Speaker 1: You see an ad on Craigslist. Is this where do
Speaker 1: people still look at ads on? Apparently they do look
Speaker 1: at ads at ads on Craigslist. You see a Craigslist
Speaker 1: ad for what exactly?
Speaker 2: So, first of all, I should definitely be the spokesperson
Speaker 2: for craiglist, because I love it. I still okay, I
Speaker 2: don't think it's as popular as it used to be,
Speaker 2: but I've found some gems on there, dating all the
Speaker 2: way back to me being in college. There's some good
Speaker 2: stuff on there, sometimes dating.
Speaker 1: So you you mentioned the word dating. Do you do
Speaker 1: you date from Craigslist? No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, just dating? Okay, okay, jobs, all right.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Ronald Gladden and I am a
Speaker 2: corgy enthusiast.
Speaker 1: Hi everybody, Well, it's a Tuesday, and you know what
Speaker 1: that means. It means it's time for another episode of
Speaker 1: Off the Beat with me your host, Brian Bonmgartner. William
Speaker 1: Shakespeare once said some are born great, some achieve greatness,
Speaker 1: and others have greatness thrust upon them. Well, my guest
Speaker 1: today was probably born a pretty great guy, but he
Speaker 1: definitely had fame thrust upon him. I'm talking to the
Speaker 1: star of Amazon's Jury Duty, Ronald Gladden. Now, if you
Speaker 1: don't know the story, run, don't walk, and watch the show.
Speaker 1: But here's the short version. Ronald signed up for what
Speaker 1: he thought was just a regular run of the mill,
Speaker 1: Jury Duty, doing his civic duty and participating in our well,
Speaker 1: our glorious democracy. But what he was actually participating in
Speaker 1: was basically The Truman Show where he was sequestered from
Speaker 1: the outside world, filmed twenty four to seven, and everyone
Speaker 1: around him was an actor and every single was meticulously staged.
Speaker 1: Now this might sound like a stress dream come true,
Speaker 1: but Jury Duty is some of the funniest, most uplifting
Speaker 1: television in recent memory, thanks in no small part to
Speaker 1: Ronald's big heart and well can do attitude. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to Ronald to hear about the process
Speaker 1: behind this insane experiment and his feelings about the big
Speaker 1: reveal and the whirldwin that he's been on since the
Speaker 1: show ended. Hollywood has embraced Ronald with open arms. Folks.
Speaker 1: Not only did he quit his day job, but he
Speaker 1: recently signed a deal with Amazon MGM for future projects.
Speaker 1: So I'm so excited to talk to him today. My
Speaker 1: favorite former solar panel contractor, Ronald Gladden.
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak on
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak, I cooking it every month, lift over
Speaker 3: from the night before.
Speaker 2: Well, well, well, hey, look at here.
Speaker 1: What's happening Brian Man.
Speaker 2: First of all, it's a pleasure to meet you. I
Speaker 2: gotta say thank you so much for having me after
Speaker 2: seeing your face on my TV for you know, over
Speaker 2: a decade. This is amazing. I love it.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for saying that your face has been
Speaker 1: on my TV the last year. I might call it
Speaker 1: the best comedy of last year. Congratulations on Uh, well,
Speaker 1: she's on everything that's It's amazing. And you got to
Speaker 1: work even though you didn't know it at the time
Speaker 1: with a couple of old pals of mine, Jean Stepnitski
Speaker 1: and Lee Eisenberg. First off, I talked to Jean last
Speaker 1: summer when around the time the show came out, because
Speaker 1: I became such a huge fan of the show, and
Speaker 1: I talked to him about it and I told him
Speaker 1: I've got to talk to Ronald here at at some point.
Speaker 1: But now, have you hung out with those guys after
Speaker 1: after the fact?
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, they are great. I heard that Jean is
Speaker 2: a little bit of a recluse, though I heard he
Speaker 2: is kind of hard to get in contact with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they all, you know, all great writers are
Speaker 1: a little reclusive, right. I guess.
Speaker 2: I'll take your word for it. Man, I'm still figuring
Speaker 2: out how this all works.
Speaker 1: Well, I want to, I want to. I want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about about your history first and
Speaker 1: then how you got propelled onto this, uh, this wild
Speaker 1: ride of Jerry Duty. First off, you were born in Oregon?
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 2: Correct? So I am initially from Oregon. I'm from a
Speaker 2: very small mountain town that no one's.
Speaker 1: Ever heard of. Okay, how how how was that growing up?
Speaker 1: Was that? Was that a good childhood or I.
Speaker 2: Mean it was it was hit and miss, Like there
Speaker 2: was definitely benefits for growing up in a small town.
Speaker 2: But like, for example, I was really big into sports.
Speaker 2: I feel like if I would have grown up in
Speaker 2: like a bigger city, I would have gone further with that.
Speaker 2: Just I mean, like I said, you know, pros and
Speaker 2: cons for sure, But I liked it. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 2: All majority of my family still lives there. I mean
Speaker 2: they seem to love.
Speaker 1: It, right, and now I heard at some point you
Speaker 1: took the jump to San Diego. Are you in? Are
Speaker 1: you in Los Angeles now? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I am in Los Angeles now, but grudgingly, I might
Speaker 2: add I I definitely moved to San Diego specifically, but
Speaker 2: you know, work relocation.
Speaker 1: So is this since the show? You've been in LA?
Speaker 1: Where were you when? When you when you found out
Speaker 1: about the show?
Speaker 2: So I was in and Diego. What it happened was
Speaker 2: when I moved to San Diego in twenty nineteen, I
Speaker 2: got into the Solar world. And so I've been doing
Speaker 2: construction pretty much my whole life, but I had never
Speaker 2: done solar specific so I really threw myself into my
Speaker 2: work because I wanted to learn as much as possible
Speaker 2: to be as good as possible, and so I really
Speaker 2: just kind of dove into it. And I found out
Speaker 2: about the show because after doing this for a few years,
Speaker 2: I burnt myself out, you know, twelve fifteen, sixteen hour
Speaker 2: days living on the road. I just had enough. So
Speaker 2: I was really just looking for just something different, just
Speaker 2: to kind of shake it up. And the show was
Speaker 2: just the perfect opportunity to get an experience I had
Speaker 2: never done before, you know, they were going to pay
Speaker 2: me a little bit of money for a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks of my time. I figured why not.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you're doing solar construction, and I understand you
Speaker 1: went to OSU. Correct for construction engineering.
Speaker 2: That is correct.
Speaker 1: Okay. So you're doing that, working in the in the
Speaker 1: solar solar panel industry, and you see an ad on Craigslist.
Speaker 1: Is this where do people still look at ads on?
Speaker 1: Apparently they do look at ads at ads on Craigslist.
Speaker 1: You see a Craigslist ad for what exactly?
Speaker 2: So, first of all, I should definitely be the spokesperson
Speaker 2: for craiglist because I love it. I still Okay, I
Speaker 2: don't think it's as popular as it used to be.
Speaker 2: But I found some gems on there, dating all the
Speaker 2: way back to me being in college. There's some good
Speaker 2: stuff on there, sometimes dating.
Speaker 1: So you you mentioned the word dating. Do you do
Speaker 1: you date from Craigslist? No? No, no, no, no, no, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, just dating? Okay, okay, jobs? All right? So
Speaker 1: you look on Craigslist, you see an ad for what? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So, well, I do want to say too, I wasn't
Speaker 2: just looking on Craigslist. I mean I was looking everywhere
Speaker 2: it could on Facebook. Indeed, you know, zip recruiter, you
Speaker 2: name it. But basically the ad was pretty vague, and
Speaker 2: that's kind of what intrigued me. It basically just said,
Speaker 2: you know, be a part of a jury where and
Speaker 2: be doing a documentary about you know, the behind the
Speaker 2: scenes look at what goes on during the judicial system
Speaker 2: and what goes on in like the deliberation room. Is
Speaker 2: that all you have to do is participate in the
Speaker 2: trial and then you know, answer our interview questions. So
Speaker 2: it seems simple enough.
Speaker 1: Okay, So had you ever served on a jury before?
Speaker 2: No, that was actually one of the main requirements that
Speaker 2: was in the initial ad. They just had a couple
Speaker 2: of things that you had to be, you know, certain
Speaker 2: age range, you had to be a male, and you
Speaker 2: could have never served on jury duty before.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so when you show up what we see
Speaker 1: in the show, do you do you have any other
Speaker 1: meetings before this or or where the show picks up.
Speaker 1: Is that you showing up to potentially be chosen for
Speaker 1: this jury?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the very first day is exactly what you said.
Speaker 2: I was prep from the very beginning that even though
Speaker 2: production could love me and they want me to be
Speaker 2: a part of it. I still ultimately have to get
Speaker 2: selected by the judge. So I was prepped from day
Speaker 2: one that I may not even and make it, and
Speaker 2: I could potentially just have to go home.
Speaker 1: Got it? Were there other people in the room. There
Speaker 1: weren't other people in the room that first day who
Speaker 1: might have been chosen. No, it was this was about you, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I didn't know that at the time,
Speaker 2: but yeah, yeah, about me.
Speaker 1: Okay, So when they said you had to be selected
Speaker 1: by the judge, that was that was bullshit. I mean
Speaker 1: they yes, but but but for you, you didn't You
Speaker 1: didn't know you had to show up, and you probably
Speaker 1: assumed that other people who were there were we were
Speaker 1: trying to be on this documentary for the for the jury, right.
Speaker 2: Actually the other way around, the way the way it
Speaker 2: was pitched were there were a couple people there that
Speaker 2: were there specifically for the documentary part of it, but
Speaker 2: a majority of the other people were all trying to
Speaker 2: get out of it, essentially because these were all people
Speaker 2: who received real summons. And the way that it worked
Speaker 2: was that after everyone was selected, the camera crew approached
Speaker 2: to all the people who weren't initially a part of it,
Speaker 2: and they said, hey, this is what we're doing, we'd
Speaker 2: like you to be a part of it, and then
Speaker 2: this is what we can do for you. And so
Speaker 2: that's how they you know, brought everybody on.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, how difficult was it in terms of the
Speaker 1: So how long how long were you sequestered from then on?
Speaker 2: Uh? Three weeks?
Speaker 1: Three weeks and no phone?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no phone, no connection to the outside world. They
Speaker 2: did have an option where you could make monitored phone
Speaker 2: calls at the end of the day, but that's not
Speaker 2: even something I really wanted to do because you literally
Speaker 2: had somebody wearing, you know, an earpiece just listening to
Speaker 2: your conversation, and so I hated the idea of that.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, so did we're okay, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's just so much. So here's the thing that's so
Speaker 1: fascinating to me about the show is, I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess by its definition, it's a prank show, right, but
Speaker 1: because you are being pranked in a way, but it's
Speaker 1: not at your expense, right, Like it's you're you're you're
Speaker 1: you're never made to be like the butt of the
Speaker 1: joke or whatever. I know, some some people have called
Speaker 1: it the first feel good prank show ever? Are you
Speaker 1: What was your feeling like when you found out in
Speaker 1: the end? What was what was going on?
Speaker 2: If I had to sum up in one word, just disbelief,
Speaker 2: you know, like I just would have because I mean,
Speaker 2: I know people want to call it a prank show
Speaker 2: because we don't really have like a term for what
Speaker 2: this is. Like that's the closest thing that you can
Speaker 2: describe the show, because I got Truman showed. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like it was, it was kind of a prank show.
Speaker 2: But to your point, I was never the butt of
Speaker 2: a joke. So that's why I don't like calling it
Speaker 2: a prank show, because, if anything, it was everybody else
Speaker 2: making themselves look like morons?
Speaker 1: If anything, right, did you? Were you angry?
Speaker 2: Not at all? I mean, after the initial disbelief wore off,
Speaker 2: Like I like to think that I have a pretty
Speaker 2: good sense of humor, and I mean, you know, I
Speaker 2: realized that I was never made to look a fool,
Speaker 2: and so like I could definitely see the funny side of.
Speaker 1: It, right. Jeane told me they they did this two
Speaker 1: other times with two other people, and yours was the
Speaker 1: one that's stuck, Which makes sense everything seemed to play
Speaker 1: out perfectly. Did you ever see any of the other
Speaker 1: footage or see any of the other meet and the
Speaker 1: other two people who who who this happened to?
Speaker 2: No, I was unaware that they did this multiple times.
Speaker 2: So that's honestly a great feeling to know that I
Speaker 2: was the one that was chosen. But no, I didn't
Speaker 2: know that.
Speaker 1: Oh you didn't know that till right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know that. I mean, I know that
Speaker 2: people had talked about it, but like, I mean, everything
Speaker 2: is just always so hush hush, there's always so there's
Speaker 2: so many levels to it, Like I have no idea.
Speaker 1: What were some of the moments. Did you ever suspect
Speaker 1: that something else was going on? First off?
Speaker 2: I mean, so this is hard to describe, Like they
Speaker 2: got me on camera multiple They only show it once,
Speaker 2: but they got me on camera multiple times saying like
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm on reality TV, Like something doesn't
Speaker 2: feel right, Like I don't know what's going on, but
Speaker 2: this is something's just not right. But I never seriously
Speaker 2: entertained the idea that something else could be going on,
Speaker 2: because that just led me down this rabbit hole, you know.
Speaker 2: And then at some point when I started questioning my
Speaker 2: entire reality. I'm almost starting to question my sanity. At
Speaker 2: that point, I'm like, oh my god, am I fucking
Speaker 2: losing my mind right now? You know, so like I
Speaker 2: could never seriously entertain that idea. I mean, I thought
Speaker 2: about it jokingly, But in what world do you ever
Speaker 2: sit down and say, Okay, everything around me is fake,
Speaker 2: everyone's an actor, this is all an elaborate show, and
Speaker 2: I'm the center of attention. You know, Like that's a
Speaker 2: pretty conceited thought to have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Truman Show, it is. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that's actually way better said than a prank show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is like the Truman Show where yeah, you're the
Speaker 1: only one who's not aware of what the world actually is.
Speaker 1: Tell me a couple of the moments that happened that
Speaker 1: looking back, you go, I can't believe that that played
Speaker 1: out and I didn't realize it.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Margaret. I hate watching the fourth episode
Speaker 2: because that's the Margaritaville episode, because to me, that should
Speaker 2: have been a red flag because I thought to myself
Speaker 2: the whole time, I was like, how are we even
Speaker 2: able to do this? You know, that was at the
Speaker 2: end of the second week going into our third week.
Speaker 2: They pitch it as like a, you know, we feel
Speaker 2: bad that we've kept you guys locked up for this long,
Speaker 2: so we want to treat you to a night out.
Speaker 2: But even then I was like, man, I just didn't
Speaker 2: think that that was something you'd be able to do.
Speaker 2: But I kind of just went with the flow. I
Speaker 2: wasn't going to argue with it, but that definitely raised
Speaker 2: the red flag for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, James Marsden, did you like him as a person now,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about now, but as a as the
Speaker 1: person that you met as the character James Marsden? What
Speaker 1: were your secret thoughts about him?
Speaker 2: Well? I mean, initially I wanted to love the guy,
Speaker 2: you know, after I realized who he was and I
Speaker 2: realized that I knew some of his work and I
Speaker 2: was a fan, I wanted to enjoy him. But James,
Speaker 2: to his credit, did exactly what his character development process
Speaker 2: was supposed to do. Over time, he made me hate
Speaker 2: him and not want to be around him because he
Speaker 2: was just such an asshole, you know, like there's no
Speaker 2: better word for it. He was just he played such
Speaker 2: this smug, entitled version of himself so well that I
Speaker 2: couldn't I didn't want to be near him. Towards the end,
Speaker 2: I just absolutely didn't want to deal with him.
Speaker 1: Who was your favorite.
Speaker 2: Ooh, that's tough. Probably a toss up between Maria Russell
Speaker 2: who played Annez, and probably Ron Song who played kN
Speaker 2: I feel like he didn't get enough screen time simply
Speaker 2: because his character was meant to be his delivery was
Speaker 2: so slow, so just for time constraints, they cut back
Speaker 2: on it. But he was very fun to interact with.
Speaker 1: Did everybody else got to go home? Right? You just
Speaker 1: didn't know that?
Speaker 2: Uh? Well, four were there?
Speaker 1: Four or five?
Speaker 2: I think there were four other people who stayed in
Speaker 2: my hotel and then everybody else did get to go home. Yes,
Speaker 2: but it was pitched. As you know, this sequestration was
Speaker 2: so last minute that they couldn't find a hotel to
Speaker 2: fit all of us, and so they broke us up
Speaker 2: into two hotels where the majority of them did get
Speaker 2: to go home, and then we were the only ones
Speaker 2: who stayed in the hotel.
Speaker 1: Have you stayed in touch with people since?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Like, something I really want people to know about
Speaker 2: this show is that, like it really was like a
Speaker 2: feel good comedy and that we all connected, Like I'm
Speaker 2: still friends with all of these people. And it's not
Speaker 2: just the people that you see on screen as well too.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the EPs, the show runners, the cameraman
Speaker 2: Chris Darnell even too, Like I've got all these people's
Speaker 2: phone numbers and I still stay in contact with them.
Speaker 2: It's a great group of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now were you talking to as this was going on?
Speaker 1: Were you talking to the quote unquote documentary crew? Like,
Speaker 1: were you like, are the people who were supposedly producing
Speaker 1: the documentary or were you sort of I don't know,
Speaker 1: sequestered from them so.
Speaker 2: I could talk to them like at the course. I mean,
Speaker 2: I could talk to them wherever, but really I dealt
Speaker 2: with them mainly at the courthouse. So I didn't realize
Speaker 2: that I was being filmed the entire time because I
Speaker 2: only ever saw four cameras in total, and they were
Speaker 2: cameras that were, you know, wheeled from room to room.
Speaker 2: So as we're moving places, they have to get set ups.
Speaker 2: There's tons of downtime. So I would kind of just
Speaker 2: talk to them during those transitions.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. And so the people who were producers, you
Speaker 1: you were seeing them, you just didn't realize exactly what
Speaker 1: they were producing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they I don't know what you would call them,
Speaker 2: an infield producer maybe, but there was two of them.
Speaker 2: There were the people who actually interviewed me and gave
Speaker 2: me this opportunity to even bring me on, and so
Speaker 2: I saw them every day. They're the ones asking us
Speaker 2: questions at the end of the day, just trying to
Speaker 2: get information for the documentary.
Speaker 1: Did you have any moment that you considered not signing
Speaker 1: on in the end, because my assumption is because that
Speaker 1: no knowing how the business works, as I watched it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this guy had to have agreed at some
Speaker 1: point in the end right to say, okay, you can
Speaker 1: go with this, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Ultimately they did leave it up to me to sign
Speaker 2: off and improve on it or not. They said like,
Speaker 2: do you want to move forward with this or not?
Speaker 2: I don't know what would have happened if I would
Speaker 2: have said no. I guess they'd try the whole thing
Speaker 2: over again. But though I really didn't have any reservations
Speaker 2: for a few different reasons. One, I didn't I approached
Speaker 2: this thinking that nobody was going to see this anyways.
Speaker 2: You know, this was pitched to me as being very
Speaker 2: low budget and informational, and who's going to want to
Speaker 2: watch a documentary about an informational jury duty process, you know,
Speaker 2: So I didn't think anybody was going to see this.
Speaker 2: When I found out that James was going to be
Speaker 2: a part of it, I thought, you know, maybe we'll
Speaker 2: get a few more eyes on this. But truthfully, I
Speaker 2: didn't think this was going to get outside of la
Speaker 2: let alone the state. So I really wasn't too worried
Speaker 2: about it. I'll say though, I almost didn't sign up
Speaker 2: for it in the beginning because the first thing I
Speaker 2: had to do when I answered the ad was I
Speaker 2: had to submit like a sixty second self tape just
Speaker 2: talking about myself, where I'm from, hobbies, interests, things like that.
Speaker 2: And I hated the way I looked on camera. I
Speaker 2: hated the way I looked. I hate the way I
Speaker 2: sounded like. I almost didn't submit it because I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god. I redid it multiple times and I
Speaker 2: finally just said whatever, I'll just I'll see if it works.
Speaker 1: Did anybody share with you why you were chosen?
Speaker 2: Not specifically, I mean I've heard like kind of like
Speaker 2: people's thoughts on the matter, but not specifically. I think
Speaker 2: it was more of just like I was just open
Speaker 2: and honest, like Alexis san Pedro. She was the one
Speaker 2: who was giving me the interviews. She commented about how
Speaker 2: she was like, oh, I really appreciate your honesty when
Speaker 2: she would ask me about have I listened to certain
Speaker 2: podcasts or seen TV shows? And she's like, some people
Speaker 2: will lie and try to say that they have, and
Speaker 2: then I'll ask the more questions further and they won't
Speaker 2: be able to answer them. But I was just very
Speaker 2: blunt and honest with her.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a good way to be. Anything make you
Speaker 1: uncomfortable because part of you know, part of what happens
Speaker 1: when some of the other characters are made to maybe
Speaker 1: not look so good, specifically some racial comments that happen.
Speaker 1: What's occurring to me is in the first episode. Anything
Speaker 1: make you like overly uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Not uncomfortable, just kind of weirded out, I guess. But
Speaker 2: to be honest, I approach this with the mentality that
Speaker 2: I'm going to be surrounded by twelve other individuals that
Speaker 2: could be who knows what you know. I'm going into La.
Speaker 2: La is already known to have characters for people. I'm
Speaker 2: going into Jery duty, so it's a random assortment of people,
Speaker 2: so I kind of approach this with the mindset that
Speaker 2: I'm going to be surrounded by some pretty weird people.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, it's I mean the balls that you had
Speaker 1: to stay with it and your I mean your openness
Speaker 1: and honesty. I mean, good good for her for choosing you,
Speaker 1: because I mean, it would have been so easy for
Speaker 1: it to go so totally wrong and just be unwatchable.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, there's a there's a rule in improv.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this when I knew I was
Speaker 1: going to talk to you, and I don't even know
Speaker 1: if you know this or not, but it's it's the
Speaker 1: it's the say yes. In other words, if somebody says
Speaker 1: something and you say no in improv, it's dead. It's over,
Speaker 1: like there's nothing else to do. But you stayed open
Speaker 1: and attempted to mediate at times, attempted to keep people
Speaker 1: on the team, if you will, at times, which was
Speaker 1: just so so pleasurable to watch.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And it's
Speaker 2: it's funny that you say that because I've I want
Speaker 2: to live in the comedy world. I love comedy, no
Speaker 2: matter what form.
Speaker 1: That is.
Speaker 2: I'd really like to get into it. But I've been
Speaker 2: looking a lot more into improv because it seems like
Speaker 2: that's something I really like doing. And I've had a
Speaker 2: few people who live in that world tell me that
Speaker 2: I already live my life in the yes and way.
Speaker 2: So that's why I feel like improv would be like
Speaker 2: perfect for me because I'm already open to doing that
Speaker 2: in my natural life.
Speaker 1: Now, is this what do you do? You want to
Speaker 1: continue to work in the entertainment industry. I read that
Speaker 1: you got a little deal there going with Amazon MGM.
Speaker 1: Is this is this something you want to continue to pursue. Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely. We are working on a few different shows right now.
Speaker 2: We're holding meetings, from meeting with showrunners writers, Like, this
Speaker 2: is definitely something I want to live in. I can
Speaker 2: always go back to my construction life if I want to,
Speaker 2: you know, I can go back to contracting at any
Speaker 2: point in time. I don't really want to. I'd like
Speaker 2: to try and make this work, so I'm going to
Speaker 2: do my best of that, but you know, I always
Speaker 2: have fallback options if it doesn't work out good for you.
Speaker 1: What's what's your favorite thing that you've been able to
Speaker 1: do or experience because of the show.
Speaker 2: Oh that's tough, because I've had a ton of great opportunities.
Speaker 2: I would just say being invited to all these events
Speaker 2: just kind of in general, like just getting to meet
Speaker 2: a list celebrities was never even on my list of
Speaker 2: things I thought would happen to me. So I'm just
Speaker 2: enjoying that as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Did you ever want to be an actor before this?
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's funny.
Speaker 1: No is the easy answer, Okay.
Speaker 2: I also never, like, I was never the child that
Speaker 2: had aspirations to be famous, to be a singer, to
Speaker 2: be an actor. I never I never wanted the spotlight.
Speaker 2: I've always been kind of like a behind the scenes player,
Speaker 2: pulling the strings. So it's very it's very different to
Speaker 2: be the face.
Speaker 1: Now are you taking classes?
Speaker 2: I have? Yeah, Actually, I don't know how far I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go. It's something that I'm just doing to see
Speaker 2: if I like it. I've sat in on Emerson's classes.
Speaker 2: They have a communic arts division, so just kind of
Speaker 2: just seeing if it's something I'm interested in. But I
Speaker 2: definitely am exploring that.
Speaker 1: I saw you had a little commercial go there during
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. How exciting was that for you.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's amazing. And again just getting able being able
Speaker 2: to meet all of those people as well too, people
Speaker 2: that I've watched on my TV for years, you know,
Speaker 2: like those are the experiences that I'm really just like
Speaker 2: soaking and that's what I'm enjoying the most.
Speaker 1: Did you go to the Emmys?
Speaker 2: I did go to the Emmys and I got to
Speaker 2: go to the Globes too.
Speaker 1: You did good for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, And that was a wild time.
Speaker 1: What way, what was your favorite party?
Speaker 2: Ooh, probably the party, the pre Emmy party. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure what it's called, but like I can't even tell
Speaker 2: you how many people I met there. That was just
Speaker 2: like an overload for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, that's so incredible. Again, in case you didn't know,
Speaker 1: Lee and Jean are pretty damn smart. Okay, they are
Speaker 1: pretty damn smart and too. I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: only thing that's a problem is I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know how you repeat it. I was talking to
Speaker 1: him Jane about this, uh before, because now the cat's
Speaker 1: out of the bag, and I mean for it to
Speaker 1: have started on freebe and to have gotten so much
Speaker 1: attention speaks to the quality of the material and that
Speaker 1: people will find things that are interesting and unique and different,
Speaker 1: and certainly you are a big part of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I will say too, I'm obviously a huge
Speaker 2: fan of Lee and Jean loved the office obviously, but yeah,
Speaker 2: just getting being able to talk to those guys is
Speaker 2: just like that is an experience in and of itself,
Speaker 2: just like being able to pick their brain and what
Speaker 2: it is they're thinking and how they work Like that
Speaker 2: was really cool.
Speaker 1: What interests to you about about about the work? Like
Speaker 1: you know, you said, you're you're you're you're looking at
Speaker 1: maybe selling some projects and you're taking some acting classes,
Speaker 1: like do you want to create? Do you want to like? Where?
Speaker 1: Where do you see yourself here moving forward? If if
Speaker 1: things go.
Speaker 2: Well, well, It's kind of hard to say because I'm
Speaker 2: more of in like this experimental process, just kind of
Speaker 2: trying things out to see if I like them. I'd
Speaker 2: like to give my shot at producing as well. And
Speaker 2: so I'm trying to work with David Bernad as well too.
Speaker 2: We're trying to work on stuff, so I'd like to
Speaker 2: shadow him kind of see how he does his things.
Speaker 2: I really like the idea of doing like voiceover work
Speaker 2: because I love animated shows, and so if I could
Speaker 2: do like an animated comedy, I would love to do that.
Speaker 2: Hosting is something that I'm going to try to entertain
Speaker 2: as well too, So I'm just going to kind of
Speaker 2: give my shot at anything and just to see how
Speaker 2: it goes and.
Speaker 1: If I like it. You know. The other thing that
Speaker 1: occurs to me this is so cool is you have
Speaker 1: so many people who are trying to get into this business. Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean saying for the wrong reasons. That's that's simplistic.
Speaker 1: But all they want is to get into the business
Speaker 1: because of some perception of what it is or or
Speaker 1: what they could be or what they could do. You're
Speaker 1: you're tricked into it. You're here, You're you're tricked into
Speaker 1: being on uh. You know again, maybe the biggest comedy
Speaker 1: of last year, and your your temperament is just like, well,
Speaker 1: let's let's roll with it. Let's just see what happens,
Speaker 1: and if not, you can go back to doing what
Speaker 1: you did before. But you had a good time and
Speaker 1: you're learning a lot, and I uh, I love that.
Speaker 1: I wish all of the best to you, Ronald, and
Speaker 1: and continued uh success, either in this industry or something else,
Speaker 1: and I had a little bit of a family illness
Speaker 1: there for the evening before party, or I would have
Speaker 1: seen you. But one of these days we'll we'll run
Speaker 1: into each other at one of those events.
Speaker 2: A man, yeah, I wish I could have met you there. Damn,
Speaker 2: that's that's a bumer. I'm sorry. I hope everything's all right.
Speaker 1: No, no, everything's fine. But but that that's why I
Speaker 1: wasn't there. But we'll uh well, we'll do it next time,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, please, man, I would love to officially get
Speaker 2: to meet you for sure.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much, Ronald. I appreciate it, and
Speaker 1: good luck to you. All right, thank you.
Speaker 2: It was a pleasure, Brian. I appreciate you having.
Speaker 1: Me on, Ronald, thanks for coming on. That may have
Speaker 1: been a little short, but very very sweet, that's what
Speaker 1: she said. And I look, I really look forward to
Speaker 1: meeting you in person at an event sometime in the
Speaker 1: very near future. Listeners, I will see all of you
Speaker 1: back here next week, same time, same place, and until then,
Speaker 1: have a fabulous week. Off the Beat is hosted and
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Speaker 1: lingg Lee. Our Senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers
Speaker 1: are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and Emily Carr. Our talent
Speaker 1: producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and our intern is Ali
Speaker 1: Amir Saheed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
Speaker 1: the one and Only Creed Brad