Speaker 1: And That's what you Really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3: Welcome to and That's what You Really miss Podcast. Today
Speaker 3: we have an actor a friend from another hit show
Speaker 3: and it's a very meta thing where our worlds have
Speaker 3: collided multiple times. Kevin, you were on the Office as
Speaker 3: the pizza.
Speaker 2: Guy, that's right, and then there was an episode of
Speaker 2: Glee featured in an Office episode, so a very weird
Speaker 2: meta crossover. But that's what makes The Office the incredible
Speaker 2: show that it is because they're down to do that.
Speaker 2: And today we have Brian Bob Gardner from the Office,
Speaker 2: who played even weirder Kevin. So there's a lot of
Speaker 2: strange ties we have all together and.
Speaker 3: He's just like the best storyteller ever, so.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, the best We go on off the rails.
Speaker 2: We just talked about whatever, which is great. And he
Speaker 2: has a new cookbook out which we also talk about,
Speaker 2: which is going to make you starving. It made Kevin starving,
Speaker 2: made me starving. I have to go eat now. But
Speaker 2: this from the Office, Brian bomb Gardner. Hello, it's so
Speaker 2: good to see you. Thanks for coming on to our
Speaker 2: show this time.
Speaker 3: Welcome.
Speaker 1: It's my pleasure to be here. How are you guys?
Speaker 3: Good? Thank you so good to see you. Well, welcome
Speaker 3: to the show. We're happy, We're so excited to have you.
Speaker 3: We want to talk about all things office in Glee
Speaker 3: and Glee office and your cook and your cookbook. I mean,
Speaker 3: I just want to know how you got your start
Speaker 3: in acting, since you got to hear about us and
Speaker 3: we're starting now.
Speaker 1: Now, hold on a second, I do want to ask
Speaker 1: a question. I want to I'm taking over this interview. Great,
Speaker 1: we discussed Glee on the office. Yes, did you ever
Speaker 1: discuss the office on Glee?
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Did you not want ratings?
Speaker 3: We definitely wanted.
Speaker 2: We definitely needed them after the first couple of season.
Speaker 3: You know, that would have cost us, you know, and
Speaker 3: we already cost a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Did we pay you to mention you? No?
Speaker 3: No, no, But on your episode, our producer told us
Speaker 3: the Glee episode we were one of your most expensive
Speaker 3: episodes the viewing party because you had to pay for
Speaker 3: all the rights to use the Glee clips and things.
Speaker 1: That's what I was wondering. We had we had to
Speaker 1: we had to pay, Yes, we.
Speaker 3: Had to pay. Yes, you had to pay for the rights.
Speaker 3: You had to pay the actors, you had to pay music.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you know I heard a story. God, I've
Speaker 1: never told I've been I talked all the time, and
Speaker 1: I have never told this. I believe this is true.
Speaker 2: That's exactly how we want a story to start.
Speaker 1: Let me, this is my recollection, okay. Was that there
Speaker 1: was an episode of the Office and we wanted to
Speaker 1: use John Mayer's song My Body is a Wonderland. Yeah right, okay,
Speaker 1: I've gotten the first part right. And someone I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna mention who someone was friends or friendly with John.
Speaker 1: John said no. John said no because he was afraid
Speaker 1: that it was we were going to make fun of him, right,
Speaker 1: And we explained, I guess pitched what the thing was,
Speaker 1: and he let us use it for free.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, see, when you're the one that owns the thing, right,
Speaker 2: then you can do that, right, you know. Uncle Rupert
Speaker 2: Murdoch was never going to allow that.
Speaker 1: To happen, Uncle Rupy.
Speaker 2: Uncle Rupy was like, show me those coins.
Speaker 1: Uncle Ruby, didn't I have? Oh my god, now this
Speaker 1: I have not this I have not told because this
Speaker 1: happened yesterday. And Brett, if you're listening if you're a
Speaker 1: Glee fan, if you're a fan of these guys and
Speaker 1: you're listening, I guess try me back. My phone rang yesterday. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't ever, Jenna, I have your information in my
Speaker 1: phone from like ninety seven years ago. I have ever
Speaker 1: deleted any information. That's just the thing. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll need to talk to yes exactly, fifth grade teacher.
Speaker 1: My phone rang yesterday and it said Brett Dash Steve Miller.
Speaker 1: Now at the time, don't know if this is true
Speaker 1: or not. This has not been told. Brett was the
Speaker 1: manager of the Steve Miller band. Okay, Kevin's band in
Speaker 1: the Office was scripted to be a Steve Miller tribute
Speaker 1: band jo Hokers, and he said no, or said it's
Speaker 1: nine hundred million dollars or what actual it was said?
Speaker 1: It was no. So the very first time that Kevin's
Speaker 1: band appears in the in the show we had shot it.
Speaker 1: I played the drums to the very first time. I
Speaker 1: think it was sent to Jim and Pam as like
Speaker 1: a tryout, I want to play your wedding or no, no, no, no, sorry,
Speaker 1: Pam and Roy, Pam and Roy, Pam and Roy. But
Speaker 1: Pam and Jim were reviewing it. That's a weird deal.
Speaker 1: That's another day. It was me playing Jokers and Tokers
Speaker 1: and they had edited over me singing a police song.
Speaker 1: Don't remember which one it was because it got changed
Speaker 1: to scrant Nicity a police cover band because Steve Miller
Speaker 1: said no. I then met Brett at a Steve Miller
Speaker 1: concert told him the story and he was like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck what are you talking about? I never heard
Speaker 1: this is his manager. I've never heard this. It has
Speaker 1: to be And I'm like, dude, it's this is I mean,
Speaker 1: we're now in season four, it's done. It is now
Speaker 1: a police cover band. He called me yesterday. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was a butt dial. I guess he
Speaker 1: doesn't delete.
Speaker 2: His numbers him right speaker.
Speaker 1: He didn't leave a message. I have no idea why
Speaker 1: he was calling. And I meant to google, like Steve
Speaker 1: Miller in Los Angeles this week, kid just see if
Speaker 1: he was like wanting to get a beer or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but that is and wants a new
Speaker 1: book a book, yes, new book? All right? Sorry, that
Speaker 1: was story Time with Brian. It's a new segment.
Speaker 2: But you know, I just think it shows like those
Speaker 2: things happened with like those weird things would happen all
Speaker 2: the time, and you forget because they happened every single day.
Speaker 2: Where those weird things where you're like going up against
Speaker 2: the Steve Miller band and then you lose the rights
Speaker 2: to it and you move on to the next day whatever,
Speaker 2: you forget about it. And I think people, it's so
Speaker 2: great to be able to like reach into the recesses
Speaker 2: of your mind and bring those things up, because we
Speaker 2: would get so desensitized to those things happening, say another
Speaker 2: day at the office.
Speaker 3: Our artists said no, another artist said no, another order said.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, or it's never you know, I never found
Speaker 1: out like is it no, or is it like again
Speaker 1: ten million dollars, like ten million dollars or whatever. So
Speaker 1: we paid you. Interesting apparently that.
Speaker 2: We just found that out about ten minutes ago, because
Speaker 2: apparently how it goes is they wanted to use a
Speaker 2: really current episode of Glee, but Fox said you can't
Speaker 2: air unaired stock stuff. Yet, you can't use that, and
Speaker 2: so they had to use an older episode and for
Speaker 2: any people they showed in the clip, they had to
Speaker 2: pay them for it.
Speaker 1: Guys got checks.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know if.
Speaker 3: We were in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Whoever was shown in it got a check.
Speaker 1: Of course they did. I never thought about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: damn it, you guys couldn't throw me in.
Speaker 2: I got check from the office exactly.
Speaker 3: We should have just thrown you in a clip.
Speaker 2: Here's a I really wanted to be brought back somehow
Speaker 2: on the office during that whole period, because there was
Speaker 2: some weird meta thing happening. I was like, look, you should.
Speaker 2: We kept running into each other at Emmy's parties. It's like,
Speaker 2: how like, hey, mindy write me back into this, Like,
Speaker 2: come on, you hired me the first time. The boy
Speaker 2: was very popular.
Speaker 3: I have to say, sometimes you recognize, like we be
Speaker 3: together and Kevin would get recognized for the office and
Speaker 3: I'd be standing right next to him and like they
Speaker 3: wouldn't mention me at all.
Speaker 2: It's almost a different it's a different demographic.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It happens at like straight places, a brewery, sports bar. Yes,
Speaker 2: I was leaving a restaurant last year. I was at
Speaker 2: BJ's Classic VJs. The yeah, this guy several tables over
Speaker 2: yells across. I loved you in the office, and I
Speaker 2: was so shocked. It was like the Office. It's like,
Speaker 2: oh god, because yeah, it doesn't happen like quite as
Speaker 2: much as Glee, but every time I does, like yes,
Speaker 2: I did one episode.
Speaker 3: Still, like demographic was so varied, especially on tour, like
Speaker 3: we got to go on a world tour. We got
Speaker 3: to see the demo and it was like, I mean,
Speaker 3: from child to senior citizen, it really ran again. But
Speaker 3: like was your audience more specific or did you guys
Speaker 3: feel like the same kind of it was a phenomenon,
Speaker 3: so everybody was watching.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, I mean I think we've talked about
Speaker 1: this a little bit before, but I mean our thing
Speaker 1: was and I mean prepare for like standard stock answer,
Speaker 1: but like actually true, like we were we were a
Speaker 1: big hit on the NBC when we were gigantic, but
Speaker 1: we weren't. But we weren't friends, we weren't Seinfeld. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: even cheers like we were. It was always sort of
Speaker 1: perceived as being like Culty different if you know, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a thing until we the last five years.
Speaker 1: Then it like I I say, I think we're the
Speaker 1: first show in the history of television that literally got
Speaker 1: bigger years after it was on And now It's like
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the syllabuses at junior high and high schools,
Speaker 1: but it seems like it's required viewing now, like everybody
Speaker 1: does for sure. But I was gonna ask you guys
Speaker 1: if you do this because you talked about demographic, which
Speaker 1: never really occurred to me about Glee. But I envisioned
Speaker 1: myself when I walk into a BJS, for example, as
Speaker 1: one does, as one does, as one does as one
Speaker 1: sorry BJS, as one hasn't in probably fifteen years. But
Speaker 1: when I would, my eyes are like the old Terminator movies. Yes,
Speaker 1: where I walk in and I'm like threat threat threat
Speaker 1: threat threats.
Speaker 3: Okay, back to the office. I want to know if
Speaker 3: Kevin was on Glee, if your character was on our show.
Speaker 1: What would he sing? Well, I guess a police song, Miller,
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess rock Sanne.
Speaker 2: We know the police, clear we did.
Speaker 3: The police too are a good one.
Speaker 1: The so, by the way, this is but I know
Speaker 1: you have a lot of fans who are musically inclined.
Speaker 1: This is how it was explained to me. I don't
Speaker 1: sing clearly, very very well, but I was explained to
Speaker 1: me this is the nerdiest writer's room joke of all time. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's how it was explained to me. If you guys
Speaker 1: want to edit or explain it, better please do. The
Speaker 1: police has a beat that is the drum beat. However,
Speaker 1: the singing the vocals are lie on a different beat
Speaker 1: than the drum beat. So Kevin being the lead singer
Speaker 1: and drummer of a police cover band means he is
Speaker 1: a musical savant. That was I was there once they
Speaker 1: settled on the police. That is what they settled on.
Speaker 1: That they were making. That the joke that was never
Speaker 1: explained or never known. But this is how it was
Speaker 1: explained to me. Because I was like, this does rock
Speaker 1: me playing rocks? They're like, yeah, it's impossible to do that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what do you what do you mean that?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Riker's from joke. That is why we settled on me
Speaker 1: being a drummer lead singer of love.
Speaker 2: That's very funny.
Speaker 3: I really like that. Okay, good, Okay good.
Speaker 1: I also don't play the drum. Don't know. If you
Speaker 1: guys are aware, and people consistently come up and talk
Speaker 1: to me about you know, they'll start saying anything drum
Speaker 1: related and I have no clue what they're talking about
Speaker 1: but another story, this story time, I said, so I did,
Speaker 1: as Jen at least knows I play golf. I play
Speaker 1: a lot of golf. And I played in Alice Cooper's
Speaker 1: who was a big golfer charity golf event in Arizona.
Speaker 1: And I got picked up from the airport by someone
Speaker 1: with his in his foundation. We're driving back. I will
Speaker 1: never forget this moment. And he said, I'd never done
Speaker 1: this event before, and I'd never met Alice personally. He said, okay,
Speaker 1: so you know tonight really low stress. I wish I
Speaker 1: could remember who they are because you guys would know.
Speaker 1: But I know, like Tommy Thayer from Kisses There, you know,
Speaker 1: big Eagles guy, guy who wrote Hotel California, Alice Cooper
Speaker 1: obviously in all these musicians, uh Adrian Young from No Doubt,
Speaker 1: and they had sort of assembled an all star band
Speaker 1: and they were going to like play a concert before
Speaker 1: golfing the next day. And he goes, so, no pressure, Alice.
Speaker 1: The last song he wants to sing is schools Out
Speaker 1: for Summer. So before right before that song, if you'll
Speaker 1: come up and you'll play the drums, oh on schools
Speaker 1: Out for Summer. You know, everyone's gonna come up and
Speaker 1: do a part, and I go, I'm like in the
Speaker 1: backseat in the car like a mini van, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't play the drums. And all I can think
Speaker 1: is Alice Cooper, like, let's bite the head off a rat, like,
Speaker 1: let's like destroy something that I'm going to make him
Speaker 1: mad before I've ever met him. And I'm like and
Speaker 1: they're like, no, no, no, seriously, it's it's fine. It's like
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, for real, I
Speaker 1: cannot do this. This is not this is not something
Speaker 1: that I can accomplish. And by the end it was
Speaker 1: me playing drums on the show. But it was but
Speaker 1: it went well. The first one was a no was
Speaker 1: there was a there was a curtain and there was
Speaker 1: a drummer right behind me, and I was faking. I
Speaker 1: had pads on the drums. I was. You weren't hearing
Speaker 1: anything that I was doing. Eventually I was. But this
Speaker 1: would be like four days of rehearsals to get the
Speaker 1: basic moves down for a song, like we're doing this
Speaker 1: song for these four songs. Yeah, and so that would
Speaker 1: be like twelve days of me.
Speaker 2: Rehearsal you're not whipping up a song with Alice Cooper
Speaker 2: and all these like rock legends.
Speaker 1: I can't know. And today today even a song I
Speaker 1: played on that, no Chance, no Chance, no.
Speaker 2: Chance, funny yeah, memory, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Exactly, Kevin, you know something about that. People have already
Speaker 3: seen you play the bass though, right. I already played
Speaker 3: the bass.
Speaker 2: On that and the guitar and the bass the first
Speaker 2: season locally, and then luckily at some point they gave
Speaker 2: that up because it's like I, first of all, do
Speaker 2: not know how to do that, and then I'd spend
Speaker 2: so much time. No, yeah, I had taken lessons growing up.
Speaker 2: It never stuck that no, but no, no, no no,
Speaker 2: I was like you when I'm like, I took lessons
Speaker 2: growing up. I went for like two weeks and learned
Speaker 2: two chords type of thing. When I was like ten,
Speaker 2: I have zero ability to play the guitar, and yeah,
Speaker 2: they had me do it and the pilot I did.
Speaker 2: Don't stop believing. And all I and poor guy who
Speaker 2: was teaching me to or he was like an excellent
Speaker 2: and incredible guitar player, and he looked like he had
Speaker 2: never taught someone before and was like really confused about
Speaker 2: what was going on because I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: actually need to know how to play. This guy, he told,
Speaker 2: because he wanted me to like play. I'm like, no, no,
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be like that good. I just need
Speaker 2: to look like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they did.
Speaker 3: Your music live for this band. You shot that live
Speaker 3: me your music because like if somebody's playing behind you,
Speaker 3: they're gloring sound.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were a recording sound. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Never went And in fact, I will say this of
Speaker 1: all of the because I ended up doing a bunch
Speaker 1: of songs actually by the end all told, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, there were a couple iterations
Speaker 1: of the band that happened. I mean, eventually I started
Speaker 1: playing with Ed Helms and Craig Robinson, who if you
Speaker 1: know either of them, they are musical geniuses. And that's
Speaker 1: an exaggeration, both of them. Oh wow, yeah, play everything
Speaker 1: and like he is a can harmonize like a motherfucker
Speaker 1: is singing. Yeah, but I mean like he's playing in
Speaker 1: concerts on the banjo, which is not an easy instrument,
Speaker 1: and he can play everything. Craig, if you hum him
Speaker 1: a tune of a song he's never heard before, he
Speaker 1: can start playing it on the piano. This is not
Speaker 1: a joke. Greg Craig Robinson like, so I'm like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: when are we gonna I'm like, I'm like a nerdy
Speaker 1: no no pun intended, the nerdy high school kid, like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: when don't we get to practice? And they're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got it, And I'm like, no, I don't have it. Actually,
Speaker 1: I don't have it at all.
Speaker 2: It's so unfair being around people like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I know, but yeah, I mean, look, I
Speaker 1: don't have to do it anymore. I don't have to
Speaker 1: sing anymore.
Speaker 2: You never know.
Speaker 1: I I talk sing with the best of them. I
Speaker 1: can carry a tune, but I can't like sing sing.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, neither can It's okay.
Speaker 2: We never had to do it live, so never you
Speaker 2: never had to do it lot, Yes we did.
Speaker 3: We recorded a handful of seven hundred songs, a handful live.
Speaker 3: Seven I recorded maybe three of my songs live, but
Speaker 3: that's because there was acting involved, so like the sound
Speaker 3: was important.
Speaker 2: I didn't want in the pilot and that was it.
Speaker 2: They go, oh, he needs some help, so we're not
Speaker 2: going to do that again.
Speaker 1: The only the only one that I did not out
Speaker 1: of all of mine was because Steve Miller said no,
Speaker 1: I sang the Steve Miller Live and then they brought
Speaker 1: me in they because that was early too, they brought
Speaker 1: me in, Yeah, and I recorded whatever we sang for
Speaker 1: that I can't even remember.
Speaker 3: What it was, and they said no.
Speaker 2: When we came on your show, we talked about how
Speaker 2: we got into all of this miss because obviously these
Speaker 2: shows were life changing for all of us here, and
Speaker 2: your show is life changing for me in a number
Speaker 2: of ways as well. But how did how did all
Speaker 2: of that happen? Was it just the normal audition?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So look, I I mean, I think the thing
Speaker 1: that you know, and as I've talked to you guys,
Speaker 1: as I have, you know, talked to someone's we're like
Speaker 1: over two hundred guests. Now, I feel like I'm I
Speaker 1: can say that I'm unique in the sense that I
Speaker 1: truly never thought about film and television, Like I really didn't.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like an aspirational thing like I can't
Speaker 1: ever do that. I'm from Georgia and how could that
Speaker 1: ever happen? It wasn't that. It just truly, and I
Speaker 1: know this sounds dumb, it just wasn't a thought I
Speaker 1: just I didn't. I did it like, oh, that's that's
Speaker 1: what I want to do. So I did a theater
Speaker 1: as as I call it an activity, right, like, I'm
Speaker 1: good at this. I'm going to do this for a while.
Speaker 1: And then I went to this program at Northwestern University
Speaker 1: between my junior and senior year. It's called the Something,
Speaker 1: but they call them the Chair Cherub Program. And it's
Speaker 1: only one summer between junior and senior year of high school.
Speaker 1: And you go and it's I don't know, six eight
Speaker 1: weeks and you're there at Northwestern University. So for me,
Speaker 1: this is like, okay, wait, I'm a high school student.
Speaker 1: Now I'm in a dorm. I'm getting independence for the
Speaker 1: first time. Great time to be in Chicago in the summer. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I suddenly it was like my brain was opened
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, oh, this is like creating
Speaker 1: a character and actions and objectives. Oh, it's not just
Speaker 1: about having good instincts and being loud. It's oh I Oh,
Speaker 1: I like this. And it was sort of in and
Speaker 1: around there that I was like, Okay, this is what
Speaker 1: I want to do. And I went to college for it.
Speaker 1: I went to SMU and Dallas conservatory training program there
Speaker 1: and and then started doing theater and truly thought that's
Speaker 1: what my life was like. And I was doing big houses,
Speaker 1: regional theater houses, the Guthrie and Berkeley rep and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, so forth and so on around the country
Speaker 1: and some of New York and and then it was
Speaker 1: it was just an idea. Theater is hard one. It's
Speaker 1: one of earlier and you have eight shows a week,
Speaker 1: you have Mondays off, no one has it off. It's
Speaker 1: very hard. It's just a very difficult life. And I
Speaker 1: had had a weird friend, uh, not a weird friend.
Speaker 1: I had had a a weird trip with a friend
Speaker 1: that sounds weird too, a friend who was in LA
Speaker 1: and I visited and kind of oddly, I mean, being
Speaker 1: from the East Coast, I say oddly fell in love
Speaker 1: with it. Like I was like, oh this is nice.
Speaker 1: Like there's the weather is not like it. It can
Speaker 1: be a very very seductive place. You catch it the
Speaker 1: right week and you know that sun sun is shining.
Speaker 1: And I remember my friend lived around Westwood and Westwood
Speaker 1: and there was this magical place called the Coffee Bean
Speaker 1: and Tea Leaf and you can sit outside with the
Speaker 1: palm trees when the wind blowing and the Westwood Hills
Speaker 1: and you see La.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so beautiful over there.
Speaker 1: And so I eventually was like, Okay, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to I'm gonna I'm gonna come out to l A.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give this thing a try. And there was
Speaker 1: it was part of why, you know, when I left college,
Speaker 1: I was I knew for myself and I bully, you
Speaker 1: can make fun of this about me, but I knew
Speaker 1: even then, like sleeping on someone's sofa in a studio
Speaker 1: apartment in New York or l A, like that's not
Speaker 1: really me, like that, that's not really And so you know,
Speaker 1: I had moved to Minneapolis where you could make a
Speaker 1: living and I could have, you know, a place, and
Speaker 1: that's sort of where I started professionally in theater and
Speaker 1: then started traveling around from there. But I didn't, like,
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't for me, you know, the weather.
Speaker 1: I wasn't from that area. I had no sort of
Speaker 1: uh family connection there, not that I did in LA either,
Speaker 1: but I just.
Speaker 2: Like the weather does make a big differ, Like to
Speaker 2: do you just tons of like nature things. It's when
Speaker 2: you're lonely and desperate for work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and my and my and my friends. You know,
Speaker 1: I have friends who are still back in Minnesota. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, do you realize, because you you start to
Speaker 1: not realize when you're there how much work it is
Speaker 1: to just be like, oh, I need to go get
Speaker 1: the mail. Let me put on snow pants and a
Speaker 1: jacket and gloves to walk down my driveway like this
Speaker 1: is like it's that and then come inside and shake
Speaker 1: off the snow and take it off and yeah, warm
Speaker 1: up from the journey. Not that I had a long driveway.
Speaker 1: It's just an example. But I so I came to LA,
Speaker 1: and you know, and I had been working for a
Speaker 1: time doing this and came to oh so similarly, I
Speaker 1: knew I was not I was not capable of like
Speaker 1: living on someone's sofa. For me, I thought the coming
Speaker 1: out and I don't know if you guys did I,
Speaker 1: but coming out to LA for a pilot season that
Speaker 1: didn't feel real to me either. Like again, for me,
Speaker 1: I was like I'm either there or I'm not. And
Speaker 1: I so when I was ready, I moved, I moved,
Speaker 1: I packed up the the you know. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: like and I I think I had said I'm going
Speaker 1: to give it a year because I was turned down
Speaker 1: theater work. That was the other thing. It took me
Speaker 1: a couple of years after I had decided, because I
Speaker 1: was I was getting work, and I was like, how
Speaker 1: can I how can I say no? And so I
Speaker 1: said a year. But I think really even ahead, I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm gonna, you know, a couple of years,
Speaker 1: I can, I can do this. And then a couple
Speaker 1: of months later I met the folks on the office
Speaker 1: and so once I was out it, it did happen
Speaker 1: very quickly. But but I will say is that, you know,
Speaker 1: when I get asked about like advice for young actors
Speaker 1: or whatever, for me, I think the biggest thing. I
Speaker 1: think the only reason that it happened for me. Then
Speaker 1: I mean that there there's obviously a lot of factors
Speaker 1: and timing and luck and you know, understanding characters and
Speaker 1: so forth. But for me, I've joked like I was
Speaker 1: the poorest person that had the highest subscription of at
Speaker 1: the time TiVo that existed. I watched everything, and it's
Speaker 1: always confusing to me, actors especially, and you get it
Speaker 1: a lot in the theater, right, which is like I
Speaker 1: don't watch television, right, and I'm like why, asshole, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're wanting to work in that in that medium,
Speaker 1: you need to understand what's going on right and what's
Speaker 1: you know what stylistically these shows. If you get an
Speaker 1: audition for something and you have no idea stylistically what
Speaker 1: the world is that's being created, like you're giving yourself
Speaker 1: a disservice. So I had done that and I found
Speaker 1: because of the British version of The Office the Office,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, well this I get like,
Speaker 1: this is this is me? And so yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: my rep at the time I said to them that
Speaker 1: this is the show, and I mean, looking back at
Speaker 1: it now, the other thing is I was so young
Speaker 1: and inexperienced that I did things at the time or
Speaker 1: expected things at the time which were so stupid, Like
Speaker 1: it's so like, oh, of course this is the show
Speaker 1: I should be on, right and now when I say that,
Speaker 1: and now people know who I am and I say
Speaker 1: that and they're like, what are you talking about? I
Speaker 1: don't care somebody else like what do you?
Speaker 2: A bit of delusion can really go a long way, though, because.
Speaker 3: I think it's so valuable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you do need to be that as someone who
Speaker 2: you moved here from Minnesota, turning down actual work where
Speaker 2: you knew that there was going to be a check
Speaker 2: in your bank. Like you have to have the little
Speaker 2: delusion to be like one, I'm going to go out
Speaker 2: there because I can do this and like, oh this show, Yes,
Speaker 2: this is the one. I gotta do it because you
Speaker 2: the only person that believes in you were propelling you forward?
Speaker 2: Is you, Like you're the only one who really cares, right,
Speaker 2: and so like if you're not out there like advocating
Speaker 2: for yourself and just a little bit of the drag
Speaker 2: delusion of it all, right, then you know there's a
Speaker 2: there's a line to walk there. But just a little
Speaker 2: bit really helps.
Speaker 3: We lost jaded assholes now it's very hard to find sometimes.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie, but I do believe that you
Speaker 3: need it.
Speaker 2: Worry, Jenna, I have your delusion for you whenever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do. And I know you really do need
Speaker 3: a little bit of the magical thinking. It's very important.
Speaker 2: How that's crazy that happened so quickly for you, that's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like when you how was it walking on? So like
Speaker 2: the Allison Jones cat you first of all that, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well you know who who? Who? I first met with
Speaker 1: because again I was a totally unknown person from Minnesota.
Speaker 1: First person I read with was Phillip Smith at Allison
Speaker 1: Jones because she Phillis was casting associate for Alison Jones,
Speaker 1: and so I went into a small office. M hm,
Speaker 1: ye met her and then met Allison. But yeah, she
Speaker 1: was the first person I met in I mean in
Speaker 1: in that well on that show. I mean, yeah there
Speaker 1: was a part of that show. I mean she was
Speaker 1: casting it at the time, and then yeah, it was
Speaker 1: her reading with me and others that everyone wants to
Speaker 1: take credit for it now, but I at least I
Speaker 1: believe it is possible. Ken Kuoppas, the director, was like,
Speaker 1: she needs to be in the show, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how Phillis got cast.
Speaker 2: Wow, how many auditions do you have to do for it?
Speaker 1: Honestly, I I I had that pre read. I don't
Speaker 1: remember if I No one's ever asked me that I
Speaker 1: have thought about it when other people have been have that,
Speaker 1: I've asked other people. I think I did that pre read.
Speaker 1: I don't remember, and I remember meeting Allison. I don't
Speaker 1: remember if I read with her again that day, but
Speaker 1: I only went in once.
Speaker 2: You've got to be Shop after that.
Speaker 1: After that, no, I went in. I went in once,
Speaker 1: and that's when I met you know, Greg Daniels, Ben Silverman,
Speaker 1: Ken Kwappas everyone, Terry Weinberg, everybody from Revellie. I mean
Speaker 1: it was like once thirty people. Yeah, and I read
Speaker 1: you guys know you guys know this. I don't want
Speaker 1: to repeat stories. Why. I was auditioning for Stanley.
Speaker 2: That's right, right, and then read.
Speaker 1: As Kevin.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the in the bigger audition you read for Kevin.
Speaker 1: I read for I read for Stanley as though I
Speaker 1: were Kevin Ken and took a gamble again. What I
Speaker 1: have done that now? No, I mean now, I probably
Speaker 1: would have said, no, this other part is better for me,
Speaker 1: and they may have said, okay, goodbye. But now at
Speaker 1: the time I read that, and Allison chased after me,
Speaker 1: so so I read. I read that. The second day
Speaker 1: that I went there, I read for Stanley. I went
Speaker 1: in reading for Stanley, and then they ran after me
Speaker 1: and had me come back and read for Kevin or
Speaker 1: you know, like like the same day, like I waited around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: crazy read for Kevin. And that's it.
Speaker 3: It was really bold. That's really a bold choice to make.
Speaker 1: I was so sure, like I just got that character.
Speaker 1: I just I just knew Yeah, I just saw it.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah and yeah, I mean you obviously feel that
Speaker 2: though from the other side of the table like they did,
Speaker 2: like they yeah they got it, Yeah, yeah they did.
Speaker 1: I mean to their credit obviously I could have a
Speaker 1: ton of credit, but.
Speaker 3: I like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things too, where it's like everyone's
Speaker 2: just got to be lined up that day. Everyone showed
Speaker 2: up with the right attitude. They saw you come in there,
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, yes, get that joke. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: that is crazy. I love Alison Jones because she also
Speaker 2: would do things like that, yes, like I feel like
Speaker 2: there are I have not been in a lot with
Speaker 2: a lot of casting directors who would try different things.
Speaker 2: Have you come back in immediately and like try this instead.
Speaker 2: She was like the most malleable casting director, like creative
Speaker 2: right would sit there and be like what about this?
Speaker 2: What about that? And a lot of people out there.
Speaker 2: Anytime I go into that office, I'd see different people.
Speaker 2: Like normally, you know, you start like the circuit, you
Speaker 2: see the same people they're always up against. It was
Speaker 2: always different people in there.
Speaker 1: Well you know, the other thing that she did she
Speaker 1: did was and well I shouldn't say her. I I'm
Speaker 1: sure it was partly, uh Greg Daniels, So I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to give credit to the wrong person here.
Speaker 1: But they there was no test on the show because
Speaker 1: what they what And so maybe this is Greg. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: this is just literally my memory. But she was a
Speaker 1: part of it. And because we're talking about her, they
Speaker 1: said the collective they said standing this show is not
Speaker 1: about standing up, the opposite of Glee, right, This is
Speaker 1: not about standing up in front of a bunch of
Speaker 1: executives testing for studio and network executives, like trying to
Speaker 1: make people laugh, you know, like that. It was all
Speaker 1: about like a subtle look to the camera. So they
Speaker 1: set it up on the office set and filmed intimately
Speaker 1: and interactions between people and allowed that camera to be
Speaker 1: a character, you know, because it was the documentary. Allowed
Speaker 1: that camera be a character. They filmed that and I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure they had to give three choices
Speaker 1: or whatever, but I but if they're editing it, they
Speaker 1: can adjusted how they wanted to and then sent the
Speaker 1: choices to there. So there was not like.
Speaker 2: A film some sort of like their version of like whatever.
Speaker 2: That was like a screen.
Speaker 1: Test essentially, like a screen test. Yeah, it was like
Speaker 1: a screen test as opposed to what it typically is
Speaker 1: for anybody listening that you don't know, like a network
Speaker 1: test where you it's like a theater class, right where
Speaker 1: two people are reading a scene together. That is a test.
Speaker 1: Is a network test. You walk into a room and
Speaker 1: you're like, Hi, this is Brian and he is reading
Speaker 1: for Kevin. And then you have a reader and you're
Speaker 1: just up on stage, or sometimes there's two of you
Speaker 1: together reading and Greg. I'm sure it was Greg, but
Speaker 1: Greg and Allison were like we no, we can't do
Speaker 1: this show like that. Ye tell you who you want?
Speaker 3: Smart, very smart. What was it like shooting the pilot,
Speaker 3: like shooting the first like initial episodes before anybody saw it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the first one. And I found this out
Speaker 1: when I you know, when I when I when I
Speaker 1: wrote the sort of the book about the story that
Speaker 1: they that Greg kept the pilot essentially a shot for
Speaker 1: not shot for shot, but essentially the same Americanized version
Speaker 1: of the British pilot. But the reason is fascinating, the
Speaker 1: reason that he did that, because I was like, why
Speaker 1: would you do that, like, why didn't you want to
Speaker 1: put your stand on it? You know whatever. There were
Speaker 1: things that didn't work, and he said it had become
Speaker 1: such a success that he felt like his job on
Speaker 1: the pilot was to create the world of dunder Mifflin
Speaker 1: in the pilot because he felt like because they were
Speaker 1: doing the same script and it had been such a success,
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to get noted to death about the script.
Speaker 1: That's why he chose that, because he was like, what
Speaker 1: you are you? How can you how can you argue
Speaker 1: with this? And so that's how he sort of got
Speaker 1: it passed through. And then we were only given five
Speaker 1: more episodes that first year, so it was a total
Speaker 1: of six, and you know, it was very early and
Speaker 1: you know, Steve's character, Michael Scott, was very mean, and
Speaker 1: the audience response was, I mean, the fact that we
Speaker 1: were able to come back for a season two is great.
Speaker 1: The truth is, there are some of our best episodes,
Speaker 1: but diversity Day, sexual harassment, basketball episode. You know, but
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, because you know, at the time, we
Speaker 1: had no laugh track. It was the camera was moving
Speaker 1: around and there were all these things that were different.
Speaker 1: We all knew there was sort of an uphill battle
Speaker 1: that like, would people give it a chance? But I
Speaker 1: knew that if they did, what was happening was something
Speaker 1: special because partly about on our very second episode, which
Speaker 1: was Diversity Day, we were talking about real issues in
Speaker 1: comedy that hadn't happened since all in the family. There
Speaker 1: was like twenty to thirty years where nobody would talk
Speaker 1: about issues in comedy, had needed just funny, don't make
Speaker 1: a don't talk about race, don't talk about sexuality, don't
Speaker 1: talk about you know, and suddenly we're doing episodes like
Speaker 1: Diversity Day, yay, witch Hunt, sexual harassment, healthcare, you know,
Speaker 1: all of those things which I was like, oh, we
Speaker 1: talk about that in comedy, We'll leave that to the dramas.
Speaker 1: But I knew it was it was. It was smart
Speaker 1: and and and important and if if people gave us
Speaker 1: a chance, I knew we were doing something cool.
Speaker 2: There was something about did you guys always film on
Speaker 2: the same stage from the very beginning?
Speaker 1: You moved? We moved, Yeah, we the first six episodes.
Speaker 1: I think this is what it was called Culvert Studios.
Speaker 1: It was very bizarre space off of Losienega like South,
Speaker 1: and there was there was a single sound stage and
Speaker 1: upstairs was production offices and so still I assume our
Speaker 1: office of dunder Mifflin was the production offices at that
Speaker 1: Culver studio. Wow, that's what it was.
Speaker 3: Crazy.
Speaker 1: So we shot in their office. The soundstage was like
Speaker 1: where we ate lunch. Like there was nothing on the soundstage.
Speaker 1: I don't shot money anything on the sound stage. Wow.
Speaker 2: I feel like that intimacy of like all of you
Speaker 2: working together sort of what feels like the little engine
Speaker 2: that could, or like you're doing these things that like
Speaker 2: might be controversial. People in America may get it or
Speaker 2: they may not get it. Yeah, And because of that,
Speaker 2: it's one of those things that you feel watching all
Speaker 2: of you together, or like was there sort of like
Speaker 2: this instant sort of familial bond or chemistry, And if
Speaker 2: there was, like was it because of you all believed
Speaker 2: in the show so much?
Speaker 1: I think there was that. I think there was also
Speaker 1: I think there I think there were three or four things.
Speaker 1: I think I think there was that there was true
Speaker 1: belief in the show. Two was nobody was known or
Speaker 1: a star at all at the time. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: going into season two. Steve Carell became like the biggest
Speaker 1: the comedy movie star on the planet, but he was
Speaker 1: not before nothing. So there were there was that, and
Speaker 1: there was a lot of people who, you know, something
Speaker 1: like this she would have to tell you, but like
Speaker 1: Malaura Harden, who played jan had been on like fourteen
Speaker 1: pilots and none had ever gone. You know. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of like stories like that. And then I
Speaker 1: think that I don't think this was I mean, I
Speaker 1: give Alison Jones credit for everything. I don't think that
Speaker 1: this was necessarily intentional, But I think that also there
Speaker 1: were two things. There was the collection of us happened
Speaker 1: to have a great diversity in terms of experience, and
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is, like, just to name
Speaker 1: a few, like Rain Wilson and myself, we were straight
Speaker 1: theater people who had like Coroll, Angela Kenzie, Oscar Nuniez,
Speaker 1: improv people, BJ Novak, Craig Robinson, stand up you know, comedians,
Speaker 1: and so we had that whole base. So everybody's kind
Speaker 1: of learning from each other or like has a different
Speaker 1: sort of perspective on what we're doingfind with the fact
Speaker 1: that the way the show was shot in by and large,
Speaker 1: especially early one set closed walls. We were all there
Speaker 1: all the time because the camera was moving around. So
Speaker 1: we were sixty seventy hours a week and we were
Speaker 1: all there and so we just you know, it's like
Speaker 1: a sports analogy of something like you know, if you're
Speaker 1: there and you practice and you're stuck together and you're
Speaker 1: traveling together, eventually you know exactly where everybody wants the ball,
Speaker 1: where they want the ball delivered. How you know, oh,
Speaker 1: if I do this, this is going to make this
Speaker 1: is going to give this person this joke because that's
Speaker 1: what they and that sort of stuff. You can't I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't, you can't teach. I know that's like so cliche,
Speaker 1: but it was just about that, which I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what made us expensive, right, I mean, we're there's there's
Speaker 1: there's there, there is a number one on the call sheet,
Speaker 1: of course, but there's kind of we're all there just.
Speaker 3: As much, totally totally, and.
Speaker 1: So that was I think that was a big part
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: How quickly once things started airing or because you sort
Speaker 2: of had the reverse effect of like what you said
Speaker 2: of normal shows, where you just kept getting bigger, where
Speaker 2: for us, we came out the gates pretty big, and
Speaker 2: we got really big by the second season, and then
Speaker 2: you know, the people started to get over us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for you guys, because you just moved out here, you
Speaker 2: shoot this pilot, you guys get six episodes hoping for
Speaker 2: season two. You do get a season two, six episodes
Speaker 2: for season two, which is nuts, Like, we're not really
Speaker 2: sure about this, but we like it, so we'll keep going.
Speaker 2: I mean, how much had your life changed or did it,
Speaker 2: because in those days you were getting a normal network
Speaker 2: show was twenty two episodes. That is, you're getting six, Yes,
Speaker 2: a life changing amount of money for people. We were
Speaker 2: all so brokenly started and you adjust accordingly, I think
Speaker 2: to that. You know, we were there for ten months
Speaker 2: out of the year shooting the show. You're doing season
Speaker 2: one six episodes, season two six episodes, but then it's
Speaker 2: also becoming really popular. Steve Carell's becoming a gigantic star.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, so season two we did six episodes and
Speaker 1: we stopped. So let's say we started. We went back
Speaker 1: in like July, end of July, shot through August, probably
Speaker 1: Labor Day. We stopped and like it something like the
Speaker 1: next week, our first episode was going to air, but
Speaker 1: they returned our trailers and we cleaned them out and
Speaker 1: we went home and was they was sort of like,
Speaker 1: hope we get to do some more. And by then,
Speaker 1: forty year old virgin, we had a good lead in
Speaker 1: this show My Name is Earl, which you talked about
Speaker 1: peaking early. That peaked early. We were after them and
Speaker 1: we just started picking up and then it was it
Speaker 1: was six and they were like, okay, you can do
Speaker 1: four more. Okay, you can finish the thirteen. Okay, you
Speaker 1: can do two more. I mean it was like at
Speaker 1: some point it was like you can do two more,
Speaker 1: you can, but at that point we were once we
Speaker 1: took that first break, Yeah, the show was airing and
Speaker 1: we were shooting, and the writers started thinking about others.
Speaker 1: So we ended up doing twenty two that year. Oh wow.
Speaker 1: But we as we had started and left, like you know,
Speaker 1: it was probably we probably came back in October or
Speaker 1: something like that right after after you know, October, mid
Speaker 1: October or something when we when we were given more episodes.
Speaker 1: But you know, then Correl wins the Golden Globe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and by Christmas time, that Christmas episode, which was our
Speaker 1: first Christmas episode, got like over ten million viewers, and
Speaker 1: then by February we were getting more than My Name
Speaker 1: is Earle in the ratings at a half hour time slot,
Speaker 1: and so when it was like all at February, the
Speaker 1: network was finally like, okay, you can finish twenty two episodes,
Speaker 1: like we'll give you the rest of the order within
Speaker 1: a week or two. They ordered twenty two for the
Speaker 1: next year, so it was like right then it was oh, okay,
Speaker 1: And that's when things changed. Yeah, Like that's when like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna, We're gonna be around for a while.
Speaker 2: What a crazy work environment, a trickle of episodes two more,
Speaker 2: one more. I don't under like, how does that feel
Speaker 2: being on the side of what were the writers prepared?
Speaker 2: Because you were saying the writers were already thinking ahead,
Speaker 2: but like that's crazy, like whip up ten more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but but I think the writing room was small,
Speaker 1: but it was just like the biggest all star writing staff.
Speaker 1: And I mean that like like in terms of like
Speaker 1: future accomplishments. I mean it's Mindy Kaling, it's bj Novak,
Speaker 1: it's Paul Lieberstein, it's Jensilata, it's Lee Eisenberg and Jean Stepnitzky.
Speaker 1: Like it's literally like now everyone like either running shows
Speaker 1: or writing movies or like whatever, and I'm sure I'm
Speaker 1: apologies for whoever I just missed in that short list,
Speaker 1: but it was small, right because they'd ordered six so
Speaker 1: I think that you know, there were maybe where they
Speaker 1: were like six writers. I think even Paul Lieberstein was
Speaker 1: not a well maybe that was the first season. So anyway,
Speaker 1: it yeah, it was, it was, it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 1: And then you know, so we finished by the way,
Speaker 1: we finished those twenty two episodes that we you know,
Speaker 1: we had just been given the you know, ability to
Speaker 1: do them, and then went back to recharge to do
Speaker 1: season three, and before we started shooting season three that
Speaker 1: season two that happened like that we won the Emmy four. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is all of it. It's just crazy,
Speaker 1: like not looking back on it, like how did this happen?
Speaker 2: I feel like the theater training was probably good for
Speaker 2: some of that too. You're just like you're just rolling
Speaker 2: with it. You're on set, do the work.
Speaker 3: But adults, you guys, are like, oh maybe true, more
Speaker 3: like maybe i'll pay my rent, Like we really kids,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, They're like, we're like how
Speaker 3: does this shit work? Like we get greenlit? What does
Speaker 3: that mean? Do we get to do more. Yay, that's fun.
Speaker 3: But like these were all established adults at the time, Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: sort of, I.
Speaker 1: Know that thirty is kind of an adul I was thirty, Wow,
Speaker 1: Like I was young young? Yeah, so young, that's young.
Speaker 3: I mean was yeah, no, that's a point.
Speaker 1: But I can't remember exactly how much older I was
Speaker 1: Jenno's you know, close to that.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's I.
Speaker 1: Mean, there was a group of us. I mean I
Speaker 1: looked older, and there was like I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: want to give anybody's age away or whatever, but well
Speaker 1: not even age, just experience, you know, like Melaura Harden,
Speaker 1: like she had been working since a child and had
Speaker 1: you know, done a ton of things. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: correl with Second City and The Daily Show and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, like you know, he was established.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, that's fair. That's fair. No, you were young, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean wow, that's like some of our guys were
Speaker 3: older when when you started. So that's yeah, okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3: I take it back, I take it back. Okay. Before
Speaker 3: we go, we have a couple questions. It's almost July fourth.
Speaker 3: It's my favorite time of the year because there's barbecues
Speaker 3: and you just came out with your second barbecue cookbook. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so you're you're a barbecue connoisseur. Tell us about your
Speaker 3: new book.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, first I have to ask you guys
Speaker 1: a question, because you're in southern California. What is if
Speaker 1: someone says to you this came up this morning, by
Speaker 1: the way, That's why I question. If someone says, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to come over for a barbecue, what does
Speaker 1: that mean?
Speaker 3: Oh, I have a couple of friends with smokers, smokers
Speaker 3: at their houses.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that would be they're going to smoke something.
Speaker 3: Okay, ribs, maybe hot dogs and hamburgers. That's kind of
Speaker 3: what I'm Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same. It depends. If I'm in California, That's what
Speaker 2: I'm expecting. If I'm in Texas, where I'm originally from,
Speaker 2: it's a bit of a different answer. What is text
Speaker 2: would that answer be? That would be more of the
Speaker 2: the smoked things someone someone definitely has a smoker, probably,
Speaker 2: but there's also going to be like trement as well,
Speaker 2: you know, like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Bread. It's a different different So.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I mean, being from Georgia, that's what
Speaker 1: I would say. Somebody told me today they were like
Speaker 1: I'm from North this is a breast interview. I had.
Speaker 1: Lovely lady, Absolutely, at least be nice. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: anything mean about you. She said, what does it mean?
Speaker 1: She said, I'm gonna ask you a personal question. If
Speaker 1: I said, come over to my house and have a
Speaker 1: barbe and have a barbecue with me, what does that mean.
Speaker 1: I paused for a while because she said personal question.
Speaker 1: That put my brain somewhere else. Aside from that, I said,
Speaker 1: I said, well, like like doing a slow cooked smoking something.
Speaker 1: She was like, oh, okay. She said, I went out
Speaker 1: to California and everyone said a barbecue was Hamberg's and
Speaker 1: hot dogs, and I was like, that's fairy. She said,
Speaker 1: I'm from in North Carolina. If you invite me over
Speaker 1: for a barbecue, it has to be a whole hog.
Speaker 3: I was like damn.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I'm definitely that's exactly what I said. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle. I agree, Yeah, barbecue is not
Speaker 1: Hamburgers and hot dogs. But yeah, that's funny. So I'm
Speaker 1: from Georgia and I, as we've talked about, I did
Speaker 1: theater for a long time and I worked a number
Speaker 1: of times with a French director and we would have
Speaker 1: rehearsals during the day and then this is during the
Speaker 1: rehearsal process. Rehearsal during the day, then they would take
Speaker 1: a dinner break. Their dinner break was two and a
Speaker 1: half hours yea. And then they would have night rehearsals damn.
Speaker 1: And I was like, what are we doing like two
Speaker 1: and a half hours, Like let's get this done.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was because he would go and cook. He would
Speaker 1: go home and he would wine and he would cook,
Speaker 1: and I mean like cook, like hyao, cook, like we're
Speaker 1: going to make dinner. And he taught me in a
Speaker 1: way or what it did for him, which then I
Speaker 1: started to buy into, which was like I am doing
Speaker 1: an activity that I enjoy and it is making the
Speaker 1: work go away. So then when I returned to it,
Speaker 1: I actually am fresh. I'm starting anew as opposed to
Speaker 1: keep thinking about it over this period of time. And
Speaker 1: so I started doing that a little bit. And then
Speaker 1: when I moved to California again because of the way
Speaker 1: you can do it all the time I do. I grill,
Speaker 1: which I won't call barbecue, but I grill and Q
Speaker 1: on the weekends and stuff. I travel a ton, but
Speaker 1: if I'm home like four or five nights a week,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm out at the grill. I enjoy it. It
Speaker 1: makes my mind two things, golf and cooking specifically at
Speaker 1: a grill or barbecue. Those things make my mind clear
Speaker 1: of work stuff, and I'm able to just focus on
Speaker 1: the activity at hand. So it is. And so I
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if you ever heard, but
Speaker 1: there was an incident with me and chili a few
Speaker 1: years ago on UH on the office there was a
Speaker 1: there was a spillage that happened. So I had a
Speaker 1: chili cookbook, and the chili cook book it was fun.
Speaker 1: I kind of got into the culture of that, but
Speaker 1: this was this was really me. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a passion of mine, something that I really enjoy. So
Speaker 1: I've been really excited about the response to it so far.
Speaker 1: There's over one hundred recipes in there.
Speaker 2: That's crazy that so many recipes.
Speaker 1: It is a lot. But part of it also is
Speaker 1: I feel like particularly slow cooking, yes, is intimidating for
Speaker 1: people because they're like, I'm gonna do this for six
Speaker 1: hours and if it turns out shitty, then what do
Speaker 1: I got? Like?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Thanks? So there there is some like tips that are like, look,
Speaker 1: let's not let this intimidate you. Let's start with this.
Speaker 1: Let's try this for someone like me. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I wrote it for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Hey, seriously good barbecue cookbook.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I get it, go get it. It just makes
Speaker 2: me so hungry. Do you have favorite barbecue places in Texas?
Speaker 1: Well? I part of the inspiration for the book actually
Speaker 1: was I saw a show during the pandemic about Rodney Scott's.
Speaker 1: Oddly the we we're just talking about Rodney Scott's Whole
Speaker 1: Hog Barbecue in Charleston, South Carolina, and I drove and
Speaker 1: I flew back into the South and I had a
Speaker 1: long drive because I hadn't seen my parents during the
Speaker 1: pandemic in like eight or nine months. And I took
Speaker 1: a hundreds of mile detour out of my way to
Speaker 1: go to this spot in Charleston, which was partly the
Speaker 1: like I was thinking about doing this, this cookbook and
Speaker 1: wanted to go there and experience his So Texas. You know,
Speaker 1: Dallas is a little bit of a different breed there,
Speaker 1: which is where I spent most of my time. I
Speaker 1: couldn't name for you specifically. Part of the issue is
Speaker 1: like the and I talk about this in the cookbook.
Speaker 1: A lot of the let's just call them larger chain
Speaker 1: barbecue places. When you leave, what they want you to
Speaker 1: say is, isn't that sauce really great? But it's about
Speaker 1: the sauce. So they take meat and they just drown
Speaker 1: it in sauce and it's about the sauce. And that's
Speaker 1: the other thing that I talk about in this is
Speaker 1: like for me, biggest tip by responsibly raised meat from
Speaker 1: responsible sustainable farms. Yes, I promise you. One it's the
Speaker 1: right thing to do, and two it just tastes better.
Speaker 1: And if you are buying high quality sourced meat, it
Speaker 1: is going to taste better. You're going to feel better
Speaker 1: about it. But more you just need some rubs, some spices.
Speaker 1: You don't need to drown it in sauce. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be about sauce. So that's something else we
Speaker 1: talk about, all right.
Speaker 2: Also, not a lot of great barbecue in LA, so
Speaker 2: it might have to make it.
Speaker 3: Now, there's only a handful, all right. Before we let
Speaker 3: you go, Ryan, we usually ask at the end of
Speaker 3: this with people who are involved with glee, what is
Speaker 3: the feeling that glee he leaves you with? So I'm
Speaker 3: going to ask you, what is the feeling that the
Speaker 3: Office leaves you with.
Speaker 1: Overwhelming gratitude? And for me now, the greatest gift that
Speaker 1: the Office gave me is and we were talking about
Speaker 1: fans earlier, but the Office gave people so much comfort
Speaker 1: in oftentimes difficult times. People serving in the military, people
Speaker 1: undergoing a family crisis of one or the other, going
Speaker 1: through a difficult medical procedure in the hospital, very sick,
Speaker 1: and the Office brought them comfort. I like to think
Speaker 1: in part because of what you talked about before, Kevin,
Speaker 1: they could see the love and the care between the
Speaker 1: characters that was happening and the stories that we were telling,
Speaker 1: and that sometimes it was mean and sometimes it wasn't pc,
Speaker 1: but there was ultimately a feeling of love. And the
Speaker 1: last line of the show is of the Office that
Speaker 1: was spoken, is there's beauty and ordinary things. Isn't that
Speaker 1: kind of the point That celebration of of regular people,
Speaker 1: if I'm kind in myself, included regular looking people who
Speaker 1: have small victories that you deserve to be celebrated. And
Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm I'm grateful for that message and
Speaker 1: being a part of that and and and truly sharing.
Speaker 3: Joy with people Yeah, it feels like that absolutely resonated
Speaker 3: with the lot of your fans, so it still does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Brian keeps on going. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for being with us.
Speaker 3: Br so good to see you, and thank you for
Speaker 3: you to see you guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you on the back, good luck, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, go get seriously good barbecue cookbook. It's out.
Speaker 3: We love you.
Speaker 1: Now, love you guys. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: So time to see you soon. Yes, sounds good, isn't
Speaker 2: you wonderful?
Speaker 3: He's the best. He's literally the best. It's so interesting
Speaker 3: to hear there's so many similar similarities, I guess in
Speaker 3: the way that they felt about like the chemistry and
Speaker 3: the care and the love for the show and that
Speaker 3: making it so special and elevating it to the point
Speaker 3: where like even what he said about like what the
Speaker 3: office leaves him with, like just being really special for
Speaker 3: the fans and for just what he hopes for. I
Speaker 3: don't know, I just felt like very similar in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways.
Speaker 2: Very similar, and it was like, these are two shows
Speaker 2: that couldn't be more different in a number of ways.
Speaker 2: They're so different. But yeah, the experience on set and
Speaker 2: the experience of how it makes the fans feel feels
Speaker 2: very familiar and having been around them, and I've said
Speaker 2: it before and I'll say it again, was such a
Speaker 2: masterclass for me, obviously in acting and being on a set,
Speaker 2: but also how to treat people on a set. They
Speaker 2: were all so kind, so good to me, and going
Speaker 2: into Glee, it really felt like being able to have
Speaker 2: spent the week with them was the best training ground
Speaker 2: I could have asked for. And you could feel that
Speaker 2: love between them. It was palpable and just how much
Speaker 2: they cared about what they were doing and how good
Speaker 2: they were, and you see it in every single episode
Speaker 2: Special Pressure. Group of people so happy that Brian came
Speaker 2: on to talk to us. We get to go on
Speaker 2: his show, like we said, which is an incredible show.
Speaker 2: You should also go listen to that, Go by Brian's book,
Speaker 2: Seriously Good Barbecue Cookbook, which is out now. And you know,
Speaker 2: maybe go watch the office episode that I'm in called
Speaker 2: Launch Party. You know, whatever you want, I won't force you,
Speaker 2: but it's a good time and you get to see
Speaker 2: seventeen year old me with highlights, So enjoy. That's a
Speaker 2: good time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, see you next time.
Speaker 2: That's what you really missed. Thanks for listening and follow
Speaker 2: us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss pod.
Speaker 2: Make sure to write us a review and leave us
Speaker 2: five stars. See you next time.