Speaker 1: It's nine Ogen Onegin with Jenny Garth and Tory Spelling.
Speaker 1: Oh you guys. Today we have Joey Slotnik with us.
Speaker 1: Best known for his roles in some big movies like Twister,
Speaker 1: Blast from the Pass. He's been on a ton of
Speaker 1: TV shows and we are so happy to have him
Speaker 1: with us. He played Tuck right right season five.
Speaker 2: The unreal world is now about to be a real
Speaker 2: world because we're going to interview him. I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: Hey here we Hey, Oh my god, what the talk?
Speaker 2: You look the same, Joey.
Speaker 3: Hi everyone, Hi Joey.
Speaker 1: Thanks for taking some time out of your day to
Speaker 1: be with us.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, my pleasure.
Speaker 1: You're a busy man. You've always been a busy man.
Speaker 1: I think you came out of the womb a busy man.
Speaker 3: Well, I'd like to think that I'm as busy as
Speaker 3: everyone thinks I am. But yes, I'll take.
Speaker 1: Go with it, go with it. Wow, it's so nice
Speaker 1: to see. We had just watched the episode.
Speaker 2: In season five Everybody last week.
Speaker 1: In Real World where you play the character of Tuck.
Speaker 2: Yes, which was odd because our producer and co host
Speaker 2: Amy was talking about her hemorhids and were like talk.
Speaker 3: Oh, sure, as one does normal.
Speaker 1: But we were enjoying your performance, and you were really
Speaker 1: good at riding that bike, and you looked really cute
Speaker 1: in that hat. I don't know have you revisited lately
Speaker 1: lately than wow?
Speaker 3: You know it's funny because I think I had when
Speaker 3: I came into the audition. David Semmel directed the episode.
Speaker 3: And when I came into the audition, I had said
Speaker 3: on my on my special Skills it said that I
Speaker 3: could ride a unicycle, which I did in college in
Speaker 3: a show. And he said, can you still can you
Speaker 3: ride a unicycle? And I said, yeah, yeah, and I
Speaker 3: if I remember, there was a unicycle on set and
Speaker 3: I could not ride it as well and as quickly
Speaker 3: as David wanted me to. So then we it became
Speaker 3: a bike, and I say, much better because.
Speaker 1: You like you circled dress rounds there that would have
Speaker 1: been hard to do on a you.
Speaker 3: Cycle, and it was, and I was very I got
Speaker 3: very nervous. I was like, oh no, I'm gonna be fired.
Speaker 3: This is not I can't do this, and.
Speaker 2: I lied, I can't assumed you were offered that part.
Speaker 2: I assumed for some reason, which is weird that you
Speaker 2: were friends with Priestley.
Speaker 3: Like, no, no, Tori, that's a wonderful assumption, but no,
Speaker 3: I auditioned for that part. That was like the second
Speaker 3: or third thing I did. I think when I was in.
Speaker 2: I know you so much.
Speaker 1: I just wait, it was the second or third thing
Speaker 1: when you started acting. This was the second or third
Speaker 1: thing you got.
Speaker 3: Yeah. When I came to La Yeah, wow, sorry, I
Speaker 3: did an episode. My first thing was an episode of Allen,
Speaker 3: and then I did some commercials and then yeah, when
Speaker 3: I was was one of the first things.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that.
Speaker 2: How was it walking on to set all of us there, like,
Speaker 2: not just working with one or two like we were
Speaker 2: all there.
Speaker 3: I mean it was great. You know, I didn't I
Speaker 3: didn't watch the show as much as like my sister,
Speaker 3: who was a ginormous fan, so I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: you know this is I think. I was also nervous,
Speaker 3: just because it was one of my first gigs. So
Speaker 3: it was, you know, wanting to be good, wanting to
Speaker 3: everyone to like me and know all those things that
Speaker 3: an actor goes through. But everyone was really kind and
Speaker 3: I remember having a good time once I kind of
Speaker 3: got into it.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That's good. So when you started as an actor,
Speaker 1: you studied acting and you studied improv before you ever
Speaker 1: moved to LA or after you moved to LA.
Speaker 3: No, I did. I went to UH. I mean, I
Speaker 3: started in children's theater and I was about eleven, and
Speaker 3: I did acting all through high school. And then I
Speaker 3: went to studied theater at SMU, Southern Methodist University.
Speaker 2: My dad went there.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, that's so funny. They had a wonderful
Speaker 3: theater program. And I did that. And then I'm from
Speaker 3: Chicago originally, so I came back to Chicago and did
Speaker 3: theater and started a company, started working with a company
Speaker 3: called looking Glass and yeah, and then I I kind
Speaker 3: of made the move out to LA.
Speaker 1: And how long was it once you moved that you
Speaker 1: got your first job? Do you remember?
Speaker 3: I came out for almost nine almost a year. I
Speaker 3: did it. My first movie was Not Was a League
Speaker 3: of their Own.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: I was in that. And then I when that came out,
Speaker 3: I came to LA and I was like, yeah, huh,
Speaker 3: and nothing happened, and I went back to Chicago for
Speaker 3: almost a year, and then I came back and I
Speaker 3: roomed with still one of my dearest bestest friends, David Swimmer,
Speaker 3: and we were roommates, and we were roommates during his
Speaker 3: first year of Friends.
Speaker 2: Wow. What year?
Speaker 1: Wow, you were roommates with Ross?
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so then I would just I would you know.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, you were his Joey but literally.
Speaker 3: And I yeah, I just started auditioning for stuff and
Speaker 3: had you know, got some how got side pocketed by
Speaker 3: an agent, an amazing agent, Paul Rossicker, and and yeah,
Speaker 3: just things started to happen.
Speaker 1: So well, that's nice that you still you said, you
Speaker 1: guys are still friends to this day and keep in
Speaker 1: touch with him.
Speaker 2: He's amazing.
Speaker 1: That was like thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: It's a good guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well we're part of the same theater company. I mean, yes,
Speaker 3: it's it's yeah. Good.
Speaker 2: May I ask why were you never on Friends?
Speaker 3: That is a good question. That first season, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: But then I got onto a show called The Single Guy,
Speaker 3: which I.
Speaker 2: Know Jonathan Silverman, Yeah, which was.
Speaker 3: Great, after which lasted a couple of years after kind
Speaker 3: of that same after Friends, timestop. But I don't know
Speaker 3: why I wasn't on Friends. I should have been, duh.
Speaker 1: Do you know when you went to audition for the
Speaker 1: show that it was based off the real world San
Speaker 1: Francisco character of Puck.
Speaker 3: Yes you did. No, I did know that, and so
Speaker 3: that was kind of yeah, because I mean, the real
Speaker 3: world was was huge back then, right, and that wasn't
Speaker 3: that the second season? The same Francisco was the second season?
Speaker 1: I think seems like it, no idea. I would think
Speaker 1: that he.
Speaker 2: Just threw some trivia in there that we don't know where.
Speaker 1: It was the first season in New York, New York. Okay,
Speaker 1: m interesting that they would go to San fran for
Speaker 1: the second season.
Speaker 3: Okay, I believe that was the second season.
Speaker 2: You're right.
Speaker 1: So then there's one scene at the beach house where
Speaker 1: you come in and you see that Brandon is dressed
Speaker 1: like your character, and Brandon stood there laughing at you
Speaker 1: uncomfortably for us, it was uncomfortable to watch. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the laugh? Was that a real laugh from Jason?
Speaker 1: Do you remember he just kept.
Speaker 2: Going amongst the million things you've done since this is
Speaker 2: what he remember? We were, Yeah, Well.
Speaker 3: Well, do you think his laugh was like making fun
Speaker 3: of the actor playing the character or do you think
Speaker 3: he was just Jen.
Speaker 2: Heard a bit of his real laugh coming.
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I don't know. I think I
Speaker 3: remember remember maybe being a little nervous, like is he
Speaker 3: laughing at me or with me?
Speaker 4: Or oh wait, you guys had to redo that because
Speaker 4: it was it didn't line up correct. I feel like
Speaker 4: it was like the third time you guys had to
Speaker 4: redo it. So he was laughing.
Speaker 3: Am I oh like three like three different takes? Is
Speaker 3: that what you're saying?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they needed that like perfect, and it just
Speaker 2: like timing wise and everyone doing their thing wasn't working.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm just glad I didn't mess up the take.
Speaker 1: But it kills me to think that you were in
Speaker 1: your head thinking is Jason Pracy laughing at my knees?
Speaker 1: Or is he laughing at my character? Because I was
Speaker 1: I was thinking the same thing watching it.
Speaker 2: For ten years, So I thought you were thinking that
Speaker 2: for ten years.
Speaker 1: No, no, and then yeah, that was it. That was
Speaker 1: the last we saw of you. But that was not
Speaker 1: certainly not the last of your extensive resume.
Speaker 3: You are his career.
Speaker 1: Wow, you a lot. That's got to feel good.
Speaker 3: It's good. It's good. I would like to work more,
Speaker 3: but yes, it's good.
Speaker 1: I think everyone says that.
Speaker 2: Sure, my kids would kill me if I didn't ask
Speaker 2: which voices you did in Family Guy?
Speaker 3: Oh, Family Guy. You know it's funny. I did the
Speaker 3: first Yeah, I was on the first season. I think
Speaker 3: maybe the second or third season, I played like, oh,
Speaker 3: maybe there was a Daryl Holland and John Oates. I
Speaker 3: played one of those guys. I played man at Circus.
Speaker 3: You know. I played all the parts that all the
Speaker 3: funnies that that I that Seth didn't do. You know,
Speaker 3: Seth does like fifteen or feels like fifteen voices an episode.
Speaker 3: But I so I had some other little episode. I
Speaker 3: remember auditioning for the part of the kid that Seth
Speaker 3: Green got, but they were kind enough to kind of
Speaker 3: still bring me in and have me do some other voices.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's awesome. It's a funny show.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you've been up to. I know you
Speaker 1: just had a movie come out, didn't you.
Speaker 3: Yes, I did this Ethan Cohen film called Drive Away Dolls,
Speaker 3: this crazy, wacky lesbian road trip comedy, and it came
Speaker 3: out in the theaters. It opened on the twenty third,
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, and I play I play a hit man.
Speaker 3: And it was a great phenomenal experience doing it and
Speaker 3: I've gotten. I've been lucky because Ethan is also a
Speaker 3: wonderful playwright. So I've been in about four of his
Speaker 3: plays and we've done most of those in New York City,
Speaker 3: and then we did one at the Taper in Los
Speaker 3: Angeles twenty nineteen called a Play is a Poem. So
Speaker 3: I've had this great kind of working relationship with him,
Speaker 3: and then I got to do a film amazing.
Speaker 1: Where are you living right now? Are you calling us
Speaker 1: from New.
Speaker 3: York, La? I'm calling you from Chicago, Illinois, from your
Speaker 3: home land home?
Speaker 1: Yes, I as well, am from Illinois. Are you We're
Speaker 1: part of Illinois Champagne or Banna area outside of there. Sure, woods.
Speaker 1: You could have found me in the woods. But you're
Speaker 1: from the city.
Speaker 3: Yes, born in the city and then and then I
Speaker 3: grew up in Evanston, Wilmett and yeah, and then moved
Speaker 3: around a bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nice. So you're home visiting family.
Speaker 3: I'm assuming no home home because I live here now.
Speaker 1: That's it permanent.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was in New York for my wife and
Speaker 3: I weren't well. She was. She was in New York
Speaker 3: for a long time. But I was in New York
Speaker 3: for about fourteen years. After being in LA for like
Speaker 3: twelve years and then yeah, we thought this would be
Speaker 3: a good place to settle for a bit. We have
Speaker 3: a daughter and she goes to school right across the
Speaker 3: from she she's seven, seven.
Speaker 1: And you get to walk her to school like normal people.
Speaker 2: Like my youngest just turned seven, so good age. It's
Speaker 2: they're no longer babies and they're yeah, little tiny adults
Speaker 2: that challenge you and make you laugh and very clever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's just grown up right in front of my eyes.
Speaker 3: That's pretty wild.
Speaker 1: If you could say, like, what was your favorite TV show,
Speaker 1: like just limited to TV shows, if you could say
Speaker 1: what was your favorite TV show that you were ever on?
Speaker 1: What would it be because you were on a lot
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 3: Oh that I was ever on for an extended period
Speaker 3: or just like yeah, yest spotter.
Speaker 1: But you will like to have a lasting memory from
Speaker 1: because and also there are going to be so many
Speaker 1: more but that have been on.
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess you know. I had a really
Speaker 3: good time on The Single Guy. That was one of
Speaker 3: my first things that was big and that was really fun.
Speaker 3: I did have a good experience on Boston Public, This
Speaker 3: David Kelly Show, High School. Yeah, yeah, high school teacher.
Speaker 3: That was a great experience. You know, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Speaker 3: that was just one episode, but that was really fun.
Speaker 1: I mean there's oh my god, what did you do
Speaker 1: on Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Speaker 3: I played Larry had an assistant played his her boyfriend
Speaker 3: and she and she was really concerned with my character
Speaker 3: and not really doing her work. So Larry had to
Speaker 3: come to my work to.
Speaker 1: Try and get me to Okay, Oh the best.
Speaker 3: I love Curve your It's pretty fabulous.
Speaker 1: Well, these are those are all good options, great shows.
Speaker 2: On Nip Tuck, Who would you play?
Speaker 3: I played a very bad I like that doctor named
Speaker 3: Merril Bobbolett.
Speaker 1: Who is do you remember job?
Speaker 3: I can't believe I just found that name in my head. Yes,
Speaker 3: who was uh you know, I mean not the most
Speaker 3: up and up plastic surgeon. Well, no, I think there
Speaker 3: was a while he certainly he got a little waylaid.
Speaker 2: But yes, what do you do?
Speaker 3: Oh? Because he started to do I think there was
Speaker 3: an episode where he had to he was trying to
Speaker 3: work on a dog, like there was a niptok that
Speaker 3: he had to do with a dog or something. I
Speaker 3: have to I would have to go back in my
Speaker 3: my rolodex of shows.
Speaker 2: He was a bad doctor. Yeah, he wasn't great, bad guy,
Speaker 2: bad guy, but.
Speaker 3: He was full of confidence, so that was good.
Speaker 1: I want to know this. I want to know since
Speaker 1: you've done so many different forms, different ways of you know,
Speaker 1: acting on theater, in the theater and in TV shows
Speaker 1: and in movies, like which is your favorite platform?
Speaker 3: Theater, theater, no doubt about it, and why you know,
Speaker 3: just that's how I started doing a play. There's nothing
Speaker 3: better than doing a play. There's nothing better than than
Speaker 3: rehearsing for four or five weeks and with a group
Speaker 3: of artists performing. It's always different every night, and there's
Speaker 3: that strange, wonderful repetition, the illusion of the first time
Speaker 3: and you're doing it again as though you've never done
Speaker 3: it before. You've never said the words before, you've never
Speaker 3: heard the words coming out of your partners before. But
Speaker 3: I don't know, there's just it's there's something beautiful about
Speaker 3: this kind of shared experience. And yes, you can have
Speaker 3: it in a movie theater, certainly, but when it's live
Speaker 3: and it's happening, it's it's just the best.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like it. Yeah, I've always wanted to feel
Speaker 1: that feeling. I've never done theater, but you should, a
Speaker 1: lot of people have said.
Speaker 2: That great energy and the audience and.
Speaker 1: The camaraderie, like you said that, just like common goal
Speaker 1: that you have as a cast every night, and you
Speaker 1: have to you have to depend on one another to
Speaker 1: make it happen. It's not just about one person, no, completely,
Speaker 1: and there's there's no cutting, there's no recess.
Speaker 3: No exactly.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: Well, you're awesome.
Speaker 1: It's so good to catch up with you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks for having me. This is really fun.
Speaker 1: Tell ILLINOI hello for me.
Speaker 3: I will definitely do that.
Speaker 1: Shout it, shout it to them. I love that. Thank
Speaker 1: you for coming back and sharing your Tuck memories with us.
Speaker 3: Sure, I know. I want to go back and watch
Speaker 3: the episode.
Speaker 1: It's cute.
Speaker 3: You should.
Speaker 2: It is fun. It's fun to go and if anyone
Speaker 2: wants to slide into your d MS, we're big fans
Speaker 2: of that at Instagram it's at king slotty s l
Speaker 2: O T T.
Speaker 1: I was looking at you thinking I would let you
Speaker 1: be my plastic surgeon. Like if I if you walked
Speaker 1: into the room, I'd be okay with it.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. This is another career I got to think about.
Speaker 2: Look at do not say that lightly?
Speaker 1: So yeah, oh, thank you so much. Joey appreciated.
Speaker 2: We'll see you.
Speaker 1: I'll see you you too, Bye, Thank you bye. I
Speaker 1: mean he's he's trustable, that face.
Speaker 2: I'm a fan.
Speaker 1: You were you found out for a second a little bit,
Speaker 1: a little bit like it is like he's that guy
Speaker 1: that you look at and you've seen him a million places,
Speaker 1: yes and everywhere. Yeah, he's cool. That was fun.
Speaker 2: That was great.
Speaker 1: Thanks Joey Slotnik for your interview.