Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak. I love it Bubble and Squeak on
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeaker cookie every month, left over from the
Speaker 1: night before. Ho Ho ho. My holiday listeners, welcome to
Speaker 1: a very special holiday edition of Off the Beat. Tis
Speaker 1: the season. I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today we're
Speaker 1: gonna do things a little bit differently because I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've noticed, but it's almost January already, which
Speaker 1: means it's almost which means that I am just this
Speaker 1: close to making an entire trip around the Sun with
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. Now. I have to tell you all,
Speaker 1: this blows my mind. Week after week I have gotten
Speaker 1: to talk to some of the most incredible people from
Speaker 1: some of my absolute favorite film and TV shows, and
Speaker 1: you all, you're out there listening, You have made this
Speaker 1: all possible. I cannot I truly could not be more
Speaker 1: grateful for each and every one of you for coming
Speaker 1: on this journey with me. I am having a blast.
Speaker 1: I hope you continue to have a blast as well.
Speaker 1: So my special gift to you, we put together a
Speaker 1: couple of best of episodes for Off the Beat, featuring
Speaker 1: just a very small sampling of the hilarious, emotional, and inspirational,
Speaker 1: if I do say so myself. Interviews that I've put
Speaker 1: on this year, this is by no means a comprehensive list.
Speaker 1: There are some truly fan seking tastic guests you're not
Speaker 1: going to be hearing from. But tis the season for reflection,
Speaker 1: for looking back and looking forward. So we're going to
Speaker 1: do just that, starting with some of my very first guests,
Speaker 1: and one in particular who I had happened to cross
Speaker 1: paths with on a boat, well maybe more of a
Speaker 1: booze cruise while filming The Office. So here he is,
Speaker 1: my good friend Rob Wriggle, with the story of what
Speaker 1: it was like to play the iconic Captain Jack. Of course,
Speaker 1: I can't not mention Captain Jack uh your role of
Speaker 1: The Office coming out to film what was, without a doubt,
Speaker 1: the most difficult film we that we had in ten years.
Speaker 1: There's no question, There's no question. Working from seven pm
Speaker 1: to like seven am out on the water, it was.
Speaker 1: It was Were you aware of the Office when you
Speaker 1: got that job? Was so I was. I was very
Speaker 1: aware of the BBC version while I was on snl Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we're on the writers are on seventeen and
Speaker 1: the studios down on eight and on sixteen. They have
Speaker 1: a casting directors and stuff. I actually auditioned for Michael Scott.
Speaker 1: I knew this, and I auditioned for Dwight and Keckner's
Speaker 1: role I forget his name, Packer. They made the right choice, obviously,
Speaker 1: but I was fresh in their minds because I think
Speaker 1: I did the episode that I did the Booze Cruise
Speaker 1: before I got the Daily that gap between sn L
Speaker 1: and when I got the Daily Show, that's when I
Speaker 1: got the office role, which I was so happy to
Speaker 1: get and so on, and for me it was super
Speaker 1: cool because one I love the show is your Guy.
Speaker 1: As his second season, I think the show's a hit.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows and everybody's loving it, and I was one
Speaker 1: of them. I was like more and more and I
Speaker 1: get to be part of it, which was great. But
Speaker 1: I'm still so green as an actor and as a performer.
Speaker 1: Being on cameras still may be nervous. I'm nervous as hell.
Speaker 1: And when we got out on the water, remember when
Speaker 1: we floated out? Okay, Between between setups, normally everybody goes
Speaker 1: back to the trailer. They go back to crafty kind
Speaker 1: of everybody separates against their space. There was nowhere to
Speaker 1: go on that boat. When they say, okay, we're setting
Speaker 1: up for it, moving on, it's time for a new shot,
Speaker 1: they'd go to set up. We all just go sit
Speaker 1: on the dance floor or sit in those boots and
Speaker 1: hang out, yeah, those booths, And I remember thinking this
Speaker 1: is awesome. I just remember enjoying the hell out of it,
Speaker 1: and not even dawning on me that we were dust
Speaker 1: till dawn, um and it was draining, and I think,
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, Correll was shooting Evan Almighty and
Speaker 1: he would literally leave, we pull back to the to
Speaker 1: the dock. He would get out, get into sedan and
Speaker 1: drive to film all day. And I remember thinking, when's
Speaker 1: this guy getting his sleep? This is insane. And yet
Speaker 1: his performance on the boat, and I'm sure his performance
Speaker 1: in the movie fantastic, but it was totally fun. One
Speaker 1: thing about that episode that bumps me out to this day. Okay,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I don't know, maybe it was the Devil,
Speaker 1: maybe evil demon angel, somebody would not let me get
Speaker 1: the words Wall and Paul Pack out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: I couldn't say it. I couldn't say it. We're supposed
Speaker 1: to be on Lake Waldon Paul Pack. I can say
Speaker 1: it now as if it's nothing. I can say it
Speaker 1: with ease. That night I maybe got it out once
Speaker 1: or twice correctly, and the rest I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: And I remember they were looking at me and they
Speaker 1: were baffled. They were absolutely baffled, like what is this
Speaker 1: guy has a major malfunction? How do you can you
Speaker 1: not say? Waldon Paul Pack? And I can't explain it.
Speaker 1: It's just one of those moments where you're like, I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry. I wanted to die. I wanted to go crawl.
Speaker 1: I wanted to dive off that boat they died. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, everyone has been there. I have not
Speaker 1: thought about that in fifteen years, and you and I
Speaker 1: see each other, I don't know, ten times a year
Speaker 1: at various things. I have not ever once I thought
Speaker 1: of that moment until right now. And the second you
Speaker 1: said it, I was like, oh, that's right. He couldn't
Speaker 1: say it. I couldn't say it. I couldn't say it right.
Speaker 1: And I know it was so simple, and they were
Speaker 1: literally they were looking at me. Go wall in, Paul Pack.
Speaker 1: I go, well, it's just wall and well, while Papa
Speaker 1: pack while play Pop. I mean really there was some
Speaker 1: synapsis in my brain that would not connected. And you know,
Speaker 1: you know Brian as an actor. To Drive Home, I
Speaker 1: said every line perfectly, I said every word perfectly. I mean,
Speaker 1: I couldn't have been more spot on the drive Home.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so funny. That is Oh that is amazing.
Speaker 1: Do you get recognized? Do people yelled Captain Jack at
Speaker 1: you every now and then? Yes, yes they do. I
Speaker 1: was probably no joke, probably heavier, so I looked a
Speaker 1: little different then. Interesting that episode, by the way, it
Speaker 1: was was shared with me or reminded by Kevin Riley actually,
Speaker 1: who was the head of NBC at the time, that
Speaker 1: he would call about the ratings after every night, and
Speaker 1: obviously the Office became a big show for him and
Speaker 1: he kind of staked his reputation on it. And after
Speaker 1: Booze Cruise, the Office didn't just retain the number from
Speaker 1: my Name is Earl, which came before, but actually beat
Speaker 1: it in the ratings. And he said, he said, I
Speaker 1: may have cried. It was like that kind of moment
Speaker 1: for him. Like that episode so significantly the only thing
Speaker 1: that brought other than not being will say well in
Speaker 1: Paul pack, which still haunts me. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: feel so bad about that. I was bummed out because
Speaker 1: I knew that once my episode was over, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: see Captain Jack again. And I was like, and they're
Speaker 1: not going to bring me back as some other character,
Speaker 1: because I just wanted to be reoccurring on on the Office,
Speaker 1: just because it's such an iconic, legendary show. But I
Speaker 1: won't be greedy. I was very grateful for the opportunity
Speaker 1: to to be Captain Jack. Well, look, I mean during
Speaker 1: that time and just setting the Office aside, you were
Speaker 1: really on had the opportunity to appear on every great
Speaker 1: show during that time with you know, all due respect
Speaker 1: to the ones you weren't on, but I mean Arrested
Speaker 1: Development and thirty Rock and Modern Family and just amazing
Speaker 1: all of the shows that that that you were on
Speaker 1: during that time and obviously recurred on a lot of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was very happy about that, very blessed. But the
Speaker 1: Office is definitely special. Well, yes it is for me
Speaker 1: to yes the great Lake wall Empow Pack or Lake
Speaker 1: wallym p pack, And that is what we call in
Speaker 1: the business. A transition to my next guest, who was
Speaker 1: actually my very first guest on this podcast. She had
Speaker 1: her own special audition story that was not haunted, but
Speaker 1: perhaps helped by a certain kind of energy. Here she
Speaker 1: is with the story, Alison Hannighan. Everyone. I remember my
Speaker 1: manager calling me before I read the script and he's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're sending you the script. You're either going to love
Speaker 1: it or hate it. Nobody like that's just how it's going.
Speaker 1: People can't stand it or they love it. So I
Speaker 1: loved it. And he was saying, take a look at
Speaker 1: you know, whatever role because all the rules were open,
Speaker 1: and see which one you like. Oh. I think it
Speaker 1: was actually between my yeah, exactly, Heather and Michelle. And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I love Michelle and just immediately
Speaker 1: like wanted to do that part. And so I went.
Speaker 1: I went to the audition. It was casting. It was
Speaker 1: just me and the casting director, and he told me, um, no,
Speaker 1: she can't be that quirky, like take out all the
Speaker 1: you know, all the quirk just take that away and
Speaker 1: because we want, you know, we want these two to
Speaker 1: be together or whatever. And I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean it's written in question form. Every line has
Speaker 1: a question mark at the end of the sentence and
Speaker 1: so I was like, oh, all right, well that's weird
Speaker 1: because that's definitely not how I pictured it. So I
Speaker 1: did it again, just super boring, and he was like, Okay, great,
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring you back for the directors and
Speaker 1: that's that's great. And I got on the phone to
Speaker 1: my manager. I was like, they said that they're gonna
Speaker 1: bring me back for the directors, but honestly, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go because if he wants me to do
Speaker 1: it like that, I just that's that's not going to
Speaker 1: be funny. And so so they were like, yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well let's just see if you get the call back
Speaker 1: and talk to us then. And so I did, and
Speaker 1: the call that they took me, my managers took me
Speaker 1: to lunch right before maybe to butter me up to
Speaker 1: go to the Cabby. I don't know why, but we
Speaker 1: were at lunch and I had like seven iced teas
Speaker 1: or something ridiculous, and then I sat in traffic all
Speaker 1: my way to the callback, and I had to pee,
Speaker 1: like I've never had to pee before, and I just
Speaker 1: remember kind of then you have to go through it's
Speaker 1: on the backload of universal and drying to find the bungle,
Speaker 1: I was going to wet my pants, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I don't want to be late. I'll
Speaker 1: sign in and then run to the bathroom. So I
Speaker 1: did that, and I'm like, I went to the bathroom
Speaker 1: washing my hands, and the assistant comes in to the
Speaker 1: bathroom and says, okay, we're ready for you, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: all right, So I never come the bathroom. Yeah, well yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean yes, well thank god I wasn't in the
Speaker 1: stall still, so I dry my hands, but I never
Speaker 1: had time to settle down. I still had that I'm
Speaker 1: going to wet my pants energy, and so I just
Speaker 1: went in and I never even decided if I was
Speaker 1: going to do it boring or the way I wanted
Speaker 1: to do it, And because I had that like hyper
Speaker 1: p energy, I just did it the way I wanted
Speaker 1: to do it, and I got the job. There you go.
Speaker 1: I'm sure the casting director appreciates me telling that story,
Speaker 1: but I think that that shows a boldness from you,
Speaker 1: whether it was intentional or not. Right, so like it
Speaker 1: was just about the P or whatever, But if you
Speaker 1: read the script this morning, that you would say if
Speaker 1: it was just about the PA, it was just about
Speaker 1: the PA, just about Alison to Hannigan's peak. No, but
Speaker 1: I mean like there are times you read something and
Speaker 1: you see it clearly and it sounds like you did.
Speaker 1: There were multiple role was available for your choosing at
Speaker 1: least audition, and you saw a character and you saw
Speaker 1: the role and they said, well, no, they want it
Speaker 1: like this. Well that's not you know, well that's not
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. I really like, I had
Speaker 1: so much fun just being weird and like talking in
Speaker 1: question form. It was so much fun. And then like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: be just lose the quirk and and just like you know,
Speaker 1: we want them to root for them to be together.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, but that didn't I didn't see it
Speaker 1: that way, and I'm so not normally like that either.
Speaker 1: I'm very much like, okay, what do you want? I'm
Speaker 1: your puppet, you know. So I guess that was just no,
Speaker 1: this is how I would want to play it. It
Speaker 1: also helped that I was on Buffy and it wasn't
Speaker 1: like I have to get this part, you know. It
Speaker 1: was like, hey, that'd be great. It's a small part
Speaker 1: in this movie I thought was really funny. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't like, oh, this is going to change your life.
Speaker 1: You know, you didn't know that at the time, so
Speaker 1: the stakes weren't that high, and I had a job
Speaker 1: to go back to, so that gave me a confidence
Speaker 1: that I didn't normally have. And I know, and you
Speaker 1: know that because people always say act like you don't
Speaker 1: care about the job, but it's you can't. Well, you
Speaker 1: have to truly not care. You have to truly not
Speaker 1: care exactly well. And I'm so grateful that I had
Speaker 1: a crappy agent for Buffy because they weren't able to
Speaker 1: give me the script, so I only had the sides,
Speaker 1: and had I read the script, I would have completely
Speaker 1: lost my mind and I wouldn't have There's no way
Speaker 1: I could have gotten it because I would would have
Speaker 1: wanted it so desperately. So I'm I'm really glad that
Speaker 1: when I got the script, I was like, I want
Speaker 1: the lottery that you did, Allison, that you did. But
Speaker 1: you're not the only one who had a less than
Speaker 1: ideal audition end up changing your life. Here's my next guest,
Speaker 1: my old friend Eric stone Street, with what could only
Speaker 1: be described as an aggressive casting experience, the producer in
Speaker 1: Chicago that had helped me get my SAG card by
Speaker 1: doing three backgrounds. She's like, when I was moving, she said, Oh,
Speaker 1: I have a friend that is a casting associate for
Speaker 1: somebody in l A. And I'll give you her name.
Speaker 1: That was the only professional name I came to town with.
Speaker 1: And she was nice enough to accept my head shot
Speaker 1: and she's like, yeah, we'll call you in, you know,
Speaker 1: if something comes up, we'll give you a call. And
Speaker 1: she called me in. And it took me, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe four or five times of going in for I
Speaker 1: can't think of his name, biggest producer in town, TV wise,
Speaker 1: Big Bang Theory Lori, Chuck Lori, Yeah, Chuck Lori. It
Speaker 1: took me like four or five times going in and
Speaker 1: getting called back. And finally I got a little part
Speaker 1: on Darman Gregg and that was really the beginning. But
Speaker 1: I didn't, you know, know anybody. But again, it all
Speaker 1: comes down to people just being nice and like giving
Speaker 1: you a shot. Right. I think for me, a big
Speaker 1: lesson you learn is how important just like the number
Speaker 1: of jobs you get, regardless of what they are. Right.
Speaker 1: So there's like commercials and there's this show and that show,
Speaker 1: and you start to build a career. I know you
Speaker 1: did a lot of commercials. I hear over a hundred
Speaker 1: commercials you did after arriving at Los Angeles. Well, I
Speaker 1: did a national campaign in Chicago for the n c
Speaker 1: A where I played this character named Joe Football, where
Speaker 1: I was painted red and blue. And then that helped
Speaker 1: me get a commercial agent in l A. And then
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough one day to meet a guy
Speaker 1: named Joe Picka, and Joe Picka is a legendary commercial
Speaker 1: director in Los Angeles. And I went in and I
Speaker 1: auditioned for an American Express Tiger Woods commercial where the
Speaker 1: balls traveling all over the world and I was just
Speaker 1: a guy on a T box somewhere in the ball
Speaker 1: lands and I smashed the ball. So I go into
Speaker 1: this audition and when before I went in, my agent
Speaker 1: called me and was like, you're auditioning for Joe Pita.
Speaker 1: Like okay, what what what does that mean? She's like,
Speaker 1: you don't know who Joe Pitka is. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: what do I need to do right now? Do I
Speaker 1: need to pull over? What's happening? He's like no, he's
Speaker 1: very intimidating, he's very scary, you know, he's very loyal.
Speaker 1: Just be cool, becom, don't poke the bear I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the hell. So I go in and I auditioned
Speaker 1: for this Tiger Woods commercial where it's like, I don't
Speaker 1: even think I have lines. He just was like looking
Speaker 1: me up and down at my body and maybe you
Speaker 1: have to go swing the golf like a golf club
Speaker 1: or something. And I'm standing there and he's just staring
Speaker 1: at me, like literally like a lion about to pounce
Speaker 1: on a pound of meat. He goes, where you from?
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm from Kansas City. It was Kansas City.
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, where are you from? He goes Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: I said Pittsburgh. He goes, yeah, you got a problem
Speaker 1: with Pittsburgh And I said, well, no, but it seems
Speaker 1: like you have a problem with Kansas City. He's kind
Speaker 1: of have a problem with Kansas City. Why do you
Speaker 1: think I have a problem with Kansas City? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: because I said where I was from, and you were
Speaker 1: like judgemental about it. Because I wasn't judgmental about He goes,
Speaker 1: what's your problem? And I go, well, I don't have
Speaker 1: a problem. And I'm like, oh my god, it's happening.
Speaker 1: Like she warned me that this could happen. And I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm engaged. Now I'm in an argument with the
Speaker 1: guy who like is maybe hiring me. So he's like,
Speaker 1: get the funk out of here, and like literally said
Speaker 1: it like that, and I'm like I leave, and I'm
Speaker 1: like I call her and I said, well, I guess
Speaker 1: I screwed that moment up. I guess I didn't heed
Speaker 1: your warning. She's like, what happened? I said, well, we
Speaker 1: got into an argument about where I was from. Like
Speaker 1: she's like, what did you do? What did you do?
Speaker 1: He said, I didn't do anything. I just answered his question. Well,
Speaker 1: long story short, like a day later, she calls me
Speaker 1: and she's like, you are not going to believe this.
Speaker 1: And I said what she said, you are not getting
Speaker 1: that American Express commercial and I said, well, yeah, clearly.
Speaker 1: She goes, but Joe Pitka had his casting director callback
Speaker 1: and say he can't wait to work with you on something.
Speaker 1: And I was like so confused. And then a month
Speaker 1: later I get a phone call. It says, show up
Speaker 1: in the Long Beach Harbor. You're in an IBM commercial
Speaker 1: with Joe Picca And that was the beginning of our
Speaker 1: our run. Wow, incredible, unbelievable. How many did you end
Speaker 1: up doing with him. This is gonna sound so ridiculous
Speaker 1: what I'm about to say, but it's like a couple
Speaker 1: of campaigns, but it was like almost sixty and he
Speaker 1: would just call and listen. I have talked about him
Speaker 1: when I've been asked, you know, for comments about acting
Speaker 1: and things like that. I just had dinner with him
Speaker 1: a month ago here in Los Angeles. And he doesn't
Speaker 1: like to hear this because he's this guy. You know,
Speaker 1: he's Polish from Pittsburgh. He's stubborn, and he's bullheaded, and
Speaker 1: he's you know, he is he him. But I'm like, Joe,
Speaker 1: you have to acknowledge my appreciation and my thankfulness to you,
Speaker 1: because you taught me so much about like working under pressure.
Speaker 1: You taught me so much about like being prepared you
Speaker 1: saw me, taught me so much about being patient and
Speaker 1: like confident in your abilities and like you. But more
Speaker 1: than anything, you gave me the ability to go into
Speaker 1: these theatrical auditions with the confidence that I had somebody
Speaker 1: outside of this room it's going to hire me for something,
Speaker 1: and like you don't know what that means to an
Speaker 1: actor to know that, like I'm not walking in with
Speaker 1: desperation on my brow. It's like fuck you, Like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm serious. You need to know that you mean a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of my career and that I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: where I ended up being without you. And that's all
Speaker 1: I'm going to say about it. That's amazing. Yeah. Good,
Speaker 1: he's a good guy. I just figured out a stick man.
Speaker 1: I mean, he he is tough, but he just appreciated
Speaker 1: that I in that room, that first moment that I
Speaker 1: gaged him, and that I wasn't like whimpering, And that
Speaker 1: was his test. His test was like, well, can you
Speaker 1: work with me on set when there's ten hours of
Speaker 1: time we've wasted and we've got to get the shot
Speaker 1: in one minute? Can you be that person? And that's
Speaker 1: what he kind of puts people through. My next guest
Speaker 1: found herself with an incredible opportunity to take a leading
Speaker 1: role on what would eventually become a true cult classic,
Speaker 1: Freaks and Geeks. But if the stars had aligned differently,
Speaker 1: she would have listened to all of the people telling
Speaker 1: her to pass. I'm happy to say that she had
Speaker 1: her own motivations, because otherwise she may not have been
Speaker 1: so busy these last few decades. Okay, that was bad.
Speaker 1: That was That was bad. I'm blaming that on the writers.
Speaker 1: Here she is busy phillips everyone. I went to pick
Speaker 1: up I think Colin at the airport and Linda was
Speaker 1: also there picking up her roommate actually, and she had
Speaker 1: just gotten the part and she knew that they had
Speaker 1: they wanted me for Kim Kelly. And she was like, dude,
Speaker 1: can you believe it. I'm I got freaks and geeks.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. You gotta be Kim Kelly. And
Speaker 1: I was like, I know, I was just talking. I
Speaker 1: just it's so exciting, Like I just my agents were
Speaker 1: feeling like I don't know. And she's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: do this show. You gotta do this with me. It'll
Speaker 1: be so much fun. We'll have so much fun. And
Speaker 1: I honestly, in that moment, I was like, yeah, of
Speaker 1: course I'm sucking doing it. Like why would I not
Speaker 1: do I already know this girl who's rad and like
Speaker 1: I want to be best friends with anyway, why would
Speaker 1: I not do this? And so I called my manager, Lorraine,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I really want to do this,
Speaker 1: and she's like, I'm gonna call Judge. I'm gonna find
Speaker 1: out what the deal is. And then she called me
Speaker 1: back and she was like, you know, Judd is really
Speaker 1: insistent that they want to make this character a series
Speaker 1: regular if the show gets picked up. I think you
Speaker 1: should just do it. I think it's brilliant. And so
Speaker 1: because of like Lorraine my manager at the time, and
Speaker 1: Linda CARDLINI, I was like, I had no idea what
Speaker 1: I was doing. Who knows what anything is? You know,
Speaker 1: They're like Judd Apataw from Sick in the Head. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the funk that is? Like, had
Speaker 1: you read the script? Yeah, I did not understand it
Speaker 1: at all. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I totally, Brian totally. I was like, don't get it.
Speaker 1: I don't get what the tone of this is. I
Speaker 1: was so confused by it. And then I remember they
Speaker 1: cut together. We had a pretty long shoot for the pilot.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a period piece and it's involved and
Speaker 1: those were the those were the olden days of how
Speaker 1: Hollywood where they really spent a ton of money and
Speaker 1: like they were shooting on film, you know. And after
Speaker 1: we wrapped the pilot that evening in the cafeteria of
Speaker 1: the school, we were shooting at they rolled out like
Speaker 1: a little a V cart and they had cut together
Speaker 1: the editors had just put together like a tiny little
Speaker 1: mishmash of the show for all of us to see
Speaker 1: what we've been working on, which, honestly, also in retrospect,
Speaker 1: is so special because so yeah, I mean, if your
Speaker 1: show doesn't get picked up, the crew literally never sees
Speaker 1: the show. I mean, I don't know about you. I've
Speaker 1: done pilots that I still haven't seen, right right, I
Speaker 1: mean I've done shows that I've never seen. But that's
Speaker 1: a different issue. That is a different issue, I would say.
Speaker 1: But anyway, it was so special. And I remember watching
Speaker 1: this thing that they put together and they had the
Speaker 1: come sail away song, you know, like chriscendoing, and I
Speaker 1: got full chill, and I was like, this is what
Speaker 1: we've been doing. Oh my god, this is real. Like
Speaker 1: my mind I'm gonna start crying, but like my little
Speaker 1: brain was blown, like this is what I've wanted to
Speaker 1: do since I was a baby. And there I am,
Speaker 1: and I don't even look like me and I don't
Speaker 1: sound like me, and it's real. Yeah, that was that. Wow.
Speaker 1: Were you aware at that moment that the show was
Speaker 1: special or doing something new, or did your little brain
Speaker 1: not comprehend that at the at the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: that whole experience is so has had so many different
Speaker 1: incarnations of what it was and what it is and
Speaker 1: what it continues to be. So it's funny, you know,
Speaker 1: like we had such an amazing time while we were
Speaker 1: doing it, and the freedom that Judd and Paul and
Speaker 1: Leslie Gladder, like all of our directors, they gave such
Speaker 1: a gift that we were all way too inexperienced and
Speaker 1: young to understand at the in the moment, I think,
Speaker 1: but we all enjoyed it very much. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't remember, aside from like my personality conflict with Franco, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't remember ever having like a complaint about anything
Speaker 1: having to do with it. Late nights were super fun.
Speaker 1: Early mornings were super fun. We would hang out, We
Speaker 1: would go to Swingers and get food at midnight after
Speaker 1: we wrapped like together, we would go to Birds on
Speaker 1: Franklin where Seagull convinced me that the Scientology building had
Speaker 1: a Tower of terror ride inside of it, and I
Speaker 1: believed him for like ten minutes. I really thought it
Speaker 1: was true, and South was like, come on, it's not true.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I don't know. It looks like
Speaker 1: it has one of those es in it, you know,
Speaker 1: like a drum. I was like, what, we don't know. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's really fun, you know. And I think and
Speaker 1: when the show was over and it became clear like
Speaker 1: that it was going to be over over, I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready for it to be and I wanted it to continue.
Speaker 1: I was really really sad and really disheartened, and and
Speaker 1: and I did feel in that moment already like but
Speaker 1: we made something so good. Why is this hat? Why
Speaker 1: is this fair? I mean, and again that's the best
Speaker 1: lesson you can learn as an actor. It's like, actually
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, babe. Paul said it was ahead of its
Speaker 1: time a little bit. I mean in terms of the
Speaker 1: cringe comedy. I mean, you know, Judd's now made a
Speaker 1: career out of very similar toned things. It launched so
Speaker 1: many careers and and really pioneered a new way of
Speaker 1: doing television that is, uh, you know, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of shows, including The Office, Oh A great debt
Speaker 1: of gratitude to um. Yeah, I remember feeling that it
Speaker 1: was ahead of its time, Like I said, like I
Speaker 1: read it and didn't understand it. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: understand tonally what it was supposed to be. It wasn't
Speaker 1: until I actually saw it that I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: this is awesome. And I think it's really a testament
Speaker 1: to how the people in charge treated us with so
Speaker 1: much respect. And we were kids and maybe at moments
Speaker 1: didn't deserve it, but they really treated us like experts
Speaker 1: in our field and real collaborators in making this thing.
Speaker 1: And it changes everything when you get to work with
Speaker 1: people who respect you. Yeah, I've been on both sides
Speaker 1: of that like line, where I've worked for people who
Speaker 1: just definitely don't respect me, and I'm there to like
Speaker 1: service what they want to be done or how they
Speaker 1: want it said. And I have no joke heard actors
Speaker 1: like that I was working with being referenced as talking props. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a bummer, you know, that really takes the fun
Speaker 1: out of it. But like for me to go from
Speaker 1: doing really fun, creative theater programs and then getting to
Speaker 1: be a part of a show, a network television show,
Speaker 1: were these adults in charge And by the way, that
Speaker 1: is the funniest thing to me, which is that I
Speaker 1: thought that Judd and Leslie were literally fifty years old.
Speaker 1: Leslie is like three years older than We're like essentially
Speaker 1: the same age exactly. But she was like they were
Speaker 1: like married, they had a baby, they were like old people,
Speaker 1: and and then like cut to five years later, We're
Speaker 1: like hanging out with each other in Hawaii and I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: what's happening? They say, oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Is right? That is hilarious busy speaking of working with
Speaker 1: people when they're young and then running into them again
Speaker 1: as adults. One of my next guests started out with
Speaker 1: a pretty surprising role on the Office and then he
Speaker 1: went on to be on a tiny little show called
Speaker 1: Glee with his friend Jenna. Here they are Kevin McHale
Speaker 1: and Jenna Uskowitz. Kevin, I actually met you before, Jenna.
Speaker 1: You were a very significant guest star on the Office
Speaker 1: and you were seventeen ish years of age. How was
Speaker 1: that experience for you the delivery boy? I believe it
Speaker 1: was your title pizza delivery boy from Alfredo's. What was
Speaker 1: that experience like for you and how much experience did
Speaker 1: you have at that time in film and television? It
Speaker 1: sounds like not a lot, not a lot. It was
Speaker 1: I think my second guest star thing ever. The other
Speaker 1: one was Zoe one on one on Nickelodeon. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a really really big thing for me. The
Speaker 1: audition process was unlike anything I've ever experienced, where the
Speaker 1: callbacks we were in the room with Steve and he
Speaker 1: came in and read with us. You know, Steve Correll.
Speaker 1: I just say, Steve Um, I was dying. I was
Speaker 1: so terrified. Really were you? Were you a fan of
Speaker 1: the show. Oh, yeah I was, And I was a
Speaker 1: fan of the the UK version, like I was all
Speaker 1: about it. And Alison Jones, the casting director, is probably
Speaker 1: the only reason why I've had any sort of career
Speaker 1: because she, when no one else did, kept giving me
Speaker 1: chances on everything. So I got really close and super
Speaker 1: bad she and then she just you know, as if
Speaker 1: you get on TV and you become semi recognizable, you
Speaker 1: get to skip a couple rounds of auditioning and you
Speaker 1: just get brought into the later rounds. I didn't have
Speaker 1: any reason to get brought into automatically too later rounds
Speaker 1: for things. She just started doing that for me because
Speaker 1: somehow she believed in me, and it I really took
Speaker 1: that to heart and made me feel better when I
Speaker 1: would go into these rooms that she would bring me into.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I went in an auditioned with Steve and
Speaker 1: got it and I screamed and was freaking out. And
Speaker 1: then all of you were just so so awful, no
Speaker 1: so nice, because I mean I was. I was so
Speaker 1: intimidated obviously coming in there. It's like, these are these
Speaker 1: professional adults and they're all talented and funny, and I
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, severe case of imposter syndrome, and
Speaker 1: everyone went out of their way to make me feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: to make me feel like I deserve to be there,
Speaker 1: every one of you, and um, it was just really
Speaker 1: really great. And also what a great gig you guys had,
Speaker 1: because I mean, Jenna, those sets were pre lit, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, the way they could set up something
Speaker 1: so quickly. They were on their own, they had their
Speaker 1: own stage. Oh god, it was the dream so you
Speaker 1: ruined it for anything else because I feel like you
Speaker 1: also gotten still. Oh, I get recognized so often from
Speaker 1: that one episode, and it's it's absolutely I don't know
Speaker 1: how you go anywhere because I was in one episode
Speaker 1: and you still do. I can't, by the way, but
Speaker 1: you still do. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot crazy
Speaker 1: because I went back and looked at those pictures and
Speaker 1: you do look quite different. I mean you are older,
Speaker 1: let's be clear. So am I. I guess that's how
Speaker 1: time works. I'll explain it to you later. Wow, well
Speaker 1: that is very very interesting. Yeah I would I don't
Speaker 1: know that I would have thought that with with everything
Speaker 1: that's coming after. Still, so you guys just say the
Speaker 1: least you have a very diverse training and backgrounds. Talk
Speaker 1: to me about Gale. How did the opportunities come up
Speaker 1: for both of you? Um? Were these just auditions first off? Yeah? Regular? Okay?
Speaker 1: And what did you have to do? Obviously? Did you
Speaker 1: have to dance as well as sing as well as ack?
Speaker 1: You did not know And they realized that was probably
Speaker 1: a mistake later on, how to bring in some people
Speaker 1: who could dance, like nobody can dance, not one, not
Speaker 1: even everybody can sing that No. I was in the Spring.
Speaker 1: I was in Spring Awakening at the time, and it
Speaker 1: was the same casting director Jim Carnahan in New York
Speaker 1: who cast Spring Awakening was also casting the New York
Speaker 1: side of Glee, and so we had it was all
Speaker 1: a buzz in the theater and they were like, Oh,
Speaker 1: there's this new musical theater TV show that's coming out,
Speaker 1: and everybody got brought in for it because the pilot
Speaker 1: also was like some of these characters like Argentina were
Speaker 1: pretty non specific, and so I went in and m
Speaker 1: everybody went in and we didn't have to sing for
Speaker 1: our first audition because they were like, I guess you're
Speaker 1: on Broadway. I guess you can sing. So I didn't
Speaker 1: have to sing in my first call. Um, I just
Speaker 1: went on PA and just read, just read lines like
Speaker 1: any other show. Yeah. Yeah, And literally Tina's only line
Speaker 1: was a stutter and she said, uh, and that's it.
Speaker 1: That was my entire audition, first audition. God, that's all
Speaker 1: you did. They didn't give you anything else. No, I
Speaker 1: haven't stopped. That's it. That was it. Wow. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say any bad but that they got to
Speaker 1: be more creative than that. This is poor people, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean literally, by a weird stutter on one day,
Speaker 1: your entire life could be changed. Sliding Doors. Check out
Speaker 1: the movie So Kevin, what about you? Well, now you're
Speaker 1: in a boy band. That's right. Does that mean that
Speaker 1: they knew that you could sing or did you have
Speaker 1: to sing? They sure did not know. I could say,
Speaker 1: so we had to sing, you'd prepare a song. I
Speaker 1: read the script before. I remember I brought two friends
Speaker 1: with me. I was like, Oh, this show shoots in
Speaker 1: New York. I don't know why I thought that. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I had it probably mixed up
Speaker 1: with something else. And I went in an audition and
Speaker 1: it wasn't an audition room. It was in Robert Rick,
Speaker 1: who casted its like in his office, and I just
Speaker 1: sat on the other side of the desk from him,
Speaker 1: and it was one of those places where the walls
Speaker 1: are really thin, so you can hear what everybody is doing.
Speaker 1: Is this what you're talking about? Yeah, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: those walls are really thin there, and so so awkward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just awkward on a good day when there's no singing, singing,
Speaker 1: And that's how I felt, because I one have terrible
Speaker 1: nerves auditioning, hate auditioning, and then having to sing, Like
Speaker 1: the first thing to like go when you get nervous
Speaker 1: is your voice. That vocal cords just freeze up and
Speaker 1: then you can hear what everybody's doing. It's just so embarrassing. Mortifying.
Speaker 1: So I went in there. I sang let it be.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of it, Let it be. It's a
Speaker 1: new song. The artists. I intentionally only prepared like a
Speaker 1: verse and a chorus because the song is so slow,
Speaker 1: so I was like, I'm not going to bore them
Speaker 1: to death. Let me just do this. Then I get
Speaker 1: to the end of the chorus and Robert goes like,
Speaker 1: keep going, keep crying. I'm like, I'm a fake fan.
Speaker 1: I don't know the second verson this, and so I
Speaker 1: don't know what I did. I think I sort of
Speaker 1: stumbled through saying singing this verse verse again and then
Speaker 1: went into the course again because I knew that um
Speaker 1: and then I did the scenes, and then immediately, which
Speaker 1: also never happens, He's like, okay, so when you come
Speaker 1: back and started talking about the next audition, I was like,
Speaker 1: what's nice? Okay, great? And then I went back two
Speaker 1: days later to Ryan's office at Paramount, and it was
Speaker 1: it went from being at Robert's desk too a boardroom. Basically,
Speaker 1: it was a full table of fifteen people, right, you know,
Speaker 1: in this gigantic room. Brad Ellis, who ended up being
Speaker 1: on the show and playing the piano he was there.
Speaker 1: We went early to practice our songs with him, and
Speaker 1: I prepared two songs this time, ended up still doing
Speaker 1: Let It Be and yeah, it was a full creaz.
Speaker 1: I learned the words. I was prepared this time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I and again I was So it wasn't that I
Speaker 1: just I don't think I was good at playing the character.
Speaker 1: I was just so nervous that that's what already became.
Speaker 1: Because I did the song, the nerves were already and
Speaker 1: then I literally ran out of the room and that
Speaker 1: was it. Like I think Ian Brennan, who was runing
Speaker 1: the creators of the show, later he told me he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, we knew from that immediately we wanted you,
Speaker 1: but I had to wait seven weeks a test because
Speaker 1: they hadn't found anybody else yet. Oh my god. Wow.
Speaker 1: All right, folks, my next guest comes from one of
Speaker 1: my absolute all time favorite shows, as you know, The Sopranos,
Speaker 1: so I of course very excited to have her on.
Speaker 1: But before we go into her interview, I want you
Speaker 1: to consider this incredibly difficult dilemma. If you were being
Speaker 1: offered a roll on The Sopranos, but your grandma was
Speaker 1: making chicken cutlets that weren't quite ready. Would you go
Speaker 1: to your audition or would you wait for the food?
Speaker 1: I guess that you'll just have to wait and see
Speaker 1: what she chose. Here's Drea de Matrio on what it
Speaker 1: was like rolling up for her audition. I wore no makeup,
Speaker 1: with my hair in a bun and pull back, slip back,
Speaker 1: because they say, just be a blank canvas for them,
Speaker 1: and I said sure, and I show up like that,
Speaker 1: and now they want me to play the saucy you
Speaker 1: know what, would be a queen's girl. And I was like,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I know how to do that, but I'm
Speaker 1: not prepared because I don't have the hair or the
Speaker 1: makeup and I can't put on that accent without it.
Speaker 1: And I didn't get the part. I put an audition
Speaker 1: from Michael's girlfriend and I couldn't. I didn't get the part,
Speaker 1: but he liked me, and he made me read for
Speaker 1: every other side character. I read for the Russian girls,
Speaker 1: I read forum Oh god, I can't remember. There were
Speaker 1: like four roles that I read for in that script
Speaker 1: and I got none of them. And then they finally
Speaker 1: called my agent at that time and said, she seems
Speaker 1: like a snooty Connecticut girl. Would she be okay playing
Speaker 1: um the hostess in the restaurant who turns down Lorraine
Speaker 1: Brocko And I was like, you have me learning brock
Speaker 1: all either. And I couldn't say my lines because I
Speaker 1: was so nervous. I was with Karen, Karen for fucking
Speaker 1: good fells. I couldn't saying my lines at all. I
Speaker 1: was dying. It was hurt. It was she and Jim,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know Jim, and nobody knew Jim yet
Speaker 1: really um, so I didn't care about him, but I
Speaker 1: definitely cared about her. And I couldn't say any of
Speaker 1: my lines. And then a year later they would call
Speaker 1: me back to play Michael's girlfriend again, his date, just
Speaker 1: a date, Like, why are they calling me back? I
Speaker 1: messed up? So I don't think they knew that I
Speaker 1: was the same girl. I also they knew they did.
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I don't know if I ever
Speaker 1: even asked that question. But according to Eileen, one of
Speaker 1: the producers, I got the part as his girl as
Speaker 1: a day player role in another day player part on
Speaker 1: the show because of the way I said the word out.
Speaker 1: I had one line it was out, and she said,
Speaker 1: I turned it into a ten syllable word because I
Speaker 1: had my mom told me to say it that way.
Speaker 1: I was at a home's house when they Yeah. I
Speaker 1: was at my mom's house when they called UM to
Speaker 1: come in the second time, and I said, hey, mom's
Speaker 1: I show. It's that Sopranos show that I told you about.
Speaker 1: But I had given her the pilot to reach so straight.
Speaker 1: This is gold. She's like, this is the most unbelievable
Speaker 1: script I've ever read in TV. It read like one
Speaker 1: of her scripts. Um and I looked at her and
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I'll probably never get made. She said,
Speaker 1: probably not too good. And that was And then a
Speaker 1: year later they called me at their house and said, hey,
Speaker 1: can you come in for an audition? I said, no,
Speaker 1: I can't. Actually I'm in Queen's And they said, that's funny,
Speaker 1: were away. Can you be here in a half hour?
Speaker 1: And I was like, Oh. Go to my mom and
Speaker 1: I go, how quick are those chicken cutlets? Can be tough?
Speaker 1: My grand cutlets. My grandmother goes, make a chicken cutlets sandwich.
Speaker 1: Just get in the car and go. My mother goes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get your name plate and diamonds out of
Speaker 1: the safe. You need to wear it because I had
Speaker 1: this Andrea in diamonds on a rope chain from my confirmation.
Speaker 1: She goes, you're gonna wear that. You go tease your hair,
Speaker 1: go put makeup on and talk like Silavanna my neighbor.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Okay, let's go. And then I
Speaker 1: went with my parents in the car. They were waiting
Speaker 1: for me. In the car, I ran into Silver Cup Studios,
Speaker 1: which was in Queen's and I think my audition and
Speaker 1: I came back out and I my chicken cutlets sandwich
Speaker 1: and then I got I got the part and it
Speaker 1: was just for one line. Though, you know, I still
Speaker 1: have my checks from from those, my five hundred dollar
Speaker 1: checks from my first day player role, sitting on my
Speaker 1: remember sitting in my honey Wagon and a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know the honeywagon is, but honeywagon is a
Speaker 1: trailer you see where all the trailers are part that
Speaker 1: have the tiniest little rooms ever, so you know, like
Speaker 1: the main actors are not in the honeyway, they're little toilets.
Speaker 1: There are rooms with toilets with a pillow on the
Speaker 1: toilet so you can sit on your toilet while you're
Speaker 1: waiting to be called up. That's a honey wayon. So
Speaker 1: I would be sitting on my in my honeywagon, sitting
Speaker 1: on the toilet every time I got a script because
Speaker 1: they kept bringing me back, which I thought was super cool.
Speaker 1: I remember being a craft services David Chase coming over
Speaker 1: with me and he goes, you know, people in the
Speaker 1: editing room really think that you're a couple with Michael
Speaker 1: And I said really, and he's like, yeah, you guys
Speaker 1: have really great chemistry. And I looked at him. I
Speaker 1: was like, must be the eyebrows, because you have a
Speaker 1: big eyebrows, you know. Um. By episode twelve, man, I'm
Speaker 1: sitting on my toilet, sitting on my toilet in the honeywagon,
Speaker 1: and I was in twelve scenes and I lost my
Speaker 1: ship and I ran to a pay phone because that's
Speaker 1: all we had. And I ran into a pay phone
Speaker 1: with my script and I called my mom collect and
Speaker 1: I said, mow, you'll well it twelve fucking scenes. God,
Speaker 1: that was the see that that episode of music industry stuff,
Speaker 1: and that was it. I was on my way to
Speaker 1: becoming series regular. And I always tell people like, I
Speaker 1: never would have gotten that part if they were auditioning
Speaker 1: for a series regular because you know they were Mirrort,
Speaker 1: Robino versus Tommy Debbie Mays are all those girls would
Speaker 1: have been the perfect actors for those roles, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I got really fucking lucky that
Speaker 1: you did, Drea. And speaking of getting really lucky, my
Speaker 1: next guest just happened to audition for what would become
Speaker 1: one of, if not the biggest improv groups in the country,
Speaker 1: launching him into a beautiful career. Here he is to
Speaker 1: tell you all about it. Rob Cordry, you get back
Speaker 1: to New York. Now at this point you're a serious
Speaker 1: Shakespearean actor, and then you get involved with what was
Speaker 1: at the time this little improv group you seeb upright
Speaker 1: Citizens Brigade. How did you How did you discover this group?
Speaker 1: And why, as a serious actor did you did you
Speaker 1: pursue wanting to do stuff with them? That's a good question. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I first of all, I mean, I realized
Speaker 1: that one thing I wasn't doing well, the one thing
Speaker 1: I wasn't taught in college it was just seemed to
Speaker 1: be a crapshoot, was auditioning. And so I learned how
Speaker 1: to audition by I taught myself by just going out
Speaker 1: over and over and over again, and I, you know,
Speaker 1: got my ten thousand. I was auditioning for everything in backstage,
Speaker 1: and one of them just happened to be a sketch group.
Speaker 1: You know, I I'd be a performance artist in Berlin
Speaker 1: right now if if it worked out a different way.
Speaker 1: I just happened to be a sketch group. And then
Speaker 1: then that when I got into the sort of comedy
Speaker 1: scene and or at least got a view of it,
Speaker 1: because we were pretty outside this sketch group. The UCB
Speaker 1: were just starting to gain prominence, they were just starting
Speaker 1: to teach classes, they were starting their takeover. I believe
Speaker 1: they had taught one class of students and I and
Speaker 1: I thought I was under the impression that it was
Speaker 1: Andy Richter's sketch group. Okay, so I went and saw
Speaker 1: an ascat, which is there was their weekly show, and uh,
Speaker 1: Handy Richter happened to be performing. So I don't know
Speaker 1: when I stopped believing it was this, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: then I got in. I got into a class at
Speaker 1: the very It's the only thing I've gotten in on
Speaker 1: the ground floor of you know, when they were that
Speaker 1: the four original u CB guys are still teaching classes
Speaker 1: in a five story walk up ballet studio and in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: and I just stuck away that I I loved it.
Speaker 1: I was terrified of it, you know, improv. Improv still
Speaker 1: terrifies me to this day. I was doing it for
Speaker 1: the that the skill, to to learn this skill, to
Speaker 1: be comfortable, for confidence, and for like you know, and
Speaker 1: also for the community. I made a lot of great
Speaker 1: friends there and we then branched out and did other things.
Speaker 1: As you know, yeah, you you you said it terrifies
Speaker 1: you do you There's no there's no lines, Brian, you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta make them up. Yes, and that's terrifying.
Speaker 1: It's stupid. Shakespeare's got all planned out for you, right,
Speaker 1: you just follow the map and you're gonna get and
Speaker 1: you're gonna get there, that's right. Yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's interesting. So I have, by the way, zero improv training.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like much like you. I stayed on
Speaker 1: the serious theater tracked longer. But I you know, so
Speaker 1: I was doing comedy, I was doing dramatic role I
Speaker 1: was doing different stuff. I never did improv. I never Yeah,
Speaker 1: I never studied it. I didn't take the classes, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if that maybe for me is why
Speaker 1: I don't find it as challenging somehow. Oh, yes, that
Speaker 1: is exactly why, because you don't you haven't been in
Speaker 1: a position where you've had to think about it too much.
Speaker 1: Right now, I feel like because people are saying like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna you know, we're gonna improv I don't have
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm like, okay, now that's fine. I also
Speaker 1: want to set it's a little bit more different, right
Speaker 1: because it's really just like you're just trying to find
Speaker 1: thing and and also you sometimes go in with a
Speaker 1: couple of things, You've got a couple of ideas which
Speaker 1: you would never do and try to act like you
Speaker 1: know me, come on by everybody knows you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna improvise this, and I'm going to improvise that.
Speaker 1: But even like going in, you just that's kind of easy,
Speaker 1: like just because you're just playing the scene that that
Speaker 1: is written. Actually that's a different version. Yes, Actually that's
Speaker 1: a really good point because because it's it is for
Speaker 1: me and I do you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: say I write a book on my character or you know,
Speaker 1: have a fully developed history or whatever. But I begin
Speaker 1: to understand who that character is. And once you know,
Speaker 1: if you're given a situation which is improv but along
Speaker 1: with that, given a character who has these certain characteristic
Speaker 1: it all begins to fill in much. Do you know
Speaker 1: what the scene is about? You've already memorized the lines
Speaker 1: the actual scene, so you know what the scene is about.
Speaker 1: You know what the game is. So basically you're just
Speaker 1: you're just subbing in things or or adding jokes that
Speaker 1: the writers might have missed. Ya. You're just trying to
Speaker 1: make it a little bit better, you know, And usually no,
Speaker 1: it's not as good. But sometimes when when you start
Speaker 1: working with those guys. You also created your own sketch
Speaker 1: comedy group, the Naked Babies, you spent a couple of
Speaker 1: years with Third Rail Comedy. I mean, at this point,
Speaker 1: do you feel like and that's kind of a weird question,
Speaker 1: but do you feel like your your career your focus
Speaker 1: is now fully changed to this? Yes? Yeah, um, I
Speaker 1: still had there is still this part of me that
Speaker 1: wanted that. Well, maybe I'll go back to the theater someday,
Speaker 1: but but I'm doing comedy now. This is I have
Speaker 1: found what I do best. I have I have once
Speaker 1: again lucked into this sort of Uh, I found the
Speaker 1: end of the maze. But you know, nowadays, like I
Speaker 1: was always, I always still harbored a dream that I
Speaker 1: would be on Broadway someday. Now that it's maybe even
Speaker 1: a possibility, I could probably, you know, if I made
Speaker 1: myself you know it really worked at it. But I don't, boy,
Speaker 1: oh boy, I would dread that. It's so hard. Who's
Speaker 1: got time for Broadway? It's like it's so much work,
Speaker 1: It's so much work. It's it's you know, And that
Speaker 1: was what it was for me. I mean, the the
Speaker 1: eight shows a week, you have off on Monday. Nobody
Speaker 1: has Monday off? Like what do you you know that
Speaker 1: the life is is very is very difficult. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Two thousand one, you got what you hoped would be
Speaker 1: your first big break. This is what I was told
Speaker 1: a commercial with Karen top What do you remember about that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was definitely my first big on
Speaker 1: you know, television network commercial, and so by break, I
Speaker 1: guess it was a break in terms of just cash,
Speaker 1: Like this thing was going to go out there and
Speaker 1: I was going to be able to quit my one
Speaker 1: of my day jobs and and live as an actor,
Speaker 1: actually be an actor and make money at it. So
Speaker 1: I did this and it was a care and yeah
Speaker 1: I did this a T T commercial in which and
Speaker 1: then about a month later, nine eleven happened. So it
Speaker 1: ran for about a week. Nine eleven happened, and they
Speaker 1: pulled the commercial because in the commercial, Carrot Top hijacks
Speaker 1: a tour bus in New York. Yeah, so that went away. Wow,
Speaker 1: that is quite the coincidence, Rob, But glad to see
Speaker 1: you made it back. Okay, By the way, I am
Speaker 1: still trying to find that Carrot Top commercial. My final
Speaker 1: guest for the day also spent his early days with
Speaker 1: a mic in hand. Well maybe it was a hair
Speaker 1: brush or a bottle or a broom head. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's all the same thing. Right. Let's just say he
Speaker 1: made lip sinking cool long before TikTok. Here's Kevin Pollock
Speaker 1: with the unconventional way that he got his start in comedy.
Speaker 1: You started doing stand up at age ten? Well sure, um,
Speaker 1: first for family and then eventually at school. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was just lip syncing a comedy album at ten. That
Speaker 1: was the act. Okay, was lips what what comedy album? Well,
Speaker 1: if only he had put in the liner notes of
Speaker 1: his comedy album that he would go on to be
Speaker 1: the most prolific serial rapist from show business in history,
Speaker 1: maybe I wouldn't have chosen that one. But that wasn't
Speaker 1: in the liner notes. So it was Bill Cosby's first album. Interesting, yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: fair enough. What was it that attracted you to it?
Speaker 1: Performing in that way? Oh? Um? My mom brought home
Speaker 1: his first album, and I watched my parents laugh uncontrollably
Speaker 1: listening to the stories coming from the stereo hi fi,
Speaker 1: which back then was a seven ft wide piece of furniture.
Speaker 1: Compare that to the tiny devices we use now. Did
Speaker 1: you hold in your pocket, right, yeah? Or just shoven
Speaker 1: your ears? But watching my folks laughing uncontrollably like that,
Speaker 1: it was the first and it was as off putting
Speaker 1: or awkward as watching them openly weep. I mean it
Speaker 1: really was strange. Not that they never laughed, it just
Speaker 1: they never laughed at someone talking from the stereo. So
Speaker 1: when no one was around, I just listened to it
Speaker 1: a lot more because I wanted to be that person
Speaker 1: telling the stories making my parents laugh. Right. I think
Speaker 1: that was the obsession, and then I would race home
Speaker 1: after school and listen to it and eventually standing in
Speaker 1: front of the stereo pretending I was the one telling
Speaker 1: the stories, not knowing that a lip sinking was a thing.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't trying the lip sing. Uh, Nor did
Speaker 1: I think I was inventing lip sinking. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know the term. I was just playing. I was. There
Speaker 1: was no interactive games. We had just invented fire. This
Speaker 1: was a while ago, Brian. So there I was, and
Speaker 1: my mother came home and quote unquote caught me. And
Speaker 1: I used that term because it was as if I
Speaker 1: was as embarrassed as if she caught me doing something else.
Speaker 1: So then she laughed, pointed at me, and said, you're
Speaker 1: doing that for the zookers at Passover. So my first
Speaker 1: live show was on the white painted out fireplace shelving
Speaker 1: in front of the fireplace, stood on that and performed
Speaker 1: for twenty relatives that pass over and crushed Brian. I
Speaker 1: just killed well. And I went on to do it
Speaker 1: at school and other functions. But you know, it was
Speaker 1: a ten year old, precocious Jewish kid lip syncing this
Speaker 1: hilarious comedy bed. I didn't write the material. I didn't
Speaker 1: even perform it, really I but you know, I cleared
Speaker 1: my throat at the same moment he does on the album,
Speaker 1: and those little things from a ten year old forget it.
Speaker 1: So I just killed. I killed constantly, and I did
Speaker 1: that act, I'm gonna say, for another five years. At
Speaker 1: every function at school, be it a folk festival, of
Speaker 1: father daughter, dinner, dance, you know, whatever the events were,
Speaker 1: there's Kevin and the no and the arc routine. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was mesmerized by all the many albums of the day,
Speaker 1: and when friends would gather, I would be quoting the album.
Speaker 1: And then I realized, I guess I need my own material,
Speaker 1: and uh, but I was. I was a natural and
Speaker 1: doing impersonations. And then that became the cornerstone of what
Speaker 1: I would call an act at seven Sea is when
Speaker 1: I performed professionally in a nightclub. Did you did you
Speaker 1: inherently feel the comedy in the rhythms or in the
Speaker 1: you felt it? Yeah? And you and then no, any
Speaker 1: our car tune in particular is just Noah talking to
Speaker 1: God because Noah's confused about how to build the art,
Speaker 1: and it's as g rated as comedy gets. And then
Speaker 1: once I I think dialed into the story. I I
Speaker 1: organically or involuntarily picked up the comedy rhythms. So I
Speaker 1: learned timing timing from this Jedi master through osmosis, and
Speaker 1: then I think the impersonations was just a natural thing.
Speaker 1: But also it taught me how to act. I learned
Speaker 1: acting nuances from the nuances that I went on to
Speaker 1: create while doing an impersonation. We talked to me a
Speaker 1: little bit about that meaning different people's timing depending on
Speaker 1: who you were imitating. You started to assimilate all of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I I learned from from watching actors and
Speaker 1: then impersonating them, so I would implement what I thought
Speaker 1: were gestures and nuance and line readings because I was speaking. Finally,
Speaker 1: then I learned to act on the set of movies.
Speaker 1: I I never attended an acting class. I'm not proud
Speaker 1: of that. Never studied at university. In fact, I graduated
Speaker 1: from San Jose State University in nine months. My friends
Speaker 1: called a dropping out, but I was done. I was done,
Speaker 1: and you you finished finished, But there was no ceremony.
Speaker 1: I didn't need a little hat with a tassel. I
Speaker 1: was done, all right, folks. With that we're done too.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's look back at some of
Speaker 1: the phenomenal guests we've gotten to hear from this last year,
Speaker 1: and more importantly, I hope you all have an absolutely
Speaker 1: perfect and magical holiday. I'm gonna be back next week
Speaker 1: with the second of my best of episodes, but until then,
Speaker 1: I'll be enjoying some nag maybe sitting around the Christmas
Speaker 1: tree I'm gonna tune and roasting chestnuts. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I hope you get to spend some time with
Speaker 1: your loved ones this holiday season. Happy Holidays to you
Speaker 1: and yours. Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced
Speaker 1: by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee.
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes,
Speaker 1: Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan
Speaker 1: Papa Zachary, and our intern is Sammy Cats. Our theme
Speaker 1: song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only
Speaker 1: Creed Bretton