1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,199
Speaker 1: Before I became professional writer, I thought, oh, these writers

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:05,840
Speaker 1: are They're so lucky. They're so lucky that they get

3
00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:07,360
Speaker 1: to do this. And then when I became one and

4
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:09,200
Speaker 1: I was like, it's all talent, lucky, has nothing new

5
00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:11,800
Speaker 1: with it. I'm just that talented. And now I realize

6
00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:14,840
Speaker 1: I'm back to the lucky part. There's talent, for sure,

7
00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,319
Speaker 1: but there's so much luck involved. There's just things you

8
00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:20,759
Speaker 1: can't control. That we got on the show, that it

9
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:22,560
Speaker 1: went as long as it did, that we met these

10
00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,520
Speaker 1: maybe these connections and met these people. It just it's,

11
00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:27,480
Speaker 1: you know, things are a lot of our hands, and

12
00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:35,680
Speaker 1: I feel so lucky. I feel so lucky. My name

13
00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,479
Speaker 1: is Jeans Stibnitsky and I've been fired from every assistant

14
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:39,440
Speaker 1: job I've ever held.

15
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:49,720
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, and welcome to another I would call glorious

16
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:54,920
Speaker 2: episode of Off the Beat. It's me as always your host,

17
00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,640
Speaker 2: Brian Baumgartner. Do you like to show the office? Have

18
00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,160
Speaker 2: you ever of it? Well? If you do, my guest

19
00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:06,640
Speaker 2: today is one of the many reasons why here with

20
00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:12,240
Speaker 2: me is the brilliant head twisted Jean Stepnitski. Jean wrote

21
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:15,720
Speaker 2: on the show for three seasons and he is fifty percent,

22
00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:20,600
Speaker 2: responsible for some of the greatest and cringiest episodes, including

23
00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,960
Speaker 2: Scott's Totts and Dinner Party. Now why fifty percent? Well,

24
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,720
Speaker 2: his other half, I mean his writing partner Lee Eisenberg.

25
00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:32,880
Speaker 2: The two of them, in addition to writing on the Office,

26
00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:38,440
Speaker 2: also responsible for shows and films including Bad Teacher, Trophy Wife,

27
00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:44,240
Speaker 2: Good Boys, and the innovative and hilarious recent Emmy nominee

28
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:49,160
Speaker 2: Jury Duty. Yeah Yeah, leave it to Jean and Lee

29
00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:53,720
Speaker 2: to mastermind an elaborate prank like bringing someone to a

30
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:57,320
Speaker 2: fake jury duty, convincing them that it's real, pulling crazy

31
00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:02,160
Speaker 2: shenanigans in the courtroom, then turning it into comedic yet

32
00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:08,280
Speaker 2: heartfelt television gold, brilliant and twisted, just like I said.

33
00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,679
Speaker 2: But which one is brilliant and which one is twisted?

34
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:16,640
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll find out today. Gene is also responsible for

35
00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:22,040
Speaker 2: the breakout hit No Hard Feelings with Jennifer Lawrence, which,

36
00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:24,720
Speaker 2: by the way, is on its way to being the

37
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 2: highest grossing R rated comedy of the decade. He's a

38
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,640
Speaker 2: great friend, He's an hilarious dude. He's a fantastic writer.

39
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,400
Speaker 2: I am so thankful and feel so lucky that he

40
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,840
Speaker 2: agreed to hang out with me and you well, to

41
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:45,000
Speaker 2: tell us how he became so incredible. Let's get started.

42
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:49,400
Speaker 2: The One and Only Jeene Stipnitzky.

43
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:53,680
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak.

44
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,240
Speaker 2: I love it, Bubble and Squeagana.

45
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:02,440
Speaker 1: Quaker cooking every more.

46
00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:19,720
Speaker 2: Lift over from the nay boat. What's up, Jet Ryan? Good?

47
00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,080
Speaker 2: I'm so good. It's been so long, my friend, while

48
00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:28,919
Speaker 2: it really has God, it's so good to see you.

49
00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:33,079
Speaker 2: You're in Massachusetts. I am Are you summering in Massachusetts?

50
00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 2: Are you striking in Massachusetts?

51
00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,040
Speaker 1: I'm I was striking and now I'm I'm summering. You

52
00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,320
Speaker 1: know how the lead the Hollywood elite do it.

53
00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,040
Speaker 2: That's right, I mean you if there if there is

54
00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:47,560
Speaker 2: one thing you are at this point, it's Hollywood elite.

55
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,880
Speaker 1: Yes, it's elite. It's a very it's a lower tier.

56
00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:58,320
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's true too. I'm so it's just so

57
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,840
Speaker 2: good to see your face, and I can't wait to

58
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:06,720
Speaker 2: talk about everything that's been going on now. But I

59
00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:09,600
Speaker 2: want to go back in your life to when you

60
00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:17,279
Speaker 2: were born. You were born in Kiev in Ukrainian Soviet

61
00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,440
Speaker 2: Union and moved to the United States very young, like

62
00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:25,960
Speaker 2: nine months. So first off, what what brought your family?

63
00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:29,120
Speaker 2: Obviously you had no choice. What brought your family to

64
00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:30,080
Speaker 2: the United States.

65
00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:34,599
Speaker 1: I didn't move. I was moved. I think, you know,

66
00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:37,760
Speaker 1: a better life. It's that old immigrant story they you know,

67
00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,120
Speaker 1: there was was not good for the Jews there, and

68
00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:44,520
Speaker 1: it was just not good for anyone really, and we

69
00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:47,400
Speaker 1: had some family members that had It's kind of weird.

70
00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:48,919
Speaker 1: There was like a split in the family where like

71
00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:51,599
Speaker 1: some of the family moved to the US in like

72
00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,479
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, and then some of the family moved in

73
00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,239
Speaker 1: like so like my dad's one of my dad's brothers

74
00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,320
Speaker 1: moved here like a year earlier, six months or earlier,

75
00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,600
Speaker 1: to Chicago, and then we kind of followed suit. And

76
00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,560
Speaker 1: so this was the late seventies and yeah, kind of

77
00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:09,240
Speaker 1: set up in the city and then moved out to

78
00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:14,320
Speaker 1: the suburbs. Yeah, so my earliest memories are in Chicago, right,

79
00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:16,440
Speaker 1: But I you know, we did go back recently, not

80
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,159
Speaker 1: that recently, twenty ten kind of, so I got the

81
00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:21,159
Speaker 1: tour of like, you know, where I was, where my

82
00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:23,880
Speaker 1: parents lived, where I was born, probably where I was conceived,

83
00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:26,760
Speaker 1: and I think about it, you know, when they went

84
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,240
Speaker 1: to school and that all that and I'm just, you know,

85
00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:34,599
Speaker 1: very thankful that we left and they came here and

86
00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:36,960
Speaker 1: gave me and my sister this better life. Although you

87
00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:38,200
Speaker 1: know my sister was born here.

88
00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:42,760
Speaker 2: Right do you how do you think that that affected

89
00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:47,240
Speaker 2: your childhood being and being having immigrant parents.

90
00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,360
Speaker 1: I mean, in fact, you know, there's this quote I

91
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,440
Speaker 1: always think about. I don't know who it was either.

92
00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:57,400
Speaker 1: I've seen it attributed to Carl Young and to WILLIAMS. Wordsworth.

93
00:05:57,440 --> 00:05:59,240
Speaker 1: I don't know who've said it, but the child is

94
00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,240
Speaker 1: the father of the man. So you know, the five

95
00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,239
Speaker 1: year old version of Brian has been around much longer

96
00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:07,479
Speaker 1: than the current version of Brian and the things that

97
00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:09,520
Speaker 1: you know, if you're five and you find a dead

98
00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:11,720
Speaker 1: body on the street, that probably affects you more than

99
00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:13,600
Speaker 1: Look if I found if I saw a dead body,

100
00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:15,000
Speaker 1: I wouldn't love it, but I don't think it would

101
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,200
Speaker 1: actually change me in any significant way or any any

102
00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,000
Speaker 1: of these events that kind of really can form your personality.

103
00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,719
Speaker 1: So being an immigrant, I definitely you know, I didn't

104
00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:27,240
Speaker 1: learn English, so that was six, and I have this

105
00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:32,560
Speaker 1: memory of going to school and just panicking, not understanding

106
00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:33,720
Speaker 1: because we grew up in you know, we were all

107
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,200
Speaker 1: speaking Russian. I grew up like this. Russian was my

108
00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:40,440
Speaker 1: Russian grandparent or Ukrainian grandparents, speaking Russian, culturally Russian. And

109
00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,440
Speaker 1: suddenly we moved to the suburbs and I'm just dropped

110
00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,480
Speaker 1: in this school and I don't understand anything, and I'm scared.

111
00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 1: And that is one of my earlier, earliest memories. And

112
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:51,280
Speaker 1: you know, I know that I'm probably some of the

113
00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:53,800
Speaker 1: line never want to feel that way again. So there

114
00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:55,799
Speaker 1: are probably things I did that I'm not even fully

115
00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 1: aware of to make sure I didn't feel that way.

116
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:00,400
Speaker 1: But also, you know, I was an immigrant, so on

117
00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:02,599
Speaker 1: some level I was an outsider. So I was an observer.

118
00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,560
Speaker 1: So and I think, you know, with comedy writing, I

119
00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:07,279
Speaker 1: think a lot of you know, a few comedy writers

120
00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:11,440
Speaker 1: are probably like the high school quarterback, right. I know

121
00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:17,720
Speaker 1: I wasn't, but I was a quarterback. No, I wasn't

122
00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:20,600
Speaker 1: been a big high school A lot of great athletes.

123
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:23,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, do you I mean, I have

124
00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,040
Speaker 2: to ask, now, because of what's going on in the world,

125
00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:30,840
Speaker 2: do you still have family in the Ukraine And how

126
00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:34,800
Speaker 2: does this now, what's going on now affect you or

127
00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:37,040
Speaker 2: what do you think about when you think about where

128
00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:38,800
Speaker 2: you came from and what's happening over there.

129
00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:43,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't have family. My dad's childhood best friend

130
00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:44,200
Speaker 1: lives in Kiev.

131
00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:44,840
Speaker 2: Okay.

132
00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:48,360
Speaker 1: Like many words, it's a pointless war. It's truly. I

133
00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:50,560
Speaker 1: don't I can't get my head around it. I don't

134
00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:52,600
Speaker 1: understand why it's happening. I think a lot of people

135
00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,000
Speaker 1: feel that way. There are a lot of geopolitical arguments

136
00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,680
Speaker 1: of why Russia invaded. I don't really care about those.

137
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,680
Speaker 1: I just know there's just there's been mass casualties and

138
00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:05,400
Speaker 1: it makes me very, very sad. And it's the you know,

139
00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,600
Speaker 1: all those halfway around the world. I do feel connected

140
00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,160
Speaker 1: to it, and you know, it is on simil it

141
00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,040
Speaker 1: is personal. Though I see myself as an American, I

142
00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,640
Speaker 1: still my heart goes out to these people who are

143
00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:19,440
Speaker 1: being invaded and fighting in this war for survival.

144
00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:25,480
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's interesting hearing you talk that you grew up

145
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:30,840
Speaker 2: culturally Russian, you spoke Russian though you're from this city,

146
00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:34,520
Speaker 2: and the people that are Ukrainian and got their independence

147
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:40,240
Speaker 2: after you were gone. It must just be very confusing.

148
00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,439
Speaker 1: It's very confusing. So growing up people, you know, what

149
00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:45,560
Speaker 1: are you know? I would say I was Russian, right,

150
00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:50,040
Speaker 1: and because in the Soviet Union it was all culturally Russian.

151
00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,679
Speaker 1: There was no Belarusan. There was Ukraine there, but it

152
00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,080
Speaker 1: was all everyone spoke Russian. And then so I grew up,

153
00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:58,800
Speaker 1: you know, my parents spoke Russian, and then when I

154
00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:02,679
Speaker 1: went back in twenty ten, I didn't understand Ukrainian at all.

155
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,960
Speaker 1: It was truly a foreign language, and my parents kind

156
00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:10,199
Speaker 1: of got it, kind of understood it. It was very

157
00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:15,160
Speaker 1: strange because I think once Sovie Union collapsed, you know,

158
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 1: countries kind of went back to their roots and became

159
00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,760
Speaker 1: more nationalistic, and you know, Ukrainians booke Ukrainian again and

160
00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,000
Speaker 1: Russian stuff being taught in school or maybe it was that.

161
00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:29,800
Speaker 1: I don't know, but yeah, everything changed in ninety one

162
00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:33,080
Speaker 1: when so Union collapsed. So but that was not that

163
00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:35,160
Speaker 1: was not the Ukraine that my parents were raised.

164
00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:41,960
Speaker 2: In, right. Yeah, you brought up being an observer and

165
00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:45,440
Speaker 2: potentially giving you, I mean, it seems clear to me,

166
00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:50,640
Speaker 2: giving you potentially greater insight into what you do now,

167
00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:54,319
Speaker 2: which is really studying the human condition, or at least

168
00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:57,199
Speaker 2: that's what I think about it. You know, you observe

169
00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:01,160
Speaker 2: human and you find humans and you find comedy within

170
00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:04,240
Speaker 2: that you. You have said that some of your early

171
00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:09,400
Speaker 2: influences were Bill Murray and Jim Carrey. Interesting those two

172
00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,760
Speaker 2: because to me, they see that's what that's what I

173
00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:17,360
Speaker 2: was told. I don't think no, what about Bill Bill Murray?

174
00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,000
Speaker 1: Look, probably no human beings made me laugh more than

175
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:21,720
Speaker 1: Bill Murray right over.

176
00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:24,880
Speaker 2: The roundhog Day you've seen that more than favorite comedy.

177
00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:26,280
Speaker 1: Day is my favorite comedy.

178
00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:29,520
Speaker 2: Well, what was it about Bill Murray that that drew

179
00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:29,920
Speaker 2: you in?

180
00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:33,680
Speaker 1: Probably harl Ramus on some level. It was those early

181
00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:37,960
Speaker 1: Bill Murray movies, you know, And I didn't see them

182
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,200
Speaker 1: when they came out. I was I was kind of

183
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,960
Speaker 1: too young for those early eighties ones. But and like

184
00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:44,719
Speaker 1: you know, my immigrant dad wasn't showing them to me,

185
00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:48,440
Speaker 1: as he was probably like a lot of kids. But

186
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,160
Speaker 1: when I found them, there's something about Bill Murray that

187
00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:54,440
Speaker 1: the character of Bill Murray, not I don't know the person,

188
00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,199
Speaker 1: but the character he played, this kind of rebel, a

189
00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:02,040
Speaker 1: route the reverend, didn't take anything too seriously. That really

190
00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,080
Speaker 1: appealed to me. You know, those early Herald Ramis movies

191
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:09,040
Speaker 1: were anti institutional comedies, you know, against the country club

192
00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:13,720
Speaker 1: in the Catashack, against the university, in Animal House against

193
00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:18,280
Speaker 1: government bureaucracy and Ghostbusters, and I think those there's something

194
00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:20,080
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's the guy going up against the system.

195
00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,439
Speaker 1: That appealed to me. And then later on those kind

196
00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:27,280
Speaker 1: of self discovery comedies that he made at Groundhog Day

197
00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,480
Speaker 1: Multiplicity that was more you know, that was not bu

198
00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,440
Speaker 1: Murray but Groundhog Day. Really you know, it's like, oh,

199
00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,280
Speaker 1: you can change, you can grow, you can learn. Even

200
00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:38,800
Speaker 1: in your forties, you know, it's not too late, right

201
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:40,880
Speaker 1: to make a change. And I think that affected me.

202
00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:44,120
Speaker 2: When did you start writing? And is that what you

203
00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:45,800
Speaker 2: wanted to be a writer?

204
00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:49,600
Speaker 1: I want to be the NBA And that became very

205
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:52,320
Speaker 1: quickly apparent that that was just not going to happen, right,

206
00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:55,400
Speaker 1: no matter how many dribbling drills I did. There's just

207
00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:59,120
Speaker 1: I think when I graduated high school, I was like

208
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,840
Speaker 1: five to seven. I had a grossport in college, but

209
00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:03,560
Speaker 1: it just wasn't gonna happen for me.

210
00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:06,400
Speaker 2: I wanted to be the first basement for the Atlanta Braves.

211
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:08,280
Speaker 2: So no, I get you. And then at a certain

212
00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,680
Speaker 2: point you changed. But was this something you were interested

213
00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:12,760
Speaker 2: in early on?

214
00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,480
Speaker 1: No, Initially I wanted to be a film critic, because

215
00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:20,480
Speaker 1: being from Chicago, I didn't know anyone that you know,

216
00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,480
Speaker 1: made movies or TV. But I knew Cisco and Ebert.

217
00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:27,160
Speaker 1: I knew they were from Chicago. I was like, well, okay,

218
00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,800
Speaker 1: So I studied film criticism and film theory, and I

219
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:35,160
Speaker 1: was a critic in my college newspaper, and I thought, Okay,

220
00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,120
Speaker 1: that's why I do it. And then eventually I thought, well,

221
00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:41,360
Speaker 1: am I writing about it? Maybe I should just do it,

222
00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:43,960
Speaker 1: and maybe that's the way to do it. And I

223
00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,760
Speaker 1: wanted to be a director initially at first. And someone

224
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:48,679
Speaker 1: said to me, you know, no one's going to give

225
00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:50,120
Speaker 1: you forty million dollars to make a movie, but if

226
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:52,800
Speaker 1: you can write, that will help. And I was like, oh, okay,

227
00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:57,080
Speaker 1: So then I kind of but you know, I, without

228
00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,000
Speaker 1: fully realizing, I loved comedy and write. You know, I

229
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:06,240
Speaker 1: was SNL watching SNL, watching Seinfeld, you know, watching all

230
00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:10,079
Speaker 1: those seminal comedies and and probably just soaking it up

231
00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:12,520
Speaker 1: on some cellular level that I wasn't fully aware of.

232
00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,160
Speaker 1: And then yeah, I mean the goal was just so

233
00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:18,000
Speaker 1: go change from being a director to being just a

234
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 1: comedy writers, getting a job on a sitcom.

235
00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:23,760
Speaker 2: Right. You went to the university of Iowa. Isn't there

236
00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:27,520
Speaker 2: a big playwriting program there at the University of Iowa.

237
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:32,160
Speaker 1: Yes, there is a Yeah, there's a writing creative writing program,

238
00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,439
Speaker 1: I think the best in the country. But I did

239
00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:37,520
Speaker 1: not go to that. I went to the undergraduate school.

240
00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:40,040
Speaker 1: But I got all the kind of like the you know,

241
00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:42,280
Speaker 1: like some of my teachers were like like Dan Wise,

242
00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,320
Speaker 1: who could create a Game of Thrones? Ye taught me,

243
00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:47,559
Speaker 1: and you know I got so we were we had access.

244
00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:50,200
Speaker 1: If you were writing undergrad, you had access to these

245
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:51,880
Speaker 1: brilliant writers.

246
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:53,800
Speaker 2: What made you decide to move to l A.

247
00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,040
Speaker 1: Well, once I decided I want to do it, it

248
00:13:57,120 --> 00:13:59,000
Speaker 1: was obvious there was no other move. I mean I

249
00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:02,200
Speaker 1: was very scared to go, but uh, you know, if

250
00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,679
Speaker 1: I had any chance of doing it at that time,

251
00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:06,839
Speaker 1: you had to kind of move to LA I don't

252
00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:09,800
Speaker 1: know if that if that applies today the same way,

253
00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:12,880
Speaker 1: but everything, all the business was there, so I was

254
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:13,280
Speaker 1: going to go.

255
00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:18,240
Speaker 2: So for me, I took my time. You know, I

256
00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,240
Speaker 2: did theater for a long time. I felt like I

257
00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:26,480
Speaker 2: needed to have certain boxes checked before moving to Los Angeles.

258
00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:28,680
Speaker 2: I mean it seems like you were like, I just

259
00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:30,560
Speaker 2: I need to be there. Were there people that you

260
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:35,240
Speaker 2: knew or or or places that you wanted to either

261
00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:37,760
Speaker 2: study or sign with. Did you have an agent when

262
00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,080
Speaker 2: you went out or were you just like f it,

263
00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,320
Speaker 2: I'm going and I'm going to make this happen.

264
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:45,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just like I'm going. I didn't know anyone.

265
00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:50,920
Speaker 1: I knew one person from college kind of and I

266
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,720
Speaker 1: knew I knew Dan, who was my teacher who could

267
00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:58,920
Speaker 1: not CoCreate a Game of Thrones yet it was and

268
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,600
Speaker 1: uh and I had In turn, I got an in.

269
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:02,760
Speaker 1: Harold Ramis was a Chicago guy, and I got an

270
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,440
Speaker 1: internship with him in the suburbs there, and then he

271
00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 1: was making be Dazzled Us two thousand when I moved

272
00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:15,800
Speaker 1: out to so I got an internship working Friday mornings

273
00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:19,640
Speaker 1: and the Fox lot. I didn't really do much, but

274
00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,440
Speaker 1: it ended up being, you know, the most significant thing

275
00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:24,360
Speaker 1: ever happened to me, because that's where I met le Eisenberg.

276
00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:28,400
Speaker 1: It was a PA on b Dazzled in office PA,

277
00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 1: and I was working in Harold's kind of bungalow on

278
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:34,800
Speaker 1: the Fox lot and our copyer broke and they're like, Okay,

279
00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:37,240
Speaker 1: go to the Dazel production offices on the other side

280
00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:38,920
Speaker 1: of the lot and I went there and there and

281
00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:40,400
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to make copies, and they're like,

282
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,480
Speaker 1: lead the copy boy will help you, and so they

283
00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:46,320
Speaker 1: Lee became my first friend in la.

284
00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:49,840
Speaker 2: I did not know that. I didn't know that you

285
00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:54,600
Speaker 2: both before everything happened. Both worked for Harold that early.

286
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:58,440
Speaker 2: How did you get in? I wait, was it because

287
00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,600
Speaker 2: you came from Chicago that you've got this internship? Did you?

288
00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:02,480
Speaker 2: Had you met him?

289
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,280
Speaker 1: So no, I never met him. What happened was I'd come.

290
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:09,320
Speaker 1: I feel like I was supposed to, like go somewm

291
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,120
Speaker 1: for spring break with my girlfriend. We broke up. I

292
00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:13,560
Speaker 1: came home. I was like home for spring break. And

293
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,680
Speaker 1: there's a magazine that no longer justiss called north Shore Magazine.

294
00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,640
Speaker 1: My family that keeps ten year old magazines lying around.

295
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,160
Speaker 1: This is like ninety six, the magazines from ninety six.

296
00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,240
Speaker 1: But I read in nineteen ninety nine and said, Harold

297
00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,040
Speaker 1: Ramis returns. He was on the cover and he was

298
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:30,560
Speaker 1: coming back to And I read the article and like

299
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:33,040
Speaker 1: said he had an office in Island Park, Illinois, which

300
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:35,680
Speaker 1: was near me. I said, oh my god, So so

301
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:39,120
Speaker 1: I called his office. I talked to Laurel Ward, who

302
00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,400
Speaker 1: was his assistant at the time later became a producing

303
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,000
Speaker 1: partner of his, and she said, we need someone with

304
00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:48,520
Speaker 1: a truck because at that summer in Chicago, they made

305
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,160
Speaker 1: these like I don't know if they were like ceramic cows,

306
00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,000
Speaker 1: kind of put them all over the city, and I like,

307
00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:54,680
Speaker 1: bring some, and I was like, I have a truck. Yeah,

308
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:56,160
Speaker 1: of course I got a truck, which I didn't have,

309
00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:58,880
Speaker 1: so I'd like kind of scramble and find a truck

310
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:03,280
Speaker 1: to bring these cows from Chicago to his house. And

311
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,119
Speaker 1: that's I think probably what got me the internship is

312
00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,240
Speaker 1: that I lied and said there's any lesson to take away.

313
00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:11,520
Speaker 1: It's a lie. I figure it out later, And yeah,

314
00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,320
Speaker 1: so I didn't know him. I had no family connection

315
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:16,280
Speaker 1: to him, but I got to know a little bit.

316
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:18,000
Speaker 1: And then so when I moved, so this and I

317
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,520
Speaker 1: went back. I did one more I was a college

318
00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:21,680
Speaker 1: for four and a half years, did one more semester,

319
00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:26,720
Speaker 1: and then moved in January, and someone in his orbits

320
00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:30,880
Speaker 1: said you can intern here. So I went. And really

321
00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,240
Speaker 1: what happened was that his you know, ISO tell people,

322
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:36,080
Speaker 1: you know, it was like a Harold's nanny, because what

323
00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:39,280
Speaker 1: happened was his wife yeah, like hang out with the

324
00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:41,719
Speaker 1: kids and she's like, do you want to come with

325
00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:45,320
Speaker 1: us on vacation? And they had like a real nanny.

326
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,520
Speaker 1: I was like the fake nanny. I didn't do anything.

327
00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:49,680
Speaker 1: I was a terrible nanny and if I stopped, I

328
00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:51,359
Speaker 1: didn't let the kids die. I mean that was my

329
00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:52,200
Speaker 1: big right.

330
00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:55,479
Speaker 2: Well, and they probably had fun with you too, right

331
00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:56,720
Speaker 2: was it more like summer camp?

332
00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,040
Speaker 1: Like come on, that's fun. They had fun and you know,

333
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,439
Speaker 1: we were like played sports, we hung out. But I

334
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,240
Speaker 1: was also like a petty too, so they'd be like Daniel,

335
00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,560
Speaker 1: who actually worked on no hard feelings as an ap

336
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,919
Speaker 1: uh as a sociate producer. To come full circle, but

337
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,200
Speaker 1: I was looking after him when he was like six.

338
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:15,920
Speaker 1: He was a little smart ass and he I remember

339
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:18,240
Speaker 1: one time he said something just really just a little

340
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,600
Speaker 1: made a sassy comment and then went to the water

341
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,960
Speaker 1: and then took us the waterfound I just shoved a

342
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:26,760
Speaker 1: stad in the water fountain, and he was like, I'm

343
00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 1: gonna tell my dad my mom what you did. I

344
00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:32,359
Speaker 1: was like, oh god, I'm being sent home because it

345
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:33,880
Speaker 1: was great. It was fun. But I got to spend

346
00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:35,959
Speaker 1: a lot of time with Harold, got to know him

347
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:37,680
Speaker 1: and it was just like, you know, it's such huge

348
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,000
Speaker 1: e fact on my life in so many ways, and

349
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,480
Speaker 1: I'm just really I feel very lucky that I.

350
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:53,640
Speaker 3: Knew him for those years and that I did.

351
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:08,399
Speaker 2: You started writing jokes for stand up comedians. Is this

352
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,399
Speaker 2: something that you're told to do to start honing your

353
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,439
Speaker 2: comedic timing or is this how did that come about?

354
00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:18,040
Speaker 1: It's very old timy.

355
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,160
Speaker 2: Okay, that's what it seems to me, Like, yeah.

356
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,280
Speaker 1: It's not. Yeah, it's not like I'm sure there maybe

357
00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,560
Speaker 1: in the fifties that was like a thing. Basically, yeah,

358
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:31,040
Speaker 1: there's some Lee was working somewhere. I was unemployed a lot.

359
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,000
Speaker 1: I just was a terrible I was always getting fired.

360
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:36,600
Speaker 1: It was a terrible assistant. So but like Lee had

361
00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:39,240
Speaker 1: was working somewhere a medic comedian. It was like, oh,

362
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:42,640
Speaker 1: the guy buys jokes. I was like, oh, I'd never

363
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,040
Speaker 1: really written a joke, but I started writing for him,

364
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:46,960
Speaker 1: and then I started writing for someone else. It was

365
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:50,560
Speaker 1: never lucrative or enough to pay my rent or anything,

366
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,160
Speaker 1: but it was it forced me to kind of sit

367
00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 1: down and think about jokes and joke structure and practice

368
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,600
Speaker 1: and practice and yes, so that was that was the

369
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:02,640
Speaker 1: first thing I ever got paid for, right, I think

370
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 1: it's like fifty hours a joke or something.

371
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:08,520
Speaker 2: So you bring up Lee again. So you meet him.

372
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:11,960
Speaker 2: He's making copies for you. I bedazzled, not so much

373
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 2: for me, but well with you. Yes, the two of

374
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 2: you are making copies together. You become friends. Now, how

375
00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,840
Speaker 2: soon do you decide this that I want him to

376
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 2: be my partner? That? Did you have the same comedic sensibility?

377
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:29,760
Speaker 2: Did you share the same interest? Did you just were

378
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:30,720
Speaker 2: you just friends?

379
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 4: Like?

380
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:32,879
Speaker 2: How did how did that come to be?

381
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:37,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were friends before we became partners. That old story, right, Yeah,

382
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,640
Speaker 1: we were just friends. We had the same we want

383
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:44,680
Speaker 1: to be a drama writer, okay, and was writing drama spackscripts.

384
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 2: It makes sense because he's not funny.

385
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,760
Speaker 1: He's not funny at all. No, he's probably person I

386
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,960
Speaker 1: ever met, which it's so funny now to think about

387
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,159
Speaker 1: it that he was writing dramas. But he's also you know,

388
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 1: he's doing it again. But he's obviously a hilarious person.

389
00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 1: He's a great comedy writer. So but yeah, at the

390
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,360
Speaker 1: time he was he was writing drama and we were

391
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:05,879
Speaker 1: just friends. He was my first friend and we that

392
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:07,400
Speaker 1: was two thousand and like in two thousand and three

393
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 1: we moved in together and he was temping at HBO

394
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,200
Speaker 1: and I was temping at Nick Junior not even the

395
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:18,919
Speaker 1: real Nickelodeon, Okay, Nick Junior younger Nickelodeon.

396
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 2: And by the way, that seems like the absolute worst

397
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:28,719
Speaker 2: placement for you. Yeah, I mean, no offense, but like,

398
00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:31,800
Speaker 2: if there were two people, you being one of them

399
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 2: who like writes the most cringiest of comedies in the history,

400
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 2: like that you're writing for the not just kids, but

401
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,000
Speaker 2: like the three to five year old kids.

402
00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:45,360
Speaker 1: Anyway, Yeah, I don't have nothing to say to these

403
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:47,359
Speaker 1: I have nothing to say to this. I wasn't writing

404
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:47,600
Speaker 1: for them.

405
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 2: I was like, no, I know, yeah, you were just

406
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:51,280
Speaker 2: working there, Yeah.

407
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,480
Speaker 1: In the market. I think it was like marketing or something. Yeah,

408
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: but we ended up writing some stuff for Tribber Enthusiasm.

409
00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: We had heard they were looking for ideas and we

410
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,960
Speaker 1: ended up selling somebody. And after that we're just like, oh,

411
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:03,760
Speaker 1: you know, we have a good we kind of have

412
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 1: the same comedic sensibility, and we ended up writing spec

413
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,639
Speaker 1: comedy script that was sold to Fox, and then we

414
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,960
Speaker 1: kind of constrated writing together and that led to you

415
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,040
Speaker 1: know we wrote the spec. It was really about us

416
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 1: on some level, was it or was it a pilot? Sorry,

417
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:23,120
Speaker 1: we sold the pilot. We wrote the spec, we told

418
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: of the spec didn't get made, but those thirty pages

419
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:29,919
Speaker 1: ended up being, you know, really the most important things

420
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:32,959
Speaker 1: we would ever write, because it got us on the office,

421
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 1: It got us writing for Harold Ramis on a movie.

422
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: It got us it really opened all the doors for us.

423
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 2: The pilot you mentioned got the attention of Greg Daniels.

424
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 2: You have a meeting with him. What are your thoughts

425
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,159
Speaker 2: going in to the meeting with Greg about coming on

426
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:48,879
Speaker 2: the office.

427
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: I was told, we were told Greg does a long meeting,

428
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: so don't read into that it's not good or bad.

429
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:56,840
Speaker 1: He just in my mind, I only knew, you know,

430
00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:58,119
Speaker 1: I knew his name, and I knew he did King

431
00:22:58,160 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 1: of the Hill, and I was in my mind I

432
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 1: was expecting someone to walk in with a cowboy hat

433
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 1: and cowboy boots, man with glasses and a little little bag,

434
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: and very quiet and thoughtful. And we had a prossim

435
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,679
Speaker 1: and talked to him for two hours, A lot of

436
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:22,199
Speaker 1: long pauses we did not fill them. Yeah, I just

437
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: had a meeting that we could not tell I couldn't

438
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 1: tell you how it went. We had no you know,

439
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:28,919
Speaker 1: his poker face. We didn't know like does he hate us?

440
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 1: Does he like us?

441
00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 2: Does he you know?

442
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 1: I think what he was really thinking was like, I

443
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:34,120
Speaker 1: can get two for one with these guys the writing team,

444
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: two for the price of one. You know, he's probably

445
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:40,400
Speaker 1: coming at it from that place. But yeah, eventually we

446
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: got a call. We got I think we got three offers.

447
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:47,640
Speaker 1: We got an offer for an animated show, those twenty

448
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:51,399
Speaker 1: two episodes, We got an offer for thirteen for another

449
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: show episodes, and then we got offer of a script

450
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 1: on the American Office. Because at that time, I don't

451
00:23:57,240 --> 00:23:58,919
Speaker 1: know if you remember, like you don't know if you're

452
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 1: gonna get a season two you've got it was like

453
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: six scripts, right, All we were guarantee were scripts, and

454
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: we although we didn't have any money, We're just like,

455
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 1: we'd rather work on the office and take our chances

456
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 1: and nothing happening than the guaranteed money of the twenty

457
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 1: two episodes or the thirteen episodes.

458
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 2: So we did was that because of greg Or? Was

459
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 2: that because it was we had.

460
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,680
Speaker 1: Seen season one, We had seen those six episodes where

461
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: this is brilliant. We were just huge. I mean we were

462
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:27,679
Speaker 1: huge hands of the British show. And then we're like

463
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 1: when they announced the America and when we're like, okay,

464
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:31,320
Speaker 1: this is good. How are they going to fuck this up?

465
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: And we saw it. We were just it was riveting.

466
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:35,880
Speaker 1: We just couldn't believe how good it was. It's all

467
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 1: we wanted to do. I mean, we literally got to

468
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: live our dream. Like that's all we wanted was to

469
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 1: work on the Office. Just from those six episodes. Yeah,

470
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 1: so it was the greatest thing that happened to us ever.

471
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: You know, it was just amazing.

472
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 2: You were pretty young at this point that you come in.

473
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,400
Speaker 2: I was eleven were you were eleven?

474
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:53,920
Speaker 1: Child?

475
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 2: By the way, here's the thing spoiler alert, I was

476
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 2: really young too, do you know where the show was?

477
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: Funny when I see the show now, I'm like, how

478
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,479
Speaker 1: old is Corell? This? Is he older? Younger than I'm

479
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: always trying to do the math of like how old

480
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 1: was Stephen this? How old was rain Right? How it

481
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 1: was Brian? Like I'm always just like, oh my god,

482
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 1: I'm older than Correl was in season one?

483
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:18,119
Speaker 2: What you know, No, you come in pretty young. I

484
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:21,880
Speaker 2: mean certainly there were quite a few young people on

485
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 2: the season back then, Mindy and BJ.

486
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: I have to have this unlike so one of the

487
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,359
Speaker 1: things that separated Lee and I from everyone everyone, like

488
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: a lot of those a lot of the staff went

489
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 1: to Harvard. They were all kind of like it was

490
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 1: almost their birthright to write the sitcoms. Okay, you know,

491
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 1: I was from Chicago, is from Boston, and I had

492
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 1: just five years of just nothing. I was, like I said,

493
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: I'm just getting fired a lot. I was terrible at everything.

494
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 1: So not a good assistant, not a good PA, just

495
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,160
Speaker 1: a huge fuck up. Really just a history of failure

496
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 1: in many ways. So there was no like we didn't

497
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: expect to anything. We weren't didn't feel like we should

498
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: be there. But yes we got I think were I

499
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 1: was maybe twenty six or twenty seven. Yeah started.

500
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 2: What do you think you and Lee, both of you,

501
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 2: what do you think your greatest contribution to the show

502
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 2: was or how do you feel like you helped? Oh? Wow,

503
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:23,399
Speaker 2: what are you most proud of?

504
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there are certain jokes that I'm really

505
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,360
Speaker 1: proud of that I remember writing. That feeling you get

506
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: when you just you're like this is this is this

507
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 1: feels like it could be really good. So I have

508
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: those moments in my mind of just remember writing certain

509
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 1: jokes and they were weren't even always from my episodes,

510
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 1: but like they're just jokes that I'm proud of. It

511
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: feels so weird. This is when the imposter syndrome really

512
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,959
Speaker 1: kicks in when you start talking about stuff like this.

513
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: But I think maybe we kind of subverted. I think

514
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: we like, you know, we did things like when Jim

515
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 1: kind of became like not the greatest partner every He's like, oh,

516
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 1: I got to I gotta leave, I gotta go the

517
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 1: houses on fire or flood and you know, trying to

518
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:05,680
Speaker 1: leave camp like you would really piss Officer and a

519
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 1: segment of the audience. But just things like that, I

520
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,360
Speaker 1: don't know. I think we probably wrote everyone had their own,

521
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,200
Speaker 1: Like I feel like Mike Shure wrote like Michael it

522
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: is almost most noble in a way, like the best

523
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:19,359
Speaker 1: version of Michael version personally I like a lot, and

524
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: like everyone had like a different version. But I think

525
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: we probably wrote like the the most biggest British version

526
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,359
Speaker 1: of the show in a way. Okay, maybe some of

527
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:28,160
Speaker 1: the darker.

528
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:30,960
Speaker 2: Stuff, well that that was sort of where I was going.

529
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,640
Speaker 2: I mean, the two episodes that you guys were responsible for, Scott's,

530
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 2: Todd's and Dinner Party, unquestionably considered the most cringiest of

531
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 2: episodes in the history of the show. Were those your

532
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,960
Speaker 2: ideas or did you execute them? And what I mean

533
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 2: by that for those of you listening who don't know,

534
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 2: Sometimes there are stories that are decided collectively in the

535
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 2: writer's room and then you're assigned a script to write.

536
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 2: I'm curious about sort of the Jena for either one

537
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 2: or both of those episodes.

538
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, yeah, it's true. So like writers will come

539
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: in with ideas after we'll have like time off in

540
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 1: between seasons, were coming with new ideas, and the ideas

541
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:11,719
Speaker 1: who come in come in with aren't always the ones

542
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:13,679
Speaker 1: that you end up writing. Sometimes other writers write them,

543
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 1: and you write other writers' ideas. Neither one was our

544
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:23,480
Speaker 1: idea Dinner Party. It might have been Greg's idea. I

545
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:27,160
Speaker 1: don't actually remember whose idea that was, but I remember

546
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,199
Speaker 1: feeling very I knew how to write that episode, and

547
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:32,920
Speaker 1: I remember Greg assigned it to Mindy, who like, wasn't

548
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:35,120
Speaker 1: that I don't I didn't think she wants to write

549
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 1: a different episode. I think At the time it was

550
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: called like Who's Afraid of John Levinson Gold? But Scott's

551
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: Tots was a Paul Lieberstein original that we were assigned.

552
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 2: Ok, you make your acting debut in the office correct

553
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 2: on television? On television, Yes, Yes, on television. Leo and

554
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 2: Gino the delivery guys. Was this something you were excited

555
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 2: about doing or was this just fun for the run?

556
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: I did not enjoy it at all, and it was

557
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: really the other writers kind of. I think Greg thought

558
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: it was funny, and the other writers, like I thought

559
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,160
Speaker 1: it would be funny to force us to act. I

560
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: hated it, didn't want to do it, fought against it,

561
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 1: but if we were going to do it, we did.

562
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: Lee and I did think it was funny for him

563
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: to play Geno and me to play Leo, which was

564
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 1: just really confused some of the people work on the show.

565
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 1: You know what our names was? What our names were

566
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: anyway at the beginning. I think by the end we're

567
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: really confused. And sometimes if I felt someone didn't like,

568
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: if I knew someone wasn't sure, if I was leader,

569
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:34,719
Speaker 1: Gene and Lee would walk by and be like, hey

570
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: Gene to Lee, I would call him Gene which would

571
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 1: just doubly confuse them and they think they finally have

572
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: to haven't figured out, and then I would just continue confusing.

573
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 2: That's so good. I mean, look the show, the show

574
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 2: gave all of us so much. I mean, for you, your

575
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 2: first job in a writer's room, your acting career on Delvion,

576
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 2: whether you liked it or not, your directorial debut. When

577
00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 2: you look back on that time, what feelings do you have.

578
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I owe so much. It was my film school.

579
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: You know, I owe so much to the show. It

580
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: because you know, easily you can easily get on a

581
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 1: show that last six episodes, and then you get on

582
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: another show and it kind of you know, gets canceled

583
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: or it's I mean, we got so lucky being hired

584
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 1: on the show, to be on a show that went

585
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 1: as long as it did, and we didn't stay the

586
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: whole time, but it changed our lives, met a lot

587
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:27,960
Speaker 1: of amazing people. We learned so much. We learned how

588
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: to become showrunners and how to write, and how to

589
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 1: run a room, and kind of one of the things

590
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: in the Writer's Strike that we talk about is just

591
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: and I know Mike Scohn record talking about this just

592
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: true as like, you know, for the next genre. You know,

593
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: we learned from Greg how to do these things, and

594
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of people are aren't learning that anymore.

595
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: But we just completely change our lives, can change the

596
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 1: trajectory of our careers. I remember thinking before it became

597
00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: preessional writer, I thought, oh, these writers are They're so lucky,

598
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 1: They're so lucky that they get to do this. And

599
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:02,719
Speaker 1: then when I became one and I was like, it's

600
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: all talent, luckys, nothing with it. I'm just that talented.

601
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: Now I realized I'm back to the lucky part. There's talent,

602
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: for sure, but there's so much luck involved. There's just

603
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: things you can't control that we got on the show

604
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: that it went as long as it did, that we

605
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: met these made these connections and met these people. It

606
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:21,959
Speaker 1: just you know things, there's a lot of our hands

607
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: and I feel so lucky. I feel so lucky.

608
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 2: I remember talking to both Lee and you at the time.

609
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 2: My impression was you were in a really difficult but

610
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 2: amazing situation because I recall you saying like this was

611
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,800
Speaker 2: all we wanted to do was to be writers on

612
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 2: the office and to continue to work. But you begin

613
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 2: to get because you are so talented despite your jokes,

614
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 2: a bunch of other opportunities, and it's you decide it's

615
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,720
Speaker 2: time to go. That's a difficult decision for you.

616
00:31:56,320 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 1: Well, at the time, I remember our last year and

617
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: I were like, we're just going to coast through this.

618
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: We're just going to coast, you know, we're making we

619
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: wrote a movie that's going to production, and we're going

620
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:08,920
Speaker 1: to just kind of take it easy. And then they

621
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: asked us to be the head writers. And we're like,

622
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,160
Speaker 1: does that come with more money? They're like no, does

623
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 1: that come with a title? Bunth like no, okay, cool,

624
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 1: and so yeah. So by the end of the I

625
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: think it was season six or so, last season, we

626
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,160
Speaker 1: were on fumes. So in a sense, it wasn't that

627
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 1: hard because we were I have never been more exhausted.

628
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,960
Speaker 1: I mean, we were just kind of at the end

629
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 1: at the end there, we were so tired all the time.

630
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: So we just needed a break. We were so burnt out.

631
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:35,680
Speaker 2: You know.

632
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: For those five years, we work Monday through Friday on

633
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,960
Speaker 1: the office, and Saturday and Sunday we were writing movies, right,

634
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 1: so we were working seven days a week for five years.

635
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: That's it. We just wanted a better quality of life. Yeah,

636
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 1: and we were so tired. But it was not easy.

637
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 2: It was scary, right, sure, well right out of the gate,

638
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 2: you go, you leave to go work on year one

639
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 2: with both Lee and the aforementioned Harold Ramis. Was that

640
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 2: a dream come true for you?

641
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,960
Speaker 1: Yes, so yere one was. Actually we got high in

642
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 1: year one. I think like two weeks after getting heir

643
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: in the office.

644
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 2: That's okay, So you're working on it the whole time.

645
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: Yes, we're like working on it, Yeah, after work on

646
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 1: the weekends. So you know, Harold had started writing it already,

647
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: and so we would help out when we could. And

648
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: then by the end, I think we're doing a Bad Teacher.

649
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're leaving in twenty eleven.

650
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was pretty exhausting.

651
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:34,360
Speaker 2: Well, in twenty thirteen, you get on a list, the

652
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 2: Overachiever's List. This is Deadline Hollywood's pilot season overachievers list.

653
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 2: That year, you and Lee were behind ABC's Pulling, ABC's

654
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:51,880
Speaker 2: Trophy Wife and CBS's Bad Teacher adaptation of the movie,

655
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 2: and your comedy pilot with Stephen Merchant. Hello, ladies on

656
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 2: HBO got picked up. You've got to be feeling really

657
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 2: good about you yourself at this time, Yeah.

658
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 1: Feeling good, also feeling very scared about the amount of

659
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 1: work so bad, teacher. We didn't really have anything to

660
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: do with other than doing the movie, and we were execution.

661
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 1: The great thing about Hollywood is you can be an

662
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: executi producer and actually do nothing. It's pretty amazing. It's

663
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: a great gig. And Pulling was a pilot, but he

664
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:24,359
Speaker 1: didn't get picked up the serious so we were doing

665
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: Trophy Wife and Hell of Ladies simultaneously. Yeah, it's like

666
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: bouncing back and forth.

667
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,920
Speaker 2: What was it like working with Steven who obviously you

668
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 2: hadn't Stephen didn't do a whole lot on the Office,

669
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,399
Speaker 2: but obviously going back and working with him on you know,

670
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,280
Speaker 2: someone that you had admired from the original British version.

671
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:43,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he was someone that we were a

672
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 1: fan of and then got to become friends with. It

673
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:49,959
Speaker 1: was really cool and we became friends and he asked

674
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,760
Speaker 1: us to produce Hello Ladies, and then we're like okay,

675
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:54,000
Speaker 1: and then we start talking about and then he's like,

676
00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 1: why do you guys just write up with me? Great

677
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:58,520
Speaker 1: up with me? And we did. But it was so fun.

678
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 1: He lived with me for like eight months. It was great.

679
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:04,719
Speaker 1: It was so fun I mean, he is one of

680
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 1: the funniest people ever. And one of the great things

681
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: about doing this job is you're like, I've been surrounded

682
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 1: by some of the funniest people in the world. I

683
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 1: always think, like my friends, I have the funniest friends,

684
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:20,239
Speaker 1: and he's you know, he's one of them. And you know,

685
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: there's there's so many people DJ and I know so

686
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 1: many funny people, and I love it. It makes life

687
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 1: so much better.

688
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you it impossible to answer question.

689
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 2: I know, I'm curious, how do you decide whether you

690
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 2: are going to work with Lee on a particular project

691
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 2: or if it's something that you are going to go

692
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 2: out and do on your own a process, and how

693
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 2: how have you managed to negotiate bad feelings on either

694
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 2: side of that.

695
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no bad feelings. There's no like rhyme or reason.

696
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 1: It's just like, you know, we I think some things,

697
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: we're kind of doing different things. Sometimes we do the

698
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 1: same thing, so there's a to imagine event diagram, and

699
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 1: there's some things that we both want to do, like

700
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 1: jury duty or you know, he's doing his drama stuff

701
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:11,720
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm doing directing, So it just depends

702
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 1: what it's really a project by project.

703
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 2: Okay, are you discussing it with each other or not?

704
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,919
Speaker 1: Sometimes? Okay, sometimes it's.

705
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 2: An impossible question. But it is fascinating because you guys

706
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 2: have had so much success together. Though you're not exclusively together.

707
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:30,600
Speaker 1: We date other people.

708
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, you date around.

709
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:34,240
Speaker 1: We did around.

710
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 2: Speaking of which something that you date solo? I don't

711
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:43,399
Speaker 2: know that was a terrible transition. Good good boys. Your

712
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 2: feature film directorial debut with Lee writing, but you directed.

713
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 1: Well, no, we both directed it.

714
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 2: You both directed it.

715
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:56,319
Speaker 1: We both directed it, but the director's guild would not

716
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,200
Speaker 1: give us a waiver and their infinite wisdom would not

717
00:36:59,239 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 1: give us a waiver.

718
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 2: So, oh I didn't know that.

719
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been so like on the Office. You know,

720
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 1: we I direct an episode, he directed one, but we

721
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:08,440
Speaker 1: both directed both of them. Right, They just would not

722
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: give us a waiver to make a directing team, so

723
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:12,880
Speaker 1: we put our name on it.

724
00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 2: I never mind.

725
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's you know, he ended up. He was a producer.

726
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:18,759
Speaker 1: I was a director. But we both did the same.

727
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:20,879
Speaker 1: You know, we both wrote it and then we both

728
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:22,880
Speaker 1: did the same producing and directing.

729
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 2: What was it like working with actual kids. I mean

730
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,600
Speaker 2: we were sort of childlike on the office, but actual

731
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 2: twelve year old actors. And was it difficult for you

732
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:40,400
Speaker 2: to finesse the subject matter? Obviously are rated comedy with

733
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 2: the kids? Are they understanding what's going on?

734
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 1: Yeah? You know, I mean, look, the parents wrote the script.

735
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:51,000
Speaker 1: There are no surprises here, right, you know, you know

736
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,560
Speaker 1: you're getting into right. Sometimes the kid would you know,

737
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:55,520
Speaker 1: the kids would ask me and I'd be like, you know,

738
00:37:55,680 --> 00:38:00,319
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe go ask your mom, right, And

739
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,959
Speaker 1: like I love the kids. The kids were so great

740
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,399
Speaker 1: and so funny, and you know at that age where

741
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 1: just they want to know everything right, and so if

742
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:10,839
Speaker 1: like Leon and I were whispering sometimes they walk near us,

743
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, got out of here. So for example, there

744
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: was a scene when they're when they find porn on

745
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:19,239
Speaker 1: the computer, Like I set it up so like you

746
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 1: know those things where you're like you're watching a video

747
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,719
Speaker 1: and like something jumps out and scares you. Yeah, so

748
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 1: it would be like that. It'd be like a like

749
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 1: a zombie just jump on the screen right at you

750
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,560
Speaker 1: and scream, you know, things like that. So you know,

751
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: they didn't really know that much. And I've tried to

752
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:39,520
Speaker 1: keep as much as possible away from them, right, but uh,

753
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,359
Speaker 1: I loved working them because you can actually give them

754
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,200
Speaker 1: line readings, like say it like this, right, say it

755
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: like and.

756
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 2: You know that sounds like what you would like.

757
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you're kidding. I think every director actually

758
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: if you, if they were being honest, they would say, yeah,

759
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 1: every writer director actually wants to give line readings.

760
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,680
Speaker 2: Yeah. But here's the thing you need to understand. If

761
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,359
Speaker 2: you write something brilliant, it can only get better. Oh

762
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 2: someone else to interpret it.

763
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: You can get worse too, well, get worse. So I

764
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:12,919
Speaker 1: will say on the Office, we were lucky that, Yes,

765
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 1: it did get better on the Office was virtually always

766
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,799
Speaker 1: better on the Office. However, you don't always get to

767
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 1: work with the actors of the Office. Sometimes you work

768
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:21,720
Speaker 1: with other actors and it's it's.

769
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 2: Different, cringiest moment for you working with the kids with

770
00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:27,560
Speaker 2: the subject matter.

771
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 1: There's in the reshoots, they're like, you know, you do

772
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:33,880
Speaker 1: all jokes right, as we all know. We have alts

773
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 1: and I had to do oh god, also for one

774
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: of the one of the not one of the main kids,

775
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:43,880
Speaker 1: but just a different child. And we're just like having

776
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 1: to tell her them, and she would just do one

777
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 1: after another, and like the whole crew is just staring

778
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,479
Speaker 1: at me, like you piece of shit, making her saying

779
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 1: things that she clearly doesn't know what she's saying, and

780
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 1: I feel terrible, and I was like, oh god, I'm

781
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 1: just like at a certain point, I'm like, you know what,

782
00:39:57,560 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: I'm just not going to do anymore of these. This

783
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:05,320
Speaker 1: is not I feel weird, but you know, hey, that's entertainment.

784
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to talk about Jerry Duty. I mean,

785
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 2: it is so fascinating. Well, whose idea was it?

786
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 1: It was an amalgam of you know. We so in

787
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 1: like two thousand and I want to say fourteen, we

788
00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:41,480
Speaker 1: wrote a script wheneverro script Cultjury Duty for HBO. I

789
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: think we wrote for Will Ferrell. Did not go anywhere.

790
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: He didn't do it, they didn't pick it up. Nothing

791
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 1: really happened from it. So we just kind of had

792
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:53,319
Speaker 1: this failed pilot. And then two producers, Dave bernad a

793
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 1: Front of Ours and Todd Shulman came to us. So

794
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 1: they want to do a prank show I believe about

795
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 1: a lawyer. Like, well, we have this jury idea. We

796
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: kind of combined ideas and that's kind of how the

797
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 1: show is born.

798
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 2: But it's a it is sort of a prank show,

799
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:12,760
Speaker 2: but he's not the butt of any jokes. That's what's

800
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 2: so beautiful about it too.

801
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: That's the first they say, the first feel good prank show.

802
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 1: That was always the idea that it wouldn't be mean spirited,

803
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 1: that he would it would be he He was never

804
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: made to be the butt of the joke, which, by

805
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 1: the way, is really hard because then that makes him

806
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 1: in a way. Our fear was that he wouldn't be active,

807
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 1: you know, he would just be outside the action, watching,

808
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: And it kind of worked out somehow, just pure luck,

809
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:42,279
Speaker 1: I mean part of it just you know, you get the.

810
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 2: Right guy, right. I wanted to talk to him for

811
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 2: the podcast here about it because it seems like you

812
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 2: just chose the right guy.

813
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:52,680
Speaker 1: I didn't choose him.

814
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 2: Well, but you collectively.

815
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:58,600
Speaker 1: So we actually did the show of three different people

816
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:00,800
Speaker 1: who shot up three times two and a half times,

817
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: and shows you know, he was the one that we

818
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: did it with. But uh yeah, we didn't know, and

819
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 1: you know, we were talking how like we didn't know

820
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:11,120
Speaker 1: if we would even have a show to give them.

821
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 1: He might figure it out halfway through then there's no show.

822
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: It just wasted a lot of money. Huge Amazon is

823
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,240
Speaker 1: a rounding error, but still they may not have anything.

824
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: So and also I think in the middle of the

825
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: development process, first we told to Amazon, like, Okay, it's

826
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 1: gonna be an Amazon. They're like, it's gonna be an IMDbTV.

827
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,799
Speaker 1: We're like, what is that. I'mdb we just bought IMDbTV.

828
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,400
Speaker 1: It's the thing show's gonna be like okay. Then a

829
00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:36,160
Speaker 1: little bit later like okay, so i'm DBTV is gone.

830
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:37,880
Speaker 1: It's not called freeb you're gonna be in free Like

831
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 1: what is a free v Uh? No one's gonna see

832
00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:44,640
Speaker 1: this thing. It's a disaster. Yeah, it's all like just

833
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: the stars. Sometimes the stars aligned, sometimes the stars aligned.

834
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:52,279
Speaker 2: I started hearing about this show. It's one of the

835
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:57,440
Speaker 2: what was one of those shows that it just kept growing,

836
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 2: It just kept growing, and I kept hearing about it,

837
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:06,239
Speaker 2: and you know, part of my cynical brain heard reality

838
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 2: or whatever, and I just sort of and then I

839
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:11,000
Speaker 2: heard about it again, and then some people I respect,

840
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:12,920
Speaker 2: and then I found out that you guys were doing

841
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:14,759
Speaker 2: and I was like, all right, well I got to

842
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 2: sit my eyes down and give it a watch. What

843
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:20,520
Speaker 2: you just said that you shot it three times. What

844
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:24,759
Speaker 2: are the other two people think who weren't chosen. That's

845
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 2: a good question, That's what I want to know.

846
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I actually don't know. You know,

847
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 1: it took it took a lot of people to pull

848
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 1: this off. We just had a small part of this.

849
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:37,359
Speaker 1: There was like a lot of people doing this and

850
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,240
Speaker 1: making it work that are not namely in Gene.

851
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

852
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what they because

853
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 1: you know, the same they recognize their fellow jurors as

854
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:49,960
Speaker 1: the people they served with, because you know, they were

855
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:54,360
Speaker 1: told it was for a documentary about the American judicial system.

856
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 1: This is just a small part of it. Yes, So

857
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:58,160
Speaker 1: they didn't you know, they didn't think there would be that.

858
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,880
Speaker 1: They didn't understand, you know, what what we were actually doing.

859
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 2: Here's the thing, here's the thing that I don't understand. Okay,

860
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 2: so you talked about waste a lot of money. What

861
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:14,040
Speaker 2: happens at the end If Ronald says you don't have

862
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 2: permission to show this, what happens, it dies.

863
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:20,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, but there are things you can do to make

864
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,560
Speaker 1: sure someone says, yes, I give them a lot of money.

865
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:28,440
Speaker 2: Right. I noticed that in the last episode. Yes, spoiler alert,

866
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:32,480
Speaker 2: he does get Yeah, he does get paid. But still

867
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:35,800
Speaker 2: like there is a there's a risk there, right, I mean.

868
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: Look, there's always a chance. There's always a chance. But

869
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:40,719
Speaker 1: you know you kind of pre screen. You know there's

870
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 1: PaperWorks that's signed, and you kind of pre screen for

871
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: what's that what is that psychological trait? Agreeability?

872
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 2: Okay, you've screened for it.

873
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,480
Speaker 1: Always talk about like a sociopaths and serial killers have

874
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:54,440
Speaker 1: a very low level of agreeability, right, So you want

875
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 1: people with a high level of agreeability to be on

876
00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,520
Speaker 1: jury duty because they can kind of go with the flow.

877
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:01,920
Speaker 1: They see some weird behavior that's funny, but they kind

878
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:04,239
Speaker 1: of accept it and they try and make the best

879
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,239
Speaker 1: of it, including being told that everything is fake and

880
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 1: they were in the Truman Show and still signing off

881
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:14,400
Speaker 1: and you know it could yes, it could have been

882
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:15,000
Speaker 1: a disaster.

883
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 2: Absolutely well. I mean it's helpful also that he comes

884
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:24,479
Speaker 2: off incredibly well. It is not the butt of the joke.

885
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 2: It's just similar to reality television. Obviously, there's not multiple takes, right,

886
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 2: You kind of get one shot at it, right.

887
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 1: Yes, and no, Okay, so dirty little secret is you

888
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: know we shot this three times, so you know, we

889
00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:45,760
Speaker 1: are also taking our actors' reactions from other uh germs,

890
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 1: fake real jurors, the other Ronalds who aren't in the

891
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 1: show and using that not a lot necessarily, but it happens.

892
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:58,560
Speaker 1: But yeah, you only get Ronald's reaction for last ones. Yeah,

893
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:03,360
Speaker 1: interesting trip. It's a whole other way of doing doing things.

894
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 2: Can you do it again?

895
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:07,400
Speaker 1: Not not in the as a.

896
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 2: Not a jersey.

897
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:10,200
Speaker 1: You cannot do it as jury duty, but you can

898
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:14,640
Speaker 1: you can probably do it again as a different social experiment.

899
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 2: Right because it became so it became so successful that

900
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 2: you can't do it again.

901
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 1: I mean you can try making a court I would

902
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 1: never want to. I feel like we did that. Let's

903
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 1: do let's try something else, or let's not try something else.

904
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:29,879
Speaker 1: But I don't you can't do it in a court

905
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:30,359
Speaker 1: room again.

906
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 2: I don't think what for you? What is the most

907
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:38,879
Speaker 2: fortuitous plot point that Ronald made happen on.

908
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:45,479
Speaker 1: His own the I think the the racism thing, because

909
00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:48,480
Speaker 1: that was in the script that we wrote, you know,

910
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:51,120
Speaker 1: and like the geniuses who were day to day on

911
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:53,839
Speaker 1: that show got him. Basically, he had seen a Family Guy,

912
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,880
Speaker 1: a Family Guy episode and got him to say that,

913
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:58,399
Speaker 1: and kind of we're just all like, oh my god,

914
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 1: I can't believe this worked out. And because we had

915
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:04,160
Speaker 1: a whole bit about him saying he was racism then

916
00:47:04,239 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 1: saying he wasn't racist, and it just it was like,

917
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:08,200
Speaker 1: I can't believe it worked out. It just cannot.

918
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:13,400
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations. I thought it was. I thought it was beautiful.

919
00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:16,520
Speaker 2: I thought it was it was feel good but also

920
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:21,719
Speaker 2: very funny and super cool. I mean, something that has

921
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 2: never been done before. A Brank show extended for such

922
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 2: a long period of time. And how long were they

923
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 2: were they isolated?

924
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: Well, I have to give credit to Joe Shmo. Did

925
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 1: you watch the Josh Moo show this? I love the

926
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: Josh Moo Show. I cannot say it. I love that show.

927
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 1: I think it's so funny. The guyss A Deadpool created it.

928
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 1: And as they say, Josh Moo walked so jury duty

929
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:50,759
Speaker 1: could run. They were they were doing that like in

930
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:52,880
Speaker 1: like two thousand and one a version of this.

931
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 2: It's different, it's different.

932
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 1: There's some overlaps, some similarities.

933
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:02,479
Speaker 2: How long was he confined? Confined sounds like he's in prison.

934
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 2: I know, three weeks? Yeah, three weeks were the actors

935
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:09,760
Speaker 2: there too, or did they leave.

936
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,799
Speaker 1: They were there? I think Marsden left, Parson went home, right,

937
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 1: but I think the other actor I think they stayed there.

938
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: You know, you know, you go to bed at night,

939
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:19,320
Speaker 1: come back in the morning.

940
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 2: Right, Awesome, Well, your other major project out now, no

941
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,920
Speaker 2: hard feelings with Jennifer Lawrence. How did you know that

942
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:32,359
Speaker 2: Jennifer Lawrence was right for the part?

943
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 1: Well? I didn't really. I mean I knew she was funny,

944
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:39,359
Speaker 1: I knew she was witty. I knew she had this

945
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:41,960
Speaker 1: whole skill set that we hadn't really seen, but I

946
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,960
Speaker 1: didn't know. So it was written for her John Phillips,

947
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 1: my co writer on the movie, and I wrote it

948
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: for her. But we know she would do it. I mean,

949
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 1: you know, if she wants to do it, she's right

950
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:53,319
Speaker 1: for the part, any part she's going to do it.

951
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,160
Speaker 1: As a director, you're just like, oh, should be so

952
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:58,120
Speaker 1: lucky and hopefully she wants to do it.

953
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 2: Right. The movie based off of a real Craigslist ad

954
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 2: that you were set by the film's producers, I understand.

955
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 1: So, just to bring it full circle, it was found

956
00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 1: by Naomi Odenkirk. Oh. Yeah, I think Jenna's.

957
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:16,800
Speaker 2: Manager Jenna's manager.

958
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:19,960
Speaker 1: Yes, and Mark Provazio, who was the agent who got

959
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:22,280
Speaker 1: me and Lee on the Office Wow the first place,

960
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:24,840
Speaker 1: and in fact I was talking about with him recently

961
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 1: how after about three weeks on the show, we called

962
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 1: him and we're like, can you get us off the show?

963
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: He's like what, He's like, we don't like it here.

964
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 1: Everyone's mean and weird and the time about the writers,

965
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 1: not the actors, right, and we just don't feel like we,

966
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,839
Speaker 1: you know, we belong here. And in a very nice way,

967
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: he was like, shut the fuck up. You don't understand

968
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 1: what your what how lucky you are, and just I'm

969
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,080
Speaker 1: gonna pretend. I'm gonna pretend I'm gonna listen to you

970
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:53,760
Speaker 1: and then not do anything, which in his infinite wisdom

971
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 1: was the right choice, you know, because we got there.

972
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:59,960
Speaker 1: Like You're like, some of these people aren't that well

973
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:02,600
Speaker 1: coming of our of our genius, but they see how

974
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,799
Speaker 1: brilliant we are, and so you know, it's like all

975
00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:07,920
Speaker 1: the people that I love. Now I was just like, oh,

976
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:11,120
Speaker 1: I don't like any of these people and no close

977
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:12,799
Speaker 1: friends of mine. But at the time I was like,

978
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: this is I don't want to be here, and he

979
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:16,719
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I don't either, but he's anyways, so yes.

980
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:20,200
Speaker 1: So I was in LA for the premiere of Good

981
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 1: Boys that week and I had dinner with Mark and

982
00:50:22,080 --> 00:50:25,240
Speaker 1: he told me about this idea that Naomi had found

983
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:28,040
Speaker 1: and he sent it to me, and I thought, Okay,

984
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:31,279
Speaker 1: this could be like who's the woman that answers this ad?

985
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 1: Like what's going on in her life? Were the parents

986
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 1: that put this out? What's what is this? And I

987
00:50:37,640 --> 00:50:40,359
Speaker 1: thought this could be really good for Jennifer Lawrence and

988
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:43,200
Speaker 1: hopefully she'll do it. You know, she's working with obviously

989
00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:47,400
Speaker 1: major filmmakers, but she saw Good Boys and she was

990
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:51,880
Speaker 1: a fan of that, and and so I picture this

991
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:54,919
Speaker 1: and she's like, well, yes, it looks funny. I'm gonna

992
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:57,040
Speaker 1: have to read a script. I was like, yeah, of course,

993
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:01,640
Speaker 1: perf nce. And so two years later came back to

994
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:04,480
Speaker 1: with a script and yeah, we did it.

995
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:08,440
Speaker 2: The movie now on its way to being the highest

996
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:14,360
Speaker 2: grossing original R rated comedy of this decade. What is

997
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:18,359
Speaker 2: it about R rated comedies? Why one do you keep

998
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:21,000
Speaker 2: coming back to it? And two? Why do you feel

999
00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:23,480
Speaker 2: like there has been you know, there was sort of

1000
00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:26,880
Speaker 2: a resurgence right around the early two thousands two thousand,

1001
00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:30,440
Speaker 2: two thousand and six ish, and they've kind of fallen away.

1002
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:33,000
Speaker 2: Seems like studios feel like they're not going to make

1003
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 2: money or something. What what do you feel like? Well,

1004
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,839
Speaker 2: what keeps bringing you back? Your sensibility?

1005
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think my sensibility, you know, I just comedy

1006
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:47,040
Speaker 1: is my first love. I don't know if that'll always

1007
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:49,839
Speaker 1: do comedy, but I think everything I do will have

1008
00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:53,640
Speaker 1: some comedy in it. I can't imagine working on something

1009
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 1: that no comedy. You know, a lot of strangely, a

1010
00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 1: lot of very successful community filmmakers leave comedy, you know,

1011
00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:05,520
Speaker 1: the Adam McKay's, the God Phillips, the jay Roaches, they

1012
00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:07,560
Speaker 1: go off. They'll you know, move on to dramas. And

1013
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:10,160
Speaker 1: I understand that impulse, you know, part of me wants

1014
00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 1: to do that as well. But yeah, studios I think

1015
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:16,359
Speaker 1: are a little bit gunshy making them. They don't do

1016
00:52:16,400 --> 00:52:21,279
Speaker 1: super well internationally. You know, comedy is oftentimes in some

1017
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:24,640
Speaker 1: ways regional or provincial. You know, what's funny in France

1018
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:26,200
Speaker 1: is not funny in Germany.

1019
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:29,719
Speaker 2: Right and all that, unless it's mister Bean and that's

1020
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:32,160
Speaker 2: just funny. That's just funny everywhere.

1021
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:38,920
Speaker 1: Funny everywhere but yeah, I don't know. I mean, they

1022
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:42,280
Speaker 1: make way fewer comedies. I think it's cyclical. I think

1023
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:45,200
Speaker 1: it'll come back. But also a lot of genres kind

1024
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:47,759
Speaker 1: of you know, superhero movies now have comedy in them.

1025
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 1: There's horror comedies. So I feel like comedy has kind

1026
00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 1: of been bisected and dissected and kind of put in

1027
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:58,200
Speaker 1: these other genres. So the straight R rated straight comedy

1028
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 1: is becoming a rare thing.

1029
00:53:01,160 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, congratulations to you on its success. Congratulations on

1030
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 2: jury I mean, you're you know, some people say they're

1031
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,680
Speaker 2: television people and the summer film people. You just you

1032
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:15,600
Speaker 2: just dominate across all platforms.

1033
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 1: I think we can say after this, I'm also a

1034
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:18,480
Speaker 1: podcast person.

1035
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:21,959
Speaker 2: I mean, are you dominate here? For sure?

1036
00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:24,320
Speaker 1: I dominated you in this podcast.

1037
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 2: You dominate, you dominated me. Uh, congratulations, man, I'm so

1038
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,760
Speaker 2: happy for you. I was so yeah. I mean again

1039
00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:35,200
Speaker 2: that that Jury Duty. It was just I don't know

1040
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:37,840
Speaker 2: if this happens to you anymore, if you just read

1041
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:41,000
Speaker 2: too much about who's doing what, but it was it

1042
00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:43,480
Speaker 2: was so fun for me to have this show that

1043
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:47,920
Speaker 2: everybody literally is talking about Jury Duty, and then to

1044
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 2: hear it with you guys. I was just I was

1045
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 2: just so happy for you. And then I watched it

1046
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 2: and I mean, I can't even joke. I thought it

1047
00:53:55,200 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 2: was fantastic. So congratulations, and uh, what's what's next? We're

1048
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:02,600
Speaker 2: striking for a little while longer and then we figure

1049
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 2: it out, right.

1050
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:10,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess podcasts, Brian podcast in my future? Can

1051
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:11,880
Speaker 1: we do one together? Can we have a lot of

1052
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:12,920
Speaker 1: thoughts on a lot of things?

1053
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could be the new Lee in the podcast world.

1054
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:19,480
Speaker 2: Do we have to run it by him though.

1055
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:22,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh we could, we could. We can give him

1056
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:24,640
Speaker 1: you give me an associate producer. But yeah, I think

1057
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:27,480
Speaker 1: just uh yeah, you know, we're on strike for a while,

1058
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:31,040
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, I don't know what the future holds.

1059
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:32,919
Speaker 1: It's a it's a strange time.

1060
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:35,479
Speaker 2: I don't either. I mean, again, you said it once,

1061
00:54:35,560 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 2: I'll say it again to bring it full circle. The

1062
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,839
Speaker 2: last time we were sitting here two thousand and eight,

1063
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 2: the strike interrupted shooting the aforementioned episode, Dinner Party. We

1064
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:52,400
Speaker 2: started on it for one day, half a day, and stopped,

1065
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:57,279
Speaker 2: and one hundred days later we went back to it.

1066
00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:00,840
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that's true. We were picking our own episode.

1067
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:03,359
Speaker 1: It was weird because we're so excited that table read

1068
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:05,399
Speaker 1: was like, I think that the table read of Dinner

1069
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 1: Party was the best thing I've ever experienced in Hollywood.

1070
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,680
Speaker 1: Was the euphoria, It was the same. I was so

1071
00:55:13,760 --> 00:55:18,440
Speaker 1: happy that almost lasted a full day. Yeah, and and

1072
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 1: I was so happy and like I was on top

1073
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:24,000
Speaker 1: of the world. I've never felt that good. And then

1074
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 1: the strike happened and we found ourselves picketing our own

1075
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 1: episode is so bizarre. Yeah, sometimes it has to.

1076
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:34,399
Speaker 2: Happen, and sometimes it has to happen. We're back there now. Well,

1077
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:39,959
Speaker 2: here's to being back soon with with some positive, much

1078
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:43,240
Speaker 2: needed results. So cheers, my friend.

1079
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:58,879
Speaker 4: Great to see you, Thank you you too, buddy, Jean.

1080
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:02,360
Speaker 2: Great to talking to you today, my friend, Thank you

1081
00:56:02,440 --> 00:56:05,400
Speaker 2: so much. I look forward to seeing what you do next,

1082
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 2: and what you and Lee do next. Who knows? Me

1083
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 2: and Jean's new podcast, did Gino and Brian Oh Show

1084
00:56:16,239 --> 00:56:20,040
Speaker 2: premiering on iHeartRadio soon. I'm sure listeners, if you haven't

1085
00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:24,520
Speaker 2: already watched do It Jury Duty and No Hard Feelings.

1086
00:56:24,640 --> 00:56:26,600
Speaker 2: I think people in the comedy world are going to

1087
00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:30,120
Speaker 2: be talking about both of these for a very very

1088
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:33,000
Speaker 2: long time. And trust me on this, you're going to

1089
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:36,279
Speaker 2: want to be in on that conversation, so go check

1090
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 2: them out. Thank you for listening today. Until next time,

1091
00:56:40,239 --> 00:56:42,319
Speaker 2: have a great week and we will see you soon.

1092
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:56,920
Speaker 2: Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me

1093
00:56:57,280 --> 00:57:02,280
Speaker 2: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executivecer Ling Lee. Our senior producer

1094
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:06,440
Speaker 2: is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,

1095
00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:10,720
Speaker 2: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary

1096
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:14,960
Speaker 2: and our intern is Thomas Olsen. Our theme song Bubble

1097
00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:19,080
Speaker 2: and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton.