Ben Stiller Returns

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Subject to availability. Participation varies.
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Hi, my name is Ben Stiller. And I feel... Hmm.
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About being Conan O'Brien's friend.
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Wow!
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Devastating!
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Fall is here, hear the elk.
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Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.
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Got a nice.
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Little podcast humming along here.
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Got Sonam Obsessian joining us.
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I don't normally say this, but.
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That was adorable.
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Didn't you think? That's a nice little podcast we got.
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She's humming along. We got this nice little podcast humming
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along here.
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We do.
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That's how I feel about it.
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Wow.
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I do. I do feel like we got this nice,
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nothing grand, nothing fancy, nothing you could, you know, you
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put this on the lot, it'll be the last car
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to go. But I think it's a sweet little ride.
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You know, I like it. I think it's an adorable
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little podcast and I'm proud of it.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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That's cute.
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Hey, I got a question for you guys. What do
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you think of my jacket?
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I like your jacket.
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Okay, let me tell you something. Here's the story of
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this jacket.
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What if I said I didn't like it? Yeah, I
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hate it.
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I've had people say that before. Not about this jacket,
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but I've had people be very frank with me. No,
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you haven't.
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Yeah.
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Other people, if I'm wearing something, they tell me they
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don't like it. I saw this jacket. It wasn't that
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much money.
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I saw it.
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It's a nice color of brown corduroy. Let me describe
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it for those of you who can't see it right now.
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It's very rich.
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It's got a sheen.
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It's got a sheen to it.
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It's got a nap, I believe they call it.
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What's that? A nap.
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You can rub it one way and it'll go dark
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and then rub it the other way.
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It'll go light.
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Wow.
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You keep talking, I'll take a nap.
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I also want to say this. I've never said this before.
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You're absolutely right about that.
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Yeah. Anyway, this is a jacket that it was like
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the day before Christmas and I saw this jacket in
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a store and And I tried it on. I thought,
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that's a nice jacket. So I just bought it. And
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I drove home and I handed it to my wife
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and said, just give this to me tomorrow. And she said, okay.
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She said, should I wrap it? And I went, you
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don't even have to wrap it. And I thought, is that,
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do either of you two relate to that? Is that
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something that happens? I've been married now 22 years. Is
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that what happens?
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Tack and I send each other exactly what we want.
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And we don't even take it out of the box
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that it comes in. Like I send him the link
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exactly for what I want.
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My son did this as a kid. He was really
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into tech stuff. And he would send us like, here
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are the nine things. This is the XC755G, whatever, something board, motherboard.
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Just click here and it will be delivered. He took
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all the joy out of, just click here. That is joy.
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You know you're getting something exactly right. you know, you're
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getting exactly what you want.
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So, so I, um, I didn't use to do that,
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but I think it's just because I'm now in a
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different stage of life where I'll see something, you know,
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this isn't that much. It's not, I'm not splurging. It's a,
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it's a corduroy jacket. It's perfectly nice. I would like
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to wear that, hand it to my wife. She, I
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think she kept it in the bag. I handed it
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to her.
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You guys don't want any surprise?
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No, no, no.
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I do want some surprise, but how often does a
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surprise go wrong? All the time. It goes wrong all
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the time.
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In a gift from your spouse, it can't go that wrong.
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Yes, it can.
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Unless she's got diamonds on it, I don't want it.
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Oh, wow.
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My wife is giving you gifts.
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You're the worst.
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Hello, Zsa Zsa Gabor joining us today on the podcast.
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What kind of awful person are you? This is not
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the person I hired to be my assistant. Unless it's
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got diamonds on it. You've famous changed you. No, it has.
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I'm being.
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Unless it's like nice jewelry that marks a very special occasion.
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I think that's what I was trying to say.
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That's no better.
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No, it is.
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But it's like, you know, a 10 year anniversary. Maybe
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he gets me, whatever.
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I don't know.
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But if it's like clothes....
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You want to get the clothes yourself.
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I just know exactly what I want. And I don't
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think other people, including Tack, really know that. And I
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think rather than winging it, here's something I wanted.
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And here it is. Get it for me. Do you
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think in any way that emasculates Tack? No, because he
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does that with me. Are you taking his penis away?
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No, what?
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Then you have to get a new penis. Then you
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know what to ask for.
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If you get your penis from doing that, then you.
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Shouldn't have a penis. I took your penis away when
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I bought you this gift. What is it?
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A penis!
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I sold my vagina.
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You don't deserve a penis if that's what you need.
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I sold my vagina to get you this penis. I
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sold my penis to buy you a vagina. Oh, Henry's
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worst story.
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You get stuff for Amanda and she's like, Okay, she
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does not do that.
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Okay, I bet you she does. She's a very good actress.
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Yeah, she is.
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No, but when you get her her ninth, look, it's
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a chess set made of cork. They've only made a
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few of these in the 30s. What a horrible gift.
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Does she go, oh my God, this is amazing, or
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do you ever see a single tier?
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The one time we got in a fight because I
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bought her an espresso machine and she thought it was
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too extravagant and she got mad at me.
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She got mad at you because you spent too much money.
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Yeah.
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Maybe I shouldn't tell this on the podcast.
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No, it's okay. And you're keeping it in because, you know,
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that's fine. And you know what? We love your wife
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and I take her side. But it was really expensive.
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It wasn't.
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I mean, as espresso machines go, it's a mid-level espresso machine.
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Okay.
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Well, but maybe times were tight. Maybe she knew.
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We were fine.
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Does she like espresso?
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Yes.
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And she has since come to love that machine. But
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we got in a fight that day because she was,
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I can't.
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Tell the story.
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It's okay.
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It's all right.
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If it attacks me in an appliance like that, I'll
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be like, what? Where do we put it?
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Do you know what I mean? That was her big issue.
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There's limited real estate in the kitchen. And it's this
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machine that you got me. It's like a burden, kind of.
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But also, you know.
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You know what? I'm going to say this. If I
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get anything for the kitchen. I know I'm in very
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dangerous territory because my wife runs the kitchen. And if
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I walk in the door and I'm like, look, it's
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a giant juicer that only does pineapples. And it's made
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of quartz. You know, we got a problem. We have
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to take part of the sink out for it to fit.
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But if you got pineapples, we got pineapple juice. then
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I know we've got a problem. It runs on gasoline.
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Old-fashioned gasoline that's been badly stored. Yeah, I know. I've
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done that. I've purchased a few things for the kitchen,
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and I noticed that she was very pleasant about it
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at the time, and then it went away. It got
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exchanged for something else.
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Our Christmas has... like slightly decreased where now since we've
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had a kid too we kind of are just like
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three gifts for each other and that's it and it
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you know one's like little or something we know what
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You know.
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We don't, we just get three gifts. What is it?
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The Great Depression?
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What are you talking about?
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That's too, no. Three gifts? What? No, kids are supposed
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to be, there should be endless.
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No, not for the kid.
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Oh, how many kids? What are you talking? How many
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presents do you get kids?
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Kids have to be flooded with presents. I agree. Now,
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first of all, I'm not saying expensive presents, but. I'm sorry.
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On the holidays, when kids come down, little kids, it
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has to be so many presents, it's mind-boggling. And I
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don't care. I know people are going to say, well,
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this is terrible. What if people can't afford it? Steal
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them if you have to. Kids have to be just
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spending hours. I agree. The room has to be filled
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with crumpled paper when the day is over.
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They had a lot, but like... Three apiece?
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Yeah. Not for the kid. For each other.
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For Amanda and me.
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We get each other.
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We limited our, well, this is her idea.
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Look, I'm not a boy. I want to do more.
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This is awful. And I bet one of them's a walnut.
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Okay.
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Here's your walnut.
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I agree. I like to go big for Christmas. I've
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been tailored back a little bit.
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You've been, yeah. I like to just chill.
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I don't like things. I don't want new purses. I
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don't want new jackets.
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Oh, I know that. You've been wearing your Dr. Zayas
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special for like 20 years now.
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Dr.
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Zayas. She's got this jacket. I know, it's come up.
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I know, but I mean, for God's sake. I'll pay
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for it. Get a fucking jacket.
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I get things.
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I like them. I use them all the time.
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I know, but that's too much. I mean, it's really.
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What kind?
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What do I need?
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Looks like you slept in a bus station or something.
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For God's sake.
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I have slept in a bus station.
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I bet you have. But the question is with who?
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By myself. By yourself, eh? So you were just having
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a nap. I like trying to still do the sexy
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leering talk long after the sexy part's over. So you
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were just by yourself having a nap, huh? Yeah. Yeah,
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just by myself. Wearing a bulky jacket by yourself.
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That's not bulky.
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Why is it bulky? Listen, you wore that Jacket too long.
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We're not going to get stuck on that. But get
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a new jacket. Leather jacket. It's nice and broken in.
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00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:27.179
It's perfect. Yeah, whatever.
256
00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:30.039
You have jackets that you've worn forever, too.
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I have more than one jacket. Could I just lock in?
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You guys just shut up. So evil.
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00:10:38.659 --> 00:10:41.460
I do have jackets I've had for a long time,
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00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:44.200
but I have more than one. More than one. More
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00:10:44.220 --> 00:10:46.340
than one. If someone stole your jacket, you're a freeze
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to death. It's the only jacket you have.
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Oh, yeah.
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In Los Angeles.
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00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:50.570
I don't like purses, and I don't like jackets. No,
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freeze to death in Los Angeles.
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00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:52.690
It's 67 degrees outside.
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It gets cold at night. It gets cold at night
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into the 40s, some say. All right, listen. I won
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00:10:58.269 --> 00:10:58.610
that one.
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00:10:58.629 --> 00:11:00.649
You guys should do a gift exchange this year.
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00:11:01.210 --> 00:11:02.940
I'd be so afraid to buy her a gift. She'd
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get mad at me.
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I won't like it. I'll email you exactly what I want.
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I'm not interested in buying a gift for someone who's
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forcing me. A gift should be about what another person
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would think would make you happy.
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No.
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00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:15.480
What?
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I know.
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00:11:16.100 --> 00:11:17.179
Well, that would make me happy.
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You guys are horrible people.
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00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:20.830
I'm sending him something I know I want.
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And when he gives it to me, I'll know I
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like it.
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00:11:23.990 --> 00:11:26.549
But what if it's something you didn't see? Like, I'll
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00:11:26.570 --> 00:11:28.950
go shopping sometime for Amanda or I'm out and I
288
00:11:28.970 --> 00:11:29.159
see you.
289
00:11:29.169 --> 00:11:31.450
Yeah, and you get her an espresso machine. The whole
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00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:32.830
thing blows up in your face.
291
00:11:32.929 --> 00:11:33.309
I know.
292
00:11:33.330 --> 00:11:37.600
I mean, no. You took a chance. It didn't go well.
293
00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:38.919
I am gun-shy since then.
294
00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:39.559
Exactly.
295
00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:41.779
I buy my mom and dad stuff all the time,
296
00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:45.379
and my mom has returned 100% of the presents.
297
00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:45.659
I've given her.
298
00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:47.529
I bought your dad a new mustache, and he wears
299
00:11:47.570 --> 00:11:51.049
it every day. Okay. You know what? It's more real
300
00:11:51.070 --> 00:11:51.970
than the one he's wearing.
301
00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:53.059
Won't stand for it.
302
00:11:53.090 --> 00:11:54.529
Ridiculous. Won't stand for it.
303
00:11:54.529 --> 00:11:55.580
What are you going to do about it?
304
00:11:55.649 --> 00:11:57.610
Yeah, what are you going to do? What are you
305
00:11:57.629 --> 00:11:58.149
going to do?
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00:11:58.210 --> 00:12:01.519
I'm going to stand here, sit here, upset about it.
307
00:12:01.929 --> 00:12:03.460
Oh, so you won't stand for it?
308
00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:04.759
You're literally just going to sit down?
309
00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:05.779
I'm going to sit down.
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00:12:07.139 --> 00:12:08.519
All I have to do when I do an impression
311
00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:11.519
of her dad is put a finger under my nose,
312
00:12:11.639 --> 00:12:13.460
and there he is. There's Gil right there.
313
00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:14.399
That's not Gil.
314
00:12:14.539 --> 00:12:16.970
Gil's cooler than you are. Gil's so much cooler than
315
00:12:17.009 --> 00:12:17.159
you are.
316
00:12:17.169 --> 00:12:17.639
He is cooler than I am.
317
00:12:17.649 --> 00:12:18.889
You have to have the thing, and you have to
318
00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:20.509
be cooler, and you can't do that.
319
00:12:20.570 --> 00:12:21.970
You just did it. You just put the finger under
320
00:12:21.990 --> 00:12:23.330
your nose to be your dad. Dad, make me do that.
321
00:12:23.350 --> 00:12:24.230
I put this wrap sign up hours ago.
322
00:12:24.250 --> 00:12:26.480
All right, we're going to wrap it up. Anyway, find
323
00:12:26.529 --> 00:12:30.139
out from your spouse about presents. Don't buy that espresso machine.
324
00:12:30.179 --> 00:12:33.440
It's too expensive. Never wear the same leather jacket for
325
00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:37.289
more than 30 years in a row. These are our suggestions.
326
00:12:37.570 --> 00:12:38.009
Good night.
327
00:12:38.029 --> 00:12:42.279
My guest today is a tremendously accomplished actor, filmmaker, and showrunner.
328
00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:46.039
You know him from, of course, Meet the Parents, Zoolander,
329
00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.779
and Dodgeball, and just the tip of the iceberg right there.
330
00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:53.309
He's the director and executive producer of Severance on Apple
331
00:12:53.330 --> 00:12:58.110
TV +. Season two premieres January 17th. I am very
332
00:12:58.250 --> 00:13:07.070
excited about it because Severance was my jam. Ben Stiller.
333
00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:11.399
Welcome.
334
00:13:12.340 --> 00:13:15.970
I've contacted you many times through your people.
335
00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:16.230
Yeah.
336
00:13:16.389 --> 00:13:18.450
I often get just, we'll get back to you.
337
00:13:18.870 --> 00:13:19.970
That's why I have people.
338
00:13:20.149 --> 00:13:20.409
Yeah.
339
00:13:20.830 --> 00:13:25.169
But what's, But what's weird, but can I just say something?
340
00:13:25.210 --> 00:13:29.990
What's weird? The people sound suspiciously like Ben. It sounds
341
00:13:30.009 --> 00:13:31.629
like Ben picking up and he says, let me get
342
00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:34.360
Ben's people. And then the people sound a lot like you.
343
00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:37.399
It's like the guy from the Donald Trump who called
344
00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:38.100
into the post.
345
00:13:38.419 --> 00:13:39.000
Oh, yeah.
346
00:13:39.179 --> 00:13:40.620
David Barron or John Barron.
347
00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:40.740
Yeah.
348
00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:47.990
Well, I've known you a very long time. And I
349
00:13:48.029 --> 00:13:51.460
was very excited you're coming in today because you're one
350
00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:55.500
of my all-time favorite comedy people. Your body of work
351
00:13:55.659 --> 00:13:58.860
is fucking crazy stunning. We're going to talk about Severance,
352
00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:03.659
which was my favorite show. That first season was perfection.
353
00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:07.840
And I am delighted that Severance is coming back. So
354
00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:11.129
much so that your people said, I can watch a
355
00:14:11.169 --> 00:14:13.620
few episodes today. And they said, you can watch a
356
00:14:13.629 --> 00:14:15.740
couple of episodes of this new season. We'll make them
357
00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:17.220
available to you. And I'm like, no, no, no. I'm
358
00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:22.299
rewatching season one to watch season two. And I don't
359
00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:23.820
want to watch it on a computer.
360
00:14:24.139 --> 00:14:24.399
Yes.
361
00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:26.340
I don't want to watch it. I want to watch
362
00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:31.070
it because I think the direction, which is you, is
363
00:14:31.090 --> 00:14:32.769
I know some other people direct, but you direct the
364
00:14:32.789 --> 00:14:36.610
majority of these episodes online. is absolutely fantastic. The art design,
365
00:14:36.669 --> 00:14:39.529
the acting, the whole thing is through the roof. Thanks, man.
366
00:14:39.549 --> 00:14:43.250
It's delightful. Thank you. Conan, I really appreciate that. Thank you. No, no,
367
00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:44.669
that means a lot because you know how much I
368
00:14:44.690 --> 00:14:45.250
respect you.
369
00:14:45.350 --> 00:14:49.570
Seriously. Well, I... No joke. I'm... Well, now people think
370
00:14:49.610 --> 00:14:51.750
it's a joke because you said no joke. I know.
371
00:14:51.789 --> 00:14:54.429
I said no joke too quickly or something. I don't know.
372
00:14:54.769 --> 00:14:57.509
I think seriously was the first place I went wrong.
373
00:14:57.590 --> 00:14:59.690
And then no joke is trying to save it.
374
00:14:59.750 --> 00:15:03.009
Too many qualifiers. We're going to talk about it because
375
00:15:03.309 --> 00:15:05.629
anyone who's listening to this right now, if you're not
376
00:15:05.669 --> 00:15:08.360
watching Severance, if you didn't see season one, go and
377
00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:13.320
watch it. It's just, I think, flawless. And there's so
378
00:15:13.340 --> 00:15:16.789
many images in it. Moments in it, and it's got
379
00:15:16.809 --> 00:15:19.750
me thinking about so many things. So I'm very psyched
380
00:15:19.769 --> 00:15:22.809
for season two. But along those lines, I just wanted
381
00:15:22.830 --> 00:15:25.789
to go back to, I'll just touch on it, met
382
00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.220
you for the first time. We mentioned this last time,
383
00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:29.860
but I think it bears repeating. I met you when
384
00:15:29.899 --> 00:15:33.580
you came to SNL and right away was doing one
385
00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:35.399
of the funniest things I'd seen when you played a
386
00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:42.600
grownup Eddie Munster. With the whole outfit, but you're jaded now.
387
00:15:43.379 --> 00:15:47.419
You had done a Tom Cruise film, which was a
388
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.990
parody of Color of Money. And I looked at that
389
00:15:50.070 --> 00:15:52.110
film and I remember thinking, well, why isn't this, this
390
00:15:52.429 --> 00:15:55.389
is what Staring Out Live should be, which later on,
391
00:15:55.789 --> 00:15:58.409
if you look at what Please Don't Destroy and a
392
00:15:58.590 --> 00:16:01.610
lot of the shorts from Lonely Island, it became more,
393
00:16:02.070 --> 00:16:04.970
these short films, which are just, you know, became more
394
00:16:04.990 --> 00:16:06.809
and more of the DNA of the show. When you
395
00:16:06.870 --> 00:16:09.730
first came along, I was remembered, the first thing I
396
00:16:09.789 --> 00:16:12.509
saw you do was that short that you had made.
397
00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:14.970
I think yourself self-funded or something.
398
00:16:15.049 --> 00:16:16.490
Yeah. I made it on my own.
399
00:16:16.509 --> 00:16:18.230
Is it before Ben Stiller show?
400
00:16:18.669 --> 00:16:20.610
Yeah, no, this was before anything I was, I had,
401
00:16:20.870 --> 00:16:22.830
I was in a play, uh, called the house of
402
00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:25.850
blue leaves off Broadway and the cast, the play was
403
00:16:25.870 --> 00:16:28.559
doing really well and it moved to Broadway and John
404
00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:32.080
Mahoney was in it and, uh, Stockard Channing and Chris
405
00:16:32.139 --> 00:16:36.659
Walken and all this amazing cast. And I made this
406
00:16:36.820 --> 00:16:40.200
short takeoff with these two guys, Steve Clayman and, um,
407
00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:43.570
Ralph Howard. And we, I kind of put all my
408
00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:45.870
money into it that I was making for the show.
409
00:16:46.549 --> 00:16:48.429
And we made this short and then we were like, okay,
410
00:16:48.470 --> 00:16:50.850
let's take it somewhere. And this was, I mean, it's
411
00:16:50.909 --> 00:16:54.889
just a proof of how old I am and we are.
412
00:16:55.009 --> 00:16:55.519
Not me.
413
00:16:55.740 --> 00:16:56.179
I met you.
414
00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:57.620
I met you when I was four years old.
415
00:16:57.659 --> 00:17:00.379
I know, I know. I forgot.
416
00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:01.620
I'm 39 years old.
417
00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:05.259
But there was nowhere to go. There wasn't, you know,
418
00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:08.660
anything to upload it to at that point. So it
419
00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:12.509
was like a video cassette and Lovitz had come to the, show.
420
00:17:12.630 --> 00:17:15.809
He'd seen the show. And I reached out to him
421
00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:18.609
because he came backstage afterwards and he knew my parents
422
00:17:18.710 --> 00:17:21.589
and was very nice. And I reached out. I said, hey,
423
00:17:21.630 --> 00:17:23.630
I've got this short. Is there any way you could
424
00:17:23.650 --> 00:17:25.079
get them to take a look at it? And he
425
00:17:25.140 --> 00:17:28.400
literally met me in the lobby at 30 Rock and
426
00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:29.920
took the videocassette upstairs.
427
00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:34.019
I remembered watching it. All of us were blown away.
428
00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:36.720
Your Tom Cruise impression was fantastic.
429
00:17:37.099 --> 00:17:38.680
I couldn't believe that they were putting it on the
430
00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:40.329
air because there was nobody from the show in it.
431
00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:40.839
Yep.
432
00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:43.359
And it was Jim Downey. Yep.
433
00:17:43.539 --> 00:17:47.200
Jim Downey, great, who's been on this podcast, amazing head writer.
434
00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:49.640
When he saw something that was great, he knew this
435
00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:52.859
has to just be on. I find it so interesting
436
00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:54.700
that people can go back and look at that Color
437
00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:56.779
of Money parody that you did, and you should look
438
00:17:56.819 --> 00:17:58.980
it up and check it out. But to me, it
439
00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:02.420
was saying, it occurred to me today, oh, this was
440
00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:05.500
the way to go. You were ahead of your time,
441
00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:06.799
in my opinion.
442
00:18:06.819 --> 00:18:10.230
I don't know, I was just sort of like, Honestly,
443
00:18:10.250 --> 00:18:12.230
I've probably talked to you about this before, that, you know,
444
00:18:12.329 --> 00:18:15.049
it was for me trying to do what Albert Brooks,
445
00:18:15.490 --> 00:18:17.809
who I think was ahead of his time, for sure.
446
00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:19.650
Very much so, yeah. In terms of, like, what he did,
447
00:18:19.670 --> 00:18:22.369
his first movie, Real Life, which was about reality television
448
00:18:22.509 --> 00:18:25.190
and making fun of it and what he had done
449
00:18:25.230 --> 00:18:27.380
on the show and watching that when I was younger
450
00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:29.759
and wanting to do that kind of thing.
451
00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:32.460
When I first saw you, you were doing a spot-on
452
00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:35.920
Tom Cruise impression, and then you flash forward all these
453
00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:37.019
years with Tropic Thunder.
454
00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:37.740
Yeah.
455
00:18:38.180 --> 00:18:38.319
And.
456
00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:45.319
Tom Cruise plays this executive in Tropic Thunder. And it is,
457
00:18:45.339 --> 00:18:48.119
I mean, I've talked to Tom Cruise about it. It
458
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.779
is one of the funniest cameos. He comes out of nowhere.
459
00:18:51.819 --> 00:18:53.609
And I know that he came to you when you,
460
00:18:53.619 --> 00:18:57.589
I don't know if you approached him about playing this character.
461
00:18:57.970 --> 00:18:59.109
What's the character's name? Is it Lou?
462
00:18:59.170 --> 00:18:59.769
Les Grossman.
463
00:18:59.789 --> 00:19:00.329
Les Grossman.
464
00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:00.609
Yeah.
465
00:19:01.250 --> 00:19:02.690
He had like two requests.
466
00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:03.349
Yeah.
467
00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:09.059
I mean, it's never really stated, but it's kind of implied.
468
00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:11.819
Just occurred to me now that's a Jewish name. But
469
00:19:12.140 --> 00:19:15.680
he had requests, right? He had two requests. Correct me
470
00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:18.670
if I'm wrong. You could say he wanted his hands.
471
00:19:19.009 --> 00:19:22.730
Yeah, he wanted to have big, thick forearms that were hairy.
472
00:19:22.829 --> 00:19:27.769
He wanted to be Jewish. And he wanted to... And
473
00:19:27.789 --> 00:19:30.329
he wanted to dance. And he wanted to dance.
474
00:19:30.390 --> 00:19:30.529
And so.
475
00:19:32.690 --> 00:19:33.430
Again, Jewish.
476
00:19:33.630 --> 00:19:37.079
What's crazy to me is that when he said those
477
00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:40.019
things to you, you might have been thinking, oh, I
478
00:19:40.059 --> 00:19:41.539
don't know. Did you a right away say?
479
00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.400
No, I was. I mean, it's a strange set of
480
00:19:44.460 --> 00:19:48.650
circumstances the way that this happened. We had done this
481
00:19:48.750 --> 00:19:50.950
little short for the MTV podcast. movie awards where I
482
00:19:50.970 --> 00:19:54.019
played a stunt man. And that's where we, and we
483
00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:56.170
had met a couple of times over the years before that,
484
00:19:56.210 --> 00:19:58.000
but then we had real, had a great time doing
485
00:19:58.019 --> 00:20:01.019
that together. And it stayed in touch since then. And
486
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:03.160
I had had this idea for the movie for a
487
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:06.640
long time. I had been working on it with Justin Theroux. Um,
488
00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:10.190
and Etan Cohen came on later and, We finally had
489
00:20:10.230 --> 00:20:13.910
this script and I had talked to Tom about it. Originally,
490
00:20:13.970 --> 00:20:15.859
I wanted Tom to play my part.
491
00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:16.680
Oh, really?
492
00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:19.099
Yeah. Yeah. But I was like a little bit, I
493
00:20:19.140 --> 00:20:21.700
was like too, really too nervous to ask him to
494
00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:22.160
do it.
495
00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:22.539
Yeah.
496
00:20:22.579 --> 00:20:24.279
Because he's Tom Cruise. Sure. Yeah.
497
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:25.460
He has other stuff to do.
498
00:20:25.619 --> 00:20:25.859
Yeah.
499
00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:28.859
And we were friendly and hanging out. He was so
500
00:20:28.940 --> 00:20:31.940
nice and just the greatest guy. But I didn't like
501
00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:34.690
want to bother him really with this. But eventually I
502
00:20:34.789 --> 00:20:36.650
sent him the script and he was like, this is,
503
00:20:37.049 --> 00:20:40.220
this is... this is great, I'd love to be a
504
00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:41.920
part of this. And I was like, well, maybe you
505
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:44.640
could play, there's like an agent role. He's like, well, no,
506
00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:47.200
I played an agent before. Yeah, yeah. Jerry Maguire. Yeah.
507
00:20:47.539 --> 00:20:50.740
He said, but it was his idea, this character. He said,
508
00:20:50.839 --> 00:20:53.079
you don't have a studio exec in the movie.
509
00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:53.640
Yeah.
510
00:20:53.789 --> 00:20:57.029
So this was like three months or maybe like two
511
00:20:57.049 --> 00:20:59.789
and a half months before we started shooting. And Justin
512
00:20:59.829 --> 00:21:03.049
and I were like, well, Tom is, you know, would
513
00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:04.329
like to be in the movie. And he had this
514
00:21:04.369 --> 00:21:06.700
idea of playing a studio exec. And so we went
515
00:21:06.740 --> 00:21:09.240
back and came up with Les Grossman and it changed
516
00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:10.980
the whole plot of the movie, but made it so
517
00:21:11.019 --> 00:21:13.720
much better. Oh, it's, and I think he has a very,
518
00:21:13.740 --> 00:21:16.960
you know, an amazing instinct about movies. He's so smart.
519
00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:20.460
Like it's crazy how, you know, he's a really student
520
00:21:20.680 --> 00:21:24.309
of movies and he's just, he had this feeling like
521
00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:26.589
you need this element to the story. So there was
522
00:21:26.650 --> 00:21:29.289
no element where what was happening back in the States
523
00:21:29.410 --> 00:21:31.900
the whole time in the Tropic Thunder story. And So
524
00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:35.259
we came up with this, and Justin wrote a bunch
525
00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:37.480
of those monologues where he just goes off.
526
00:21:38.039 --> 00:21:40.140
But at the end, when he starts.
527
00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:41.259
And then he said he wanted to dance, yeah.
528
00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:45.529
When he starts dancing... First of all, I talked earlier
529
00:21:45.549 --> 00:21:47.990
when we started out about your body of work, and
530
00:21:48.549 --> 00:21:51.309
it is crazy. There's so many movies that you've directed
531
00:21:51.390 --> 00:21:53.900
which have so many... moments in them where I go like, okay,
532
00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:58.180
that's one of my favorite comedy moments. Zoolander, the gasoline
533
00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:02.650
station fight. When they're throwing gasoline on each other and
534
00:22:02.750 --> 00:22:07.150
laughing in slow motion is one of the funniest things
535
00:22:07.349 --> 00:22:11.190
I've ever seen. It delights me every time I think
536
00:22:11.259 --> 00:22:13.640
about it. Also, when you and Owen are trying to
537
00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:17.829
hack into a computer and you become More or less apes.
538
00:22:19.430 --> 00:22:20.630
So there's all this.
539
00:22:20.670 --> 00:22:23.910
The 2001 kind of reference. But I have to tell
540
00:22:23.930 --> 00:22:27.130
you something, because I was actually, for another project I'm
541
00:22:27.170 --> 00:22:30.589
working on, this documentary, I was looking through some of
542
00:22:30.609 --> 00:22:34.789
this old behind-the-scenes footage from Zoolander that I have, and
543
00:22:35.970 --> 00:22:37.910
I found an old, this was literally last week, I
544
00:22:37.950 --> 00:22:40.990
found an old cut of the gasoline fight. And I
545
00:22:41.430 --> 00:22:45.839
had forgotten that originally, you know, he lights the cigarette,
546
00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:48.680
And I think the way it is in the movie,
547
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:50.480
I've watched, it's like, he lights a cigarette, I go,
548
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:53.480
oh no, and then boom, they blow up. But originally
549
00:22:53.500 --> 00:22:55.420
it was, he lights a cigarette and I go, oh no,
550
00:22:55.740 --> 00:22:58.329
and you watch the flame kind of like, he drops
551
00:22:58.380 --> 00:23:01.329
the match on the floor and you see the flame like,
552
00:23:01.589 --> 00:23:03.890
you know, kind of track under the car and go
553
00:23:03.970 --> 00:23:06.509
up and then it goes up and it starts engulfing
554
00:23:06.630 --> 00:23:07.650
each one of the models.
555
00:23:07.730 --> 00:23:09.670
Oh my God.
556
00:23:10.069 --> 00:23:12.579
And it literally goes on for, I'm not kidding, for like,
557
00:23:13.059 --> 00:23:16.069
maybe like two minutes where they're just like dancing in,
558
00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:20.519
But you know what's great?
559
00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:22.880
That is, but you know what's great, Ben? That's a
560
00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:27.339
masterclass in the difference between this way is funny, this
561
00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:27.940
way is not.
562
00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:28.700
It's awful.
563
00:23:29.220 --> 00:23:33.970
And you can't really explain why, but... No, no, when
564
00:23:34.009 --> 00:23:37.690
you watch it, you see it's awful. And also, this
565
00:23:37.769 --> 00:23:38.130
is like.
566
00:23:38.390 --> 00:23:39.710
You know, the year 2000. The year 2000.
567
00:23:39.710 --> 00:23:39.970
Yeah, yeah.
568
00:23:43.369 --> 00:23:46.490
Before real, like, you know, CG effects where, like, we
569
00:23:46.529 --> 00:23:50.130
had three stuntmen doused in those, like, the jelly where
570
00:23:50.150 --> 00:23:53.829
they put the jelly on and actually be on fire
571
00:23:53.930 --> 00:23:57.319
for real doing this. And then the explosion was a
572
00:23:57.400 --> 00:24:00.460
real explosion that, like, knocked the windows out of the
573
00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:02.480
buildings across the street because it was, like, bigger than
574
00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:05.880
our guy thought it was going to be. Oh, my God.
575
00:24:06.019 --> 00:24:07.279
It's just, like, a different time.
576
00:24:07.339 --> 00:24:10.720
But that is a great... Like I say, if you
577
00:24:10.779 --> 00:24:14.460
ever teach a class on comedy, which would sell out,
578
00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:17.509
just the idea of, this is the way we showed
579
00:24:17.549 --> 00:24:20.690
it in the movie. Yay! Let me show you a
580
00:24:20.730 --> 00:24:24.690
way that we didn't go with people crying and screaming.
581
00:24:26.910 --> 00:24:28.710
If it bends, it's funny.
582
00:24:28.750 --> 00:24:29.890
Yes, no, it's true, yeah.
583
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.680
Good nights are about the people. The laughs. The real
584
00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.920
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Leaping vast distances, holding off armies.
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Eating tonnes of fresh grass.
596
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What?
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your local recycling centre. Find your nearest free drop-off point
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at weireland.ie today.
612
00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:16.599
In Tropic Thunder, when you're running across the bridge and you,
613
00:26:17.059 --> 00:26:21.039
when the kid gets thrown, I got on the floor.
614
00:26:21.460 --> 00:26:25.599
It's so wrong in every way. It's so wrong in
615
00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:26.279
every way.
616
00:26:26.579 --> 00:26:28.460
Like there's not anything else that's wrong in that movie.
617
00:26:28.529 --> 00:26:28.789
No, no.
618
00:26:31.170 --> 00:26:33.230
There's so much that's- Nothing comes to mind. Nothing comes
619
00:26:33.289 --> 00:26:38.170
to mind. But absolutely, so just the body of work,
620
00:26:38.250 --> 00:26:41.690
Reality Bites, Cable Guy has so much funny shit in it,
621
00:26:41.990 --> 00:26:42.740
you know, and.
622
00:26:43.289 --> 00:26:45.789
Well, like all, like all those are, you know, collaborations
623
00:26:45.809 --> 00:26:48.710
with people. And for me that, that has always been
624
00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:51.460
the thing. It's like, I love working with people who
625
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:55.480
are funny and, you know, it doesn't just come from me. It's,
626
00:26:55.579 --> 00:26:56.099
you know, it's.
627
00:26:56.519 --> 00:26:59.160
Well, I could always tell that because all those years
628
00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:01.230
when I was doing the late night show through all
629
00:27:01.269 --> 00:27:04.849
your different stages, you would always show up and want
630
00:27:04.910 --> 00:27:07.089
it and say, okay, let's do something. And you would
631
00:27:07.150 --> 00:27:10.910
come with ideas and then you would, spend a long
632
00:27:10.990 --> 00:27:14.130
time making the, I, this great idea come to life,
633
00:27:14.289 --> 00:27:17.869
working with other people, working with us. And then you
634
00:27:17.890 --> 00:27:19.299
would do this thing and it would be on it,
635
00:27:19.349 --> 00:27:22.319
you know, 1250 at night on NBC. And you either
636
00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:24.940
saw it or you didn't, this was before internet. And
637
00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:27.140
it was, I mean, I mean, it's great. It was
638
00:27:27.180 --> 00:27:27.839
just great.
639
00:27:27.900 --> 00:27:30.019
And I have for this documentary, I've been working on,
640
00:27:30.059 --> 00:27:32.099
I've been looking at some of that old stuff and
641
00:27:32.140 --> 00:27:35.349
it's just, I mean, I'm like, what was I thinking?
642
00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:39.849
Cause it's such a commitment. And I, I mean, besides
643
00:27:39.869 --> 00:27:42.670
just looking at myself 30 years ago or whatever it
644
00:27:42.710 --> 00:27:45.470
is and just kind of like my attitude and coming
645
00:27:45.529 --> 00:27:47.849
in with like, hey, I'm going to be funny. You
646
00:27:47.930 --> 00:27:49.259
know what I mean? Or like, I'm going to have
647
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:50.200
an attitude with you.
648
00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:51.859
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you were great.
649
00:27:51.940 --> 00:27:54.660
You played along and you were always so open to
650
00:27:54.759 --> 00:27:56.839
it and you were always like, okay, let's go for
651
00:27:56.859 --> 00:27:57.980
it and let's do it. Right.
652
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:01.400
It was now I look back on it and I think,
653
00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:04.019
wait a minute. We were doing a 1230 show and
654
00:28:04.380 --> 00:28:07.849
Ben Stiller would come by and work all day on doing...
655
00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:10.460
a nine-minute comedy piece for us?
656
00:28:11.150 --> 00:28:11.490
You know?
657
00:28:11.630 --> 00:28:15.190
But I was thinking... How did that happen? Like, that's...
658
00:28:15.650 --> 00:28:18.519
I mean, I did something right in a previous life.
659
00:28:18.670 --> 00:28:21.299
Yeah, but also, you know, I was thinking about it because, like,
660
00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:22.680
I had to do a talk show next week and
661
00:28:22.700 --> 00:28:24.339
I was thinking, okay, what am I going to do?
662
00:28:24.460 --> 00:28:26.849
And I should think... And then I'm like, we'll just,
663
00:28:27.369 --> 00:28:30.140
we'll talk and we'll be fine. I realize I'm just.
664
00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:32.839
Like, I don't have the energy for that. No, it's
665
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:35.220
at all anymore. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, it'll be good.
666
00:28:35.259 --> 00:28:35.980
We'll come over.
667
00:28:36.019 --> 00:28:39.269
No, that's the problem is a late night host now
668
00:28:39.309 --> 00:28:41.349
would look at like, oh no, I saw you. You
669
00:28:41.390 --> 00:28:45.980
did Jesus Christ Superstar With Conan. So we thought maybe
670
00:28:46.019 --> 00:28:47.680
you could do a thing where you're Godzilla and you're like, no,
671
00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:49.720
I just want to come out in a good Tom
672
00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:53.119
Ford suit, chat about my work.
673
00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:54.509
Yeah, I'm tired.
674
00:28:54.670 --> 00:28:55.029
Are you?
675
00:28:55.970 --> 00:28:59.349
I heard you were working on a documentary about your parents.
676
00:28:59.410 --> 00:28:59.950
Yeah, that's.
677
00:29:00.009 --> 00:29:02.539
And I wanted to talk about that because because I
678
00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:06.450
grew up. watching your parents, the great Ann Mira, Jerry Stiller.
679
00:29:06.730 --> 00:29:10.009
And I remember they were kind of ubiquitous when I
680
00:29:10.029 --> 00:29:12.339
was a kid. I thought they were really funny. I'd
681
00:29:12.380 --> 00:29:15.920
see them on like Love American Style or they'd be
682
00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:19.200
these different, they'd be in ads. And I just knew, oh,
683
00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:21.279
these are these really funny people, but I didn't know
684
00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:24.359
exactly who they were. And then later on, they came
685
00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:26.099
on the show in their own right. Of course, your
686
00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:29.279
dad was on Seinfeld. Yeah, very well known that way.
687
00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:32.130
And yeah, I mean, they had yeah, they were a
688
00:29:32.180 --> 00:29:33.210
comedy team and.
689
00:29:33.890 --> 00:29:35.450
An old-school comedy team.
690
00:29:35.490 --> 00:29:37.920
Old-school comedy team from this You know, they started in
691
00:29:37.980 --> 00:29:43.059
the late 50s early 60s and were two young actors
692
00:29:43.220 --> 00:29:45.480
who met and fell in love got married really quickly
693
00:29:45.779 --> 00:29:49.369
and Then were became starving actors in New York and
694
00:29:49.490 --> 00:29:52.170
after five or six years Tried to figure out a
695
00:29:52.230 --> 00:29:54.809
way that they could make some money and my dad
696
00:29:54.869 --> 00:29:57.309
was the guy who always wanted to be a comedian
697
00:29:58.210 --> 00:30:02.250
Grew up during the Depression idolized Eddie Cantor, people like that.
698
00:30:02.769 --> 00:30:05.650
And my mom wanted to be, just wanted to be
699
00:30:05.670 --> 00:30:08.839
a serious actress, but she was really funny and really talented.
700
00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:11.279
And my dad had this idea that they should do
701
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:13.839
an act. So he pulled her into it. Interesting.
702
00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:14.240
Yeah.
703
00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:17.420
And, um, did they do like Sullivan and all those shows?
704
00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:21.589
Yeah, they did. Ed Sullivan. I think it's 30. I
705
00:30:22.150 --> 00:30:23.769
always get it wrong. It's like 36 or 37 times.
706
00:30:25.670 --> 00:30:26.069
Wow.
707
00:30:26.109 --> 00:30:28.569
And it kind of made their career. Yes. And that's
708
00:30:28.589 --> 00:30:28.849
a big.
709
00:30:28.869 --> 00:30:30.789
I had a memory. I have a sense memory of
710
00:30:30.849 --> 00:30:35.359
them because there was that era where, you know, a
711
00:30:35.410 --> 00:30:37.839
comedy team could come into people... And talk about, like,
712
00:30:37.900 --> 00:30:39.539
half the country would be watching. Yeah.
713
00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:40.440
Them do a routine.
714
00:30:40.460 --> 00:30:41.019
No, I mean, it was.
715
00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:43.339
Yeah, that's part of the story is that, you know,
716
00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:46.279
the pressure that was on them as live performers, which,
717
00:30:46.579 --> 00:30:49.029
you know, a pressure you know as, you know, doing
718
00:30:49.049 --> 00:30:52.089
what you do. It's... But for them, not... Like, every
719
00:30:52.130 --> 00:30:54.349
time they went out, they had to get re-invited back
720
00:30:54.609 --> 00:30:57.490
by Sullivan. And they had to do well. So, you know,
721
00:30:57.529 --> 00:30:58.890
that was, and they had to do like five, it
722
00:30:58.910 --> 00:31:01.069
wasn't like two minutes. It was, it was like six
723
00:31:01.109 --> 00:31:02.150
or seven minutes, you know.
724
00:31:02.609 --> 00:31:06.380
It's hard for people to know now because there's 75,
725
00:31:06.380 --> 00:31:09.779
there's an infinite number of outlets. So there's no such
726
00:31:09.859 --> 00:31:14.299
thing as, well, I came on Conan, or I came
727
00:31:14.380 --> 00:31:16.279
on one of, you know, Conan's late night show a
728
00:31:16.759 --> 00:31:19.359
couple of years ago and he wasn't pleased. So we're
729
00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:22.200
through in the business. Well, no, there's a billion other
730
00:31:22.220 --> 00:31:25.549
places to go. There's no such thing as, You're through, kid.
731
00:31:25.569 --> 00:31:28.490
You displeased me. But this was a different era where
732
00:31:28.710 --> 00:31:33.430
if Sullivan didn't like you and there was a problem,
733
00:31:33.549 --> 00:31:34.069
that was it.
734
00:31:34.329 --> 00:31:34.869
That could be it.
735
00:31:35.049 --> 00:31:35.269
Yeah.
736
00:31:35.529 --> 00:31:39.880
And luckily, he liked them. They did a number of
737
00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:42.579
different sketches every time they come out. But then they
738
00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:45.440
finally hit on this one sketch where basically they played
739
00:31:45.460 --> 00:31:47.039
off the fact that my dad was Jewish, my mom
740
00:31:47.059 --> 00:31:50.880
was Irish Catholic. And they had these two characters meeting
741
00:31:50.900 --> 00:31:54.069
off of a computer dating. And it was Hershey Horowitz.
742
00:31:54.710 --> 00:31:58.490
and Mary Elizabeth Doyle. Funny now.
743
00:31:58.539 --> 00:31:59.940
It's still funny.
744
00:31:59.960 --> 00:32:02.779
And it was controversial at the time because, you know,
745
00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:04.619
they didn't know if people would go for it. But
746
00:32:04.779 --> 00:32:08.079
Ed Sullivan's wife, he was Catholic, but his wife was Jewish.
747
00:32:08.119 --> 00:32:08.519
Oh, wow.
748
00:32:08.700 --> 00:32:11.259
And he loved it. And that was sort of, you know,
749
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:15.000
he kept on inviting them back. And that's, yeah. But,
750
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:19.430
you know, you're in the documentary because there are so many,
751
00:32:19.450 --> 00:32:22.150
you know, these talk show appearances. You know, I'm kind
752
00:32:22.190 --> 00:32:24.710
of also looking at it through the lens of, you know,
753
00:32:24.970 --> 00:32:28.190
for me over the years being asked about them, you know,
754
00:32:28.410 --> 00:32:31.309
and so many times and really trying to figure out like, well,
755
00:32:31.329 --> 00:32:33.069
what is it like, what was it like being their,
756
00:32:33.210 --> 00:32:35.529
their son? You know, what, who were they? What, what was,
757
00:32:35.549 --> 00:32:38.809
you know, what's the core of, of what my experience
758
00:32:38.849 --> 00:32:41.829
was with them as parents and stuff I never really
759
00:32:41.890 --> 00:32:44.069
questioned until you start doing something like this and you
760
00:32:44.089 --> 00:32:47.789
start looking into it. But, um, we went on with
761
00:32:47.849 --> 00:32:52.160
you once and there was a bit that I was
762
00:32:52.440 --> 00:32:55.740
sick and my mom was taking care of me and
763
00:32:55.799 --> 00:32:58.500
my mom and dad came out with me on the show.
764
00:32:58.559 --> 00:32:59.019
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
765
00:32:59.259 --> 00:33:01.519
Yeah, yeah. And it's so funny. It's so great.
766
00:33:01.559 --> 00:33:05.690
Those are, I mean, you know, the.
767
00:33:06.029 --> 00:33:07.890
And then I have to tell you another thing, too. Yeah, yeah.
768
00:33:08.230 --> 00:33:09.750
So I've been working on this thing for like four
769
00:33:09.789 --> 00:33:14.529
years and... as, as a documentary develops, you start to,
770
00:33:14.950 --> 00:33:17.329
I've never made a documentary before. And what I'm learning
771
00:33:17.809 --> 00:33:19.470
is that as it goes along, you start to figure
772
00:33:19.509 --> 00:33:22.390
out really what it's about through the process of editing.
773
00:33:22.589 --> 00:33:22.750
Yeah.
774
00:33:23.009 --> 00:33:24.869
And then you think it's one thing for like a
775
00:33:24.930 --> 00:33:26.269
year or two, and then you realize, Oh no, I
776
00:33:26.309 --> 00:33:28.210
got to have more of this story or, you know,
777
00:33:28.250 --> 00:33:29.529
how I have to have more for me. It's been
778
00:33:29.549 --> 00:33:32.339
more of like, Oh, personally, like really like getting into like,
779
00:33:32.490 --> 00:33:35.299
what is, what's my experience with them? Because you know, that's,
780
00:33:35.579 --> 00:33:39.609
I'm the one making the movie. And, um, We figured
781
00:33:39.670 --> 00:33:42.369
out this part of it that I've always felt, which
782
00:33:42.410 --> 00:33:46.230
was my dad on Seinfeld was, you know, he was
783
00:33:46.269 --> 00:33:46.910
so angry.
784
00:33:47.150 --> 00:33:47.369
Right.
785
00:33:47.670 --> 00:33:49.910
And that was so funny to see him blow up
786
00:33:49.950 --> 00:33:54.630
and scream. So funny shouting. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. And I
787
00:33:54.670 --> 00:33:58.079
always felt it was because he had all this suppressed
788
00:33:58.690 --> 00:34:02.299
inner rage in him that he kind of kept down.
789
00:34:02.900 --> 00:34:04.700
You know, he loved my mom. They were like, you know,
790
00:34:04.740 --> 00:34:06.559
he was the most loving, generous guy. But he had
791
00:34:06.599 --> 00:34:09.659
like he had to sublimate a lot. And over the years,
792
00:34:09.820 --> 00:34:12.500
doing their act together, the sort of the dynamic between
793
00:34:12.519 --> 00:34:14.079
them was that she would kind of like, you know,
794
00:34:14.119 --> 00:34:15.840
shut him up a lot. You know, like, Jerry, Jerry,
795
00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:17.659
stop talking, stop talking. Yeah, yeah. And I have all
796
00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:19.659
these clips, you know, from the 70s of them on
797
00:34:19.800 --> 00:34:22.460
all these talk shows doing that. And I thought, you know,
798
00:34:22.739 --> 00:34:26.739
when he finally hit it on Seinfeld, it was because
799
00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:29.510
he was able to let out all of that inner,
800
00:34:29.530 --> 00:34:31.130
you know, all that inner.
801
00:34:31.150 --> 00:34:32.030
Makes sense, yeah. Yeah.
802
00:34:32.570 --> 00:34:36.059
And I was trying to find a soundbite to sort of,
803
00:34:36.789 --> 00:34:39.619
you know, explain that, where he talked about it. And
804
00:34:40.079 --> 00:34:43.519
I couldn't find one. And I was driving home. This
805
00:34:43.539 --> 00:34:46.559
was like literally like a month ago. I'm driving home
806
00:34:46.659 --> 00:34:49.519
and I put on, you know, your Sirius XM station.
807
00:34:50.059 --> 00:34:53.800
And it's literally, it's a clip of my dad on
808
00:34:54.059 --> 00:34:56.639
the show, on your show. And you're asking him about,
809
00:34:56.889 --> 00:34:58.929
you know, Costanza and why is he so funny? And
810
00:34:58.969 --> 00:35:01.650
my dad said, this was like literally, he says as
811
00:35:01.710 --> 00:35:03.469
I turn it on, he says, It's because I had
812
00:35:03.510 --> 00:35:07.440
all this inner rage. Jesus! Yeah. And I literally, like,
813
00:35:07.500 --> 00:35:10.900
pulled the car over and, like, you know, texted my editor.
814
00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:12.139
And, yeah.
815
00:35:12.539 --> 00:35:14.460
Isn't that insane? That's fantastic.
816
00:35:14.539 --> 00:35:16.869
And we pulled the clip out, and it's in the movie,
817
00:35:16.949 --> 00:35:18.690
along with the other thing. Well, I don't give you
818
00:35:18.730 --> 00:35:21.769
permission to use it. That's actually why I'm here.
819
00:35:22.989 --> 00:35:24.710
And I'm editing this part out of the podcast.
820
00:35:26.090 --> 00:35:28.880
Let's come up with a number, gang.
821
00:35:29.500 --> 00:35:30.880
I need a Conan.
822
00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:33.139
That's great.
823
00:35:33.260 --> 00:35:35.590
I felt like it was my dad and the ether
824
00:35:35.610 --> 00:35:37.789
or something, just like this moment was happening.
825
00:35:37.849 --> 00:35:40.449
Well, first of all, I love that. I love that.
826
00:35:40.710 --> 00:35:44.239
And I do think that it was so nice that
827
00:35:44.260 --> 00:35:47.710
your dad got to have that moment. that role. And
828
00:35:47.750 --> 00:35:50.690
then he's in King of Queens after that. And so
829
00:35:50.730 --> 00:35:55.429
he has this whole generation that knows him from that stuff.
830
00:35:55.489 --> 00:35:56.050
You know what I mean?
831
00:35:56.070 --> 00:35:59.199
Which is sweet. He always wanted that, you know, he
832
00:35:59.239 --> 00:36:01.260
had had so much success with my mom, but then
833
00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:03.420
there was a period of time after, you know, when
834
00:36:03.559 --> 00:36:06.360
being a comedy team was not something that was as
835
00:36:06.420 --> 00:36:08.760
viable in show business, you know, as you, as you
836
00:36:08.780 --> 00:36:10.769
go into the eighties and the nineties, it's not like
837
00:36:10.809 --> 00:36:13.789
there's shows that are, you know, like the Merv Griffin
838
00:36:13.829 --> 00:36:15.630
Show or the Ed Sullivan Show. It's just so they
839
00:36:15.650 --> 00:36:19.920
were having to figure out their careers separately. And then,
840
00:36:19.940 --> 00:36:22.960
you know, Seinfeld happened for him in his 70s and
841
00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:25.679
it changed, you know, it just fulfilled everything that he
842
00:36:25.719 --> 00:36:28.579
had wanted. And my mom, it wasn't as important to
843
00:36:28.619 --> 00:36:30.920
her because she was, I think, happier to kind of
844
00:36:31.400 --> 00:36:34.019
stay at home and write and, you know, read biographies,
845
00:36:34.059 --> 00:36:37.849
do the Sunday Times crossword puzzle. But my dad, that's
846
00:36:37.889 --> 00:36:40.849
what was, it was, you know, He was so connected
847
00:36:40.889 --> 00:36:43.889
to the audience, to being recognized. It meant so much
848
00:36:43.909 --> 00:36:46.050
to him. Yes, yes. Because he was so deprived as
849
00:36:46.090 --> 00:36:49.050
a kid. His parents, he had such a tough childhood.
850
00:36:49.070 --> 00:36:51.960
His dad was a cab driver. You know, they moved
851
00:36:51.960 --> 00:36:54.460
13 different times when he was a kid over the
852
00:36:54.500 --> 00:36:56.639
course of a few years. And, you know, so he
853
00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.840
was just like both loving and needy, but like in
854
00:36:59.880 --> 00:37:04.079
the most generous way. And, you know, they would like
855
00:37:04.219 --> 00:37:05.659
someone come up to him on the street and, you know,
856
00:37:05.800 --> 00:37:07.769
recognize him. He'd be with my mom and he'd talk
857
00:37:07.789 --> 00:37:09.849
to them for like 15 minutes. And my mom would
858
00:37:09.869 --> 00:37:11.409
be like, Jerry, let's get the fuck out of here.
859
00:37:11.429 --> 00:37:11.869
Come on.
860
00:37:12.489 --> 00:37:18.300
This guy knows me. Exactly. I'll do a dance for you,
861
00:37:18.309 --> 00:37:21.909
whatever you want. Boy, do I relate to that.
862
00:37:22.050 --> 00:37:24.280
I didn't get any of that, by the way.
863
00:37:26.380 --> 00:37:29.619
It's funny because I know you did... Early on, you
864
00:37:29.650 --> 00:37:31.030
were a musician, drummer.
865
00:37:31.269 --> 00:37:32.210
Well, just sort of.
866
00:37:32.250 --> 00:37:34.670
Super early on, but did you ever think that was
867
00:37:34.690 --> 00:37:36.929
gonna be it, or did you always know? No, I
868
00:37:36.989 --> 00:37:39.150
was not a great drummer. I was just- I was
869
00:37:39.190 --> 00:37:41.010
a terrible drummer. I know you were in a band
870
00:37:41.050 --> 00:37:41.880
called Capital Punishment.
871
00:37:41.920 --> 00:37:42.659
Capital Punishment, yeah.
872
00:37:42.679 --> 00:37:44.599
Right, I was in a band called The Bad Clams,
873
00:37:44.860 --> 00:37:47.159
and I was a drummer, and then I told them,
874
00:37:47.380 --> 00:37:49.860
I'm out. I don't have time for this, I've got
875
00:37:49.900 --> 00:37:52.090
other things. And I remember thinking, good luck without me,
876
00:37:52.139 --> 00:37:55.250
and they replaced me with a drum machine. Oh. And
877
00:37:55.289 --> 00:38:00.010
it's like, can we do that on this podcast? And
878
00:38:00.230 --> 00:38:03.670
people were just like, whatever, it's better. It's keeping time correctly.
879
00:38:04.130 --> 00:38:05.699
But yeah, that was just a that was a that
880
00:38:05.719 --> 00:38:06.639
was a moment for you.
881
00:38:07.110 --> 00:38:09.360
Yeah, it was. I had a friend in high school
882
00:38:09.389 --> 00:38:11.920
who was the band leader and he was really talented.
883
00:38:12.260 --> 00:38:15.900
We're still friends, Chris Roebling. And but I was not
884
00:38:15.940 --> 00:38:18.280
a great drummer. I really wasn't great at keeping time.
885
00:38:18.300 --> 00:38:21.260
What is that documentary about Ginger? Baker.
886
00:38:21.340 --> 00:38:23.420
Ginger Baker, yeah. From Cream. Yeah.
887
00:38:23.619 --> 00:38:25.880
There's a great documentary about him and he's like so
888
00:38:26.019 --> 00:38:28.300
like hard ass in terms of like, you gotta, like
889
00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:30.219
either you have time or you don't have time.
890
00:38:30.239 --> 00:38:32.099
Oh, and in that documentary, they're saying things like, you
891
00:38:32.139 --> 00:38:36.239
mean great, like a great drummer, like, you know, Keith
892
00:38:36.260 --> 00:38:38.619
Moon from The Who. And he goes, no, I'm talking
893
00:38:38.659 --> 00:38:41.769
about real drum. I mean, people are mentioning icons to
894
00:38:41.809 --> 00:38:44.710
him or John Bonham from Let's, and he's like, no, no.
895
00:38:45.250 --> 00:38:47.710
I mean, a real, I mean, this guy who thinks
896
00:38:47.769 --> 00:38:50.010
of like maybe three people in the universe are real
897
00:38:50.030 --> 00:38:53.650
drummers and everyone else is just shite.
898
00:38:54.190 --> 00:38:55.050
Yeah.
899
00:38:55.190 --> 00:38:59.489
You have, just in addition to these movies you're directing
900
00:38:59.550 --> 00:39:03.570
and you had all this crazy success as an actor
901
00:39:03.590 --> 00:39:06.570
and then you've sort of made a conscious decision to
902
00:39:07.050 --> 00:39:09.750
step back a little from that, I'd say in the
903
00:39:09.789 --> 00:39:12.929
last five, seven years and say, okay, what I really
904
00:39:12.969 --> 00:39:17.360
want to do Is craft things, direct, produce? Was that
905
00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:18.159
a conscious decision?
906
00:39:18.500 --> 00:39:22.199
Yeah, it was a moment that kind of hit me.
907
00:39:22.820 --> 00:39:26.159
I've always, I always loved directing since I was a kid.
908
00:39:26.280 --> 00:39:27.880
So like that, and then, you know, I was directing
909
00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:29.599
a lot of these movies I was in over the years.
910
00:39:29.949 --> 00:39:32.869
but I never except for Cable Guy I'd never directed
911
00:39:32.909 --> 00:39:35.150
anything that I wasn't in but I always thought of
912
00:39:35.190 --> 00:39:38.530
myself more as a director than an actor really I
913
00:39:38.570 --> 00:39:41.389
felt like that was more where I was I thought
914
00:39:41.429 --> 00:39:44.280
I was better at that definitely not a live performer
915
00:39:44.320 --> 00:39:47.579
for my short time on SNL it was so nerve
916
00:39:47.599 --> 00:39:51.030
wracking for me to be It's still anytime doing something live,
917
00:39:51.110 --> 00:39:53.769
it's like, you know, I don't enjoy it. I'm happy
918
00:39:53.789 --> 00:39:57.150
when it's over. Um, and if it goes well, it's great. But, um,
919
00:39:57.289 --> 00:40:00.110
so directing to me was always like a comfort area
920
00:40:00.530 --> 00:40:04.690
and just happy, you know, it just made me happy. Uh,
921
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:08.159
and so it was really after Zoolander 2 came out,
922
00:40:08.440 --> 00:40:10.719
that was like sort of the inflection point where it's
923
00:40:10.739 --> 00:40:12.940
like the movie, you know, didn't do well. It was
924
00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:15.340
a re it was not well received. And it was
925
00:40:15.360 --> 00:40:17.610
this moment in time where I was like, ah, man,
926
00:40:18.329 --> 00:40:20.139
you know, like, what am I going to do? What
927
00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:23.139
do I want to do next? And I had some
928
00:40:23.260 --> 00:40:26.260
space just to kind of like think about it. And
929
00:40:26.840 --> 00:40:29.619
then this project that I'd been developing kind of right
930
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:34.530
when the movie came out, Escape at Dannemora, this limited
931
00:40:34.570 --> 00:40:36.710
series about this prison escape in New York that happened
932
00:40:36.730 --> 00:40:40.750
in 2015, I think, that was there. And I had
933
00:40:40.769 --> 00:40:42.929
the time to work on it because I wasn't doing
934
00:40:42.989 --> 00:40:45.909
other stuff. First of all, Escape at Dannemora, I love that.
935
00:40:46.119 --> 00:40:48.840
And I loved, to me, it's about You get to
936
00:40:48.980 --> 00:40:53.400
craft something. You get to take some time. I know
937
00:40:53.420 --> 00:40:56.960
how much telling a story visually is important to you.
938
00:40:56.980 --> 00:41:00.420
And so you get time to, let's get this exactly
939
00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:02.360
the way we want it. And I always think the
940
00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:05.019
plus and minus of doing things that are live or
941
00:41:05.059 --> 00:41:08.239
done quickly is.
942
00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:11.019
We'll grab it. It may not go our way. Sometimes
943
00:41:11.400 --> 00:41:14.079
when it goes well, you get the rush. When it
944
00:41:14.099 --> 00:41:17.059
goes badly, it's over and it's time to do another one. Um,
945
00:41:17.320 --> 00:41:20.500
but if you get to really craft something, it's a
946
00:41:20.539 --> 00:41:23.059
very different feeling. I would guess over a long period
947
00:41:23.079 --> 00:41:24.639
of time, you get to think about what is this
948
00:41:24.659 --> 00:41:26.619
going to look like? How am I going to tell
949
00:41:26.639 --> 00:41:27.039
this story?
950
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:27.320
Right.
951
00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:29.659
And which is daunting too, you know, because it's like,
952
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:32.300
all right, how do I do this? But it's also,
953
00:41:33.050 --> 00:41:35.650
to me, it's like sort of the most subjective thing
954
00:41:35.690 --> 00:41:38.070
where you just go, okay, you know, how would, how
955
00:41:38.090 --> 00:41:40.110
do I see this? How would I want to see this?
956
00:41:40.590 --> 00:41:42.110
I think when I just got to the idea of like,
957
00:41:42.190 --> 00:41:44.190
basically like, what would I want to see? What would,
958
00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:47.860
Cause I do love comedy and I loved comedies growing up,
959
00:41:48.400 --> 00:41:52.889
but I also really love just dramatic movies. Um, so
960
00:41:52.909 --> 00:41:54.949
I just started thinking like, well, what would I want
961
00:41:54.969 --> 00:41:56.530
to see? And with escape a demo, I was like, yeah,
962
00:41:56.590 --> 00:41:58.610
I would love to see this. If it was a
963
00:41:58.650 --> 00:42:02.170
movie limited series, whatever. And the vibe and the feeling,
964
00:42:02.269 --> 00:42:04.820
I think for me was so much like it was
965
00:42:04.860 --> 00:42:08.400
so clear. And yeah, then you just take the time
966
00:42:08.420 --> 00:42:11.159
and work again, collaboratively with people who you think are
967
00:42:11.179 --> 00:42:16.489
really talented and you have a similar. And, you know,
968
00:42:16.510 --> 00:42:20.989
you have these partners, you're a cinematographer, production designer, costume designer.
969
00:42:21.010 --> 00:42:25.489
Dan Amora was Michael Tolkien and Brett Johnson, these two
970
00:42:25.590 --> 00:42:28.199
great writers. And, you know, the truth of what happened
971
00:42:28.219 --> 00:42:30.360
in that story was to me was sort of like
972
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:33.099
what I was like most interested in because it scared me, too,
973
00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:36.860
because I'd never done a prison escape movie. And it
974
00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:39.159
was like, all right, well, I have no idea how
975
00:42:39.179 --> 00:42:41.570
to like how do I do this and make it real?
976
00:42:41.630 --> 00:42:43.519
How do I make it feel authentic? And so I
977
00:42:43.519 --> 00:42:47.360
just went to the real facts. And the more I
978
00:42:47.380 --> 00:42:49.500
learned about what actually happened and got to the real places,
979
00:42:49.519 --> 00:42:50.559
I just said, all right, I'm just going to go
980
00:42:50.599 --> 00:42:52.480
for the real thing. Because that was what was fascinating
981
00:42:52.500 --> 00:42:54.949
to me about that story was that how could a
982
00:42:55.010 --> 00:42:57.849
prison escape like this happen in 2015? It feels like
983
00:42:57.889 --> 00:43:00.210
something out of like Escape from Alcatraz or something.
984
00:43:00.289 --> 00:43:01.829
Yeah. You don't think it's possible anymore.
985
00:43:01.849 --> 00:43:04.610
Yeah. And then you realize, oh, there's like the system
986
00:43:04.969 --> 00:43:08.099
that's in place at this old prison. You know, there's
987
00:43:08.139 --> 00:43:10.659
so many places where, you know, things can go wrong.
988
00:43:10.780 --> 00:43:13.989
And also the hierarchy of how it works there in
989
00:43:14.030 --> 00:43:17.369
terms of with the guards and the prisoners and, uh,
990
00:43:18.949 --> 00:43:21.650
you know, the, I mean, the dynamics in a prison,
991
00:43:21.690 --> 00:43:24.269
it's a huge prison too. So, you know, it's like
992
00:43:24.329 --> 00:43:27.210
its own little, you know, city or something. And, uh,
993
00:43:27.690 --> 00:43:29.989
so the more I talked to real people who experienced
994
00:43:30.070 --> 00:43:32.309
it and got the details, I was just, that was
995
00:43:32.349 --> 00:43:35.179
really fun for me. And then Cinematically, yeah, it's fun
996
00:43:35.300 --> 00:43:37.559
to figure out how to do something that hopefully will
997
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:38.940
look cool and be intriguing.
998
00:43:38.960 --> 00:43:41.960
Did you ever consider being imprisoned for several years? Do
999
00:43:41.980 --> 00:43:45.900
you really? I mean, if you really, I'm sorry, if
1000
00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:48.880
you really, if he really wants to capture the story,
1001
00:43:49.260 --> 00:43:51.420
I think you should have, if you took it seriously,
1002
00:43:51.480 --> 00:43:53.590
I think you would have done three years in prison.
1003
00:43:53.619 --> 00:43:53.949
Years!
1004
00:43:55.150 --> 00:43:59.019
I thought you did a fantastic job, but think about
1005
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:00.539
what you could have done if you had been in prison.
1006
00:44:00.619 --> 00:44:01.860
If I'd actually experienced it.
1007
00:44:01.900 --> 00:44:03.340
Would you ever consider going to prison for three years?
1008
00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:05.800
I would like to be put in prison. Many of
1009
00:44:05.860 --> 00:44:08.579
our listeners want me in prison right now. Well, this
1010
00:44:08.659 --> 00:44:13.730
leads me nicely to Severance because I'm lucky enough to
1011
00:44:13.789 --> 00:44:16.849
be friendly, friends with and encounter people all the time,
1012
00:44:16.889 --> 00:44:20.170
especially in the comedy world and acting world. And so
1013
00:44:20.469 --> 00:44:24.190
I kind of semi know Adam Scott. And my wife
1014
00:44:24.210 --> 00:44:27.429
and I watch Severance when it comes out. And shortly
1015
00:44:27.489 --> 00:44:30.389
after that, I see Adam Scott. And I said, that
1016
00:44:30.510 --> 00:44:34.309
was the best thing that's been on television in memory.
1017
00:44:34.429 --> 00:44:36.050
That was fantastic. And he was like, oh, you know,
1018
00:44:36.070 --> 00:44:37.489
thanks a lot, man. And I was like, no, no, no.
1019
00:44:37.530 --> 00:44:40.590
And I think I put my hand on his chest. Like, no, no, no.
1020
00:44:40.630 --> 00:44:41.190
Jesus.
1021
00:44:41.210 --> 00:44:42.110
You don't understand.
1022
00:44:42.489 --> 00:44:42.949
Why?
1023
00:44:43.030 --> 00:44:45.619
I know there's a show business thing. Have you felt
1024
00:44:45.659 --> 00:44:47.920
his chest, Adam Scott's chest? I have not, no. Well,
1025
00:44:48.119 --> 00:44:49.679
you haven't lived that. Okay.
1026
00:44:49.780 --> 00:44:50.119
No, but my.
1027
00:44:51.380 --> 00:44:52.860
You know, the way there's a show business thing of, hey, man,
1028
00:44:52.889 --> 00:44:54.510
I saw your thing. It was really good. And it's...
1029
00:44:56.409 --> 00:44:59.090
You'll say it about me at some point, but... That's
1030
00:44:59.250 --> 00:45:02.710
so sad. But it'll come out naturally. We'll edit it in.
1031
00:45:02.769 --> 00:45:06.230
And I'll touch your chest. But I.
1032
00:45:07.170 --> 00:45:10.400
It was very important to me to let him know, no, no, no, no.
1033
00:45:10.460 --> 00:45:11.579
I'm not doing that thing.
1034
00:45:11.739 --> 00:45:11.900
Right.
1035
00:45:12.019 --> 00:45:15.840
I'm doing this other thing where... And he was, you know, appreciative,
1036
00:45:15.880 --> 00:45:17.579
I think, and then just wanted to get away.
1037
00:45:17.599 --> 00:45:17.769
But....
1038
00:45:21.349 --> 00:45:25.349
But the quality of the storytelling, the intricacy of it,
1039
00:45:25.690 --> 00:45:29.170
the respect it has for the audience, it's so smart.
1040
00:45:29.550 --> 00:45:32.070
And there's so many layers to it that there's what,
1041
00:45:32.090 --> 00:45:35.739
I mean, I've gone into deep dives where people discuss,
1042
00:45:36.139 --> 00:45:38.579
you know, just various levels of it. And it all
1043
00:45:38.619 --> 00:45:42.280
holds up because when you put that much thought into something,
1044
00:45:42.739 --> 00:45:45.219
it's really beautiful when people appreciate it and see it
1045
00:45:45.719 --> 00:45:47.219
and start to go like, oh, wait a minute. What
1046
00:45:47.239 --> 00:45:49.579
do you think is going on? And the whole concept
1047
00:45:49.619 --> 00:45:51.809
of severance is fantastic.
1048
00:45:51.969 --> 00:45:54.670
Yeah, that's great to hear in that the trust you
1049
00:45:54.710 --> 00:45:57.670
can have for the audience, which you have to sort
1050
00:45:57.690 --> 00:46:00.769
of like take a sort of runner on and kind of,
1051
00:46:01.130 --> 00:46:03.030
you know, just go, okay, I'm going to believe that
1052
00:46:03.050 --> 00:46:05.250
they're going to get this. But, you know, you never
1053
00:46:05.789 --> 00:46:08.320
go bad when you don't underestimate the audience.
1054
00:46:08.389 --> 00:46:08.570
Yes.
1055
00:46:09.139 --> 00:46:13.559
Because people are smart. And especially now people watch television
1056
00:46:13.599 --> 00:46:16.780
so closely and they appreciate it so much. And they
1057
00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:20.480
look forward to it. And so that's a great thing
1058
00:46:20.519 --> 00:46:22.699
to know that people will pick up these little things.
1059
00:46:23.239 --> 00:46:26.119
But we made the show in a bubble during COVID
1060
00:46:27.139 --> 00:46:30.480
with no, you know, you make the whole series and
1061
00:46:30.519 --> 00:46:32.500
then you put it out. So there's no feedback.
1062
00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:37.219
You don't know. You've basically built this giant contraption and
1063
00:46:37.239 --> 00:46:38.929
you put it out there and you don't know, is
1064
00:46:38.969 --> 00:46:39.650
it going to work?
1065
00:46:39.920 --> 00:46:40.179
Yeah.
1066
00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:42.019
What if people watch the first episode and say, I
1067
00:46:42.039 --> 00:46:42.460
don't care.
1068
00:46:42.480 --> 00:46:44.699
It's not like, like the opposite of doing like a
1069
00:46:44.739 --> 00:46:46.880
late night show or something where, right. You're getting feedback
1070
00:46:47.039 --> 00:46:50.610
every day, every second. Right. Right. And so it was
1071
00:46:50.710 --> 00:46:53.309
one of the, a great experience making it. Um, and
1072
00:46:53.349 --> 00:46:56.050
then near the end, I was like, oh, I hope, wow.
1073
00:46:56.449 --> 00:46:59.090
I hope people, I hope people get it. I hope
1074
00:46:59.110 --> 00:47:01.340
they like it. This is, we've been working on this
1075
00:47:01.380 --> 00:47:03.139
thing for a couple of years. Like this could be
1076
00:47:03.719 --> 00:47:06.699
either good or it could just be like, oh, you know,
1077
00:47:06.800 --> 00:47:07.900
maybe nobody's going to even see it.
1078
00:47:08.349 --> 00:47:11.849
Um, and the reaction was, it was great. It was great.
1079
00:47:11.929 --> 00:47:13.889
It's as great as anything I've been a part of. And,
1080
00:47:13.969 --> 00:47:15.670
you know, and, you know, being in the business so long,
1081
00:47:15.710 --> 00:47:18.250
like you never know how people are going to react
1082
00:47:18.289 --> 00:47:20.809
to stuff. And when it's great, it's so great. And
1083
00:47:20.849 --> 00:47:22.980
when it's not great, it sucks, but you know, and it,
1084
00:47:23.090 --> 00:47:26.570
but it's not that different. The experience of whatever you make,
1085
00:47:26.929 --> 00:47:29.030
you know, it was something that gets well received or not.
1086
00:47:29.230 --> 00:47:30.730
It's you're still putting your all into it.
1087
00:47:30.809 --> 00:47:33.409
I've always said it takes a lot of talented people
1088
00:47:33.469 --> 00:47:36.699
working really hard to make something shitty, meaning. When you
1089
00:47:36.739 --> 00:47:39.079
see something and everyone sits around and hate watches it
1090
00:47:39.119 --> 00:47:40.840
or says this is bad, that was a lot of
1091
00:47:41.320 --> 00:47:44.719
oftentimes very talented people working really hard. And it just
1092
00:47:44.920 --> 00:47:47.510
didn't come out quite the way they wanted it to.
1093
00:47:47.670 --> 00:47:49.650
Or it came out at the wrong time or whatever.
1094
00:47:49.690 --> 00:47:50.250
Whatever it is.
1095
00:47:50.289 --> 00:47:53.150
Whatever it was. And then those same people can work
1096
00:47:53.210 --> 00:47:56.469
on something and it can be absolutely amazing.
1097
00:47:56.670 --> 00:47:58.929
And you're all in on it the whole time. Yeah.
1098
00:47:59.010 --> 00:48:01.500
So you can't go back. And it's just sort of like, okay,
1099
00:48:01.519 --> 00:48:03.260
so this is it. There are these moments I talked
1100
00:48:03.280 --> 00:48:06.079
to you earlier about. There are always these moments in
1101
00:48:06.440 --> 00:48:10.340
your work where I remember them. They're really fantastic. There
1102
00:48:10.360 --> 00:48:12.889
was a moment. There's so many moments in the first
1103
00:48:12.909 --> 00:48:16.570
season of Severance that were, first of all, the look
1104
00:48:16.610 --> 00:48:20.530
of it. And there are moments where I think you
1105
00:48:20.590 --> 00:48:25.829
as a director, the use of corridors and ceilings. When
1106
00:48:25.849 --> 00:48:29.320
I watch this show, I feel like I'm I'm down
1107
00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:32.699
underground and I'm in that place. And it's a very specific,
1108
00:48:33.260 --> 00:48:37.550
the lighting, the look of it, the vibe. You've got
1109
00:48:37.590 --> 00:48:42.130
these great wide, like flat shots sometimes. And it does
1110
00:48:42.190 --> 00:48:43.809
feel a little bit like Kubrick or something. It's just
1111
00:48:43.849 --> 00:48:47.690
like all the references are absolutely incredible and bears rewatching.
1112
00:48:47.750 --> 00:48:49.949
Like you can rewatch it over and over and over again.
1113
00:48:50.010 --> 00:48:53.389
It's really hypnotic. But there's a moment with the actor,
1114
00:48:53.409 --> 00:48:58.019
he plays Lance. Is it Tremel Tillman? Yeah. There's a moment,
1115
00:48:58.300 --> 00:49:00.579
I'm not giving anything away, where he goes into a
1116
00:49:00.659 --> 00:49:04.550
dance in this first season. And it's my favorite moment
1117
00:49:04.610 --> 00:49:08.289
in television of that year because it's not part of
1118
00:49:08.329 --> 00:49:11.250
his character, but then he goes into this kind of dance.
1119
00:49:11.289 --> 00:49:13.369
And the way you shoot it, and I think I've
1120
00:49:13.409 --> 00:49:17.869
watched it like 20 times. I don't know this gentleman.
1121
00:49:17.889 --> 00:49:22.500
Please tell him. I'm his biggest fan. But that was
1122
00:49:22.539 --> 00:49:26.260
my favorite moment. It was so, it came at me
1123
00:49:26.460 --> 00:49:29.679
in such a weird way from the side. You know
1124
00:49:29.699 --> 00:49:32.050
what I mean? It came through my peripheral vision and
1125
00:49:32.070 --> 00:49:35.130
it was so fantastic. And the way it was scored,
1126
00:49:35.150 --> 00:49:38.949
the music. And the tension building while he's doing this
1127
00:49:39.630 --> 00:49:41.269
kind of what's supposed to be a joyous thing. It's
1128
00:49:42.170 --> 00:49:44.030
sort of David Lynch. It's everything.
1129
00:49:44.090 --> 00:49:47.639
It's like 15 different... Yeah, it was a confluence of
1130
00:49:47.699 --> 00:49:49.599
events that came together. I didn't even know he was
1131
00:49:49.639 --> 00:49:50.820
going to dance like that.
1132
00:49:52.469 --> 00:49:53.510
His dancing is fantastic.
1133
00:49:53.570 --> 00:49:55.670
It's the same thing Tom Cruise dancing. I didn't know
1134
00:49:55.710 --> 00:49:57.610
Tom Cruise was going to dance like that. Did this
1135
00:49:57.630 --> 00:50:02.489
guy have in his contract? No, but that was also
1136
00:50:02.949 --> 00:50:04.929
one of those things where it was just like, I
1137
00:50:05.349 --> 00:50:07.210
felt the same way watching it. I was like, oh,
1138
00:50:07.269 --> 00:50:09.789
this is so cool. And I love watching this. I
1139
00:50:09.809 --> 00:50:11.389
could watch it over and over again. And I think
1140
00:50:11.429 --> 00:50:13.429
as a director, you kind of, not to, it's not
1141
00:50:13.449 --> 00:50:14.809
like you want to like say, oh, my work is great.
1142
00:50:14.829 --> 00:50:17.869
It's like you as you're almost like an audience, you
1143
00:50:17.889 --> 00:50:20.289
have to act as an audience and you're the sort
1144
00:50:20.329 --> 00:50:21.969
of like, you have to make the choices based on
1145
00:50:21.989 --> 00:50:25.210
being an audience that you're projecting would be watching something.
1146
00:50:25.369 --> 00:50:27.329
So I was, I love it too. I was like,
1147
00:50:27.369 --> 00:50:29.190
I love watching. I was like, oh, this is really fun.
1148
00:50:29.210 --> 00:50:30.690
I could watch this all day. At the heart of
1149
00:50:30.750 --> 00:50:33.630
this show is this concept. And again, this isn't giving
1150
00:50:33.670 --> 00:50:36.610
anything away because anyone who's listening to this and you,
1151
00:50:36.710 --> 00:50:38.530
you need to watch this show, but you, you also,
1152
00:50:38.550 --> 00:50:41.300
if you haven't seen the first season, watch that. And
1153
00:50:41.619 --> 00:50:44.530
the concept is people working at this company and to
1154
00:50:44.590 --> 00:50:48.750
go into this company, they descend and they're disassociated from
1155
00:50:48.769 --> 00:50:53.300
their previous life. And so their work life and the
1156
00:50:53.360 --> 00:50:56.900
person who's up above ground they're the same person, but.
1157
00:50:56.619 --> 00:50:58.969
There's just a chip that's inserted into their head and
1158
00:50:59.030 --> 00:51:00.909
it gets triggered when they go in the elevator down
1159
00:51:00.949 --> 00:51:03.309
to work that they don't remember who they are on
1160
00:51:03.530 --> 00:51:06.530
upstairs and they just know their reality at work. And
1161
00:51:06.550 --> 00:51:08.449
then when they leave, the chip gets triggered again and
1162
00:51:08.489 --> 00:51:09.730
they don't remember what happened to work.
1163
00:51:09.750 --> 00:51:11.880
And you see, there's a subtle thing you do with
1164
00:51:12.099 --> 00:51:14.659
the lens when you're going, when Adam Scott's going down the,
1165
00:51:14.840 --> 00:51:19.300
when the, the elevator and you know, I don't know
1166
00:51:19.320 --> 00:51:21.480
what it is. I don't technically understand it, but something
1167
00:51:21.539 --> 00:51:24.650
happens where you can see the, the focal point kind
1168
00:51:24.690 --> 00:51:26.389
of changed just a little bit enough to know that
1169
00:51:26.409 --> 00:51:30.530
they've gone through a transformation. So everyone's severed from what's
1170
00:51:30.550 --> 00:51:34.230
happening to them in the top of the world. And
1171
00:51:34.769 --> 00:51:37.170
there are so many analogies to that, which is why
1172
00:51:37.190 --> 00:51:39.869
would these people choose to do that? And one of
1173
00:51:39.889 --> 00:51:42.010
the things, and I might be fishing here, but it
1174
00:51:42.090 --> 00:51:46.219
very much felt to me like, oh, this is like
1175
00:51:46.380 --> 00:51:49.900
alcohol or drugs, people that something happened in their life
1176
00:51:50.530 --> 00:51:53.619
They want to disassociate from it. And anyone who's had
1177
00:51:53.900 --> 00:51:57.420
issues with drugs or alcohol knows that there's a reason
1178
00:51:57.460 --> 00:52:01.659
you're doing that. You want to be somebody else because
1179
00:52:01.739 --> 00:52:04.269
being who you are and feeling that's too painful. And
1180
00:52:04.289 --> 00:52:08.730
it's just really, I mean, there's like 35 different scholars
1181
00:52:08.769 --> 00:52:11.369
could talk about all the different things that are brought
1182
00:52:11.409 --> 00:52:12.429
up in one way or another.
1183
00:52:13.030 --> 00:52:17.170
In Severance. And it's all Dan Erickson, the creator, the writer,
1184
00:52:17.369 --> 00:52:19.949
you know, it was the first script that he had produced.
1185
00:52:20.190 --> 00:52:22.809
It was a spec script he had sent around. And
1186
00:52:23.210 --> 00:52:26.150
Jackie Cohen at our company read our Reddit and thought
1187
00:52:26.170 --> 00:52:28.079
it was good. And I read it.
1188
00:52:28.099 --> 00:52:28.920
That's a spec script?
1189
00:52:28.940 --> 00:52:31.760
That was a spec script, yeah. That's crazy. It's good
1190
00:52:31.800 --> 00:52:35.739
to know, right, for aspiring writers. And he had this
1191
00:52:35.800 --> 00:52:39.139
amazing idea and this amazing facility in terms of how,
1192
00:52:39.179 --> 00:52:41.860
you know, the tone of his writing But I agree
1193
00:52:41.880 --> 00:52:45.639
with you. There's that analogy. You know, just the idea
1194
00:52:45.699 --> 00:52:49.050
for me also of these people are like coming into
1195
00:52:49.110 --> 00:52:51.230
work and doing their thing and having their banter and
1196
00:52:51.269 --> 00:52:53.469
kind of, you know, it's very like kind of, you know,
1197
00:52:53.510 --> 00:52:56.329
like an office comedy kind of vibe, but they don't
1198
00:52:56.349 --> 00:52:58.170
know who they are. They don't know why they're there
1199
00:52:58.190 --> 00:53:00.670
and they don't know what they're doing. To me, that's
1200
00:53:00.710 --> 00:53:02.489
like the life analogy.
1201
00:53:02.730 --> 00:53:02.949
Yeah.
1202
00:53:03.070 --> 00:53:05.179
Like, you know, that's where we're all here, you know,
1203
00:53:05.199 --> 00:53:07.139
and we get settled in and we figure out how
1204
00:53:07.159 --> 00:53:08.559
to get through and do it. But like, we don't
1205
00:53:08.679 --> 00:53:10.969
ultimately know what it's all about. So I thought that
1206
00:53:11.030 --> 00:53:12.730
was what was always resonating for me.
1207
00:53:12.730 --> 00:53:15.730
And the work they're doing is so, I mean, it's
1208
00:53:15.889 --> 00:53:19.519
really funny. The work they're doing on their computer screens
1209
00:53:19.719 --> 00:53:23.239
is hilariously, I mean, it is analogous to how a
1210
00:53:23.300 --> 00:53:24.739
lot of people feel about their jobs.
1211
00:53:25.219 --> 00:53:25.380
Yeah.
1212
00:53:25.420 --> 00:53:28.039
You know, I'm here moving these numbers around.
1213
00:53:28.300 --> 00:53:28.940
Kind of widgets.
1214
00:53:29.119 --> 00:53:32.679
Widgets. And it doesn't make sense. When I watch it,
1215
00:53:32.710 --> 00:53:35.190
it doesn't make sense. But when someone does it, they're like,
1216
00:53:35.269 --> 00:53:36.510
good for you, you did it.
1217
00:53:37.210 --> 00:53:37.349
And.
1218
00:53:38.440 --> 00:53:41.280
I think many people, many Americans watching it would say,
1219
00:53:42.409 --> 00:53:44.849
that's what it feels like at work.
1220
00:53:44.889 --> 00:53:46.869
My daughter was role-playing going to work the other day.
1221
00:53:46.889 --> 00:53:48.030
I said, what do you do for work? She goes,
1222
00:53:48.090 --> 00:53:48.730
I push buttons.
1223
00:53:49.030 --> 00:53:51.769
Yes. She's going to go far, that kid.
1224
00:53:52.550 --> 00:53:55.360
Well, Dan worked at a door factory when he came
1225
00:53:55.380 --> 00:53:56.800
out to LA and that was where he got the
1226
00:53:56.840 --> 00:54:00.159
idea because he was just going crazy every day working
1227
00:54:00.179 --> 00:54:02.260
at this door factory and he wanted to forget about it.
1228
00:54:02.619 --> 00:54:05.019
So he wrote, I mean, to me, it's also, it
1229
00:54:05.099 --> 00:54:07.730
is a great message for people that there are a
1230
00:54:07.730 --> 00:54:09.429
lot of people that say, oh, it's all who you know.
1231
00:54:09.489 --> 00:54:11.110
And it's like, no, if you have a really good
1232
00:54:11.190 --> 00:54:13.559
story to tell and a great idea and you write it,
1233
00:54:14.070 --> 00:54:16.489
the cream does, the truth does out. The cream does
1234
00:54:16.530 --> 00:54:18.130
rise to the top. If you put something out there
1235
00:54:18.150 --> 00:54:20.679
that's of real quality, it's going to bounce around and
1236
00:54:20.699 --> 00:54:21.840
someone like you is going to find it.
1237
00:54:21.980 --> 00:54:22.179
Yeah.
1238
00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:24.800
I mean, it's hard. It's hard to get the access
1239
00:54:24.860 --> 00:54:27.579
for people, you know, to get that script in someone's hands.
1240
00:54:27.699 --> 00:54:32.500
But I feel like in this business, everybody's always looking
1241
00:54:32.940 --> 00:54:36.210
for that next thing, you know, always looking for talent,
1242
00:54:36.250 --> 00:54:38.340
looking for, Something that they're going to read and it's
1243
00:54:38.360 --> 00:54:42.039
going to excite them and, um, feel, you know, feel
1244
00:54:42.139 --> 00:54:44.380
new and different. And that's just always going to be.
1245
00:54:44.800 --> 00:54:47.219
Also this cast you have, I mean, I mentioned Adam
1246
00:54:47.280 --> 00:54:52.769
Scott and Britt Lauer is amazing and incredible in it,
1247
00:54:52.809 --> 00:54:55.789
but also you've got John Turturro, you've got Christopher Walken.
1248
00:54:55.829 --> 00:54:59.809
I mean, you've, you've got there, there's something really fascinating
1249
00:54:59.869 --> 00:55:03.170
about this show, which is that people naturally, when they
1250
00:55:03.190 --> 00:55:08.000
work together, want to create community. And there's something happening
1251
00:55:08.039 --> 00:55:10.179
here at Lumen where they kind of really don't want
1252
00:55:10.199 --> 00:55:12.719
people talking. They don't want people getting too close to
1253
00:55:12.760 --> 00:55:16.340
each other. And that's another mystery. And I know I
1254
00:55:17.170 --> 00:55:19.909
think the reward of a show like this is that
1255
00:55:19.929 --> 00:55:23.289
you get really smart fans online. And there are so
1256
00:55:23.349 --> 00:55:26.809
many of them that are all arguing about what does
1257
00:55:26.869 --> 00:55:35.139
this mean? And Eduardo, when I came in. Eduardo, you said,
1258
00:55:35.719 --> 00:55:40.690
don't fuck this up. This is severance, man. Don't fuck
1259
00:55:40.710 --> 00:55:43.989
this up. And I'm like, well, Ben Stiller has been
1260
00:55:44.010 --> 00:55:46.150
around a long time and we could shoot the shit
1261
00:55:46.170 --> 00:55:48.010
about a lot of things. And I do intend to
1262
00:55:48.050 --> 00:55:49.849
spend a half the time talking about severance. You're like,
1263
00:55:50.170 --> 00:55:51.150
you don't fuck it up.
1264
00:55:51.170 --> 00:55:55.170
By the way, Eduardo, I totally get it. I know
1265
00:55:55.210 --> 00:55:55.630
Conan a long time.
1266
00:55:55.670 --> 00:55:57.699
He's seen me fuck up a lot of stuff. But
1267
00:55:57.719 --> 00:56:00.219
I read that I read an interview with Patricia Arquette,
1268
00:56:00.239 --> 00:56:02.119
who's amazing in the show. And she has this quote
1269
00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:05.679
about you as a director. It was just about your tenacity,
1270
00:56:06.079 --> 00:56:09.289
your how hard you work, how important it is to
1271
00:56:09.329 --> 00:56:11.349
you that you get it that you get it right.
1272
00:56:11.369 --> 00:56:12.949
It was just it was really lovely.
1273
00:56:12.989 --> 00:56:15.090
Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Well, she's amazing. I mean, yeah.
1274
00:56:16.050 --> 00:56:18.469
You know, I think we're all going through life and try.
1275
00:56:18.489 --> 00:56:21.739
I feel like a kinship. Seriously, Conan, because I know
1276
00:56:21.780 --> 00:56:24.510
how hard you work and how. Much it means to you,
1277
00:56:24.849 --> 00:56:27.550
but you're also trying to figure out the work-life balance,
1278
00:56:27.570 --> 00:56:31.030
which is part of the show too. And that's, that's
1279
00:56:31.090 --> 00:56:34.849
important too. And I hope over the years, over the,
1280
00:56:34.869 --> 00:56:37.650
I don't know, last whatever, you know, 20, 30 years
1281
00:56:37.690 --> 00:56:40.190
that I like, I figured out that a little bit more.
1282
00:56:40.570 --> 00:56:43.030
because you have to, there's a point where you work,
1283
00:56:43.230 --> 00:56:44.389
work it and work and work it. But then you
1284
00:56:44.409 --> 00:56:46.190
also have to like, also then be able to step
1285
00:56:46.230 --> 00:56:48.510
back and go, okay, I can only control so much.
1286
00:56:48.590 --> 00:56:49.349
Yes. Yeah.
1287
00:56:49.530 --> 00:56:52.019
I haven't gotten to that point yet, but I've heard
1288
00:56:52.079 --> 00:56:53.920
tell you can only control so much.
1289
00:56:54.019 --> 00:56:54.960
Learn the hard way, you know?
1290
00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:58.059
Well, but I will say on a personal note, like
1291
00:56:58.179 --> 00:57:00.480
when you walk in the door, you seem happy.
1292
00:57:00.699 --> 00:57:00.920
Yeah.
1293
00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:04.909
And I know that you're someone who, one of the,
1294
00:57:05.730 --> 00:57:09.900
maybe the subtitle of this podcast could be, Sometimes I
1295
00:57:09.940 --> 00:57:11.400
want it to be, be careful who you envy. Like
1296
00:57:11.420 --> 00:57:13.210
I want to talk to people and let everyone know
1297
00:57:13.369 --> 00:57:16.530
everyone's got shit. Everyone has got things that they're dealing with.
1298
00:57:16.630 --> 00:57:19.369
And predominantly I get to talk to people like yourself
1299
00:57:19.389 --> 00:57:23.570
who are very talented and have done this amazing work.
1300
00:57:23.989 --> 00:57:25.739
And you're trying to figure out most of the things
1301
00:57:25.760 --> 00:57:27.619
that everyone else is trying to figure out. So when
1302
00:57:27.639 --> 00:57:30.300
you walked in after all these years to see that
1303
00:57:30.780 --> 00:57:34.820
you look great, you seem happy. this is incredible work
1304
00:57:34.840 --> 00:57:36.860
you're doing. And I love that you're able to say
1305
00:57:36.889 --> 00:57:39.469
to yourself, yeah, I can go back and be in
1306
00:57:39.510 --> 00:57:41.329
something again. I think you're going to go back and
1307
00:57:41.349 --> 00:57:44.510
maybe do a cameo in. I'm doing Happy Gilmore. I've
1308
00:57:44.530 --> 00:57:46.789
got this little movie I did with David Gordon Green
1309
00:57:46.809 --> 00:57:47.690
called Nutcrackers.
1310
00:57:47.730 --> 00:57:51.409
It's on Hulu. And we did like super low budget.
1311
00:57:51.510 --> 00:57:52.440
It was really fun.
1312
00:57:52.460 --> 00:57:53.659
Yeah.
1313
00:57:53.960 --> 00:57:55.539
But like you can dip into that when you want,
1314
00:57:55.619 --> 00:57:59.199
but you can enjoy this and also enjoy your life. Yes.
1315
00:57:59.519 --> 00:58:02.619
Well, that's the big part of it. Enjoying your life.
1316
00:58:04.360 --> 00:58:06.780
And you and I are talking about it as if
1317
00:58:06.840 --> 00:58:09.039
we don't know what that is. I know, exactly. We've
1318
00:58:09.139 --> 00:58:12.860
heard tell of this life thing. My agent tells me
1319
00:58:12.929 --> 00:58:16.070
my children are thriving. You guys are severed.
1320
00:58:16.289 --> 00:58:17.570
Yeah, we are severed.
1321
00:58:17.590 --> 00:58:19.989
We don't know what's happening. I think I'm told I
1322
00:58:20.030 --> 00:58:22.170
have kids. I have to go up in the elevator.
1323
00:58:22.190 --> 00:58:25.570
No, you know, your kids are older, too.
1324
00:58:25.630 --> 00:58:26.159
I mean, my....
1325
00:58:29.530 --> 00:58:32.309
Daughter's 22. My son's 19 and they will tell you,
1326
00:58:32.349 --> 00:58:34.869
they'll give you feedback on how you're doing, you know,
1327
00:58:35.150 --> 00:58:37.869
and I appreciate it. And we've actually like working on
1328
00:58:37.889 --> 00:58:41.510
the documentary. I interviewed both my kids and, and Christine and,
1329
00:58:42.030 --> 00:58:44.210
you know, we talked about stuff that's worked in our
1330
00:58:44.250 --> 00:58:46.550
lives and stuff that hasn't worked in our lives. And, um,
1331
00:58:47.050 --> 00:58:49.510
my kids were very honest with me, you know, about
1332
00:58:49.570 --> 00:58:52.369
times when my work was, I put my work in
1333
00:58:52.449 --> 00:58:56.349
front of the family and I'm, very grateful that I'm
1334
00:58:56.389 --> 00:58:59.119
in a place now where I still like have these
1335
00:58:59.199 --> 00:59:01.480
relationships with them that we can work on and talk
1336
00:59:01.519 --> 00:59:05.050
about that stuff and, you know, and adjust because, uh,
1337
00:59:05.429 --> 00:59:07.789
because it's true, you know, it's cliche, but it's true.
1338
00:59:07.809 --> 00:59:09.110
But like at the end of the day, that's what
1339
00:59:09.409 --> 00:59:13.780
it's all really about. My joy comes from working and
1340
00:59:13.800 --> 00:59:18.900
being creative. Being creative, but sharing that with my family. And, like,
1341
00:59:18.980 --> 00:59:21.119
going home and not having anybody to share that with.
1342
00:59:21.400 --> 00:59:23.320
I've had that because Christine and I were separated for
1343
00:59:23.340 --> 00:59:23.659
a few years.
1344
00:59:24.519 --> 00:59:24.639
And.
1345
00:59:25.110 --> 00:59:28.440
You know, if that's the right thing for people, sometimes
1346
00:59:28.460 --> 00:59:31.239
that's the right thing. But, you know, for me, being
1347
00:59:31.280 --> 00:59:34.920
together with her and our family being together, I'm so
1348
00:59:34.980 --> 00:59:37.619
much more appreciative of it. So I feel really grateful.
1349
00:59:37.860 --> 00:59:40.429
Well, I am delighted for you. I'm really delighted.
1350
00:59:40.449 --> 00:59:44.269
I figured it all out. I have no problems. Why
1351
00:59:44.510 --> 00:59:45.170
are you crying?
1352
00:59:46.889 --> 00:59:49.190
You're crying as you say it, and it's tears of blood.
1353
00:59:50.349 --> 00:59:56.639
It's just fucking weird. Yeah. I just figured it all out. Ben,
1354
00:59:56.840 --> 01:00:02.639
just an absolute joy to see you again. And I'm
1355
01:00:02.760 --> 01:00:06.500
so delighted for you. I really am. I'm genuinely, and
1356
01:00:06.519 --> 01:00:09.010
I have a very just nice, funny little memory of,
1357
01:00:09.039 --> 01:00:11.340
I lived on predominantly on the Upper West Side for years,
1358
01:00:11.400 --> 01:00:13.260
all those years I was doing late night. And for
1359
01:00:13.320 --> 01:00:15.230
some reason, I would always run into your mom on
1360
01:00:15.250 --> 01:00:17.489
the Upper West Side. And she was so lovely to
1361
01:00:17.530 --> 01:00:20.050
me and such a, And such a real person on
1362
01:00:20.070 --> 01:00:22.750
the Upper West Side, you know, such an Upper West Side.
1363
01:00:22.829 --> 01:00:23.590
And a fan of yours.
1364
01:00:23.610 --> 01:00:26.489
Oh, she was absolutely, you know, we Catholics have to
1365
01:00:26.510 --> 01:00:27.309
stick up for each other.
1366
01:00:27.389 --> 01:00:29.269
By the way, I just have to say also there's
1367
01:00:29.570 --> 01:00:32.449
there is one scene at the end of the last
1368
01:00:32.550 --> 01:00:36.179
episode of season two of Severance that I'm really looking
1369
01:00:36.199 --> 01:00:38.719
forward to you seeing. Oh, because I feel like you
1370
01:00:38.760 --> 01:00:41.199
of all people, I will text you. Yeah, no, we'll
1371
01:00:41.219 --> 01:00:44.579
appreciate this little scene. OK, and it might even seem
1372
01:00:44.659 --> 01:00:48.409
to others who watch it maybe weird or indulgent. But
1373
01:00:48.449 --> 01:00:50.449
I feel like it's like made for you.
1374
01:00:50.650 --> 01:00:53.710
If it's weird and indulgent, if it's weird and indulgent,
1375
01:00:53.809 --> 01:00:54.809
I'm going to love it.
1376
01:00:54.929 --> 01:00:55.570
All right.
1377
01:00:55.610 --> 01:00:56.309
That's what you are.
1378
01:00:56.369 --> 01:00:56.829
Weird.
1379
01:00:56.949 --> 01:00:59.789
OK, I think I spelled it out enough.
1380
01:00:59.809 --> 01:01:00.429
Yeah.
1381
01:01:00.610 --> 01:01:03.429
Hey, Ben, thank you so much. And congrats on Severance.
1382
01:01:03.449 --> 01:01:04.550
Great to see you. Thanks, man.
1383
01:01:15.590 --> 01:01:17.150
Good nights are about the people.
1384
01:01:17.989 --> 01:01:18.449
The laughs.
1385
01:01:18.969 --> 01:01:21.730
The real moments you don't want to miss. So why
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01:01:21.789 --> 01:01:26.769
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1392
01:01:42.309 --> 01:01:44.369
Not every day you meet an Irish legend.
1393
01:01:44.570 --> 01:01:45.909
I know what you mean, Cú Chulainn.
1394
01:01:46.110 --> 01:01:49.199
Leaping vast distances, holding off armies.
1395
01:01:49.340 --> 01:01:51.469
Eating tonnes of fresh grass.
1396
01:01:51.639 --> 01:01:51.969
What?
1397
01:01:52.050 --> 01:01:55.159
Not you or cows. That's one of the reasons Irish
1398
01:01:55.179 --> 01:01:58.840
milk is so good. It's famous all over the world.
1399
01:01:59.139 --> 01:02:00.780
Legendary.
1400
01:02:01.219 --> 01:02:04.300
Ireland's grass and our farmers' commitment to more sustainable actions
1401
01:02:04.579 --> 01:02:07.340
help make Irish dairy a true Irish legend.
1402
01:02:07.639 --> 01:02:10.599
Always look for the National Dairy Council guarantee. Learn more
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01:02:10.739 --> 01:02:11.420
at ndc.ie.
1404
01:02:13.309 --> 01:02:16.989
Batteries, tech, toys and tools that power our everyday lives.
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And inside them are materials like aluminium, cobalt, copper and
1406
01:02:20.599 --> 01:02:23.340
lithium that can be used again and again. So when
1407
01:02:23.360 --> 01:02:26.380
they're finished, don't let them go to waste. Recycle them
1408
01:02:26.699 --> 01:02:27.139
for free.
1409
01:02:27.840 --> 01:02:28.260
It's easy.
1410
01:02:28.760 --> 01:02:31.699
Just return your old batteries and electricals for free recycling
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01:02:31.760 --> 01:02:35.309
to your nearest participating retailer or your local recycling centre.
1412
01:02:35.909 --> 01:02:39.150
Find your nearest free drop-off point at weireland.ie today.
1413
01:02:48.059 --> 01:02:52.579
Okay, we found that something very interesting happened with a
1414
01:02:52.619 --> 01:02:57.400
fan of yours, and more specifically, some merchandise from this podcast.
1415
01:02:57.519 --> 01:02:57.760
Okay.
1416
01:02:58.019 --> 01:03:00.460
And this comes from Instagram. We're going to take a
1417
01:03:00.519 --> 01:03:02.949
listen to it or watch it if you're watching this
1418
01:03:03.030 --> 01:03:03.469
on YouTube.
1419
01:03:03.710 --> 01:03:04.489
Okay, let's take a look.
1420
01:03:05.030 --> 01:03:07.929
I fought a burglar for wearing my Conan O'Brien Needs
1421
01:03:08.010 --> 01:03:08.789
a Friend t-shirt.
1422
01:03:08.929 --> 01:03:12.070
There was a man in my house. And I told him,
1423
01:03:12.110 --> 01:03:13.329
you know, this is my house.
1424
01:03:13.829 --> 01:03:14.369
Get out.
1425
01:03:14.730 --> 01:03:14.909
Then.
1426
01:03:15.550 --> 01:03:15.710
I.
1427
01:03:15.750 --> 01:03:21.710
Saw he was wearing my Conan O'Brien t-shirt. I ordered
1428
01:03:21.769 --> 01:03:23.630
him to take it off.
1429
01:03:24.030 --> 01:03:24.880
He did not.
1430
01:03:25.179 --> 01:03:29.900
And so I did a stupid thing and I went
1431
01:03:29.960 --> 01:03:32.559
up to him. I pushed him a little bit and
1432
01:03:32.739 --> 01:03:34.699
yanked the shirt right.
1433
01:03:34.500 --> 01:03:34.980
Off of him.
1434
01:03:35.340 --> 01:03:38.809
You might be thinking, yeah, that is stupid. Why would
1435
01:03:38.849 --> 01:03:42.019
you react that way? It's just a shirt. And I
1436
01:03:42.119 --> 01:03:45.860
think it's partially because what that shirt represented to me
1437
01:03:45.880 --> 01:03:50.050
at that time. All the comedians I had watched, I
1438
01:03:50.130 --> 01:03:56.210
told them they saved me. When I saw him wearing
1439
01:03:56.710 --> 01:04:02.230
a shirt that represented why I like living, I love laughing,
1440
01:04:02.269 --> 01:04:05.750
I love combi, I love all of that, all the
1441
01:04:05.809 --> 01:04:06.659
friends that I've made, I.
1442
01:04:09.449 --> 01:04:10.800
Oh my God, happiest day of my life.
1443
01:04:10.820 --> 01:04:12.099
I did meet him.
1444
01:04:12.119 --> 01:04:15.960
Best day of 2024. He still doesn't know the story
1445
01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:18.159
because he just signed my shirt, took this picture and left.
1446
01:04:18.730 --> 01:04:19.809
It was like midnight.
1447
01:04:20.409 --> 01:04:23.250
So this comes to us from an Instagram username, True
1448
01:04:23.329 --> 01:04:26.429
Travels of Hope. My first thought is that were you
1449
01:04:26.489 --> 01:04:27.980
the burglar just trying to get.
1450
01:04:27.900 --> 01:04:28.360
The shirt on?
1451
01:04:32.260 --> 01:04:36.539
Yes, I do try to reuse merchandise as much as
1452
01:04:36.599 --> 01:04:40.619
possible because we know where our merchandise is sent. And
1453
01:04:40.639 --> 01:04:43.260
so I try to go there. So I'm often in
1454
01:04:43.320 --> 01:04:49.539
my downtime patrolling the Midwest. The Southern states, the Southwest
1455
01:04:49.739 --> 01:04:53.039
and the Pacific Northwest, looking for people wearing Conan Merchant.
1456
01:04:53.099 --> 01:04:55.099
And I just try to reclaim it as best I
1457
01:04:55.139 --> 01:04:57.039
can so we can sell it a second time.
1458
01:04:57.219 --> 01:04:57.900
That's what it was.
1459
01:04:58.079 --> 01:05:00.420
And I do sometimes take other stuff when I'm in
1460
01:05:00.460 --> 01:05:00.780
the houses.
1461
01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:03.619
Might as well. I noticed because she's wearing one of
1462
01:05:03.659 --> 01:05:06.400
those shirts for the podcast that say, I feel blank
1463
01:05:06.460 --> 01:05:08.880
about being Conan O'Brien's friend. And there's a spot where
1464
01:05:08.900 --> 01:05:10.760
you can literally fill it in with a marker. And
1465
01:05:11.079 --> 01:05:11.989
she has not done that yet.
1466
01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:15.789
No, she's still not sure how she feels. Well, what
1467
01:05:15.809 --> 01:05:16.889
do we think of this story?
1468
01:05:17.150 --> 01:05:19.929
First of all, I really wish she wouldn't have confronted
1469
01:05:20.070 --> 01:05:21.389
this robber.
1470
01:05:21.510 --> 01:05:23.659
Yes, I'm going to say that, too. I think and
1471
01:05:23.679 --> 01:05:25.719
I want to say this to all my fans. If
1472
01:05:25.820 --> 01:05:28.559
someone and first of all, let me start by saying
1473
01:05:28.599 --> 01:05:31.260
to this woman, true travels of hope. I want to
1474
01:05:31.300 --> 01:05:33.239
say the true travels of hope that I very much
1475
01:05:33.300 --> 01:05:37.630
appreciate that you're a loyal fan and that our nonsense
1476
01:05:37.809 --> 01:05:40.909
has has meant something to you. And so this comes
1477
01:05:40.949 --> 01:05:43.320
from the bottom of my heart. Our merchandise is not
1478
01:05:43.400 --> 01:05:48.579
worth risking your life for. This is very shoddy material.
1479
01:05:48.599 --> 01:05:52.159
It's often repurposed.
1480
01:05:52.699 --> 01:05:55.079
Some of it might be toxic and endangering your life.
1481
01:05:55.099 --> 01:05:59.510
Exactly, yeah. That's an old Friday Night Lights shirt that
1482
01:06:00.610 --> 01:06:05.110
we spray painted over using really an out-of-date spray paint.
1483
01:06:06.050 --> 01:06:08.650
So no, do not risk your life. Do not approach
1484
01:06:08.710 --> 01:06:13.280
a burglar or If anyone approaches you and says, you know,
1485
01:06:13.380 --> 01:06:16.409
give me that Conan O'Brien merch, just give it up.
1486
01:06:16.860 --> 01:06:18.280
Just give it up. That's funny.
1487
01:06:18.320 --> 01:06:20.360
You should say that she shouldn't approach him because I
1488
01:06:20.380 --> 01:06:21.579
feel like the first thing you would do.
1489
01:06:21.579 --> 01:06:22.739
I would absolutely approach him.
1490
01:06:22.940 --> 01:06:24.179
Not for a Conan O'Brien shirt.
1491
01:06:24.300 --> 01:06:25.900
Not for. No. But like.
1492
01:06:25.920 --> 01:06:27.780
But if someone was wearing like your Cher shirt.
1493
01:06:27.969 --> 01:06:31.349
Oh, if someone was in my house and like, first
1494
01:06:31.369 --> 01:06:33.230
of all, he just put a shirt on.
1495
01:06:33.309 --> 01:06:37.349
I know. Also, here's another thing. She said she ripped
1496
01:06:37.369 --> 01:06:41.389
it off. Like he's a stripper. Like it's a tearaway shirt.
1497
01:06:41.469 --> 01:06:44.170
I think the shirts are so threadbare and cheap that
1498
01:06:44.250 --> 01:06:46.110
you can just rip them off.
1499
01:06:46.230 --> 01:06:49.130
Or most people that own Conan merch are so, and
1500
01:06:49.170 --> 01:06:50.690
I'm going to speak about myself in the third person,
1501
01:06:51.230 --> 01:06:54.059
so love Conan that they rarely take it off and
1502
01:06:54.079 --> 01:06:59.800
it becomes threadbare more quickly, hence easily to tear. So
1503
01:06:59.860 --> 01:07:02.980
I think that's a possibility. I don't know. I don't
1504
01:07:03.039 --> 01:07:07.090
think people should be risking their lives for Conan merch.
1505
01:07:07.110 --> 01:07:07.170
No.
1506
01:07:07.929 --> 01:07:08.809
Especially the mugs.
1507
01:07:09.139 --> 01:07:12.739
I mean, the mugs often explode. That's been proven.
1508
01:07:12.820 --> 01:07:13.960
Mugs could be good weapons.
1509
01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:16.949
Yeah. No, not our mugs. They just turn to powder
1510
01:07:16.989 --> 01:07:20.170
the minute you hit someone. But it's nice. She did
1511
01:07:20.210 --> 01:07:22.010
say we met, but she doesn't say where we met.
1512
01:07:22.030 --> 01:07:24.130
She said it was midnight. And I can't tell from
1513
01:07:24.170 --> 01:07:26.989
the picture where we were. So maybe it's when I
1514
01:07:27.050 --> 01:07:29.679
broke back into the house to get the shirt back
1515
01:07:30.219 --> 01:07:31.940
after my initial failed attempt.
1516
01:07:31.960 --> 01:07:33.440
It would have been really funny if you were just
1517
01:07:33.460 --> 01:07:36.239
like an absolute dick to her. If you were just like.
1518
01:07:36.500 --> 01:07:38.380
Oh, I don't like taking pictures.
1519
01:07:39.170 --> 01:07:39.929
But that's the opposite.
1520
01:07:39.949 --> 01:07:40.750
Dumb fans.
1521
01:07:40.789 --> 01:07:42.690
He broke back into the house so he could get
1522
01:07:42.750 --> 01:07:44.070
a selfie and so he could.
1523
01:07:43.989 --> 01:07:45.289
Force her to sign it. You realize I'm the guy
1524
01:07:45.329 --> 01:07:49.050
that asks people, would you like a selfie? Yes. When often,
1525
01:07:49.349 --> 01:07:50.769
they don't even have a phone.
1526
01:07:51.309 --> 01:07:53.409
The sirens are down the street and he breaks back
1527
01:07:53.469 --> 01:07:55.809
in going, I haven't signed your shirt yet.
1528
01:07:56.449 --> 01:07:58.170
Would you like me to sign it? That would be
1529
01:07:58.230 --> 01:07:58.849
more likely.
1530
01:07:59.050 --> 01:07:59.289
Okay.
1531
01:07:59.730 --> 01:08:03.050
But, well, I'm glad she got her shirt back.
1532
01:08:03.130 --> 01:08:03.969
I'm glad she's okay.
1533
01:08:04.090 --> 01:08:06.269
I'm glad she's okay. But I do think we should
1534
01:08:06.309 --> 01:08:08.760
take a lesson away from this that, You know, look,
1535
01:08:08.780 --> 01:08:12.320
if it's Marvel merchandise, yes, fight for your life to
1536
01:08:12.360 --> 01:08:12.840
get it back.
1537
01:08:12.900 --> 01:08:15.199
That's the weird thing. What's the motivation of the burglar?
1538
01:08:15.389 --> 01:08:17.890
This is what they decide to take, you know?
1539
01:08:17.930 --> 01:08:20.170
Well, first of all, okay, now you're being a dick. Well,
1540
01:08:20.210 --> 01:08:21.770
I'm on this podcast, too. What I used to steal.
1541
01:08:21.789 --> 01:08:22.270
Yes.
1542
01:08:22.510 --> 01:08:24.869
I used to just be like, can I do it?
1543
01:08:25.310 --> 01:08:25.380
Oh.
1544
01:08:25.609 --> 01:08:28.770
And so it wasn't about what I was stealing. It
1545
01:08:28.810 --> 01:08:31.689
was about could, like, and also I got very arrogant.
1546
01:08:31.710 --> 01:08:33.850
Like, I would wear a bracelet in the store and
1547
01:08:33.869 --> 01:08:35.630
I'd just be like, I'm going to walk out wearing
1548
01:08:35.670 --> 01:08:36.229
the bracelet.
1549
01:08:36.310 --> 01:08:40.369
I remember once Sona, Sona and I were in Worcester, Massachusetts,
1550
01:08:40.430 --> 01:08:45.300
and there is an armory there. There's an armor museum,
1551
01:08:45.319 --> 01:08:52.840
a museum of Flemish, British, French armor from 18th and
1552
01:08:53.010 --> 01:08:55.310
19th century. And we were in there, and this is
1553
01:08:55.329 --> 01:08:57.250
during Sona's, let me see if I can get away
1554
01:08:57.270 --> 01:09:00.560
with this phase. Sona walked out wearing a full suit.
1555
01:09:00.380 --> 01:09:01.159
Of armor.
1556
01:09:05.979 --> 01:09:08.279
If you act like you were wearing it in they
1557
01:09:08.310 --> 01:09:10.210
would just be like oh she's just.
1558
01:09:10.069 --> 01:09:14.329
Leaving in the outfit it was from 1622 And it
1559
01:09:14.369 --> 01:09:16.630
had all this fancy filigree on it. And so the
1560
01:09:16.670 --> 01:09:19.189
guy said, excuse me, miss, I think you and she
1561
01:09:19.210 --> 01:09:19.930
was like, what?
1562
01:09:20.289 --> 01:09:20.689
What?
1563
01:09:21.069 --> 01:09:24.500
I was wearing this on the way in. You're racist. Oh,
1564
01:09:24.539 --> 01:09:25.060
my God.
1565
01:09:25.079 --> 01:09:25.720
Remember when you.
1566
01:09:25.680 --> 01:09:28.159
Said you're racist? No. And you had the visor down.
1567
01:09:28.199 --> 01:09:29.260
So he didn't even know.
1568
01:09:29.279 --> 01:09:29.380
Right.
1569
01:09:30.619 --> 01:09:32.420
He didn't know who you were. Right.
1570
01:09:33.180 --> 01:09:37.710
Look, I liked just like showing. Hey, I just took it.
1571
01:09:37.949 --> 01:09:38.229
Yeah.
1572
01:09:38.449 --> 01:09:40.189
And it's, you know, most of the time, if you
1573
01:09:40.229 --> 01:09:42.210
walk out confidently, people are just going to be like, okay,
1574
01:09:42.229 --> 01:09:42.770
it belongs to her.
1575
01:09:42.890 --> 01:09:47.880
It was a suit of armor that you stole from Worcester, Massachusetts,
1576
01:09:48.000 --> 01:09:49.180
and you should give it back.
1577
01:09:49.220 --> 01:09:51.060
That was such a buildup to what you were going
1578
01:09:51.079 --> 01:09:54.350
to say. There was so much. Just information.
1579
01:09:54.609 --> 01:09:55.149
Well, listen.
1580
01:09:56.470 --> 01:10:00.590
What museum did we go to? Can you look up the,
1581
01:10:00.609 --> 01:10:02.229
what's the Museum of Armor?
1582
01:10:02.449 --> 01:10:03.409
We're fact-checking this?
1583
01:10:03.430 --> 01:10:03.729
Yes.
1584
01:10:03.750 --> 01:10:04.869
This fake story?
1585
01:10:04.890 --> 01:10:05.289
What is happening?
1586
01:10:05.310 --> 01:10:05.970
It's not fake.
1587
01:10:06.310 --> 01:10:10.770
It really happened. It really happened. Worcester, Massachusetts, Museum of Armor.
1588
01:10:11.189 --> 01:10:13.970
Come on. What do you mean I'm working.
1589
01:10:13.729 --> 01:10:14.409
On it, old lady?
1590
01:10:14.430 --> 01:10:15.010
Once I had a headband.
1591
01:10:15.029 --> 01:10:16.229
Higgins Armory? Yes!
1592
01:10:16.810 --> 01:10:19.159
Higgins Armory, it was the one thing when I would
1593
01:10:19.199 --> 01:10:23.060
go visit my cousins, every time my aunt would say,
1594
01:10:23.100 --> 01:10:24.659
it would be raining out, we'd be like.
1595
01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:26.000
We got nothing to do.
1596
01:10:26.020 --> 01:10:28.039
And what is there to do in Worcester? And she'd say,
1597
01:10:28.399 --> 01:10:30.159
go to the Museum of Armor.
1598
01:10:30.180 --> 01:10:32.079
Oh my God.
1599
01:10:32.220 --> 01:10:35.529
And so we'd drive over to the Higgins Museum of Armor.
1600
01:10:36.029 --> 01:10:38.729
And there was no attempt to make it look interesting.
1601
01:10:38.810 --> 01:10:43.539
Just literally a giant warehouse full And someone had lots
1602
01:10:43.579 --> 01:10:45.899
of suits of armor that they just laid out. They
1603
01:10:45.920 --> 01:10:47.159
didn't even put mannequins in them.
1604
01:10:47.220 --> 01:10:49.500
I feel like you would enjoy that, though. Did you
1605
01:10:49.619 --> 01:10:51.960
act like you weren't excited because you didn't want your
1606
01:10:52.079 --> 01:10:53.100
cousins to think you were.
1607
01:10:53.119 --> 01:10:53.720
Truth be told?
1608
01:10:53.819 --> 01:10:54.000
Yeah.
1609
01:10:54.420 --> 01:10:58.979
Greatest days of my life. Boy, did this little orange-haired
1610
01:10:59.020 --> 01:11:00.220
boy love a suit of armor.
1611
01:11:01.579 --> 01:11:04.560
Oh, look, it's Dutch!
1612
01:11:04.810 --> 01:11:06.909
Hey, Luke! Hey, Neil!
1613
01:11:07.350 --> 01:11:14.850
I found one that's Dutch! And then the beatings commenced. Anyway,
1614
01:11:15.810 --> 01:11:21.369
take care, fans. Don't stop crime. And visit the Higgins
1615
01:11:21.729 --> 01:11:24.550
Armor Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts.
1616
01:11:28.550 --> 01:11:32.319
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. With Conan O'Brien, Sonam Ovsessian,
1617
01:11:32.579 --> 01:11:36.699
and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced
1618
01:11:36.739 --> 01:11:40.420
by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao. Theme song
1619
01:11:40.460 --> 01:11:43.760
by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
1620
01:11:44.359 --> 01:11:45.220
Take it away, Jimmy.
1621
01:11:48.850 --> 01:11:52.010
Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair. And our associate talent
1622
01:11:52.050 --> 01:11:55.770
producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez
1623
01:11:55.850 --> 01:11:59.810
and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent
1624
01:11:59.829 --> 01:12:03.029
booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Brit Kahn. You
1625
01:12:03.050 --> 01:12:05.590
can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and
1626
01:12:05.630 --> 01:12:08.189
you might find your review read on a future episode.
1627
01:12:08.550 --> 01:12:12.229
Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline
1628
01:12:12.569 --> 01:12:15.949
at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It, too, could be
1629
01:12:15.989 --> 01:12:18.510
featured on a future episode. You can also get three
1630
01:12:18.569 --> 01:12:22.720
free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com
1631
01:12:22.800 --> 01:12:25.920
slash Conan. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to
1632
01:12:25.960 --> 01:12:28.390
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine.
1633
01:12:28.189 --> 01:12:45.930
Podcasts are downloaded. Good nights are about the people, the laughs,
1634
01:12:46.449 --> 01:12:49.210
the real moments you don't want to miss. So why
1635
01:12:49.270 --> 01:12:54.270
step outside? Velo tobacco-free nicotine pouches fits seamlessly into your night.
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Convenient and full of flavor. No breaks, no interruptions. Velo anytime,
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01:12:59.550 --> 01:13:03.409
anywhere nicotine pouches. 18 and over contains tobacco-free nicotine and
1638
01:13:03.449 --> 01:13:05.649
addictive substance. If you're new to Velo, start with Mellow.
1639
01:13:05.729 --> 01:13:07.260
You should not use this product if you do not
1640
01:13:07.350 --> 01:13:11.779
already use nicotine. The KCR. If ever there was a
1641
01:13:11.819 --> 01:13:14.960
place in dire need of an avocado scanner, it's here.
1642
01:13:15.600 --> 01:13:17.359
So we've put one in the new spa.
1643
01:13:18.000 --> 01:13:20.439
No longer will locals have to merely guess the ripeness
1644
01:13:20.479 --> 01:13:21.340
of their avocados.
1645
01:13:21.960 --> 01:13:22.720
Not into avos?
1646
01:13:23.260 --> 01:13:26.449
Well, there's bravado coffee, a deli and a Subway too.
1647
01:13:27.189 --> 01:13:29.029
Under the tree at the new spa KCR.