Speaker 1: The Craig Ferguson Fancy Rascal Stand Up Tour continues throughout
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. For a full list of dates and tickets,
Speaker 1: go to the Craig Ferguson Show dot com slash tour.
Speaker 1: See you out there, the Greig Ferguson show dot Com
Speaker 1: slash Tour. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of
Speaker 1: this podcast is Joy. I talk to interest in people
Speaker 1: about what brings them happiness. You probably know my next
Speaker 1: guest from his work on Modern Family. But let me
Speaker 1: tell you this. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and he's one of
Speaker 1: the Tyler Fergusons, which makes him better than me. Has
Speaker 1: a fascinating career and story. Let's listen to it.
Speaker 2: I have my own podcast now that I'm going to
Speaker 2: talk about. Oh yeah, that's always the thing. When it's
Speaker 2: like a friend of mine, I was.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, I'm gonna, yeah, we're rolling out somebodyeah talk.
Speaker 3: About something like they might you know, I not want
Speaker 3: to talk about.
Speaker 1: But ilwa was try just I mean I would try
Speaker 1: you in a position today, Well you talk about something
Speaker 1: you don't want to talk about. But there's very little
Speaker 1: that I won't talk about. But you know, the truth
Speaker 1: is as well, I think that it's it's I don't
Speaker 1: want to do that to people anyway. Yeah, so why
Speaker 1: would you do it in a like I'm not a
Speaker 1: journalist of course. Now tell me about something you're so
Speaker 1: ashamed of. Yeah, like, I don't I want to hear
Speaker 1: that from you.
Speaker 3: Got to get that question now, I don't know what
Speaker 3: it would be.
Speaker 1: Okay, Then tell me something you're really ashamed of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about that right now.
Speaker 1: You I've always been jaious of you for two reasons.
Speaker 1: Tell me, Well, one your Broadway Royalty, which is I
Speaker 1: think a great thing to be. I just admirable and aspirational.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is, you know, not just Jesse Ferguson,
Speaker 1: you're Jesse Tyler.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's already a Jesse Ferguson, and yeah, I figured
Speaker 2: it might be that. Yeah, So I had to go
Speaker 2: with my middle name, and I'm named after my grandmother,
Speaker 2: so I really wanted to keep the Jesse.
Speaker 3: I like the name Jesse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is nice name.
Speaker 2: And I wanted kids and that I grew up with
Speaker 2: to know that I had succeeded because I was bullied
Speaker 2: a lot as a kid.
Speaker 1: You surprised me. You from Montana or something.
Speaker 2: I'm was born in Montana, raised in Albuquerque, Okay. And
Speaker 2: I was just not very popular, you know. I was
Speaker 2: a sort of an awkward kid, and I was pretty
Speaker 2: ruthlessly bullied. And then when I made well, I you know,
Speaker 2: became very successful, and the thing that I wanted to do,
Speaker 2: I wanted all the assholes who bullied me to know
Speaker 2: that I'd made it.
Speaker 3: So I kept Ferguson.
Speaker 2: So they're going to remember that name, Jessica when I
Speaker 2: throwned the tyler.
Speaker 1: So it's funny because have you ever met the head
Speaker 1: of the Ferguson clan name? No, he's a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: No really, yeah yeah yeah. His name is Adam. He
Speaker 1: lives in a place called cal Karen, which is the
Speaker 1: seat of the Ferguson name in Ayrshire and Scotland and
Speaker 1: island Tom. He's spectacular, that's fascinating.
Speaker 3: I have him.
Speaker 2: When my grandmother passed away, I took a book from
Speaker 2: our house and it was all about the Scottish Tartans
Speaker 2: and I she had a little squatch of fabric from
Speaker 2: the Ferguson Tartan so I.
Speaker 1: Have that you don't have a kilt in the Ferguson tartan.
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't. I should get one made.
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like I know what's coming from.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you what though, I feel like the
Speaker 2: Ferguson tartan is the same as the private school uniform
Speaker 2: that I had to grow up wearing our Lady of Fatima,
Speaker 2: and I think, I mean, it's listen, it was.
Speaker 3: It's a very lovely tartan. But like that's what it
Speaker 3: will remind me of.
Speaker 1: But maybe it's time. Maybe it's time to let it go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to let it go and like reclaim.
Speaker 1: Reclaim the reclaim the plaid. I feel like, actually that
Speaker 1: that sounds like a rallying cry right, reclaim the plaid. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I might be doing that for fashion Week this year,
Speaker 1: reclaiming the plaid. Yeah, I'm reclaiming the plaid. It's funny
Speaker 1: because when I think of you growing up in Albuquerque,
Speaker 1: because you look like a lot of guys that I
Speaker 1: grew up with. You, you have the coloring and the
Speaker 1: complex and of a lot of people I grew up
Speaker 1: with in Albuquerque. Must have been tough for someone of your.
Speaker 2: My my skin tone of right, I'm not the greatest
Speaker 2: place to raise the right head, well.
Speaker 1: Redhead in the sun like that. Then you were bullied
Speaker 1: at school, I'm amazed you're not a stack up community.
Speaker 1: It sounds traumatic. Was it really bad?
Speaker 3: Do you think it was pretty bad? Yeah? It was
Speaker 3: pretty bad.
Speaker 2: In fact, when I was in grade school in my
Speaker 2: eighth grade year, I well, right before my eighth grade year,
Speaker 2: I told my parents was like, it's really blea good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well they actually changed I changed schools.
Speaker 1: Listening to you, did it help?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was nice to be relocated to
Speaker 2: a different like a different pool of people. I was,
Speaker 2: you know, didn't like I didn't. It didn't change who
Speaker 2: I was. I was, you know, a very shy kid,
Speaker 2: so you know, I still wasn't super popular, but it
Speaker 2: sort of gave me a little bit of a relief
Speaker 2: from the constant bullying. But then I went to the
Speaker 2: high school I went to was the one Catholic high
Speaker 2: school in Albuquerque, and so a lot of the people
Speaker 2: that I went to grade school with I saw them
Speaker 2: again when I was in high school.
Speaker 3: But it was a bigger pond, you know.
Speaker 1: Right, so it was easier to escape you. Are you
Speaker 1: an observant Catholic?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, all right, there's your coffee.
Speaker 3: What did you get?
Speaker 1: Just I like a thank you very much. It's just coffee.
Speaker 1: I like just a regular coffee. No sugar, no sugar,
Speaker 1: no milk. Two shorts of this spread. So but in
Speaker 1: a cup that normally has three.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, so that's a clever red eye.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's right, it's a slightly let Do you want
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee?
Speaker 3: No, I've had my I've had two today and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's all I get. As well, this is
Speaker 1: my second, and then that's I get two cups. Ago.
Speaker 1: I have become that guy. Yeah, that used to be
Speaker 1: so bad. You never you never fail into that drugs
Speaker 1: and alcohol and all that kind of stuff. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: but I did cut back on drinking a lot this year.
Speaker 3: Just you know, but your kids are young.
Speaker 2: My kids are young, and I'm just I can't deal
Speaker 2: with a hangover. So my coffee intake has definitely opped.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever get like this is the
Speaker 1: sight of middle I think, do you ever get to
Speaker 1: the point where it's nighttime and you're excited, oh because
Speaker 1: morning's coming and you can.
Speaker 3: Go, you know, Craig something. I wake up and I'm
Speaker 3: excited for night time.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, in twelve hours, are going
Speaker 2: to be back in the same spot.
Speaker 1: It'll be time again. Oh god. Absolutely, I get excited
Speaker 1: for breakfast. I mean that pathantic is that it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to I can't eat late at night because
Speaker 1: I'll get you know, into gest but in the morning,
Speaker 1: I'm going to have such a breakfast right right right.
Speaker 1: So let me tell you that you're you're growing up
Speaker 1: in Albuquerque, in New Mexico, Yeah, right where they have
Speaker 1: got the Rattlesting Museum. I believe we've discussed this, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: we talked, and I think myself, No, you're a theater
Speaker 1: kid and you're growing up in a society at that
Speaker 1: time it's not really cool to be a theater kid
Speaker 1: who's emerging as a gay man as well.
Speaker 2: It's going to be especially in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There
Speaker 2: just wasn't a community there to sort of support that
Speaker 2: probably is not I would think more so now. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 2: you know, I think Albaque has changed a lot, and
Speaker 2: I I do. I do still I've always loved Albuquerque,
Speaker 2: even though I had a kind of tricky childhood there.
Speaker 2: But I do like going back and visiting. I've I've
Speaker 2: taken my kids for that. They have the largest international
Speaker 2: hot air Ballymfiesta there.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's which.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable. So I really like, I really like going back
Speaker 2: for that. I saw a family that lives there. I
Speaker 2: love the food there. I I have grown to sort
Speaker 2: of appreciate the state as as a as a nice
Speaker 2: place to visit now. But yeah, when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: you know that, especially as a theater kid, there wasn't
Speaker 2: a lot of opportunity.
Speaker 3: There was a great we had a pretty great.
Speaker 2: Community theater program, and I you know, I had auditioned
Speaker 2: for the shows. But in my my my high school
Speaker 2: didn't have a great theater program.
Speaker 1: But you but you're a Catholic. There's plenty of theater
Speaker 1: in the Catholic church.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: You know, circumstance because I was raised as a Protestant Scotland.
Speaker 1: I mean we get you know, the wolves are painted
Speaker 1: why and maybe we get a heater in the church.
Speaker 1: Maybe don't. That's it. But you know, the Catholic kids,
Speaker 1: they go wow, they kind of scared me. Actually, was like,
Speaker 1: go the Korra.
Speaker 2: I mean, looking back on it, I'm just you know,
Speaker 2: that was you know, I go to Mass every day.
Speaker 2: Every morning would start with and when I was in
Speaker 2: grade school, every morning would start with a Mass, you know,
Speaker 2: an abbreviated Mass, thirty minutes usually, but then we would
Speaker 2: go to Mass, take the Eucharist every morning every morning. Well,
Speaker 2: you know, after my first communion. Uh yeah, but I
Speaker 2: had my first communion, I was baptized, I did all that,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. And it's funny because my parents weren't.
Speaker 2: They weren't super observant sort of the it felt like
Speaker 2: a community that they were raised in and then decided
Speaker 2: to raise their kids in. But you know, I kind
Speaker 2: of broke the mold for what.
Speaker 1: About because you're a parent, you got little kids. I
Speaker 1: mean that sometimes changes people's perception of their religion and
Speaker 1: their upbringing. Sure, what do you think.
Speaker 2: Well, we aren't a religious family, you know, just since
Speaker 2: what didn't go to church. But you know, I think
Speaker 2: that it's sad thing of as I'm as I'm teaching
Speaker 2: my kids, you know, I'm learning that you know, certain
Speaker 2: ideas that I'm trying to teach them are rooted in
Speaker 2: like my faith and certain things are rooted in like
Speaker 2: just my my who I am as a person. Now,
Speaker 2: you know, I meditate a lot and I like to
Speaker 2: I'm spiritual, I guess in a different way. So you
Speaker 2: know a lot of those a lot of those ideas
Speaker 2: are pasted down to my kids. But like I you know,
Speaker 2: I'm I haven't we haven't taken them to church. We
Speaker 2: haven't done any of that stuff. You know, we certainly
Speaker 2: certainly around. It's interesting because we you know, my son
Speaker 2: now understands what Christmas is, and you know, it's you know,
Speaker 2: I I was like, well do we start talking about
Speaker 2: this other thing, this like Catholic component to it or not?
Speaker 2: And and you know, I when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: I created a Nativity scene for myself and it's this
Speaker 2: really adorable thing, created on blocks with pieces of felt.
Speaker 1: And I enjoyed points.
Speaker 2: It's so it's so adorable, and my parents saved it
Speaker 2: and they pas down to me and so we put
Speaker 2: it out every year.
Speaker 3: But it's just like weird thing.
Speaker 2: It's you know, my kids don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, this is the baby Jesus. I'm like,
Speaker 2: what am I talking about?
Speaker 1: But I love all the tradition of all. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I feel like with religion, what I do
Speaker 1: now is I take what I want and I leave
Speaker 1: the rest. Yeah, and if anyone's got a problem with that,
Speaker 1: then they had a problem in the first place. Right,
Speaker 1: It's that whole thing of you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: people who are angry, they were angry before they even
Speaker 1: heard are you that's right? You know, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of you got to let it go. Yeah. I wonder though,
Speaker 1: because I think you said you're a spiritual person, and
Speaker 1: I think about that a lot, and I'm not a
Speaker 1: religious person, but I find that I can't. For a
Speaker 1: while there I thought it was an atheist, but it
Speaker 1: felt like too dogmatic and rigid to take like you
Speaker 1: knew the answer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, you know, all these theologians, Thomas of Aquina, Einstein,
Speaker 1: they were all wrong. But I'm right.
Speaker 2: Right, right, I mean, I certainly I never thought of
Speaker 2: myself as an atheist, but I don't know, it's sort
Speaker 2: of I think it's okay to be uncategory and uncategorizable.
Speaker 2: I think that's okay, totally fine.
Speaker 1: I think actually, with things that are going on right
Speaker 1: now in lots of areas of society. Huh. I think
Speaker 1: that that's actually good, it's healthy, because I was thinking
Speaker 1: that there. I was. I was thinking about, you know,
Speaker 1: what's the statute of limitations on gay because when I
Speaker 1: was eighteen nineteen years old, I gate for you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: how are you going to know something you like something
Speaker 1: unless you try? And I tried it thought well, it's okay,
Speaker 1: and I like the person involved, but it's not really
Speaker 1: for me. And then I thought, but does that you know,
Speaker 1: what does that? Where does that place me in the Well?
Speaker 2: I think everything's on a spectrum, you know, So that's yeah.
Speaker 2: I know so many people who are very straight and
Speaker 2: have kids and have wonderful marriages, and you know, they
Speaker 2: dabbled a bit in high school and college, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's and.
Speaker 1: The other way around. By the way, I know plenty
Speaker 1: of gay men who were straight.
Speaker 3: Now, hey, now, now that's something I haven't done. Well,
Speaker 3: I've never dabbled.
Speaker 1: Wow, you know, I look, if you're making fail.
Speaker 3: I know, that's right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Did you know right away you were like, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm dealing with.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't necessarily know how to categorize it. But
Speaker 2: I knew that it was something that was not you know,
Speaker 2: growing up Catholic. You know, that's sort of all you
Speaker 2: hear about is like.
Speaker 3: You know, anal It's.
Speaker 2: Like, oh gosh, it just seems like it's something I'm
Speaker 2: not super interested in. Or I didn't see a place
Speaker 2: for myself in that, you know that in that arrangement.
Speaker 2: But like I I don't know if I knew that
Speaker 2: it was gay until you know, I was a little older.
Speaker 1: But I wonder if do you think that's what I
Speaker 1: tried to do to theater and broadways because it has
Speaker 1: a lot of the drama and the pageantry and the
Speaker 1: ceremony even of Catholic church, but it famously much more
Speaker 1: accepting of gay people, right.
Speaker 2: I mean perhaps I did like the you know at
Speaker 2: Christmas time, the live Nativity scene. Who does you know
Speaker 2: that the shows in church were really exciting. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: you know it was all about for me, like the
Speaker 2: production value. If it looked good, then I was into it,
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't want to look great.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just find that so kind of it's something very
Speaker 1: wholesome about that. I think something lovely about it. Sure,
Speaker 1: So how did you how did you get from Albuquerque.
Speaker 1: To to broadly what happened.
Speaker 2: I came to New York right after I graduated high school.
Speaker 2: I was accepted into a performance arts academy called the
Speaker 2: American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Uh And so my dad
Speaker 2: and I drove cross country and his suburban and we
Speaker 2: packed all my stuff up in the back seat. And
Speaker 2: it was like a four day road trip for me.
Speaker 2: You no, I know, he's so sort of him to
Speaker 2: drive me. And then we drove into Manhattan and the suburban.
Speaker 2: You know, my dad, it's you know, he's a used
Speaker 2: to driving driving in Albuquque in Mexico. Here we are
Speaker 2: in Manhattan and people are honking at us, and you know,
Speaker 2: they are very aggressive drivers in New York.
Speaker 3: And my dad's, you know, a rule follower.
Speaker 2: You know, he's the type of guy that, like Hanks
Speaker 2: twice before backing up to make sure no one's behind him.
Speaker 2: You know this, this type of timid driving was not
Speaker 2: going to fly in Manhattan. So he dropped me off,
Speaker 2: we unloaded the car. I think he stayed a few
Speaker 2: days with me while I sort of settled in, and
Speaker 2: then he drove back to Albuquerque and left me behind
Speaker 2: in New York and did you feel.
Speaker 1: Like you were you were where you were meant to be. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting. I had never even before I
Speaker 2: went to New York, I knew that's where I wanted
Speaker 2: to go. And I think part of it is just
Speaker 2: because I would watch the Tony Awards on TV and
Speaker 2: I knew that this place that had this incredible theater
Speaker 2: scene called Broadway was you know, it existed only in
Speaker 2: New York City, and I just I had I was
Speaker 2: aware enough of that that culture.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I had all these cast albums and I would collect
Speaker 2: the musical scores of these shows. Even though I didn't
Speaker 2: really play piano. I would just like to look at
Speaker 2: the photos and like, look at the sheet music, and
Speaker 2: I just had a great appreciation for the work that
Speaker 2: went into putting these shows on and I want to
Speaker 2: be a part of that in whatever capacity.
Speaker 1: It is a real world into itself Broadway as well.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating that there are people who are big stars
Speaker 1: on Broadway that you know, cross the East River and
Speaker 1: you know, people are like, I'm sorry, I don't know
Speaker 1: who you were talking about, you know, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's I had.
Speaker 2: To explain the other day to someone who Patty Lapone was,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I'm sorry, I don't know if
Speaker 2: I can do this.
Speaker 1: Wait, yeah, but I think that it's quite an interesting
Speaker 1: thing because you there's somebody that there was anctor called,
Speaker 1: you know, Jim Dale, of course, and Jim Dale was
Speaker 1: a huge Broadway star, but in Britain. I knew him
Speaker 1: from doing these kind of cheesy comedies when I was
Speaker 1: a kid growing up. We used to that and I
Speaker 1: only heard years later he had become this force on
Speaker 1: on Broadway. It's such a such a strange thing. Well
Speaker 1: have you done there recently?
Speaker 3: My most recent thing on Broadway was a play called
Speaker 3: Take Me Out, about a baseball team. The lead player,
Speaker 3: who's like a Derek Jeter type, comes out of the closet.
Speaker 3: That role was played by Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy Okay,
Speaker 3: who's a fantastic stage actress. It was his stage debut,
Speaker 3: and I played his business manager, who is a gay
Speaker 3: man who doesn't know anything about baseball and then falls
Speaker 3: in love with the game. C It's a beautiful play
Speaker 3: written by Richard Greenberg.
Speaker 1: Who.
Speaker 3: Is such a lover of baseball, and I had these
Speaker 3: amazing soliloquies about baseball and how they're so you know,
Speaker 3: it's like democracy, and how it's.
Speaker 1: A weird game. It's an interesting thing because it does
Speaker 1: contain something that I don't think other sports do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's weird. I feel that about baseball.
Speaker 2: It's that thing of first of all, it's lonely sport.
Speaker 2: You know, you're not you're playing kind of by yourself.
Speaker 2: You each have your own positions. And then it's something
Speaker 2: else that there's no clock, which is so interesting. You know,
Speaker 2: there's no countdown. It's you have this moment on the
Speaker 2: plate and you have Everyone has the same opportunity and
Speaker 2: the same chance to achieve something, and they're given the
Speaker 2: space and time to do it. And that's sort of
Speaker 2: what this character found so beautiful about the game of baseball.
Speaker 1: When I became an America uh huh, it was about
Speaker 1: baseball was the thing that I've think explained America to me,
Speaker 1: okay in a way that I didn't understand before, and
Speaker 1: why I was so attracted to it. And here's what
Speaker 1: it is. It is Failure is unnecessary and probably the
Speaker 1: majority of what you will do is fail And it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you can swing at the ball and
Speaker 1: head it one time out of ten, you're a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. Yeah, And I thought, oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So if you fail, it's just part of the process.
Speaker 1: It's just part of it. Spot a thing because where
Speaker 1: I'm from, you fail. I tried in the first place,
Speaker 1: audible we boys. But if you in America, you fail,
Speaker 1: you go, well missed it next Yeah, you know, And
Speaker 1: I love that about That's why I kind of like,
Speaker 1: I'm not a baseball for Thattica or any means, but
Speaker 1: I kind of like I respect it in a weird way.
Speaker 1: I think it as a as a real soul in
Speaker 1: it that I that I'm.
Speaker 3: Very emotional sports.
Speaker 1: It is right and the idea of when you have
Speaker 1: you you've been to games, right, so you know that
Speaker 1: they particularly actually in the Midwest or in the West
Speaker 1: where the sun hangs forever, and there's that vibe. It's
Speaker 1: a very it's like it has a it has a
Speaker 1: spiritual quality about it, which I've never been able to
Speaker 1: achieve watching other sports. It's it's amazing. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: great a theater about it. Yeah, spiritual theory. The Craig
Speaker 1: Ferguson Fancy Rascals stand up to her continues throughout the
Speaker 1: United States in twenty twenty four. For a full list
Speaker 1: of dates and tickets, go to the Craig fergusonshow dot
Speaker 1: com slash tour. See you out there. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about meditating, because I'm trying to do it, and it's.
Speaker 2: It's what do you find hard about it? Finding the
Speaker 2: time or just calming your body down?
Speaker 3: Are both?
Speaker 1: You know? I feel like what it is is that
Speaker 1: when I try and meditate, I do. I do do it,
Speaker 1: and I try and do it every day. It's I
Speaker 1: kind of put a value on it, like that was
Speaker 1: a good meditation that was it worked then or it
Speaker 1: didn't work then. But I suspect that's probably not the
Speaker 1: correct go about that.
Speaker 2: I think that's right right, Well, you said right there,
Speaker 2: you know the correct way. I don't think there is
Speaker 2: a correct way to do it. But the type of
Speaker 2: meditation that I started practicing was TM transcendental meditation that
Speaker 2: I'm actually dead. Director David Lynch set up a foundation
Speaker 2: here in Los Angeles because he became so enamored with
Speaker 2: this type of meditation and he wanted to make it
Speaker 2: accessible to everyone, you know, kids and people who were
Speaker 2: suffering trauma. So he basically set up this nonprofit and
Speaker 2: you pay, like, say, I want to learn how to
Speaker 2: do translated on meditation. I find a week that I
Speaker 2: want to do this, and I pay a fee and
Speaker 2: that that money goes to help teaching other people how
Speaker 2: to do it. So I did a week long seminar
Speaker 2: with the David Lynch Foundation, and like, you go every day,
Speaker 2: and I think I only had to go three or
Speaker 2: four days, and it was just you know, you find
Speaker 2: like I think it was like an hour and a
Speaker 2: half or two hours, but you have to be able
Speaker 2: to do it every day.
Speaker 3: So I had to sort of carve it.
Speaker 2: It was when I was shooting Modern Family, and so
Speaker 2: I had to really make sure I had It was
Speaker 2: my hiatus week and I didn't have any other work
Speaker 2: to do, so I was able to clear out some
Speaker 2: afternoons to do it.
Speaker 3: But you know, they what it requires of you is.
Speaker 2: Twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the
Speaker 2: evening or the late late afternoon. And to be completely honest,
Speaker 2: I've not been great about doing it twice a day,
Speaker 2: and I'm trying to get back into the habit and
Speaker 2: I feel like what I need right now is a
Speaker 2: refresher course.
Speaker 1: Is there a lot of instruction required.
Speaker 3: That's the thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're you're, you're, you're assigned to mantra, and
Speaker 2: you know, they teach you how to do it. And
Speaker 2: I learned in a group of people and then I
Speaker 2: had sort of one on one sessions as well. But
Speaker 2: it's really just quieting your body down, repeating this mantra
Speaker 2: in your head and then coming into the state. And
Speaker 2: it does take practice to sort of tune out the noise.
Speaker 2: And some people are really good now they you know,
Speaker 2: and they've been this for so long they can do it,
Speaker 2: you know, in a in a loud room and they
Speaker 2: can still go into that state of meditation.
Speaker 3: I'm not that good.
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by that because I became kind of and
Speaker 1: you know, I've been sober for a very long time,
Speaker 1: so you know, prayer meditation is something that comes up
Speaker 1: and there's an essential part of it and I've always
Speaker 1: been fighting with because it was raised in Judeo Christian
Speaker 1: you know environment. I'm like, prayer is fighting like you
Speaker 1: say sorry and move on, and you're so big and
Speaker 1: it's my fault. And over time I kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: progressed a bit with that, But meditation always felt there's
Speaker 1: a I don't know where I came up with this,
Speaker 1: but I always felt a little indulgent, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I felt like I was indulgent myself guilt. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing. It's just a different set of
Speaker 1: a different set dressing the same guilt. I think that
Speaker 1: that's that's right. It was like I shouldn't. Oh you
Speaker 1: have to meditate. Oh, of course you do it because
Speaker 1: you can show business. Yes, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean I think that, you know, living here in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, that's certainly a trope to fall into. You know,
Speaker 2: if people here that you live in LA and you meditate.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, okay, well we know what you know.
Speaker 1: Well, we know how much kill you get through. And
Speaker 1: I don't live in LA anymore.
Speaker 3: Where do you live now?
Speaker 1: Well? New York and Scotland mostly. Really, I'm here to
Speaker 1: do this, I well, this this podcast thing that I do.
Speaker 1: I made a rule for myself that I wouldn't do
Speaker 1: any of them remotely, that I would sit across. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you. Yeah, well you do that with your
Speaker 1: person as well. Difference I think it does because I
Speaker 1: think during COVID when we all go into doing the
Speaker 1: Zoom stuff because now they do pictures by Zoom all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 3: Pitches by Zoom, auditions by Zoom.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you hear the scandal recently about fake auditions on Zoom? No? Oh,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. So a bunch of agents apparently again
Speaker 1: in trouble because they're saying that their clients or you're
Speaker 1: up for this big role, but you have to put
Speaker 1: your cell phone tape. They're not up for the big rule.
Speaker 1: But the clients put them cell phone tape. I think
Speaker 1: they've got a shot. So the agent looks like they're
Speaker 1: getting them these good things.
Speaker 3: I just said no to putting myself on tape for something.
Speaker 1: Well, come on, you're Jesse Tyler, fucking fair.
Speaker 3: Talk about this.
Speaker 2: It was like the role and it's it was being
Speaker 2: directed by an actor who I very much admire is
Speaker 2: also starring in it, and the role to me on paper,
Speaker 2: I only read the sides was sort of gay best
Speaker 2: friend one on one like there wasn't anything.
Speaker 3: Super interesting about it. But it was a well written part.
Speaker 2: It was sure not bad at all, and I was
Speaker 2: only would have entertained the their job before it was
Speaker 2: offered to me, but he wanted me to put myself
Speaker 2: on tape ten pages of this sort of gay best
Speaker 2: friend one on one on tape, and I said, you know,
Speaker 2: I just feel like, after eleven years of Modern Family
Speaker 2: and Tony Award, like, I just feel like, when is it?
Speaker 2: When have I proven myself? And I just said I'm
Speaker 2: not going to do it. And they said, well, he
Speaker 2: really needs to see see it. And I said, okay, well,
Speaker 2: I guess I'm not going to get this part. And
Speaker 2: I just saw that it was announced that a friend
Speaker 2: of mine got the part, and I'm desperate to call
Speaker 2: my friend and be like, did you put yourself on table.
Speaker 3: Or he just offered to you?
Speaker 1: But you know it's that look. I've directed things as well,
Speaker 1: and I've I've done this into my shame. I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have done it. But it was a long time ago.
Speaker 1: But I asked for people to audition that I know
Speaker 1: they could do them. Yeah, I knew. I knew they
Speaker 1: could do the part and they would be great in
Speaker 1: the part. But I was the director and I was
Speaker 1: you know, I was being I was being a deck
Speaker 1: quite frankly.
Speaker 2: I don't mind auditioning for things, especially I feel like
Speaker 2: if I feel like, uh, it's thing that I'm not
Speaker 2: sure I can do because I want to make sure
Speaker 2: that we're on the same page, that's.
Speaker 1: Well, you're a proper, growing up actor who's no epetulant
Speaker 1: when it comes to edition, because that's what I think
Speaker 1: I was doing. It was like I was making people addition,
Speaker 1: it was some kind of weird parapley. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was a long time agoing out. I don't do that
Speaker 1: because direct and you've directed right a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't love it. Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 3: I didn't mind it. It's not my passion. I haven't
Speaker 3: directed anything of great importance.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's interesting because I thought for a
Speaker 2: while it was like, I think I could actually direct
Speaker 2: some episodes Modern Family, and Julie Bowen was the only
Speaker 2: cast member who actually directed us. And I ended up
Speaker 2: not even throwing my name into the ring. And I
Speaker 2: think they would have let me do it if I
Speaker 2: wanted to, but I just after, like, you know, this
Speaker 2: was like the end of the run, and after like
Speaker 2: nine or ten years of being with this this cast,
Speaker 2: I just felt like I didn't want to step out
Speaker 2: of that role of being a co star or a
Speaker 2: co acting partner and into this directorial position, like I
Speaker 2: could not picture myself like giving Ed O'Neal direction.
Speaker 3: I just couldn't do it. But yet I think I
Speaker 3: would have been really good at it.
Speaker 1: So I think, well, it changes the family dynamic. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you were in a cast that long, it's a
Speaker 1: kind of familial sh and it.
Speaker 2: Would have been nice to be surrounded by people who
Speaker 2: trusted me and the crew that already I already knew.
Speaker 2: And the thing is, Julie Bowen did a great job.
Speaker 1: I could see Julie being great. She's so organized, she's
Speaker 1: a very good let's get it done. She was great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can imagine she would be. She has a podcast
Speaker 1: as well, of course she does. Yeah, I think who does.
Speaker 1: It's a bit like having a tattoo or our blog stage. Yes,
Speaker 1: tell me about your podcast that you do. Then dinner
Speaker 1: with dinners on me? Dinner's on me. People eat food
Speaker 1: from your naked.
Speaker 2: Body, not dinners on me physically.
Speaker 1: Honest, thataway, like it's like the people eat from you.
Speaker 2: Although yeah, that could be an interesting twist. No, dinner's
Speaker 2: on me meaning I pick up the bill or rather
Speaker 2: Sony picks up the bill because they're my producers. And yes,
Speaker 2: I take I take a friend out to to a
Speaker 2: meal and we have a conversation over dinner and what
Speaker 2: I love about it and what always gives I have
Speaker 2: several friends who have podcasts as well, and some of
Speaker 2: them have been on the show, and you know they
Speaker 2: Doak Shepherd was just on an episode, and you know
Speaker 2: he has obviously Armchair Expert, which is such a popular podcast,
Speaker 2: and he arrived at the restaurant and he was just
Speaker 2: he couldn't let the micromanaging go. He was worried about sound.
Speaker 2: He was worried about, you know, the the ambient noises.
Speaker 2: He was worried about the fact that a third person
Speaker 2: was coming over to the table to like give us
Speaker 2: our menus and tell us a special He was like, oh,
Speaker 2: what's happening.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, he's a director.
Speaker 3: He's a director.
Speaker 2: But That's what I love about my podcast is it
Speaker 2: is feels very it feels very fly on the wall.
Speaker 2: You feel like at this you're the third chair at
Speaker 2: this table and you're having lunch with us or dinner
Speaker 2: with us. And I love that you hear the way
Speaker 2: to come over with the table and get the specials
Speaker 2: and you hear about our dietary restrictions, and like it's
Speaker 2: just a normal dinner service except for it happens to
Speaker 2: be recorded.
Speaker 1: You go to like Chili's and all of dark, or
Speaker 1: you go to like.
Speaker 3: Fancy usually we'll not always super fancy.
Speaker 2: I you know, I took Weird All Yankovic was a
Speaker 2: recent guest and he's vegan, and I took him to
Speaker 2: uh Cafe Gratitude here in Los Angeles, which is, you know,
Speaker 2: a very casual dining place that has amazing vegan food. Uh,
Speaker 2: and obviously he had been there before. And then I
Speaker 2: took Sophia Vagara to Dante, which is this beautiful new
Speaker 2: restaurant on top of the hotel.
Speaker 3: In Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's just sort of a mix of
Speaker 2: where I think these people would enjoy and restaurant. I
Speaker 2: choose it with sometimes the help of my guests, and
Speaker 2: I try and match up, like where I think they
Speaker 2: might like to go.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you no Yankovic story. Tell me
Speaker 1: so favorite. I love this. So out comes to visit
Speaker 1: me in Scotland, this very old house in Scotland, and
Speaker 1: just before your eyes, I'm in the basement slash dungeon
Speaker 1: of this old house and I find an accordion, an
Speaker 1: old ACCORDI like an old, fancy accordion, and I bring
Speaker 1: it up the stairs and and Al arrived like later
Speaker 1: that day, and he's like, oh yeah, this is a
Speaker 1: sprinkledanger forty eight or something. And he fixed it. He
Speaker 1: fixed it, fixed it well, he said, you know, I've
Speaker 1: fixed it as much as I can.
Speaker 3: That's incredible.
Speaker 1: But it was like I couldn't believe it an accordion,
Speaker 1: and then I'll arrived. It had a spiritual.
Speaker 3: Compati is incredible.
Speaker 1: MESSI Al Yankovic. I think it's like amazing happened that.
Speaker 1: I just I really told you the story to let
Speaker 1: you know that Al Yankovic show enough.
Speaker 2: I met him for the first time at his house
Speaker 2: in Hawaii. I don't know if he was if it
Speaker 2: was his house, if he was renting it, or if
Speaker 2: he actually.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, because the reason was in Scotland is because
Speaker 1: the volcanic ash thing was going on Hawaii and he
Speaker 1: couldn't go.
Speaker 3: There, gotcha, Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: So the only reason I so you went to his
Speaker 1: houseband Hawaii? Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3: He and Eric Stone Street were kind of buddies. Uh.
Speaker 3: Eric was a music video of his Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Eric and I happened to be in not only
Speaker 2: in Hawaii, but at the same resort with our significant
Speaker 2: others at the time. Mine I went on to marry
Speaker 2: who's not my husband, but Eric was. I was dating
Speaker 2: his the girlfen he was dating at the time, So
Speaker 2: we were all at the same resort. And uh, I
Speaker 2: mean just totally by happened. Chance happened, stance happened, chance happen.
Speaker 1: It's probably correct. Chance stands is. I was like, you're
Speaker 1: about to start a number. Yea happened by Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I have a real good habit of making up boards
Speaker 2: and mispronouncing things all the time.
Speaker 3: Don chance.
Speaker 2: Uh So anyways, Eric like, do you want to go
Speaker 2: have dinner with Alan Susan his wife, And uh, I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, let's let's meet them, and he all
Speaker 2: went out to dinner together.
Speaker 1: It's such a sweet, sweet guy. Yeah, he's lovely. He's
Speaker 1: really a lovely man. So let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: a bit more than family then, because it's come up
Speaker 1: a couple of times, it's one of those like it'll
Speaker 1: be a legacy thing for you for your entire life. No,
Speaker 1: of course. I mean it's like me doing the late
Speaker 1: night show is like, no matter what you do, it's
Speaker 1: going to committed the conversation. It doesn't matter what you do.
Speaker 1: Now it's a thing. Yeah, did you Were you aware
Speaker 1: of it at the time when it started out that
Speaker 1: you were going in that way.
Speaker 2: It felt I mean, I'm sure you felt the same
Speaker 2: way when you were doing your show. You know, when
Speaker 2: you're in the bubble of it, you just kind of
Speaker 2: got to.
Speaker 3: Do the job.
Speaker 1: Ye's every day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's interesting because now we've been off the air
Speaker 2: for almost four years, and I find that a new
Speaker 2: group of a new generation of people are discovering it
Speaker 2: and or people haven't been watching or like watching it again.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a new wave of I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm receiving a lot of love from it from strangers
Speaker 2: in a way that I hadn't before.
Speaker 1: It's a great show, which is oh, well.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm really proud of it, but I I
Speaker 2: think now that like I'm out of it, I really feel,
Speaker 2: oh gosh, this is kind of a big thing, and
Speaker 2: I can compare it to the shows that I grew
Speaker 2: up watching that I love so much, like Friends and
Speaker 2: Will and Grace and uh, you know Steinfeld, Like I
Speaker 2: adore these shows, and I was like, oh, guy, I
Speaker 2: guess I am that for for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: I am that that thing, or I was part of
Speaker 2: that show for a lot of people. But when it was,
Speaker 2: when it was happening, it just felt like, you know,
Speaker 2: it was a job. It was a great job, and
Speaker 2: you know, we were It's it's interesting because we were
Speaker 2: we could be because we were on for so long.
Speaker 2: We went through that whole trajectory of like, you know,
Speaker 2: we were the new show and everyone was excited about us,
Speaker 2: and then we were winning Emmy Awards and then like
Speaker 2: we kind of sort of felt like, oh god, people
Speaker 2: are maybe getting a little sick of us. And then
Speaker 2: we stopped winning the Emmy Awards, and then it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: Modern Family's gone downhill, and you know, you go through
Speaker 2: the whole thing, and they've jumped the shark and then
Speaker 2: and then the show's done, and then it's like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, but we missed the show so much and
Speaker 2: we wish it would do a reboot, and now we're
Speaker 2: in that place like people wanting the show to come
Speaker 2: back so it's just, you know, I feel like, because
Speaker 2: because it is a blove show, we're going to see
Speaker 2: all those different phases of love for the show and.
Speaker 1: Be interested that comes back because you had kids on
Speaker 1: that show. Of course, kids do what they do as
Speaker 1: they grow up and grow up, and then everyone's like, wait,
Speaker 1: why isn't Manny And Manny's like six foot five with
Speaker 1: a bad.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, and like, I still keep in touch
Speaker 2: with Aubrey who played my daughter on the show, and
Speaker 2: they're still close, and I've gone I went to her
Speaker 2: school play a few months ago, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: go to her school musical that's coming up soon, and
Speaker 2: I love supporting her. Her mom was like, you don't you know,
Speaker 2: that's really sweet of you to come to this. It's like,
Speaker 2: I feel like, you know, I'm proud of her. I
Speaker 2: met her when she was three years old, and I
Speaker 2: have a three year old now, and it's like I
Speaker 2: can't even you know. That's part of the reason why
Speaker 2: I feel so connected to hers. Like the age that
Speaker 2: Beckett is now is when I met Aubrey, and like,
Speaker 2: it's just such a there's so much happening in that
Speaker 2: little brain right now that I entered her life at
Speaker 2: that point, like, I want to be there for all
Speaker 2: these big moments because she means something to me.
Speaker 1: You know, it's very special, it's nice. It is nice.
Speaker 1: It's a funny thing though, as you mentioned it with children,
Speaker 1: because now you know you're a very busy parent and
Speaker 1: that very busy part of parenting, which in my experience
Speaker 1: so far, there isn't a not busy part of parenting.
Speaker 1: You'll never sleep well again ever, Like my oldest is
Speaker 1: coming up on twenty three. I'm like, oh, it's okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: trying to go to sleep, and I hope he's okay.
Speaker 3: I kind of hope. I always feel that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess. But the thing is it changed me
Speaker 1: as a person alone, becoming Did you just stop drinking
Speaker 1: when I was twenty nine? Oh okay, so this is
Speaker 1: before kids. Oh yeah, I was ten years sober before
Speaker 1: my son was Wow. So like I survived and I
Speaker 1: go better. The ten years before is one. But I
Speaker 1: don't think I became anyone I really would like to
Speaker 1: be until at least my first kid came along. And
Speaker 1: then I was like, okay, wait, wait a minute, I
Speaker 1: chan used to lot. Did it do it to you? Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the Oscars were last night and Emma Stone
Speaker 2: one Best Actress and she said something about her daughter,
Speaker 2: who I think she said it was three, and she's like,
Speaker 2: you know, our world is technical her now. I was like,
Speaker 2: oh god, that's so, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I get nostalgic for the kids shows that
Speaker 1: I used to watch, Like when Mila was very young,
Speaker 1: I used to watch Teley Toby's with him and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I wish I still smoked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's be great and it's like and I still remember
Speaker 1: all the Talley Toby's names. Is that still a thing?
Speaker 3: I think that was so now, but it's like vintage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's like maybe the cool two year
Speaker 1: old watch Toby's. That's right. I don't know. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I mean it was it's so ahead of his time. Well,
Speaker 1: if you look at it, lacky, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: It is made for people who are on Hashi ship.
Speaker 1: I think so. I think there was a lot of
Speaker 1: hash involved in the development of that. You were never
Speaker 1: called to any of that. Where are you drugs and
Speaker 1: alcohol and everything? No.
Speaker 2: I partake in weeds sometimes, but mostly it's like it's
Speaker 2: you know, very very casually and.
Speaker 1: Weeds like having a podcast. Yeah, Cannon does it. I don't.
Speaker 1: I actually I'm very I'm no good around it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, weed, people aren't.
Speaker 1: I get angry about it because I'm in New York
Speaker 1: a lot and it's the street stink of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, oh yeah, I know. Now that it's legalized,
Speaker 2: it's kind of everywhere.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, and I see an old fashioned drunk
Speaker 1: with a bottle of you know, touching a paper bag
Speaker 1: and a paper bag and why does he have to
Speaker 1: hide Yeah, his scouch in a paper bag and he
Speaker 1: smoked weed, and everybody else I guess to inhale it
Speaker 1: or people will go cigarettes get annoyed. But if it's weed,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean I was young enough when I moved to
Speaker 2: New York that I still remember, you know, it was
Speaker 2: legal to smoke inside restaurants.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was the era I.
Speaker 3: You know, where there was a smoking section and you know,
Speaker 3: it didn't really matter.
Speaker 4: I can remember smoking sections on airplanes, yes, like oh
Speaker 4: my god, the idea absolutely so dangerous, dangerous.
Speaker 2: Like oh no, can we why do airplanes still have
Speaker 2: the little cigarette dispensers because.
Speaker 1: They're old, they look new.
Speaker 3: And I just feel like they they're creating new airplanes
Speaker 3: with these little.
Speaker 1: Well maybe they maybe there are certain markets in the
Speaker 1: world where you're like smoke. I don't think.
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I think what it is is they're not new. They're clean, right, okay,
Speaker 1: I think. I mean they're not on the seats. That's
Speaker 1: when it's really old. But like in the bathrooms there's
Speaker 1: like the ones on the door. Sometimes it's as fascinated
Speaker 1: by that. Maybe I don't know. I was on a
Speaker 1: plane yesterday, which I didn't No, I don't think I
Speaker 1: saw any cigarette anything, but they do say that thing
Speaker 1: about you know, I had a friend of theater rector
Speaker 1: actually who who couldn't take a long flight without sneaking
Speaker 1: a smoke in the bathroom. And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: they will put you in jail. And he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I just take a couple of puffs and then I
Speaker 1: put it out.
Speaker 3: I'm like, there's some sort of a smoke detector in there.
Speaker 1: That he says that if you put your head right
Speaker 1: inside the bathroom, and I'm like, no, no, that's so dangerous.
Speaker 1: But but you never you smoke a little weed and
Speaker 1: that's it.
Speaker 3: Mostly audibles too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the way people do it now. I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. Any kind of cannabis product made me very antsy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just sometimes tells me sleep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you got your meditation for that now. Plus
Speaker 1: you don't get to sleep now. Now you've got kids,
Speaker 1: young children. Do you have theatrical ambitions for your children?
Speaker 1: Do you have any rooms about that?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: It's you know because I I it's interesting because I
Speaker 2: I was just talking about Aubrey, who I met when
Speaker 2: she was Beckett's age, And I can't imagine, first of all,
Speaker 2: doing the show Modern Family without Aubrey. I can't imagine that, right, So, yeah,
Speaker 2: she's part of the experience. But I also can't imagine
Speaker 2: bringing Beckett into an audition. I just don't think you,
Speaker 2: first of all, would do that. Well, like, he's a
Speaker 2: great kid. I just don't think he has. But also
Speaker 2: just asking it, you know, it's a lot to ask
Speaker 2: of a.
Speaker 1: Kid, I think. So I wouldn't let my boys do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And both of them were interested, and I'm like, nah, really,
Speaker 1: the youngest ones.
Speaker 3: What age did they show interest?
Speaker 1: Well, they were around it all the time.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like I had I mean, I
Speaker 1: had the Wiggles on Late Night show because Milo liked
Speaker 1: him when he was two, right, you know, it was
Speaker 1: like they were always always been part of the family dynamic.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, Milo, who's twenty three now,
Speaker 1: and is you know this, he graduated at SVA and
Speaker 1: animation and he has his own animation studio and he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's uh so, he's so in that world
Speaker 1: that I kind of said, no, not until you decide
Speaker 1: to be in it. But he did decide to go
Speaker 1: in it, right right, But I didn't want to. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to push it. And my youngest boy, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have the same feeling, like if you're old enough
Speaker 1: and you want to do sure.
Speaker 2: So for me it was theater was something that brought
Speaker 2: me out of my shell. Like I saw a play
Speaker 2: with my mom when I was very young. I remember
Speaker 2: sitting in the audience thinking, oh, I don't want to
Speaker 2: be sitting in the audience. I want to be on
Speaker 2: stage doing them what they're doing for the people in
Speaker 2: the audience. And I asked my mom if I could
Speaker 2: join the local I mean, it was a community theater
Speaker 2: group wasn't anything professional, but like, uh, you know, I
Speaker 2: think she was sort of shocked that I wanted to
Speaker 2: do that. And I've now and I think it was
Speaker 2: so good for me, and it really gave me a
Speaker 2: sense of like community, and I was like, ok, here
Speaker 2: are my people, and like I felt very comfortable around
Speaker 2: this group of kids who are interested in this thing,
Speaker 2: Whereas you know, at school, I didn't think I had
Speaker 2: that that network of people that I trusted. And uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I've taken Becket, my son, to you know,
Speaker 2: kids shows, but like live performances of things, and he's
Speaker 2: a really attentive audience member and he loves he loves
Speaker 2: seeing live theater. I mean, listen, I'm taking to kids shows.
Speaker 2: But still and I feel like if he wanted to
Speaker 2: explore that, I would say, okay, I'm just kind of
Speaker 2: knowing that that's what I did. But yeah, it's tricky
Speaker 2: because we live in Los Angeles. Like the opportunities are there,
Speaker 2: like I wanted to like bring them in and I
Speaker 2: have an audition for something, but I just I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's uh, it's that tricky balance of like it's an
Speaker 2: occupation I personally love so much, but at the same time,
Speaker 2: I know how complated and terrible it can be.
Speaker 1: Well, it can be very painful. The rejection thing and
Speaker 1: the idea that that I mean, look, everyone, everyone swings
Speaker 1: and missus. Everyone you know, experiences rejection and business everyone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I just couldn't bear it for my children, the
Speaker 1: idea that they uh, you know, someone somebody would let
Speaker 1: them know they went right, the right, right, Like I
Speaker 1: couldn't be all. But maybe that's more about me than
Speaker 1: as about we had.
Speaker 2: You know, we our cast of Modern Family won four
Speaker 2: SAG Awards, I think for our second, third, fourth, and
Speaker 2: fifth season Aubrey again in place. My daughter joined us,
Speaker 2: I think on the third season, so she had two
Speaker 2: SAG Awards, you know, like that's she was six and
Speaker 2: she had two SAG Awards, like the collective weight of
Speaker 2: the both awards were double her weight.
Speaker 3: It's a human being.
Speaker 2: And I remember the year we didn't win, uh for
Speaker 2: the first time, she was very upset. She cried and
Speaker 2: she was like she climbed on her mom's lap and
Speaker 2: she was bawling. And I feel like it was Francis McDermot,
Speaker 2: who was sitting at the table next to us.
Speaker 3: I think it was the year of like no mad
Speaker 3: Land or one of the one of the shows she won.
Speaker 2: And she looked over at Aubry because uh, disappointment only
Speaker 2: gets worse as you get older, like she was so.
Speaker 1: Jaded by it all, and I just thought, well, it's true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I guess what you learn to do when you're
Speaker 1: older is is you compartmentalize and it's not personal. And
Speaker 1: I mean to any degree, I mean not always, but
Speaker 1: I mean look, when I hear no, I'm still not great. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm still so I won't even ask. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't ask because I might hear no.
Speaker 1: I think that it's it's a good thing though, for
Speaker 1: a for a parent to try and protect children from
Speaker 1: from that kind of thing people talk about. You know,
Speaker 1: well I was spank as a kid and didn't do
Speaker 1: me any harmy, didn't it. I mean, listen to you,
Speaker 1: you know, like, I don't know, do you have any
Speaker 1: do you have any kind of hard and fast rules
Speaker 1: about parenting that you find controversial or others find controversial?
Speaker 2: May I don't think so, I mean who knows. But
Speaker 2: I know when Justin and I first, you know, told
Speaker 2: our family that we were pregnant, were like, you know,
Speaker 2: no iPads, no screens in this house, and of course
Speaker 2: not and you know, yeah, good luck with that, right,
Speaker 2: And I'll.
Speaker 1: Never ever meet a better parent than somebody who's just
Speaker 1: about to have their first kids.
Speaker 3: I know, you know, these these things that we think
Speaker 3: we're gonna do.
Speaker 2: It's but anyway, Yeah, we definitely pivoted quickly. And I
Speaker 2: don't think that I do anything super controversial.
Speaker 3: Uh uh, they're they're you know, I mean, well, I
Speaker 3: guess look, you're you're you're a two daddy family, is
Speaker 3: they say in the in the.
Speaker 1: Elementary schools in LA. That's no controversial around here, though,
Speaker 1: was it?
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: That's as parts of it, maybe maybe further further into the.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean he said.
Speaker 2: Becket did ask us about you know, a mom, like
Speaker 2: where like why do some people have moms and some
Speaker 2: people don't?
Speaker 1: You know? It was It's interesting, I guess, because do
Speaker 1: you have to try and explain I don't know how.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I haven't been in the position. I
Speaker 1: don't know what does one do. Well.
Speaker 2: We just explained that there are different types of families
Speaker 2: and so people have you known want a beach, and
Speaker 2: some people have just one mom one dad, and some
Speaker 2: people have two dads and two months.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he gets it.
Speaker 3: I think that's all you didn't need to do. I
Speaker 3: think to go too much deeper than that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we went a bit like that because Megan and
Speaker 1: I got married when Milo was uh, well we got
Speaker 1: together when he was four, so he's very young and
Speaker 1: didn't quite understand the like, well, how come mom lives
Speaker 1: over there? Megan's like mom, but she lives in the
Speaker 1: house year And there was a great book about it.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of good kid books about it, and
Speaker 1: there's lots of different Love Makes Families or something some
Speaker 1: guy called Todd something. I remember, the great kid's book
Speaker 1: about all different like two daddy families, two mommy families too,
Speaker 1: you know, one mommi family, one daddy family.
Speaker 2: You know, our youngest is obsessed with Lama Lama, Red
Speaker 2: Pajama and it's this it's this pretty famous book, but
Speaker 2: you know it's all about Mama Mama and the Lama
Speaker 2: Mama Lama and write pajama and too much trauma. He's crying,
Speaker 2: but it keeps repeating the Mama, Lama Lama, Yeah, Mama
Speaker 2: where's my Mama? And but he loves the book, and
Speaker 2: so like I was like, well, yeah, we're going to
Speaker 2: read this book because I'm not going to like change
Speaker 2: it to Papa for that, because the whole rhyme is
Speaker 2: built on the whole books built on this rhyme. Like
Speaker 2: I'm going to destroy the integrity of the writing.
Speaker 1: Good for you. That's a well trained actor, you know,
Speaker 1: respect the text, find the way to make it work.
Speaker 1: Don't go change in the text the act. Yes, it's right, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. I remember having an interesting discussion with the
Speaker 1: Night the Ones about this classic, like my character wouldn't
Speaker 1: say that, yes, I had written the part, okay, And
Speaker 1: I said, well, that's the character I wrote. So if
Speaker 1: your characters wouldn't say that, you're playing the wrong guy, right, right, right.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a great day. When did you read? You
Speaker 1: presume you read to your kids, right, yes, So when
Speaker 1: I was reading to the kids, I really enjoyed myself
Speaker 1: doing different voices and as would you do all that
Speaker 1: as well?
Speaker 3: I try to. Yeah, I'm really bad at dialects, but
Speaker 3: you know that's mixed up.
Speaker 1: Man. I love I love doing Danny and the Dinosaur.
Speaker 1: U there was. There's a line and that I still
Speaker 1: remember because I always a suggestive. A carry On movie,
Speaker 1: there's a line in it where a woman says to
Speaker 1: the dinosaur who helps her with her groceries. She said, oh,
Speaker 1: thank you for helping me with my bundles, said a lady.
Speaker 1: And I used to and I don't know why I
Speaker 1: get such and I can still do Curious George by her.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, because I was on the road a
Speaker 1: little bit when Liam was very young. So I used
Speaker 1: to it and I i'd phone in and then I
Speaker 1: would do the bedtime story and I just learned it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So now I can do it if you need me
Speaker 1: to do Curious George for you right now?
Speaker 3: Who did the audio book? You should do it?
Speaker 1: You should recorded you know why? I can do another one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll do it for nothing. Yeah, I'll do it to
Speaker 1: be should for the coffee, right, yeah, right, right right.
Speaker 1: It's a joy to speak to you. You're You're such
Speaker 1: a lovely man. I enjoyed even though you're one of
Speaker 1: the fancy tyler Ferguson's as opposed to just an old
Speaker 1: fashioned Ferguson, you seem to still keep your feet on
Speaker 1: the ground.
Speaker 3: I know where, but I know where you came from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know where you came from. Yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 1: should go there one day.
Speaker 3: I can't wait.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you'd love it. They'd love you.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: They live in this big, giant old country estate in Scotland,
Speaker 1: the original Ferguson's. They're still there. I've got to go.
Speaker 1: I should. You'd love it.
Speaker 3: Take the kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be a fun thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been. I've been to Ireland, but not Scotland.
Speaker 3: Next d of my family's Irish, right, yeah, the Doyle side.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got that too. Yeahs yeah it is. But
Speaker 1: it's great to see.
Speaker 3: Good to see you.
Speaker 1: Get out of here at Popo Taker for two per