I like your hat. I wore mine a couple of.
Times, your Holy Grailed Donuts hat.
My Holy Grailled Donuts test. By this time, our donut might not be on the menu anymore.
No, it's not as till the end of November. But I took a lady friend of mine and because I thought, like, what's a more power power move than bringing a gal that you are intrigued by to eat your donut at Holy Grail Donuts?
Did she get all up in that donut?
Well, we got there and I just walked in. I didn't try and be like I'm the guy from the donut. I just walked in like a normal customer. And the young lady at the cashier rang me up. And then some of her colleagues were like, why are you charging him? That's Zach from ZB and donald Forever the donut And I said, no, no, no, I want to pay. I want to give money to the charity. So don't you comp me these donuts proceeds they are going to the midnight mission.
So how's the donut doing? That's the question I really want to ask.
I hope that people are loving the donut and it tasted delicious.
By the way.
It's it's very tasty.
My lady friend said, I think that's the best doughnut I've ever had.
I like your lady friend a lot.
I'm surprised you haven't come met her. We'll see, you know, it's early days. We'll see if you get to meet her. If she makes the donald cut.
It's a tough cut.
But it's a cool hat, right is. It's corduroy, it's yellow rock. This this is very danal in Brooklyn vibes absolutely.
I was looking at it. I was like, that is a very cool hat. I was just that. Holy girl, donu, it's a couple weeks ago.
Did you get zb and Donalds forever? I? Oh, you're in New York.
You can't go.
No, you haven't branched out to New York yet, but one day.
Yeah, I think. I think I just stopped it and didn't actually get something good.
I know I'm biased, but it is so good, so delicious.
Scrumped dittly umptious is what I am.
I didn't sleep very well last night. I had a bout of insomnia. So I thought if I I just did a cold plunge, and I thought if I wore bright colors. I would be really awake for this podcast.
Wait a minute, what do you mean you didn't sleep very well? So you cold plunged.
I had some nights I have bouts of insomnia where I toss and turn no matter what I do, and I wanted to be, you know, awake and lively for the podcast, so I got in my cold plunge.
Got it. I thought you were saying you were having a hard time sleeping, so to battle that last night, you decided to cold plunge.
No, that would not have worked done.
I don't think I was gonna say, dude, I think your math's a little often that uh, and that nights.
My brain is just like, we're not doing it, bro. I know you tried all the things I did, all the things I took, I did all my whole regimen to fucking go to bed, and my brain was like, no, we're gonna fucking think till two thirty in the morning.
Did you have something to do the next day?
No, I just had a couple of things on my mind. And I also do think I need to chill with caffeine. To be honest, I think I gotta do an earlier caffeine cut off. That's do you have a caffeine cut off?
You know, Daniel, you do, Yeah, definitely.
I I'm learning as a fifty year old man that the caffeine, it does, it does it. I don't even think it wakes me up anymore, you know what I mean. It doesn't do.
It's just an addiction. It feels nice.
Yeah, it's yeah, that's what it is. You just like that little jitter that you get and the bow movement that it causes.
I know, when we're on set, you and I both have many years of being like, oh shit, we're tired, and we got to go be silly and wacky and fucking go crazy, and we both blast our bodies with caffeine. And that's fine on set, but when I'm home and it's just like you know, it'll be like two thirds and I'm like, oh man, I'm gonna make myself a big ass espresso and I just don't need to be having it that late in the day.
For me. I got to stop at like noon.
I think, ain't I mean, ain't nothing wrong with an espresso at noon. But that's just me. That's with you.
But you don't suffer from something. But also you smoke.
Yeah, I do.
Gonja does the ganjit put you to bed?
It keeps you up? Actually, what happens is the ganju can knock you down.
Oh yeah, well maybe if you don't, you're not switching to the right, you're not switching to what he calls.
So yeah, I smoke. I smoke ta teva not into gup right. I like the I like the feeling of being. I like the caffeine feeling of it. Right, And what happens is, I'll go to bed early, but I'll but I'll also wake up early. So if I go to bed, it like, I'll try to go down sometimes right when the kids go down. So sometimes the kids go down to day thirty. I'll try and be in bed at nine. And when I do shit like that, I'll wake up at like three thirty, four thirty in the morning.
Whoa that's ready to go.
Yeah, ready to go to smoke some more weed.
And so yeah, I hear you.
Well, I try I try everything. I try natural remedies, I try prescription remedies, and then the prescription ones. Sometimes you feel the next day and so you're tired, and I don't know, it's just something a battle. But you know, it's not that big a deal.
It's not.
It's people have much bigger problems than on insomnia.
Well, I mean it can lead to a lot of things, and so you know I I I don't sleep well, bro, I just don't. That's just what it is.
Yeah, do you see this mustache I'm trying to grow.
Oh, look at that. What do you think of coming in I'm trying to grow a mustache.
Looks like you got some like like you drink some and you have some shit on your lip.
Must Oh you're saying, my mustache looks like ship on my lip.
It looks like you went like this actually sound effects machine.
It's good. Listen.
I want to see what I can do with this mustache. Donald you you both. I'm talking to two men with glorious mustaches.
I do have a great mustache.
Channel's beard, man, that's very full.
That's very impressive.
Speaking of full beards, I went to into its inoit Dome and watched.
The Clippers play how does full Oh? Because I've met great job, James Harden job.
I've never seen a more glorious beard than James.
Nice segue, my guy.
It's very beautiful. First of all, it's all state of the art. The whole I think they call it the halo of screens is really cool. It seems smaller than other arenas. I think, I don't know how many its seats, but it does. It's certainly not nearly as.
Big as Staples.
But like they said, they have the wall, like the seats are very steep, so everyone has a pretty sick view.
And that's always good.
And you know, I don't know if the Jazz and the and the Clippers, if that was a particularly good matchup, Donald, did you watch the game?
You know what? I just saw the blowout that was the Jazz and the Clippers. Clippers destroyed them, and then the next night went out and beat Golden State by three. James Harden is now second on the all time three point scoring list. There's only one other person on that list that's above him, and that person is Steph Curry and they're both in the league right now.
So James Harden is really good.
James Harden at one point, I mean he's top seventy five. James Harden at one point was the best offensive weapon in the NBA at one point, for like three seasons straight. He developed uh, he you know, he paid attention to the rules of the game and developed let me see what what I call it, I found a loophole and has now developed this thing called I mean, the step back was always there, but now because of this, what's called a gather in the NBA. After you you gather,
you're allowed two steps. And he found a way to turn his gather from his bounce behind a three point line into a step side to side, which is now legal in the NBA, which was never legal, and it's and he was able to score so many fucking points doing that and freaking throwing his body into defenders and getting fouled. Oh my god. At one point nobody could score in clips like him, And still to this day he's pretty good.
Can I tell you something I noticed from sitting on the floor that I never noticed before. It seems like everybody's traveling. Now, maybe I don't understand the traveling rules.
You're right, so it seems to me when you're.
Sitting on the court, you're like the little I remember of of of basketball rules, like, isn't that traveling? But then people are like, no, you're allowed to do all the ship You're saying.
Yeah, dude, the rules change. That a lot of a lot of things changed since we were kids.
People are just running. It's like it's like it's literally it's like it's.
Like dog ball and no and no and no touching either, and no touching you like you're not allowed to. Really. Back when we were kids, you could take your hand and put it in the back of a player.
Or no, these guys.
Let me finish, and you would be able to if you were strong enough, you could control any player. Now, if you put your hands on somebody, it's a file automatically right and so right. So you have to move your feet, you have to use your body, and and and and they're still following each other. But refs don't call it like I mean, they never called it back in the day. But it's a little bit softer than it was. I'm not saying it's soft.
So you're saying, after you have the ball you can take two full steps.
No, you can you after you have the ball, you're supposed to only be able to take a step after you've put the ball down to drift.
That's not happening.
I'm telling you your report, that's not what's happening. Absolutely not, absolutely not.
And there actually was one traveling call, and I was like, you called that one, but not the forty others have seen.
Yeah, that's various, stute Zach. Actually that's various because basketball. That's the one complaint I do have with basketball. Giannis Entertakoumpo gets to run up and down the court like a deer and never put the ball down on the floor.
Yeah, speaking of a stute Zach, you were right. Crypto dot Com Arena Staples if you will, has a twenty thousand person cap into a dome has eighteen so okay justice. Yeah, and then I heard and then I heard when they do concerts there, which you know they just opened, they remove a like a big chunk because of where they put the stage stage.
So.
It's even less. But it seems like an amazing place to see a show because of just all the different vantage points.
Think about all the venues California has. Now, Like if you're doing a tour you have like seven stops in California. You gotta do state. I mean, you gotta do shoots.
By how big you are, how much you can handle. I think Olivia Rigo was there recently.
I would try to do all of them. I'd be like, look, this is what we're doing when we get to.
Shoot your la wand I shoot it at one place because people aren't going to.
Harry Styles was here for a month.
Bro Car members here. Yeah, but they do the same venue over and over again. Anyway, it was really cool. And they have this private you know how like that we talked about the Disney h Secret Club. They have a secret club. Yeah, they have like a secret club underneath the and that I got invited to.
And it's not.
Open every game or every show, but like I don't know, like once a month or something, or maybe after concerts they'll do it too. There's like a secret underground club.
Did you go?
I went? It was cool.
DJ.
It was just like it's like a it's like a small hidden nightclub that you can only by invite only. And then they told me this bit of trivia that I don't know if it's true, but it's they said it that it's the only place in California that will serve liquor till four in the morning legally, like they got some waiver from the governor that this little secret nightclub at the bottom of the dome is the only place that you can drink till four in the morning.
Bomber's smart man. He's trying to keep his players close. He's trying to make sure.
Well, the players didn't come in there. I mean I didn't see any players.
At four o'clock in the morning.
It was like a VIP you know, clerb.
These were there celebrities up in there.
Yeah, there was some celebrity.
Was grown ups. Clippers bring in a grown crowd.
What's the different, Like, who's the crowd for the Clippers?
I would say the ones that don't go to Laker games.
Oh really, it's like the they're like the they're like the step child.
Absolutely, yes, now.
But Lakers Clippers games will be great.
Right, Oh, it depends me. Look, so here's the thing. The Clippers haven't won in a really really really I think Bill Walton was the last time the Clippers won, and they were in San Diego when they won a championship. Even when you go see the Clippers play the Lakers in this arena, it'll be filled with more Laker fans than Clipper fans.
It's just far, by the way.
The only thing I have a problem with it is far Inglewood well from my house it was an hour I don't know, really far from your house.
Well, we make that. We make tracks like that for basketball, for the kid, right, for rock and so it. You know, forty five minutes in the car now nowadays.
Well, if you want to bring your kids, uh to the to Clippers. I got the I got the hook up.
We would love that.
Actually, I know.
The night's game was amazing.
When I showed you my seats, you said you you acted like they weren't good.
And then I said, then you get you were like just kidding. Yeah, exactly, don't fucking make me.
Who was there was Floyd may Merriweather Mayweather Mayweatherwe Yeah.
He's one of the greatest boxers ever.
Yeah, I want him to fight Jake Paul.
No, no, he's too old too, he thought.
Loganol, right, Yeah, did you win?
Did well? Yeah? He did. Knocked that nigga, he knocked He knocked that nigg out, Yeah he did. He knocked him out and then held him up. He punched them motherfucker hard and then held him and then low Logan woke up and then they continued to fight. Kind of all right, So I got it. Let's let's talk about this before we bring our guests in.
Yeah, we don't have a ton of time, so let's get in there.
We got to get into it, all right.
Keep in mind this is going to air long after the fight was on, so don't bore people.
But no doubt ahead. What did you think of the fight?
I thought I was surprised by by Mike. I thought he was going to be better the hype videos that they showed. I know, they're just clips and they can cut anything together, but he looked he looked stronger and more confident in the hype videos, and I was surprised by how old and fragile he looked in the ring, and I and and Jake Paul. I saw him even say at the end like I let up because I didn't want to hurt.
Him, and I applaud him for that also because at one point he was just fighting an old man. Dude.
Yeah, it's that's one point.
No, I don't know. In the beginning, Mike seemed like he was ready to go, and then they clinched, and then after the clinch, Mike kind of softened up in every thing like that, But in the beginning before Jake put the weight on him. In the beginning, oh, my god. There was like a good thirty seconds where I was like, this is gonna be a fight, and then everything kind of.
I've seen I punched a few times. Mike didn't look good.
At all, but he didn't get knocked out, which is great, you know what I mean. Yeah, and I applaud Jake Paul for backing off towards the end and not trying to you know. And then what was disturbing was listening to Jake Paul's trainer's being and I get it, it's boxing, this is what it is. But Jake's bought Jake Paul's trainers saying, come on, man, knock Mike out. Go at that motherfucker. Beat Mike's ass. It was just like, wait a second, dude.
That was Rosie Perez, the commentator.
You know, she's from Brooklyn. She she knows about them hand pieces.
I just didn't understand the connection. I mean, I love Rosie Perez.
I didn't understand then, you know about a two piece and a biscuit?
Did you? Could you get in there and and fight?
No? Okay, I fight for my family and I fight for my life. I don't fight for I mean, unless I was getting twenty million dollars and if anyway, hold up, and if Jake Paul was gonna take it easy on me like that, yes, for.
Twenty million dollars, would you fight Jake Paul too?
And he was going to fight like that and not try and knock me out and humiliate me?
Well, no, I think he's going to try and knock you out because you're.
Not bro are twenty million? Well, let me think about a twenty million. Yeah, you got to think about the concussion. Yeah, I'm he trains every day.
Yeah, he's really committed. I don't know the guy. I don't know the guy from Adam, but he looks like a good boxer to me.
He's heavier than I am.
I really like the movie and Nora. I really want to highly recommend that to my.
Friend since we are recommending movies. Okay, tell me about Anura.
On Nora is an incredible movie. I'm speechless. It's just this girl. Her name is is it Mikey Madison Daniel? Let me check, let me get her name right. But she is just a phenomenal actress. She was on Better Things as a as a young teenage girl and now she's a young woman. And the movie is sort of a Cinderella story about the son of a Russian oligarch and he falls in love with this woman who's a stripper and a sex worker, and then they get married.
I won't ruin anything that's not on the trailer. They go get married, and then the Russian oligarch father and his henchman fly into town to make sure that that gets broken up. But it is really, really well acted and I was blown away by it. Mikey Madison, Mikey Madison is her name. She is so talented. I think this young lady could win the Oscar. She is okay, puhhenomenal a Nora, I was lucky enough to have the screener,
so I watched it at home. But it's it's still playing in theaters or maybe by the time airs, it'll be uh, it'll be streaming, right, Danell, because we're this airs in January.
There's in January.
I bet it will be on your streaming platform. So check just Nora A n O R. What do you want to recommend?
Donald?
I watched two movies, believe it or not. Really what I watched Saturday night?
Oh that's that's I didn't know that was available for the streaming.
I'm gonna say, I'm gonna be honest with you. These young these young actors and actresses in this movie are pretty good man at doing these Look. Man, it's very interesting to watch a movie and see somebody who can make you feel like, wow, that is dan Aykroyd or wow that is Chevy Chase. Not necessarily I don't know them personally, but my imagination of them or my interpretation of them from watching them, these young men and women did their thing, man like I was very It was
very impressive. And if this is a true story, Lauren Michael's yout to real og man, you the.
True og I think it is a true story.
If it's a true story, I mean, I don't know much. I don't know Lauren very well. I've met him once. But dude, you are a g man. And way to believe in your cast and way to believe in your idea and wow, dude, wow.
I'm gonna check that out. I can't believe you made it through a non superhero movie. What's the other thing you watched?
Alien Romulus, Let's go, let's go.
Do you really like that?
It's pretty good?
All right? Reid Scott is here. What a career this guy's had. Dude, he works, he works, oh lot, got a lot of good stories. He's on Deep and Mazel and he's often known for playing the jerk. But I've met him and he's a lovely man. Donald Countison for Reid Scott.
We made about a bunch of dogs and I.
Said, he's the stormy neph So yetta here, yeada, here.
There is Look at you, Look at you. You're so handsome.
Are you home?
Are you working?
Where are you?
He's read Scott, He's always working. A guy's probably anybody. I never have a time off.
I am. I'm in New York, Archer, I'm in New York.
Read Thanks for coming on, man. Donald and I both find you very entertaining.
Thank you.
You you work a lot, a.
Lot of How can you help?
Donald? And I get to understand.
I understand how this is possible? Bro? And is this all an illusion? Like you work a lot in spurts and all of a sudden you're Do you ever have time off? That's the question?
Yeah, you know, I mean I feel like any actor you sort of you have the time off exactly when you don't want it.
Yeah, you know, So I don't want it now.
Yeah, you know, it comes and goes. I'm extremely grateful that at the moment, I am busy. But you know, look like anybody you know, during COVID code was rough and the strike was rough, and I have a family. I have a wife and two kids, so time off is certainly important to me. But I think you know right now, I like being busy. I wish I could be busier at home. I'll be honest with that. It's kind of a drag to always be on the road.
But yeah, now where do you based.
I'm based in La Okay.
Yeah, Reid, we had Tony Hale on the show because Donald and I both love VIEP so much and we just we're so interested in the process. And I'm sure you talked about this a thousand times, but please indulge us. Sure, what was it like, because you know, when Donald and I made scrubs, we would rehearse on the day and we would we would find extra jokes and we were
allowed to improve and stuff. But the VEEP process sounds like it was a little unique in that you guys made you would rehearse beforehand, and then some of those improvs would go into the script.
How did that?
How did that work?
The best way to describe it? And I love pulling back the curtain on Veep and so many people it's really interesting that so many people are interested in the process of how we made Vieep, which I gotta be honest, of all the other things I've done, no one's ever really given a shit about the process.
Oh we are because we love comedy, dude.
Yeah, you know what I mean. And that was top notch comedy. Yeah, everybody on that show was really incredible and stuff like that. Uh, and the way it was shot too, And so are we just wondering? Yeah, you know, to get to to this, this is why this is. I mean, that's why we're asking.
Sorry, Oh no, I love talking about it because it was it was so unique. Honestly, I I think it's something that you know, you guys obviously know comedy well, so I think people that have an eye for comedy can see that something was very different about how he did Veep. And I think that's what sort of you know, naturally leads to that question, what was the process? Like, The best and easiest way that I have found to describe it is it was a distillation process and or
Amanda y Nucci. Absolute genius, just comedy genius. He ran our show like a laboratory and he was doctor Frankenstein and we were all part of his experiment, and it was really cool. He didn't really you know that there was there was a lot of respect, and he led us into the process in a way that actors don't usually get let into the writing process of a show
like he let us in. But yeah, he would have us come to London for weeks before we would start shooting, some months before we were set to start shooting, and there would be scripts and some sort of sketches and some outlines of future episodes and we would just rehearse. We would get it on his feet as quickly as possible,
talking through it. We would rehearse it as written, and there'd be this sort of like phalanx of British writers on the outside of this like large conference room that we were in, and they're all like furiously like scribbling notes and typing away while we're doing it, and you're feeling very judged, Lisa in the early days, and we'd be encouraged to improvise a bit and then we'd go away.
We'd go to you know, go out to dinner, you know, go to sleep, come back the next day and the writers during the night had rewritten the script to incorporate the improv or like you know, they cherry picked the fun stuff that we came up with on that previous day and they would bake that into the next script, and then we would we would do it all again and again and again and again. And we would do this for sometimes four or five, six seven scripts at a time.
So it's so cool.
I'm never heard that, And I think to be host it was.
Hard, know what I mean, look at the results, look at the results.
And also I think shows kind of do to do it, but it's a way more rush project. So like five camera or sit or four camera, that's we're gonna write. We'll do the run through if you you know, on some shows you're encouraged to improv. If it works the next day, your improv's in the script all the way up until you know you shoot. But that's five days. You guys would take that's really impressive and then take
time off after. Would it ever be the same when you got there, We're like, when you got to shoot, it would the blocking still be the same.
Oh no, it was no, No, it was really more like we used the rehearsal process like we would call it like the basement tapes, because it really was this stuff that was just sort of we had like drama turks.
It was really weird like what we had. We had these these group of assistants that effectively were drama turks and they were just taking notes on continuity and oh you know this goes back to that, and they would just we had volumes of notes that we could refer back to and it was a very unselfish process and that someone would come up with a joke for themselves or for someone else, or or a writer would come up with a joke and we'd love it on the
day and we were like, wait, where did that come from? But that isn't that calling back and no one knew who came up with it, and no one cared.
That wasn't really the point.
We would do it on Scrubs, but it was like the classic way in the moment. So it's like, okay, we get to blocking rehearsal where we'd do it as written and then between the actors, some who we improve more than others, and then and the other writers. You know, we would tweak it, add that joke. Oh that's funny, I'll improve this. Then we would do it. And then after we did it, and we would like then we
would start just riffing stuff. And you know Bill's big rule was just get it as written and then you can fuck around. And then we would do things where like if you just had a punchline, you would just do like six things in a row, just so in the edit room, you know, he'd have all these options for which one, uh might work. But the idea of like taking that process and going to another country and just sort of work shopping it. I mean, that's brilliant.
And that and and and takes commitment from the cast and from the writers, and money and a lot of dedication. That's just not something that that I've that I've seen in another show do and and it and the proof is in the pudding because the show is just to me on the next level of funny.
I just know way you could come away from that not knowing who your character was.
Oh god, no, No, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. You felt a real custodianship over your character. Very early on, and to the writer's credit and to Armando's credit, and then even you know the new When Armando left the show after season four and David Mandel, you know, from Seinfeld and from Kurb came in and sort of took over. They honored that process and they sort of honored that relationship.
And I remember specifically when David came aboard, he called us all individually and was like, you know your character And he said this to everybody, You guys know your character better than any of these writers, because you've lived it. You've done this crazy process. So we want to hear from you, like you guide us. You tell us what's inside, like what's out of bounds, tell us when we go too far, tell us when to pull it back in. And it was amazing to have that kind of input.
I appreciate it more now in retrospect. At the time, I found it in readibly difficult. I really did.
I didn't.
I didn't know what why Because you didn't feel comfortable with the improvisational stuff.
There was a little bit of that, just because we were called upon so much to do so much improvising, and I, you know, I haven't a background in improv but I mean when you're running alongside you know, Matt Walsh, Julia, Louis dreyif is, Tony Hale. It's like, at least in the early days, there was a lot I felt there was a lot of pressure to keep up and to always be like, you know, how do I be funny?
How do I pop these like these little one liners off right, and just that process of even when we were in Baltimore, in the dark days of shooting in Baltimore.
That's when you started, you started shooting it there.
We did the first four seasons in Baltimore.
Oh, I didn't know that. That was just to have the access to.
The exteriors exactly exactly right.
Yeah, and then when in later seasons you would just go there for like a week or something.
Yeah, we go to DC, we come back to Baltimore. Even we came to New York a couple of times, uh to get exteriors.
But where were the sets they were in la Uh?
No, we when during the Baltimore days we were, they had a set built. It was like an old mattress factory in Columbia, Maryland. That was I didn't know that, not soundproof, not heated.
No, they never are when you when you're not in lape.
Think we'll just find a warehouse, but then it doesn't really work.
Like where's the bathroom? Oh, that's what we forgot. But also because we were there together, you know, we were sequestered essentially in Baltimore, so there was nothing else to do on the weekend, so we werehearsed. So Saturdays and Sundays we'd all go into the studio and just like funk around and like try to come up.
With really shows. It really shows what special how special was You're such a good asshole? Do you find no, you play a prick so well? I wonder when people who are fans and even masl which we'll get into, you were such a fucking asshole. Do you do you feel are people surprised when they meet you in the Are they expecting you to be a jerk?
I think maybe a little bit. I know I did a movie with David Wayne, who again comedy genius, so I really you know, I came up, you know, high school, in college watching The State was the State and upright Citizen's Brigade where everything to me, I had never seen comedy like that before and that really inspired me. To
try to be a part of it. So I worked with David Wayne on a movie that Matt Walsh produced, and we were shooting in France, and we showed up and the first two days it was I wasn't shooting for a couple of days, but we're just sort of hanging out. And I got to know David and he turned to me one day of breakfast and he's like, it's like a prosthetic. I was like, well, sorry, what he's like the character your character in Veep. He's like, the way you put it on in contrast to you,
it's like it's like a prosthetic. And I was like, thank you very much. I really appreciated that because it's not me.
That's you know, right, But that's an awesome compliment. It's like you tad this nose and you were like, you know what, let.
Me just I loved it, and I loved it.
Let's take a break.
We'll be right back after these fine words. Bill Lawrence is a big fan of yours. Did you guys ever work together? Did you read for scrubs?
I did?
I did for JD.
Yeah, it was it was did you what.
Was your process?
Like? What happened oh I got the part.
It was great.
I mean, I know that Bill.
Loves you because I ran into you with Bill and Bill was like, oh, I love reading such a good actor, and I knew I thought I heard that you were up for JD. But I didn't tell me the story because I we should do that, by the way, we should have some I don't know if some of some of the people that got that I read with, I don't know if they'd want to come on, but well, actually, you know, my.
God, I would love it.
I love it was dude. Scrubs was a fucking awesome show I saw. I've seen every episode, every single episode. You guys were doing something just so we can officially, you know, get all the mutual you know, adoration and shit out of the way. You guys were doing stuff that no one else was doing. It was a different brand of comedy at the time. And yeah, I as
appreciated as it was. I still think it's going to be something that like future generation is going to find later and be like, oh shit, this was like, this was way different than what people were doing at that time.
Wait, so tell us what your please tell me what your audition experience was like. And you obviously did great because Bill loves you. So what was it like?
It was my first audition. It was my very ever ever ever. I mean I maybe had, like, you know, like for a commercial or something like that before, but I remember reading the script and just falling in love with it, falling in love with it and loving the character and loving the tone, and I just got it. It was one of those things where immediately it was like whether I've become a part of the show or not,
like this is a good show. And I went in for it and was incredibly nervous, and I remember there was a casting director, Oh my god, his name escapes me right now out.
Of New York.
You know.
It was.
No what's his name?
Brian, Brian Brett. Yeah, Brett?
Is that it?
I'll take your word for it.
God, it's been out.
But I remember I loved it, and I thought I thought I did great.
I really Tbbie Breton, Tbbie.
Is that right way to go with that? Yeah?
And I walked out of there thinking like, oh man, I fucking nailed it. I can't wait. This is great. And I I think I had made it back to Brooklyn when my agent called me and was like, Hey, I got to talk to you about your audition. It's like, oh god, what he's like? The casting director called me and said basically like like like what was he doing in there?
I was like what?
And he's like, oh, man, he made these choices that were just so not on the page and just really weird stuff. And he said, like, my Cadence, I didn't even know. I didn't even know it in a bad way, in a bad way, in a way that my agent was sort of like, do we need to rethink our working relationship here? And I was like, oh my god. And I was racking my brain trying to think of how did I where did I go wrong?
And so.
I kind of chalked it up in the moment, just like survival mode kicked in and I was like, Okay, I'm not the guy, obviously, that's fine. I feel good about the exercise, So moving on. And then I found out like it was maybe two or three weeks later that the tape had like Bill had seen the tape, like the tape and it went on to the execs in LA and they had considered testing me for it, but I had already but by then I had already committed to go test for something else. Oh and it
was like it was this wonderful validation. I gotta be honest, it was like it was like, oh, thank god, I knew that I was doing something kind of right, all right, great?
Yeah, and you know I read not a lot of people got the show when we came out. Man, you say you talk about how you know, well you how much you liked it. It wasn't necessarily well received. We were always on the bubble, always trying to figure out a way to get you know, back on the network and stuff like that. Well, not we but Bill was with our show man, So you know, that's surprise that you got it. Well, the fact that you got it is great, though.
That's my showIn hop until till after. I mean, the Office wasn't you know. There's all these so many crazy stories about these shows that are so beloved, including Seinfeld, that weren't that weren't just genuine hits from the beginning. It really people really had to work them to.
Keep it on. The Office was one of those too.
It was a great time for comedy in general. Though.
That was really like the Yeah, our group was dope, you know, our group, your you know us you the office uh UH arrested development all of it. That time, the group that that group that that was a really good time for.
That was a really good time and it was different too. It's just a different kind of comedy that was coming.
Out, which is really cool.
I'm sorry to ask you the question that's so obvious that we get asked all the time. But since ours is ours is looking like it's actually gonna happen a little bit, is there any chance of any sort of revival of VIPA? I mean, is there any world where you all get back together for some It could even be for like a movie or something.
We've talked about it we have. I think I feel pretty confident I could speak for everyone and say that we would all if the opportunity to rose in the right way, everybody would be in because we love each other. We're still all very close.
You know.
We do a lot of charity stuff together. In fact, we were doing we were raising some money for UH around the election. We're doing an event for Wisconsin.
And are hod that work out for you?
Guys?
How'd that work out for you?
We blew it.
I blame it on you, guys, Honestly, so do.
I so do. I.
By the way, I was at a restaurant last night and I was at Craig's in La and all these Secret Service agents walked in.
I was like, what was going on?
Who's here? Because I always get, really, I really get kind of geeked out about Secret Service.
I think they're so cool.
And there was all things like the movies, and they're talking in and their thing, and I just I just think it's so cool. And I asked the waiter, I'm like, who's here? And he's like, I don't know if it's sposed to say, but I'm not even sure who it is.
Let me go ask.
And I leaned in and it was the second Gentleman, Doug m. Hoff, Kamala's husband, and I was very geeked about it. He definitely definitely seemed he definitely seemed like he and his pals were having a few.
They were they deserve it, they deserve it.
I think he wasn't. He wasn't. He looked like he was having a good time, but he also looked like, you know what, this week, we're gonna.
Drink, We're gonna have.
And then I was trying to be funny with the Secret Service. On the way out, I'm like, you guys here for me or him? And which I thought was a good joke at the time, but none of them thought it was that fun.
Oh, a secret Service. They're they're known for their their scintillating sense of humor.
I just think they're cool. I don't know I'm a Secret Service stand and they didn't really think I was that funny.
Now, a last deep questioning. During that time, you guys must have rubbed shoulders with a lot of politicians, especially yeah, yeah, like, especially when you guys became a hit, especially when a lot of people were watching. You said you were in Baltimore for four years, that's like right next door to DC. How much? How much?
Quite a bit?
How much? And are you ever thinking about politics now?
Because you know I'd be lying if I said that it doesn't cross my mind, because you know, look, I don't pretend to be an expert on politics based on a show that it worked on. But I did get you know, I really got a front row seat, or a backstage seat rather, and that was because you know, HBO had so much influence in that sphere, especially at that time via Richard Plepler, who ran Hbo at the time. He was a big DC mover and shaker. And Frank
rich who was one of our executive provisors. You know, I wrote for the Washington Post and was huge influence in DC. They got us so much access in the early days that we were I remember the Senator Joe Lieberman, who was a friend I think of Richard Plepler. He just opened up his office to us and we just came and we were just like the entire cast. We were just all over his office grilling everybody. Tony and Tim and Matt and I would meet staffers all over Capitol Hill and take them out.
Did you get to go to the White House?
We got to go to the Eisenhower next door. I actually no, I'm sorry we did. No. We went to the White House, that's right.
Yeah.
They snuck us in and gave us like a quick, sort of like mad dash tour through the whole thing.
Cool.
It was weird. I gotta be honest, is like people divulged things to us that I'm positive they should not have told.
I think they're just so geeked that you're telling their story that they want you to know the real I want.
To meet the motherfucker that just keeps slipping like, Yo, aliens exist, Bro, I'm telling you right now, I want to I want to meet the guy that's like, Yo, if you lobby hard enough, marijuana could not only be legal state, it could be federal.
Like.
I want to meet that guy. I want to meet the guy that's like, Yo, look, if you really want to get better health care, this is what we need to do, and it'd be viable. And me be like, you know, I want to meet these people. I want to meet the guy that's like, infrastructure, I get it, California, we need it. I want to meet these people. Hey, man, I.
Hope they still exist. I gotta be honest. It feels like, you know, I make no pretense about it. You know, I come down on the left side of things, for sure, but I think both sides have. Everything is so fractured and so muddy and so overly complicated. It's a I think we've got a lot of work to do to clear some shit out so that people like you mentioned Donald, because they're they're out there there. They are absolutely out
there and they're willing to do the work. But I think a lot of them there's this sort of general sense of apathy of sort of like, oh, it's such a you know, assists of pheeing task that no one wants to take it on.
And I think everyone's a bit demoralized. U well, not everyone.
I think a lot of people are demoralized. Now everyone's just licking their wounds a bit and and then they'll regroup soon.
And I honestly, I hope it comes sooner than later, because I really do.
Look.
Look, I fell into my little creator of depression and it's fine. But you know, and maybe I see this because I have kids. You know, it's like you can sit and you can wallow, and that ends up being, in my personal opinion, kind of childish, because like what you can do is sort of like, all right, take your time, lick the wounds and realize we got to get to work. There's a lot of work.
To have been a couple of weeks. We can wallow for a couple of moments.
Okay, I'll give you a little let's.
Talk about Missus mays Ol Donald. I don't I mean, I'm just going to be clear. I can't imagine you've ever seen an episode of Missus Mazell, because.
I've watched the first season of Really.
Yeah, I never would have guessed that you would like that show.
Are you serious?
Well, just because you know, I know what you like. And there's never a moment where anyone fires a laser at someone or flies.
It's a lot of good stand up comedy. I was really impressed with the fact that this young lady could do stand up comedy like that. Let's just get very impressed with that.
Yeah, I really love the show. I was late to it because I just when I first started to be honest, it reminded me so much of just so many people I grew up with, and you know, I grew up East Coast Jewish family, and there was a lot of it was just like, Okay, I don't know, this is funny, but it's just too close to home. And then I went back and just really really loved it. The performance is the way it shot. There was I love shows,
and Scrubs did this too. I have to say, you know where it wasn't just like, oh, let's shoot it like the cinematography is a character. I mean, you guys did such cool shots and such amazing production design, and every single actor was better than the last, and so you got to play sort of a for those of you who don't know this show, a sort of you know, she's an aspiring comedian and inspired by Joan Rivers, right, I.
Think loose they actual story, Yeah, yeah, that's part of it.
That's part of it.
Yeah, there's a bit of A and so and Joan Rivers always wanted to guest and then hopefully one day take over the Tonight Show. And you kind of played the Johnny Carson character. Tell us about getting that, Like, how did you did you read for that part? How did that come about?
The showrunners they called me or we set up a call and Amy Sherman Palladino and Dan Palladino, who again, and I mean, I'm very lucky I've gotten to work with some just incredibly genius writers.
They are the.
Best of the best, and they're just my kind of weird. I love them. They called me and we set up this zoom and they basically gave me their pitch on the character and sort of describing just as you said that he's sort of, you know, like very heavily influenced by Johnny Carson and like the early talk show hosts of the nineteen sixties, And I sort of sat there. I was like, yeah, all right, cool, cool, all right, yeah, let me think about it. And I got off the
zoom and I went and told my wife. It's like, oh yeah, She's like, how'd it go. I'm like, yeah, it went well.
You know.
I told him I was kind to think about it because honestly, like I was not. I was familiar with the show, but I kind of, like you Donald, I think i'd seen a few episodes of season one, but I just didn't. I didn't really know the show. And my wife said, she's like, you told them you're thinking about it.
Yeah, She's like, you're.
Fucking doing it. I was like okay, because she was a huge fan of the show, so she she sort of crash coursed me through the first three seasons, and I was blown away. I was like, oh my god, this writing is phenomenal.
Writing was amazing. It was I loved about it.
It was beautiful.
And then all of a sudden, not only would the writing be amazing, but then they do like this most epic wonner of a shot, and you'd be like, oh my god, they must have spent three days planning that and shooting that, and they just I love the care they took in shooting it, because you could have just said to hear the pretty costumes, hear the pretty sets, and and here's great writing. But it was so beyond that.
There was There was such There was a dance and a choreography to the way the actors moved throughout the sets and the way the camera interacted with them. And there were times when I literally I can't think of so many many shows where I would like replay a wonner and be like, how the hell did they do that?
And that's Amy. Honestly, that comes from Amy Sherman Paladino. She you know, she and Daniel they did uh, you know Gilmore Girls. I think everyone sort of knew them for Gilmore Girls before that. But before that, Amy was a choreographer for like decades, so dance and movement and music are so huge for her. That's why the Honestly, I had a little trouble the first couple weeks on set because you know, coming from v but I basically,
you know, we were improvising so much. You know, we never hit a mark, we never did it the same way twice. And then showing up to set for for Mazel, where it's like, oh no, you don't change a word. You don't change And yeah, it was very sort of you know Aaron sorkinish in that way, in that like it's it's written this way because it's all been meticulously crafted, and then you realize once you start to say it, it's like, oh, it can't be said any other way.
It's perfect the way it is. But she would have built in, especially when she directed, every cinematic move of the camera was tied in perfectly to the timing of certain words, like she saw the whole show in an extra dimension that like people just don't really you know, most of most people don't have that ability. It's really incredible.
It's cool hearing that. It's cool hearing that story because for me, it really showed there was so many there was so much elegance to it. The scenes just felt like like dances.
I loved it.
I like that. I liked that she was a choreographer before. Yeah, because then it really makes you feel so they she did direct the scene, she did, you know what I mean, she did. She was a part of it. You know, usually you know, you know how it is, the background is usually ran by the second ad or third a d okay, now you and you know what I mean. And to think that that much care went into it,
and also with cinematography too, to capture the busyness. That's what I'm That was the one thing I would say about that show that I really like. Definitely felt busy. When you were in a nightclub, it felt like you were in a nightclub. When you were at the parties, like when she was doing all of the stand up at the parties with her buddy and they're going back and forth, you felt like you were at a party. The Crosses felt like that. The music that was playing
in the background, it's just really well done. And when it won all of those awards, I was like, fuck, of course and shit won all of the awards. But then we know how it was. But you know how it goes. After a while, You're like, monk, Tony, I can't watch you anymore. Bro. You win everything.
You're gonna win it anyway, Tony.
The second Tony, the second they hit record on Tony, he wins an award.
He's rising, He's amazing, amazing guy.
Yeah yeah, man, let's take a break.
We'll be right back after these fine words. Did you meet any talk show hosts or who did you get to meet to like research.
I've gotten to be friendly with Steven Bear over the years because he's he was a massive Yeah, he was a huge Veep fan. He he would come to our like Veep like rap parties. He would just show up and like, who's going to say no to Steven? You know, It's like he was just always around. He just wanted to be around. He was great and uh and he he and Matt Walsh, you know, they they went way back through you know early you know, New York Comedy days, UCB and then Daily Show and all that. So he
was a real welcome guest. So I actually I reached out to him, uh when I accepted the role and said, hey, I would just I would love to pick your brain. And we had a zoom and he basically said like like hey man, I I'm happy to talk, but I don't I don't really know what what to tell you, Like like, what what do you want from me? Basically and said like, look, I'm not after how do I be a talk show host behind the desk. It's like
I'll figure that out. What I'm more interested in is how you change from you know, all the masks you wear during your job, right, like you have your home life. Then you have the showrunner because essentially like the talk show host is the showrunner. You have your your showrunner persona. Then you have your writer persona. You've got your businessman persona because at that time they were all so you know, and they still are such a part of the fabric
of the network. They're they're they're they're worried about advertising, they're worried about time, all this stuff. Then you have your your persona that you have behind the desk, and then you have you know, you're the rest of your personal life and sort of like and you have to shift through all of those masks every single day.
What's that like?
And I saw Steven his eyes kind of lit up, and I realized no one had ever asked him that question before. And he said, oh, well, here we go. And we we talked for like four hours, and at the end of which he's like, he's like, you know who you really need to talk to. You need to talk to Dick Cabot. I was like, oh, yeah, sure, I'll just I'll call up Dick Cavit. He's like, no, hold on a second, he calls Dick Cavot, gets Dick
Caviot to join the zoom. So I'm on a three way zoom with Stephen Colbert and Dick Cavit and I was like, this was like like my parents are finally proud of me, Like I really made it?
And what I did? What did Kavit say?
Did he did?
He?
Did?
He?
Oh?
Yeah, I mean he did. You know, dick'son, He's a legend,
and he's he's getting he's getting on in ears. So we spent a lot of time just sort of hearing stories, which was great because you know, I would sort of keep an ear out for like, oh, that's a fun little thing, and you know, knowing that I don't really have the juice at Mazel the way I might have been veep to sort of put any of this stuff in there, but I sort of I was just taking copious notes and then I would get there and be like, you know what Dick told me these funny little stories.
I wonder if there's a way to sort of wedget in there. And we found a couple here and there. But really what he impressed upon me was just the size of the role of the Late Night talk show host from that era. It was unlike anything else in television. And I mean you can really you can count on two hands the number of late night talk show hosts that really have mattered, that have really made a difference.
Well, he's definitely one of them. He's way up there for sure. Like it's him, Johnny Carson. Yeah, real, those are from my era seventy four, that's the two. Yeah.
Well, but then there was who was before h Johnny wasn't there was well, obviously there was, uh, you know the guy the Beatles went on.
Oh yeah, but I wasn't around for that.
I wasn't I'm saying throughout history like the big MERV.
Griffin, right, and they were, and they were all doing something similar, but like but really, I mean, Johnny was the guy. Johnny was the guy. You know, Dick is certainly in that conversation because he.
Was about to say he had some I mean, his guests and the crowd up was interacting with guests back then were really cool.
And he was the thinking man, really good you know host, and he.
Was really he was kind of of course, and of course Letterman.
We can't early Letterman.
I mean that that's that's that was revolutionary though man like he turned it. He I mean, there was those guys. Then Letterman came and I remember I remember late night, late late night. I remember that. I remember staying up late to watch him, you know what I mean. And then who came on after him back in the day, Conan. Remember that.
It's amazing because used to be if he looked at like Jack Parr, I think is also another legend who deserves to be mentioned. He was doing stuff with comedy that no one was doing until early. Letterman came back and was sort of like reinventing, you know, people get you know, Letterman deserves all that credit, but he was almost sort of picking up where Jack Parr left off.
And then I think Conan was sort of in that same conversation, and you sort of like, to me, that lineage is so clear, like Jack Parr to David Letterman to Conan O'Brien, and that's why they all deserve to be in that same conversation. But the pressure that was put on these guys to deliver like they were the network. It was them in the news, you know, they were
the real faces of the network. All the other shows were entertaining and people love the characters and love the actors, but when you turned on NBC, you were watching Johnny Carson. This was Johnny Carson's network.
It was his it was his network. Yeah, so I just watched it before we move, and I'm sorry, I just watched this movie Saturday Night and they dip and they talk about that a little bit in the movie. How the reason why Saturday Night Live was on was because Johnny Carson and the network were in a feud about money and they needed a show for Saturday Night to replace him him and he wasn't playing he wasn't
playing ball. They weren't playing ball, and they put a show on with a bunch of nobodies that had literally no there was no there was no legitimate story. So there was no a to b there was no you know, there was no star, there was no nothing, And they put this show on to combat, you know, for it to lose, really knowing that they'd signed Johnny again and it was a hit. Johnny Clarson was running him and Milton Burrell were running that show absolutely.
John At one point people forget, you know, the Tonight Show. At one point, Johnny was so powerful. The Tonight Show was only on three four days a week, because he was like, fuck it, I want to go play tennis. I mean, can you imagine, like there's no late night talk show that could ever get away with that. But he was like, you know, they called it the Tonight Show. Really was sort of like you know, the win I feel like a show.
That little clip here, Dan, all right, now we have to talk about your latest gig, Law and Order. And I saw something funny you said because it was the truth for me too. When I was coming up in New York. Uh you know, I graduated Northwestern in ninety seven, and and like the main show in New York was The og Lawn Order. And even before that, when I was auditioning before college, there were like young parts and everyone I knew was getting their little stint on Law
and Order. Everyone was getting there little even if it was like one scene like I told you, I didn't do it man, like everyone had their those are my drugs? Those not my drugs. I got it from Cheryl.
I want to dun dum, dun dum.
You know who you should be talking to.
Cheryl. She works down at the candy shop. Even if it was that, even though it was just that and I couldn't get any of these ships, and I'm figuring they neither read for them all. And I know Donald you did too, And I was like, what is.
The best I guy was New York Undercover. Bro, My ship was hot, dude, come on.
It became a joke like, oh, you're a New York actor. Have you had your line on Law and Order yet? And I was like, fucking no. And then I saw that I saw the notes that you did too, and now here the fucking lead so so fun. That's a good fucking karma coming around.
I tried. Man, I know it was the same it was, you know when I was when I was first kicking it around here auditioning again, late nineties, ninety eight, ninety nine.
Uh, that's all.
I want to turn nothing.
I wanted to be on that ship so badly. My best friend, my best friend, who is not an actor. When we were kids, he wasn't even an actor, he didn't do shit. And this motherfucker wound up one law Nor. I was like, how the fuck did he get on there?
Yeah?
Remember you'd go audition down to Chelsea.
P Yeah, yeah, is that where you still shoot? SVU is over there? But we're in uh, we're in Brooklyn.
It Steiner, not at Steiner.
God, I wish that's the nice one you got about.
Look, dude, straight up, s vu man, how long has Marishka and Iced Tea had job?
It's amazing?
And you want to talk about never happened to retire? Mean, oh my god, never happened.
Long order back when we were watching it, So I remember the Jerry or Back Jimmy Smith's yes, Chris Noath days.
I believe.
Because there's so many incarnations. But I think when I was watching it trying to get my little Doom Doom moment, it was Chris North and Jerry or Back. But so that's a pretty great lineage. What's it like? Is it fun to shoot?
Do you have?
Is Dick Wolf still involved? Does he come by or.
He out Dick? I I assume Dick is always just sort of circling the earth in his hyperbaric chamber, you know, seven seven?
Is he going to be okay for money?
Read?
Do you think that he'll be able to get by?
He'll be okay, He'll be okay.
Is it crazy that he has a monopoly on all television? Right?
It's amazing, It's like, honestly, getting talk about how the sausage is made. It's sort of like getting a peek behind the curtain to how Dick Wolf Productions works. Is really there's nothing quite like it. I really had no idea a. I love it. I have such a blast doing this gig.
Yeah, you would love to do it?
We want to do Yeah.
Oh my god, that'd be hilarious.
I love that.
I don't know if they're going to want us together, because then it'll be like all the Scrubs guys. But will you tell your your your showrunner?
For sure?
Donald and I never got our one line doing doing moment, and we would like to make our dreams come true.
Honestly, I'm not kidding. I'm going to say this first thing tomorrow.
You know.
You know it'll be funny if I was like if I just have one line, and like, it wasn't me. It was my friend Timmy. He works down at the cemetery. He's a grave digger.
I didn't do it. It was fucking James. James fucking called me up the other day and he was like, you know what I did? I fucking did it.
You tell him I'm not coming down to Chelsea Piers the audition, but I will take the offer.
Oh well, I know it looks.
Like it must be fun to shoot, right.
It's great, man, it's great.
It's who's your partner? Who? Who do you do with?
Mccod Brooks plays my partner and he's the best.
He's just you work on with macd I love mccott.
He's so fun that we grats to both of you, you know, he and I we work so well together. I think because we right, we get what the job is, you know, and we respect it. We we both kind of like you guys, we came up on this job, so we sort of feel again that sort of custodianship over it. Yeah, but we also.
Wanted to be a part of that show.
We just love it.
It's fucking unfailing and infallible, infallible.
We're two grown men in our late forties running around New York with a gun and a badge and a snarky, bad attitude, and you know, we get to do all this fun or baki and ship. It's like it's the best.
Yeah, it's really cool. I would love to I would love to do that. I would love to just be.
So you guys are the lost side. Who's the order side.
Who's the the order side? Is my buddy, Hugh Dancy and Odelia Hallavi and now Tony Goldwin.
Oh wow, people speaking of people who never had a day off in the last forty years.
Jesus, he's not directing, he's acting.
I know, Tony.
I love Tony so much, but I'm like, dude, you know, it's okay to take a day off Tony. It's okay to not work today. When he's not working, he's doing political action. He's an amazing.
He's the real deal.
Tony gold We love Tony.
I love him very much. He's the nicest guy. It has abs. A lot of women have a crush on and you'll be happy to know that he has abs. Still, Yes, because he rows, he does the rower.
Oh he's a rower.
Yeah, he's one of those guys with the rower and are you a rower? And has got you into rowing?
Not yet? No, no, I was gonna say. That's always cool, man. It's like you get to go into work, you get to act, and then at the end of the day you get to run around with guns too, so you get to do all of the things that you wanted to do, and like, I'm like, I was just thinking about that. I was like, yeah, I was like, you know, what would be a lot of fun actually doing a procedural that would actually be a lot of fun if it's a if I'm a cop, because I'll come in,
I'll do the work. I got, you know, we'll do the work. Let's do the work. Now, Let's go fucking run around with cars. Let's do stunt ships. Great, let's drive around and shoot guns and stuff.
Very funny. If you and I did a Law and Order spoof.
That's what we want to do too, mccott and I absolutely, it's it's so ripe ripe for it.
I think, you know, John, I feel like we'd have more fun to have eat our cake, have our cake, you eat it too, where we could still do with the ship. But then but it was a spoof. It was like a naked gun spoof.
Of we need to get Dick Wolf on board for Dick Wolf.
Are you ready to spoof your work?
I heard Dick Wolf is a huge fan.
Listens to the fakes real friends.
I mean, I know you have your I think this is.
Perfect for like a sort of like Law and Order multiverse too. You know, it's sort of like like Zach if you're playing my character, and Donald if you're playing with Cod's character. It's like, somehow we just have to go down the wrong alley in New York and we come out the other side into another dimension and it's you guys.
But it's it's when we do ours every time you when we do our spoof, every time you hear the dong dong, it's gonna reveal that I'm playing it on a synthesize.
You got a little many synthesizes that you walk around.
Yeah, remember that little Cassio one that where you like, yeah, I have that and you're like and you're like, why do you always do that? I'm like, well, it's just how I like to end scenes.
Punctuation.
What what is? What is the scene? We're fucking standing here in front of an investigation?
All right?
Man?
Well, thank you for coming on. You're you're so talented and I'm so grateful for your time. And everybody check out Law and Order.
When do you guys? Come on? When do you wear? When is it on?
We're Thursdays, eight pm and we'll be on, hopefully for the next thousand years.
Yeah, you will be. Wait, so you shoot in New York, put your families in LA. It's tough because your kids are in school. Do you can you come back for weekends and stuff?
How do you do it?
Yeah, they're they're actually they're very They're wonderful about it. It's all been very humane, Like they carve out nice big you know, four or five six day weekends for me when they can.
I get to talk back a lot.
My family comes here. You know, I'm from upstate. I've lived in New York since I was a teenager, so this is a bit of a homecoming. And you know, get into this show. I've gotten to know New York City on a level that I never thought was possible because of the places that we get to shoot on this show. It's like we are everywhere, and so it really has gotten me to fall in love with New York again. But the travel is a bit of a grind.
But I'm about to say getting through that city, No.
I think he's talking about the LA New York commute right.
All of it.
No, I'm talking about it. You have a film in New York? Have you filmed in New York in the last five years?
Yeah, six years films in New York, right, you know. So you know, although for a good person, we couldn't shoot. We had to shoot Jersey City for New York because of the tax rebate, we weren't allowed to shoot in New York.
Yeah, it's the hardest place to get around. Manhattan stuff. It's so hard to get around.
Yeah, it's tricky. And then and then when when people see the film shoot, they're so stoked. So then it becomes really kind of tricky to shoot because people gather and everyone. All the locals are so over film crews, so they're like, get the fuck off my street.
An's ale? Why do they all sound like Edith Bunker?
If I see Sarah Jessica Parker's strutting up I Street one more time, I'm gonna get a blow dot gun. All right, Read, you're the best man. Thank you for your Scott everybody.
Now I want to be on Law and Order.
I'm jealous.
Well, you know what I was thinking about that earlier today? When I say that, my wife is like, were you thinking about it or were you thinking about it earlier?
Just now? I was thinking about it earlier today, And that would be kind of an ideal job right now, Like, if Scrubs doesn't do this reboot, it would be nice to be on something like Law and Order or Law and Order SVU or something, you know, something of that nature where you get to run around and play fire man or you get to run around and play you know, FBI. That's fun for me.
I just feel like in my gut, I I would get exhausted if there wasn't humor, Like I just feel like, And don't get me wrong, I would totally do a drama of all of all types, except for if I'm going to do twenty two episodes of a show.
I want to be funny too, no doubt.
I just don't know if I'm gonna make it through the day if we're not laughing.
Like, to me, what I think there's room for that in those things.
There's no comedy in lor Honor. They just have like one snarky remark like I guess you didn't finish his bagel dune dune. So but yeah, what a great guy. And he's so talented and he keeps working and we always admire these people that just keep on working and working and working.
He's a handsome dude. Man's that's what that's.
Also what you're saying, it's just because he's handsome.
No, he's a very talented actor man, and he's very very, very very funny, but he also has something called handsome on his side, and in this town, from what I understand, handsome is a big deal.
Handsome helps He plays such a good dick. Though, oh my god, was he such a like the worst jerk on on Veep.
Worse than Bradley Cooper and wedding crashers.
I don't really remember. Probably not.
Bradley Cooper is the worst dick that I've ever seen in my life in wedding crashes. Dude. But you know what, Reid, you're a pretty good dick.
To Reid, You're a great dick.
You're such a good dick.
He's such a nice dick. By the way, I got I was feeling sort of lonesome and depressed the other day, I have to admit, and but no, I was, I was feeling down the dumps I was having. I was, I was really feeling my feelings. And I remember remember Joel saying that when she wants to find something to do, she plays the SIMS four. So I downloaded SIMS four. I'll start playing SIMS four. It's been so many years. And I said, I go, I have a ranch and
I'm setting it up, and I'm texting Joel questions. I'm like, how do I get a horse? I'm on this ranch alone, I like need a horse. And then I get the horse. Joel helps me out, and I'm like, I want to get some baby goats. Joel wear the baby goats and she's talking me through this, and then I'm just sitting there on this fucking giant empty range. And I got baby goats and I got a horse. And then I see my sim and he starts to get like depressed and lonesome, and I'm like, now my fucking sim is
depressed and lonesome. I'm sitting here trying to tritch here this sim up and we're both sitting here within our feelings.
Yeah, why didn't you get a hot tub?
Very good question. I couldn't find the hot tub. I'm not sure if the ranch had hot tub options or if I could and afford it. And also I didn't there weren't any women around. I think I shouldn't be on a ranch because my guy really wanted to flirt and only these old like prospector dudes were coming by, like welcome to the neighborhood, and I wasn't gonna buy them to my hot tub. And then I had to, oh, oh, we'll find out how to get a hot tub. I got to text you, well, she knows how to use
SIMS for. But then my baby goats, I didn't know they needed milking. I have to milk them, and I was so busy, like moving shit around on the ranch. I didn't have time to milk my baby goats.
Can I answer your question?
Go ahead?
Is your ranch still alive?
But I'm thinking I shouldn't be on the ranch. I'm going to talk to Joel about it. I think that my character needs some more social interactions and I should be like in a city or a town where I can.
Like talk to people.
What are you going to do sell the ranch?
I don't know if I think you just started a new game because I just started.
Well, you know, you don't have to be lonely. There is Farmers Only.
You think I can go on SIMS Farmers Home.
I think that's a possibility.
There's a bar in town that my character hasn't gone to. Maybe I should go in there and try.
To go at a fucking bar. You'll find a girl at the bar.
All right.
But I have so much to do on the farm and I and I'm supposed to milk these goats and I and I wanted to adopt a horse. But while I was trying to take care of this adopted horse, my character started looking sad. And I'm like, oh shit, why is he so sad? And I clicked on it. It's because the baby goats were fucking ramming his shins because I hadn't trained them.
You're supposed to train the goat.
You're supposed to you know what do you call it? Pet them and domesticates them or whatever?
You got it? Got it.
So there's a lot to do and and and the whole time, I'm thinking, this isn't cheering me up. This is like making me more depressed.
I'm sorry, Zach, Right, play fucking red Dead Redemption too, that'll cheer you up real quick. Well, go go bouncy, go, go get some bounties.
Isn't that about a guy alone?
Well, yes, yeah, he is alone. But guess what he finds on his lonesome trips?
What jewels does he allow to pick up women and like bring them on adventures.
You could beat the crap out of anybody in the game.
You don't like meet you don't meet cowgirls.
You know you'd meet people, but you don't meet them and have.
Related Larry, and then you know that's what you should play.
It exists. Still, No, it doesn't. I bet you. I bet you could find if you go to your Apple, your app store.
It's not like a new incarnation of.
Watch what Happens dude, store app.
Store, store, app store.
Because I want you to do it right now. Leisure suit Larry, No, I don't want to. I'm going to do it just because you did this. I want you to know this is your fault.
But I don't want to go play a game about a guy in a leisure suit. I just want to get I want to play the sims. I'm liking it, but I think I should be in a town where I can socialize. Ran just it's just me and this at this. I got a I got an adopted pony that's skittish. I got two baby goats that need to be milked.
Dude, there's leiser suit, Larry. Wet dreams don't dry.
Come baby that's the title. Wet dreams don't die.
No, wet dreams don't dry.
What dreams don't dry? What you're come out?
Dreams don't dry.
Wet dreams don't try.
What year to come out?
I don't know. It's let me hold up.
I want to see how old it is, Daniel's saying is not. That's the reason. I'm sure it's already released, that they released for it.
I don't think in your twenty twenty four you can make a leisure Shuitt Larry game.
Shit shit, oh you can?
Are there games?
Are there games out there, Daniel that are sexual?
Oh yeah, twenty nineteen.
Oh yes, Oh it's twenty nineteen. All right, so it's five years old.
There's a whole there's like what.
Daniel, like, what's a game where you're like where you're like where there's a lot of intercourse.
I mean, there are these like simulation type games where you're like literally like stuff.
Oh they're out there. Oh yeah, they're out there. They're just like stuff you can like literally you know, fucking melon like a canalope?
Does There is there like a weird kind of controller like shaped like a woman's body that.
It's just so you can choose different things to fuck.
Yes, okay, look I don't have a lot of personally, I just know that they're there.
You can be weird to ask you to look up said.
Can you put those in the chat?
I'm going to do it on my other computer. I'll say that, just put those on the chat.
Did I tell a story about how I was playing a game on my like my like like year like nineteen ninety five computer in my college dorm. My roommate walked in while I was having sex with the with the.
With the game with Leadership.
No, it was this game where the idea is sorry audience if I told this story.
But yeah, I've never heard of this.
The idea was like you moved your mouse and you were trying to have the woman have an orgasm, and you know the like you know, the the what do you call the gauge would go into yellow and then when she was close, she was gonna And I'm just sitting there with your mouse and I'm just doing my best. And I had a borning and Christian roommate and uh and he just swung open the door with his borning and Christian girlfriend. He was coming to like show her like, and this is my dorm room and I was out
of a movie, like I couldn't turn it off. I could, I couldn't find the bar, I couldn't escape, and the girls on the computer like I've got the mouse, I've got the mouse, coming as fast as I can, and I'm just really trying to get this fucking thing off. And he took one look and he was so embarrassed. He's like, oh, well, come back later, and he's like slammed the door, and I was so embarrassing.
Did you apologize or you guys never spoke of it.
I think it was so embarrassing that I never was like, hey, sorry, I was playing that sex game when you brought your galby.
So it goes, so it goes. But it was fun the.
Game was you know, is there anything you want to shy about twitching? What?
He doesn't twitch anymore?
Do you mean?
What was I doing anything weird sexually on twitch? Ever? I was not weirdest thing I ever did was muck bang. And that was weird.
That sounds just muck bang alone. My kids are my kids know all of it. I mean, you know when you muck bang, no, but when you're into when you're when you're the kids these days know more about what is considered pleasurable for the ears. And you know what I mean. Muck banging is an ear thing. It's an ASMR thing. I didn't know if that.
Ships for people who are into it. Some people find it gross.
Right, And so I was wondering, like why I kept watching all of these uh in recipe videos and stuff like that. And my kid looked at me and said, Dad, it's ASMR. You're freaking intrigued by those. And there's my eleven year old kid telling me this, And I was like, oh, got it.
What are you going to do the rest of your day? Are you going to go back to building? Uh?
Tattooing.
It's not tattooing. It's a planet that is very much like tattooing.
Are you going to back to building the planet that's very much like tattooing. Uh?
Yeah. For I got about an hour and then I'm gonna go pick up the kids. I'm gonna take my kid to his workout and then bring him home, feed him. We just finished Stranger Things. Listen, parents, if you are a father of an eleven year old boy and a nine year old girl, I do not recommend stranger things for this.
We're all scared.
My daughter was not. But my son slept. My eleven year old. He's going to be so embarrassed by this. But he slept in the same bed as us last.
Night because of monsters.
That's sweet.
Because he was so afraid. That's what that was. That was his explanation. I was like, boy, go back in your bed, get back in your bed. I'm so scared.
Dad.
Well, good, good parenting, good y'all.
But never all right, everybody, we love you. Thanks for tuning in and listening to.
So we'll We'll talk to you next time.
Donald stories that show we made about a bunch of talks and nurses and janitor who.
I said, here's the stories next s No so gada rabu here gada rab you here o speech.
We watch shows and no