WEBVTT - Gene Stupnitsky 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.199 Before I became professional writer, I thought, oh, these writers 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:05.840 are They're so lucky. They're so lucky that they get 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:07.360 to do this. And then when I became one and 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:09.200 I was like, it's all talent, lucky, has nothing new 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:11.800 with it. I'm just that talented. And now I realize 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:14.840 I'm back to the lucky part. There's talent, for sure, 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.319 but there's so much luck involved. There's just things you 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:20.759 can't control. That we got on the show, that it 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:22.560 went as long as it did, that we met these 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.520 maybe these connections and met these people. It just it's, 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:27.480 you know, things are a lot of our hands, and 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:35.680 I feel so lucky. I feel so lucky. My name 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.479 is Jeans Stibnitsky and I've been fired from every assistant 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:39.440 job I've ever held. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.720 Hi, everybody, and welcome to another I would call glorious 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:54.920 episode of Off the Beat. It's me as always your host, 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.640 Brian Baumgartner. Do you like to show the office? Have 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.160 you ever of it? Well? If you do, my guest 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.640 today is one of the many reasons why here with 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:12.240 me is the brilliant head twisted Jean Stepnitski. Jean wrote 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.720 on the show for three seasons and he is fifty percent, 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.600 responsible for some of the greatest and cringiest episodes, including 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.960 Scott's Totts and Dinner Party. Now why fifty percent? Well, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:29.720 his other half, I mean his writing partner Lee Eisenberg. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.880 The two of them, in addition to writing on the Office, 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:38.440 also responsible for shows and films including Bad Teacher, Trophy Wife, 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:44.240 Good Boys, and the innovative and hilarious recent Emmy nominee 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:49.160 Jury Duty. Yeah Yeah, leave it to Jean and Lee 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.720 to mastermind an elaborate prank like bringing someone to a 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.320 fake jury duty, convincing them that it's real, pulling crazy 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:02.160 shenanigans in the courtroom, then turning it into comedic yet 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:08.280 heartfelt television gold, brilliant and twisted, just like I said. 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.679 But which one is brilliant and which one is twisted? 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.640 Maybe we'll find out today. Gene is also responsible for 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:22.040 the breakout hit No Hard Feelings with Jennifer Lawrence, which, 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.720 by the way, is on its way to being the 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.280 highest grossing R rated comedy of the decade. He's a 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.640 great friend, He's an hilarious dude. He's a fantastic writer. 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.400 I am so thankful and feel so lucky that he 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.840 agreed to hang out with me and you well, to 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:45.000 tell us how he became so incredible. Let's get started. 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.400 The One and Only Jeene Stipnitzky. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:53.680 Bubble and Squeak. 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.240 I love it, Bubble and Squeagana. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.440 Quaker cooking every more. 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:19.720 Lift over from the nay boat. What's up, Jet Ryan? Good? 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.080 I'm so good. It's been so long, my friend, while 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.919 it really has God, it's so good to see you. 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:33.079 You're in Massachusetts. I am Are you summering in Massachusetts? 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:34.920 Are you striking in Massachusetts? 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.040 I'm I was striking and now I'm I'm summering. You 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.320 know how the lead the Hollywood elite do it. 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.040 That's right, I mean you if there if there is 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.560 one thing you are at this point, it's Hollywood elite. 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:52.880 Yes, it's elite. It's a very it's a lower tier. 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:58.320 Well, that's that's true too. I'm so it's just so 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.840 good to see your face, and I can't wait to 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:06.720 talk about everything that's been going on now. But I 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.600 want to go back in your life to when you 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:17.279 were born. You were born in Kiev in Ukrainian Soviet 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.440 Union and moved to the United States very young, like 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.960 nine months. So first off, what what brought your family? 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.120 Obviously you had no choice. What brought your family to 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:30.080 the United States. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.599 I didn't move. I was moved. I think, you know, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.760 a better life. It's that old immigrant story they you know, 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.120 there was was not good for the Jews there, and 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.520 it was just not good for anyone really, and we 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.400 had some family members that had It's kind of weird. 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:48.919 There was like a split in the family where like 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.599 some of the family moved to the US in like 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.479 nineteen fourteen, and then some of the family moved in 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.239 like so like my dad's one of my dad's brothers 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.320 moved here like a year earlier, six months or earlier, 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.600 to Chicago, and then we kind of followed suit. And 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.560 so this was the late seventies and yeah, kind of 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.240 set up in the city and then moved out to 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:14.320 the suburbs. Yeah, so my earliest memories are in Chicago, right, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.440 But I you know, we did go back recently, not 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.159 that recently, twenty ten kind of, so I got the 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.159 tour of like, you know, where I was, where my 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.880 parents lived, where I was born, probably where I was conceived, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.760 and I think about it, you know, when they went 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.240 to school and that all that and I'm just, you know, 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.599 very thankful that we left and they came here and 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:36.960 gave me and my sister this better life. Although you 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:38.200 know my sister was born here. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.760 Right do you how do you think that that affected 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.240 your childhood being and being having immigrant parents. 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.360 I mean, in fact, you know, there's this quote I 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.440 always think about. I don't know who it was either. 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.400 I've seen it attributed to Carl Young and to WILLIAMS. Wordsworth. 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.240 I don't know who've said it, but the child is 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.240 the father of the man. So you know, the five 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.239 year old version of Brian has been around much longer 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.479 than the current version of Brian and the things that 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:09.520 you know, if you're five and you find a dead 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.720 body on the street, that probably affects you more than 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:13.600 Look if I found if I saw a dead body, 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.000 I wouldn't love it, but I don't think it would 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:18.200 actually change me in any significant way or any any 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.000 of these events that kind of really can form your personality. 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.719 So being an immigrant, I definitely you know, I didn't 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:27.240 learn English, so that was six, and I have this 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:32.560 memory of going to school and just panicking, not understanding 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:33.720 because we grew up in you know, we were all 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.200 speaking Russian. I grew up like this. Russian was my 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:40.440 Russian grandparent or Ukrainian grandparents, speaking Russian, culturally Russian. And 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.440 suddenly we moved to the suburbs and I'm just dropped 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.480 in this school and I don't understand anything, and I'm scared. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.800 And that is one of my earlier, earliest memories. And 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:51.280 you know, I know that I'm probably some of the 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.800 line never want to feel that way again. So there 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.799 are probably things I did that I'm not even fully 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.680 aware of to make sure I didn't feel that way. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:00.400 But also, you know, I was an immigrant, so on 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.599 some level I was an outsider. So I was an observer. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.560 So and I think, you know, with comedy writing, I 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:07.279 think a lot of you know, a few comedy writers 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.440 are probably like the high school quarterback, right. I know 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:17.720 I wasn't, but I was a quarterback. No, I wasn't 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:20.600 been a big high school A lot of great athletes. 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.880 Yeah, so you know, do you I mean, I have 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.040 to ask, now, because of what's going on in the world, 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.840 do you still have family in the Ukraine And how 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.800 does this now, what's going on now affect you or 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.040 what do you think about when you think about where 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:38.800 you came from and what's happening over there. 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:43.200 Yeah, I don't have family. My dad's childhood best friend 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:44.200 lives in Kiev. 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:44.840 Okay. 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.360 Like many words, it's a pointless war. It's truly. I 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.560 don't I can't get my head around it. I don't 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:52.600 understand why it's happening. I think a lot of people 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.000 feel that way. There are a lot of geopolitical arguments 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.680 of why Russia invaded. I don't really care about those. 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.680 I just know there's just there's been mass casualties and 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.400 it makes me very, very sad. And it's the you know, 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.600 all those halfway around the world. I do feel connected 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.160 to it, and you know, it is on simil it 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.040 is personal. Though I see myself as an American, I 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.640 still my heart goes out to these people who are 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.440 being invaded and fighting in this war for survival. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:25.480 Yeah. It's interesting hearing you talk that you grew up 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:30.840 culturally Russian, you spoke Russian though you're from this city, 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.520 and the people that are Ukrainian and got their independence 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:40.240 after you were gone. It must just be very confusing. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.439 It's very confusing. So growing up people, you know, what 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:45.560 are you know? I would say I was Russian, right, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.040 and because in the Soviet Union it was all culturally Russian. 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.679 There was no Belarusan. There was Ukraine there, but it 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.080 was all everyone spoke Russian. And then so I grew up, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:58.800 you know, my parents spoke Russian, and then when I 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.679 went back in twenty ten, I didn't understand Ukrainian at all. 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.960 It was truly a foreign language, and my parents kind 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.199 of got it, kind of understood it. It was very 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:15.160 strange because I think once Sovie Union collapsed, you know, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.960 countries kind of went back to their roots and became 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.760 more nationalistic, and you know, Ukrainians booke Ukrainian again and 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.000 Russian stuff being taught in school or maybe it was that. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.800 I don't know, but yeah, everything changed in ninety one 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.080 when so Union collapsed. So but that was not that 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.160 was not the Ukraine that my parents were raised. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:41.960 In, right. Yeah, you brought up being an observer and 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.440 potentially giving you, I mean, it seems clear to me, 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:50.640 giving you potentially greater insight into what you do now, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.319 which is really studying the human condition, or at least 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.199 that's what I think about it. You know, you observe 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:01.160 human and you find humans and you find comedy within 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.240 that you. You have said that some of your early 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:09.400 influences were Bill Murray and Jim Carrey. Interesting those two 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.760 because to me, they see that's what that's what I 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:17.360 was told. I don't think no, what about Bill Bill Murray? 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.000 Look, probably no human beings made me laugh more than 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:21.720 Bill Murray right over. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.880 The roundhog Day you've seen that more than favorite comedy. 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:26.280 Day is my favorite comedy. 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.520 Well, what was it about Bill Murray that that drew 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:29.920 you in? 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.680 Probably harl Ramus on some level. It was those early 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.960 Bill Murray movies, you know, And I didn't see them 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:39.200 when they came out. I was I was kind of 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.960 too young for those early eighties ones. But and like 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:44.719 you know, my immigrant dad wasn't showing them to me, 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.440 as he was probably like a lot of kids. But 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.160 when I found them, there's something about Bill Murray that 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.440 the character of Bill Murray, not I don't know the person, 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.199 but the character he played, this kind of rebel, a 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.040 route the reverend, didn't take anything too seriously. That really 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.080 appealed to me. You know, those early Herald Ramis movies 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.040 were anti institutional comedies, you know, against the country club 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.720 in the Catashack, against the university, in Animal House against 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.280 government bureaucracy and Ghostbusters, and I think those there's something 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.080 you know, it's it's the guy going up against the system. 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.439 That appealed to me. And then later on those kind 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.280 of self discovery comedies that he made at Groundhog Day 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.480 Multiplicity that was more you know, that was not bu 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.440 Murray but Groundhog Day. Really you know, it's like, oh, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.280 you can change, you can grow, you can learn. Even 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.800 in your forties, you know, it's not too late, right 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:40.880 to make a change. And I think that affected me. 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.120 When did you start writing? And is that what you 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:45.800 wanted to be a writer? 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.600 I want to be the NBA And that became very 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.320 quickly apparent that that was just not going to happen, right, 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.400 no matter how many dribbling drills I did. There's just 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.120 I think when I graduated high school, I was like 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.840 five to seven. I had a grossport in college, but 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:03.560 it just wasn't gonna happen for me. 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.400 I wanted to be the first basement for the Atlanta Braves. 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.280 So no, I get you. And then at a certain 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.680 point you changed. But was this something you were interested 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:12.760 in early on? 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.480 No, Initially I wanted to be a film critic, because 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.480 being from Chicago, I didn't know anyone that you know, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.480 made movies or TV. But I knew Cisco and Ebert. 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.160 I knew they were from Chicago. I was like, well, okay, 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.800 So I studied film criticism and film theory, and I 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:35.160 was a critic in my college newspaper, and I thought, Okay, 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.120 that's why I do it. And then eventually I thought, well, 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.360 am I writing about it? Maybe I should just do it, 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:43.960 and maybe that's the way to do it. And I 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.760 wanted to be a director initially at first. And someone 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:48.679 said to me, you know, no one's going to give 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:50.120 you forty million dollars to make a movie, but if 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.800 you can write, that will help. And I was like, oh, okay, 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.080 So then I kind of but you know, I, without 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:01.000 fully realizing, I loved comedy and write. You know, I 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:06.240 was SNL watching SNL, watching Seinfeld, you know, watching all 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:10.079 those seminal comedies and and probably just soaking it up 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.520 on some cellular level that I wasn't fully aware of. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.160 And then yeah, I mean the goal was just so 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.000 go change from being a director to being just a 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.040 comedy writers, getting a job on a sitcom. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.760 Right. You went to the university of Iowa. Isn't there 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.520 a big playwriting program there at the University of Iowa. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:32.160 Yes, there is a Yeah, there's a writing creative writing program, 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:35.439 I think the best in the country. But I did 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.520 not go to that. I went to the undergraduate school. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.040 But I got all the kind of like the you know, 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.280 like some of my teachers were like like Dan Wise, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.320 who could create a Game of Thrones? Ye taught me, 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:47.559 and you know I got so we were we had access. 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.200 If you were writing undergrad, you had access to these 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:51.880 brilliant writers. 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:53.800 What made you decide to move to l A. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.040 Well, once I decided I want to do it, it 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.000 was obvious there was no other move. I mean I 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.200 was very scared to go, but uh, you know, if 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.679 I had any chance of doing it at that time, 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:06.839 you had to kind of move to LA I don't 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.800 know if that if that applies today the same way, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.880 but everything, all the business was there, so I was 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:13.280 going to go. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:18.240 So for me, I took my time. You know, I 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.240 did theater for a long time. I felt like I 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:26.480 needed to have certain boxes checked before moving to Los Angeles. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.680 I mean it seems like you were like, I just 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:30.560 I need to be there. Were there people that you 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:35.240 knew or or or places that you wanted to either 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.760 study or sign with. Did you have an agent when 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.080 you went out or were you just like f it, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.320 I'm going and I'm going to make this happen. 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:45.720 Yeah, I'm just like I'm going. I didn't know anyone. 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:50.920 I knew one person from college kind of and I 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.720 knew I knew Dan, who was my teacher who could 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.920 not CoCreate a Game of Thrones yet it was and 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.600 uh and I had In turn, I got an in. 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:02.760 Harold Ramis was a Chicago guy, and I got an 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.440 internship with him in the suburbs there, and then he 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.600 was making be Dazzled Us two thousand when I moved 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:15.800 out to so I got an internship working Friday mornings 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.640 and the Fox lot. I didn't really do much, but 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.440 it ended up being, you know, the most significant thing 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.360 ever happened to me, because that's where I met le Eisenberg. 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.400 It was a PA on b Dazzled in office PA, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.440 and I was working in Harold's kind of bungalow on 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.800 the Fox lot and our copyer broke and they're like, Okay, 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.240 go to the Dazel production offices on the other side 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:38.920 of the lot and I went there and there and 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:40.400 I was like, I need to make copies, and they're like, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.480 lead the copy boy will help you, and so they 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.320 Lee became my first friend in la. 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.840 I did not know that. I didn't know that you 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:54.600 both before everything happened. Both worked for Harold that early. 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.440 How did you get in? I wait, was it because 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.600 you came from Chicago that you've got this internship? Did you? 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:02.480 Had you met him? 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.280 So no, I never met him. What happened was I'd come. 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:09.320 I feel like I was supposed to, like go somewm 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.120 for spring break with my girlfriend. We broke up. I 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.560 came home. I was like home for spring break. And 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.680 there's a magazine that no longer justiss called north Shore Magazine. 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.640 My family that keeps ten year old magazines lying around. 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.160 This is like ninety six, the magazines from ninety six. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.240 But I read in nineteen ninety nine and said, Harold 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.040 Ramis returns. He was on the cover and he was 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:30.560 coming back to And I read the article and like 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.040 said he had an office in Island Park, Illinois, which 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.680 was near me. I said, oh my god, So so 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.120 I called his office. I talked to Laurel Ward, who 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:41.400 was his assistant at the time later became a producing 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.000 partner of his, and she said, we need someone with 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:48.520 a truck because at that summer in Chicago, they made 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.160 these like I don't know if they were like ceramic cows, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.000 kind of put them all over the city, and I like, 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:54.680 bring some, and I was like, I have a truck. Yeah, 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:56.160 of course I got a truck, which I didn't have, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.880 so I'd like kind of scramble and find a truck 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:03.280 to bring these cows from Chicago to his house. And 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.119 that's I think probably what got me the internship is 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.240 that I lied and said there's any lesson to take away. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.520 It's a lie. I figure it out later, And yeah, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.320 so I didn't know him. I had no family connection 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.280 to him, but I got to know a little bit. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.000 And then so when I moved, so this and I 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:19.520 went back. I did one more I was a college 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:21.680 for four and a half years, did one more semester, 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.720 and then moved in January, and someone in his orbits 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.880 said you can intern here. So I went. And really 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.240 what happened was that his you know, ISO tell people, 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.080 you know, it was like a Harold's nanny, because what 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.280 happened was his wife yeah, like hang out with the 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:41.719 kids and she's like, do you want to come with 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.320 us on vacation? And they had like a real nanny. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:47.520 I was like the fake nanny. I didn't do anything. 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:49.680 I was a terrible nanny and if I stopped, I 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.359 didn't let the kids die. I mean that was my 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:52.200 big right. 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:55.479 Well, and they probably had fun with you too, right 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:56.720 was it more like summer camp? 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.040 Like come on, that's fun. They had fun and you know, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.439 we were like played sports, we hung out. But I 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.240 was also like a petty too, so they'd be like Daniel, 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.560 who actually worked on no hard feelings as an ap 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.919 uh as a sociate producer. To come full circle, but 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.200 I was looking after him when he was like six. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.920 He was a little smart ass and he I remember 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.240 one time he said something just really just a little 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.600 made a sassy comment and then went to the water 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.960 and then took us the waterfound I just shoved a 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:26.760 stad in the water fountain, and he was like, I'm 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.720 gonna tell my dad my mom what you did. I 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.359 was like, oh god, I'm being sent home because it 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:33.880 was great. It was fun. But I got to spend 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:35.959 a lot of time with Harold, got to know him 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:37.680 and it was just like, you know, it's such huge 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.000 e fact on my life in so many ways, and 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.480 I'm just really I feel very lucky that I. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:53.640 Knew him for those years and that I did. 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.399 You started writing jokes for stand up comedians. Is this 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.399 something that you're told to do to start honing your 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.439 comedic timing or is this how did that come about? 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:18.040 It's very old timy. 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.160 Okay, that's what it seems to me, Like, yeah. 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.280 It's not. Yeah, it's not like I'm sure there maybe 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.560 in the fifties that was like a thing. Basically, yeah, 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:31.040 there's some Lee was working somewhere. I was unemployed a lot. 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.000 I just was a terrible I was always getting fired. 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.600 It was a terrible assistant. So but like Lee had 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.240 was working somewhere a medic comedian. It was like, oh, 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.640 the guy buys jokes. I was like, oh, I'd never 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.040 really written a joke, but I started writing for him, 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:46.960 and then I started writing for someone else. It was 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.560 never lucrative or enough to pay my rent or anything, 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.160 but it was it forced me to kind of sit 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:57.760 down and think about jokes and joke structure and practice 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.600 and practice and yes, so that was that was the 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.640 first thing I ever got paid for, right, I think 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.720 it's like fifty hours a joke or something. 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.520 So you bring up Lee again. So you meet him. 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.960 He's making copies for you. I bedazzled, not so much 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.720 for me, but well with you. Yes, the two of 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.800 you are making copies together. You become friends. Now, how 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.840 soon do you decide this that I want him to 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.280 be my partner? That? Did you have the same comedic sensibility? 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.760 Did you share the same interest? Did you just were 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:30.720 you just friends? 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:30.840 Like? 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:32.879 How did how did that come to be? 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.360 Yeah, we were friends before we became partners. That old story, right, Yeah, 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:39.640 we were just friends. We had the same we want 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:44.680 to be a drama writer, okay, and was writing drama spackscripts. 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:46.920 It makes sense because he's not funny. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.760 He's not funny at all. No, he's probably person I 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.960 ever met, which it's so funny now to think about 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.159 it that he was writing dramas. But he's also you know, 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.879 he's doing it again. But he's obviously a hilarious person. 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.680 He's a great comedy writer. So but yeah, at the 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.360 time he was he was writing drama and we were 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:05.879 just friends. He was my first friend and we that 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:07.400 was two thousand and like in two thousand and three 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:12.480 we moved in together and he was temping at HBO 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.200 and I was temping at Nick Junior not even the 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.919 real Nickelodeon, Okay, Nick Junior younger Nickelodeon. 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.560 And by the way, that seems like the absolute worst 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.719 placement for you. Yeah, I mean, no offense, but like, 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:31.800 if there were two people, you being one of them 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:37.480 who like writes the most cringiest of comedies in the history, 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.760 like that you're writing for the not just kids, but 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.000 like the three to five year old kids. 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.360 Anyway, Yeah, I don't have nothing to say to these 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.359 I have nothing to say to this. I wasn't writing 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:47.600 for them. 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.280 I was like, no, I know, yeah, you were just 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:51.280 working there, Yeah. 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.480 In the market. I think it was like marketing or something. Yeah, 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.560 but we ended up writing some stuff for Tribber Enthusiasm. 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:58.720 We had heard they were looking for ideas and we 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.960 ended up selling somebody. And after that we're just like, oh, 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:03.760 you know, we have a good we kind of have 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:08.520 the same comedic sensibility, and we ended up writing spec 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.639 comedy script that was sold to Fox, and then we 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.960 kind of constrated writing together and that led to you 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.040 know we wrote the spec. It was really about us 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.200 on some level, was it or was it a pilot? Sorry, 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:23.120 we sold the pilot. We wrote the spec, we told 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.280 of the spec didn't get made, but those thirty pages 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.919 ended up being, you know, really the most important things 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.959 we would ever write, because it got us on the office, 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:35.760 It got us writing for Harold Ramis on a movie. 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.520 It got us it really opened all the doors for us. 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:42.800 The pilot you mentioned got the attention of Greg Daniels. 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:44.760 You have a meeting with him. What are your thoughts 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.159 going in to the meeting with Greg about coming on 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:48.879 the office. 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.080 I was told, we were told Greg does a long meeting, 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:54.560 so don't read into that it's not good or bad. 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:56.840 He just in my mind, I only knew, you know, 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:58.119 I knew his name, and I knew he did King 0:22:58.160 --> 0:22:59.240 of the Hill, and I was in my mind I 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:01.680 was expecting someone to walk in with a cowboy hat 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:10.240 and cowboy boots, man with glasses and a little little bag, 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:15.080 and very quiet and thoughtful. And we had a prossim 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:17.679 and talked to him for two hours, A lot of 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:22.199 long pauses we did not fill them. Yeah, I just 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:24.520 had a meeting that we could not tell I couldn't 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:26.960 tell you how it went. We had no you know, 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:28.919 his poker face. We didn't know like does he hate us? 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:29.560 Does he like us? 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:30.800 Does he you know? 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:32.240 I think what he was really thinking was like, I 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:34.120 can get two for one with these guys the writing team, 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:36.480 two for the price of one. You know, he's probably 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.400 coming at it from that place. But yeah, eventually we 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:43.240 got a call. We got I think we got three offers. 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:47.640 We got an offer for an animated show, those twenty 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:51.399 two episodes, We got an offer for thirteen for another 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.320 show episodes, and then we got offer of a script 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:57.240 on the American Office. Because at that time, I don't 0:23:57.240 --> 0:23:58.919 know if you remember, like you don't know if you're 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:00.560 gonna get a season two you've got it was like 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:03.840 six scripts, right, All we were guarantee were scripts, and 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:06.760 we although we didn't have any money, We're just like, 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:10.760 we'd rather work on the office and take our chances 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:13.560 and nothing happening than the guaranteed money of the twenty 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:15.240 two episodes or the thirteen episodes. 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:18.639 So we did was that because of greg Or? Was 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:20.160 that because it was we had. 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:22.680 Seen season one, We had seen those six episodes where 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.760 this is brilliant. We were just huge. I mean we were 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:27.679 huge hands of the British show. And then we're like 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:29.600 when they announced the America and when we're like, okay, 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:31.320 this is good. How are they going to fuck this up? 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:33.520 And we saw it. We were just it was riveting. 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:35.880 We just couldn't believe how good it was. It's all 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:37.840 we wanted to do. I mean, we literally got to 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:40.240 live our dream. Like that's all we wanted was to 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:43.200 work on the Office. Just from those six episodes. Yeah, 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:45.440 so it was the greatest thing that happened to us ever. 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:46.480 You know, it was just amazing. 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:50.520 You were pretty young at this point that you come in. 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.400 I was eleven were you were eleven? 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:53.920 Child? 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:57.040 By the way, here's the thing spoiler alert, I was 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:00.639 really young too, do you know where the show was? 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:02.600 Funny when I see the show now, I'm like, how 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:04.479 old is Corell? This? Is he older? Younger than I'm 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:06.080 always trying to do the math of like how old 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:08.879 was Stephen this? How old was rain Right? How it 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:11.080 was Brian? Like I'm always just like, oh my god, 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:13.600 I'm older than Correl was in season one? 0:25:13.720 --> 0:25:18.119 What you know, No, you come in pretty young. I 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:21.880 mean certainly there were quite a few young people on 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:24.920 the season back then, Mindy and BJ. 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:28.240 I have to have this unlike so one of the 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:30.359 things that separated Lee and I from everyone everyone, like 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:31.760 a lot of those a lot of the staff went 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:34.240 to Harvard. They were all kind of like it was 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:38.000 almost their birthright to write the sitcoms. Okay, you know, 0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:41.200 I was from Chicago, is from Boston, and I had 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:44.880 just five years of just nothing. I was, like I said, 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:47.800 I'm just getting fired a lot. I was terrible at everything. 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:52.919 So not a good assistant, not a good PA, just 0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:56.160 a huge fuck up. Really just a history of failure 0:25:56.200 --> 0:25:59.640 in many ways. So there was no like we didn't 0:25:59.680 --> 0:26:02.720 expect to anything. We weren't didn't feel like we should 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:05.480 be there. But yes we got I think were I 0:26:05.520 --> 0:26:08.639 was maybe twenty six or twenty seven. Yeah started. 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:13.480 What do you think you and Lee, both of you, 0:26:13.960 --> 0:26:17.800 what do you think your greatest contribution to the show 0:26:18.000 --> 0:26:22.040 was or how do you feel like you helped? Oh? Wow, 0:26:22.280 --> 0:26:23.399 what are you most proud of? 0:26:24.320 --> 0:26:26.760 Yeah, you know, there are certain jokes that I'm really 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:30.360 proud of that I remember writing. That feeling you get 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:33.639 when you just you're like this is this is this 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:36.520 feels like it could be really good. So I have 0:26:36.600 --> 0:26:39.480 those moments in my mind of just remember writing certain 0:26:39.520 --> 0:26:41.560 jokes and they were weren't even always from my episodes, 0:26:41.560 --> 0:26:45.240 but like they're just jokes that I'm proud of. It 0:26:45.320 --> 0:26:48.040 feels so weird. This is when the imposter syndrome really 0:26:48.160 --> 0:26:50.959 kicks in when you start talking about stuff like this. 0:26:51.119 --> 0:26:54.960 But I think maybe we kind of subverted. I think 0:26:55.000 --> 0:26:57.520 we like, you know, we did things like when Jim 0:26:57.600 --> 0:26:59.720 kind of became like not the greatest partner every He's like, oh, 0:26:59.720 --> 0:27:01.240 I got to I gotta leave, I gotta go the 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:03.920 houses on fire or flood and you know, trying to 0:27:03.960 --> 0:27:05.680 leave camp like you would really piss Officer and a 0:27:05.680 --> 0:27:08.680 segment of the audience. But just things like that, I 0:27:08.680 --> 0:27:11.360 don't know. I think we probably wrote everyone had their own, 0:27:11.400 --> 0:27:13.200 Like I feel like Mike Shure wrote like Michael it 0:27:13.280 --> 0:27:16.040 is almost most noble in a way, like the best 0:27:16.119 --> 0:27:19.359 version of Michael version personally I like a lot, and 0:27:19.480 --> 0:27:21.200 like everyone had like a different version. But I think 0:27:21.200 --> 0:27:24.760 we probably wrote like the the most biggest British version 0:27:24.800 --> 0:27:27.359 of the show in a way. Okay, maybe some of 0:27:27.400 --> 0:27:28.160 the darker. 0:27:27.840 --> 0:27:30.960 Stuff, well that that was sort of where I was going. 0:27:31.000 --> 0:27:34.640 I mean, the two episodes that you guys were responsible for, Scott's, 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:41.639 Todd's and Dinner Party, unquestionably considered the most cringiest of 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:45.080 episodes in the history of the show. Were those your 0:27:45.160 --> 0:27:47.960 ideas or did you execute them? And what I mean 0:27:47.960 --> 0:27:49.560 by that for those of you listening who don't know, 0:27:49.880 --> 0:27:54.720 Sometimes there are stories that are decided collectively in the 0:27:54.720 --> 0:27:58.280 writer's room and then you're assigned a script to write. 0:27:58.520 --> 0:28:01.360 I'm curious about sort of the Jena for either one 0:28:01.480 --> 0:28:02.639 or both of those episodes. 0:28:02.720 --> 0:28:05.240 Yeah, so, yeah, it's true. So like writers will come 0:28:05.280 --> 0:28:08.000 in with ideas after we'll have like time off in 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:10.200 between seasons, were coming with new ideas, and the ideas 0:28:10.200 --> 0:28:11.719 who come in come in with aren't always the ones 0:28:11.760 --> 0:28:13.679 that you end up writing. Sometimes other writers write them, 0:28:13.680 --> 0:28:17.160 and you write other writers' ideas. Neither one was our 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:23.480 idea Dinner Party. It might have been Greg's idea. I 0:28:23.520 --> 0:28:27.160 don't actually remember whose idea that was, but I remember 0:28:27.440 --> 0:28:30.199 feeling very I knew how to write that episode, and 0:28:30.359 --> 0:28:32.920 I remember Greg assigned it to Mindy, who like, wasn't 0:28:32.920 --> 0:28:35.120 that I don't I didn't think she wants to write 0:28:35.119 --> 0:28:36.800 a different episode. I think At the time it was 0:28:36.840 --> 0:28:40.800 called like Who's Afraid of John Levinson Gold? But Scott's 0:28:40.840 --> 0:28:43.800 Tots was a Paul Lieberstein original that we were assigned. 0:28:44.120 --> 0:28:49.560 Ok, you make your acting debut in the office correct 0:28:49.960 --> 0:28:54.720 on television? On television, Yes, Yes, on television. Leo and 0:28:54.800 --> 0:28:57.920 Gino the delivery guys. Was this something you were excited 0:28:57.960 --> 0:29:00.840 about doing or was this just fun for the run? 0:29:00.960 --> 0:29:02.840 I did not enjoy it at all, and it was 0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:05.160 really the other writers kind of. I think Greg thought 0:29:05.160 --> 0:29:07.800 it was funny, and the other writers, like I thought 0:29:07.800 --> 0:29:10.160 it would be funny to force us to act. I 0:29:10.200 --> 0:29:13.040 hated it, didn't want to do it, fought against it, 0:29:13.240 --> 0:29:15.320 but if we were going to do it, we did. 0:29:15.400 --> 0:29:17.080 Lee and I did think it was funny for him 0:29:17.080 --> 0:29:18.720 to play Geno and me to play Leo, which was 0:29:18.720 --> 0:29:20.560 just really confused some of the people work on the show. 0:29:21.360 --> 0:29:23.600 You know what our names was? What our names were 0:29:23.640 --> 0:29:25.920 anyway at the beginning. I think by the end we're 0:29:25.960 --> 0:29:29.920 really confused. And sometimes if I felt someone didn't like, 0:29:30.080 --> 0:29:32.080 if I knew someone wasn't sure, if I was leader, 0:29:32.160 --> 0:29:34.719 Gene and Lee would walk by and be like, hey 0:29:34.760 --> 0:29:37.160 Gene to Lee, I would call him Gene which would 0:29:37.200 --> 0:29:39.920 just doubly confuse them and they think they finally have 0:29:40.040 --> 0:29:43.760 to haven't figured out, and then I would just continue confusing. 0:29:43.960 --> 0:29:46.880 That's so good. I mean, look the show, the show 0:29:46.920 --> 0:29:50.360 gave all of us so much. I mean, for you, your 0:29:49.880 --> 0:29:53.480 first job in a writer's room, your acting career on Delvion, 0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:56.760 whether you liked it or not, your directorial debut. When 0:29:56.760 --> 0:30:01.200 you look back on that time, what feelings do you have. 0:30:01.600 --> 0:30:03.840 I mean, I owe so much. It was my film school. 0:30:03.960 --> 0:30:06.360 You know, I owe so much to the show. It 0:30:06.960 --> 0:30:09.400 because you know, easily you can easily get on a 0:30:09.440 --> 0:30:11.360 show that last six episodes, and then you get on 0:30:11.400 --> 0:30:14.440 another show and it kind of you know, gets canceled 0:30:14.600 --> 0:30:19.200 or it's I mean, we got so lucky being hired 0:30:19.240 --> 0:30:20.920 on the show, to be on a show that went 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:22.640 as long as it did, and we didn't stay the 0:30:22.680 --> 0:30:25.200 whole time, but it changed our lives, met a lot 0:30:25.240 --> 0:30:27.960 of amazing people. We learned so much. We learned how 0:30:28.040 --> 0:30:31.080 to become showrunners and how to write, and how to 0:30:31.160 --> 0:30:32.960 run a room, and kind of one of the things 0:30:33.000 --> 0:30:36.400 in the Writer's Strike that we talk about is just 0:30:36.680 --> 0:30:39.360 and I know Mike Scohn record talking about this just 0:30:39.360 --> 0:30:40.960 true as like, you know, for the next genre. You know, 0:30:41.000 --> 0:30:44.760 we learned from Greg how to do these things, and 0:30:44.840 --> 0:30:47.040 a lot a lot of people are aren't learning that anymore. 0:30:48.080 --> 0:30:51.960 But we just completely change our lives, can change the 0:30:52.000 --> 0:30:55.480 trajectory of our careers. I remember thinking before it became 0:30:55.520 --> 0:30:59.120 preessional writer, I thought, oh, these writers are They're so lucky, 0:30:59.520 --> 0:31:01.360 They're so lucky that they get to do this. And 0:31:01.400 --> 0:31:02.719 then when I became one and I was like, it's 0:31:02.760 --> 0:31:05.760 all talent, luckys, nothing with it. I'm just that talented. 0:31:06.040 --> 0:31:09.320 Now I realized I'm back to the lucky part. There's talent, 0:31:09.400 --> 0:31:12.920 for sure, but there's so much luck involved. There's just 0:31:12.960 --> 0:31:15.240 things you can't control that we got on the show 0:31:15.320 --> 0:31:17.000 that it went as long as it did, that we 0:31:17.080 --> 0:31:19.840 met these made these connections and met these people. It 0:31:20.040 --> 0:31:21.959 just you know things, there's a lot of our hands 0:31:22.240 --> 0:31:24.760 and I feel so lucky. I feel so lucky. 0:31:24.920 --> 0:31:28.520 I remember talking to both Lee and you at the time. 0:31:29.320 --> 0:31:33.520 My impression was you were in a really difficult but 0:31:33.840 --> 0:31:38.000 amazing situation because I recall you saying like this was 0:31:38.040 --> 0:31:41.800 all we wanted to do was to be writers on 0:31:41.840 --> 0:31:44.840 the office and to continue to work. But you begin 0:31:45.000 --> 0:31:49.080 to get because you are so talented despite your jokes, 0:31:49.640 --> 0:31:52.560 a bunch of other opportunities, and it's you decide it's 0:31:52.560 --> 0:31:54.720 time to go. That's a difficult decision for you. 0:31:56.320 --> 0:32:00.200 Well, at the time, I remember our last year and 0:32:00.200 --> 0:32:02.000 I were like, we're just going to coast through this. 0:32:02.800 --> 0:32:05.160 We're just going to coast, you know, we're making we 0:32:05.200 --> 0:32:07.040 wrote a movie that's going to production, and we're going 0:32:07.120 --> 0:32:08.920 to just kind of take it easy. And then they 0:32:08.920 --> 0:32:11.360 asked us to be the head writers. And we're like, 0:32:11.400 --> 0:32:13.160 does that come with more money? They're like no, does 0:32:13.200 --> 0:32:16.120 that come with a title? Bunth like no, okay, cool, 0:32:16.840 --> 0:32:19.680 and so yeah. So by the end of the I 0:32:19.720 --> 0:32:22.000 think it was season six or so, last season, we 0:32:22.000 --> 0:32:25.160 were on fumes. So in a sense, it wasn't that 0:32:25.280 --> 0:32:27.840 hard because we were I have never been more exhausted. 0:32:27.880 --> 0:32:29.960 I mean, we were just kind of at the end 0:32:30.040 --> 0:32:32.520 at the end there, we were so tired all the time. 0:32:32.600 --> 0:32:35.080 So we just needed a break. We were so burnt out. 0:32:35.480 --> 0:32:35.680 You know. 0:32:35.680 --> 0:32:38.040 For those five years, we work Monday through Friday on 0:32:38.120 --> 0:32:40.960 the office, and Saturday and Sunday we were writing movies, right, 0:32:41.400 --> 0:32:44.680 so we were working seven days a week for five years. 0:32:45.160 --> 0:32:47.840 That's it. We just wanted a better quality of life. Yeah, 0:32:48.080 --> 0:32:50.440 and we were so tired. But it was not easy. 0:32:50.480 --> 0:32:53.760 It was scary, right, sure, well right out of the gate, 0:32:53.880 --> 0:32:56.560 you go, you leave to go work on year one 0:32:56.920 --> 0:33:01.920 with both Lee and the aforementioned Harold Ramis. Was that 0:33:01.960 --> 0:33:03.000 a dream come true for you? 0:33:03.360 --> 0:33:05.960 Yes, so yere one was. Actually we got high in 0:33:06.080 --> 0:33:09.360 year one. I think like two weeks after getting heir 0:33:09.400 --> 0:33:09.840 in the office. 0:33:10.040 --> 0:33:13.600 That's okay, So you're working on it the whole time. 0:33:14.080 --> 0:33:16.520 Yes, we're like working on it, Yeah, after work on 0:33:16.560 --> 0:33:19.680 the weekends. So you know, Harold had started writing it already, 0:33:20.120 --> 0:33:22.880 and so we would help out when we could. And 0:33:22.880 --> 0:33:24.520 then by the end, I think we're doing a Bad Teacher. 0:33:24.920 --> 0:33:26.880 Yeah, we're leaving in twenty eleven. 0:33:27.560 --> 0:33:29.320 Yeah, yeah, it was pretty exhausting. 0:33:29.920 --> 0:33:34.360 Well, in twenty thirteen, you get on a list, the 0:33:34.480 --> 0:33:40.959 Overachiever's List. This is Deadline Hollywood's pilot season overachievers list. 0:33:41.360 --> 0:33:46.920 That year, you and Lee were behind ABC's Pulling, ABC's 0:33:46.960 --> 0:33:51.880 Trophy Wife and CBS's Bad Teacher adaptation of the movie, 0:33:52.480 --> 0:33:56.160 and your comedy pilot with Stephen Merchant. Hello, ladies on 0:33:56.840 --> 0:33:59.480 HBO got picked up. You've got to be feeling really 0:33:59.520 --> 0:34:02.600 good about you yourself at this time, Yeah. 0:34:02.520 --> 0:34:06.720 Feeling good, also feeling very scared about the amount of 0:34:06.720 --> 0:34:11.080 work so bad, teacher. We didn't really have anything to 0:34:11.120 --> 0:34:14.440 do with other than doing the movie, and we were execution. 0:34:14.960 --> 0:34:16.279 The great thing about Hollywood is you can be an 0:34:16.280 --> 0:34:20.279 executi producer and actually do nothing. It's pretty amazing. It's 0:34:20.280 --> 0:34:22.279 a great gig. And Pulling was a pilot, but he 0:34:22.320 --> 0:34:24.359 didn't get picked up the serious so we were doing 0:34:24.719 --> 0:34:28.080 Trophy Wife and Hell of Ladies simultaneously. Yeah, it's like 0:34:28.120 --> 0:34:29.120 bouncing back and forth. 0:34:29.320 --> 0:34:31.920 What was it like working with Steven who obviously you 0:34:32.320 --> 0:34:35.080 hadn't Stephen didn't do a whole lot on the Office, 0:34:35.120 --> 0:34:38.399 but obviously going back and working with him on you know, 0:34:38.480 --> 0:34:41.280 someone that you had admired from the original British version. 0:34:41.719 --> 0:34:43.840 Yeah, I mean he was someone that we were a 0:34:43.880 --> 0:34:46.719 fan of and then got to become friends with. It 0:34:46.840 --> 0:34:49.959 was really cool and we became friends and he asked 0:34:50.040 --> 0:34:52.760 us to produce Hello Ladies, and then we're like okay, 0:34:52.800 --> 0:34:54.000 and then we start talking about and then he's like, 0:34:54.040 --> 0:34:56.239 why do you guys just write up with me? Great 0:34:56.360 --> 0:34:58.520 up with me? And we did. But it was so fun. 0:34:58.560 --> 0:35:03.319 He lived with me for like eight months. It was great. 0:35:03.360 --> 0:35:04.719 It was so fun I mean, he is one of 0:35:04.760 --> 0:35:09.560 the funniest people ever. And one of the great things 0:35:09.560 --> 0:35:12.920 about doing this job is you're like, I've been surrounded 0:35:12.920 --> 0:35:15.600 by some of the funniest people in the world. I 0:35:15.600 --> 0:35:17.600 always think, like my friends, I have the funniest friends, 0:35:18.160 --> 0:35:20.239 and he's you know, he's one of them. And you know, 0:35:20.280 --> 0:35:22.920 there's there's so many people DJ and I know so 0:35:23.040 --> 0:35:25.719 many funny people, and I love it. It makes life 0:35:25.719 --> 0:35:26.320 so much better. 0:35:27.200 --> 0:35:30.160 I'm going to ask you it impossible to answer question. 0:35:30.360 --> 0:35:35.000 I know, I'm curious, how do you decide whether you 0:35:35.400 --> 0:35:39.600 are going to work with Lee on a particular project 0:35:39.680 --> 0:35:41.640 or if it's something that you are going to go 0:35:41.719 --> 0:35:45.680 out and do on your own a process, and how 0:35:45.800 --> 0:35:50.560 how have you managed to negotiate bad feelings on either 0:35:50.640 --> 0:35:51.120 side of that. 0:35:51.719 --> 0:35:54.000 Yeah, there's no bad feelings. There's no like rhyme or reason. 0:35:54.040 --> 0:35:56.040 It's just like, you know, we I think some things, 0:35:56.360 --> 0:35:58.440 we're kind of doing different things. Sometimes we do the 0:35:58.440 --> 0:36:01.319 same thing, so there's a to imagine event diagram, and 0:36:01.320 --> 0:36:03.560 there's some things that we both want to do, like 0:36:03.719 --> 0:36:09.160 jury duty or you know, he's doing his drama stuff 0:36:09.200 --> 0:36:11.720 and you know, I'm doing directing, So it just depends 0:36:11.760 --> 0:36:13.440 what it's really a project by project. 0:36:13.920 --> 0:36:17.480 Okay, are you discussing it with each other or not? 0:36:17.920 --> 0:36:19.919 Sometimes? Okay, sometimes it's. 0:36:19.800 --> 0:36:22.960 An impossible question. But it is fascinating because you guys 0:36:22.960 --> 0:36:28.920 have had so much success together. Though you're not exclusively together. 0:36:29.520 --> 0:36:30.600 We date other people. 0:36:31.760 --> 0:36:33.160 Yeah, you date around. 0:36:33.560 --> 0:36:34.240 We did around. 0:36:34.600 --> 0:36:39.640 Speaking of which something that you date solo? I don't 0:36:39.680 --> 0:36:43.399 know that was a terrible transition. Good good boys. Your 0:36:43.440 --> 0:36:49.640 feature film directorial debut with Lee writing, but you directed. 0:36:50.000 --> 0:36:51.680 Well, no, we both directed it. 0:36:51.800 --> 0:36:52.680 You both directed it. 0:36:52.680 --> 0:36:56.319 We both directed it, but the director's guild would not 0:36:56.360 --> 0:36:59.200 give us a waiver and their infinite wisdom would not 0:36:59.239 --> 0:36:59.880 give us a waiver. 0:37:00.320 --> 0:37:02.120 So, oh I didn't know that. 0:37:02.360 --> 0:37:04.160 Yeah, it's been so like on the Office. You know, 0:37:04.280 --> 0:37:06.080 we I direct an episode, he directed one, but we 0:37:06.120 --> 0:37:08.440 both directed both of them. Right, They just would not 0:37:08.640 --> 0:37:11.080 give us a waiver to make a directing team, so 0:37:11.239 --> 0:37:12.880 we put our name on it. 0:37:13.480 --> 0:37:14.520 I never mind. 0:37:15.000 --> 0:37:17.120 Yeah, he's you know, he ended up. He was a producer. 0:37:17.200 --> 0:37:18.759 I was a director. But we both did the same. 0:37:19.360 --> 0:37:20.879 You know, we both wrote it and then we both 0:37:20.880 --> 0:37:22.880 did the same producing and directing. 0:37:23.080 --> 0:37:26.200 What was it like working with actual kids. I mean 0:37:26.239 --> 0:37:29.600 we were sort of childlike on the office, but actual 0:37:30.480 --> 0:37:33.960 twelve year old actors. And was it difficult for you 0:37:34.040 --> 0:37:40.400 to finesse the subject matter? Obviously are rated comedy with 0:37:40.520 --> 0:37:44.680 the kids? Are they understanding what's going on? 0:37:45.680 --> 0:37:48.680 Yeah? You know, I mean, look, the parents wrote the script. 0:37:48.719 --> 0:37:51.000 There are no surprises here, right, you know, you know 0:37:51.040 --> 0:37:53.560 you're getting into right. Sometimes the kid would you know, 0:37:53.600 --> 0:37:55.520 the kids would ask me and I'd be like, you know, 0:37:55.680 --> 0:38:00.319 I don't know, maybe go ask your mom, right, And 0:38:00.480 --> 0:38:02.959 like I love the kids. The kids were so great 0:38:02.960 --> 0:38:05.399 and so funny, and you know at that age where 0:38:05.560 --> 0:38:08.279 just they want to know everything right, and so if 0:38:08.320 --> 0:38:10.839 like Leon and I were whispering sometimes they walk near us, 0:38:10.880 --> 0:38:13.440 I'm like, got out of here. So for example, there 0:38:13.480 --> 0:38:15.440 was a scene when they're when they find porn on 0:38:16.320 --> 0:38:19.239 the computer, Like I set it up so like you 0:38:19.239 --> 0:38:21.040 know those things where you're like you're watching a video 0:38:21.040 --> 0:38:23.719 and like something jumps out and scares you. Yeah, so 0:38:23.760 --> 0:38:26.040 it would be like that. It'd be like a like 0:38:26.080 --> 0:38:29.279 a zombie just jump on the screen right at you 0:38:29.320 --> 0:38:32.560 and scream, you know, things like that. So you know, 0:38:32.560 --> 0:38:35.719 they didn't really know that much. And I've tried to 0:38:35.760 --> 0:38:39.520 keep as much as possible away from them, right, but uh, 0:38:40.160 --> 0:38:42.359 I loved working them because you can actually give them 0:38:42.400 --> 0:38:45.200 line readings, like say it like this, right, say it 0:38:45.280 --> 0:38:45.719 like and. 0:38:46.040 --> 0:38:47.640 You know that sounds like what you would like. 0:38:48.200 --> 0:38:50.960 Oh my god, you're kidding. I think every director actually 0:38:51.040 --> 0:38:53.759 if you, if they were being honest, they would say, yeah, 0:38:53.760 --> 0:38:57.480 every writer director actually wants to give line readings. 0:38:57.960 --> 0:39:00.680 Yeah. But here's the thing you need to understand. If 0:39:00.680 --> 0:39:04.359 you write something brilliant, it can only get better. Oh 0:39:04.680 --> 0:39:06.120 someone else to interpret it. 0:39:06.120 --> 0:39:10.880 You can get worse too, well, get worse. So I 0:39:10.880 --> 0:39:12.919 will say on the Office, we were lucky that, Yes, 0:39:13.000 --> 0:39:15.560 it did get better on the Office was virtually always 0:39:15.680 --> 0:39:17.799 better on the Office. However, you don't always get to 0:39:17.800 --> 0:39:20.239 work with the actors of the Office. Sometimes you work 0:39:20.280 --> 0:39:21.720 with other actors and it's it's. 0:39:21.560 --> 0:39:26.719 Different, cringiest moment for you working with the kids with 0:39:26.719 --> 0:39:27.560 the subject matter. 0:39:28.320 --> 0:39:31.560 There's in the reshoots, they're like, you know, you do 0:39:31.640 --> 0:39:33.880 all jokes right, as we all know. We have alts 0:39:34.120 --> 0:39:37.239 and I had to do oh god, also for one 0:39:37.239 --> 0:39:39.160 of the one of the not one of the main kids, 0:39:39.239 --> 0:39:43.880 but just a different child. And we're just like having 0:39:44.400 --> 0:39:46.200 to tell her them, and she would just do one 0:39:46.239 --> 0:39:47.960 after another, and like the whole crew is just staring 0:39:47.960 --> 0:39:50.479 at me, like you piece of shit, making her saying 0:39:50.560 --> 0:39:52.799 things that she clearly doesn't know what she's saying, and 0:39:53.040 --> 0:39:56.040 I feel terrible, and I was like, oh god, I'm 0:39:56.080 --> 0:39:57.520 just like at a certain point, I'm like, you know what, 0:39:57.560 --> 0:39:59.120 I'm just not going to do anymore of these. This 0:39:59.200 --> 0:40:05.320 is not I feel weird, but you know, hey, that's entertainment. 0:40:05.840 --> 0:40:26.160 Yeah, we got to talk about Jerry Duty. I mean, 0:40:26.960 --> 0:40:31.160 it is so fascinating. Well, whose idea was it? 0:40:31.160 --> 0:40:33.640 It was an amalgam of you know. We so in 0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:38.000 like two thousand and I want to say fourteen, we 0:40:38.040 --> 0:40:41.480 wrote a script wheneverro script Cultjury Duty for HBO. I 0:40:41.480 --> 0:40:44.600 think we wrote for Will Ferrell. Did not go anywhere. 0:40:44.880 --> 0:40:47.000 He didn't do it, they didn't pick it up. Nothing 0:40:47.040 --> 0:40:48.719 really happened from it. So we just kind of had 0:40:48.760 --> 0:40:53.319 this failed pilot. And then two producers, Dave bernad a 0:40:53.320 --> 0:40:55.440 Front of Ours and Todd Shulman came to us. So 0:40:55.520 --> 0:40:58.040 they want to do a prank show I believe about 0:40:58.080 --> 0:41:02.080 a lawyer. Like, well, we have this jury idea. We 0:41:02.200 --> 0:41:05.279 kind of combined ideas and that's kind of how the 0:41:05.320 --> 0:41:05.960 show is born. 0:41:06.480 --> 0:41:09.120 But it's a it is sort of a prank show, 0:41:09.160 --> 0:41:12.760 but he's not the butt of any jokes. That's what's 0:41:12.800 --> 0:41:14.239 so beautiful about it too. 0:41:14.360 --> 0:41:16.640 That's the first they say, the first feel good prank show. 0:41:16.719 --> 0:41:18.680 That was always the idea that it wouldn't be mean spirited, 0:41:18.760 --> 0:41:22.279 that he would it would be he He was never 0:41:22.320 --> 0:41:24.520 made to be the butt of the joke, which, by 0:41:24.560 --> 0:41:28.400 the way, is really hard because then that makes him 0:41:28.480 --> 0:41:30.600 in a way. Our fear was that he wouldn't be active, 0:41:30.719 --> 0:41:33.600 you know, he would just be outside the action, watching, 0:41:34.280 --> 0:41:40.080 And it kind of worked out somehow, just pure luck, 0:41:40.760 --> 0:41:42.279 I mean part of it just you know, you get the. 0:41:42.320 --> 0:41:46.200 Right guy, right. I wanted to talk to him for 0:41:46.320 --> 0:41:49.560 the podcast here about it because it seems like you 0:41:49.840 --> 0:41:51.160 just chose the right guy. 0:41:51.520 --> 0:41:52.680 I didn't choose him. 0:41:52.600 --> 0:41:55.120 Well, but you collectively. 0:41:55.600 --> 0:41:58.600 So we actually did the show of three different people 0:41:58.760 --> 0:42:00.800 who shot up three times two and a half times, 0:42:01.520 --> 0:42:04.080 and shows you know, he was the one that we 0:42:04.080 --> 0:42:07.440 did it with. But uh yeah, we didn't know, and 0:42:07.840 --> 0:42:09.640 you know, we were talking how like we didn't know 0:42:09.640 --> 0:42:11.120 if we would even have a show to give them. 0:42:11.120 --> 0:42:14.319 He might figure it out halfway through then there's no show. 0:42:14.440 --> 0:42:17.680 It just wasted a lot of money. Huge Amazon is 0:42:17.680 --> 0:42:20.240 a rounding error, but still they may not have anything. 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:22.160 So and also I think in the middle of the 0:42:22.200 --> 0:42:25.200 development process, first we told to Amazon, like, Okay, it's 0:42:25.200 --> 0:42:27.840 gonna be an Amazon. They're like, it's gonna be an IMDbTV. 0:42:27.920 --> 0:42:30.799 We're like, what is that. I'mdb we just bought IMDbTV. 0:42:30.880 --> 0:42:33.400 It's the thing show's gonna be like okay. Then a 0:42:33.440 --> 0:42:36.160 little bit later like okay, so i'm DBTV is gone. 0:42:36.160 --> 0:42:37.880 It's not called freeb you're gonna be in free Like 0:42:37.920 --> 0:42:41.080 what is a free v Uh? No one's gonna see 0:42:41.080 --> 0:42:44.640 this thing. It's a disaster. Yeah, it's all like just 0:42:44.680 --> 0:42:48.400 the stars. Sometimes the stars aligned, sometimes the stars aligned. 0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:52.279 I started hearing about this show. It's one of the 0:42:52.360 --> 0:42:57.440 what was one of those shows that it just kept growing, 0:42:57.520 --> 0:43:00.600 It just kept growing, and I kept hearing about it, 0:43:01.280 --> 0:43:06.239 and you know, part of my cynical brain heard reality 0:43:06.360 --> 0:43:08.799 or whatever, and I just sort of and then I 0:43:08.840 --> 0:43:11.000 heard about it again, and then some people I respect, 0:43:11.360 --> 0:43:12.920 and then I found out that you guys were doing 0:43:13.000 --> 0:43:14.759 and I was like, all right, well I got to 0:43:14.800 --> 0:43:18.120 sit my eyes down and give it a watch. What 0:43:18.280 --> 0:43:20.520 you just said that you shot it three times. What 0:43:20.560 --> 0:43:24.759 are the other two people think who weren't chosen. That's 0:43:24.760 --> 0:43:26.640 a good question, That's what I want to know. 0:43:27.080 --> 0:43:31.200 Yeah, I don't know. I actually don't know. You know, 0:43:31.200 --> 0:43:32.560 it took it took a lot of people to pull 0:43:32.600 --> 0:43:34.440 this off. We just had a small part of this. 0:43:34.680 --> 0:43:37.359 There was like a lot of people doing this and 0:43:37.640 --> 0:43:40.240 making it work that are not namely in Gene. 0:43:40.280 --> 0:43:41.040 Yeah. 0:43:41.360 --> 0:43:44.040 Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what they because 0:43:44.239 --> 0:43:47.560 you know, the same they recognize their fellow jurors as 0:43:47.600 --> 0:43:49.960 the people they served with, because you know, they were 0:43:49.960 --> 0:43:54.360 told it was for a documentary about the American judicial system. 0:43:54.360 --> 0:43:56.560 This is just a small part of it. Yes, So 0:43:56.600 --> 0:43:58.160 they didn't you know, they didn't think there would be that. 0:43:58.600 --> 0:44:01.880 They didn't understand, you know, what what we were actually doing. 0:44:02.000 --> 0:44:05.120 Here's the thing, here's the thing that I don't understand. Okay, 0:44:05.719 --> 0:44:09.200 so you talked about waste a lot of money. What 0:44:09.520 --> 0:44:14.040 happens at the end If Ronald says you don't have 0:44:14.080 --> 0:44:18.040 permission to show this, what happens, it dies. 0:44:19.040 --> 0:44:20.719 Yeah, but there are things you can do to make 0:44:20.760 --> 0:44:23.560 sure someone says, yes, I give them a lot of money. 0:44:24.200 --> 0:44:28.440 Right. I noticed that in the last episode. Yes, spoiler alert, 0:44:28.719 --> 0:44:32.480 he does get Yeah, he does get paid. But still 0:44:32.640 --> 0:44:35.800 like there is a there's a risk there, right, I mean. 0:44:36.000 --> 0:44:38.160 Look, there's always a chance. There's always a chance. But 0:44:38.200 --> 0:44:40.719 you know you kind of pre screen. You know there's 0:44:40.760 --> 0:44:42.680 PaperWorks that's signed, and you kind of pre screen for 0:44:43.080 --> 0:44:45.799 what's that what is that psychological trait? Agreeability? 0:44:46.080 --> 0:44:47.680 Okay, you've screened for it. 0:44:48.000 --> 0:44:50.480 Always talk about like a sociopaths and serial killers have 0:44:50.520 --> 0:44:54.440 a very low level of agreeability, right, So you want 0:44:54.440 --> 0:44:56.440 people with a high level of agreeability to be on 0:44:56.800 --> 0:44:59.520 jury duty because they can kind of go with the flow. 0:44:59.640 --> 0:45:01.920 They see some weird behavior that's funny, but they kind 0:45:01.920 --> 0:45:04.239 of accept it and they try and make the best 0:45:04.280 --> 0:45:07.239 of it, including being told that everything is fake and 0:45:07.320 --> 0:45:10.560 they were in the Truman Show and still signing off 0:45:10.840 --> 0:45:14.400 and you know it could yes, it could have been 0:45:14.440 --> 0:45:15.000 a disaster. 0:45:15.600 --> 0:45:20.520 Absolutely well. I mean it's helpful also that he comes 0:45:20.560 --> 0:45:24.479 off incredibly well. It is not the butt of the joke. 0:45:25.280 --> 0:45:30.600 It's just similar to reality television. Obviously, there's not multiple takes, right, 0:45:30.640 --> 0:45:32.759 You kind of get one shot at it, right. 0:45:32.719 --> 0:45:35.920 Yes, and no, Okay, so dirty little secret is you 0:45:35.960 --> 0:45:38.680 know we shot this three times, so you know, we 0:45:38.760 --> 0:45:45.760 are also taking our actors' reactions from other uh germs, 0:45:45.800 --> 0:45:48.680 fake real jurors, the other Ronalds who aren't in the 0:45:48.719 --> 0:45:53.440 show and using that not a lot necessarily, but it happens. 0:45:53.680 --> 0:45:58.560 But yeah, you only get Ronald's reaction for last ones. Yeah, 0:45:58.760 --> 0:46:03.360 interesting trip. It's a whole other way of doing doing things. 0:46:03.680 --> 0:46:04.520 Can you do it again? 0:46:05.120 --> 0:46:07.400 Not not in the as a. 0:46:07.040 --> 0:46:07.600 Not a jersey. 0:46:08.680 --> 0:46:10.200 You cannot do it as jury duty, but you can 0:46:10.239 --> 0:46:14.640 you can probably do it again as a different social experiment. 0:46:14.920 --> 0:46:18.799 Right because it became so it became so successful that 0:46:18.840 --> 0:46:20.040 you can't do it again. 0:46:20.480 --> 0:46:22.440 I mean you can try making a court I would 0:46:22.440 --> 0:46:25.480 never want to. I feel like we did that. Let's 0:46:25.560 --> 0:46:28.040 do let's try something else, or let's not try something else. 0:46:28.080 --> 0:46:29.879 But I don't you can't do it in a court 0:46:29.920 --> 0:46:30.359 room again. 0:46:30.719 --> 0:46:34.080 I don't think what for you? What is the most 0:46:34.640 --> 0:46:38.879 fortuitous plot point that Ronald made happen on. 0:46:38.760 --> 0:46:45.479 His own the I think the the racism thing, because 0:46:45.520 --> 0:46:48.480 that was in the script that we wrote, you know, 0:46:48.640 --> 0:46:51.120 and like the geniuses who were day to day on 0:46:51.160 --> 0:46:53.839 that show got him. Basically, he had seen a Family Guy, 0:46:54.000 --> 0:46:56.880 a Family Guy episode and got him to say that, 0:46:56.880 --> 0:46:58.399 and kind of we're just all like, oh my god, 0:46:58.480 --> 0:47:01.080 I can't believe this worked out. And because we had 0:47:01.080 --> 0:47:04.160 a whole bit about him saying he was racism then 0:47:04.239 --> 0:47:06.360 saying he wasn't racist, and it just it was like, 0:47:06.600 --> 0:47:08.200 I can't believe it worked out. It just cannot. 0:47:08.800 --> 0:47:13.400 Well, congratulations. I thought it was. I thought it was beautiful. 0:47:13.719 --> 0:47:16.520 I thought it was it was feel good but also 0:47:16.760 --> 0:47:21.719 very funny and super cool. I mean, something that has 0:47:22.280 --> 0:47:27.040 never been done before. A Brank show extended for such 0:47:27.040 --> 0:47:29.000 a long period of time. And how long were they 0:47:29.080 --> 0:47:30.960 were they isolated? 0:47:31.280 --> 0:47:34.640 Well, I have to give credit to Joe Shmo. Did 0:47:34.680 --> 0:47:38.560 you watch the Josh Moo show this? I love the 0:47:38.640 --> 0:47:41.640 Josh Moo Show. I cannot say it. I love that show. 0:47:41.760 --> 0:47:45.040 I think it's so funny. The guyss A Deadpool created it. 0:47:45.080 --> 0:47:48.600 And as they say, Josh Moo walked so jury duty 0:47:48.600 --> 0:47:50.759 could run. They were they were doing that like in 0:47:50.800 --> 0:47:52.880 like two thousand and one a version of this. 0:47:53.120 --> 0:47:55.160 It's different, it's different. 0:47:55.360 --> 0:47:57.480 There's some overlaps, some similarities. 0:47:57.880 --> 0:48:02.479 How long was he confined? Confined sounds like he's in prison. 0:48:02.920 --> 0:48:07.920 I know, three weeks? Yeah, three weeks were the actors 0:48:08.080 --> 0:48:09.760 there too, or did they leave. 0:48:10.120 --> 0:48:12.799 They were there? I think Marsden left, Parson went home, right, 0:48:12.960 --> 0:48:16.480 but I think the other actor I think they stayed there. 0:48:16.680 --> 0:48:18.000 You know, you know, you go to bed at night, 0:48:18.440 --> 0:48:19.320 come back in the morning. 0:48:19.920 --> 0:48:26.600 Right, Awesome, Well, your other major project out now, no 0:48:27.320 --> 0:48:30.920 hard feelings with Jennifer Lawrence. How did you know that 0:48:31.000 --> 0:48:32.359 Jennifer Lawrence was right for the part? 0:48:32.920 --> 0:48:35.640 Well? I didn't really. I mean I knew she was funny, 0:48:35.960 --> 0:48:39.359 I knew she was witty. I knew she had this 0:48:39.440 --> 0:48:41.960 whole skill set that we hadn't really seen, but I 0:48:42.000 --> 0:48:44.960 didn't know. So it was written for her John Phillips, 0:48:44.960 --> 0:48:47.160 my co writer on the movie, and I wrote it 0:48:47.160 --> 0:48:49.759 for her. But we know she would do it. I mean, 0:48:49.880 --> 0:48:51.239 you know, if she wants to do it, she's right 0:48:51.239 --> 0:48:53.319 for the part, any part she's going to do it. 0:48:53.920 --> 0:48:56.160 As a director, you're just like, oh, should be so 0:48:56.239 --> 0:48:58.120 lucky and hopefully she wants to do it. 0:48:58.480 --> 0:49:03.560 Right. The movie based off of a real Craigslist ad 0:49:04.520 --> 0:49:07.800 that you were set by the film's producers, I understand. 0:49:08.480 --> 0:49:10.560 So, just to bring it full circle, it was found 0:49:10.560 --> 0:49:15.680 by Naomi Odenkirk. Oh. Yeah, I think Jenna's. 0:49:15.440 --> 0:49:16.800 Manager Jenna's manager. 0:49:16.880 --> 0:49:19.960 Yes, and Mark Provazio, who was the agent who got 0:49:20.000 --> 0:49:22.280 me and Lee on the Office Wow the first place, 0:49:22.520 --> 0:49:24.840 and in fact I was talking about with him recently 0:49:25.719 --> 0:49:29.520 how after about three weeks on the show, we called 0:49:29.600 --> 0:49:31.880 him and we're like, can you get us off the show? 0:49:32.280 --> 0:49:34.040 He's like what, He's like, we don't like it here. 0:49:34.239 --> 0:49:38.120 Everyone's mean and weird and the time about the writers, 0:49:38.160 --> 0:49:41.000 not the actors, right, and we just don't feel like we, 0:49:41.200 --> 0:49:43.839 you know, we belong here. And in a very nice way, 0:49:43.880 --> 0:49:46.160 he was like, shut the fuck up. You don't understand 0:49:46.200 --> 0:49:49.000 what your what how lucky you are, and just I'm 0:49:49.000 --> 0:49:51.080 gonna pretend. I'm gonna pretend I'm gonna listen to you 0:49:51.120 --> 0:49:53.760 and then not do anything, which in his infinite wisdom 0:49:53.840 --> 0:49:55.920 was the right choice, you know, because we got there. 0:49:55.960 --> 0:49:59.960 Like You're like, some of these people aren't that well 0:50:00.040 --> 0:50:02.600 coming of our of our genius, but they see how 0:50:02.640 --> 0:50:05.799 brilliant we are, and so you know, it's like all 0:50:05.800 --> 0:50:07.920 the people that I love. Now I was just like, oh, 0:50:07.960 --> 0:50:11.120 I don't like any of these people and no close 0:50:11.160 --> 0:50:12.799 friends of mine. But at the time I was like, 0:50:12.840 --> 0:50:14.160 this is I don't want to be here, and he 0:50:14.239 --> 0:50:16.719 was like, yeah, I don't either, but he's anyways, so yes. 0:50:16.800 --> 0:50:20.200 So I was in LA for the premiere of Good 0:50:20.239 --> 0:50:22.040 Boys that week and I had dinner with Mark and 0:50:22.080 --> 0:50:25.240 he told me about this idea that Naomi had found 0:50:25.400 --> 0:50:28.040 and he sent it to me, and I thought, Okay, 0:50:28.160 --> 0:50:31.279 this could be like who's the woman that answers this ad? 0:50:31.760 --> 0:50:34.120 Like what's going on in her life? Were the parents 0:50:34.120 --> 0:50:37.640 that put this out? What's what is this? And I 0:50:37.640 --> 0:50:40.359 thought this could be really good for Jennifer Lawrence and 0:50:40.440 --> 0:50:43.200 hopefully she'll do it. You know, she's working with obviously 0:50:43.200 --> 0:50:47.400 major filmmakers, but she saw Good Boys and she was 0:50:47.440 --> 0:50:51.880 a fan of that, and and so I picture this 0:50:52.000 --> 0:50:54.919 and she's like, well, yes, it looks funny. I'm gonna 0:50:54.920 --> 0:50:57.040 have to read a script. I was like, yeah, of course, 0:50:57.239 --> 0:51:01.640 perf nce. And so two years later came back to 0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:04.480 with a script and yeah, we did it. 0:51:04.880 --> 0:51:08.440 The movie now on its way to being the highest 0:51:08.440 --> 0:51:14.360 grossing original R rated comedy of this decade. What is 0:51:14.360 --> 0:51:18.359 it about R rated comedies? Why one do you keep 0:51:18.400 --> 0:51:21.000 coming back to it? And two? Why do you feel 0:51:21.040 --> 0:51:23.480 like there has been you know, there was sort of 0:51:23.520 --> 0:51:26.880 a resurgence right around the early two thousands two thousand, 0:51:27.200 --> 0:51:30.440 two thousand and six ish, and they've kind of fallen away. 0:51:31.040 --> 0:51:33.000 Seems like studios feel like they're not going to make 0:51:33.080 --> 0:51:38.000 money or something. What what do you feel like? Well, 0:51:38.000 --> 0:51:41.839 what keeps bringing you back? Your sensibility? 0:51:42.040 --> 0:51:45.080 Yeah, I think my sensibility, you know, I just comedy 0:51:45.160 --> 0:51:47.040 is my first love. I don't know if that'll always 0:51:47.080 --> 0:51:49.839 do comedy, but I think everything I do will have 0:51:49.920 --> 0:51:53.640 some comedy in it. I can't imagine working on something 0:51:53.680 --> 0:51:56.960 that no comedy. You know, a lot of strangely, a 0:51:56.960 --> 0:52:01.440 lot of very successful community filmmakers leave comedy, you know, 0:52:01.480 --> 0:52:05.520 the Adam McKay's, the God Phillips, the jay Roaches, they 0:52:05.560 --> 0:52:07.560 go off. They'll you know, move on to dramas. And 0:52:08.320 --> 0:52:10.160 I understand that impulse, you know, part of me wants 0:52:10.200 --> 0:52:12.920 to do that as well. But yeah, studios I think 0:52:12.960 --> 0:52:16.359 are a little bit gunshy making them. They don't do 0:52:16.400 --> 0:52:21.279 super well internationally. You know, comedy is oftentimes in some 0:52:21.320 --> 0:52:24.640 ways regional or provincial. You know, what's funny in France 0:52:24.680 --> 0:52:26.200 is not funny in Germany. 0:52:26.160 --> 0:52:29.719 Right and all that, unless it's mister Bean and that's 0:52:29.800 --> 0:52:32.160 just funny. That's just funny everywhere. 0:52:32.400 --> 0:52:38.920 Funny everywhere but yeah, I don't know. I mean, they 0:52:38.920 --> 0:52:42.280 make way fewer comedies. I think it's cyclical. I think 0:52:42.719 --> 0:52:45.200 it'll come back. But also a lot of genres kind 0:52:45.200 --> 0:52:47.759 of you know, superhero movies now have comedy in them. 0:52:47.920 --> 0:52:50.040 There's horror comedies. So I feel like comedy has kind 0:52:50.040 --> 0:52:53.480 of been bisected and dissected and kind of put in 0:52:53.560 --> 0:52:58.200 these other genres. So the straight R rated straight comedy 0:52:58.600 --> 0:53:00.640 is becoming a rare thing. 0:53:01.160 --> 0:53:07.480 Yeah, well, congratulations to you on its success. Congratulations on 0:53:07.600 --> 0:53:10.560 jury I mean, you're you know, some people say they're 0:53:10.600 --> 0:53:13.680 television people and the summer film people. You just you 0:53:13.760 --> 0:53:15.600 just dominate across all platforms. 0:53:15.880 --> 0:53:17.600 I think we can say after this, I'm also a 0:53:17.600 --> 0:53:18.480 podcast person. 0:53:19.480 --> 0:53:21.959 I mean, are you dominate here? For sure? 0:53:21.960 --> 0:53:24.320 I dominated you in this podcast. 0:53:23.960 --> 0:53:29.440 You dominate, you dominated me. Uh, congratulations, man, I'm so 0:53:29.600 --> 0:53:32.760 happy for you. I was so yeah. I mean again 0:53:32.920 --> 0:53:35.200 that that Jury Duty. It was just I don't know 0:53:35.200 --> 0:53:37.840 if this happens to you anymore, if you just read 0:53:38.000 --> 0:53:41.000 too much about who's doing what, but it was it 0:53:41.040 --> 0:53:43.480 was so fun for me to have this show that 0:53:43.600 --> 0:53:47.920 everybody literally is talking about Jury Duty, and then to 0:53:48.000 --> 0:53:49.759 hear it with you guys. I was just I was 0:53:49.840 --> 0:53:52.680 just so happy for you. And then I watched it 0:53:52.719 --> 0:53:55.160 and I mean, I can't even joke. I thought it 0:53:55.200 --> 0:54:00.279 was fantastic. So congratulations, and uh, what's what's next? We're 0:54:00.280 --> 0:54:02.600 striking for a little while longer and then we figure 0:54:02.600 --> 0:54:03.520 it out, right. 0:54:03.920 --> 0:54:10.000 Yeah, I guess podcasts, Brian podcast in my future? Can 0:54:10.040 --> 0:54:11.880 we do one together? Can we have a lot of 0:54:11.880 --> 0:54:12.920 thoughts on a lot of things? 0:54:13.440 --> 0:54:16.640 Yeah, I could be the new Lee in the podcast world. 0:54:17.760 --> 0:54:19.480 Do we have to run it by him though. 0:54:20.160 --> 0:54:22.239 Yeah, oh we could, we could. We can give him 0:54:22.280 --> 0:54:24.640 you give me an associate producer. But yeah, I think 0:54:24.760 --> 0:54:27.480 just uh yeah, you know, we're on strike for a while, 0:54:27.719 --> 0:54:31.040 and uh yeah, I don't know what the future holds. 0:54:31.480 --> 0:54:32.919 It's a it's a strange time. 0:54:33.239 --> 0:54:35.479 I don't either. I mean, again, you said it once, 0:54:35.560 --> 0:54:38.040 I'll say it again to bring it full circle. The 0:54:38.120 --> 0:54:41.839 last time we were sitting here two thousand and eight, 0:54:42.280 --> 0:54:47.880 the strike interrupted shooting the aforementioned episode, Dinner Party. We 0:54:48.000 --> 0:54:52.400 started on it for one day, half a day, and stopped, 0:54:53.080 --> 0:54:57.279 and one hundred days later we went back to it. 0:54:57.760 --> 0:55:00.840 Yes, yeah, that's true. We were picking our own episode. 0:55:00.880 --> 0:55:03.359 It was weird because we're so excited that table read 0:55:03.480 --> 0:55:05.399 was like, I think that the table read of Dinner 0:55:05.440 --> 0:55:09.560 Party was the best thing I've ever experienced in Hollywood. 0:55:10.400 --> 0:55:13.680 Was the euphoria, It was the same. I was so 0:55:13.760 --> 0:55:18.440 happy that almost lasted a full day. Yeah, and and 0:55:18.760 --> 0:55:21.080 I was so happy and like I was on top 0:55:21.120 --> 0:55:24.000 of the world. I've never felt that good. And then 0:55:24.080 --> 0:55:26.960 the strike happened and we found ourselves picketing our own 0:55:26.960 --> 0:55:31.200 episode is so bizarre. Yeah, sometimes it has to. 0:55:31.120 --> 0:55:34.399 Happen, and sometimes it has to happen. We're back there now. Well, 0:55:34.480 --> 0:55:39.959 here's to being back soon with with some positive, much 0:55:40.000 --> 0:55:43.240 needed results. So cheers, my friend. 0:55:43.680 --> 0:55:58.879 Great to see you, Thank you you too, buddy, Jean. 0:55:59.560 --> 0:56:02.360 Great to talking to you today, my friend, Thank you 0:56:02.440 --> 0:56:05.400 so much. I look forward to seeing what you do next, 0:56:05.480 --> 0:56:10.000 and what you and Lee do next. Who knows? Me 0:56:10.120 --> 0:56:15.680 and Jean's new podcast, did Gino and Brian Oh Show 0:56:16.239 --> 0:56:20.040 premiering on iHeartRadio soon. I'm sure listeners, if you haven't 0:56:20.040 --> 0:56:24.520 already watched do It Jury Duty and No Hard Feelings. 0:56:24.640 --> 0:56:26.600 I think people in the comedy world are going to 0:56:26.680 --> 0:56:30.120 be talking about both of these for a very very 0:56:30.440 --> 0:56:33.000 long time. And trust me on this, you're going to 0:56:33.080 --> 0:56:36.279 want to be in on that conversation, so go check 0:56:36.280 --> 0:56:40.080 them out. Thank you for listening today. Until next time, 0:56:40.239 --> 0:56:42.319 have a great week and we will see you soon. 0:56:53.960 --> 0:56:56.920 Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me 0:56:57.280 --> 0:57:02.280 Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executivecer Ling Lee. Our senior producer 0:57:02.440 --> 0:57:06.440 is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, 0:57:06.480 --> 0:57:10.720 and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary 0:57:11.000 --> 0:57:14.960 and our intern is Thomas Olsen. Our theme song Bubble 0:57:15.040 --> 0:57:19.080 and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton.