Bonus Q&A with Comedian & Podcaster Cozi Orlen

[00:00:30] From Coming To You Not Live, I'm your host, Sully.

[00:00:49] We're talking about another awesome comedian and podcast host.

[00:00:52] We got You Need To See This cohort and PAX Theater member, Kozi Orlin.

[00:00:57] I discovered you just because, again, You Need To See This is just a very fun podcast.

[00:01:02] Thank you.

[00:01:03] You and Reed Jones just really opened up the discussion saying instead of focusing on what's

[00:01:08] streaming or what are the cool kids watch, want to figure out this movie and how you

[00:01:15] would even introduce it to a crowd if it's a party movie or if it's just one of those

[00:01:19] Oscar Bade or blockbuster movies.

[00:01:23] You got many comedic friends in the industry, your best pals with Gina Ippolito and Robert

[00:01:28] Clark Chan among many.

[00:01:30] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:01:31] I am. Yeah.

[00:01:33] L.A., man.

[00:01:33] It's a small place.

[00:01:35] It's a very it's a very small place, but I've also been here for a very long time.

[00:01:39] Like I've been I've been doing comedy stuff out here since 2009.

[00:01:46] And at this point, I just sort of know everybody in there.

[00:01:49] But yeah, the podcast.

[00:01:52] Yeah, fuck the cool kids.

[00:01:53] First of all, zero interest in what they're doing.

[00:01:58] Cool kid culture.

[00:01:59] What does that even mean?

[00:02:01] Right. It's just being cool is.

[00:02:04] Oh, God, I could go on so many tangents.

[00:02:06] Being cool is very overrated because it's like it's sort of very

[00:02:10] clammed up and you're like, OK, I'm mysterious or trendy or bullshit like that.

[00:02:15] But I feel like honesty is always so much more interesting.

[00:02:19] Everything else is putting that off.

[00:02:22] Yeah, I never catered to those demands growing up as a millennial.

[00:02:26] I was already like people think MTV is cool.

[00:02:29] I think Monty Python and Mr. Science Theater is cool.

[00:02:32] You know, I love that.

[00:02:33] Yeah, no, absolutely same.

[00:02:34] I was full on because they'd always be like you haven't seen it.

[00:02:37] And then they wouldn't even be talking about next semester and be like,

[00:02:39] fuck you guys. Yeah.

[00:02:42] But I mean, we're all old.

[00:02:44] We're all over it.

[00:02:45] We were also trained to like hate certain types of cool kids

[00:02:48] from like 80s pop culture anyway.

[00:02:49] We were like, oh, the jocks and like the leaders.

[00:02:52] No, thanks, we're good.

[00:02:53] Right. But yeah, yeah.

[00:02:55] The basically the way that you need to see this works for those who haven't

[00:02:58] heard it before is that there are two co-hosts and one co-host

[00:03:03] tries to convince the other co-host and sometimes a guest

[00:03:06] to watch a movie that they've never seen before.

[00:03:08] You make compelling arguments.

[00:03:10] I hope I do. I really do.

[00:03:12] I always. I'm legit.

[00:03:13] Like I listened to plenty of movies where I wasn't keen on.

[00:03:17] I'm like, fuck it. I'm rewatching it.

[00:03:19] Nice. I love that.

[00:03:21] I and I do not remember which one I already I only heard 20 episodes.

[00:03:25] So I wasn't taking that's pretty good.

[00:03:28] We've been around for a while now, so I appreciate that.

[00:03:31] That's lovely.

[00:03:32] And yeah, we used to have.

[00:03:35] Oh, go for it.

[00:03:36] Oh, well, and much like many of the who would win

[00:03:38] in upright citizens brigade members, it's interesting how

[00:03:42] Gina and Robert are part of knowing is half the podcast

[00:03:44] and who would win.

[00:03:45] But you kind of have a similar deal where

[00:03:47] many of their day jobs is all tech related stuff,

[00:03:50] much like race to Canis is testing out video games.

[00:03:54] You've worked for Electronic Arts, Mobile and in KP medical marketing.

[00:04:00] Oh, sure. Yeah. Day job stuff.

[00:04:02] Yeah. I mean, I've been a copywriter.

[00:04:04] How does that work, my dude?

[00:04:05] Because some people can't write, but not everyone can do that.

[00:04:09] Some people can only do basic writing instead of making

[00:04:12] designing courses and basic texting

[00:04:16] and even Microsoft Excel.

[00:04:17] So like how did how did you configure that into your world growing up?

[00:04:21] Yeah, sure. Absolutely.

[00:04:23] I could talk about that.

[00:04:24] I'm on board. It's funny.

[00:04:26] The amount of comedy stuff I do, my day job stuff always goes out of my brain

[00:04:30] because it's really like survival. Second nature.

[00:04:33] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:34] It's it's like I feel like it's almost like I zone out for eight hours

[00:04:39] during the day and then I wake up and I'm like, did I write all day?

[00:04:43] But it wasn't anything fun.

[00:04:44] OK, I have three different personas in your mind.

[00:04:47] It's like work load, dad mode,

[00:04:51] comedy and mode activate.

[00:04:54] Oh, God, yeah.

[00:04:55] One day I'll be lucky and I'll get dad mode, not so much right now.

[00:04:58] I'm single. But I don't know.

[00:05:00] No, you're good. You're good.

[00:05:02] You seem like a cool dad.

[00:05:03] You know what? I hope I will be.

[00:05:05] That's the goal. Fingers crossed.

[00:05:07] But yeah, so here's so here's the thing.

[00:05:10] Um, my my parents were artists.

[00:05:14] My mom, my mom is an oil painter, right?

[00:05:17] And my dad was a poet and my dad was also a creative writing professor

[00:05:21] at the University of Arizona where he taught, I think, undergrads

[00:05:26] how to do poetry or maybe grad students, one of those.

[00:05:29] And so writing has always just kind of been raised in Arizona.

[00:05:33] I was raised in Arizona.

[00:05:34] Yes, although I didn't see that movie for a very long time.

[00:05:37] Oh, I was.

[00:05:39] No, it's a good really.

[00:05:40] I'm shocked because that was a very good movie reference, like nicely done.

[00:05:44] Yeah, I wish I was that clever.

[00:05:46] That's fine. But yeah, I'm from Tucson.

[00:05:48] That's where I grew up and all that.

[00:05:50] And and so, yeah, you know, my dad would always like ask me

[00:05:54] vocabulary words when I was a kid.

[00:05:56] And I just like read.

[00:05:58] I was such a bookworm.

[00:06:00] And so at some point, I just sort of was like, oh, I guess

[00:06:02] I'm good enough at writing.

[00:06:05] And so when I originally moved out to L.A.,

[00:06:07] it was to be a TV writer like that was the goal.

[00:06:10] And unfortunately or medium, fortunately, I guess,

[00:06:15] I found an internship with a an online hip hop magazine

[00:06:19] called Rackages Magazine dot com.

[00:06:22] I had been a big fan of hip hop when I was in middle school

[00:06:25] listening to BET all the time.

[00:06:27] And look at you go, right?

[00:06:29] And so they were like, yeah, well, we're not really working on TV shows

[00:06:33] just yet, but for now, do you want to write articles for us about hip hop?

[00:06:37] And I was like, sure.

[00:06:38] And then they were like, hey, do you be our managing editor?

[00:06:42] We still won't pay you any money, but like we we need that position filled.

[00:06:46] And I was like, I'll take free CDs from PR company.

[00:06:48] Sure.

[00:06:49] And so I just sort of was editing other people's writing and writing a bunch myself.

[00:06:54] And and then after three years of not getting paid to do that.

[00:06:59] Very fun, very easy to survive without a job.

[00:07:02] I ended up at a place called Mahalo and they're like a learn anything company

[00:07:09] where I was just sort of writing descriptions under videos for like a year

[00:07:12] and a half. And after that, I ended up at Electronic Arts through a friend

[00:07:17] for about six months.

[00:07:18] And I was writing copy and localization stuff, which is just having

[00:07:22] marketing copy translated into different languages.

[00:07:25] And after that, yeah.

[00:07:28] And then after they laid off a huge amount of people

[00:07:31] and were voted the most evil company in America for two years running.

[00:07:34] What was wrong?

[00:07:36] Super, yeah, fully, fully before everyone was bad in Activision.

[00:07:40] They had some competition in the douchey.

[00:07:42] Yeah, no question.

[00:07:44] Yeah, it was it was impressive.

[00:07:46] It was kind of fascinating because I was like, you guys beat Clear Channel.

[00:07:49] OK.

[00:07:51] That was a shock to me.

[00:07:54] But yeah, so I liked working at EA a lot, actually,

[00:07:57] which is also a kind of a shock.

[00:07:59] And then when they when they have to be replaced,

[00:08:02] that's what blows everyone's mind when it's like it's pretty much a gray area.

[00:08:06] Whereas I mean, that's how I was when I did valet.

[00:08:09] I was like, that was fun until these new assholes came over and took over

[00:08:13] and fucked up our shit.

[00:08:14] Every but it always happens.

[00:08:16] Every big transition at bad apples, man.

[00:08:18] Worst. Yeah, it's always going to be the worst.

[00:08:20] It's the one thing off because I no longer was making tips.

[00:08:23] And I said, what's the point?

[00:08:25] Yeah, good call. Truly the right move.

[00:08:28] I'm not sweating in the sun to put up with this man.

[00:08:32] Not worth it. Just not worth it.

[00:08:34] You made the you made a hard choice and it was the right choice.

[00:08:36] So nicely done. Oh, man, it felt good.

[00:08:39] Yeah, oh, that's great.

[00:08:42] I didn't even know there was such a thing as a two week notice.

[00:08:44] That's how naive I was at the time.

[00:08:46] That's incredible. I was like, you can deal with these assholes now.

[00:08:49] And he's like, oh, no, come back. Like that's so funny.

[00:08:53] Yeah, they're like, oh, you're burning bridge.

[00:08:54] And it's like, no, I'm not burning in the sun anymore.

[00:08:56] I don't need you. Yeah, good call.

[00:08:59] I'll hold myself out before.

[00:09:01] Yeah, it's it's corporate culture is the dumbest thing

[00:09:04] I've ever been a part of in any way.

[00:09:05] And and they never have an answer for

[00:09:08] they're always just shake their hand just saying someone's going to cover it.

[00:09:11] Yeah. What are you going to do about it?

[00:09:13] Yeah, it's always like my job.

[00:09:15] It's always bad spin and excuses or it's just nothing.

[00:09:18] And like, or like, hey, we're having a pizza party for you.

[00:09:21] And you're like, yeah, that's not money.

[00:09:23] Right.

[00:09:25] Or they do what they do at retail, like Dollar General or Big Lod

[00:09:29] Sir, even Kroger where they're like, hey, I make a discount on our products.

[00:09:32] I'm like, I just made my check from you.

[00:09:36] Why do I want to buy your products?

[00:09:38] Yeah, it's it's a weird scam.

[00:09:41] And I've seen behind the curtain.

[00:09:43] It's impressive. Of course, never is nothing ever is.

[00:09:46] It's all done. Your Jedi mind tricks do not work on me.

[00:09:49] Yeah, that's that's the thing you learn the more you do it.

[00:09:52] And it's kind of a good feeling after a while.

[00:09:54] Oh, it feels good.

[00:09:56] Yeah. But yeah, that's that's work junk.

[00:09:58] Work junk.

[00:09:59] So. What's it going to take to finally put all the movie studios

[00:10:04] like Netflix who are not compiling in a chokehold?

[00:10:08] Make them realize AI is not the answer.

[00:10:10] That's a really good question because I got to get to take my

[00:10:13] dude because it is just absurd how AMC and all these other companies

[00:10:18] are rescheduling their show movies and show filming now

[00:10:22] because they agree to the terms.

[00:10:24] And yet there's still just Disney and Netflix are just like, no, no, no, no.

[00:10:29] We want to AI. Yeah.

[00:10:31] I mean, that's the thing is it seems like every corporation loves the concept

[00:10:35] of AI because it means that you don't have to deal with human beings as much.

[00:10:38] And you can pay the human beings that you do deal with much less.

[00:10:42] We can insult their intelligence.

[00:10:44] Yeah, exactly.

[00:10:46] Yeah. Every CEO is dazzled by saving money and dazzled by new technology.

[00:10:53] And so it's really, really easy to fool them into thinking that this is actually

[00:10:57] a good choice. I can't get full high.

[00:10:59] Yeah, exactly. Fully.

[00:11:01] Oh, one day I'll play that.

[00:11:04] But in the meantime, at least I have the reference.

[00:11:06] It's a good feeling.

[00:11:08] But yeah, I have no idea.

[00:11:09] Like like I said, I moved out here to be a TV writer and I have had

[00:11:13] the survival job of being a copywriter and both of those are in trouble because of AI.

[00:11:18] So I don't know what.

[00:11:20] Yeah, so I have no clue what I'm going to do.

[00:11:21] I'm probably just going to dig a ditch somewhere because.

[00:11:25] Remember when Walmart laid people off just because you're like, we'll deal

[00:11:28] with our phone response time.

[00:11:30] Oh, what a nightmare.

[00:11:31] It's all such a nightmare.

[00:11:33] Yeah. So this is why Target is better.

[00:11:36] Yeah, I mean, they're real people.

[00:11:38] You can answer.

[00:11:39] That's the thing we hope for, right?

[00:11:41] We hope that that these choices end up making it clear that real people are the

[00:11:45] actual robust to make you food.

[00:11:47] No, it's going to probably malfunction and may forget to put in the eggs

[00:11:52] in the batter and make a crappy cake for you.

[00:11:54] That's not a good idea.

[00:11:55] That's true.

[00:11:56] But at the same time, you can easily lie to people and tell them

[00:11:59] that a human made their food and save money on the back.

[00:12:01] And it's a nightmare.

[00:12:03] It's great to me.

[00:12:05] Yeah.

[00:12:05] So I'm glad there's a lot of pushback at least from like human

[00:12:08] beings and creative human beings, especially.

[00:12:11] So we'll see what happens with it.

[00:12:13] Right now, I'm just like making sure not to spiral about it every five seconds.

[00:12:17] No, I hear you.

[00:12:19] You do have to pretty much put time for it.

[00:12:22] When you look at the news, obviously, we're kind of past,

[00:12:25] you know, telling our uncle to stop watching Fox News and CNN's

[00:12:28] got in shitty with the fear mongering lately.

[00:12:31] Oh, God, yeah.

[00:12:32] But I often look at Spectrum and Google and I move on to the next day.

[00:12:35] But how do you filter in your stuff to where you're like,

[00:12:37] I got the basics, leaving it at that and I'm moving on.

[00:12:42] Honestly, I just I'm one of the oldest people on Facebook.

[00:12:46] So you were like under pals kind of do a chain mail and then you're just like,

[00:12:50] OK, you explain it to me.

[00:12:52] Perfect. Moving on.

[00:12:54] Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:55] Like, yeah, like I'm 38.

[00:12:57] So that was mostly a joke.

[00:12:59] But also at the same time, I'm still on Facebook constantly and still addicted.

[00:13:04] And anytime anyone's posting articles, I'm like, oh, that's news.

[00:13:07] OK, cool. All right, great.

[00:13:09] You see the same stuff from everybody anyway.

[00:13:11] Right. But yeah, I mean, it's it's a it's a terrible fear

[00:13:15] mongering cycle that's been going since 9 11 when they realized that scaring

[00:13:19] people is a cool way to get clicks.

[00:13:22] So, you know, it's not like it's ever going to end

[00:13:24] because it's really, really productive for them.

[00:13:27] So all you can really do is just kind of get your brain out of that

[00:13:30] and try and, you know, focus on not crying on your catch every day.

[00:13:35] Basically, yeah.

[00:13:39] So with reacting to covid politics and even mental health,

[00:13:47] do you think speaking of being on a couch,

[00:13:50] do you have you've been able to personally just kind of find your humanity?

[00:13:54] I think more as time has gone on and realize

[00:13:58] the world needs to just wake up and worry about growing up more

[00:14:03] and making life changes.

[00:14:06] Hmm, that's an interesting question.

[00:14:08] I think comedians go to dark places, my dude.

[00:14:11] So I must ask you guys because you suffer more worse than us.

[00:14:15] Yeah, I think that I realized.

[00:14:18] OK, so I went to college with a guy who was my best friend

[00:14:24] and he was a political science major and he was probably like one

[00:14:29] of the smartest people I've ever met.

[00:14:31] And he was constantly saying that everybody in life was actually

[00:14:35] very, very dumb or sometimes he was worrying that he was dumb.

[00:14:39] And I was like, no, no, no, no, everybody else around here is

[00:14:42] so much dumber compared to you.

[00:14:46] I think yeah, I think he was mostly being like, yeah,

[00:14:47] I realized that the average person is very dumb.

[00:14:49] And I'm like, yeah, the average person is incredibly dumb.

[00:14:52] Yeah. And a lot of people didn't realize that until covid happened

[00:14:56] when everybody was very performatively dumb and stubborn

[00:15:00] in a way where it was just like, I'm going to be dumb

[00:15:03] no matter what people tell me to do.

[00:15:06] And I was already kind of ahead of that.

[00:15:07] I realized that people were that dumb.

[00:15:09] So it wasn't really quite a surprise for me.

[00:15:12] I was just like, got it.

[00:15:13] Yeah. And, you know, I've experienced trauma in my life too.

[00:15:17] So I was also not like a person being like, oh, my God,

[00:15:20] I've never experienced global trauma before or any sort of trauma before.

[00:15:23] Like this is I know how to process things.

[00:15:26] I know how to, you know, develop positive coping mechanisms

[00:15:30] for things and like slowly recover.

[00:15:33] So during during covid, I had like a four month spiral at the top

[00:15:38] where I was just like, oh, all my social life

[00:15:40] is revolving around live events which have all been canceled.

[00:15:44] That's a bummer. Yeah.

[00:15:46] And like every time I see friends, it's really just because

[00:15:49] I'm kind of running into them while doing things.

[00:15:52] And I was like, oh, I'm working from home now, so I'm not doing things

[00:15:55] and not leaving my apartment. So I'm not doing things.

[00:15:57] So lonely, but I'm being driven less insane.

[00:16:00] It's a degree of changes.

[00:16:04] Oh, no, I was getting lonely and being driven more insane

[00:16:08] because I didn't have my friends as an outlet as much.

[00:16:10] And I was just like, oh, no, I'm regretting my life choices

[00:16:14] because comedy is what I've been doing since I was nine years old.

[00:16:17] So that's kind of been my focus.

[00:16:20] And after four months of spiraling,

[00:16:23] I got emotionally tired of spiraling,

[00:16:27] which is kind of a fun position to be in.

[00:16:29] And I was like, OK, all right, can I be creative

[00:16:33] in these new boundaries that have been sort of created for me?

[00:16:36] Nice. Yeah.

[00:16:38] And a couple of people randomly out of nowhere,

[00:16:40] they've never done this before, we're like,

[00:16:42] hey, could you make like a video for my friend's birthday?

[00:16:45] Like, you know them too.

[00:16:47] We're making like a fun video.

[00:16:49] Could you make a little video to and I was like, OK, sure.

[00:16:52] So I built a little tripod out of cardboard boxes

[00:16:55] and I like shoved my phone on top of it and awkwardly propped it up.

[00:16:59] And I was like, OK, I'll make a dumb little video and it'll be fun.

[00:17:03] And I would say about three or four people asked me to do that.

[00:17:07] And I was like, OK, I feel ready to be, you know, creative again.

[00:17:10] So what was yeah.

[00:17:12] So I looked at what was out there

[00:17:14] and I saw there are a couple of indie comedy shows happening

[00:17:17] and all of my friends were afraid to do online comedy

[00:17:21] because they're just like technology.

[00:17:23] No, that's scary. No, thank you.

[00:17:24] Zoom. What is this? Yeah.

[00:17:26] Yeah. It was it was like I felt the technophobe feelings

[00:17:29] from everybody in my life mixed with just like,

[00:17:33] you know, the inability to do anything

[00:17:34] because there was still process of global trauma.

[00:17:36] So I get it.

[00:17:39] But I was parents and other families really support your

[00:17:43] choice to be in a comedy career.

[00:17:47] That's a good question.

[00:17:48] Everyone has that.

[00:17:49] They're just like, hey, can't you be normal?

[00:17:51] A kid says weird.

[00:17:53] Yeah, I mean, artist parents definitely helped.

[00:17:56] I would say that my parents have always been super supportive,

[00:17:59] but they were also they really do want to make sure

[00:18:03] that I had like a survival job at all times.

[00:18:06] My mom is always like,

[00:18:07] make sure that if you're quitting something,

[00:18:08] you have something else lined up.

[00:18:10] You know, if you have something stable,

[00:18:11] maybe keep that for a while.

[00:18:13] Two jobs, maybe do one on the weekends,

[00:18:16] do two others on a weekday.

[00:18:17] Oh, God, no, I've never had to do nothing that bad.

[00:18:20] OK, yeah, that would be like,

[00:18:22] I've always been the type of person where I'm like,

[00:18:24] if I have a full time job, I'll never take any side gigs.

[00:18:27] I'll never take any like my work life balance is sacred.

[00:18:32] But you know, that's also a luxury.

[00:18:34] You know, I have privilege on that level

[00:18:35] where I'm like, I don't have to work multiple jobs.

[00:18:37] So I'm not doing it, but a million people I know are

[00:18:41] because you got to do that in LA to survive sometimes.

[00:18:43] Don't let.

[00:18:45] So you got accepted into the University of Massachusetts

[00:18:48] Amherst, back in Oh Free, where you formed your sketch comedy

[00:18:52] troupe, The Don't Make a Scene and Utah Workshop Open Air.

[00:18:57] How insightful yet challenging was that?

[00:19:03] Um, you know, that's interesting.

[00:19:06] So I think, yeah, no, I always love that.

[00:19:09] I'm always a fan. Yeah.

[00:19:10] I so Don't Make a Scene was really fun.

[00:19:15] I think that I learned a huge amount from from doing that.

[00:19:19] I learned an insane amount from doing that,

[00:19:20] because I'd never been on a sketch team before.

[00:19:23] I'd never been on an improv team of any kind.

[00:19:25] The unknown talk about it.

[00:19:27] Yeah, it's very exciting.

[00:19:28] But you know, I grew up on Kids in the Hall,

[00:19:30] so I fucking love how sweet comedy.

[00:19:32] Yeah, of course.

[00:19:34] And was that your favorite show?

[00:19:36] That was absolutely my favorite show growing up.

[00:19:38] That was like that was definitely my favorite.

[00:19:40] Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[00:19:41] Crushing people's heads.

[00:19:43] You got to crush people's heads.

[00:19:44] You got to do it right.

[00:19:47] Just wanted to let her sketch.

[00:19:48] Just don't get me wrong.

[00:19:49] No, but that's one of the classics.

[00:19:51] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:19:52] And yeah, I so I was like very ready to do that.

[00:19:56] And I had taken a lot of improv workshops as a kid.

[00:19:59] So I was like, oh, my God, this is my opportunity.

[00:20:02] And I couldn't get on the on the schools

[00:20:06] get improv team at all.

[00:20:08] I auditioned. I auditioned eight times

[00:20:10] and I got very they were incredible.

[00:20:14] They're a very good short form improv team, mission improvable.

[00:20:17] They ended up opening up a theater out here actually in LA.

[00:20:21] So yeah, no callbacks for the whole time.

[00:20:24] But I also auditioned for a

[00:20:29] a sketch team there.

[00:20:31] And when I didn't make it on,

[00:20:34] a lot of other people didn't make it on.

[00:20:35] We were like, we should start our own sketch group.

[00:20:38] And I was like, yeah, I'm going home.

[00:20:40] Yeah, screw you guys.

[00:20:41] We're gonna comedy home.

[00:20:42] Yeah, exactly.

[00:20:43] I'll start. We'll create a new home or whatever.

[00:20:45] And so we did that and all of the other people

[00:20:49] during that process, except for me, dropped out

[00:20:52] because they were like, I don't care.

[00:20:53] This has been too long.

[00:20:55] And I throughout that have been finding more people to add on.

[00:20:58] So all the new people were excited

[00:21:00] and all the old people were like never in.

[00:21:02] They were just like saying that because of their ego, I think.

[00:21:05] And so it's like, great. All right.

[00:21:07] But I understand.

[00:21:09] Yeah, I had like a lot of English majors who I had picked.

[00:21:11] And so we were like the English major sketch group

[00:21:14] and the school's official one

[00:21:16] who we actually didn't know about.

[00:21:17] It was like a totally different group

[00:21:19] was like the dramatic one.

[00:21:20] They were the like the theater major kids.

[00:21:23] And so we were a lot darker.

[00:21:27] I got a little bit.

[00:21:28] Yeah. And that very much fit into my like kids

[00:21:30] in the whole background where I was like,

[00:21:32] oh, these sketches are super dark.

[00:21:34] They're less about big crazy stuff

[00:21:36] because they're Canadian.

[00:21:37] So nothing is big. It's all subdued.

[00:21:41] And I was like, great,

[00:21:42] I will write about premises instead of characters.

[00:21:44] And that's my whole deal.

[00:21:45] That's my deal, man.

[00:21:47] Yeah, it's so much better that way.

[00:21:49] But yeah, from from from starting that group

[00:21:53] and leading that group for like four years, basically,

[00:21:56] I learned a lot about how not to be a perfectionist.

[00:21:59] I learned a lot about how not to be a control freak.

[00:22:03] It's so hard, right?

[00:22:05] It's really tough.

[00:22:05] We want that control or nothing.

[00:22:08] Yeah, it's a fear based instinct, you know?

[00:22:10] And I was an only child, so I was very spoiled.

[00:22:13] So I was like, of course, I get all the things I want.

[00:22:15] So truly like not getting the things I want

[00:22:18] was a thing I had to process and didn't do it as well as I wish I had.

[00:22:22] So, you know, I apologize to the people in the sketch group.

[00:22:25] And I was just like, why am I the dad of this?

[00:22:27] You know, why am I like yelling about sketches?

[00:22:30] That's why am I the leader of you guys won't,

[00:22:32] you know, march on my command.

[00:22:34] Well, not even that.

[00:22:35] Luckily, I realized that that people shouldn't have to do that.

[00:22:39] And if you're on a group, what you really need to do is if you're leading a group,

[00:22:43] what you need to do is make sure that people on that group

[00:22:46] feel like they have input or else they're just going to be like,

[00:22:49] why am I in this group?

[00:22:51] Validation might be kind of not unfair.

[00:22:54] Yeah, and you have to be like understanding

[00:22:56] and you have to like work with people and you're doing it for fun.

[00:22:59] And you're doing it to work together.

[00:23:01] You have to have trust all this stuff.

[00:23:04] And as soon as as soon as I was done with that sketch group and college was over,

[00:23:09] I started doing improv in LA in 2009.

[00:23:13] And yeah, and I realized very quickly

[00:23:17] that a lot of people don't like being the leaders of things.

[00:23:22] So I was like, well, great, I guess I'll just step up and lead things.

[00:23:25] But I'll learn from what I did before and not be an asshole about it.

[00:23:29] And that served me incredibly well.

[00:23:31] And at some point, I also had to be like a boss of people at my job.

[00:23:35] And I was like, great, I'll be a good boss too.

[00:23:37] I won't be a control freak.

[00:23:38] I won't be, you know, a what's the word I'm looking for?

[00:23:42] Like a.

[00:23:43] Remedana. I mean, sure that works.

[00:23:45] I'm on board for that.

[00:23:46] I don't think you are. I'm just saying.

[00:23:48] No, of course, absolutely.

[00:23:50] I won't be looking over people's shoulders all the time is one way

[00:23:54] of putting it, I suppose I won't be micromanaging.

[00:23:57] There we go. That's the word.

[00:23:58] So, you know, I've been I've been very chill about that for such a long time now.

[00:24:03] And I think that's mostly what I learned from from those sketch

[00:24:07] from that sketch team from the improv thing from open air,

[00:24:12] which was an open improv practice workshop

[00:24:16] that I eventually started leading after a lot of people left.

[00:24:21] You know, it can't be any worse than what I did in the last show.

[00:24:25] So let's see what this does.

[00:24:26] Yeah, I was just like, sure, let's try it out.

[00:24:28] You know, I have a lot of experience, like in college,

[00:24:31] I already had so much experience being an improv workshop

[00:24:34] since I was doing that since I was nine or whatever.

[00:24:37] So it's like, sure, I'll lead a workshop, whatever.

[00:24:39] And eventually it got all the way down to me and one other person.

[00:24:42] And I was just sort of doing two person scenes with him

[00:24:45] and like teaching him improv. It was surreal.

[00:24:48] But I was like, yeah, but it taught me a lot about teaching people

[00:24:51] in a way that was clear and like being focused and being prepared.

[00:24:56] Clarity is everything.

[00:24:57] I think that's one of the most important lessons

[00:24:59] I've learned in life and as a writer and as a comedian,

[00:25:03] as an improviser at every single aspect of my life.

[00:25:06] Clarity is so key. Nice.

[00:25:10] Yeah. And Clarity is generated.

[00:25:13] Yeah, it truly, truly, truly is.

[00:25:16] And I think in comedy, just clarity and honesty

[00:25:19] are the two most important things to me

[00:25:21] and everything else you can kind of fake if you want to.

[00:25:25] You're right.

[00:25:26] You can you can pretend it went one year out the other and you're like,

[00:25:29] you're like noted. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[00:25:33] But yeah, you know, I've been I've been doing improv out here for a billion years now.

[00:25:36] And I run multiple comedy shows,

[00:25:39] which I don't want to get too ahead of you on your questions, but it's fine.

[00:25:43] You're not beating me. Perfect.

[00:25:46] Yeah, I'm sort of seen in L.A.

[00:25:48] as kind of the guy who knows everybody in the comedy scene,

[00:25:51] kind of rather than a gatekeeper, a gate opener, hopefully.

[00:25:56] The person who doesn't start. Yeah, it's a good feeling.

[00:26:00] When did you well?

[00:26:01] Or met the upright citizens brigade.

[00:26:03] So I took classes there.

[00:26:05] I took the first class I took there was actually in,

[00:26:08] I believe 2004 or 2005 in New York.

[00:26:12] So back and forth between that and Massachusetts.

[00:26:15] It was for a summer thing, actually.

[00:26:17] I had an internship at a fantasy book publishing company for the summer.

[00:26:21] Yeah, they it was a tour press and they gave you they gave you like free books.

[00:26:27] You could just take free books off the shelves.

[00:26:28] It was awesome as a big fantasy nerd back then.

[00:26:31] I was like, please.

[00:26:33] And were you you were you a Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons player?

[00:26:37] Or no, I weirdly enough.

[00:26:41] So I I read the Hobbit in like fourth grade in Paris.

[00:26:45] And I was like, fuck this book.

[00:26:47] It is too flowery.

[00:26:49] I want fighting.

[00:26:51] I have no interest in like flowery shit.

[00:26:53] And so I was just like no thanks Hobbit.

[00:26:55] And instead I went to this American library in Paris

[00:26:59] and I found these books called The Death Gate Cycle.

[00:27:03] The Death Gate Cycle.

[00:27:05] Yeah, you got a lot of us this fall.

[00:27:08] You know what?

[00:27:08] They try they probably tried to make a TV show a couple times.

[00:27:11] Sounds like a death metal to him.

[00:27:12] I hope so. I honestly.

[00:27:14] I'd watch it.

[00:27:17] I would do.

[00:27:18] You got me sold just on that name.

[00:27:20] Yeah, I'd buy that record.

[00:27:23] Yeah, the next motor headed race.

[00:27:25] Oh my God.

[00:27:27] Yeah.

[00:27:27] And and those are those are really exciting.

[00:27:30] I love The Death Gate books.

[00:27:31] And those put me into Dragon Lance because they were written by the same

[00:27:34] people, I believe, and Dragon Lance got me into Forgotten Realms

[00:27:39] and all the pulp fantasy stuff.

[00:27:40] And so I was a big pulp fantasy guy and never cared about Lord

[00:27:44] of the Rings. I never even saw the movies.

[00:27:46] Dragon Lance in the 80s.

[00:27:48] Death Gate. Oh, wow.

[00:27:50] That's in the night. Wow.

[00:27:51] So I learned something.

[00:27:53] Hell yeah. Yeah, that's pulp fantasy for you.

[00:27:55] There's so much out there that people don't ever talk about.

[00:27:59] Right. And at the same time, you're secretly glad,

[00:28:02] like kind of like Deathlands.

[00:28:04] You kind of want that to remain a book before Hollywood.

[00:28:07] Exit and gives the public consciousness who doesn't read

[00:28:11] a bastardization of it.

[00:28:14] Yeah, exactly.

[00:28:14] There are ways to do it so poorly and ways to do it well.

[00:28:17] And I have not cared about the ways that people have done it for several years.

[00:28:22] So don't like hope it was good.

[00:28:24] I got back from Gran Turismo about earlier last week and my father was like,

[00:28:29] you were not so adamant about this.

[00:28:30] I was like, I was I was entertained.

[00:28:32] But, you know, I've only seen even video games I didn't even care about.

[00:28:36] Just get wrecked and become a incoherent, you know,

[00:28:39] something you can even call a movie.

[00:28:40] It just felt like a bad toy commercial.

[00:28:42] Yeah, it's a true nightmare.

[00:28:45] Yeah, it's fascinating the history of pop culture and nerd culture

[00:28:50] in relation to like.

[00:28:52] No, no.

[00:28:53] Yeah, exactly.

[00:28:54] In relation to like, like toy commercials and like pushing toys,

[00:28:58] like the idea of

[00:29:00] Transformers being like just something that they made for the commercials.

[00:29:04] But I fucking loved that show growing up in the movie was incredible.

[00:29:07] Oh, look at Star Wars.

[00:29:08] That basically is Lucas made his own toy commercial going up.

[00:29:12] Oh, God, yeah, it's true.

[00:29:14] Honestly, Star Wars is the weirdest blind spot for me because I guess I could tell this.

[00:29:19] Sure. Why not? More fun.

[00:29:22] If if if only for the sake of pissing people off.

[00:29:26] Star Wars fans hate each other for God's sake.

[00:29:28] So that's very true.

[00:29:29] So what does it matter, you know?

[00:29:31] Yeah, that's true.

[00:29:32] So yeah, when I was when I was very young,

[00:29:35] everybody was talking about Star Wars.

[00:29:37] They were big fans.

[00:29:38] It was like that.

[00:29:39] That was like the monoculture.

[00:29:40] That was like the mainstream to me.

[00:29:42] So I was like, nah, fucks, Star Wars, I'm fine.

[00:29:45] And so I just avoided seeing the movies even when they like showed them in school.

[00:29:50] I was like, I got to leave by.

[00:29:51] So it became a point of pride for me.

[00:29:53] You were like how I was with a freaking.

[00:29:58] Harry Potter after a while.

[00:29:59] I was like, oh, awesome.

[00:30:00] I love that. Just stop.

[00:30:02] Yeah, I was 100 percent that because they always would start.

[00:30:05] I never read a book like this.

[00:30:07] It's like, oh my God, you haven't read any books.

[00:30:10] Yeah, it's so ridiculous.

[00:30:11] So what does that even mean?

[00:30:13] Yeah, like it's it's very interesting to see how the situations

[00:30:18] where like nerd culture becomes mainstream culture.

[00:30:21] Oh, I mean, that's that's it now.

[00:30:24] And I start citing people who make loaded statements.

[00:30:26] So kind of like how people would get on certain filmmakers

[00:30:30] who were outspoken and kind of coming off as dicks.

[00:30:33] Like remember that title where William Friedkin didn't think DVDs

[00:30:36] would take over and all over.

[00:30:37] So I love that.

[00:30:38] It's like I was even more like

[00:30:42] I was just I was prepping for a review we were doing

[00:30:45] of the new power star Galactica.

[00:30:46] And I read that towards our Martin's thought the finale sucks.

[00:30:50] I was like, yeah, well, you're one to talk.

[00:30:53] Yeah, truly.

[00:30:54] Like you can't leave that one down right in the chicken shit.

[00:30:57] So it's yeah, he's just been putting it off

[00:30:59] for his entire life at this point.

[00:31:01] I definitely went in when he passes away.

[00:31:04] Yeah, I remember making those jokes before there was a TV show.

[00:31:07] Oh, there you go. Yeah.

[00:31:09] So you never watch the show, but I love that.

[00:31:11] OK, you predicted snobbery on the Internet.

[00:31:14] Oh, God, yeah.

[00:31:15] Bitching what you record stranger things or walking dead finale for me.

[00:31:20] I'm like, it's yeah, it's fascinating.

[00:31:22] And no one wrote it for you.

[00:31:24] You got online because you were bored when you could have gone down

[00:31:27] and watched the movie like anybody else.

[00:31:30] Right. Yeah.

[00:31:31] People have a lot of trouble these days with that.

[00:31:33] But it was.

[00:31:35] Yeah, it's true.

[00:31:36] It's I think that's one of the nice things I feel about like being 38.

[00:31:40] I'm just like, yeah, I I'm not trapped in my phone while I'm watching movie.

[00:31:45] Bad movie. Bad.

[00:31:47] Yeah, it's it's nice to feel like I have an attention span.

[00:31:52] What is it? It's bad.

[00:31:53] Was that cozy?

[00:31:55] Oh, God, exactly.

[00:31:57] All the voices. Yeah.

[00:31:59] But yeah, ever run into any comedians where you're like, oh,

[00:32:03] my God, I was there.

[00:32:04] I was there with you at UCB that one semester.

[00:32:08] You mean like once who ended up becoming famous or ones that I like

[00:32:11] hadn't seen in a long time?

[00:32:13] They can be ones who work behind the curtain, right?

[00:32:16] Sketch show stuff for other people to perform

[00:32:19] or just call it humor type stuff.

[00:32:20] Just anybody. Oh, God, yeah.

[00:32:22] There are so many people that have come out of this mindset.

[00:32:25] Yeah.

[00:32:26] I mean, yeah, I think that everybody.

[00:32:29] There are a huge amount of people that I met out here

[00:32:31] who ended up doing really great stuff.

[00:32:33] And it's really a nice feeling when you see your friends doing well.

[00:32:36] And you're just like, hell, yeah, they are sweethearts

[00:32:38] and they deserve this.

[00:32:39] Like I was on an improv team with Rachel.

[00:32:41] The stage of their career.

[00:32:42] Yeah, exactly.

[00:32:43] Rachel Bloom is wonderful.

[00:32:44] And here's the best.

[00:32:46] I have not even seen Crazy Ex-Girlfriend yet.

[00:32:48] I've only seen clips and everything.

[00:32:50] But I know she is fucking talented because like she is one of those.

[00:32:54] She's done what all these people done.

[00:32:56] They've broken the Internet with all their various talk show host appearances.

[00:33:00] And right, exactly.

[00:33:01] All the humor and funnier die appearances.

[00:33:03] So it's like, even if you don't watch the thing they're famous for,

[00:33:06] you know, you're going to go back to it and see it eventually.

[00:33:10] Because yeah, you have like a concept of them.

[00:33:11] Yeah, exactly. Someone's world.

[00:33:14] Yeah, it's so true.

[00:33:15] Yeah. Well, she's a sweetheart.

[00:33:16] Heard it here first.

[00:33:18] Great.

[00:33:18] I was in line.

[00:33:20] Yeah. Oh, she was on whose line?

[00:33:21] Yes, the recent.

[00:33:23] Oh my God, I need to watch that.

[00:33:24] What a treat.

[00:33:26] Yeah.

[00:33:26] Well, and much like whose line

[00:33:29] you would only be there for like two episodes, but they make about

[00:33:32] four out to six episodes out of your appearance.

[00:33:36] Yeah, of course. Oh, cool.

[00:33:37] I've done improv with someone from whose line. How fun.

[00:33:40] I'll take it. What a nice feeling.

[00:33:42] But yeah, she was she was on a team.

[00:33:44] We were on a team together, like maybe my fourth or third team out here.

[00:33:49] That's great. Yeah.

[00:33:51] And then there's that moment where you're like, oh,

[00:33:53] I'm seeing you on the court on the sides of buses now and on billboards.

[00:33:56] And you're like, OK, cool.

[00:33:57] Have fun.

[00:33:58] I mean, it was the same with with Kelly from Kelly from Star Wars.

[00:34:03] She was an improv person.

[00:34:05] Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Mary, oh, yeah, Kelly, Marie Tran,

[00:34:09] wrote Rose Tika or something.

[00:34:12] Yeah, she she was in a musical improv person out here for a while.

[00:34:16] And she's like another one of those like sweetest people.

[00:34:19] And I ran into her this year and it was just so nice to like reconnect.

[00:34:23] Nice.

[00:34:25] Yeah, it's it sounds like the Internet was monsters to her.

[00:34:28] So I'm glad that she has survived that is an awesome person.

[00:34:31] The thing is, like it or hate, whatever Star Wars you're talking about,

[00:34:36] it seems like every other thing.

[00:34:39] Everyone's going to have a different take on it.

[00:34:41] I think that's why you kind of want to just take a break from Star Wars

[00:34:44] after a while because after a while.

[00:34:47] Well, see, that's that's why I love having weird taste

[00:34:50] and like very specific taste, because most of the things that I'm into,

[00:34:54] people aren't at all talking about.

[00:34:55] So there's no toxic fandom.

[00:34:57] It's just straight up like I've never heard of that.

[00:34:59] They can't overrate it for you.

[00:35:01] Yeah, because there's no one there.

[00:35:03] Like I've been in there.

[00:35:04] Yeah, like I've been talking to people lately about the movie Biosphere

[00:35:07] because it came out this year and feels like no human being I have ever met.

[00:35:11] Saw it. I want to see this movie now.

[00:35:13] I love that.

[00:35:15] Without overrating it.

[00:35:16] Yeah, it's fun.

[00:35:17] It's like it's not one that I would do for my podcast,

[00:35:20] but it's like pretty sterling browns in it.

[00:35:21] That's a reason to watch.

[00:35:23] Hell, yeah, it's a Duplas movie.

[00:35:25] Oh, yeah.

[00:35:26] This is good to see.

[00:35:27] Yeah, it's cool.

[00:35:28] It's really funny and it's really like honest and very like chill.

[00:35:33] And then there's one very big buy-in.

[00:35:35] And if you can get behind that buy-in, you'll be OK.

[00:35:37] And if you're like this movie is ridiculous, that's also OK.

[00:35:42] Because that's awesome.

[00:35:43] So it's like Evil Dead or something else crazy

[00:35:46] where you can pretty much take it however you want it.

[00:35:49] Maybe I've never seen Evil Dead.

[00:35:50] I never saw the originals.

[00:35:52] It's fine. But the other thing I find dumb is the people do the whole,

[00:35:56] oh my God, I've never seen that.

[00:35:58] And then you'll hear names.

[00:36:00] That's 50 other things and they haven't seen it.

[00:36:01] So I'm like, OK, then tell me.

[00:36:03] That's actually dumb dumb.

[00:36:05] That's actually the reason why I started this podcast in the first place.

[00:36:09] You haven't seen.

[00:36:10] Yeah, to piss those people off and to get that reaction

[00:36:13] because I feed off of it because I'm a monster.

[00:36:16] So it was me and a person.

[00:36:18] You're an angel.

[00:36:19] Oh, I know.

[00:36:19] That's all for the very tour.

[00:36:21] Yeah, I'll take it.

[00:36:23] But yeah, Angelina, you're getting back to the coast.

[00:36:26] Honestly, you're not wrong.

[00:36:27] Like that is what I get from people pretty often.

[00:36:29] I'm a bastard too.

[00:36:30] I tried introducing older movies that I grew up watching.

[00:36:35] Like the certain sci-fi action movies.

[00:36:38] And I even put Grimlins 2 on one Christmas and my siblings were like,

[00:36:42] you're a monster.

[00:36:42] And I'm like, well, I'm not watching this stupid, rude

[00:36:47] college comedy or mindless epic with use.

[00:36:51] And I'm out of suit.

[00:36:52] I'm done with superhero movies after this.

[00:36:54] So that's fair.

[00:36:56] Honestly, that's truly fair.

[00:36:57] I I normally would have been that person.

[00:37:00] Even the guys I know who do a comic book podcast, they're taking a break.

[00:37:04] They're going to be doing older stuff and wait literally a decade

[00:37:08] for all the other stuff to come out.

[00:37:10] Yeah, I kind of get that.

[00:37:12] It's at we're at a point where a lot of them that come out

[00:37:14] really aren't that interesting and they're kind of boring.

[00:37:17] Or the internet ruins it for you, like you say, where it is like,

[00:37:19] yeah, can you believe this and you get 50 other clickbait things?

[00:37:23] And even though you've unsubscribed or said stop suggesting this,

[00:37:26] there's always one that gets through with the however the logistics are set up.

[00:37:30] Yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised, honestly.

[00:37:33] Everyone everyone wants to have water cooler conversation.

[00:37:36] And so the second they're done seeing a movie,

[00:37:38] they're like, I want to have this with the entire internet

[00:37:41] because the speed of it.

[00:37:43] And it's like, yeah, no, but we don't want it to be spoiled or whatever.

[00:37:47] That's part of why.

[00:37:48] That's part of what?

[00:37:49] Yeah, that's part of why I do a spoiler free podcast.

[00:37:52] Oh, my God, will be excited to see the movies.

[00:37:55] Well, given how you've summed up what a shithole

[00:37:59] the whole Star Wars fandom is, I'll tell this awesome story to you

[00:38:03] that actually relates to this other point.

[00:38:05] Nice. So I had a douchebag who me and my siblings hung out with.

[00:38:09] I've actually told Delvin Cox a similar story about this.

[00:38:11] And he was one of those we just played video games

[00:38:14] and hung out with action figures in a way I kind of regret being his friend

[00:38:18] because I felt like that killed some other potential friendships I could have made.

[00:38:21] Oh, no, didn't have a good morale, even though he was a good old Christian boy.

[00:38:24] Yeah, sure.

[00:38:26] And so long story short, he was a dick

[00:38:29] and he would spoil every movie for me and I would watch a lot of fight on TV

[00:38:33] and everything and that made me love it more because I was a philosophical guy.

[00:38:37] While other people are going, I'm not watching this show so and so left.

[00:38:41] I'd be like, well, you're not supposed to like them or

[00:38:43] kind of makes it more Shakespeareanly tragic.

[00:38:47] I like that. Yeah, I dug the Riddick movies, even though everyone died.

[00:38:50] I dug the Matrix movies, even though Neo dies. Sure.

[00:38:53] And I had my revenge.

[00:38:55] Finally, the Lego Star Wars game, which sums up all the first six movies

[00:39:01] came out at the ravages of the Sith video game came out.

[00:39:04] There was it matched exactly the spoilers that I read on the Blue Harvest

[00:39:09] Geekdom site and I spoiled it for that fucker.

[00:39:12] That's hilarious.

[00:39:13] And I thought the here I am 20, 30 years later, I realized, oh, man,

[00:39:17] I was validated. Yeah, it's a good feeling.

[00:39:20] Sometimes great, just given someone to taste his own medicine.

[00:39:23] He doesn't realize what a bitch slap he got.

[00:39:26] But yeah, sometimes you kind of have to show people what they're doing

[00:39:28] to you for them to understand how it feels, even if it doesn't necessarily.

[00:39:32] I learned.

[00:39:33] Yeah, I'm glad it happened just so he realizes

[00:39:37] if you can't complain that you because there's the thing.

[00:39:40] Many of these bricks do the whole victim card.

[00:39:43] And it's like, bitch, please, you have not been assaulted.

[00:39:46] You have not been wronged.

[00:39:47] You have not had your card stolen.

[00:39:49] So don't you dare write their victim card?

[00:39:51] They're just being like, oh, God, it's been spoiled for me or whatever.

[00:39:54] Don't be like Brian Collin or Joe Rogan where you're.

[00:39:57] Oh, God, I know what you mean.

[00:39:59] You're canceling me.

[00:40:00] I'm like, I'm not canceling you.

[00:40:01] I'm telling you to stop being a fucking moron.

[00:40:04] Yeah, exactly. No, that's very, very true.

[00:40:06] Yeah, any fending people with your outdated libertarian logic.

[00:40:10] Yeah, stop being a monster 100 percent.

[00:40:12] Yeah, those those guys, any time you try,

[00:40:15] any time they try and turn it around, it's just like cool.

[00:40:17] You're a joke without cursing.

[00:40:19] Yes, you can.

[00:40:20] Yes, like, why are we still listening to you?

[00:40:22] Why do you think Richard Pryor will be Goldberg?

[00:40:26] Robin Williams adapted.

[00:40:28] They worked in any kind of format, any kind of movie, any kind of.

[00:40:33] I mean, and a lot of the times,

[00:40:35] the real issue is that we've just heard enough of like mainstream white

[00:40:38] male voices.

[00:40:39] So they're like, I don't know what else to say.

[00:40:41] And I just like the answer is they don't have to say anything

[00:40:44] because they're a bunch of very interesting, diverse people out there

[00:40:47] doing shit that no one's ever talked about on stage before.

[00:40:50] The best cable show.

[00:40:51] I'm hilarious.

[00:40:51] The best cable show I'm watching now is Darkwinds

[00:40:54] and that has only Navajo policemen.

[00:40:56] Oh, nice. That's fucking awesome.

[00:40:58] The Tony Hillerman adaptation.

[00:41:00] I love that except for the policeman.

[00:41:03] Well, it helps that we get it helps that the bad guys are often

[00:41:08] crooked white man feds.

[00:41:09] Yeah, that I feel validated.

[00:41:11] So it's in a small town in the 70s.

[00:41:14] So it feels like historical fiction, if you will.

[00:41:16] Oh, interesting.

[00:41:18] More like in the heat of the night.

[00:41:20] Oh, God, you are cops by profession, but not by mentality, if you will.

[00:41:25] They don't hide behind a union or a blue wall

[00:41:27] because literally it's a small ass town and they're killing all the hillbillies

[00:41:30] who are there. Yeah, it's if you can find a good situation for them

[00:41:35] and they're doing right by people, there you go. Right?

[00:41:37] That's right. No, don't be wrong.

[00:41:38] There's plenty of other shows where I will watch and I'll be like,

[00:41:41] it was fine until that cop agenda line.

[00:41:44] Yeah, it's it's fascinating how obvious it is these days

[00:41:47] or a Scooby Doo mystery. Jinkies I can.

[00:41:50] Right. I mean, and even and even like what's it called?

[00:41:54] Even like the the Top Gun sequel where you're like,

[00:41:56] yeah, this is just kind of weird military propaganda.

[00:42:00] That's why I don't like it.

[00:42:01] Hot take. But man, like I knew it was fucked

[00:42:05] when that opening week, someone reported to me how like 20 million people

[00:42:09] like joined the like Navy and like see damage done.

[00:42:14] That's a nightmare.

[00:42:15] But it was the bigger monster.

[00:42:17] Do I blame Jerry Bruckheimer or do I blame Tom Cruise or everybody?

[00:42:22] No, you just blame the whole military for funding that shit.

[00:42:24] Oh yeah, blame the military. There you go.

[00:42:26] Even better blame the systematic.

[00:42:28] That's the key. That's the key.

[00:42:30] Yeah, that's so I'm having to realize too is like America is not even America anymore.

[00:42:33] So yeah, it's complicated.

[00:42:35] And it was it ever right?

[00:42:37] Well, why did I why did we even get mad at people not pledging allegiance?

[00:42:42] When they were. Oh God, of course.

[00:42:44] Yeah, it's also it's also ridiculous on so many levels, but it's all about control.

[00:42:49] But that whole time when that I mean, you know more.

[00:42:52] Yeah, it's terrifying.

[00:42:54] But yeah, when that when that sequel came out, I was like, no,

[00:42:56] I want the third hot shots or nothing.

[00:42:59] Yes. Although there's probably don't hold up incredibly well.

[00:43:03] Charlie Sheen die and then have them a

[00:43:06] vengeance, if you will, like they bring back to life with tiger blood.

[00:43:09] Replace him with shit with TIG.

[00:43:11] That's all you need. Oh, there you go.

[00:43:13] Yeah, bring John Cryer have Ryan Styles.

[00:43:16] You see that with Ryan Styles with fake ass muscles blowing people up.

[00:43:19] That would have been very funny.

[00:43:20] That would have been a dream.

[00:43:23] Yeah, that's part part.

[00:43:25] Tua we need it part.

[00:43:27] Tua there you go.

[00:43:28] Yeah, I was I was a real big spoof kid growing up, of course.

[00:43:32] Is that one of your favorite movies?

[00:43:35] I know, but what's your top five, if anything?

[00:43:40] I think it's all ones that I've done already, honestly.

[00:43:42] But I would say like in any order, it's like Amelie eighth grade,

[00:43:46] like lonely person, lonely shy person movies are real high up there for me.

[00:43:51] The ones where you just like, see, I like the lone wolf.

[00:43:54] I like the guy who doesn't try to blend in

[00:43:58] and try to come to terms with his life.

[00:44:01] Yeah, yeah.

[00:44:02] Mostly sad women who are just like, I can't I can't deal with people.

[00:44:05] I'm sorry, I got to see that in a I got to receive in a film

[00:44:09] study class. So I was really happy.

[00:44:12] I recommend people watching that every like 10 years

[00:44:15] and getting something different from it. Yes.

[00:44:17] Oh my God.

[00:44:18] Audrey Tonto, she might be from France, but she's a national treasure.

[00:44:22] She's incredible. She's incredible.

[00:44:24] It's true.

[00:44:24] And I love like the before the before sunset movies

[00:44:27] before sunrise before.

[00:44:29] Oh my God, I had the sociologist dojo on because he was like,

[00:44:33] give me a movie franchise that doesn't have stupid explosions or trivial logic.

[00:44:37] And I was like, how are we talking about Richard

[00:44:39] Lakeletters best movies ever made? That's fucking awesome.

[00:44:42] That's a good point.

[00:44:43] I hadn't thought about that. You're fully right on that one.

[00:44:45] Like it makes many trilogy less, which is saying something as it

[00:44:49] doesn't have a single gunplay.

[00:44:51] It doesn't have any based on a comic or book mentality.

[00:44:56] It doesn't have any bands angering you online.

[00:45:00] If anyone hates them, they already aren't the kind who would seek it out

[00:45:04] anyway or don't have the logic to sit for something that's intellectual.

[00:45:07] So yeah, they're not worth your time.

[00:45:09] It's like you say, like it's that special kind of movie

[00:45:12] that's very hard to overrate or be.

[00:45:16] Because it's by it's by serious people.

[00:45:19] Yeah, exactly. And it's simple.

[00:45:21] There's a simplicity to it where it's not about nothing can be ruined.

[00:45:24] I don't know, Neil, and I hate that I am a one.

[00:45:27] Yeah, of course.

[00:45:29] I just looked out because I was still hanging around

[00:45:31] Geo cities and watching people play chess in addition to

[00:45:36] watching all kinds of movies and TV from different generations

[00:45:40] mixed in with actually reading film history books, let alone books in general.

[00:45:44] There you go.

[00:45:45] I think that it's good to be informed in that specific way,

[00:45:47] honestly, because it gives you better taste.

[00:45:49] I'm trying to play Dungeons and Dragons.

[00:45:51] I fucking suck at it.

[00:45:52] But at least I will get references to it when someone brings up a rule

[00:45:57] about who is the taskmaster, who is the.

[00:46:00] Yeah, that's sort of the key is being aware.

[00:46:02] Well, one thing that you learn as an improviser,

[00:46:05] have you done the improv or anything like that?

[00:46:07] Yes. Nice. I love my life.

[00:46:09] Now I don't know.

[00:46:11] Yeah, it's something junior high in high school

[00:46:14] because everyone was trying to imitate Chappelle's show.

[00:46:17] Oh, God, what a nightmare.

[00:46:18] And just trying to laugh at you

[00:46:20] just because you're doing your job, but they have a shitty grin.

[00:46:23] College, whole different deal, hung out with some very invaluable groups

[00:46:26] and other people actually had acting resume credits.

[00:46:30] And they essentially just hit home on free up your mind.

[00:46:34] Now I. Oh, I love that.

[00:46:36] That's the best.

[00:46:38] Now I just got to that mindset where instead of asking permission for something

[00:46:42] is like, no, I'm going to book a flight for this tomorrow

[00:46:45] and you can't stop me.

[00:46:46] Yeah, you can learn a lot from improv.

[00:46:48] I'll drive my I'll ride my bike to the airport

[00:46:51] if I can't get off taxi or a car.

[00:46:53] You know, I like that going with the flow.

[00:46:56] Don't wait for permission.

[00:46:58] Yeah, that's cool, too.

[00:46:59] Absolutely. These are good things.

[00:47:01] I I've learned a lot about life from improv

[00:47:04] and then a lot about improv from life.

[00:47:07] And it sort of just keeps going back and forth the older you get.

[00:47:10] Oh, man, right?

[00:47:12] Yeah. But one of the things that

[00:47:15] that that I learned,

[00:47:18] God, I immediately lost my train of thought.

[00:47:20] That's OK. No big deal.

[00:47:21] We'll get there. Oh, yeah, yeah, I got it.

[00:47:23] So in improv, I've had to learn a little bit about a lot of things.

[00:47:27] And that's not a bad thing.

[00:47:30] Right. What is a bad thing nowadays?

[00:47:32] Have the time of bad thing is actually something

[00:47:34] someone doesn't approve of, but isn't necessarily breaking any law or social morale.

[00:47:39] That's a good question, too, honestly.

[00:47:41] That is bad. That's very complicated,

[00:47:43] figuring out what is bad versus what's viewed as bad.

[00:47:46] That's just a whole other conversation.

[00:47:48] Good Lord.

[00:47:51] Yeah, it's good. Complicated.

[00:47:53] Well, I do have good might be, I don't know,

[00:47:56] baking the most unhealthy jar of meat you can on a grill and

[00:48:01] poison the environment while you get grossed out

[00:48:04] and just say, I'm ordering Chinese food.

[00:48:07] Right. That's true.

[00:48:08] Yeah, I think for a lot of people, it's like, what are what is

[00:48:11] what are people able to maintain cognitive dissonance for versus

[00:48:15] what are they not able to maintain cognitive dissonance for?

[00:48:19] And it's like, OK, I'm ready to be a good person in this way.

[00:48:22] But if I do it in all the ways, it'll kill me.

[00:48:24] So it's like finding a nice balance.

[00:48:26] Right. I'll check off the first five ballots.

[00:48:29] Yeah, last five are going to have to wait for now.

[00:48:32] Exactly. We do we can.

[00:48:33] Should we say never? There's just.

[00:48:35] Yeah, sometimes it is.

[00:48:36] And that's OK, too.

[00:48:37] You know, I think for me, I end up defining good or like doing

[00:48:42] good things or being a good person as doing whatever I can to make

[00:48:46] other people's lives less stressful or thank you.

[00:48:50] We need more people like that.

[00:48:51] Thanks. Yeah, that's really what I try and do.

[00:48:54] I put myself in other people's shoes before I put them in myself

[00:48:57] in my own. And that has been very helpful for my well-being

[00:49:01] and a lot of other people.

[00:49:03] Oh, yes.

[00:49:04] I recommend it whenever people can.

[00:49:06] It's just like having having enough distance from your own emotions

[00:49:12] to be able to process things before you react to them, right?

[00:49:16] That's the good stuff. The good stuff.

[00:49:18] Yeah. So connections to upright

[00:49:21] citizens and citizens brigade and

[00:49:26] knowing as out of the podcast,

[00:49:27] have you ever been invited on to be a judge on the Who Would

[00:49:30] Win show with a lot of those same comedians?

[00:49:32] No, I've never listened to a single episode of any of their podcasts.

[00:49:35] Actually, I'm not as connected as you might think.

[00:49:38] It's more recommended just because it's not even about a winning streak.

[00:49:42] It's just awesome hearing a famous voice actor come in and do a

[00:49:46] judgment on a comic book or movie or, you know, TV character.

[00:49:52] And at the time, it's all the win happens just because of a mind trick.

[00:49:59] Oh, interesting. OK.

[00:50:01] Or what is given?

[00:50:02] I'll have to I'll have to give it a shot sometime.

[00:50:04] I've known Chan for very long time.

[00:50:07] He's the editor out here.

[00:50:08] Yeah, he's a great dude.

[00:50:10] I love how he keeps James Gavzies bloopers in half the time now

[00:50:14] just because it's kind of funny.

[00:50:15] Oh, that's fun. Yeah, I don't really.

[00:50:18] I think I'm Facebook friends with James,

[00:50:19] but I don't actually know him at all and never have talked to him.

[00:50:22] So I'm just like, all right, cool.

[00:50:23] He might come a call for you if he needs a better judge.

[00:50:28] I'd be fine with that.

[00:50:29] That'd be fun as hell.

[00:50:29] I'd be down. I'll appear on people's stuff.

[00:50:33] But Gina, I've also known for a really long time.

[00:50:35] I loved her old improv team, Slave Leia, Leia,

[00:50:38] speaking of Star Wars.

[00:50:40] Yeah, her love to show the unicorn, which she wrote for.

[00:50:43] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:50:45] I'm so glad that she's that she's had that awesome success and stuff.

[00:50:48] And I'm just like, cool, I know, cool TV writers.

[00:50:50] It's a good feeling.

[00:50:52] I love how she's just kind of deliberately anti social,

[00:50:55] but that's kind of part of the joke, which is like,

[00:50:57] what the fuck do you guys want to know about me?

[00:50:59] Oh, that's fun. I haven't seen that in real life.

[00:51:01] I think that's a bit on the pot.

[00:51:02] That's got to be just a podcast then because she's always such a.

[00:51:06] Oh, I was like, she doesn't even listen to her interviews.

[00:51:08] They don't care.

[00:51:09] That wouldn't that's possible.

[00:51:10] I wouldn't be she's got a lot going on. She's a busy woman.

[00:51:15] But yeah, hilarious improviser.

[00:51:18] She she really did a lot to put together

[00:51:21] like the I.O. sketch program back in the old days.

[00:51:24] Oh, really? At Iowa West, where I was on Jersey, New York guys.

[00:51:29] They got it.

[00:51:32] Yeah, I mean, well, this was the this was like the

[00:51:35] one of the theaters at one of the theaters in California

[00:51:39] and L.A. in Hollywood, you know, it was actually directly in Hollywood.

[00:51:43] And so when I first moved out here, there was UCB.

[00:51:49] There was Iowa West and there was like the groundlings

[00:51:53] and maybe like a couple random spots.

[00:51:55] I never really need to just Paul Rubin's.

[00:51:57] Oh, God. Yeah, I mean, people wise.

[00:51:59] Yeah, there were some good people who came out of groundlings.

[00:52:01] But as a theater, I never could have given a fuck about it.

[00:52:04] And that's geographically the closest theater to me.

[00:52:07] But their stuff is very character based and it's very like we have wigs on.

[00:52:11] So we're funny.

[00:52:12] And like a lot of times they're like men can't play women.

[00:52:15] Women can't play men.

[00:52:16] I was like, what is this bullshit?

[00:52:18] Robin Williams. Hello.

[00:52:20] Yeah, they were never really that exciting to me out here.

[00:52:24] But UCB was always where people are coming out.

[00:52:27] Yeah, are you you ever seen Conan?

[00:52:32] I wasn't a big Conan guy growing up.

[00:52:33] But you know, a lot of people ended up on there who are very funny.

[00:52:37] So he had his cohort.

[00:52:40] Andy Richter has his own podcast and he talked about how he would avoid

[00:52:43] certain improv groups just because he knew some of the teachers were absolute

[00:52:47] friends. Yeah, it takes one to ruin it for everybody.

[00:52:52] And he's like, this is why we can't have nice things.

[00:52:54] And he always sometimes the Conan writers would invite him to be on like a

[00:52:59] sitcom with a laugh track.

[00:53:00] And he went to a taping of like, just shoot me, which an episode

[00:53:05] he was guest starring on.

[00:53:06] And he was like, I'm going to just suck this up because this is not funny

[00:53:10] seeing writers pretend to laugh at their own jokes.

[00:53:13] Yeah, that's terrifying.

[00:53:16] That's why I'm always like if I have somehow have the luck

[00:53:19] to end up writing for a show, I just want it to not be like CBS awfulness.

[00:53:25] Yeah, with the close up film set.

[00:53:29] Yeah, there's so much there's good art out there.

[00:53:31] We don't have to settle for bad stuff.

[00:53:34] A poor man's Frazier or Seinfeld where you're like, shut the hell up.

[00:53:38] Yeah, I could write this shit and blow it out your ass.

[00:53:42] Yeah, it's oh, it's weird.

[00:53:44] I literally like my relationship with art and comedy has changed so much

[00:53:48] over the years that I truly don't even know what I find funny anymore,

[00:53:52] except for just like real honest.

[00:53:53] What is funny?

[00:53:55] It's a good fun watching bad movies and laughing at stuff

[00:53:58] that's supposed to be serious, I find.

[00:54:00] Yeah, I think that that can be very funny.

[00:54:02] It's absolutely true.

[00:54:04] And I definitely can terminator.

[00:54:05] Genesis sucks.

[00:54:07] I wouldn't be surprised.

[00:54:08] Genesis. Oh, it's so funny.

[00:54:10] I've never seen any terminators, but I did grow up with a Sega Genesis.

[00:54:13] If that helps.

[00:54:14] Oh, there you go.

[00:54:15] You know, it's actually a lot of fun to actually kind of reverse

[00:54:20] backwards and like you know about the merchandise.

[00:54:24] That's the only reason you fucking know that thing exists.

[00:54:27] Like that's what I know about Sir John Carpenter movies.

[00:54:31] That makes sense to me.

[00:54:32] Other alien creature type movie characters is like, yeah,

[00:54:35] because there was a movie maniacs,

[00:54:38] McFarland toys, figurine of that back in the day.

[00:54:41] Oh, that's fun. Yeah, that makes sense to me.

[00:54:44] I mean, I feel like I learned about most things from them being

[00:54:46] the video games are like the director's guide,

[00:54:48] except you get to play as the character instead of watch the boring

[00:54:51] as actor play the overrated character for two hours.

[00:54:55] God, and then use the awesome sword or gun that people hyped up,

[00:55:00] but they barely use that's how I was with Lady Hawk.

[00:55:03] I'm like, don't give me amazing Michelle Piper

[00:55:07] and Richard Howard with a giant ass sword

[00:55:09] and then don't use them that whole two hour movies.

[00:55:11] And instead I get whiny, running against the motion.

[00:55:13] No, I said people like that was a grouch growing up as a teen.

[00:55:18] I'm like, this movie sucks ass.

[00:55:21] Some stuff is terrible.

[00:55:23] Some stuff is genuinely terrible concept.

[00:55:25] Well, you didn't use anything at your disposal.

[00:55:29] Yeah, I mean, another lesson that I've learned from improv.

[00:55:32] If you have a fun toy, you play with it.

[00:55:34] Right. And way better story, way better ending.

[00:55:38] Yeah, exactly.

[00:55:39] Like I feel like anytime someone discovers something like, oh,

[00:55:44] like I'm doing a scene where I'm wearing somebody's skin or whatever.

[00:55:46] Like you unzip you unzip a person. Absolutely.

[00:55:50] That's a toy and you've got to play with that as many times as you can.

[00:55:53] Like have fun. Don't waste it.

[00:55:55] Don't let it go.

[00:55:56] Some games are only fun if you enter the cheat codes.

[00:55:59] Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it.

[00:56:01] I like it. I like it better yet.

[00:56:05] Treat movies like you would with porn.

[00:56:06] Just fast forward to the good scenes.

[00:56:08] Interesting, I've never I've never done that with directors cut.

[00:56:11] Just go to the highlights.

[00:56:13] You like see, I just went past that 20 minute

[00:56:16] scene that just was the credits.

[00:56:20] The credits took up 20 minutes.

[00:56:23] Interesting. Yeah, I've never tried that ever before.

[00:56:26] I'm always just like, if it's good, it's good the whole way.

[00:56:30] And if it's if it's OK in parts, I won't watch it again probably.

[00:56:34] Right, you'll talk about the highlight everyone talks about.

[00:56:37] But then be like, you'd have to give me really drug to watch this.

[00:56:42] Yeah, exactly. Oh, God.

[00:56:44] We'll return after these messages.

[00:56:53] The Jacked Up Review Show podcast is honored to be part of the Blind Knowledge

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[00:57:41] Do you ever find yourself thinking about who would win a fight between Goku

[00:57:44] and Superman? Hi, I'm James Cavsian on the Who Would Win show.

[00:57:48] Me and my co host, Ray ignore anything important happening outside world

[00:57:52] and debate fictional battles between characters from comics, movies

[00:57:54] and video games. We got a new show every week and almost always am I the winner?

[00:57:59] Not true, Ray. In the past, we've discussed such matches as Captain America

[00:58:04] versus Darth Vader, Solid Snake versus the Iron Giant, classic matchups

[00:58:09] like Robocop versus Terminator and even the Muppets versus Sesame Street.

[00:58:13] That one was crazy.

[00:58:15] So if you're a fan of geek culture and love a spirited debate,

[00:58:18] check out the Who Would Win show wherever you get your podcasts

[00:58:21] or check us out at who would win show dot com.

[00:58:23] Who would win a fight between the Muppets versus the Sesame Street?

[00:58:27] But yeah, going back to like UCB in places like that.

[00:58:31] No, it's not a good place.

[00:58:33] That's fine. That's how it works sometimes.

[00:58:36] Yeah, I so again, just like in college, when I auditioned a million times

[00:58:40] and never got a callback, I auditioned at UCB like 10 years in a row

[00:58:44] and never got a single callback.

[00:58:46] But in the end, all the weird indie stuff that I've done

[00:58:51] has been much more valuable for me and all the shows that I put together

[00:58:55] myself without like gatekeepers and shit like that.

[00:58:58] That always feels more valuable.

[00:59:01] I've been on like how I've been, yeah, like I've been on a house

[00:59:04] sketch teams at Iowa West and they were fine.

[00:59:08] But then like when I made myself go do indie sketch stuff

[00:59:12] and like had the weirdest, most fun shows, I was like,

[00:59:15] this is so much more rewarding somehow.

[00:59:17] Right. Oh my God.

[00:59:19] Yeah, I think that's the key.

[00:59:21] Yeah, I know it's a shock, right?

[00:59:23] It's it's rather than sort of seeking people's validation for your entire life.

[00:59:27] It always feels so much better to be like, what weird thing are people not doing?

[00:59:31] I was the holes in the thing, you know, holes in the markets.

[00:59:35] So that's kind of what I've done out in LA is be like,

[00:59:38] everyone's trying to be the best at the same thing.

[00:59:41] I'm going to go do some weird shit and see how that goes.

[00:59:45] Like, for example, I did a show about breakfast cereal.

[00:59:50] There you go.

[00:59:51] Yeah, I was because one of my former podcast co-hosts was like,

[00:59:55] I haven't had breakfast cereal in a while.

[00:59:56] I miss it. And I was like, we should do a show about this.

[00:59:59] So I put together breakfast cereal themed improv teams.

[01:00:03] I bought a bunch of cereal and I made

[01:00:06] I sort of brought a bunch of milk and I had the audience all eat cereal.

[01:00:10] And I told stories about my past that had to do with cereal.

[01:00:14] And I called it were totally cereal

[01:00:16] and made a bunch of weird graphics for it.

[01:00:19] And afterwards every thank you afterwards, everyone's like,

[01:00:22] you should do that again.

[01:00:23] Keep the show going is like, no, this is not a good show.

[01:00:27] It's just fun.

[01:00:28] Well, fuck it.

[01:00:30] I don't know why you're such a good salesman.

[01:00:32] I want to see the web series version of this.

[01:00:34] Oh my god, that would be so fun.

[01:00:36] Honestly, that I would do.

[01:00:37] I would try out a way.

[01:00:38] You might even get Robert Clarkton to do that.

[01:00:39] He'll be like, I want Mark Malo's.

[01:00:43] Yeah, oh my god.

[01:00:44] My cereal.

[01:00:45] Yeah, yeah, we could do.

[01:00:46] Corn flakes, nut rakes and brain.

[01:00:48] Marshmallows.

[01:00:49] I could do a were totally web cereal.

[01:00:51] I love it.

[01:00:52] Oh, oh, that's what you get when you have a will.

[01:00:57] He will you have a spirit of diabetes?

[01:01:01] Will you eat the ultimate cereal before he passes away?

[01:01:04] Find out next time.

[01:01:06] Well, at the show, I was like, I don't eat the cereal anymore

[01:01:09] because I found a bug in it once that was the same color as the cereal.

[01:01:12] And I made myself eat that that cereal on stage again.

[01:01:15] Sometimes you got to beat your your fears.

[01:01:18] That is a great fear obstacle.

[01:01:20] It's pretty fun.

[01:01:21] I don't think it has maggots in it.

[01:01:23] Yeah, honey, bunches of votes is OK and safe now.

[01:01:27] Allegedly.

[01:01:28] Yeah, I mean, unless you find another one of those weird bugs

[01:01:30] that I found, but you know, it was the same way with goldfish

[01:01:33] where I literally found a bug the same color as the goldfish.

[01:01:36] And I was like, I don't think I can have goldfish.

[01:01:38] I mean, damn, this damn grocery store

[01:01:40] has got to do some checking of its packages.

[01:01:42] Yeah, Tucson was just full of bugs, I think.

[01:01:46] He would have thought they would have killed him, but apparently no.

[01:01:48] It makes them stronger.

[01:01:51] But yeah, you know, we get weaker, they get stronger.

[01:01:54] Yeah, I mean, we try.

[01:01:55] We try the scorpions just get bigger tails.

[01:02:00] But yeah, so so I run.

[01:02:03] I run a bunch of shows out here.

[01:02:04] I run a show called Crash This Party

[01:02:06] where we do a different theme of party every show.

[01:02:09] And I've been running that for over a decade now.

[01:02:11] Crash This Party is the improv group.

[01:02:13] The name of the improv group is Sweet Dalai Lama,

[01:02:15] and we've been going for almost 12 years,

[01:02:18] which is insane for an indie indie team.

[01:02:20] Everyone breaks up after like a year.

[01:02:23] Yeah, but yeah, we've been together other than money.

[01:02:27] I know exactly.

[01:02:28] That's why people move on.

[01:02:30] But yeah, I a lot of people have come and go

[01:02:33] and I'm really the only like original person left.

[01:02:35] But we've had some really good runs and yeah,

[01:02:39] we do a different theme of party every time.

[01:02:42] And that's at the clubhouse in LA, which is a lot of fun.

[01:02:44] We do it. I'm going to sneak this into plugs.

[01:02:46] Why not? Right?

[01:02:47] You know, it's now's the time.

[01:02:49] Yeah, sure. I mean, every first and third Monday,

[01:02:52] seven p.m. at the clubhouse on the main stage,

[01:02:55] that's the variety show that I do.

[01:02:59] And we always have a different theme

[01:03:01] and sometimes we repeat those,

[01:03:03] but they're just for like, you know, annual things.

[01:03:07] Like we have two Halloween shows every year,

[01:03:09] every first and third Monday.

[01:03:10] Yeah, we've done puppy parties

[01:03:13] where people do improv with their dogs.

[01:03:15] We've done pool parties and actual swimming pools.

[01:03:18] A lot of crazy stuff, a lot of fun.

[01:03:20] My brother lives there,

[01:03:21] so I might have an excuse to come down.

[01:03:23] Hell yeah, please do that.

[01:03:24] That would be ideal.

[01:03:26] Everyone should come check this show.

[01:03:27] Is it now or no?

[01:03:29] Oh, I have no idea where that is,

[01:03:31] but I've heard the name once or twice.

[01:03:33] Arizona's kind of so what's more confusing?

[01:03:36] Oklahoma or Arizona?

[01:03:38] Oh, God, Arizona.

[01:03:40] So much stuff in the middle of nowhere.

[01:03:42] I mean, for me, Arizona is confusing

[01:03:44] because I was an indoor kid who just watched TV

[01:03:46] every single day like for eight hours.

[01:03:48] So I never explored Arizona.

[01:03:50] OK, so Avondale is an hour from Tucson.

[01:03:53] So oh, wow.

[01:03:54] Oh, so that's in Tucson.

[01:03:55] OK, I thought you were talking about California

[01:03:57] because our show's in LA because we're.

[01:03:59] Oh, oh, I got family there too in San Francisco.

[01:04:03] So all right, hell yeah, make the road trip.

[01:04:06] But yeah, no, that's why I do UCB and all those people

[01:04:09] and all that stuff, all Hollywood, all LA.

[01:04:13] But yeah, aside from that, I do.

[01:04:16] I do a show called Scene Kids, Punk House Party.

[01:04:20] And that's an emo punk scoff variety show.

[01:04:23] Hell yeah, it's fucking it's fucking sick every time.

[01:04:26] I love it.

[01:04:26] We have a live, a different live punk band every time.

[01:04:30] We do punk improv where we do mashing for to change between scenes.

[01:04:35] We all dress like a hot topic and shit.

[01:04:37] And we have like free pizza.

[01:04:39] It's it's it's like it's everyone to cooperate.

[01:04:42] It's a beautiful thing.

[01:04:44] And that one's at the Pac Theater every third Saturday.

[01:04:47] We're doing Scallowine three season of the Scow Witch in October.

[01:04:53] I can't fucking wait maybe mixed in with.

[01:04:56] I'm still on booking that scoban.

[01:04:57] I'm working on I'm trying.

[01:05:00] It's hard to find a live scoban.

[01:05:02] You know, I might know someone who might travel.

[01:05:05] Yes, please.

[01:05:07] Well, if they're down to do it for no money and free pizza, hell yeah.

[01:05:10] Well, I can pay for it and you can just feed them.

[01:05:13] Oh my God, that's the sweetest thing.

[01:05:15] The nicest thing I've ever heard.

[01:05:18] And been doing that for like five years.

[01:05:21] We had LFA from No Effects play with us and do improv.

[01:05:24] That was cool.

[01:05:26] And the other one that I run is called Dub Set.

[01:05:31] And that one is a so.

[01:05:33] So did you used to do short form or long form?

[01:05:36] I'm guessing short form, right?

[01:05:37] Definitely short.

[01:05:38] It was never more than a few minutes, like five minutes max.

[01:05:43] You know, I love it.

[01:05:44] Short form is where we all come from.

[01:05:46] So there was a problem was kind of like short films.

[01:05:49] There's just too much babying of us.

[01:05:52] Interesting. Yeah.

[01:05:53] I mean, there's always different.

[01:05:54] I did do stage combat a lot.

[01:05:56] Oh, fun. Yeah, that's something that is always like a nice tool for me

[01:05:59] for some reason.

[01:06:00] Oh, then that professor can go fuck themselves.

[01:06:04] I guess it was just because I was too enthusiastic.

[01:06:06] I don't fucking know.

[01:06:07] That's not a good reason to not like someone all that's terrible.

[01:06:11] And then he did the whole, oh, you're not certified

[01:06:13] if you don't keep taking my class.

[01:06:15] I'm like, no, you're a hustler certified in what?

[01:06:18] There's there's no such as fuck.

[01:06:20] I have lived in stage combat is like.

[01:06:22] Oh, God, it's just like with anything wrestling stunts.

[01:06:27] And it all goes back to staging.

[01:06:28] Where am I in the scene?

[01:06:31] Why am I going here?

[01:06:32] You know, character motivation and then fucking go with it.

[01:06:35] What are cameras are rolling or not?

[01:06:37] Go here, do the same fucking thing, try a few different things.

[01:06:40] You know, like hit my beat five seconds faster.

[01:06:42] You know, yeah, it makes a lot of sense to me, honestly.

[01:06:46] So did you ever do a short form game

[01:06:50] called like dubbing basically?

[01:06:52] I wish we did.

[01:06:54] We mainly were just doing more of just kind of.

[01:06:59] Kind of even like that drinking game horse, where we were kind of just.

[01:07:03] We mainly did variations of party quirks mixed in with.

[01:07:09] Other just.

[01:07:13] Long story short, just kind of just more like situational

[01:07:16] characters like commit like someone would give you a character in front

[01:07:20] and you two have to build a scene together.

[01:07:22] Gotcha.

[01:07:23] As well as as well as the legendary questions only.

[01:07:26] Oh, I love it.

[01:07:27] Yeah, I fucked up on questions only, even though I knew the rules,

[01:07:30] because whoever my partner I kept getting teamed up with really knew

[01:07:33] how to find my tickle me funny button.

[01:07:37] Well, the only way to fuck up on questions only is to not get it wrong

[01:07:41] because then nothing changes and your friends don't get a chance to play.

[01:07:44] So if you fuck up, you're doing it right.

[01:07:48] But yeah, dubbing was another like short form game where, you know,

[01:07:51] people offstage were doing the voices of the people on stage.

[01:07:54] I had done that before and in college, I was like,

[01:07:58] it'd be a really fun idea to do that for like a long form set where it's just

[01:08:02] like a half an hour of people doing you were ready to go already by that point.

[01:08:06] You were like, I really was in it.

[01:08:08] This needs to be a 30 minutes sitcom.

[01:08:10] Yeah, I was psyched for it.

[01:08:11] And funny.

[01:08:13] Yeah, like that's the hope right for said.

[01:08:15] Yeah, God, I don't need an audience permission to laugh.

[01:08:17] This shit's fucking ruling when it's good.

[01:08:20] That's the key, you know, and it's good.

[01:08:23] And then I didn't do anything with that idea for like 13 years at least.

[01:08:28] But you're thinking of it.

[01:08:30] Oh, no, no, no.

[01:08:31] So what happened?

[01:08:32] Oh, it was.

[01:08:34] I.

[01:08:35] Yeah, no, I appreciate it.

[01:08:37] I do appreciate it, though.

[01:08:39] But yeah, no, what ended up happening is that I was like, you know what?

[01:08:43] I'm going to put a team together and just like do a set where we just

[01:08:45] dub the whole time and people liked it.

[01:08:48] And then the PAC Theater gave us a show.

[01:08:50] And so I've been doing dub set where we do a half hour dubbed like improv

[01:08:55] like show for for like what, three years or something.

[01:08:58] We did it over Zoom on the during the pandemic.

[01:09:02] And we just we're just doing each other's voices.

[01:09:04] It's really fun.

[01:09:05] Why do you think you're so good at predicting their body motion and body language?

[01:09:10] Well, I mean, it's less about predicting it and more about guiding it when you can, I would say.

[01:09:18] It's sort of when you're on stage and you're the one who kind of has to

[01:09:21] malve along with things, you just kind of sort of exist in it.

[01:09:25] And you just kind of move the way that they want you to move or you talk

[01:09:28] the way that you want them to, you know, your lip syncing.

[01:09:30] So totally.

[01:09:32] Yeah, everyone is for the most part, most of these groups have still

[01:09:36] validate everyone by reminding them.

[01:09:38] You don't try to be funny.

[01:09:41] You'd be funny just naturally and half the time you don't know how you got

[01:09:44] that, you know, message in a bottle.

[01:09:45] You don't know how you got that special moment because it just it came so naturally

[01:09:50] just through observation and listening.

[01:09:52] Yeah, I would say that's a big part of what you hear when you get started with

[01:09:56] with like long form out here very much people are people are very much like

[01:10:00] if you're a stand up, then you're going to have to relearn a lot of shit

[01:10:03] because you're trying to be funny a lot of the times.

[01:10:06] You have like all these ideas.

[01:10:07] You've had to say the same dumb story in the mirror and tested in front

[01:10:11] of family who doesn't find you funny again.

[01:10:13] So yeah, that's yeah.

[01:10:16] And they're like here billion punchlines and it's like, no, just be honest,

[01:10:20] be as clear as possible when you're setting scenes up and then just be honest in the scene.

[01:10:24] And I love coming.

[01:10:26] I love coming go to you.

[01:10:27] Going to the sacred cow who's also worked with Robert and James on their shows.

[01:10:32] But he's one of many comedians who can't stand improv.

[01:10:36] So I find it interesting.

[01:10:37] Have you seen kind of improv comedians and stand up comedians kind of bicker

[01:10:41] with one another saying you guys suck?

[01:10:44] Improvises don't tend to be on the bickering side of that.

[01:10:48] But stand up.

[01:10:49] So we have here's the thing I think I was talking to you go.

[01:10:53] Yeah, I think that that's a very like Chicago East sort of thing.

[01:10:57] And probably is.

[01:10:59] But I mean, yeah, well, I'm from Jersey, my bad.

[01:11:02] Sorry, that's OK.

[01:11:04] You're different boardwalk.

[01:11:05] I'm glad the clothes.

[01:11:06] It's the upper.

[01:11:07] The knockout guys.

[01:11:08] You're still Irish and Italians killing each other.

[01:11:11] Oh, God, of course.

[01:11:14] But yeah, I I'm a man.

[01:11:18] But yeah, I've seen that in LA at least.

[01:11:21] And I think in general a lot more

[01:11:24] like improvisers are all super supportive.

[01:11:26] Like that's what everyone's trained for.

[01:11:27] So they're like, oh, wow, you're so good at this.

[01:11:30] You're doing a great job and stand ups.

[01:11:33] I think in other places are a lot like let's shit on improv because it's

[01:11:36] like silly, you know, and it's not like we're going to make them any money.

[01:11:40] And it's just like a box or whatever, like space work and shit.

[01:11:45] Keeping. Yeah.

[01:11:46] And yeah, exactly.

[01:11:48] But a lot of the times when I do shows with stand ups out here, they're like,

[01:11:52] oh, and that was the last improv team.

[01:11:53] Wow, they were actually really, really good.

[01:11:55] I don't think I could ever do that.

[01:11:57] And then they go on to their bits and I'm like, oh, so they're sweet out here too.

[01:12:00] Those are the same people to say there's no way I could be an actor next thing.

[01:12:04] You know, they're mystery.

[01:12:05] Yeah, that's a hundred boards magazine.

[01:12:08] Yeah.

[01:12:09] But I think what I've learned most about stand ups versus improv is that

[01:12:13] improvisers all hate themselves and stand ups all hate themselves and everyone else.

[01:12:19] You're correct.

[01:12:20] Thank you. We are too close to it.

[01:12:23] Yeah, it's very, very true from myself under the bus because that is the easiest

[01:12:27] joke you can say, and it doesn't matter if you're sincere or not.

[01:12:30] Someone fucking laughs.

[01:12:32] Yeah, it's true.

[01:12:33] And also I think a big part of it also is because when you start improv,

[01:12:36] you have a teacher and so you're trying to please a teacher.

[01:12:40] Hosing my dude.

[01:12:41] Yeah, it's all real.

[01:12:43] And then you want to make that teacher happy, even though they're never going

[01:12:46] to be satisfied and they are going to do their best to keep challenging you.

[01:12:50] Yeah.

[01:12:50] And so you blame yourself and you're like, I must be getting it wrong somehow.

[01:12:53] But with stand up, everyone told you you're funny and so you should go do

[01:12:57] it open, Mike, and you come in with this confidence and you're like,

[01:12:59] if they're not laughing, they're fucking idiots.

[01:13:01] And so you hate everybody else for not laughing.

[01:13:04] But secretly, you still hate yourself too because you started doing stand up in

[01:13:08] the first place. Yeah.

[01:13:11] But yeah, you know, and it takes a while to unlearn that stuff.

[01:13:14] And eventually a lot of people do like I do.

[01:13:16] I was the kind where I was like, if you fucking hate me this much,

[01:13:20] why don't you get the tomatoes out?

[01:13:22] Yeah, or remembered.

[01:13:24] That's hilarious.

[01:13:25] Yeah, well, that sounds kind of stand upy.

[01:13:27] I'm a stand up guy.

[01:13:28] That's what it sounds like.

[01:13:30] Yeah.

[01:13:31] But yeah, I mean, the more I do it over several years,

[01:13:36] at this point, I truly don't give a fuck anymore if I don't care about the audience.

[01:13:41] I don't go fuck themselves.

[01:13:43] I have no interest in whether or not I did a good job.

[01:13:46] If you don't know if it's good halfway through either way.

[01:13:49] No, I do. Trust me.

[01:13:51] Even better.

[01:13:52] You know, I have a really, you know, I have a very good.

[01:13:58] There'll be people love the show who brought their stuck up spouse who doesn't

[01:14:01] understand any of this shit.

[01:14:03] Right. I mean, I think I have a good barometer for what's going to get a laugh

[01:14:07] in what won or what's good and what isn't.

[01:14:08] And that's helped me a lot as a writer.

[01:14:12] But also, yeah, but also I found that if I'm trying to make an audience happy,

[01:14:17] then I'm going to worry.

[01:14:18] So I just kind of am like, I don't care about the audience.

[01:14:21] And that lulls me into a sense of just who cares.

[01:14:24] And then I'm doing better work because of it.

[01:14:26] And we're right.

[01:14:27] By the way, whenever given your flamboyance,

[01:14:30] you say, yeah, I don't know why you fucking remind me of Snagglepost from that

[01:14:36] Hannah Barbera. I'll take it.

[01:14:37] I'm on board for that. Absolutely.

[01:14:41] Yeah, I know. I've always had like,

[01:14:43] I think that when I moved out to LA, I ended up having a bigger personality

[01:14:46] somehow. I don't really know why, but I just kind of leaned into it and

[01:14:50] I'm like, great, that's fucking awesome.

[01:14:52] Like I'm ready for whatever the thing is.

[01:14:54] It's sort of like a psyched punk puppy dog of some kind is what I ended up as.

[01:14:58] A psychotic puppy dog. I love it.

[01:15:01] Or like a like a stoked one, you know?

[01:15:05] I've always sort of been like, hey, I'm basically the energizer bunny.

[01:15:09] So, you know, things like that are

[01:15:10] dude is my dude. That was where I realized there's other muppets around here.

[01:15:14] Motherfucker.

[01:15:16] I like that. That's a good way to look at that actually.

[01:15:18] That dude has one job.

[01:15:20] He doesn't even say a fucking thing.

[01:15:22] He doesn't have any famous voice actor dedicating their persona to this creature.

[01:15:26] No, he's just cool.

[01:15:27] He just nails it.

[01:15:29] He turns on the lights.

[01:15:30] But that's the thing. We need him to be more honest.

[01:15:33] We need him to be more vulnerable. Cool is overrated.

[01:15:35] We need the energizer bunny to tell us what flaws he's got going on.

[01:15:39] What's he working on? What's he doing in therapy?

[01:15:42] Right. That's the real shit right there.

[01:15:43] That's all that matters. Oh my God.

[01:15:45] Yes. Got to bring it back around.

[01:15:47] But yeah, speaking of voice acting, going back to Dubset,

[01:15:51] the show that I do, everyone always does that to us.

[01:15:56] It's so funny.

[01:15:57] We don't even like it and we do it.

[01:15:59] I know it's it's so funny.

[01:16:01] I'm always like, no, no, we're called Dubset like a Dub improv set.

[01:16:05] And they're like, oh, but before that, they're like, please welcome Dubstep.

[01:16:11] But yeah, we do each other's voice the whole show

[01:16:13] and we have a special guest voice actor every time.

[01:16:16] So we get people who make video games and movies and cartoons and shit like

[01:16:20] that, which has been pretty fun.

[01:16:23] And we're every third Thursday at the pack theater at eight o'clock just to keep

[01:16:28] that I think that's our my final plug.

[01:16:31] Why no. Yeah, I know, right?

[01:16:33] Isn't that shocking aside from the podcast, I suppose,

[01:16:37] which I suppose I'll throw in you need to see this.

[01:16:40] We're every other week.

[01:16:42] We were out on all the platforms that you can think of, except for ones

[01:16:46] that we don't care about.

[01:16:49] Download us, listen to us, subscribe to us, do all the things that people are

[01:16:53] supposed to get great guests, guys, you need to see this.

[01:16:56] Thank you. You need to see you need to see this.

[01:16:59] That's why I love an audio podcast.

[01:17:03] It's a bit the whole time.

[01:17:05] They pick all kinds of movies.

[01:17:08] They don't just suck off the Oscars.

[01:17:10] No, but not kidding.

[01:17:12] Yeah, I hate award ceremonies.

[01:17:14] So I'm like, no, thank you.

[01:17:16] Yeah, lots of mocking.

[01:17:17] You do all kinds of movies where you're just like, so how the fuck would I have

[01:17:21] even heard of this? Yeah, exactly.

[01:17:24] I mean, one of my human breed kind of bringing Cheddar out of each other's shell.

[01:17:27] Yeah, I think so.

[01:17:29] It's very fun.

[01:17:29] Like in the in the past when I had the other podcasts,

[01:17:33] I the other hosts, I think that I was maybe the one who was forgetting

[01:17:37] something. Yeah, I was maybe more of like the more the quieter one in some ways.

[01:17:42] I think Nick was a little quieter and Lucey was like very big.

[01:17:47] And I think that as soon as Brie joined the podcast and the other folks left,

[01:17:51] I sort of became more of like the Lucey of it where I was a little bit bigger.

[01:17:56] But we are both bringing each other out of our sort of like shells in a way too.

[01:18:00] So I kind of love that.

[01:18:02] Well, that is lovely.

[01:18:04] So yeah, we're a bunch of sweethearts.

[01:18:06] Allegedly. Yeah, exactly.

[01:18:08] At the very beginning of it, I guess.

[01:18:10] I mean, I'm a big star and I think you'd be into it.

[01:18:13] The super legit podcast and pod pod.

[01:18:16] Oh, I guess I guess what guest appearances do you have coming up?

[01:18:21] That's a good question.

[01:18:22] I truly always forget whenever I do stuff.

[01:18:24] So the Academy Academy was big because you were going into some very

[01:18:28] visceral movies on that one.

[01:18:29] Oh, yeah.

[01:18:30] See, that was fun because that was my improv partner.

[01:18:33] Like people who are in my improv team.

[01:18:35] I love those people.

[01:18:36] What sweethearts?

[01:18:37] No one's invisible on the world of podcasts.

[01:18:40] It's true. It's very true.

[01:18:41] Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

[01:18:43] I was just trying to get that.

[01:18:44] That's cool. You got to do what you got to do.

[01:18:46] I get it.

[01:18:47] No, I I don't think I have anything up coming up podcast wise.

[01:18:52] There's never anything that I can direct people towards if they don't live

[01:18:56] in Los Angeles aside from my my podcast.

[01:18:58] So that'll be the thing unless they want to see photos from from seen kids.

[01:19:03] Punk House Party on Instagram, I guess.

[01:19:05] Oh,

[01:19:07] not the worst thing if you all want to follow a punk improv team,

[01:19:10] seen kids improv with some underscores in there.

[01:19:14] But yeah, no, I don't think I don't know.

[01:19:16] I need to get some more podcasts so that I can have things.

[01:19:19] Welcome back anytime.

[01:19:20] Oh, I appreciate it.

[01:19:21] Thank you. Thank you.

[01:19:22] Aim your favorite movie slash TV show music band will review the shit out of them.

[01:19:27] Hell, yeah, I love that.

[01:19:29] That's the good stuff.

[01:19:31] But yeah, yeah, those are those are my plugs.

[01:19:34] That's all I've got plug wise.

[01:19:36] Do more improv audience.

[01:19:39] Do crime, be monsters, be honest.

[01:19:42] I don't know.

[01:19:44] That's my advice to the entire audience.

[01:19:46] Do more crime and be honest and be nice.

[01:19:49] Do more crime and crime is good.

[01:19:51] Right, exactly.

[01:19:54] Yeah, and just I mean, honestly, though, my real I feel like my real advice

[01:19:58] to the audience is always searching out hidden gems and interesting things in

[01:20:02] art, don't don't let things don't let people curate shit for you,

[01:20:07] curate shit for yourself.

[01:20:09] Go find things that are interesting.

[01:20:11] Look for things that have five, you know,

[01:20:13] listens on Spotify and get fucking psyched about that stuff because that's

[01:20:17] what matters most.

[01:20:19] Everything else is just kind of trying to replicate itself or worrying about money.

[01:20:24] Yeah, money definitely seems to interrupt quite a lot.

[01:20:28] Yeah, it has a lot of negative effects on art.

[01:20:32] Terrible, terrible bargain.

[01:20:34] Oh, you got to say like Charles Barkley now.

[01:20:36] Through.

[01:20:39] Yeah, true, true, true.

[01:20:41] Have you ever done any impressions of

[01:20:43] other comedians or celebrities?

[01:20:46] I'm not really.

[01:20:47] I don't really do many goes too much into the

[01:20:50] cool kids where you're like, I hate those fuckers.

[01:20:52] Yeah, it goes into pop culture.

[01:20:54] I've never been like a make fun of pop culture guy to me because it feels

[01:20:58] like low hanging fruit.

[01:20:59] It's very easy to like make fun of something that everyone's already

[01:21:03] made.

[01:21:04] Yeah, well, that's true.

[01:21:06] I suppose too. I forget about that.

[01:21:07] Sometimes I have to remind myself of that one, honestly.

[01:21:11] But yeah, I've never been like a pop culture guy or reference guy because in

[01:21:15] improv, if the audience doesn't get the reference, you're fucked.

[01:21:17] So I'm like, why even do that?

[01:21:20] So instead.

[01:21:21] True.

[01:21:22] Yeah, I've never been like a very big like character guy in general.

[01:21:26] A lot of my stuff is more premise based again,

[01:21:28] probably because the kids in the hall,

[01:21:30] even though they have a lot of great characters, I don't know how that happened.

[01:21:34] Yeah, I did it happen.

[01:21:35] Yeah, I don't know.

[01:21:37] But yeah, I know I don't really do any impressions.

[01:21:41] I do a couple character bits occasionally it shows, but it's pretty rare

[01:21:45] because most characters feel very over the top and broad and like SNLE

[01:21:49] and they just kind of suck.

[01:21:51] Yeah.

[01:21:51] So I never really bother with that.

[01:21:54] My stuff is more like, oh, you know, this would be a ridiculous situation

[01:21:57] if this were going on or what's like, what about a really honest situation

[01:22:02] or like a very real situation and then like some very small funny thing,

[01:22:07] which is very UCB.

[01:22:09] Absolutely.

[01:22:10] Yeah.

[01:22:10] And that tends to be what I did.

[01:22:12] Yeah.

[01:22:13] And that tends to be what I talk about most

[01:22:15] movie wise on the podcast, I feel like I pick all these movies or I'm like,

[01:22:18] everyone was real the whole time and it was hilarious.

[01:22:24] Yes.

[01:22:26] Oh, man.

[01:22:27] So now that you again, let people inside your mind and everything and

[01:22:34] become comfortable talking about all this material, what's next?

[01:22:41] You've already conquered the sky at this point kind of.

[01:22:43] Yeah.

[01:22:44] I mean, I'm the type of person who tends to do a really good job

[01:22:47] keeping things going and within those things find new versions of them.

[01:22:52] So my things that are coming up are going to be the same things that I've been

[01:22:57] doing for years and decades, but fun weird versions of those.

[01:23:01] Like, yeah, I think that's always the key is like challenge yourself in minor ways.

[01:23:07] Like for seeing kids, I'm doing, you know,

[01:23:09] Scallowine season of the scow witch, so I'm going to try and make that as

[01:23:13] scow and Halloween as possible, but also make it a little witchier than usual,

[01:23:18] if possible. There you go.

[01:23:19] She's a witch.

[01:23:20] Yeah. And keep finding like cool, weird guests for dub set for that for for,

[01:23:26] you know, cartoon voice actors and people like that because I know they're out there.

[01:23:30] They exist.

[01:23:31] They exist somewhere.

[01:23:32] We need to try them out and in in Crest's party,

[01:23:36] just keep finding new weird parties to make fun of like we're doing a

[01:23:40] us like a beach bonfire themed party soon.

[01:23:44] And so I'm just going to have like a fake one.

[01:23:46] Yeah, it's fun.

[01:23:47] We'll have like a fake bonfire on stage and marshmallows and,

[01:23:51] you know, to be like dressed in like Tommy Bahamas or whatever.

[01:23:54] And some guy will have a guitar.

[01:23:57] So it's just like just finding new ways to do the same thing and push yourself in art.

[01:24:04] I'm always writing a pilot.

[01:24:07] Yeah. Right now I'm doing National Sketch Writing Month, which if people haven't

[01:24:11] heard of it is a thing that happens every September where sketch writers

[01:24:15] write 30 sketches in a month.

[01:24:17] They should.

[01:24:18] Yeah, I've been doing that for, I think, a decade now.

[01:24:22] And, you know, it's day seven and I'm just keeping keeping the sketches coming.

[01:24:28] And in November, I do National

[01:24:30] Novel Writing Month where I do I start a different short story every

[01:24:35] single day and email that out to people.

[01:24:37] That's kind of fun.

[01:24:38] So those are sort of the things that I'm most looking forward to right now

[01:24:42] in terms of creative stuff and just writing more pilots.

[01:24:46] Write the shit out of them.

[01:24:48] Yeah, that's the goal.

[01:24:49] That's the goal.

[01:24:50] It's truly more for me about getting better at the process where I'm just like

[01:24:55] do a good job fighting procrastination in every way you can and like figure out

[01:25:01] how to set it up in a way that where you don't have to think and make

[01:25:04] choices much always helps a lot.

[01:25:09] So yeah, that's about it for me.

[01:25:10] That is the inspiration we need.

[01:25:13] Yeah, that's the fun stuff right there.

[01:25:16] Well, nice.

[01:25:17] So people can find you on Facebook and the Instagram.

[01:25:22] People cannot.

[01:25:23] People cannot find me on Instagram, but they can find my groups on Instagram

[01:25:27] if they want to. They can find Twitter.

[01:25:29] Nope, sure. I'm not on X.

[01:25:34] Yeah, no, I.

[01:25:36] Yeah, exactly.

[01:25:37] Yeah, I don't I don't do any of the social media stuff except for Facebook

[01:25:41] because I am an old man who still has VHS tapes and a VCR landline.

[01:25:49] Welcome, man.

[01:25:49] Welcome.

[01:25:50] Yeah, exactly.

[01:25:51] If you want to follow me, follow my things that I do rather than the person

[01:25:55] I am, I suppose is the way of putting it.

[01:25:56] As I say, not as I do.

[01:25:58] Yeah, it's kind of a weird riff on that, I suppose.

[01:26:00] Subscribe to my podcast and you'll probably still hear about me in my life.

[01:26:05] That's so good.

[01:26:07] Yeah, and if you live in LA, come to my shows.

[01:26:10] Those are the things.

[01:26:14] Absolutely.

[01:26:16] Boom.

[01:26:19] Well, you have you have ricocheted.

[01:26:22] You have wiped the floor with me.

[01:26:24] Thank you. I love this.

[01:26:27] Nice for not to let me pick your brain, but just get inside it.

[01:26:32] It was like fantastic voyage style.

[01:26:34] I was love that.

[01:26:36] Yeah, no problem.

[01:26:37] I'm loving the seriousness and that's my deal.

[01:26:40] You're welcome at any time.

[01:26:41] Hell, if you need me to just go on and talk about the worst movie ever,

[01:26:45] that's on your show here.

[01:26:47] But no, we would never cover that on a podcast.

[01:26:50] All we do is movies that we love.

[01:26:52] OK, if you have.

[01:26:53] You love that I hate perfect.

[01:26:55] Yeah, no, wait, no.

[01:26:56] I'm just joking.

[01:26:58] Oh, God.

[01:26:59] Oh, God.

[01:27:00] I don't even know our format anymore.

[01:27:03] It depends on the day.

[01:27:04] No.

[01:27:06] That's fair.

[01:27:07] It's really fair.

[01:27:08] I was kidding.

[01:27:10] I'll just say this, everything is entertaining at two in the morning.

[01:27:14] That is very even when it's not.

[01:27:18] That's true.

[01:27:18] I think once or twice we did have people guest on the podcast where they

[01:27:22] were like, this is a movie you need to see not because it's good,

[01:27:25] but because it's fucking insane.

[01:27:27] And I was like, you know what?

[01:27:28] That still counts.

[01:27:28] I'll take it.

[01:27:29] Accounts ding, ding, ding.

[01:27:31] It passed.

[01:27:32] Yeah, exactly.

[01:27:32] Kind of.

[01:27:34] Yeah, I see is better than a D, I guess.

[01:27:38] That's something.

[01:27:39] I mean, honestly, well, I think a really,

[01:27:42] really terrible F is much more fun than a weird C or like in a boring C.

[01:27:47] Better than a Z.

[01:27:47] I think that's really what it is.

[01:27:49] Honestly, I checked that out too.

[01:27:51] That sounds fun as hell.

[01:27:53] It just has to make a choice.

[01:27:54] If it's terrible, that's more exciting.

[01:27:56] It's like improv.

[01:27:57] It must commit to the same.

[01:27:59] Yeah, exactly.

[01:28:00] That's why I hate doing improv is nothing.

[01:28:04] Yeah, oh God.

[01:28:05] Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of trash out there.

[01:28:07] That's why I don't do passive periods, because literally within one scene,

[01:28:11] it will go from serious to camp to over the top.

[01:28:15] Like and it's barely been a minute.

[01:28:17] And I'm like, I don't know how to process this.

[01:28:20] Yeah, there is no way to insult me while shaking my hand.

[01:28:24] What's going on here?

[01:28:25] Yeah.

[01:28:26] And the reality is that their audience doesn't care at all about townships.

[01:28:30] There is no reality.

[01:28:31] It's not even an unrealistic reality.

[01:28:33] What is it?

[01:28:35] That's true.

[01:28:36] Yeah, there's no base reality for those movies at this point.

[01:28:39] It's just insanity.

[01:28:40] It's just a bunch of what's the thing they do in Wayne's World?

[01:28:44] Wayne's World.

[01:28:45] Yeah, the free from sequence.

[01:28:47] Yeah, those were fun.

[01:28:49] That was my season of SNL.

[01:28:51] I will tell you that.

[01:28:52] Yes.

[01:28:54] Yeah, I mean, I grew up on that season and I was like, this is good.

[01:28:56] And then Will Ferrell came on.

[01:28:57] And I was like, bye.

[01:28:59] Bye, Felicia.

[01:29:01] Yeah, which everyone else was like, we love SNL now.

[01:29:04] Oh my god, people are falling on stage.

[01:29:06] This is so funny.

[01:29:08] That's when I stopped giving a fuck about it.

[01:29:10] So that's all right.

[01:29:12] My TV was better.

[01:29:13] Yeah, that's fair in living color.

[01:29:16] Now, it's great.

[01:29:17] Oh man.

[01:29:18] Wait, wait, wait.

[01:29:19] Exit 57.

[01:29:22] Exit 57.

[01:29:24] Yeah, you don't know that one?

[01:29:26] That's exciting.

[01:29:27] Yes, good old sketch.

[01:29:29] There's a lot of 95 with Colbert.

[01:29:31] What the fuck?

[01:29:32] Goddamn right.

[01:29:33] Yeah, Amy's, Amy's, Sideris and like all these all

[01:29:37] strangers with candy eyes.

[01:29:39] I did not know about this because no one knew about exit 57.

[01:29:44] I got a cable ace known.

[01:29:45] Yeah, incredible.

[01:29:47] Insane.

[01:29:49] Yeah, I loved old sketch shows that now I must search this out on YouTube.

[01:29:53] Yeah, even the Jenny McCarthy show was funny.

[01:29:55] I think there you go.

[01:29:58] Yeah, you got a big deep.

[01:30:00] Even the shit that wasn't funny was funnier.

[01:30:02] Yeah, exactly.

[01:30:04] All right, I don't need to leave you in the wind.

[01:30:06] So thank you ever so much, though, for an hour of your time.

[01:30:10] And yeah, of course, wiping the floor with this.

[01:30:13] This was awesome.

[01:30:14] Yeah, good.

[01:30:14] Thanks so much for having me.

[01:30:15] I appreciate it.

[01:30:16] It was fun to do.

[01:30:17] Absolutely.

[01:30:25] On Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

[01:30:28] The podcast is available on Podbees, Spotify, I heart radio, anchor, Apple and

[01:30:33] anywhere else podcasts are available.

[01:30:35] Feel free to review our show and leave comments on any of those sites.

[01:30:40] Thanks a million for listening.