Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's Michael Costa.
Speaker 3: The Daily Show is taking a break this week, but
Speaker 3: we put together some special highlight episodes just for you.
Speaker 3: We'll be back with brand new episodes of The Daily
Speaker 3: Show next week. In the meantime, enjoy this episode.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Daily Show.
Speaker 5: My guest tonight is an award winning actor and producer
Speaker 5: of the critically acclaimed documentary about you two and the
Speaker 5: Bosnian War called Kiss the Future. Please welcome, Matt damon.
Speaker 1: Ko. Welcome. All right.
Speaker 5: I react to everybody like that this movie is it's
Speaker 5: it's remarkable a story I I I hadn't heard of it.
Speaker 5: So it follows the seize of Sarajevo and sort of
Speaker 5: the art, the art community that sprang out of it,
Speaker 5: and also the ways in which you too was sort
Speaker 5: of used as a as a touchstone to pull people
Speaker 5: together at that time. I wonder, what, what, what what compelled
Speaker 5: you to tell this story?
Speaker 6: Well, it's I had the same reaction. I just somebody
Speaker 6: told me the story and it was so incredible. And
Speaker 6: we had this great director, Nana chichen Shine, who who
Speaker 6: was from there and who who came in and talked
Speaker 6: to us about it, and I just wanted to help
Speaker 6: get the story out there and get it because it's
Speaker 6: such a beautiful story and ultimately about light winning, triumphing
Speaker 6: over triumphing over dark.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: So and these people in Sarajevo who were just so
Speaker 6: resilient but used music as like an act of defiance
Speaker 6: and resistance in the middle of these horrible circumstances. And
Speaker 6: I just found it just a beautiful story. So we
Speaker 6: just so I'm producer on it. It's like a documentary.
Speaker 6: It's not my normal kind of thing to do, but
Speaker 6: it just it was something I wanted to put out
Speaker 6: there for people to see.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's it's remarkable in watching war torn
Speaker 5: Sarajevo and you see people who are they talk about
Speaker 5: dodging bullets and stiper fires so they can go listen
Speaker 5: to music in a basement. How like normalcy is so
Speaker 5: so important to them just to feel like they're connected
Speaker 5: to something. There's moments in there when it's like I
Speaker 5: wish we could just like airlift Taylor Swift and dropped
Speaker 5: her in Ukraine just to sort of find some peace.
Speaker 4: It feels very modern in that way that might be
Speaker 4: the answer to everything.
Speaker 6: Yeah we could, Yeah she.
Speaker 1: Can figure it out.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6: But it is that it is that, you know, the
Speaker 6: movie really covers all of these lives of these Sarah
Speaker 6: Evans who who really came to that conclusion reflecting on
Speaker 6: life and what is life really and actually it was
Speaker 6: worth risking their lives to go to gather so that
Speaker 6: they could listen to music or play music or just
Speaker 6: be together and and and that that bonded them and
Speaker 6: strengthened their community and that resilience and you know, it's
Speaker 6: as as Bono said in that little clip there, it
Speaker 6: was it was carrying on with their lives was a
Speaker 6: way of saying, you know, you're not beating us, you're
Speaker 6: not defeating You will not take our lives from us.
Speaker 4: You can, you can kill me, but you still won't
Speaker 4: take this from me.
Speaker 6: There's a great photo in there that we have of
Speaker 6: one of these punk rock drummers who lost his hand
Speaker 6: on the front lines and he and he there's a
Speaker 6: picture of him with his drumstick duct taped to his
Speaker 6: to his army in place of where you know, where
Speaker 6: his hand was, and he's just and he's and he's
Speaker 6: playing like death metal, like come on, you know, like
Speaker 6: like you're not going to take music away from me,
Speaker 6: you know, And and uh, it's just a beautiful The
Speaker 6: stories are really incredible and the people that we we
Speaker 6: we got a lot of footage from from the sarah
Speaker 6: Avans who were there, and so you know, there's a
Speaker 6: wedding in the in the middle of like all these
Speaker 6: real moments that were really happening amidst this siege.
Speaker 5: I think they sort of articulate that with the wedding,
Speaker 5: the scene in the wedding under all of this chaos.
Speaker 5: And again it's it's hard to watch this and not
Speaker 5: see the image of your seene on news as well,
Speaker 5: but then to see people go through wedding, walking through
Speaker 5: war torn areas and just finding those moments of joy,
Speaker 5: and you really see joy as an act of resistance.
Speaker 6: In those moments exactly exactly.
Speaker 5: This This movie also follows again this this this YouTube
Speaker 5: concert in Sarajevo and sort of the conversation around you
Speaker 5: two a little bit, and they're sort of looked at
Speaker 5: in some ways as a way that art can shine through,
Speaker 5: it can find a beacon for people, a way out.
Speaker 5: I'm curious as an artist yourself. What were touchstones for you?
Speaker 5: Clearly you didn't grow up in war torn Boston from
Speaker 5: my understanding, but I'm wondering, as an artist and a creator,
Speaker 5: like finding those touchstones that make you feel connected to
Speaker 5: something larger. What what do you see when you watch
Speaker 5: and produce a film like that?
Speaker 6: Well, I feel Look, I mean I was, I was
Speaker 6: in Australia last year looking at cave art that was
Speaker 6: eighteen thousand years old, and just that very human impulse
Speaker 6: that we have to tell stories to each other and
Speaker 6: it's a way to kind of tell somebody another perspective, right,
Speaker 6: and if you and if you you know, for filmmaking,
Speaker 6: if you can put people in other people's shoes, that
Speaker 6: builds empathy and compassion. And as you know, Edge says
Speaker 6: in that, yeah, there are there really are these legitimate
Speaker 6: dark forces that are trying to divide us. And you
Speaker 6: see that a lot in politics, you see that a lot,
Speaker 6: and and what art and music and film does hopefully
Speaker 6: is is it's a bulwark against that and an attempt
Speaker 6: to kind of bridge those divides and keep these communities together.
Speaker 5: Do you feel attention to somebody as a creator and
Speaker 5: a producer, like we're in such partisan times, such political times, uh,
Speaker 5: and selling political ideas is not the not the easiest
Speaker 5: sell as it used to be. People don't want to
Speaker 5: go near that as far as producing things that might
Speaker 5: have a larger political agenda.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 5: But you also are balancing having a platform and such
Speaker 5: a difficult time. Like, what do you see as you
Speaker 5: are moving forward and making things? How do you see
Speaker 5: the art that you want to produce and to be
Speaker 5: a part of.
Speaker 6: Well, I think you want you know what, whatever it
Speaker 6: is you're making, your your heart has to be in
Speaker 6: it and you have to feel like it's Look, even
Speaker 6: if it's a movie that isn't overtly political, if it's
Speaker 6: about building understanding about the you know, if you can
Speaker 6: watch a movie that has no relation to your to
Speaker 6: your life and and be affected by the characters, then
Speaker 6: that's that's that's one little small bit of evolution, you know.
Speaker 6: And and we're bombarded by all of the you know,
Speaker 6: I mean you you're forced to sit through it because
Speaker 6: you got to write jokes about it, but but I
Speaker 6: mean it really is kind of an assault on your senses.
Speaker 6: And then the and and it's constantly telling you that
Speaker 6: that that we're different and we're divided and we're split,
Speaker 6: and and I think movies like this and and uh
Speaker 6: and and and other films can can can kind of
Speaker 6: call bullshit on that idea, say we're actually a lot
Speaker 6: closer than than than we think, or then we're.
Speaker 4: Told, I mean, then.
Speaker 5: It's like there there's a final quote in this movie
Speaker 5: that's a poignant one. They wonder whether we need that
Speaker 5: concert more today than we needed it in ninety seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was one of the serae.
Speaker 6: Evens said that, which was really and that's why Nanad
Speaker 6: decided to close the movie with it, because it is
Speaker 6: you do see a lot of parallels to all over
Speaker 6: the world to what was happening there, and so again
Speaker 6: it's a I mean, it ultimately is really an uplifting
Speaker 6: movie because it's it's beautiful to watch, you know, these
Speaker 6: people and what they did and how they overcame their situation.
Speaker 1: The band and what you know.
Speaker 6: Incidentally, the band was there one kind of They were
Speaker 6: reluctant at first, just because they didn't want to make
Speaker 6: a U two movie.
Speaker 1: No we don't want to.
Speaker 6: We were like no, no, no, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 6: put the Sara Evans in the center of this and
Speaker 6: that's when they so they gave us all of this
Speaker 6: footage and the concert at the end that they play
Speaker 6: is it was the first time that the fifty thousand
Speaker 6: people gathered and they were on different sides of this conflict,
Speaker 6: and they gathered and just listened to music together.
Speaker 1: And the movie is.
Speaker 6: Called Kiss the Future because Bono when he started this concert,
Speaker 6: he grabbed the microphone and he said the past, kiss
Speaker 6: the Future. And so that's why we call the movie
Speaker 6: Kiss the Future, because that was the Yeah, well it's.
Speaker 4: A beautiful movie. I had more than before.
Speaker 5: Kiss the Future is now available to stream exclusively on
Speaker 5: Paramount Plus.
Speaker 4: Matt Damon.
Speaker 2: My guest Tonight, is an Emmy winning actor and comedian
Speaker 2: who plays Leon Black on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Please welcoup JV.
Speaker 4: Slouth. Oh shit, Oh that's great, Oh my god? What
Speaker 4: hey man?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's dobrating. Baby.
Speaker 7: Let me tell you something. Yeah, no two or words
Speaker 7: have ever been spoken man than that. Yeah, let me
Speaker 7: tell you something. Yeah, you invent.
Speaker 4: That car, right, you will be assassinated.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know how you were ruined? Yah, big big
Speaker 1: oil went right.
Speaker 2: What I liked about that clip was the dick hole
Speaker 2: for the car, you still had to get out.
Speaker 1: And walk to it.
Speaker 4: I was thinking you would get out of work to it.
Speaker 4: What's that stuff to mean?
Speaker 1: What the hey? Whatever? Hey? That perfect?
Speaker 2: I set you up perfect? So was that in the
Speaker 2: script dick in the hole in the coffee or is
Speaker 2: that just JB doing JB like just check you a
Speaker 2: dick called?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 7: Curb Kurb has no no script, you know, it's only
Speaker 7: an outline based on the idea for the for the episode.
Speaker 7: But that changes also based on where you go. It's
Speaker 7: just like branches. It's branches everywhere right falking the road.
Speaker 7: You got a child where you want to go?
Speaker 2: It's fun in particular to watch you because everyone's playing
Speaker 2: a little bit of an exaggerated version of themselves, but
Speaker 2: it seems like you're playing a completely different character.
Speaker 4: Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 4: Is that a fair assessment?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 7: You know what I have to say?
Speaker 1: What Leon would say? Right? You know?
Speaker 7: And it's one of those things where I get caught
Speaker 7: up in this guy's world.
Speaker 1: I truly do where.
Speaker 7: I just I'm not myself right, I'm a compassionate heart
Speaker 7: woman guy. Of course, we got we share some cadence,
Speaker 7: maybe little things here, Yeah, delivery and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: He swears a lot, a lot, and you haven't even sworn.
Speaker 1: I'll get to that, but anyway, yeah, he swears a lot.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: One time, you know, I was driving home from set, okay,
Speaker 7: and I called my wife Art calling, how was your day?
Speaker 1: You know that was great? Well, she says all the time,
Speaker 1: what did Leon say? Today? Did Leon say?
Speaker 7: But that's that's that's what curb is, man, it is truly,
Speaker 7: you are creating on the fly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a that's a wonderful wife.
Speaker 2: I mean, I called my wife on the way home
Speaker 2: and she's like, here's what needs to happen tonight.
Speaker 4: We got lunches to make. We got this And I
Speaker 4: love that.
Speaker 1: Your full updated what what went down today?
Speaker 2: When when people meet you, do they want JB, do
Speaker 2: they want Leon?
Speaker 1: Do you give them Leon? They call me Leon all time.
Speaker 7: It depends who they are, you know, but I got
Speaker 7: a lot of Leon.
Speaker 4: You see that as a compliment, just a compliment, you know.
Speaker 1: I'll always say life is like a series of checkpoints.
Speaker 1: I like that you find out.
Speaker 7: What they love about you in the moment. Okay, okay,
Speaker 7: and maybe something that will come along there. People won't
Speaker 7: forget about Leon. But y'all chart a new path. Manah,
Speaker 7: some other amazing character will pop up.
Speaker 4: I mean, you debuted in Curb in season six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, it's seventeen years later you're here talking to
Speaker 2: me about it.
Speaker 1: Was it crazy?
Speaker 4: Did that ever cross some mind?
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 4: I was two years old when you debuted.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know this business, You don't get a
Speaker 2: job thinking I'll be doing this for seint get it.
Speaker 7: Sometimes you get a job and you don't even know
Speaker 7: if you are gonna be on the next season.
Speaker 1: Yo. So I truly.
Speaker 4: Mean it's not even a joke, Joe.
Speaker 1: It's real. It's real.
Speaker 7: You Sometimes you gotta take a job. You gotta take
Speaker 7: a friend, you gotta take somebody's lady.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you got to take stuff.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 7: But that's how you get there. And you do a
Speaker 7: great job, and you just be in the moment and
Speaker 7: you do exactly what they're looking for and you give
Speaker 7: them more of what the want. There talking about I
Speaker 7: love it and that, you know, But I mean there
Speaker 7: are terms of the screw that you got to figure
Speaker 7: out what your character like, Like on Curb, I decide
Speaker 7: in the moment, you know, I don't decide before I
Speaker 7: get there. I don't decide based on what's written. I
Speaker 7: decide in the moment if I want to have Larry's
Speaker 7: back but go against him, which is a fascinating way.
Speaker 7: I trying to find out what's going to be the
Speaker 7: best path. What am I gonna get the most funny
Speaker 7: out of having us back or fighting with him?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Good fight, it's always great.
Speaker 2: But there's also takes of you deciding a the work
Speaker 2: right or is just JB always? I mean because it
Speaker 2: is fun watching because you see Larry sometimes crack or
Speaker 2: you can see in his eyes he goes, I.
Speaker 4: Don't know what's happening to this?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, that's where the stand up part
Speaker 7: comes in.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna ask you about stand up.
Speaker 7: That's what it comes in there because we we as
Speaker 7: stand ups.
Speaker 1: We we have to be able to read people. I'm
Speaker 1: can be in a room full of two.
Speaker 7: Thousand people in the audience, I have to find that
Speaker 7: one who's not left. I know, right, he's just like,
Speaker 7: I know, yeah, I see you man, you know, but
Speaker 7: I think and you don't.
Speaker 2: Think, oh I'm making one thousand nine or nine of
Speaker 2: people left. You think what's wrong with this money? Yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: But that's what I do. That's why he's that's that's
Speaker 2: what we do. And not just improv people, but stand
Speaker 2: up comedians have a unique we can feel. We're like
Speaker 2: we call the impath. We're not impath, impath.
Speaker 1: We we like we can feel your energy.
Speaker 7: We feel it.
Speaker 1: We know when to move on to the next bit.
Speaker 7: The decibelts on our ear goes up and comes back
Speaker 7: down to a certain level, and we know to move on.
Speaker 7: Not even we got a little opening for the next bit.
Speaker 7: But we gotta read people, and we gotta I gotta
Speaker 7: read him because I'm trying to honestly make a snop
Speaker 7: bubble come out his.
Speaker 4: But also when you do.
Speaker 7: A good slid, you make somebody laugh and it makes
Speaker 7: a slop bubble come out.
Speaker 4: That's that's the ultimate. But what's what's interesting about that
Speaker 4: too is he's.
Speaker 2: Also your boss, so you gotta think about that too.
Speaker 7: But but but you got to keep people on your
Speaker 7: toes to man, because look, man, yeah, dems are des are.
Speaker 7: Like you said, I came on in season six, this
Speaker 7: train was already moving.
Speaker 1: Have you ever jumped on a moving subway? Train I
Speaker 1: have not no shit is daring and fascinating.
Speaker 7: It's fascinating and depth defying, its depth defying.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 7: But because you're almost lateful work, already late for work, right,
Speaker 7: you jumped between cars and I gotta be at work
Speaker 7: at a certain time, i'ma get fired. But anyway, I
Speaker 7: don't recommend you're doing that. But the train was already moving, right,
Speaker 7: So I had to sit there and figure out jumping
Speaker 7: on the train that's already moving, that's already amazing successful show.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 7: I was a big fan of the show, and my
Speaker 7: wife manifested me being on the show. I read that
Speaker 7: told me I was gonna be on that damn show.
Speaker 1: I said, I love this show so much.
Speaker 7: I love to be on this show one day, right right,
Speaker 7: I said, you're gonna be on that show one day.
Speaker 7: I love that lo and behold that sweet lady. Seventeen
Speaker 7: years later, lady man, she told me I was gonna
Speaker 7: be on that show. But yeah, I I go even
Speaker 7: back further. The first thing I ever did was I
Speaker 7: took an improv class before I even started doing stand up,
Speaker 7: cause I wanted to find out who I wanted to
Speaker 7: do stand up. I wanted to find out who I
Speaker 7: want to be on that stage and off that stage,
Speaker 7: cause you once you create your character, you're writing off stage,
Speaker 7: which also writing on stage because now you're listening to
Speaker 7: what people love about you.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've read that you you have said stand
Speaker 2: up has been a vehicle for you, that you get
Speaker 2: on it, you get off it, you take it somewhere.
Speaker 2: And that fascinates me because there's definitely a compulsion of
Speaker 2: stand ups that like I always do stand up, I'm
Speaker 2: a stand up.
Speaker 4: I'm a stand up.
Speaker 2: But have explain to me, elaborate what you mean by
Speaker 2: stand up is a vehicle for you?
Speaker 7: Stand up is your vehicle because you gotta take care
Speaker 7: of it.
Speaker 1: You got to maintain it. Yep, you gotta love to
Speaker 1: drive it. Oh I like that. I got to love
Speaker 1: to drive it.
Speaker 7: Man, that's your vehicle to get to any place you
Speaker 7: want to get to. Stand up standup comics also take
Speaker 7: the drama of the world and we convert that drama
Speaker 7: because we have a different filtration system.
Speaker 1: We are deep minded. We are we are we've been
Speaker 1: through a lot.
Speaker 7: To take everything we've been through and we're range it
Speaker 7: to make you laugh about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we are also therapists.
Speaker 7: We touch on things, We touch on things that only
Speaker 7: we can touch on it in that way. Yeah, if
Speaker 7: you look, man, if you get rid of the comedian,
Speaker 7: you might as well just die. No, I'm telling you,
Speaker 7: because there's no way in hell you could take the
Speaker 7: brunt of the real world every day without somebody who's
Speaker 7: able to take that world filtraded, put it through their
Speaker 7: body and give it.
Speaker 1: Back to you in a manageable form. I love. No
Speaker 1: one can do that but a comedian.
Speaker 4: I love that. Last question for.
Speaker 1: You, Curb.
Speaker 4: Curb is done? JB.
Speaker 1: Smooth is not done.
Speaker 4: No, what's next?
Speaker 1: Field?
Speaker 4: What do you got going on?
Speaker 1: Man? Look, this is this is the time where you know.
Speaker 7: The cool thing about what I have accomplished throughout my
Speaker 7: career is people don't understand this, but a lot of
Speaker 7: times I gotta make time for curb, okay, and not
Speaker 7: the other way around, because you know, commercial campaigns, TV shows, movies.
Speaker 7: You know, I'm shitting every.
Speaker 2: Time, every time I'm frank to plant, every time I
Speaker 2: look on there you dressed a Caesar.
Speaker 7: There's seasons, there's white claw, There's all these amazing things
Speaker 7: that I do. I am an amazing spokesperson. I truly know,
Speaker 7: I believe, I believe, I believe.
Speaker 4: Want to sell.
Speaker 7: Anything that I love, that I like.
Speaker 1: Feels genuine, it feels it has to be genuine.
Speaker 7: So that's the power. And people out there, please don't
Speaker 7: be afraid of the power of no. Do not be
Speaker 7: ever afraid of the power of no, because another opportunity
Speaker 7: is gonna come around. Right So now it's time for
Speaker 7: Curb is one. It's one show. I don't shoot Curb
Speaker 7: three hundred and sixty five days a year. Curb is
Speaker 7: one show that takes a few two or three months
Speaker 7: to shoot, and I'm done the rest of the year.
Speaker 7: I gotta be to be on the go I am.
Speaker 7: I am a big hustle man, I truly do. But
Speaker 7: I find a way to remain grounded. I found a
Speaker 7: way to to also figure out what's next for me.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: Therefore, I gotta sell a brand. I believe I have
Speaker 7: a brand. I have a unique voice. I believe.
Speaker 1: I believe people believe in me even when they think
Speaker 1: I'm around with them.
Speaker 7: But I take time for people Number one, because I
Speaker 7: know that what I have you.
Speaker 1: Can they need. Sometimes I connect.
Speaker 7: Can you know how many times I missed flights for
Speaker 7: somebody in the airport.
Speaker 4: It stopped me.
Speaker 1: They talking to me, you know.
Speaker 7: But we have our our our production company that we started,
Speaker 7: Alternate Side Productions.
Speaker 1: This is going.
Speaker 7: And I use Alternate Side because I got a whole
Speaker 7: lot of tickets growing up Austin the side to speak
Speaker 7: parking regulations here in New York City.
Speaker 1: So I use that austin In side just to have
Speaker 1: my New.
Speaker 7: York roots and my manager and my partner Miles. We
Speaker 7: are going to do some amazing things man in TV
Speaker 7: and film and keep the brand going because I truly
Speaker 7: believe you're selling something amazing. You're able to drive that vehicle,
Speaker 7: you know, to the next battle.
Speaker 2: Man, You've always made me laugh on curb your stand up.
Speaker 2: Thank you for coming and hanging out with us. Congratulations
Speaker 2: I final scene it up.
Speaker 1: Curve here.
Speaker 8: Things you haven't available to stream on Max JB Slope.
Speaker 8: Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 8: searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch
Speaker 8: The Daily Show week nights at eleven ten Central on
Speaker 8: Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.
Speaker 8: This has been a Comedy Central podcast