Speaker 1: Season six, Fouler, Who You Got is here. We're really
Speaker 1: excited about the episodes we've gotten lined up for you,
Speaker 1: including our season debut Brendan Hunt coach beard On ted Lasso,
Speaker 1: also the show's executive producer, co creator, and co writer.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Ted Lasso fan. They just kicked off
Speaker 1: their third and final season. We also talk about Brendan's
Speaker 1: deep passion for sports, his formative five years in Amsterdam,
Speaker 1: his deep run on Celebrity Jeopardy Are long ago chance
Speaker 1: meeting in a Chicago bar, and our separate encounters with
Speaker 1: a very feisty Burt Reynolds. Today, I've got Brendan Hunt.
Speaker 1: Brendan Hunt. I'm grateful in advance for your time and
Speaker 1: your energy and your wisdom. Sir. I've set the bar
Speaker 1: quite high, but I think we can get there, and
Speaker 1: we have much to discuss. So thank you for being here,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me this thriller. We have our joint
Speaker 1: background growing up in Chicago, Chicago sports. Our initial indifference
Speaker 1: to soccer turned to passion. We'll get to all that stuff.
Speaker 1: A story involving Burt Reynolds and bodily harm that you
Speaker 1: won't see coming. But the obvious place to begin, of course,
Speaker 1: is with the beloved ted Lasso, And like millions of fans,
Speaker 1: my wife and I are waiting for the beginning of
Speaker 1: season three as we start this, and I wonder if
Speaker 1: you have a sense of the fans you're you're an
Speaker 1: avid reader, as is your character Coach Beard. We feel
Speaker 1: like we're getting to the end of a great novel
Speaker 1: and we're watching the pages dwindle and dwindle, and we
Speaker 1: can't wait to see how it ends. But we don't
Speaker 1: want it to end because once it ends, those characters
Speaker 1: are they're not dead to us, but they're sort of
Speaker 1: cryogenically frozen at Lacy, do you have a sense of that,
Speaker 1: And how are you feeling about you know, where you
Speaker 1: landed it and how you're going to take us there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, like yeah, as as as people
Speaker 1: have heard. But but just to get a body on board,
Speaker 1: you know, we've always seen it as a three movement
Speaker 1: suite essentially. You know, we didn't know it's gonna be
Speaker 1: three seasons. We thought maybe we'd get you know, do
Speaker 1: like the original all right, you know, um framework from
Speaker 1: the original office, Like maybe we get two six episode
Speaker 1: seasons and then a special wouldn't that be nice? And
Speaker 1: we kind of had it mapped out that way, um,
Speaker 1: but then we got you know, picked up by a
Speaker 1: streaming service that doesn't exist son or that didn't exist,
Speaker 1: so we didn't know we'd get even a second season.
Speaker 1: So here we are at, you know, getting towards the end,
Speaker 1: and we still are trying to finish the story that
Speaker 1: we originally saw, you know, but with all the like
Speaker 1: new additions that people have brought to the table over
Speaker 1: the years. Um, it may not be it may not
Speaker 1: be the end end um, but we are telling the
Speaker 1: end of this story at the very least um. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's kind of funny because like we
Speaker 1: like we've gone through it already in a way, like
Speaker 1: we had our emotional last day of the shooting, We
Speaker 1: had our emotional last rap party, we said our goodbyes.
Speaker 1: But now everyone else is getting the emotion part because
Speaker 1: now they're always just going to start watching, you know,
Speaker 1: and get through these three months for goodbyes that are
Speaker 1: like the you know, like how we see a black
Speaker 1: hole happened, but it actually happened a million years ago.
Speaker 1: People are getting this late goodbye of latent cosmic energy.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think we I think we're off to
Speaker 1: a good start. And we had the premiere of the
Speaker 1: night showed two episodes. People were into it, and that's
Speaker 1: a real good sign that hopefully people will will enjoy
Speaker 1: the journey with us. Again. I'm not sure how much
Speaker 1: time you spent around coaches, but you've nailed as a
Speaker 1: collective group so many of the inner sanctum details, the
Speaker 1: richness of these relationships between coaches, the camaraderie, the chemistry
Speaker 1: that comes from competition, the highs, the lows, the friction,
Speaker 1: the little attacks on each other, the backstabbing that's also
Speaker 1: a part of it. I promise you you've gotten all
Speaker 1: of those elements. So right where did the inspiration come
Speaker 1: from up to nail nail the relationships in that coaching room? Um,
Speaker 1: I guess just from the desire to make sure that
Speaker 1: the show is more about relationships than anything else. So
Speaker 1: in every in every um you know setting that the
Speaker 1: show takes place in, be at the coach's office, or
Speaker 1: Rebecca's office or at the pub, you know, it's relationships
Speaker 1: first and foremost. Um, you know, Jason and Uh and
Speaker 1: Joe Kelly are are the co creator and Bill Lawrence, Like,
Speaker 1: they all have a lot more athletic experiences than me,
Speaker 1: that's for sure, and so we all have some degree
Speaker 1: of coaches to to draw from me. I just draw
Speaker 1: from acting teachers. That counts, right, Um and uh, but
Speaker 1: they've all been real people for it, you know, Jason,
Speaker 1: very early on we first met as a writer's room,
Speaker 1: first thing who wanted to know from everyone was was like,
Speaker 1: who's your mentor? Talked to us about your mentor and
Speaker 1: because everyone's got one, even if it's not necessarily a
Speaker 1: football coach, And yeah, that was kind of like the
Speaker 1: start of it, you know, just making sure that these
Speaker 1: are we're drawn from real people and not making a
Speaker 1: not making the fantasy of a of a happy dude. Well,
Speaker 1: even the shocking scene where the character of Naty goes
Speaker 1: from this lovable underdog to this machiavellian creature who stabs
Speaker 1: ted Lasso in the back and creates a huge public
Speaker 1: problem for him and eventually leaves the staff at the
Speaker 1: end of season two, I mean that that stuff is
Speaker 1: not unheard of in real life coaching. Believe it or not.
Speaker 1: They're all kinds of coaches who share unflattery stuff about
Speaker 1: their colleagues for whatever reason, with people in the media
Speaker 1: and people in the profession. And so I didn't find
Speaker 1: that quite as shocking as a lot of people did.
Speaker 1: Yet you know, it goes on in that profession, and
Speaker 1: I thought, wow, you guys even went there. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're not we're not trying to do anyone in particular. Um,
Speaker 1: we just always knew that Nate was going to be
Speaker 1: the character who just wasn't quite ready for for all
Speaker 1: the opportunity that he was going to get. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it'd have been too much of a fantasy world if
Speaker 1: if Nate is just uh, I don't know, if everything
Speaker 1: ted touch really did touch, you know, turning a relationship gold. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, some people just aren't ready. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean as much as anything that I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: stuff that we're kind of getting out of, like Empire
Speaker 1: strikes back and at a bit of shakes here. Um.
Speaker 1: But but I mean, feel free to name names who
Speaker 1: were talking. We're talking about Charlie. Well, well, let me
Speaker 1: say you there was this No it happens where listen.
Speaker 1: I mean, in college football there's ten eleven coaches and
Speaker 1: so the boss sometimes doesn't run things the way Ted
Speaker 1: Lasso runs things. You would say, top down dictatorship. The
Speaker 1: hours are long, the stress is real, winning or else
Speaker 1: is the only thing that matters, and frustration that comes
Speaker 1: from that. And then obviously they're just ego and opportunity.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm gonna get a chance to call the
Speaker 1: players because coaches intervening, you know that that kind of
Speaker 1: thing is rife for you know the kinds of reactions
Speaker 1: you get. But I'm not going to name him here,
Speaker 1: but because I would, I would never have that dirty
Speaker 1: stuff share with me again. N then I would have
Speaker 1: lose the trust of these people. No, but it happens.
Speaker 1: I just didn't shock me as much as maybe some people.
Speaker 1: Although Nate didn't seem a likely didn't seem a likely
Speaker 1: trader going into that. Your character Coach Beard is so cool.
Speaker 1: I was always drawn to that character in the show,
Speaker 1: way before I ever thought we would meet. And you know,
Speaker 1: stoicism as wisdom is quiet is there coaches just like
Speaker 1: that too. They're typically in the supporting role, but but
Speaker 1: not everybody is an extrovert, alpha vocal person and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of coaches like that. And yet you
Speaker 1: capture something else that's so real where you have to
Speaker 1: lay into Ted, your best friend. I get's late in
Speaker 1: season one and you look him in the eye and
Speaker 1: basically he's being selfish and being stupid and and you
Speaker 1: won't drink with him. You storm out the puck. It's
Speaker 1: an a powerful great acting, by the way, but a
Speaker 1: powerful See. That's also the kind of thing that that
Speaker 1: does happen in real coaching experiences and obviously happens between
Speaker 1: real best friends. But but what a moment. It must
Speaker 1: have been interesting to act that. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that's my longest chunk of dialogue in the entirety
Speaker 1: of season one, certainly up to that point. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the fun things about their
Speaker 1: relationship is you know, um beards there, um, you know,
Speaker 1: to just fill in Ted's gaps. And because Ted has
Speaker 1: got all the talking covered, there's rarely any um, you know,
Speaker 1: gaps in oratory that he needs to step up and
Speaker 1: help with. Um. But he'll he'll point out, he'll point
Speaker 1: out stuff that Ted needs to be looking at that
Speaker 1: isn't I mean, he gives them all the warnings in
Speaker 1: the world about Nate and uh, and Ted just still
Speaker 1: doesn't quite catch it. So, yeah, we all should have
Speaker 1: that friend who's telling us that, you know, we've got
Speaker 1: toilet paper on our on our shoe or let us
Speaker 1: in our teeth or toilet paper in our teeth, depending
Speaker 1: how the night just gone. Yeah, but you told him
Speaker 1: his philosophy is full of shit. How he handled a
Speaker 1: key player or a key moment. It's a little bit
Speaker 1: more than toilet paper on the show's powerful philosophy just
Speaker 1: in this one instance. And you turned on you, you
Speaker 1: turned on your former girlfriend, which is why that's a
Speaker 1: great how to mic drop MoMA bluck out of the no.
Speaker 1: I mean there's I'm not going to geek out and
Speaker 1: this we could go on for for for about seven
Speaker 1: hours on this show. I just think it's something that's
Speaker 1: so hopeful and compassionate, human and empathetic, and it celebrates
Speaker 1: humility and curiosity, and it runs so countered to so
Speaker 1: many of the shows, by the way, who great shows
Speaker 1: that I also love to watch, whether it's um, you know,
Speaker 1: White Lotus or Succession or Oazark. But those are not
Speaker 1: about the sun of your sides of human nature, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's not what they're trying to be. But
Speaker 1: you mentioned positive cosmic energy. Maybe some of that comes
Speaker 1: into your life because this show is so much about upbeat,
Speaker 1: positive qualities. Yeah, I mean we feel we think about
Speaker 1: this a lot. I mean, Jason has said, like, um,
Speaker 1: it could one of the best thing about playing into Lasso.
Speaker 1: He gets to, you know, at least pretend to be
Speaker 1: in a good mood pretty much. I'll be um, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder sometimes, you know, we had that we had
Speaker 1: the premiere the other night, and like, you know, this
Speaker 1: show like makes does make people happy, and you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't just make them laugh, like it means so
Speaker 1: much to them. And so when we have crowds to encounter,
Speaker 1: it's like this outpouring of of of you know, we look,
Speaker 1: we'll call it love. And I find myself wondering, like,
Speaker 1: what what were the premieres like for True Blood? Like
Speaker 1: what kind of crowds did they get for that? Was
Speaker 1: it a different vibe? A bunch of incestuous people wearing
Speaker 1: fake things? Um, so yeah, we're pretty we're you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the goal wasn't to create you know, parties
Speaker 1: with with with with positive vibes. But it is a
Speaker 1: wonderful ancillary effect of what we've ended up doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: last thing I'll touch on about the show is that
Speaker 1: the Beard after Hours episode, which is one of my favorites,
Speaker 1: and it this I would say, almost Scorsese like trip
Speaker 1: through the dark, murky, grittier side of London where your
Speaker 1: character suffers a huge disappointment and then gets humiliated Chase, beaten, abandoned,
Speaker 1: rescued and ends up in a dance club with a
Speaker 1: hula hoop, which is a skill. I know you authentically
Speaker 1: brought to the role because you you've done a lot
Speaker 1: of hula hooping in your life. But wow, I mean
Speaker 1: that was just this incredible experience to watch, and I
Speaker 1: would imagine a fun departure for you where you get
Speaker 1: to show more than the typical coach beard vibe there. Now,
Speaker 1: it was pretty cool and know cool that Joe Kelley
Speaker 1: and Brett Goldstein went ahead and wrote that they didn't
Speaker 1: let me see the script for a very long time,
Speaker 1: which was somewhat frustrating, but I knew some of the
Speaker 1: basic things. But yeah, a'l hula hoop with the drop
Speaker 1: of a hat, as long as the proper hula hoop,
Speaker 1: but not one of them toys they sell a target.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was a fun, fun couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but also very arduous for a man who's slightly too
Speaker 1: old to be doing all this. I fucking running. Did
Speaker 1: you do your own stunts? Did you get your ass
Speaker 1: kicked all over the place? I mean, like they they
Speaker 1: had asked casually at one point if I wanted to
Speaker 1: do the stunt where the guy falls off the building
Speaker 1: or jumps off the building, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that moon, that's probably more than I should do. I'm no,
Speaker 1: I won't do that. But then I saw the guy.
Speaker 1: There was video of the guy like practicing it, you know,
Speaker 1: and they have the decelerator cable, you know, going down
Speaker 1: his back, and it's like, oh, well that doesn't look
Speaker 1: so hard, Like if if it helps the project to
Speaker 1: have my real face in there. Yeah. So I go
Speaker 1: to the producer. I'm like, hey, just you know, I'm
Speaker 1: happy to do that stunt, and he openly laughed at me, like, no, No,
Speaker 1: whoever said you should do that is being ridiculous. If
Speaker 1: we can't ensure that it's into a dumpster. Right, it
Speaker 1: was into a dumpster, and on the day, like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's exciting, it's the biggest dump you've ever had, and
Speaker 1: you go down and you see the dumpster. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's like a fake top layer of
Speaker 1: garbage bags, but you know there's pads and stuff inside. Um.
Speaker 1: And then the stunt finally happens. They're all watching around
Speaker 1: the monitor and stuntman goes down and uh as he's
Speaker 1: getting close to the dumpster, like, oh shit, he's he's
Speaker 1: too close to the wall that dumpster. And he goes through.
Speaker 1: It seems like inches away at most from the hard
Speaker 1: metal wall of this dumpster. And we're and we're all watching,
Speaker 1: waiting for a signal, and we don't hear anything from
Speaker 1: any from anybody, and we don't see his hand, we
Speaker 1: don't see his head. It was like fifteen seconds of
Speaker 1: like can we get word plays? Come we get word plays?
Speaker 1: Is he okay? It was fine? But he did he
Speaker 1: did acknowledge that, Yeah, he'd put a little too much
Speaker 1: oomp into it, and he ended up being two inches
Speaker 1: from the wall when he was supposed to be two
Speaker 1: feet pro almost breaks. I would have murdered this thing,
Speaker 1: but this guy he gets to have his day. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to annoy you by asking about spoilers, but
Speaker 1: I did I did have one curiosity. Maybe it's not
Speaker 1: a spoiler. Do we know Coach Beard's name at all?
Speaker 1: Is he going to be the man of mystery where
Speaker 1: you don't even know his first or lasting at least?
Speaker 1: I don't think that's been revealed, right, Um it has not. Um.
Speaker 1: We We've had fun debates over the years of what
Speaker 1: we think it might be. UM, various shout outs of
Speaker 1: tributes might we might do if it was this was
Speaker 1: his name or that was his name. But you know,
Speaker 1: in the end, we got to protect the mystery up
Speaker 1: Beard for as long as possible. I know. I think
Speaker 1: learning Cramer's name, uh was like, oh cool, his name
Speaker 1: is Cosmo? All right, fine, you know, but it didn't
Speaker 1: end up making Seinfeld any funnier knowing that his name
Speaker 1: was Cosmo. So um, it's not. I love the people
Speaker 1: care so much, but it's not as high a priority
Speaker 1: for us as it appears to be for the lovely
Speaker 1: Lovely messes. I uh, what hazard a guess that Richmond
Speaker 1: versus west Ham will feature somewhere in this series with
Speaker 1: the once but now not so longer great Nate coaching
Speaker 1: that say, that'll be interesting to say, I would buy
Speaker 1: I would fight in London and buy a ticket to
Speaker 1: see that game if it were if it were real,
Speaker 1: so looking forward to it. Hey, your passion for soccer
Speaker 1: is authentic. It was born in the Netherlands, I understand.
Speaker 1: And you if you grew up in Chicago, you're younger
Speaker 1: than I am, so you wouldn't have experienced all of
Speaker 1: the heartbreak of Chicago sports. You wouldn't have seen the
Speaker 1: Cubs collapse in the late six season early seventies. You
Speaker 1: would have been closer to the time that Michael came
Speaker 1: along and the Bulls became great and not just good
Speaker 1: or decent and always lose to the Bucks and the Warriors.
Speaker 1: And you would have experienced, you know, a Cubs World
Speaker 1: Series without having to wait as long in the Blackhawks
Speaker 1: in the Stanley Cup. But man, you must have had
Speaker 1: some scars. You grew up like you could walk to
Speaker 1: Wrigley Field, right. I did birthdays there, but I had
Speaker 1: to I had to come down the toll away from Rockford,
Speaker 1: Illinois to get there. Uh. Yeah, we moved a lot,
Speaker 1: but we were always dan near, always within walking this
Speaker 1: since the Rigley Field, and my mom in particular would
Speaker 1: take me to games a lot. You know, my dad,
Speaker 1: I heard. My dad divorced when I was two, and
Speaker 1: my dad was not in the picture that much, but
Speaker 1: they were both. They were both from the South Side
Speaker 1: and Socks Country, so I was a Northside child of
Speaker 1: the South Side parents. Um, but I ended up being
Speaker 1: a rare Chicagoan that is hated by many. But I
Speaker 1: am who I am. I'm a fan of both. If
Speaker 1: they play in the World Series, I'm rooting for the Socks.
Speaker 1: That's just how it's going to be. I've been to
Speaker 1: four or five times as many Cubs games as I
Speaker 1: have Socks game, just by geography. And when I go back,
Speaker 1: my family still lives there. My family still wants to
Speaker 1: go see Cubs games. Stephen, my stepdad came into the picture.
Speaker 1: My stepdad was a proper Bleacher bum and had been
Speaker 1: for years. So yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait, You're rooting
Speaker 1: for the Socks in a Chicago World Series. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: shocked and and crestfallen at that. I mean, I'll have
Speaker 1: heard about the Cubs Wrigley, come on, that's how That's
Speaker 1: just how it is. And you know, I mean for
Speaker 1: most of my life, I guess you know, probably not
Speaker 1: most anymore, but for most of my life, it was.
Speaker 1: It was much easier to compartmentalize this because they never
Speaker 1: played each other. And then finally interleague play comes along.
Speaker 1: And I think inter league play started while I was
Speaker 1: in either I was in Amsterdam or it just came
Speaker 1: at a time when I when I couldn't afford tickets
Speaker 1: to games. But it took a few years before I
Speaker 1: went to an interleague game, and I went into it
Speaker 1: with incredible trepidation. It was it was Cub socks at
Speaker 1: Wrigley UM and and you know, Wrigley more of my
Speaker 1: home stadium than than than the South Side, even though
Speaker 1: I loved old kemiskey, but um, hearing Cubs fans, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, yelling shit at the White Sox as as
Speaker 1: they I've heard them yell a million times to Cardinals
Speaker 1: and Reds and Padres, it made me mad, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I was like tensing up. And the Cubs murder
Speaker 1: the Socks that day, and I took no joy in
Speaker 1: watching the Cubs score. And this was not a decision.
Speaker 1: This is just like you know, instincts, you know, this
Speaker 1: is this is this is not how I know. And
Speaker 1: Paul Knerko hit a home run, uh you know, which
Speaker 1: made it You know ten to one instead of ten
Speaker 1: an oven or whatever, and I remember, just like lay
Speaker 1: at lea ye, And it's the only circumstance I'll ever
Speaker 1: root against the Cubs um. And I can't explain it.
Speaker 1: I know it's not socially acceptable, but I've literally only
Speaker 1: in the last few years finally decided like, I'm not
Speaker 1: gooding that about myself anymore. I respect that in all
Speaker 1: things in life, but especially in sports fan and you
Speaker 1: must let your authentic inner voice come out. And that
Speaker 1: was a visceral reaction. So I respect that this sucks.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I respect the fact um that
Speaker 1: you're an Arsenal fan. We we support rival London clubs
Speaker 1: Arsenal for you, Chelsea for me. Arsenal has ruined a
Speaker 1: couple of trips across the Atlantic um for FA Cup
Speaker 1: finals when Chelsea were the better team. Arsenal were better
Speaker 1: on the day. But you know our trophy case, I'm
Speaker 1: nothing to nothing to apologize for there. Um. Gunners may
Speaker 1: win the league this year, that that that that would be.
Speaker 1: They're trying to hang on as we sit here right now.
Speaker 1: It was Britain hushed tones but but but you fall
Speaker 1: in love with soccer in in Holland, and it's the
Speaker 1: it's the total football. It's a beautiful style of player.
Speaker 1: The Dutch teams at that time. It's a great time
Speaker 1: to get caught up in the culture. The Dutch fans
Speaker 1: are passionate and very direct, and I found somewhat welcoming
Speaker 1: about ciders who kind of get it. Um. So you're
Speaker 1: a passionate fan of the Dutch national team, which is
Speaker 1: what has set you up. I guess for some heartbreak
Speaker 1: because they're kind of close calls. Three World Cup finals
Speaker 1: I hosted in twenty ten in South Africa when they
Speaker 1: lost to Spain in the final. They lost a couple
Speaker 1: of times in the Sammy's I was in Brazil when
Speaker 1: they lost on penalties to Argentina, which is how they
Speaker 1: went out again in the recent World Cup. So I
Speaker 1: guess you you've gotten joy but also stabbed in the
Speaker 1: heart a few times by being as being a soccer
Speaker 1: fan will do to you. Um. Being a fan of
Speaker 1: the Dutch national team is a really there is a
Speaker 1: really specific thing, you know, like they they haven't won
Speaker 1: a major trophis since nineteen eighty eight, which before I
Speaker 1: was a fan, So I got no joy from that,
Speaker 1: they they've lost the three finals, two of which were
Speaker 1: to the host team. But the only final I saw
Speaker 1: I was was in twenty ten and a twenty ten
Speaker 1: you know, the Dutch put a lot of value on
Speaker 1: attractive teams, you know, who play football, you know, the
Speaker 1: right way, and that twenty ten team hadsome highlights. You know,
Speaker 1: Bessie Snyder was incredible that that tournament. Few guys were.
Speaker 1: They beat Brazil, which is always exciting, but they were
Speaker 1: not an attractive team, like they were coached by a
Speaker 1: final guy, not an IAX guy. And you know it
Speaker 1: was typified by the magic two young uh you know
Speaker 1: kick into Javi Alonzo's chest in the middle of the final,
Speaker 1: which somehow eluded the card m or at least a red.
Speaker 1: So there was no joy in it at all. And
Speaker 1: yeah they lose, They lose heartbreak after heartbreak, but high
Speaker 1: states heartbreak. It's semifinals, it's finals, and it's it's the worst.
Speaker 1: I was staying in the same hotel in Brazil when
Speaker 1: they trudged back in in the lobby after being well
Speaker 1: beaten mont penalties Bargentina. Are you and Robin on the
Speaker 1: rest of me just you know, gutted, but somehow the
Speaker 1: fans by the end of the evening had turned things around.
Speaker 1: They were still having a good time even though they
Speaker 1: lost in an excruciating way, and we're this close to
Speaker 1: being in the final. But I respect they're incredible at
Speaker 1: that like that. You know, My first Dutch football heartbreak
Speaker 1: was Euro two thousand and the semifinals. They had lost
Speaker 1: despite being up. You know, they had eleven minut in
Speaker 1: the pitch, Italy had nine and Holly missed two penalties
Speaker 1: in regulation and then lost the penalty shoot out at
Speaker 1: the end. And I was living with eight Dutch dudes
Speaker 1: who had built bleachers in our living room so it
Speaker 1: could feel like a stadium in our living room, and
Speaker 1: we had like thirty people there. It was festive, festied, festive,
Speaker 1: and then the game ended and it was dead silent,
Speaker 1: but for like three minutes and three minutes later abba
Speaker 1: like there was a very quick Hey, this is why
Speaker 1: ruin our day? Why ruin our day? This happens every
Speaker 1: two years. Come on back to the party. We can
Speaker 1: learn from that. We can learn from that. So Amsterdam
Speaker 1: for five years with an improv comedy group Boom Chicago
Speaker 1: five years. It was a long stay at that point
Speaker 1: for someone involved in that. Yet you've talked about what
Speaker 1: you learned from spending a chunk of time at an
Speaker 1: important part of your life when you're getting over disappointment
Speaker 1: outside the States. And I've been lucky enough to be
Speaker 1: able to do that big at least several years of
Speaker 1: my life added up outside of America. I think I
Speaker 1: advised people when they asked to have an experience far
Speaker 1: from home, outside our country to gain perspective and see
Speaker 1: what the world is about. What what did you take away?
Speaker 1: And how do you think you were formed? Branded by
Speaker 1: that experience and getting dropped into Holland. Yeah, so, like
Speaker 1: you know, as I said, like my parents got divorce
Speaker 1: when I was really young, and then I got married
Speaker 1: straight out of college and was separated within a year
Speaker 1: and a half because that was just too young with
Speaker 1: things to happen. And I was you know, I had
Speaker 1: not really dealt with like with a proper and a
Speaker 1: proper therapy way with with you know, various demons um
Speaker 1: you know, like my my parental situation. But I had
Speaker 1: become an alcoholic. My dad was still like in and out.
Speaker 1: It was a whole, it's a whole Michigas. And so
Speaker 1: for one thing, going to Holland was and in a
Speaker 1: very powerful and this is one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: I think people should travel if they can. Um, it's
Speaker 1: very powerful to have that much physical separation from your ship,
Speaker 1: you know, like like like, oh, I'm hold on on
Speaker 1: my own place now and and I'm not tethered to
Speaker 1: to the sort of you know, the roots that have
Speaker 1: been you know, maybe pulling me down a little bit.
Speaker 1: So there's that. But then the specifically Dutch angle is
Speaker 1: is their way of life was exactly what I needed.
Speaker 1: You know, They're they're ruled by a philosophy called the
Speaker 1: Gazella guide. And for something to be beazealous, um, it's
Speaker 1: a very multilayered thing. Like, um, like you do look
Speaker 1: like you've got a pretty Snzella spot back there. You
Speaker 1: get your good lighting, good plants that that looks very
Speaker 1: exelic nature is around us. Yes, yeah, yeah, um. And
Speaker 1: you can be in a very unsizella environment, uh, like
Speaker 1: you know, you're in a hospital waiting room and the
Speaker 1: fluorescent light is blinking and stuff, but you can make
Speaker 1: it cazelle by just connecting with your neighbor or maybe
Speaker 1: like turning some music out or bringing some coffee over.
Speaker 1: Oh now it's cazellic. But the bigger picture of cazelic,
Speaker 1: and again it's a wonderful untranslatable word, is if if
Speaker 1: worrying about something cannot you if you cannot improve the
Speaker 1: thing you were worrying about by worrying about it, why
Speaker 1: are you worrying? Um? Because that you're going to ruin
Speaker 1: your day. And for a guy who was at the
Speaker 1: time especially just overcome with with like a learned self
Speaker 1: hatred and a lot of you and why did I
Speaker 1: do this that time? Why did I do that that time? Well,
Speaker 1: it was incredibly eye opening, as symbol as it may
Speaker 1: sound to you, like, well, why do you keep asking
Speaker 1: yourself why you made that one mistake? And stuff like
Speaker 1: you made that mistake, that's that's over, that's not here anymore.
Speaker 1: Why don't you at the end of the sun is shining?
Speaker 1: Well no, not in the holland it's usually rating, but
Speaker 1: we're dancing, we're playing music. Just you know, it's essentially
Speaker 1: be here, be now. And again it may sound very simple,
Speaker 1: but it was extremely powerful for me, and that's why
Speaker 1: I ended up staying for as long as I did
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, I got to get this in
Speaker 1: my bones, and I've tried to carry it with me,
Speaker 1: you know still today. Yeah, it may be shitty weather,
Speaker 1: but the sun is shining within a lot of people
Speaker 1: over there. I get what you're saying. We often leave
Speaker 1: home to get away from things, but we stay places
Speaker 1: bec as we're drawn to something we didn't expect. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure at that point it wasn't about escaping. It
Speaker 1: was about fully embracing and and you know, relishing the change,
Speaker 1: which I think is one of the beautiful things about
Speaker 1: traveling and specifically living abroad for a period of time
Speaker 1: if you can. You are wearing a Wimbledon shirt. Um,
Speaker 1: we had the pleasure of hosting you and Hannah Wattingham,
Speaker 1: who read one of our teases beautifully for the Championships
Speaker 1: last summer, and you got all dressed up and and um,
Speaker 1: you and Shannon came over and we were We had
Speaker 1: a great day. You informed me that that was not
Speaker 1: the first time that we had met, however, and you
Speaker 1: caught me off guard with that, because I think I
Speaker 1: would have remembered meeting you somewhere before, but no, I
Speaker 1: did not. As as you related to me, Uh, yeah.
Speaker 1: In that in that year before I moved to Amsterdam
Speaker 1: and the year when I was when I was separated. Um,
Speaker 1: I was waiting tables, um, you know, at a place
Speaker 1: called Dublin's on State Street in Chicago, and a couple
Speaker 1: of couple of my improv buddies got me a job there.
Speaker 1: I have no table waiting experience, and I was not
Speaker 1: particularly good at it. Um. But every once in a
Speaker 1: while celebrities would come in and one of them one day,
Speaker 1: well it's the great Christmas flower. Um, sitting myself in
Speaker 1: your in your tie, no jacket, but you still had
Speaker 1: the tie. Um, And uh, I was by myself, how sad? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I will defend solo trips of the restaurant
Speaker 1: to my dying day. Um. But I felt a liar
Speaker 1: enough to that I walked up, but I was nervous.
Speaker 1: I think I even shook as I said it, Hey Fowler,
Speaker 1: what can I get you? And uh, you're very you're
Speaker 1: very efficient with your ordering. As I recall a relling day,
Speaker 1: I hope it included liquid uh treasure. But outsides of
Speaker 1: the fact, I wouldn't go to dublin Probably for the food,
Speaker 1: I would go there for the drink, and maybe I
Speaker 1: needed it if I was stilly wearing my tie. But
Speaker 1: I was alone. I don't know what the hell had happened.
Speaker 1: Maybe we were there shooting something for Northwestern. I don't
Speaker 1: remember what it was. But at least I wasn't an
Speaker 1: asshole too. If I was there and not at all,
Speaker 1: it was like five thirty or like maybe four o'clock,
Speaker 1: and I could have been an asshole at five thirty.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not above being an asshole in a
Speaker 1: happy hour, you know, but I'm glad. I hope the
Speaker 1: tip was at least not memorably bad anyway, So I
Speaker 1: rememberably that not memorably that you did. Great. Hey, there's
Speaker 1: something that was in doing the research, I came across
Speaker 1: something in an article in The Athletic where you talked
Speaker 1: about one of the experiences on stage more than twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. Now at this troop called Boom Chicago in Amsterdam,
Speaker 1: where Burt Reynolds is in the audience, you call him up.
Speaker 1: People have to go find this article in the Athletic.
Speaker 1: Subscribe if you don't, because the clip embedded into it
Speaker 1: is hysterical. We're a very young breend that welcomes Burt
Speaker 1: Reynolds onto the stage and he gets heckled and then
Speaker 1: threatens to punch out the heckler who he is invited
Speaker 1: on the stage. It was incredible. I also have a
Speaker 1: Burt Reynolds bodily arm store. He wanted to punch me.
Speaker 1: I'll get to that in a second. But what a
Speaker 1: fun little easter egg to come across. And I guess
Speaker 1: that's just part of life as an improv guy on
Speaker 1: the stage. You never know what the hell is going
Speaker 1: to happen. It was so random. Burt was in town
Speaker 1: filming a movie that actually I and two other Boom
Speaker 1: guys had had really small parts in, and we had
Speaker 1: but we had we're not in scenes with him, so
Speaker 1: we hadn't met him to that point. But it was
Speaker 1: like this JILTI electricity was in there the whole night. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people could see the clip and what happened. But there's
Speaker 1: a there's a bit of a day New Mah to
Speaker 1: that that I don't think I've said anywhere. So so
Speaker 1: here you go. But there was gonna be a rat
Speaker 1: party for this horrible movie, horrible movie called Snapshots, and
Speaker 1: we got there and as we're going there, I had
Speaker 1: this Swedish filmmaker friend and I mentioned it to him
Speaker 1: and he's like, well, if you're going to meet Burt Reynolds,
Speaker 1: I have a question for him. In the film Shamus,
Speaker 1: there is a stunt where a man falls out of
Speaker 1: a tree and he falls onto his head and there's
Speaker 1: I think that there's no way he could have survived,
Speaker 1: So please bring this up to mister Burt Reynolds, all right,
Speaker 1: And sure enough, go to Burt Reynolds after shooting the
Speaker 1: ship and for a while I'm like, hey, Bert, I
Speaker 1: just gotta ask, do you remember a stunt and Shamus
Speaker 1: where a guy falls down on his head? And and
Speaker 1: he's like, I sure do. I don't remember the name
Speaker 1: of the stunt man was like, you know, Kevin mcgillcutty,
Speaker 1: tell us of the bitch I ever met. Got me
Speaker 1: out of there. Came in, fell down on his head,
Speaker 1: and then he had to go to the hospital. I
Speaker 1: went there with him. He was mobilized for a while
Speaker 1: and his beautiful nurse comes in bombshell. She comes in
Speaker 1: with a needle this wide. She has him stand up
Speaker 1: against the wall. Yeah, with his ass out, She's sticking
Speaker 1: the needle in the small of his back and she
Speaker 1: pulls back the plunger and it's full of blood and
Speaker 1: piss and shit and Kevin mcgillatutty, I'll never forget this,
Speaker 1: Kevin McGilcutty says, So I guess I'm not gonna get
Speaker 1: your number, Jack Cock, Thank you Magnus for sending me
Speaker 1: down this Rocord. Burt could tell his story my encounters
Speaker 1: with him, there were two. We're not quite as pleasant
Speaker 1: sp Awards Radio City backstage, I come off. He's going on.
Speaker 1: I don't know it's him. It's in the darkness side
Speaker 1: stage with the pulleys and the sandbags. I feel a
Speaker 1: very sharp punch to my tuxedoed shoulder as I'm walking
Speaker 1: in the opps direction. Stop, hey Bert, how i'd met
Speaker 1: him before? He was a Florida State football player, roommate
Speaker 1: of Lee Corso, my beloved sidekick on game day. So
Speaker 1: I'd met Burt before. And he goes, don't give me that,
Speaker 1: don't give me that shit. Like now, I'm completely baffled.
Speaker 1: I've done nothing to Burt Reynolds that I know of.
Speaker 1: He was convinced that I had made fun of him
Speaker 1: when he was getting divorced with Lonnie Anderson he was
Speaker 1: a total mistaken identity. That was not a topic on
Speaker 1: game day. Hard to believe, but we didn't really cover
Speaker 1: Burt and Lonnie on our football pregame show. So he
Speaker 1: was just wrong. He might have been watching et. I
Speaker 1: don't know what he was watching. It wasn't me, but
Speaker 1: I could not convince him otherwise, And so that little
Speaker 1: moment passes. Later on another year, he's down in Florida
Speaker 1: State for a game. We're doing game day. He won't
Speaker 1: come on the set, so he will go to a
Speaker 1: small side set and he and mister Corso will have
Speaker 1: an interview down there and they can shoot the ship
Speaker 1: and tell stories about when they went to El Paso
Speaker 1: and the Sun bowling across the border and had all
Speaker 1: kinds of fun. So anyway, but that night, I figured
Speaker 1: this is enough enough. Like he's over there in the
Speaker 1: sidelines with Lee, with our people. I'm not with them.
Speaker 1: I walk over, and I figured maybe he's cooled down,
Speaker 1: Maybe somebody set him straight. It wouldn't me. I walk over.
Speaker 1: He's not having it. He gets right inches from my face,
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand people around, and says, you don't want
Speaker 1: to fight a seventy year old man right here. No,
Speaker 1: I do not Bert, I do not want to fight
Speaker 1: you on the football field where you wance a football
Speaker 1: star and now like a beloved donor. I don't want
Speaker 1: to fight that. That's one of those no win situations, right.
Speaker 1: You either punch Bert Sheriff's russell you to the ground
Speaker 1: you're a villain, you're taking a jail, or he kicks
Speaker 1: your ass a seventy year old beats you down. That's
Speaker 1: also a lose in my book. So I never found
Speaker 1: out Brandon. I never found out what Burt Reynolds was
Speaker 1: so confused about or why he thought I insulted him.
Speaker 1: It was just it was a Holly would feud to
Speaker 1: the end. And I was a huge fan. I mean,
Speaker 1: my god, smoking the band, the Longest Yard, It's my
Speaker 1: favorite hoop poverty is I mean, my god, it Hooper.
Speaker 1: I don't share your I like Cooper, but Wong's yard
Speaker 1: from me, I mean Paul Wrecking Crew. And you know
Speaker 1: I was. I still was enormous fan after that, but
Speaker 1: I was just confused. So I watched with great interest
Speaker 1: Burt Reynolds threatening to punch out a heckler on your stage,
Speaker 1: because I think he would have I think he would have.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, what a what a weirdly embittered dude.
Speaker 1: I'll never understand your character. Um, like you has a
Speaker 1: deep and broad knowledge of random topics. You put that
Speaker 1: on display and Celebrity Jeopardy, where Jennifer and I watched
Speaker 1: and with obviously strong rooting interest, as you motored through categories,
Speaker 1: built up a huge lead. And then I don't want
Speaker 1: to say, well, I'm not going to say the C word,
Speaker 1: but maybe maybe maybe you lost track of the math
Speaker 1: and you bet incorrectly. Final Jeopardy and Patton Oswald, of
Speaker 1: all people, Patton Oswald comes in and steals the wind
Speaker 1: from you and goes down to the final where um,
Speaker 1: like Paronols is a friend of years, he was also
Speaker 1: part of the Boom Chicagoy. He ends up winning the
Speaker 1: Grand prize and that should have been you, man, that
Speaker 1: should have been you. Oh thanks, thanks. Yeah, I've over
Speaker 1: my head so much. I mean to choke on Handmaids Fail.
Speaker 1: You know, the show that I that I have watched
Speaker 1: with such dedication over the years. I mean I whipped
Speaker 1: on both Final Jeopardies, like even the episode I won,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't get Final Jeopardy right, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna try to have to take it taken
Speaker 1: on the chin, learn them from the next time. Congratulations
Speaker 1: Patton Oswald, he earned it. And uh and but is
Speaker 1: that you is? That is the knowledge you displayed. You
Speaker 1: were like you were like mowing through categories. You you
Speaker 1: you were it was. It was frigging impressive. I mean,
Speaker 1: even celebrity Jeffy. Maybe maybe the questions are quite quite
Speaker 1: as hard as some of the but you were Jeffy
Speaker 1: fan growing up so obviously has a big moment, a
Speaker 1: very cool experience have I think, Yeah, it really, it
Speaker 1: really was. You know, it was um, you know, my
Speaker 1: mom and I had had various avenues of of of bonding, um,
Speaker 1: you know, despite sort of all the other weird stuff,
Speaker 1: but Jeopardy was very much one of them. Just sitting there,
Speaker 1: you know, eyes locked on a TV, you know, saying
Speaker 1: the answers. Um. It was a very very reliable ritual
Speaker 1: for for many years. So it's you know, and for
Speaker 1: a lot of people, Jeopardy is a family thing, of course.
Speaker 1: But but it was cool to close that off. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I had I had i'd had a had a seventy episode,
Speaker 1: but you know, i'd had an uncle who'd done it once,
Speaker 1: and he didn't tell us how much money he won
Speaker 1: until he watched it. He had won exactly three hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: which would not have paid for his ticket back and forth.
Speaker 1: Um So he didn't notice any life changing events after
Speaker 1: he came back from Jeopardy though. He didn't suddenly, you know,
Speaker 1: driving a Bentley or anything after. No, No, no, he did.
Speaker 1: He did have some nice sandwiches. Um but that was
Speaker 1: about it. About it? Well, I know you did a
Speaker 1: one man show talking about your five years in Amsterdam,
Speaker 1: tracing a lot of the background you shared early, what
Speaker 1: you led you there, what you learned there. I didn't
Speaker 1: get to see that, um it. I know it was
Speaker 1: in New York and La, Chicago, Aspen. Would you please
Speaker 1: bring it back this summer? Would you come back to
Speaker 1: Aspen and would you bring that back just as a favor?
Speaker 1: Because I it sound it was beautifully reviewed. It sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: One man show's taken credible amount of guts too. I
Speaker 1: would think to create, to dig down, to find what
Speaker 1: you got to dig through to even create it and
Speaker 1: then go to perform it. Wow, could you do it again?
Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned that because I've always loved doing
Speaker 1: that show and I haven't done a long time, and
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to do it in Amsterdam this summer at
Speaker 1: the Boom Chicago thirty three Union. But in order to
Speaker 1: prep for that and get into my bones, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a few like low key shows at
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Fringe Festival. This hadn't even been announced yet
Speaker 1: until right here today. Um, so we're doing a few
Speaker 1: days in June. I'm afraid I won't make it to
Speaker 1: ask me, Chris, I apologize for that, but you'll have
Speaker 1: your chance. Whether or not even take it'll be well.
Speaker 1: We will. We will stay in touch on those days.
Speaker 1: Because would I would? I would? I would? I would
Speaker 1: travel to see that. I'd love to go to Amsterdam
Speaker 1: and see when is the When is the Boom Chicago performance?
Speaker 1: I think who Chagan performance is July sixth. But what
Speaker 1: was that experience like to walk out there? I mean,
Speaker 1: so many aspects of what you do. My dad was
Speaker 1: in the theater. He was an actor, director, later a playwright.
Speaker 1: He was a professor a lot of his years, and
Speaker 1: my mom was a choreagraher. I grew up around that,
Speaker 1: but never had the guts to step out there and
Speaker 1: do it. For me. Theater was associated with great tension
Speaker 1: and anxiety, you know, secondhand, and when a play was
Speaker 1: about to happen, my dad was not calm and it
Speaker 1: was unpleasant sometimes. And and so the idea of taking
Speaker 1: some little part in running on stage in a Shakespearean production,
Speaker 1: my lord, my lord, don't go, I would scare the
Speaker 1: shit out of him, even if it been one line.
Speaker 1: So aside from Burger commercials, I didn't have the guts
Speaker 1: to pursue that. But man, I'm a fitter lover, and
Speaker 1: I admire the idea of going out there and standing
Speaker 1: alone at the stage and let's telling pieces of your story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I don't know why. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you end up there in a way,
Speaker 1: you know, like it it's but once you once you're
Speaker 1: doing it and find and figure out that, like you're
Speaker 1: not terrible at it, it's pretty damn addictive. Um And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I'm just I'm just super glad about it,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. I that was in seventh grade. I
Speaker 1: started at seventh grade at Kimlin Academy, and there was
Speaker 1: an announcement on the intercom auditions are coming up for
Speaker 1: the King and I and to our younger students, because
Speaker 1: it was the seventh through twelve m. The King and
Speaker 1: I has many children who need to be cast, so
Speaker 1: please consider auditioning. And and my man Andre Robinson right
Speaker 1: next to me, we're auditioning for that. Oh oh okay,
Speaker 1: And we did and we both got in and here
Speaker 1: we are now the most inane, forgettable things of the
Speaker 1: morning announcements in a school. And you actually, that's incredible
Speaker 1: that that became a spark for what But it's become
Speaker 1: your life's work of all things. Sitting there listening to
Speaker 1: some speaker in his clinic classroom. Yeah, but then you
Speaker 1: had to go do it. You had to go do it.
Speaker 1: And I would, I would think, put yourself out there.
Speaker 1: And and you know, I have the guts and the
Speaker 1: confidence which I didn't have as a kid to do that.
Speaker 1: And I'm not haunted, but I do regret it. One
Speaker 1: of the few things I've read is not stuffing out
Speaker 1: there and doing that so well. Sometimes it's not it's
Speaker 1: not got some confidence so much, it is just blindly
Speaker 1: racing forward and kind of ignoring the stuff that apparently
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be scared of. Um, if you did
Speaker 1: pretend it's not there, then it can't catch you. Random
Speaker 1: question as we near the end here, Um, I mentioned
Speaker 1: my dad being in the theater. I wonder if you've
Speaker 1: ever had an experience with ghosts, if you believe in ghosts,
Speaker 1: because there are stories that my father haunts the theater
Speaker 1: in Rockford, Illinois that he created according to students and
Speaker 1: ex students, which I tend to investigate. That sounds like
Speaker 1: a podcast episode, but yeah, I have had experiences like that.
Speaker 1: If you have you had a ghost experience, Brendan, I
Speaker 1: can't say that I necessarily have, and I certainly wish
Speaker 1: I had, because like I'm you know, I've got I've
Speaker 1: got some some hippie thoughts in me about about you know,
Speaker 1: the energy of which we are constituted and in what
Speaker 1: forms it takes around us. But but no, I yet
Speaker 1: to be confronted by by a proper ghost. Um, there's
Speaker 1: still time. There's still time. But there's still time. I think.
Speaker 1: I sometimes dream the future, but no ghost. Have you
Speaker 1: had a near death experience almost become a ghost yourself?
Speaker 1: Because I've asked guests it's frequently because it often produces
Speaker 1: a surprising, tereseing answer. I've had a couple of them.
Speaker 1: But have you have you had one of those experiences
Speaker 1: where you really feel like, oh, like this could be it.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't this be a weird way to have it? Yeah? UM,
Speaker 1: So in Amsterdam, you know, the weekends there would be
Speaker 1: there would be fun parties, and sometimes we just go
Speaker 1: to proper like dans and places, but sometimes you end
Speaker 1: up going to these like underground um you know, squat
Speaker 1: parties where you know, we're we're we're squatters have taken
Speaker 1: over like an abandoned building, our bandon warehouse and turn
Speaker 1: it into a UM. It's some kind of party that
Speaker 1: you know, does not require going through any like OSHA
Speaker 1: safety checks and UM. And people are, of course, UM
Speaker 1: as a rule, not particularly sober. And I'm at this
Speaker 1: one that it was in like a warehouse out in
Speaker 1: the canal or on the river really actually a little
Speaker 1: further from the center of town. And like, the music
Speaker 1: is good, I've got some friends, are having a good time,
Speaker 1: but I kind of go wandering off a little bit
Speaker 1: and there's this giant sliding door UM at one point
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, the bathroom in here, and I
Speaker 1: opened the giant sliding door and outside is the river,
Speaker 1: the river, and five stories straight down to the ground.
Speaker 1: There is no there was no banister, there's no barrier whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's two hundred super high people behind me,
Speaker 1: and it just will take one of them to be
Speaker 1: like oh wow, and then everyone's surging forward and you
Speaker 1: know we might at all die, but I sure will,
Speaker 1: and says And there there was no panic. No, apparently
Speaker 1: no one even noticed that the whole world was out there.
Speaker 1: Maybe I was the last to know, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm still shook by that from time to time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would that would be a recurring nightmare for me.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe combining alcohol, hallucinogenics and five story dropofs
Speaker 1: into a river with no barrier, probably that's a that's
Speaker 1: a dangerous combination. Yeah, yeah, And I can't swim. Boy,
Speaker 1: I don't think swimming would be the problem. If that'd
Speaker 1: be the last year concerns of you fall kill you,
Speaker 1: which guess all, right, here we go. So as you
Speaker 1: wrap it up, UM, people who are going to launch
Speaker 1: into this this season and and and love it. UM
Speaker 1: Arsenal is going to win the Premier League. Uh, you
Speaker 1: are intentionally trying to jinkit. Stop that, stop that I
Speaker 1: won't down and show you that the Chelsea we are
Speaker 1: we are also rounds, but we're alive in the Champions
Speaker 1: League quarterfinals as we as we sit here now anyway,
Speaker 1: so's not better than the Europa League. Just saying, oh,
Speaker 1: is it Chris you you post you in in Channon
Speaker 1: post about your sunshine? Is he about two now? And
Speaker 1: you you were watching the US World Cup team with
Speaker 1: him in your arms? And I just wonder one of
Speaker 1: the joys of parenthood and specifically having a son, which
Speaker 1: I've not experienced, would would be to be able to
Speaker 1: share things like that with him kind of um hope
Speaker 1: that he grows up and share some of your passion
Speaker 1: for sports and things in life. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's quite old enough to understand what was going
Speaker 1: on with Team USA or a soccer but I know
Speaker 1: you love to explain the game. So does Sean yet
Speaker 1: understand um offsides and the box form midfield? Have you
Speaker 1: have you taught him these things? I got him on
Speaker 1: a diamond though he uh, he likes watching TV. You know.
Speaker 1: At two point where we got to be a little
Speaker 1: bit careful about it, but he likes watching sports. I
Speaker 1: think it's because you know, suddenly the color green takes
Speaker 1: over everything. Um, and he doesn't really know what's happening yet,
Speaker 1: but he does do like accidental impressions of me like yeah,
Speaker 1: he'll he will get and he's learned. He learned to
Speaker 1: put his hands on the side of his head. Uh
Speaker 1: and uh no, he doesn't know why he's doing that,
Speaker 1: but not me. Nailed. Well, that's that's gonna be within
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. And visus your fan, there's
Speaker 1: a whole lot of yelling no and putting the hands
Speaker 1: on the sat of your head. Right, That's that's what
Speaker 1: it is, you know, the beautiful agony of it all.
Speaker 1: So you know, many lessons for him to learn ahead. Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time. This is really enjoyable.
Speaker 1: And uh, I can't wait to see how the season
Speaker 1: unfolds and and see what's what's next for you. But
Speaker 1: getting Tony a little bit has been really fun and
Speaker 1: I appreciate, appreciate you joining us. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for the tour at Wimbledon, and let them
Speaker 1: lessons about to everyone. Don't be a horrible tipper because
Speaker 1: You never know if you're gonna run into that waiter
Speaker 1: thirty years later. Oh yeah, we wouldn't be sitting here. Well,
Speaker 1: yeah I was. I don't hold grudgets, but I do
Speaker 1: keep score and you're in the positives. That was fun.
Speaker 1: Huge thanks to Brendan Hunt. I know about this as
Speaker 1: a gauge of ted Lasso's immense popularity. The a Sports
Speaker 1: FIFA game, which is what Brendan and Jason Sadakis used
Speaker 1: to play before and after those improv shows in Amsterdam.
Speaker 1: It's really what helped teach Jason the sport of soccer.
Speaker 1: The EA twenty three FIFA game now features AFC Richmond
Speaker 1: and the characters from ted Lasso, and they piled up
Speaker 1: more than a million wins. That is a cool thing
Speaker 1: for the cast and for the fans of the show.
Speaker 1: Season three continues an Apple TV Plus, the only network
Speaker 1: to take a chance on the show. As always, thanks,
Speaker 1: I'm a co executive producer Jennifer Dempster and to the
Speaker 1: folks at Octagon, please subscribe and review the podcast and
Speaker 1: leave any comments or feedback on my Instagram and I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you soon.