Speaker 1: Do you think that the Office jokes can kind of
Speaker 1: live in today's society. I don't know. People are watching it,
Speaker 1: and that's what ultimately is the goal in real life.
Speaker 1: How are Kevin and Brian different? Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I don't spoiler alert, I don't talk quite the same way.
Speaker 1: When finally Dwight gets married and then Michael shows up,
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh my god, I started crying
Speaker 1: without saying anything about me. I promise you this. You
Speaker 1: were not the only one who cried. Hey, what up? Everyone?
Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of cheek Ease and Chill. I'm
Speaker 1: your host cheek Ease, and we have a very exciting
Speaker 1: episode in store for you today. The person we're speaking
Speaker 1: with is a cast member of one of my favorite
Speaker 1: shows ever. So let's not waste any more time and
Speaker 1: let's jump right into it. This is cheek Ease and Chill.
Speaker 1: Today's guest is someone I'm really looking forward to talking to.
Speaker 1: It's none other than Brian bomb Gartner. You may know
Speaker 1: him as Kevin Malone from the Emmy Award winning TV
Speaker 1: sitcom The Office, or you might know him as the
Speaker 1: host of his podcast Off the Beat. Welcome to the show,
Speaker 1: Brian thank you. How are you. I'm good, How are
Speaker 1: you good? I'm glad to be here. Thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited. I cannot believe that I'm talking to you
Speaker 1: right now. Thank you so much. I'm a huge, huge
Speaker 1: fan of the Office. Honestly, I'm one of the later fans,
Speaker 1: Like I started watching it, I want to say, like
Speaker 1: about a year ago, and I'm like so into it,
Speaker 1: and everyone asked me, who's your favorite character? Like It's
Speaker 1: so hard because I love you all for like different reasons.
Speaker 1: But I kind of wanted to talk about that, you know,
Speaker 1: being a part of the Office, And do you think
Speaker 1: that the Office, like a lot of the jokes that
Speaker 1: have been made, can kind of live in today's society.
Speaker 1: I guess, um, we get asked that question a lot now.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, here's the thing. We haven't filmed anything
Speaker 1: now in about eight years, right, And for most of
Speaker 1: the time we were on we were the number one
Speaker 1: show on NBC, right, so we were good. But for us,
Speaker 1: we never felt like we were like friends or something
Speaker 1: like huge billboards and ads and the cover of Vogue
Speaker 1: or whatever. That wasn't it. However, now seven eight years
Speaker 1: and then this started several years ago. We're currently the
Speaker 1: most watched show in television. So of all the news
Speaker 1: ship people talking about squid Game or succession or or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, more people are watching The Office now
Speaker 1: than any other show in television. So part of what
Speaker 1: I have been exploring over the last couple of years
Speaker 1: is why what happened? Like, why are more people watching it?
Speaker 1: Why do we have new fit with fans like you
Speaker 1: Cheekey's why are you finding it now? Well after when
Speaker 1: we ran? And I think that the universality of the show.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we have one producer who just says, well,
Speaker 1: because it's funny, that's that's it. I think that's true.
Speaker 1: But I think that really it's about especially during the
Speaker 1: pandemic this time when we were all sort of searching
Speaker 1: for a connection. We couldn't go out the way that
Speaker 1: we used to go out. We couldn't see our friends.
Speaker 1: If we had family across the country, we couldn't see them.
Speaker 1: And so I think that The Office became a show
Speaker 1: that people started using to find a connection with people.
Speaker 1: You know, could it be made today? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think there are things that might change. One of
Speaker 1: our producers, Greg Daniels, who created the show says, you know,
Speaker 1: we may make fun a little bit. We may have
Speaker 1: poked more fun at a woke culture now than anything else.
Speaker 1: I don't know, could it be made today? People are
Speaker 1: watching it, and that's what ultimately is the goal, So
Speaker 1: I don't know. I I tend to say yes, with
Speaker 1: maybe some some joke exceptions. Yeah. I think it's hilarious,
Speaker 1: And like you said, I just for me it was.
Speaker 1: Everyone's so sensitive now I feel, you know, and I
Speaker 1: get it to a certain extent, but for me, it's
Speaker 1: like it's acting. It's supposed to be fun. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's just I want to think that it could be
Speaker 1: made today, you know, and like you said, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe adjusting a few things. But I think it's perfect
Speaker 1: the way it is, and I really use it as
Speaker 1: as a form of therapy. I feel like when I'm
Speaker 1: watching The Office, I could watch the same episode a
Speaker 1: thousand times and I don't get bored. I feel like
Speaker 1: I find something new every single time, and it's an
Speaker 1: outlet for me, and it's it's a form of therapy.
Speaker 1: And I could just sometimes even put it on as
Speaker 1: background noise when I'm doing something and I can almost
Speaker 1: finish everyone's lines, like it makes me forget about everything
Speaker 1: going on in the world because, as we know, it's
Speaker 1: been pretty tough since. So it's like, that's what it's
Speaker 1: done for my heart in my mind, and this is
Speaker 1: why I'm like, I guess, yeah, I'm new, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like, what the heck? Why
Speaker 1: did I jump on the damn badwag in so late?
Speaker 1: Because it makes it feels so good? Are you surprised, though?
Speaker 1: Are you surprised that so many people like still love it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean of the things that we've talked about is,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got a lot of younger people. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, like I get stopped by twelve fourteen year
Speaker 1: old and when we made the show, we weren't making
Speaker 1: it for that. I mean, it really was about a
Speaker 1: staple of television is like the office comedy, right, So
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, so people in offices will hopefully they'll
Speaker 1: respond to the humor and watch it. But I think
Speaker 1: that the young people was really surprising to me. And
Speaker 1: then I've come to a discovery through conversations with multiple
Speaker 1: people about this, which is that there's a correlation between
Speaker 1: an unreasonable boss who makes his employees do unreasonable things
Speaker 1: while sitting next to people that you don't choose to
Speaker 1: sit next to year after year after year. There's a
Speaker 1: close correlation between that and an unreasonable teacher who makes
Speaker 1: their students do unreasonable things while sitting in a classroom
Speaker 1: next to these people that you don't necessarily choose to
Speaker 1: sit next to. And so I think that while thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 1: sixteen year old people don't have the office experience, they
Speaker 1: do have an experience of being in a confined area
Speaker 1: with with a bunch of other people with different personalities
Speaker 1: that ultimately you have to form some sort of bond
Speaker 1: with to get through day after day after day. And
Speaker 1: I think to your point, that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that's been really surprising to me, that not to put
Speaker 1: words in your mouth, but essentially like it brings you comfort,
Speaker 1: you put it on even if you're not watching, because
Speaker 1: it makes you feel good in a way. And I
Speaker 1: think that's the thing that that people miss. Michael Scott
Speaker 1: may say inappropriate things, non pc things, things you quote
Speaker 1: unquote can't say today, but it's always been confusing to
Speaker 1: me because the overall message is he says something and
Speaker 1: you have thirteen people looking at the camera or responding
Speaker 1: in a way which is you can't say that, you
Speaker 1: can't you can you can't say that thing. This has
Speaker 1: always been confusing to me. To me, it's actually very
Speaker 1: progressive in that way. It is telling you, in some
Speaker 1: ways or other what you can and can't say. We
Speaker 1: had mandatory sexual harassment seminars from NBC Universal, right, this
Speaker 1: huge conglomerate. So just like if you were working in
Speaker 1: an office, we had to get sexual harassment training once
Speaker 1: a year. We had to sit in a room and
Speaker 1: sign in for their corporate whatever. And this is not
Speaker 1: a joke, this is true. In that seminar, the HR
Speaker 1: people that they would bring in to teach these seminars
Speaker 1: would show clips from the office showing what you couldn't
Speaker 1: do in the workplace. So we're all sitting there watching
Speaker 1: ourselves on TV showing doing what we are told we
Speaker 1: can't do. Very weird thing. But anyway, I think that
Speaker 1: the message of the show is, yeah, these are things
Speaker 1: you can't do or can't say. Yeah, like you said,
Speaker 1: Like I would see Pam's face all the time and
Speaker 1: she look at the camera, She's like uh, like she's
Speaker 1: not her head, like I just can't believe you just
Speaker 1: said that, but it would make it so freaking funny.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like guys like I see it as
Speaker 1: again acting. But any who, now, let's talk about Kevin
Speaker 1: so in real life. How are Kevin and Brian different?
Speaker 1: Are they very different? Do you guys have any similarities
Speaker 1: at all? Well, first of all, I don't spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: I don't talk. I don't talk in quite the same way,
Speaker 1: so that would be a difference. I don't I talk
Speaker 1: a little faster. Let's say this. The basketball episode was
Speaker 1: not edited. That was me, so I guess I can
Speaker 1: shoot the rock that were similar at that nice we
Speaker 1: shot a golf episode. I play a lot of golf,
Speaker 1: so that's true. And I do like to bet on golf.
Speaker 1: That is true as well. I like to play cards,
Speaker 1: so maybe that's true as well. I know you you
Speaker 1: know music, so don't don't be alarmed here. I do
Speaker 1: not play the drums. I do not play the drums.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you a funny story. I fooled Alice Cooper,
Speaker 1: which might be my greatest claim to fame. I showed
Speaker 1: up at a charity event for Alice Cooper. We're on
Speaker 1: our way, there's like a big benefit concert and they've
Speaker 1: got I mean, they've got tons of musicians singing and
Speaker 1: playing instruments. And the guy goes, okay, so just so
Speaker 1: you know, you know, it's concert and different people sing.
Speaker 1: But Alice thought it would be really fun the last
Speaker 1: song that he's gonna play as schools out for summer,
Speaker 1: right schools for So he's like, all right, so when
Speaker 1: when we play that, we're gonna invite you on stage
Speaker 1: to play the drums. Oh my god. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, um, I don't want to make Mr
Speaker 1: Cooper mad, but that's a hard no. Like I know,
Speaker 1: I know enough that I could not fool my way
Speaker 1: through with a bunch of legendary musicians playing the drums
Speaker 1: on that song. So yeah, I turned into a little
Speaker 1: bad background singer. I did come up and do some
Speaker 1: background singing, but yeah, no, I do not play the drums. Okay, nice,
Speaker 1: Are you married, Brian? I am? Yes. So that's a
Speaker 1: different because they know Kevin didn't have or he had girlfriends,
Speaker 1: right he did. We started with a fiancee, yes, we started,
Speaker 1: who left, and then there was periodically a couple of
Speaker 1: other relationships. But Brian's very much married and you've been
Speaker 1: married for how long? Brian? Eight years? Nice? Okay, so
Speaker 1: right after like you finished with The Office, No, I
Speaker 1: guess we were. I guess now we were. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: that's right, Yes, that's right, that's right. Together, but no,
Speaker 1: together together longer. That's why the math. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: that didn't happen. Yes, but anyway, So so what made
Speaker 1: you want to be on the show? Like, did you
Speaker 1: want to audition for Kevin's role specifically or did you
Speaker 1: just audition? How did that work? No? I was aware
Speaker 1: there was a British version of the show first, and
Speaker 1: there was a character in the British version, his name
Speaker 1: was Keith that they kind of, you know, they kind
Speaker 1: of took that character. So most of the characters in
Speaker 1: the Office were not taken. So they really, um, Michael
Speaker 1: and Dwight and Jim and Pam and Ryan and Kevin.
Speaker 1: We're really the only characters that had a British counterpart
Speaker 1: that came over. So that's sort of where it started.
Speaker 1: And I knew that they were looking for unknown people.
Speaker 1: And at the time I had just moved to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: I had been doing theater around the country, so I was.
Speaker 1: I was not known, and so I knew. I knew
Speaker 1: that was a part I could play, and I knew
Speaker 1: they were looking for unknown people, and so no, I
Speaker 1: saught it out. I worked to get an audition in
Speaker 1: a meeting, but ultimately, yeah, I just I just auditioned. Okay,
Speaker 1: And how did you prepare for the role of Kevin?
Speaker 1: I mean I had been working, like I said, in
Speaker 1: the theater and for me, voice, physicality, those were all
Speaker 1: part of creating a character. I mean I had, I
Speaker 1: had gone to school, I had studied acting, and I
Speaker 1: wasn't really a comedy guy per se. I mean I
Speaker 1: did a lot of dramas and usually really bad bad guys.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, yeah, I know, I know that's what people
Speaker 1: say now it's crazy, but yeah, I mean I I
Speaker 1: certainly I had done some comedy, but it wasn't like
Speaker 1: I was a stand up guy or an improv guy
Speaker 1: working really just in comedy. So for me, in terms
Speaker 1: of creating the role, yeah, that was just what I saw,
Speaker 1: and then working with the writers we kind of fine
Speaker 1: tuned him a little bit. But yeah, the physicality and
Speaker 1: the voice and all of that was was for me
Speaker 1: about creating a character. Nice were you one of the
Speaker 1: writers on the show. No, I directed, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: a writer. You The thing I tell people because there
Speaker 1: were a lot of If you don't know, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of actors who were writers on the Office.
Speaker 1: The way that you know is if you were in
Speaker 1: the main room. The people in the main room weren't
Speaker 1: writers because mostly filmed in the in the main room.
Speaker 1: So the people who sat back by the break room
Speaker 1: in the annex, those were the writers. So Mindy Kaling
Speaker 1: who played Kelly, and Paul Lieberstein who played Toby, and
Speaker 1: bj Novak who played Ryan. Yeah, they were all back
Speaker 1: there so they could be writing and not filming as much.
Speaker 1: And that was because they needed to write. Yes, there
Speaker 1: were times when I wanted to just choke Ryan just
Speaker 1: like he was hilarious. So then Michael Scott les, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be honest. Okay. When Michael Scott left, I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to watch anymore because
Speaker 1: it's like he was so huge because I'm never going
Speaker 1: to be the same And I got into the show
Speaker 1: because of my boyfriend. He's a huge office. I'm like huge,
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, you have to watch you have to
Speaker 1: watch it. I watched it, and I fell in love
Speaker 1: all over again. I felt like, oh my god, like
Speaker 1: everyone came together and did such a wonderful job. Like
Speaker 1: it got to a point where I didn't even miss Michael.
Speaker 1: But then you watch it again and we started over again,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, this is why I love it.
Speaker 1: You know, But how did you guys feel when Michael said, okay,
Speaker 1: he had to go. I mean, it was it was
Speaker 1: devastatingly hard. It was really hard. I mean because again,
Speaker 1: we were all including Steve, the people who watched the
Speaker 1: show more recently, Steve Carell's big star, right, like, and
Speaker 1: you watch the show, it's Steve Karel show. But you know,
Speaker 1: at the time, nobody was famous, nobody was known. Fourty
Speaker 1: year old Virgin didn't come out until our second season,
Speaker 1: and that's really when he went bonkers. So we all
Speaker 1: kind of grew up together, and the show struggled in
Speaker 1: the beginning in terms of getting fans, and so, you know,
Speaker 1: we all just sort of bonded together. So when he left,
Speaker 1: it really was like one of the ang is gone,
Speaker 1: and kind of the Papa is gone. And the thing
Speaker 1: you have to know also is is that as much
Speaker 1: of an amazing creation that Michael Scott is, Steve Carell
Speaker 1: is a is a better guy um than than even
Speaker 1: that that creation. So we were we were losing kind
Speaker 1: of an amazing character, not just in our show but
Speaker 1: in my opinion, in the history of television. But we're
Speaker 1: also missing like our leader, our friend who who we
Speaker 1: had all kind of grown up with in the industry.
Speaker 1: So it was really tough, I think in terms of
Speaker 1: for us moving forward. He's talked very publicly about why
Speaker 1: he left. I mean, he was the central story for
Speaker 1: seven years, and he felt like he wanted the character
Speaker 1: to have a journey from having his family be the
Speaker 1: office to maturing and growing enough as a human being
Speaker 1: to be able to have his own family and someone
Speaker 1: that he fell in love with. So that journey had happened,
Speaker 1: and after that he felt like it was it was
Speaker 1: just it was time for him to go. So we
Speaker 1: all felt like there were parts of the other characters
Speaker 1: that now we just had more time to tell once
Speaker 1: he was gone. So that was really what our our
Speaker 1: focus became was was just further exploring the other characters
Speaker 1: that were left yeah, you guys did amazing with it,
Speaker 1: because I really thought it's gonna be just way too different,
Speaker 1: you know. And when I got around to watching it
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, everyone came together and did an
Speaker 1: amazing effing job, I was like this, I loved it.
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, well Michael's not here, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just forgot. But I mean, I love him,
Speaker 1: and I think that Steve Carroll is just an amazing
Speaker 1: human being an actor. But I was wondering about that
Speaker 1: because I was like, I felt it. I cried. I
Speaker 1: was like when he left, I was like, what the
Speaker 1: heck is going on? But I think that that's that's
Speaker 1: big of him too, of saying, you know what, sometimes
Speaker 1: we do have to accept, like this is good for
Speaker 1: this season of my life and now I'm moving on
Speaker 1: to the next phase. And he did it both for
Speaker 1: himself and the character, you know, So I think it
Speaker 1: worked out fairly nicely. I'm sure it was difficult, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean and and look, I mean, and I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to undercut any of that because that is the truth.
Speaker 1: But by the same token, the fact that he was
Speaker 1: there producing or you know, acting in almost thirty episodes
Speaker 1: a year after he became kind of the largest comedy
Speaker 1: star on the planet after fourty year old Virgin in
Speaker 1: the movies that that he did and the opportunities that
Speaker 1: he had, the fact that he stayed around. You know,
Speaker 1: his contract was for seven years. Everybody else over time
Speaker 1: extended their contracts. He lived out his contract. He didn't leave,
Speaker 1: you know. That was the thing is, he didn't really leave.
Speaker 1: He did his job. He did it the whole time
Speaker 1: he was there. He loved it. He's talked a lot
Speaker 1: about it. He and I talked for my podcast about
Speaker 1: that transition for him. But the fact that he stayed
Speaker 1: that long after what he had become really like at
Speaker 1: the beginning of our second season is also really just
Speaker 1: like a credit to him as a human being. That
Speaker 1: he didn't just say like, okay, guys, I'm I'm good now,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, and I'm to go, you know,
Speaker 1: do the next Ghostbusters or whatever. No, he was a
Speaker 1: man of his word. He said, this is my contract,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna live it through and and you know, he
Speaker 1: gave his best. I mean, I'm sure it was. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of work because he was doing everything
Speaker 1: all at once. Um, are you guys still friends. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we just like everybody, right, I
Speaker 1: mean there's been time a lot of people don't live
Speaker 1: in the same city anymore. Um, people have kind of
Speaker 1: moved around the country, and obviously the pandemic seeing but um,
Speaker 1: you know, I tell people we have a group text
Speaker 1: that we use fairly often, and then you know, some
Speaker 1: of us get together. Oscar and I tomorrow morning are
Speaker 1: going to Oklahoma City to do something together. So you know,
Speaker 1: there's different things that happened, and awesome. Tell Oscar I said, Hi,
Speaker 1: I will He's like, who is that chick? But anyways,
Speaker 1: I love Oscar. He's freaking awesome. Okay, so tell me
Speaker 1: life after the office finished? What team? Correct? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: about right. Yeah, did you take some time off? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I'll be honest, like, no one should cry
Speaker 1: for any of us, but you know, most help well
Speaker 1: and especially now, right. I mean most of the shows
Speaker 1: you start watching are nine episodes or ten or even
Speaker 1: the network television shows were two and we were doing thirty.
Speaker 1: So I mean we were working almost year round. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The other thing people don't realize is is that it's
Speaker 1: it's twelve or fourteen hours a day on set. I
Speaker 1: mean just in terms of the amount of time, so
Speaker 1: that's sixty seventy hours a week. There was just very
Speaker 1: little time for anything else in addition to the other
Speaker 1: kind of requirements that go along with doing a show,
Speaker 1: press and so forth. So yeah, I think I think
Speaker 1: I took some time and also became very strategic in
Speaker 1: terms of the types of roles that I wanted to play.
Speaker 1: You know, I wanted to be sure to make decisions
Speaker 1: to do different things and started doing more in the
Speaker 1: film space and in the drama television space, as uh
Speaker 1: I talked about before. So and then, you know, really
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, I've I've almost returned in
Speaker 1: a way because of the phenomenon that the office became.
Speaker 1: I kind of became the historian in a way. Myself
Speaker 1: and Ben Silverman, we wrote a book you're now speaking
Speaker 1: to a New York Times bestselling author, Welcome to dunder Mifflin.
Speaker 1: If you haven't checked that out. We put a bunch
Speaker 1: of never before seeing photos in there and kind of
Speaker 1: went back and and retold the story of the show
Speaker 1: and how it came to be, and really, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I think for fans like you that found the show
Speaker 1: later to really try to go back and say, like, yes,
Speaker 1: Steve Carrell, he was not nobody knew who Rain Wilson was,
Speaker 1: or Jenni Fisher or John Krasinski. You know, Jennif Fisher
Speaker 1: was about to quit the business and move on to
Speaker 1: do something else when this happened. So it was a
Speaker 1: lot about that. So I've really enjoyed now after some
Speaker 1: time going back and and re exploring it again, and
Speaker 1: I'm having a lot of fun. So did your book
Speaker 1: come first and then your podcast? The podcast came first,
Speaker 1: So I went back and talked to my old friends
Speaker 1: and did a bunch of interviews and ended up with
Speaker 1: um over a hundred hours of interviews from just office
Speaker 1: folks and sort of took that and photos and turned
Speaker 1: that into a book. And and now I enjoyed doing
Speaker 1: the podcast stuff so much. The sort of new iteration
Speaker 1: it's called off the beat. Yeah, tell us about it.
Speaker 1: So I'm going back and talking to other entertainers, people
Speaker 1: in television, people in movies. We're gonna talk to people
Speaker 1: in music and people in uh sports eventually, but you know,
Speaker 1: just wanting to tell the stories that have never been
Speaker 1: heard before. So today's episode, Jon Hamm from Madman, came out,
Speaker 1: talked to Eric stone Street from Modern Family and Jimmy
Speaker 1: Lynn Siegler from The Sopranos, And so you know these
Speaker 1: stars from certain shows or entertainment. But I'm really wanting
Speaker 1: to hear the story that that we don't know. That's
Speaker 1: the story. And I'm calling him those off the beat moments.
Speaker 1: We all know those, you know, winning Emmy's or mad Men.
Speaker 1: But but how did Jon Hamm get the role of
Speaker 1: Don Draper and mad Men? And I mean, here's a
Speaker 1: crazy story. I'll tell you. He was Ellie Kemper, Right,
Speaker 1: So Ellie Kemper, who played Aaron Hannon in the Office
Speaker 1: and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Jon Hamm was her high school
Speaker 1: drama teacher. No way, what the hell? How crazy is that?
Speaker 1: How crazy is that? Yeah? And so we discovered this
Speaker 1: on your podcast Off the Beat. Yeah. So then years later,
Speaker 1: I say, well, do you keep in touch with her?
Speaker 1: Like she's a high school student, Like do you do
Speaker 1: you you know? And uh, he said, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Off and on I remembered her. She you know, obviously
Speaker 1: she was good and talented. And then years later, when
Speaker 1: she started Breakable Kimi Schmidt. They called John and said,
Speaker 1: I want to play this role in this movie. So
Speaker 1: it's like this weird the high school drama teacher becomes
Speaker 1: the guest star. And he was making jokes like he
Speaker 1: was like talking to me about coming and playing this part.
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, I don't know if I have
Speaker 1: time to do it, and they're like, um, it's like
Speaker 1: one episode a year, and he's like, oh, you're not
Speaker 1: even offering me the lead, like imred teacher, and now
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play Like yeah, anyway, So I'm having a
Speaker 1: blast doing that. I love podcasting because I feel like
Speaker 1: you just I don't know, it's I don't have to
Speaker 1: get like already and stuff. You know. Eventually I want
Speaker 1: to get into like the visual part of it, like
Speaker 1: some video, but for now I'm really enjoying It's it's
Speaker 1: a form again, a therapy for me. Yeah, I love
Speaker 1: the form. I mean, you know the thing I tell
Speaker 1: people is if you just say late night television, right,
Speaker 1: you think, oh, well, they talked to John Hamm last week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they talked to him for eight minutes with a commercial
Speaker 1: break in the middle, Like they didn't really talk about anything.
Speaker 1: They talked about whatever, project he has coming on right now,
Speaker 1: maybe one Madman joke and then you know we're onto
Speaker 1: the next person. I think this form allows you to
Speaker 1: have substitutive conversations and begin to have and find a
Speaker 1: relationship with a person that that you can't sort of
Speaker 1: get in that other form. So I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 1: I have a Q and A. Are you down to
Speaker 1: do that with me right now? I'm down. Let's go.
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite character on the Office, Kevin Malone? That's right, yes, um.
Speaker 1: I do think, however, in terms of just character that
Speaker 1: Michael Scott is amazing. The character of Dwight True is
Speaker 1: just the character everything about him. The dichotomy is within
Speaker 1: himself that he's an anime loving trans am driving heavy
Speaker 1: metal listening like chess pla. Nothing makes sense to it,
Speaker 1: but I think it's see that's the thing I loved.
Speaker 1: I love all of you guys. At different times, I
Speaker 1: just I can't pinpoint one. I really really really can't
Speaker 1: even like Todd Packer. Sometimes I was just like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I want to just choke him too, but
Speaker 1: then he's freaking funny, so I'm like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I can't choose one. I mean, someone just came up
Speaker 1: to me the other day on the street and was
Speaker 1: talking about their favorite moment of the show, and I said,
Speaker 1: what was it? And that's a crazy thing. I get
Speaker 1: so many. But they were like, oh, when Todd Packer
Speaker 1: makes the cupcakes and laced and you and Andy go
Speaker 1: into that like trip scene. I'm like, oh, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was so fun. Yeah, there are so many moments like that.
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, that's one of the times I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I don't like this guy,
Speaker 1: but I love him. It's you know, love and hate relationship. Um, okay,
Speaker 1: So who's your favorite actor on the Oh I can't
Speaker 1: answer that, but I will tell you this. I've said
Speaker 1: it many times. The funniest person off screen is Oscar Nunias. Really,
Speaker 1: Oscar nuns is the funniest. Oh my good news. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love Oscar. I have a question. Actually, okay, So
Speaker 1: Phillis I hear that she was was it she was
Speaker 1: like she was trying to find castor what what's the
Speaker 1: what's the deal with Phillis? She was a casting director. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was the assistant casting director on the On the
Speaker 1: Office and what happens oftentimes Alison Jones, who's a genius
Speaker 1: and has cast basically every comedy that anyone who's listening
Speaker 1: to has ever liked. Alison Jones the casting director, and
Speaker 1: so a lot of times they're like, you know, talking
Speaker 1: to the producers and doing stuff when people are reading.
Speaker 1: And Phillis was the person who read with us, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: imagine if I'm auditioning and I have a scene with
Speaker 1: Angela or something, so She's reading Angela's lines off camera
Speaker 1: while I'm auditioning for the role, and the director Ken
Speaker 1: Kappas told stories they would have these long sessions and
Speaker 1: so forth, and he found himself that he kept looking
Speaker 1: over at Phillis and he's like, like, couldn't kind he
Speaker 1: was like, to the detriment of like probably some of
Speaker 1: the actors who auditioned, he just couldn't stop watching Phillis
Speaker 1: and eventually went to Greg and was like, she has
Speaker 1: to work here, And so that was how the character
Speaker 1: of Phillis was created. That's crazy. Wow, Yeah, my boyfriend
Speaker 1: was telling me that. I was like, I don't believe you.
Speaker 1: He's like, I swear as as Kevin. She was, and
Speaker 1: not to like sell the podcast, but she and I
Speaker 1: had a long conversation in which I learned all of
Speaker 1: that is true, but more than that. When we started filming,
Speaker 1: she felt self conscious because she wasn't an improviser, she
Speaker 1: wasn't an actor, and she felt like she was behind him.
Speaker 1: Was afraid she wasn't being good, and so she would
Speaker 1: leave work and she went and picked up books on
Speaker 1: improv and at night would read books on improv. As
Speaker 1: we started shooting the show. Yeah, she told me that
Speaker 1: I had no idea, no idea, how cute is she?
Speaker 1: And I thought she was so awesome. I was like,
Speaker 1: I definitely thought she was an actor and she's freaking
Speaker 1: like I wanted to always just hug her and have
Speaker 1: her bake cookies for me, and I'm just like, she's
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that that's that's so great. So
Speaker 1: she was like, I want to be great at this
Speaker 1: and she was so The chili scene was a very
Speaker 1: popular scene for Kevin. What's your favorite scene or episode?
Speaker 1: I mean it really changes the series of episodes where
Speaker 1: Kevin meets Holly in terms of of playing that. That
Speaker 1: was really fun. That was really fun. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: a cool moment and how she thought you were special something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she would speak to me. I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: The one I loved was when you gave Michael was
Speaker 1: looking for a girlfriend and you gave him Wendy's number
Speaker 1: and it was Wendy's Wendy's the Fast. Oh my god, hilarious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. That. And also, oh, can you please
Speaker 1: do it about the cats when you said, no, you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to eat cats, Kevin, you can't eat cats.
Speaker 1: You can't eat cats, Kevin. I loved it. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I have so many. Oh. And then the very last
Speaker 1: one when finally Dwight gets married to Angela and then
Speaker 1: Michael shows up. I was like, oh my god. When
Speaker 1: Jim said, you know, I can't be your best man,
Speaker 1: and like he comes and I was just like, oh
Speaker 1: my god. I started crying. Beautiful, I promise you this,
Speaker 1: without saying anything about me, I promise you this. You
Speaker 1: were not the only one who cried. Oh oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you did you cry. I'm not answering that. I'm just
Speaker 1: letting you know for sure you aren't the only one. Dude.
Speaker 1: I was bawling. I was like, this is perfect. I
Speaker 1: just felt like it all just came together. And he
Speaker 1: didn't even talk much. He just stayed like behind and
Speaker 1: let everyone else do their thing, and it was just
Speaker 1: so beautiful. I was bawling. I've watched it like three
Speaker 1: times already. I think I probably watched I mean, I
Speaker 1: cry again. So what's something you think the audience got
Speaker 1: wrong about Kevin? Well? I can tell you this. There
Speaker 1: became a very popular Reddit chain which that Kevin was
Speaker 1: secretly a genius and he was embezzling money from dunder
Speaker 1: Mifflin and that's how he got the bar. And they
Speaker 1: go through and they talk about a bunch of examples
Speaker 1: about his gambling and how he gets some money and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, blah blah. I don't think that's right. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that's a fan theory with all of the evidence
Speaker 1: they have, I don't I don't think they're right about that.
Speaker 1: Now that we're talking about that there was some type
Speaker 1: of serial killer, right, I forgot his name and they
Speaker 1: thought it was Creed. Yes, I thought that maybe it
Speaker 1: was Creed or something like that. Did we We never
Speaker 1: got to the bottom of that, did we. No? But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. Everything it's and not only every
Speaker 1: like Q in a show where people are allowed to
Speaker 1: ask questions. Not only do people always ask about the
Speaker 1: scrant and the Strangler, that's the name. It's almost always
Speaker 1: one of the first questions, which is who is the
Speaker 1: Scranton Strangler? And I think they're saying they're doing it
Speaker 1: now to kind of mess with me. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you this, for those of you who would have that
Speaker 1: same question right now, I don't care, and nobody cares.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing is that getting Toby on jury
Speaker 1: duty was an excuse to bring in the character of
Speaker 1: Holly for Michael to fall in love with. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's really what happened, and people are so obsessed with
Speaker 1: and they're talking about it. Was it. Toby is a creed.
Speaker 1: To my knowledge, that was never discussed ever in the
Speaker 1: writer's room. So I guess whatever anybody else thinks is
Speaker 1: what it is, because I don't have any better answer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: created I love his little comments here and there. They're
Speaker 1: just they're great. So what do you miss? Do you
Speaker 1: miss anything about being on the show? Oh? I mean
Speaker 1: I love the show. I mean I was a huge
Speaker 1: fan of the show. I love that we ended it
Speaker 1: when we did, because we ended it with a full
Speaker 1: story told, meaning we shot this documentary and then it
Speaker 1: eventually aired and we got to see what happened after
Speaker 1: it aired. And you know, I think if we'd gone
Speaker 1: on any longer, we were going to start losing more
Speaker 1: and more people and the show wouldn't have been the same.
Speaker 1: And so I'm feel really fortunate about that. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of what I missed most, it's
Speaker 1: just spending time with those people. Do you think you'd
Speaker 1: ever do another sitcom? Oh, if it was the right thing,
Speaker 1: it would have to be the right thing with the
Speaker 1: right character. Okay, So what's next? What's next for Brian? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, that's a great question. I had filmed sort
Speaker 1: of beginning or before early pandemic. I had a couple
Speaker 1: of movies that came out fairly recently and that was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. I wrote this book, and I'm
Speaker 1: doing the podcast and doing work here and there when
Speaker 1: it comes up. I did the a new animated show
Speaker 1: on Netflix, have a voice of a bear in that
Speaker 1: trash truck. So I'm keeping busy and I am really
Speaker 1: really happy. Good. That makes me happy that you're happy.
Speaker 1: Thank you good. And I'm honestly so grateful that I
Speaker 1: was able to talk to you and I'm going to
Speaker 1: go watch the Office right after this again. Um, and
Speaker 1: just thank you so much, Brian. And yes, you guys
Speaker 1: check out his podcast Off the Beat. I usually end
Speaker 1: all of my podcasts with a motivational quote. Okay, perfect,
Speaker 1: I need you to motivate me cheek, Yes, I got
Speaker 1: you here, you guys go. All endings are also beginnings,
Speaker 1: we just don't know it at the time. I'm one
Speaker 1: to think that, like, don't get sad when something ends,
Speaker 1: because there's something and giving you the chance, an opportunity
Speaker 1: for something else to start in your life. So there
Speaker 1: you have you, guys. Thank you so much. We're listening in.
Speaker 1: Please share your social media, Brian. My social media everything
Speaker 1: is b b Bomb Gardner at Instagram, at Twitter. I
Speaker 1: have one TikTok video. I was like, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: on TikTok now, and I don't do it anywhere. It's
Speaker 1: it's very time consuming TikTok or something else. During the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I was killing it on TikTok and then after I
Speaker 1: just started getting busy again and I'm just like, f it,
Speaker 1: I just can't to a walk all right, awesome, Well,
Speaker 1: there you guys have it. Thank you, so much for
Speaker 1: listening and tuning into another episode of Cheek, Ease and Chill.
Speaker 1: This is an amazing what you guys. I love you
Speaker 1: guys so much and this is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Mike podcast Network. Follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at MIA Podcasts and follow me chicks That's c h
Speaker 1: i q u i s. For more podcasts from My Heart,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart ray Yo app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. H m hm