seen David and
Speaker 7: Elton in the world at a restaurant and David call
Speaker 7: said he was in town.
Speaker 3: And Janet, my wife standa, said.
Speaker 9: Well, tell David to come over. He said, well, why
Speaker 9: should this come over see that house? He said, sure,
Speaker 9: We'll be over at eight and I said, Janet, he
Speaker 9: said we, He said we, did not say I he
Speaker 9: said we, So sure enough, Elton and David came over
Speaker 9: for dinner. My son was six months old at the time,
Speaker 9: and I eventually just said, Elton, you know you're going
Speaker 9: to have to christen the piano. He uh, Without a second,
Speaker 9: Doot got up, walked into the living room, sat down
Speaker 9: at the piano, looked up at me. He's wearing a
Speaker 9: sweatshirt like a vluor a sweat outfit, and I said,
Speaker 9: what would you want me to play? And I thought,
Speaker 9: this is it. This is my chance.
Speaker 3: It's my chance to show him that I'm serious here.
Speaker 3: I know my shit. I'm not going to say rot
Speaker 3: your band. I'm not going to say Rocket Band like
Speaker 3: some schmuck. So I said, okay, I've.
Speaker 7: Seen that movie too, from Goodbye Ellwick Road, and he
Speaker 7: looked up at me and said, oh, fuck off, I
Speaker 7: don't remember that song.
Speaker 9: And I remember the moment, feeling incensed as a fan.
Speaker 3: I was like, maybe you don't remember that. You're supposed
Speaker 3: to know every song you wrote it.
Speaker 1: You wrote it.
Speaker 7: So he didn't play that song, But I tell that
Speaker 7: story in my act occasionally, and then I do, I've
Speaker 7: seen that movie too, which people don't remember, which.
Speaker 3: Is a great song.
Speaker 1: What did he play?
Speaker 7: He played, Actually, he played another obscure song for me
Speaker 7: because my son was There is a beautiful song called
Speaker 7: the Greatest Discovery. It's about a little boy waking up
Speaker 7: and hearing all this commotion, realizing that he has a
Speaker 7: brand new baby brother, and it's I feel like it's
Speaker 7: an impossible song to hear and not cry at the end.
Speaker 7: It's just so it's Bernie Toffs' greatest lyrics, I think,
Speaker 7: and I do that I've seen that one occasionally too.
Speaker 7: But he sang that song at the piano. And then
Speaker 7: the next day I saw my neighbor Thomas, and he
Speaker 7: was aware we had this new piano.
Speaker 3: We didn't know each other that well at the time,
Speaker 3: but he'd seen the piano arrive and he said, I
Speaker 3: couldn't help it over here last night. You're getting pretty good.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know how you keep that lie going,
Speaker 1: but I kind of hope Eric never confessed who the
Speaker 1: real piano player was. Now we're going to hear from
Speaker 1: two people that I was so happy to talk to
Speaker 1: this year, longtime best friends, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden.
Speaker 1: Let's just say Jason really bared his soul or his
Speaker 1: head for this one.
Speaker 5: If you're listening to this and haven't seen Jason on stage,
Speaker 5: he's my buddy, He's my best friend. We argue all
Speaker 5: the time, we have the podcast, we've done shows together.
Speaker 5: I'm still in awe when he walks on stage, even
Speaker 5: if I've helped write the piece. There's a different power
Speaker 5: that happens. He just it, just this thing happens. And
Speaker 5: you knows, Brian, how amazing that is to own a
Speaker 5: piece of that stage for X amount of time and
Speaker 5: it's yours. You own it and you can do with
Speaker 5: it whatever you want. And not everybody succeeds and It
Speaker 5: fascinates me when I watch him go out there and
Speaker 5: he transforms into this thing. It's goosebump time. He does
Speaker 5: it every time. Is really powerful.
Speaker 6: Thanks Pety, and thank you Peter for not mentioning the
Speaker 6: hairline that Brian and I.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah you both have.
Speaker 5: Okay, we both haven't, I don't, thank thank goodness, but
Speaker 5: both which, by the way, must have played into both
Speaker 5: of your psyches growing up young, because I remember everybody
Speaker 5: around me. It's that age. I remember asking this this
Speaker 5: girl who I was dating at the time, constantly at
Speaker 5: the back, the back, standing. It's standing in it. It's standing,
Speaker 5: isn't it. She say, you're neurotic. I go, no, I'm sinning.
Speaker 5: I'm sinning. And she ran into me like thirty years
Speaker 5: later and I said, look see she said, it's the same.
Speaker 5: It's the same. But what age, Like, what age did
Speaker 5: it happen to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What? What? What about you? Jason?
Speaker 6: I remember it almost of the day. I had braces
Speaker 6: for nine years. I got them onf I came off.
Speaker 6: I was seventeen, and uh, I remember the braces came
Speaker 6: off and I had a date that evening. So I
Speaker 6: went to the gym and I'm in the shower and I'm,
Speaker 6: you know, coming out of the shower, and I'm drying
Speaker 6: off my hair and I look in the mirror and
Speaker 6: I see something like a thin spot at the very
Speaker 6: very top, about the size of a quarter. And I went,
Speaker 6: I literally said, are you freaking.
Speaker 3: Didn't me I don't get a day one day?
Speaker 6: And it was it really was the beginning by the
Speaker 6: time I got to college, you know, my sophomore year
Speaker 6: of college, I had you know, like like a solid
Speaker 6: drinkcoaster spot up there, and you know, and and I
Speaker 6: panicked over and I cried about it, and I really
Speaker 6: really thought it was the end of everything. But you know,
Speaker 6: if you always say, what do you want to tell
Speaker 6: your younger self, if it hadn't happened, my career would
Speaker 6: not have happened the way it did because I kept
Speaker 6: getting cast much older than I was, which was far
Speaker 6: more interesting roles, right, and I had an energy about
Speaker 6: those roles that guys that age didn't have, so it
Speaker 6: made me kind of unique. I met my wife when
Speaker 6: I was twenty, so it wasn't like I was looking
Speaker 6: good and she got fooled. She's was gone on with that.
Speaker 1: Hell, did you ever I mean, this is I guess
Speaker 1: this is personal. Did you ever or consider doing something
Speaker 1: to change it?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you kidding.
Speaker 6: First of all, I was one of the first rogaine users.
Speaker 6: But rogaine, you know, rogain now comes in two forms.
Speaker 6: There's a there's like an oil base and there's a
Speaker 6: foam the oil base. Back in the beginning, it was
Speaker 6: like all oil. So if you have thinning hair and
Speaker 6: you put oil on your head, you look like you
Speaker 6: belong on the street, you know, So that was not good.
Speaker 6: Then I went to hair club for men for a
Speaker 6: year and they had the thing where they make fishing
Speaker 6: line and they take your hair and they make a
Speaker 6: braid and then they sew the tupe onto that braid
Speaker 6: and you have to go every four weeks to have
Speaker 6: it to have the crud the cottage cheese scraped off
Speaker 6: your head because you can't shampoo under that.
Speaker 5: So, by the way, if they want to use that
Speaker 5: as they're out. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Right after Seinfeld, there was a period of time where
Speaker 6: people where I got really close to a couple of
Speaker 6: roles and they ultimately didn't go with me because they said,
Speaker 6: he looks so much like his character on Seinfeld, And
Speaker 6: I'm going you.
Speaker 3: Honestly can't see me.
Speaker 6: Like if I grow a mustache and I put on
Speaker 6: a wig, you can't figure that out. So as a
Speaker 6: sort of fu.
Speaker 10: I wore to pay for two years publicly making no
Speaker 10: bones about it, going see see it changed nothing right,
Speaker 10: So if I could have changed it easily, I probably
Speaker 10: would have.
Speaker 6: But nothing was going to be easy.
Speaker 3: And frankly, who you know, nobody cares anymore.
Speaker 1: No I know. I mean, I'll tell you briefly mine
Speaker 1: because it's similar in a way. Now, I already was
Speaker 1: playing older roles. I'm convinced that it was sped up
Speaker 1: by that old makeup company ben Nye. Remember ben Nye
Speaker 1: does the theater makeup. And I convinced that cutting thinning
Speaker 1: for older roles and putting makeup on did something because
Speaker 1: it was right after that where it really took a turn.
Speaker 1: So I went in the I got the prescription. I
Speaker 1: had to get a prescription for the ro game. My
Speaker 1: dad was a he is a doctor, and got a
Speaker 1: dermatologist that was his like buddy, and got me the stuff.
Speaker 1: And then it was explained to me that it could
Speaker 1: have no effect. It could stop the loss, or it
Speaker 1: could reverse like a clock. But then what was explained
Speaker 1: to me was if you ever stop, the clock speeds
Speaker 1: up to wherever you would say it leaves up. And
Speaker 1: I thought, am I going to do this forever? Like
Speaker 1: that was for me? That was the decision. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it was oily back then at the time, at least
Speaker 1: it kind of had a alcohol yes, kind of smell anyway,
Speaker 1: So I stopped.
Speaker 6: Did I blame the jew fro phenomena of nineteen seventy
Speaker 6: six where every ouk joy was getting an afro? And
Speaker 6: I did it? And that's what I noticed the spot.
Speaker 6: Oh sure, I burnt every follicle. I ascid and heat
Speaker 6: and I killed every follicle.
Speaker 1: Look at us now, Jason, we get more beautiful with age.
Speaker 1: Maybe a little more bald too, but definitely more beautiful.
Speaker 1: I want to leave you all with one last clip
Speaker 1: from Rosie O'Donnell. I still kind of can't believe I
Speaker 1: got to hang out with the Rosie O'Donnell. Obviously she's
Speaker 1: an icon who has made a lasting impression on a
Speaker 1: whole generation of people. But don't take my word for it.
Speaker 1: What do you see now as the show's legacy, after
Speaker 1: it's it's now done.
Speaker 11: I would say it was the time of the legacy
Speaker 11: of the show. I think is love, because I think
Speaker 11: the reason that I was successful is because I really
Speaker 11: loved Florence Henderson. And when I had her on the show,
Speaker 11: it was trippy to think that I would dream that
Speaker 11: she would be my mom and that here she is
Speaker 11: sitting next to me and being motherly. Florence Henderson would
Speaker 11: come over to my house and play with Parker and
Speaker 11: these older women who knew that I was a motherless child,
Speaker 11: motherless child, you know, and stepped in in in a
Speaker 11: magical way almost, you know, there was something magical about
Speaker 11: the show. It was pure, and it was it was kind,
Speaker 11: and it was it was fun. I think we had fun,
Speaker 11: you know, and everybody wanted to be in the audience.
Speaker 11: It was a tiny little studio with like two hundred seats,
Speaker 11: and everybody wanted to be there. And then when I
Speaker 11: did Tickle Me Elmo, I remember getting a call from
Speaker 11: Aaron Spelling. Aaron Spelling, like one of the richest men
Speaker 11: in the world, calls to ask me if I had
Speaker 11: four Tickle Me Elmos for his grandchildren. I was like, okay, sir,
Speaker 11: well listen, thank you for Dynasty. I enjoyed that so
Speaker 11: much when I was a job. Let me get back
Speaker 11: to you. And then I go to my assistant find
Speaker 11: four fucking almost for Aaron spelling, like, and then I think,
Speaker 11: whose life is this? This is a crazy life. You know,
Speaker 11: it's a crazy life. And I never really believed at
Speaker 11: the height of like when oh, you're the most influential,
Speaker 11: You're on this list, You're on that list. You know,
Speaker 11: I usually didn't go to the party, you know, I like,
Speaker 11: I didn't always believe it, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 11: I feel like I have a healthy amount of reality
Speaker 11: in my show business. I don't know, is that weird
Speaker 11: to say?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I think I get it. But but you must be aware,
Speaker 1: or you should be aware of the countless doors that
Speaker 1: you opened in your career for other people in the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ community. You opened up a lot of doors during
Speaker 1: this time and after for people that came after you.
Speaker 1: Do you are you proud of that? Do you acknowledge
Speaker 1: that to yourself? Yes?
Speaker 11: Yes, I definitely do. And I you know, I feel
Speaker 11: that some people are marathon runners and some people are sprinters,
Speaker 11: and I knew that I'm hardly a jogger, right, I
Speaker 11: work very very hard, but I'm tired, you know, like
Speaker 11: I want to lay down and watch something like I
Speaker 11: don't have the kind of energy that that I did
Speaker 11: back then, and it was a very large amount of work.
Speaker 11: But I do realize that. And you know, I was
Speaker 11: at Nobu yesterday and this is.
Speaker 1: It's so funny because you're so not this. I'm going
Speaker 1: to totally interrupt you that that is like the most
Speaker 1: like Hollywood.
Speaker 5: I know, I know.
Speaker 11: Yesterday anyway, so I've never seen it.
Speaker 1: You like the opposite of that, So I had to
Speaker 1: at least call it.
Speaker 11: You have to. I've never seen a Kardashian there. I
Speaker 11: just want you to know. I go there like three
Speaker 11: or four times a week. It's almost like my my
Speaker 11: neighborhood restaurant. I'm right on the beach in Malibu and
Speaker 11: right next door is Noboo.
Speaker 1: I just ate at Nobuo two nights in a row
Speaker 1: in Vegas.
Speaker 11: Now, if I could eat it every day, I would
Speaker 11: eat it every day. But can I read this to you?
Speaker 11: What this this note that happened at Nobuo?
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 11: So I see this family sitting in front of me,
Speaker 11: and they're very young. I thought at first they were teenagers,
Speaker 11: but very kind of good looking like like he looked
Speaker 11: like an artist to me, Like I thought he had
Speaker 11: one real funky clothes. I bet he's a fashion designer,
Speaker 11: I thought to myself, and what a pretty wife. And
Speaker 11: I go to get the check and the guy says, oh,
Speaker 11: it's paid for. I said, what do you mean. He said, well,
Speaker 11: there's a note for you. And apparently this young man
Speaker 11: paid my bill and left with and never bothered me,
Speaker 11: but he left me this note. Rosie, thank you for
Speaker 11: being you and setting an example of what it means
Speaker 11: to be yourself in the face of adversity and negativity.
Speaker 11: Because of your strength and bravery, a little boy found
Speaker 11: the light in a childhood riddled with violence, drug abuse,
Speaker 11: and depression. And now I'm one of the biggest rappers
Speaker 11: in the whole world. Thank you, with unconditional reverence. Logic
Speaker 11: Bobby Hall. Now, I had no idea who logic was,
Speaker 11: but I felt like this is the legacy of the show,
Speaker 11: that there are millions of artists and they were inspired
Speaker 11: and they knew to go there, and they knew what
Speaker 11: we were selling was membership in this world. And uh,
Speaker 11: I was so blown away. I go on to my
Speaker 11: son who's twenty three, and my daughter who's twenty and
Speaker 11: I send the copy of it to both of them
Speaker 11: and they both call me screaming on the phone, screaming,
Speaker 11: I am going to use this for the next three years.
Speaker 11: Like Blake was like, do you want to keep it?
Speaker 11: I'm like, yes, I'm keeping it. He's like, I want
Speaker 11: to show my friends. I'm like, I'll send you a
Speaker 11: picture of it. You know. But I was so, I
Speaker 11: was so moved that.
Speaker 1: Is I'm you know what I'm so that makes me
Speaker 1: so happy. Yeah, for you, that makes me so happy
Speaker 1: that that happened for you, obviously for logic as well,
Speaker 1: that he was able to come out of a difficult
Speaker 1: situation in part because of you. But for him to
Speaker 1: tell you that.
Speaker 11: And to buy me a very expensive dinner as well,
Speaker 11: a lunch with a friend of mine who I knew
Speaker 11: was a comedian years ago and I hadn't seen in
Speaker 11: forty years. We had a lunch and talked about doing
Speaker 11: stand up in the old days. But he did, And
Speaker 11: I thought, you know, and I think to myself, every
Speaker 11: time that somebody writes to me or ops me or
Speaker 11: tells me, you know, is a gift. It's a gift.
Speaker 11: And my children make fun of me because of the
Speaker 11: difference between when they were little and we used to
Speaker 11: go to the mall and going to the mall now,
Speaker 11: and or we go to a baseball game or a
Speaker 11: football game, and and my sons would totally rag on me, like, mom,
Speaker 11: nobody recognized you.
Speaker 6: The whole game.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 11: I'm like, well, honey, Mommy's lost it. I got gray
Speaker 11: hair now, and I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 12: Nobody knew you.
Speaker 1: You know. I think my favorite thing about this job,
Speaker 1: about art and entertainment in general, is how deeply it
Speaker 1: can impact people. Television, film, music, they can change someone's life.
Speaker 1: Rosie apparently did for Logic. You know. I was on
Speaker 1: the Little show The Office. I have always said the
Speaker 1: greatest gift that the show ever gave me was hearing
Speaker 1: from people how much that work affected them. I consider
Speaker 1: it a gift to me, the idea of making someone's
Speaker 1: life better, even for just a day or a moment.
Speaker 1: And you know what made my life better today listening
Speaker 1: back to these great moments from twenty twenty three, with
Speaker 1: all of the incredible guests that we've had, I want
Speaker 1: to thank everyone who was a part of this podcast
Speaker 1: this year, not just the guests, but the incredible crew
Speaker 1: and production team that I get to work with, and
Speaker 1: all of you, the listeners who truly allow me to
Speaker 1: keep doing this. So Happy New Year to everyone, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see you next year. Off the Beat is hosted
Speaker 1: and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive
Speaker 1: producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our
Speaker 1: producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our
Speaker 1: talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is
Speaker 1: Ali Amir Sahed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed
Speaker 1: by the one and only Creed Bratton