WEBVTT - Paul Walter Hauser 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.200 You know, people sometimes want to compliment me and say, wow, you, 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.480 how did you do that character? And I'm like, I 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.600 was doing you your How I did that character? You know, 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:14.200 it's it's not as crazy or complex as people would think. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.520 If you can have the fearlessness and specificity to to 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:27.479 dive into those things that you've experienced. This is Paul 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.200 Walter Houser and I am a liberal and a Christian. 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.080 Hi again, listeners, and welcome to a brand new spanking 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:49.440 episode of Off the Beat. I'm your host, Brian Baumgartner. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:54.600 As you just heard, Paul Walter Houser is on the 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.640 program today. I am so excited about this. I'm a huge, 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.680 huge fan of his work. Never had met him before, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.560 but I think you're going to enjoy this deep dive 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.319 into his career. Now, to give you an idea of 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.480 Paul's range, let me just list some of the characters 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:16.160 he's taken on during his career so far. Bodyguard Sean 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:20.640 Eckert in I Tanya, a white supremacist in Black Klansman, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.840 the unexpected and wrongfully accused hero in Richard Jewel, the 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.840 eccentric Stingray in Cobra Kai, one of Cruela's henchman in 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.960 Cruella and the incredibly creepy serial killer in a show. 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.800 I recently became a very, very big fan of Blackbird. 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.000 I admire Paul so much. He has this ability to 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.280 take on the physicality and the voices of the characters 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.640 he portrays. It's stunning and you never know what he's 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.520 gonna pull out of the bag next. So I was 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.520 excited to dive into his journey as an actor, as 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.800 a writer, and as an overall stand up guy. I'm 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.840 not gonna make you wait any longer. Are you excited? 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:13.639 I sure as hell am. Paul Walter Houser. Everybody, Bubble 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:20.760 and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak on Bubble 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.679 and Squeaker, cooking it every month, left over from the Nabole. 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.560 What's up, Paul? Bryan? How are you, dude? I'm all right. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.320 How are you? I'm good, really good to see you. 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:46.040 I I my buddy Ryan Zachary, who I haven't seen 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.600 in a bit. Yeah. Yeah. He told me he was 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:50.960 doing your podcast and said you should come on. I 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.519 was like, are you kidding me? In two seconds, let's 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.240 do it. I appreciate it so much. I'm a huge 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:03.120 fan of yours and your work, particularly Blackbird, that comedy 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.680 I did Blackbird. Yeah, yeah, you're you're a You're a 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:11.360 real stand up comedian that somehow has totally changed the 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.799 course of your career, which I definitely want to talk about. 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.520 You grew up in a place I'm going this week, 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:24.880 Grand Rapids. I'm going this week. I think technically I 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.880 will end up in Big Rapids. Farrish State University, Farris 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.799 State University. I know it. Well. I almost went there, 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.640 you did, I almost went there. Yeah, I heard you 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:42.000 only went to college for like ten minutes though. Yeah, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:45.240 I was not long for the university life. I never 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.040 liked school. I just liked extracurriculars and socializing. So I 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:54.080 went to a little parochial Christian college in River Forest, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.880 Oak Park, Illinois, like near Chicago, and that that was 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.440 fun for two and a half semess years, and then 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.160 I dropped out and tried to do the Hollywood thing. Yeah, 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.760 you grew up in Michigan. When did you realize that 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.440 performing was something you want to do? I know you 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.840 started stand up very early, but when when? When? When 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.520 when did you first realize you may want to go 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.479 in that direction? I think I always liked performing, and 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.919 I had kind of a fearless social thing where I 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.039 I would get up in front of company at my 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.960 house and do impersonations of family members or recite Saturday 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.120 Night live sketches. Remember being like eight or nine years old, 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.920 ten years old doing impersonations of Jack Nicholson and Jimmy 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.760 Stewart in the mirror. And that was the beginning. And 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.040 then I did a bunch of theater and I think 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.599 I did ten plays in my four years of high school. 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.760 It was almost like being a two sport athlete, but 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.440 for artistic endeavors, you know. And then UH started doing 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.600 stand up comedy and writing screenplays at sixteen and its 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.839 bought a bunch of books on screenwriting from Barnes and 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.760 no Bole and devoured it. I wrote two features before 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.400 I graduated high school. I was doing local shows at 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.279 colleges and bars and churches in my hometown area. And 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.799 then it wasn't until I auditioned to be a background actor, 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.480 like an extra in this indie film with Jennifer Connelly 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.159 and Ed Harris called Virginia. And I went to be 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.440 an extra, but I saw the filmmaker, the writer director there, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.520 this guy Dustin Lance Black, who won the Oscar for 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.520 writing the movie Milk, and I just said to him. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.159 I was like, hey, man, you know, I loved your film. 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.040 It was really touching and moving, and loved your Oscar 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.640 speech when he said God doesn't hate the gay youth 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.280 of the world. Like I. I'm a professed Christian and 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.599 kind of conservative, but I'll tell you, I I think 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.040 more people need to say that and live that, and 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.560 and thank you for speaking up and saying that. So 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.720 it was like a minute conversation wasn't long. But whatever 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.440 I said or did, he brought me back for an audition, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.080 and I booked number six on the call sheet, and 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.800 I'm doing scenes with Ed Harris and his wife Amy 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.120 Madigan and Jennifer Connelly. It was it was a crazy 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.120 first job to get and I got to move to 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:14.680 Hollywood with dollars and this really cool, you know thing 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.360 on my resume. That's awesome. I mean, you you said 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.160 you were writing. I hear you have dozens of scripts 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.599 that are written. Were you more focused early on on 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.320 the performing aspect of it or I mean it sounds 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.720 like you were interested in everything, was it performing or writing. 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.359 I loved all of it. Man, I really I was 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.640 fascinated by casting. I was fascinated by production design. I 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.200 loved directing short films and high school and college. I 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.359 even do it now. So I was just trying to 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.479 break into the business. I thought maybe if I do 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:50.760 all these things, one of them will hit. It's kind 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.799 of like playing Roulette, right. I was just like stand 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:59.680 up comedy, screenwriting, acting, acting in drama and comedy. You know, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:01.960 at some point I would have just had a bake 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.960 sale outside of Warner Brothers. And because I was pretty 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.440 undeterred and pretty obsessed with trying to break in. You know, yeah, 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:14.280 that experience that you had in Virginia. Do you think 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.240 that that shaped you as at least a person in 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:22.680 the business later on? I mean it shaped me in 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.640 the sense that I knew that there were good people 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.360 in Hollywood. That was the vibe I got, because you know, 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.600 when you grow up in a ultra conservative setting and 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.080 you're highly religious, it's it's easy to fall into this 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.160 thing of believing that Hollywood is, uh, is this really 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.680 an awful place with all these awful people? And it's like, 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.040 I think it's a place full of a bunch of 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.680 real regular people. But it just so happens that egos 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.720 and greed and things play in a little bit more 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:56.280 aggressively in our business. Then say, people that work for 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.320 Turbo tax, you know, it's it just happens. Be an 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:06.040 environment that plays on the the generational, you know, cyclical 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.760 sins we as humans all incur and then sometimes rewards 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.440 them or doesn't slap risks for some of them, and 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.640 and that's its own thing. But yeah, no, I I 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.640 would say that I learned that you can work with 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:22.000 wonderful people in Hollywood. I learned to not be afraid 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.800 to improvise. My whole thing was I'm not gonna ask permission, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.160 I'm gonna ask forgiveness. At that time especially, I was 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.320 obsessed with the Christopher Guests mockumentaries like Waiting for Goffman, 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.720 and my whole thing was, I'm gonna be one of 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.480 those actors. I'm not gonna try to be Robert de Niro. 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.800 I'll never be DeNiro. I can't be DeNiro, but you 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.240 bet your ass. I can be ed Begley Jr. You 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.880 bet your ass. I can be Fred Willard. And I 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.920 went into it like that, and I was rewarded for it. 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.120 Lance Black, who had an Oscar for writing is telling 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.719 me he loves my improv So like that gave me 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.360 a lot of confidence and let me know my my 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.640 true north as a performer will always be to go 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:08.120 with my gut instincts. I mean, you talked early on 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.040 about standing up and doing impressions of family members or 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.720 big movie stars of the day, Jack, etcetera. Do you 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:21.439 feel like that influenced you in terms of creating characters, 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.680 making vocal and physical choices. Is that something that was 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.720 always interesting to you? Yeah, I I was. I was 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.880 sitting a brunch today with our buddies. My wife and 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.360 I were sitting with Ray and deb Ji Ratana. They're 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:39.200 they're like a power couple of of they do everything 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.480 from visual effects to directing to their daughters and actress 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.760 like wonderful people. And we're talking and they said, how 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:50.720 did you pick up on all these weird characteristics and 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.160 choices to make for playing Larry Hall and Blackbird? You know? 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.360 The answer I gave him was just I love watching people. 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:00.520 If I'm in an airport and I have already five 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.880 minutes to wait around for my flight, I'm not really 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.240 begrudging or bemoaning it. It's an opportunity for me to 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.240 pause and watch total strangers. This guy pulls out his 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:15.679 sandwich from Arby's and he starts eating. Oh I noticed 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.360 he's eating with the rapper half on the sandwich because 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.080 he doesn't want to get his hands dirty. But then 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.880 he gets arb sauce on his fingers, licks his fingers 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.480 and wipes him on his pants. So clearly being sanitary 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.320 doesn't matter to him, you know. It's it's about finding 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.840 all the little things and all the little people and 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.680 making up stories in your head of that old improv rule. 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.560 If this is true, what else is true? And and 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.959 those characterists that speak the greater things, both about humanity 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:48.120 or the person in particular. So I, once again, that's me, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.840 that's me kind of ranting, but also saying that being 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.240 analytical about the pieces that make up people. You know, 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.800 it's just being a journalist. If you could be a 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.679 journalist of humanity and then try to emulate those things, 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.800 you're a great actor. It doesn't mean you're Daniel day 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.400 Lewis or Violet Davis. It means that you pay attention, 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.200 and any of us have that ability. It's not like 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:14.880 it's a messing. It's it's a human thing. Yeah, that's 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.640 what I feel like a huge part of my job 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:22.800 is understanding and observing human behavior, and that being able 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:28.720 to unlock that behavior can very often unlock the physicality, 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.720 the voice, that everything of a character. There's something really 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.040 communal about the experience of watching film and TV. You know, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:39.800 people sometimes want to compliment me and say, wow, you, 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.120 how did you do that character? And I'm like, I 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.200 was doing you your How I did that character? You know, 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.800 it's it's not as crazy or complex as people would think. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:55.080 If you can have the fearlessness and specificity to to 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:59.080 dive into those things that you've experienced that role Tom 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.920 Cruise played and topic Thunder. People are obsessed with that, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.920 you know, the man Tom Cruise, and it's like he's 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.000 really he's doing what Dwayne Johnson did in the w 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.360 w E, where he's taking some piece of him and 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.319 then amplifying it to a psychotic degree that makes it entertaining. 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.400 Tom Cruise, like many humans, has any ego. What if 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.440 you took that anger and ego and amplified it to 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.839 a billion you have less grossman. You know, doesn't mean 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.520 times a bad guy. It means that we all have 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.120 some ugly and some sin and some truth and reality 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.760 to us. And if we choose to go ninety on 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.400 a detour, that's what less Grossman looks like. You're going 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:43.800 ninety miles an hour on a curvy detour exit. You know. Yeah. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.040 You bring up something else too that I think is 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.040 is especially true. I've talked to a bunch of people 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:53.959 about specificity and that unlocking the key to a character, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:13:00.200 unlocking a believability. People think it's about being universal, right, 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.960 you create a universal character that more people will can 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:09.120 relate to, But ultimately it's about finding those specific things. 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.880 The guy who wraps the sandwich but then wipes it 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.640 licks and wipes on his pants. Those two things don't 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:19.400 go together, but they do because you saw it and 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.560 it exists within him. Right, Oh, you just said everything, dude. 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.800 It's it's that idea of I wrapped the sandwich as 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.280 to not get my hands dirty, and then I get 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.719 my hands dirty and I unconsciously I'm wiping them on 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.160 my clothing, which is the very thing I uh seemed 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:43.120 to protest or promulgate, you know. And that contradiction is 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.280 is man, is that everywhere I did the show Kingdom 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.200 with Frank Grillo about m M A Fighters and I 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.920 was just a recurring guest star. But man, there was 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:54.920 a day where I had seen with Matt Laurea in 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.480 season one, and while I'm doing it, I thought, wouldn't 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.000 it be funny if when I get at it Matt 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:06.320 Laura's character, if I say this is fucking BS, so 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:10.240 I'm abbreviating the word bullshit by saying BS, but then 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.000 I'm saying this is fucking bs. Um. I just thought 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.800 it was super funny, and I did it, and it 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.080 cracks me up to this day thinking about it, because 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.440 it's like the sandwich thing. I'm going to have the 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.640 wrap around, but I'm gonna wipe my hands and my pants. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.040 And you know that that that's just sort of a 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:33.640 hallmark of behavior. Is contradiction, being hypocritical, you know. And 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.680 I think most things if you juxtapose and you bring 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:42.400 comedy to drama, or you bring drama to comedy, or 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:44.960 you bring calm and a horror film, or you bring 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.240 a horror in a calm film, It's like contradiction is 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.120 always going to be interesting, isn't it. That's right? Um. 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.000 You book a few other things after traveling to Hollywood, 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.800 including a show. You were allegedly a fan of Always 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.520 Sunny in Philadelphia. Uh, oh man, Yeah, you're a fan 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.800 of that show. I love that show. There's a big 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.160 deal for me to go from like to go from 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.000 watching It's Always Sunny in my underpants with four of 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:16.760 my guy friends in college drinking watered down natural light 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.480 type of beer cans to a year later getting the 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.040 part and hanging out with Charlie Day and Glenn and 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:29.240 Rob Like, that'surreal, man, that's like some weird, real life 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.240 magic stuff. It was a big deal for me. And 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.040 it's funny you bring that up because I had not 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:40.160 seen Glenn Howardson or Charlie Day since I shot the show, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.640 like May June, And in the last week I have 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.120 run into Glenn Howardson and Charlie Day both for the 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:55.200 first time in twelve years. And it was such a funny, chummy, 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.680 cozy little reunion of like, it's so fun to get 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.480 to be giddy and catch each other up on our 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.560 lives and to thank them properly for giving me a 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.760 great gig. That meant a lot to me. And you know, 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.360 those residuals matter. Now are times where I was waiting 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.280 tables and had no money and all of a sudden 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.880 residual for your episode of Sonny and that helps you 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.960 pay your rent that month. I mean that I never 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:28.720 forget that stuff. Man. Yeah, as you just alluded to you, well, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.360 the jobs dry up a little bit and you moved 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.000 back to Michigan. Is that right? That sucked? And what 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.120 was the decision there? You just you didn't have money 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:41.000 or or what? Oh dude, man, thank god I persevered 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.320 because that I couldn't easily given up, like given up 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.320 giving up. In my first year in Hollywood, I did 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.440 two independent films, an independent film with Aaron Paul and 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.000 Jeff Daniels. I did that indie with Jennifer Connelly and 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:02.280 Ed Harris. I had a lead role series Regular and 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:07.960 a pilot presentation at CBS with Larry Charles and Aunt Hines. Wow. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.399 I had the guest star on It's Always Sunny and 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.480 I had a co star on Community. So I booked 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.879 five jobs in fourteen months, and I thought I was 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.040 Mr Cool. I thought I was the next Jonah Hill. 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.280 And true to form, you know, God humbled me and 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.120 I couldn't. I couldn't find a day job out there. 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.119 I applied to sixty seventy places on Craigslist. I couldn't 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.240 get a job at Subway McDonald's, but I could get 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.320 a guest star opposite Danny de Vito on It's Always Sunny. 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:41.600 I mean, this is the world I was living in. 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.119 I think I had a callbacker two for Bones. I 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:47.000 went out for a guest star in some episode of 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.000 Bones where I would play like a guy at a 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.800 bowling alley or something that would have saved my ass. 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:55.800 I needed that five hundred or five thousand dollar guest 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.919 star on Bones to stay in l A. I was 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.400 down to so I was sleeping on the floor of 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.200 my buddy Matt Ryan's apartment. So things were getting bad. 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:11.320 I remember I went on a date with a female 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.640 friend of mine and I had two fifty bucks left 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:16.480 in my name, I think, and I found out I 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.199 didn't get Bones, so I took her out on a 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.479 date to get sushi and go see this movie Source 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.760 Code with Jake Killenhal And as we're saying goodbye in 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.800 the arc Light parking lot area, she goes, let's go 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.120 get protein shakes and go for a walk or hang 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.240 on next week, and I I said her, I go, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.840 I can't she goes, why. I go up, I'm broke. 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.399 I have to move home. And she goes, why did 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:40.879 you take me out on a date and spend all 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:42.280 that money. I go, I guess I wanted to go 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.800 out of the bank, and I hugged her goodbye. I 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:50.800 walked on Hollywood Boulevard. I walked past the Improv Olympic 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.320 Io Theater, which I was a big fan of, and 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.879 some guy sees me, this guy, Jeremy. He goes, Paul, 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.280 what are you doing. I go, hey man, I'm like 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.639 trying not to cry. I'm in a bad play emotionally. 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.000 And he looked at me. He goes, you're going the 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.240 wrong way, and he means, you're going the wrong way, 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:08.879 like in prov Olympic. You're walking away from the theater. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.040 Come on in. But you know it's resonating with me, 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.000 like you're going the wrong way, like you're leaving town. 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.800 I crossed the street and I run into Tony Hawk 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.520 and I'm like crying. My face is all blotchy. Tony 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.280 Hawk is literally just walking side by side next to me. 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.480 I look over and see him and I go, hey, man, 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:29.840 I don't have anything to say about your skateboarding, but 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:32.880 I just saw a source code. It was pretty good. 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.399 He goes, Yeah, my nephew saw that. He said, that 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.880 was pretty good. I gotta see that. Like just I'm 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:43.200 talking the most surreal, weird moment of my life, crying 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.000 saying goodbye to a woman I have this like affection for, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.240 and I'm saying goodbye to the city. I have a 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.199 hundred thirty bucks to my name, and I think I 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.760 flew home the next week, and I worked at a 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.560 bowling alley. I worked, by the way, that's funny. I 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.320 auditioned to play a guy in a bowling alley, and 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.520 six months later, I'm working at a bowling alley in 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.520 my hometown. And I worked at a grocery store in 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.199 a bowling alley. I moved to Detroit to become a 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:13.120 mortgage banker for seven weeks for Quicken Loans in one 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:18.160 reverse mortgage for Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah, 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:22.080 so wait, you were given up, you were done. I 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:23.679 just went home. I didn't have any money and I 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.080 was sleeping on the floor, right, So it was just 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.879 it was an untenable situation, right right, right. I just 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.679 met being a mortgage broker that sounds like you're changing careers. No, 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.720 that was just to make some money. Just to make 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:38.680 some money, I thought, I'll do this for a year. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.800 I'll save up twenty grand, thirty grand, I'll move back 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:47.480 to Alan, I'll be financially fiscally responsible, because you know, 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:49.920 I was also just bad with money, man, due to 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.480 regular day for me. I'd wake up at nine ten am, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:59.960 walk down to Solar Dick Colanga or cafe etcetera, Kids 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.320 in four or Groundworks Coffee. It was like the Klanga strip, 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.560 and I would just sit around all day eating like 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.840 club sandwiches and drinking coffee and eating scones while like 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:16.520 writing screenplays and running into comedians and people I admired. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.760 That was like every day in my life. I'm just 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:24.200 dropping fifty six on diner food and chilling, and then 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:28.160 at night I'm going to somebody's improv show and I'm 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.359 getting drinks after and we're getting in and out. Like 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.440 I was burning through money just being a slobby, you know, idiot, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.520 And uh, it caught up with me and I had 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:59.359 to learn a hard lesson for sure. What brought you 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.400 back to Los Angeles? A friend of a friend said, Hey, 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.440 I read a pilot. He wrote, I watched your demo reel. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.159 I think you're really talented. You want to come crash 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.199 on my couch for like a few hundred bucks. So 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:12.920 I took this guy up on that, and I moved 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:15.280 back to l A. I had done two levels of 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:19.119 io theater and stand up in Chicago for six months 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.440 while working at a Starbucks for like forty hours a week, 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:24.880 so I had a little bit of money. I moved 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:29.360 to l A January and I'll have been back ten 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:33.119 years this January. And I took a bunch of odd jobs. 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.720 I did everything from story producing for Food Network to 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.960 stand up comedy to uh waiting tables and working at 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:46.000 five Guys in Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. I mean, 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:49.640 I jumped all over the place. And then eventually Kingdom, 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:54.639 that show with Frank Grillo, that was my break. Season two. 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:58.480 They said, hey, we're gonna bring you back. Instead of 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.000 paying you a thousand bucks an episod, so we'll give you, 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:05.480 you know, or six thousand, and we'll give you like 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.080 ten or twelve episodes. And I was like, whoa, I 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:12.160 get to quit my day job. Holy crap, and I 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:17.480 I haven't had a day job since March of you 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:25.160 do seven episodes of Kingdom, and then shortly around that 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:30.600 time you book Tanya tell me about the audition. Yeah, 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:32.919 I had a fun little streak in the autumn of 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:38.359 where man, it's so fun to think about. I'm just 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.320 grateful to God that I got the opportunity. Yeah. Sorry, 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:44.359 Sometimes I just have a moment where I realized how 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:48.320 blessed I am, and it's absurd. It's humbling. Man. I 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:52.159 was running out of money fall of. I was wondering 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:53.919 if I needed to get another day job. I was 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:58.160 waiting on Kingdom to have me back for season four, 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:01.960 I think it was, And sure enough, around my birthday 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:08.160 October fifteen, I book an under five line on Superstore, UM, 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:11.520 a small role in super Troopers too because I had 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:16.160 become friendly with Kevin Heffernan. And then I book a pilot, 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.640 a series regular role in a pilot for Lifetime where 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:23.000 I'm playing opposite like legitimate actors like Eric Balfour and 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:27.520 Dominic Kamanahan and um all these wonderful people. So I 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:30.280 booked like three jobs in a month, and I was like, wow, 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:33.239 you know, thank God, I'm I'm back in it. And 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:36.200