Speaker 1: The after after parties at s n L. Well, I've
Speaker 1: been lucky enough to go to a few. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think it was probably good that I never never
Speaker 1: was a cast member on that show. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I could have done twenty of them, just the
Speaker 1: stamina wise, I mean definitely, like when you start out,
Speaker 1: you want to go to as many as you can
Speaker 1: possibly can, and then you kind of grow out of
Speaker 1: them quickly. By the time I got there. I don't
Speaker 1: think Bill Hater even went to like the first after
Speaker 1: party and it was like, what, you're crazy, man, this
Speaker 1: is the best job ever. We're never gonna die. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then like halfway through season two, Bill was right.
Speaker 1: It was right. Hi, I am Taran kill him, and
Speaker 1: I am so excited to talk to my brand new
Speaker 1: friend Brian all about me. Hello there, everybody, and welcome
Speaker 1: back too off the beat. I'm your host, Brian baum Gartner,
Speaker 1: my guest today. Well, you just heard Arn kill him.
Speaker 1: An actor who has lived many, many lives. If you
Speaker 1: consider yourself a film buff, you'll probably recognize him from
Speaker 1: twelve years a slave. If you were a Disney or
Speaker 1: a Nickelodeon kid, you might remember when he was still
Speaker 1: just a teenage heartthrob. You might recognize him from on
Speaker 1: stage in Hamilton's as King George the Third, or if
Speaker 1: you're big into comedy you will know him for sure
Speaker 1: from his time on SNL or his new Amazon show
Speaker 1: The NFL Pylon. What can this guy not do? Okay,
Speaker 1: he can sing, he can act, he can rap. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is true. He's wrapped with many people, including both
Speaker 1: Snoop Dogg and Rob Wriggle. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: he is a master impersonator, which actually helped him get
Speaker 1: one of his first big breaks. So yeah, it's safe
Speaker 1: to say, Taren, well, he is skilled at the art
Speaker 1: of entertaining and that's exactly what he's come here to
Speaker 1: do today. Well that and talk about the off the
Speaker 1: beat moments in his life. Of course, with all that said,
Speaker 1: I am very excited to bring on Well the great
Speaker 1: and Powerful Taran kill him. Bubble and Squeak. I love it,
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every
Speaker 1: month left over from the night before. What's up? Karen Brian?
Speaker 1: How are you buddy? How good? How are you good? Good?
Speaker 1: I am in a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia, so
Speaker 1: not the ideal not the ideal lighting situation at least understood.
Speaker 1: I didn't. It was either going to be hotel room
Speaker 1: in Atlanta or like leftover Halloween mood lighting. Yes, speaking
Speaker 1: of which I do have to comment on the art
Speaker 1: behind me. Yes, is it? Is it an open pomegranate
Speaker 1: that I'm looking at? It is congratulations? Yeah, I'm a
Speaker 1: big Yeah, I don't. It seems weirdly disturbing to me.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. Yeah. Yeah, there it's a
Speaker 1: it's a gruesome the the amount of magnification upon said pomegranate, Yes,
Speaker 1: too intense, it is. I I have named the piece
Speaker 1: of art gruesome Fruit. So, by the way, not a
Speaker 1: terrible tie. It's for a horror movie. No, it's not
Speaker 1: dart writing Brian copyright me. Um, I think that's all
Speaker 1: I have to do, right, That's how the guilds work,
Speaker 1: that is. How are you doing? I'm very well, thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: My my wife and I were actually for the first
Speaker 1: time you heard about the pandemic. Yeah, so for the
Speaker 1: first time since the pandemic. Um, my wife and I
Speaker 1: were invited to like, you know, grown up Halloween parties
Speaker 1: without our kids and we went to two over the
Speaker 1: weekend and we've aged out. We showed up, We showed up,
Speaker 1: we got a drink, We like made a beeline for
Speaker 1: people we knew, We said hi, and then literally did
Speaker 1: not know what to do with ourselves. We're like, I
Speaker 1: I miss home. Now I have to ask you a question.
Speaker 1: Did you dress up? We did? We did. I was
Speaker 1: sort of like, uh, we both kind of went classic.
Speaker 1: She was like a vampress and I was a wolfman.
Speaker 1: All right, I mean that's a that's a d I
Speaker 1: will say my daughter's friends came over to hang like
Speaker 1: Friday night to do a little like early Halloween party,
Speaker 1: and one of her friends showed up in an FBI
Speaker 1: jacket with a with a warrant to search mar Lago.
Speaker 1: This is a This is a thirteen year old child
Speaker 1: who is hipper, funnier, more clever than any costume I
Speaker 1: have ever or will everwhere. Well you, I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about your career and your variety
Speaker 1: of elaborate costumes. You've had lots of lots of dressing.
Speaker 1: See that's my thing. I don't dress up. I feel
Speaker 1: like I dress up. I fulfill that itch. At other times,
Speaker 1: and when it comes to Halloween, No, it's just me.
Speaker 1: And other times you just mean like within your career,
Speaker 1: there's there's enough dress up, there's dress up. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I I did. I was in I did
Speaker 1: put on makeup and get my hair done yesterday on Halloween,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't gonna go home and do it different. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you know what you did? Do it? You did?
Speaker 1: You got Yeah, you got your voucher. Yeah. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: I want to go back. You're a California boy, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1: Your parents this is fascinating to me. Your parents both
Speaker 1: dabbled in the entertainment industry. Your mom singer songwriter with
Speaker 1: the Charlie Daniels band. Question, how many times have you
Speaker 1: heard Devil went Down to Georgia? I mean even just recently,
Speaker 1: many times? Because I feel like that's on a lot
Speaker 1: of Halloween playlists a lot of times. A lot of
Speaker 1: times she toured as a as a background singer, UM
Speaker 1: for Charlie Daniels. Uh, two or three summers before I
Speaker 1: was born, something like that. So I am from Georgia.
Speaker 1: So I feel like that song is like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things when you're young you're like
Speaker 1: they said, pere job. It was Charlie Daniels and like
Speaker 1: Ray Charles right right, that's exactly, Um, your dad part
Speaker 1: of a theater group. How how much do you think
Speaker 1: their influence are you know, their participation in the arts
Speaker 1: and performing that influence you as a kid, massively, massively.
Speaker 1: They were like we we attended Manhattan Beach Community Church,
Speaker 1: you know, the first decade of my life. Um, and
Speaker 1: they would do the sort of community church plays there.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was in theaters, I was watching rehearsals.
Speaker 1: I was surrounded by the idea of like putting on
Speaker 1: a show before I could even kind of conceive of
Speaker 1: it or or an you know self analyze what that
Speaker 1: meant and what that what that required. And then my
Speaker 1: mother took me and my my two younger siblings to
Speaker 1: a commercial agent because she thought we were cute and
Speaker 1: precocious enough that maybe that would be a thing we
Speaker 1: would do well at. And of the three of us,
Speaker 1: I think I was the only one that was willing
Speaker 1: to go into a room full of strangers and be like, Hi,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll talk about milkshakes. Um. So so absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean, incredibly influential and encouraging, you know that that
Speaker 1: was It was like unconditional support before I was really
Speaker 1: even asking for it. Um. But it wasn't until like
Speaker 1: middle school for me and like getting involved in theater
Speaker 1: drama with my peers, with my own group, where it
Speaker 1: became a sort of a self passion where I was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I I do like this, and I I can excel
Speaker 1: at this too, but I'm I also enjoy the process,
Speaker 1: and to me, I'm sure you agree. Just if you
Speaker 1: enjoy doing it, the end results don't become as um precious,
Speaker 1: you know, right. So it started out it sounds like
Speaker 1: as I don't know, hobby, maybe the wrong, but like
Speaker 1: an activity, I think it's fair. Yeah. It was like
Speaker 1: recreational pastime. Yeah, absolutely, and and just always around like
Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was in productions at the
Speaker 1: church from the age of four or five, um, because
Speaker 1: it was fun to go hang out with kids. And
Speaker 1: I think my parents, having five children, needed extracurriculars to like,
Speaker 1: you know, find a moment to breathe. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so it started that way. But in my own sort
Speaker 1: of history for myself, in my heart, in my mind,
Speaker 1: it was around six or seventh grade when I really
Speaker 1: started going like, oh, I love this, you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe maybe slightly earlier, just I remember seeing Tim Burton's Batman,
Speaker 1: the First Batman in like eighty nine and going, I
Speaker 1: love the way that movie makes me feel. That movie
Speaker 1: makes me feel like things that I only thought were
Speaker 1: pretend before could be real. And that's I want to
Speaker 1: do that. That sounds awesome. Well, it sounds like right
Speaker 1: about this time, you were twelve years old, you made
Speaker 1: your first film appearance. Yes, Naked Gun thirty three and
Speaker 1: a third, the Final Insult. What do you remember about
Speaker 1: being cast on that? I was just through this commercial
Speaker 1: agent this, you know, I think we'd moved on from
Speaker 1: from the first one and then and then they're like, um,
Speaker 1: the thing I was it was like Cunningham was the
Speaker 1: first commercial agency I was with, and then moved to
Speaker 1: a sort of more boutique agency off senset called the
Speaker 1: Sanders Agency, and I think that that's who this was through.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was just an audition and you know,
Speaker 1: you have to you have to get your vouchers, you
Speaker 1: have to become taft heartly before you can become SAG eligible.
Speaker 1: And Naked Gun is the thing I think is the
Speaker 1: job that got me taft heartly that like made me
Speaker 1: union eligible, and then doing a re enactor reenaction moment
Speaker 1: in an Unsolved Mysteries episode got me my card. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the Naked Gun was so exciting and fun. The
Speaker 1: director of that movie directed Tommy Boy, Like his next
Speaker 1: film was Tommy Boy, which is like a cool factoid
Speaker 1: for me. Had I but known, I would have been
Speaker 1: much more of a kiss up one of my favorite
Speaker 1: same same. We just showed it to our daughters and
Speaker 1: it holds up and they were laughing throughout. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's timeless, it's it's one of the
Speaker 1: best comedies ever, I think. But it was fun to
Speaker 1: like be on set and my role was in a
Speaker 1: parody of Jurassic Park, so like they'd kind of recreated
Speaker 1: a Jurassic Park set and that was cool. And I
Speaker 1: had a stand in who was like twelve years older
Speaker 1: than me, like a full adult man who just happened
Speaker 1: to be short enough to be my stand in, and
Speaker 1: that was very exciting, and I was like, are we brothers?
Speaker 1: Now we best friends? We ended up not being Unfortunately
Speaker 1: he's he ghosted me. I mean, it's so so interesting
Speaker 1: because you started so early started performing. Did you feel
Speaker 1: a specific affinity for comedy at this point or was
Speaker 1: it was it just about performing or finding whatever job
Speaker 1: you could get, or you know, yeah, I I loved comedy.
Speaker 1: I always as a as an audience member, always skewed
Speaker 1: towards comedies. You know, the works of Jim Carey were
Speaker 1: incredibly influential to me and and inspiring. But in terms
Speaker 1: of like what I could do, I definitely came at it,
Speaker 1: you know, in the first third of my life or career,
Speaker 1: just from trying to do as many different things as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, I really love musical theater, I really love drama,
Speaker 1: I love Shakespeare, I love I love a good mystery
Speaker 1: and thriller. And so the sort of goal or or
Speaker 1: career path into comedy was not decided until I was
Speaker 1: I was kind of a college that's when that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I saw some of your your earlier roles
Speaker 1: not decidedly not comedic, judging Amy, Touched by an Angel, Roswell.
Speaker 1: You start booking at a number of pretty big shows
Speaker 1: at that time. Was this difficult for you to continue
Speaker 1: to go to school where you schools where you set schooling?
Speaker 1: Were you good? Question? And and and there was a
Speaker 1: moment in time where like kind of coming out. I
Speaker 1: went to a performing arts high school here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and as I was finishing school, I was auditioning a
Speaker 1: lot more and I was getting these guest roles and
Speaker 1: doing well. But then was accepted to u c l
Speaker 1: A for Musical theater and the agency I was with
Speaker 1: actually disbanded, like they close shop, they just sort of
Speaker 1: shut down. And I was like, that's great. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna focus on school. I'm gonna be a college student.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here for four years. I'll train and
Speaker 1: then hopefully pick things back up once once I graduate.
Speaker 1: But a show I had done on Nickelodeon, The Amanda Show,
Speaker 1: called back halfway through my freshman year at college and
Speaker 1: they're like, we want to do more episodes with you,
Speaker 1: which was very flattering, very exciting. UM, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't have an agent. I've sort of stopped. I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of going to school. And the producers were like,
Speaker 1: we'll help you get all that, and they did. They're like,
Speaker 1: they got me an agent, they got me, they got
Speaker 1: me a manager, and which I've never had before. UM,
Speaker 1: so that's sort of like relaunched it. And then by
Speaker 1: the end of that freshman year sort of as a fluke,
Speaker 1: I've gotten I was allowed to audition for Mad TV,
Speaker 1: the sketch show that was on Fox, and got it.
Speaker 1: It's still funny that that happened to me because I
Speaker 1: had not taken an improv sketch stand up class, like
Speaker 1: no training. Um, but just was loud and obnoxious and
Speaker 1: a good mimic I think you know, um and and yeah.
Speaker 1: So that that is when I became like comedian Taran
Speaker 1: kill him. Okay, so I gotta I gotta ask you
Speaker 1: about that. So for first off, isn't it crazy? My
Speaker 1: manager and I we still have a joke about this,
Speaker 1: right that all if you're if you're having trouble getting
Speaker 1: a job, all you need to do is book a vacation,
Speaker 1: right like book something that was likely nonrefundable, or you
Speaker 1: have or you have dozens of people counting on you,
Speaker 1: you know, plan a wedding. You're gonna get a job. Um.
Speaker 1: So that that's fascinating to me. Where you consciously say
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a little break, I'm gonna go to
Speaker 1: U C l A, I'm gonna train, and then everything
Speaker 1: starts hitting for you. And now I read here that
Speaker 1: first off the Amanda Show, you almost missed your graduation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah I did. Technically I was. I did. I wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to walk because I had to miss the rehearsal.
Speaker 1: Like I booked that job initially and it was very exciting,
Speaker 1: and the shoot dates overlapped with the graduation rehearsal Loxa,
Speaker 1: which is the name of my high school at that time.
Speaker 1: Graduation took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which is
Speaker 1: where the officers used to happen before they build the
Speaker 1: Dolby Place, which is really cool, really fancy, nice, nice honor.
Speaker 1: But the school was saying that it was the theater's
Speaker 1: policy that you had to be present for the rehearsal
Speaker 1: and if you weren't there for the rehearsal, you were
Speaker 1: not allowed to walk on the stage. And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh shoot. So I went to I said to the Amandage.
Speaker 1: I was like, I can't do this job. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss out on my graduation and they were
Speaker 1: so they'll they said, we'll do everything we can to
Speaker 1: make sure you're there for the show to do you know,
Speaker 1: we can, we'll show you the dates ahead of time
Speaker 1: and if they can reschedule. And they were so accommodating,
Speaker 1: and the high school for which I was being trained
Speaker 1: to be a professional actor was not that I Eventually
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what I'm gonna They're they're
Speaker 1: paying me money. So what happened was true to their word.
Speaker 1: The producers um shot me out early the day of
Speaker 1: my graduation, sent me in a limousine downtown l A
Speaker 1: to the Dorothy Chandler. But then I had to sit
Speaker 1: in the audience for my high school graduation and all
Speaker 1: my classmates walking stupid. It all worked out, all right.
Speaker 1: You and this guy by the name of Keenan Thompson
Speaker 1: I here had the same manager. Mad TV calls for Keenan.
Speaker 1: You get pitched. You did twenty three impressions during your audition.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have twenty three people at this point
Speaker 1: that you can do. Yeah, it's again the mimicry thing,
Speaker 1: like you know, my party trick was too good in
Speaker 1: whatever movie was in theaters, and then come back and
Speaker 1: kind of recreate it, satirize it. So at that point,
Speaker 1: like the WB network was a huge thing, so all
Speaker 1: the Dawson's Creek people, all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer people,
Speaker 1: cruel intentions, your varsity blues, like that was sort of
Speaker 1: my wheelhouse and knowing you know, if Matt TV was
Speaker 1: gonna hire a nineteen year old kid, they probably want
Speaker 1: to capitalize on a more youth oriented point of view.
Speaker 1: It was those. But then you know you're thrown in
Speaker 1: a bono from you two or um at that point,
Speaker 1: Jimmy fallon, Like I did a follon for them, But yeah,
Speaker 1: for my like official audition, it's it's so kind of
Speaker 1: like juvenile but charming upon reflection. But I like made cards.
Speaker 1: I made, I like did craft cards with like name
Speaker 1: titles as if you know, there was a lower third
Speaker 1: on the screen. But I was gonna be in an office,
Speaker 1: so I made twenty three different cards and I wore
Speaker 1: them around my neck and I would just take one
Speaker 1: off and then do the impression, and take one off
Speaker 1: and do the impression, and so like it and it
Speaker 1: and it helped it. It did help it, I think
Speaker 1: because it required me to do less work. But the
Speaker 1: best part always like even then I was so embarrassed
Speaker 1: because the audition ends and then I got to take
Speaker 1: a solid thirty seconds to collect all these paper cards
Speaker 1: like these. He's a file eleven pieces of paper that
Speaker 1: have scattered all over the floor of this office at
Speaker 1: at Fox Studios. Um. But yeah, but it worked, it worked.
Speaker 1: It was. It was a very very fortunate, lucky thing
Speaker 1: and and an incredible learning experience for me. I talked
Speaker 1: to Kevin Pollock, who he's actually an amazing impressionist. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean his walking his phenomenal. His walking is really good,
Speaker 1: he said. He also says like he helped Dana come
Speaker 1: up with his George Herbert Walker Bush. He's yeah, Kevin
Speaker 1: was at one of those Halloween parties I was at. Okay.
Speaker 1: He talked to me about just finding that one hook.
Speaker 1: Is that how you operate as well? Are you looking
Speaker 1: for one characteristic or speech pattern or what do you? Sometimes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes of physical affectation helps it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like a mouth shape or I I squinted, you know, like, um,
Speaker 1: it usually starts outward in for me, for you, okay,
Speaker 1: or if there is a melody to it, if there
Speaker 1: is a sound or or a certain rhythm of speech,
Speaker 1: that's that's another way in for me. Like when when
Speaker 1: I started doing bread Pitt again. It was that thing
Speaker 1: where I'd seen the movies and then just quoting it
Speaker 1: with friends, people be bold enjoying, going like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: yeah you sound like him, um with with no jokes
Speaker 1: at that point. But um like for Brad Pitt, I
Speaker 1: really really loved and still love seven And there's this,
Speaker 1: there's a speech he does with Morgan Freeman at the
Speaker 1: bar and he goes, you know what, um, I don't
Speaker 1: think you're quitting because you believe that. I think you
Speaker 1: want to believe that. Because you're quitting. You want me
Speaker 1: to agree with you and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's funked it's all funked up. We should all live
Speaker 1: in fucking lord Cabins. But I don't agree with you.
Speaker 1: I do not. Thanks for the drink, and just like
Speaker 1: the rhythm of the Buddhaud but like and then twelve Monkeys,
Speaker 1: he's much more frenetic, and that he's much more physical
Speaker 1: and he does always touch his face. He's always kind
Speaker 1: of licking his lips and his lips moist and there's
Speaker 1: a little like bounce, you know, a little shake to
Speaker 1: the head, a little like I can't even I don't
Speaker 1: even have the energy to be this cool. And then
Speaker 1: in Twelve Monkeys he does a lot of that. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, cham yeah, there's like a lot of these
Speaker 1: like on them on a pia sounds. So I started
Speaker 1: just button ing like Lou, great to meet you, very
Speaker 1: happy to meet you. And that's that's just sort of
Speaker 1: how that how that one in particular developed and and
Speaker 1: it just always brought me great joy because he's just
Speaker 1: undeniably the most handsome, cool, most unique performers in terms
Speaker 1: of the types of roles he chooses. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, he has a very um limited vocal range.
Speaker 1: He always sounds like himself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: He's not like Tom Hardy, who's always gonna make some
Speaker 1: big vocal swing, always bred right right. I see, that's jenious.
Speaker 1: I love that. I also love that for you. Physicality
Speaker 1: is so important for you. For me in terms of
Speaker 1: creating a character, I always said that is equally as
Speaker 1: as important how the character moves, how how they hold
Speaker 1: their body, where their holds are lets you know so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I find it. I don't get as self critical
Speaker 1: when I start with the physical, right, like a bad example,
Speaker 1: someone who walks with a limb. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You can feel you're feeling, and it's very real, it's
Speaker 1: very tangible, as opposed to journaling from the point of
Speaker 1: view of somebody or you know, all these internal exercises
Speaker 1: people do. If I start there, it feels false to me,
Speaker 1: like it like I I can get in my head,
Speaker 1: I'm like, what am I? Why am I writing that? What?
Speaker 1: You know, these things didn't happen, This wasn't really I'm
Speaker 1: making this up. But if you go in physical and
Speaker 1: you start to feel that, then the thoughts behind it
Speaker 1: become a little bit more, become validated in a way
Speaker 1: to me, I just as I've always found that to
Speaker 1: be more helpful. You know. Yeah, and and shoes are
Speaker 1: really important to me, just because different shoes, different types
Speaker 1: of shoes ground you to the ground in a different
Speaker 1: way and literally creates different body postures, right like, And
Speaker 1: this isn't a job. I'm not even making a joke
Speaker 1: right now, I'm wearing I'm wearing cowboy boots. I appear
Speaker 1: to be a different person when I'm walking down the
Speaker 1: street in these shoes. As my second favorite type of
Speaker 1: shoes a flip flop. You know, it's the dude in
Speaker 1: the Big Lebowski versus put Jeff Bridges in boots and
Speaker 1: he immediately becomes somebody else, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So even if you know, I try, it doesn't always happen.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be totally high maintenance about it. But
Speaker 1: even like if I'm off camera or something and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be there for somebody else, having the shoes
Speaker 1: is always important for me. Absolutely puts my body in
Speaker 1: a specific position and the way that it affects others too.
Speaker 1: That so, I mean, I've never thought of that, but
Speaker 1: it immediately makes sense to me. Because if you enter
Speaker 1: a room in cowboy boots, people here, you coming in
Speaker 1: a different way than coming in and flip flop. Like
Speaker 1: there's just the sound that those two different kinds of
Speaker 1: shoes make effect. Like flip flops is like, who's this dude,
Speaker 1: you know? And cowboy boots is like, oh do I
Speaker 1: need to be on my guard? You know? Here comes something,
Speaker 1: here comes Here's comes the possibility of authority, right, And
Speaker 1: that's that's the great dichotomy of me. I wear both
Speaker 1: there you go sometimes the same day. It's great love
Speaker 1: that I don't mind that one bit, not to like
Speaker 1: dig in on feet stuff. But I now have inflamed
Speaker 1: plantar fasciitis. You know. Oh boy, I shot I shot
Speaker 1: a film in Europe this summer. Came home with like
Speaker 1: a chronically sore foot. I was like, I tore something,
Speaker 1: I ripped something. I need surgery. I need to do it.
Speaker 1: And I go into the pedietry and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: now as you get older, and I didn't hear anything
Speaker 1: he said after that, are you over it? Now? It
Speaker 1: went away? But it it. I've now had like two
Speaker 1: bouts of it. Like I was able to kind of
Speaker 1: curb it and it's excided and then I reaggravated it.
Speaker 1: And apparently it has everything to do with being an
Speaker 1: old dummy. Yeah kind of. But I will tell you this.
Speaker 1: I was shooting something for NFL Network and this has
Speaker 1: been I don't know, six seven, eight years and was
Speaker 1: there with two young NFL players at the time, and
Speaker 1: I was talking about flip things. I don't know why
Speaker 1: we weren't. It wasn't sexual, I promised, and they said, well,
Speaker 1: you get pedicures, right. I was like, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: get pedicures. They're like, why not? Literally, you're walking around
Speaker 1: on those things every single day of your life. You
Speaker 1: gotta take care of them. Wow. And I was like,
Speaker 1: you guys, you guys get pedicures, and they're like absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, It's totally changed my life. Interesting enquire
Speaker 1: about frequency. I mean, ideally we're talking every month to
Speaker 1: six weeks. Okay, that's very reasonable. And I you know,
Speaker 1: I play. Everybody's tuning out now. I talk about this
Speaker 1: too much, but I play a lot of golf, and
Speaker 1: I like to walk, and I play golf tournaments and
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes golf shoes are a little pointed at
Speaker 1: the end. It can cause can cause issues. Since I
Speaker 1: started this, it is it is night and day for me.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about playing three, four, five times walking.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you feet are gonna get so,
Speaker 1: you know, tired or whatever. But the pain that I
Speaker 1: had before it doesn't exist anymore. Phenomenal. All right, you're
Speaker 1: giving me. That is the gift I am giving you today. Um.
Speaker 1: Now back to Mad TV in the Groundlings. You start
Speaker 1: studying at the Groundlings. Yeah, So many of the people
Speaker 1: that I really loved working with it Mad had come
Speaker 1: from there, had trained there. Michael Hitchcock in particular, Jennifer Joyce,
Speaker 1: Michael McDonald and I had obviously heard of the Groundlings
Speaker 1: and knew of it, and actually even had a buddy
Speaker 1: from college going through it, mikey Day who's now on
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live. But because I did come in so
Speaker 1: inexperienced but fell in love so deeply with the format
Speaker 1: of sketch and the people who I looked up to
Speaker 1: almost consistently across the board happened to be Groundling, you know,
Speaker 1: so kind of just for fun more than anything. I
Speaker 1: signed up for a class with my buddy Kyle and
Speaker 1: the Seam who was also on SNL and me, and
Speaker 1: it was not, uh, result oriented. It was more like,
Speaker 1: let's just experience what this is like and what we
Speaker 1: can learn from it. And thank goodness because everything that
Speaker 1: has happened since I joined up with the Groundlings Theater
Speaker 1: is because of that that establishment. Wow, um, you're doing
Speaker 1: a show at the Groundlings and you get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to perform for Lauren Michaels, Now did you know he
Speaker 1: was there? Know? What happened was I was in the
Speaker 1: Sunday Company, which is sort of like the Junior Come.
Speaker 1: This is prestigious people, the Sunday Company at the ground. Yes,
Speaker 1: for my money. If if you happen to be in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and want to see good sketch comedy, for
Speaker 1: my money, the Sunday Company shows the one most worth
Speaker 1: seeing because what you're doing is writing a brand new
Speaker 1: show every week. Um, so we were, so we were
Speaker 1: doing the show comeback at intermission, and they've written on
Speaker 1: the dry race board. By the way, Lauren Michaels was
Speaker 1: an audience tonight, and the dry race board in a
Speaker 1: sketch comedy theater very frequently is used for stupid bits
Speaker 1: and not for any since your messaging, so I kind
Speaker 1: of laughed it off. It wasn't like toward like later
Speaker 1: in the second half where people like, no, he was
Speaker 1: he left, He he was here, but he left. And
Speaker 1: I believe he had come to see the seam in
Speaker 1: particular because she had put it. She had done a
Speaker 1: one woman show, she put together a tape. So he
Speaker 1: came and and that was Yeah, that was the first
Speaker 1: chance that I had to be seen by s n L.
Speaker 1: And then they flew four of us and seeing myself,
Speaker 1: Gillian Bell and Greg Roman out to audition, like less
Speaker 1: than a month later, was this another opportunity, another job
Speaker 1: for you or did this hold a special significance for
Speaker 1: you at that time? I mean, I my my process
Speaker 1: with SNL was I had auditioned twice that year, didn't
Speaker 1: get it, audition a third time a year later, and
Speaker 1: that's when I got the job. By the time I
Speaker 1: was working my way up in the groundlings, in the
Speaker 1: writing lab and advanced class s, n L had become
Speaker 1: like the dream goal, right like that, And and I
Speaker 1: had confidence that if I have had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: be seen, because there's a little bit of circumstance, right
Speaker 1: It's like some some of the most talented, funniest sketch
Speaker 1: performers in the world just didn't fall in a window
Speaker 1: where SNL needed people or needed that type, or happened
Speaker 1: to be looking whatever. There's so much luck and circumstance
Speaker 1: in this industry. But I did know if I got
Speaker 1: seen and if I was able to audition, I would
Speaker 1: have a good shot. I just felt confident about that.
Speaker 1: And so the first audition was like validation of that.
Speaker 1: Like it was kind of a party. It was like
Speaker 1: me and three of my favorite people to perform with
Speaker 1: flying to New York, which was so exciting, Like I
Speaker 1: even paid for a limousine to like pick us up
Speaker 1: from the airport and drive us into Manhattan. And I
Speaker 1: made a mix c D of all New York theme songs,
Speaker 1: um and it was just it was a party. It
Speaker 1: was just like I've been invited there to perform, you know,
Speaker 1: in this inside, this hallowed ground to me, this like
Speaker 1: this institution, this temple of comedy, if you will. So
Speaker 1: the first time was just fun and just about soak
Speaker 1: it all in and no matter what, they saw you
Speaker 1: and they said that, yes, you're good enough to be considered,
Speaker 1: you know, and that was enough. And truly I was
Speaker 1: had already made peace with that before I even auditioned,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's it's just like great, great,
Speaker 1: that that's that's a thumbs up from a show that
Speaker 1: truly has shaped my sensibilities. They're going like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: like what you do good enough. Then I find out
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks after my audition they like you
Speaker 1: and they want to bring you back. And for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: that like just changed the molecular structure of it for me,
Speaker 1: because then it became like, oh, now it's mine to lose.
Speaker 1: Now they they said yes, but now they're they're like
Speaker 1: on on a razor's edge of whether or not to
Speaker 1: do it. So if I give everything I can, then
Speaker 1: then it's it's within my grasp um. But also I've
Speaker 1: got to give them five new minutes of material, and
Speaker 1: so it's all gonna be the stuff I cut out
Speaker 1: of the first audition, right, And the second one went
Speaker 1: fine ish, and they even said after it like, it's
Speaker 1: not now, but it's not never, and he's on our radar.
Speaker 1: And I took that with a grain of salt, and
Speaker 1: then true to their word, a year later they called
Speaker 1: out of the blue. Really, they hadn't even seen me
Speaker 1: perform again. They just kind of called me up and uh.
Speaker 1: And the third time was a charm. What was your
Speaker 1: favorite character you created on this? And now? I mean
Speaker 1: I really loved the French dance sketches we would do,
Speaker 1: which was like a really weird warped like what is
Speaker 1: the CW for France based off if you had to
Speaker 1: design what a teen show is in France based off
Speaker 1: of American stereotypes? Those are like putting on a show.
Speaker 1: They were like a little different because they weren't like
Speaker 1: written joke sketches. They were performative, physical pieces. So they're
Speaker 1: always so joyful to perform. Um. A character that I
Speaker 1: had done at Groundlings, like was this character Eddie who
Speaker 1: we did it with Justin Bieber, and like, he's this
Speaker 1: insecure older brother who's trying to intimidate his younger sister's
Speaker 1: boyfriend who's nothing but impressive, and the only thing he
Speaker 1: can hold onto is that the guy says, it's glass
Speaker 1: to meet you. Sorry, glad to meet you, Nice to
Speaker 1: meet you, and he won't let up about that. Just
Speaker 1: the pettiness of that. Um and then and then I
Speaker 1: loved the Meryville Brothers that we did, which was kind
Speaker 1: of like based off of a physical thing I've done
Speaker 1: a Groundlings, but we kind of created its own structure.
Speaker 1: Rob Klein and Ken Sublett and I did like these
Speaker 1: possessed animatronic creatures that like if you go to like,
Speaker 1: you know, a state fair carnival, the poor manufacturing is
Speaker 1: horrifying in itself. It's like even if it's the sweetest
Speaker 1: little like you know, like hey, come to Lollipop Land,
Speaker 1: it's somehow more terrifying than if it was like a
Speaker 1: killer clown, your favorite impression or person you impersonated. Coming
Speaker 1: onto the show, I was I was always proud out
Speaker 1: of my Brad Pitt, but like, you put something on
Speaker 1: a national stage and it's a very good indicator of
Speaker 1: how subjective something like I love it, and there are
Speaker 1: groups of people who love it, but it was not
Speaker 1: like widely received. Um. But one that I kind of
Speaker 1: like developed on the show was Christoph Waltz. Was always
Speaker 1: really really fun to do and just such a great
Speaker 1: character in him in and of himself, and he hosted
Speaker 1: while I was there, and then I got to do
Speaker 1: him for Celebrity Jeopardy at the fortieth anniversary, and that
Speaker 1: was that was really cool. That was genius. You got
Speaker 1: to meet so many incredible people who hosted who surprised
Speaker 1: you the most with how funny they were. It was
Speaker 1: always the like former kid performers, like anybody who came
Speaker 1: from like multi Cam Disney Show or Nickelodeon show who
Speaker 1: then most likely transitioned into music. So I'm thinking like
Speaker 1: Timberlake or Miley Cyrus or Dre even Drake had done
Speaker 1: Degrassi Junior High before becoming Drake as we know him now.
Speaker 1: But they just have it built into their d NA,
Speaker 1: like how to perform for a crowd, how to cheat
Speaker 1: out how to play to the fourth wall, how did
Speaker 1: it you know, the timing of a joke. So they
Speaker 1: were always the most fun, just because you could tell
Speaker 1: that they got it, you know, right away, and they
Speaker 1: made things better. You didn't have to write around them.
Speaker 1: You could write something for you to do together and
Speaker 1: know that they would pull it off or make it
Speaker 1: even better. I also hear Drake hosted a big after party, yeah,
Speaker 1: because he hosted a few times. I think he even
Speaker 1: hosted once after I was on the show maybe. But
Speaker 1: the one I think you're talking about is he rented
Speaker 1: out the David Busters and Times Square and free drinks
Speaker 1: and everybody got like a cup full of tokens to
Speaker 1: play games. But he also flew in I guess, a
Speaker 1: bunch of dancers from a strip club that he's like
Speaker 1: a co owner of in Toronto. So there's a very
Speaker 1: wrong divide of attendees at that after after. This isn't
Speaker 1: the after party, this is the after after. So this
Speaker 1: is getting going at like three am, and it's like
Speaker 1: half of the David Busters is filled with like comedy
Speaker 1: performer writers who are actually playing the games, and half
Speaker 1: are just like very attractive stripper girls who are just
Speaker 1: doing everything they can to position themselves close to Drake,
Speaker 1: who's standing with his buddy at the DJ booth. So
Speaker 1: it's just like it's just a really great kind of
Speaker 1: like dichotomy of of people with different goals. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: after after parties at SNL, well, I've been lucky enough
Speaker 1: to go to a few. Yeah. I think it was
Speaker 1: probably good that I never never was a cast member
Speaker 1: on that show. I don't know that I could have
Speaker 1: done twenty of them, just the stamina wise. I mean definitely,
Speaker 1: like when you start out, you want to go to
Speaker 1: as many as you can possibly can, and then you
Speaker 1: kind of grow out of them quickly. By the time
Speaker 1: I got there, I don't think Bill Hater even went
Speaker 1: to like the first after party and it's like, what,
Speaker 1: you're crazy, man, this is the best job ever. We're
Speaker 1: never gonna die. Uh. And then like halfway through season two,
Speaker 1: Bill was right, it was right. So did you do
Speaker 1: you've done like after afters? Like, oh, no, I've done it.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what locations they were? Because it changes
Speaker 1: the after after especially well the after after. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: will never be able and probably shouldn't pull the name
Speaker 1: of that. But very dark bar, Very Dark and I'm
Speaker 1: sure that's all intentional. One of them was it was
Speaker 1: a season finale, so I think it was like there
Speaker 1: in Rockefeller Center was the after and then there was
Speaker 1: somewhere else. And here's the thing. You have to understand.
Speaker 1: You don't leave the show until after midnight, and so
Speaker 1: you're like, have dinner at one thirty in the morning,
Speaker 1: and suddenly things get later. But it doesn't. It weirdly
Speaker 1: doesn't feel that way because it's the whole energy of it.
Speaker 1: And they it's always it's like this dark, dark bar
Speaker 1: and suddenly you're like, okay, it's time to go, and
Speaker 1: you open that door and it is bright. It is bright,
Speaker 1: bright on the streets of New York and everyone is
Speaker 1: moving fast. It's uh, it's a it's a thing like
Speaker 1: what what other job ever? Is it like that? And
Speaker 1: that's that's a weekly occurrence too. I know, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. It's it's insane. Around the time you were
Speaker 1: leaving us an l you took on another just such
Speaker 1: an exciting project, writer director star killing Gunther with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaker 1: How did Arnold get become part of this project? Again?
Speaker 1: Just just sort of random circumstance, um like we just
Speaker 1: overshot the mark, like that film was conceived and and
Speaker 1: always intended to be like scrappy production, let's put on
Speaker 1: a show. We'll put on a show. And the benefit
Speaker 1: of snl IS is that it's such a respected place
Speaker 1: people will listen to you and and I was not
Speaker 1: used to that in any of my previous job. So
Speaker 1: I in the script in its original form, there was
Speaker 1: always going to be this cameo at the end of
Speaker 1: the movie, and I was like, Oh, it would be
Speaker 1: fun to like casually get a name, Like could you
Speaker 1: imagine if we got Jeff Goldbloom, Like how cool would
Speaker 1: that be? And I we sort of went down the list,
Speaker 1: and Bruce Willis had hosted and I'd had a really
Speaker 1: good week, good experience with him, so we reached out.
Speaker 1: He took a while to consider it and then ultimately passed.
Speaker 1: But his reps were also Arnold's reps, and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, Arnold hasn't been doing a ton of acting,
Speaker 1: and he says he's ready to kind of get back
Speaker 1: into it, and he loves doing comedy and he thinks
Speaker 1: that this place do his strang like they're selling me
Speaker 1: on Arnold Schwartzeneger like, let me think about it. Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, so he read it and said yes, and
Speaker 1: him coming on board was like the biggest, most exciting
Speaker 1: thing ever. But I also, I know, in hindsight now
Speaker 1: like was not prepared enough to pivot the project when
Speaker 1: you have the world's biggest action star agreeing to do
Speaker 1: your silly, little scrappy hitman comedy. If I knew then
Speaker 1: what I know now, I definitely would have like used
Speaker 1: as him as in a much larger capacity, you know,
Speaker 1: not necessarily with more shooting days or whatever, but you
Speaker 1: want to build it around him because I think what
Speaker 1: I what I hear from the biggest criticism of it
Speaker 1: is like, we love Arnold, but we do have to
Speaker 1: wait an hour and fifteen minutes before we see him.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yep, that's fair, that's fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: But he was the best. He was a pro man.
Speaker 1: He was like the pro of all pros. And I
Speaker 1: don't just mean prepared, which he was such a pleasure
Speaker 1: to work with, the graciousness with every person he crossed
Speaker 1: paths with on the street and from our crew, from
Speaker 1: our cast. He's he is a movie star, capital M
Speaker 1: capital s and it was so so fun to work
Speaker 1: with him. How great is that to hear? I love
Speaker 1: to hear that. Yeah, you see it, you see the
Speaker 1: extra gear. Like that's what it was for me, is
Speaker 1: that it was It was a master class. And like
Speaker 1: complete authenticity, that was the other thing. Like it never
Speaker 1: felt contrived, never felt forced, And he was very good
Speaker 1: at also setting boundaries and limits and like good to
Speaker 1: see good, Like he just clearly had been in a
Speaker 1: thousand bajillion interactions and had really honed how to be
Speaker 1: a man of the people. You know, obviously also through
Speaker 1: his political career. But yeah, but just a just loving
Speaker 1: the process. Again, Like if you just love the process
Speaker 1: of hanging out with a group and collaborating and being artistic,
Speaker 1: all the all the money for status, fame stuff ultimately
Speaker 1: becomes less important because you're already so fulfilled in in
Speaker 1: just the craft of creating. And and he had that.
Speaker 1: He was awesome. You have this experience you direct killing
Speaker 1: guntherer you then now I'm I'm really gonna fanboy here
Speaker 1: for a second. And also I think that one of
Speaker 1: the greatest comedic, powerful characters on the stage over the
Speaker 1: last twenty five years is King George the third in Hamilt,
Speaker 1: in which you have the opportunity to go and play
Speaker 1: on Broadway. I cannot tell you how much I love
Speaker 1: that role. I love it so much. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about that, Like, what was it like for you after
Speaker 1: all of this time on SNL to kind of go
Speaker 1: back to those theater roots and play a part that
Speaker 1: quite frankly has a really low lift job night tonight,
Speaker 1: yet consistently steals the show. Yeah, I mean, there's certainly
Speaker 1: was symmetry to it of like I achieved this dream goal,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't believe how fortunate I am and
Speaker 1: then found my way back to musical theater. Did not
Speaker 1: just any musical theater, but the most popular, beloved musical
Speaker 1: theater production certainly of the last twenty years, but but
Speaker 1: arguably in history like that shows is just a masterpiece.
Speaker 1: In my humble opinion, it was certainly surreal. I suddenly, um,
Speaker 1: I hadn't felt that level of nervousness because it was
Speaker 1: such a beloved piece, because the reputation of this show
Speaker 1: was bigger than any part in it any person. Like
Speaker 1: you know, my daughters at school and there's six and
Speaker 1: seven year old kids with like a dot Ham hats
Speaker 1: and a dot burr. Um. It just it just penetrated
Speaker 1: culture in a way that few things have on that level,
Speaker 1: and you were constantly surrounded by reminders of that. So
Speaker 1: jumping into this well, well oiled machine, I put a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on myself to to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: step up and match the caliber of quality that Hamilton's deserves,
Speaker 1: and and worked really hard at that and eventually was
Speaker 1: able to settle into the joy of doing eight shows
Speaker 1: a week, and and that you go okay, and you
Speaker 1: get more confident, and you can try new things, and
Speaker 1: you discover new moments that, oh, that's good and that
Speaker 1: always gets a laugh, and you discover a thing where
Speaker 1: you go like, no, that's off game. We tried that
Speaker 1: once and we'll never go back to it. Um. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I loved it. And you know, I did
Speaker 1: the show for three months, which was like a really healthy,
Speaker 1: very short period of time comparatively because sort of like
Speaker 1: the minimum run anyone doesn't in Broadway shows about six months.
Speaker 1: So but it was just it was just rewarding on
Speaker 1: a daily basis to work with such a talented group
Speaker 1: of people in such new ways, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: These incredible dancers, these incredible musicians, the designers, the directors,
Speaker 1: that everybody, and then to create an experience eight times
Speaker 1: a week for people. Each show never lost its um.
Speaker 1: It was always emotional, quite honest, like you'd finished the
Speaker 1: show and you'd feel emotional. It never felt like a
Speaker 1: grind or it never felt not special. Each performance there
Speaker 1: was always something happening either in the audience or on
Speaker 1: stage with with with the cast that just made made
Speaker 1: it so special and that will forever be like what's
Speaker 1: your favorite job you've ever had? It's hard not to
Speaker 1: think of that one first. You know, I don't know
Speaker 1: Lenn Manuel Miranda, and I certainly don't mean any disrespect
Speaker 1: about this. This may this may be the craziest theory
Speaker 1: in the history of of anything. Here's my theory. Okay.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz,
Speaker 1: the Scarecrow, the ten Man, these were all I had
Speaker 1: zero interest in. These characters. I had zero in And
Speaker 1: by the way, there they maintain most of the screen
Speaker 1: time of The Wizard of Oz spoiler alert for those
Speaker 1: of you who haven't seen The Wizard of Bryan. No,
Speaker 1: the Wicked Witch, to me is the greatest role. But
Speaker 1: more than that, I want to talk dis these early
Speaker 1: Disney movies, The Little Mermaid, Ursula, the Sea Witch, to
Speaker 1: me is hilarious, and these were the always the parts
Speaker 1: that we're fascinating to me, like the evil villain roles,
Speaker 1: because you know, to me, comedy always brings a complexity.
Speaker 1: That's my problem with so much like straight drama, if
Speaker 1: you will, is just like wait a second, like people
Speaker 1: do make jokes occasionally or like use sarcasm or whatever.
Speaker 1: I love that and I see that role in that history.
Speaker 1: There's no question here. By the way, I'm just telling
Speaker 1: you this is the theory that I have. I think
Speaker 1: you're right on the money. It's there's a there's an
Speaker 1: archetype there, and you know, Ponscious Pilot from Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Superstar was always something that I referenced. But Little Mermaid
Speaker 1: and Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. This is Howard
Speaker 1: Ashman and Alan Mankin seemed to really um understand the
Speaker 1: necessity of exactly what you're saying, of of of brevity
Speaker 1: within darkness, right of humor, within the shadow that exists
Speaker 1: in all of us. And Little Shop of Horrors has
Speaker 1: that in in the dentist, the dentist, Yes, totally yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, No, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: that Ursula's song is so phenomenal because it's really your
Speaker 1: first intro to her, to that character. This is not
Speaker 1: a character as you you know, you pointed out with
Speaker 1: the Wicked Witch of the West. You don't spend as
Speaker 1: much time with that character. But by the end of
Speaker 1: Poor Unfortunate Souls, you know everything and want more from
Speaker 1: this character from her, you know. Yeah, Well, anyway, and
Speaker 1: I love that you said that will always be the
Speaker 1: favorite role you ever played. Um. But out of that,
Speaker 1: your first time headlining a sitcom, Single Parents, Latent Meester
Speaker 1: Brad Garrett, what was it like for you after spend
Speaker 1: so much time creating new shows and new characters week
Speaker 1: after week Mad TV S and L specifically, was there
Speaker 1: a difference for you in terms of exploring that singular
Speaker 1: character week after week. Absolutely, yeah, the consistency of it,
Speaker 1: and as opposed to starting from scratch every week, you
Speaker 1: kind of got to create a collage, you know, and
Speaker 1: you kept adding PC, kept discovering new things about this character.
Speaker 1: From the performance standpoint, I mean, I got I love
Speaker 1: that job so much because we all just really liked
Speaker 1: each other off camera too, which is I'm important hopefully
Speaker 1: you've been. Yeah, it's a shame that it needs to
Speaker 1: be said that that special, but it is, you know, um,
Speaker 1: we really it was really a great group. And I
Speaker 1: just love the premise when when Liz Meryweather pitched me
Speaker 1: the idea originally she's like a group of single parents. Figure,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't believe that hasn't been a world
Speaker 1: explored in a show yet, because I think that there's
Speaker 1: no or admirable plight than a than a single parent,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to work and trying to raise and
Speaker 1: the balance of that is it's hard enough with two parents,
Speaker 1: you know. And yeah, and just really really enjoyed it
Speaker 1: and and you're I mean, your question kind of hit
Speaker 1: the nail on the head. It was definitely a different
Speaker 1: sensation to like, oh, I'm playing this guy all the time.
Speaker 1: I found it very comfortable. I found like, I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it, and I found there's such an endearing nous
Speaker 1: to a network sitcom where you know what they're trying
Speaker 1: to appeal to sort of the broadest audience possible. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I loved it, and it was also like moving back
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles, new city, trying to get settled. That
Speaker 1: job really held me. It's like the consistency of it
Speaker 1: and the stability of it was such a beautiful gift
Speaker 1: for me and for my family. And I would have
Speaker 1: done it if they'd let us do it more of it,
Speaker 1: I would have done it for forever. Yeah. Uh, youth
Speaker 1: sports fan. I'm a very big football fan. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: that's my new my new job. And I know you
Speaker 1: just you let me trans just well, yeah, I give
Speaker 1: it up as an open ended question. This is not
Speaker 1: Jay Leno. This is this is I grew up playing
Speaker 1: sports Los Angeles. What's the deal with I hear you've
Speaker 1: been in Los Angeles but primarily football. Yeah, I grew
Speaker 1: up playing baseball and soccer mostly like for you know,
Speaker 1: a solid decade. Um. Always really enjoyed the culture surrounding football,
Speaker 1: the gathering on Sundays, the Super Bowl parties, the rooting
Speaker 1: for your team. Um. I just was always drawn to
Speaker 1: that and surrounded by that. But being from l A,
Speaker 1: did not have a team of my own to identify
Speaker 1: with for for most of my life. So always promised
Speaker 1: that when we got a team back, which I was
Speaker 1: confident we would that I was going all in from
Speaker 1: the new ground ground floor, which one the St. Louis
Speaker 1: Rams were, you know, obviously a huge part of the
Speaker 1: franchise history, and then Los Angeles before that. But um,
Speaker 1: I've been I've been all in since they returned in
Speaker 1: two thous You can't watch football now without seeing this
Speaker 1: guy talking about his new show, The NFL Pylon. It's
Speaker 1: a brilliant idea. I have worked in the world of
Speaker 1: sports as well, and here's the thing that I find
Speaker 1: so amazing is how engaging, fun personable, funny, talented so
Speaker 1: many of the players are. Um. Have you had any
Speaker 1: opportunities to meet players that have surprised you thus far
Speaker 1: or have been some of your favorites that maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't know before from working on We've had some people.
Speaker 1: Initially we had like more casual players turned commentators, UM,
Speaker 1: rich Orneberger, UM, UM, Jered Quick Campbell. Claius is younger
Speaker 1: brother who did actually you know, he played on a
Speaker 1: practice team professionally, Um. But then we got DeMarcus Ware,
Speaker 1: which was fantastic and intimidating and what's this going to be?
Speaker 1: And he set the precedent of as you said, in
Speaker 1: your setup, Like there's so much charisma and there's so
Speaker 1: there's there's so many other uh facets to the to
Speaker 1: these professional athletes where you think they're driven, you think
Speaker 1: they're jocks and singular focus and win win, but I
Speaker 1: think more often than not, they need to have a
Speaker 1: flip side to that, right, Like because they're so driven
Speaker 1: in their athletic career, they they want to laugh and
Speaker 1: make fun of themselves and a football more than anybody.
Speaker 1: Um and DeMarcus was phenomenal and he hated DeMarcus Is.
Speaker 1: Remarkus Is was the segment we wrote for him, and
Speaker 1: he was just a huge Anglio Anglo file and very
Speaker 1: excited that that he loves he loves England first and
Speaker 1: foremost in football second and was really funny. And then
Speaker 1: we had Ricky Williams come on and he killed it.
Speaker 1: He was amazing. And then people we've had Sherman, Richard
Speaker 1: Sherman's done stuff for us, Andrew Whitworth, we had Jimmy
Speaker 1: Johnson code you know. So we have found in our
Speaker 1: very new eight episodes of this NFL produced comedy show
Speaker 1: that particularly athletes and coaches are very excited to participate
Speaker 1: in something ridiculous because everything else is so laser focused
Speaker 1: and buttoned up. So it's, uh, it's cool to be
Speaker 1: that outlet for them. It's it's genius too, because look,
Speaker 1: the NFL, if they're not taking over the world, they're
Speaker 1: taking over live television for sure. And you know, nobody
Speaker 1: watches anything sports included, uh, like they watch the NFL.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I've been saying forever giving alternative programming,
Speaker 1: that's fun, that focus is still on the key storylines
Speaker 1: and people of the NFL, that people eat it up.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for your success on that. I is
Speaker 1: really really fun, and just keep keep killing it, keep
Speaker 1: entertaining football fans. But here's the thing, you don't even
Speaker 1: have to be a football fan to enjoy you and that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you know that that's the weird juxtaposition of
Speaker 1: my interests, right, Like I am a I'm a legitimate
Speaker 1: football fan. That's that's why Prime reached out to me,
Speaker 1: just because I'm If you happen to follow me on
Speaker 1: social media, it's pretty much the most dominant topic in
Speaker 1: my Instagram feed. It's my passion for the RAMS. So
Speaker 1: they knew that there was a legitimacy to my interests
Speaker 1: and my love and knowledge of football. But listen spoiler
Speaker 1: alert exclusive. We're opening up with a Sweeney Todd bit
Speaker 1: this week, So I gat to you there's no other
Speaker 1: football focus show on television or in the streaming universe
Speaker 1: that is doing that is mixing so on time with
Speaker 1: the NFL. Yes, that is that is amazing. Tarn, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for taking the time and coming to
Speaker 1: talk to us. Your career is fascinating. You are hilarious.
Speaker 1: I hate you for playing that role. I there's so
Speaker 1: there's so much here, but I will continue to enjoy
Speaker 1: you and watch both the NFL and you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for the NFL pylon. Thank you so much. The enjoyment
Speaker 1: is mutual and I so appreciate you having me and
Speaker 1: making this time awesome. Thanks Taren, Thanks Brian, take care, Tara.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for stopping by. Awesome to get
Speaker 1: to know you just a little bit better. And I
Speaker 1: cannot wait until December ninete when the Packers beat the
Speaker 1: Rams again. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. And
Speaker 1: if you're wondering where I'll be next Tuesday, the answer
Speaker 1: is will here of course, and who will be joining me? Well,
Speaker 1: let's just say they're a master of all things mathematical
Speaker 1: and savage. I'll see you then. Off the Beat is
Speaker 1: hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our
Speaker 1: executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.
Speaker 1: Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and are In
Speaker 1: Hearn is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,