Speaker 1: I got to have Fred Willard play my dad, you know,
Speaker 1: and he actually looks like my dad in real life,
Speaker 1: so it's it's just sort of like it looks like
Speaker 1: Ron Burgundy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it looks like you're like, Kyle,
Speaker 1: your dad looks like too many people. Um you also
Speaker 1: weirdly and Thomas, he kind of looks like Steve Martin too. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Kyle Barnheimer, and when I was five years old,
Speaker 1: I made Pico call me Steve Martin for an entire year.
Speaker 1: Hi everybody, and welcome to a brand new episode of
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. As always, I'm your host, Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 1: and that was Kyle Bornheimer you've just heard from Today.
Speaker 1: We're going back to our roots a little bit. Those
Speaker 1: of you who have listened to this podcast for a
Speaker 1: while know that before we branched off into Off the Beat,
Speaker 1: we were telling the story of a little show called
Speaker 1: The Office US. And I actually met Kyle while filming
Speaker 1: The Office. He was on season four, episode nine, Local
Speaker 1: Ad as ad man. But before he was our ad man,
Speaker 1: he was an ad man. Yes, there was a time
Speaker 1: in his life when he was the funny commercial guy.
Speaker 1: But now you probably know him from playing Doug on
Speaker 1: Avenue five, being Teddy Wells in Brooklyn nine nine, or
Speaker 1: as Sam Briggs in Worst Week. Beyond that, Kyle has
Speaker 1: guest starred in just about every great show from the
Speaker 1: last few decades, so much so that he seems to
Speaker 1: be a part of some writer's room jokes. But look,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into that. In fact, let's let's get
Speaker 1: into it right now. Let's bring him on to tell
Speaker 1: us all about it. Kyle Bornheimer. Everyone, bubble and sweet
Speaker 1: I love it. Bubble and squeak on Bubble and squeaker
Speaker 1: cookie every month left over from the Nabby people. What's up, Kyle? Hey?
Speaker 1: How are you? I am very very good, even better
Speaker 1: now that I'm seeing you there. Happy New Year. I
Speaker 1: don't know when you stop saying Happy New Year? Uh?
Speaker 1: Maybe today? What's today? Today? One? Oh, that's right, I
Speaker 1: would say today. I don't mind a late January. Happy
Speaker 1: New ye Happy New Year, especially if you haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: You know, you know it's like, yeah, I think you
Speaker 1: know you have all the whole month to launch into
Speaker 1: your new year. After January one, though, then I think
Speaker 1: it's an awful, awful tun groundhogs y Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: happy groundhog Day. It's very good to see you. I
Speaker 1: have so many things that one I have learned about
Speaker 1: you and rediscovered about you, including our brief time together
Speaker 1: on the office. Actually, but I want to start back.
Speaker 1: Your story seems fascinating to me. You well, first off,
Speaker 1: you grew up in Indiana. That in and of itself
Speaker 1: is not fascinating. But it's the opposite. Indiana literally means
Speaker 1: not fascinating. Yeah, that's the definition of Indiana. No, that's
Speaker 1: not true. Well, it's funny because I understand Indiana is
Speaker 1: not Kansas, but there was a there was a period
Speaker 1: of time here that I felt like everyone I talked
Speaker 1: to was like, yeah, I'm from Kansas, and people think, oh,
Speaker 1: you've got to be from New York or l A
Speaker 1: or a coast or something. And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in Kansas, and I wanted to get into comedy.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, well, I think, yeah, I mean, anyone
Speaker 1: living in by the way, Indiana a kid. But first
Speaker 1: of all, it is very fascinating. Hey, looking back on it,
Speaker 1: and I just took my kids there for the first time.
Speaker 1: They were legit fascinated by it and charmed and love
Speaker 1: hearing stories, especially then growing up in l A and
Speaker 1: hearing my stories about growing up in the seventies and
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties and Mishawaka, Indiana is incredibly exotic and
Speaker 1: fascinating to them. By the way, they're probably gonna think
Speaker 1: l A is boring and can't wait to get out
Speaker 1: of l A or something. You know. I think wherever
Speaker 1: you grow up, you sometimes will tend to think less
Speaker 1: of it for a while, but then you get older
Speaker 1: you look back and I you know, I really obviously
Speaker 1: cherish my upbringing there and was really neat to see
Speaker 1: it through their eyes this past ball we went. So
Speaker 1: it sounds to me you grew up in Indiana as
Speaker 1: a as an old soul. I'm told that you were
Speaker 1: a really big Singing in the Rain fan. Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: that's my favorite movie. And this is a that is
Speaker 1: a French poster for Singing in the Rain, right there,
Speaker 1: a French poster for Singing in the Rain. My friend
Speaker 1: got for me actually because I probably because I had
Speaker 1: nonstopped talking about that movie. Yeah, yeah, and that's kind
Speaker 1: of beautiful. Yeah, it literally since when you can carry forward,
Speaker 1: I mean, do you have anything like that either? People
Speaker 1: you were fans of or movies or music that when
Speaker 1: you were five it's the same as when you're forty five.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think for me it was The Wizard
Speaker 1: of Oz, but that feels like a cliche. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't run for me too. Yeah, but I don't
Speaker 1: remember thinking or knowing anyone as a kid who was
Speaker 1: a fan of Singing in the Ring. What was it
Speaker 1: about that? Was it the singing, the dancing, singing and
Speaker 1: the rain? Uh? But it was both the singing and
Speaker 1: the ring. You know, it's funny you say that not
Speaker 1: knowing any kids. There's a family lore that I made.
Speaker 1: All my six year old friends at my birthday party
Speaker 1: watched Singing in the Ring like we were outside doing
Speaker 1: a bunch of fun stuff, and then I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now it's time to go in and watch this thirty
Speaker 1: year old movie. It was singing and dancing. And I
Speaker 1: can tell you all about what I know about Gene Kelly,
Speaker 1: so I I definitely you know my family, it was
Speaker 1: on all the time. I had pretty good movie Buffy
Speaker 1: and that my Actually my grandparents and parents were necessarily
Speaker 1: movie bus but they had very good taste and they
Speaker 1: had had robust movie collections all the time on my
Speaker 1: my mom's side, her dad and then my dad like
Speaker 1: loved movies, and like I said, it wasn't like a
Speaker 1: movie buffy thing where he didn't he couldn't like pull
Speaker 1: out any trivia. He wasn't. He just loved movies and
Speaker 1: they happened to have like some pretty good taste in
Speaker 1: terms of mainture. And that one was just one that
Speaker 1: very early on spoke to me. I remember my brothers
Speaker 1: was some like it hot. That was the one that
Speaker 1: he bombed onto as a kid. Wizard of Oz obviously
Speaker 1: was Zombi present in our in our whole household. So
Speaker 1: we've watched that. That's remained pretty amazing. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think and then whatever, it just sort of became
Speaker 1: a a staple at our house, and I lived and
Speaker 1: continued loving and whenever I revisited it is legitimately still
Speaker 1: an amazingly made movie like it is for some reason
Speaker 1: of those that era of musicals when they were done,
Speaker 1: you know, all the time, it does stand out as
Speaker 1: a really it's an amazing satire on Hollywood. It's just
Speaker 1: a very tight script. It's a The musical numbers are beautiful,
Speaker 1: they're very athletic dance numbers that Donal O'Connor and Gene
Speaker 1: Kelly do. I just showed my kids. I mean, they've
Speaker 1: seen it before, but we just rewatched like the Donald
Speaker 1: O'Connor make them laugh sequence and just they they were
Speaker 1: talking about, oh my gosh, like Jim Carrey. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it really is that physical comedy that probably
Speaker 1: I also like the athleticism and the sort of dynamicism
Speaker 1: of it as well. Did you now did you sing
Speaker 1: and dance and acted out or was this just oh
Speaker 1: I probably did? You know? It's really funny when I
Speaker 1: moved to l A without any first of all, not
Speaker 1: to be an actor at all. I moved out to
Speaker 1: want to be the right and right right here. But
Speaker 1: on my to do list for whatever reason, was take
Speaker 1: tap dancing lessons. This was because of my love of
Speaker 1: gene Kelly. Now, I had not had any rama, musical,
Speaker 1: any really any arts education at all at this time
Speaker 1: in my life. But for whateverything, that was my list,
Speaker 1: and I did so that. I bought tap shoes, I took,
Speaker 1: you know, a week's worth of lessons. I fell off
Speaker 1: on my routine, in my in my in my practice
Speaker 1: and it just sort of fell and I had no
Speaker 1: money to be taking task tap dancing lessons the most
Speaker 1: impractical thing I could be doing at the time, So
Speaker 1: but I kept the tap shoes. And I remember when
Speaker 1: I first when I was first dating my now wife
Speaker 1: in my tiny little apartment on Dohini. She came over
Speaker 1: and I was like getting ready before we were going out,
Speaker 1: and she's like, what's um, what's this? And she had
Speaker 1: found my tap dancing shoes in my closet, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I had to explain to her, Well, you just started
Speaker 1: dating a man that, uh whether to be a tap
Speaker 1: dancer at one point, and I really wish I would
Speaker 1: get to this day. I still thinking, you know, now
Speaker 1: heading into the next phase of my life and maybe
Speaker 1: I can get that tap dancing thing going again. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna talk about your
Speaker 1: move to l A. But I also was told this
Speaker 1: that there was a time in your life. Now I
Speaker 1: don't know exactly when this was that you where you
Speaker 1: made people call you Steve Martin. Well, yeah, he would
Speaker 1: be the other thing, you know, I said singing in
Speaker 1: the rain that since I was five, I've been a
Speaker 1: fan of and it's never wavered, and and that fandom
Speaker 1: has been validated by the fact that he is indeed
Speaker 1: a genius, you know. So I did, and that came
Speaker 1: directly from I loved the King tut bit. So that
Speaker 1: was probably mostly when I was little, from his Sarah
Speaker 1: Live appearances and probably stand up and then this was
Speaker 1: the day. This was the era. I know, did your
Speaker 1: family do this? This was comedy albums where your parents
Speaker 1: would buy a comedy album and play it in the
Speaker 1: living room after dinner. And it was Steve Martin and
Speaker 1: and Richard. We probably didn't do Richard prior to every
Speaker 1: year older, but it was that eight, so I'm sure
Speaker 1: we had an album, but I think it was mainly
Speaker 1: from Sarah Live skit, which by the way, we're not
Speaker 1: on like YouTube. The next day, I must have been up,
Speaker 1: you know, my parents must have been letting me stay up,
Speaker 1: or maybe there's like a new speechure on it or something,
Speaker 1: and I saw it and I fell in love with him.
Speaker 1: And then once I was a little older and watching
Speaker 1: all his movies and the jerk and everything just sort
Speaker 1: of continued that. But I think that was early I
Speaker 1: think that was late seventies, I was born seventy, probably
Speaker 1: doing that when I was five years old, like eighty,
Speaker 1: and so it must have been from his seren Live
Speaker 1: and like maybe maybe a lot of the Johnny Carson
Speaker 1: appearances too, because that would have been earlier in the day,
Speaker 1: like ten right, maybe right, right right. So you you
Speaker 1: go to Purdue and at this at this point, you
Speaker 1: think you're going to do what with your life? Well,
Speaker 1: it's journalism. Maybe I was Okay, I was already falling
Speaker 1: in love with movies and had was already. This was
Speaker 1: the nineties. The important part of this is this was
Speaker 1: the rise of Tarantino and Jane Camping and and Rodriguez
Speaker 1: and all the film and Kevin Smith and all the
Speaker 1: end of film like indie filmmakers. So my sort of
Speaker 1: love of classic movies. Um, and then friends introduced me
Speaker 1: to the of the seventies movies and all that kind
Speaker 1: of cool Godfather and all that stuff in Chinatown and
Speaker 1: tax all that stuff. So I was sort of my
Speaker 1: love movies. I was continuing, and then the nineties hit
Speaker 1: and then that was our era of the all those
Speaker 1: young great independent filmmakers. So I was already starting to
Speaker 1: really fall in love with all that and reading you know,
Speaker 1: Filmmaker magazine and finding out what was playing in Sundance
Speaker 1: and Alleghip. So when I went to Perdue, I was
Speaker 1: I was kind of just doing what you do after college,
Speaker 1: where you go to a you know, you go to college,
Speaker 1: and uh, journalism was on my mind. My dad was
Speaker 1: for the first five years and of his career was
Speaker 1: a broadcast, was a was an anchorman. Actually he actually
Speaker 1: got to exactly round Burgundy. He was very much a
Speaker 1: seventies anchorman with hilarious um. And then my uncle was
Speaker 1: a journalist. I journalism in me and which I loved
Speaker 1: and still loved journalism, so I was thinking of doing that,
Speaker 1: and but I was really a chance visit. I visited
Speaker 1: my sister in l A, fell in love with it,
Speaker 1: and very shortly after you know, getting into Purdue, I
Speaker 1: knew I wanted to move out to lia. So I
Speaker 1: moved out to l A. I went to Indiana University
Speaker 1: just for a few months the following year, but I
Speaker 1: lived with friends and didn't go to any classes except
Speaker 1: maybe my film classes, and then moved out to l
Speaker 1: A ninety six. Yeah. Wait, so I gotta ask you
Speaker 1: this because I think that we're unique I had the
Speaker 1: same experience, which was, you know, I had been living
Speaker 1: a bunch of places and not really spending any time
Speaker 1: in l A. And I came out to l A
Speaker 1: for a visit and fell in love with it. What
Speaker 1: was it for you about about l A? About southern
Speaker 1: California or whatever that that that attracted you so much? Remember,
Speaker 1: I fell in love with as well immediately. I think
Speaker 1: it was the big city. I think I was hankering
Speaker 1: for a big city, that it was the film and
Speaker 1: television capital. I I definitely, probably to a false romanticized
Speaker 1: that the instry, which is really fascinating what we've kind
Speaker 1: of learned the last five years on how flawed now,
Speaker 1: especially during that time, was an incredibly flawed way. We
Speaker 1: were doing a lot of things with this sort of
Speaker 1: tyrannical swimming with sharks kind of producer mentality that was
Speaker 1: going on and all that stuff. But that's said, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of beautiful things and wonderful things about this industry,
Speaker 1: and I think we're probably the best place that's ever
Speaker 1: been in terms of, uh, you know, the good people,
Speaker 1: you know, um um working with each other. So but
Speaker 1: I definitely romanticized the industry. I loved the big city.
Speaker 1: It was very affordable, as as big cities go. Compared
Speaker 1: to New York and San Francisto and even Chicago, l
Speaker 1: A was the affordable place. Now, this sadly, very sadly
Speaker 1: changed in two thousand eight or so with the housing crisis,
Speaker 1: and now we're in a real housing crisis here, in
Speaker 1: a rental crisis now. But at the time it was affordable.
Speaker 1: So I was very doable. I was I was half
Speaker 1: full of ambition and little small town guy in a
Speaker 1: big city and also really scared that I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: And so l A was a good thing. Is a
Speaker 1: that where I wanted to be, what I wanted to
Speaker 1: do was here. But also it felt more affordable and
Speaker 1: like a big suburb rather than a than big city
Speaker 1: at first to me. So, um, yeah, what did you
Speaker 1: fall in with? What? What was what you know you
Speaker 1: were from? I was from Georgia. I mean I traveled around.
Speaker 1: I you know, I had spent some time in the
Speaker 1: Midwest and the Northeast, and I mean I had a
Speaker 1: friend who was living in the Westwood adjacent area, and
Speaker 1: there was just, I don't know, there was something wholly
Speaker 1: unique to me about I remember I remember, I remember,
Speaker 1: I remember a coffee bean. I was like, he was
Speaker 1: huge in what is this magical place where you could
Speaker 1: get freezy coffee drinks all day long and sit outside
Speaker 1: this gorgeous weather with the students walking around and all
Speaker 1: these beautiful people. I don't know it was fully romanticized
Speaker 1: to me, but I remember just being like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this I could, I could do this, And it's it's
Speaker 1: true what you say. Actually, Like I don't know that
Speaker 1: it was cheap, but you could get so much more
Speaker 1: for the money. Yeah, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: like you know, in New York you would be in
Speaker 1: a tiny, tiny studio apartment and a seventh floor walk
Speaker 1: up and you might spend the same amount of money,
Speaker 1: but you would have you know, a full bedroom and
Speaker 1: a balcony. You could be outside or a little yard
Speaker 1: even and have sort of room. Yeah. Yeah, um when
Speaker 1: you moved now, you know you say you were romanticize
Speaker 1: the industry. Were you thinking you were going to get
Speaker 1: into film and television at this at this point? That
Speaker 1: were you just more moving? That was the plan as
Speaker 1: a later director, Yeah, yeah, I mean the plan in
Speaker 1: the very unformed, very green plan, and the and the
Speaker 1: plan that ultimately and unsurprisingly did not work, was that
Speaker 1: I was simply kind of work at a video score,
Speaker 1: write a script, and get discovered. I mean that with that,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't just work out. That
Speaker 1: seemed to be what everyone was doing at the time,
Speaker 1: and I guess I just missed that. Bote Um. Now,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, committed to working hard and learning.
Speaker 1: And I made a short film, I remember, with on film,
Speaker 1: not on digital. This is before right as digital is
Speaker 1: coming out. So I like spent money on like at
Speaker 1: sixteen million or I guess short ends, which is like
Speaker 1: where you would buy like what people didn't use on
Speaker 1: their movie, their short ends of their film. And I
Speaker 1: made like a nice little movie and I spent everything
Speaker 1: I had and with broke doing it like like a
Speaker 1: short film. I did all the things that I thought
Speaker 1: I should be doing that I was just too young
Speaker 1: and too undeveloped to really navigate that world with any
Speaker 1: real um expertise. You know, I just wasn't really ready.
Speaker 1: I'd come out sort of too soon probably and a
Speaker 1: little bit unpolished. So the plan was very much too
Speaker 1: to get into writing and directing and and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of pivoted acting four or five years in
Speaker 1: when I was like at an acting class that I
Speaker 1: had kind of taken as a quote unquote as a director,
Speaker 1: I think I was like, well, now I should learn
Speaker 1: how actors work, since I'll be working with them so much,
Speaker 1: you know now, and this is a vomit chubmic, isn't
Speaker 1: that right? You're very good? Right? Yeah, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I I try as the best I can. Yes, And
Speaker 1: she is a very big acting director. At the time,
Speaker 1: it felt like everybody was taking classes from Yeah she was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I had gone through all the levels kind of that.
Speaker 1: She had a couple of lower levels that you take first,
Speaker 1: and I kind of graduated onder hers and I loved it,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I saw kind of a path. It was.
Speaker 1: I really needed to be sort of jostled out of
Speaker 1: my poor plan, and acting gave me like a vision,
Speaker 1: like a road in front of me that I saw,
Speaker 1: which is very simple. I mean, the one thing I
Speaker 1: had going for me was I was very patient, like
Speaker 1: you probably know, as friends sort of start to be
Speaker 1: like maybe this isn't for me, or the industry starts to,
Speaker 1: you know, take its toll on you. Early on. For
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I was like pretty much in it for
Speaker 1: the long haul. A. I had no other I had
Speaker 1: no plan B. But I was also like comfortable, like
Speaker 1: taking my time with it, like being a starting artist
Speaker 1: for a certain degree in my twenties and and wanting
Speaker 1: to actually get good at it, and like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: just need a commercial agent. I remember just being like,
Speaker 1: all I need is a commercial agent. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to get a commercial yet. I was like, have an agent,
Speaker 1: and then after that that agent will maybe hopefully get
Speaker 1: me an audition. And I just remember being very clear
Speaker 1: like I was. I think that looking back, I was
Speaker 1: very relieved that I finally had like a plan that
Speaker 1: I could at least succeed or fail at whereas before
Speaker 1: that I was kind of flailing. And so I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well this is a plan. It's really seen other people
Speaker 1: do this plan, and let's see if I can navigate
Speaker 1: this road. And if I don't, then I'll have a
Speaker 1: little better sense that I've tried and not been able to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about that, because I don't
Speaker 1: think I've talked to anybody about that. I want your opinion.
Speaker 1: What do you think it is that that made you
Speaker 1: stick with it? When so many don't write I mean,
Speaker 1: because he is a there there is a huge group
Speaker 1: of people who come out to do exactly the same
Speaker 1: thing you did, or let's just say, they think that
Speaker 1: they're going to be actors and then it just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like it's worth a work ethic or
Speaker 1: stick to ito nous? I mean, I know, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of one in particular, a friend that I came up
Speaker 1: with and it was very good and work just as
Speaker 1: hard as anyone, and had had the talent to the
Speaker 1: very least have a solid career, but also had like
Speaker 1: a really good plan B. If he didn't didn't work
Speaker 1: out or just had a skill set, I shouldn't say that.
Speaker 1: I don't think he was relying on his plan B frankly,
Speaker 1: because he had to kind of go back and really
Speaker 1: like go to school and kind of actually make a
Speaker 1: hard choice to sort of pivot um. But he had
Speaker 1: a skill set, and I think in that instance, I
Speaker 1: think he just was looking at the rest of his
Speaker 1: twenties and looking at his life and getting started the
Speaker 1: way he wanted and knew like, Okay, yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: chance this could happen. Are also looking at a road
Speaker 1: ahead of you, and you're seeing a lot of different examples.
Speaker 1: You're seeing people that have like maybe held on too long.
Speaker 1: You're seeing people that like hit right away, and you're
Speaker 1: kind of suspicious of that. You're like, well, I don't
Speaker 1: want to I don't want to think that that's gonna
Speaker 1: happen to me. So somewhere where maybe I'm in the middle,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll I'll start having a career and it becomes
Speaker 1: very practical, right and you know, I'm sure you know this.
Speaker 1: The dream aspect of it goes away, and the idea
Speaker 1: that you just want a sustainable career is really what
Speaker 1: nineties seven percent of us are. I mean, the the
Speaker 1: the wonderful stars out there who are able to pick
Speaker 1: their own projects and kind of design their own careers
Speaker 1: and make an amazing living at it, or who are
Speaker 1: really comfortable being bohemian, like I don't know, work when
Speaker 1: you know, whenever I want to, and I don't need
Speaker 1: to make any money at it, and I'll live on
Speaker 1: a tree, you know what. There's like that the rest
Speaker 1: of us are like, well, at some point, yeah, I
Speaker 1: came out here with all this passion and dream of
Speaker 1: what I want, but I'm good at this, but now
Speaker 1: I need to build a career and if I have
Speaker 1: a family, I need to be able to you know.
Speaker 1: So I think you start to put that together, and
Speaker 1: when you are doing that your mid to late twenties,
Speaker 1: you start to make decisions for yourself. And it's literally
Speaker 1: different for everybody, and it's you know, Jack Lemon used
Speaker 1: to say this, and I'm sure you and I are
Speaker 1: probably perfect examples to say the same thing. Plenty of
Speaker 1: people I came up with that were better than me,
Speaker 1: that we're that are continue to be better than me,
Speaker 1: that worked harder, that came from a better theatrical background, um,
Speaker 1: and other people that worked that that's that. Thank god
Speaker 1: they figured out a way to get out because they
Speaker 1: were never going to they did. They either didn't have
Speaker 1: the talent to work ethic or they had stars in
Speaker 1: their eyes in the wrong way. So it kind of
Speaker 1: is all types. And I think, for whatever reason me,
Speaker 1: I do think of some of it was a desperation.
Speaker 1: I hadn't really no backup, but I was feeling confident enough.
Speaker 1: I think at the earliest part of my career, I
Speaker 1: was feeling confident enough. I was getting and it really
Speaker 1: is because I was getting a lot of commercial work.
Speaker 1: And once that I started to see that people were
Speaker 1: responding to what I was doing in that format, I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I just knew okay, step by step,
Speaker 1: Now let me see if I can get some TV
Speaker 1: work and stuff and small TV work and each thing.
Speaker 1: But I plenty of crises, plenty of personal crisis in
Speaker 1: my late thirties and late twenties and early thirties before
Speaker 1: I was able to have a sustained career of life.
Speaker 1: If I hold on too long and I don't get
Speaker 1: something that sort of gets me to the next level,
Speaker 1: this is gonna get scary for me. This is psychologically
Speaker 1: and financially in everywhere else you know, Well, Kyle is
Speaker 1: being modest. There was a period of time that Kyle
Speaker 1: was on television more than Ellen de Generous Uh commercials Galore, Geico, Staples, Cores,
Speaker 1: Light t Mobile, Stanley Uh. He made a mission could
Speaker 1: Troll in a Man's Bowels where I improvised the line
Speaker 1: code brown. Yeah, very basic, but very I committed to it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now were you at this time? Would you get recognized
Speaker 1: on the street for your commercials? You must have, I
Speaker 1: think so. I think there was a couple that you
Speaker 1: know would play very nationally. The team Mobile one was
Speaker 1: the was the one that actually that other people saw
Speaker 1: it got me a big TV thing right after that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think there was an article down are
Speaker 1: very very randomly and Entertainment Weekly did an article called
Speaker 1: the called the thirty second Man about this very thing
Speaker 1: like like that got Yeah, that was really I just
Speaker 1: actually I was going through a bunch of mementos the
Speaker 1: other day and saw the article, which was really fun
Speaker 1: to see. But yeah, no, very fortunate and very um
Speaker 1: to the point of like I had seen a plan
Speaker 1: for myself. One thing I did during that time is
Speaker 1: worked at a commercial casting studio. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have two hundred South Librea. Of course it
Speaker 1: was the hub literally central in the city, and you
Speaker 1: had eight or nine cast directors working at this place.
Speaker 1: You would see everyone in town there every day. You
Speaker 1: and I probably saw each other before we knew each other,
Speaker 1: and I worked there. So when you would sort of
Speaker 1: work for the cast directors and there was a there
Speaker 1: was a job that you were right for, they say, O, Kyle,
Speaker 1: come in on this PEPSI thing or whatever. So you
Speaker 1: just were around it all day and exposed. So I
Speaker 1: remember that that was a big key to me, sort
Speaker 1: of like staying in the game, you know, in a
Speaker 1: really smart way, like just to sort of be around
Speaker 1: it all the time. Does two hundred Southubria still exists?
Speaker 1: I don't. Well, I think it does actually, And whether
Speaker 1: they may have moved. There's a great cast director that
Speaker 1: cast me in so many of those named Ross Lacey,
Speaker 1: and I think he yeh, and he might have moved
Speaker 1: it or or sold it or but he was excellent
Speaker 1: and really instrumental. If you're listening, Ross, thank you for
Speaker 1: my career to hundred two hundred South Lebrea. For those
Speaker 1: of you listening, you have you have to understand that
Speaker 1: it's the craziest thing. And this is like there's no parking,
Speaker 1: very little parking, impossible to park. And you would enter
Speaker 1: the building up a tiny stairwell. I can remember it
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday, and you would go up this
Speaker 1: tiny stairwell and as you're going up this like two
Speaker 1: flights of stairs, you would pass seventeen actors that you
Speaker 1: knew kind of and then you would get to the
Speaker 1: top and there were yeah, well you probably know better
Speaker 1: than me, but like yeah, eight or nine rooms off
Speaker 1: of a giant bullpen. The bullpen a huge like almost warehouse,
Speaker 1: either either actors or two It was like like you
Speaker 1: and two other people because at the end of the
Speaker 1: day or there were eighty just aspiring everything. Yeah yes,
Speaker 1: and waiting to go in one room and like yes,
Speaker 1: So emodium was one room, PEPSI was another room, T
Speaker 1: mobile was another, and you and they would be inside
Speaker 1: and the thing this God, you there were no chairs.
Speaker 1: When there were was there were carpeted blocks right like
Speaker 1: huge like uh huge areas that were carpeted that you
Speaker 1: would just sort of like kind of sit on, I guess,
Speaker 1: and very uncomfortably held elbow to elbow with everybody else,
Speaker 1: everybody running their little lines. They would you would you would,
Speaker 1: you know, it's that surreal thing where it's like you
Speaker 1: were a type and so you would go and you
Speaker 1: would see a bunch of views there. You would just
Speaker 1: see I would see a bunch of kyles there, you know,
Speaker 1: either new kyles I've never seen or other kyles that like, hey,
Speaker 1: what's up, Brad, Like we always see each other at
Speaker 1: these I mean, this is the head shot days. Like
Speaker 1: you you would have your head shot probably when I
Speaker 1: started Black and White head shot. So I remember the big,
Speaker 1: big switch to color. So and then when you got
Speaker 1: little hallway. Yeah, you would see an actor in a hurry,
Speaker 1: or an actor that just was piste off about their audition,
Speaker 1: and an actor who felt good or with an actor
Speaker 1: who had the greatest attitude, always like like he's always
Speaker 1: in a good mood. You know he'll be fine, you know,
Speaker 1: like you would see every type of actor coming down
Speaker 1: that those stairs. Yes, no, it's totally true. Or for me,
Speaker 1: I think always like parking semi legally and it was
Speaker 1: just like I just needed to get back out to
Speaker 1: my car quickly as possible, so just like, Hi, Hi,
Speaker 1: how's it going? Club at the time, I remember having
Speaker 1: the club on the steering wheel, which locked the steering wheel?
Speaker 1: Did I put the club on? As you're so many
Speaker 1: and you know, lovely people that would work there, but
Speaker 1: also overworked people, and so you didn't always get the
Speaker 1: most polite room. In commercially, your casting is normally a
Speaker 1: very warm, polite rooms in most in most instances, but
Speaker 1: because of the speed of it and because you're working
Speaker 1: with like eight hundred different clients in those rooms, they
Speaker 1: could be rough, rough rooms in terms of how you
Speaker 1: felt as an actor you could get shuffled in there
Speaker 1: and kind of feel a little like mistreated. And this
Speaker 1: was part of the thing. It wasn't like a horrible mistreatment,
Speaker 1: but it was just like, if there's one aspect of
Speaker 1: casting that had that, it was the commercial and even
Speaker 1: shooting commercials sometimes everything else you're pretty well taken care of,
Speaker 1: especially with cast. And I always tell actors that who
Speaker 1: are nervous about auditions, it's like they want you to
Speaker 1: do well. They want you to be the answer to
Speaker 1: their problem. They want you to come in and surprise
Speaker 1: them or be exactly what they were looking you know,
Speaker 1: so they're rooting for you. Every room you go into
Speaker 1: is rooting for you. They don't want an awkward experience either.
Speaker 1: They want their answers solved. And so yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: to your to your point in terms of commercial I've
Speaker 1: never really thought about this before, but I think when
Speaker 1: you're dealing with brands, you're dealing with at times you know,
Speaker 1: the executives, and they're not they're not artists, so they're
Speaker 1: not looking to take care of you. And I remember
Speaker 1: probably feeling like you would enter the threshold of the
Speaker 1: room from this, you know, there's eight people bustling around.
Speaker 1: Your name would be called. You would walk through the threshold,
Speaker 1: and at times they would look at you and then
Speaker 1: just immediately looked down like you are clearly not the
Speaker 1: look that they want. It doesn't matter what you say
Speaker 1: or do, because it's all about this look that they're
Speaker 1: looking for. And then you have to kind of continue
Speaker 1: for the next few minutes knowing this is just not
Speaker 1: happening and that yeah, exactly. Um. Early on you break
Speaker 1: out of doing commercials, you start doing some guest star roles,
Speaker 1: and my research has indicated one of the first scripted
Speaker 1: shows that you did not the first, but one of
Speaker 1: was a little television show called The off Us. I'd
Speaker 1: have to look into that and see what was it
Speaker 1: called again? The Office? Yeah, Office, talk to me about
Speaker 1: the audition for that. Had you met Alison Jones before
Speaker 1: or was that new? Was this? Did this had anything
Speaker 1: to do with the commercial stuff? Because this was a
Speaker 1: local ad where Michael tries to create a local ad
Speaker 1: and your ad man, Um, let's go to a clip.
Speaker 1: J Yeah, it is a brilliant and I'm sure your
Speaker 1: fans the minute you said the local ad episode, they
Speaker 1: know exactly what you're talking about because it's hilarious and
Speaker 1: that was that was so fun and that the show
Speaker 1: was that season three, four four, episode nine of season
Speaker 1: four of season four and um, Jason who had just right,
Speaker 1: Jason Reitman, and he had just directed Juno, and Juno
Speaker 1: was not out yet, but it was getting like festival
Speaker 1: love and stuff. And I remember him like jokingly putting
Speaker 1: Juno stickers all over the set because he was like, yeah, yeah, Um.
Speaker 1: So Alison Jones is and you know this completely responsible
Speaker 1: for so many people's careers. My you know, one of
Speaker 1: the handful of cast directors that are just like my
Speaker 1: guardian angels in this business and who I constantly you know,
Speaker 1: just thanking because she Now it's interesting, was that what
Speaker 1: years that two thousand seven, this would have been oh nine,
Speaker 1: probably oh eight oh nine. It might she might have
Speaker 1: just been starting to get me, because around that time
Speaker 1: she cast me in a few things and then and
Speaker 1: then since then, I guess that has been just a
Speaker 1: great booster in my career, so wonderful. So this might
Speaker 1: have been one of the first things with her. One
Speaker 1: thing I did around that time is I worked. I
Speaker 1: I did this thing called real Prose. Do you remember
Speaker 1: Real prose or any of those casting workshops, and they
Speaker 1: had a somewhat of a controversial moment because they was
Speaker 1: considered paying for auditioning and so, but it really it
Speaker 1: was like a workshop and then and once a week
Speaker 1: or so they'd bring casting directors in and you could
Speaker 1: actually audition for them in this workshop, in this class.
Speaker 1: I was doing that a lot around that time. I
Speaker 1: actually got a few little things from that. I don't
Speaker 1: think Allison was, so I actually don't remember the audition process,
Speaker 1: doubt very highly. I was. It was like an offer,
Speaker 1: so I must have auditioned for it. And remember I
Speaker 1: remember the striking thing about that was like, oh, you guys,
Speaker 1: like most of the cast stays in on all scenes,
Speaker 1: so like actors always kind of like, oh, I'm not
Speaker 1: in this scene, great, like it's great, But in the
Speaker 1: office they're like, no, you guys need to be in
Speaker 1: the background. And I were you. Do you remember that
Speaker 1: scene by any chance, or or that episode if you
Speaker 1: would have been back in that because that probably we
Speaker 1: might have met that day. You guys were all, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm sure that we did. I do remember I
Speaker 1: went back and looked at some of the stuff in
Speaker 1: preparation for talking to you. But it was a crazy
Speaker 1: thing because yeah, like you said, we were all all
Speaker 1: there almost all the time. So unless you know, you
Speaker 1: had some characters who went to a restaurant or did
Speaker 1: something else, we were all sort of sort of there. Um,
Speaker 1: do you have any memories of being there or of Steve.
Speaker 1: It was one of those things, Yeah, where you this
Speaker 1: happens sometimes, and I'm sure in the office you guys
Speaker 1: had this all the time. You kind of get the
Speaker 1: best seat because there was so much observing in that show,
Speaker 1: so much time where you're just sort of like you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this person gets to do their thing now, and I'm
Speaker 1: literally just reacting and Steve, I just remember being in
Speaker 1: the presence that we were. I was already a fan
Speaker 1: of his, and where I just got to sit across
Speaker 1: from him. I just fed him a couple of lines
Speaker 1: and he got to you know, he had a scripted version,
Speaker 1: and you know, you get that, and then when once
Speaker 1: that was gotten, he was like go off on his own.
Speaker 1: And the whole bit is that he keeps building this
Speaker 1: ridiculous commercial idea. So it's really like a comedians dream,
Speaker 1: Like all right, give me a couple of takes where
Speaker 1: I just get to build the most ridiculous ambition for
Speaker 1: this this local commercial. So I just remember being charmed
Speaker 1: by that very hum humble and quiet. You know, you're
Speaker 1: being a guest star, co star and those things you
Speaker 1: really don't want to step on anyone's toes. So I
Speaker 1: I just sort of like a fly on the wall,
Speaker 1: but also like you're always pinching yourself in this business
Speaker 1: that you're getting to do it. So it was like,
Speaker 1: I hope I'm prepared enough to do that what I
Speaker 1: got to do, and also kind of enjoy it while
Speaker 1: I'm doing it. This is really exciting, and so I
Speaker 1: just remember kind of just sort of enjoying getting to
Speaker 1: watch him work, and also great professionalism by all of you,
Speaker 1: and just like camaraderie. So I remember that a couple
Speaker 1: of you guys, and I'm not sure if you were
Speaker 1: like we're playing like fantasy football. I think it was
Speaker 1: like Dwight and Jim, we're like, but in real life
Speaker 1: they were like in between takes, they were they were
Speaker 1: like looking at their fantasy scores together, and I just
Speaker 1: saw like your sweet friendship friendliness and it was just me, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just recorded for this our super Bowl episode where
Speaker 1: we had are a commissioner on and uh we just
Speaker 1: finished our eighteenth year doing the Office Fantasy Football League,
Speaker 1: so great. Yeah, those times we might have still been
Speaker 1: drafting on a yellow legal pad. But maybe I do
Speaker 1: remember that looking down, or maybe he was using a laptop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think the phone smartphone quite yet? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: not quite. Um, you mentioned before you kind of get
Speaker 1: a big break here. You get cast as the lead
Speaker 1: in Worst Week for CBS and this was because of
Speaker 1: a commercial you were in. Is this how this started? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean that was like a big loan process. I
Speaker 1: auditioned with a bunch of people, and then the project
Speaker 1: Michelle thro a year or something. And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: the great Jay tars As, the creator of several shows
Speaker 1: I think, including The Merry Time and War Show, was
Speaker 1: the father of Matt Tarsas, another brilliant mind in this
Speaker 1: business who is a show creator and TV writer. And
Speaker 1: Jay told his his son, Hey, Divy seen this commercial.
Speaker 1: This This is like probably the energy you're looking for
Speaker 1: for Worst Week, and and Matt was like, I think
Speaker 1: I've seen that kid. I think he might have come
Speaker 1: in last spring. So they brought me in again, and
Speaker 1: thankfully I did the whole process of coming in a
Speaker 1: couple of times, then testing in front of the CBS
Speaker 1: executives and probably read three or four times to get it.
Speaker 1: But without that phone cam, without that commercial or I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had that chance, which which was extraordinary. And
Speaker 1: CBS wasn't really doing the single camera comedies at the time,
Speaker 1: so this was their big swing with with single camera
Speaker 1: comedies and lovely, amazing experience all around. This really was
Speaker 1: happy and Matt Tarsus is amazing, and it was great
Speaker 1: Cat working with Smith and was still friends with now
Speaker 1: and and uh it was it. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1: It was based on a British show which this is
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, The Office is taking off, and
Speaker 1: I wondered, I wondered about that, like CBS taking a
Speaker 1: run at single camera British adapted shows. Well, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think you're exactly right. Yeah, I think there was
Speaker 1: a lot of that going on, and looking back, you're
Speaker 1: at it hadn't really pieced it all together, but there was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was definitely that, and they weren't really they had
Speaker 1: all their multi cam stuff working really well for them,
Speaker 1: so Ultimately we got to shoot I think eighteen episodes
Speaker 1: and they aired I think fourteen to them or so,
Speaker 1: which for me was I remember a lot of people being,
Speaker 1: you know, feeling really bad for me, Like when we
Speaker 1: kind of had the feeling that it was going to
Speaker 1: get canceled, and I was like, when you're coming up
Speaker 1: in l A, every single small step is like a
Speaker 1: huge deal that you are proud of yourself for, you know,
Speaker 1: like that, you know, I got into audition for a pilot.
Speaker 1: That's huge. Oh, the pilot is actually go I got
Speaker 1: a part in the pilot. That's good. Oh, your pilot
Speaker 1: didn't go to series. I don't know that the next one,
Speaker 1: you know, but I'm in the game. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: so I remember being sad that I wasn't gonna get
Speaker 1: to work with Aaron Hayes and Matt and Kurtwood and
Speaker 1: Nancy and all. You know. Fred Willard played my dad
Speaker 1: in that show. I mean, I couldn't. There was no
Speaker 1: world where there was anything bad about you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's sad to lose it, but like I got
Speaker 1: to have Fred Willard play my dad, you know, and
Speaker 1: he actually looks like my dad in real life. So
Speaker 1: it's it's just sort of like looks like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: its like Ron and friend. You're like, Kyle, your dad
Speaker 1: looks like too many people also weirdly and Thomas he
Speaker 1: kind of looks like Steve Martin too. Actually there's a
Speaker 1: right behind me. It was a picture of my dad
Speaker 1: from his days back in the U in South and
Speaker 1: WSBT news. Um. But yeah, I mean it was just
Speaker 1: you know, getting a big show is is life changing.
Speaker 1: You know. Do you feel like that gave you confidence
Speaker 1: moving forward? I mean having that experience of doing that
Speaker 1: that same role every day sixteen eighteen weeks or whatever
Speaker 1: it was it did. It gave me a couple of
Speaker 1: different things with that. It taught me both good and
Speaker 1: bad about my own approach to that stuff. I really
Speaker 1: wore myself out with it and I and I had
Speaker 1: a very specific way that I wanted to like do
Speaker 1: the physical comedy and and I was it was my
Speaker 1: first time like being that big on a show or
Speaker 1: being like the lead of a show, and I think
Speaker 1: I put a lot of pressure on myself. I had fun.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like stressed out or nervous. I was
Speaker 1: like I had fun, But I was like very like,
Speaker 1: do you know did we get that? And should we
Speaker 1: do another one? I have another you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: understand TV. I didn't understand that. You know, these directors
Speaker 1: had a shotlist they needed to get through, you know.
Speaker 1: For someone I thought, like somebody that came from like
Speaker 1: wanting to be a director, I would be much more
Speaker 1: understanding about that. But I was like, can we do
Speaker 1: twelve more takes? Please? Because I think you know? So
Speaker 1: I think I was very much like and I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't get it. You know, I slipped, but it
Speaker 1: looked like I knew I was gonna slip. I want
Speaker 1: to make it more surprising when I slept whatever. So
Speaker 1: I was very kind of demanding on myself and then
Speaker 1: ignorance of the process. So I feel like if I
Speaker 1: went back in time, I would just be a little
Speaker 1: more like, oh, everyone has a job to do here,
Speaker 1: and I need to make sure that I'm not like
Speaker 1: stepping on toes. So I think I just learned how
Speaker 1: to be a little bit of a better professional, and
Speaker 1: that came also from working with people and watching them.
Speaker 1: Kurtwood Smith was was excellent to just sort of being
Speaker 1: a great model for how to conduct yourself. And it
Speaker 1: probably took me a few years to learn how to
Speaker 1: like get what I wanted to get across in the
Speaker 1: in the earlier takes, you know, it's quicker, especially for television,
Speaker 1: so that I didn't feel like I left anything out there,
Speaker 1: and I did feel like I was slowing anything down,
Speaker 1: because you never want to be the person that's slowing
Speaker 1: anything down. I always like tell people like kind of
Speaker 1: learned early on what everyone has to do on set
Speaker 1: and stuff, so that you kind of understand how the
Speaker 1: whole production works as a whole. So I think just
Speaker 1: that learning experience was key. Um, and then knowing that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just taught you like what you need to get ready, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna do this kind of joke, this is
Speaker 1: the kind of preparation I need for it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: such a learning experience. You have guest starred on an
Speaker 1: incredible number of what I'm just gonna call today to
Speaker 1: make it simple, Hall of Fame shows. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: play a new game games with Kyle. This is going
Speaker 1: to be first thing that comes to mind when you
Speaker 1: think of your time working on the following shows. Are
Speaker 1: you ready? Yeah, this is called first thing that comes
Speaker 1: to mind slash Hall of Fame with Kyle. Here we Go,
Speaker 1: How I Met Your Mother? Hybrid no live audience, so
Speaker 1: they they that was the big thing with that um
Speaker 1: is most of it comes always at live audience, and
Speaker 1: they invented this. This didn't invent it, but they really
Speaker 1: did where you didn't always have a lot of audience.
Speaker 1: And I remember loving that because I get very nervous
Speaker 1: with live audiences, and I still it's funny. I don't
Speaker 1: remember the lines right now, but it's something about pregnancy,
Speaker 1: and I just remember I remember sitting there on that
Speaker 1: couch doing that bit. Also same same thing, very proud
Speaker 1: and excited I had a job and like not wanting
Speaker 1: to screw it up, breaking bad. The greatest thing in
Speaker 1: the world. He is amazing. So when you talk about
Speaker 1: like a model for professionalism, he is the exact model.
Speaker 1: He got. This is their first season. It wasn't big,
Speaker 1: No one knew that this was gonna be the iconic
Speaker 1: show was. But he got a gift for me, Like
Speaker 1: the minute I walked in my trailer. He was just
Speaker 1: so accommoding to everyone, was just so lovely with everyone.
Speaker 1: The whole set was doing like something I think because
Speaker 1: we're talking. We're talking about Brian Cranston, right, Sorry, he
Speaker 1: bought you a gift? Yeah, yes, he gets everybody that
Speaker 1: comes on that set of gift like a really nice
Speaker 1: welcome gift and maybe even a goodbye gift. And I
Speaker 1: don't think I was there for more than two days,
Speaker 1: and so he just very I know, now you feel bad,
Speaker 1: don't you? Like now I'm like, shit, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I've got enough gifts for people I don't know,
Speaker 1: and even family members, I don't know if I've got
Speaker 1: enough gifts for And this guy's getting No, he's like
Speaker 1: and he's just so present to everybody while doing these
Speaker 1: amazing like okay action and then he has to do
Speaker 1: this guttural heat emotional performance and it's not like he
Speaker 1: like snaps out of it right away. He just he
Speaker 1: knows how to Like he's just kind and wonderful profession
Speaker 1: He's one of my best models I ever saw for
Speaker 1: like how to conduct yourself. So that's what I remember.
Speaker 1: And then just also it was the writer's strike, so
Speaker 1: I think were finishing production like the day I was
Speaker 1: leaving because they had the writer's strikes. So I think
Speaker 1: that first season had less episodes than the other ones.
Speaker 1: And I just remember looking back being like, oh, no
Speaker 1: one knew at this time. Everyone had confidence in the show,
Speaker 1: and it looks great and it was really fun and
Speaker 1: everyone I kind of knew it was good material and
Speaker 1: no one knew it was going to become, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest shows of all time. That is insane.
Speaker 1: That is insane. I'm going to share with you a story.
Speaker 1: I don't know that i've shared this story. If I
Speaker 1: have listeners, then go back. I don't think I have.
Speaker 1: I was invited to join the Television Academy and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I'm I'm in the Academy now and
Speaker 1: I need to do my part. And I remember that
Speaker 1: year for the Emmys, I signed up to be a
Speaker 1: special judge on basically everything that I could, so like,
Speaker 1: I think I wasn't allowed to do anything for comedy.
Speaker 1: That was it. So it was like Best Actor in
Speaker 1: a Drama, Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, Best Get
Speaker 1: Star in a drama. By the way, what this means
Speaker 1: is you have to watch a tremendous number of hours
Speaker 1: of television and then you guys are then put the
Speaker 1: pool together that then has made it in denomination. No,
Speaker 1: So I think what it is is we were given ten.
Speaker 1: So the member the membership at Hole had sort of
Speaker 1: gone down to ten. And what I knew was this.
Speaker 1: What I knew was I had never heard of Breaking Bad,
Speaker 1: and I knew that there was a huge percentage of
Speaker 1: the membership that had never heard of Breaking Bad. So
Speaker 1: to get down to that ten, I wasn't sure how
Speaker 1: Brian Cranston at that moment had gotten to be one
Speaker 1: of those ten, just because when when you're in the
Speaker 1: academy and you vote, you just vote for what you know.
Speaker 1: I had not heard of this show, and I was
Speaker 1: studied television. So I got the ten tapes and I
Speaker 1: mean tremendous performances from those days, all of them, and
Speaker 1: then you had to rank them one through ten, and
Speaker 1: they used that in combination in with the larger academy
Speaker 1: to decide who wins the Emmy. And I watched those
Speaker 1: ten tapes and for those of you listening right now,
Speaker 1: we're not talking to Brian, but that performance in the pilot,
Speaker 1: it was the pilot was so unbelievably amazing. I mean
Speaker 1: I was blown away. I hadn't heard of the show.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the show. I went immediately and found
Speaker 1: all of the episodes to watch at that moment. And
Speaker 1: he won the Emmy that year because not just did
Speaker 1: I put him one, everybody who was in that pool
Speaker 1: had to put him one because there just wasn't there
Speaker 1: could not have been enough people like in other words,
Speaker 1: as a member, I hadn't voted for him because I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen the show. I didn't I didn't know. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I will never forget watching that performance for the first
Speaker 1: time and and seeing that and the fact that he
Speaker 1: was so kind and nice. He directed on the office
Speaker 1: as well, and I got to, um, but that's amazing. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is not this is not turned into the rapid
Speaker 1: fire game that I intended. But anyway, that well, that
Speaker 1: was my fault. I tend to get very long than
Speaker 1: did on just no impact answers. Give me one more.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to give one. I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: give a quick answer. Well, no, don't do that, because
Speaker 1: then I ended up in Eric's lighting three takes in
Speaker 1: a row when he's very polite and and just sort
Speaker 1: of politely asking me to get out of his life.
Speaker 1: H I love that, alright. A couple more West World Western.
Speaker 1: If you ever get a chance to do a Western,
Speaker 1: do it. It's the greatest thing in the world. You
Speaker 1: get to clunk around in boots and the dust kicks
Speaker 1: up in your face and you feel like you're literally
Speaker 1: back in time. I loved it also Season one, which
Speaker 1: we had no idea what we were doing, right, I
Speaker 1: liked that show season one a lot. Modern Family, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: giggling all the time because it's just there everyone, and
Speaker 1: it is so funny. And the concept was funny, which
Speaker 1: is that Jesse thinks I he was like he flirted
Speaker 1: with me when we were teenagers and he thought that
Speaker 1: I was straight, and he thought he was being too
Speaker 1: like forward with me, and he wanted to apologize, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh no, I was, yeah, like I just
Speaker 1: wasn't into you, and I every time that that part.
Speaker 1: It was just a great concept. Um. And also I
Speaker 1: just remember that they and you guys probably got in
Speaker 1: this late in the office. They shot like eight nine
Speaker 1: hour days, which is if there anyone out there that
Speaker 1: that is unheard of in this business, but which should
Speaker 1: be more normal at least of you know, nine ten
Speaker 1: hour day rather Okay, last one, better call Saul revisiting
Speaker 1: eight years by My Bath after Breaking Bad. Yeah, Better
Speaker 1: Call Saul. That was another great one where I got
Speaker 1: a great of you for the second time. I had
Speaker 1: Better Call Saul. Where was it the first time? I forget? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm at a bar and I just get to watch
Speaker 1: Odin Kirk do his thing. He had like a big monologue,
Speaker 1: I think, and it's just another thing where I like
Speaker 1: and then I have to come in and say like
Speaker 1: two lines for this first scene. I just remember being like, man,
Speaker 1: better Call Saul had already been kind of a legendary show.
Speaker 1: Break Better already been here show, So now I'm just
Speaker 1: on this like legendary set. I think they had won
Speaker 1: the Enmy the year before, and he gave like a
Speaker 1: speech to the crew, like really nice speech to the crew,
Speaker 1: and I just remember pinching myself and feeling fortunate to
Speaker 1: be back on that. And then in the A d
Speaker 1: R session where they needed it, like the after the
Speaker 1: well have you explained to you? Um? They remember them,
Speaker 1: They're like, you just be an asshole, like off camera,
Speaker 1: I want him to be reacting to you being an asshole.
Speaker 1: And and I just remember, like they said, they said,
Speaker 1: say the worst and most awful things you can say.
Speaker 1: And so I just remember doing that, sitting in a
Speaker 1: in a sound booth in North Hollywood, just coming up
Speaker 1: with the Vince had written a few awful things for
Speaker 1: me to say, and just like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I hope or don't hope that that summer is still
Speaker 1: out there. Um, I guess a couple more, but these
Speaker 1: are more discussions Rest Development. You played the character Shannon Ryan.
Speaker 1: That's your wife's name. That's my wife's Did you just
Speaker 1: choose it? No? Uh? What's his name? The creator of
Speaker 1: the show? Oh, my names are escape give me today. Um,
Speaker 1: when you when you edit this, go, when you go back,
Speaker 1: just his name in my voice, my face right away.
Speaker 1: It's funny because my boys have been watching the Rest
Speaker 1: of Development lately. So they were friends. So my wife worked,
Speaker 1: they worked together. She's an executive now at Disney. At
Speaker 1: the time when they were doing the Rest of she
Speaker 1: was an executive on that show, and she was friends
Speaker 1: with with him, and he thought it would be funny
Speaker 1: to call me Shannon, right to call me her name? Um, okay,
Speaker 1: last one, this one, We've got to dive into this.
Speaker 1: I've got to understand bow Jack Horseman now you weren't
Speaker 1: in this. You you have not appeared in this to
Speaker 1: my knowledge. But your name is I need to understand
Speaker 1: how this happens? Well, yeah, this basically I have to
Speaker 1: say the line to let people know. The line is
Speaker 1: Pickles about dinner tonight? Am I any network with the
Speaker 1: show starring Kyle Bornheimer? Because I have to cancel? Now
Speaker 1: do you know these guys? How did this? How did
Speaker 1: this start? And why why are there so many inside
Speaker 1: jokes about you in in show? What happened? Is this flattering?
Speaker 1: I don't understand it's it Remember earlier when I said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just happy to be here. Um uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's how what's the best Listen? That is a great joke?
Speaker 1: First of all, objectively, that is a killer joke. And yes,
Speaker 1: there was a time when I would get cast and
Speaker 1: and frankly listen, I work hard. I think I do
Speaker 1: well what I do? Um, yeah, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean I've always I'm definitely, at least for a long
Speaker 1: time in the network side of network companies, but definitely
Speaker 1: known for like my shows would only be on for
Speaker 1: a year, happy year, sometimes four episodes. Um again, I
Speaker 1: do go back to like I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 1: And I know as long as my career can keep going.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no guaranteed you're gonna get on some big,
Speaker 1: long lasting show. And I know that. But that probably
Speaker 1: sounds like I'm trying to, like, you know, not tell
Speaker 1: people how hurt I am by it. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: I do. I feel like I have a pretty zen
Speaker 1: perspective on it, and I just know how hard it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I don't know if the main takeaway is that
Speaker 1: is a very funny and well crafted joke, and so
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be a part of it. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: look I read I was like, what in the what
Speaker 1: in the hell is this? And then I was not
Speaker 1: sure that we were going to discuss it today. But
Speaker 1: after our conversation, I felt like I felt like it
Speaker 1: was a conversation we could have. Do you know our
Speaker 1: net or do you know any of those guys I do?
Speaker 1: One of my earliest jobs they would never remember, but
Speaker 1: was Blades of Glory. Wait wait, I had a quick
Speaker 1: little saw them. Yeah, yeah, that was my first first movie.
Speaker 1: I think ever. Um had one line, which is it's
Speaker 1: Europe or something like that. Our kids now go to
Speaker 1: school together. I don't think there might be one writer
Speaker 1: on that staff. I think that at that time that
Speaker 1: might have known me. I almost hope it wasn't, though
Speaker 1: I hope it was like so known that just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I just saw a trailer for a show
Speaker 1: with Kyle Brnomer. Let's what's the bet that this is
Speaker 1: gonna be on six episodes? To uh? You know? I
Speaker 1: I love most of the show. Did I didn't want
Speaker 1: show during that period that was is I mean, worst
Speaker 1: week had a great as it had a great like
Speaker 1: little cult following ample, but also this show Perfect Couples,
Speaker 1: which was lovely and I had a wonderful time which
Speaker 1: was a really neat experiment, you know, like I've never
Speaker 1: had a bad experience in this. If you're working in
Speaker 1: this industry, you know, and you have, you know, halfway
Speaker 1: decent attitude about it, you're usually having a good time
Speaker 1: because at the very least you're working with really they're nice,
Speaker 1: kind people, are incredibly talented people usually both and you're
Speaker 1: sometimes legends. You know, I could be on a bad
Speaker 1: show that I'm suddenly like working with some legend and
Speaker 1: I'm just thrilled. Brooklyn nine nine Teddy wells with my
Speaker 1: old buddy creator Mike. Sure, how did you get involved
Speaker 1: with that show? Did you know? Mike? Yeah, since I mean,
Speaker 1: uh we we we now we are kind of neighbors
Speaker 1: and and our our our boys are are really good
Speaker 1: friends and we're sort of family friends with Mike and
Speaker 1: j J. And at the time, I don't think I, um,
Speaker 1: we knew each other very well, if at all, because
Speaker 1: that was probably starting to win. And I can't remember
Speaker 1: if that was an audition or an offer, but either way,
Speaker 1: it was perfect for me. That was right in my
Speaker 1: wheel er. So just like a goofy, overly sort of
Speaker 1: boring dude, you know, probably typecast. Um. Yeah, that one
Speaker 1: was very easy from the perspective I I kind of
Speaker 1: knew exactly what I want to do with it was
Speaker 1: written in a way that you know that shows written
Speaker 1: so well, like they great secret sauce in that show.
Speaker 1: Um also works very quick. And I remember a great
Speaker 1: group like you guys, just a great group of people,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's Sony Mike and this was in
Speaker 1: the office, and this was in Parks and Wreck and
Speaker 1: then and I've heard us talked about a little bit.
Speaker 1: They kind of ushered in the but sometimes it's called
Speaker 1: non conflict comedy, which is like, we grew up in
Speaker 1: very conflict e comedy, and that seemed to be the rule.
Speaker 1: Like you had to have two opposite roommates that we're
Speaker 1: always arguing, or you had to have like the asshole
Speaker 1: at the office that was like saying sexist ship to
Speaker 1: the secret You know, there was always like and I
Speaker 1: think we've just been with you all of a sudden
Speaker 1: of like the late nineties early two comedies, there was
Speaker 1: like a different way in the comedy. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what like this community of funny people where funny
Speaker 1: things happen. It's not like because that sort of conflict
Speaker 1: comedy doesn't work, but it just like a new style
Speaker 1: and I think he ushered that in and I think
Speaker 1: it also just created I think this amazing camaraderie with
Speaker 1: those big casts of eight, nine, twelve people that those
Speaker 1: shows have. Wow, that is such an interesting point that
Speaker 1: I have not thought about that before. But you're observational
Speaker 1: or whatever what you would call it, but it's also
Speaker 1: like more character based, you know, and you may have
Speaker 1: idiosyncrasies it's a polite way to say it, or you know,
Speaker 1: specific character traits that that might be oppositional in a way,
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, if you think about you know, Dwight
Speaker 1: or Ron Swanson or those characters, that, yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: it's not like totally oppositional in a way. It's much
Speaker 1: more ensemble specific characters who are interacting together and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: most of the time, there's a there's a genuine basis
Speaker 1: of love and ensemble togetherness that's sort of is behind
Speaker 1: all of it. It's very interesting. Yeah, I think that quality. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hard to sort of like put my finger out.
Speaker 1: It definitely was a switch and just a new color
Speaker 1: to television comedy that was celebrated and fostered in that time.
Speaker 1: And I think Mike was instrumental that and Greg and
Speaker 1: all those guys. Yeah, yeah, you've been very busy lately.
Speaker 1: Avenue five, your interstellar comedy alongside Hugh Lowry and my
Speaker 1: old buddy Zach was fun show to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. Crazy, fun and and crazy. And Zach is,
Speaker 1: as you know, one of the great comedic minds and
Speaker 1: just minds in general. And that guy's mind is he's
Speaker 1: another one where we all just sit like, okay, Zack,
Speaker 1: it's just you know, it's that the cameras on Zach
Speaker 1: and like, what's he gonna do? Um, And yet we're
Speaker 1: in a spaceship all time, this crazy, humongous spaceship with
Speaker 1: a working elevator, like and you know, our Madi Nichi
Speaker 1: just sort of composing and conducting this complete chaos with
Speaker 1: these really subtle sort of social commentary underneath that. All
Speaker 1: of us about the fourth episode, we're like, oh, wait,
Speaker 1: he's talking about Brexit. We were all like, this is
Speaker 1: like just this was you know, we didn't even understand
Speaker 1: like one of the great satirists of our time was
Speaker 1: like doing a satire again. We're like, oh, this seems
Speaker 1: like funny goofy space companies. Oh no, he's actually he's
Speaker 1: talking about how like the rise of tyranny in in uh,
Speaker 1: some of the major nations in the world right now. Um,
Speaker 1: so like we actually got you know, he got to
Speaker 1: dig deep and living in London was beautiful and and uh,
Speaker 1: Jessica said Claire, who's a great friend of mine, played
Speaker 1: We played a husband and wife for like the thirteenth
Speaker 1: time on screen, weedless love playing off each other, and um,
Speaker 1: Hugh Laurie is exactly the the amazing sophisticated brit that
Speaker 1: you think he is, and drive a motorcycle and and
Speaker 1: we're all kind of in awe of him. Well, every
Speaker 1: single person has a crush on Hugh LORI uh so, yeah, incredible.
Speaker 1: Also high school out now, were you a Teagan and
Speaker 1: Sarah fan? Marginally, I've since become much more. But I
Speaker 1: I knew like about five of their bigger songs, walking
Speaker 1: to the Ghost and a couple of their hits and
Speaker 1: the Lego song. I knew about and and knew them
Speaker 1: and always see them like on festival posters when I
Speaker 1: was I was looking at festivals, so but really thrilled
Speaker 1: to sort of dive deeper into their work, which is
Speaker 1: incredibly rewarding. Like they they've had ten or twelve albums
Speaker 1: the last twenty years and so they have a library
Speaker 1: of songs. It's really good. So that was fun and
Speaker 1: getting to know them and reading that book about them,
Speaker 1: that experience was a great clean of all Or Cantrell,
Speaker 1: who created the show. And that's I'm sort of rambling
Speaker 1: now just because I can't think of any other words
Speaker 1: besides fantastic and awesome. But it's it's the nineties set
Speaker 1: in the nineties, I love the nineties. I kind of
Speaker 1: considered myself an expert on the nineties and sort of
Speaker 1: like that indie flavor of the nineties, any movies, any music.
Speaker 1: I was kind of that kid and this sort of
Speaker 1: minds that world, that part of the nineties, but in
Speaker 1: a in a from a perspective that I was so
Speaker 1: ignorant of, like embarrassingly so two girls, you know, coming
Speaker 1: of age and coming out and discovering music for themselves,
Speaker 1: and in a still pretty close minded nineties. Even though
Speaker 1: we kind of considered nineties the beginning of sort of
Speaker 1: modern progressive out too, it's about these things, it was
Speaker 1: still pretty close minded. So sort of seeing that the
Speaker 1: nineties from that perspective compared to the perspective I had
Speaker 1: was eye opening. And I'm so glad I got to
Speaker 1: get that in my life. That's awesome. Kyle. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming on sharing your story. I'm a
Speaker 1: big fan of yours. I'll watch you do basically anything,
Speaker 1: not everything, but basically everything. And I appreciate you coming
Speaker 1: and uh and taking some time with me today. And
Speaker 1: I found you you have opened my eyes in a
Speaker 1: new way. I'm super super fascinated by this. Idea. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be thinking about it later today, This idea of
Speaker 1: of the shift in comedy and the paradigm that those
Speaker 1: guys changed. That's and you're very interesting and you're a
Speaker 1: delight and I'm not even gonna just say hey anytime.
Speaker 1: Please please have me back, all right after I had
Speaker 1: I will canceled shows under my belt and U yes,
Speaker 1: I will for sure. Thank you, Kyle. Of course, this
Speaker 1: was great. Thank you so much, Kyle. It's so good
Speaker 1: to see you again. Thank you for stopping by. I
Speaker 1: cannot wait to check out your new show, High School.
Speaker 1: And to those of you out there listening, thank you
Speaker 1: as well. I'm gonna see you next week with another
Speaker 1: guest with office roots, Deep deep office routes. Until then,
Speaker 1: why don't you go out there and for yourselves and
Speaker 1: for me, just just have a fantastic week, all right,
Speaker 1: We'll see you soon. Off the Beat is hosted an
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Speaker 1: Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers
Speaker 1: are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent
Speaker 1: producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and our intern is Sammy Cats.
Speaker 1: Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one
Speaker 1: and only Creed Bratt