Speaker 1: Talk singing. Yeah, I'm great at that. You talking rhythm,
Speaker 1: You just talk like in a twenty months ago. I
Speaker 1: am free like a breeze. Flee like a bode in
Speaker 1: the woodland. Flee like a gypsy. Please, like a chick.
Speaker 1: I am other touch. It's it's just that kind of
Speaker 1: you know. So anyway, Trevor Nunn was directing Oklahoma and
Speaker 1: Broadway was the National Theater. Your Shakespeare starts. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: great at that. Yeah, there you go, so you're great. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Assip Monvi and I am I'm an actor and writer, father,
Speaker 1: a son. What I am not is calpan. Hello and
Speaker 1: welcome everybody. That's right. This is a brand new episode
Speaker 1: of Off the Beat, and I am your host, Brian
Speaker 1: bamb Gartner, today's guest. Well, he has been a staple
Speaker 1: of nightly television for close to a decade, and he
Speaker 1: was once almost arrested in a two headed fish costume.
Speaker 1: I am talking, of course, about film, TV and daily
Speaker 1: show icon Asif Monvy. Now, Assif and I have a
Speaker 1: lot in common. We both wrote a book, we both
Speaker 1: love the theater, and we both might start breaking into song.
Speaker 1: So I loved every minute of diving into Ass's past
Speaker 1: and his start as an actor. He was a child
Speaker 1: born in India who moved to England and then to Florida.
Speaker 1: So Asif calls himself a human to Ducan, and it
Speaker 1: was fascinating for me to hear how his childhood as
Speaker 1: an immigrant became later rich material for his career. We
Speaker 1: even hear a few insider secrets about what's really going
Speaker 1: on at Walt Disney World. Intrigued, I am, you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to miss this one, Ausif monv everyone Bubble and squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it. Bubble and squeak on Bubble and squeaker,
Speaker 1: cookie every moment, lift over from the nut before. Hello,
Speaker 1: how are you? How are you? I'm doing well? How
Speaker 1: are you good? I don't think we've ever met before.
Speaker 1: I don't think we've ever met either, which is weird
Speaker 1: because I find you so funny and delightful and we
Speaker 1: have well, I know, I'm just kissing your ass right now,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I understand that a lot of people kiss mask.
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's great. I likewise, I you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like when they didn't realize it was you when
Speaker 1: they originally told me about this podcast, and then I
Speaker 1: and then I googled it and then I was like,
Speaker 1: oh wait, that's so great, you know, like it's so
Speaker 1: weird in this business, Like you think that we would
Speaker 1: run into each other at some point, but you know, yes,
Speaker 1: I know, I'm sure I saw you like across the
Speaker 1: Emmys three or four times, but no one was nice
Speaker 1: enough to introduce us. I'm guessing. Well, and we've worked
Speaker 1: with so many of the same people too. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: So this is fun. You've been doing that. You're doing
Speaker 1: this podcast. I'm doing this podcast. I'm talking to people
Speaker 1: that I like about their life and about the sort
Speaker 1: of unexpected moments that take our careers or your career
Speaker 1: on different trajectories. I think it's fascinating in this business.
Speaker 1: How well, I mean, we'll talk about you. For first
Speaker 1: of all, you you born in India and then you
Speaker 1: moved to England very early and then eventually to the
Speaker 1: United States. How is that for you to uh grow
Speaker 1: up kind of in so many different places. Well, it's
Speaker 1: you know, often have described myself as a human to
Speaker 1: duck it, which is so you know what to ducan is,
Speaker 1: it's like a duck stuff and the duck right, So
Speaker 1: I've often described myself that way, because I feel like
Speaker 1: there's like an Indian baby with an English schoolboy wrapped
Speaker 1: in an American adult. That's kind of what I feel
Speaker 1: like sometimes, you know, Like, so I was born in India,
Speaker 1: and of course that was you know, I don't have
Speaker 1: any really memory of that, but you know, grew up
Speaker 1: in an Indian southday, you know, Indian family with that
Speaker 1: cultural peace and that heritage and that thing. And then
Speaker 1: grew up as in the North of England sort of
Speaker 1: like this little English public school kid. So my childhood
Speaker 1: and all of my formative years and like all the
Speaker 1: TV shows I watched between like five and sixteen, we're
Speaker 1: all like English shows. And I was a little British boy.
Speaker 1: And then came to America and of all places, moved
Speaker 1: to Tampa, Florida, which is as America as you can get, really,
Speaker 1: you know, so it is I've been to Tampa. I
Speaker 1: know exactly what you mean. Yes, So it's like I
Speaker 1: come from like the north of England, like a coal mining,
Speaker 1: textile wool factory, dirty sort of the sguise gray all
Speaker 1: the time, even in summer town, and moved from there
Speaker 1: to Florida, which is just like it's not even like Miami.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it doesn't even have like a
Speaker 1: Florida culture of its you know, like whatever that is.
Speaker 1: But it's Tampa. I've never even heard of it before.
Speaker 1: You know, But before Tampa, why the why a cold
Speaker 1: mining English town? Was this your parents dream or work
Speaker 1: or what? My dad was a coal miner? He was, okay, no,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. He wasn't. My dad's dream was to go
Speaker 1: to have a coal mine. And no, it was he
Speaker 1: wanted to. It was like a little Indian boy. He
Speaker 1: was like one day I was work in the coal mine.
Speaker 1: That's a great little short film. I can sell that
Speaker 1: idea to Netflix. Like, okay, there you go. He's an
Speaker 1: Indian kid, grew up in Bombay. But his dream used
Speaker 1: to be a coal miner. No, my dad got a
Speaker 1: job at Bradford University of all places, because he was
Speaker 1: a color chemist at the time, which was a thing
Speaker 1: at the time. This was in the late sixties, and
Speaker 1: so you know, it was like moving to England, battle life,
Speaker 1: you know, all that stuff. I don't think my parents realized.
Speaker 1: They didn't do much recent Like there was no Google.
Speaker 1: They didn't like Google Bradford then and and go what's
Speaker 1: what's the what's the weather like there? You know, so
Speaker 1: they show up in this like cold, wintry northern English
Speaker 1: town and uh, and that's where I was I raised.
Speaker 1: But also it happens that Bradford also has a very
Speaker 1: large and I think even today has a very large
Speaker 1: Indian Pakistani population for some reason. So it's one of
Speaker 1: those cities. It's it's a city that has a lot
Speaker 1: of there was a precedent to it. Okay, it wasn't
Speaker 1: quite as random as it seems to me. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it it wasn't so randy. It was like there was
Speaker 1: there was a lot of people who look like us
Speaker 1: in Bradford, and also Bradford subsequently suffered some of the
Speaker 1: worst racial riots and stuff in the history of the
Speaker 1: country later years later. You know, um, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: an interesting, interesting place. It was a it was a
Speaker 1: kind of a lightning rod for a lot of political
Speaker 1: immigrant sort of stuff, you know, that got stowed up
Speaker 1: by the various political parties in the UK. Interesting. Do
Speaker 1: you do you feel like some of your work later
Speaker 1: on where you were were examining some of them, what
Speaker 1: did that come from there? Do you think or was
Speaker 1: that more of the United States. No, I think that
Speaker 1: was more here. I mean, I definitely experienced racism in England,
Speaker 1: you know, very early on, Like there was definitely an
Speaker 1: anti immigrant sort of thing in the politics of the
Speaker 1: nineties seventies in England, with like the National Front and
Speaker 1: Enoch Powell and all these people who were very much you're,
Speaker 1: sort of anti immigrant people. So there was definitely that,
Speaker 1: and my dad, I think dealt with that because he
Speaker 1: had a little corner shop look into like a bodega
Speaker 1: here in New York. But it was interesting because it
Speaker 1: was all sort of like you know, today you think
Speaker 1: about that stuff and you go like that's horrible, but
Speaker 1: back then it was like it was sort of thought
Speaker 1: of it was just the price you paid for being
Speaker 1: an immigrant, you know, you just you just sort of
Speaker 1: took it as like that's all in a day's work.
Speaker 1: So so there was that sense of other nests that
Speaker 1: I always felt that then probably was in all the
Speaker 1: work I did in some ways, but then most noticeably
Speaker 1: in the Daily Show, I think it was like I
Speaker 1: got to really kind of address that in some ways
Speaker 1: or like deal with it even those years later, and
Speaker 1: it was much more about post nine eleven in America
Speaker 1: and all the racial ship that was going on in
Speaker 1: this country at that point. But the probably on some
Speaker 1: level of America post nine eleven when I was started
Speaker 1: on the Daily Show, resembled a little bit of There
Speaker 1: was some memory of like the sort of racial stuff
Speaker 1: that I dealt with as a kid in Bradford, just
Speaker 1: getting chased home from the bus stop, you know, just
Speaker 1: for being brown, right, right? Was that a reason when
Speaker 1: you were sixteen that you moved to Tampa looking for
Speaker 1: something else? I mean I read that your dad said
Speaker 1: it was because there was brunch in the United States.
Speaker 1: That's what I heard. So that is part well, part
Speaker 1: of it is that my dad discovered brunch and was like,
Speaker 1: this is the greatest thing ever, and actually wrote about
Speaker 1: it in my book, and it was like it was
Speaker 1: such a funny thing because I remember him talking about brunch.
Speaker 1: This was the eighties and there was no brunch in
Speaker 1: the UK, like we didn't have there was no such
Speaker 1: thing as brunch, and he misunderstood it. I think he
Speaker 1: thought what it was was another meal. So I think
Speaker 1: he thought, like you have breakfast, like in England, you
Speaker 1: have breakfast, you have lunch, and then you have dinner.
Speaker 1: Whereas in America you have breakfast, then you have brunch,
Speaker 1: then you have bunch, thank you. So he was like,
Speaker 1: you get a whole extra meal over there, Like did
Speaker 1: he feel cheated in the end when he realized that
Speaker 1: he was actually taking two and one and it was
Speaker 1: left meal now right right right? I think later in life,
Speaker 1: later after red, I think he was kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: but he still did like the idea that it was
Speaker 1: seven all you can eat, like it was that back
Speaker 1: in the eighties. So that was what it was. You know,
Speaker 1: you go to you go to I help and he's
Speaker 1: just playing the buffet is like, you know. I think
Speaker 1: there was that, And then I think it was also
Speaker 1: just that we were living in in sort of in
Speaker 1: England at the time that cheers England, you know statute,
Speaker 1: and and there was it was a recession the economy.
Speaker 1: My dad was a small business owner. It wasn't doing
Speaker 1: that well and he always wanted to get out of England.
Speaker 1: At some point, his original dream was to move to Canada.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I've never actually asked him about it,
Speaker 1: Like he was just like, we live in Canada one day,
Speaker 1: so random one day. We won't always be living here.
Speaker 1: One day, We're going to live in Canada. Canada, Well
Speaker 1: it was just another really cold place. Yeah. I don't
Speaker 1: think he realized that. I don't think Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think he realized that. I think he was just
Speaker 1: I think he had a friend who lived in Canada
Speaker 1: and liked it, so he was like, we'll live there.
Speaker 1: But then he found a friend who lived in Tampa, Florida,
Speaker 1: and this friend was like, Tampa was even better than Canada.
Speaker 1: It's like it's sunnier. And this was in the eighties
Speaker 1: of Florida was like a place that you wanted to live,
Speaker 1: not like now, you know, like it was like back then,
Speaker 1: it was like it was the fastest growing state in
Speaker 1: the Union. There were businesses exploit it was. It was
Speaker 1: just like this really developing place, you know. And so, uh,
Speaker 1: the idea was, you can you can make a fortune
Speaker 1: in Florida, you know. So yes, thank you everyone from
Speaker 1: Florida just tuned out, by the way, but thank you
Speaker 1: for that. I'm from Florida, and I and I have
Speaker 1: a complicated relationship, like like, Florida is where I spent
Speaker 1: many of my formative years, so I love it, and
Speaker 1: I also, uh, have a healthy critique of the place.
Speaker 1: Was it was it more racially diverse than Bradford or
Speaker 1: or did you know well it was. The joke I
Speaker 1: made about it was that, like, this was a difference
Speaker 1: between being an immigrant in England and being an immigrant
Speaker 1: in America at that time, and that was that in England,
Speaker 1: the idea was that no matter how hard you tried,
Speaker 1: you would never be English. That was the sort of
Speaker 1: the message that was sent to you. And I think
Speaker 1: it's probably even so true today, which is that you
Speaker 1: can speak like us, dressed like us, talk like us,
Speaker 1: eat our food, eat fish and chips every day, you can,
Speaker 1: you can do all that, and you'll never really be
Speaker 1: English because being English is something. And then I think
Speaker 1: is a legacy of colonialism and and sort of like
Speaker 1: that whole relationship that England has with the subcontinent, which
Speaker 1: is very specific in America. On the other hand, I
Speaker 1: got here in the eighties and went to high school,
Speaker 1: and I felt like most people didn't couldn't tell you
Speaker 1: what India was on a map. Like it was like
Speaker 1: this idea of like where are you from Mexico? No, India,
Speaker 1: what where's that? You know? Is it near Mexico. No,
Speaker 1: it's not near Mexico. So anything like it was like
Speaker 1: that sense of like, well, don't worry about that. Wherever
Speaker 1: you're from, I'm sure it's fine. But now you're in
Speaker 1: the greatest country in the world. You're in America, and
Speaker 1: so just pledge allegiance to the flag and forget all
Speaker 1: that stuff. You know, you've got, sorry, five thousand years
Speaker 1: of history, forget that. Now you're an American. And that
Speaker 1: was the attitude here, right, like, just pledge allegiance and
Speaker 1: just get on board with the with the American way now.
Speaker 1: And so then that was it, and it was like
Speaker 1: nobody really cared. But the racial divide in this country
Speaker 1: when I got here was between blacks and whites, and
Speaker 1: it was very clear. I remember going to high school,
Speaker 1: like the first week of high school and realizing that
Speaker 1: all the black students sat on one side of the
Speaker 1: cafeteria and all the white students sat on the other
Speaker 1: side of the cafeteria. And that was just the way
Speaker 1: they decided. Nobody was forcing them to do that. That
Speaker 1: was just how it went down. This was like self
Speaker 1: imposed segregation that was happening. It was kind of an
Speaker 1: interest sting thing and I was like, it was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, and I also fit in with
Speaker 1: like the drama kids. Like I basically I found my
Speaker 1: tribe in the drama kids who were mostly white because
Speaker 1: only only white parents were going to be like, you
Speaker 1: want to drama. Okay, that's fine, even Indian parras drama. No, no,
Speaker 1: you know, but I managed. I managed to get away
Speaker 1: with it. And when did that start for you? Your
Speaker 1: interest in theater? When did that start for you? Oh?
Speaker 1: Very young. I actually was in the school play when
Speaker 1: I was like eight years old or something, and then
Speaker 1: I fell in love with it and realized like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be It was very acting and theater
Speaker 1: and performing. Once I discovered it at a very young age,
Speaker 1: it was like that was it. Like I never looked back,
Speaker 1: like I basically was like, I'm gonna I want to
Speaker 1: do this. And I didn't know obviously, Like I had
Speaker 1: no idea if I was going to be successful at
Speaker 1: it or anything or make it a career. It didn't
Speaker 1: seem like a realistic thing to be able to do
Speaker 1: that as a career. But I just knew that I
Speaker 1: loved it. And I have to say my parents were
Speaker 1: smart enough because honestly, I couldn't do anything else. I
Speaker 1: was terrible at every other subject in school except English
Speaker 1: and and theater. It was like my parents were smart
Speaker 1: enough to not discourage it, but also to not encourage it,
Speaker 1: you know, they were kind of just like neutral about it.
Speaker 1: My mother so in my in my school in England,
Speaker 1: we didn't have theater. We had art, but she knew
Speaker 1: that I loved theater because I would go to an
Speaker 1: after school kind of kids theater thing on Wednesday nights
Speaker 1: when I was in England, and I started going there
Speaker 1: and it was just like the first time I felt.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how it was for you,
Speaker 1: but like it was just like I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is awesome, Like I love doing this, you know
Speaker 1: what I love. And it was funny because I actually
Speaker 1: so it was. I saw the movie bug z Malone.
Speaker 1: That movie so not not the one with Warren Baby,
Speaker 1: Oh not that one. No, then, no, No, I'm talking
Speaker 1: about a movie called bug Z Alone, which was with
Speaker 1: a very young Scott Bayo and a very young Jodie Foster.
Speaker 1: Now I don't know that you don't know this movie.
Speaker 1: I don't know this movie. Check check it out. It's
Speaker 1: a tree. It's basically a gangster movie, but it's all kids,
Speaker 1: and it's done totally straight. But the kids come in
Speaker 1: with guns and instead of shooting bullets, the shooting pies.
Speaker 1: But it's done completely straight, like it's not like campy
Speaker 1: or send out or anything. It's like a straight up
Speaker 1: gangster movie. But everybody in the movie is like fourteen
Speaker 1: years old. And I just remember it was on TV
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve when I was like about the same age
Speaker 1: as as the characters in the movie, and I watched
Speaker 1: it and I just thought that is the greatest thing,
Speaker 1: Like like wait a minute, they get to do this
Speaker 1: and like that's what they do and they were the
Speaker 1: same age as me, and I was like, why am
Speaker 1: I not doing that? Like it's so fun. And that
Speaker 1: was like, weirdly when I decided, like I want to
Speaker 1: do that. I just want to I want to be
Speaker 1: in a movie where I get to, like, you shoot
Speaker 1: pies and people's faces and just pretend to be a gangster.
Speaker 1: And and that's when I sort of got involved with
Speaker 1: this after school theater program and uh, and then it
Speaker 1: just all picked off from there. For people. You went
Speaker 1: to the University of South Florida studying theater. Then by
Speaker 1: then are you thinking because before you said you weren't
Speaker 1: sure about doing it as a career, But by then
Speaker 1: were you settled that this is what you wanted to do?
Speaker 1: Well again, So I went to the University of South
Speaker 1: Florida because I had shitty grades. Here's like what happened
Speaker 1: was we came to Florida and there was a big
Speaker 1: transition period for me because I was sixty. Even when
Speaker 1: we got to Florida, it was like I was a
Speaker 1: junior in high school and I was adapting to this
Speaker 1: new world and this new country and life and everything
Speaker 1: was different, and I think my academics just sort of
Speaker 1: like fell off. And the only saving grace I had
Speaker 1: was theater class was drama class, and so I like
Speaker 1: lived for fifth period every day, which was drama class,
Speaker 1: and that's where I like got to like just you know,
Speaker 1: do what I did. So my grades were terrible, but
Speaker 1: because I sucked on my SA t s and I
Speaker 1: ended up getting a theater scholarship to the University of
Speaker 1: South Florida. So the only way they would accept me
Speaker 1: was if I was a theater major, and they gave
Speaker 1: me what's called a freshman incentive scholarship, so they would
Speaker 1: pay for my entire freshman year. But I had to
Speaker 1: be a theater major. And my parents had just moved
Speaker 1: to this new country. They were struggling. They were trying
Speaker 1: to figure out, like, you know, how to survive in
Speaker 1: this new place. And so I had this. They basically said, look, look,
Speaker 1: I didn't get into USF, but I got in. You
Speaker 1: don't have to pay my tutition, and they'll pay my
Speaker 1: tuition if I am a theater major. And so sometimes
Speaker 1: it's just like destiny just fucking leads you down the
Speaker 1: path that you're supposed to go on. And this is
Speaker 1: just one of those moments where my parents were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: they weren't happy about it, but they were also like
Speaker 1: if they're going to pay for it, then great. And
Speaker 1: I was like, they're going to pay for it. So
Speaker 1: I became a theater major and then just stayed at
Speaker 1: theater major and that was you know, and I just
Speaker 1: went that went through the program there, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's what I learned. You know, I did all
Speaker 1: my checkov and Ibsen did you begin writing then as well?
Speaker 1: I actually started writing when I was really young. I
Speaker 1: actually was always writing stuff. I was also always writing,
Speaker 1: like I wrote a short play when I was like
Speaker 1: thirteen years old, and then I would write poetry. It
Speaker 1: was one of those I was that kid who would
Speaker 1: write poetry, talk about an artsie FARSI kid like I
Speaker 1: literally like, I would write, write poetry and then people
Speaker 1: will come over, like my friends. My parents would have
Speaker 1: dinner parties and or have their friends over, and then
Speaker 1: their friends kids will come over. There was like a
Speaker 1: big South Asian community at Bradford, so they the kids
Speaker 1: of my parents friends would just become my friends by
Speaker 1: virtue of the fact that we all our parents were friends. Right.
Speaker 1: It's the opposite of what happens now, which is like
Speaker 1: you become friends with people because your kids are friends.
Speaker 1: Like the opposite. You know, these kids will be like, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to go kick a ball around or something that,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, no, but let me read you
Speaker 1: some of my poems and and I would like. They'd
Speaker 1: be like, why don't you and so and so go
Speaker 1: and play it together. And they want us to go
Speaker 1: to the backyard or whatever and just play. And I'd
Speaker 1: be like, come in my room and I pull out
Speaker 1: like my tray of poems that had written from under
Speaker 1: the bed and just like and I just remember like
Speaker 1: some poor kids sitting there, like some poor girl who
Speaker 1: was like like my age, who was the daughter of
Speaker 1: some friends and my parents, and just having to sit
Speaker 1: there and listen to me like read my poems to her,
Speaker 1: you know, like not I like a completely dorky thing.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, I was like, what do you think?
Speaker 1: And then they'd be like I don't. I don't have
Speaker 1: any thoughts about it at all. Like so anyway, so
Speaker 1: I was, I was always writing, and then I think
Speaker 1: when I got to college and stuff that I was
Speaker 1: writing a little bit more and sort of yeah, writing
Speaker 1: was always I was always doing it. I was always
Speaker 1: sort of writing something. Right, So you're doing Absen and
Speaker 1: Shakespeare and check off in college and then you go
Speaker 1: work for Disney. Right, you're a performer at Disney. Is
Speaker 1: that your first job? Yeah? Yeah? Were you like Mickey?
Speaker 1: Were you like Mickey Mouse? I'll have you know, Brian
Speaker 1: that Mickey Mouse is a girl. So really it's always
Speaker 1: a girl because Mickey Mouse is very short, Mickey. They
Speaker 1: don't usually find boys not short, so it's often a
Speaker 1: young girl. Mickey and Mini are both often the young
Speaker 1: girls because we actually shared a trailer, like, so I
Speaker 1: was in I was when I got the job at Disney.
Speaker 1: It was at the MGM Studios, and I was actually
Speaker 1: with all these like comedy improv people and then and
Speaker 1: we would do like comedy improv stuff and it was
Speaker 1: actually kind of great. It was like a really great
Speaker 1: It was like because I left school to go do
Speaker 1: that job. I I I didn't graduate and I left
Speaker 1: because at the time, we were not we were still
Speaker 1: not citizens of the United States. So I was still
Speaker 1: paying out of state tuition. And my parents because now
Speaker 1: I was like three or four years in my parents
Speaker 1: were working, but they weren't making we weren't doing that well.
Speaker 1: We were very very lower middle class like sort of
Speaker 1: you know, and so I was paying for like I
Speaker 1: was taking like one class of semester. So it was
Speaker 1: taking me a long time to get from school. And
Speaker 1: then I get this job where Disney MGM Studios is
Speaker 1: opening up in Orlando and they're hiring actor, comedians, performers,
Speaker 1: not like Mickey's and Minis and goofies. They were like
Speaker 1: looking for like comedy people because they wanted to do this,
Speaker 1: like they wanted to have a comedy troup. And so
Speaker 1: me and all of my friends we all went an audition.
Speaker 1: We all drove to Orlando and we auditioned, and I
Speaker 1: remember I auditioned with this Eric Pogosian piece that I
Speaker 1: had been working on in my scene study class, and
Speaker 1: it was just this piece that I had from his
Speaker 1: show Drinking in America. And I did this Burgosian monologue
Speaker 1: and got this job at Disney MGM Studios. And at
Speaker 1: the time, they were paying me more money than I
Speaker 1: had ever seen. You know, I was making four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a week and they were gonna get
Speaker 1: me my They were like, I was gonna have my
Speaker 1: own apartment and they put me up, you know, the
Speaker 1: whole thing. So I was like, I'm going I'm going
Speaker 1: to do this. I'm gonna go leave school and drop
Speaker 1: out of school and go make some money. And then
Speaker 1: at the idea was I was going to come back
Speaker 1: and finish my degree, but I never did. I I
Speaker 1: went to Orlando and started working. So it was like
Speaker 1: an improv comedy troup. And the people they hired from
Speaker 1: all over the country, so you know, there were people
Speaker 1: from like Dudley Riggs and and UCB and in fact,
Speaker 1: mc collins, who later went on to become a cast
Speaker 1: member of Mad TV. Her and I were both in
Speaker 1: the original comedy cast at Disney MGM Studios. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I was in Minneapolis doing theater for a while, so
Speaker 1: I was never at Dudley Riggs, but newm collins, who yeah,
Speaker 1: from from Minneapolis and oh yeah, yeah yeah, So she
Speaker 1: came from there, and what a genius improviser she is
Speaker 1: and was and continues to be. But I was it
Speaker 1: was like a great training ground for me. Like it
Speaker 1: was just it was kind of like what The Daily
Speaker 1: Show was much many years later, which is like I
Speaker 1: just got to work with these incredibly funny people, you know,
Speaker 1: and and we were all kind of in our early
Speaker 1: twenties and our careers were all just starting, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was Mo and then there was Peter
Speaker 1: and Paul Vote. Peter Paul Vote I think also was
Speaker 1: a cast member on that TV later. There was just
Speaker 1: all these great people and I got to work there
Speaker 1: with them and we would basically just do improv and
Speaker 1: play these characters at the Disney MGM Studios, and I
Speaker 1: just learned so much. I just learned so much about
Speaker 1: comedy and and improvisation and timing and all. All of
Speaker 1: it was almost like my grad school because I never
Speaker 1: went to grad school, and I dropped out of Underground
Speaker 1: and then I went here and Disney and just and
Speaker 1: I worked there, and I worked there, and then I
Speaker 1: worked to Universal Studios down the road. So I was
Speaker 1: in Orlando for like a couple of years, just doing
Speaker 1: like the theme park thing and just doing you know,
Speaker 1: I worked with I don't know, if you're familiar with
Speaker 1: Sack Theater. They're like a improv comedy troupe and they
Speaker 1: would do a lot of the Renaissance fairs, and so
Speaker 1: a lot of people who worked at MGM also came
Speaker 1: from the renfair circuit. So I was doing like Renaissance
Speaker 1: fairs and all that stuff and so deep in that
Speaker 1: world for a little while. So it was right, it was,
Speaker 1: but it was a great training ground for just doing
Speaker 1: funny stuff. You know, When did you decide to move
Speaker 1: to New York? You were there a couple of years there,
Speaker 1: a couple of years. I started dating a girl down
Speaker 1: in Orlando, and she wanted to move to New York.
Speaker 1: And I was done with my contract. I was done
Speaker 1: with my contract at Universal, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's you know. I was like, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: I kind of done. I got my equity card. I
Speaker 1: kind of was like, maybe it's time to like go
Speaker 1: drive my luck in New York City and you do
Speaker 1: a number of shows fairly quickly. Brig a Dune disgraced. Well,
Speaker 1: that was that was later. That was all later. When
Speaker 1: when I first got to New York. Okay, so this
Speaker 1: was what year was that? And the first show that
Speaker 1: I get it was like a week after I got
Speaker 1: to New York was a show called Saddam Oh No.
Speaker 1: And it was a car. It was a comedy about
Speaker 1: Saddam was saying. A comedy. Yeah, it was this weird
Speaker 1: comedy about Saddam was saying. And it was in Baltimore, Maryland.
Speaker 1: So I get to New York. I have an audition
Speaker 1: for this regional theater gig in Baltimore. Right in New York.
Speaker 1: I auditioned for it and it was like a four
Speaker 1: character play and I played in Iraqi, an Iraqi soldier
Speaker 1: who's also a stand up comic and it was so
Speaker 1: this was the first show that I got in New York.
Speaker 1: And then I go to Baltimore for like four weeks
Speaker 1: and we do this play Saddam, a comedy in two acts,
Speaker 1: and it was like, so we're doing this show and
Speaker 1: the same guy that owns the cabaret space also owns
Speaker 1: the nightclub next door, so in the middle of the show,
Speaker 1: he would open up the nightclub. So we'd be like
Speaker 1: in the middle of this play with like cabaret ondien
Speaker 1: people drinking what I didn't have it, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: like the wall would just be like to poop boop boop,
Speaker 1: and we were like, dude, you can't do that, Like
Speaker 1: we were being drowned out by this noise coming from
Speaker 1: the club next door. And he was like, no, man,
Speaker 1: because because he owned both spaces and he didn't want
Speaker 1: to like lose any money, so he was just like,
Speaker 1: I'll just opened the club. That was my It was.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. It was like and they were competing
Speaker 1: against this like dance music coming through the walls. And
Speaker 1: so that was my first gig. So you were really
Speaker 1: living that New York theater actor life, like you're doing
Speaker 1: regional theaters and yeah, I was doing the regional theater gig.
Speaker 1: I was doing Shakespeare. I did the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival.
Speaker 1: I did like you know, Saddam the comedy in two
Speaker 1: acts in Baltimore. I did, yeah, And I was doing
Speaker 1: like off off Broadway stuff, you know. I was really
Speaker 1: I was getting up like five o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: and standing. It used to be back in those days.
Speaker 1: You get up and you'd go to actor's Equity and
Speaker 1: you stand in line outside after exequity at like six
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning with your bagel and a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee, and you get an appointment to just have
Speaker 1: an audition for some assistant of some casting director, just
Speaker 1: to get seen for like for pipping in like in
Speaker 1: Oklahoma or something you know, like and so that was it,
Speaker 1: and then you know, you do these open calls, and
Speaker 1: so that's the life I was living for a long time.
Speaker 1: I was just like trying to just get like a
Speaker 1: gig here, a gig there, like maybe get a commercial.
Speaker 1: I was doing extra work for a while. I was
Speaker 1: an extra on a bunch of movies, and so like
Speaker 1: I was just I was making I was literally getting
Speaker 1: my like my SAG insurance just done, but doing extra
Speaker 1: work for like a couple of years. You know. I
Speaker 1: saw I saw brigadoone Oklahoma on your resume. Do you sing?
Speaker 1: So I don't sing. I mean, okay, let me, let
Speaker 1: me paraphrase that I sing well enough to like be
Speaker 1: an actor who can sing. But I'm not like a singer,
Speaker 1: Like I don't like have like a Broadway singing voice.
Speaker 1: So Oklahoma came much later. Oklahoma came in two thousand
Speaker 1: and two, and by then I've already done my one
Speaker 1: man show and all this stuff like that. That was,
Speaker 1: you know, like my big break, right. I did my
Speaker 1: one man's show and stuff, and and then I got Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: and it was the weirdest thing. Because I had done
Speaker 1: my one man show, I've gotten a lot of attention
Speaker 1: for it. I did this movie with this smile merchant
Speaker 1: with merchant Ivory called The Mystic Massure, and I was thinking, like, okay,
Speaker 1: now my career is I'm gonna do movies. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do, because this is gonna be it now.
Speaker 1: And so I went out to l A and the
Speaker 1: phone's not ringing. The phone is not ringing. Nobody saw
Speaker 1: Mystic Massour. It was like a movie that no, it's
Speaker 1: just basically nobody saw it, like nobody cared, you know,
Speaker 1: like you know, and so I'm sitting in l A
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking like all right, and then the phone
Speaker 1: rings and my agents are like, you have an audition
Speaker 1: for Oklahoma on Broadway. And I was like what and
Speaker 1: they were like, yeah, they want you to read for
Speaker 1: the Peddler. And it's a non singing comedy role. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a song, but it's like a pattern song. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you can talk, you sing, it talks sing.
Speaker 1: That's that's my that's my forte. That's your fourte Yeah
Speaker 1: talk singing. Yeah, I'm great at that. You talk in rhythm.
Speaker 1: You just talk like in a twenty minutes ago. I
Speaker 1: am free, like a breeze, free like about in the woodland,
Speaker 1: flee like a gypsy, flee like a child. I am
Speaker 1: on the touch. It's not it's just that kind of
Speaker 1: you know. So anyway, Trevor Nunn was directing Oklahoma and
Speaker 1: Broadway was the National Theater. Your Shakespeare starts. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: great at that. Yeah, there you go. So you're great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that wash. So they were like, you know, they
Speaker 1: want to read you and they want you to do
Speaker 1: like a song. So I sent in a tape from
Speaker 1: New York, I mean from l A and then they said, oh,
Speaker 1: you have a you have a call back, and they
Speaker 1: want to see you. So then I came back to
Speaker 1: New York and read for Trevor Nunn, who couldn't have
Speaker 1: been nicer and and it was just great and and
Speaker 1: and they were bringing the production that had done the
Speaker 1: National Theater was with Hugh Jackman as as Curly and
Speaker 1: Sula Hensley, who went went on to win The bath
Speaker 1: Tub and then the Tony in New York. So then
Speaker 1: the production in New York was with Patrick Wilson as Curly,
Speaker 1: and they had sort of lost some of their British
Speaker 1: cast and so they need to recast it with Americans.
Speaker 1: So I auditioned for the peddler and I got the
Speaker 1: part and I was just it was just it was
Speaker 1: like I was funny, so like they were like great.
Speaker 1: I think the problem was that the guy in England
Speaker 1: was not very funny and they wanted it to be funnier.
Speaker 1: So they were like, okay, we didn't we don't care
Speaker 1: if you can stick. And I remember going in from
Speaker 1: my audition with Susan Stroman, of all people, she was
Speaker 1: the choreographer, and I was like, oh my god. I
Speaker 1: was like listen I'm not a dancer, and I told
Speaker 1: my agents I'm not a dancer and I'm not. I
Speaker 1: don't It was a Michael Jackson in personator in high school.
Speaker 1: But that's about it, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: not this Oklahoma dancing. I don't do that, Like my
Speaker 1: body doesn't move that way. And so they were like,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, and so like I go, await
Speaker 1: and I just could ship the bed in the dance
Speaker 1: audition and I that's it. That's never happening. And then
Speaker 1: they called me and they were like and they don't
Speaker 1: actually care if you can't dance. They just want you
Speaker 1: to be funny. And so I was like, well that's good,
Speaker 1: you know. So it was great and I so I
Speaker 1: ended up doing that for a year. It was the
Speaker 1: greatest time. You know, I can honestly say like it was.
Speaker 1: I've been fortunate to have a very diverse career, you know,
Speaker 1: like I've gotten to do a lot of things that
Speaker 1: you wouldn't expect, you know, but I never wanted to.
Speaker 1: I never expected to be in a musical. No less
Speaker 1: two because then years later City Center was doing Brig
Speaker 1: a Dude and Patrick Wilson was starting in it again
Speaker 1: and he said, oh, there's this comic sidekick character who's
Speaker 1: like a great part. There's no singing, it's just gotta
Speaker 1: be funny. And they're like, why don't we get awesome?
Speaker 1: You know, by then, like people knew who I was,
Speaker 1: so they got me to do that. Now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest. I'm gonna be totally honest. Oh here we go.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big musical guy, as I displayed. I
Speaker 1: don't sing that well. I saw you in Oklahoma. I
Speaker 1: don't remember much. But Schuler, who I don't really know,
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to pretend. But he went to
Speaker 1: my high school. He did. He was he was older
Speaker 1: than me. Yeah, he was older than me. So I
Speaker 1: didn't even know him in high school. But yes, I saw.
Speaker 1: I saw the production with Patrick and with you. I
Speaker 1: didn't know you at the time, but I knew Schuler,
Speaker 1: and yeah, wow, I was there. I was one of
Speaker 1: those you were one of the billion audience members. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just remember we had a rehearsal once and Trevor,
Speaker 1: you know, we were in the Gerchewin Theater, which is
Speaker 1: that ginormous theater right there on fifty Street and it's concrete, right,
Speaker 1: So it's one of the few concrete theaters in Broadway houses.
Speaker 1: Like it's not like the Broadway houses for those of
Speaker 1: you don't know, like they're acoustically beautifully built, so the
Speaker 1: sound bounces, but the gershwind is not is like a
Speaker 1: sound black hole, you know, it's just like and so
Speaker 1: it's just like concrete which just absorbed the sound. So
Speaker 1: you really got to project. And it's also the biggest
Speaker 1: Broadway with you on probably it's like two thousand seeds
Speaker 1: or something, so you really got to hit that back wall,
Speaker 1: you know, you got and everyone's miked and you know
Speaker 1: in those musicals and stuff. So right, I remember Trevor
Speaker 1: giving a note to the cast. He was like it
Speaker 1: was like after like I think a first stress rehearsal
Speaker 1: or something, and he was he was like, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, in his in his very proper English, and
Speaker 1: it's like, now, everybody really just needs to just hit
Speaker 1: that back wall. I know your miked, but really it's
Speaker 1: a it's a very large theater. You just really just
Speaker 1: have to get all the way to the back of
Speaker 1: the house and everybody, every last seed should hear clearly,
Speaker 1: crystal clear. So everyone make sure you hit that back wall,
Speaker 1: except you as if you're fine, you can bring it
Speaker 1: down a bit. Actually, that sounds like every director that
Speaker 1: I ever had as well, You and I would have competed.
Speaker 1: I think I would have red like it was so
Speaker 1: much like it was just like I was like, oh, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: you might be overacting a little bit, but it was
Speaker 1: so much fun. It was so much fun to do that.
Speaker 1: And then getting to work with Patrick again years later,
Speaker 1: and also Kelly O'Hara went never worked with. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's weird. I'm not a musical theater guy either, you know,
Speaker 1: full disclosure, I don't even really go to musicals, not much.
Speaker 1: But I have to say being in a musical was
Speaker 1: just a blast. It was just the greatest thing to do.
Speaker 1: I'll share with you. I was doing theater in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: you know, summer was usually there wasn't a lot going on,
Speaker 1: and I got offered a an opera in Northern Michigan
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't sing, I can't do
Speaker 1: and they were like, no, no, no. I think it
Speaker 1: was The Fleet r Mouse And there's like a fifteen
Speaker 1: minute or something just set piece a drunk jailer that
Speaker 1: comes in does is like stick for fifteen minutes and
Speaker 1: then get you know, falls asleep in the cell or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then everybody keeps singing again. But there's like fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes of just one character acting on the stage. And
Speaker 1: I did that, and I'll tell you it was the
Speaker 1: most fun job because I could show up like in
Speaker 1: the middle of act two, going through my little thing
Speaker 1: and then move along. Yeah. It was Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a good time. It was just like a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. So during this time in New York,
Speaker 1: I saw your resume and I was like, oh, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: he was doing the New York thing Law and Orders
Speaker 1: multiple times, right, doing all those shows in New York.
Speaker 1: So through theater through I assumed commercials, but also film roles,
Speaker 1: and as you said, you know early on doing extra work.
Speaker 1: You know, you were making a living as an actor. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Mostly the good thing was it was steadily I was
Speaker 1: getting like better parts, and you know, I was also
Speaker 1: supplementing my income with kat Waiter ring. But I was
Speaker 1: getting enough, like I would get a commercial every now
Speaker 1: and then, or I get like a small theater gig.
Speaker 1: Later I started getting small parts in movies, and it
Speaker 1: was just sort of like my resume was slowly just
Speaker 1: starting to build. And I think it's what kept me going.
Speaker 1: I think if I had stalled out or felt like
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting anywhere, you know, I don't know what
Speaker 1: I would have done. I might I might have ended
Speaker 1: up going back to Tampa or whatever, you know, like,
Speaker 1: but it was enough to keep me. Like I was
Speaker 1: like and honestly like, I was living in this place
Speaker 1: in Long Island City, Queens, where I had like one room,
Speaker 1: and I was sharing this apartment with the South American
Speaker 1: grad students. And I was basically had one room and
Speaker 1: I shared the bathroom and the kitchen with these grad students.
Speaker 1: And it was in this building that was like right
Speaker 1: there in Longon City, and I was paying three hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month in rent for that one room. And
Speaker 1: had it not been for the fact that my rent
Speaker 1: was it was very and even three hundred bucks a month.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I was like I can't you know. It was
Speaker 1: that scene with Will Ferrell and the little girl. You know,
Speaker 1: it was like I was like, I can't afford the rent,
Speaker 1: you like, you have to pay that, right, you know.
Speaker 1: But I managed to survive, you know, I managed to
Speaker 1: somehow just keep stepping up the ladder a little bit,
Speaker 1: a little bit, and then I started getting bigger opportunities,
Speaker 1: and then and then bigger things started to come my way,
Speaker 1: you know. I think the first sort of real thing
Speaker 1: that I got was in nine four, which was a
Speaker 1: couple of years after years, so after I came to
Speaker 1: New York, I was an understudy at Lincoln Center in
Speaker 1: the place Suburbia by Eric Pagoshan, who was like my
Speaker 1: idol from way back when, and so Begosian had writen
Speaker 1: this play called Suburbia and it was with Steve Zon
Speaker 1: and Martha Plimpton and zach or If and Tim Guinea
Speaker 1: and all these like New York theater actor. Steve Zon
Speaker 1: at the time was like the guy Josh Hamilton's you know,
Speaker 1: they were like all breaking out into movies and stuff.
Speaker 1: Steve's on had just done reality Bites with Ben Stiller
Speaker 1: and Ethan Hawk, and it was kind of a cool
Speaker 1: little gig and I got. I didn't even get in
Speaker 1: the show. I was. I was the understudy in the show.
Speaker 1: But you know, it was better than I did anything
Speaker 1: else that, you know, So it was like it was
Speaker 1: like suddenly I was getting like stuff where I was
Speaker 1: starting to like move up the ladder. And then the
Speaker 1: year later, I got like an off Broadway gig, an
Speaker 1: off Broadway play called Depth Defying Acts where I was
Speaker 1: actually in the show. It was a three one acts
Speaker 1: written by Elaine May, David Mammitt, and Woody Allen, and uh,
Speaker 1: I was in this play with Linda Lavitt, and it
Speaker 1: was like me and Lynda Lavitt on stage together for
Speaker 1: like ten minutes in the middle of this little one
Speaker 1: act where I played her her the delivery guy who
Speaker 1: was coming to her apartment where she's trying to commit suicide.
Speaker 1: And so it was like a funny little play by
Speaker 1: Elaine May that ran for a year or so and
Speaker 1: I was on I was doing that, and so it's
Speaker 1: just like starting to like sort of build stuff and
Speaker 1: get more and more. Yeah, you mentioned before you were
Speaker 1: on The Daily Show for almost a decade. Why did
Speaker 1: you decide to audition for that show or how did
Speaker 1: that come about? I I ended up on The Daily
Speaker 1: Show in a very unusual way, which is not the
Speaker 1: usual trajectory for people on the Daily Show, because I
Speaker 1: wasn't doing stand up. I had done stand up, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't my world and I had done a one
Speaker 1: man show and all this stuff, but I was an
Speaker 1: actor doing like theater and they just had written this
Speaker 1: piece and they needed a Middle East correspondent and they
Speaker 1: didn't have one, and it was written. I remember it
Speaker 1: was like Tim Carvel wrote this piece, and you know,
Speaker 1: Tim Carvel was now head writer for John Oliver and
Speaker 1: it was all about the Iraq War. And this was
Speaker 1: two thousand six, and it was after nine eleven. It
Speaker 1: was it was really a beautifully written piece of satire
Speaker 1: and comedy. It was just I think it's still one
Speaker 1: of my all time favorite pieces that I ever did
Speaker 1: on the show. But they were looking and so they
Speaker 1: called my agent. They were like, and I remember that day.
Speaker 1: It was August nine, two thousand six, and you know,
Speaker 1: there are those days in your life where your life changes,
Speaker 1: you know, not not always, but this was a day
Speaker 1: when my life changed. And I woke up in that
Speaker 1: morning and I was writing a letter to my ex girlfriend.
Speaker 1: It was one of those dear John, like I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Like you know, I just found out she gotten engaged,
Speaker 1: and I was like still holding onto some idea that
Speaker 1: we were going to get back together. So I write
Speaker 1: this letter and I'm writing it Longhand and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: and the phone rings. Now my manager was like, the
Speaker 1: Daily Show wants to see you for an audition today,
Speaker 1: and I remember just being like, yeah, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: sad today. How about tomorrow? And I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't feel very I don't feel great today. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of really in a miserable place. And they're like tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I don't think so it looks like if they don't,
Speaker 1: they're gonna find someone today or not. That's it. And
Speaker 1: I was this close to not going because I thought
Speaker 1: it was gonna be like some stupid thing where, you know,
Speaker 1: like I've done these on letters, on Letterman and other
Speaker 1: places where I go down and I pretend to then
Speaker 1: do the voice of some terrorists or something, or on
Speaker 1: a flying carpet or something, you know, like some weird
Speaker 1: thing where they put a turban on me or some
Speaker 1: ship and then they pay you a couple of hundred
Speaker 1: bucks and you go home. You know. I thought it's
Speaker 1: sucking bullshit, like I don't want to, and so I
Speaker 1: said to my manager, I was like, what's it for.
Speaker 1: They were like, it's actually for a correspondent. Because I
Speaker 1: originally I said no, and then they call back and
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, it's for a correspondent, so just
Speaker 1: just that fire if that changes your mind. And I
Speaker 1: didn't know it was like a full time gig or
Speaker 1: anything like that. So I was like, fucking I'll go.
Speaker 1: So I said, what time they've seen people for four o'clock.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll be there at three forty five
Speaker 1: and and and the time I lived on the Eppleworst
Speaker 1: Side and the Daily Show taped like twenty blocks down
Speaker 1: from where I lived. So I just literally just walked
Speaker 1: down to the Daily Show and I walk in. There's
Speaker 1: Jon Stewart and he's got his you know, his khaki's
Speaker 1: is now his Cornu roys, and his his sweatshirt baseball cap.
Speaker 1: And I watched the show, you know, so I was like,
Speaker 1: oh cool Jon Stewart, you know, and uh oh. And
Speaker 1: at first I remember first they gave me the sides
Speaker 1: and there was all this stuff, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, I gotta memorize all
Speaker 1: this right now. And I was like sitting there trying
Speaker 1: to memorize it. And then they came out they were
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, it's on the teleprop jet. And
Speaker 1: I was like such a theater snob. I was like
Speaker 1: teleprop jet, like, this is fucking bullshit. Like so I
Speaker 1: literally was just like, alright, fine, funck it whatever. So
Speaker 1: I just go in there, and honestly, it was one
Speaker 1: of those moments where I really was like I'm not
Speaker 1: going to get this, and I was like if I
Speaker 1: don't get it, who cares? If I do get it, great,
Speaker 1: you know, And it was one of those moments where
Speaker 1: I just didn't care. So I literally just went in
Speaker 1: and I read the teal prompter and I did the
Speaker 1: bit with John, and John was super nice and he
Speaker 1: was like, you know, and I remember him saying to
Speaker 1: me like, have you ever performed in front of a
Speaker 1: live audience before? Because you know, the Daily Show tapes
Speaker 1: in front of a live audience, so he was like,
Speaker 1: you ever performed in front of a live audience? And
Speaker 1: I remember just looking at him being like, dude, I've
Speaker 1: been on Broadway and he was and he was like,
Speaker 1: oh okay. He was like. I was like, he's like,
Speaker 1: let's see you Mr Broadways. And then I did it
Speaker 1: and I literally just did my best Stephen Colbert impression,
Speaker 1: like that's all I knew how to do. Like, I
Speaker 1: was like, I watched the show. I kind of would
Speaker 1: watch Stephen Colbert, watched the Corral all these guys, you know,
Speaker 1: and helms and everyone and then and I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll just do that. I'll just do what
Speaker 1: they did. So I just did it. And then John
Speaker 1: was like after the thing, he looked at me and
Speaker 1: he stood up and he was like, dude, congratulations, welcome
Speaker 1: to the Daily Show. He just said it right away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he just like said, welcome to the Daily Show. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be on tonight. And now, to be fair, it
Speaker 1: was a one off gig, right, it wasn't a contract,
Speaker 1: so it was like a one off game. And he
Speaker 1: was like, you're gonna be on the show tonight. And
Speaker 1: I was like all right. He was at you busy.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, of course not. And so that
Speaker 1: night I'm on the Daily Show. I'm taping at like
Speaker 1: five o'clock. I go off for rehearsal and they, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever been to the show,
Speaker 1: but like basically before they do the taping, there's a
Speaker 1: rehearsal with the producers and stuff and the writers. So
Speaker 1: the writers and producers sitting out there, and I see
Speaker 1: this guy sitting in the audience with a baseball cap on,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at him and I'm staring and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know that guy. And it's Bruce Springsteen and yeah,
Speaker 1: and so Springsteen he's a big fan of the show,
Speaker 1: Love John John, you know, like Hugh Springsteen fan. So
Speaker 1: he just came by to see the taping and he
Speaker 1: just brought his son, and so the two of them
Speaker 1: were just sitting in the rehearsal because they led him
Speaker 1: in early so he wouldn't have to deal with the
Speaker 1: crowds and stuff. So like he's sitting in the audience
Speaker 1: and I'm like, are you freaking kidding me right now?
Speaker 1: And then they go backstage and I'm like and I
Speaker 1: remember talking to the crew and I was like, guys,
Speaker 1: do you know the Bruce Springsteens out there? And they
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, yeah, we know, we you know. And
Speaker 1: I was like, is that like a normal thing here,
Speaker 1: Like you just have like mega stars to show up
Speaker 1: and sit in the rehears and sitting roar And they
Speaker 1: were like no, they were like a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: J k Rowling was here, but nobody knows what she
Speaker 1: looks like so she was totally fine, and so that
Speaker 1: night I taped. I taped the show. Then we get done.
Speaker 1: It was a great piece. It was like a phenomenal
Speaker 1: I can take no credit for it except for the
Speaker 1: fact that I performed it and did it and sold it,
Speaker 1: and John, I think, was really happy with it. I
Speaker 1: went backstage after the show. John's like, stick around and
Speaker 1: want you to come into the They have a post
Speaker 1: mortem room where they go over the show afterwards. John
Speaker 1: was like, come back. I wanted you know happen. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to post mortem room. All the writers and
Speaker 1: everybody's sitting around like discussing how the show went. And
Speaker 1: as I'm walking out, spring scene is in the hallway
Speaker 1: waiting to say hi to John and he sees me
Speaker 1: and he puts out his hand. He's like, hey, he
Speaker 1: did a really good job. I heard it was your
Speaker 1: first time, and I was like, yeah, it was my
Speaker 1: first time. It was so weird, and that was the day.
Speaker 1: That was the day because then everybody was just calling
Speaker 1: me like the funk. It was just a guy that
Speaker 1: looked like you on the Daily Show, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: that was me. It was like because I didn't even
Speaker 1: have a chance to tell anyone. I didn't tell my parents.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell anyone. And then there was an article
Speaker 1: the next day in the l A Times because I
Speaker 1: was the first non white correspondent on the show. And
Speaker 1: I remember this article was like the Daily Show has
Speaker 1: this brown guy on there, Like what the fuck is
Speaker 1: going on? Like you know, they've gone diverse. And then
Speaker 1: John just really liked me, and he was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm just gonna call you back if we
Speaker 1: need you again. And then they just kept calling me back,
Speaker 1: and every couple of weeks I go down and do
Speaker 1: a taping. I'll just get paid whatever for the day
Speaker 1: or whatever. And then after about four months of that,
Speaker 1: John offered me a contract on the show, and then
Speaker 1: I and then the rest of history, as they say,
Speaker 1: like it was just like and that really did at
Speaker 1: that moment, like there was definitely a switch where my
Speaker 1: career went from one point to another, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: like for you probably on the office or something, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like like it was just suddenly
Speaker 1: like boom. And the weird thing was that because on
Speaker 1: the Daily Show they used my real name. People would
Speaker 1: call me by my real name, and I just remember
Speaker 1: like realizing like, oh, the impact that this show is
Speaker 1: having in terms of like it's zeitgeist. Because I've been
Speaker 1: on stuff I've done, like you said, Law and Order
Speaker 1: and all the TV show done, movies have done something,
Speaker 1: but I've never been on anything that had the level
Speaker 1: of like cultural penetration then the Daily Show had. And
Speaker 1: I remember going to a play and Danny DeVito was
Speaker 1: standing outside the theater waiting with his family or whatever,
Speaker 1: and I'm walking into the theater and Danny DeVito turned
Speaker 1: around and looked at me and went awesome, how are
Speaker 1: you doing? Put out his hand. That was like a
Speaker 1: moment where I was like, oh, wow, what the fuss
Speaker 1: going on? Like this is like that, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean like that's when I suddenly was like, oh, there
Speaker 1: are people in Hollywood watching this show that can change
Speaker 1: the course of where my career goes. Well, what's interesting
Speaker 1: is that you didn't just stick in the Daily Show, Lane,
Speaker 1: I mean the number of projects that you have done
Speaker 1: and the diversity of projects have been amazing. Drama creating
Speaker 1: your own work After the Daily Show, you had the
Speaker 1: Funnier Die sitcom Hall in the Family. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: been amazing to see you take the platform that you
Speaker 1: were given by the Daily Show and have done, you know,
Speaker 1: such a diversity of projects. I think that at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I think I am an actor
Speaker 1: and always had done a lot of dramatic work prior
Speaker 1: to the Davision. I think what happened with the Daily
Speaker 1: Show was that it was such a you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, like a zeitgeist, think that people suddenly thought
Speaker 1: of me as a comedian. They were like, Oh, You're
Speaker 1: the Ly Show comedian guy, when the reality is like,
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of dramatic work prior to it,
Speaker 1: and and when I did the Daily Show. Actually, while
Speaker 1: I was on The Daily Show, I did Disgrace at
Speaker 1: Lincoln Center, which was the I adopted as poets surprise
Speaker 1: winning play and I played the lead role in that.
Speaker 1: It was an incredibly dramatic thing. And I got to
Speaker 1: do some movies and stuff and and you know stuff,
Speaker 1: And I always felt like my career has always been
Speaker 1: one where I've gotten to go back and forth and
Speaker 1: the writing. You know, I wrote a movie and I
Speaker 1: produced and starting it and k and wrote a book. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I think going all the way back to
Speaker 1: early in my career, there was never a specific lane
Speaker 1: for me, you know, like I never felt like I
Speaker 1: had a lane and because I didn't have that, because
Speaker 1: there wasn't a space when I first started out, you know,
Speaker 1: like I went to l A, I remember, and just
Speaker 1: sat in my apartment and people were like, there's no
Speaker 1: parts for you. And as a brown actor, the only
Speaker 1: way for me to work. And that's when I wrote.
Speaker 1: When I wrote Sticking His Restaurant, which is my one
Speaker 1: man show, like it was out of necessity of like
Speaker 1: writing characters that I So it was always that thing
Speaker 1: of like I just always had to be kind of
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial about the whole thing. So so I think it's
Speaker 1: just you think it's part of that d n A
Speaker 1: of just like always going Okay, what can I create?
Speaker 1: And and you know that continues to this day where
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm always thinking about like, Okay, what
Speaker 1: can I create? What can I write? Can I do?
Speaker 1: And you know, and yeah, well Sechina's Restaurant, by the way,
Speaker 1: you're one man show, one an obie. Yeah, and got
Speaker 1: you a lot of attention for that, as I said,
Speaker 1: Halal and the family as well, and your book No
Speaker 1: lands Man, that book gave you by the way I
Speaker 1: wrote a book. Welcome to dunder Mifflin was my book.
Speaker 1: Yours talked about your your acting career, your experience on
Speaker 1: The Daily Show, and your life as an immigrant, and
Speaker 1: as we talked earlier, a lot of the material about
Speaker 1: the post nine eleven days, but also your life in
Speaker 1: England as well and where you came from. Right yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the book was sort of while I was
Speaker 1: on the Daily Show and had that platform, a publisher
Speaker 1: approached me and said, you even thought about writing a
Speaker 1: book at that point, I hadn't, and I thought, well,
Speaker 1: it would be kind of a fun thing to do.
Speaker 1: I've written a one man show, and so I thought
Speaker 1: I could write a bunch of short stories. Little did
Speaker 1: I know it's not as easy as you think. It was,
Speaker 1: like you know, I mean, you know, so it's it's
Speaker 1: like you think, oh, yeah, yeah, I got ten short
Speaker 1: stories in me for sure, Right that Bangata and a
Speaker 1: couple of months got to like two years later, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I get writer's block, and I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: and my my publishers calling me up, going like I
Speaker 1: really should get something so right, like, you know, but
Speaker 1: I had an amazing editor and it was definitely a
Speaker 1: lot of work. But I'm so proud of it because
Speaker 1: it was like it was really you know, it was
Speaker 1: a book that I didn't even know was in me.
Speaker 1: But once I started excavating, I realized, like, oh, this
Speaker 1: this dizzy stories. And I want to tell you know,
Speaker 1: that's great. Well, and your career keeps growing and expanding
Speaker 1: in new directions. Now Evil just got picked up, right
Speaker 1: for a third season. Yeah, Paramount Plus. We're on Paramount
Speaker 1: Plus now, Yeah, third season coming out. We're in the
Speaker 1: middle of shooting it right now. Yeah, and that's what
Speaker 1: we're almost done with the third season and and so
Speaker 1: it comes out in June. I have to say unfortunate.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you get to work with like really
Speaker 1: great creatives, you know, you know this like it makes
Speaker 1: everything just better, you know, like you just because you
Speaker 1: feel like you're in good hands and you feel like
Speaker 1: you're being taken care of and and and the writing
Speaker 1: is good, you know. And I felt that way when
Speaker 1: I was in The Daily Show working with John I
Speaker 1: felt and now working with Robert and Michelle King, you know,
Speaker 1: who are just at the top of their game, and
Speaker 1: you know, and and and it's just such a treat
Speaker 1: to get to work with them and learn from the
Speaker 1: way they work, and then also just work with the
Speaker 1: actors on the show, you know, Katcha and Mike and
Speaker 1: Christine and Michael Emerson who's delay to work with them.
Speaker 1: So it's just all everybody on the show just feels
Speaker 1: like we're just having a good time. Even though we're
Speaker 1: making this very dark, sort of weird show, it's so
Speaker 1: fun and so it's like it's like weirdly absurd and
Speaker 1: also dark and horror and comedy. It's kind of an
Speaker 1: amalgam of all of that, which I love, and that's
Speaker 1: what the Kings do. So well, it's been it's been great,
Speaker 1: and they've given me a nice um, given me some
Speaker 1: nice fun stuff to do, so it's been great. And
Speaker 1: then I'm also producing What I Lie to You with
Speaker 1: the Kings, which is also coming out on the c W,
Speaker 1: which is the panel show Yeah, which will have you
Speaker 1: on at some point. It's basically we're doing the American
Speaker 1: version of the British panel show What I Lie to You.
Speaker 1: It's been on for fourteen years that we're doing it.
Speaker 1: It's basically just celebrities coming on and telling wacky stories
Speaker 1: and other celebrities trying to figure out if they're telling
Speaker 1: the truth, we're telling a lie and it's just hilarious
Speaker 1: and super fun and actually I don't know. Do you
Speaker 1: know Matt Walsh? Do you know Matt? Of course, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, Yeah. So Matt is one of our team captains,
Speaker 1: with Sabrina Jalis as the other team captain, and we
Speaker 1: just had the best time. And that comes up April
Speaker 1: ninth next week. Congratulations. I will definitely check that out.
Speaker 1: Ye awesome. We hadn't met before, but you are an
Speaker 1: amazing storyteller, as funny as I expected, and deep and interesting.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on so much and talking to me.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. It's been a
Speaker 1: pleasure spending however long we spent together. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: really fun. Thank you so much. This has been great
Speaker 1: as although we had never met until today, I feel
Speaker 1: like I've known you for years and maybe that was
Speaker 1: because I saw you in Oklahoma, but either way, it
Speaker 1: was an honor. Thank you so much for stopping and
Speaker 1: talking to me, and thanks to you for tuning in.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts and give us a follow over. On Instagram at
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. I can't wait to see you back
Speaker 1: right here next week. Have a good one. Everybody. Off
Speaker 1: the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian
Speaker 1: Baumgartner alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are Diego Tapia,
Speaker 1: Liz Hayes, Emily Carr, and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer
Speaker 1: is Ryan Papa Zachary. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak
Speaker 1: performed by my great friend Creed Breton, and the episode
Speaker 1: was mixed by Seth Olandski m